The Turlock Unified School
District has made a plan to better promote its Career Technical Education
courses to all English learners as part of the district’s response to a report
released by the Stanislaus County Civil Grand Jury in June.
By law, the district had
90 days to officially respond to the jury’s findings and recommendations
regarding Career Technical Education. The response must include whether the
district agrees or disagrees with the recommendations with accompanying
explanations.
According to Assistant
Superintendent of Educational Services Heidi Lawler, former Director of CTE and
Program Equity Tami Truax and current director John Acha worked alongside
school administrators and data systems staff to gather the data requested
immediately after the jury’s report was released. Acha presented the findings
and the proposed response to the Board prior to their unanimous vote.
“We're excited to share
with you this report, and I say excited because this is what I enjoy most about
my job: Identifying the great things that TUSD is doing already, as well as
instilling change… We always need to evolve and we always have ways to improve
and I appreciate the Civil Grand Jury,” Acha said.
Acha began by sharing that
the district currently offers over 40 CTE courses with 31 teachers teaching
them. After taking a closer look at the current state of the programs, Acha and
the research team came to the conclusion that TUSD should agree with 8 of the
14 findings and recommendations.
One of the first topics
listed by the SCCGJ that Acha suggest the district agree with was the fact that
all English Language Learners in the district have the ability to enroll in CTE
course. While that is the case, Acha and the team also agreed with the
recommendation that the district can do a better job at promoting the courses to
all students, including English learners. This recommendation also correlates
with the finding regarding participation, as Acha agreed with the jury that
enrollment tends to vary by schools and districts in Stanislaus County.
“[It’s} something we want
to look into,” Acha told the Board. “Why is that? What is it that one site may
be doing better versus another or what could have caused that? It’s good
information to focus on.”
Acha and the team also
acknowledged the jury’s finding that CTE completion rate amongst English
learners is fairly low. According to data presented to the Board, the CTE
course completion rate amongst English learners at Turlock High was only 10% in
2018 and 2019. At Pitman High, there was a 5% completion rate.
“My goal as the Director
of CTE and Program Equity is to increase our pathway completion rates, which
are called New Career Readiness rates,” Acha said.
Acha shared similar
sentiments to the jury’s finding regarding graduation rates at continuation
schools in Stanislaus County. Acha explained that while graduation rates varied
dramatically by campus, Turlock’s Roselawn High had one of the higher rates in
the county. Nevertheless, Acha believes there is always room for improvement.
Amid the long list of
agreements, Acha did have some disagreements regarding the jury’s findings and
recommendations.
Staying on the topic of
continuation schools, Acha and his team partially disagreed with the finding
that TUSD offers limited CTE programs to continuation students.
“We disagree partially
here as we already as a district are incorporating some of the recommendations,”
Acha said. “We already have multiple CTE courses available. At the continuation
high schools, it's difficult sometimes with smaller staff just like it would be
for a very smaller school, and that is a challenge, but it’s nothing you can't
overcome or continue to work on.”
Another disagreement that
came about was the jury’s finding that schedule conflicts limit English
learners’ participation in CTE programs.
“Coming from my previous
job building the master schedule at Pitman High School, I know the work that I
did to reduce and limit the amount of complex issues for all students,” Acha
said. “Absolutely I want every student to take every class they possibly can,
but it's not possible. And it's not limited to English learners. At some point,
there may just not be a way to make it work.”
Acha added that the Aeries
software can usually assist in resolving schedule conflicts and that there is
already an increased effort to decrease conflicts for English learners.
The SCCGJ also listed in
their report that there could be eased financial burdens on students interested
and participating in CTE courses, a finding that Acha and the team partially
disagreed with as current policies and practices are being implemented to
remove this barrier for TUSD students. There was a similar partial disagreement
as it related to necessary technology. Acha explained that the devices all
students are provided with can be compatible with over 130 languages, but
acknowledged that steps to access those tools could be better promoted and
taught.
All other findings and
recommendations released by the SCCGJ were neither agreed or disagreed with as
TUSD has already implemented the changes or have already motioned to make the
recommended changes before the end of the current calendar year.
Now that the Board has
approved the response, a CTE Task Force will be put together for this school
year. The Task Force will conduct a comprehensive review of SCCGJ report with
counseling and admin teams at Turlock, Pitman and Roselawn High and ultimately
develop action plans to address the jury’s findings and implement recommendations.
Turlock Journal
Christopher Correa
September 9, 2022
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