Letter to GPA Parents from Director Riveroll:

 

“I speak to you not just as a President, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our children's education must begin at home.”  - President Barack Obama

 

March 1, 2009

 

Attention 9^th Grade Parent,

Last week the President of the United States spoke to the nation. In his address, he highlighted the urgent needs in education. Specifically he focused on high school students. He challenged all schools in America to do more to keep our neighborhood students from dropping out of school.

 

Excerpt from President Obama’s Address to the Nation

“… we must address the urgent need to expand the promise of education in America.  Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma.  And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education.  We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation.  And half of the students who begin college never finish. We'll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps.  And we will expand our commitment to charter schools.  Every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.  And dropping out of high school is no longer an option.  It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country - and this country needs and values the talents of every American.  In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework after dinner, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to their child.  I speak to you not just as a President, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our children's education must begin at home.”

 

With this direction from our President, I want to reassure you that our high school is focused on the success of our ninth graders. We are monitoring their progress and providing unprecedented support to them.

 

Support for 9^th graders

After School Math Center:  Optional support from 4:00-5:00 pm for students with a “C” grade or below in Geometry.

 

Freshman Academy:  Mandatory for all ninth graders with a 2.0 GPA or below.  Every Friday from 12:45 – 3:30 pm Freshman Academy is available to ninth graders that need extra support with their class work and assignments. If your child needs help – make sure they attend Freshman Academy.

 

Saturday Academy:  Mandatory for all ninth graders with a 2.0 GPA or below.  From 9:00 am -12:00 pm.  Student will be in small classes with high school teachers and UCSD tutor support.  This is a great opportunity for ninth graders to get the help they need.

 

Freshman P.M. This new support is for all ninth graders that need a quiet place to study and do their college prep homework. Doors open on Wednesday and Thursday night from 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. beginning March 18, 2009.  This will allow our ninth graders to use our library to study for tests, finish projects, do research, and use the computers. With your permission, your child is invited to our school at night. Please fill out the attached form as we will keep track of each student when they check in at Freshman P.M. and when they check out. You should ask for this form when your child returns from Freshman P.M. so that he or she goes directly home. I strongly advise that you pick up your child promptly by 7:30 p.m.

 

Our ninth graders have a lot of work to do, and they need all of our support to graduate from high school and enter college. We will do whatever it takes to help our kids achieve a college education.  I ask you as the Director, to make sure your child takes advantage of all the supports they need. I look forward to your help in meeting the goals set forth not only by our President, but also by our community.  If you have any questions please call me directly or leave a message with Paz Garcia Ramirez, my executive assistant, at (619) 263-2171.

 

With Students First,

 

Director Riveroll

 

Update on Freshmen Academy:

Freshmen Academy has begun for the second semester (Spring 2009).  This is a teacher-led program designed to help those 9th grade students who need the most academic help.  Freshmen Academy takes place every Friday from 12:45-2:30 PM.  For the second semester there is a total of 27 students.  This is down from the 39 students participating in the first semester.  This semester, in addition to helping students in English and Math, students are also being supported in Biology.   There are four classes: one English class (run by the two English teachers);  two math classes (run by the two math teachers in their own rooms) and one biology class (run by the biology teacher).  Students are in small classes currently with no more than seven students per class.  Along with the core subject teachers, each of the four classes is supported by four ENS teachers who help the students, as well.  Students have caught up on missing assignments, are understanding concepts better, and are improving their grades by attending Freshmen Academy.  10 students "graduated" from Freshman Academy by improving their grades and getting GPA's above 2.0! Many of the students who have to attend the second semester for the second time improved their GPA's.  Students will be able to get more one-on-one help this semester with the smaller groups and with more teachers helping in more subjects.

 

Visitors to GPA Update:

Senator Christine Kehoe

On Thursday, January 22, Christine Kehoe returned to GPA to witness the great work happening at our school.  She was greeted by ASB students, toured classrooms, and was serenaded by a selection of our talented student singers.  Senator Kehoe reinforced her commitment to GPA and the future GPA, pledging to help in any way possible.

