Archive Info:
- Important Links to
Outside Organizations:
- Enid Lee's Website (click)
- HPSG (click)
- AB 466 (click)
- Project Accelerate Alianza:
- Accelerated Schools Project: A partner whose reform model we are using
to address the challenges in our CSRD Grant. (click)
- Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration: Funds granted to improve student academic
achievement in English. (click)
- More CSRD Web info (click)
- Here are our CSRD Priority Indicators
of Effectiveness. Please reflect on them and share any insights
that should be part of our evaluation this year with a colleague
that is on the Leadership Team so that it gets entered on the
record...(click)
- II/USP:
The state program that administers the federal CSRD grant and
ties it to Gov. Davis's reform agenda. (click)
- PVUSD Web site (click)
- The Latino Issues Forum. Check them
out (click)
- Kid's Around The University (Click)
- Email Buddies Around the World - (Click)
- Reference Links/FAQs:
- The
School Plan (click)
- The Rainy Day (click)
- Evaluation Timeline? (Click) Evaluation Observation
Schedule? (Click)
- Benchmark Criteria
- Redesignation Criteria(Click)
- Retention & Promotion Explained (Click)
- Parent Notification - (Click)
- Retention Flow Chart - (Click)
- Retention Score Card - (Click)
- Ranges for ELs
- (Click)
- Archive:
- The new Web Data Entry Page is up and ready for your data. Cathy or Michael has your password. Hopefully the field for the upper grade English teachers will be installed by the time you read this. Here are the directions:
- 1) Go to the Weekly Bulletin web page.
- 2) The top section is called "Teacher Resources". Go to the last line where it says "Trimester Data Entry" and click on "(click)"
- 3) A window will pop up and request a name and password. Just type in "yukon" for password and do not put in a name.
- 4) Select your name from the drop down window. Upper grade teachers will need to do their AM class first and then reenter and do their PM (or vice versa)
- 5) Enter your password. For upper grade teachers I made your AM and PM class passwords the same.
- 6) Press continue and the next page is a list of your class.
- 7) Click on a student's name and you go to the data entry area.
- IMPORTANT: Enter you data for the student and when everything is ready click on the "SAVE" button at the bottom of the page.
- Another inspiring experience thanks to the passion and commitment of the Alianza parents. Check out pictures from Sunday's demonstration: (click)
- Here is a .pdf file of the Alianza Charter that was renewed last spring: (click)
- Here is a pdf. of Ramon Gomez's type up of the District's position on the issue to be considered at Wednesday's meeting. If you are planning to speak, reemember that the issue being considered is the conversion of our site to a middle school. This document details the district's position. It would best serve our position to respond directly to the points outlined in this document: (click)
- Here are some Random Notes about the CANEC conference. I try to outline for you the turmoil that is shaking the Charter movement and will determine its future and ours...(click)
- Test Schedule (click)
- Congratulations to Ivanna Cordova, our Student of the Year (click)
- One result of the budget crisis will be increased scrutiny of travel & conference. Those who go to workshops and/or conferences will be expected to share responses to the following questions which will be reviewed by Mary Ann and others:
- 1) Names of sessions attended
- 2) Describe link between session(s) and standards at your grade level
- 3) Describe strategies you learned about that you will be able to apply
- 4) Would you recommend this workshop/conference to others for future attendance?
- I went to a workshop 2 weeks ago that focused on the measures taken to improve students achievement as measured by the API at a school with very challenging demographics. Some of the ideas that I thought we could borrow are:
- create a year long schedule that establishes when and which standards will be addressed.
- converse with teachers monthly about which students are above, at or below grade level.
- integrate to a greater degree the data we collect at the trimesters, use it to drive instruction to a greater degree.
- display students best work to serve as models (best = no mistakes) for other students, in the classroom and around the campus.
- make standards and expectations transparent so that students and parents understand what the grade level expectation is...students need to be inspired to move their writing/reading/math to the next higher level...and that needs to be celebrated when it occurs.
- Set a school API Target, a target that the school community focuses on, like reaching 800 by 2005, forn example. We need to move beyond tolerating the API, to embracing the challenge.
