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By Natalie Ragus Teachers in the Santa Maria-Bonita Unified School District may receive special training in classroom strategies as part of a state plan to help the district lift itself out of program improvement status, state officials said Wednesday. Santa Maria-Bonita -- along with 96 other districts in the state -- has been on program improvement for three years for missing academic benchmarks set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The state superintendent of public instruction and the governor made several recommendations Wednesday to the State Board of Education on a plan of action to improve the targeted districts. If the board approves the recommendations from Superintendent Jack O'Connell and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Santa Maria-Bonita would receive the assistance of a state-approved outside consulting team to develop a plan to help its students meet the NCLB standards. When the team's review is complete, the district would be required to implement its findings. The state board could take action on the plan as early as its next meeting in March. "The help is welcome," said Santa Maria-Bonita spokeswoman Maggie White. "As long as the funding is being provided, the outside assistance is welcome." As part of the plan to help boost student performance in the 97 lagging districts, O'Connell and Schwarzenegger said they will work with the Legislature to release some $45 million in funding to implement the corrective actions. Santa Maria-Bonita has been on program improvement status for three years because its English Language Learners -- who comprise nearly 50 percent of the district's student population -- have consistently failed to meet the language arts standards set by NCLB, though the students have been well within proficiency ranges for math. This academic year, 20.6 percent of Santa Maria-Bonita's ELL students met the proficiency requirements for language arts, up from 7 percent just three years ago. However, state law dictates that 24.4 percent of a district's ELL students must reach language arts proficiency standards. Next year, requirements will rise even further in order to meet the NCLB long-term goal of having 100 percent of the nation's ELL students language arts-proficient. The plan proposed by O'Connell and Schwarzenegger includes the categorization of the 97 districts by levels of assistance they need -- intensive, moderate and light. The intensive level could mean almost anything, including the state appointing a trustee to run the district. The moderate level, where Santa Maria-Bonita falls -- takes a less drastic approach. Santa Maria-Bonita officials must choose a "district assistance and intervention team" from a state-approved list. The intervention team members would observe classrooms, focusing on instructional practices, and make recommendations based on their observations. Under the proposed plan, the district would be required to implement the team's recommendations, which could range from teacher training in classroom strategies to longer schools days, to additional programs for students, White said. O'Connell said Wednesday he was proud of the plan. "I firmly believe that in most cases, achievement gains will be more effectively achieved by assisting districts to improve rather than by imposing some of the more severe sanctions allowed under NCLB, such as deferring programmatic funds, removing staff, or closing the district or schools," he said in a prepared statement. Meanwhile, White said, district officials have also been looking closely at Battles and Ontiveros elementary schools for ideas to implement district-wide. Those schools are two of the five campuses in the district that are not on program improvement, despite the fact that ELL students make up 45.5 and 50 percent of their student populations, respectively. Ultimately, White said, the district is prepared to join hands with the state in boosting local ELL students' language proficiency. "We want our students to be proficient in English," she said. "That's the job of the district." |
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