 

Ann Davies (Parker Foundation)

On January 26, Anne Davies, a board member from the Parker Foundation, toured GPA.  The purpose of her visit was to gather more information for her board regarding a proposal submitted by the Development Director to fund CORE (Collaborative Organization of Reading and English), a literacy department project.  Ms. Davies was extremely impressed with GPA’s culture and campus, the English classrooms she visited, and the literacy content she witnessed being learned.  The outcome of the visit was a grant in the amount of $15,000 for CORE instructor stipends and twelve classroom non-fiction libraries.

 

SDUSD Superintendent Terry Grier

Superintendent Terry Grier visited GPA and toured the campus on Thursday, January 30.  The Superintendent was greeted by ASB officers, met with the ELT, visited classrooms, and was treated to a special performance by student vocalists. He expressed his support of charter schools in San Diego, and assured the Director that he would improve “customer service” between the district and GPA.  The superintendent was effusive in his praise and commitment to further the success of GPA and GPA.

 

Supervisor Ron Roberts

Supervisor Ron Roberts visited GPA on Wednesday, February 11.  The Supervisor was escorted through the gates of wisdom by ASB students, given a tour of campus, and spoke at length with the Director and ELT about the successes of GPA and the future of GPA. Supervisor Roberts was awed by the calm culture of learning, the rigor of lessons, and the general transformation of the campus.  Supervisor Roberts immediately made a donation of $25,000 for support programs such as Freshman PM.

 

SDUSD Board of Education President Sheila Jackson

Board President Sheila Jackson visited GPA on Wednesday, February 11.  She was greeted by GPA ASB students, given a brief classroom tour, and serenaded by GPA student singers.  During her visit, Ms. Jackson expressed her support for GPA and GPA and unveiled her vision for expansion of the Millennium Tech campus.  Director Riveroll expressed an alternative plan that would support both campuses.  Ms. Jackson assured Director Riveroll that GPA would be invited to participate in discussions prior to any concrete plans being approved or executed.

 

Future Visitors:

3/12/09: District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis

3/30/09: Assemblyman Marty Block

 

Suspensions Update: 

As of March 5, 2009, there have been a total of 129 suspensions. We believe that GPA students must be held to the same standards as their counterparts in college prep schools elsewhere. With the bar raised and net gains in school culture, GPA students continue to rise to our high expectations.

 

College Classes Update: 

In weekly “College Classes, GPA students continue to learn about school-wide areas for improvement, college prep habits, and current events in the community and the nation. Under their Director, students are now exploring more deeply and adopting the teachings from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey. Having already learned the seven habits, students are now putting the habits into practice. The habit is learned in College Class and implemented under the guidance of their Advisory teachers. At the onset of second semester, students set specific, individual goals for academic progress. After setting their goals, each student designed specific steps to begin attaining these goals. Students are demonstrating college prep culture as conversations inside and outside of the classrooms turn more toward goal-setting, and proactive steps toward higher achievement.

 

 

 

Academic Progress:

GPA staff collectively exemplifies a “Whatever it takes” stance on meeting the needs of all students. Our teachers actively participate in the design and implementation of unprecedented academic interventions. Freshman Academy, Saturday Academy, and lunchtime tutoring are a few of the many examples. As a result of such strong commitment to the school mission, GPA proudly boasts the following information on academic progress:

 

·      A 25% increase in the number of students above a 2.0 grade point average

·      To date, 10 freshmen have moved from “at-risk status” to “passing” as a result of the teacher-led Freshman Academy

·      96 students, a record number, made the Fall Honor Roll this year. 64 cum laude awards (3.5 or higher), 25 magna cum laude awards (3.7 or higher), and 7 summa cum laude awards (4.0) were given at the Feb. 20^th Honor Roll Ceremony.

 

English Department Report

Our CORE teacher curriculum program continues to be the cornerstone of the content delivered in English classrooms.  The CORE group of content leaders maintains the use of the backwards design model to develop genre-based reading and writing units of study.  Each content leader is dedicated to not only improve their ability to create units of study, but also take their units to the next level through grade-level collaboration.  Weekly grade level meetings cultivate a professional development atmosphere. Teachers utilize their common preps to analyze unit objectives, discuss how to address multiple intelligences, and together synthesize rigorous and innovative lessons that address the needs of our students.  Professional reading plays an integral part of this process to ensure a researched-based application of pedagogy. 

 

Through this researched-based level of instructional support, teachers leave weekly collaboration with no less than an entire week of lessons planned.   These plans not only represent the calibrated efforts of the grade level team, but such pre-planning allows each teacher to spend their remaining weekly prep time in a student-centered manner:  papers are graded, parents are called, and the needs of individual students can be analyzed and problem solved.

