Three Santa Ana schools among state’s lowest achieving

Three Orange County schools in the Santa Ana Unified School District were named on the state’s preliminary list of 188 public schools identified as the persistently lowest-achieving.

Century High, Valley High and Willard Intermediate are on the list that is subject to approval by the State Board of Education on March 11. After Thursday, the three OC schools must “engage in a school intervention model as required by state and federal law,” according to a release from state superintendent of public instruction Jack O’Connell.

“This is an opportunity to make dramatic changes at chronically under-performing schools,” O’Connell said. “The intervention choices provide an opportunity to make systemic changes that improve teaching and learning. As a result, we will help prepare thousands of students for a brighter future.”

Orange County superintendent William Habermehl speaks on the state of education in OC (File Photo/Orange County Department of Education)

California is required to both identify the persistently lowest-achieving 5 percent of the state’s school and implement one of four school intervention models.

According to the California Board of Education, the four models to help schools increase performance include firing the principal and staff, opening a charter campus or relocating students to higher performing schools in the area.

Santa Ana Unified has not yet decided which models the three schools will be implementing. With the recent announcement, the district staff will be exploring all the models and the school district will present their findings to the local Board of Education.

In a statement on the Santa Ana Unified website, “SAUSD is committed to collaborating with the State Department of Education, Orange County Department of Education (OCDE), our instructional leadership team, teachers’ union, faculty, students and parents to select an intervention model by June 1, 2010 to help guide school improvements.”

Orange County superintendent William M. Habermehl took the opportunity to comment on the effect of the budget crisis on the quality of education local agencies are able to afford. He said,

Orange County districts have aggressively implemented steps to turn around low performing schools. However, it is extremely difficult to give schools the support they need while districts deal with the effects of billions of dollars in cuts to education. Many vital school programs across the county have been reduced or eliminated. Despite the difficult budget situation, Orange County schools have had an impressive record of success implementing major reform efforts. The Orange County Department of Education will continue to support school districts to ensure student success.”

In addition, Habermehl stated that Santa Ana Unified has been “proactive in addressing their underperforming schools well ahead of the recent state mandate,” under the direction of superintendent Jane Russo.

Six Santa Ana Unified schools exited program improvement in 2009.

Tags: Century High, Orange County Department of Education, Santa Ana, Santa Ana Unified School District, State Board of Education, Superintendent William M. Habermehl, Valley High, Willard Intermediate

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 5:10 pm and is filed under California, Education, Local News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.