SBWomanBy Denice Spangler Adams
What are the factors contributing to the achievement gap? Edhat posted an article headlined “Adams Recognized as Top School in the Nation,” because Adams improved from a dismal 35.5% in 2013 to a mediocre 67.9% in 2018.
What contributed to this improvement: parent involvement, get private tutoring, principal and/or teacher changes; common core math or other curriculum changes; reduced teacher/ student ration to 24:1; or what?
Of 5662 CA Elementary schools, as of 9/26/2018, SBUSD Adams ranked 1817, and 4th in the SBUSD. Of 555 students, 65.8% are on the free lunch program and only 75.1% Hispanic. Area homes sell for $1M-$3M. What factors changed resulting in this significant improvement?
Locally the rankings of 5662 elementary schools are:
- Cold Spring School 19 @98.8%;
- MUS 91@97.7%;
- Mt. View 276@95.1%;
- Foothill 347@94.3%;
- SBUSD Washington 629@90.2%;
- Kellogg 705@88.6%;
- Hope 936@84.1%;
- Monte Vista 1079@80.9%;
- Vieja Valley 1139@79.9%;
- Isla Vista 1248@77.3%;
- Brandon 1328@75.8%;
- Ellwood 1609@69.2%;
- Peabody Charter 1702@67.6%;
- SBUSD ADAMS 1817@64.9%;
- Hollister 1925@62.8%;
- SBUSD Franklin 1958@61.9%;
- SBUSD Roosevelt 2078@59%;
- El Camino 2669@47.8%;
- LaPatera 2632@48.7%;
- SBUSD SB Community 3969@28.3%;
- SBUSD Harding 4351@23.7%;
- SBUSD Monroe 4490@22.3%;
- Adelante Charter Dual Language 4917@17.2%;
- SBUSD Cleveland 5230@13.3%;
- SBUSD McKinley 5424@10.3%;
Make note that CSS and MUS are single independent school districts; the next 2 schools (Mt View and Foothill) are in the 9-school Goleta District. The other higher ranking schools are in the 3-school independent Hope District (Monte Vista, Hope, Vieja Valley); with Peabody Elementary, a Charter School in the San Roque area.
The 2 highest SBUSD schools are Washington on the Mesa which is consistently a high performing school with also a GATE magnet Program; and Adams off Las Positas Rd which improved from 35.5% in 2013 to 67.9% in 2019.
The SBUSD ranks 382 of 856 CA School Districts. It is now a Basic Aid District as are CSS, MUS, Hope and Goleta School Districts.
Cold Spring School ranks 1 in the category of single school districts, or districts with only one school.
The quality of education to prepare students is essential to our country, community and the student’s future lot in life. Schools determine neighborhoods: older childless persons buy near Cleveland for example, where many homeowners conclude enrolling their child would be an injustice because instruction must be diluted to accommodate the student majority.
Stakeholders include everyone in our community. Property owners paying property taxes which fund schools need to remain informed to ensure their neighborhood school is performing to required standards to prepare students to contribute to America for the benefit of the greater world community.
The mission of the Santa Barbara Unified School District is to ensure the educational success of all students through high expectations and a commitment to excellence and to empower them to reach their full potential as responsible, ethical, and productive citizens in a diverse and changing world.
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The classes are too large.
Allow no Spanish to be spoken by students in conversation.
Break up schools like Cleveland to keep Spanish speaking population down, bussing if needed to mix students with English speakers in other schools. Many of our native born kids of all races speak lousy English. They are not taught to enunciate! I did not learn English until I was in Kindergarten. It can be done! Make teachers dress like teachers should dress. Some dress and look like slobs! Spend more time on English and Math and less on frivolous subjects. we have too many kids doomed to menial low-paying jobs because they cannot read and write English and are terrible at Math. Their chance for upward mobility are doomed already! Parents need more involvement in making sure that their kids learn. Too many Spanish speaking adults also make no effort to learn English and that inhibits their children’s ability to learn it as well because the kids cannot speak in at home. Too many of our kids have already been graduated into a bleak future. Supt. Matsuoka has made progress in the time he has been in charge, but too many years have destroyed a system that will take many more years to repair, if ever!
I know several elementary teachers in the SB and Goleta districts. Without fail, they all claim that the burden placed on the district to support special needs kids is what has changed in education over the past 20 years. This well known “secret” is that an enormous amount of funds go to tutors and aids for special needs kids. The funding is mandated via statewide initiatives and the parents of special needs kids are explicitly aware of their rights. I am torn on the issue, but this is a huge diversion of funds away from traditional school budgets.
