LCAP Self-Reflection LCAP Self-Reflection Audio conversation regarding Cayucos Elementary School District's LCAP Show Transcript what truly shapes the quality of education at your local elementary school you know beyond just looking at the overall test scores how do you really get a feel for what's happening day-to-day that's a great question and it's exactly what we're digging into today we've got this uh really interests document here it's the Caillou's Elementary School District's 202526 local performance indicators self-reflection okay think of it like a deep look under the hood of the district a local performance indicator self-reflection okay sounds a bit official maybe but it's basically where the district takes a hard look at itself right across a whole bunch of different educational goals exactly yeah and our goal here in this deep dive is to sort of pull out the key insights to understand how okay yuka's Elementary actually measures its own performance and you know defines success for itself right and it's not just surface level it gets into the nitty-gritty like do they have the right teachers in the right spots do kids have the books and materials they need how are the buildings holding up are they teaching the state standards properly how involved are parents it's pretty thorough and cao's Elementary for anyone not familiar it's a small coastal District San Luis Obispo County that's right TK through 8th grade and 1 Thing That kind of stands out from the start is this Focus they seem to have on a supportive environment why average class size is only 18 plus they have pre Educators helping out in the Elementary classrooms and you know on that California school dashboard they actually have an overall green status for both English language arts and math okay so green means they're generally meeting State expectations there yeah pretty much it gives us a good starting point a positive signal and the self-reflection might help us see why they're getting that rating so should we dive into the first priority let's do it what's her priority 1 under the lcff that's the local control funding formula it's all about the basics a fundamentals exactly appropriately assigned teacher access to instructional materials aligned with the curriculum and uh safe clean functional school facilities okay so teachers first what's the data say for 2023 24 they report 16.8 total teaching positions FTE and the key thing every single 1 is marked as clear all of them and clear means fully credentialed for their assignment so yeah it points to a stable qualified teaching staff know temps or people teaching outside their field it seems that's a really strong start okay what about materials books resources here again it's pretty positive the report says zero students literally zero are without their own copies of Standards aligned materials for use at school and at home wow okay that's huge every it has the tools good and the buildings the facilities themselves also good news there according to this zero identified instances where facilities didn't meet the state's good repair standard right so the essential requirements for a safe functional place to learn seem to be met these priority 1 things they're really the foundation you know absolutely you kind of expect these but it's good to see it confirmed yeah okay it seems like they have the basics covered what's next priority 2 yep lcff priority 2 implementation of State academic standards this is where they look at how while they're teaching making sure it lines up with what the state expects kids to learn okay and districts have a couple of ways to report this they can write a narrative like a description or use this uh reflection tool with specific ratings okay Yuko seems done both interesting so what do they emphasized in their written summary well they talked a lot about ongoing professional development for Tetris really focused on those state standards they mentioned having a curriculum that's adapted locally but still aligned using high-quality materials they also pointed to their assessment system those low class sizes we mentioned and something called mtss mtss remind us multi-tiered system of supports it's basically a way to give students different levels of academic and uh behavioral help depending on what they need individually got it and interestingly they noted their preliminary 2023 24 data shows their students doing better than the state average plus they highlighted teacher experience average of 12 Years 12 years average that suggests a pretty stable knowledgeable staff right it paints a picture of a district really zeroed in on academics and supporting their teachers okay and what about that reflection tool the 1 with the ratings what did that show that gives us more specifics so for the course of objects English Math Science ngss History social science they rated themselves a 4 out of 5 and 4 meets full implementation that's for professional learning for teachers having the right materials in classrooms and having policies to help teachers improve so strong ratings their consistent across the core subjects were there any areas rated a bit lower yeah a couple for English language development or ELD supporting English Learners they gave themselves a 3 for the professional learning and material which means initial implementation okay but they rated the policy supporting staff in ELD as a 4 then for other subjects Career Tech Ed pee Visual and Performing Arts were all fours Health Ed was a 3 and World Language that was a 1 which which means exploration and research right which kind of makes sense for a smaller District maybe harder to offer lots of languages exactly but overall it looks like they're actively implementing those core standards the tool also looked at how involved teachers and admins are and figuring out Prof professional learning needs and how they support teachers who maybe haven't quite mastered the standards yet and in all those areas they rated themselves a 4 so really proactive support for teachers yeah it seems that way it suggests they're not just you know so handing out the curriculum but really thinking about effective delivery and teacher support a lot of attention to the academic side definitely sounds like it okay let's shift gears lcff priority 3 parent and family engage engagement this is always such a critical piece isn't it that school family connection oh absolutely crucial and this self-reflection actually breaks it down into 3 Parts building relationships building Partnerships for student outcomes and seeking input for decision-making okay 3 angles let's start with building relationships how are they doing there really high Marks here they gave themselves a 5 the top scorer for staff's ability to build trusting relationships and for creating a welcoming environment wow a 4 for helping staff understand and family strengths and goals and another 5 for having multiple ways for 2-way communication high scores the board suggests a strong Foundation of trust their data backing that up yeah quite a bit they had a 77% participation rate in our latest lcap survey local control and accountability plan that's pretty impressive engagement for that kind of planning document 77% yeah that's high and get this 100% of parents who responded said they feel