Mission Statement: All San Diego students will graduate with the skills, motivation, curiosity and resilience to succeed in their choice of college and career in order to lead and participate in the society of tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 2, begins the first day of learning and instruction for the 2008-09 school year. Welcome back to all new and returning employees, students and families. For back-to-school information, including school start times and bus schedules, go to http://www.sandi.net/backtoschool.html .

The district has found teaching assignments for many of the 204 probationary teachers who had been laid off in June due to the budget crisis. Of the 204 probationary teachers who received lay-off notices, 135 have now been given temporary classroom placements, filling in for tenured teachers who are taking leaves of absence. As of August 27, the total number of teachers employed by the district for the new school year will be 8,102, an overall reduction of 332 teaching positions from the previous year—including the 214 probationary positions that were eliminated. This year, placements were complicated by the massive budget cuts that led to the reduction of 198 central office administrators and numerous categorical teaching positions. Many of those laid off are entitled to teaching jobs under state law based on seniority. As a result, even with the usual vacancies due to leaves of absence and/or resignations or retirements, along with a number of newly created teaching positions due to class-size reduction initiatives in grades K-2 and 9th grade English, not enough permanent teaching positions were available for the probationary teachers. Read more.

A panel discussion on the 2008 presidential election will feature Presidential historian Robert Dallek. The event will take place on Monday, September 8, from 4 -5:30 p.m., at the Ballard Parent Center in Old Town, 2375 Congress Street, (92110). Dr. Dallek, author of renowned works on Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon, will be joined by Mesa College political science professor Carl Luna and former California Teacher of the Year Stan Murphy from San Diego High School of International Studies. Clairemont High School history teacher Jim Fletcher will act as moderator. The History/Social Studies Department will also share curriculum and suggestions on teaching about the presidential election. For more information, please contact Tim Betteridge at tbetteridge@sandi.net or (619) 725-7335.

On Thursday, August 28, newly appointed Chief School Innovation and Choice Officer, Rich Cansdale, held a welcome back breakfast for charter school principals at the Charter School of San Diego. Dr. Cansdale introduced himself and welcomed all the charter school principals back from their summer vacations. Dr. Cansdale also introduced the new district mission statement as well as the vision statement for the Office of School Innovation and Choice. The new vision statement lays out a plan to support the teaching and learning of all San Diego Unified students and schools. Dr. Cansdale expressed a desire to continue to build relationships and create a Professional Learning Community with charter school principals in order to learn and share best practices. Dr. Cansdale will be visiting all district charter schools and collaborating with them to accomplish the district’s new mission. For additional information contact Dr. Rich Cansdale in the Office of School Innovation and Choice at (858) 627-7408.

With guidance from Hoover High School Regional Occupational Program cabinet making instructor, Arturo Gonzalez, students recently constructed book cases made entirely of reclaimed Philippine mahogany. Thousands of board feet of wood, found during the remodel of the Instructional Media Center, was recovered and distributed to several construction technology classes, including Hoover High, La Jolla High, Marston Middle and Wangenheim Middle schools. Students designed and produced 13 bookcases with the recovered materials. The remaining wood will supply construction materials for each site’s construction technology classes for 2008-09, saving many instructional dollars. The purchase price of Philippine mahogany today is approximately $11 per board foot; each bookcase would cost upwards of $400 to produce. The recovery of these materials will allow students to build projects that would otherwise have been too expensive. For more information, please contact Greg Quirin at (858) 496-1777 or Virginia Eves at (858) 496-1838.

During July and August, more than 100 dedicated elementary, middle and high school teachers dedicated their time to making sure the needs of all students in their classrooms are met. These teachers completed an intensive course in differentiated instruction through UCSD Office of Extended Studies. The teachers learned to tier lessons, compact curriculum, devise flexible groupings and carry out continuous assessment. The week-long workshop ended with an enlightening lecture and demonstration on the latest brain research. Teachers in attendance received GATE certification and university credit. For information, please contact Rhonda Zawadzki or Rolena Jones, Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) Department, at (858) 573-5998.

Discover all the exciting events happening around the district. A complete list of San Diego Unified School District Upcoming Events is posted on www.sandi.net.

• Why Schools are Failing to Improve Teacher Quality
  Can there be any more important "school-related factor" in student achievement than teacher quality? No, proclaims the summer issue of Voices in Urban Education (a.k.a. VUE), a quarterly print and online product of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. And yet, says the publication, "many school systems have not focused on attracting, preparing, and supporting high-quality educators." What’s going on here? Instructional quality is often a problem, says VUE's editor, Robert Rothman, because the rules and procedures affecting it are often haphazard. "Unlike leading-edge private companies," he says, "many school systems have failed to focus on developing human capital." VUE's articles include advice on how school districts can "prioritize human capital management as a key function of their central offices" and how to turn superficial teacher evaluations into more effective, comprehensive strategies for improvement in the classroom. Read more.
  
  
• Nine Ways to Catch Kids Up
  Students who are at least a year behind their peers and lack the foundation of mathematical understanding on which to build new learning present a significant challenge. They may have multiple misconceptions that hamper progress. They have experienced failure and lack confidence. An article in the Best of Educational Leadership 2007-2008 issue examines how struggling math students not only demand more time and attention, but also need supplemental instruction that differs from the regular program and is designed specifically for their success. Read more.
  
  
• Ads Aim to Reduce Maryland System's Truancy Rates
  Leaders of Prince George's County school system hope that a series of print, radio and television ads will have a motivating effect on the 6,000 students who make a habit of missing class. The campaign urges adults to call police if they see school-aged kids who aren't in class. While most truants will be brought back to school, chronic offenders may be subject to harsher countermeasures, one school board member said. Read more.
  
  
• Follow the Money: An Alternate Route to Better Teaching
  A Duke University economist says schools should stop paying teachers to acquire more credentials, and should use the money instead to give them higher starting salaries and bigger raises in their first years on the job. That way, says Jacob Vigdor, an associate professor of public policy studies and economics at Duke and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, teachers can be rewarded for early evidence of strong performance. Writing in the fall issue Education Next, Vigdor points to signs of a weak connection between paying teachers to obtain extra credentials, such as a masters degree, and their effectiveness on the job. On the other hand, he finds substantial evidence that teaching can be improved if the "ability to educate students" influences how well teachers are compensated at the beginning of their careers. Read more. See the complete article at http://media.hoover.org/documents/ednext_20084_36Vigdor.pdf .
  
  
• Examining What Schools Mean to Their Communities
  So you think that the quality of public education has major implications for your community -- that good schools can have a substantial and positive effect on such things as employment and earnings, local tax revenues, the value of housing in the area, crime rates, and residents' physical and mental health? If that's your view, it is also the chief conclusion to be drawn from a broad review of the literature -- about 150 books and articles -- by the RAND Corporation. The results, summarized in a report that has been made available online, were pulled together at the request of school and community leaders of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in California. In a nutshell, the analysis finds that better schools are associated with a higher likelihood of employment, higher wages, lower disease rates, higher property values and tax revenues, fewer crimes, increased participation by residents in cultural events, and increased economic growth. See the report at http://www.rand.org/pubs/documented_briefings/2008/RAND_DB562.pdf .