 

The long-term impact of CORE will be far-reaching.  The beginning of the of the 09/10 school year will have the benefit of completed units of study that content leaders can then continue to analyze and build upon based on assessment data.  Units can be further developed to better meet the identified needs of our students.

 

Saturday Academy Report:

Saturday Academy continues to be the largest intervention that GPA offers.  Any student with a 2.0 or below GPA is notified of mandatory attendance.  As per the last Saturday Academy report, reading strategies continue to be the primary focus of Saturday Academy. This decision stems from leadership conversations that acknowledge that a primary reason our at-risks students are not performing Monday through Friday can be attributed to an inability to read at grade level. Teachers arrive an hour before the students and engage in processional reading and conversation around effective reading intervention instruction.  Teaching teams then collaborate on how to imbed reading instruction into their lesson plan.  This instruction covers one and a half of the three hours students spend at Academy. The remaining instructional time is now spent building skills as a test taker.  All students at Saturday Academy will engage in lessons designed to approach test taking with a gamut of strategies as well as build the required stamina needed to be a strong test taker.  As the “Testing as a Genre” curriculum offered at Academy progresses, lessons will move into specific content areas to ensure that our students have a well-rounded mastery of the required strategies, endurance, and knowledge to conquer standards based tests.

 

ESL Update:

The ESL Department at Gompers Preparatory Academy has been working hard to provide a challenging educational curriculum to English Language Learners (ELLs).  This semester their main focus is to work on listening and speaking, reading comprehension, vocabulary development, and writing conventions. ESL teachers utilize both the ELD standards and English Language Arts Standards to develop curriculum, but make modifications (scaffolds) to the curriculum and instruction to make it accessible to all students.  Last month, the ESL students had the opportunity to present their Community Night Projects to their parents, friends, and community members.  The ESL students worked diligently preparing their projects and presentations.  More than half of the students in the ESL department attended Saturday Academy to work on their projects.  Their hard work, dedication, and determination to excel academically in front of an audience was truly inspiring.  Currently, the ESL students are working on Black History Month biography reports.  The students will be presenting their reports in the next few weeks.  In addition, the students will continue to develop their grammar, vocabulary and spelling skills through the use of the Santillana Program.  They will also read two novels before the end of the school year.  They will be reading Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, and Walking Star, by Victor Villaseñor, who some students met last fall at a book signing.

 

Science Update: 

Science students of all grades are taking their lab coats on the road. 6^th graders will soon be conducting seismology experiments on shake tables as our UCSD partners host the entire 6^th grade for a day of Earth Science research. 7^th graders recently completed their study of body systems, which culminated in dissections of cow eyeballs. As the 7^th graders move into cell biology, kids are building gelatin cell models and doing presentations of learning, as student members of JUMP (Junior Urban Medical Professionals) prepare to attend the “Body” exhibit in two weeks. Many 8^th and 9^th graders will have the unique opportunity to experience Body Worlds, another exhibit that sends students into a first-hand exploration of real human bodies.

 

Math Department Update:

As the new semester begins the math department is focused on upholding the rigor in each classroom while introducing new ways of presenting the curriculum to meet the needs of all students. After careful analysis of the midterm grades teachers realized that many students are still not meeting the standards. Throughout the past two weeks math teachers have worked with the content level teams to develop two hands-on projects to be executed before the end of the school year. Sixth grade teacher Tina Mascolino plans to teach her students about data and statistics through a student guided survey project during the third quarter. Ms. Mascolino has also partnered with UCSD in developing a project for students to study the structural integrity of buildings while building their own earthquake safe structure. This project will culminate with a special competition to take place at UCSD toward the end of the school year. Seventh grade students have just finished their first project during the last week of February. This project focused on financially running a business. Students were able to tie this project to the current state of the economy and its affect on businesses large and small. In May, seventh grade teachers plan to incorporate geometry, scale and measurement into a project where students will design a miniature model of their dream rooms. Algebra teachers have planned to study parabolas through a bridge building competition that will focus on the structure and aesthetics of building projects. Later in the year, students in Algebra classes will write a picture book focusing on the practical applications of the quadratic formula. Geometry students will be creating a logo over the next month while learning about similarity, translations, rotations and ratio. During the final month of school, students taking Geometry will design and build a dream school focusing on what students would like to see at GPA.

