Collaborating and Planning for Change: Resource Equity Learnings From a School District Leader Advancing the Work

In this episode, Sanger Unified School District Superintendent Adela Madrigal Jones highlights approaches and actions her district has taken to advance equity. It’s chock-full of practical guidance, real-life experiences and candid reflections from a lifelong educator who has helped lead successful work in this Central Valley district.

One of the key strategies Sanger USD utilizes are “Principal Summits.” These summits engage school site leaders in reviewing data, collectively exploring how dollars are invested (including LCFF-LCAP funds), developing plans and actions to meet the needs of all students, and regularly monitoring those plans. 

Superintendent Madrigal Jones shares further insights into the mechanics of budgeting for equity, including describing how some recent allocation models called for distributing dollars equally, and some equitably. In addition, she takes us inside some of her district’s recent discussions about how best to utilize newly available one-time state and federal dollars to accelerate recovery from the pandemic.

Later in this episode, Sanger USD Chief Business Official Marsha Alfving joins Adela to discuss the key importance of superintendents and chief business officials working together and with their teams to support resource equity. CBO Alfving describes several ways that school business officials can deepen their engagement in their district's conversations around equity and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to best meet the needs of all students.

Finally, Superintendent Madrigal Jones looks back on a key success in her district that improved early literacy. Plus, she recommends a few things that all educational leaders should consider bringing along as they prepare to embark on their own resource equity and "cultural shift" journeys.

Guests

Adela Madrigal Jones has served as superintendent of Sanger USD since July 2018. Prior to that, she served as associate superintendent, as a principal and a teacher, all in the district. She has also worked extensively with English Learners. In total, she has spent more than 37 years in public education.

Marsha Alfving has served in Sanger USD for more than a decade, including as Chief Financial Officer since 2013. She’s also a Certified Public Accountant and prior to joining Sanger, served for several years in public accounting.

Sanger USD is located in California’s Central Valley. The district serves about 11,000 students, nearly 70% who qualify for free and reduced price meals and 15% who are English Learners. The district has been recognized in research literature, such as the 2019 Learning Policy Institute brief, for its promising practices and outcomes, especially for students of color.

Download the Interactive Companion Brief for this episode.

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Budgeting for Educational Equity is presented by the California Association of School Business Official (CASBO), in partnership with WestEd. We are grateful to the Sobrato Family Foundation for providing additional support.

Engage with us on Twitter at @Budget4EdEquity

Budgeting for Educational Equity is written and produced by Paul Richman and Jason Willis. Original music, mixing and sound by Tommy Dunbar. John Diaz at WestEd  develops our related written materials. 

Transcript

Collaborating and planning for change: More resource equity learnings from a school district leader advancing the work

Opening Quote
Adela Madrigal Jones, Superintendent, Sanger USD:

We know that there are certain schools in our district, certain students and populations in our district, that are going to have more barriers, whatever they may be. And so how do we ensure that we address those from the get-go, and put our dollars and our actions to address those, so that when we are working with our kids and putting our action plans into place, those have been thought out as clearly as we can to address the needs of all of our students and get to those results quicker?

Intro Music.

Jason Willis, host:

Welcome back to Budgeting for Educational Equity, presented by CASBO and WestEd. I’m Jason Willis, your host. Throughout this series, one of our goals is to share specific experiences and examples from leaders and practitioners who are doing the work of ensuring a more equitable allocation of resources in their school systems. For this episode, we headed to California’s Central Valley – in a virtual way, of course -- where we connected with Sanger Unified School District Superintendent Adela Madrigal Jones. Adela has spent her entire 37-year career as an educator in Sanger Unified, beginning as a classroom teacher.

Adela:

I went into teaching because I loved children and wanted to make an impact and a difference and [I] spent many years, about 18 years actually, in the classroom, all at the elementary grade level. And then I got that proverbial, you know, tap on the shoulders about considerations of going into administration. And I was hesitant at first because I really felt as if the impact I was making in a classroom was meaningful. And I could see those fruits of my labor that way. But once I went into administration, I realized how the impact can go beyond the 32 kids in the classroom. 

