started with the actual program. check it out. i have my backpack on. ok. inside a bad back back, and there is a passport. it looks like -- inside that backpack, there is a passport. you have to give its stamp when you go to other places, right? due out today, you need to get it stands. -- throw out today, you need to get it stamped. -- throughout today, you need to give its stamp. it goes towards a laptop. if you did not catch it, you have the opportunity to win a laptop today. courtesy of microsoft. it is fully loaded. we needed to engage in participate. again, to be self advocates. please enjoy the day. dj, let's have some music.

good afternoon and welcome to the april 26, 2012 meeting of the joint committee, select committee of the city and county of san francisco in the san francisco unified school district. my name is david campos. i represent the board of supervisors on this committee. and i'm the chair of the committee. we will be joined shortly by christina olague who is en route. we also have been joined by board of supervisors president

david chiu and we have been joined by commissioners sandra lee fewer, kim-shree maufas and hydra mendoza who are members of this committee. we also have been joined by supervisor jane kim. the clerk of the committee is gil johnson and ester casco. and we also would like to thank charles cremenak and john rios from the sfgtv staff who are helping to cover this meeting. we also want to thank the members of the audience who are here and watching this hearing. i know that this is something that is very important to so many families and so many parents in the city. madam clerk, if you can please >> thank you. it's file number 110527 and a hearing on the a-g request requirements for high school as sponsored by supervisor chiu. >> thank you. madam secretary.

this is an item that was introduced a while back by supervisor carmen chu. and it is my pleasure to now hold this hearing today. let me begin by noting that the issue of a-g requirements is something that i know the board of supervisors and board of education in particular have been paying attention to. and it's been a very important issue at the school district. the purpose of this hearing today is to have a better understanding of our progress. and specifically our progress when it comes to closing the achievement gap. i know from my own experience, having worked at the school district, that the achievement gap has been something that the district has been tackling for many years. and even though we have a lot to be proud of, and we are the highest performing urban school district in the state of

california and one of the top ones in the country, the fact is that our african-american kids are -- our latino kids, our english language learner kids, they're still not performing at the level that they need to. so we want to understand today how our kids are doing in terms of meeting the a-g graduation requirements. we know that the class of 2014 will be the first graduating class under these requirements. so i think it's important for us today in 2012 to understand the progress that we have made. it's also important for us to understand the challenges and some of the difficulties that the district has faced in dealing with this very important issue. and we also want to take this opportunity to discuss strategies and solutions to address those challenges. i know that in district nine, my district, there are many families that are deeply concerned about this issue. and within district nine, you

have about six of the 10 lowest performing schools in the district that are in san francisco unified school district that are in my district. so this is definitely a big priority and has been the impetus behind initiatives like the promised neighborhood initiative that the school district, the mayor's office, my office and other community members have been working on. so with that context, if i may call bill sanderson who is the executive director of curriculum and instruction at san francisco unified. mr. sanderson, the floor is yours. thank you for being here. >> thank you, commissioners. and members of the board of supervisors. i think that for the past five years, this has been an integral part of my work as both member of the community of san francisco and a member of the work force in san francisco unified school district. so sometimes i believe i can

say this stuff in my sleep. and i talk a-g all the time. and so it is really a pleasure to bring this to your attention today. at the heart of this is access, access for all students to a curriculum that would lead them to successful entrance into the u.c.c. issue system. the strategic plan of the school district specifically called out for all students to graduate not only ready for college but also ready for career in the work force. sfusd recognizes that many students were graduating with an sfusd diploma, but they were not necessarily ready to matriculate into the c.s.u. or u.c. system.

last year the unified school district board of education required all students that beginning with the class of 2014 to meet the u.c. a-g criteria. and i'm going to go over that in just one moment. data shows that there is a significant need for us to address the skill level for many of our students that are entering high school before they actually can be ready to meet these requirements. and i'm going to show you some of that data today. but first of all, let's look at what is a-g. because these are simply letters, and i want to bring a clear definition to what those letters are. and i'm talking about this from the perspective of the u.c.c. issue system. the u.c.c. issue system requires a course sequence of courses in these areas. history, 30 credits, english,

