The SAUSD is in denial about the persistently low performing public schools in Santa Ana
If you glance at the Santa Ana Unified School District’s website, you might come away thinking everything in the district is great. Headlines include: “Academic Achievement Abounds;” “Measure G Facility Improvements;” and “SAUSD Congratulates its Top Educators of the Year.”
There is no mention of the fact that four of the seven Santa Ana High Schools have been placed on the State of California’s “Persistently Low Performing” list, necessitating massive changes which might include transferring teachers, replacing administrators and even the possibility of becoming charter schools.
But check out what overmatched SAUSD Superintendent Jane Russo has to say on her website, under the headline, “Success is the Standard:”
We are dedicated to high academic achievement, in a scholarly and supportive environment, ensuring that all students are prepared to accomplish their goals in life. Failure is Unacceptable! Success is the Standard…It’s Up to Us All!
Is it just me or is Russo in complete denial?
SAUSD Superintendent Jane Russo appears to be without a clue…
Russo is one of the highest paid public school superintendents in the nation. Yet she has no doctorate in education, unlike many of her peers, and she has zero experience in turning around failing school districts. The SAUSD School Board allegedly conducted a national search and then hired her. Russo was previously an assistant to the former Superintendent, Al Mijares, who read the tea leaves and ran for the hills a few years ago.
The high schools that are failing include Santa Ana High School, Valley High School, Century High School and Saddleback High School. The only SAUSD high schools that are not failing are the fundamental schools – Godinez and Segerstrom, as well as the experimental High School, Inc. An SAUSD charter school, the Orange County High School for the Arts, is one of the top schools in the country. Very few Santa Ana residents attend that school and the school is not required to accept anyone from Santa Ana.
So what to do? The SAUSD administration is in denial. The SAUSD School Board includes members who have been on the board for years and have accomplished nothing, with the notable exception of Roman Reyna, who is new to the board.
When a company’s leadership fails, stockholders replace them. So too do we need to look at getting rid of Russo and most of her senior staff. And we need to fire the School Board too. All of them.
But that is just a start. There are deeper problems involved and we should not blame the teachers. They are doing the best they can. Transferring them to other schools will fix nothing. It will just add to the teacher’s woes.
A closer look at the SAUSD student population reveals problems including:
Our City government is doing what it can, but the City of Santa Ana is flat broke. We have one small satellite public library on the west side, near our border with Garden Grove. We have a main library over in the Civic Center. And the city maintains a homework center where the McFadden library used to be, with the help of the Santa Ana Police Department. We do have a lot of other programs, which you can read about here:
Almost 80% of the students at Century lack what it takes to get into a state university. But there has been some improvement. The school has experimented with a program to encourage students to become teachers. The school also has a business academy and art classes that include chatting with Dreamworks animators, according to the O.C. Register.
So what to do?
A friend once told me that by the time a kid gets to the fifth grade, he is either going to get it or he is destined to fail. While our high schools are a mess, we cannot overlook the importance of our middle and elementary schools. That is the best point at which to intervene.
I do think we need to look at the charter school option as well, at least with regard to our high schools. But that is not a cure all.
Russo in particular needs to go. It is way past time to hire s superintendent who has turned around failing school districts in districts with a lot of poor families and immigrants. She simply has no clue and she is unlikely to suddenly develop one.
While our City Council is broke, we should not stop trying to partner with City Hall. I met recently with Gerardo Mouet, the director of the Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Agency, which oversees our Public Library and Zoo as well. I suggested that we look at micro-libraries, that could be set up in vacant storefronts. We might be able to get landlords to let us use the storefronts for free, on the premise that they will bring foot traffic to dying retail centers. And we can provide the SAPD officers with desks at each micro library so they can work on their reports.
These libraries would include a lot of computers with Internet access. We could get interns from local colleges to help kids with homework. There would be no books. Kids could order books from the Main Library and they would be sent by a daily courier to each Micro-Library.
We should also look to the Artists Village. Why don’t we ask the folks there to conduct free after school art classes? In particular, I would love to see taggers go through such training. They may have untapped potential!
As a community we all need to do our part. Readers – any more ideas?
