The O.C. Register reported today that nine schools in the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) are “on the bubble for entering into or remaining under the toughest level of sanctions under No Child Left Behind.”
“In August, when this year’s standardized test scores are released, these schools will learn whether changes in the way they have taught, led and measured achievement will help them escape the heaviest federal sanctions.”
Under the law, “these schools restructured and changed leadership in 2006-07 because they missed the same test-score goals in five or more consecutive years.”
“These schools have struggled with English scores for English learners, and some have trouble with all subjects for all students.”
There are 13 schools in trouble in Orange County – nine are in SAUSD and “the other four are in Westminster, Anaheim, Fullerton and Orange.”
“No Child Left Behind calls for schools that fail testing targets to face sanctions including requirements that they allow students to transfer to schools that perform better, free tutoring for all students and in extreme and rare cases, state or county takeovers of schools.”
“In the Santa Ana Unified School District, officials recently introduced a five-year restructuring plan to help their schools meet test goals.
Kindergarteners who start to fall behind go into the school’s primary academy. Instead of a half-day, they stay all day.”
And here is the quote of the day: “Schools have to constantly chase a moving target,” Santa Ana Unified spokeswoman Angela Burrell said. “As soon as you reach last year’s goal, you are already behind for next year.”
So why not try to exceed the goal every year instead of just trying to meet it?
“Districts may convert schools that fail for five or more years into charter schools and can also request a state takeover. California hasn’t taken over any schools, and only three or four in the state have become charters.”
Parents and community leaders in Santa Ana need to look at the charter option now – and we need to clear out the SAUSD board and remove Superintendent Jane Russo and her crooked administrators. State takeover is looming…we need to get serious about improving our troubled schools NOW!
UPDATE:
SAUSD School Board Trustee John Palacio called to remind me that there are a total of 27 schools facing sanctions. He also sent me more information about this via email:
Orange County Schools Facing Year 5 Sanctions
School District / School
Anaheim City School District:
Key Elementary
Fullerton School District:
Richman Elementary
Orange Unified School District:
Portola Middle
Santa Ana Unified School District:
Valley High
Edison Elementary
Hoover Elementary
Sierra Intermediate
McFadden Intermediate
Franklin Elementary
Garfield Elementary
Century High
Carr intermediate
Westminster School District:
Johnson Middle
Federal sanctions
Only public schools that receive federal funding for low-income students are subject to the following sanctions, which vary depending on how many consecutive years the schools have failed No Child Left Behind testing goals.
Year 1: Parents and guardians may send their children to passing schools in the district and receive transportation at school-district expense.
Orange County Year 1 schools: 41
Year 2: Supplemental services such as tutoring available for all eligible students.
Orange County Year 2 schools: 10
Year 3: School district provides corrective action to improve the school.
Orange County Year 3 schools: 27
Year 4: School must develop a new alternative-governance plan, including plans to change campus leadership.
Orange County Year 4 schools: 14
Year 5: School must implement alternative-governance plan. A new principal and assistant principals can replace current leadership. The state may take over these schools, or campuses can be converted into charter schools.
Orange County Year 5 schools: 13
Result dates
Aug. 15: Standardized Testing and Reporting, or STAR, results. These are scores for tests in English, math and other core subjects taken by students in grades 2-11.
Aug. 23: California High School Exit Exam. High school students from the Class of 2008 through the Class of 2010 must pass the test to receive diplomas.
Aug. 31: Academic Performance Index. A composite of test scores including STAR and exit-exam results that the state uses to measure school performance.
Aug. 31: Adequate Yearly Progress. These are No Child Left Behind scores that determine whether schools have met federal goals for achievement. The Academic Performance Index, STAR results, exit-exam scores and other data, including graduations rates, determine whether schools have made Adequate Yearly Progress.
Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the student (and they’re quite able to comprehend this). Evidently, they’re not getting the message – perhaps the parents who have them most of the time are failing.
The further away administrators stay from the school the better – whether they’re inept or not.
As the Governator said recently – they must immerse themselves in english to be successful. They are living here, they should be learning here the way all our children do…otherwise why come here? I do not take my child to another country to go to school and expect their school system to accomodate my language!