40 credits, mathematics, 30 credits, laboratory science, 20, language other than english, 20, performing arts, 10, and 10 of an elective. these courses are submitted by schools across the state annually for approval by the u. c.c. issue system. with that said, last summer, after we had the first class of 2014 in ninth grade, we looked at what was happening with that group of students. we were looking at students that failed a la and why we looked at those, newcomer students who needed additional english language development to advance to english classes that

actually met the a-g requirements. and eighth grade students who were most in danger of transitioning to the ninth grade. this was a group of students in eighth grade. they may not have transitioned to ninth grade for one reason or another. and we focused on that group of students. you may ask why we focused on that group of students. a leading national indicator actually tells us that in high school, failure of two or more classes in english, math, social studies, and science in the ninth grade actually tells us something about whether or not that student will graduate from high school and be successful. over the past three years, sfusd, we've had an average of approximately 17% of our entire ninth grade failing two or more courses. so this is why we are concerned

about these particular areas. last summer, we were able to not only take a look at these students but to actually present a way for us helping these students continue to -- continue on in high school and be successful and actually beat the odds. because we did not want students to continue on in 10th grade behind courses as the research said that tells us something about their success. so we looked at students specifically in the ninth grade and how they had done in the fall semester of their ninth grade year. approximately, we have 4,200 students per grade level or per ninth grade class in san francisco unified at this time. when we looked at the ninth grade first semester grades for last academic year, 481

students in english had an f. and those students i have divided them out by the subgroups that you see below. 5% of those students, of those 481 were chinese, 29% of those students were african-american, 23 latino, 19% english language learners, and 26% special education. in algebra, and you may ask, why is the n lower significantly in algebra? the reason that 2000 is lower in algebra is because when we pass the policy, the new graduation requirements policy, we paved the way for students that had taken algebra one in the eighth grade, actually gain high school credits. and we can do that.

and the board of education really -- was moving us forward in that area. and so that is why the number of students that are enrolled in algebra is significantly less. these are students who did not get credit for algebra in high school -- in middle school. and they moved object to high school to take algebra in their ninth grade year. of those 2,000 students, 411 of them had an f. 8% of those were chinese. 39% of those f's were african-american. 30% were latino. 26% english language learners. and 28% special education. so it is really -- this is the reason why the funding that we received from the city last year that we focused on these areas for students that had just completed their first

semester of ninth grade. it was very clear to us that we needed to address that. so the pattern that you will see the presentation today is that we will take a look at what the problem is, how we address the problem last summer, and then what were the results from that action that we took. >> mr. sanderson, before you continue, i think that supervisor kim had a question for you. >> actually, i just had a quick clarifying question. so when you say 8% of chinese students, i mean, 8%, 39% of african-american, you mean 8% of the entire chinese american student population? >> no. i mean 8% of those 411 f's. this takes -- this is just looking at the f's. >> ok. so then looking -- if i just go to the english column, where it says that 86 chinese american students got f's and then 94 african-american students got

f's, it says that -- the chinese americans make up 5% and then africans make up 29%. but the difference is only eight students. am i misreading that? why is the percentage so dramatically different? >> because of the total number of students in that ethnic group enrolled -- >> that was my question. so 5% of chinese american students failed, not 5% of all f's in english? >> right. that -- >> that was my question. >> thank you. >> a quick question related to that. and maybe that's something you address down the road. but how surprising where -- were these numbers? because this is a pretty stark contrast that you're looking at. english, african-american, students are three times more likely to be failing in in english thans the rest of the population -- english than the rest of the population. and compared to other ethnic groups, like the chinese

