San Mateo County Grand Jury
• 2008-2009
Issue | Background | Findings | Conclusions | Recommendations | Responses | Attachments What Grades are the Charter
⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 8 findings
F1
The Ravenswood City Elementary School District (Ravenswood) has taken a number of steps to improve student performance; however, there are longstanding inherent challenges, such as a high percentage of English learning students, lack of parent involvement, and poverty in the community, which the District cannot directly control. The charter schools have mitigated some of these factors through setting high expectations for student performance and parent involvement, strong teacher support, empowering site administrators, and laser focus on real-time student performance assessment and corrective action.
No recommendations for this finding
F2
Ravenswood understands that many of their students are underperforming and has approved the granting of charter schools to help their students perform better.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Maintain support for the current charter schools in the District-- East Palo Alto Charter School, Edison Brentwood Academy, East Palo Alto Academy Elementary School, East Palo Alto Academy High School, and East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy.
F3
East Palo Alto Charter School students performed exceptionally well in the 2008 state standardized testing. The Edison Brentwood Academy School API score was above all traditional elementary schools in the District. East Palo Alto Academy Elementary School is only in its third year of operation. While scoring low on most measures so far, its affiliation with Stanford University School of Education brings Stanford’s resources, research, and innovation to the school and hopefully, over time, to the district.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Maintain support for the current charter schools in the District-- East Palo Alto Charter School, Edison Brentwood Academy, East Palo Alto Academy Elementary School, East Palo Alto Academy High School, and East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy.
F4
Student performance at East Palo Alto Academy High School (EPAAHS) is comparable overall to the performance of students with similar demographics at Menlo-Atherton High School (M-A), the nearest traditional high school to East Palo Alto and with the largest portion of students from Ravenswood. The portion of students completing courses required for UC/CSU admission was significantly higher at EPA Academy High School than at M-A. EPAAHS has established an excellent record of preparing its graduates to attend a four-year college.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Maintain support for the current charter schools in the District-- East Palo Alto Charter School, Edison Brentwood Academy, East Palo Alto Academy Elementary School, East Palo Alto Academy High School, and East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy.
F5
A number of best practices were consistently followed in the charter schools but were sporadically applied in traditional schools.
Related Recommendations (3)
R3
Meet regularly with local charter school leaders to create written objectives describing opportunities to bring successful charter school strategies into the traditional school structure. Investigate such topics as instructional best practices, after school programs that are a continuation of the curriculum, more formalized parent involvement, and attendance management.
R4
Recognize the importance of teachers, who are essential to improving student performance, and increase non-student work time for teachers to prepare, collaborate, receive coaching, observe, and individualize student instruction.
R5
Work collaboratively with the teachers’ union to add flexibility to union agreements needed to allow implementation of the highest impact of best practices from charter schools. Glossary ADA Average Daily Attendance API Academic Performance Index AYP Adequate Yearly Progress CAHSEE California High School Exit Exam CAT California Achievement Test CDE California Department of Education COE San Mateo County Office of Education CST California Standards Test CSU California State University ELA English Language Arts EPA East Palo Alto EPAAES East Palo Alto Academy Elementary School EPAAHS East Palo Alto Academy High School EPACS East Palo Alto Charter School EPAPA East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy (high school) M-A Menlo-Atherton High School STAR California Standardized Testing and Reporting NCLB No Child Left Behind UC University of California
F6
The Stanford University School of Education is highly invested and committed to the long-term improvement of K-12 student performance across the country and, specifically, in East Palo Alto.
No recommendations for this finding
F7
There is not enough ongoing communication among leaders from Ravenswood, the charter schools in the District, and the Stanford University School of Education regarding future vision, best practices, and strategies for improving academic performance in the community. This lack of communication and trust occurs at all levels: between traditional and charter school teachers and principals, the Ravenswood Superintendent and charter school principals, and the Ravenswood School Board and Stanford University. Conclusions The 2008-2009 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury concludes that:
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Meet with leaders from the Stanford University School of Education with the goal of developing a specific plan within three months describing the best opportunities for collaboration between the organizations.
F8
Traditional schools in Ravenswood have not capitalized from collaboration with the charter schools.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Meet regularly with local charter school leaders to create written objectives describing opportunities to bring successful charter school strategies into the traditional school structure. Investigate such topics as instructional best practices, after school programs that are a continuation of the curriculum, more formalized parent involvement, and attendance management.
Conclusions 8
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CL1 Page 13Traditional schools in Ravenswood have not capitalized from collaboration with the charter schools.
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CL2 Page 12The charter schools that have been operating for five years or more are making solid positive contributions to student performance and have highlighted the importance of parent involvement and maintenance of high student expectations.
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CL3 Page 12Charter schools in East Palo Alto give students in under-performing schools successful alternatives to traditional public schools.
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CL4 Page 12The two newer charter schools, East Palo Alto Academy Elementary School and the East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy, are both part of organizations-- Stanford Schools Corporation and Aspire Public Schools-- which have demonstrated success with other charter schools in East Palo Alto. While it is too soon to adequately judge their performance, the two newer charter schools deserve the Ravenswood City Elementary School District’s (Ravenswood) encouragement.
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CL5 Page 13A significant shift in student enrollment from traditional schools to charter schools can create a difficult financial situation for a school district in the short term, particularly if not planned for sufficiently in advance. School districts can mitigate longer term financial impact by diligent planning of infrastructure and other “fixed” costs.
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CL6 Page 13Ongoing and frequent assessment, monitoring and reporting of student progress are essential for students to meet proficiency standards at mid to high levels. Traditional schools assess less frequently, in general, and report less consistently to parents.
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CL7 Page 13The challenges facing education in East Palo Alto are significant. While there are signs of progress in improving student performance, Ravenswood has not proven able to address them single-handedly. The local charter schools and Stanford University are willing partners with energy, ideas, and resources to contribute to district-wide improvement. To date, trust, communication, and collaboration with these potential partners have been inadequate.
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CL8 Page 13Not all charter school practices can be simply transferred to traditional schools; however, the Grand Jury believes that strong communication, creativity, and good faith problem solving between Ravenswood and the teachers’ union can allow more charter school best practices to be productively utilized.
No Responses Found 1
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
Ravenswood City Elementary School District
School District