SCUSD to create ‘Superintendent’s Priority Schools’ for six most academically troubled schools

Bold leadership, effective teachers, additional resources for more than 4,600 students

By Gabe Ross

March 16, 2010 – Sacramento’s six most academically troubled schools will be put into a special grouping of schools—the Superintendent’s Priority Schools—with innovative principals, additional assistance and resources Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond announced today.

In a first-of-its-kind effort in Sacramento to intensely focus on improving underperforming schools, the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) will create the Priority Schools to help more than 4,600 students in six schools—Oak Ridge Elementary, Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary, Jedediah Smith Elementary, Fern Bacon Basic Middle, Will C. Wood Middle and Hiram W. Johnson High. Oak Ridge was identified by the California Department of Education last Monday as among the state’s “persistently low-achieving” schools, but Superintendent Raymond said the five other SCUSD schools also have not served children adequately.

“We must take strong, decisive action and include our school communities to help these schools vastly improve how they educate our children,” Raymond said. “Tinkering around the edges of the problems at these schools won’t work. We need bold leadership, more effective teaching and a plan to provide the support our teachers and principals desperately need. We also need more resources to help students learn. We cannot afford to wait another few years and let another generation of students be lost because we didn’t do something to improve their educational opportunity.”

Raymond said the first steps will include meeting with staff, parents and partners involved with each of the six campuses. “We want to move with deliberate speed in this process. That means taking time to meet with staff, parents, students and partners. It means making sure we avoid unintended consequences. It means moving quickly but also taking the necessary steps to learn what is working at each school and what needs to be improved for the students,” Raymond said.

“We have already met with staff at each school and will begin scheduling meetings with parents, students and partners immediately.”

The school district will recruit principals and teachers for the Priority Schools who have a proven record of successful leadership and teaching. Raymond said the six schools will go to “the front of the line” for new computers and other resources, and squads of new volunteers, tutors and mentors will be recruited to help bring additional support to the schools.

Raymond said the six schools will report to one director who will report directly to the superintendent. “That director’s main job will be to support those six schools,” Raymond said. “The days of business as usual are gone. We’re going to take big, bold, dramatic steps to help these schools.”

Academic performance data for these six schools show they have consistently failed to adequately educate children for as long as seven years. Four of the six schools have failed to meet federal proficiency standards in English Language Arts and math for seven years, two have failed to meet the standards for four years. Any gains have been minimal and, in some cases, performance has declined.

All six schools serve primarily economically disadvantaged, minority populations. At all but Johnson, more than 90 percent of the students live at or near poverty.

“We are failing the students we most need to help – those who live in poverty and don’t have the same advantages at home that other students have to help them be prepared to succeed in school,” Raymond said. “We have let failure be acceptable at these schools for too long. But next school year, that culture of failure stops, and a new culture of success and achievement must begin.”

The Oak Ridge school will receive up to $2 million in additional support as a result of the state’s designation of it as a persistently underachieving school. SCUSD will use federal Title 1 money and leverage other private and public resources to pump up the funding for the other five schools, Raymond said.

At Johnson, which has nearly 2,100 students, the district will provide additional resources to support the existing 9th Grade Academy Program to give extra, focused attention to freshmen as part of the Priority Schools initiative. Johnson also will have a special arts school within the main high school.

“The waiting is over,” Raymond said. “Urgent action to improve these six schools begins now. We don’t have a child or a moment to lose.”

Go to the Sacramento City Unified District Web Site

Board of Education Meeting Tonight March 18, 2010

4:30 p.m. Closed Session
6:30 p.m. Open Session

Serna Center
5735 47th Avenue
Sacramento, Ca 95824
Community Room