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A note from Don Bolce
Regular school attendance is a critical factor in school performance. The State of California defines chronic absence as missing 10% or more of schools days, or about one month in a school year.
Young children who are chronically absent are less likely to read at grade level in third grade, and children not proficient in third grade reading are less likely to graduate from high school. The patterns for success are established early.
That's why school districts and community organizations across the country are kicking off the school year with efforts to promote regular school attendance. This effort is spearheaded by the Campaign for Grade Level Reading and Attendance Works and supported by the Count Us In toolkit.
The beginning of school is a time to build and reinforce the habit of regular school attendance. The Count Us In toolkit includes sample messages and communication to parents about the importance of regular attendance, ideas for incentives and recognition for attendance, and banners and posters to create an environment that promotes regular attendance. Available in multiple languages, these materials can be used by school districts, individual schools and community organizations to work with students and their families.
SCCOE Program Director,
Special Projects
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COE hosts SJ/SV2020 symposium this fall
This fall, the Santa Clara County Office of Education will host an action-oriented symposium for district leaders working to eliminate the achievement gap in schools across the county.
 Part of the SJ/SV2020 initiative, Eliminating the Achievement Gap: What We Can Learn from World Class, High-Performing School Systems will focus on the six core drivers of student success that the world's highest performing school systems share. Structured around a study by Battelle for Kids, the symposium will look closely at these six key drivers and how they translate into increased student success in Santa Clara County. These drivers are: early learning; personalization and pathways for student success; teacher selectivity, quality and growth; focus on learning; education linked to economic development; and cultural expectation of value.
The symposium partners include the Santa Clara County School Boards Association, San Jose State University, National Hispanic University, Kids in Common, Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative, McGraw Hill, the Sixth District PTA, the Santa Clara County League of Women Voters, the California Alliance of African American Educators and the Santa Clara County Office of Education. The symposium will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 25 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Click here to register for this free community event. District personnel are encouraged to sign up as a team.
 Speakers include Alejandra Ceja, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics; Jeff Andrade-Duncan, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Raza Studies, Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of the Educational Equity Initiative, San Francisco State University; John R. Browne II, Ed.D., author of Walking the Equity Talk: Culturally Courageous Leadership in School Communities; Michael Kirst, President, California State Board of Education; Brad Mitchell, Ph.D., Senior Director, Battelle for Kids; and Michael Thomas, Senior Director, Battelle for Kids.
Breakout sessions on each of the six drivers identified in the Battelle study will take place throughout the day. View the full agenda here. |
Third annual College Day emphasizes 'There's Always a Way to Pay'
Three years ago, the First Generation College Attainment Coalition, Santa Clara County Office of Education and several community partners saw a need for better outreach to students and families about the college-going options available to them. It was from this partnership that College Day was born as a community-wide effort working to create a college-going culture in Santa Clara County.
The founders of College Day envisioned a program that would help children and young adults design their own path to college, via conversations between educators and youth, creative lesson plans, speaker series and other college-promoting activities. A wealth of resources can be found on the the College Day website, including information on how to create an implementation plan for your own school. Resources are broken down by grade level and tailored to each age group.
 This year's College Day event will be held on Friday, Oct. 11, with the theme There's Always a Way to Pay. Organizers hope to emphasize that top schools are need blind and that both public and private financial aid is available for students.
College Day has grown dramatically since its inception, and more than 200,000 individuals are expected to participate and contribute to the success of this year's event.
Emphasizing the broad world view that college offers students, College Day aims to bridge the achievement and opportunity gaps that currently exist in our student populations and open up the spectrum of possibilities available to those that graduate with a college degree. Parents are encouraged to get involved and spur the discussion of college options and opportunities with their children. A parent conference will be held on Oct. 19 as a companion event to College Day.
Others interested in participating in College Day or sharing their own personal path to college story, can get involved by visiting the College Day website. Getting people talking to kids about college with a can-do attitude is the ultimate goal of the College Day effort, helping students design their own path to college.
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Family Engagement forum links parents with community partners
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It is the vision of the City of San José, the Santa Clara County Office of Education, school districts, charter schools, colleges and business and nonprofit community agencies to join together to eliminate the achievement gap in San José by 2020. The "achievement gap" refers to the disparity in academic performance between two groups: lower-performing Hispanic/ Latino and African-American students, and higher-performing Asian and White/non-Hispanic students.
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Last April, the SCCOE convened a 
Participants were grouped into community teams based on school district boundaries and breakout sessions connected families with schools, community-based programs and partners to stimulate discussion and collaboration around the subject of strengthening family-school partnerships.