L.A.U.S.D Visits and Evaluates AJCMS

Los Angeles Unified School District evaluator, Ruben Diaz, came to Animo Jefferson Charter Middle School to oversee (provide feedback and details) the school on February 12, 2014.

Diaz said, “My role is that I am a charter school specialist, which makes sure everything is in order.” Diaz was here to make a report on the school. Like Diaz, there are twelve specialists and every charter school is granted a five year operating license to operate if that school passes it’s evaluation.

Diaz said that the four components they look for in a charter school are governance like managing the school, student achievement which is based on tests and behavior, physical as in checking if school meets petition, which is the plan that says what is the school’s plan. He also said, “We check with evidence how many boys get suspended, number of girls suspended, boys test scores versus girl scores, areas where the students are strongest and where they need to improve. “The overseers or evaluators check for improvement every three years and come at least once a year. Diaz said, “After the report, we meet up with the rest of the specialists and have a debriefing session which is like TWDR (think, write, discuss, report).”

According to Sue Jean Foulkes, the principal at Animo Jefferson Charter Middle School, the results from the Los Angeles Unified School District evaluation on AJCMS have not been technically received. But based on the comments shared by the visiting chair, Foulkes said the school received a favorable report.

These are the results below on our evaluation by L.A.U.S.D.

Foulkes said, “We are growing our students, and meeting L.A.U.S.D. and State Standards as a school. Mr. Diaz [evaluator] was impressed with the quality of teachers on our campus, and of course our students!”

 Foulkes said that Diaz asked to consider how to differentiate classrooms for the students who excel, students who are almost there, and those who need additional assistance. Foulkes said that LAUSD would also enjoy seeing AJCMS working on lowering the rate of suspensions from 8.5%, to 5%. Foulkes said, “We are working on decreasing the number of suspension by doing a few things.

#1 – Analyzing the reasons for suspensions and making sure that we have systems to try avoid those incidents from occurring

#2 – providing supports for students who have high numbers of suspense

#3 – thinking about systems within the school that we can use instead of suspense.”

 Foulkes stated, “We also stated that we would try and increase the opportunity for our students to learn through reading and writing[using TWDR (think,write,discuss, and report method) and Reciprocal Teaching] . In both cases, of processing and increased literacy, school-wide practices were visible in 100% of the classrooms that we visited.”