Jason:

Adela eventually shifted into a new role as a school site principal. 

Adela:

I was able to see that transformation and that difference in the impact instructionally that a leader at a school site can make -- and eventually found my way back to the district office. And during that time of my career, I was a bilingual teacher, so I had my Master's degree in bilingual education. And coming back to the district office, a lot of my focus was around English learners and providing professional development for administrators and teachers around the needs of English learners, and then evolved that into professional development as a whole, as we transitioned to the Common Core [State Standards]. And then eventually here in the role as superintendent. 

Jason:

So, Adela, as you think about Sanger Unified’s context, what does resource equity mean for you as the system leader? And why do you feel like it’s important to think about these issues of resource equity?

Adela:

Well again, I think -- I don't know if it's because of my background with English learners -- but always knowing that more was needed for that particular population. And so, as I expanded my role, really thinking about beyond what they need in the classroom, the people, the time, the money, the resources -- how we allocate them to our students -- and knowing that the students that have the greatest need, need to have those greatest amount of resources allocated to them. And here in Sanger, actually through the years, we've kind of gone both approaches, where it's an equal distribution of some of the resources. So, for example, many times when it comes to roles that people may take on -- an intervention, a coach -- those are equally distributed out to sites. And then we will take some dollars and allot them maybe to the student demographics. So we look at the data and the number of the students that they [school sites] have and then distribute them equitably. So we've done both models here in Sanger, and sometimes we do the model simultaneously -- and then some of the dollars are equal and some are not.

[4:40]

Jason:

And say a little bit more about that. I love that you're representing that in Sanger, you took a different approach in some cases at the same time of providing equal, whatever the denomination or the resource was, at the same time in which you were equitably distributing some other set of resources. Say a little bit more about, you know, what differences you saw in how those resources showed up. Do you feel like one approach had some benefits over another?

Adela:

Well, one example would be when we first received our LCAP [Local Control and Accountability Plan] dollars -- and that was quite a lot of money that came all at once. So, we wanted to make the transition to become a one-to-one district with technology, seventh grade through 12th grade. So that's where we took the dollars and equally distributed them. Every child got an iPad. And then we needed to back that up with the support for those technology devices. So, last year when we had to close down, devices was one of the issues we did not struggle through, surprisingly. So that idea back then of equally distributing those dollars from LCAP helped us in the future, as it did this past year.

Jason:

Mmm-hmm. 

Adela:

An area where we took LCAP dollars and targeted it, was towards, for example, in our high schools, targeting our students that were in danger of not graduating – and applying dollars to a role, providing them student advocates where they were mentoring and in charge of just really supporting high school students who were failing grades, had social emotional issues, had attendance issues. And we focused those dollars specifically for those kids and saw what a difference that that program made for our high school students.

Jason:

And just one follow up on that Adela: When you said that the difference that it made, how did that come across for you or for the schools in terms of those set of resources showing up differentially for those students?

[7:08]

Adela:

Well, monitoring the data -- when we monitored the data -- we could see that we increased our graduation rate. We increased the students that would then enroll into most often a community college. We had conversations where the leaders of the high school wanted to expand the program because it was making a big difference, but it was expanding it onto groups, not necessarily our "unduplicated" youth. Because that's what we focused those dollars on -- our homeless, our foster and our ELL and our economically disadvantaged students. But we know that students that don't fall into those unduplicated youth categories also have needs. So, they were wanting to expand that, but we have not allocated dollars from LCAP to expand that. 

Jason:

Yeah. 

Adela:

…And what they're doing now with some of our ELO [Extended Learning Opportunity grants] monies, they're asking, "Can we take these ELO monies and expand our student advocacy program to those that don't fit within the unduplicated count?"

Music.

