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2080 N Mountain Ave • Claremont CA 91711Contacts

Message From the Superintendent

January 2008

As educators, our goal is to provide the best education possible for our students in a safe, supportive environment. In Claremont, each of our schools offers a rigorous and regarding academic program, along with engaging creative and extracurricular opportunities, all designed to encourage excellence from our students.

By any measure, Claremont Unified is a highly successful district. Academic Performance Index (API) scores are strong and improving. Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) indicators are very positive, graduation rates are very high and college acceptances continue to rise. Despite our successes, we are nagged by a persistent question, "How accurately do API scores and AYP calculations reflect everything our students know and are able to do?"

While we are required to teach the state-mandated curriculum content standards, we do have the ability to determine how we educate the young people in our care and how we measure their success.

For that reason just as each student is unique, within CUSD each of our schools has a distinct personality and its own approach to success utilizing a methodology that is specific to that school and program. But even as we celebrate this diversity of instruction within our schools, we also ensure that each student in every school masters essential concepts, has a core body of knowledge, and has experiences that are necessary for success in the classroom and beyond.

We know this because of our student performance data. But, even in this area, we strive to know more. One of our most meaningful endeavors over the next several months will be to develop an assessment process that is specific to the needs of Claremont students. Our assessments should inform the student where they are at that moment in their educational career and where they need to go. Those frequent common assessments should also drive our teaching and curriculum decisions, because we should be teaching to ensure our students learn - not just to complete a set curriculum.

Learning is about engagement, it is not a race from page one to page 450 in a textbook. Teachers need time to go deep, to engage student interest, to teach literacy and computational skills. Successful students must also develop and learn to use their critical thinking skills. Facts are important but skills are essential. Standardized assessments may test knowledge of information and processes, but we also want students to make connections between academic content and come up with their own conclusions.

We have a great school district, excellent schools, exemplary teachers and dedicated support staff. As superintendent, I fully intend to optimize every opportunity, every community partnership, and every academic tool I can find to further improve on our success and ensure every student in our District is fully engaged and achieving to his or her highest potential.

Sincerely