Superintendent’s Message
August 2010
Over these past 4o plus days I have had the opportunity to meet with many people and learn many things that have convinced me that I was correct in my initial assumptions when I made this transition to this community; that smaller is so much more complicated.
We all have come to realize that the purpose of public education is to prepare students for adult life by attending to their intellectual and developmental needs while challenging them to achieve at their highest levels. The May 2008 Idaho Observer says “it would be fair to call Thomas Jefferson the father of public education in America.” and goes on to say that it “was his hope that public school would not be compulsory but desirable” and that he reasoned that, “would be America’s greatest defense against tyranny.”
Our mission as a learning community has to be able to create a system that allows all students to become competitive global citizens. Our goal is to create a pre-kinder through grade 14, engage the community college system in our conversations, academic pathways that are rigorous and challenging for all students. I know that each and every member of this learning community cares deeply about all of our children. This is quite evident based on the conversations that I have had over these past days in many different circles with the data indicating that we have work to do that includes both raising student achievement and closing the achievement gap for all students.
When one reviews the Student Performance data over these past eight years (2002 – 2009) we see the following increase in student proficiency based on the California STAR:
|
District wide ELA |
Plus 9.8 % |
District wide Math |
Plus 21.1% |
|
Hispanic ELA |
Plus 18.6 % |
Hispanic Math |
Plus 23.9% |
|
White ELA |
Plus 20.2% |
White Math |
Plus 32.3% |
|
Achievement Gap |
47.5% |
Achievement Gap |
44.8% |
The California Department of Education monitors all of the district data based on student performance with some of the indicators listed as follows:
· The district’s Academic Performance Index (API) had a base score of 711 in 2002 and had a performance score of 757 in 2009
· The Hispanic API in that same period grew from a base of 528 to 663 = a growth of plus 135 points
· The White API in that same period grew from a base of 781 to 845 = a growth of plus 64 points
· This is our achievement gap folks – a difference of 182 points.
One of our essential questions has to address our ability to continue to increase student achievement while accelerating our language learners?
There has been much conversation about the Dual Immersion Program. I call this a Language Pathway and believe that world languages are one of the avenues to global citizenship but let’s not let this become a distraction to the larger academic picture as we increase the number of students who graduate from high school prepared for college and career.
· We need to create language pathways for all students which could support English as a Second Language, Spanish as a Second Language or a Dual Immersion Program but the goal has to be world languages for all.
· We need to create articulation agreements between Mammoth High School and Cerro Coso Community College.
· Our high school graduation rates along with the number of students that met the University of California course entrance requirements are as follows:
|
|
Graduation Rates |
Met UC Course Requirements |
|
2007 |
98.6% |
0% - this data is not accurate |
|
2008 |
78.4% |
0% - this data is not accurate |
|
2009 |
84.5% |
Not Available |
· And our CELDT (California English Language Development Test) for the 2009-2010 indicates the following:
|
Performance Level |
Total |
|
Advanced |
21 students = 8% |
|
Early Advanced |
87 students = 32% |
|
Intermediate |
105 students = 38% |
|
Early Intermediate |
42 students = 15% |
|
Beginning |
20 students = 7% |
|
|
275 students |
One of our challenges is to stabilize our learning community which includes recruiting the best principals available that understand that their role is that of the instructional leader. We are pleased to announce the following transitions over these past few months:
· Rosanne Lampariello @ Mammoth Elementary School
· Joseph Skaff @ Mammoth Middle School
· Gabriel Solorio @ Mammoth High School
The Mammoth Schools NOW Education Foundation has planned a leadership introduction event for Monday, August 23rd @ 6pm which will be held in the Mammoth High School Library. Please join us for a simple introduction to the Mammoth School NOW Education Foundation and our school principals.
We all realize that we have focused and targeted work to accomplish as we create our Local Education Agency (LEA) Plan that will be grounded in the soon to be released STAR Data from the spring of 2010 which will require the engagement of the School Site Councils. These School Site Plans along with the LEA Plan need to be presented to the MUSD governing board not later than October 28th. Our focus is on making academic progress with all of the student sub-groups but in particular at our elementary school due to our Program Improvement status.
The secondary folks will focus on two documents as they begin their work which will include Taking Center Stage II for the middle school and Breaking Ranks II at the high school.
And, on top of all of this work, are the newly adopted Common Core Standards which will change the way we teach in our classrooms so there is a great need for professional development and access to the data that will allow our instructional teams the opportunity to use data on a daily basis to modify the instructional program and engage in an inquiry based protocol that will measure students progress towards the adopted standards as we prepare for the Spring 2011 assessment cycle.
One of our greatest challenges at this time is to ascertain and populate a data warehouse that will allow us to query that data base to ensure that what we are teaching is what the students are learning and that it is aligned with the California Content Standards and that the work is rigorous.
In June of 1858, President Abraham Lincoln presented his “House Divided” speech in Springfield, Illinois in which he went on to say, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” and I would challenge us as a learning community, to celebrate our great diversity and to join together as one community to challenge and inspire all of our students to be great, not just some, but all.
Warm regards as we prepare to open schools in a few short weeks,
Rich Boccia
Superintendent of Schools
Mammoth Unified School District