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Edith Landels Elementary School in Mountain View has earned a spot among the top public schools in California: Landels will receive a “California Distinguished School Award” in June, Mountain View Whisman School District officials announced on Tuesday.
The distinguished elementary school award-winners are selected by the California Department of Education, and selection is based in part on ranking in the state Academic Performance Index and federal Adequate Yearly Progress results. A school’s success in narrowing the achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students is also a factor.
“This award exemplifies the Landels community — a place full of people who care about and look after every child,” said Landels principal Carmen Mizell in a press release.
Landels is one of 35 Santa Clara County public schools selected for the award this year.
Great news! Now let’s see a little positive feedback from the community.
Way to go Landels students and teachers! Great work!
Yeah for Landels – it is a great school!
Congratulations to everyone to has worked hard at Landels!
Landels was one of three Santa Clara County schools to receive the state Academic Achievement Award.
Isn’t Mizell the superintendent’s girlfriend now? I wonder if that had anything to do with it. Seems like the school was already performing well before she was given that easy job
Unnecessary and ridiculous comment. Way to go to the lowest level.
The students, their parents, the teachers, and the Principal all deserve huge kudos for a job well done.
They do not need your petty words.
to Tobin and parent who made you the voice police anyway.
This is my 6th year volunteering at Landels and I congratulate all the teachers, staff, principal, parents, volunteers, and students for a Job well done. This award really exemplifies the Landels community. Well done!
This story was already covered.
http://www.mv-voice.com/square/index.php?i=3&d=&t=1999
The fact that this was an official press release by the district would make me think it’s just an attempt to put positive spin on a troubled superintendent and principal. So why cover it again? There are plenty of other outstanding issues that need to be addressed. For example, who will be in the next superintendent and when, how will class size increases and teacher layoffs affect students next year, or maybe, how will the board ensure that science and math curriculum will improve? Instead we get a repeat story.
We need to focus on the schools that are struggling, to include Landels, which is only making gains from its struggling status.
Pam,
The link you point to is for a different award (Title I Academic Achievement Award) that Landels won earlier this year. It is not a rehash of the same story as this award is a designation as a California Distinguished School.
The entire Landels community deserves hearty congratulations for all their hard work for students.
enough with landels. Try being humble for a change. Your school isn’t that great.
People, please scrutinize this award more carefully. It rewards those schools who have economically challenged students and have a very low bar to reach for achievement. Through my direct experience of this school it is not competing at the the level I would want any of my children to participate in. Remember the level of competition is what is important for preparing children for our highly competitive society.
Good point Charlie, Distinguished School Award or Achievement Award, it’s all window dressing on how the State recognizes underachieving schools that are improving in their status as underachievers. It’s all politics and how the State and district point to minimal signs of improvement and then make it out like these are top quality schools we are talking about here (which they are not).
“Landels’ Academic Performance Index (API), a comprehensive score from 200 to 1,000 given by the state, jumped 31 points this year to 825. A score of 800 or higher is the goal for all California schools.”
This is not under-achieving, and it was achieved with funding that is a little more than half the national average. If the trend continues
Wow! I am dismayed by the negative tone of a few of these comments. I can speak to the quality of the education at Landels, since my son was a student there for 6 years (he’s now a sophomore at Mountain View High School) and I currently have a 4th grader at Landels. I have volunteered in both of my kids’ classrooms, giving me the opportunity to watch many Landels teachers in action. The student population at Landels is certainly very diverse, with many kids from less affluent families as well as many kids from more upscale professional families like ours. What has impressed me about Landels–and what this particular award reflects–is the ability of teachers and staff to work effectively with kids from both ends of the economic spectrum, and from many different cultural backgrounds. Landels’ teachers are hardworking, creative and successful at helping all of the kids in their classrooms, and the several principals we have had over the past dozen years have put programs in place to serve gifted, high-achieving kids as well as those who need help to catch up. Congratulations to all of those at Landels who have earned this award through lots of hard work.
If the trend continues, this school will be competing with schools in Los Altos and Cupertino who score over 900 and are not Title I.
Laurel is correct in my own observation (as a sub their over several years). The school community is doing well with the background of the population it serves. Its API (in this case Affluent Parent Index) is not nearly as high as Los Altos – yet its teachers are able to focus and help improve their students. BTW – Landels, like all MV elementary schools, works with $36,000 less per classroom per year than Los Altos (mainly in property taxes). So when you see your city council majority voting to spend Castro Street (or Shoreline) money – realize $6 million a year are being diverted from MV local schools for these ‘tax diversion districts’.
Los Altos has no ‘tax diversion districts’.
Charlie says,
“Remember the level of competition is what is important for preparing children for our highly competitive society.”
We’re talking about elementary school kids here. Perhaps it’s just as important for these kids to be well rounded and happy, and not just ready to compete in the valley.
Bruno your the man.
@Charlie: I know many kids who went to Landels, and I can tell you that they are some of the brightest, highest-achieving kids I know. They have no problem “competing” with the kids from “better” schools when they move up to middle and high school. Landels is a good school, they should be very proud. This is their second Distinguished School Award in the past few years.
These awards just prove how excellent a principal Carmen Mizell is and together with Dr. Ghysels how great a leadership team they make! If only the other schools in the district could rise to this level under such great leadership. Perhaps Ms. Mizell could spend some time at the other sites to guide them on the right path. It would be a win-win for everyone! Go Landels Lions!
I think the schools could benefit from recruiting volunteers from local companies. There are armies of smart young people at these tech firms many of whom don’t have families yet and as I remember have more free time than those with kids in school. I think it would be of great benefit to all.