These immigrants (legal or not) came here for a reason – for a better life. That means immersing yourselves into our way of life not expecting the US to immerse itself to theirs…otherwise what was the point of leaving their country and raising their children here?
I love to laugh at the ignorance displayed by those who blog here. I say to all you ignorant fools: Complete a CLAD certificate program before responding with such insance comments such as, “..immerse themselves in English …” What morons.
Wasn’t Century High opened a few years ago as the the “Best” that Santa Ana had to offer? It’s obvious that the school district is not giving away enough Cars to kids for getting good grades!
If I pass the CLAD certificate program will I learn the meaning of the word “insance”?
There are many areas in Orange County with Santa Ana’s demographics and yet 9 out of 14 of the schools which are ripe for a State takeover are in Santa Ana Unified! Do you think it just might have something to do with the School Board and the teachers? I wonder….?????? Pobrecitos los estudiantes en Santa Ana!!!
Year 5 sanctions?
How much more money is the school district going to be paid as punishment for failure?
There is something wrong when failure is rewarded, over and over again.
There has been a real “dumbing down” of the quality of the teachers hired in Santa Ana during the last 10 years and we are seeing the results now.
SAUSD currently has four comprehensive high schools, 9-12,
fully operational. Of those 4 schools, 50% or half, have been identified as Year 5/Program Improvement schools.
District administrators have known, for the past 7 years, that Century and Valley HS have not been meeting state academic standards.
The random comments blaming students, parents and teachers is misdirected.
When a publicly held company loses its profit margin shareholders do not go after the sales clerks, stock personnel or security guards. The shareholders force accountability of the CEO, CFO and Board of Directors.
Unfortunately the voters have not held the BoE accountable!
Mijares, Russo, Bratcher, Stainer, Machado (removed from Century HS as principal for poor performance), Noji and the entire BofE have known for 7+ years that Valley and Century HS are failing its students.
This is no surprise to district administrators. And it’s no surprise they’ve allowed this condition to persist.
Save your ire for the voting booth.
DO NOT RE-ELECT Rosie Avila, Rob Richardson and Jose Hernandez in ’08. A new coalition of trustees must be elected to ensure the dismantling of Noji’s trifecta.
Do you really believe that the school board is intentionally making these schools fail? Like it is some diabolical plot to keep hispanic kids down?
If my kid is failing or doing poorly in a class, I do not blame the teachers, the faculty nor the schoolboard…..I take a look at my kid and myself…to correct the situation, meet with the teachers and ride his ass until he get his grade up. Guess what – it works.
Parental involvement, parental involvement, parental involvement…period! There seems to be a disconnect in much (but not all) of the hispanic community…they seem to think that once their kids get into high school they no longer need to be involved. Wrong, your kids need you more then ever when they are in HS…thes years will determine the rest of their lives.
#5. It is apparent to me that #3 meant to type insane not insance. But then of course, I have a functioning brain and I easily determined a typo was made.
#10
The problem is systemic. When experienced teachers are constantly lost and more inexperienced teachers are put into their place, you see a complete meltdown of an effective teaching system.
Remember: Its all about the numbers here in SAUSD. When you can pay a substitute for the year, rather than a teacher on step 10, then the district considers that a success. Just look how much money was “Saved”!
You can bet that the top administrators don’t care about giving Santa Ana residents a quality education. It’s all about the $$$. Its a country club of incompetents collecting fat paychecks.
“Dale Ward” must have his CLAD certificate. I just mailed off for mine and it should be here in a a week to 10 days. Then I will be able to understand what is written by “Dale” and his buddies who are teachers.
#12
When the revenue boosting scandal broke loose, Don Trigg, Ass’t Supt, Business/Finance, was quoted in the paper as saying SAUSD students are the only revenue producing stream in the district.
Trigg’s comment reflects the systemic culture of bringing in revenue no matter the consequences. District administrators engaged principals to exert pressure on teachers to falsify attendance records. Luckily 8 brave teachers stepped forward to expose the illegal and corrupt tactics of SAUSD administrators.
SAUSD’s organizational chart is no different than any other business. It’s top down. If it’s rotten at the top, it flows down.
The former Supertinendent and the current one are only interested in protecting their administration’s corrupt culture. Unfortunately, the BoE is gutless and spineless and is derelict in holding the Superintedent accountable.
