Superintendent Deborah Flores has set some lofty goals for
Gilroy’s schools Flores, who worked closely with the board of
trustees to establish a list of realistic goals, said she aims to
accomplish them before June 2010.
Superintendent Deborah Flores has set some lofty goals for Gilroy’s schools Flores, who worked closely with the board of trustees to establish a list of realistic goals, said she aims to accomplish them before June 2010.
After the goals were approved, Flores began at the top, chipping away at the ambitious list. The first item of business was to address student achievement across the board.
Principals and their staff were asked to complete self-assessments of their school’s performance, using the Academic Program Survey, an evaluation that allows schools to rate themselves on the nine components of successful schools.
Flores, three district administrators, and a third party auditor from WestEd, an educational research and development agency, descended upon the district’s schools and were surprised with the honesty with which the schools reported their strengths and weaknesses.
“The schools were harsher on themselves than we expected,” Flores said. “They really took this exercise to heart.”
“You have to put your ego in your back pocket and that’s what my staff has done,” said South Valley Middle School principal, John Perales. “It’s so easy to become biased but I think my staff did a phenomenal job.”
Perales said that the APS site validations helped to “paint a picture” of the current state of affairs at SVMS and reported very few discrepancies between what district administrators observed and his teachers’ self-ratings. After charting the findings, Perales was able to identify specific areas of concern. His teachers need more opportunities to receive the training necessary to implement language arts and math material, the two areas targeted by the APS.
“We need intervention programs geared toward struggling readers and students struggling in math,” Perales said. His language arts teachers are already signed up to attend an upcoming training session at the district office. “We have some of the toughest students in town to educate,” he said, pointing out the needs of his English language learners.
“The district is responsible for providing that training,” Flores said. “It’s our responsibility to make sure classroom teachers have the resources they need.” In an effort to establish accountability from the top, Flores is using these site validations as a way investigate the needs of Gilroy’s schools.
“They verified what we already saw,” said Gilroy High School principal, James Maxwell. “We are all on the same page.”
Principals and district administrators will present their findings at the Thursday and Dec. 13 board meetings. These results will be used to amend schools’ site plans to incorporate specific strategies for accelerating the academic performance of all students.
“Flores’ goals go hand in hand with student achievement,” Trustee Pat Midtgaard said. The board’s evaluation of Flores’ performance will be based, in part, on how well she can accomplish these goals.