Jason:

Sanger Unified, as I mentioned, is located in California’s Central Valley, about 15 miles southeast of Fresno. It’s a district that serves about 11,000 students among several communities, a district with about 20 schools, where nearly seven of 10 students qualify for free and reduced lunches, and about 15 percent are English Learners. It’s also a district that has been recognized in the research literature, such as the 2019 Learning Policy Institute brief, for its promising practices and outcomes, especially for students of color.

One of the most successful strategies Adela says the district has utilized over the past 15 or so years to improve outcomes for students are what they call their “Principal Summits.”

 
Adela:

Our principal summits happen yearly and principals are taking their data and doing a complete analysis of it, and then listing actions that they're going to take to address the needs of the students, of academic achievement for all, closing the gap and providing strong social emotional wellness for our children at the sites. And most recently we've advanced those summits to also now include the allocated dollars that they're receiving.

That's new since we have had LCAP dollars. So the actions before, for example, when I was a principal, I would talk about my data. Let's say my English learners were low, you know, were 20% behind all students. And then I would talk about the actions I was going to take to close that gap. So we still have that basic structure in that summit, but now we have the allocated dollars and the resources that they're going to have to include on that. So what people do they need to get this done? What dollars is it going to take to get this done? And then they're monitored three times throughout the year. 

Jason:

So, I find that really fascinating, Adela, that you've had these sets of Principal Summits that you've been running at Sanger, and Sanger, as many of our listeners will know, has been a kind of well-performing, rapidly advancing system for the last several decades, and here you introduce another element to the Principals Summit and it changes the dynamic of the resources themselves. And I'm curious if you can talk about, you know, what that experience was like for principals? Where you saw those principals shifting their own mindset or their own thinking about how they were bringing, not just the strategy to address the needs, but also how those resources then were influencing that decision-making?

Adela:

Well, it definitely made them think about how they're spending their dollars and where they want the dollars to go. With the LCAP, they do have site allocation of dollars. We do centralize some dollars and then they have their distributions. And they really, I think, highlighted the fact that their dollars are investing in the intervention teacher or the afterschool interventions that they're having, or a coach that they're hiring. I think then it really made them monitor it even closer. They wanted it to work because it was their dollars that were purchasing either the person or the program, whatever it may be that they were doing. So we really saw principals taking a stronger ownership on the resources that they were allocated, not necessarily even coming to us anymore saying I don't have enough, you know, I need more. It was, they saw the distribution of the dollars based on their demographics, and they would, of course, in comparison as principals do, they would see some sites have more dollars than others...

Jason:

Mmm-hmmm.

Adela:

And, you know, sticking to that plan of, Show us your needs, your needs assessment, and show us through your summit, what your plan is to ensure that your students, that we meet the goals of our district and that your students are performing academically, then we can have discussions [about] whether more resources, more centralized dollars that we have could be then distributed out there more. 

[13:02]

Jason:

Yeah, I love how that dynamic in Sanger, you know, just introducing another set of information that in this case is really about the resources that are flowing to the school, how that really changes the nature of a lot of the discussions. And in particular, Adela, one of the things that really struck me in what you said was that it creates the opportunity to talk with principals, not about continually asking for more, but saying, how can we maximize what we're doing with what we have, given the context they're in in Sanger. I love that. 

Music.

Jason:

One of the things Adela noted as we talked about her district’s approach were comparisons of resources that sometimes occur between schools and between school leaders. It’s human nature to compare against others. But it also seems to get at the core of many resource equity conversations.

Adela:

Well, you know, and that's the struggle is because what's good for some, they're arguing, is good for all, right? That these are strategies that all kids can benefit from. And then saying, it's not, it can't be optional for some of our kids. It has to be intentional. And it has to be deliberate, some of these services that we're providing.

So I think that it is always a challenge to reinforce that, because our principals are advocates for all their kids and we want them to be an advocate for all their kids.  And so keeping that mindset of then, Where do we, who needs it the most?

It definitely is going back and just ensuring that there's a clear understanding how we're distributing funds, the idea of the students with the greatest needs have to have more resources, greater resources available to them -- and working with our principals who may be not getting quite the amount of dollars, so maybe they can't hire an intervention teacher, even though there may be a need for some of that resources. So how can you then use your existing resources to address whatever action that you want to be able to take for your students? It's a lot of conversations, a lot of discussions. 

