Breakout Presentation 7
A Collaborative Model in Closing the Gap: Best Practices that are Making a Difference
(Maria Alviz, Diana Stephens)
How do life skills such as self-control, self-confidence, responsibility and cooperation influence student achievement? Discover best practices in elementary school counseling that closed the achievement gap for students at E.P. Foster Elementary, a Title One school. Panelists will discuss “Lesson One: Skills for Life,” a research-based award wining program that internalizes life skills. Experience a demonstration of teaching strategies and counseling techniques and hear testimonials about transforming school culture to create equitable learning environments. Speakers will also present the results from a study of four elementary schools that explain how the model increased responsibility and accountability for student behavior and learning.
Assessment and Accommodations for English Learners
(Jamal Abedi)
In this session, Dr. Jamal Abedi will discuss the impact of language factors on the assessment for all students, particularly for English learners (ELs) and students with learning disabilities. The focus of his discussion will be on unnecessary linguistic complexity of assessments that may affect the reliability and validity of assessments for the subgroups identified in the No Child Left Behind legislation. Recommendations for improving assessment and accountability systems for English learners will be provided. For more information on Dr. Abedi, please visit the “Featured Speakers” page on this Web site.
Better Outcomes & Opportunities for Students in Testing
(Ivan Cheng, Elizabeth Ortiz, Kathy Rowlands, Reed Walsh)
Los Angeles Valley College, in partnership with California State University Northridge and the Los Angeles Unified Dropout and Prevention Program, has developed courses to help CAHSEE non-completers pass the exam. Our panel will discuss pass rates, the course design, and share a number of success strategies for working with this population, including helping English Language Learners to pass the exam.
Breaking the Silence: Ushering in Courageous Conversation About the Impact of Race on Student Achievement
(Manny Barbara, Chris Lim, Glenn Singleton)
The racial achievement gap persists at national, state and local levels. Despite federal legislation mandates and what we have discovered in analyzing district disaggregated data, still, relatively few educators possess and demonstrate the will, skill, knowledge and/or capacity to engage in, sustain or deepen effective interracial conversations about the impact of race on student achievement. Providing professional learning opportunities that assist educators in participating in Courageous Conversations About Race quickly leads to more meaningful and productive curriculum, instruction and assessment reform. In this session, panel members will discuss how Courageous Conversation can heighten educators’ awareness around issues of equity and focus school/district leadership towards eliminating the racial achievement gap.
Closing the Developmental Gap Is Needed to Close the Achievement Gap
(Bonnie Benard, Greg Wolfe)
This session will help participants understand what is indicated by research concerning the relationship that caring teachers, youth development, and other critical protective factors have with improving student academic achievement. The discussion will focus on research findings from various sources. Much of the energy and resources we now use to promote health and well-being is framed within a deficit-reduction model. This way of thinking has often led to a categorical approach to prevention. Too few young people experience consistent support from adults, build relationships across generations, or hear consistent messages about boundaries and values. Participants will be encouraged to think boldly and expansively about how schools can place priority on becoming caring environments for all students.
Focus on African American Student Achievement
(Robyn Fisher, Ingrid Johnson, Chuck Moore, Charles Ratliff, Patricia Rillera, Jacqueline Rushing)
Members of community based organizations will conduct a dialogue about the different models they have implemented to involve African American parents and students in activities designed to increase college eligibility rates and attendance. Panelists represent private enterprises, community based organizations with direct fiscal support, and community based organizations reliant completely upon volunteer staffing and donated resources. Directors of these organizations will share experiences working with different stakeholders and stakeholder groups in maintaining these valuable operations.
Functional Performance Indicators for New CAPA STAR Test
(Kate Cahill, Denise Chappell, Mary Ellen Johnson, Melaine Timko)
This session focuses on how two county offices collaborated to address new California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA) blueprints, which form the basis of the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, 2008 testing, for students with significant disabilities. This session details the paradigm shift requiring that CAPA align with core curriculum (grade-level content standards) for general education students. The CAPA blueprints contain the grade-level content standards and, for each standard that is to be tested, have check-marked statements that serve as the focus of the content standard for the alternate assessment. Teachers, principals and administrators banded together to write Functional Performance Indicators for each focus statement for the grade-level content standards so that theachers would know what to teach in order that these students may demonstrate mastery of the California content standards at their appropriate level. This project used research-based strategies of collaboration, high expectations for all students, and focused development of instructional road maps which provide access to core curriculum for sSecial education students.
Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence
(Theodore Mitchell)
Ted Mitchell will provide an overview of the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence and the Committee’s objectives and progress. The session will be an opportunity for community and education leaders to discuss the work of the Committee on Education Excellence and to provide feedback to the Committee regarding important priorities for 2008 and beyond. The format will be informal, beginning with brief remarks and moving quickly to an open conversation. For more information on Ted Mitchell, please visit the “Featured Speakers” page on this Web site.
How to Reach and Teach Malik and Jesus: Using Culturally Responsive Structures and Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap
(Edwin Lou Javius, Allan Nishino)
Elevate the quality of instruction for African American and Latino students with the Key Principles of Equity™: Awareness, Attitude, Analysis, Action and Accountability. This session highlights a district’s implementation of Equity Walks™, a new approach to increasing leadership and teacher leaders’ capacity to close the achievement gap, plus strategies to develop Academic Language Learners™ (ALL). Panelists will share research on Culturally Responsive Instruction, including strategies for immediate classroom implementation. The session will equip you with all the tools you need to go from theory to application, including a CD of Equity Action Plan Templates and Culturally Responsive Lesson Design Templates to develop clear next steps for your district, school site and classroom.
Parents Speak: Successful Parent Involvement Strategies in Addressing the Achievement Gap
(Amelia Hill, Maria Medina, Nancy Vandell, Colleen You)
A parent panel will discuss their perspective on what local and state policy level makers can do to assist parents in their part in closing the achievement gap. Parents who have students and knowledge representing specific subgroup issues (Hispanic, English language learners, special education, African American, and socio-economically disadvantaged) will provide input on successful strategies they have observed, as well as bring attention to theme areas (Access, Climate/Culture, Expectations, Strategies) needing work.
Pasadena Unified - Making a Difference in an Urban School District
(Meg Abrahamson, Edwin Diaz, Steven Miller, Kathy Onoye)
Pasadena Unified has achieved academic progress over the past four years based on a unified curriculum, assessments and data, professional development and teacher collaboration. A focus on accountability, leadership, inquiry protocol, data access and decision making has helped close the achievement gap. Superintendent Diaz will share tips on leadership, accountability and process development based on the works of Marzano, Waters, and Reeves. Learn how coaching (based on Perroti and Bloom) and inquiry protocol, building capacity, interventions and a rigorous curriculum propelled their schools to the top of the rankings, and how an improved accountability system supports growth.
Project Lead the Way – A Proven Model for Closing the Achievement Gap
(Duane Crum)
Students are left behind in our educational system for a number of reasons, many of which are outside the control of our schools, such as lack of support from their families. However, a large percentage of poorly-performing students have simply stopped trying due to several reasons including: boredom, a feeling that the material is irrelevant, an inability to grasp material presented in the typical lecture format and a complete lack of interest. Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is a proven program that can re-involve many of these students by offering a rigorous technical curriculum based on project and problem-based activities. Students learn complex Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) concepts in a hands-on learning environment that integrates science, math, technology and language skills. Instructors attend intensive, course-specific professional development prior to teaching any PLTW course. We will present details of the program along with results of studies demonstrating its effectiveness. For more information on Duane Crum, please visit the “Featured Speakers” page on this Web site.
Quality Early Education Programs – Assets to Student Achievement
(Catherine Atkin, Ellin Chariton, Jay Hoffman, Jean Holbrook, Roberta Peck, Gaye Riggs)
This session highlights high-quality pre-kindergarten programs as an effective strategy to address California's achievement gap and promote success for all children. Longitudinal studies reveal that children with effective preschool experiences are less likely to need special education or be retained, and more likely to have higher test scores in reading, writing, and math. This panel will analyze California's school readiness gap by reviewing research and state and national educational policy directions. Learn about innovative collaborations, including the California First 5 Power of Projects and the universal preschool program in Nuview Union School District, Riverside County.
