Go To School—Stay in School

Every school within the Compton Unified School District is extremely concerned about student attendance.   The research is very clear on this subject.  Students who attend school on a regular basis perform significantly better than students who miss school three or more days per month.

A study conducted by Attendance Works indicated that students who are absent three or more days per month are at risk of performing one to two years below students who attend school every day.

Attendance issues tend to develop early on for families, occurring as early as kindergarten, and place children at a much higher risk for dropping out of school in the latter part of their educational journey.

Encouraging your child to attend school daily is a proactive step to prepare your child for success. Students who attend school regularly have a better chance of graduating high school and fulfilling their college and career goals.

Sometimes children get sick. If they are sick—really sick-- they should stay home.

But a lot of reasons children don’t attend school might be they have to care for another family member, or they don’t want to attend because of their emotions, or they have dental and doctor’s appointments.  Concerning appointments, we know it is difficult to schedule appointments that fit within schedules.  However, we encourage you to make sure that your child attends school for the portion of the day that does not conflict with the appointment.

I understand that in our community there are a number of economic and social challenges that can impact a family and thus a child’s attendance in school.  Please feel free to contact the school and find out what services are available to assist your needs. We have several partnerships with agencies and we want to assist you in meeting your needs. But if the child doesn’t attend school, it really ties our hands.

Does your child miss more than one day of school per month?

It doesn’t seem like much until you realize over the course of a school year that your child has missed 10 or more days per year.   Those who miss 18 days per school year are chronically absent from school.  Students who are chronically absent are at a much greater risk of low performance in school and many who continue in this fashion eventually drop out of school by the time they are in high school.

We can truly make a difference in the lives of each and every child by doing what we can to decrease student absences.

The statistics are clear: children who attend school daily perform significantly higher than those who don’t.  Let’s work together to make sure that each and every child within the Compton Unified School District attends school daily.  Their success in the future depends on it.

To put it another way: “If they go to school, they’ll stay in school”

And that’s a good result for all of us.

As Compton Classes Open Optimism Is High

As the 2016-17 school year begins, we should all be very optimistic about what’s happening in the Compton Schools.

The turnaround which has been evident in increasing graduation rates and increasing test scores has been accelerating. For instance, did you know earlier this year that we reported graduation rates a full 10 points above the year earlier? And we expect when we report results this year, the graduation rates will increase again!

The success of our students is our top priority here in Compton. We’ve been succeeding by developing home-grown talent to run our schools. This year, of our 20 new principals and administrators, 17 of them were promoted from within the Compton School District.

We have been developing this talent in our district over the last several years. Because these leaders know our city and our schools, I expect we will see further improved classroom results especially within the elementary schools, Middle Schools and High Schools. We will continue to provide coaching and training to the people in those new positions.

We believe this is a recipe for long-lasting success in our schools that will benefit our community.

Let me discuss our emphasis on student safety. We know our students can’t learn if they don’t feel safe. That’s why we have worked to make our schools the safest places in Compton.  

Our School Board has given our Compton Police resources to make sure that our campuses are safe. But it doesn’t stop there. Our teachers, administrators are staff are constantly monitoring our campuses to make sure that our students are safe.

It’s working.

Also, we are working with the city of Compton to develop a Joint Youth Agreement that will allow more access to our school grounds for youth oriented activities in our city.

We believe the safety and success of our children benefits our community not only today but for the future.  

Finally, let me urge our parents to get involved in their children’s education. For them to succeed we need parents, teachers and students are pulling in the same direction. Get involved with your child’s school. It will benefit all of us to have more parents involved.

Yes, it’s going to be a great year and we are glad to get it started!

Compton Unified’s Commitment to Excellence Honored

The Compton Unified School District has been placed on the Sixth Annual AP® Honor Roll list by the College Board. We are one of 425 School Districts to be honored this year.

Your high schools are being recognized for both increasing the number of students who are enrolling and successfully completing Advanced Placement (AP) classes. AP classes can be as challenging as introductory college courses. They are fast-paced, cover more material than traditional courses, and require independent work like research, writing, and analysis.

While students from all backgrounds can benefit from taking challenging coursework in high school, data from 2015 show that among African American, Hispanic, and Native American students with the potential to succeed in AP, only about half take AP courses.

I believe strongly that EVERY child has the capacity to succeed in school and in life. It is why we live by the motto of having our students “college and career” ready. And we know (and believe) that if students are given the opportunity to succeed at the highest level, many will seize the opportunity.

It is why increasing the number of students who take and succeed in AP was a goal that we outlined in our Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), which we adopted after engaging parents, educators, employees and the community.

Inclusion on the Sixth Annual AP District Honor Roll is based on the examination of three years of AP data from 2013 to 2015. These nationwide measurable achievements in AP classes are noteworthy and newsworthy.

It was Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. who said “Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.” He wrote that in 1947 when he was in college. If he wrote it today, he would say “a man and a woman.” But the message is clear. For our children to succeed, they must be put in opportunities to succeed.

That’s what we are doing every single day at Compton Unified. Congratulations to our hard working young men and women and their teachers and parents for making us all proud.

2016 Begins and So Do We

Welcome back to school. I hope that all the families of Compton had an enjoyable holiday break. We are ready to get back to work --- and know that our students, teachers and staff are poised for a great second half of the school year.

We will continue our efforts to increase graduation rates in the Compton School District. Teachers and administrators are working with our students, particularly those who are struggling in the classroom to continue the upward trend in high school graduation rates that we’ve enjoyed in recent years. Earlier intervention with students whose grades are below a “C” has been helping students improve. We’ll continue that tactic.
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I hope you’ve had a chance to see the new look underway at Emerson Elementary and Bunche Middle School. Since the holiday break we’ve been put the finishing touches on new fields at the two schools. The transformation is remarkable. We continue to upgrade our facilities at the Compton schools knowing that when you transform how a school looks, you often transform the school itself.
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One of the big issues facing us in the classroom is the adoption of new Language Arts materials for our students. We’ll be informing you about that in the coming days and weeks.

Did you know that students who are involved in extracurricular activities do better in the classroom? If your child isn’t involved in some activity in school, urge him or her to do so.

Finally, congratulations to School Board Member Satra Zurita who was elected the new President of the School Board in December. Also, it’s a pleasure to welcome Sandra Moss, our newly elected board member.  We look forward to working with them and all our school board members to make sure that our students (and your children) are college and career ready.
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Happy New Year!