SFUSD Superintendent Richard Carranza with students.

SFUSD Superintendent Richard Carranza with students.

Richard Carranza
July 9, 2015

The month of June marked transitions for many of our students, but few more than then than the very youngest. This month, thousands of 3-, 4- and v-year-olds completed their first years of formal education in San Francisco Unified. Research suggests they will be significantly meliorate prepared to succeed in school because of their loftier-quality preschool experience.

What these children don't know – and information technology should be invisible to them – is that they are on the leading edge of our district's strategy to align pre-K–3rd grade pedagogy. Our goal with this approach is to compress a stubborn achievement gap by aligning primary schoolhouse didactics to a formerly separate pre-K system. If we are going to bridge the gap, we have to commencement before, and that early work must be connected and coherent with the work in the grades that follow.

Initial signs advise the impacts of our shift to pre-K–iii will be felt by these children adjacent yr and across in a number of important ways – from their sense of comfort and self-conviction in the classroom, to their familiarity with books and other printed matter, to their early understanding of the concepts of quantity and relative size, to their negotiating skills on the playground. This year, the percentage of district pre-M graduates who were gear up for kindergarten was 43 percent, up from 18 percent in the 2012–13 school year.

Recently New America, a nonprofit policy organization based in Washington, D.C., published a example report ("The Power of a Skilful Thought: How the San Francisco Schoolhouse District is Edifice a PreK-third Grade Bridge") that tells the story of the hard piece of work that went into this transformative shift. The study details the steps – and the delivery and patience – required to achieve this change in district systems, exercise and culture, including:

  • Coordinating frequently-confusing federal, state and local funding streams;
  • Bringing pre-M programs under the authority of elementary schoolhouse principals;
  • Collaborating with teachers and their union representatives on necessary scheduling and other adjustments;
  • Aligning curriculum and targeting professional evolution for teachers beyond the 4 class levels;
  • Elevating early babyhood administrative leadership to the superintendent's cabinet level; and
  • Building data systems and kindergarten readiness measures from scratch.

Together, these measurements gave teachers, principals and administrators snapshots of how classrooms were performing, where students were and were not developing, and where to focus instruction.

The New America report reminds us why we committed to this work in the offset place. We now know, from decades of long-term inquiry in the fields of didactics, health and economics, that early on education is one of the smartest and most constructive public investments nosotros can brand. Done well, information technology reduces the need for special pedagogy placements and grade retention, increases high school graduation rates and earnings in adulthood, and reduces crime and incarceration. These are of import benefits to students and the communities where they live. These benefits represent savings to taxpayers, too.

Nosotros also had skillful prove from other schoolhouse districts nationally that have seen meaning reductions in accomplishment gaps subsequently implementation of well-conceived pre-K–3 alignment.

San Francisco Unified did not commence on this pre-K–3 transformation solitary. Nosotros had essential implementation, funding and thought partners in Outset 5 San Francisco, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, Stanford University and others. But the investment of the commune's own resource, start during the height of California'due south recession, was both paramount and carefully considered.

The payoff is evident at Drew Elementary, located in Bayview, which is one of the poorest neighborhoods in San Francisco. Pre-K–iii teachers there are collaborating and communicating regularly, with an peculiarly strong partnership between the pre-Thou and kindergarten teachers. They engage in joint professional development and work closely to align their teaching. Kindergarten teachers tell usa that, more than ever earlier, the students in their classrooms who had pre-K the prior twelvemonth are ready to learn to read.

In many ways, the hard work has but begun. To proceeds a articulate view of educatee achievement in pre-K and kindergarten, our educators needed multiple sources of information. Stanford researchers developed kindergarten readiness measurements that give teachers, principals and administrators snapshots of students' literacy, math, social-emotional and other skills based on teacher observations. These measurements assist guide where to focus instruction. Nosotros too keep to tailor professional development and cross-grade teacher collaboration to fit the new structure. We are learning as we go.

Nosotros know in that location are no easy answers to challenges in large urban school systems. Just with support from our school lath, teachers and community partners, SFUSD'south pre-K–3 strategy has charted a path to real and lasting change, and that is worth celebrating.

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Richard Carranza is Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School Commune.

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