Monday, January 16, 2012–We are excited and pleased to announce the planning phase for the new cohort of California GEAR UP middle schools!

On behalf of Governor Jerry Brown and the California Education Round Table, the State of California proposes to conduct a State GEAR UP grant to be administered by the University of California.  The goal of this grant is to:

To develop and sustain the organizational capacity of middle schools to prepare all students for high school and higher education through a systemic network of  support for adults who influence middle school students, specifically their counselors, faculty, school leaders, and families.  This expanded organizational capacity is expected to result in a higher proportion of students, particularly from  backgrounds and communities that historically have not pursued a college education, enrolling and succeeding in higher education.

The 2011-2017 cohort begins whole school services with a planning phase already underway. For a list of schools chosen for the planning phase click the link below:

CGU Planning Schools 2012

Selected California GEAR UP schools commit to strong academic programming and a cohesive college and career readiness curriculum, beginning at the middle school and connecting with area high schools and local postsecondary institutions. GEAR UP provides a network of support and professional development activities to integrate a college-going culture into school site reform efforts.

Following a six-month Planning Phase in 2012, schools are selected to participate in the program from January 2012 – August 2017.

If selected to participate in the planning phase of the California GEAR UP program, schools are asked to mark their calendars for the following activities and dates:

• Host a School-Site Visit for GEAR UP Orientation (2 hours maximum) with key leaders (potential GEAR UP Leadership Team) to be scheduled between January 27 and February 29, 2012. GEAR UP staff will work with the school to ensure a mutually convenient time.

• Participate in a Planning Session for GEAR UP: A full-day session, 8 am – 4 pm, for the school leadership team.

• Schools Receive Notification by May 21, 2012: Schools will be notified of their final selection for participation in the 6-year California GEAR UP Program.

Schools are also required to complete an annual school survey. A webinar is available on how to complete the survey on the WestEd website found HERE. (Please note clicking this link will automatically launch the WebEx in your browser.)

We welcome our new schools to take on the challenge of whole-school reform lead by a strategic leadership and coached by California GEAR UP School Services Coaches. Together we are confident we can lead the school toward academic excellence and college access for all students.

For more information about California GEAR UP please visit our website.

OAKLAND, CA (January 12, 2012) – Today, The Education Trust—West releases the findings of a two- year-long study of data from the second largest school district in the nation, revealing profound inequities in access to effective teaching.  In Learning Denied: The Case for Equitable Access to Effective Teaching in California’s Largest School District, The Education Trust—West finds that low-income students and students of color in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are less likely to be taught by the district’s top teachers – the very teachers capable of closing the district’s achievement gaps. These inequities are exacerbated by teacher mobility patterns and quality-blind layoffs.

“This is one of the largest and most comprehensive analyses of this type ever completed, accounting for over 17,500 teachers and more than a million students,” said report co-author Carrie Hahnel, Director of Policy and Research at The Education Trust—West. “We were able to quantify the impact of effective teachers on student learning. We looked at the extent to which students of color and students in poverty had access to effective teachers, and we also looked at the impact of quality-blind teacher layoffs.”

The report reveals that:

• Teachers have the potential to dramatically accelerate the learning of their students – with the average student taught by a top 25% teacher (top quartile in terms of value-added) gaining half a year more of learning in English-Language Arts and four months in math than a student placed with a teacher in the bottom 25% (bottom quartile).
• Second-graders who started off behind academically and then had three top quartile teachers accelerated to academic proficiency, while students with consecutive bottom quartile  teachers remained stuck below grade level.
• Commonly used measures of teacher quality, such as years of experience, are poor predictors of effectiveness in the classroom. While teachers do improve over time, the differences among teachers are far greater than those between teachers at different levels of experience.  For example, the difference between a 10th-year teacher and first-year teacher is only about three and a half weeks in ELA and two and a half weeks in math.
• Effective teachers are inequitably distributed in LAUSD with Latino, African-American and low-income students much less likely to have access to top-quartile teachers. In addition, these top teachers are more likely to leave the district’s highest need schools.
• Quality-blind teacher layoffs in 2009 resulted in the removal of high value-added teachers from the highest need schools. If the district had instead laid off teachers based on effectiveness, only about 5 percent of the ELA teachers and 3 percent of the math teachers actually cut by LAUSD would have been laid off.

The report reveals that a low-income student is more than twice as likely to have a low value-added ELA teacher as a higher income peer, and 66 percent more likely to have a low-value added math teacher.  Latino and African-American students are two to three times more likely to have bottom-quartile teachers in math and ELA, respectively, than their white and Asian peers.

According to the report, state and local policies can prevent students from accessing the most effective teachers or cause students to lose access to these teachers. The report recommends that district and state leaders invest in high-quality evaluation systems to identify effective teachers and those who are failing to improve student performance. It calls for developing programs and policies that attract and retain the best teachers in the highest need schools, offering teachers the high-quality professional development that leads to gains in student achievement, and fundamentally reforming state policies that prevent local leaders from making decisions in the best interests of students. This includes ending once and for all quality-blind, “last in, first out” (LIFO) teacher layoffs.

The goal of California GEAR UP is to develop and sustain the organizational capacity of middle schools to prepare all students for high school and higher education through a statewide network of support for adults who influence middle school students, specifically their counselors, faculty, school leaders and families.  As a result of this expanded capacity, a higher proportion of students, particularly from backgrounds and communities that have not historically pursued a college education, will enroll and succeed in higher education.

To read the full report, click through to the Ed Trust West website HERE.

The Education Trust—West, a California GEAR UP Partner, works for the high academic achievement of all students at all levels, pre-k through college. They expose opportunity and achievement gaps that separate students of color and low-income students from other youth, and identify and advocate for the strategies that will forever close those gaps.