One of the state’s highest awards in public education was bestowed on six Long Beach Unified middle and high schools in recognition of their academic achievement and commitment to closing performance gaps.
Millikan and McBride high schools were named California Distinguished Schools for the first time, joining previous winners California Academy of Mathematics and Science, Sato Academy of Mathematics and Science and Keller and Stanford middle schools.
Awarded schools demonstrated high academic performance for all students and academic progress for students who have been historically underserved, reflecting goals the LBUSD school board is working toward by June 2028. To qualify for the statewide distinction, schools must demonstrate high participation in standardized testing and low suspensions and chronic absenteeism.
Millikan High School principal Stacie Alexander said it was “an exciting surprise” to see her school honored alongside 407 others across the state.
Indeed, given the award’s rigorous criteria, it has been more than two decades since any of the district’s comprehensive high schools have been recognized. Most recently, Wilson High School made the list in 2005; Poly High School earned the award in 1999.
In recent years, “we’ve really focused on multiple subgroups of students,” Alexander said, pointing to Millikan’s strides in math achievement among Black students and English language learner progress.
Underpinning that success are the “structures of support that we build in for both our students and our teachers,” she said, which can look like student interventions, focusing on and monitoring students’ strengths and fostering a culture of relationship and community building among Millikan’s more than 3,000 students.
For Alexander as a principal, being recognized as a distinguished school is “validation that we’re on the right track and that we’re focusing on the right things,” she said. For teachers, it’s evidence that “what they do on a daily basis matters and does have impact,” she added.
At McBride High School, which serves over 600 students in specific pathways, principal Stephanie Dunn said she has taken a similar approach of fostering belonging on campus, a key to academic success. “When students are connected to school, they usually perform better, and that collective effort is what’s helped elevate our academic achievement,” she said.
In the classroom, McBride teachers focus on creating spaces where students feel supported, engaged and safe enough to ask questions, Dunn said. “Students are not allowed to opt out of learning.”
That approach has translated to improvements in English language arts and math performance, college and career readiness and graduation rates, according to the statewide dashboard.
Since Dunn shared the news about McBride’s award with her student body, she said the energy on “campus is electric.”
Dunn said she and her students take seriously the school’s namesake, Long Beach civil rights activist Ernest S. McBride Sr., as well as his legacy of “giving back to the community and leaving things better than you found it.” For the seniors in particular, the recognition was a “full circle moment,” she said, because they know: “we were a part of this.”