Canyon Springs High School’s Business Academy has recently been named a 2019-20 California Partnership Academies Distinguished Academy, one of only ten in the state to receive this honor.
“After over 30 years of commitment to the implementation of high quality educational programs mixing core academics and career technical education for the benefit of tens of thousands of California’s at risk high school students, we are very proud to bestow this honor, which will be imparted to less than 2% of the CPAs currently implemented,” read the statement by the California Partnership Academies.
All of the 393 California Department of Education’s CPAs were scrupulously reviewed in order to determine programs which had earned Distinguished Academy status, then each of those which made the first cut were visited by experts in the Partnership Academy model to review and certify each component of the model for quality of implementation.
“Developing and implementing the business academy program with this level of success exemplifies how much we care about our students’ future,” said Superintendent Dr. Martinrex Kedziora. “Our students deserve a top quality education and this award shows our commitment to meeting that goal. I am proud of our teachers and especially Mrs. Willene Biere for her leadership in building this program. Congratulations!”
"It took a team of great teachers and counselors, in addition to our amazing students for all the hard work to pay off," said Business Academy Director Willene Biere. "We are not stopping yet, we have so much planned for this year. This a great honor for the academy."
In order to be selected as a CPA Distinguished Academy, the California Department of Education team responsible for oversight of these programs, along with esteemed partners at the College and Career Academy Support Network at the Graduate School of Education, UC, Berkeley, exhaustively reviewed reporting documents, then visited sites, to certify the following:
- Complete compliance with California Education Code sections 54690-54699;
- Articulation and/or dual credit with post-secondary institutions;
- Industry certifications earned by students;
- High quality, effective partnerships with industry;
- Low attrition rates, particularly among the required majority of at risk students enrolled in the CPA;
- Exemplary graduation rates.
“Our students have been excelling in the Business Academy program and it’s great to be recognized for that,” said School Board Member Susan Smith. “They are going places and we are happy to know that we can support them in their future goals.”