By Henry Castaniada, Superintendent, Soquel Union Elementary School District
Academic Rigor
The definition of academic rigor is:
In academically rigorous classrooms, “students actively explore, research and solve complex problems…they have time and opportunities to develop and apply habits of mind: weigh evidence, consider varying viewpoints, see connections, identify patterns…Students not only gain knowledge and skills, they also gain ways of thinking and doing that prepare them for college, work and citizenship” (Oregon Small Schools Initiative).
Embracing this definition throughout our district enables us to continue to expand the blending of 21st Century instruction with multi-media devices. Recently I had an opportunity to observe Ms. Amy Lukic’s Humanities Class at New Brighton Middle School. Ms. Lukic and her students demonstrated how academic rigor allows all students the opportunity to be challenged to their highest academic performance level.
Ms. Lukic’s class also demonstrated how formalized student engagement can be orchestrated to assist students in utilizing higher level thinking skills among each other seamlessly. Technology played a major role with students engaging in conversations of defending their positions in a literacy novel regarding their opinion related to a key character of the novel. It was exciting to watch technological conversations that were occurring throughout this lesson as students tried to influence each other about their points of interest.
As we prepare our students for their pathway in the 21st Century, it is most important that we continue to embrace the definition of academic rigor. As we continue to provide opportunities for our students through blended learning and project based instruction, we will be able to stress key instructional strategies that will be required as our students are being assessed with our Common Core State Standards.
Our district is very fortunate to have exceptional instructors like Ms. Lukic at each of our school sites. Her student’s efforts to embrace 21st Century skillsets with technology is creating a progressive movement in the area of problem solving, communication skills and conceptual understanding in all academic areas. During the month of March we will be adding over three hundred (300) Chromebooks for our students to use on a daily basis.
Immunization/Measles Virus
Recently Dr. Lisa Hernandez, Medical Services Director/County Health Officer for Santa Cruz County, met with all Superintendents regarding the recent measles outbreak that is promoting school districts to push immunization. After our discussion with Dr. Hernandez, I am in support of the current countrywide movement to have children immunized for measles.
What I learned is that the measles virus is highly contagious to the point where a non-vaccinated individual has a 90% chance of becoming infected with the measles virus if this individual is in contact with someone that has a confirmed case of the measles. If we receive confirmation that a student is contagious with the measles virus, this student will be removed from school for 21 days. To complicate this matter, there is also an incubation period for students who have been exposed to a contiguous individual with the measles virus that has not been vaccinated. Unfortunately, Santa Cruz County has one of the highest percentages of unvaccinated children in our state.
The push for immunization is ‘one positive thing’ to come from the measles outbreak, said Shirley Coburn, President-Elect of the California School Nurses Association.
To provide you with additional information regarding this topic please log on to the following website at http://edsource.org/2015/schools-encouraging-parents-to-immunize-students and refer to the article “Measles Outbreak Promotes Schools to Push Immunizations” written by Jane Meredith Adams (January 26, 2015).