Ed Partners Perspectives

Pre-K to 3rd Grade: A Small District’s Big Commitment

Today, March 7th, Ed Partners was proud to present alongside Buttonwillow Elementary School district at the annual Small School District Association (SSDA) Conference in Sacramento. This session focused on Buttonwillow’s effort to build an academic and structural bridge between their preschool and kindergarten-3rd programs as part of our Preschool Through Third Grade Coherence Collaboration (P3CC). Buttonwillow built capacity and leveraged resources to create cross-functional district teams focused on Pre-K through 3rd grade transitions with the greatest benefits to English Learners and socio-economically disadvantaged students.

While some see small and rural districts as challenged, Buttonwillow has used these attributes to their advantage by supporting teacher leadership and consistently communicating with their community. The Buttonwillow Elementary Board of Education has played a critical role in supporting efforts across the district to close achievement gaps and create opportunities for students who need additional support. These slides will give you additional detail about the great work at Buttonwillow.

District Spotlight: Hilmar Unified School District

We would like to highlight Hilmar Unified School District, for their engagement in the On Track work with two teams, Hilmar Middle and Hilmar High. Hilmar is located about 15 minutes southwest from Turlock in Merced County in the Central Valley. The Hilmar Middle School team begun at the onset of the On Track collaboration and includes, the Superintendent, Director of Student Services, Principal, Vice Principal, Counselor, ELA, Math, Social Studies, Science and elective teachers. They have engaged in developing their Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions for students with Ds and/or Fs through a 7th period support class. They are now looking to expand their work by planning and implementing Grading Practices from the work of Dr. Doug Reeves and Joe Feldman’s  Grading for Equity book.

The Hilmar High School team recently joined the collaboration to articulate the On Track work across the middle and into the high school. The team is comprised of the Superintendent, District Administrator, Principal, Assistant Principal, Counselor, and 9th grade teachers. The High School team has analyzed historical and current D/F rate data to provide immediate interventions for students with Ds and Fs. They are also exploring the planning and implementation of Grading Practices along with their Middle School colleagues. Both, the Hilmar Middle and High School Improvement, teams keep students at the heart of their work as they seek to increase the On Track achievement of their students.