Racial Achievement Gaps Reflect Racial Opportunity Gaps
(Jeannie Oakes)
Jeannie Oakes will present new data showing that the racial gaps in test scores mirror racial gaps in such basic educational resources and opportunities as safe, un-crowded school facilities, rigorous curriculum, and qualified teachers. Schools without these basic resources and opportunities have severe difficulties achieving even minimum standards and meeting the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standard for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Every California community feels the effect of California's under-funding and shortages of basic resources and opportunities, but all communities don’t suffer equally. Across the state, African American and Latino students are more likely to attend overcrowded schools, schools with the highest rates of unqualified teachers, and schools with shortages of college preparatory courses. These students are not given a fair and equal opportunity to learn. Efforts to close the achievement gap among racial groups must remedy these fundamental gaps in educational opportunity. For more information on Jeannie Oakes, please visit the “Featured Speakers” page on this Web site.
RCAT: A Response to Intervention Model
(Mike Barney, Mike Jones, Dawn Walsh)
This panel will introduce Riverside County Achievement Teams (RCAT) Plus, a project to increase achievement of all students. Eight schools performing in the bottom quartile of statewide assessment were selected to participate. Panelists will detail external evaluation to verify participating schools outscored the state and similar schools in Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) percentage growth in English-language arts (ELA) and mathematics. The presentation will describe its Response-to-Intervention approach through four examples: (1) establishing a culture focusing on student learning, (2) summative and formative assessment guidelines for purposes of instruction, (3) identification of research-based instructional strategies to strengthen the core program, and (4) a multi-tiered approach to align interventions to student needs.
Students Can't Wait: Schools Must Turn Knowledge into Action
(Gene Bottoms)
This presentation will include lessons learned over the past 20 years about getting all groups of students to make progress toward meeting grade-level and college- and career-readiness standards in middle grades and high school. The speaker will examine the changes in behavior by school leaders, teachers and counselors that must occur in schools before changes occur in student behavior and performance. He will also look at school, curriculum and instructional practices that are most often present in schools that are both raising achievement and improving high school graduation rates. The power of being an active part of a research-based network will be explored, how it can help provide the catalyst needed to get a significant portion of the faculty engaged around a common vision for creating a continuous school improvement culture. For more information on Gene Bottoms, please visit the “Featured Speakers” page on this Web site.
The Impact of School Facilities on Student Performance and Retention of Teachers
(Victoria Bergsagel, Mary Filardo, Kathleen Moore)
In 21st Century School Fund, Building Education Success Together (2004), the authors suggest that “Closing the disparity gap in school building quality should be an integral part of closing the achievement gap, and should be an explicit objective of state and federal education law, including No Child Left Behind and other funding sources.” This workshop brings researchers, policy makers and practitioners together to explore research about how school facilities’ conditions impact student performance and experience and teacher retention. The panel will discuss national and statewide facilities policy implications and funding levels on minority student performance, plus facilities strategies and planning that have had a positive impact for underperforming populations.
The WRITE Institute: Closing the Achievement Gap Through Professional Development in Writing
(Sharmila Kraft, Laurie Nesrala)
Hear about The WRITE Institute of the San Diego County Office of Education, a national professional development model for teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade. Learn how WRITE assists with No Child Left Behind requirements, prepares trainers to conduct staff development on standards-based instruction and assessment, links effective teaching strategies to state standards and assessments, and integrates research-driven best practices in academic writing to meet the needs of English learners and struggling writers. The session features assessment and curriculum samples and data that documents improved student achievement in English.
Two-Way Bilingual (Dual) Immersion Programs: Can Students be Academically Successful While Acquiring More Than One Language?
(Lloyd Houske, Rosa G. Molina, Maribel Lopez-Tyus, Marcia Vargas)
Proficiency in multiple languages is essential to success in today’s global society. This panel will describe two-way bilingual (dual) immersion education, sharing data to support the acquisition of Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) goals. These goals specify that: 1) all students acquire proficiency in English and a second language, 2) all students demonstrate academic proficiency in English and a second language, and 3) all students demonstrate multicultural competency and high self esteem. Learn how students can succeed academically and become proficient in two or more languages at the same time, and the importance of setting high expectations for students and staff.