ESUHSD Weekly Report (WR) July 23, 2010

Community & School

OVER 140 VOLUNTEERS TO PARTICIPATE IN INAUGURAL HISPANIC YOUTH SYMPOSIUM Volunteers from Silicon Valley corporations such as Microsoft will serve as professional mentors, career speakers, and scholarship judges for high school students from

Santa Clara, CA - More than 140 students, community leaders and corporate employees will volunteer for the inaugural Silicon Valley Hispanic Youth Symposium, serving as professional role models, guest speakers, competition judges, workshop facilitators, and more. The 2010 Silicon Valley Hispanic Youth Symposium will be held from July 28-31 at Santa Clara University in partnership with National Hispanic University, Santa Clara University and East Side Union High School District. About 100 local Latino high school students are expected to attend the four-day, three-night college empowerment program, where they will participate in college and career workshops, attend a college admissions fair, connect with local Hispanic professionals and college admissions officers, and compete for more than $10,000 in scholarships.

"It is so exciting to see this magnitude of community involvement for the first year of the Silicon Valley Hispanic Youth Symposium," said Claudia Avila-Martín, Hispanic College Fund director of the Silicon Valley Hispanic Youth Institute. "So much work goes into making the best experience for the students to feel empowered and prepared to go to college. It's not only important for volunteers to be involved with the program for logistical support, but for the students to connect first-hand with adults who genuinely express a firm belief in them to succeed."

"The success of this program is incredibly dependent on community involvement," said Kathryn Grady, Hispanic College Fund director of corporate and foundation relations of western states. "We're seeing tremendous interest from community and business leaders who understand the impact that just four hours of donated time can have on students who have never before met a Hispanic professional."

Microsoft is the presenting sponsor of the inaugural symposium, and has committed employee volunteers as speakers, career workshop presenters, and Hispanic Heroes.

"Microsoft is excited at the opportunity to invest in the future of the next generation of Latino leaders," said Sid Espinosa, Director of Citizenship for Microsoft, Silicon Valley. "We believe strongly that higher education is a great lever enabling people to realize their full potential and contribute to their community, and we are proud of our association with the Hispanic College Fund and their programs."

In addition to business leaders, college students will be participating as alumni or residence assistants for the students, serving as advisors in the dorms and helping the students navigate their time on campus.

Sponsors of the Silicon Valley Hispanic Youth Symposium include: Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, The Hewlett Packard Foundation, Lockheed Martin, Castellano Family Foundation, U.S. Bank, Intel, Wells Fargo, University of Phoenix Foundation, Union Bank, Office of San José Mayor Chuck Reed; San José Police Officers Association, Google, and Virginia Tech.

National sponsors include: Darden Foundation, Microsoft, NASA, and the Social Security Administration.

The Hispanic Youth Symposium guides Hispanic students to achieve a college education, pursue a professional career, and commit to community service. Following the summer initiative, all students will be enrolled in year-round programming through the Hispanic Youth Institute, a program of the Hispanic College Fund. The Hispanic Youth Institute provides ongoing education and motivation to reinforce the key themes of the symposium.

ESUHD students are from: Andrew Hill, James Lick, W.C. Overfelt and Yerba Buena.

Calendar: July 26 – July 30

July 26 8:30 a.m. College Connection Academy Retreat

July 27 10:00 a.m. Education Center Furniture Expo

July 27 2:00 p.m. EC: Staff Lounge Principals’ Meeting w/ Instruction

July 27 6:00 p.m. National Hispanic University Silicon Valley Youth Symposium

July 28 4:00 p.m. Santa Clara University ESUHSD Student Welcome

July 28 5:00 p.m. EC: Board Room Special Board Meeting: Closed Session at 5:00 & Open Session at Approximately 6:30 July 29 9:00 a.m. ESTA Office Community Conversation

July 29 9:30 a.m. Santa Clara University VIP Briefing and Tour

July 29 6:00 p.m. Yerba Buena High School Summer Graduation

July 30 5:30 a.m. 749 Story Road La Raza Roundtable

Instructional Division

Categorical

Academic Language Workshop

From June 14-16, 2010, the district held a three day Academic Language Workshop with more than 80 teachers representing 11 high schools in all core subject areas. Teachers have developed a 40 word cross-curriculum vocabulary list that students in grades 9th to 12th should know in order to be successful in taking tests. Our goal during the pilot is to have teachers in all subject areas teach 10 academic vocabulary words at each grade level. If a teacher has a mixed grade class, he or she can determine the 10 words from the vocabulary list that his/her students should be able to know. During the summer workshop, participants developed sentence frames and activity worksheets to teach students vocabulary in different subject areas.

