At Kairos, a promising numbers crunch – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

At Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy, the test numbers arguably speak for themselves and they might say a new math curriculum introduced to fifth-graders last year helped to yield astounding scores on the 2017 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, or CAASPP.

Slightly more than 71 percent of fifth-graders at the Elm Street independent charter school, nearly 60 students, met or exceeded state standards on the statewide test given last spring. Of those, nearly 53 percent exceeded the standards in the third year of the assessment for students in grades three to eight and 11, measuring their understanding of mathematical rules and ideas, their ability to apply problem-solving skills, and their ability to express how they reached an answer. Of nearly 350 students tested schoolwide, Kairos’ math scores, with nearly 51 percent meeting or exceeding state standards, were among the highest in Solano County, well above state, county and surrounding-district averages.

Source: At Kairos, a promising numbers crunch

Nearly 10,000 Solano students observe International Walk to School Day – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

If a Vacaville elementary school student read or thumbed through books by famed backpacker Colin Fletcher, author of “The Man Who Walked Through Time” and “The Complete Walker,” the boy or girl would not only learn walking techniques but they also would learn more abstract things, such as walking’s pleasures and its sometimes deeply emotional rewards.

But children simply enjoy walking, especially walking to school, as scores did Wednesday, International Walk To School Day, when it was celebrated at Callison Elementary in Vacaville, one of 46 county schools (fewer than last year) to mark the special day.

By 8:30 a.m. and under a cloudless fall sky, students, alone or in groups of four and five, trudged happily along the sidewalk, north and south, fronting the Vanden Road campus in the city’s eastern sector. Noon supervisor Susie Berk greeted them with yellow string backpacks, a memento of the day, as students made their way to their respective classrooms.

Solano schools take part in walk-to-school day – Daily Republic

By Ian Thompson

Nine-year-old Lilly Laughter made sure to finish off the last of her yogurt Wednesday morning before joining the flock of children who were starting their walk to Crescent Elementary School as that school’s observance of International Walk to School Day.

She and her mother, Jill Laughter, were two of almost three dozen children and their parents who met up with Suisun City School Safety Officer Leticia Gonzales at Lawler Ranch Park for the half-mile trek to Crescent.

“I like doing this because it means less traffic, the kids get exercise and they get to school safe,” Gonzales said before gathering her young charges behind a small, cardboard school bus sign she made for the walk.

Source: Solano schools take part in walk-to-school day

Suisun Valley K-8 School wins CERA grant – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

The Suisun Valley K-8 School’s Edible Schoolyard project was one of three $2,500 winners of the California Educational Research Association Classroom Innovation Grant.

Jas Wright, principal of Suisun Valley K-8 School, and Stacy Burke, Fairfield-Suisun School District‘s assistant director of public relations and grant writing, teamed up to write the grant.

Suisun Valley’s Agri-Science Program is an innovative approach to teaching the Next Generation Science Standards. In addition to teaching and reinforcing state science standards, the goal of the Agri-Science Program is to teach K-8 students where their food comes from, how it is grown and produced, and the vital role that agriculture plays in their everyday lives.

Source: Good News: Suisun Valley K-8 School wins CERA grant

Vallejo school board asked to support DACA resolution – Times Herald

By John Glidden

Nearly eight months after passing a resolution declaring the Vallejo school district a safe haven for immigrants, trustees are expected to mull over a resolution Wednesday declaring support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

President Donald Trump’s administration announced in early September it would wind down the program which offered relief and work permits to about 800,000 young people brought to the United States illegally.

“This announcement discourages students, especially undocumented students, from attending schools, as is their legal right,” the Vallejo City Unified School District resolution reads. “This creates a negative fiscal impact to schools, and jeopardizes the ability of schools to prepare students for the demands of the 21st century.”

Source: Vallejo school board asked to support DACA resolution

On Dixon USD agenda: State test scores, update on elementary reconfiguration – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

The 2017 CAASPP results, approval of a temporary roof cover at Old Dixon High, and an update about input from three parent meetings about the possible reconfiguration of district elementary schools are on the agenda when Dixon Unified leaders meet Thursday.

Nick Girimonte, newly named assistant superintendent for educational services, will lead the discussion about the district’s 2017 California Assessment of Student Proficiency and Program scores.

This is the third year of the computer-based tests, based on the California State Standards, which gauge whether students in grades three to eight and 11 are able to understand what they read, write clearly, think critically, solve complex math problems, and explain their reasoning as they prepare themselves for college, the military, and a rapidly changing and increasingly technological job market.

