SFUSD News Feed

SF teens learn lessons in love, tolerance at fest

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:08:00 +0000

Brant Ward / The Chronicle

Salvador Martinez (left) smiles as Iealis Williams gets the
giggles at their mock wedding at Galileo High School.

Galileo High School celebrated Valentine's Day in a style befitting San Francisco on Tuesday as hundreds of students lined up to "marry" their sweethearts regardless of gender, sexual orientation or relationship status.
They then learned how to correctly put on a condom using goggles that gave them a drunken view of things, and played a variety of games that promoted safer sex.

The school's annual "Love Fest" drew hundred of teens in the school's central courtyard.

While a federal appeals court in San Francisco only last week ruled that a California ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, Galileo students and staff said their fake teen weddings had nothing to do with that. The event, sponsored by the Gay Straight Alliance and the Wellness Center, tried to promote acceptance and tolerance at school and safe decisions in the intimate moments that could happen at that age.

At one table, health teacher Raina Meyers put goggles on students that made their vision slightly blurry, simulating a drunken state. She then told them to put a condom on a wooden penis.

Most of the students left air in the condom tip, which could lead to breakage, and that prompted an instructional rebuke from Meyers.

"You're pregnant!" Meyers told one girl who failed the drunk-goggle test, and to a boy, "You have gonorrhea."
A handful of students milled about at the safer sex exhibits, but the biggest draw was the wedding table, where students fidgeted as they waited for their nuptials.

They signed a photocopied marriage certificate and said a quick "I do" when a student officiant asked about taking the other person as spouse.

The marriage was sealed with optional, one-size-fits-all plastic gold bands.

School Based Mentoring Helps Youth Succeed in School and Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:06:00 +0000

By: Carlos Garcia, via The SF Examiner

Mentors, backed by quality mentoring programs, play a powerful role in preventing substance abuse and youth violence, as well as boosting academic achievement and workforce readiness. In several San Francisco public schools, mentors are working with at-risk youth through a school district program called Mentoring for Success.

Mentoring for Success began matching individual students with adult mentors seven years ago. Since then the program has expanded to 36 schools serving 600 students. Over the past seven years 2,000 students have gained guidance and support from caring adults at school; eighty-six percent of mentored students say their mentors help them do better in school.

Project Arrive, one of Mentoring for Success’ newest programs, just began working in Thurgood Marshall, John O’Connell, Galileo, and Mission High Schools this fall. It provides group mentoring for ninth graders, with a history of poor attendance flagged by SFUSD’s Early Warning Indicator (EWI) system. Since being in the program students with Project Arrive mentors at Mission High have begun outperforming their cohorts at other schools.

“It’s giving us a way to help keep struggling students from falling through the cracks. It’s really been the right thing for our school,” says Mission High’s principal Eric Guthertz who is also taking part as a mentor.

Become a Mentor

Mentoring for Success encourages structured, consistent and purposeful relationships between a young person and a caring adult who provides acceptance, support, encouragement, guidance and concrete assistance to promote healthy youth development and student success.

January is National Mentoring Month and SFUSD's Mentoring for Success program is recruiting new mentors. Read more about being a mentor for Mentoring for Success at www.healthiersf.org/mentoringforsuccess

For information about other mentoring opportunities near you go to www.nationalmentoringmonth.org

Today on Your Call: What’s working in schools?

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:00:00 +0000

By Ali Budner

On today's Your Call we’ll talk about education success stories. With another round of severe budget cuts and a heated debate about education reform led by corporate funded think tanks, we’re taking a step back to talk about what’s actually working in our schools. Smaller class sizes? Textbooks that are more relevant to everyday life? More support for teachers? Join us at 10 or email feedback@yourcallradio.org. What works in your local schools? It’s Your Call with Holly Kernan, and you.

Guests
Katy Murphy, education reporter for the Oakland Tribune
Eric Guthertz, principal of Mission High School
Kathy Schultz, dean and professor of education in the School of Education at Mills College

Listen to the broadcast at KALW

SFUSD partners with School of Education

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:55:00 +0000

By Mary Ann Toman-Miller

“In education, it is the worst of times and the best of times,” said Claude Steele, dean of the Stanford School of Education, at a lunchtime presentation Tuesday that discussed a partnership between Stanford and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Steele opened the event by stating that this “partnership is a model for how schools of education can relate to real school districts.”

The panelists said that though school districts are facing budget cuts, changes in technology and educational research can make it possible to get rid of old deadwood methodologies that no longer work.

“Finland, with the most equitable education system, improved their schools using American research,” Steele said. He noted the importance of coordination and the need to grapple with practical problems.

Steele emphasized the need for a broader recognition of the importance of education to quality of life and the economy. He said he would like to see a proper “distribution of good education into all communities — the entire population.”

SFUSD Superintendent Carlos Garcia took time to thank Stanford for the partnership and referenced the often political nature of debate about education.

“After 37 years in the business, I learned that we all make a lot of assumptions, many of them wrong and the world changes,” Garcia said. He also noted that he believes facts should be regarded as the most important indicator in debate, saying, “the data does not take political sides.”

Garcia added that because of the economic crisis, it is important that school systems do not “spend resources on places that don’t get us results.”

Nancy Waymack, SFUSD’s executive director of policy and operations, agreed, saying, “If you’re sitting on a dead horse, get off.”

Waymack referenced the idea that if an old curriculum isn’t working, it should be replaced, not constantly retooled.