 

 

In preparation for state testing in May, the math department will be continuing the work of teaching students about multiple-choice tests through the “testing as a genre study” unit. This unit was developed by Joel Spengler and math teachers for use during the second semester of 2007. Teachers and students found this to be very useful, therefore the group has decided to teach these lessons again this year. A calendar has been created for all teachers throughout the department to follow in the upcoming weeks and months. During biweekly math meetings teachers who have had previous experience with teaching the lessons will model them for newer GPA teachers.

The math center, led by GPA teacher and former UCSD intern, Aly Kim, has continued to service approximately 100 students a week in grades six through nine. During their time in the math center students are able to work in small groups of less than four students and one teacher or a UCSD tutor. In order to increase the number of students who take advantage of the math center, Aly Kim has started a “frequent visitor” program. This program rewards students who come to the math center six times. After they are rewarded, students are entered into a drawing to win a large prize at the end of the semester. Ms. Kim is currently working on collecting data on students’ semester grades and how the math center has affected their grades.

 

Special Education Update: 

During the month of December, the Special Education Department implemented an after school mandatory tutoring program every Friday from 12:45-2:30 pm called Guided Academic Progress or GAP.  Designed to support special education students in reaching the same high standards as college prep students, GPA is yet another intervention available for students.  Any student with a “D” or “F” in English or social studies is required to attend. For the first few dates, GPA averaged 20 students. Every special education teacher participates in this program. Due to the high level of staff participation, our student to teacher ratio is approximately 5 to 1.  The curriculum focuses on 7^th and 8^th grade standards for ELA, social studies and math. For example, in ELA students learn about text features and how to write using graphic organizers.  In math, the work the students are doing in their classroom is reinforced in different ways, with particular attention to understanding their thought processes in solving multi-step problems.  The number of students in special education has stabilized at 125, which is eighteen percent of the school’s enrollment.  The majority of students are mainstreamed, with approximately twenty percent receiving all of their education through special education.

 

School-Wide Testing Day:

The STAR testing season kicked off with the administration of the 7^th grade CST writing exam on March 3^rd.    In addition, GPA was randomly chosen to administer the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) norm referenced test to 75 eighth grade students on the same day.  GPA staff used the opportunity created by the two mandatory tests to create a school wide testing environment by administering other grade level diagnostic tests and CAHSEE practice tests.   6^th grade students took a writing diagnostic test, 8^th grade students not taking the NAEP took the math practice CAHSEE and all 9^th grade students took a practice CAHSEE in math and language arts.  Results from the CAHSEE will be used to develop a tailored curriculum for CAHSEE prep classes that will start this spring and go into the fall as we prepare our current 9^th grade students to pass the CAHSEE in their first attempt during their sophomore year.

 

High School Transition:

A high school transition team has been selected and over 23 current staff members have volunteered to be involved in preparing for the opening of the 10^th grade this coming fall.   Four committees including: School Culture led by Pete Chodzko; Curriculum and Instruction led by Barbara Robinson; Finance led by Tracy Johnston; and Facilities and Operation led by Karly Kerns have begun meeting in March and have mapped out a timeline to complete the 51 projects needing to be finished in order to successfully

 

add the 10^th grade next school year.   Some of the exciting upcoming work of the committees are as follows:

 

1.  Culture:  The committee has discussed the pieces of the GPA school culture that the high school will be built on as we transition toward a 6-12^th grade vertically aligned program.  They will be planning to communicate with all enrolled families shortly and inviting the parents and students to take part in high school focus groups in order to get parent and student input on items ranging from classroom and school aesthetics, teacher and staff interview participation, to AP course offerings and more.   The culture committee will be focused on continuing the GPA mantra “Who are we proud to be…GPA Family!”

 

2.  Curriculum:  The committee has chosen to begin moving forward with research.  This team will be gathering curriculum and syllabi from other successful college prep high schools in order to make modifications as necessary rather than re-creating new curriculums.  They will focus on creating a 6-12 vertically aligned curriculum in each content area.  A strong emphasis will be on getting the instructional training called out in the charter document for teachers, including: AP training, working with EL students, differentiated instruction and project based learning.

