Schools

With Community Input, District Takes First Steps to Tackle PI

Some say unrealistic goals set by the federal government could pose a challenge for the San Bruno Park School District as it tries to exit program improvement.

As the San Bruno Park School District begins to address its program improvement status, officials have been pushing one main message in explaining the district’s situation to residents: It’s going to take a village. 

The district has held two community meetings—one in Spanish—over the last two weeks to allow parents to share their concerns and ideas about , given to San Bruno Park for the first time this year because English-language learners, special education students and several ethnic groups haven’t met the English and math goals set by the federal government under No Child Left Behind. 

While many parents have expressed their frustration with the district for the situation, officials have stressed that PI status isn’t a death sentence and that it will force the district to take a hard look at what’s working and what’s not at each school. 

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“The district has an opportunity to look at its strengths and weaknesses here and where it can focus its resources to improve,” Marco Chavez, the program improvement coordinator for the San Mateo County Office of Education, told a group of parents gathered at Belle Air Elementary School last week. 

At the moment, the district’s first priority is to put together a plan and timeline for getting out of PI within three years. That plan will include goals for how the district will address the academic problems of low-achieving students, address professional development among staff and promote involvement from parents at schools. 

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The input from the parents who attended the two community meetings will be handed over to a district-led task force that will then be charged with developing the improvement plan. 

The school board is expected to approve the plan in January and submit it to the state. 

To some parents, that effort is a prudent step forward. But in looking at the data for the students, some have questioned whether the district has a real shot at pulling itself out of PI when it seems like the federal government has set such unrealistic goals. 

Despite all schools continuing to show above-average results in statewide test scores, all but two—Belle Air and Crestmoor Elementary—saw their Academic Performance Index scores drop this year. 

When breaking down the numbers by ethnic population, the achievement gap has been growing and looks like it could continue to widen. 

For the 2010-11 school year, white, Asian and Filipino students were the only groups able to reach proficiency in English and math on the statewide tests. 

The other ethnic groups, including English-language learners and students with disabilities, aren’t even at 50 percent proficiency in English. And because the bar was raised higher for this last year, those groups also missed their targets for math. (Black students’ scores aren’t counted because they comprise only 2 percent of the district’s enrollment.) 

District officials say it will be important to specifically target certain groups who are underperforming, with an emphasis on those who are learning English as a second language. But the overall push will be to improve all students’ academic performance. 

Superintendent David Hutt said the district will also be taking a look at improving its training for teachers and stressing to parents to get more involved in their kids’ schools, either through PTAs or school site councils.


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