Read more at The Stanford Daily

Studying trauma in S.F. middle schools

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:16:00 +0000

By: Jill Tucker

Brant Ward / The Chronicle

An Aptos Middle School student sits alone and draws during
Game Club. This student is not suspected of having PTSD, but
social workers say troubled students may isolate themselves,
Game Club helps them to interact.

One in every 6 students surveyed in San Francisco middle schools this year experienced community violence, abuse, the death of a loved one, war or other traumatic event, putting them at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder or other trauma-related problems.

The results showed that on average five or six children in every classroom are burdened by mental, physical or emotional symptoms related to stressful events in their lives outside school, regardless of race, family income or neighborhood.

The screening was the first extensive survey of student exposure to trauma in the district, which welcomed the researchers and training they are bringing to schools to identify and support students.

It was part of a larger scientific study by education researchers at SRI International to test the effectiveness of school-based group therapy to improve student coping skills and in turn academic performance.

Seven of the district's 13 middle schools are participating in the first year of the four-year, $3.4 million study funded by the U.S. Department of Education. About 613 incoming sixth-graders, about 40 percent of the students in that category, were surveyed.

At Aptos Middle School, a high-performing school in the Balboa Terrace neighborhood, about half of the sixth-graders who took the survey reported experiencing at least one significant traumatic event.
"I just felt we needed to find out," said Aptos Principal Doug Dent. "There's a lot of behavior (among students) that didn't make a lot of sense to adults."

Students have been known to storm out of class for no apparent reason; overreact to minor encounters; yell or get in frequent fights; or get angry when asked to remove a coat or a hat. Others simply withdraw, refusing to participate or engage, teachers and administrators said.

"They can't benefit from the education they're getting," said Carl Sumi, senior education researcher at SRI, an independent research institute in Menlo Park.

Beating the deadline to apply for SF schools

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:14:00 +0000

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Counselors and parents handing in applications for school
are silhouetted against a screen in the San Francisco
Unified School District Board Room, where a temporary office
was set up Thursday to deal with the rush of applications.
Kindergarten applications have spiked. The deadline: Today.

Counselors and parents hand in their applications for public school in the Board Room, where a temporary office was set up to deal with the rush of applications coming in close to deadline, at the San Francisco Unified School District Administrative Office on Thursday, January 26, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.

Interest in SF public schools has been on the rise, with 22% more kindergarten applications in 2011 than in 2005 (5% more in 2011 than in 2010).

The application deadline is January 27 and students entering the public schools for the first time must submit original proofs of residency in order for their applications to be processed.

SF Schools Pushing Kids To Drink More Tap Water

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:48:00 +0000

By: Patricia Decker, Bay City News

San Francisco public school officials are hoping to encourage students to drink more water--both at school and at home--by promoting the benefits of tap water and allowing students to use refillable water bottles in classrooms, district officials said today.

As part of a pilot program to promote an alternative to single-use plastic water bottles, the school district, in partnership with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, has installed new water fountains that allow for easy bottle filling.

The pilot program was conducted at five public schools, and this morning Board of Supervisors President David Chiu and representatives from the SFPUC and SFUSD announced the successful completion of the pilot's first phase.

According to the school district, slightly more than 1,800 students attend the five initially participating schools--Tenderloin Community School, John Yehall Chin, Jose Ortega Elementary School, Sutro Elementary School and Wallenberg High.

The initiative is expanding to 21 additional public schools, district officials said.

In the city's North Beach neighborhood, all students at John Yehall Chin Elementary this morning received new 16-oz stainless steel water bottles for use at their school's new "combo tap" station, district officials said.
Beyond providing containers, the initiative aims to educate students about how water is a part of everyday life, where water comes from, and why it is important to conserve, the district's director of sustainability, Nik Kaestner, said.

"Teachers talk about the benefits of tap water and talk to them about the importance of filling up these bottles regularly," Kaestner said. "We're basically trying to displace their desire to drink other beverages."
So how many bottles aren't students using?

According Kaestner, the school district plans to conduct a survey at the end of February to quantitatively measure the pilot program's success.

The survey will compare the water use and drinking habits of three of the pilot schools to that of three schools that did not participate, he said.

According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, in the city, bottled water is at least 300 times more expensive than tap water, considering that the SFPUC sells water for approximately $0.003 per gallon.
The Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park supplies 85 percent of SFPUC tap water, and health department officials said the reservoir is a "highly protected, high quality" source that meets EPA regulatory requirements.

Compared to tap water, bottled water also uses more resources, produces more waste, and requires time and energy to transport the water from the store to the home or office, according to the public health department.

Students are being encouraged to drink three bottles--or 48 oz. of water a day. Any more, Kaestner said, and teachers would be concerned that students would be distracted by too many trips to the bathroom.
"We're asking them to drink three, instead of drink freely," he said.

Allowing the in-class water bottles, which have been outfitted with sport tops for quick (and quiet) drinking, means that students will no longer need to be constantly excused to use the drinking fountain, according to Kaestner.

As for establishing healthy habits at home, Kaestner said that the students often are able to convince their parents to change their behavior.

"They have the opportunity not only to do the right thing at home but to take it beyond the classroom," he said.

In S.F. schools, it's the process that's tested

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:09:00 +0000

By Jill Tucker

Dania Maxwell / Special to The Chronicle

At Starr King Elementary, Latrice Simmons, a convert to the
benefits of benchmark assessments, teaches third grade.

Every spring, California schoolchildren pick up their No. 2 pencils to take standardized tests, filling in answer sheets hour after hour. The tests go on for several days, after days and days of preparation and practice for those tests.

