District Administration - December 2008 - (Page 43)

ADVERTISEMENT Closing the Achievement Gap: A San Jose Success Story Follett Software’s TetraData® solution enables improved student performance through strategic data management is provides a conhe San Jose Uniﬁed School District (SJUSD), with other and generates comprehensive reports. 32,000 students and 42 schools, is 4 miles wide stant stream of timely feedback to guide instructional intervenand 22 miles long. e northern end of the district tions and teacher coaching. “As a result of our data work, we are reversing the trend of contains the highest concentration of families living below the poverty index in Santa Clara County while the schools going into Program Improvement,” remarked Lauck. “Teachers at schools with 90% Engsouthern end supports multi-million lish Learners, Hispanic and disadvandollar Silicon Valley homes. Schools in taged students are moving, on averthe south end of the district are among age, more than 50 percent of their stuthe highest performing in the state. dents out of “Far Below Basic” on the Schools in the north end are predomiCalifornia Standards Test and similar nantly Title I with high concentrations percents of students out of “Below of English Learners and disadvantaged Basic” and “Basic” into “Proﬁciency.” students. Six of eleven schools have moved out Undaunted by these disparities, of Program Improvement. San Jose’s faculty and administrators Editorial Projects in Education, are committed to high academic stana national nonproﬁt research group, dards across the board and to giving recently recognized SJUSD for its 93 all students optimal opportunities to percent graduation rate, the secondsucceed. “We want our students to be highest among the 50 largest urban ready to achieve anything they want school districts in the nation. to when they leave our schools,” said “When we set standards high e district’s gains have been so Marcy Lauck, manager of SJUSD’s and give students the tools impressive that in 2007 California’s Continuous Improvement Programs. to meet them, they meet the State Superintendent Jack O’Connell In 1998, SJUSD became the ﬁrst chose one of SJUSD’s schools – Lowdistrict in California to raise its graduchallenge.” ell Elementary – as the site of his ation standards to meet the entrance annual press conference to announce requirements for the UC/CSU system. “We knew that if our students successfully completed the course- state test scores. e school had raised its Academic Performance work necessary for admission to quality 4-year colleges, then Index score by 42 points in one year, posting huge gains for its they truly would have an opportunity to make the most of their most challenging students: 41 points for Hispanic students, future,” continued Lauck. “Our next question was ‘how can we 47 points for Title I students and 59 points for English Learners. “ at’s incredible,” O’Connell said at the press conference. best prepare everyone to meet these new higher standards?’” SJUSD devised a plan of continual formative assessment, “ at’s our deﬁnition of closing the achievement gap.” Marcy Lauck summed it up: “When we set standards high within which all students would be tested on mastering the standards covered in the state tests every six weeks. But this pre- and give students the tools to meet them, they meet the chalsented an additional challenge: how to interpret new data and lenge. Our most important technology tool is our data wareturn it into meaningful improvements before the next test rolled house—TetraData just doesn’t let us fail.” around. Follett Software Company’s TetraData solution provided the district with the needed centralized data storage and For more information, please visit the analytics tools to align the district’s data conversations. TetraData provides a strategic data platform that integrates www.TetraData.com/ContactUs or and stores student demographic information, test scores, quar- call 800-323-3397. terly assessments, staﬀ demographics, certiﬁcation levels and more. TetraData Analyzer™ then maps these data sets onto each www.DistrictAdministration.com December 2008 43 T http://www.TetraData.com/ContactUs http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

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

District Administration - December 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
News Update
College Preparatory
Security
Technology
District Profile
Administrator Profile
DA Web Seminars
Desperately Seeking Special Ed Teachers
Special Education’s Challenges
Building the Best Auditorium
Leading the Way
Righting the Writing Process
Sharpening a District’s Leadership Model
TCEA
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem Solution
Professional Opinion
Research Center
Calendar of Events
Online Edge

District Administration - December 2008