Unless San Benito High School District does better on statewide
tests next year, it could become a Program Improvement school,
meaning students would have the option to transfer to another
school and get outside assistance from consultants to help bring
them up to speed in areas in which they are weakest.
Hollister – Unless San Benito High School District does better on statewide tests next year, it could become a Program Improvement school, meaning students would have the option to transfer to another school and get outside assistance from consultants to help bring them up to speed in areas in which they are weakest.
In December, the district received a letter from the California Department of Education warning that it was at risk of being identified as a Program Improvement school and offering assistance in exchange for assessing its curriculum and various intervention programs.
This Wednesday, the board of trustees is expected to approve participation in the program, which will channel $50,000 from the state into the district over the next year and bring in outside teams to evaluate what the district is doing right and wrong. Nearly 3,000 students attend the district, which also includes San Andreas Continuation School.
Schools with inadequate annual yearly progress as well as those with low scores on the California High School Exit Exam, receive warnings from the state and offers of financial assistance to help them make gains the following year.
Dr. Jean Burns Slater, superintendent for San Benito High School District, said she wasn’t worried about the district’s name
appearing on the list of potential underperformers and that it stemmed from a decreased score in its Annual Performance Index, or API, and a low turnout for the exit exam.
“I am not really fearful about that (the API score) because we went up 30 points the year before,” said Burns Slater. She also said the exit exam score was low because many students missed the test and the school did not enforce make-ups because it wasn’t certain it would be a formal requirement.
“They started the test, then they canceled it for two years … so one of the reasons we are looking at low scores is low participation,” she said.
Burns Slater added that she was optimistic the school’s scores would improve in 2005, taking it off the state’s risk list. But meanwhile, the $50,000 would be put to good use through hiring outside consultants to evaluate areas the district needs help with.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, any school that fails to improve its Standardized Testing And Reporting (STAR) and high school exit exam scores for two consecutive years, is identified as a program improvement school by the California Department of Education. If it still fails to make progress even with the state’s assistance, the district begins a series of steps including offering students the choice to transfer to another school. At San Benito High School, with only one school, some sort of inter-district mechanism would be put in place to accommodate students, although few would probably exercise the option, said Tim Foley, county superintendent of schools.
If after four years, that school is still under-performing, the length of the school day and year are extended and the most school staff, including the principal, is replaced. Eventually, the low-performing school can be closed and reopened as a charter school or be taken over by the state.
Despite state intervention, San Benito High School district will still have authority to decide the kinds of changes it wants to make and not be completely influenced by state officials, said Tim Foley, county superintendent of schools.
“We don’t want too many cooks spoiling the broth,” said Foley, adding that the district couldn’t have too many outsiders managing the district.
Throughout the state, seventy-two other districts received a similar notice inviting them to participate in the state’s prevention program, according to the department of education’s intervention assistance office. Currently, 14 school districts in California participate in the program and receive $50,000 to $200,000 a year, depending on their size of the district.
The first step of the prevention program involves contracting with the county office of education to verify the needs of the schools in the district. Then, the district must conduct a survey to assess what it is doing right and where it needs improvement. Finally, it must work with the external entity, which can be either a public or a private group.
Karina Ioffee covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at (831)637-5566 ext. 335 or ki*****@fr***********.com