There's too much testing and not enough learning, Gov. Jerry Brown said during his annual State of the State speech last week.

Brown proposed curtailing the number of tests students have to take, an idea met with enthusiasm by teachers who long have complained about the national obsession with standardized tests.

Yet, in San Francisco, district officials added an asterisk to that support.

That's because city schools are testing kids more than ever before. District officials don't call them tests, though. They call them assessments. There's a big difference, said Richard Carranza, deputy superintendent.

Assessments explained

Tests, whether given by the state or in class by a teacher, are a snapshot of a point in time, he said. They are used to determine a student's grade or to rank a school.

With assessments, which San Francisco started administering last year, district officials can check to see how well students are learning. A uniform district-wide assessment is given three times a year in elementary grades and twice in high school.

"It's checking for understanding," Carranza said. "It informs you: What do you do next?"

He doesn't see a conflict with the governor's proposal, which is connected to a belief that local districts should have greater control over decision making.

The district's benchmark assessments, which include multiple choice, open-ended questions and writing, are scored for the most part by the district and then returned to schools within 24 to 48 hours.

Charts and other data show what academic concepts students understand and what they don't. The data also show trends across schools and the district as a whole. Parents get individual reports about their children's scores.

Gay Straight Alliance takes hold in earlier grades

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:13:00 +0000

Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle

Social worker Meghan Graber films students in
Everett Middle School's Gay Straight Alliance for a video.

By: Jill Tucker

It took just a single word for Marcel Brown to make up his mind to join his school's Gay Straight Alliance.

"I was walking down the hallway with my little brother, and he was messing around with his friends and they called him a 'faggot,' " said Marcel, an eighth-grader at San Francisco's Everett Middle School. "And I thought, 'That's messed up.' My older brother is gay."

Since that day a couple of months ago, he has spent lunchtime each Tuesday in Room 107 with a dozen or so members of the middle school club.

While common in high schools across the country, chapters of the Gay Straight Alliance with the younger school set have been slower to gain a foothold, in some cases because of the controversy the clubs stir up.
But there are signs of increasing acceptance.

There are now 500 middle school Gay Straight Alliance chapters nationwide, up from a couple dozen three years ago, according to the national Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

Many of the clubs formed after publicized suicides of middle school children such as 13-year-old Seth Walsh of Tehachapi (Kern County) in 2010 and 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover of Springfield, Mass., in 2009. Both were bullied because they were believed to be gay.

Realities of middle school

At Everett, where the club started about five years ago, students talk about bullying and slurs associated with sexual orientation and brainstorm ways to address it.

While critics might argue middle school students are too young to tackle such topics, supporters disagree.
"Thinking it's too early is really blind to what it's like in middle school," said Eliza Byard, the educational network's executive director. "Anyone who walks through the halls of a middle school knows what it's like. The words 'faggot' and 'dyke' are weapons of choice."

Marcel, 14, hears those words all the time.

"It just makes me mad because they're using it in the wrong way," he said.

Studies consistently show that bullying, assault and harassment - including incidents related to gender or sexual orientation - are more common in middle school than other grades.

Brisk breakfasts feed scrambling students in San Francisco high schools

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:10:00 +0000

By: Amy Crawford

Breakfast burritos are among the meal options for students at some San Francisco high schools.

Students at Wallenberg High School now have no excuse for missing the most important meal of the day. Starting last week, the school began handing out bagels, muffins and breakfast burritos at the door for students to eat in their first-period classes.

The Western Addition campus is the latest participant in the San Francisco Unified School District’s Grab ‘n’ Go Breakfast program, which was already operating at Balboa and Mission high schools.

The program, funded by the California Department of Education, will be rolled out to nine high schools and 10 middle schools this year, district spokeswoman Heidi Anderson said.

While more than 60 percent of San Francisco students qualify for free or reduced-price school breakfasts, taking advantage of that used to mean getting to school early and eating in the cafeteria. The convenience of the new program has led to nearly 30 percent more students eating breakfast at Mission High, Anderson said.

Grab ‘n’ Go also may help the district nutrition program’s bottom line. Although most students who eat breakfast at school are not required to pay, the district receives subsidies from the National School Breakfast Program.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/01/brisk-breakfasts-feed-scrambling-students#ixzz1jqYGHvhj

Mission district grant will help brighten kids' futures

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:08:00 +0000

By: Amy Crawford

Mike Koozmin/The SF Examiner

Brighter future: The Department of Education chose
the Mission as one of President Barack Obama’s
Promise Neighborhoods.

Despite the Mission’s escalating property values, it remains one of The City’s poorest neighborhoods. The teen birth rate is nearly double the citywide rate, and more than three-quarters of young children live in low-income homes.

Given the odds stacked against young people in the Mission, it’s no wonder that school test scores are generally lower and dropout rates higher than in other parts of The City. But a federal grant for $500,000 — which could be followed by $30 million more over the next five years — could begin to change that.

The federal Department of Education announced this week that the Mission district will be part of Promise Neighborhoods, a program promoted by President Barack Obama and launched in 2010.

An application from the nonprofit Mission Economic Development Agency was one of 20 chosen from a pool of more than 200 nationwide.

The thinking behind the concept, which was inspired by a program in Harlem N.Y., is that children need more than better schools to get ahead.

“I’m getting kids when they’re 5 or 6,” said Guadalupe Guerrero, assistant superintendent for the Mission campuses of the San Francisco Unified School District. “If we got them to arrive at kindergarten with some of those skills middle- class kids have, what a difference that might make.”

