Haylee Guerra was anxious about attending college. The Cal State Northridge freshman says not only was it virtual, but she was the first in her family to attend a university and she didn’t know what to expect.

Lizbeth Bautista is her mentor at CSUN and the person Guerra credits for making her freshman year less intimidating and more rewarding. Bautista helped her enroll in classes and Guerra says she would’ve felt lost if it wasn’t for her help.

“It was the…greatest thing that could have ever happened to me because I got so much support and comfort from her. She always had the answers for me,”

More than a century and a half later, Black education reformers are still urging school boards to invest in principals and teachers of color. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 15% of K-12 public school students in the United States are Black. Only 7% of teachers are Black…

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — While students have been at-home distance learning, secondary school administrators have been busy preparing for their return.

Campuses have been transformed into color-coded pods to limit group interaction and help with contact tracing. Half of the desks in classrooms removed for social distancing and plans have been put in place for isolation rooms in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak. Many junior high and high schools plan to create a hybrid-learning model with two days of in-person instruction and two days of distance learning a week.

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The presentation, entitled, focused on how the school reshaped their math program to achieve record, double-digit CAASPP gains in 2019 across the 6-12 Ouchi-O’Donovan complex.

Attendees left with the following outcomes:

1. A definition of a strong data-driven school culture, and how to face adaptive challenges throughout the implementation process;
2. Familiarity with an instructional coaching model that puts data, high-quality lesson planning, regular feedback loops including both teachers and scholars, rigorous instructional cycle, and a Relay coaching model at the forefront;
3. An understanding of the role that school leaders and teachers have in prioritizing data to monitor scholar progress toward obtaining proficiency on the CAASPP:
4. Greater insight into using summative assessment results to set instructional goals;
5. Tools and resources to replicate the Ģ����Ƶ Ouchi-O’Donovan model, including a math intervention program, Intellectual Prep Protocol, and capacity building.

According to Assistant Principal Hahn, the leadership team decided to share their story so that others could learn from their systems and models, while also highlighting the “tough decisions, collective efforts, and shared successes” of the three-year journey for their teachers to see and be proud of, adding that “radical change causes tension, but in hindsight it was all worth it.”

The presentation was facilitated by Phillip Gedeon, a former Director of Mathematics at Ģ����Ƶ who now operates as an independent math consultant. Principal Tramble hired Mr. Gedeon to assist in strategically prioritizing math at Ouchi-O’Donovan after the shift to the Common Core State Standardized Initiative caused a dip in standardized testing scores. Part of the strategy included building a proverbial bridge between the middle and high school. “We recognized that if middle schoolers were struggling, then they would come in as ninth graders struggling,” explained Assistant Principal Hahn.

Principal Tramble attributes her ability to have autonomy over her school budget and make creative decisions based on the needs of her scholars, including hiring a consultant, with being a charter school leader. “I’m not sure if I would have had that kind of flexibility in other districts,” she said.

Dear Friends, 

Many of you have reached out to offer your support to our 13,000 Ģ����Ƶ scholars and families and our 1,500 staff. Thank you for your care and concern, especially amidst the unease you are likely feeling for your own family and loved ones in these uncertain times. Following is an update on the impact of  the coronavirus outbreak on our scholars and school communities, what we are doing to address the challenge, and how you can help in ensuring continued services and high quality education for our 13,000 scholars. The cost to ensure these vital educational and social services will be $2.4 million. 

We have made the difficult decision to close our schools to protect the health and safety of our families, our staff and the broader community.  The closure will be in effect through the end of the school year on June 12.

Our Response: 

Our school leaders and support staff have done a remarkable job ensuring a smooth transition to our “new normal.” On Monday, March 16, we started a daily free meal distribution at eight regional sites, ensuring our scholars did not lose a single day of this important nutritional service on which their families depend. We have sent all scholars home with learning packets as well as laptops or iPads with access to online learning lessons. And most importantly, we have kept our staff and families abreast of rapidly changing conditions as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak and are making sure they have accurate information and access to resources. 

Looking Ahead: 

As we look ahead, we will continue to keep our scholars and families updated on the most up-to-date health information, available community resources and how we will be adjusting our instruction, academic programming, and counseling services. We continue to make significant adjustments to our educational and service delivery to ensure our scholars do not lose precious learning time and that they have the additional support services to weather this crisis. The costs to ensure uninterrupted services to our scholars is $2.4 million. 

Extended Closure and Implications for Our Scholars, Families and Staff 

While our initial plan was to close schools for two weeks, this has been extended through the end of the school year given the Governor’s recent directive. We are working closely with the CA Department of Public Health, the CDC, the Governor’s Office and LAUSD on how to ensure the safety of our scholars and staff while ensuring quality instruction and support services in a dramatically different landscape.  

Distance Learning

Our primary focus is ensuring consistently strong instructional practices and quality learning over an extended school closing. Our academic team is gathering the best online curriculum, creating new instructional materials, developing a new scope and sequence for core academic subjects, and preparing our educators on how to lead effective distance learning practices for both large group instruction and personalized coaching. We are also purchasing additional hotspots for families who do not have access to the internet and live outside of the service area of the free WiFi services being offered by telecom companies. In addition, we will need to purchase laptops and keyboards for our high school students who must have keyboards for college prep coursework. 

