San Jose Unified School District

School Context

Instruction: A main focus of the district is providing high quality instruction that engages students, teachers and families.This includes building a district-wide system for identifying student needs in order to provide the necessary supports, valuingconsistency of best practices across all schools and departments, and building and retaining a strong and diverse staff.

Family & Community Relationships: The district aims to strengthen relationships with families and community members.

Equity: The district actively promotes equity by providing equal access to high quality courses, building consistency around HSdiploma requirements across the district and creating opportunities for all students to take ownership over their learning.

Financial Responsibility: The district works to ensure that budget management is aligned to the strategic plan and supports theneeds of students and staff.

State of Technology

Basic Infrastructure: San Jose Unified School District has 15,628computers; however, only 6,439 were purchased in the past four years.The student to computer ratio is 3:1, though it is 7:1 with computers thatare less than four years old. Each teacher is issued a laptop and everyclassroom has at least one Internet access point.

Opportunity 21 and the 5C’s: San Jose Unified School District has a five yearstrategic plan called “Opportunity 21,” which focuses on providing studentswith 21st century skills. The district has identified five 21st century skills,including critical thinking and problem solving skills, creative thinking skills,communication skills, collaboration skills and global citizenship. To boost 21stcentury skills, SJUSD schools incorporate real-world problem-based learning,guest speakers and new tech tools into their curriculum.

New Tools: In 2012-2013, the district started implementing theDreamBox Learning Math program in all of its elementary schools. Aftera 90-day pilot program, the district decided to fully launch the programacross the district in August 2012. In addition, district schools are alsousing tools such as Lexia and Imagine Learning.

Home Access: Equity is a top priority for the district. SJUSD is lookingat tablets, netbooks, and e-Reader devices as possible solutions forstudents to use at home to improve home access. The district has agoal of purchasing 12,300 tablets in 2014-2015 and an additional 28,000tablets from 2015-2017.

School Redesign: In 2014, Lincoln High School and Burnett MiddleSchool received $1.3M to implement 21st century redesigns. LincolnHigh School focused on increasing project-based learning. Students worktogether in technology labs to do large (up to 100 students) or smallscale projects. Burnett Middle School piloted blended learning in algebraand aims to expand it to all core curricular areas. Students are groupedby ability level and engage in multiple learning experiences includingself-paced online learning and group work with peers. Additionally, theschool is using criterion-based grading, eliminating letter grades andgiving students scores for specific areas of mastery.

College Readiness: From 2010-2013, SJUSD participated in the CollegeReadiness Indicator Systems network (CRIS), a project through theAnnenberg Institute for School Reform and the John W. Gardner Centerat Stanford University, funded by the Gates Foundation. The goal ofthe project was to identify early academic indicators of future collegereadiness. The district came up with 11 performance measures foridentifying students at risk of not becoming college ready.

Initiatives

More Tablets: There is a tablet initiative and the district is purchasing 12,300 in 2014-2015 and an additional 28,000 from 2015-17. Additionally, the district aims to purchase 550 staff computers and 280 student computers, and to refresh 400 projectorsannually.

School Re-Design: The district’s school redesign initiative is the first step to create learning models unique to the district.

*Content From 2015