informed 95% feel reported and can connect with teachers and 98% said their child has a caring adult on campus those are fantastic numbers really speaks to a strong connection it really does and they also mentioned Improvement 100% agreement on feeling connected to school Partnerships now they'd also Focus on communication about behavior issues and the percentage of parents who disagreed that those were handled effectively dropped from 21% way down to just 3% woah 21 down to 3 that's a massive Improvement sounds like they really listened and acted on feedback it's looks that way they also talked about efforts to reach all family surveys and home languages translated materials different meeting times even using video good and they actually hit 100% survey completion in 2024 25 from families whose primary language isn't English that shows real commitment to inclusivity definitely okay what about the second part building Partnerships to help students succeed again strong ratings a fee for providing professional learning to staff on partnering with family A4 for giving families resources to use at home another 4 for policy supporting teacher family meetings and a 5 for helping families understand their rights so equipping families not just informing them that's the idea they reported more parent involvement in events training sessions like on bullying or Tech and through all their communication channels newsletters social media parent Square School site Council PTA lots of avenues yeah and they specifically mentioned clarifying Behavior expectations with a new Matrix and handbook plus implementing anti-bullying and PBIS programs positive behavioral interventions and supports right PBIS okay so a really well-rounded approach to involving parents and the third piece seeking their input for decisions hiring again a 5 for building capacity of both staff and families to participate effectively in advisory groups they emphasized having lots of ways for parents to give feedback and that 100% agreement that Community Partnerships are fostered plus that lcap participation jump we talked about 35% to 77% that really signals that parents feel heard that's a remarkable level of Engagement truly it is and they say they're continuing to work on engaging underrepresented families through different meeting formats languages Outreach it really paints a picture of a district that sees families as vital Partners no doubt about it okay moving on lcff priority 6 School climate this gets into how students themselves feel about school right safety connection exactly their local survey data from 2024 25 showed some positive movement preparedness for high school transition went up 70 to 83% good more middle schoolers feeling their opinions matter up from 76% feeling asked about school decisions 70 to 85% feeling Caillou's is safe and inclusive up slightly from 80 to 86% and a really high number 92% feeling there's a caring adult on campus those are mostly positive Trends encouraging any areas in that climate data that maybe raised an eyebrow or needed more Focus yes and this was quite interesting while 92% feel there's a caring adult yeah only 70% felt there was someone they could turn to if they were feeling sad huh that's a significant Gap it is and the district specifically called that out as something they need to understand better and address shows Nuance right perceiving adults is caring doesn't automatically mean feeling comfortable confiding in them about difficult emotions that's a really insightful Point caring versus approachable when vulnerable exactly and they've already made some changes based on the climate data they've revamped Middle School electives to be more engaging linked to college career Readiness they're planning a 7 period Middle School day with time built in for intervention enrichment and activities designed to build connections like leadership or community service things like that yeah and they're continuing these things called minute meetings quick check-ins between the counselor and all students proactive steps good to see them acting on the data yeah okay next is lcff priority 7 access to a broad odd course of study how does a smaller District handle offering a wide range of classes yeah that's often a challenge for smaller schools they explained that since they usually just have 1 class per grade they track course access individually meeting with the counselor and admin the V variety is just naturally limited by their size makes sense but the report says all students are enrolled in a broad course of study yes it does they stress that everyone gets art Music Theater steam activities within the regular day the barrier they identify is that critical math issue for more specialized electives right but they are looking at how that potential 7 period Middle School day could open up options for more advanced maybe gate type courses and other electives and for elementary they use Educators and intervention teachers to meet diverse needs so there are aware of the limitation and actively exploring Solutions any specific plans mentioned they're putting together a work group to look into expanding Middle School electives using input from that LC app survey okay and they pointed to current efforts too like Middle School teachers sometimes helping in Elementary grades dedicated middle school math support using Khan Academy and Project based learning and a steady skills period they're trying to be creative with their resources resourceful definitely now you mentioned a couple more priorities in the document 9 and 10 but they're less about the Elementary District itself that's right lcff priorities 9 and 10 are specifically for the County Office of Education they deal with coordinating services for expelled students and Foster youth cayucas includes them for completeness but it's mainly the County's responsibility got it so not really part of their direct self assessment in the same way correct okay so wrapping this deep dive up what are the main takeaways from looking through cauca those Elementary's self-reflection what's the big picture well I think it really shows a district that uh deeply committed to providing a solid well-rounded education there clearly not afraid to look closely at themselves they actively seek parent input and they seem to have this continuous Improvement mindset and the data you know across most areas is pretty positive teacher qualifications basic resources that impressive parent engagement lots of strengths and it's also clear they know where they want to improve right they're not just resting on the good stuff they've identified things like Middle School course variety digging into that caring adult versus someone to talk to gap for students exactly they've pinpointed areas for growth so this whole self-reflection it gives you the listener a really rich snapshot of the detailed work happening at a local school it's so much more than just test scores it shows the complexity of measuring school Success and fostering a positive environment it really does so thinking about all this detail what elements do you think are most vital for a thriving elementary school and maybe how does seeing this level of local accountability change how you think about educational quality overall definitely some food for thought
