Dear Reader,
I regret to inform you that Valley High School and five other Santa Ana Unified School District schools have been identified by the California Department of Education (CDE) as Persistently Lowest Achieving.
Over the last five years Valley High School’s academic achievement based on CST (California Standards Test) has been declining. The state has made it clear that change must occur or else Valley could be shut down.
The news has made me feel very concerned. Earlier this week I met with Valley’s Principal Ms. Felicity Swerdlow to discuss how alumni can support Valley during this difficult time. During the meeting I proposed a canvass of the community served by VHS.
On Saturday, May, 1st Alumni, Staff, Teachers and Students will go to the streets and survey the residents living within the VHS boundaries. Teams of 3 people will go door to door and ask questions to residents about the current state of Valley. In addition, volunteers will collect data that will be used to create the best action plan for the school. We are going to need many volunteers. I encourage all of you to join the canvass on May 1st and be part of turning Valley High 180 degrees.
If you have question and/or can participate please email ValleyHigh180@gmail.com
Leo Villarreal ‘99
It won't help. The failures at Valley are the result of numerous poor decisions, made by weak kneed administrators, over many years, motivated by pragmatism rather than what is educationally best.
ReplyDelete1) go back and re-establish junior high schools sending the 9th graders back to the middle schools.
2) close down Godinez and send those kids back to Valley. A culture of academics has to be replanted at Valley. Valley has become too academically homogeneous. More intellectual and academic diversity is needed at Valley.
3) limit the number of kids attending Valley to no more than 1200 to 1500 students.
4) limit class size to no more than 25 students per teacher.
5) retrain teachers in curriculum writing that focuses on integrating the content of state standards with regular in class pre-post testing and teacher self assessment. Teachers should be held accountable on a regular basis (e.g. every six weeks) not once a year when the school year is over and it is too late. It will also help teachers discover the weakness in their teaching, in their curriculum, and in the learning style/ability of their students. This will allow teachers to modify and focus their teaching.
6) cut summer vacation back to six weeks. Then run a six week summer school to bring failing students from the spring semester up to speed.
7) create a six week winter vacation. Students who fail in the fall semester can be retaught and students who go with their parents to Christmas in Mexico will not fail the first semester because they did not come back in January.
it'll be nice for us(the students) have lunch time a little bit longer, and more classes after school, workshops or something that can make the students see the valley pride.
ReplyDeletethis is going to help the students see how much can we do for them the change start with us.
ReplyDeleteif we really wnat to see a change in the school.