Turlock Unified School District Educational Services Department Spring Newsletter | 2017-2018

Heidi Lawler, Assistant Superintendent Gil Ogden, Director of Student Services Jay Brem, Director of Technology and Innovation Marjorie Bettencourt, Director of Assessment and Accountability Shellie Santos, Director of Curriculum and Instruction David Lattig, CTE and Program Equity Alice Solis, Director of Special Education

Heidi Lawler, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services

All Means ALL TUSD has implemented teacher collaboration as the best means to ensure high levels of learning for every student, focusing on All means ALL ! As teachers across the district identify the most essential standards and supporting skills at every grade level and content area, they are determining our guaranteed and viable curriculum. What do we expect students to learn? Meeting as PLCs and developing common formative assessments, teachers are the driving force behind expectations and monitoring student progress. How will we know they are learning? It’s been exciting this year for the Ed Services Team to visit classrooms and PLCs and hear first-hand about classroom and grade level interventions. How will we respond if they don’t learn? As TUSD moves forward and teachers and administrators strengthen their work with the new standards, assessment, and response to intervention, teachers have begun to focus on those students who have mastered standards. How will we respond if they already know it? TUSD teachers have put forth amazing effort this year through PLCs, professional learning, curriculum development and alignment, and collaborative work on a wide range of committees from Secondary Math and Science to the Equity Task Force. The Educational Services Team truly appreciates the time and commitment teachers have made and will continue to rely on them, so we are able to attain our TUSD goals for all students. If we can be of help or support, please feel free to contact us via phone or email.

Shellie Santos, Director of Curriculum and Instruction

Charting Essential Standards for Math The focus on student learning in mathematics has us reexamining critical PLC question number one: what do we expect students to learn and be able to do? Creating a guaranteed, viable curriculum, is the number one factor for increased levels of learning- Marzano, What Works in Schools , 2003. Solution Tree’s Nanci Smith is supporting grade level leads in a process for prioritizing math standards. The outcome of these trainings is a list of 8-12 priority standards and an essential standards chart. The chart, which lists the minimum expectation for All students contains the standard written in simple understandable words, an example of rigor, prerequisite skills, and when the standard will be taught. We still teach all of the standards, we’ve just prioritized those which are absolutely essential for student success from those that are “nice to know.” PLC collaborative teams will use the grade level essential standards chart to: Guide the focus of collaborative team meetings Guide teaching Guide common assessments Guide intervention resources Grades TK-4 have identified their math essentials and will have the opportunity for vertical articulation before finalizing their document. The remaining grades are scheduled for training on the following dates: March 13 - Grade 5 March 20 - Grade 6 April 1 - Grades 7-8 May 8 - THS Math Department May 15 - High School Leads/Chairs As we move into the 2018-19 school year, district formative assessments through School City will be based on grade level identified essential standards.

Marjorie Bettencourt, Director of Assessment and Accountability

CAASPP and LCAP Udpate The spring state testing system, the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), is underway at TUSD. All TUSD students in grades 3-8 and 11 are administered the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments in both English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics. These tests are taken online and based on California’s new academic standards, which are designed to help every student graduate ready for college and a 21st-century career and allow students to demonstrate analytical writing, critical thinking, and problem solving skills along with their knowledge of facts in ELA and mathematics. This year students in grades 5, 8 and 12 (and identified students in grades 10 and 11 enrolled in their last science course) will also participate in the field test of the California Science Test (CAST), which is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Additionally, students at the grade levels above with severe cognitive disabilities whose individualized education program (IEP) teams designate the use of an alternate assessment will participate in the California Alternate Assessment (CAA) for English language arts and mathematics and the pilot CAA for Science. To access online Practice and Training tests, visit http://www.caaspp.org/practice-and-training/index.html . Work regarding the 2018-19 Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) is also underway. The LCAP Cohort met on February 9th as a follow-up to the initial LCAP Steering Committee meeting in November. The Cohort has three additional meetings scheduled throughout Spring to continue their work in reviewing input received from LCAP surveys, prioritizing actions based on reviewed data, and recommending action items to improve and/or increase services to meet the needs of all TUSD students.

