Hands-on Elkhorn School a winner
Stockton school earns recognition for student performance
Elkhorn School in Stockton learned this week that it had been selected as a recipient of the 2018 California Distinguished School Awards for outstanding student performance.
Not only is Elkhorn the only school from Lodi Unified School District to win the award based on multiple criteria such as standardized test scores, according to Principal Pat White, but they were also the only school in San Joaquin County, as well.
“A lot of our students are second-language learners, and suspension rates at our school are very low. You work with students to turn around any behavioral issues, and they really respond well to that. CSD also looked at our test scores, and the final piece is to have 95 percent of students participate in the tests. We had 100 percent,” White said.
Located on Davis Road in Stockton, Elkhorn’s students range from fourth to eighth grade, and the school is exclusively focused on the Gifted and Talented Education Program, explained White, who also oversees the GATE program for all of LUSD.
White credits the teachers’ dedication to going above and beyond the required curriculum for helping the students develop a passion for learning, which in turn helped Elkhorn win the award.
“The teachers take the standards that need to be taught and then really search for depth, ethical considerations and really good primary sources to help students learn on a deeper, more meaningful level. It’s not really a curriculum, it’s more of an approach to teaching. The teachers spend a lot of extra time on everything they do, they’re really committed to connecting with every child,” White said.
Elkhorn has also been working to increase diversity on its campus, White said, with a student population that is 41.6 percent Asian, 21.6 percent Hispanic or Latino and 21.2 percent white, according to Elkhorn’s 2016-17 School Accountability Report Card. Roughly 50 percent of the students also receive free or reduce-priced lunches, White added.
“The students aren’t really looking at each other in that way, they just look at each other as fellow learners and friends. They’re very accepting, very open-minded. They love to look at different perspectives and they really work well together as a team,” White said.
Every class emphasizes the importance of collaboration, no matter the subject, White said, with students sitting in small groups called “learning clubs,” that she feels contribute to the students’ love of learning.
The students don’t just sit and read textbooks all day, White said — students might role-play in their history class, before solving a series of science, technology, engineering and math problems to find clues to keys that unlock a box in their STEM class.
On Friday, seventh- and eighth-grade STEM teacher Hank Chow watched as his students constructed the underwater remote-operated vehicles, which LUSD staff and board members had a chance to observe earlier in the week.
“We are, right now, at the stage where most of the kids are waterproofing their motors so that, when they mount them, they can handle the water,” Chow said.
Eighth-grader Hattie Ellison, 13, perched on a stool as she meticulously threaded wires through a small plastic tube, while fellow eighth-grader Audrey Van Ruiten, 13, prepared the frame built out of PVC pipe with a file.
“I’m threading wires to make tether cables for the motor; they’ll help the motor run. Then, I’m going to attach the wires to the positive and negative ends in the motor,” Ellison said.
“I was sanding the PVC pipe so the water can easily go through, because it’s a submarine,” Van Ruiten said.
Next month, White will travel with two teachers to Anaheim, where Tom Torlakson, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, will present the award on May 3.
“It’s a very warm, smallschool feel. People feel really connected here and I think that’s one of our greatest assets. I couldn’t be more honored to work with this staff, the students and their parents,” White said.