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New Task Force to Tackle Master Plan for Pajaro’s English Learners
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New Task Force to Tackle Master Plan for Pajaro’s English Learners
Trustees Believe Inconsistent Teaching Part of Problem
By Linda Fridy
With yet another report that education for English learners in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District is being taught inconsistently, administration and trustees again face the question of how to make improvements. Superintendent Dr. Mary Anne Mays has decided to start at the beginning and asked at the Apr. 18 board meeting for a task force to create a master plan.
Recently elected Pajaro trustee Libby Wilson advocated for an aggressive plan to transition students from Spanish to English, while providing the alternatives that parents have a right to request. She said she has received only positive responses to her comments.
Although she was newly elected last fall, Wilson knows that the district has a history of trying new approaches for English language learners as new theories arise, none with consistent success.
“Someone showed me a two-foot-high stack of studies,” she said.
The recent report by consultant Norm Gold confirmed her impression, finding that different schools and zones use several techniques, staff development has been haphazard, and the district lacks overall guidance and sufficient resources. The report was delivered in February, shortly after the board announced its decision to bring Dr. Mays back in March as interim superintendent.
Mays is currently recruiting for the 49-member task force. The plan is to have 29 teachers, administrators and trustees along with 20 students, parents and community representatives evenly divided across the district. Prospective members must commit to the eight monthly meetings.
The size of the group is daunting, Mays admitted, but it is intended to spread awareness and create buy-in for the district’s efforts. The Gold report was especially critical of the district’s decision making and communication.
“We found that the district has difficulties in reaching, recording and reporting decisions, and in monitoring follow-through once decisions are reached,” the report concluded.
No Time to Waste
Report authors also emphasize, “Decision making, communication and related management issues are of such importance that we recommend addressing them with great urgency. Without improvement in this arena, any responses to the subsequent recommendations are unlikely to make a positive impact.”
The task force will not have sole responsibility for solving these problems, Mays said. She is developing a new organizational chart, which will include an English language administrator at either the director or assistant director level. The Gold report recommended the creation of such a new position. This person would work across all the district’s zones, she said.
At the same time the Gold survey was being conducted, the district was preparing an English Language Development plan, which draws on state standards. It will help the task force identify training and materials to be used district-wide.
The master plan will also address a major area of concern with English language acquisition: accountability and evaluation. It will define staff responsibilities and how to determine effectiveness.
Trustee Wilson sees this latest effort as an opportunity to be clear about expectations.
“We need to set the directive for the educators,” she said, acknowledging that not every student will achieve the goals.
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