Gilroy
– Under the state gun, board trustees – some reluctant –
unanimously approved a $167,000 plan intended to boost Glen View
Elementary’s annual test scores.
Gilroy – Under the state gun, board trustees – some reluctant – unanimously approved a $167,000 plan intended to boost Glen View Elementary’s annual test scores.
The plan leaves as few as 15 minutes in the day for subjects other than language arts and math, such as social studies and science.
“The instructional minutes are state required and based on student need,” said Martha Martinez, the district’s administrator of state and federal programs. “We have to abide by those requirements. … The point is, extra intervention will lead to less intervention time needed, and hopefully by the time they reach middle school, they won’t need as much (intervention time).”
Glen View is under state sanction because it failed to meet its set Academic Performance Index goals – which track schools’ academic progress – for two out of three years. The goal of the so-called corrective action plan is to grow Glen View’s scores by one point for two consecutive years.
The plan depends on a combination of required consecutive minutes for different subjects, teacher and principal training and outside support from WestEd, the education research firm that is working with the district.
According to the plan, kindergartners spend an hour per day on reading and language arts and 30 minutes on math. Students in grades one to three spend 2 1/2 hours on reading and language arts and an hour on math. Fourth- and fifth-graders spend two hours on reading and language arts and an hour on math.
For under-performing students in the kindergarten through fifth grade, an additional 30 minutes is allocated for reading and language arts and an additional 15 minutes for math.
The new schedule started at the beginning of the year and is only a slight change from previous years’ curriculum, said Jacki Horejs, the district’s assistant superintendent of educational services. Horejs said she’s confident the plan will help the school, which has a student population that’s almost 90 percent Hispanic. Approximately 60 percent of Glen View’s students are still learning English.
“But it’s not the plan that will make it work, it’s the commitment of the teachers,” Horejs said.
Principal Marilyn Ayala said teachers have to be “very creative” in how they fit all the pieces of the curriculum into their days, but she, too, has faith the school will advance.
“I’m very confident we will move our students forward and make the progress that is needed,” she said. “We integrate as much as posible science as well as social studies into our language arts time, but it really has structured our day,” Ayala said.
The plan is a follow-up to an assessment survey that WestEd provided Glen View in mid-October. The district’s contract with the firm cost $75,000, and another $92,000 – or $150 per student – will go to implement the corrective plan.
Another part of the plan is teacher and principal training and regular meetings with literacy facilitators, who help design lesson plans and offer support.
Teachers are required to go through two different training sessions – one in language arts and one in reading – to implement the plan, something board members Pat Midtgaard and Jim Rogers initially weren’t so sure about.
“Taking time away from the classroom, even if it’s for your classroom, is a double-sided sword,” Rogers said. “We’re putting a lot of pressure on teachers.”
Martinez said teachers have the option to take the five-day training sessions during the summer, for which they receive a $500 stipend. About 75 percent of the school’s teachers have completed the training in the language arts curriculum, but they still have to undergo the sessions on math.
Another gap yet to be filled in the corrective plan is staffing to help students in the fourth- and fifth-grades who are working two or more years below grade level. Also, the required number of minutes for reading and math for all under-performing students still needs to be pieced into the daily schedule.
Brownell Academy, a state-sanctioned school last year, met its state goals after undergoing a similar process.
WestEd will visit Glen View three times over the next 18 months as part of the plan. Board members will receive an update on the school’s progress after each visit.
“The report was very informative,” said Trustee Jaime Rosso. “It seems cumbersome, but it’s very helpful. It covers all the bases.”