The $500,000 planning grant will allow the agency, district and other local entities to begin assembling “cradle-to-career” programs that will help Mission kids escape the neighborhood’s persistent poverty.

“Most of the services are available, but they’re not integrated with the schools,” said agency Director Luis Granados.

In the Mission Promise Neighborhood, children will get better access to preschool, health care, after-school programs and college admissions help.

Parents will receive financial literacy training, as well as help finding jobs and affordable housing.

“Studies have shown economic stability bodes well for student achievement,” Granados said.

Granados said the $500,000 will go toward data collection, surveys and meetings with the community. The planning must be complete by June, when the agencies behind the program will apply for an implementation grant that could be worth up to $30 million over five years.

About 15 to 20 neighborhoods nationwide will be eligible for that money, and at least 10 grants will be available. Granados said he was confident about the Mission’s chances.

“Those are pretty darn good odds, and it’s a big payoff, especially in these tough economic times,” he said.

San Francisco schools report fewer absences

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:57:00 +0000

By: Amy Crawford

AP file photo

For the first three months of the current school year, the
San Francisco Unified School District reported a drop in
chronic absenteeism in nearly every grade.

Chronic absenteeism is down among San Francisco public school students, according to recently compiled school district records.

For the first three months of the current school year, the district reported a drop of two percentage points or more in nearly every grade since the 2010-11 school year. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing at least 10 percent of school days.

Spokeswoman Gentle Blythe attributed the gains to a new early warning system and automatic parental notification. The district has paid special attention to ninth grade, which has a chronic absenteeism rate of 9 percent this year, compared to more than 15 percent two years ago.

This year, the district made the most progress in getting kindergartners to school. Just under 9 percent have been chronically absent this year, compared with 13 percent last year.

The highest rate of absenteeism, 11 percent, was in 10th grade, but that figure was nearly 13 percent last year.

Absenteeism is a risk factor for dropping out of high school, Blythe said, and the state also uses attendance figures to calculate funding

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/education/2012/01/san-francisco-schools-report-fewer-absences#ixzz1jCmfi5Gj

SF Balboa High's coach uses 'sport to teach life'

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:55:00 +0000

By: Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer

Michael Macor / The Chronicle

Balboa High School basketball and volleyball coach Val
Cubales, speaks to his players during a recent practice
in San Francisco, Ca., on Wednesday November 23, 2011.

The only sound louder than the squeak of 10 pairs of high-tops on the Balboa High basketball court is the beating of 10 nervous boys' hearts, scrambling to escape the coach's glare.

"You did it again!" shouts school Athletic Director Val Tintiangco-Cubales, halting play with a shriek of his whistle.

He instructs a player how to throw a more strategic inbound pass.

"You turned your back, that was your demise. Get the ball and open up, face the court. OK, hustle up, do it again, let's GO, let's GO, let's GO!"

Breaks are few and far between in the two-hour practice, as players run for lay-ups, do baseline sprints, and practice free throws and three-pointers. Even the water breaks are timed - 30 seconds to chug down sweet water from green Gatorade bottles.

"He's tough, but we like that," said point guard Di'jon Jones, 17. "He wants everything right, and we give it because he's always here for us."

Cubales, 40, wants it right because as he sees it, he's not teaching a sport, he's developing character - turning his charges into young people who know to take their hats off indoors, relinquish their Muni seats to seniors, and win without gloating or lose without pouting.

"I'm using sport to teach life," said Cubales, who acknowledges that he's known as a "yelling coach."
"I want them to be competitive because they will need to be in college and in their careers, yet they need to know how to handle the pitfalls, too."

Cubales, who also coaches girls volleyball and teaches P.E., says he has a soft spot for his athletes, sharing a similar background others euphemistically refer to as "low-income," or "at-risk."

Cubales grew up surfing and playing basketball in Santa Cruz, and attended a high school with an athletic losing streak that reminded him of Balboa when he arrived in 1997.

Many of his players have parents who work several jobs and can't attend their games. Some live in frenetic homes, without clear supervision.

SF schools simulate disabilities, foster understanding in kids

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:51:00 +0000

By: Amy Crawford
SF Examiner Staff Writer

Class act: Students at Miraloma Elementary School
participated in simulations of disabilities such as
blindness, paraplegia and limited fine motor skills during
Inclusive Schools Week.

Ember Klein-Coletti was trying to complete a worksheet, but first the Miraloma Elementary School second-grader needed to pick up a pencil with a green quilted oven mitt on her right hand.

“This is hard!” the frustrated 7-year-old said. “I can’t even pick one up!”

The exercise was designed to simulate being disabled — specifically, having limited fine motor skills.

“You can’t grip the pencil the same way, can you?” said parent volunteer Sirena McCart. “How did everybody feel?”

“Weird!” some of the children exclaimed.

“I wasn’t used to that,” Ember replied.

The activities, which also included simulations of blindness and paraplegia, were all part of a national movement called Inclusive Schools Week, a recent five-day series of events designed to get kids thinking about all kinds of diversity, from disabilities to cultural and racial differences.

“Inclusive schools are about building a school that’s welcoming to everybody,” explained Catherine Dauer, a parent who helped organize the week’s activities at Miraloma, one of several San Francisco schools that participated.

The goal of the day’s simulation was to get the children thinking about how to better include their disabled peers in classroom and playground activities.

“They’re definitely empathizing with what it could be like to have a challenge,” Dauer said. “They’re learning to be helpful and respectful, but they’re realizing that if they had a challenge, they wouldn’t want help all the time.”

