Introducing Voice of San Diego’s Acorn Awards: This week are giving out a new set of recognitions to highlight schools that outperform expectations on a metric comparing student income to test scores, which we developed in partnership with UC San Diego Extended Studies Center for Research and Evaluation.
Odds are a child attending Fallbrook Union Elementary School District faces economic hardship at home. But the district hasn’t let that statistic dictate the academic success of their students.
How? Their schools developed wrap-around services that fill both minds and bellies.
Fallbrook Union Elementary School District serves students across nine kindergarten through eighth-grade school sites, including two on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The district is more than 110 years old and represents the northwestern corner of San Diego County.
“What stands out about Fallbrook Union Elementary as a district, really, is clarity of purpose and collective ownership,” Superintendent Monika Hazel said. “From the board room to the classroom, we’re really united around the belief in the brilliance of every child.”
For the first time ever, Voice of San Diego is giving out awards to recognize schools that outperform expectations on a metric we created in partnership with UC San Diego Extended Studies Center for Research and Evaluation. We are recognizing Fallbrook Union Elementary School District as the most dedicated district in San Diego County.
Our income vs. test score metric compares projected test scores based on a school’s percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced price meals, which means their family’s income falls below federal poverty guidelines, and compares it to the school’s current English language arts (ELA) and math scores. Schools with scores of “0” on the metric are performing exactly as expected for their income bracket, while schools in the negative are performing worse than their poverty level average and schools above “0” are performing better.
About 74 percent of district families face economic hardship, high goals are set every year.
“We don’t attribute performance to demographics,” Hazel said. “We have an unwavering belief that poverty does not determine student achievement and a child’s academic destiny.”
Fallbrook administrators decided to do that by taking care of the needs of the whole child, not just focusing on academics. That first means filling bellies. To tackle student hunger, Fallbrook set up foodbanks inside of schools
For students struggling with their vision, the district provides them glasses. If a child doesn’t have money for back-to-school wardrobe or a winter coat, the district steps in.
“Our team of student support services works really hard to identify the barriers that get in the way of being prepared to come to school and learn every day, and we address each of them as they come forward,” Assistant Superintendent Tavga Bustani said.
The district’s students are doing better on tests than their income would otherwise predict.
Fallbrook schools average a score of nearly 50 on Voice’s income vs. test score metric. Even given student challenges, the test scores of Fallbrook schools are mainly high to very high. And Fallbrook STEM academy, San Onofre and La Paloma have had both their English language arts and math test scores increase over the past year.
And student performance is increasing – the percentage of kids meeting state math and English standards has increased by nearly 10 percent over the past two years.
Despite the number of Fallbrook students qualifying for free and reduced priced meals outpacing the statewide average, its students now perform better on standardized tests. The percentage of Fallbrook students meeting standards in English and math is about eight percentage points higher than the statewide average. Teachers are constantly tracking this kind of data, Hazel said.
“Teachers meet twice a month for extended periods of time in extended learning communities,” Bustani said.
During these meetings, teachers share what’s working and not working for them, compare curriculum and look for teaching pitfalls.
“We collaborate frequently, weekly, daily honestly,” Ken Ostroske, a teacher from La Paloma Elementary School, said. “I think at La Paloma and really across the district, is the belief that we control the conditions for learning,”
Giving students and teachers more influence in school and district matters is one thing, but Hazel believes involvement from the top down is key to a thriving school. She said she spends half of her time at schools coaching teachers – a somewhat unorthodox use of a superintendent’s time. One piece of advice that Hazel offers other districts is to focus relentlessly on what happens inside the classroom.
“The classroom is where the magic is, and that’s where student achievement is built,” Hazel said.