Student Services
Updates
Students and Staff, Welcome Back!
Students From Jack Francioni Are Happy To Return To School
Students lining up to enter their classroom
Roomies in class with their plexiglass covered desks
Zoomies are learning from home
Thank You For All That You Do For Our Soledad Unified School Students
SUSD Teachers and Staff Welcome Back!
Soledad Unified School District's State Assessment Status
SUSD elected not to take the CAASPP State assessments in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science this school year. According to the viable options provisions in the state of California Assessment Plan, which was approved by the US Department of Education. The viable options provided by the State are as follows:
Access to secure browsers
Access to stable broadband with adequate bandwidth
Challenges of non-managed devices
Capacity for proctoring and monitoring remotely, both in the home and from the school
Children’s degree of experience with an online assessment platform
Students’ requirements for non-embedded accessibility supports
The amount of time schools have been (or will have been) providing full in-person instruction*
Instructional model transitions due to COVID-19
Local pandemic-related factors
Including ensuring initial time upon reopening for students and staff to learn and adjust to mitigation strategies, take stock of and address trauma, and support immediate social-emotional needs
Therefore, the administering of the statewide CAASPP assessment was not the most viable option for SUSD. Nonetheless, to meet the criteria established by the State Board of Education namely:
Aligned with California Common Core State Standards for ELA and mathematics;
Available to assess students in grades three through eight and grade eleven;
Uniformly administered across a grade span, school, or district; and
Provide results that can be reported to parents/guardians, educators about individual students, and the public by the school and by district and are disaggregated by the student group.
SUSD elected to use the following benchmark assessments which are CDE-approved assessments to meet the aforementioned criteria. IReady Diagnostics for grades K-8 in both English Language Arts and Math, and at the High school, Reading Inventory for ELA and Mathematics Diagnostics Testing Project (MDTP) for Math. The only State assessment that must be administered to all English learners is the ELPAC which already started and is projected to be completed before June 10th. Nonetheless, the State has extended the window for the completion of this assessment to July 30th.
Also, the State waived federal penalties if the student participation rate for the ELA and mathematics Smarter Balanced assessments is below 95%.
Middle and High School Math Teachers Meet To Discuss SUSD Math Pathway
5 strategies for remote SEL and preparing for a return to school
Use these strategies to continue to promote student SEL as schools remain closed and when they begin to open.
1. Maintain SEL on the schedule. In the daily schedule, you recommend or expect students to follow during school closures, ensure you continue to carve out time for SEL as well as academics, Lozano says. El Paso students have access to numerous SEL lessons and activities, including mindfulness exercises, on the district website that they can do on their own or with their families. They also have time allotted during academic lessons for brain breaks and teachers can draw from evidence-based curricula.
2. Promote student equity. Ensure staff continue to be aware of what is going on in the background when they speak or videoconference with students and parents and check if families have the resources they need for students to continue to learn remotely and safely, Lozano says. “Staff are spending hours of their day connecting with parents to ensure they have the resources they need. We want to know if there are nonacademic barriers to engagement. We try to create a sense of emotional safety and support for our students and families.”
Also, talk with teachers about their grading policies. El Paso has decided as a district not to let any grading during the closure affect a student’s ability to move forward. “Nothing done academically during this time of closure can hurt a child,” Lozano says. The hope is that this will promote equity because not every student has access to the same resources during the pandemic, he adds. “The playing field is not level.”
3. Create predictability. Establish recurring, fixed times for virtual office hours for additional academic support to improve student engagement and promote a sense of predictability and connection. This will give staff another opportunity to uncover if a student is struggling emotionally as well. “We want to provide a safe environment for students to engage,” Lozano says.
Just ensure that staff members are as engaged as they can be when they interact with students and their families. They need to practice self-care before they care for others. “We really need to be mindful about being supportive and caring and engaging in our work,” he says.
4. Build parents’ skills. Provide parents with information on mindfulness and emotional regulation so they can model and support their child’s social-emotional growth, Montes-Uranga says. “We’re encouraging them to implement mindful practices throughout their day.”
“There is a parent toolkit [on El Paso’s website] on how to remain calm and engage in deep breathing and be present at the moment and how that helps with stress,” she explains. Parents can also use digital flashcards when their child tests their limits, Lozano says. Each card shares what to do and not to do when a student behaves a certain way. “It helps parents be intentional in how they respond so the behavior doesn’t escalate,” he adds.
5. Plan for the return to school. Recognize that as the return to school approaches and takes place, many students will need social-emotional support, Lozano says. Many of these students may not have needed such support in the past before the pandemic. “Those first few weeks are going to have to be focused on creating a sense of emotional safety and predictability,” he explains. “We are going to be ramping up our training on trauma-informed practices because, in one way or another, this has been traumatic for everyone.”
Your approach should focus on rebuilding community at the classroom and school level, Lozano says. “We will all need to process what we’ve been through and commit to understanding and working with each other in a way that is SEL-informed. We will need a sense of unity.”
Congratulations to Newly Certified PBIS ACER Certified Soledad Unified Staff
Congratulations to Newly Certified PBIS ACER Soledad Unified Staff
Contact Us
Director of Student Services and Accountability
Email: aehrlich@soledad.k12.ca.us
Website: http://soledadusd.org
Location: Soledad Unified School District, 1261 Metz Road, Soledad, CA, USA
Phone: 831-678-3987