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I only wished we could get through all the standards by the end of the year, but I noticed we can never make it. This is because our pace as become too slow to maintain the speed of students who do not know English. We have let this slide too long. We need a block schedule so students can have 2 hours of math and english. Teachers can not get through a 56 minute lesson, because they waste 20 minutes settling the students. I also see a huge lack of decipline, and respect. Students do not participate, nor care. SAUSD will always have those success stories, those students have earned them. However, the important part is the Average. I was looking at a City of Santa Ana report, and the litercy rate was -25% based on Ca aversge. I never knew it could be in the negatives. Honestly I didn't know a bad school exist in SAUSD until High School, growing up in North Santa Ana, I was exposed to different demographics such as the "White Community" many SAHS residents never knew. Suddenly past 17th, Spanish is a must. I think if a parent from Mexico is going to bring their whole family and create so many other childeren, they need to be able to read and write Enlish. There are times when I wished I was "undocumented" to recieve the same attention they get. They never grow acedically because they have been given everything. They have been baby fed through their whole education, it has lost complete value. Reading the comments about Century on OC Register made me so sad. Upper class people made comments about the overwelming number of "undc. people" and to be honest, I am starting to think enough is enough. Education come from home values, and most of the classmates that tend to fail in our system usually come from "broken homes", where does the pity end? My mother never stopped to whine about life, instead she gave me a speech about embracing education. She told me her mistake of leaving college to be housewife, and suddenly when they got a divorce, she was left uneducated. Most students may not understand the true meaning of a dollar or education because they never had that experience in life. I believe parents and early childhood development produces good students. My concern is..Is it too late?
Also, with immigration reform coming, I strongly believe Santa Ana has lost great respect. I feel bad for the families who may have upcoming presure. I am for education for all, but when we are impacted this much and frowned upon, where must they go?
We can't kick students out, and other cities do not understand because they do not have immigration problems as high as us.
Something needs to be done now. We need more voctional programs to get certain low performing students out of core classes, so students can actually learn at a normal pace.
This does hurt me alot, but I hope my opinion has helped a little, if not what can I do?
Half me says "keep trying", and the other is "Thank God I am leaving".
Thanks
SAHS SENIOR
You are misinterpreting what I am saying (Anonymous). I do think that teachers need on-going training (definitely), but what I am saying is that lawmakers and superintendents are not placing enough emphasis on getting the parents the help that they need. Instead, they are adding even more trainings for teachers. Yes, it is always good to get more training, but sometimes we are feeling that the money could be better spent assisting parents as well. I do respect parents & teachers very much. If I didn't care, I most certainly would not be here trying to come up with ideas to improve the educational system in Santa Ana. In fact, I care too much (if there is a such a thing). Thanks for commenting (Anonymous) :)
Regarding Promotion, most kids have been retained once already before reaching the middle schools and the district frowns upon retaining students more than once. I am hearing what you are saying...why are teachers allowing students to go on when they are not meeting the standards? Answer: I teach the younger grades and the district told us that they do not want students to be retained twice. Many studies show that retention is not helpful while few studies show that it is beneficial. It is the most beneficial to retain in the early grades.
As a former SAUSD Student, I had a good public education (86-93) because of my talents, but sadly, I noticed neglect to many who were not in the same AP or Honors programs etc. I didn't realize how much of a decline there was of integrity in SAUSD schools until I had enrolled my daughter in a Elem. School in SA, and not only was she pigeon-holed into a spanish-speaking class based solely on her hispanic last name (she even didn't speak Spanish), I was actually racially profiled myself on SO many levels and "there was nothing they could do for me because of budget constraints". This happened without my permission and they couldn't even transfer her back into an all-English speaking class. This directly affected her basic learning foundation & was forced to learn at a slower pace.
My pleas fell onto deaf ears at both administrative and board level and I was told to keep my rhetoric to myself... I felt very angry and insulted that I was being treated like this and felt bad for all the other parents who also may have experienced the same and couldn't do anything about it - especially spanish-speakers who probably had no voice or opinion in the matter.
As much as the District has restructured classrooms, programs & the way they treat parents, they need a BIG restructure themselves... and it starts from the TOP all the way down to the student level AND in elementary school. Many children are being left behind, are not given solid foundations and it's really sad to see how run-down a school can look like nowadays and administrator's wallet be on the other end of the spectrum.
Shame on SAUSD!! The logo needs to be changed... there needs to be a change soon!!!
I have lived in Santa Ana for all of my life, I am 21 years old. All throughout middle school and high school I was an honors and AP student. I felt like I received the academic attention needed because of that background. My senior yr at Century, I took a CP English class and was shocked of how the teachers undefestimated the students. Students would also play the role by complaining about all the work that had to be done. I did not feel our needs being met through that class. It makes sense for a lot of CP students to fall through the cracks when the teacher simply allows them to fail.