Attachment C to Rel #04-79
September 3, 2004
Dear County and District Superintendents:
Welcome back to school! I know you have been hard at work long prior to the arrival of your students, and many of your schools operate year-round or have already begun. But as we approach Labor Day and the traditional beginning of the school year, I think it's an appropriate time to consider the challenges and opportunities we face this year in educating California's 6.2 million public school children.
As students return to school, many will find their classrooms much improved. All over the state new schools are being built and modernized, thanks to voter passage of record amount of school bond funding, and the lowering of the vote threshold for passage of local bond measures to 55 percent. Districts needing to build or modernize their schools should be aware that $10 billion is available in Proposition 47 state school facilities bond funding.
While the outlook for facilities is promising, we have much work to do this year to improve student achievement. As you know, test scores released this month were mixed, and disappointing after five years of steady significant gains. Student achievement, which had been on a clear upward trajectory particularly in the early grades, was up last year in some grades and subjects, flat, or down in others.
I'd like to encourage us all to view these scores as a wake-up call. Not as a call to change directions, but to rededicate ourselves and refocus on our rigorous standards, on the standards-aligned instructional materials, curriculum and professional development that showed such success for our students over the past six years. Too often in education the temptation is to change course with every new challenge. Today, it is vitally important for our students that we stay the course with high standards and expectations for all.
The 1999 adoption of standards-based accountability for our schools and students was a major sea change that expected a lot of all of us. New curriculum and instructional materials sometimes lagged behind higher expectations, but a significant infusion of new funding was accompanied by a strong focus and tremendous hard work by all of you and your schools. Our students benefited greatly from that focus. Now I suspect that the leveling off of our test scores reflects both the budget crisis, which left us without the ability to maintain the early pace of reform, and a weakening of our focus on the very tough work of ensuring that all students learn to high standards.
I also believe that with a renewed focus and dedication this school year, we will see the achievement gap narrow and test scores rise. It will be difficult in a year when school funding provides for just enough to maintain the status quo -- not where we want to be after the recent years of painful midyear budget cuts. But we can't use the budget as an excuse to let our students down. We owe it to our students to believe in their ability to reach a higher bar, and to support them with what it takes to reach it.
Our standards are rigorous, and our students need rigor if they are to be prepared for the future. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our high schools, where achievement remains disappointing and the achievement gap is most stark. I will continue to emphasize the need to increase rigor in our high schools, in order to provide all of our students real choices for their future. I invite you to attend the High School Summit I am convening October 25 and 26 at the Sacramento Convention Center to discuss challenges and best practices at our high schools. Please visit State Superintendent's High School Summit 2004 - Events and register today.
We are asking a lot of our students, and we should. So should we ask a lot of ourselves — administrators, teachers, paraeducators. We do this, at the beginning of each school year and in all the days that follow, because your hard work and dedication truly does change student's lives for the better. Your work makes it possible for students to fulfill the potential of their lives.
We must also ask a lot of our parents. You all know the important role parents play in student achievement, so this year I also ask you to dedicate yourselves to increasing involvement of parents in your schools. I'll be doing a video for PTAs urging greater involvement by parents. And I'll also be releasing and posting on our Web site — California Department of Education — tips for parents to help their children have a successful school year.
This week we released school and district Academic Performance Index (API) scores along with determination of school and district Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Progress continues, although at a slower pace, and more than 60 percent of our schools met AYP and showed improvement on the API. Information about subgroups, and therefore on whether schools have met growth targets on the API, will be available in mid-October.
You'll find new user-friendly reports provide clearer information to schools, parents, and the public on your district and school progress on the API. Also this year, the California Department of Education will continue working to make your jobs easier by reducing the burden of data requests from Sacramento.
I understand that the progress we've made is a result of your dedication and efforts, and I know that with your continued hard work this will be a very successful year for public education in California. Thanks to all of you superintendents, administrators, teachers, paraeducators — for making a positive difference in the lives of students.
Sincerely,
JACK O'CONNELL
JO:ab
1430 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814