It is so bad at our school that a special needs boy was harassing girls when his aid was on a break. The school covered it up until one girl was pulled for a private school and then the poop hit the fan. The drive to make everyone equal has resulted in the lowest common denominator ruling… Classrooms and school events are at the mercy of the behavior of those that are not capable of being mainstreamed and thus everyone must go at the slowest pace.
Has anyone looked to see what teachers actually make here in California?
It’s more than you or I make.
$100,000 + benefits +etc…
the problem lies with promising way too much for “government employees “ for the last 50 years.
Just my humble observation.
One of the most significant factors is that the schools never instituted English Immersion. These poor immigrant kids, are coddled and not made to learn English from the get go. As a result, they are left behind. Learning the language IS a huge part of the formula to success. The American Dream still exists! I know many immigrants from south of the border, that are very successful due to hard work and being able to communicate effectively. The ones that are not as driven to learn the language really need to be immersed in it at school and at home. The system has to work harder at this since it is in everyone’s interest. Better education, more achievement, less petty crime and more income tax revenue as a result. Everybody wins when people exceed.
Classes with no more than 20 students would help. 50 years ago I read that kids don’t drop out in high school, they actually drop out in the 1st 4 grades if they “don’t get it”, and by high school they are too far behind to keep going.
@ Zerohawk: You need to work on your number crunching. The President of the US makes $400,000 pus lots of benefits. The last year that Cash was “super” he made $219,558.99 including benefits (according to Transparent California). The current “super ” Matsuoka made $331,269 with benefits last year. Clearly Cash has never “made more than the POTUS”. Maybe math really is not your thing. The theory behing Common Core is to teach not just how to solve a maths problem, but also why a problem is solved using a given method. If you are ok having your children taught to think like a robot that is your problem, but let’s encourage the rest of the children to understand why problems are solved a certain way.
Please do your homework. Fact check each local school. TransparentCalifornia or TransparencyCalifornia lists every public employee by name and his or her salary. You can also enter a school name for a listing of every employee with compensation cost to taxpayers. Principals are over $220,000; Fire chiefs $300-$500,000. Taxpayers typically complain but too rarely make time to check costs before voting to spend more.
Re: Pitmix. Well there is the standard line of “Don’t have kids if you cannot afford or care for them”…. or … If you have to work 16hours a day to live here, perhaps you should find a new path that doesn’t require you to diminish your child’s future in order for you to live near the beach? Personally, I think the entire schools local system is an abject failure. We are one of the wealthiest communities in the world with some of the highest property values in the world. Our schools are funded via property taxes, not parents yet we are still falling behind and continue to fall further. So where does all the money go? Follow the dispersement of funds and you’ll find your scapegoats and various parties to blame. We simply do not prioritize education or well being in our society. We prioritize large salaries for administrators, unheard of pensions and ridiculous spending on superfluous projects that seem to be at the whim of individuals. We do not promote success or merit by our teachers. Nope. We have tenure and a union that promotes a process that assures the lowest common denominator wins and the most willing are tossed aside. Bottom line is that there is plenty of money and desire, what we lack is a willingness and leadership to do the right thing. Period.
Parents make the difference in a school quality and outcomes, don’t they?
I have 2 preteen girls that attend Monroe. The funding is a huge part of it. Dave Cash, our former Super really screwed it up. Badly. Also the ‘common core’ math is a freakin’ joke. i am a number cruncher and math is my job. If one of these kids came into our business and tried to do math the common core way, they would be walked out. It doesn’t need to take 15 minutes to do a simple math problem and draw 13 stupid diagrams and prove how you came up with a basic number. Its a total waste of time and they are using our kids as test subjects for this common core math. Art, science and music and PE was not killed by parents, that’s just foolish statement. They don’t have the funding or teachers to pay to do these jobs. I’ve talked to many other parents, teachers, past and present.
David Cash snuck the common core crap past the parents and shoved it into the schools with little to no training for the teachers. I called him out on it and asked where was the public meeting? When did you ask the parents that pay your salary, if it’s ok to change their entire curriculum to something that no one has heard of and something that has NEVER been tested on kids. There is no garauntee that our children will succeed becasue of this. I’ve asked him, what is wrong with the math that you and I were taught? No response. He ended up sneaking a public meeting and used a robo caller to call people sunday night at 830pm to let them know there would be a meeting at 4pm the next day. Of course very few people could make that time with short notice. I dug deep and found that David Cash also had 5 assistants that all made over $150k a year each and he made more than the POTUS and received huge federal grants to repave parking lots and 1 new playground for Mickinley, which he denied even after i presented the evidence to him. Of course that assh@t is now gone.
As for kids in Europe speaking more languages. That’s an easy one….when you can drive in 4 directions within a few hours and be in a foreign country that has different money and a different language, this is needed. In the USA, we should learn Spanish if you live near the border…it’s apples and oranges if you think about it.