Dauer was speaking from experience. Her son Avery, 7, has cerebral palsy and uses crutches and a walker to get around. The second-grader said he was glad his classmates got to experience what it was like to have a physical challenge.

“It makes me feel more confident that they understand me,” Avery said, noting that his classmates were already good about modifying schoolyard games so he could play too.

Avery’s mother said she hoped he learned something from the day’s activities as well.

“I hope that he is as empathetic toward people with challenges as they are to him,” she said. “Every child has some kind of challenge.”

Keeping Music Education Alive Despite Budget Cuts

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:29:00 +0000

Reporter: Ana Tintocalis

Schoolchildren across California have been performing holiday concerts this month. Given all the budget cuts to education, it might be surprising that arts and music programs still exist, but they do. At one San Francisco high school, a financial commitment voters made to the arts is paying off.Reporter: Ana Tintocalis

Mission Bears Honored by Mayor Ed Lee

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:02:00 +0000

By: Annie Pham

The Mission High School Bears made history on Thanksgiving Day when they won their first San Francisco Academic Athaletic Association championship in 57 years. This week it became official, as Mayor Ed Lee proclaimed Dec. 12 “Mission High School Football AAA Championship Day.”

On hand for the celebration were 49ers alumni Dwight Clark, Guy McIntyre and Dennis Brown.

It was a special occasion, notes Jared Muela, the 49ers’ youth football coordinator:

“This championship is the second enormous victory for the team this season. The first came on September 3rd, when they again were able to put a team on the field and get the 2011 season underway. Two years ago Mission High School almost had to discontinue their football program because of poor grades and participation. Coach Albano took this challenge head on and has resurrected a program most thought would fall by the wayside.”

View more photos at MissionLocal.com

Bucking a punitive trend, San Francisco lets students own up to misdeeds instead of getting kicked out of school

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:28:00 +0000

By: Jeremy Adam Smith

How one big-city district cut suspensions and expulsions — and why they may rise again

Tony Litwak, second from right, the director of the Peer Courts
program in San Francisco, has recruited more than 20 students
from schools across the city to work with misbehaving students
and keep them in class.
Photo by Jason Winshell / SF Public Press

Instead of being kicked out for fighting, stealing, talking back or other disruptive behavior, public school students in San Francisco are being asked to listen to each other, write letters of apology, work out solutions with the help of parents and educators or engage in community service. All these practices fall under the umbrella of “restorative justice” — asking wrongdoers to make amends before resorting to punishment.

The program launched in 2009 when the Board of Education asked schools to find alternatives to suspension and expulsion. In the previous seven years, suspensions in San Francisco spiked by 152 percent, to a total of 4,341 — mostly African Americans, who despite being one-tenth of the district made up half of suspensions and more than half of expulsions. This disparity fed larger social inequalities: two decades of national studies have found that expelled or suspended students are vastly more likely to drop out of school or end up in jail than those who face other kinds of consequences for their actions.

“My first act as a school board member was to push a student out of his school,” recalled Jane Kim, a former community organizer who as a member of Board of Education needed to approve all expulsions.

“That’s not what I expected to do,” she said, especially when it seemed to exacerbate the social inequalities she had pledged to fight in her position. Board colleague Sandra Lee Fewer said, “Sixty percent of inmates in the San Francisco county jail have been students in the San Francisco public school system, and the majority of them are people of color. We just knew we had to somehow stop this schoolhouse-to-jailhouse pipeline.”

Fewer and Kim, along with colleague Kim–Shree Maufas, led the three-year process for the board to officially adopt restorative justice. Though the task force charged with implementing the policy received only modest funding, expulsions have fallen 28 percent since its inception. Less serious cases have shown even more success. Non-mandatory referrals for expulsion (those not involving drugs, violence or sexual assault) have plunged 60 percent, and suspensions are down by 35 percent.

Board members and many educators say restorative practices have kept students in school and out of the criminal justice system. “We’re holding kids more accountable than we did before,” said Kim, who now serves on the city’s Board of Supervisors. “In restorative justice, you have to actually have the offender and the victim sit down and discuss what happened and how the offender can make it better.”

But the data — along with interviews with parents, students and educators — reveal that progress so far is halting and uneven. Critics say that’s because the transition from punitive to restorative justice is underfunded and haphazardly evaluated. Suspensions and expulsions are actually rising in some schools that have yet to embrace restorative practices, often in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. At one, Thurgood Marshall High School, suspensions have almost tripled since 2007. The resulting picture is a school-by-school patchwork, at best an unfinished project to reform the traditional juvenile discipline paradigm.

Shop class retooled for future at O'Connell High

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:09:00 +0000

By: Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

O'Connell High School's Gus Amador (left) offers advice to
Lucerito Martinez as carpentry students work together to
rough-frame a stage being built for the industrial arts
building's unveiling today.

San Francisco school officials are to unveil a $1.1 million barn-like industrial space on the John O'Connell High School campus today, a mark of the district's revitalized effort to bring back old-school shop classes with 21st century twists.

The new building, the first solar-powered site in the city's school district, will hold the power tools for traditional carpentry classes immediately, but have the flexibility to accommodate high-tech courses like robotics or aeronautics at some point down the line, said David Goldin, district chief facilities officer.
It's big enough that students could wheel in a small airplane and take it apart, Goldin said.

The space at the Mission neighborhood school offers students the hands-on, career-focused learning of decades past, while including enough math and other academics to satisfy the requirements of a college-prep curriculum.

