4 EDCAL December 3, 2018
Transitions
Lancaster School District has an-
nounced five new additions to the leader-
ship team. Rose Juarez is the new director
of the Welcome and Wellness Center;
Region 7 CEL dinner
Solomon DeFrancis is the principal of
Piute Middle School; Juanita Kelley is
an assistant principal at Amargosa Creek
Middle School, Mary Thurston is an
assistant principal at Monte Vista Elemen-
tary School; and Joe Nosik is an assistant
principal at New Vista Middle School.
n n n
ACSA-member news for Transitions can be
sent to EdCal Editor Cary Rodda at crodda@
acsa.org.
Million dollar violence prevention
and mental health training grant
Region 7 CEL Council and cabinet members: Back row, L-R:
Roberta Cheney, Denise Wickham, Mary Ann Sanders, key-
note speaker Mike Robbins, Claudia Vicino, Adrianna Cortes
Solorio, Nora Hana, Kelly Gilbertson. Kneeling, L-R: Jeff
Winfield and Daryl Camp.
Keynote
speaker
Mike
Robbins
offered a
motivational
talk.
Regional classified event inspires
Continued from page 1
cally unnecessary,” said Kate Walsh, NCTQ
president. “We’ve known for decades what
needs to change. Educational trends and
priorities ebb and flow. Our responsibility
to children should not.”
Although many states maintain teacher
preparation program standards that require
the science of reading to be part of the
elementary and special education teach-
er curricula, standards alone have proven
insufficient to ensure that these teachers are
prepared to teach the science of reading,
generally because they are hard to enforce.
NCTQ’s review of program practice in
The CDE will partner with Sandy
Hook Promise, a national nonprofit led by
family members who lost loved ones in the
2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary
School, to implement the Project Cal-
STOP training initiative.
“We are pleased to receive this grant
and to partner with Sandy Hook Promise
on the joint mission to keep students and
schools safe,” Torlakson said. “These funds
will allow us to provide the training and
support to those districts battling high rates
of violence and suspensions. Our goal is to
The ACSA Region 7 Classified Educational Leaders held their annual Fall
CEL Dinner on Oct. 23 in Modesto. Keynote speaker Mike Robbins, author
and motivational speaker, inspired nearly 700 classified employees and admin-
istrators about “Bringing Your Whole Self to Work.” The event – the only one
of its kind in the state – was a success and the largest crowd yet to attend the
annual dinner.
READING
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Tom Torlakson announced that the Cali-
fornia Department of Education secured $1
million in grant funding under the federal
STOP School Violence Act. The funds will
be used to provide violence prevention and
mental health training to students and staff
in school districts that have been the most
affected by violence on their campuses.
all states reveals that a majority of teacher
preparation programs do not meet those
standards. While there has been some im-
provement among programs in the past few
years, still only 37 percent of elementary
and special education programs can provide
evidence that they teach scientifically-based
reading methods to their teacher candi-
dates.
“If states want to use standards as their
primary mechanism for delivering well-pre-
pared teachers, they have to be prepared
to also provide constant monitoring and
enforcement. Few states have shown them-
selves to be so inclined,” Walsh said. “The
most efficient means available to states are
strong tests backed up by annual reviews of
how successful programs are preparing their
candidates to pass this test.”
The National Institutes of Health spent
40 years examining best practices for how
children and adults learn to read. These
findings were recently updated and affirmed
by the Institute of Education Sciences, the
research arm of the U.S. Department of
Education. The research concluded that if
teachers and schools properly implemented
instructional practices regarding scientifi-
cally-based methods of literacy, then all but
a small percent of students could learn to
read.
To help provide all students with the
support they need to become competent
and confident readers, NCTQ recommends
the following:
• All states should require elementary
stop acts of violence on campuses and allow
schools to be what they should be – safe
places for students to learn and thrive.”
According to the 2015-17 Califor-
nia Healthy Kids Survey, 30 percent (or
approximately one million) of secondary
school students were bullied, victimized
or depressed. Sixteen percent of secondary
school students reported having suicidal
thoughts.
Over a three-year span, the Project
Cal-STOP initiative will train district
administrators, school staff, and students
on violence prevention strategies and train
district and school staff to respond to
related mental health crises by expanding
CDE’s current Youth Mental Health First
Aid trainings. Local educational agencies
will be invited to participate in the Proj-
ect Cal-STOP trainings, and the training
sessions are free.
and special education teacher candidates to
pass a rigorous test in reading knowledge
that is aligned with the scientific findings
about how to produce the highest numbers
of successful readers.
• When states adopt an assessment
serving multiple purposes – that is, one that
tests knowledge of other subjects along-
side reading knowledge, it must report a
separate subscore on a candidate’s reading
knowledge.
• States should increase transparency
by reviewing their teacher preparation pro-
grams and making information reflecting
programs’ success in preparing candidates
available to the public.
WORKING
EXCELLENCE
ACSA Superintendents Symposium | January 29-February 1, 2019
Monterey Convention Center
2019 Keynote Speakers:
Adam Steltzner
NASA Engineer/Author
Colonel Arthur
J. Athens
Stockdale Center for
Ethical Leadership
Sabba Quidwai
Education Development
Executive, Apple
#casupts
This annual event brings school leaders from around the state
together for an invaluable two and a half days of professional
learning, networking and advocacy. This is the best time to look at the
governor’s budget and for superintendents to get together to review the
state-of-the-state and the state-of-the-district.
More than ever before it is time for superintendents to lead a movement
to restore California schools to their once-held rank of the best in the
nation. A focus will be on integrating technology into curriculum and
professional development in a digital world.
Register today at https://goo.gl/e2MLRT