 

3.  Finance:  The committee is meeting weekly with EXED staff and the Director to get a clear understanding of the high school budget, including grant funds and will be setting up the protocol, forms and procedures for the other three committees to properly make purchase requests.  One of the immediate items is getting a clear picture of how many additional staff need to be hired and working with the Chief of Staff office to get all new positions posted within the next month.

 

4.  Facilities and Operation:  The committee took a tour of the 13 vacant bungalows proposed for the majority of the 9^th and 10^th grade classes with the GPA Chief of Staff, Chief of Academics, Technology Director and San Diego Unified facility staff.   The 13 classrooms have been neglected and are in need of extensive cleaning and refurbishing.   This committee will work closely with our Chief of Staff office and district staff to ensure that the facility is properly furnished as a new high school in the district would be, appropriate fencing moved or taken down and the facility properly cleaned prior to our taking occupancy.   The committee is in discussion with our current 9^th grade Geometry teachers and students regarding creating a design for the back of the school to represent a 21^st century learning destination.

 

San Diego Special Education Improvement Authority Joint Powers of Authority (JPA):

GPA and GPA have submitted a joint application to the El Dorado County SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area) in order to continue the discussion with both SDUSD, San Diego JPA and El Dorado on what is the best path for us as we continue to pursue the highest quality of Special Education services for our students at a cost that is affordable.   The application was jointly prepared by GPA/GPA staff and Executive Director of the San Diego JPA, Cindy Atlas.   We will use the next three months to continue to dialogue with district staff about the issues that are causing us to leave our current SELPA as we weigh the merits of going to El Dorado.   We will hear from El Dorado by June 15^th as to whether or not they have accepted us into their SELPA.

 

In order to stay in the San Diego Unified SELPA next year, assuming no cost increase from current year levels, we would pay the district $625,000 in encroachment to provide special education services for our students in grades 6-10.  The district would receive this, in addition to other state and federal funds they receive directly for each of our students, and together with the encroachment fee would total more than $1.2 million dollars in income from our student enrollment directly to the district.   This is a conservative estimate as it does not include the additional encroachment costs that will be passed on to schools that stay in the San Diego SELPA, created by the loss of enrollment of up to 10 charter schools

 

 

leaving for El Dorado nor the additional federal funds proposed in the federal stimulus package for Special Education.

 

Through an internal cost analysis supported by the JPA, in the first year of membership in the El Dorado SELPA, it was estimated that GPA and GPA would break even with the potential to save money in years two and beyond.  Assuming that the district encroachment costs will continue to rise every year as they have and we insert cost controls, the savings could become substantial in years to come.  This is in addition to the quality benefits that can be obtained in hiring our own staff and developing our own educational programs for our special education students.  The San Diego Education Improvement Authority JPA is ready to step in to fill the gap to facilitate the transition from San Diego to El Dorado should we be accepted by El Dorado and choose to leave the San Diego SELPA.  

 

WASC Self Study:

GPA is currently conducting a Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Self-Study, culminating in an accreditation visit by a WASC Visiting Team in Spring 2010.  The GPA Finance Committee approved the hiring of a WASC Consultant and has retained the services of Anjanette Urdanivia to assist in preparing for a Self-Study visit, including the editing of the WASC Self-Study Report, which will be submitted to WASC this November.  Ms. Urdanivia  is a former GPA employee and was instrumental in GPA obtaining its initial WASC accreditation in 2007.

The GPA WASC Leadership Team, consisting primarily of members of the Director’s Council, has met on several occasions, including several members attending a WASC training in the fall. The team met in February and early March with Ms. Urdanvia to create a timeline for the WASC Self-Study efforts to be completed this year and to update the GPA Expected School-wide Learning Results (ESLRs) and Critical Academic Needs (CANs).  The entire staff will become more involved in the WASC Self-Study process beginning Friday, March 20,  when departmental “Home Groups” and interdisciplinary “Focus Groups” will begin meeting and answering questions related to curriculum, instruction, safety, and school culture.  Four of the upcoming Friday afternoon professional development timeslots have been reserved for this important WASC work.

 

         Proposition 39 (Facilities Requests) for GPA and GPA:

GPA received confirmation from SDUSD on January 30 that GPA and GPA will be offered the entire Gompers West campus at the Prop 39 allocation rate of $1 per square foot, as requested.