August will reveal further troubles for the district. There’s no hiding the 27 schools that are facing NCLB sanctions and the impending Year 3/Program Improvement status facing the district.
Are SAUSD schools in worst shape than the schools of the surrounding districts?
Disolve the district.
#8 -Your comment about the “dumbing down” of teachers is unfounded. Under No Child Left Behind, school districts are prohibited from hiring unqualified teachers. All teachers must be fully credentialed in their subject area, CLAD certified, and pass either a single subject exam in their subject area or the CSET exam for teachers at the elementary level.
What is troubling is the poor choice the district makes in hiring principals. Three schools immediately come to mind – Saddleback High School, Valley High School, and Willard Intermediate School. All three schools have had years of problems with their site administrators. This blog is testament to these problems. The district either has not responded to these known situations, or in the case of Valley High School the district removed one principal and put in a new principal with a very poor track record in his career. In the case of Freddy Gomeztrejo, his main qualification for the VHS job seems to be that he was the soccer coach for the daughter of Juan Lopez.
When problems with administration at a school site are not resolved, the end result is akin to an untreated cancer. It slowly, or in some cases quickly, permeates the entire school. As teachers we have two choices. We either try to outlast the princiapl, or, in the case of Willard, large numbers of teachers voluntarily transfer. It’s frustrating to know these problems exist and see the lack of response from the Superintendent and the BOE. The community should be outraged.
Dear #16,
I believe you are mistaken. I know of many teachers in Santa Ana who have been hired with
“The former Supertinendent and the current one are only interested in protecting their administration’s corrupt culture. Unfortunately, the BoE is gutless and spineless and is derelict in holding the Superintedent accountable.”
“August will reveal further troubles for the district. There’s no hiding the 27 schools that are facing NCLB sanctions and the impending Year 3/Program Improvement status facing the district.”
This crew should not only be removed from power, but arrested and jailed. Fraud, corruption, waste and mismanagement are the norm at SAUSD
#17
Come clean. If SAUSD hires the gaggle of teachers w/”emergency credentials” you cite, it’s because the district has chosen to hire after the school year begins.
SAUSD does not actively pursue the hiring of teachers before the school year starts. And that explains why SAUSD gets the “left over” teachers. I don’t think most qualified teachers are sitting at home waiting for Juan Lopez to call. Get real.
You, like your pal Audrey Noji, are DISINGENIOUS. Your spin doesn’t spin anymore.
Support for #19:
Every year for the last five years, the two cited intermediate schools open their doors without enough teachers and overcrowded classes. The “problem” is studied, the personnel office slowly acts, interviews are held and finally the Principals involved were allowed to increase staff sizes by two to four FTE, just in time for the second quarter to begin. Guidance counselors stop all activity except planning for class changes (thus compounding growing classroom discipline problems by the unavailability of useful adults in the system) and then, one day, the schools’ classes are massively disrupted by a wholesale change that affects about one in every five students directly and every student, and teacher, indirectly. The overcrowding is then “alleviated” by about two to four less students per class, still leaving a typical, say, science class at 35:1.
Happens every year.
And one of the schools is growing notorious as a “dumping ground” for ineffective teachers that can’t be hidden elsewhere.
No one asks the teachers about this.
to Flowerz:
That’s what most of us would like to think. I know of many people who work the system and like some people like to call them, these “baby making machines” just come here to have 8+ kids and think they can easily get papers when their kids become adults and give them Citizenship! No most don’t come to learn they come to LEARN TO WORK THE SYSTEM. Most citizens cannot get medical and these fools can and while we cannot we get stuck with their $4k bill these people got at the ER and we suffer to pay our high premium healthcare bills! WE SHOULD BE MAD AT THE SYSTEM! BUT OF COURSE THESE PEOPLE TOO WHO ARE DEFRAUDING THE SYSTEM.
Yeah, its 27 school that are sanctioned. Hopefully, now since no one was able to hold Superintendent Russo accountable, even though we know this is her responsibility, the STATE CAN TAKE OVER! Let’s cross our fingers!
They are sure getting “BEHIND” in the job market against other better qualified students. Can anyone say WALMART? lol