Jay Brem, Director of Technology and Innovation

Integrating the 4 Cs with G Suite Our district Educational Technology Instructional Coach, Marshall Beyer, has been busy this winter visiting each school site to provide professional development to support teachers with integrating the 4Cs with G Suite tools. Marshall is focusing on the 4Cs (Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity) because not only is it a key focus of our new Educational Rounds, but also because our most recent BrightBytes data tells us that this is an area in which we need to provide more support to our teachers. In the current model for this support, Marshall is scheduled at each site for one full day, and a substitute goes to the site with him. At a minimum the site is able to have individual teachers work with Marshall; however, many sites choose to add additional subs so that grade levels and PLCs can work with Marshall together. Prior to going to the site, Marshall gathers feedback from the school administration to help tailor his work to the needs of staff he’s meeting with.       As this is a new approach for us, Marshall continues to build his repertoire of resources and information as he progresses through the sites. To that end, he’s created a website that anyone with a TUSD Google account can access HERE . Marshall gathers feedback from each site, and at the end of his 4Cs tour we will review and make determinations on how to continue and/or adjust the model for future Ed Tech PD.

Gil Ogden, Director of Student Services

No Bully TUSD is implementing the No Bully Program to prevent and respond to bullying and harassment. It is important for all teachers, staff, students and volunteers to help out and support our campus-wide efforts. Thus, if any teacher or staff member witnesses student aggression or disrespect he or she shall take immediate steps to intervene and redirect students, provided it is safe to do so. Furthermore, if any parent or guardian knows or suspects that their child is being harassed or bullied, encourage your child to ask the bullying student (or students) to stop or seek help from any trusted adult on campus. If this does not solve the situation, please notify administration, either verbally or email. The school can only help you if you reach out and tell us what is happening.

David Lattig, Director of Career Technical Education

CTE Update The Career Technical Education (CTE) program continues to seek ways to effectively prepare students for college and the workforce. From a CTE perspective, college ready means students have earned units toward their undergraduate degrees or certificates by taking courses that are articulated with the local community colleges. TUSD currently has articulation agreements for fourteen courses at Modesto Junior College. The department is seeking articulation for these same courses at Merced College. Several new courses, Business Communications and Sports Medicine, provide valuable opportunities for students in our Business Management program as well as our Patient Healthcare pathway. The CTE program maintains a very positive relationship with business partners throughout the community. Business partners help the CTE program prepare students for the workforce by ensuring that industry-relevant skills are taught. Business partners and teachers met this last month to review the CTE program as a whole and approve the state and federal budgets related to specific grants TUSD receives.  These same business partners are working with TUSD to provide paid and unpaid internships for students in the areas of Culinary Arts, Welding and Fabrication, Business Administration, Early Childhood Education, and Landscaping Design and Maintenance.

Alice Solis, Director of Special Education

What Every Teacher Should Know About Special Education Almost all classrooms have at least one student with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). That means that children with disabilities are primarily being educated with their peers in general education classrooms with special education supports. All teachers need to have knowledge of the special education process and disabilities. Most importantly, all teachers need to be up to date on IEPs. Special Education Process Teachers should have a basic understanding of the Special Education Process. When a student is going through special education testing, teachers are involved throughout this process. They may or may not have been the referring source, but they provide information (aware of class expectations, what is age-appropriate, grades, performance, and behavior) to the team making the referral. Teachers may be asked to complete rating scales or allow a psychologist to observe the student in the classroom. Disabilities - Categories of Special Education There are  13 categories  of special education as defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In order to qualify for special education, the IEP team must determine that a child has one of the following: Specific Learning Disability, Other Health Impairment, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Emotional Disturbance, Speech or Language Impairment, Visual Impairment, including Blindness, Deafness, Hearing Impairment, Deaf-Blindness, Orthopedic Impairment, Intellectual Disability, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Multiple Disabilities. Teachers may feel that they lack information regarding common disabilities and who to go to with questions. Communication and collaboration between general and special education teachers is vital to the success of special needs students.

Turlock Unified School District Educational Services Department 209.634.0843 (Office) 209.656.1674 (Fax) https://turlockusd-ca.schoolloop.com/edservices