|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
In an effort to raise test scores among Mountain View’s low-income and minority students, the Mountain View Whisman School District is moving forward with ambitious and expensive plans to turn things around at its lowest-performing schools.
Earlier this month, principals at Castro and Theuerkauf elementary schools detailed how they plan to spend more than $700,000 between the two schools to improve dismal test results from the new Common Core standardized tests earlier this year.
The test results released in September revealed a significant achievement gap in the district. Scores showed 87 percent of English learners and 69 of economically disadvantaged students failed to meet new state standards for English language arts. The results were similar for math, where 83 percent of English learners and 74 percent of economically disadvantaged students fell short of the standards.
The results weren’t unexpected. In March, former Interim Superintendent Kevin Skelly set aside $1.5 million of the district’s reserves to help out the underachieving students at both schools over a three-year period. At the same time, the district also began accepting Title I funds for both schools, which amount to $143,000 for each school this year.
Castro School
For Castro, where roughly 80 percent of the students are either English learners or economically disadvantaged, funding from various sources adds up to about $538,000 this year.
So how is that money going to be spent? After many meetings with parents and staff, Castro Principal Theresa Lambert outlined a comprehensive plan that includes longer school days, after-school help, professional development and an extra full-time teacher.
The school has earmarked $104,000 of the funds for what’s called an intervention resource teacher. Throughout the day, this full-time supplemental teacher works with each grade level for 45 minutes at a time. The resource teacher gives students who perform well a chance to do enrichment activities, while other students in need of remedial, or intervention, support get an opportunity to go back to the basics.
“When students need help, research shows it’s best to intervene often and early,” Lambert said.
Another $91,000 has been set aside for teachers to stick around for an extra hour after school to tutor students, which Lambert said is a useful tool to help students become fluent in English and get out of the “English learner” group. While the after-school period is voluntary, school officials plan to spend $100,000 adding an extra 30 minutes to the beginning of the school day.
Other expenditures include $40,000 for a Castro-specific summer school program separate from the district’s summer school, $60,000 for professional development for teachers, and $33,000 for teachers to meet more often and devise new lesson plans and strategies for teaching. Funding will also be set aside for parent training to help Castro parents navigate the school system, Lambert said.
“It’s to help teach parents how to advocate for their child,” she said.
Through the combined efforts, the goal is to increase the number of Castro students meeting the state English language arts standards to 35 percent from 19 percent last school year. School administrators also hope to see a similar bump in math proficiency, bringing the number of students meeting the standards from 16 percent last school year to 33 percent this year.
Late last year, a task force of Castro parents and school administrators agreed to split Castro Elementary’s traditional school program from the district’s Spanish Dual Immersion program (now named Mistral School) in order to isolate the high number of low-income and English-learner students who struggle to meet state standards.
At the time, board members had agreed that having the students at Castro’s traditional program in a separate school would help channel funding to the students most in need.
Theuerkauf Elementary
The tempo is a little different at Theuerkauf Elementary, where school staff members are still deciding how to spend the newly available funding. Theuerkauf Principal Ryan Santiago said the school is in the planning stages for using the turnaround funds, and has yet to host meetings with parents and teachers to draft a battle plan to raise student achievement.
Santiago said the delay comes, in part, because he wants to wait for the district’s school audit results to come back. Earlier this year, the district commissioned a $275,000 audit of all its schools to identify issues or deficiencies that are preventing test scores from improving.
Theuerkauf officials have drafted some plans for the extra funds. An extra teacher has been hired to work with students on reading skills and reading comprehension for students performing below grade level.
Some of the Title I funds have been used this year to tap into computer software for students struggling to learn English. The language-learning software Rosetta Stone and LexiaCore5 will be used both inside and outside the classroom as an extra resource for these students, Santiago said. That said, less than half of the Title I funds allocated to the school have been budgeted so far, as the school takes a mostly “wait and see” approach.
