SACRAMENTO—The State Board of Education yesterday voted to modify the California Additions to the adopted Common Core State Standards for Mathematics(CCSSM).

The Board’s action will help the state continue its progress toward implementing the Common Core State Standards, and provides options for accelerating to higher mathematics in middle school while maintaining the requirement that all students pass Algebra I before graduating from high school.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, who was required under Senate Bill 1200 to propose modifications that include basing Algebra I on the Common Core State Standards, praised the Board’s action.

“The Common Core—and common sense—calls for a students’ progress in mathematics to be based on their readiness to advance—not a timeline or a mandate from Sacramento,” Torlakson said. “Making this change now will help our schools make the transition to Common Core, and marks another step in our push to provide students the practical, real-world skills they need.”

California is part of a multistate consortium that developed the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and English, which define what students should know at each grade level. Having a single, similar set of standards nationwide will help all students prepare for college or careers, even if they change schools or move to a different state. California adopted the CCSSM that included the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics in June 2010.

The move rescinds action by the prior Board in 2010, which adopted standards that contained a unique Grade 8 Algebra I course inconsistent with the published Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

Torlakson recommended the unique Grade 8 Algebra I course be replaced with Algebra I and Mathematics I courses based upon the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. He also recommended redundant standards in grades six and seven be eliminated. These changes clarify the mathematics standards for middle grades and provide the foundation for middle school courses, including algebra and higher mathematics courses in high school. Students must still pass Algebra I in order to graduate from high school.

Torlakson’s recommendations are presented in the Recommended Modifications to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics with California Additions and Model Courses for Higher Mathematics. The modifications were developed with the help of Mathematics Curriculum Framework and Evaluation Criteria Committee and comments from two public hearings held in January 2013.

The CDE Press office will create a CCSSM publication and post it to the California Department of Education Web site. For more information about California’s implementation of the CCSSM, please visit the Department’s Common Core State Standards Implementation Web page.

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As part of continuing statewide National GEAR UP week celebrations, California GEAR UP is honored to have received proclamations from officials across the state, including: Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA3), Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA5), and current Sacramento, CA mayor Kevin Johnson.

Proclamation ceremonies were held at a luncheon hosted by Elk Grove Unified School District and attended by Greg Darnieder, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Education on College Access, community leaders, board members, principals and teachers, students and GEAR UP staff.

National GEAR UP Week is September 10-14, 2012. Across the nation and in California, school communities will mark this occasion through activities, contests, college fairs and other events in celebration of college access for ALL students.

GEAR UP is a program of the U.S. Department of Education, developed to provide school-based services to ensure that students and their families have multiple college and career choices after high school. Since 1999, California GEAR UP has effectively served over 300 schools across the state by providing local and efficient community based services.

Working in collaboration with nine schools in the Elk Grove Unified School district, GEAR UP provides direct support to students, principals, teachers, counselors and families. More information is available at www.castategearup.org.

California’s Economic Payoff: Investing in College Access & Completion is new statewide report conducted by researchers at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at the University of California, Berkeley. It was commissioned by The Campaign for College Opportunity and co-released with the California Civil Rights Coalition and the California Chamber of Commerce. The report answers two questions: What are the benefits of investing in higher education? And, is it worth it for Californians?

This study concludes that the benefits of higher education extend well beyond the direct payoff for students and include substantial gains to the state, and it is indeed worth the investment. California´s higher education investments pay off for all of California, not only for the individuals who receive a college education through increased lifetime earnings, but for the state in increased tax revenue and reduced costs for social welfare programs and incarceration.

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today announced that four high-performing California schools are newly designated model middle schools in the Schools to Watch™−Taking Center Stage (STW™−TCS) program. Another 11 high-performing California schools will also retain their model middle grades schools status under the same program.

“I commend the students, their parents, teachers, and administrators, for their efforts in helping make these 15 schools models of excellence,” Torlakson said. “Their success is amazing, especially considering they are swimming against the tide of massive budget cuts, crowded classrooms, and school employee layoffs.”

The four newly designated schools are:

1.     Granite Ridge Intermediate (Clovis Unified School District, Fresno, Fresno County) is the fifth middle grades school in the district to receive the STW™−TCS designation. Clovis Unified is the first district in the state to have all its middle grades schools receive this designation. The school’s achievement gap has narrowed 37 points on the state’s standardized tests under Principal Norm Anderson’s leadership since it opened in 2008. Anderson was also recently named Fresno County’s Administrator of the Year.

2.     High Desert School (Acton-Agua Unified School District, Acton, Los Angeles County) is a small rural school. Administrators have worked very hard to turn their school around and close the achievement gap. Hispanic students’ scores on the state’s standardized tests have climbed 88 points in the past two years, while socioeconomically disadvantaged students have gained 81 points since 2007.

3.     Katherine L. Albiani Middle School (Elk Grove Unified School District, Elk Grove, Sacramento County) is the second middle school in the district to receive the STW™—TCS designation. The achievement gap of students has narrowed by more than 30 points on the state’s standardized tests since 2007.

