Evergreen Middle School is a 2009 Distinguished School

Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood was recently named a 2009 California Distinguished School by the California Department of Education.

"It's very much an honor," said Patricia Skelton, who oversees state and teacher award programs.

Schools have to meet strict criteria to be eligible for the program. Once a school has been determined to be eligible based on performance standards, they have to apply and undergo another process to make the distinguished list.

"In that application, we ask them to tell us two strategies, practices or programs that they feel most impacted student learning," Skelton explained.

Once the state has determined the validity of these programs, they can name the school as 'distinguished.' Only 261 middle and high schools in the state received the distinguished name. Evergreen has earned the award in the past, but was not a distinguished school for the past four years.

Skelton said the award is an acknowledgment of not only the school's teachers and staff, but also parents, students and the community.

"Everybody likes to be acknowledged, and this is the highest acknowledgment the state can give," Skelton said. "Although their is no monetary award, it shows schools their hard work is noticed and appreciated."

Students in underrepresented groups, whether they be a minority, special education or socioeconomically disadvantaged, must be doing well for schools to receive this award.

Throughout the state, their is a disparity between these groups, and their white and Asian counterparts.

Distinguished schools must show that students in these categories must not only be doing well, but learning at an accelerated pace to close the performance gap.

Evergreen Middle School was determined to have a white group and a socioeconomically disadvantaged group.

Both groups grew quite a bit from their 2007 academic performance scores, but the socioeconomically disadvantaged group grew 48 points from last year, from 777 in 825.

"That's fabulous. The state average for a middle school is 746. They are way above state average at this point," Skelton said.

"Statistically, kids from socio-economically disadvantaged groups tend to not to do as well. In this school, they are moving them in big leaps and bounds."