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Ladera Ranch Middle School in the Capistrano Unified School District has been named a 2021 California Distinguished School. (Ladera Ranch Middle School Photo)
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA Aliso Niguel High School is one of just 11 Orange County schools and 102 middle and high schools in California to receive the honor this year. The Capistrano Unified School District school has two schools in the district with this honor, the other being Ladera Ranch Middle School.
California Distinguished Schools are recognized for excellent work in either closing the achievement gap or achieving exceptional student performance, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond stated.
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Ladera Ranch Middle School in the Capistrano Unified School District has been named a 2021 California Distinguished School. (Ladera Ranch Middle School Photo)
LADERA RANCH, CA Ladera Ranch Middle School is one of just 11 Orange County schools and 102 middle and high schools in California to receive the honor this year. Ladera Ranch Middle School first was named a California Distinguished School award in 2008. It was the only Capistrano Unified School District school awarded this honor for 2021, according to the state.
Principal George Duarte spoke on what it means to be named one of the 11 Orange County Distinguished Schools. At Ladera Ranch Middle School, we believe we were selected because of our Exceptional
Times covered the topic last fall.
Figures from state organizations support these survey numbers. The Vermont Department of Education reported last summer that homeschooling enrollment had increased by 75 percent over the previous year. The Texas Homeschool Coalition reported a
400 percent increase in families withdrawing from state public schools through the coalition’s website to homeschool in August 2020 compared to August 2019.
Such figures demonstrate that parental dissatisfaction with extended periods of virtual learning, along with school districts’ inability to maintain contact with thousands of students in a virtual environment, are resulting in school-attendance changes. In New Mexico, school officials reported that 12,000 students enrolled in the last school year were unaccounted for this fall. In neighboring Arizona, some 50,000 students “vanished” from Arizona’s public district and charter schools, according to a review of preliminary enrollment data by
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In fall 2020, parents found new ways to help their children learn amid uncertain school-district plans for school re-openings. The defining feature of the new education landscape emerging from the pandemic is that many families are no longer waiting for school-district solutions, and are giving themselves permission to choose how and where their children learn when assigned schools are closed, including finding or creating new learning opportunities.
Research on the economic impact of school closures underscores just how important it is to continue student learning. A
Barron’s
report estimates that school closures could result in $700 billion in lost revenue.REF Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann estimate that K–12 students should anticipate a lifetime loss of 3 percent of their incomes due to the pandemic-induced school closures.REF