This is definitely not your father's woodshop class. In a sense, the new building and the program inside combine old-school vocational education with college track rigor, a rejection of the either-or model of generations past.

Variety of skills

Students will be expected to learn the basics - everything from hammering a nail to using a tape measure - as well as advanced skills like creating blueprints and building plans. For example, they will make a playhouse to the same specifications of a real house - only smaller.

"The skills that make you successful in college are the same skills that make you successful in careers," said Deputy Superintendent Richard Carranza.

The new building, funded by developer fees, will allow an expansion of the school's carpentry classes, which were restarted in 2008 after years of being on hiatus.

Classes are expected to begin in the building sometime in January, moving from a cramped classroom where saws share space with desks and where there's only enough room for about 15 students because of safety concerns, said teacher Guy Amador.

"The kids are knocking down my door to get into my classes," said Amador, who is looking forward to the move.

"I want them to go home with all their fingers," he said.

Shop classes were largely phased out over the last couple of decades as schools focused on pushing all students toward college rather than the frowned-upon tracking of some kids into skilled labor.
But in recent years, educators have pushed back, realizing that vocational-focused classes have always served a sector of students that won't go to college, giving them insight and experience into lucrative careers.

On Land and in the Bay, Innovation Tackles Truancy

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:30:00 +0000

By TREY BUNDY

Lianne Milton for The Bay Citizen

Downtown HS students build and sail boats as part of a "project-based" curriculum designed to decrease truancy.

On Monday morning, the start of the school week, five teenagers rowed toward the breakwater leading into San Francisco Bay.

“It’s so foggy you can’t even see the Golden Gate Bridge,” said Austin, a 17-year-old student at Downtown High School in Potrero Hill, as he worked the oars. When the students passed an old sailboat, their instructor, Jeff Rogers, told them it was built 120 years ago in Hunters Point.

“Hey,” Austin said. “My ’hood.”

If not for the boating expedition, Austin might have still been home, in bed, instead of in school. But on that day his classroom happened to be a sailboat. Before coming to Downtown, he was a chronic truant in the San Francisco school system, one of the thousands of students at risk of dropping out. Now he attends school about 80 percent of the time.

For decades, teachers and school districts have battled truancy, struggling to engage students who cope with economic hardship, community strife, domestic violence and drug abuse. Some students avoid school because they are not interested or because they are being bullied. But since 2008, in part because of programs like those at Downtown, the San Francisco district’s chronic truancy has dropped by 31 percent.

Downtown High is a continuation school, with one of the two largest concentrations of truants in the city; the other is Ida B. Wells High School in the Western Addition. There are no ringing class bells or six-period school days at Downtown; the curriculum is “project-based,” meaning students choose one course each semester to fulfill all of their academic requirements. Math, science, history and English are taught in hands-on classes in music, nature, drama and social movements.

Jaime Osorno, Downtown’s counselor, came to the school four years ago after working in the district as a truancy specialist. “I chose this because I felt that we were offering something different to students,” Mr. Osorno said. “When I was in other schools, it was like, ‘Here’s your classes, good luck.’ ”

Most of the 275 students at Downtown High have exhausted efforts by other schools to get them on track to graduate, including parent meetings, support programs and mediations with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. As a result, “attendance drives everything” at Downtown, said Mark Alvarado, the principal.

At Downtown, success means that a student attends school at least 80 percent of the time and earns at least 17.5 credits each quarter. Roughly 100 students achieve that mark, up from about 25 in 2007, but the numbers fluctuate weekly.

The students fall into three categories. Those with 80 percent attendance or better are in Cohort A; students in Cohort B show up 40 percent to 80 percent of the time; and some students in Cohort C have never even set foot on campus.

“These are the kids that make me nervous,” Mr. Alvarado said of Cohort C, adding that few of them make it to graduation. Instead, he tries to connect those students to adult education and vocational training programs.

“Cohort B wants to graduate,” he said. “They could have dropped out already. They weren’t successful before for whatever reason, but they’re coming to school.”

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the school put on a holiday feast and a talent show. Mr. Alvarado estimated that 145 out of 275 students attended, a typical showing at Downtown.

S.F. schools struggle with more homeless kids

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:25:00 +0000

By: Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Michael Macor / The Chronicle

Brothers Rudy and Danny Nguyen wait for a storage locker

site to open so their family can stow their bag of possessions.

Rudy Nguyen, 10, is homeless.

Last week, he was sleeping on the floor at a San Francisco drop-in homeless shelter with his parents and 3-year-old brother Danny. Thin mats kept them off hard linoleum.

In the last two months, he spent three nights at a bus shelter and a week on the streets, sleeping on his parents' laps in a park.

Yet every morning, Rudy Nguyen takes two Muni buses to San Francisco's Spring Valley elementary school, where the fourth-grader is expected to be ready to read, write and multiply numbers - like every other kid in school.

Rudy is among a growing number of San Francisco schoolchildren in homeless families who too often come to class cold, hungry and sleep-deprived, making learning difficult if not impossible.

"If you're not fed, if you're not warm, if you're not sleeping ... you can't turn that off and focus on double-digit multiplication," said Jessica Chiarchiaro, Rudy's fourth-grade teacher.

In the city's public schools, there are 2,200 homeless children, some in shelters, others in cars, or on couches, or in long-term hotel rooms. That's 400 more homeless children than a year ago.

They are among the most difficult children to teach, educators say, because their unstable lives often lead to frequent absences or tardiness, lethargy, health issues and behavioral outbursts.

