VOL. 7 ISSUE 1 July 2014 From the Superintendent’s Desk San Bernardino City Unified School District Hillside Elementary Wins Prestigious Honors Hillside University Demonstration School has earned prestigious, back-to-back awards for its work to ensure all students succeed academically. In May, the California Department of Education recognized Hillside with a Title I Academic Achievement Award for demonstrating that all students are making significant progress toward proficiency on California’s academic content standards. The Title I Academic Achievement Award is given to schools receiving federal Title I funds as authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Title I, the single largest federal program for K-12 public education, assists schools in meeting the educational needs of students living at or below the poverty level. In March, the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) named Hillside one of the nation’s top urban schools that achieve exceptional academic results. To compete for the 2014 National Excellence in Urban Education Award, schools had to serve predominantly low- income students. They also had to meet a long list of student performance criteria, including high achievement scores, high attendance rates, and low suspension rates, among other requirements. In addition, each racial, ethnic, and income group served had to demonstrate rates of proficiency that exceeded the proficiency rates for all students in the state. Schools also could not use any selective admission criteria to screen out less-capable students. Hillside, which earned a Bronze Award from NCUST, was 1 of just 16 schools around the nation that demonstrated the greatest evidence of rigorous content, engaging instruction, and positive relationships among students, teachers, parents, and administrators. The only other California school to be recognized is a charter school in El Cajon. All of the award-winning schools were recognized at a special ceremony during the NCUST Symposium on May 22 in San Diego. “We are fortunate to have very dedicated teachers who put students first,” said Principal Tommie Archuleta. “Everyone, from our parents to our community partners, has high expectations for our students. And, our students have shown us that they can meet and often exceed those high expectations.” Hillside Elementary is a University Demonstration School, where California State University, San Bernardino students who are preparing to enter the educational field work with master teachers. The school, which serves more than 700 students in grades kindergarten through six, offers the sought-after Dual Immersion program. Hillside is a testimony to the transformation that is taking place across San Bernardino City Unified, said Superintendent Dr. Dale Marsden. “Our schools are where hope is born,” Marsden said. “If our students, our employees, and our schools have hope, then our entire community has hope.” Barton Elementary Selected to Participate in President s ’ Arts Program San Bernardino City Unified’s Barton Elementary School is 1 of only 10 schools in California selected to partici-pate in the Turnaround Arts: California program, which is an affiliate of the na-tional Turnaround Arts initiative, aimed at improving underperforming schools through art, music, and dance. The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, an advisory committee to the White House, began the Turnaround Arts program in 2012 as a way to trigger academic improve-ment, narrow the achievement gap, and increase student engagement. The newly expanded program is funded through a public-private part-nership, providing over $5 million over the next three years from the U.S. De-partment of Education, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Ford Foun-dation, and other private foundations and companies, to bring arts education into low-performing schools. Program partners will provide an additional $12 million, and the money will be used to hire new art and music teachers, bring teaching artists, art supplies, and musi-cal instruments into schools and support arts integration in other core subjects such as reading, math, and science. San Bernardino City Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Dale Marsden and Barton Elementary Principal Janice Gordon-Ellis traveled to Washington, D.C. to at-tend the May 20 Turn-around Arts launch hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama. Dr. Marsden welcomes the arts ini-tiative as another way to help transform District schools. “The arts are a critical element to ensure high engagement of our students in their education,” Marsden said. “Be-ing selected for this national initiative signals a renewed hope, not only for this school but also for our District and our community. We could very well have the next Dizzy Gillespie or Carlos Santana sitting in a Barton classroom.” “Through Turnaround Arts: Califor-nia we hope to expand our successes in and out of the classroom by adding more opportunities for our students, families, and teachers to learn through dance, art, drama, and music,” said Gordon-Ellis. “The arts are a proven way to boost stu-dent achievement, keep kids interested in school, and help schools connect with their communities. We are thrilled to have been chosen to participate in this cutting-edge program.” In addition to the funding, promi-nent artists have signed up to adopt each school and work closely with stu-dents. Among the volunteers who will work to support individual schools’ arts education curriculum are Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, Yo-Yo Ma, Jason Mraz, Forest Whitaker, Kerry Washing-ton, Frank Gehry, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Marc Anthony, Tim Robbins, Chad Smith, and Russell Simmons. Rashida Jones, daughter of musician Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton, will mentor Barton Elementary students. Rashida Jones’ credits include Ann Per-kins on Parks and Recreation, Karen Filip-pelli on The Office, and the CDE Executive in The Muppets movie. Grassroots Task Force Makes Groundbreaking Recommendations for Increasing Achievement of African- American Students in SBCUSD The work of our community and Dis-trict leaders led by the Task Force for African American Student Achievement will send a wave across America for how we will ensure success for African-American students,” said Superintendent Dr. Dale Marsden. “The spirit of collabora-tion is truly making hope happen for San Bernardino City Unified.” Groundbreaking is one way to de-scribe the work of the coalition, which after five months of analyzing data, observing classrooms, and interviewing hundreds of parents, in June made six recommendations for boosting student success in San Bernardino City Schools. Formed late last year, the task force is led by Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement—better known as COPE—and represents a spectrum of community organizations, among them the Westside Action Group, Young Visionaries, BLU Educational Founda-tion, the San Bernardino chapter of the NAACP, Young Women’s Empowerment Foundation, Boys and Girls Club of San Bernardino, Youth Action Project, Inland Empire Concerned African American Churches, and the Black Voice Founda-tion. The task force’s mission is to ensure that the District’s Targeted Instructional Improvement Plan, known as TIIP, is implemented for the benefit of African-American students. Based on its extensive research in San Bernardino and Highland schools, including interviews with students, administrators, teachers, and classified staff, the task force identified priorities ranging from: improving proficiency in math and English language arts among third graders improving algebra I proficiency rates among eighth- and ninth-grade African-American students increasing the percentage of African-American students who are on track and complete requirements for ac-ceptance to University of California and California State University cam-puses improving school attendance and re-ducing chronic absenteeism among African- American students reducing suspensions by engaging African-American students and using positive behavior strategies to ad-dress and correct behavior; and strengthening engagement among parents and guardians of African-American students “Essentially we want to make sure that the District dedicates adequate re-sources to support the needs of African-American students,” said Felicia Jones, who coauthored the report presented to the San Bernardino City Unified Board of Education on Tuesday, June 3. “This is about making African-American students a priority.” The work of the task force has strengthened collaboration between the District and an important segment of stakeholders, Superintendent Marsden said. “The only way children can succeed in school is when parents, teachers, and school staff work together as partners,” Marsden said. “I appreciate the fact that our relationship with the task force is rooted in a spirit of collaboration. Both the District and the task force share a deep commitment to the success of our African-American students.” The next steps include task force representatives working with the super-intendent and his cabinet to develop a plan for carrying out the group’s recom-mendations. In addition, the task force will update the Board of Education on its progress quarterly. For a copy of the report and recom-mendations authored by the Task Force for African American Student Achieve-ment, please visit www.sbcusd.com/copereport. Board of Education Approves First Plan for Local Control On Tuesday, June 17, the San Bernardino City Unified Board of Education adopted the District’s first Local Control and Ac-countability Plan. This three-year, locally minded plan was de-veloped during a seven-month collaboration with stakeholders that included significant community input. You can find the full plan along with videos about the LCAP development process at www.sbcusd.com/lcap. Save the Date! The third annual Community Gathering for Excellence will be held on Friday, November 14, 2014, at the National Orange Show. Stay tuned for more details!.