| State: California | Number of Students: 15,388 |
| School Type: Public School District | Free and Reduced Lunch: 39.7% |
| Grade Level: K-Adult | English Language Learners: 25.4% |
School Context
Engaging and Differentiated Instruction: SCUSD strives to achieve student success through engaging, differentiated andstandards-aligned instruction.
Keeping Families in the Loop: The district aims to strengthen communication with families and community members becausethe district believes that home support and strong self-esteem is critical to student success.
English Language Learners: SCUSD aims to improve success for their students who are English Language Learners.
Digital Citizenship: The district values technology, and uses the Common Sense Education curriculum to teach students what itmeans to be a responsible digital citizen.
Research Skills and Critical Thinking: Research and critical thinking skills are very important to the district, so teachersprovide students with multiple opportunities to engage in independent and collaborative research and to problem solve aroundsituations with their peers.
Creativity: SCUSD incorporates technology and project-based learning opportunities to foster innovative thinking amongstudents.
State of Technology
Equipment: SCUSD has about 5,000 computers and 40 Windows (2003/2008)servers. Most of the schools are on the Microsoft Windows platform. Howeverin some cases, a school may choose to use to use Macs. Elementary schoolsites have computers in classrooms, labs, and school libraries. Typically,classrooms share mobile laptop carts, and libraries have a minimum ofthree computers. Middle schools have computers in every classroom (aswell as labs and libraries), and some middle schools also have access tolaptop carts. High schools have computers in libraries, lecture halls, labs andclassrooms where curriculum includes the use of computers. SCUSD’s goal isto reach a ratio of 4:1 (computer to student). The district’s schools have variedperipheral equipment including mounted projectors, document cameras,SMART Boards, interactive response systems (clickers) and sound systems inclassrooms.
The Great Outdoors: Peterson Middle School has a lot of outdoor space. Theschool has live video cameras set up around the area to allow students toobserve and research nature in the outdoors.
Family Ties: The district is focused on home access to important schoolinformation for families and students. School Loop, used by the high schools,and Pinnacle Plus, used in grades K-8, both support family communicationby bringing students and families information regarding assignments,attendance and grades.
Assistive Technology: Each student in special education has an IndividualEducation Plan that includes an assessment of the need for assistivetechnology, which can include devices as well as software to meet astudent’s needs. The district has students using assistive technology such asAlphaSmart with word prediction software or Go Talks, iTouches, and iPadswith apps such as Proloquo to Go.