Doing homework can be tough without a kitchen table.

And yet in the spring, these homeless children will take the same standardized test as students in Hillsborough, Piedmont and Beverly Hills where every physical and academic need is met - their heated bedrooms full of books, computers and educational toys, their kitchens stocked with food.

"We're being held accountable for these kids scoring a certain percentage correct on a standardized test," Chiarchiaro said of the homeless schoolchildren. "I wish public schools had more resources so we can help them."

Homeless students typically post scores below or far below grade level on those tests, landing at the opposite end of the achievement gap from kids with greater advantages.

Late for school

One recent morning, Rudy's parents, Sophorn "Julie" Sung and Tung Nguyen, juggled a bag of clothes, jackets and Rudy's 3-year-old brother, Danny, as they left the Oshun drop-in shelter in the Mission District. They weren't allowed to leave anything at the shelter for the day, so they headed to a local storage facility.
Rudy and his family waited outside until 8 a.m. when the storage gates opened. At Rudy's school, breakfast was being served.

Rudy hadn't eaten yet.

The family came to San Francisco from Dallas in September after Rudy's unemployed father believed he had a good-paying job in shipping and receiving waiting for him. The job didn't pan out.

They had sold everything to come to California, except for the few belongings in the storage locker.
"Oh, he's going to be late again," Sung said as she stashed the clothes for the day.

School was just starting when Rudy arrived 45 minutes later. He had been delayed because the 49 Mission Muni bus he and his family hoped to catch pulled away as they crossed the street. They caught the next bus.
On the way to school, Rudy didn't talk much.

"Mom, I'm hungry and cold," he said as he walked up the final hill toward Spring Valley elementary school.
His mom didn't respond.

2,200 homeless students

Budget cuts could jeopardize at-risk teen programs in SF

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:01:00 +0000

By: Amy Crawford | 12/01/11 4:00 AM
Examiner Staff Writer

Mike Koozmin/The Examiner

Teacher Valerie Ziegler, center, and student teacher
Lauren Karas, center left, lead a class at Lincoln High,

\where three special academies could lose state aid.

Inez Vara attributes her academic success to the Green Academy, one of four career-focused schools-within-a-school at Abraham Lincoln High School.

When Vara was a freshman at Lincoln High, her earth sciences teacher suggested she sign up for the Green Academy, a program the school was starting the next year.

“I thought, ‘All it is, is save the whales, save the trees,’” she said. “But it was not what I expected.”

Now a senior, Vara has learned about recycling, waste management and climate change. She is taking Advanced Placement environmental science and applying to four-year colleges, and she hopes to have a career in foreign aid.

Participating schools must ensure that half the students entering an academy be deemed “at risk” of dropping out in the future. But despite the greater challenges faced by many academy students, a recently released study by researchers at UC Berkeley found that 95 percent of students in the state’s 500 career academies graduate on time, compared to 85 percent of all students statewide. Academy students also were more likely to pass graduation exams.

At Lincoln High, students said the study’s findings made sense.

“Abraham Lincoln is such a huge school,” Vara said. “In the academies, we create smaller communities. We build closer relationships with the teachers and closer relationships with each other. We’re not just another student in the hallway.”

Kitty Lam, a senior in Lincoln’s Teacher Academy, agreed.

“You’re with these people for so long,” Lam said, noting that students in each academy share the same small group of teachers for three years. “You strive for success. You can’t just let them down. The class, the teachers, we’re a family.”

The academies’ success may be in jeopardy, however.

School Beat: High Schools – the Last Stop in School Searches

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:56:00 +0000

by Lisa Schiff‚ BeyondChron

San Francisco voters were generous once again and passed Proposition A, the last in a trio of facilities bond measures to repair and refurbish our city’s public school buildings. Those among us who are touring schools as part of the student assignment process have had ample opportunity to view both the benefits of the previous two bond measures and the need for this last round. If only all school improvement efforts were as tractable as physical plant upgrades, we would be in great shape, but of course this isn’t so.

My family is currently looking at high schools for next year, so we are in our last-ever engagement with San Francisco Unified School District’s (SFUSD) school assignment system. This system has been the focus of much debate and angst over the years, no less so these days after being recently revised to more strongly weight a child’s home address, while at the same time attempting to prioritize choices for children likely to be experiencing educational disadvantages.

Because of past lawsuits, legally binding agreements, and a moral imperative to provide equal access to educational opportunities, SFUSD has not had a “simple” neighborhood assignment policy for years. Apparently voters understand the complexity of the situation we find ourselves in, as evidenced by the Proposition H advisory measure failing to pass.

Still, the very fact that such an advisory measure was on the ballot highlights how student assignment captures the majority of attention regarding school issues. But the problem with focusing so much energy on this one aspect of the school system is that it can only go so far in addressing a more fundamental issue – the inequalities in schools across our city and what we must do together to strengthen all of our schools. A positive attribute of our school system is that, within quite a burdensome set of financial and policy constraints, schools have developed in unique ways. Various types of programs and approaches are found from school to school; sizes are different; communities are different. These differences can present meaningful, distinct options for families.

The flip side of course, is that our schools are not individuating from a shared strong, baseline foundation. Disparities persist and because they are based in a multitude of factors, they are hard to tackle. One approach that was supposed to address resource inequities was the Weighted Student Formula (WSF), but this has not completely panned out. In this model, resources follow a student. If a student falls into certain categories that have specific funding associated with that category – say a student who is an English Language Learner – those monies go with that student, wherever they are, regardless of school. That works to a certain degree, but students don’t receive education like they do servings of food. Portions of education can’t be easily meted out on a student by student basis.