“We’re excited about the programs that we’ve put in our site plan,” Santiago said. “But we know that there’s a lot of data and reports coming in that can help us pinpoint exactly what direction we want to move, as well.”
-
Sativa Bankz takes a selfie before going on stage at the Game of Hearts drag variety show. Photo by Michelle Le. -
Joseph Pequero, aka Niya La Rey, hangs out in front of King of Clubs prior to going on stage. Photo by Michelle Le. -
Joseph Pequero was skeptical of drag until he tried it himself; he now performs regularly as drag queen Niya La Rey. Photo by Michelle Le.
From working with my kids, the Common Core Math is really verbal, lots of complex word problems, which is great of you’re a good reader and used to doing that kind of problem. The transition is hard even if you’re not an English learner, and I expect a steep hill to climb without lots of hours and support.
Millions more will be spent, following the billions spent in the past decades to fix an unfixable problem. My kid went to Huff and Graham so I know. Some children do not come from an environment and culture that supports advanced learning. Walk into a resident with no books and tell me that the majority of the kids are academically oriented. This is not a racial issue, it is a matter of what is realistic and what is not. You might as well try an teach the average teenager to dunk a basketball. The focus should be on teaching kids what they are able to learn, not what is beyond their reach. Not every one can handle algebra and whatever the grammar school equivalent is. A majority of kids are not going to succeed in college and all the money and wishful thinking in the world will change that. Put some kids in college prep and other into vocational prep. Fortunately I am retired and don’t pay taxes anymore so you can’t waste any more of my money.
Amen to Mr. Robards.
Perhaps more meetings and interfacing with the parents would help, but to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on “studies”insane.
Good teachers will get through to the kids, they will learn, but not until Mom/Dad cooperate.
We need ditchdiggers and fast food people. They will do better here at those jobs than in Mexico with banditos and dirt. All of the students are not made for college. Try as hard as we can and do the best with these kids that can be done. Quit wasting our money on consultants and “experts”.
This district and the board must sit around thinking of ways of waiting tax payers money. How about #2 pencils, paper and some effort. Go to work on the kids not fault finding and consultants, retreats and all that other nonsense. Every post here in The Voice gets more and more ridiculous .
Meanwhile, the district has dropped the GATE program and no longer lanes middle school students (other than math).
With rent levels headed toward the moon,few economically disadvantaged children will be staying in Mountain View much longer.
@Jason Robards
The point you are trying to make is not clear.
“Some children do not come from an environment and culture that supports advanced learning”
and
“Not every one can handle algebra and whatever the grammar school equivalent is”
These are two different things. And I am inclined to believe the main problem is the first and not the second. I don’t think we should be writing of first and second graders as not being able to handle first and second grade math or reading.
I strongly believe that academic improvements require support by the parents. The extra sessions should be on weekends or other times when the parents can attend. Parents need to understand their responsibility in education. Teachers only have a few minutes a day to spend one-on-one with students.
It’s disturbing to read the comments of people unwilling, in a very wealthy community, to help struggling children improve their lot in life.
We are talking about children here, who did not choose to be born into a poor family, and did not choose the language they speak at home. I for one am glad that our district is trying to help these kids do better in school. It will only enrich us as a city to have a literate, educated workforce.
Fortunately, I don’t think these small-minded, mean-spirited commenters speak for MV as a whole, but rather for a sad group of trolls that lurks here.
Interesting group of commenters. Like Reed Hastings (former CA Board of Education President / Netflix founder & current CEO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Hastings) I’m a RPCV. He was a math teacher in Swaziland, I was a science teacher in Totota, Liberia. I know neither one of us has given up on public education (great for all) because of that experience, or subsequent experience with California public education (I just don’t have the millions $$ to help move improvement/experiment like Reed does).
So, I’ll just continue to believe my experience, the top 12% of any Ethnic or SocioEconomic community is capable of learning to University of California high entrance standards – and if we are getting ‘low learning’ measures from any of these groups – It’s Our (collective) responsibility. A Mind is a terrible thing to Waste.
