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Contact Sally Bennett, Asst. Director of Standards & Accountability sbennet1@mail.sandi.net 619.725.7188 Demographics Summary The Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-Based System is a San Diego Unified School District instructional plan. It underscores the district belief that "issues of student achievement cannot be separated from issues of teacher expertise, professional development, prevention and intervention strategies, curricular alignment, assessment strategies, school leadership, and funding." This blueprint can be a model for other districts regarding the integration of all parts of a system to improve student learning. The blueprint does not state how stakeholders are accountable for implementation, but other online documents reflect systematic accountability. Schools use assessment data to make student and program decisions. The district reports results monthly to the board and uses results to inform decisions about adjustments and phasing in the total instructional program for individual schools and the entire district. Three types of instructional program approaches are implemented to provide best pedagogy, the richest learning environment, and sufficient time to meet high standards.
Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-Based System Full Description The Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-Based System, a San Diego Unified School District instructional plan, is divided into initiatives at the elementary, middle/junior, and high school levels. Initiatives ensure continuity across feeder schools, including:
Components Following are the components in the blueprint. The goal is enhancing instruction and meeting the needs of students by offering sufficient support and time to learn rigorous standards. The approach to reach the goal is to reorganize resources and services away from proven ineffective practices and toward research-based practices. Ongoing professional learning opportunities equip teachers with skills needed to improve their teaching and student learning in classroom and intervention settings. Frameworks: The district has been developing comprehensive literacy and mathematics frameworks to provide a consistent set of strategies, knowledge, and skills across all classrooms and to ensure that all students get high-quality instruction and content. Enhanced Classrooms: Every classroom is to be a model of exemplary instruction with teachers using an array of high-quality materials to carry out the frameworks (print materials, mathematical tools and manipulatives, and professional development on instructional practices). Good first teaching reduces the likelihood that students will need interventions. Literacy Peer Coach/Staff Developers: Every school has a full-time literacy coach/staff developer. The approach is to embed professional development in the context of classroom practice. The coach works in the school four days per week and receives district training on the fifth day. About half of the onsite time is spent in classrooms observing and coaching teachers. Most of the remaining time is spent planning and conducting professional development for teachers (small and large group sessions), organizing and hosting intra- and inter-visitations to other classrooms and schools, and working with the principal on teacher strengths and needs. In 2001-02, another type of support position was added at secondary schools, Literacy and Mathematics Site Administrators (not all positions were filled the first year). The plan is for each senior high to have one of each, and each middle school is to have a mathematics position. These administrators have dual roles -- department chair and teacher coach. They work specifically with the teachers in the English or mathematics departments to help plan lessons and units of study, observe and coach in classrooms, conduct demonstration lessons, and work with the principal to evaluate the teachers. Mathematics Specialists: Trained teachers (using state funds) support staff, starting with elementary teachers at intermediate grades where the need is greatest for enhancing expertise. Interventions for students at risk:
Additional Interventions for Focus Schools: There is an array of support for the lowest-performing schools (first decile on API):
Building School Capacity The district provides leadership and training to coaches/specialists and allocates resources according to school need. Ongoing teacher training and responsibility for accelerating individual student progress is accomplished by locating services within each school, providing specific districtwide interventions such as Reading Recovery, and allowing schools to select site-specific strategies. Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-based System: 2000-2001 Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-based System: 2001-2002 Planning, Assessment, and Accountability District key administrators provide the leadership to develop, implement, and monitor a long-range districtwide plan for incremental expansion of the Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-Based System. School principals are empowered as instructional program leaders who work with their team of teachers to take responsibility for staff and student learning. Implicit in the Blueprint language is building school and district learning communities. The board, parents and/or legal guardians, community, and local universities are part of the process. Local assessments provide diagnostic information to teachers as well as identify students performing "significantly below grade level" and in need of support and intervention strategies. The districtwide reading assessments are administered at the beginning, middle, and end of year:
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