The list of academic vocabulary for each grade level and the list of site presenters will be sent to principals. The site presenter teams will contact their principals to arrange for a presentation on Academic Language Instruction at an upcoming collaboration period. At the presentation, they will share with the entire staff what academic language instruction is, the benefits for students to learn and use academic language, and vocabulary teaching concepts. Based on research, academic language instruction has proven as one of the key factors for student success.

California English Language Development Test (CELDT) Initial and Annual Assessment

962 students were administered the speaking portion of the English Language Development Test (CELDT) as of today. CELDT is the annual state mandated test for all English Learners (ELs). Students will take the listening, reading and writing tests in October. 12 new students also took the complete CELDT test for initial identification. Their test results were sent to APEDs for placement purposes.

3,262 students still need to complete the speaking test for annual assessment by October 31. All English Learners will take the listening, reading, and writing tests from October 12 to 14, 2010.

ELD Summer School

During the summer of 2010, 9 sections of ELD Study Skills sections were offered at Independence, Mt. Pleasant, and Yerba Buena High School. Teachers were trained to offer their students with an instructional program which is aligned with the English Language Arts Content Standards, Reading/Language Arts Framework, and ELD Standards. Typical daily schedule included reading comprehension, literature, and writing, language, listening and speaking. Pre and post test data are being compiled to compare student growth in literacy skills during the five weeks of summer school.

Vietnamese 4 for Native Speaker Curriculum Development Project

Funded by the Refugee Student Supplementary Grant, administrators, teachers, and staff are working on the Vietnamese 4 for Vietnamese Speakers textbook (V4VS). V4VS is a college preparatory course which fulfills the foreign language requirements for high school graduation and for admission to the and the California State University systems. The V4VS course was mirrored after the Spanish 4 for Spanish Speakers course. Vietnamese literature is the main focus for the V4VS course. Teachers and staff have completed lesson plans for the first semester. The work is currently being edited for accuracy prior to distribution to five schools for piloting.

Instruction

The Condition of Education 2010 report released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

One in Six Public School Students Now in High-Poverty Schools The Condition of Education Highlights Characteristics of High-Poverty Schools and their Students

Students who attend high-poverty schools perform persistently lower in math and reading achievement and are less likely to attend four-year colleges when compared to their peers in low- poverty schools, according to

The Condition of Education is a congressionally mandated report that provides an annual portrait of education in the . There are 49 indicators in this year's report covering all aspects of education, including early childhood through postsecondary education, student achievement and educational outcomes, and school environments and resources.

This year's report features a special section that examines high-poverty schools, defined as those with more than 75 percent of the students eligible for subsidized lunch.

"It is important to focus attention on the challenges that our country faces as the number of students in high-poverty schools grows," said NCES Deputy Commissioner Stuart Kerachsky. "There is a wide and persistent achievement gap associated with school poverty

The school poverty findings include:

 In 2007-08, about 20 percent of all public elementary schools and 9 percent of public secondary schools were considered high-poverty schools, compared with 15 percent and 5 percent respectively in 1999-2000.  The reading achievement gap between 8th-grade students in low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools was 34 points, on a 500 point scale, in 2009, and the mathematics achievement gap was 38 points.

 In 2007-08, according to school administrators, about 28 percent of high school graduates from high-poverty schools attended 4-year colleges after graduation, compared with 52 percent of high school graduates from low-poverty schools.

The Condition continues its role in documenting trends, and also sheds light on a number of new items — from teacher pay incentives and principal characteristics to international performance on science content and students studying abroad.

 Between 1988 and 2008, the percentage of Hispanic public school students increased from 11 to 22 percent. Largely as a result of this increase, the percentage of White students decreased from 68 to 55 percent over those two decades.

 From 1999 to 2008, the number of students enrolled in charter schools has nearly quadrupled, from 340,000 to 1.3 million students. During this period, the percentage of all public schools that were charter schools increased from 2 to 5 percent.

 In 2007-08, some 61 percent of teachers worked in districts that offered at least one type of pay incentive, such as cash bonuses or salary increases. These incentives are designed to recruit or retain teachers in less desirable locations or for positions in fields with shortages, and to reward for national board certification or excellence in teaching.

 The percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds that completed a bachelor's degree increased from 17 percent in 1971 to 29 percent in 2009. During this same period, bachelor's degree attainment more than doubled for Blacks (from 7 to 19 percent) and Hispanics (from 5 to 12 percent) and nearly doubled for Whites (from 19 to 37 percent).

 The number of U.S. college students studying abroad has quadrupled in the past two decades, from 62,000 in 1987-88 to more than 260,000 students in 2007-08 —or about 15 out of every 100 students in a bachelor's degree program. China is now the fifth most popular destination, and business/management majors now represent an increasing share of those studying abroad.