RPCV is a nom de plume of MVWSD Trustee S. Nelson, these are his opinions only
I thought this new superintendent knew how to raise student achievement. Isn’t this why he was hired? Charter school experience and all?
Where’s the beef? Why isn’t he leading a proven initiative? Not impressed with him at all.
@ Mary Beth
Good questions
No evidence yet that he was a good hire
Why was he referenced at all in this article?
Wasn’t he supposed to be some special outsider who knew what to do?
You can pour a great deal of money into helping children, but it will not help change the culture at home.
I resent anybody saying that other people are hateful when the reality is that they are simply tired of seeing more and more of their hard-earned money thrown at a problem with little to no results to show for it.
I don’t think most children are unable to learn within the system we have, but it REQUIRES that the parents be actively involved. My son was in a kindergarten class with two other children, neither of whom spoke any English when the year started. By the end of the year, one child was fairly fluent, to the point of using idioms. The other had gained very little speaking ability.
Two differences could be observed. One, since one child spoke Spanish and the other, Korean, teachers would explain things in Spanish to one of the children, while the other had to learn by observation and rudimentary teaching of language. The other difference was that one of the children had parents who had their child do the projects that were assigned and ensured they were completed and returned. The other child often did not return or complete work. All the rest was fairly equal. Which child do you think was fluent at the end of the year?
Also, since I spend a great deal of time volunteering at school, I see who spends time on their children and who does not. Even children with less natural ability to do the work perform much better when they are encouraged and given a little direction. It doesn’t require a huge time investment, but you do have to spend some.
In short, I don’t think that pouring more dollars at this problem will solve it. No amount of money is going to make some parents care. It is those children that need help. You can give them tools but, if there is no motivation behind it, it is the same as buying a great sports car without being able to operate the stickshift. The result just won’t be good, no matter how much money you invest. However, if you have any ideas about how to make parents care, I think you’d be on to something.
psr,
You’re going to be called mean and hateful, but I agree with you. I’ve been one of those non-English speakers with parents who worked 2-3 jobs and didn’t finish their own education. The only difference between me and the ones who are failing now is that my parents made sure I did my homework, even if they didn’t understand any of it and couldn’t help me.
It starts at home. No amount of money will close the achievement gap until that’s fixed.
@ been there
Although I wasn’t in your shoes, I did have grandparents that came here and didn’t speak the language. They made sure that their children (17 children between my mother and father’s families) all went to school and did their work. My parents also made sure my brother and I did our work and do the same for my son. I firmly believe that that was the greatest gift they passed on to me.
I don’t know how to solve this problem, but I believe that it is the single most important thing we need to address. Even parents who can’t help with the schoolwork can motivate their children. It is just important to let kids know that education is important.
Any ideas?
This is controvertial and I don’t agree with all of their opinions but it explains some of the challenges and frustrations from the viewpoint of a teacher working in an underprivileged and underfunded school district. Definitely worth reading, if only to broaden your knowledge.
http://www.amren.com/features/2014/09/all-i-really-need-to-know-about-race-i-learned-teaching-in-kindergarten/
@Linda Vasquez
I am horrified by the racism in that article!
I am also unclear why you would share that in these comments. That teacher is talking about a poor inner city school. Our schools aren’t that.
@Abigail
It’s a difference of degree, not kind. As a society we are failing these children because our educational system doesn’t understand that their needs, personalities, and abilities are different.
Children do not have any control over their home environments or their learning environments. It is up to us as adults to find a way to provide all children with an opportunity to have the best chance at success. Period. That’s the very definition of public school. We should provide each child with the most rigorous instruction and the resources to master that education so that when they become adults they have the best opportunity to succeed at life.
That’s our job and while I want the money to be spent strategically, I also want it to be spent. I agree we also need to ensure that students who excel are also continuously challenged and provided with the opportunity to grow at a faster pace.