District Administration - September 2012 - (Page 68)

Models for Education Reform Rick & Becky DufouR Ken LaVigne was chosen one of California’s State Teachers of the Year for 2012 based on his work in a special intervention program at La Serna High School in the Whittier Union High School District. Inset, La Vigne with Superintendent Sandy Thorstenson. number of economically disadvantaged families, Thorstenson was faced with the challenges of increasing student achievement, making curriculum relevant, and promoting equity of opportunity for students when she first took office in 2000. In 2003, Thorstenson began laying the groundwork to implement a PLC at Work model by having her whole staff read Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes by the DuFours and two other coauthors, and by meeting with the school board, teachers, parents, administrators and union leaders to achieve consensus on going forward with the model. That year was the most challenging, she remembers, as teachers were not initially comfortable with sharing data and had to be reassured that it wasn’t about evaluation. “Trust is huge and essential,” she says. In 2005, with an investment from the board of trustees, Thorstenson took three cohorts of principals and teacher-leaders to visit Stevenson High School—which 68 September 2012 she says was “a catapult for forward movement”—where they observed and spoke with teachers and students and saw the model firsthand. Each WUHSD school designed and voted on a new bell schedule to integrate the daily required tutorial times and to accommodate the one-hour formal weekly collaborative sessions for teachers. Today, between 80 and 90 percent of students participate in daily tutorials, whether they are below in proficiency or are looking for enrichment through deeper knowledge in a subject area. Success Despite Budget Cut Since WUHSD became a PLC at Work district in 2003, it has seen solid and sustained growth in student performance across all five schools, even with more than $17 million cut from the budget and an increasing number of economically disadvantaged students enrolled. WUHSD’s average score on California’s Academic Performance Index (API), which is calculated on a scale of 200 to 1,000 points, with 800 to 1,000 being the desired level of performance, has increased by more than 154 points over the last seven years and is now 777. In addition, three WUHSD schools this year received 10 out of 10 on the state’s Similar Schools Rank, with the other two ranking eight out of 10. There remains only a 6 percent difference between the highest and lowest performing students in the district, says Thorstenson, despite the inequality in income levels. During the last few years, WUHSD has served as a showcase for visiting educators eager to learn more about how the district has improved academic achievement. In 2011, Thorstenson was selected as California’s National Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators, becoming ACSA’s nominee for the 2012 American Association of School Administrators’ National District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - September 2012

District Administration - September/October 2012
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Product Focus
Resistance to High-Stakes Testing Spreads
Postgraduation for Special Needs Students
Rick & Becky DuFour
CIo News
Getting the Best ROI in Technology
Shaping a Digital Decade
Professional Opinion
Professional Opinion
Online Edge
Going Mobile
New Products
New Directions

District Administration - September 2012