Your Guide to School Terms

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A Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools: Our guide to San Diego schools provides families with everything they need to know to make the best choice for their child. Read more stories from the guide here.

American education is notorious for its use of acronyms and jargon. AP, SAT, LCAP. Social-emotional learning. DELAC’s. The obscure vocabulary is virtually endless. But learning that vocabulary can help you navigate a complex system and get your child better educational opportunities. This dictionary is designed to help get you started.  

Achievement gap: This refers to the disparity or gap in academic performance between demographic groups of students. It can show up in grades, test scores, dropout rates and more. It is also sometimes referred to as the “opportunity gap” – to signify that some demographic groups have more opportunities than others. 

Advanced Placement (AP): AP courses are advanced level courses in high school. These courses are more challenging than regular classes. If a student passes the AP exam at the end of year, they usually get college credit for having taken the class. 

Board of Education: Each school district has a board of education. These board members are elected by the community and meet regularly to make decisions for school districts. They approve budgets, curricula and more. Their meetings are open to the public and are great opportunities for parents to raise concerns or provide feedback.  

Charter school: These are public schools, funded by taxpayers, that are free to attend. However, they differ in several ways from traditional public schools. Instead of being managed by a board of education, each charter school is managed by its own, individual board of directors. Charters frequently have different offerings than traditional public schools.  

To enroll in a charter school, you must apply to each charter school you’d like your child to attend. Each school has its own application deadline. Charter schools are required to pick students through a lottery system. 

Choice window: This refers to a time period when school districts accept applications for students to enroll in a school that isn’t their neighborhood school. Just applying does not mean your child will be accepted into a different school. Each district has different choice-window periods and some districts offer no choice window at all. Visit our map on page TK for dates. If you want your child to attend a charter school, or a private school, that’s different. You must apply directly to that school. 

Chronic absenteeism: A child is considered chronically absent when they miss at least 10 percent of school days. Check if your school has a high chronic absenteeism rate on page TK. 

Committees: A whole world of acronyms exists for the various committees within school districts. There’s the CAC (Community Advisory Committee for Special Education) and the DELAC (District English Learner Advisory Committee.) Both of these committees, as well as others, are required to have at least some district parents serve on the committees. If you want to really get involved in your district, try to get a spot on one of these committees.    

Individualized Education Program (IEP): Students with documented disabilities are required to have an IEP. This is a legal educational plan that outlines your child’s needs and the services the school district needs to provide to help your child.  

Interdistrict transfers: Interdistrict transfers are for families who want to move their children to a school that falls outside of their district. If you want your child to attend a public school outside of your district, you must complete an Interdistrict Transfer form. You can get this form from the district where you live. Districts only accept students from outside district boundaries in a few circumstances. 

Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP): These are plans that districts are legally required to write. They are supposed to accomplish several things. First, they should give you an idea of areas where a district is doing well and areas where it is struggling. They are also supposed to give you a sense of how districts are spending their money. Districts are required to collect parent feedback as they update their LCAP each year. Getting involved in the LCAP process is a good way to get involved in your district. 

Lottery priorities: Lottery priorities are used during choice windows (and at charter schools) to determine which students get a slot in a given school. These priorities can differ between districts and at different charter schools. One of the most frequent is priority for siblings. In other words, if your child’s brother or sister already attends a school, the younger child would get priority in a lottery. Another common priority is for students whose parents work at a school. Most districts and charter schools list these priorities online. 

Magnet school: These are a special type of district-managed school. They offer students specialized curriculum. Think dual-language programs or a science and technology academy. They are called magnets because they pull students from outside the neighborhood. You can apply to magnet schools anytime, but your chances of getting in increase if you apply during the district’s choice window. 

Neighborhood school: That’s the public school near your home. This is generally the default school for your child. School districts have online search tools to help you find yours or you can call your local school district and ask which one is yours. 

Parent Teacher Association (PTA): The PTA is made up of parents, teachers and school staff that meet to advocate for students. 

Project-based learning: This is a style of teaching and learning that has become extremely popular in some schools over the last decade. Project-based learning isn’t so much about a child doing a project, as it is a child learning many different things over the course of doing a project. Projects are frequently geared to students’ interests. Over the course of completing a project about, say, climate change, students will learn lots of different skills, like critical thinking, research, collaboration and many other things. Almost any skill or subject can be baked into a project. 

School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA): The SPSA (pronounced SIP-sa) is a fascinating document. Each school must create one and most of the time you can find them online with some creative googling. The document lays out what is working well and what is not working so well at each school. It also shows how the school is spending certain discretionary money. SPSA’s also list the membership of the School Site Council, so this can help you find parents to connect with if you want to find out more information about a given school. 

School Site Council (SSC): SSC’s are similar to PTA’s, but are more powerful. Each school must have its own SSC, which is typically made up of parents, teachers and administrators. These groups actually vote on how some money within the school should be spent. SSC’s are an incredible way to get involved at your child’s school.  

Social-emotional learning: This buzzword has skyrocketed in usage since the pandemic. Social-emotional learning isn’t about academics, but it actually can help students do better in their schoolwork. Social-emotional learning teaches students to manage their emotions and have positive relationships. Since the pandemic, many leaders have argued schools need to place a great emphasis on social-emotional learning. 

Universal Transitional Kindergarten: This is what children can attend before kindergarten. This grade is often a mix of both age-appropriate academic material and activities that look more like preschool, but it can differ from district to district.  

Previously, UTK was not guaranteed. But since 2022, California has been phasing it statewide. By the 2025-26 school year, all districts must be able to accommodate all eligible 4-year-olds. Many districts, like San Diego Unified School District, can already accommodate most of them. In California, children are not required to attend UTK or kindergarten.