Scores fall into one of four achievement levels: standard exceeded, standard met, standard nearly met, and standard not met. The state also computes the average scores of all tested students, by grade level, called “mean scale” scores, which reflects the progress of all students rather than only those who changed achievement levels from one year to the next.

Source: On Dixon Unified School District agenda: State test scores, update on elementary reconfiguration

Sierra Vista MPR and Supes contract on VUSD Agenda – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Vacaville Unified leaders, when they meet Thursday, are expected to approve a $5.2 million contract for a new multipurpose building at Sierra Vista, hear the superintendent’s year-end report for 2016-17, and approve a resolution recognizing Red Ribbon Week in late October.

Trustees likely will green-light a contract not to exceed $5.2 million with Landmark Modernization Contractors, a Loomis-based firm, to build a new multipurpose room at the K-8 campus on Bel Air Drive, already undergoing significant, multimillion-dollar upgrades under Measure A, the $194 million bond approved by district voters in 2014. Bond money will pay for the school’s new multipurpose room.

Superintendent Jane Shamieh will present a look-back of the 2016-17 school year, a detailed glimpse of the district during that time. It includes data about schools, district staff, enrollment numbers, student demographics, the annual budget, accomplishments, the graduation rate, Career Technical Education programs, student intervention and support practices, physical education improvements, changes in child nutrition, and CAASPP scores, among other things.

Source: VUSD Agenda

Why are Secondary Students Missing so Much School? – Attendance Works

A new survey by researchers shows that secondary students don’t really know how many days they miss from school each year, or how their absence rate compares with their peers. When asked why they missed school, the students in grades 6-12 named health, transportation and personal stress-related issues as the top three reasons they don’t come to class.

The survey, Reasons for Chronic Absenteeism Among Secondary Students, by Amber Humm Brundage and Jose Castillo at the University of South Florida, points out that students, their families, educators and communities don’t fully understand how many absences can put a student at risk academically. In the fall of 2016, the team surveyed 5,790 chronically absent secondary students—missed 10 percent or more of days during 2015-16 school year—from eight states and 91 schools.

“It is nearly impossible for critical stakeholders (parents, students, school, community, state) to fix a problem if they do not know it exists!” said Brundage. “Our survey shows that engaging in clear and consistent messaging for the purposes of building awareness of typical and acceptable levels of absences, as well as current numbers of absences, is still very much needed in schools across the country,” she added.

Source: Why are Secondary Students Missing so Much School? – Attendance Works Attendance Works

BUSD to tackle state test data at Thursday’s school board meeting – Benicia Herald

By Nick Sestanovich

The school board will hear a report and discussion on the data from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) at Thursday’s meeting.

The SBAC is a statewide assessment administered to all third through eighth-graders and 11th-graders in the areas of English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics. The SBAC replaced the California Standards test following the state’s shift to Common Core standards and allow students to not only answer questions in a variety of formats but also require students to explain their answers in an effort to demonstrate their knowledge. It also utilizes a computer whereas the previous test used the traditional pencil and paper.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Leslie Beatson and Educational Services Coordinator Stephanie Rice will dive into the findings from the results at Thursday’s meeting.

Source: BUSD to tackle state test data at Thursday’s school board meeting

Latest academic tests underscore California’s education crisis – The Reporter

By Dan Walters

California has spent tens of billions of extra dollars on its K-12 school system in recent years on promises that its abysmal levels of academic achievement – especially those of disadvantaged children – would be improved.

And what have those massive expenditures – a 50 percent increase in per-pupil spending – and a massive reworking of school curriculums accomplished?

Not much, the latest results from annual testing indicate.

Mathematics and English tests based on “Common Core” standards were administered last spring to half of the state’s 6-plus million K-12 students, those in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11.

Source: CALmatters Commentary: Latest academic tests underscore California’s education crisis

The jury must hear two sides to the CAASPP story – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

There are two sides to every story, and the adage applies to recently released CAASPP scores given last spring to California public school students in grades three through eight and 11.

For the past two years, Superintendent Tom Torlakson and local educators generally have framed the results in, understandably, more positive-sounding ways, stressing that certain percentages of students “met” or “exceeded” state standards on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, an all-computerized test begun three years ago as the then-relatively new California State Standards began to take effect.

In brief, the tests gauge, at every grade level, whether students are able to understand what they read, write clearly, think critically, solve complex math problems, and explain their reasoning, as they prepare themselves for college, the job market, or the military — all of which increasingly demand technology literacy.

