Schools Superintendent Looks Forward to Continued Collaboration

Editor's Note: Today, Pleasanton Patch launches a new column, Pleasanton School Notes. In this space, Patch will report on goings-on at local schools and feature faculty, staff, students, academic and extracurricular programs and community outreach efforts.

To introduce the Pleasanton School Notes column, Patch writer Cameron Sullivan sat down with Parvin Ahmadi, Superintendent of the Pleasanton Unified School District, to discuss the current state of the schools. Topics discussed in this interview will appear in two installments of Pleasanton School Notes.

In the first installment, Ahmadi answers questions reflecting on her first full year in the superintendent post.

In a second installment, Pleasanton School Notes will report on specific areas Ahmadi discussed in the interview related to areas in which the district and the community may increase their focus in order to provide better learning and growth environments for Pleasanton children.

From the beginning of her post as superintendent of the in July 2010, Parvin Ahmadi said she spent a great deal of time watching and listening to what the community might want to change.

Now beginning her second full school year in the 15,000-student district, Ahmadi has initiated several new approaches to academia and suggested many more.

“We wrote our goals with people’s suggestions in mind,” she said. “We changed the format that we had for our district goals, we have changed the way our school plans look.”

A primary focus, she said, has been on closing the achievement gap, which refers to disparities in achievement between subgroups of students.

“Nationally, statewide and district-wide, we are taking a look at the achievement gap, because there is a huge gap between white and Asian groups versus some other socio-economically disadvantaged students and students who are Hispanic, Latino and African American,” said Ahmadi, adding that underperforming subgroups in Pleasanton also include English learners and students with learning disabilities.

“This becomes more and more urgent as we get closer to 2013-14,” she said, referring to the deadline by which schools are expected to meet student goals outlines in the 2001 federally-mandated No Child Left Behind Act, as outlined by the Alameda County Office of Education, which acts as a liaison between the California Department of Education and each local district.

Although No Child Left Behind has been widely criticized as a failure on local, statewide and national levels, schools must adhere to guidelines of the act until a proposed overhaul rewrites the deadlines.

“We’ve looked at best practices within our district,” said Ahmadi. “It’s very complicated and very involved, but doable. We look at resources and instructional practices. We look at materials and what interventions we have in place.

“But we also want to take a close look at the kind of connections we’re making with students.”

Recent staff-development changes so far include the addition of ongoing mathematics teaching training at the middle school level and ongoing faculty and staff training related to equity.

The latest major addition, at a program cost of $4 per student, said Ahmadi, is the new reporting and tracking system adopted by the school district and put into place during the current academic year. Such systems allow teachers to cross-check student assessment data in multiple directions to determine which academic practices are most successful and which need more attention.

Such systems allow teachers to cross-check student assessment data in multiple directions to determine which academic practices are most successful and which need more attention.

“It was a need and it was urgent,” she said, explaining that Dublin, Livermore and San Ramon had detailed reporting systems in place long before Pleasanton. 

Using OARS (Online Assessment and Reporting System), the program adopted by Pleasanton Unified School District, student assessment information will be entered into an online system allowing instructors to cross-reference data for various uses.

The program allows teachers to enter all formative assessments and grades into a system beginning in the current academic year. “Summative” assessments (such as the STAR test scores) will be entered beginning with 2005 scores.

The new reporting system will allow teachers to see if student performance is consistent from discipline to discipline, or if students’ success or failure on specific exam questions may illustrate a need to rethink how a certain subject matter is taught.

Collective Responsibility

Even in the wake of two failed parcel tax votes (Measure G in 2009 and Measure E in 2011), Ahmadi saying that losing a two-thirds majority vote by a narrow margin shows community support.

Measure E, she said, brought people together.

“It got everybody talking. It showed we can all work together even if we don’t agree on everything.”

That spirit of collaboration is what has most impressed her about Pleasanton.

“When we say we need to raise funds for technology or the libraries, for example, everyone comes out in support of that cause,” she said.

“Regardless of what people’s opinions are about the district’s past or present practices, I feel that everyone who shares their concerns cares about kids.”

Ahmadi praised the city of Pleasanton for its relationship with the schools, citing the close involvement of the Police Department and the Parks and Community Services department in helping with educational and recreational programs at schools.

Pleasanton and other local non-profits, she said, also show remarkable support for the schools.

“I feel as if they have a sense of collective responsibility,” she said.

“They feel that when the schools are good, our city is good. When we do a good job in our schools it shows our character as a community.

Coming Soon: Ms. Ahmadi discusses areas needing more attention in the school district and Pleasanton School Notes pursues more information on those issues.