The GPA Prop 39 allocates 18 classrooms, including the 13 bungalows that sit vacant on the Gompers West campus, beyond the northern boundary fence of the current GPA campus.  GPA staff recently participated in a walk-through of these vacant bungalows with SDUSD staff, representing Maintenance Planning and Instructional Facilities Planning. The purpose of this walk-through was to identify cleaning, repair, pest control, and deferred maintenance work that would need to be performed by SDUSD staff before GPA takes ownership of the bungalows.   Also, considering the 2008 revisions to the Prop 39 Legislation, which stipulate that school districts must provide  charter schools with “furnishings and equipment” that are “reasonably equivalent” to their comparable schools, GPA staff began discussing  the level of furnishings and equipment (F&E) the district is committed to provide in these bungalows (with a goal of obtaining F&E that are reasonably equivalent to our comparable high school [Lincoln High]).  On March 3, GPA Staff received confirmation of the F&E allocation that district staff are submitting to the Board of Education for approval, as part of their Prop 39 final offers.  The Board of Education will vote to approve Prop 39 final offers on Tuesday, March 24.

As SDUSD has worked to finalize their Prop 39 Final Offers, GPA staff have continued discussions regarding which repairs, deferred maintenance, and F&E additions are necessary to bring the Gompers

 

West facility up to district standards, specifically to the point of being “reasonably equivalent” to comparable schools, Mann Middle and Lincoln High.  GPA staff have requested specific upgrades to the science, art, and technology classrooms along with the auditorium and physical education spaces.  We have been assured by SDUSD staff that they will strongly consider our facilities request upgrades and investigate the possibility of meeting these requests via the Prop 39, Deferred Maintenance, Prop S, or probable Federal Stimulus Package processes/funding sources. 

 

            Family Support Center Update:

 

The FSC department has successfully completed the following intervention/ prevention groups to date

 

Program	Number of Students Enrolled
Wise Lives is a curriculum that focuses on the words and life stories of great positive role models to teach students valuable lessons about the decisions they make everyday. Wise Lives explores the choices great people in history made and applies those lessons to the lives of young people today.	15
Peer Proof is a course that teaches children how to resist negative peer pressure and maintain positive friendships	20
VIP Violence Intervention Program	12
Anger Management offers techniques and exercises in which students with excessive or uncontrollable anger can control and reduce the triggers, degrees, and effects of their anger.	26
Insight: A drug and alcohol intervention that is a practical, research-based curriculum that will show students how to help teens in trouble because of their alcohol, marijuana, or other drug use.	10
TKF: Tariq Khamisa Foundation provides a one-on-one mentoring program provided by Americorps workers.	33
United Methodist Urban Ministries – METRO Mentoring Program a comprehensive group and individual mentoring program that encourages academic achievement and provides incentives for benchmarks.  METRO utilizes various modules of violence prevention as a basis for keeping youth from exploring gang activities.	25
GRRLS’ Group: Primary goal is to reduce the incidence of relational aggression among females.  Girls develop increased positive peer interactions and learn effective communication skills.	9
Social Skills is a series designed to teach appropriate behavioral skills to  students of all abilities	6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attendance

 

 

 

GEAR UP

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is funded through a six-year federal grant that provides for a GEAR UP Counselor from San Diego Unified School District, and a Site Coordinator from the University of California, San Diego. The Site Coordinator and Counselor provide counseling, academic assistance, college tours, and provide college info workshops and summer activities for students and parents. 

 

Now in the third year of the program, through collaboration with GPA, GEAR UP has been committed to accomplishing the following objectives:

·      To cultivate a “college going culture” and improve student academic performance

·      Increase college eligibility, enrollment and success rates

·      Encourage parent involvement and knowledge of student options after high school

·      Support a successful learning environment for all students

 

Listed below are different activities and events that have been supported by GEAR UP thus far during the 2008-2009 school year.  The future activities are not limited to the ones listed.

