District Awards

Osborn School District #8

A+ Awards AZLearns Golden Bell Awards Make a Difference Osborn/ASU School Board Superintendent

 

Osborn Schools' AZ Learns Designations

Superintendent Wilma Basnett and Principal Karen Epps are pleased to announce that Solano Modified Traditional School has earned a HIGHLY Performing label from the Arizona Department of Education. Students and staff have worked very hard for this honor. Last year Solano had a high percentage of students who exceeded the state standards!

Clarendon, Longview, and the Osborn Middle School all earned Performing Plus labels and Encanto earned the Performing label. At Encanto, only the third grade is tested for AIMS, and thus the school is unable to demonstrate growth between two tested grade levels (a significant part of Arizona’s formula for determining both types of school labels). Encanto students consistently perform very well on the AIMS. Under Arizona’s new letter labeling system, three district schools are labeled ‘B’ (Clarendon, Osborn Middle and Solano) and the remaining two are labeled ‘C’ (Encanto and Longview).

Two Osborn Programs Receive Prestigious Golden Bell Award 2011

Superintendent Wilma Basnett is pleased to announce that two Osborn schools have won the first place Golden Bell Award from the Arizona School Board Association. Golden Bell Awards are one of the most important and coveted education awards in Arizona and are given to school districts from throughout the state that have shown outstanding successes in student achievement. First Place and Runner Up awards are given in four categories: District-wide Curriculum Delivery and Accountability Program; High School (Grades 9-12); Middle Years (Grades 4-9); and Elementary Years (Pre-K-Grade 6).

Osborn Middle School won a first place Golden Bell in the Middle Years category. Osborn Middle School’s Honors Mathematics program was designed to increase academic opportunities for students by accelerating mathematics coursework and curriculum. The timing of a student’s successful completion of Algebra 1 in their academic career is critical to opportunities afforded them during high school and beyond. Accelerating students’ mathematics curriculum facilitates their enrollment in advanced mathematics courses at the high school level. As a school, we had a success rate of ninety percent of our students passing the ninth grade Algebra Qualifying Test (AQT) and one hundred percent of our students passing the tenth grade Geometry Qualifying Test (GQT). Additionally, the newly added seventh grade algebra program also had a success rate of one hundred percent last year. Approximately fifty schools have students take the AQT. Last year, Osborn accounted for approximately 20% of the 516 students who received credit for algebra and 60% of the 48 students who received credit for geometry. Our Honors Mathematics Program has grown in both strength and numbers over the past five years.  It has grown so large that more than a third of Osborn’s 2011 graduating eighth grade class started high school this fall one or two years accelerated in Mathematics.

Solano Modified Traditional School won a first place Golden Bell in the Elementary Years category. The Solano Writing Project is a school-wide program designed to empower students as writers. Solano staff members believe that one of our most important tasks as educators is to introduce students to written language and to teach them how to use it to communicate effectively and creatively. The Writing Project has not only been a positive experience for the Solano community, it has also contributed to improved achievement for Solano students as they grow and mature in the school.

Clarendon Receives A+ School of Excellence Award 2009

Superintendent Wilma Basnett is pleased to announce that Clarendon School was selected to receive the prestigious A+ School of Excellence Award from the Arizona Educational Foundation. CONGRATULATIONS to Principal Sandy Meko and the entire staff on receiving their well deserved A+ SCHOOL designation!

Osborn Receives A+ Exemplary Program Awards from Arizona Educational Foundation

A+ Honors Mathematics Program Award: Accelerated Mathematics so that Osborn Middle Students can learn High School Algebra and Geometry

A+ Writers Program Award: The Writers Project is a school-wide program at Solano Modified Traditional School

A+ Dual Language Program Award: Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program is currently at Encanto, Clarendon, and Osborn Middle Schools

A+ Peace Program Award: The Peace Program is at Montecito School now moved to Longview School

A+ Ballet Program Award: The Ballet Program serves students from 3rd - 8th grade at Encanto, Clarendon, and Osborn Middle Schools

A+ STAR ProgramAward: The Safety, Teamwork, Achievement, and Respect Program is at Longview School

Osborn Ballet Program Receives Golden Bell Award 2009

The Osborn School District Ballet Program offers professionally oriented ballet training after school for boys and girls with related studies, activities and fieldtrips. Currently in its seventh year, it has contributed to improved student achievement and added additional depth and breadth of education and experience. The program annually attracts in excess of 60 fourth through sixth graders from Clarendon School with an additional 50 third grade students from sister school Encanto and continuing seventh and eighth grade students from Osborn Middle School. The overarching goal is to make professionally oriented ballet training available to students who do not have access to it. Students have earned the privilege of auditioning with professional dance companies and receiving scholarships for further study. The program includes academic work and Nutrition classes in addition to dance study. The Osborn Ballet Program is supported by your Tax Credit donations and the Osborn Educational Foundation.

