Amesti Elementary School
Pajaro Valley Joint Unified
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Amesti Elementary School |
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Other facts about schools OTHER FACTS ABOUT SCHOOLS A full annual report about each school in our district is available on our district’s Web site. These annual reports, also known as school accountability report cards (SARCs), include additional facts from the 2003-2004 school year about teachers, textbooks, facilities, science labs, test results, measures of progress, resources, and much more. WILLIAMS LEGISLATION The laws that called for our district to report these facts were passed by the Legislature in the fall of 2004. These five laws, in turn, were the result of a lawsuit initiated by students and their parents from over 40 districts, who filed their legal action in 2000. To read more about the lawsuit itself, you can either go to the ACLU Web site (they were one of several firms representing the plaintiffs in the case), or to the California Department of Education. To read about the many consequences of the Williams legislation — affecting textbooks, teachers, facilities and science labs, go to this online information from the California Department of Education. The lawsuit’s consequences ranged from improvements to monitoring the condition of buildings, to the availability of textbooks. About one-third of the schools in California were affected more dramatically than others by the Williams legislation. To find out which schools were in this group, and to read why these schools were the central focus of the Williams legislation, take a look at this online information from the California Department of Education. TEXTBOOKS The main fact about textbooks that the Williams legislation called for described whether schools had enough books in core classes for all students. The law also asked districts to reveal whether those books were presenting what the California content standards called for. This information is far more meaningful when viewed along with the more detailed description of textbooks contained in our school accountability report card (SARC). There you’ll find the names of the textbooks used in our core classes, their dates of publication, the names of the firms that published them, and more. If you believe that your school does not have enough textbooks for each student, or if you believe the textbooks are not up-to-date, you can file a complaint using the form available from the preceding link which appears in blue. TEACHER MISASSIGNMENTS The issue of teacher misassignments deserves further clarification. Under the terms of the Williams legislation, teachers who are misassigned are supposed to be accounted for. A correctly teacher should be someone who is teaching a subject they know thoroughly, preferably as experts. But in California, a misassigned teacher can be someone who lacks the expertise, but is given special permission by the school board or by the county office of education to teach this subject anyway. That permission – in the form of an emergency permit, a waiver, or an internship authorization – allows us to consider that teacher to be properly assigned. So you’ll find few, if any, teachers to be formally “misassigned” under the terms of the Williams legislation. However, if you go to our school’s accountability report card (SARC), you’ll find an area in that report that describes “Teachers Who May Be Underprepared.” In this table, you’ll find other perspectives on teacher misassignments. The federal perspective, as defined in the law known as No Child Left Behind, is much stricter in defining “highly qualified” teachers. So you’ll often see high figures here for core courses not taught by “highly qualified” teachers. If the school you are looking up is a middle or high school, you’ll see two lines defining “out-of-field teaching.” These lines use a fairly strict definition in determing an out-of-field event. If a teacher does not hold what is termed a “subject area authorization” to teach a class, then for that class, the teacher is considered to be teaching out of field. To read more about this complex subject, you can read this short report by the Center for Teaching and Learning about the prevalence of underprepared math teachers. They published these findings in April 2005, based on research by SRI International. They also produced a similar report in June 2004 on the occurrence of underprepared science teachers. If you believe that your child’s classroom is not properly staffed by a well-prepared and qualified teacher, you may file a complaint using the form available from the preceding link which appears in blue. TEACHER VACANCIES The Williams legislation also asked districts to disclose how frequently full-time teachers were not permanently assigned to a classroom. There are two general circumstances that can lead to the unfortunate case of a classroom without a full-time, permanently assigned teacher. Within the first 20 days of the start of school, we can be surprised by too many students showing up for school, or too few teachers showing up to teach. After school starts, however, teachers can also be surprised by sudden changes: family emergencies, injuries, accidents, etc. When that occurs, it is our school’s and our district’s responsibility to fill that teacher’s vacancy with a qualified, full-time and permanently assigned replacement. For that reason, we report teacher vacancies in two parts: at the start of school, and after the start of school. If you believe that your child is seeing too many teachers lead a class over the course of a year, you can file a complaint using the form available from the preceding link that appears in blue. FACILITIES Because some school buildings are not in good shape, the Williams legislation requires us to disclose whether our school facilities are simply in good repair. We have answered this question, as well, in our 2003-2004 school accountability report card (SARC). But we are answering it as of a specific date in the spring of 2005, as well, in order to meet the requirements of this new law known as Williams. In order to determine the condition of our facilities, our district sent experts from our facilities team to do so. They used a six-page survey, issued by the Office of Public School Construction, which you can see on request. A blank copy is available from the preceding link that appears in blue. Based on that survey, we’ve answered the questions you see on this report. Please note that the information reflects the condition of our buildings as of the date of the report. Since that time, those conditions may have changed. If you’d like a more current assessment, please contact our principal or the district office. If you believe that your child’s school is not in good repair, you can file a complaint using the form available from the preceding link that appears in blue. SCIENCE LABS In high schools, many science courses require that students conduct experiments. This gives our students a chance to practice the scientific method, in effect, learning science by doing science. Those courses are what we call lab courses, and, of course, they require equipment and materials. The purpose of the Williams legislation is to inform citizens if our schools have the proper equipment, and enough of it, for students to succeed. Please note that there is no state standard for equipping science labs. The next best authority we have to rely upon is the policy of our own school board. So you’ll see in our report whether our school board has voted to approve a standard for equipping our science labs. If you have further questions about the condition of our science labs, we recommend you speak with your child’s science teacher directly. If you have an interest in learning science by doing science, you may find the Exploratorium’s approach of interest. They have an extensive program for educating science teachers, and a special Institute for Inquiry that provides guidance for elementary science teachers, in particular. If your child is taking a high school level lab science course, and you believe that she does not have access to adequate lab equipment, you can file a complaint using the form available from the preceding link that appears in blue.
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