I think, our principals, because of the summits, they want to, they've listened in on other summits and they want to replicate what other sites are able to do, but find that they don't have the funding for that. And it's just discussion. And then we look at it [from] a district level, what can we do to support them?  

Jason:

So, Adela, take us into the room where it happens: Conversations that you've had as a leader in Sanger and with your other central office leaders. Can you recall a circumstance or a situation in which you were in a room -- virtual or otherwise – where you were discussing these issues around resource equity? And kind of play that out for us, what happened in that situation? What was tough for you about that? And where did you feel like you guys were coming together? 

Adela:

Well, I can use, I know our most recent example right now with the amount of money that we received for the next three years...

Jason:

You're referring to the additional federal [funds]?

Adela:

Yes, the federal dollars and state dollars. And it's really, it happened with our LCAP. It took us a little bit longer to get through, I would say a good two to three years to kind of get our ground under the LCAP dollars, and exactly how to work through that process. So we've been able to replicate that process with these additional dollars. So coming into the room for a set of cabinet level, and then bringing in our principals into the discussion, about first thinking, with this influx of dollars, understanding temporary versus ongoing, and what types of scaffolding resources are they going to be putting into place, because we're going to have to remove these scaffolds eventually. We experienced a little bit of that with LCAP in the sense that our demographics are changing with our growth. So, we've had a reduction in our LCAP dollars where we've had to revisit some of these resources that we put into place that we were either going to have to shift a general budget or figure out how we're going to have to remove them. 

So knowing that we're going into this next three years with temporary dollars, um, thinking about the the resources they want to put into place that are going to be temporary, because many times the first thing that our principals go to our people, you know, we believe in people not programs. The people are going to make the difference, so they they want more of the intervention teachers or the extended learning time for our kids. And knowing that this is good for all students -- again that conversation of this is what all of our kids need -- but how are we going to ensure that if you can only have the dollars for one additional intervention teacher, that that's going to those kids that we know are most in need of it. Another factor coming out, what they're wanting is more counselor time, more school psych time. So if we're going to build in this school psych, which they've asked for for years, that they've wanted more of this time -- now they have dollars to get that and making the most use of that, because again, it's a temporary support. That's a challenge. 

Our principals are excited and at the same time, really cautious about getting a support that is supplemental and not base support. 

Jason:

So these conversations, Adela, that you've been having with cabinet and with the principals about the use of these one-time state and federal dollars to support recovery from the pandemic was, some of the things you laid out, were those easy decisions to come to in terms of how you were thinking about allocating those resources and dollars to the individual schools?

Adela:

At a cabinet level, it was easy to come to. We knew we were going to equitably distribute the dollars. All of these dollars -- there are no equal dollars being distributed. So we did do a factor for our schools in regards to, we took all of our kids -- because all of our kids have suffered to some degree with this closure. And then we do have some data. So we looked at our data from iReady in both ELA and math, up to eighth grade. And we looked at some internal data we have for our high schools, grades, their GPAs, to then determine a factor for those students who are suffering um, by grade, academically, and then we do have Panorama data for our social emotional needs. And we came up with a factor to distribute those dollars. 

A challenge is, you know, we have a school site with an elementary school site, with 800 kids, got a lot of dollars, whereas one of our school sites, the smallest, it's about 220 students, and that site, you know, it got less dollars, but for us at a cabinet level, we knew we were going to equitably distribute these dollars, because who's going to know most about what these kids need is the principal and the staff and the parents. Because again, that stakeholder feedback being built in to what the needs are. 

