With the objective of maintaining positive, balanced organizational goals, student outcomes and innovative practices, PAUSD replaced typical strategies with the PAUSD Promise plan.
In 2023-24, PAUSD replaced “Healthy Attendance,” which aimed to increase the attendance of K-12 students by creating a new district-wide attendance system and implementing the “Identifying and Responding to Student Engagement” tiered-response protocol and interventions. “Innovation” was established in its place this year to compel students to become more independent, self-sufficient, socially aware and self-reflective.
PAUSD developed the PAUSD Promise in 2018, which according to the district website, focuses on instructional choices, teaching methods and fostering a sense of belonging to advance five certain values of the district.
In March 2020, PAUSD transitioned to distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to social studies teacher Tara Firenzi, when COVID-19 broke out, the district realigned its focus to remote learning, retraining teachers and providing services to students that the school was used to providing in a certain way and couldn’t provide anymore.
“(The district) had to shift their focus massively, as did everyone,” she said. “For the particular benchmarks set for the (PAUSD Promise), the district wasn’t able to keep up with that in the way that they had been planning to during the pandemic. When they did refocus all of their attention on the Promise, it required an update from three areas to five areas.”
Prior to the focus of “Innovation,” the district noticeda rise in the usage of artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT. According to Firenzi, the district is finding new ways to incorporate new innovations to better teaching and learning in classrooms.
“I think it’s important to talk about how education can best be delivered to all of our students in new ways that are spurred by technology or are the result of best practices that we’re becoming aware of, (or) that (have) just recently developed,” she said. “I think that’s great because then we can best serve our students.”
Principal Dr. Wendy Stratton believes the innovation priority’s goal is to push for an environment where students are able to achieve their own levels of proficiency. She also highlights the significance of students’ learning on how to assess themselves, converse with teachers and use external resources to reach their goals.
PAUSD has set up key strategies for “Innovation” across four themes: Curriculum & Instruction, Enduring Skills, Incubator Hub and Partnerships. New implementations that have been incorporated into Gunn have consisted of promoting more evidence-based grading, creating teacher groups and teacher training.
Stratton mentions that positive outcomes have resulted from this new “Innovation” priority, such as transparency from the administrative team to the student body, increased student leadership through different platforms, and an improved partnership between the administration and student leadership to increase student voices.
“The Titan Talks at lunch with me, the Titan Town Halls, (and overall) the degree to which SEC has been partnering with admin (has increased),” she said. “(There is an) opportunity to bring students into a space with all of the leadership in our district and our team to ask questions and feel heard. The listening session was also a really huge step forward that incorporates a lot more student voice into decision-making.”
An example of the focus on innovation is a change in career technical education. The Mar. 12 PAUSD board meeting reported that over 4,000 students have participated in CTE programs with industry-alignedbpathways, along with 500 work permits being issuedvthrough work experience programs with 174 local businesses.
Firenzi notes that the CTE pathways, Advanced Authentic Research course and ethnic studies course are also implementations of “Innovation.” Additionally, Middle College High School, an alternative high school on the Foothill College campus that is launching in the fall of 2024, has offered another opportunity to ensure all students with different needs and preferences are getting resources to reach the independence and self-guided learning goals of the “Innovation” priority.
Evidence-based grading is another key focus that improves instruction efficiency and students’ content mastery. According to a presentation at the March 2024 PAUSD board meeting, 76 secondary teachers and administrators were trained in 2023, and evidence-based grading will be implemented completely by fall 2024. The removal of “Healthy Attendance,” which included prioritizing student engagement and well-being, has raised concerns of whether the removal of this focus was a positively effective choice.
However, according to both Stratton and Assistant Superintendent of Innovation & Agility Jeong Choe, there are still many present steps taken, one being the System-Wide Integrated Framework for Transformation plan which was designed to counteract inequalities and ensure that equity is present in all aspects of PAUSD, to
ensure Healthy Attendance remains strong.
“PAUSD also makes progress in many areas beyond the focus in these five priority areas,” Choe wrote in an email. “Changing a priority area does not mean it is removed from district initiatives. For example, you can find details of healthy attendance metrics and progress as part of the SWIFT plan.”
As present initiatives are taken, PAUSD is ensuring “Healthy Attendance” remains strong.
“(Although) attendance is a no-brainer, we have that goal all the time and it’s listed in our annual discipline as a whole, even though it’s not in the book (as part of) the five areas,” Stratton said.
