September 9, 2008

Dear Parents/Guardians of Students in TUSD:

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires the California Department of Education to annually review the performance of each district that receives Title I funds.  A district is identified as a Program Improvement district if it does not meet its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals for two consecutive years within specific areas, primarily academic achievement in English-language arts and mathematics.  The Turlock Unified School District has been identified as a Year 2 Program Improvement District.

Our District’s AYP goals include 34 separate criteria.  The District was successful in meeting 29 of the 34 criteria. This year’s target required that 34% of our students score at the proficient or advanced level in English language arts: 25.9% of our English Learners; 17% of our Students with Disabilities, and 33.2% of our Socioeconomically Disadvantaged students were successful.  Although these groups have made gains over last year, we did not make the State’s target for these three groups of students in English Language Arts. 

This year’s target required that 34.6% of our students score at the proficient or advanced level in math: 30.5% of our English Learners and 18.2% of our Students with Disabilities were successful.  These two groups made gains over last year, but we did not make the State’s target for these two groups of students in the area of math.

You can find specific achievement data at http://www.turlock.k12.ca.us/.  If you do not have access to the Internet, please contact Susan Castro, Director of Assessment & Accountability in the District Office at 667-2407, and a hard copy of the report will be provided. 

As a Program Improvement district, we must:

·        Revise our District Plan. We must consult with parents and school staff when revising this Plan, which explains how we will use Title I and other funds to improve student achievement.

·        Reserve at least ten percent of our annual Title I allocation to provide professional development for teachers and administrators.

·        Continue to provide assistance to schools identified for Program Improvement.

How can parents help their school and local educational agency improve?

Here are some suggestions to help you work with your school and district to support improvements:

• Learn more about the NCLB requirements and become aware of strategies to improve student academic achievement. Additional information and resources are available at the following Web sites:
  • The California Department of Education http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/sw/t1/titleparta.asp and http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ay/tidetermine.asp
  • The U.S. Department of Education
    http://www.ed.gov and http://www.ed.gov/parents/landing.jhtml
• Talk with District staff about the District Plan and the program changes that must be made to help students meet the state standards in reading and mathematics.
• Visit your child’s school.  You also may participate in voluntary activities to assist your school.
•  If you are a parent of a student who attends a Title I Program Improvement school, you may ask about school choice options to transfer your child, with paid transportation, to a public school in our district that is not identified as a Program Improvement school.
• If you are a parent of a student who attends a Title I school that has been in Program Improvement for two years or more, you may ask about supplemental educational services that may be available for your child. Supplemental educational services are tutoring services provided outside of the regular school day for eligible students.
• Respond to school and District requests for information or involvement in meetings and volunteer to be a part of committees and teams working on program improvement efforts.

I encourage you to contact Susan Castro, Director of Assessment & Accountability at 667-2407 for further information about any of these requirements and to find out how you can become involved in Program Improvement efforts.

Sincerely,

Sonny Da Marto, Ed.D.