District Administration - July 2010 - (Page 43)

Superintendent Garcia is surrounded and hugged by students at Miraloma Elementary School. He tries to visit the district’s schools and spend time with students twice a week. SFUSD started using a results-oriented approach and encouraged site-level innovation by developing balanced scorecards throughout the district. Each school site, district department and many community organizations developed these scorecards. One question for the school leaders, and specifically principals, was “What can you do differently to improve and/or to close the achievement gaps?” It was about taking responsibility, Garcia says. Schools had to include steps for improvement and the direction of where they wanted to end up. “You constantly analyze the data and self improve,” Garcia says. Also under the plan: • Garcia pushed for a centralized curriculum, something San Francisco has not had for 10 years because schools operated autonomously, says Richard Carranza, deputy superintendent for instruction, innovation and social justice. As a result, students had different curricula depending on what neighborhood they lived in. “If you have a centralized curriculum, if we really believe in social justice, it’s the district’s responsibility to set the expectations for all kids,” he says. The new curriculum under development is based on the common core state standards that should be adopted by most states in coming months, Carranza adds. • It stresses teachers. The district partnered with the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA) and received funding to sustain proven professional development. NUA’s Pedagogy of Confidence and Professional Development www.DistrictAdministration.com Model suggests that the teacher is the most important factor for high student achievement. The NUA trained, coached and modeled effective teaching for more than 325 teachers in 15 high schools. • Central office leaders and the school board have realigned systems, policies, structures and resources to support sitelevel innovation. For example, Garcia says, Sheridan Elementary School reduced the our Beyond the Talk would be a paradigm shift in dealing with the achievement gap as the greatest civil rights issue of our time. Of course, I know about all the other stuff that came with Hendrix, but this was strictly about the music.” Some Results Although it’s still too early to pass judgment on the success of Garcia’s leadership, “There cannot be justice for all without closing this gap.” —Carlos Garcia achievement gap in part by moving away from the “deficit model.” Instead of correcting students on their slang vocabulary, Garcia says teachers learned how to build on students’ strengths and to use this as a vocabulary lesson on standard English. • Requiring as of this fall every high school student to take the state’s 15 “A-G” courses, such as high-level math and science courses, which means they would be eligible to attend a school in the California State University system or the University of California system after graduation. Even with all the positives of the plan, Garcia took heat from some members within the district and community for using a picture of rock legend Jimi Hendrix on the strategic plan’s 51 pages when it was released in early 2009. He used Hendrix, who died of a drug overdose at age 27, as an analogy of how “different his music was and how it was a paradigm shift, just like the superintendent points out that last year the district saw the greatest annual growth in scores for black, Latino and Pacific Island students. Last year, black and Latino students showed the most growth ever on their test scores, more than any other group. Also, the district improved on the California Standards Test (CST) for the eighth consecutive year. About 66 percent of second- through seventh-grade students are proficient or advanced in math. SFUSD remains the highest-performing large urban district in California, and the district’s average is higher than the state’s average. In addition, students are showing the highest growth in proficiency rates in English language arts since 2005. As compared to 2008, the district has almost tripled its increase in proficiency rates (more than 1 percent growth in 2008 compared to nearly 4 percent growth in 2009). In math (grades 2-7), 62 percent of the July/August 2010 43 Mitch Tobias http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - July 2010

District Administration - July 2010
Contents
Advertiser Index
Letters
From the Editor
News Update
Sustainability Update
Technology Update
Curriculum Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
The Golden State Loses Its Luster
Seeking Justice in San Francisco
The Push for Public Preschool
Gearing up for the New Assessment
Books
Products
Online Edge
Supervisor’s Insights
Crisis Response
Supervisor’s Opinion
Tech Disruptions
Professional Opinion
Professional Opinion

District Administration - July 2010