community, six times more likely. so using that example, so with this in -- was this in the range you were expecting? or is this -- >> so we had looked at some data from the past. and so it is not hugely different from the data. but i think that this was a huge wake-up call for us. and really drove us to the point that we have got to do something rather than much like traditional ways. but to look at the past performance, it's not significantly different. supervisor campos: supervisor olague. supervisor olague: this is like beyond acceptable. i mean, i'm shocked. i mean, this is significantly -- you have -- i'm not even going to -- 29% of

african-american students, i mean, that's just -- i'll be really -- you know -- anyway, part of what i would like to know is where do these students live? where do they actually live? if we can get that kind of information. i would like to know what schools they attend. what their age groups are. this is shocking to me and we're at crisis. >> yes. we do not disagree. and that this is -- one of the areas why we are so concerned and we want to address this, and you'll see in just a moment what were the inputs to try to immediately address this data that we receive. because we had this data last

spring. and this is why we made the decisions for the inputs we did last summer. in just a few moments you'll see some of our successes from the inputs. so you'll see that. but we agree with you. >> it seems to me like there needs to be a robust program. not just in terms of how the school system deals with it but even above and beyond that. >> that is correct. and, therefore, i really do appreciate the attention that all of you are giving to this. because it is -- it is an issue for the greater community, we believe. supervisor campos: mr. sanderson, president chiu has a question. supervisor chiu: to follow up on the data, if i'm trying to understand what fraction of say ninth grade students are on track but not on track to graduating, and the graph that talks about the importance of the ninth grade year, you say that's 17% of the entire ninth grade class, and failed two or more core classes. and failure of two or more core

classes, is a national indicator of not completing high school, and then the next page, you go through, english and then algebra data, could you -- do you have apples to apples data around how to compare by different ethnic categories, the overall number of how many students are failing in the ninth grade, two or more core classes? >> yes, we do have that broken down. we have several other data points. for example, we can tell you by school. we can -- we have that. but today, i can get that to you. i don't have that in front of me. supervisor chiu: and it's one thing to know that again, as supervisor olague pointed out, these numbers are pretty staggering, and i'm just wondering collectively, how many students who are african-american or latino or asian are failing two or more classes in that definition of either being on track or not being on track? >> i don't have that number from this -- the class of 2014. we do have -- we do have some

current data on the current class that matches this and i don't have it off the top of my head but i can get that to you. supervisor chiu: that would be great, thank you. supervisor campos: colleagues, once you're doing speaking, if you don't mind deleting your request to speak. commissioner fewer has a question. commissioner fewer: i wanted to comment that although this shows the f's, it does not show the students that receive d's. so i think it's important to remember that. because this is ninth grade. so if it does not indicate mastering actually the subject matter, and much of this is sequential. so we're looking at math, that our students will be required to take two more years of math, college -- a college level. so that's geometry and advanced algebra. so wanted supervisors to know that it does not include the d's. and i think that when you asked about where are these students,

we have an achievement gap at every school in san francisco. so we can't really -- i think that -- i think all of us, not concentrated -- the gap isn't just in one school or a couple of schools. the gap is -- everywhere. supervisor olague: thank you for that, yeah. >> that's very helpful. mr. sanderson. >> thank you. let me bring this into context for newcomer student data. because i believe that it's an important group that we call out. u.c. only considers one year or 10 credits of courses out of the 40 needed to complete english. so, for example, if we have a newcomer student coming in, in ninth grade, there is the potential that that student could take four years of an e.l.d. as required by law. only the final year of that

course actually counts toward a u.c.b. credit. so just put that into context. a three-year data review, most newcomer students do not earn 50 credits. their ninth grade year, the first year they're in high school. in only 30% of newcomer students actually graduated within four years under the former graduation requirement that are in place now for classes of 2013, 2012, etc. the other thing is that of the approximate 800 ninth through 12th grade students that we had come into the direct last year, 300 of those were actually in the ninth grade. so it is significant that 300 of that number were actually in the ninth grade when they entered our schools.

