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Arcadia High nationally recognized with awards

Arcadia High School has been recognized as a Project Lead The Way Distinguished School for providing broad access to transformative learning opportunities to students through PLTW engineering courses . Arcadia High is one of only 10 schools in California and one of only 133 across the U . S . to receive this honor .

“ Our purpose in Arcadia Unified is to inspire students to have a positive and profound impact on their world ,” said Arcadia Unified Superintendent David Vannasdall . “ Receiving this honor helps us know we are staying true to our purpose by providing our students with important access to STEM – science , technology , engineering , and math – programs that will prepare them for the world and for the economy they will enter after high school .”

The 2017-18 PLTW Distinguished School recognition honors schools committed to increasing student access ,

ESSA

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“ Our plan is grounded in California ’ s Local Control Funding Formula law , which emphasizes local control , equity , stakeholder engagement , accountability , and continuous improvement ,” he said . “ Now we look forward to the United States Department of Education ’ s approval and to implementing the plan .”

Under the SBE final ESSA State Plan adopted on April 12 , the state will continue to use the California School Dashboard for state , local and federal accountability purposes . ACSA has been actively engaged in the development of the final plan and is engagement , and achievement in their PLTW programs . To be eligible for the designation , Arcadia High had to meet the following criteria :

• Offer at least three PLTW courses .

• Have 25 percent of students or more participate in PLTW courses , or of those who participated , at least 33 percent took two or more PLTW courses .

• Have 70 percent of students or more earn a Proficient or higher on PLTW Endof-Course Assessments , or 10 percent of students earn AP + PLTW student achievement .

“ It is a great honor to recognize Arcadia High School for its commitment to students ,” said Vince Bertram , president and CEO of PLTW . “ This school is a model for what school should look like , and Arcadia High should be very proud of ensuring students have the knowledge and skills to be career ready and successful on any career

pleased to see the SBE and CDE worked tirelessly to accomplish the goal of creating one integrated accountability system .

California will continue to calculate the state indicators on the Dashboard , using both status and change for accountability purposes , However , for federal reporting purposes , the state will report separately performance ( status ) and change in performance over time . In response to requests by the U . S . Department of Education , Grade 11 assessment results will be included in the Academic Indicators for English Language Arts and mathematics ( which currently includes only grades 3-8 ) and will continue to be included in the College / Career Indicator , which CDE expects to implement in fall 2018 . path they might choose .”

Arcadia High ’ s PLTW program includes three courses : Introduction to Engineering Design , Principles of Engineering , and the capstone course , Engineering Design and Development . The program also provides students the opportunity to work with and receive work critiques from professional engineers from the renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory .

Students in the program design , build , fabricate parts , program , test their designs and justify their work before a design review board . In essence , they practice being an engineer , solving real-world engineering problems and developing and building designs that they take to both JPL ’ s Invention Challenge and the Los Angeles Regional of the FIRST Robotics Competition .

Another positive evolution of the program is that many of these students have continued their education in some of the

The SBE will pursue a federal waiver to be allowed to keep an English Learner Proficiency Indicator that includes data on students reclassified the prior year and the additional weighting factor for progress made by long-term English learners . However , if the waiver is denied , the SBE will need to modify the ELPI so that it is based solely on progress on the annual English language proficiency assessments .

California will use the color-coded performance levels that schools receive on the state indicators reported on the Dashboard to identify the lowest performing Title 1 schools for additional support . The state will establish performance criteria based on the Dashboard by including schools whose indicators are all Red ; schools rated Red in all categories but one ; schools with ratings that all are Red and Orange ; and schools with five or more measurements available , finest STEM colleges in the country , with alumni coming back to help out current students as mentors .

Arcadia High School has also been named a U . S . News and World Report Gold Medal School three times , an honor bestowed on less than 3 percent of the more than 19,000 schools in the country . Similarly , Newsweek named Arcadia High on its Top Public High Schools in America list . Arcadia High was also recently identified by Niche . com as being in the top 2 percent of the best public high schools in California .

For the second consecutive year , Arcadia High ’ s 2017 graduating class had at least one student accepted into every Ivy League school in the country . Likewise , for the second consecutive year , Arcadia USD was named on the College Board ’ s eighth annual AP District Honor Roll . Visit the school at www . ausd . net .

New state law will automatically register teens to vote

Gov . Jerry Brown has signed legislation to automatically pre-register all voting eligible 16- and 17-year-olds to vote when they receive a California Driver ’ s License or California State ID .

The measure , AB 1407 , by Assemblymembers Kevin McCarty ( D-Sacramento ) and Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher ( D-San Diego ) and sponsored by California Secretary of State Alex Padilla , will automatically pre-register approximately 200,000 teens to vote annually and will be the largest expansion of youth voter access in American history , according to McCarty ’ s office .

In 2015 , Gonzalez Fletcher , McCarty and former Assemblymember Luis Alejo successfully established the New Motor

Voter Program allowing every eligible person who requested a driver ’ s license or state identification card to be automatically registered to vote . AB 1407 updates the 2015 voter program to include automatic voter pre-registration and allowing young people to opt out of preregistration if they wish .

“ AB 1407 will increase voter engagement by removing the unnecessary step of pro-actively registering to vote , increasing the likelihood of a young person voting in future elections ,” McCarty said . “ We need more young people engaged in the political process and impacting issues like college access and affordability , climate change , healthcare and housing . Voting is the first

step to make a citizen an active part of the political process . This measure will make sure that all voices in California are heard .”

McCarty ’ s office said an estimated 6.6 million Californians are eligible to vote but unregistered , ranking the state 38th among the 50 states in voter registration . According to the California Secretary of State , youth aged 18-24 years old stand out as registering at a far lower rate than any other age group . However , statistics show that less than one out of every five residents who interact with the DMV through the current motor voter program opt-in to vote .

“ In California , we ’ re making it easier for young people to become active participants in our elections ,” Padilla said . “ Pre-registration is one of our most powerful tools for building civic engagement . AB 1407 will ensure that young people who apply for or renew a state driver license or ID at the DMV as part of California Motor Voter , also have the opportunity to pre-register to vote . It will ensure young people have access to the ballot as soon as they turn 18 .”

“ We should make it as easy as possible for all citizens to register to vote , whether they ’ re teenagers , senior citizens or somewhere in-between ,” said Gonzalez Fletcher . “ I want to thank Gov . Brown for signing this bill , which will help California ’ s youngest voters make sure they ’ re registered to vote as soon as they become eligible to cast a ballot .”

half of which are Red .

Torlakson thanked staff for their hard work , noting that California took the initiative to travel to Washington , D . C . in both February and March to meet with members of Congress , federal Department of Education staff , and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos .

Early indicators show that the Local Control Funding Formula is making a difference for students . California ’ s graduation rate has steadily climbed under LCFF and the percentage of students who graduate eligible for admission to the University of California and the California State University systems is at an all-time high . A recent research brief by the Learning Policy Institute showed a direct correlation between LCFF resources and a narrowing of achievement gaps in statewide math assessment scores .

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