Recently in AWARDS & HONORS Category

Two local teachers were this morning named to the "Sweet 16" as Los Angeles County Teachers of the Year.

They are:

April Mosby, a fourth and fifth-grade teacher at Moffett Elementary School in Lennox School District

Shannon Vaughan, an English teacher at Manhattan Beach Unified's Mira Costa High School

Both have been teaching for at least 20 years.

They were named to the group of 16 teachers by Superintendent Darline Robles, who oversees the Los Angeles County Office of Education. The teachers will advance on to the statewide round to compete for California Teacher of the Year.

Five statewide co-winners will be announced in November,and one of those will be chosen to represent California in the National Teacher of the Year contest next spring.

Hi all, As you know, we've been through emotional times in the newsroom with the tragic loss of education reporter Vu Nguyen. He is missed.

In his absence, education reporting at the Breeze has been a bit up in the air, and this blog has gotten lost in the confusion. I'm hoping to begin its return with this post.

Here's the deal: Newsweek released its list of the top high schools in the country this week, and South Bay campuses showed some surprising rankings. Here's the complete list of the magazine's top 1,500 public schools.

Here are the South Bay schools on the list, with associated rank:

56. Hawthorne Math & Science Academy (charter)
144. Palos Verdes Peninsula High
185. Palos Verdes High
299. Mira Costa High
351. California Academy of Math & Science (charter)
445. Animo Venice (charter)
582. Animo Leadership (charter)
667. Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy
738. Redondo Union High
977. Animo Inglewood (charter)
1062. Carson High
1326. El Segundo High
1375. Narbonne High
1463. Westchester High

Well, how did campuses such as Carson, Narbonne and Westchester high schools -- generally considered fairly low-achieving -- end up on this list?

Here's how the rankings are devised, according to the magazine's website:

Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by [Washington Post education columnist] Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 6 percent of public schools measured this way.

More information on the ranking methodology is here.

*I noticed this interesting passage in Mathews' explanation of his calculations:

You may not like my criteria, but I have not found anyone who understands how high schools work and does not think AP, IB or Cambridge test participation is important. I often ask people to tell me what quantitative measure of high schools they think is more important than this one. Such discussions can be interesting and productive.

I have been having such a debate with Andy Rotherham, codirector of the Education Sector think tank. He argues that some of the schools on the NEWSWEEK list have low average test scores and high dropout rates and do not belong on any best-high-schools list. My response is that these are all schools with lots of low-income students and great teachers who have found ways to get them involved in college-level courses. We have as yet no proven way for educators in low-income schools to improve significantly their average tests scores or graduation rates. Until we do, I don't see any point in making them play a game that, no matter how energetic or smart they are, they can't win.

Two local sixth-graders took first and second place at Wednesday's Los Angeles County Spelling Bee.

Catherine Velardez of Lawndale's Will Rogers Middle School won the 35-student competition on the words "lithosphere" and "procumbent."

Second place went to Carina Kan from Palos Verdes Intermediate School in Palos Verdes Estates.

Congrats, girls! Both will go to the statewide spelling bee at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park on May 16.

The Wednesday event, held at an Alhambra conference center, was the fourth annual countywide spelling contest. Students from grades 4 through 6 competed.

Other local students who participated: Jesse Torres of Bud Carson Middle School in Hawthorne, Danielle Woodcock of Torrance Unified's Magruder Middle School, and DeAndre Young of Dana Middle in Wiseburn School District.

California Academy of Math & Science engineering teacher Joseph Carpenter has recently received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The award program began in 2007 in order to give IIT students the opportunity to recognize the excellence of some of their former teachers. Martin Pena recommended Carpenter for this award because of the impact he made on his education at the Carson-based campus. Information: www.iit.edu or 312-567-3202.

The Carlston Family Foundation is accepting nominations for its Annual 2009 Outstanding Teachers of America Awards. The group selects five California high school teachers each year who are nominated by former students that credit them for providing personal and academic skills required to succeed in higher education.

Awardees receive $15,000 and their high school receives $5,000. The foundation has honored thirty-one teachers and schools since 2008. Information: www.carlstonfamilyfoundation.org or 949-640-7840.

Shame on me for not getting more schools in for the California Business for Education Excellence awards for schools demonstrating academic achievement and making progress toward closing achievement gaps among students.

One school in the South Bay I failed to mention includes Walteria Elementary School from the Torrance Unified School District.

