Midterm visit by accreditation team finds school making good
progress
Three years into the six-year accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), Live Oak High School is making good progress toward goals, and the staff still faces challenges, according to the three-year review report prepared by the midterm visiting committee.
“I just have to say, ‘Wow,’” said Live Oak Principal Nancy Serigstad. “This school has been under such incredible stress and going through changes, and yet we have made progress towards our goals. I just have to give the staff a commendation; in spite of all the things going on, they have behaved professionally.”
Serigstad’s remarks refer to the controversies surrounding the school in the three years since the initial WASC report, including the renovation process, changes in leadership and the construction of a second high school, Sobrato High, set to open in August.
The midterm report is brief, but it highlights the successes of the school, including the fact that average SAT scores have increased over the past five years and more students have enrolled in AP and honors courses.
The report also notes an improvement in 10th grade reading scores among students participating in the zero period literacy program, improved achievement scores among English language learner (ELL) students and an increase in ADA, or average daily attendance.
“The visiting committee really praised the work we had done,” Serigstad said. “They were impressed by the types of work going on in the classroom. That’s really a selling point, the level of instruction in all the different classrooms, whether English or art or science.
“When people visit our camps, as the WASC committee did, they invariably say, ‘Wow, we saw this going on in this classroom and something else in that classroom …’ People are excited when they see what we are doing. And that’s important, because that’s really the front lines. Somehow that gets lost sometimes when people talk about the district.”
The report lists five areas for the staff to continue to work on:
“Complete the process of aligning course curriculum and state standards; develop strategies to examine the wide variety of data about the school and student learning and to use the results of data analyses to improve teaching and learning; continue to focus on closing the achievement gap between minority and non-minority students; develop clearly articulated WASC follow-up and implementation strategies and processes; and revisit the shared decision making document to clarify democratic decision making processes at the school.”
“These are key areas,” said Serigstad. “But this is work we have been doing. The key about this is that these have been in our school level plan for three years, so it’s nothing really new. We need to pay attention to the significant changes listed in the report, as they relate to our work.”
The report lists 10 significant changes that have been made to or had an effect on Live Oak’s educational program since the last accreditation report, including an administrative transition, as Serigstad leaves and new Principal Nick Boden comes in along with two new assistant principals, the opening of Sobrato with ninth graders districtwide returning to the high school and a loss of general fund revenue as a result of state budget shortfalls, leading to the elimination of two counseling positions, a paid career center position and reduced departmental allocations.
The six-year accredition is the longest term allowed. The accreditation process is to insure that the school meets state standards.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 202