4.     Olive Peirce Middle School (Ramona City Unified School District, Ramona, San Diego County) is a rural school. Students continue to make gains in all subgroups on the state’s standardized tests. The school has gained 53 points since 2007, while socioeconomically disadvantaged students have gained 71 points.

The redesignated model middle schools are:

1.     Castaic Middle School (Castaic Union School District, Castaic, Los Angeles County);

2.     Culver City Middle School (Culver City Unified School District, Culver City, Los Angeles County);

3.     Clark Intermediate (Clovis Unified School District, Clovis, Fresno County);

4.     Dartmouth Middle School (Union Elementary School District, San Jose, Santa Clara County);

5.     Gaspar de Portola (San Diego Unified School District, San Diego, San Diego County);

6.     McKinleyville Middle School (McKinleyville Union School District, McKinleyville, Humboldt County);

7.     R.H. Dana Middle School (Wiseburn School District, Hawthorne, Los Angeles County);

8.     Silverado Middle School (Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District, Roseville, Sacramento and Placer counties);

9.     Tincher Preparatory (Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach, Los Angeles County);

10.  Toby Johnson Middle School (Elk Grove Unified School District, Elk Grove, Sacramento County); and

11.  Torch Middle School (Bassett Unified School District, City of Industry, Los Angeles County).

The STW™—TCS program identifies high-performing school models that demonstrate academic excellence, developmental responsiveness to the needs and interests of young adolescents, social equity, and organizational support. STW™—TCS model schools host visitors from California and around the world who are looking for replicable practices that will help them improve their middle grades schools and close the achievement gap.

In order to be named a STW™—TCS model middle school, school administrators must conduct a self-study evaluation and complete an extensive narrative application. Each site is then reviewed by a team of middle grades experts. In order to retain the designation, each school is re-evaluated every three years.

The 11 redesignated schools named today were reviewed in September 2011 and are among 32 others selected in previous cycles since 2003 as STW™—TCS designees. Castaic, Culver City, and Silverado middle schools have been STW™—TCS schools for nine years. Gaspar de Portola, McKinleyville, R.H. Dana, and Toby Johnson middle schools have been STW™—TCS schools for six years.

All of the schools will be formally recognized at the California Middle Grades Alliance annual luncheon on February 23, 2012, and during the California League of Middle Schools conference February 24-26, 2012. Both events will be in Sacramento. At that time, the schools will have an opportunity to showcase their accomplishments and network with other middle grades educators from around the state.

For more information about the Schools to Watch™−Taking Center Stage model school program, visit the California Department of Education Web site athttp://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/mg/stw.asp. If reporters would like to contact the school, they may download the contact information through our California School Directory at http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/sd/.

Today, the Department of Education released the FY2011 slate of states and partnerships that will receive funding from the federal GEAR UP program. GEAR UP, or Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, delivers college access and readiness services to low-income, primarily first generation students for a 6 or 7-year period, starting no later than 7th grade. GEAR UP serves approximately 750,000 students each year, and helps students achieve at or above grade level standards, understand the college admissions process including financial aid, and graduate high school prepared for college-level coursework. Nationally, GEAR UP students apply and enroll in post-secondary education at a higher rate than their peers.

This announcement is shared by those of us in California with mixed emotions. Welcome to new and returning grantees. To those who will no longer be of service as a GEAR UP grantee, know that we will miss the interaction and dialogue we have shared. We  hope our paths cross as we continue to press on in service to students, families and communities. There is much work to be done.

Sincerely- California GEAR UP

Of the 296 applications submitted in July, 19 states and 47 partnerships received funding. Although, the total number of 2011 awards is down significantly from the number expected, this is a consequence of partnership grants requesting larger sums of funding to serve larger cohorts of students. These GEAR UP grantees will be nurturing the next generation of college graduates, with many focusing on the Department of Education’s broader agenda of working with persistently lowest-achieving schools and developing strategies to use State longitudinal data systems to deliver reliable and comprehensive information on participant outcomes.

The FY11 slate comes on the heels of a $20 million cut to the GEAR UP program, negotiated during the Fiscal Year 2011 budget debate between Congress and the White House. The funding cut will eliminate more than 40,000 low-income students from the program, and many will have no other way to receive the supports they need to put them on track for postsecondary education.

In President Obama’s FY12 budget, he requests a $20 million increase for GEAR UP, restoring the program to the FY10 funding level. The House and Senate markups as of today indicate flat funding for FY12, with no restoration of funding lost in FY11.

Long time GEAR UP champion Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island received an award for Educational Achievement this morning and spoke about education reform efforts in his home state, including investment in community colleges and technical schools.

The key note speaker was Ruby Payne, best selling author of “A Framework for Understanding Poverty”. She shared her insights on the “hidden rules of poverty” as well as:

• The knowledge that is taken for granted are the hidden rules of that socioeconomic class.
• Characteristics that make generational poverty different from situational poverty.
• Support systems that can be used in schools to help students of poverty.
• Relationships are significant motivators in poverty and therefore can lead to achievement for students.

The highlight of the morning was the GEAR UP Parent Leadership Awards sponsored by CollegeEd.

More to come as the day unfolds. Looking forward to the lunch plenary as I understand there will be some surprises!