And now we're still in the process; in fact, today we were having a meeting and going over what are the principals preliminary plans with these dollars? It's cabinet being aligned enough to ask those probing questions. When I see, “We want to have a STEAM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math] teacher,” you know, they want a teacher there that was going to focus on STEAM. So probing that. How does that use of dollars impact those students that we said these dollars are intended for, right? To catch them up, to give them extended learning time, always pointing out that...And the answer on that one was enrichment. They were looking for enrichment opportunities. But how do we know if we need these enrichment opportunities? When we gave the formula we use to allocate the dollars were for those kids that the data showed needed extra learning opportunities, hence even the name of the grant that that is giving. 

So, it's constantly having to ask those probing questions and monitor the way they want to spend their money without coming across that you're micromanaging them and that you're just saying no, because then you get in that danger of, "Okay, you gave me my money. You're telling me to come up with a plan of what my kids need. I'm telling you what they need. And then you're telling me 'no.'" So, it's balancing that idea of, think about these equitable dollars we gave you, who they are intended to help and support and why they were intended, you know, why the dollars were given to you?

[23:21]

Jason:

Yeah. I really appreciate it, Adela, that messaging. I'm just curious, what do you think it is about you, the district leadership, the work that Sanger has been doing that brought you to that place that allowed you to kind of so easily in the way you were describing this, allocate these one-time state and federal dollars in an equitable manner to schools?

Adela:

Well, it's been a long journey, you know, for the cultural shift here. And part of the benefit is many of our leaders here in our district have been in Sanger for years. 

Jason:

Mmm.

Adela:

Our current principals have all been teachers here. So they've been growing up, I would like to say, you know, in this district with this idea and philosophy around being a result-driven district, data driven district, and also looking, always making decisions with the lens of the student -- what's best for students – first. 

Jason:

I like how earlier you described the cultural shift towards resource equity as a sort of “journey” that districts take and individuals take. So, I'm just wondering if you were advising a fellow school leader, what should they pack for that journey? What do they need to bring along?

Adela:

A lot of caffeine, uh, you know, a lot of patience, and I think never second guessing yourself on the moral imperative of educating students. And I know that I mentioned earlier the why, and it's always going to be about what is best for kids and making decisions that are best for kids -- [that] always needs to be thought about and balanced also with the needs of our adults. Because even right now, we're learning about ensuring, because our adults, our teachers are the ones in the frontline of the kids. So balancing so that we don't push them over the edge, either. 

But then again, knowing that the journey is a long journey. Will you, do you ever get there? I'm not sure because you're always going to look at ways of getting better. So that whole idea of a "plan, do, study, act" cycle, which is actually our Principal Summit plans is their own "plan, do, study, act" cycle for their sites. And then being, um, patient and supportive throughout that journey.

[26:50]

Jason:

Something else that is critical to successful resource equity work: a strong partnership between the superintendent and chief business official. In Sanger, that CBO is Marsha Alfving. Adela mentioned how in so many of the district’s meetings, Marsha brings a fresh and vital perspective. 

Adela:

We do have our multi-tiered systems of support, and we have an MTSS meeting every month with members of the cabinet. So she [Marsha} is part of those meetings where we look at student data. We look at grades at the high school. We will look at attendance, data, discipline data, iReady data. So she is part of those discussions when it comes to the academic and social-emotional wellbeing of our students, and also all of our student groups that are, that we disaggregate and monitor. So, she is part of those discussions, so when her and I have one-on-one discussions, she has that background knowledge already. She understands where these gaps are and what is preventing maybe some students from being successful and completing A through G at the high school, or why aren't our third graders, reading on grade level, and what about math? You know, why do we need manipulatives in math as we shifted into the Common Core? So I think including her in those discussions that typically your instructional leaders are a part of, but bringing in your business leaders to be a part of those same discussions is critical. And when we're talking about allocating of the resources, she understands it, she gets it.

Jason:

Because she has that background? Because you brought her in at the beginning of the conversation as a way to frame future conversations that you know are coming?

Adela:

Yes.

Jason: 

…that are discussing how she's helping to basically support and back the strategies that you all are executing in Sanger?