 

GEAR UP Activities – Past and current

·      Ongoing individual student meetings

·      Splash of Math – Sea World

·      Parent surveys (parent phone calls)

·      Quarter 1 end, class visits and discussions of the importance of improving grades

·      GEAR UP tutors in classrooms

·      Meeting with 2.0 and below students

·      UCSD intern mentoring

·      Saturday Academy support

·      FSC led college classes support

·      Honor Roll Celebration support

·      Enspire (STEM event @UCSD)

 

GEAR UP Activities- Future

·      Supporting coordination of Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) parent workshops

·      8^th grade 4 Year Plan Workshops

·      College Month – March

o      College Making It Happen – March 10

o      EAOP Spring Tour @ UCSD – March 24

·      GEAR UP tutors in classrooms

 

·      College visits

·      Lao New Year Celebration (Led by student A. Thommavongsa)

·      NAEP – National Assessment Educational Progress Coordination

·      San Diego Science Festival

·      Career/interest workshops

·      CST Prep Rally

·      8^th Grade Promotion

 

Parent Involvement

 

Program Offered	Attendance
Systemic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) - The STEP is an 8 week curriculum that focuses on topics important to parents today.  This course provides valuable tools which improve communication among family members and lessens conflict.  Home Start provides funding for two classes, one in English, and the other in Spanish, babysitting and dinner for participants.	85
Making Parenting A Pleasure – A  nationally recognized, group-based positive parent education curriculum based on best practice principles for use with all parents.  The program was designed to address the stress, isolation and lack of adequate parenting information and social support that many parents experience.	11
Parents Assuring Student Success (PASS) – a family self-help class and manual that shows parents what they can do to help their children succeed.   This curriculum offers an easy to follow approach of seven essential student skills:  concentration, listening, time management, note-taking, memory, thinking and reading.	5
Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) – 8 sessions offer valuable information on what is needed for students to be successful in school.	30

 

 

Professional Development: 

Director’s Opening Remarks to GPA staff on February 13, 2009

 

“Moving into 2^nd semester all together”

 

Good afternoon,

What an amazing night we had as a community.  Thank you all for your dedication and hard work to help make our first community night a success.  I look forward to next year’s community night as we continue to build this evening into one of the premier nights for our community in the years to come. 

 

Today our theme is “Moving into second semester all together.”  I would like to begin by telling you a story.  One young man, set to run in a one hundred meter race in the Special Olympics, had trained for months and months. But when the gun finally sounded and he leaped out in front of the rest, it seems the excitement of the race overcame him.  Each foot went in different directions, and the well-meaning athlete came tumbling down right in front of the starting blocks.  Now the other racers, each as eager as he was to compete in this great event, nevertheless stopped running their own race and turned back to help him.   The crowd came to their feet as his competitors lovingly lifted him up and then walked arm in arm across the finish line together. 

 

 

 

These runners in the Special Olympics made me think, and wonder, what this school would be like if we played by that rule:  that nobody wins until ALL our students do.

 

The people who crossed the finished line first would be motivated to turn back to help the other ones across.  Because they know, that nobody wins until we all do.

 

The same is true for us here at GPA.  We have an opportunity to all succeed, and in doing so, our students have the opportunity to compete and win this great event called life.  As we reflect one first semester, we must now plan for our next steps into second semester.  If we know, that some of our students have fallen down, it is our belief that we must all go back and pick them up.  No matter what grade level we teach, or what subject we have expertise in, we will all loose if our students have fallen behind.  This is why it is so critical that we reflect about the supports we must put into place for second semester. We must create not only school–wide goals for second semester, but individual goals as teachers that will make us better in our profession.  By doing this, we will be ready to help those that need us more than ever.

 

As I look at the school and what will help our students in 2^nd semester, I would like to challenge all of us to focus on three things together:

1.     The need to give students written feedback

2.     The need to give students projects that stimulate their creative and innovative nature.  Each quarter.

3.     Getting students ready for standardized tests.

 

First let me start with the need to give written feedback.  As I visit top schools in the city, I find the ones that have the best connections with their students are the schools that are thriving. 

One way to establish a purposeful connection is through written feedback. There’s nothing better than to watch an eager student look rapidly through the pages of a test, or project, looking to find their grade, or even better, the infamous “teacher remarks”.  It is where you can see the excitement of a student searching to find out “what their teacher thinks of them.”  Kids love to read feedback from their teachers.

Not only does it build academic stamina and independence for students, but it builds a professional and respect rapport between student, teacher and parent.  I recently visited High Tech High, and I was fascinated with the amount of time the teachers there spend on reflecting on each individual student.  I was also impressed on how the parents love receiving a written message about their child from the teacher. 

