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Local magnet school receives merit award

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Contributed by: Charles Sifuentes on 4/28/2008

Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies (SOCES) has been named a School of Distinction by the national organization Magnet Schools of America.

School representatives will be honored at the 26th Magnet Schools of America Conference hosted by the Hamilton County School District in Chattanooga, Tenn. They will receive a plaque during the awards ceremony for their selection as a national Magnet School of Distinction winner.

SOCES is the only winner from California this year and the first winner from the Los Angeles Unified School District (Local District 1).

The award is based on a commitment to high academic standards, curriculum innovation, successful desegregation/diversity efforts and the consistent delivery of quality services to all school stakeholders.

SOCES believes in a rigorous standards-based instruction curriculum that all students can learn, high expectations for all students and all students should be prepared for whatever the 21st century brings in the way of occupations, career paths, post-secondary education or life.

Their students are exposed to a rigorous curriculum that ranges from fourth grade to 12th grade, with students from all areas of the school district.

With 44 percent of the students eligible for the federal lunch program and a diverse population of ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds, cultures, and neighborhoods, SOCES won the California Distinguished School Award in 2005, California Title I Academic Achievement Awards in 2006 and 2007, Silver Medal for the U.S. News and World Report (top 3 percent of high schools in the country), and the Newsweek.com top 500 Schools in America Award.

Its API score of 845 is the highest of all middle and high schools in the LAUSD. With an emphasis on closing the achievement gap, their scores for all populations are some of the highest in the state.

Caroline Massengill, president of the Magnet Schools of America, will present the Magnet School of Distinction Award during the national conference in Chattanooga.

Attendees will include more than 1,000 school administrators and teachers from magnet schools and districts across the nation.

Magnet schools were initially developed during the 1970s as a strategy to eliminate the inequity of segregation in public schools across America.

Specially designed curriculum with unique educational themes was placed in minority-dominated schools to attract majority students to improve the racial balance of the schools and to increase the quality of education.

For more information, visit www.magnet.edu, e-mail rweinber@lausd.net or call 818-758-5600.

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