A BLUE CARD SHOULD HAVE BEEN PULLED- I was not Present at the Open Session of this meeting, so I did not pull a Blue Card although I prepared the following Statement:

In 2013 the State of California implemented the Local Control Funding Formula Law. Under "Local Control" the California Department of Education eliminated most categorical programs, and allowed individual school districts to decide how to spend their education dollars. see: CDE

CUSD Staff; WITHOUT BOARD APPROVAL, made the unilateral decision to eliminate funding for GATE and accelerated programming for CUSD's high achieving students. Staff has effectively been flattening CUSD curriculum since 2012-13.  There is currently little opportunity for high achieving students to receive accelerated curriculum within CUSD.

For background: 

• CUSDWatch Article: November 16, 2016 CUSD BOT Meeting Agenda Item #31 GATE Program
• November 16, 2016 CUSD BOT Meeting Agenda Item #31 page 463
• Board Audio at 169:13 (2 hours 49 minutes 13 seconds)
• Trustee Readon's Statement Board Audio at 185:30 
• Trustee Hatton-Hodson's Statement Board Audio at 186:55 
• Superintendent Vital's Statement re: Funding for GATE Board Audio at 190:24 

Concerned Parents have been working with CUSD to bring back GATE and other accelerated programs to provide greater opportunities for all high achieving students. 

To achieve this Goal, CUSD hired Hannover Research to study CUSD's GATE program.

This Agenda item is a presentation of that research. 

The research showed that more students (not just GATE identified) should be provided with access to accelerated programs in lower grades. Performance in high school level accelerated courses shows that there are far more students within CUSD; who, if given an opportunity do well in accelerated course work. 

Differentiated learning does matter. High achieving students (GATE identified and Non- Gate identified should be provided with access to accelerated course work in elementary and middle- school.

Staff's unilateral decision to flatten the curriculum was a failed experiment that denied educational opportunity to many CUSD students. Now the District is being forced by parents to correct this error, and start the process of restoring the GATE program and opening up accelerated programing to more students at the elementary and middle school level.

NOTE: California; with very little public in-put, made the unilateral decision to follow the Canadian Model of Education lead by Michael Fullan. see: EdSource: California looks to Ontario schools for Guidance 

Michael Fullan's work is based on the belief that Professional Development is the number one priority for an educational institution. Class size and differentiated learning have no effect on student outcome. Parents of CUSD should be aware that now resigned Trustee Hatton-Hodson/InnovateEd is business partners with Michael Fullan in Systems Leadership Collaborative. Trustee Hatton-Hodson had great influence on curriculum decisions made by Staff during her tenure at CUSD. What the Hannover Research shows is that MICHAEL FULLAN is wrong - differentiated learning matters. The unilateral actions taken by staff resulted in many CUSD students being denied educational opportunity to reach their full academic potential by denying non GATE identified students access to accelerated programs in elementary and middle school. 

​Things that should be part of a discussion regarding accelerated programming for high achieving students in Math:

​1) Math track starts with 6th grade math placement- it is very hard for students who are not placed into accelerated math in the 6th grade to get back on an accelerated track.  Resource: Math Placement Chart​

2) CUSD does not offer a Geometry Honors class. 

3) CUSD does not offer a Trig component to its Algebra II class which is needed to do well on SAT/ACT exams

4) Under "Local Control" State Content Standards and Curriculum Frameworks are a "RECOMMENDATION" not a "REQUIREMENT" - because class sizes are so large and all levels of students are placed into a non-accelerated class the result is that many classes are no longer able to make it through the entire curriculum. Parents and students do not know until they take their college boards and find out they have not seen some of the material. 

The Failed Experiment of Systems Leadership Collaborative aka InnovateEd; lead by Trustee Hatton -Hodson and her partner Michael Fullan, denied CUSD's high achieving non-GATE Identified students access to accelerated programing and denied them the opportunity to reach their full academic potential. 

InnovatED/Systems Leadership Collaborative