Written feedback defines for students what their teacher thinks is important for a topic or a subject. At its best, feedback should:

·      Guide both teachers and students

·      Be a core part of teaching and learning, not an add-on ritual

·      Focus around course and topic learning outcomes

·      Guide students to become independent learners and their own critics

 

I would like to challenge all of us to begin writing to our students with the set date of April.  The report cards that are mailed home will have a written letter to the student and parent about the character and academics traits of each student from each of their teachers.   I will provide more information in the weeks ahead on the different types of feedback to give a student as we start to imbed this into our practice.  Also, there is an example of report card written feedback in the back of the library.

 

Second, is the need for purposeful projects: We saw yesterday how excited our students were about creating with their hands representation of their passion, their learning and their community.  Kids today need to know that what they are learning will matter in their world.  Our GPA students must feel that coming to school is exciting, innovative and challenging.  I asked a couple of students in my morning Director’s Chat at 7:00 a.m., what do you like about projects?  One student answered, “Projects make me work harder”, and another student responded, “Projects keep my mind going”.

 

The old-school model of passively learning facts and reciting them out of context is no longer sufficient to prepare students to survive in today's world. Solving highly complex problems requires that students have both fundamental skills (reading, writing, and math) and digital-age skills (teamwork, problem solving, research gathering, time management, information synthesizing, utilizing high tech tools). This is why I find Living Museums so critical to a child’s development.  With this combination of skills, students become directors and managers of their learning process, who are guided and mentored by a skilled teacher.  The 21^st century demands are here, like it or not.  As teachers, we must be able to implement these skills ourselves and teach these skills to our students.  Our GPA staff should think of themselves as this type of teacher.  Our teachers must have the skills to teach:

 

·      Personal and social responsibility

·      Planning, critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity

·      Strong communication skills, both for interpersonal and presentation needs

·      Visualizing and decision making

 

Our challenge is to have every student complete a project each quarter beginning immediately.  Work together with your teams and departments to decide what are the projects that your units can lend to.  Map out timeframes for due dates.  Research the Internet for relevance and rubrics for high standards, apply current issues, and work together by pushing one another’s teaching in order to provide this type of learning to our students.

 

And finally, we must continue to embed in our teaching the test taking strategies that our students desperately need.  Recently, we have had many visitors from the educational political sector.  Ron Roberts shared with me a couple days ago that “success breeds success.”  As I thought about this, I reflected on four years ago when only a few people were willing to take a risk by supporting GPA, and even fewer people willing to support GPA in public.  You see, GPA hadn’t proved its success, and people were willing to invest or support an unknown.  People back winners.  It wasn’t safe for people to simply “put students first” by putting their money and their faith in GPA.  They needed concrete results of our success.  Although GPA today is experiencing modest success with standardized tests, make no mistake, in the public’s eyes: We are only as good as our last test scores.  Each year is another year that we must prove and demonstrate to the public that becoming a charter school was the best thing that ever happened to this school and to our community.  Unfortunately many are simply using test scores to determine our success.  It will continue to be our job to put students first by providing a safe and nurturing environment that support students in getting into college.  Despite the pressure to perform well on the state tests, we must remain true to our mission statement and our belief that we teach students first, and then content.  This is the difficult task ahead of us, to combine the demands to perform well on the state tests, while providing the numerous teachings that are never tested, but vital to our students’ lives.

 

Today, I would like to continue the process of becoming top-notch teachers, by looking at our assessment reflection of first semester.  I ask that we stay in the moment, focus, take good notes and apply today’s learning to our practice. 

 

 

This is the moment as teachers that we must look critically at our teaching, make mid-course adjustment and clearly communicate those adjustments to our students.  When we look critically at our data from midterms and grades, we can then understand how feedback to our students serves its purpose.  We can also learn what we must do differently and what new supports we need after looking at our data.  If we don’t look at how we did first semester, then we will not be able to move our students to higher achievement.  In the end, we should all walk away with specific “change plans” for our teaching. 

 

This is the professional teacher at GPA, one that knows the challenges ahead, one that embraces those challenges, and one that can rise to meet them.  It is by no accident that our students love coming to school.  It is the love and support of our staff that has opened not only the minds of our students once again, but also their hearts.  Because we are moving and learning together, our students will be crossing that finish line together at their high school graduation three years from now.  And you as their teachers will hear the cheers of the crowds, and see the smiles of a community because of the work you are doing now as a team of champions.

 

Director Riveroll