Adela:

Yes. Correct. And when she first started doing that, you know, she was pretty quiet during those MTSS meetings because she's just taking it all in, didn't have that instructional background to dig deeper into. We started that process right around maybe five, six years ago, and now she is a very active participant in those discussions. And, so when it comes to, especially right now with our ELO dollars, she's coming up with ideas, ways to spend them. 

Music.

Jason:

Okay, so rather than keep talking about her in the third-person, we thought it would be great to bring Marsha Alfving directly into the conversation as well. So we were able to set up a follow-up call with both she and Adela. Marsha has served in the district for more than a decade, including as Chief Financial Officer since 2013. She’s also a Certified Public Accountant and prior to joining Sanger, served for six years in public accounting.

Marsha:

Well, I think what I've found is interesting as I've been in more and more meetings that aren't directly related to finance, is that being a few steps away can kind of help with the perspective. Sometimes I think the people who are working in it day in and day out are so in the weeds that sometimes the bigger picture gets lost and it's been, um, you know, sometimes something that I will say or think, I feel like, oh, I really don't have the right to say this -- and yet it's been well received as, Okay, I didn't look at it that way. Or, you know, it's just a different perspective.   

Adela:

I think Marsha is definitely a listener and she's listening and then she will come out with ideas of different ways that we can get what we need done. And she's very creative that way. 

Marsha:

I I have such a great deal of respect for the team and and the level of knowledge that they have in their area. And, you know, my focus in the financial world has made me understand that I have my level of expertise in my area, but I really obviously have no formal training or anything in the educational field. So at first it was kind of like, Oh, am I overstepping my boundaries by making a comment on something that these people have worked in their whole life and here I am, you know, just kind of listening?  

But I think the attitude that was expressed, actually wanting to hear the different viewpoints by the group, made it a little more comfortable for me. And then the feedback afterwards -- the group leader at the time, you know, made a point to come and tell me how much she appreciated my viewpoints and my comments. There wasn't that feeling of, Why are you talking? You don't really know what you're doing, we just want you to figure out the money part? That attitude was not there and that made it easier for me to get more comfortable just asking a question that might've seemed inappropriate or ignorant, but turned out to actually start a whole other conversation that might not have been planned.

Adela:

Yeah, and I think Marsha, another thing that you do really well is when you are hearing some of the plans that are coming out either during cabinet or during our MTSS meetings, when the problem solving is like, how can we get the funding that we need for, let's say a position or a program, some kind of materials that might be needed. And you're really good at saying, Well, you know, you have that information at your fingertips while you're saying what would the funding code be? How could we make something like this work so that we can make sure that the focus again is staying on the achievement of our students. And you're really good about just listening and then asking those questions, like you said, right at those perfect times that then pushes us to kind of think differently as well. 

Marsha:

Yeah, and I think that the situation I find myself in is having many, many conversations with different pockets of the curriculum instruction team. And, you know, they all, they don't always know everything that's going on with other members of their team, because it's a very large scope of work that's being done. But because of a conversation I've had maybe with one person, it will often lead to the knowledge to be able to give some valuable input into a completely different conversation, especially when it comes to funding and staffing and those kinds of things. Sometimes they just have a little background that is helpful. 

Adela:

Well, I know Marsha, last time I highlighted how we distributed our ELO dollars equitably. From your perspective, how has that been working? What do you think about that?

Marsha:

That process has actually been one of the most exciting things that I've worked on this year. We did distribute the money equitably based on tier one, tier two and tier three student populations. And I've been quite involved in the budget side of the plans that have been designed using these funds. And it's just been really fun to watch the process. What can we do? You know, the thinking outside the box, it's just been kind of like a breath of fresh air. Even in getting our principals to be thinking differently, you know, this money is kind of a one time opportunity to really get some things going. And, I know it's been very stressful for them making the plans, but it's also been very exciting as an onlooker to see what they've been coming up with. And I'm really excited to see what happens. 

