The Antioch Unified School District announced Tuesday that the Educational Results Partnership has named Deer Valley High School and Dozier Libbey High School as Star Honor Roll Schools.
This distinction was given to 21 of the 287 schools in Contra Costa County. (Full list)
Antioch Unified School District Superintendent Stephanie Anello was pleased at both schools for achieving recognition for their hard work.
“I am so very proud of the students and staff at both Deer Valley and Dozier Libbey High Schools. Both of these schools continue to provide innovative and outstanding programs so that all students can achieve at their highest level,” said Anello.
Deer Valley High School Principal Ken Gardner says the school has been working hard to close the achievement gap and improve student achievement.
“We are greatly honored to be selected for the 2016 Honor Roll. It shows that our students, teachers, staff and administrators have worked hard to close the achievement gap and to raise student achievement. The recognition shows our school community the high quality education that is available at Deer Valley High School and that we, in fact, prepare all students for the future,” said Gardner.
Through the Honor Roll School program, the Educational Results Partnership identifies and recognizes higher performing schools in the state, particularly higher poverty schools that are closing achievement gaps and those with a focus on STEM proficiency.
The Star Honor Roll is the only school recognition program in the state using only student achievement outcomes as the criteria and is a growing resource for all schools to learn about best practices that increase student achievement.
The Educational Results Partnership utilizes data from the largest longitudinally-linked, actionable school data system in the country.
Deer Valley HS Principal Ken Gardner
Gardner explained that Deer Valley High has the largest population of students that qualify for free and reduced lunches in the Antioch Unified School District which means that their families are at or below the federal guidelines for poverty.
“We also have the most students living in group homes or foster homes in AUSD, these students have been identified as the most at risk students. The fact that 53% of our students fall into these areas, shows the tremendous achievement of the students, their families and their teachers in earning this award which is based solely on data, indicators of increased student achievement and decreases in the achievement gap,” said Gardner. “Our students are resilient, intelligent, dedicated and persistent in their pursuit of academic excellence. In other words, we have great students at Deer Valley.”
He further highlighted how the reputation and perception of Deer Valley in the community has been less than stellar, but noted they are just rumors and nothing more.
“In the last four years our suspensions, expulsions and episodes of discipline has dropped dramatically each year,” said Gardner. “This is the result of the whole campus community working together through such programs as peer mediation, restorative justice practices, positive behavior interventions and supports, a counselor dedicated to address the social and emotional needs of our students, county health services, and the sincere desire of the school community to change the culture and perception of Deer Valley High School to those in our community.”
Janet Napolitano, UC System President, speaks to AUSD High School Counselors.
He highlighted how the academic record stands for itself saying that Janet Napolitano, the president of the University of California System recognized that DVHS is one of the most successful schools in the state in getting students of diversity admitted in the UC system.
Napolitano visited Deer Valley this past November and spoke to students while trying to find out how other schools could replicate what they do.
Meanwhile, a recent Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation has once again reaffirmed that DVHS is doing things correctly.
“Our School has consistently won accolades and placed 1,2,3, and 4 in the Contra Costa County Science Fair hosted by LMC,” says Gardner. “Our students recently placed 14th out of hundreds in a state wide competition through the Virtual Enterprise program for a business plan developed by the students in the Business Tech Academy, this was their first time competing.”
Gardner also gave recognition to that the Law and Justice Academy which is one of 13 academies in the state to have the title “Distinguished CPA Academy,” it is also a Certified Linked Learning Academy.
“Our performing arts academy is highly regarded in the area gaining many awards in CMEA competitions and musical events throughout the state,” says Gardner.
Meanwhile, he says Deer Valley student athletes work hard and bring home honors in several sports, while coaches run study halls every day after school to insure that students know that they are students first, athletes second.
“In fact our varsity football team was honored as a Scholar Team for having a team GPA at or above 3.0,” says Gardner.
He also noted the recent HBCU College fair where students at Deer Valley received more than two-million dollars in scholarships—all based on academic records.
“We have initiated program called Collect All 15 to encourage our students to gain all 15 of the A-G requirements for admission into the CSU or UC college system, it has been so well accepted we are disseminating the program throughout the state at the request of the California Academic Partnership Program, we also have worked closely with LMC to provide dual enrollment classes, wherein the students will get credits at both DVHS and LMC, giving our students an edge on college preparedness,” explained Gardner.
Finally, he says Deer Valley did not go looking for awards, but instead their efforts of both staff and students are showing in educational data.
“This most recent award by the Educational Results Partnership just confirms what we at DVHS already knew, we are a great school and are doing things right, we did not ask for this recognition, we were chosen based on their research through multiple sources on the California Department of Education’s website,” says Gardner. “If the students were out of control, the school unsafe and if we had poor instructional practices none of these things would be possible. We are a very proud, diverse campus with great student, teachers and staff!”