so i've given you a really an outline of the problem where we saw the problem. now let me give you an outline of some of the inputs that we did with the city funding that we received for last summer. over 1,000 ninth graders took 1,724 courses last summer with the funding from the city. approximately 25% of all ninth graders in the district took part in a credit-earning summer program last summer. 42% of courses taken, so 42% of that total 1,724, were taken by african american, latino, and samoan students.

approximately 962 courses were in the city-funded ninth grade courses of algebra, biology, english, and e.l.d. courses. so remember those were the four areas that came out as the concern. and so we immediately were able to start addressing that. in addition, we also were able to provide a program for 42 eighth and ninth grade transition students that were in danger already the warning indicators were already going off with them walking out of middle school that potentially they would not successfully transition to ninth grade. we were able to do a summer program of those students in e.l.a., english language arts and mathematics. let me go over a summer of each of the city-funded courses that we were able to offer last

summer. ninth grade english one and two, so just so you know, there are two semesters of english in ninth grade. 371 of the 412 students that took those courses received a passing grade of a d or above. that was 90% of the students. of that number of students, 324 of those, and this is where commissioner fewer was bringing about the d, because i wanted to bring it out here, of those 324 received an a, b or c grade, 47 received a d, and 32 an f. in biology one and two, which was another critical area, just on a side note, it is sometimes difficult for a biology class, some of the options that we have out there for credit

recovery, such as online courses, etc., are difficult with laboratory sciences because a wet lab is required for these by the university of california c.s.u. system. so of the students that took biology, 101 of the 109 received credit. 94% of them received a passing grade. 86 of them received an a, b or c. 15 received a b. and four received an f. >> before you continue on that, do you know what the ethnic breakdown of the 32 f's is or -- and in english and of the four in biology? >> i don't have that with me. i can get it to you. and i have all the details of this we do have. >> i think the question for me is to the extent that this

disparity is playing throughout the regular school year, is it then playing out in summer school as well? >> correct. and that -- that data would tell us that. ok. algebra one and two. 263 out of the 300 students that were enrolled in algebra one and two received credits, 88% of the students. 204 of those students received an a, b or c. 59 received a d. and 29 received an f. in algebra one and two. in english language development courses, again, one of the reasons that we would do this is that we would give these students an opportunity in summer school to potentially take a course that would offer them room during the regular school year to take a course

that is actually meeting the a-g requirement. 138 of them received credit. only 14 were d's. and three were f's. so 98% of the students. supervisor campos: speier olague. -- supervisor olague. supervisor olague: i was wondering what the economic breakdown is. whether they're children from families whose parents have college degrees or not. that sort of thing. trying to get a sense of that. >> ok. i can make a note of that and pull that. all right. any other questions before we move on? ok. so you see from the data from previous years of what has happened in previous years in summer school, in 2008 we

offered a summer school. 75% of the courses actually earned credit in that summer school. in 2009, it moved up to 82%. of the courses we were able to offer last summer with the city funding, 93% overall of those students taking the courses actually earned credit. so the approximate -- there were courses that were city funded and courses that were not city funded. we actually -- the city funded were 91% and coupled it with the other courses and the total is about 93% there. so we are -- the summer school that we have been able to provide, we are having a greater success rate as we move up in summer school offerings. just earned credit is really all examples of courses that

were completed with a grade of a d or higher. thus getting five credits posted to the transcript. ok? so you've seen the pattern here of us identifying the problem. we did inputs with the summer school program last year. and these are the results we had. at this point in time, i'm going to turn this over to helen ying who is going to go with the same pattern with our ninth grade students for this year. what they looked like, first semester. and what our -- what our inputs will be this summer and then hopefully we will come to you with a greater number next year than actually 93%. and a reduced number of students that are actually failing our courses is where we eventually want to go.