All Arizona Superintendent of the Year Award 2008

Congratulations to Superintendent Wilma Basnett, PhD. for receiving the All Arizona Superintendent of the Year Award for middle sized districts. Wilma Basnett has served the Osborn District for 21 years as Superintendent. She shares this award with the entire Osborn Staff and Board who make this district not only “look” good but “be” good and continue to get better and better!

Osborn District Board members Kelly Parker, Sarah Hall, Maxine Radtke, Superintendent Wilma Basnett, and Board members Marilyn Rollins and Dean Wolcott”

 

Total Board Award for Osborn School District Governing Board 2009

Congratulations to the Osborn School District Governing Board on receiving the Total Board Award in recognition of their ongoing commitment to continuous learning. Only five district boards in the state received this award! The award is granted to a governing board when at least a quorum of its members has attained the level of training and education to receive Arizona’s School Board Association (ASBA) certificate of Boardsmanship (36 CEUs in five core curriculum areas). The remaining members must have earned their certificates of orientation. (This is the third such award for Osborn!) It is nice to know that our Board Members are such great role models for life-long learning.

ASU President Crow's Medal for Social Embeddedness

Osborn/ASU Professional Development School (PDS) Partnership received an award from ASU in 2007

Best Practice Award for Effective Partnerships

Osborn/ASU Professional Development School (PDS) Partnership received an award from the American Assoc for Colleges for Teacher Education

New York, N.Y. (February 27, 2007) The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) presented Arizona State University West’s College of Teacher Education and Leadership with the Best Practice Award for Effective Partnerships at the Association’s 59th Annual Meeting & Exhibits in New York City.

The award recognizes partnerships among schools, colleges and departments of education; local schools or school districts; and other community entities, which have demonstrated measurable contributions to the achievement/learning of PK-12 students.

Arizona State University West’s PDS TENET project is a university-school partnership for exceptional teacher education built on a foundation of the professional development school (PDS) model. The primary partners are seven urban and rural school districts across the state of Arizona and the College of Teacher Education and Leadership.

Designed to recruit, prepare, place and retain high-quality new teachers in high-poverty, urban and rural partner school districts, the project has two major initiatives: 1) a district-based, immersion-style PDS teacher preparation program for initial certification; and 2) distance learning-based, graduate-level coursework in mathematics, reading and science targeted to existing teachers in the partner districts. PDS TENET-prepared first-year teachers have been found to score higher than their campus-prepared counterparts in the quality of their standards-based lesson plans and videotaped teaching effectiveness. Further, the students of PDS-prepared first-year teachers have scored significantly higher on reading (SAT9 Total Reading Scores) than students taught by first-year teachers prepared in other teacher education programs.

Jade Floyd, jfloyd@aacte.org or 202.478.4596

Outstanding Community Service Partner for 2007

Osborn's longstanding partnership was recently recognized by Make a Difference

Osborn School District hosts several service events each year in partnership with Make a Difference. Make a Difference is a local non-profit organization specializing in volunteer service coordination. The district is also collaborating with Make a Difference on a new tutoring program for volunteers.

 

Serv-a-thon volunteers at Encanto School

 

AZ Learns Designations

The Arizona Department of Education has created school designation profiles in compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind laws. These designation profiles are as follows. Please note that Performing Plus designated schools have scored as high as Highly Performing or Excelling designated schools, however, the distribution of the top AIMS scores is less broad. For more information click here.

AZ LEARNS Designation Profile for Schools

Profile

Scale with MAP

Non-MAP Scale

Underperforming

<13

<8

Performing

13-15.9

8-12.9

Performing Plus

16-27

13-19

Highly Performing

16-18.9

13-14.9

Excelling

19-27

15-19