Source: Richard Bammer: The jury must hear two sides to the CAASPP story

TUSD workshop today: Budget 101 – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Travis Unified leaders, when they meet this afternoon in a special meeting, will hear a brief presentation about how the district’s budget is cobbled together.

Chief Business Officer Sonia Lasyone will make the presentation in the Travis Education Center in Fairfield.

The five-member governing board will have a chance to ask questions and mull over the information.

“It’s a budget 101 workshop,” Superintendent Pamela Conklin said Monday. “It’s just explaining the components of the budget and how to read certain reports.”

It will include the obligatory pie charts, showing how the district’s $56.7 million 2017-18 budget is broken down into its various parts, revenues and expenses, chief among them salaries and benefits, at 82 percent, she noted.

Source: TUSD workshop today

Golf instructors show B. Gale Wilson students how to get a grip – Daily Republic

By Ryan McCarthy

Instructors came Monday to B. Gale Wilson K-8 School to show students how to lower their scores.

Brian Glosser, PGA teaching pro at Rancho Solano Golf Course in Fairfield, and others were also introducing the game to many of the youths, including first-graders.

“We just want them to have fun,” Glosser said of students. “We make it as basic as possible.”

Source: Golf instructors show B. Gale Wilson students how to get a grip

VUSD leaders convene attendance workshop today – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, who declared September as Attendance Awareness Month in an effort, in part, to stem chronic absenteeism, wants school district leaders, staff and teachers to remind families about the importance of being in class each day.

Vacaville Unified trustees, who this morning will convene a special governing board workshop, are expected to hear the message that, in one way or another, links chronic absenteeism to high dropout rates, poor literacy skills and behavior problems, among other things, and key preventive measures that parents should begin taking as early as kindergarten.

In an annual district report, Kimberly Forrest, assistant superintendent for student services, and Ramiro Barron, interim director of student attendance and welfare, will lead the discussion and offer a data-filled slide presentation, of outcomes and procedures related to student attendance, suspensions and expulsions — and offer solutions — during the gathering in the Educational Services Center.

Source: VUSD leaders convene attendance workshop today

The trades 101: Students learn about careers at union training centers – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

They may not be college-bound students, but they will draw upon relevant high school math and English lessons on construction jobs, a longtime sheet metal worker told more than two dozen Vacaville Unified students.

The teenagers, most of them from Vacaville and Will C. Wood high schools, listened closely as Dan Riley, training coordinator for Local 104 of the International Association of Sheet Metal Workers, spoke Friday morning in an assembly room at the union’s Apprenticeship Training Center in Fairfield.

The students, many of them seniors looking forward to a June graduation and entry into a well-paying construction job or a training program, were part of some 100 from five different Solano or Napa county districts who participated in a half-day “Tour of the Trades” informational event.

Source: The trades 101: Students learn about careers at union training centers

Solano teens learn about future in construction trades – Daily Republic

By Susan Hiland

A cadre of Solano County students learned about opportunities after high school that are not the traditional college degree path during a tour of various union construction training centers Friday in the area.Jalleh Neor, 16, a senior at Armijo High School, has a dream of becoming a welder when she gets out of high school. For the past three years she has been planning her future by taking welding courses, so touring the center was a huge and exciting day for her.“I love to do welding. It caught my attention the most,” she said. “I like the idea of building and bringing things together for art, or work.”

Source: Solano teens learn about future in construction trades

Travis school trustees to discuss goals, budget – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

A special meeting to discuss board goals and the district budget will take place Tuesday by the Travis School District trustees.

Superintendent Pam Conklin and Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Sue Brothers will lead the presentation of the existing goals. The board will then discuss any potential changes.

Source: Travis school trustees to discuss goals, budget

Solano College invites residents to accreditation forum – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

A public forum with the accreditation team that visited Solano Community College will occur from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the college theater at 4000 Suisun Valley Road.

The accreditation group of higher education professionals and public members has visited Solano College this week for a routine accreditation.

Accreditation is to encourage institutions to adhere to standards and policies and improve, enhance or maintain academic quality, institutional effectiveness and ultimately, student success, the college said.

Source: The Week Ahead: Solano College invites residents to accreditation forum

Solano schools prep for International Walk to School Day activities – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

The annual International Walk to School Day is Wednesday in Solano County.

Students from 54 schools participated last year, in addition to staff, parents, community members and some mayors across the county. The goal by the organizer, Solano County Safe Routes to School, is 70 schools this year.

The event celebrates the benefits of walking and brings light to safety concerns for pedestrians, and particularly children and teens walking to and from school.

Source: The Week Ahead: Solano schools prep for International Walk to School Day activities