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National kudos for Delano High School

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Delano High School is known for many things, but student and teacher excellence usually aren’t among them.
But the school can point to such success by its back-to-back bronze medals from U.S. News and World Report magazine for being one of the top high schools in the nation.
“We are finally getting recognition we deserve,” said Delano High Principal Brian Beck. The school was a trailblazer in aligning its curriculum with state standards nine to 10 years ago.
“Now all schools are doing that,” Beck said. “We had a head start, and our test scores started climbing every year.”
Delano was the only school in Kern County to be mentioned


on the magazine’s list, and one of only 17 in the entire state.
The award is based on how well a school serves all of its students, not just those who are attending college. And the school must also produce measurable academic outcomes to show the staff is suc-
cessfully educating students across a range of performance


indicators.
The first step determined whether each school’s students were performing better than statistically expected for the average California student in math and reading. Then the percentage of economically disadvantaged students (who tend to score lower) enrolled was factored in to find which schools were performing better than their statistical expectations.
The second step determined whether the school’s least-advantaged students (Filipino, Hispanic and low-income) were performing better than the average of similar students in the state.
More than 21,000 high schools were examined, and the magazine looked at schools that mirrored Delano High School’s demographics when determining their recognition.
Delano High’s students are mostly Latino, along with a large Filipino population and English learners.
“For our demographics, very few schools are doing as well serving their student populations,” Beck said.
Still, there is an area in which Delano can improve to qualify for the magazine’s gold and silver awards — college readiness. DHS didn’t have enough students moving onto four-year universities to qualify for this category.
Some of the reasons why — it is too expensive; with Bakersfield College’s Delano Campus students can now attend a junior college in town; and part of the Hispanic culture is keeping your kids close to home, Beck said.
“Many Delano JC students then transfer to Cal State Bakersfield or Fresno or other nearby universities,” he added.
“It’s definitely an area we want to try to get better in,” Beck said. “We need to follow up on college ambitions the students have.”
Part of the reason why Delano High is doing well is because teachers have bought into the curriculum.
Beck said teachers’ dedication included working late nights and weekends to get the improvements well on the way. Those teachers include quite a few DHS alumni, who wanted to come back and make their school better.
And by all accounts, they helped achieve just that.
So Beck and Delano Union High School District officials reciprocated, giving recognition back to the staff last month by handing out 150 trophies to teachers in a special ceremony last month.
Members of the Delano Joint Union High School Board of trustees attended, and three of the four-district administration team, including Superintendent Rosalina Rivera, also were on hand for the ceremony.