Countywide

Thirty-two elementary schools in San Diego County have been selected as winners in the first year of the “California Distinguished Elementary Schools” awards program, state schools Supt. Bill Honig announced Friday.

The San Diego schools include eight from the San Diego Unified School District--the county’s largest--and six from the Poway Unified School District.

With 321 elementary schools countywide, San Diego had 10% of its schools recognized, compared to 248 out of 4,533 statewide, or 5% of the total in the state.

Earlier this year, Honig qualified 559 schools for the awards program. Qualification was based on a school having either ranked high in school comparison groups on California Assessment Program test scores, or having shown improvements in CAP reading and math scores eight times greater than the target growth set for the school.

The 559 schools eligible then submitted detailed applications about their programs, staff, parental involvement and other performance. The final list was compiled after state Department of Education officials visited the schools.

The San Diego County list:

San Diego Unified School District: Adams, Benchley-Weinberger, Cadman, Central, Chesterton, Fulton, Jerabek, Sunset View.

Poway Unified School District: Chaparral, Garden Road, Los Penasquitos, Midland, Rolling Hills, Sundance.

Chula Vista City School District: Finney, Lauderbach, Los Altos.

Cajon Valley Union School District: Crest, Meridian.

Encinitas Union School District: Park Dale Lane, Paul Ecke Central.

Fallbrook Union Elementary School District: Maie Ellis, Fallbrook Street.

Santee School District: Carlton Oaks, Pepper Drive.

Cardiff School District: Cardiff.

Carlsbad Unified School District: Jefferson.

Coronado Unified School District: Crown.

Del Mar Union School District: Del Mar Hills.

La Mesa-Spring Valley School District: Avondale.

Oceanside Unified School District: Laurel.

Solana Beach School District: Skyline.