Special Education Support

Additionally, we are preparing our special education teachers on how to provide personalized online instructional support in coordination with our general education teachers as well as how to conduct individual meetings with family members to review the Individual Education Plans for our special education scholars.  

College Counseling

To ensure our graduating seniors matriculate to college, we are creating online materials to support our graduating seniors as they receive college acceptance letters and financial aid packages, and preparing our counselors for remote online counseling sessions. We are in close coordination with the College Board in the revision of both SAT testing dates and sites and online AP study guides and resources. Finally, we are reaching out to our alumni to determine additional resources needed, especially for those scholars who are attending college out of state.  

Mental Health and Psychological Support Services

Our mental health and psychological service staff are preparing for uninterrupted online counseling services for both scholars and families and coordinating services delivery with outside agencies for more acute mental health needs.  

Extended Free Meals

Finally, we will maintain our free meal distribution to our families. With an extended closure and related economic fallout of the Coronavirus response, we anticipate an increasing demand for this service. 

How You Can Help

We are incredibly grateful to you and the broader Ģ����Ƶ community for the courage, compassion and resolve that will get us through this crisis and, in the end, make us stronger.  

Please consider making a contribution directly to the COVID19 Response Fund.  Your generosity will ensure the continuity of services and quality education for our scholars.  

Thank you in advance. Sending all the best to you and your loved ones. 

Warm regards, 

Jeff Marine ​​​​​​ Catherine Suitor

Board Chair     ​​​​​​Executive Director

Mayor Eric Garcetti recently launched a new program called Cool Streets LA in an effort to equitably combat the effects of climate change in Los Angeles neighborhoods. The Mayor unveiled the first of 10 projects near the Ģ����Ƶ Ouchi-O’Donovan’s campus in South Los Angeles and several scholars, teachers, staff, and families were in attendance. Some seniors were even able to speak one-on-one with the Mayor, and a member of the yearbook staff interviewed him!

According to Principal Dea Tramble, the scholars were “excited to meet the Mayor and really appreciated that he included them in the press conference. The Mayor was genuinely interested in hearing from students and eager to hear their feedback on the Cool Streets initiative.”

Improvements to the area included 35,000 square feet of cool pavement, 14 new street trees, and four bus benches with shade canopies.

Mayor Garcetti noted in a press release that “rising temperatures put our local communities on the front lines of the climate crisis. Cool Streets LA is about taking action in ways that will make a real and direct impact on people’s daily lives.”

This initiative is part of Mayor Garcetti’s Green New Deal, which is focused on lowering temperatures, adding shade, providing hydration stations, and encouraging local businesses to be more energy efficient in L.A.’s hottest communities that are most dependent on public transportation.

Principal Tramble believes that “this gesture from the Mayor is a great start in prioritizing our community.”

CGU PROGRAM AWARDED $3.3 MILLION FROM U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Teacher Education and Ģ����Ƶ of College-Ready Public Schools Will Partner to Serve Student Populations in L.A. region

CLAREMONT, Calif., October 22, 2019 – A $3.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education has been awarded to Claremont Graduate University’s (CGU) Department of Teacher Education to develop and cultivate educators-in-training for the Claremont Teaching Fellows Program.

Over five years, the grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Program will enable the university’s Teaching Fellows program—in partnership with Ģ����Ƶ College-Ready Public Schools—to strengthen its preparation of resilient, highly-effective K12 educators to meet the needs of underserved student populations in the greater Los Angeles area.

DeLacy Ganley, who serves as dean of CGU’s School of Educational Studies, said that graduate students in the Teaching Fellows program will receive funding and exemplary mentorship and instruction while developing their pedagogy and an understanding of the strengths and needs of the communities they serve.

“Our Fellows program is deeply committed to empowering teacher candidates with the social justice and evidence-based knowledge to make a powerful difference in young lives,” she said. “We are thrilled and excited to have been selected for this award along with Ģ����Ƶ.”

Teacher Education Director Eddie Partida is the grant’s primary architect and will serve as its director. Ganley and CGU Postdoctoral Research Fellow Rebecca Hatkoff are the grant’s co-principal investigators. Ģ����Ƶ is a charter school network that has successfully served low-income communities in the greater Los Angeles area for the past 15 years.

Students in CGU’s Teaching Fellows program will be recruited and selected by Ģ����Ƶ and CGU. Students who are chosen as Teaching Fellows will start CGU’s Preliminary Credential Program. They will take classes at the university during the evenings and weekends and work during the day as paid residents teaching in Ģ����Ƶ Schools. After earning their preliminary credential as well as a Page 2 of 3 master’s degree in Education from CGU, the Fellows will start the university’s Induction Program in order to earn a Clear California Teaching Credential.

“CGU Teaching Fellows will gain valuable experience working in a school culture seeped in educational equity,” explained Dan Katzir, Ģ����Ƶ chief executive officer. “Fellows will witness firsthand what it means to put scholars first: To set high expectations, provide equally high levels of support and resources, and to approach every instructional day with a clear goal of preparing scholars for college completion.”

