District Administration - April 2008 - (Page 46)

Hometown SUCCESS isn’t their ﬁrst language,” she says. “A dictionary at home helps them and their parents develop a larger English language.” “They’re asking people to continue to be creative and to think outside the box,” says Tupa. “There’s this commitment to ongoing innovation.” The Long Beach Way Steinhauser takes his cue from what administrators, teachers and community members have long dubbed the “Long Beach Way.” “We talk about it all the time,” he says. “We do what’s best for the kids. We try to keep things simple but as rigorous as possible. And we include all people in the process.” Steinhauser has paid special attention to the achievement gap among students. “He cares deeply about kids, and he holds them all accountable,” says Williams. Between 2003 and 2006, Long Beach narrowed the diﬀerences between the district’s white students and their 45,000 Hispanic and 15,000 black peers in elementary school reading and math. In 2006, the last year counted for the 2007 Broad prize, the district’s Hispanic, black and low-income students—as well as the entire student population—outperformed all other urban California districts in reading and math at all K12 levels. Steinhauser cites a refrain that he heard from parents almost 10 years ago, when he was the deputy superintendent: “They wanted consistent standards across the district, and we are much better today than we were years ago.” He has embarked on a mission to not leave any child behind, from his expanded commitment to college preparation in high school to an aggressive retention program for underachieving students at the elementary level. “Our standards are high, and we expect all students to go on to college,” says Steinhauser, who adds that the goal is central to the strategic plan adopted two years ago. “We’ve had a massive explosion 46 April 2008 Steinhauser at Long Beach Polytechnic High School with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. in AP students, with more kids going to college than ever before.” Serious about Retention On the other end of the spectrum, the district retains over 1,000 kindergarten through ﬁfth-grade students annually who do not meet key benchmarks in reading and math. “We try to provide very different structures,” Steinhauser points out, among them an eight-week block of allday literacy classes, extended school days and years, and extra teachers in the classroom. “We’ve looked at the kids who are retained and they do quite well,” he says. Behind’s “needs improvement” list, and even though that percentage rates as the second smallest of any urban district in California, Steinhauser is still concerned. “People know that I’m not going to give up on things, and when I work with schools that are struggling, I make it clear that not doing anything is not an option,” he explains. But they do have options as to how they can improve, in keeping with Steinhauser’s largely decentralized approach. Williams notes that although individual schools “have a lot of authority” to institute changes, they get Steinhauser’s message. “They have to be on course to raise student achievement. They understand the importance of getting scores up and getting students to learn.” Reaching Out Tupa, the district’s SchoolWorks evaluator, sees the district’s approach to piloting as part of a larger strategy. “They want everyone to be part of the improvement,” she states. “It creates ownership on the “The miracle was that we transformed the school into a place where teachers and kids wanted to be.” —Christopher Steinhauser So well, in fact, that the district is planning to increase the number of students left back. Dacquisto, who teaches kindergarten, has seen the beneﬁts ﬁrsthand. “I’ve had a couple of kindergartners retained who might have been passed on in other districts,” she says. “If I’d sent them on, I think they’d always be at the bottom of the barrel. They needed that extra year to grow and blossom.” Steinhauser is as strict with entire schools. Sixteen of the 91 schools in the district are currently on No Child Left teacher level, the principal level and the central oﬃce level.” Along those lines, Steinhauser formed a budget committee six years ago to decide on multimillion-dollar operating cuts, which proceeded, he emphasizes, without many layoﬀs—and without acrimony. “When you bring all these stakeholders together and make the ﬁnal cuts, it’s not as painful,” he points out. “Every recommendation we made—from 1 to 99—came out of the committee in that order, so we didn’t have large protests at board meetings.” District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - April 2008

District Administration - April 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology
Facilities & Construction
Curriculum
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Profit and Loss in School-Business Partnerships
The Broad Way
Big Macs for Big Grades
Hometown Success
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Speaking Out
Crisis Response
New Products
Problem/Solution
Computer Literature
Research Center
Calendar of Events
Products Showcase
Understanding the Times

District Administration - April 2008