UPDATE:

Sessions we attended today:

• “How to get male students in college and keep them out of trouble” (hint: you involve them early in the college process)
• “Self determination: A strategy for enhancing postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities.”  (hint: you prepare them for a non-structured environment and start early)
• “Successful transitions from middle to high school”  (hint: use student academic-year clubs and articulation strategies)

UPDATE:

The last function of the day is the Movie at 8, which premiered “El Juego Perfecto“. Based on a true story, in 1957 a ragtag, shoeless group of poor kids in Mexico shocked the world by winning 13 games in a row and won the Little League World Series. The encounter many adversities along the way to Williamsport, PA for the championship game. A really heartening movie that was attended by many. Check out the trailer HERE.

The CSUS and At & T Road to College bus visited current GEAR UP School Harris Middle School on May 3.  More than 400 students had the opportunity to board a unique tour bus geared toward increasing underserved students access to college.  The activities included: A cool tour bus decorated with college pennants and memorabilia, computers and an interactive video about college and career choices, A photo booth where students took a picture wearing a graduation cap and holding a diploma, Assembly member Alyson Huber talked to students, CSU staff  motivated and cheered the students on.

Prior to the bus visiting Harris, teachers and counselors spent a day with students helping them map out there path to college using the CSUS Road to College curriculum.

The Harris students and staff loved it!

One of the most rewarding things for me about this bus tour has been the number of dedicated teachers, counselors, and principals we met across the state.  I was so inspired to have met educators who are committed and passionate about the future of California children.  It certainly made me think about the many allies and partners higher education has out there and how can we best leverage this experience.  It reminded me of why I got into this business in the first place.

-Carolina Cardenas, Associate Director at CSU Office of the Chancellor

To find out more about the Road to College Bus Tour visit:

http://calstate.edu/roadtocollege/press/index.asp

Patrick Henry Middle School is having a college culture focused month. With the completion of California GEAR UP partner services such as  PIQE (Parent Institute for Quality Education) and preparing for the Education Trust Awards selection and awards ceremony, they have been very busy this spring!

Henry MS shared with us their ETA selection process a here, which many schools have found useful in developing their own awards.

As a cohort B school, Henry is in the second year of the implementation phase of our school based services. Being a California GEAR UP School, Henry has made a commitment to academic excellence and college access for all their students.

Share with us your GEAR UP activities and we will post them on our blog!

California GEAR UP Family Initiatives Project (FIP) offers five-week sessions or one day, 5 hour sessions at selected schools based on the need for family programming strategies to enhance the participation of English speaking families at California GEAR UP schools. Schools take the lead in making community connections to ensure full participation. GEAR UP facilitators lead the interactive sessions. FIP Family University sample outcomes:

• FIP provides families with support, information and resources to increase family participation with the school and community so they can help their children succeed in school for a better future.
• The family gatherings focus on family involvement and positive proactive communication
• Helping families navigate the school system on the pathway to college.
• Discuss financial aid, A-G  and graduation requirements
• Positive family communication and interaction
• College: Making it Happen materials.
• Priority application status for FIP graduates at California State University campuses

Here are some comments from attendees:

“Very good keep it up:  Thank you for coming.”

“Thank you for making this workshop fun and very informative.”

“From this workshop I am better equipped to help my son and family with college and personal affairs.”

“Thank you one of the best meetings I have been to. Thank you.”

“This is a very informative and excellent seminar for parents and students.  Thank you very much.”

“This workshop was very informative with lots of information that will be very useful in preparing for college.  I am going to set up that college account.”

“I feel that the workshop was really educational for myself and child.  Real helpful information thank you for your support.”

“Extremely informative and engaging workshop, we need to  present this same information at the beginning of the school year.  Details about how to conduct parent conference were helpful.  African American parents felt heard and validated.”

“The workshop was very informative, educational and exciting.  It wasn’t boring kept me entertained.”

“I think the presentation was good and informative and done at a good pace.  Presenters were well prepared and handouts were excellent.”

Todays event at Everett MS featured laptop giveaway, excellent participation, and a tasty breakfast and lunch for all attendees.

Latptops and continual support for Everett was provided by Extreme Learning/Avanza Online.

California GEAR UP Northern California Sustainability (CSP) schools met at the Hilton in Glendale  to work on the following outcomes:

Leadership Teams will:

• Engage in a Professional Learning Community by participating in professional readings and dialogue
• Debrief School-wide SSAR conversations, pre-survey and facilitation
• Revisit Sustainability & determine next implementation steps
• Identify the evidence of growth in the SSAR Conditions
• Sharing Best Strategies: Successful Intervention Strategies & Support for Struggling Students

The Continuing Sustainability Project develops and implements long-term strategies to maintain the active participation of middle schools with California GEAR UP and to chart the sustainability of program initiatives towards the development of a college-going culture. Many of our CSP school have been with us for 5 years and are in the culminating stages of their sustainability plans.

Collaboration is key in creating a sustained college-going reform effort in your school. We applaud all of our schools for their continued effort in rethinking what schools can be!!

For more information on our sustainability program, please visit our website.

What do you think creates a sustainable culture of excellence at your school?

We want to hear from you!