Last week, San Diego Unified officials gathered at DePortola Middle School for a workshop on the district’s latest Local Control Accountability Plan, or LCAP. The plan is one in a long list of school-related jargon needing an explanation. So, strap on your education caps.
Here’s a basic overview of one of the most important – and overlooked – educational documents.
What Is an LCAP?
More than a decade ago, California adopted a new funding formula that aimed to provide greater spending flexibility and more money to districts with higher populations of marginalized student groups. Those groups included children in poverty, homeless and foster care students and English language learners.
To make sure districts were spending the money in line with the state’s priorities, districts were required to complete an LCAP. The three-year plans detail each district’s goals, how they hope to achieve them and how they will measure their progress.
School districts are also required to work with parents to develop these plans, in theory giving parents a louder voice in the way schools work. But even given that mandate, state auditors have slammed the LCAP process for being incomprehensible and overly complex, which has prevented parents from taking part.
San Diego Unified was one of three school districts auditors focused on in 2019. They found that the document was replete with educational jargon that made the report “less transparent and useful.” In response, school board member Richard Barrera committed to simplifying the district’s LCAP template to make it more digestible.
What’s in San Diego Unified’s Latest LCAP?
The draft LCAP presented by the district’s board, superintendent and other officials at last week’s workshop is broken into four distinct goals: social emotional learning, broad and challenging curriculum, graduation and the equity multiplier. The district noted that each of these goals address various of the state’s key priorities. Each of the goals also includes a brief description of how they would impact what the district calls “spotlight” students – district jargon for kids who are underserved, marginalized or underperforming – and how they’ve engaged educational partners like parents.
Social and Emotional Learning: The district’s first goal is to improve the social-emotional wellbeing of students. They plan to do this by providing teacher training on equity and by developing new resources and systems to support teachers. Officials also seek to roll out social and emotional learning lessons to students in grades one through twelve, as well as provide mental health education events for caregivers. Lastly, officials plan to expand educators’ access to alternatives to traditional disciplinary methods like suspension and expulsion. Progress on these goals will be determined using metrics like rates of chronic absenteeism, behavioral incidents and suspension rates.
Broad and Challenging Curriculum: The draft LCAP states the district will institute professional learning communities in up to 14 schools a year. Professional learning communities allow teachers to share strategies, learn from each other and improve year around and are shown to help the overall performance of students.
The district also highlighted tamping down chronic absenteeism, the continued rollout of community schools, improved support for English language learners and improved math and English curriculum as its strategies to reach this goal. Metrics like state standardized test scores, attendance rates and English language learner performance data will be used to determine progress.
Graduation: This goal focuses not only on ensuring kids graduate, but all things leading up to that point. The draft plan states that by 2027, the district will create new pathways to graduation that allow kids to focus on things like visual and performing arts, college, career and technical education and even military leadership. Officials also seek to improve GPAs by bringing down the number of D’s and F’s issued, to expand online and independent learning options and increase the number of students taking advanced placement or college courses. Officials will use metrics like the number of D’s and F’s issued, advanced placement enrollment and passage rates and GPAs to determine if they’ve met this goal.
Equity Multiplier: This last goal is focused squarely on improving outcomes for “students furthest from educational justice,” the draft plan reads. These may include “students with disabilities, multilingual learners, socioeconomic disadvantaged, homeless, foster, black, Latinx, and Native American youth.” The district plans to implement new student mentorship programs, hold workshops with parents and to develop a new “Equity Team.” Similar to the other goals, it will use metrics like test scores and GPA, rates of attendance and suspension and expulsion data to determine if it’s succeeded.
Stay tuned for deeper analysis of the latest LCAP.
What We’re Writing
Last week, we broke the news that San Diego Unified hired a Los Angeles law firm to conduct an internal investigation into Superintendent Lamont Jackson. Though one board member confirmed the investigation was happening, district officials have been tight-lipped about what prompted it. The next day, however, NBC reported that Jackson had been named in a lawsuit filed by San Diego Unified police officers. The bulk of the lawsuit alleges the district’s police chief engaged in sexual assault and discrimination. But it also claims that following the lawsuit’s filing, Jackson retaliated against Roberto Lozano, one of the officers who brought the suit.
While other organizations and some schools at San Diego Unified have been using research-backed methods to teach kids to read, the district has largely used strategies that rely on widely discredited theories. Now, district officials are taking steps to align its scattered curriculum with proven literacy strategies. But the district still hasn’t entirely kicked its bad reading habits. Just last year, for example, it spent nearly $200,000 on faulty reading materials.
District officials announced earlier this month that they had rescinded 96 percent of the layoff notices issued in March. Of the 234 preliminary layoffs issued, 225 of them had been rescinded. Though this is good news for at-risk teachers, the district expects to face another budget crunch next year.