Ramona High Is Distinguished School; District Leaps Ahead in API Score

When visitors call Tony Newman, the principal of Ramona High School, these days, he answers, "Ramona High School, a California Distinguished School."

"We have a new way of answering the phone here," he said this week.

That's because Ramona High has been awarded not only Distinguished School status by the state Department of Education but also an award for having an exemplary Career Technical Education Program.

Ramona's schools superintendent, Robert Graeff, announced in a news release that the entire district and nine sister schools are "celebrating this tremendous achievement and are bursting with pride that our District’s flagship school has brought such positive recognition to the entire community."

Newman said he received the news of the awards Wednesday night after four validators from around the county had visited the school and reviewed the school's data.

"They were very complimentary," he said.

Thursday morning, Newman announced the achievements at a school assembly. He said everyone at the school is talking about how to celebrate.

"With the budget, we're not sure what the state or county will do," he said. "We're just waiting."

Newman said the awards were based on certain student achievement data, from initiatives such as No Child Left Behind, plus state exit exam results, the state standards test and the API (Academic Performance Index) scores.

"Last year we had a 39-point jump in our API," Newman said.

How did he get students that far?

"We challenged them to up their game," Newman said. "We shared with them their data and compared it to other schools. We got their creative juices going. They've taken that to heart — how important it is to represent us. We told them, 'Show what you know.'  They're taking these scores seriously."

Newman said only seven schools in the state received both the distinguished and career awards. Ramona High also received distinguished status in 2005.

The career technical education program at the school includes auto shop, culinary arts, welding, digital photography, agriculture, health careers and architecture.

Newman said he'd like to congratulate the students and the parents in Ramona, and also the elementary and middle schools for preparing young people well for high school.

Meanwhile, the entire Ramona Unified School District increased its API scores by 22 points, according to the state Department of Education.

Superintendent Robert Graeff told Ramona Patch by email, "We are very pleased with the growth in our most recent test results. Not only did our students achieve their highest single-year gain in district history but we also reached a districtwide API score of over 800 -- demonstrating that our teachers and support staff are working very effectively with our students and their families."

Graeff said that although the measure of local schools cannot just be about test scores, the district's unbroken string of 10 consecutive years of API increases shows that public schools in Ramona are meeting the needs of the community.