This year the U.S. Department of Education has awarded more than $20 million in funding to support innovative models that prepare prospective and new teachers to serve students in highneed schools. The award to CGU and Ģ����Ƶ was one of just 31 awards given this year to some two dozen school districts, institutions of higher education, and nonprofits.

For Partida, the tuition-reducing fellowship and living stipend will make “an enormous difference in the graduate experience of the program’s fellows.” He points to research that suggests that teachers who are provided with high levels of quality support are more likely to stay in the profession and to have a positive impact as compared with less well-mentored peers.

As a condition of participation, the Teaching Fellows sign a service agreement, pledging to teach in an Ģ����Ƶ School for at least three years after earning their Preliminary Credential. As such, the program creates a pipeline of support and effective teachers for Ģ����Ƶ Schools.

Cohorts of Teaching Fellows will be recruited to start in January 2021, January 2022, January 2023, and January 2024. There will be 20 Teaching Fellows per cohort.

About Claremont Graduate University and the School of Educational Studies

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is one of a select few American universities devoted solely to graduate-level education. The university is a founding member of The Claremont Colleges and comprises seven schools, offering 86 degree and certificate programs. When CGU first opened its doors, the field of education and educational administration were the university’s earliest offerings. Today the School of Educational Studies is renowned for its leadership in preparing educators, administrators, and scholars to respond to the unprecedented challenges now facing the worlds of K-12 and higher education. For more information: www.cgu.edu/ses Page 3 of 3 About Ģ����Ƶ College-Ready Public Schools Ģ����Ƶ College-Ready Public Schools is one of the largest and most successful nonprofit public charter school networks in the nation, operating 25 high-performing, public charter middle and high schools that educate nearly 13,000 scholars from Los Angeles’ most systematically underserved communities. Ģ����Ƶ schools have been recognized as among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, the U.S. Department of Education, and the California Department of Education. Since opening its first school in 2004, 95% of Ģ����Ƶ scholars have graduated from high school and been accepted to college, 73% to a four-year college or university. For more information: www.laalliance.org For more information about the Claremont Teaching Fellows Program: eddie.partida@cgu.edu | 909-621-8076 For media inquiries: nick.owchar@cgu.edu | 909-621-8396

Contact​: Catherine Suitor, csuitor@laalliance.org

Ģ����Ƶ’s Sharpened Focus on Reaching All Scholars Is Getting Results

State Test Data Shows Significant Growth for Scholars with Disabilities; High School English Language Arts and Math Scores Place Ģ����Ƶ Scholars in the Lead Across the District and State

Los Angeles, CA, October 10, 2019––​Scholars at Ģ����Ƶ College-Ready Public Schools continue to outperform their high school peers across the district and state on California’s state assessments. And after an intensive network-wide focus on meeting the academic needs of all scholars, Ģ����Ƶ’s scholars with disabilities1 posted significant gains on the 2019 Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) exams, including a 13-point increase in high school English Language Arts.

“Ģ����Ƶ’s mission has always been educational equity,” Ģ����Ƶ CEO Dan Katzir said, “and we launched our ‘All Means All’ initiative last year to make sure we’re doing everything we can for our scholars, including those with disabilities, reach their academic potential. I’m very proud of the work our scholars and educators have done, and very pleased to see the resulting academic gains.”

112% of Ģ����Ƶ’s 13,000 scholars have special needs.

Ģ����Ƶ High School Scholars Outperform Peers Across District and State

Ģ����Ƶ scholars posted strong performance across the board. 41% of Ģ����Ƶ high school scholars met or exceeded mathematics standards compared with 25% of their peers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and 32% in the state. In English Language Arts, 69% of Ģ����Ƶ juniors met or exceeded standards compared to 52% of students in LAUSD and 57% in California.

Middle School Scholars Maintain Growth

At the middle school level, Ģ����Ƶ schools were able to sustain the big increases on last year’s test, increasing from 38% to 46% of scholars meeting or exceeding standards in English Language Arts and from 22% to 31% meeting or exceeding standards in math over the last two years. ​In addition, Ģ����Ƶ middle schools are outperforming LAUSD by 5% in English Language Arts​.

“Our ultimate measure of success is college completion,” Katzir added. “Our aspiration is 75% of Ģ����Ƶ scholars successfully completing a four-year college education. These results show promising progress, and they show the power of having an unwavering belief in the academic promise of ​all​ scholars.”

About Ģ����Ƶ College-Ready Public Schools

Ģ����Ƶ College-Ready Public Schools is one of the largest and most successful nonprofit public charter school networks in the nation, operating 25 high-performing, public charter middle and high schools that educate nearly 13,000 scholars from Los Angeles’ most systematically underserved communities. Ģ����Ƶ schools have been recognized as among the best in the nation by US News & World Report, Newsweek, the U.S. Department of Education and the California Department of Education. Since opening its first school in 2004, 95% of Ģ����Ƶ scholars have graduated from high school and been accepted to college, 73% to a four-year college or university.