- Identify the Bubble Kids, those students close to the next API band (eg: focusing on students who scored 19, 39 who with a little help could jump over 20, 40 to the next band. Have a different response for Triage Kids, those scoring below 19
- Post achievement data where the school community can see it
- make sure the library has a minimum of 20 titles per student (14,000)
- Upper grade teachers, please begin the conversation to determine which 5th grade student ww will select as our student of the year. Should be a fully bilingual, biliterate student working at grade level (rfep or EO) who has attended Alianza since Kinder.
- I will be putting out the annual 6th grade survey to determine which 5th grade students are planning to continue at Alianza. It will be due on Friday.
- The Parent Institute for Quality Education had 80 parents show up last Thursday. The previous week we had 140. Please encourage your parents to attend. Also, be aware that the parents who attended were given a homework assignment to contact their child's teacher.
- I attended a great workshop last week that presented a great model for changing the way I (and Juanita) work. The goal is to put me into classrooms for more time. It involves some major changes:
- I remove my desk, binders, papers and other distractors from my office. I put in a conference table to make it a conference room.
- Juanita controls me. She manages my calendar and schedule. She exercises greater authority over the stuff that comes to the Principal's office.
- Juanita and I meet daily from 9:15-9:45.
- Two days a week are coaching days. I am not allowed to enter the office. I must be in classrooms, on the yard, in the staff room, in the cafeteria, etc.
- 3 days a week are office days. The goal is to reduce this to 2 days.
- The analogy is to a professional team, like a football team. The players engage in the game on the field. The coach does not play, he manages from the sidelines. Ideally, I do nothing, become superfluous.
- 102 5th Graders are going to the Young People's Concert on March 3, 2003 at 10:45. There are seats for 6 adults.
- Great work to the 3rd Grade Team. Though Rhea only got to 3 classes, she referred to her visit and the clear application of standards at two different points at last week's Board Meeting. Good work!
- Coordinated Compliance Review - We will try to make this consume a minimum of our energy, but we need to make sure we give it appropriate attention so as to not create more work for ourselves. We need to look at what we are responsible to be doing and creating an honest picture of where we are. There will be areas where we are in compliance and areas where we are not. That will generate the elements of our plan to increase the level of compliance....We will need some teacher reps and parents from each grade level as well as classified reps. Here is the calendar:
- Friday, 1/17: Leadership Committee to discuss plan
- Probably 2 planning meeting for reps
- January 27 - 31: Self Review
- Febrauary 10 - 14: Complete findings
- March 3: Report findings/advise groups
- April 9: Self Review Fiindings due
- Here is a link to the CDE's vision of a standards based program for English Learners. Please review it (click)
- At Wednesday's Staff meeting, we will devote 45 minutes to a discussion of cadres to determine the following:
- 1) Is the work of the cadre complete? If not, what is the specific objective it will work on in the 2nd semester.
- Math Cadre: We need to finalize a Interim Math Assesment that will inform us of student progress on Math Standards.
- ELD Cadre: We need an Interim Assessment that improves on the BPI that will inform our efforts to redesignate students. We need to better define our program, to more clearly delineate when we are teaching English and with what materials/programs and when we are teaching in English....
- Parent Cadre: If specific objective is complete, redeploy to other priorities.
- School Environment Cadre: If specific objective is complete, redeploy to other priorities.
- Writing Cadre: If specific objective is complete, redeploy to other priorities.
- 2) Determination of how we will address the following issues:
- 4/5 Combination Concept: Teacher turnover, curriculum covereage, activity coordination lead to the question: Should we go to straight grade levels?
- SLD: Teaching Spanish to EOs: We have a $30K grant to support this effort. We need to work on how we assess SLD and look at instructional issues.
- Interventions: What is working? Should we have certificated teachers intervening in the early years? Is Si Puedo having the impact we need? Is the Math Intervention Teacher used to teach sections or provide supplemental help for students identified as being below grade level?
- Professional Development: As a HPSG school, we are responsible for developing the capacity of Alianza teachers to improve student achievement on the standards. Is the PDF model the best way to guide/lead/scaffold teacher/program effectiveness forward with concomitant improvement in student achievement? How do we change teachers and their practice in a way that is affirming, supportive and focused?
- Charter Renewal
- Coordinated Compliance Review
- From Last Week:
- All Initial Conferences for the Evaluation Cycle should now be complete. AMO folks should be scheduling their first observation.
- Please make sure your lesson plans reflect a 45 minute minimum ELD period (30 minutes in Kinder). This is when you are teaching English to our ELs at their appropriate level.