Read more at BeyondChron

Cooking class gives high schoolers skills for life

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:07:00 +0000

By: Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

Students saute vegetables in donated cookware in Wells' Heat
of the Kitchen culinary arts program, taught by chef Cravens.

Juan Trujillo stood over the hot stove in the Ida B. Wells High School culinary arts kitchen sauteing chard in garlic-infused oil.

The San Francisco 17-year-old, in a chef's jacket and metal tongs in hand, eyed the odd-looking green leaves with red stems.

"I've never had chard, but it smells good," he said, still cautious. "But I like my salad cold."
He nonetheless pledged to give the hot leafy greens a try.

Preparing new kinds of food is part of the continuation high school's culinary curriculum, along with kitchen etiquette, knife skills and the art of handling a hot pan. But the program is about much more than cooking.
The 40 or so students enrolled in the classes each quarter must adhere to professional standards that include following rules, teamwork, reliability and pride of work, said their teacher and head chef, Alice Cravens.

Those are skills the teens need outside of a kitchen and school. They are attributes that build confidence as well as content for a resume, the teacher said.

The students at Ida B. Wells struggled in traditional high schools, falling far behind in credits. The school allows students to study at their own pace so they can catch up in academic courses and credits while preparing for a productive future that includes a much-needed high school diploma.

Career potential

The Heat of the Kitchen culinary arts program is an elective. It helps fulfill students' graduation requirements and offers them insight into a potential career, but it's also a fun reason to come to school, said Jasmine Navas, 16.

"I think it's a good opportunity to have students feel they can accomplish something," she said. "I look forward to coming to this class."

Other high schools in the district have cooking classes, but Ida B. Wells has the only culinary arts program in the district. Students who complete at least 20 hours in the course can sign up for job shadow opportunities at local restaurants.

The internships are a win-win for the teens and the city's food industry, said Daniel Scherotter, chef and owner of Palio D'Asti, which sponsored one of the school's students.

Chef wants SF students to not only eat healthy, but learn to cook as wel

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:47:00 +0000

By: Amy Crawford | 11/21/11 8:03 PM

Examiner Staff Writer

Courtesy photo

Chef Jeffrey Smith wants San Francisco students
to not only eat healthy, but cook from scratch.

Healthy school food is a trendy cause in the Bay Area, but one chef is planning to take good nutrition a step further by having students learn to cook meals from scratch.

Jeffrey Smith, founder of the non-profit From the Garden to the Table, is working to raise $175,000 to build a solar-powered teaching kitchen at Everett Middle School, in the Mission.

“The people who are suffering most are low-income people,” said Smith, referring to rising rates of obesity, diabetes and other health problems across the United States. Everett serves many low-income, Latino students.

The middle school already has a garden, which was expanded this summer thanks to San Francisco Unified School District’s Green Schoolyard Program.

“Gardens are a wonderful thing for everyone,” said Everett Principal Richard Curci. “It’s nice to have things growing in a school setting. There’s nothing more satisfying than being able to go out and pick a snap pea and eat it.”

If Smith has his way, those snap peas and other vegetables from Everett’s garden will be part of healthy but kid-friendly meals prepared by students in their new green kitchen. Smith, who has worked in four-star restaurants, often gives cooking and nutrition lessons at area schools, and he hopes to turn those lessons into a full-year program at Everett.

“I give them things they can relate to,” Smith said. “Once they do it themselves, it’ll stick.”

From the Garden to the Table expects to raise some $7,000 this month from fundraisers it has held at top San Francisco restaurants. Delfina, in the Mission, will donate a portion of its proceeds Tuesday night. Smith is also accepting donations at g2t.org.

President Obama honors UCSF for science mentoring program benefitting SFUSD high school students.

noreply@blogger.com (San Francisco Unified School District) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Visit UCSF for a news story on the award.

SFUSD News Feed

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Today on Your Call: What’s working in schools?

SFUSD partners with School of Education

Studying trauma in S.F. middle schools

Beating the deadline to apply for SF schools

SF Schools Pushing Kids To Drink More Tap Water

In S.F. schools, it's the process that's tested

Assessments explained

Gay Straight Alliance takes hold in earlier grades

Realities of middle school

Brisk breakfasts feed scrambling students in San Francisco high schools

Mission district grant will help brighten kids' futures

By: Amy Crawford

San Francisco schools report fewer absences

SF Balboa High's coach uses 'sport to teach life'

SF schools simulate disabilities, foster understanding in kids

Keeping Music Education Alive Despite Budget Cuts

Mission Bears Honored by Mayor Ed Lee

Bucking a punitive trend, San Francisco lets students own up to misdeeds instead of getting kicked out of school

Shop class retooled for future at O'Connell High

Variety of skills

On Land and in the Bay, Innovation Tackles Truancy

By TREY BUNDY

On Monday morning, the start of the school week, five teenagers rowed toward the breakwater leading into San Francisco Bay.

Read more at NYTimes.com

S.F. schools struggle with more homeless kids

Late for school

2,200 homeless students

Budget cuts could jeopardize at-risk teen programs in SF

School Beat: High Schools – the Last Stop in School Searches

Cooking class gives high schoolers skills for life

Career potential

Chef wants SF students to not only eat healthy, but learn to cook as wel

President Obama honors UCSF for science mentoring program benefitting SFUSD high school students.