Ed Partners Perspectives
On Track in El Dorado County
In the summer of 2023, Ed Partners and the El Dorado County Office of Education began a partnership to support districts in El Dorado County through a PreK-3 coherence collaboration as well as a 8-9 On Track Collaboration with a focus on increasing the number of students who graduate completing their A-G requirements.
One example of this work is Lake Tahoe Unified, where, at the middle and high school level, teachers, principals, and district staff have been working to eliminate their non-A-G Math 1 Foundations courses, decrease D/F rates, and increase the rigor of their math courses over the past 2 years.
As a result, they’ve made Math accessible to all 9th graders and decreased their Math 1 D/F rate by 20% while increasing rigor through higher demand math tasks for their students. Teachers are developing a system where all students believe they can be successful at math. For example, teachers adjusted their gradebooks to ensure 80% of student grades were based on rigorous assessments. Additionally, students had multiple opportunities to retake quizzes to assure that grades are based on what students know and can do.
Lake Tahoe included all Algebra 1 teachers on the team, and now is looking to scale this work across their Math department. The team has delved into the CCSS standards, modifying the district scope and sequence to prioritize essential standards in 8th, 9th, and 10th grade courses. Under the strong instructional leadership of the High School and Middle School principals, and support from the district leadership, teachers feel empowered to build the right systems that support students.
Unpacking the Fundamentals
If you’ve ever wondered how to sum up the California Education Partners’ approach to systems change, now is the time to peruse Taking Reform to Scale, a new brief from Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).
Researchers Alix Gallagher and Benjamin Cottingham outline how California Education Partners’ (Ed Partners’) multistage approach to supporting school districts improves student outcomes. PACE’s new brief and two accompanying case studies of Lake Tahoe Unified School District and Grass Valley School District follows our work together over four years, offering tremendous insights about our fundamentals in action.
According to PACE, Ed Partners’ approach “addresses persistent barriers to improvement by building capacity in the district, piloting reforms, and focusing on scaling changes systemwide in sustainable ways.” This series not only sheds light on what’s working in our District to District program but also on how districts can improve their systems.
