Harmony again top school in Tulare County

Harmony, Olive Street, Hope also honored by state

Harmony Magnet Academy has again been rated as the top high school in Tulare County.

U.S. News and World Report came out with its annual rankings of high schools this past week and Harmony again was ranked as the top high school in Tulare County by the publication. Harmony has annually been ranked as the top high school in the county by the publication.

In addition Harmony was one of three local schools to be honored by the state. This year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic the state decided to replace its Distinguished School program with the 2022 California Pivotal Practice Award Program to honor schools for how they dealt with the pandemic while having to offer distance learning.

Harmony, which has also been honored as a Distinguished School in the past, was a 2022 CAPP Award recipient as well.

One other Porterville Unified School District school, Olive Street Elementary, was also honored with a CAPP award. Hope Elementary received a CAPP Award as well.

So Olive Street and Hope in effect have also been recognized as Distinguished Schools by the state. “I’d like to think of it that way,” said Olive Street principal Liz Torres about considering her school as being a Distinguished School for winning the CAPP Award.

Each CAPP Award winning school will receive a flag that it can display.

When it comes to the U.S. News and World Report ranking, Harmony was also ranked among the top 10 percent of schools in the state and in the top six percent in the nation. Harmony was ranked 155th out of 1,683 high schools in the state.

Nationally, Harmony was ranked 1,089th out of 17,843 high schools. Among charter schools, Harmony was ranked 208th which places it roughly in the top 25 percent of charter schools in the nation.

“I am certain that the dedication of the faculty was everything,” Harmony principal Jeff Brown in commenting on his school’s ranking.

In how the staff dealt with the pandemic, Brown said, “They were able to keep high expectations while making sure we covered concepts that students might have missed during the pandemic.

“I am so proud of our students and staff and I know we will continue the mission of PUSD…. Commitment to excellence.”

U.S. News and World Report used six categories in ranking schools: College readiness, state assessment proficiency scores, state assessment performance schools, underserved student performance level, what college prep courses were offered and graduation rates.

Harmony received a total of score of 93.9 out of 100. More than half of Harmony’s students have taken an Advanced Placement coursee and 30 percent of its students have passed at least one AP test.

Harmony has a 56 percent math proficiency rate, a 90 percent reading proficiency rate and a 57 percent science proficiency rate. Harmony also has a 100 percent graduation rate.

As far as how other local high schools ranked, Porterville High was ranked 730th in the state; Monache was ranked 771st in the state; Granite Hills was ranked 1,042nd in the state; Strathmore was ranked 1,199th in the state; Lindsay was ranked 823rd in the state; and Summit Collegiate High School was ranked 1,013th in the state. OLIVE STREET In its report to the state in which the CAPP Award was evaluated, Olive Street not some of its families didn’t have internet while others needed devices. The report stated Olive Street worked with PUSD to ensure all families had internet access.

The report also stated the work of classified staff and Americorps staff helped with dealing with the pandemic. PUSD has implemented an Americorps program in which young people such as college students are hired as interns to serve as mentors in assisting students.

The report stated there were staff, along with their other duties, who focused in helping with students having difficulty reading, others targeted helping families and students who experienced trouble with using technology, others focused on social and emotional well-being of students while “others made countless calls and home visits.”

Olive Street had a theme for each day of the pandemic: Mindset Monday to provide students with motivation to persevere through the pandemic; Tenacious Tiger Tuesday in which students were recognized for their work; Wellness Wednesday in which students met with the school psychologist to check on their social and emotional wellbeing; Think Outside the Box Thursday in which teachers shared innovative ways with students to learn; and Friday Read Alouds in which teachers and students participated in reading activities.

Teachers were also trained in the Second Step Curriculum to teach lessons on social and emotional well-being to students. Americorps staff also with the school psychologist to identify students who needed additional help.

“That’s quite an honor,” said Torres about the CAPP Award. “Great things are happening here. I think we have an amazing staff. I think they went above an beyond during the pandemic.” HOPE In its report to the state in which the CAPP Award was evaluated, Hope School reported it maintained an engagement rate of 90 percent with its students and remained in contact with the other 10 percent.

The school also reported it saw a 15 percent increase of those requesting a transfer to the school because of its approach to distance learning.

Hope also reported it kept detailed logs on its student engagement.

Hope was also one of the first schools in Tulare County to apply for a waiver to allow its students to return to campus. Hope reopened its classroom doors in late September, 2020 to lower grade students and by late October to upper grade students. The school eventually reported it had a 13.1 percent increase in students meeting or exceeding English Language Arts standards and a 1.4 percent increase in students meeting or exceeded math standards.

Hope also reported it was able to increase its number socioeconomically disadvantaged students who met or exceeded state assessment scores by just under 20 percent from 2019 to 2021.

“Whether we are selected for this award or not, Hope School students, staff, parents, and educational partners worked very hard to achieve something that not many schools did: an increase in student achievement,” the report stated. “We are proud of that and we are proud of our school community for putting the needs of students first.

“Hope School didn’t distance themselves from distance learning. In our minds, we have won because we did our jobs to ensure students continued to achieve during the most tumultuous times in all of our lives.”