BUENA PARK, CA – Emery School is among 323 elementary schools to be honored as a 2020 California Distinguished School for demonstrating superb academic excellence and boosting its English language arts state test scores through a focused literacy program.

Emery received the honor on Dec. 18 thanks in part to its Balanced Literacy program for providing focused student support to improve ELA skills. Emery School was one of 35 schools named to the award throughout all of Orange County.

“We are proud of Emery School for continuing to go above and beyond for our students and providing them with a high-quality education, not only in ELA but in every aspect of their daily learning,” Superintendent Dr. Ramon Miramontes said. “This honor exemplifies the dedication of our District’s teachers and staff and the hard work of our outstanding students.”

The California Distinguished School award is the state’s top honor for high-achieving schools, recognizing elementary schools in alternate years with middle and high schools. Schools earn the two-year designation for exceptional gains in academic content and performance standards, which are measured using data from the California School Dashboard.

Emery School boosted ELA state scores 18.7 percentage points in 2018, putting the school 38 percentage points above the state’s grade-level standard, according to state data released Dec. 12.

The California School Dashboard is a tool that gives parents, students and educators access to key school and District data rated via five color-coded icons – blue, green, yellow, orange and red. A blue icon indicates the highest performance, which Emery School earned in ELA.

“By engaging our students using small group instruction, we strive to create an environment of scholarly learning as early as TK and Kindergarten,” Emery Principal Julie Linnecke said. “This honor is a reflection of the strong collaborative efforts on behalf of our community – including our teachers, staff and parents – to support our students and demonstrates that what we are doing is working.”