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BIS: Still Distinguished

The 2024 California Distinguished Schools list is out with awards for 2023 and BIS has again made the list–one of only five in San Mateo County.  The state dashboard shows some details like English Language Arts declining 4.7 points while Math stayed the same and English learner progress was up 5.8%.  Here in town, BIS has not always had such a good reputation vis a vis the elementary schools and BHS as noted three years ago here and in the 64 comments on the post. In an era when elite colleges are realizing standardized tests like the SAT actually have value (big surprise!), getting the award is good news.

Chronic absenteeism is in the orange warning zone at BIS and is a widespread problem as noted here.  The dashboard notes BIS had 1,013 students of which 17.4% are socioeconomically disadvantaged.  That's 176 middle schoolers in town who "are eligible for free or reduced priced meals; or have parents/guardians who did not receive a high school diploma."

It's good to see we are keeping up with Belmont, Menlo Park, Portola Valley and San Carlos–the other four award winners.

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9 responses to “BIS: Still Distinguished”

  1. The Award Winning Administration was “let go”

    The awards are for 2023?
    The Burlingame School District “cleaned house” and fired the administration that led the school to earn this award.
    Is the award for the school and its leadership or the parents and their $$$ for support and tutoring?
    What is being measured?
    Different Zip codes may need different standards of measurement.

  2. Mom

    Why would different zip codes need different measurements? That sounds like the some equity nonsense. “No one rises to low expectations”.

  3. The Award Winning Administration was “let go”

    It’s the opposite of the equity issues,
    the bar in is too low, BIS gets a Blue Ribbon for just showing up.
    The expectations and measurements are too low… for 94010.
    “we are keeping up with Belmont, Menlo Park, Portola Valley and San Carlos,”
    why isn’t BIS leading and/or surpassing rather than just keeping up.
    The focus on the least common denominator without stimulus for actual growth is a recipe for complacency.
    Its like the ongoing elimination of advanced or honors courses because they are not fair.

  4. Peter Garrison

    How about the new SAT tests that adapt so if you don’t do well on the first part of the online test it automatically gives you easier questions on the second part of the test?
    It dumbs itself down for dummies.
    Don’t study, you’ll do better.

  5. Joe

    There was some description of the two ways to get this award–“high” scores or notable improvement over prior years. The latter is sort of a “different zip code” approach that waters down the award.
    I’m all for B’game being the best–and yet it’s hard to tell whether we are or not from this level of detail.
    I spent about 5 minutes searching for how many middle schools there are in the County and could not find a recent, reliable number for that either. Is top 5 like what used to be an “A”, i.e. the top 10% (that would be out of 50 middle schools?) I doubt we have that many.
    The clear concern is the 12.1% of chronically absent students……

  6. Joe

    One more component to the dashboard is on the way:
    The State Board of Education is moving forward with plans to add the state’s science assessment to the California School Dashboard, making it a new piece of the statewide school accountability system.
    Students first took the online science test in 2019, before COVID forced an interruption of testing in 2020. Starting in 2025, performances by district, school and student groups will receive one of five dashboard colors, designating the lowest (red) to the highest performance (blue) — just as with math, English language arts and other achievement indicators. Each color reflects two factors: how well students performed in the latest year and how much the score improved or declined from the previous year.

  7. Principal Exodus-(?) 50% of BSD K-5’s are posted as open

    The site principals of the following BSD schools are posted as open.
    Hoover Elementary
    Lincoln Elementary
    McKinley Elementary
    50% of the K-5 schools-
    https://www.edjoin.org/BurlingameSchools
    “Anyone… anyone” have any insights?

  8. Mom

    Wow. That seems unusual.

  9. Joe

    At your service: I did a bit of digging from a reliable source. One opening is due to a move to a District job and another is due to health concerns. No word on the third one.

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