And a special recognition goes to the schools in Redondo Beach Unified especially since I couldn't fit them in the paper. Alta Vista, Beryl Heights and Jefferson were all named among the group's honor roll schools. This is the fourth year for Jefferson to be named to the Honor Roll, the second for Alta Vista and the first for Beryl Heights.

Several local students won awards for book reports they wrote as part of Los Angeles Unified School District's 2008 Books of Summer program, which encouraged parents and guardians to read with their children.

Ashley Silva of Fleming Middle School in Lomita was the district-wide middle school winner.

Also winning awards were:

• Ariana Marquez, 156th Street Elementary in Gardena, second place for first graders
• Kai Nuño, Taper Avenue Elementary in San Pedro, second place for second graders.
• Fathima Haseefa, Dodson Middle School in San Pedro, third place for sixth graders.

Honorable mentions went to:

• Kobe Kubes of Westport Heights Elementary in Westchester
• Lani Matsumura of Denker Elementary in Gardena
• Lauren Jackson of Kentwood Elementary in Westchester

The district announced the awards today.

Winners will receive several books and electronic learning games. They'll be honored at a Dec. 17 lunch at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

BP Carson Refinery on Thursday handed California State University, Dominguez Hills $50,000 to create a scholarship fund beginning in fall 2009. The fund will provide five $2,000 scholarships to first-time freshman or community college transfer students living in Carson, Long Beach or Wilmington. The scholarships are aimed at students majoring in chemistry, physics, mathematics, business administration or environmental sciences. Information: 310-243-2455

Torrance High School students Sung-Min Chang, Brian Gnerre, Jennifer Lee, Daniel Naphas, Aaron Sung, and Justin Hong have been recently been named as 2009 National Merit Semi-Finalists. They earned the recognition after placing in the top ten percent nationwide in the preliminary SAT.

Torrance High grad Janice Lee's artwork will be honored by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission later this month. She recently won the commission's Martin Luther King Visions of Unity Art Contest. The poster is sent to schools in L.A. County and will be used on T-shirts for the group's Teen Make a Difference Day.

Janice said she was interested in this contest because she believes discrimination is an important and controversial issue nationwide. "For me, my artwork symbolizes the dream of being able to break away from the struggles that the public has to face because of prejudice and intolerance," she said.

Information: 213 974-7616.

San Pedro High School's college counselor, Nancy Budar, contacted us to crow about the achievements of last year's Advanced Placement students.

The College Board named 33 Pedro students as AP Scholars. Five of those kids were AP Scholars with Distinction for earning an average of 3.5 or more on all AP exams taken, as well as grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. Six students were AP Scholars with Honor, earning an average of 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams.

The names are listed below.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education named the 16 "best of the best" -- the county's Teachers of the Year.

Two of them are Los Angeles Unified teachers from the other side of the district in the San Fernando Valley: Kathie Yonemura, a fourth grade teacher at Hesby Oaks School in Encino and Jose L. Navarro, a social studies teacher at Sylmar High School.

Five local LAUSD teachers had been eligible for the County Teacher of the Year honor.

The "Sweet 16" go on to compete for California Teacher of the Year.

Five local Los Angeles Unified teachers are among the 10 who will be recognized by the district on Monday as finalists for the county's Teacher of the Year award.

Ten district teachers are among 66 overall who are vying for countywide honor. They'll be recognized at a ceremony in Universal City Monday, where the Los Angeles County Office of Education will announce the "Sweet 16" -- outstanding teachers considered the "best of the best" in the county. Those 16 then qualify for California Teacher of the Year.

We'll let you know who advances on Monday.

The local LAUSD nominees are:

Christine Blackwell of Torrance, who has taught second grade at 232nd Place Elementary School in Carson for 12 years.

Zitlalpilli Luna has taught eighth grade science at Curtis Middle School in Carson for four years.

Shari Siegler of Playa Del Rey, who's been teaching for 31 years. She has taught English/Reading Adult Independent Studies for ninth-12th graders at Westchester/Emerson Community Adult School for 22 years.

Tracey Washington has taught social/emotional development, gross motor, and literacy to preschoolers at Gardena Early Education Center for 11 years.

Efrain Nava of Carson has taught band and instrumental music at Dana Middle School in San Pedro for nine years.

Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy in Wilmington was this week named a No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.

The small Los Angeles Unified School District campus was one of 320 schools nationwide that were honored for academic excellence and progress toward closing the achievement gap.

The school has been around since fall 2002 and is housed in a bunch of bungalows on the tennis courts at Harbor College. (Here's the profile I wrote at graduation time.)