- Year Round Schools will disappear once again from the PVUSD next year....
- Note that October 22 is not a Restructured Day---why? because the following week is Parent Conferences
- PVUSD is now on Trimesters. Trimester Report Cards are to go home on these dates: Tri 1/November 8, Tri 2/February 28 & Tri 3/May 30
- Read the Latest Collier & Thomas report (click)
- Office Protocols (click)
- These are the Reclassification Criteria:
- Calif. English Language Development Test (CELDT)
- Overall proficiency of Early Advanced or higher (this is the 4th of 5 levels)
- No section (listening/speaking; Reading; Writing) may be less than Intermediate (3rd of the 5 levels)
- SAT9
- NP score on both Reading AND Language is 35th %ile or higher....OR
- Performance level on Content Standards Test for English Language Arts is Basic or above.
- Parental Agreement - parents meet with school personnel and agree to redesignation
- Teacher Evaluation - This started out just being the Writing Rubric Score but may turn out to be a statement by the teacher based on the students performance on the Writing Rubric & the school's reading assessment.
- Every room should have: A Standards Binder and the Essential Standards posted on the wall.
- Flag salute should take place every morning (except Wednesday when we are together outside) in every classroom.
- New Play Structure Project (click)
- Proposed - open for modification: We will be conducting our Student Review Process differently this year. Prior to the meeting identify the following students:
- Reading: Those students who you believe will not be in the "Promotion Window" by the end of the year according to their Reading Benchmark information in either English or Spanish. These are students who will be more than one year behind at the end of the year.
- Language:
- Those students who will not be at Grade Level in Spanish by the end of 3rd Grade or the end 5th Grade.
- Those students who will not be at Grade Level according to our BPI benchmark by the end of 5th (or 6th) Grade
- STAR Academics:
- Identify those students who are close to the 50th%ile on the SABE at 2nd through 6th
- Identify those students who are close to moving from "Far Below Basic" to "Below Basic" on the CST
- We will discuss strategies to move them over the line.
- Those students who do not fall into the categories above but who are on your Top Five Most At Risk.
- On the class list, you will also indicate all students who received an "At Risk of Retention" letter at the Parent Conference
- At last week's Leadership Meeting the idea of reinstating a "freeze" when the end of recess bell rings was discussed. Concerns were shared that most problems occur when students are standing in line waiting for their teachers to arrive. Please be on time at the end of recess.
- Here is the Discipline Flow Chart that we developed last year: (click)
- Counselor Lucia Vindiola is looking for dolls or stuffed animals that she can use with students in her sessions. Leave a meesage in her box if you can help out.
- PIP will divide the remaining days of the school year into 2 parts. In the first part Lucy will focus on 2nd and 3rd grade students. In the second part, on Kinder annd 1st.
- Reports are coming in that people are losing items from their classrooms (eg:staplers, tapers, bells, etc.) Please let me know if you are having similar problems. Remind your students not to take things that do not belong to them.
- Student Review Process next week. Here is the proposed schedule, please make sure I have you paired with your language partner (NOTE numerous changes):
- The folks who take our student pictures make a bunch of materials (certificates, folders, etc.) available to you for free. Order on line here: (click)
- Big changes in the next two years. Radcliff will be reborn as a neighborhood school, Alianza will be modernized and will become a choice school. Check out the timeline (click) What does modernization include? Here is a partial list: fire extinguishers, carpet, linoleum, handicap access, cabinets, pinboard wall, map tracks, whiteboards, approved TV brackets, lock down doors (lock from inside..).... What about more staff bathrooms? Not included. Two things we will try:
- Rearrange the floor plan in the office/staff room so that the doors to the Principal's and the Staff bathroom both enter from hallway.
- One idea was discussed to add staff bathroom next to exisiting boy's bathroom. This would be expensive, we are hoping that the money we will save by using Radcliff for housing will be enough to do this.
- The idea is to use Radcliff for housing rather than putting portables on our field. Leasing the portables cost money. So imagine that Phase 1 is the first wing (Rooms 1-7) and that all those classes would spend 6 months at Radcliff. Then Wing 2 (Rooms 8-14) moves.
- At the Council meeting someone pointed out that this would be awkward having part of the team off-site. Do we want to move classrooms around so that grade level teams get moved?
- Would anyone like to help me review our site plans to address design enhancements? See me...
