The California R-I School District continues to soar as its schools earn some of the highest rankings among Missouri school districts.
Superintendent Dwight Sanders and California Middle School Principal Matt Abernathy are proud to say the district's middle school ranks 111 out of 983 middle schools, placing the school in the top 11 percent.
"We're pleased (with our ranking). It just goes to show that we're doing something right here," Abernathy said. "We have a great climate. It's really family-oriented. And the teachers and students all appear to be happy every day here at school. And I think that goes a long way toward this ranking."
Administration learned of this from the education website, Niche.com. Through this domain, elementary, middle and high schools are sorted and ranked based on information from government sources such as the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Census Bureau. The website also pulls from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as it informs people on the safety and success of schools, neighborhoods and businesses.
However, this isn't the only good news they have received regarding the status of the schools in the district. Superintendent Dwight Sanders said he is pleased to discover California High School ranked 117 out of 742, putting it in the top 16 percent of Missouri schools.
California Elementary School trailed behind, as it is ranked 477 out of 1,776, which placed it in the top 27 percent of schools in the state.
Abernathy explained teachers and administration work to create a culture where students can foster an efficient work ethic. He said it is additional effort teachers put into their lessons which have maintained students' educational well-being.
"All of those indicators that Niche.com uses to build their rankings, our students and our teachers would not perform as well as they do in each of those indicator areas if it weren't for the culture and the climate that we have in the (middle school) building," Abernathy said. "Having this type of climate is what helps our teachers to strive to do everything that they can for the kids. It helps the kids to want to try their hardest and be involved and be a part of every organization or club or activity that we have."
Sanders said the rankings speak to a lot of the effort staff and faculty put into learning and education. He said they are putting forth their best effort, day-in and day-out, to ensure students' growth. Although the district always tries its best to educate, he explained, it is nice to see the results of that hard work.