The school was designed to train teachers-to-be with the goal of bringing them back to LAUSD campuses to teach. Since the first graduating class still hasn't finished college, it remains unclear if the academy has been successful at that goal. But on my visit, the students seemed to love the family atmosphere and embrace the academic challenges.

The school is not a magnet, so students aren't admitted based on their academic record. They are interviewed individually so that Prinicipal Mattie Adams can confirm they're committed to working hard.

The academy was one of 27 public schools in California -- and the only one in the South Bay and Harbor Area -- to be given the honor, which was announced Tuesday.

Other Los Angeles schools that were honored: Albert Baxter Elementary School in Bellflower; private Heschel West Day School in Agoura; private Pinecrest Schools in Van Nuys; and Vine Elementary School in West Covina.

Whew!

I say that collectively on behalf of all our area grads and parents and school peeps, who after all the hype and excitement and planning and actually commencing are no doubt relaxing now that graduation season has come to close.

And I say it too for our very own Daily Breeze staff of writers and photographers -- especially photographers -- who busted their you-know-whats to cover as many local commencements as possible and give South Bay students a little love in our pages.

Congrats to all and good luck wherever you're headed next.

But in the meantime, you can revisit the glory of your graduation day -- or that of your friends or family or whoever -- by checking out the Breeze's compendium of grad photos and related stories.

The Milken Foundation this afternoon announced its 2008 Milken Scholars -- who each receive $10,000 scholarships -- and five local students are on the list.

About-to-be Torrance High grad Diana Baik, who's bound for Johns Hopkins University; new Palos Verdes High alum Hong Ye (Sam) Mai, headed for UC Berkeley; plus Dora Duru (Stanford), Shahla Naimi (Yale) and Morris Vanegas (MIT), all new grads of CSU Dominguez Hills-housed California Academy of Mathematics and Science are among the 12 so selected.

The whole group with gather for a retreat in July, being held at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where they'll meet and mingle with prior recipients and participate in panel discussions and workshops with foundation staff and various speakers.

Congrats, kids!

Six Torrance teachers are among 90 educators from the Southern California region awarded cash grants from BP America's "A+ For Energy" program which awards teachers for "creative classroom, after-school, extra-curricular and summer activities involving energy education and conservation," according to a press release.

The lucky locals, their schools and their winning projects -- for which they'll score either a $5,000 or $10,000 cash grant -- are:

*Barbara Heughins | Van Deene Elementary | "Robotic Energy"

*Sue O'Donovan | South High | "Harnessing the Wind at South High"

*Kathleen Flynn | South High | "Exploring Solar Energy"

*Holly Evans | Hickory Elementary | "Think Green"

*Lorena Woo | Halldale Avenue Elementary | "Solar Scholar Club"

*Debbie Park | South High | "Energy Conservation Year 2: Using Media for Public Service Messages"

The flackage goes on to say: "BP will provide winning teachers with a scholarship to attend a three-day energy training conference, sponsored by BP and presented in partnership with the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The all-inclusive scholarship will cover the cost of travel, meals, lodging and a kit of instructional materials (tools and resources for teaching energy activities) valued at $500."

And finally: Winning teachers will be honored at a special ceremony on Thursday, June 26 at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach.

Congrats, all!

For the second year running, Hawthorne's Hanz Legaspi, currently a sixth-grader at Hawthorne Middle School, will compete in the state spelling bee.

Hanz, who routinely wins the district's spelling bee, for the last two years has gone on to take Los Angeles County honors, thereby setting up her now multiple trips to Northern California. (The championship is held at Sonoma State University.)

This time around -- the contest is set for this Saturday -- she'll compete against 60 other elementary-aged spellers, representing 32 counties, for awards including $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place and $250 for third.

You go, young Hanz. Good luck!

Daily Breeze reporter Larry Altman has this post over at the Crime & Courts blog about some students from Marina del Rey winning an "anti-dui" mural contest.

Holla!

More in the recent awards category, also from late April:

Students of Mira Costa's broadcast journalism department took home several awards from the annual national student journalism competition put on by the National Scholastic Press Association and the Journalism Education Association.

Mustangs Mark Duralde, Sara Baeuchler, Dustin Muenchow, Austin Siegemund-Broka, Alicia Hastey, Evan Jones, Devon Bair, Nina Chung and Kelby Vera all took home individual awards, while the department's "Mustang Morning News" snared first place in the "best newscast category."

Rock on, young journalists!