[35:53]

Adela:

Yeah. And right now our principals are delivering their plans to us with their dollars that they've received and, you know, really highlighting how are they using people, how are they using these resources to really make that accelerated growth needed? Especially for our English learners, that's been highlighted, our homeless/foster. Many of our schools are very high in their social economically disadvantaged groups. So, just really putting more resources with people, paraeducators and having check-in points along the way in their plans, three times a year, where we'll see to Marsha's point earlier about, is it working, you know, what is working, and to making that accelerated growth of our students are going to be meeting in both academic and social emotional.

Jason:

So, what would the two of you say are some of the top keys to effective superintendent and CBO working relationships?

Adela:

Well, I think accessibility for both of us, I mean, I'm available as much as I can be to Marsha. In fact, this morning I was in her office sitting there and having a conversation with her and we do a lot of work here, you know, building relationships and making sure that it's more than just, uh, I can go talk to Marsha when I need something. You know, I, we talk to each other and just check in with each other on things and how things are going both professionally and personally. That's important. 

Marsha:

I agree. I think Adela has, you know, a very welcoming and encouraging personality. She wants the communication. She values it. And I think that particularly in cabinet, everyone around the table is I would say equal in status and everybody's comments are equally important and equally considered. And that feeling of truly being a valued member of the team for all of us, I think just fosters this great communication that I'm very proud that our group has.

Adela:

Right. And part of that "equal-ness," I think that Marsha is talking about is just that when we do communicate with each other, we communicate in a way that we can understand each other. I know that my board has really appreciated how Marsha [conveys] the complexity of our school district's budget in such a way where they can understand it. They know what questions to ask, should they have any. She just has a great way of explaining it in a very accessible way. And so I think us in cabinet and when we are talking with each other or it's just Marsha and I talking with each other, there's clarity in our communication. And I think that's really helpful. 

Marsha:

I agree. 

Music.

[39:00]

Jason:

Before I wrapped up my original conversation with Adela Madrigal Jones, I also had the chance to ask if there was a particular experience that has stood out for her, especially as she thinks about these issues around equity. So, Adela, Is there a moment perhaps when you realized the importance of this work for you or when the system experienced a tremendous success? What was it like for you?

Adela:

So before I was superintendent, I was an associate superintendent here, and the superintendent at that time really wanted to put a focus with our LCAP dollars on early literacy and addressing our third grade ELA, CASPP [English Language Arts, California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress] scores by focusing on both literacy and language. So, as an associate superintendent, at that time, I was in charge of that task. So bringing together a committee to look at how are we going to impact our early literacy work here and what kind of LCAP dollars are going to be provided? So we had to come up with a plan. I had teachers from every school site and we worked with literacy experts. And then we had to come up with, what is our plan? And then what dollars would need to be allocated to those plans? And we would look at school site data to determine the number of students, and also by subgroups on who was either, you know, far below reading level or at reading level, or even exceeding reading level. And that was the first time I think for me where, really tying these dollars -- because when I was a principal at my summit, didn't have dollars tied to it, as they do now -- but this was my first time as a leader in the district where these dollars were going to be put towards resources, such as building the capacity of our teachers, to providing a very intensive training for them, the hiring of literacy coaches, where they went through intensive training, on coaching for literacy, resources, such as guided reading leveled books. So a lot of money going towards this program. And all of our teachers, our district embraced it. It was a three-year plan. And as we went through this three-year plan, the year, we were making slow, 1%, 2% incremental growth in our ELA CASPP. And the one year when those students that were kindergartners became third graders on this test, we just saw the fruits of the labor of doing all of that.

I remember sharing that data with everybody. We were so excited. And I think even now, that whole process of an early literacy, our guided reading, our work -- when our schools closed in March, that was one of the things I heard the most from our primary teachers, is, I can't do guided reading? I can't do small group instruction? It's making it difficult. They were trying to find ways to do it virtually and many did. And I would say that's one of our most frequent questions now, as we're, you know, we do have kids back in a hybrid model. But it's difficult to do those small groups because of spacing, the distance that's still required, but coming back in the fall, they're asking, we want to get back into that, that cycle that we were doing because they saw what a difference it was making; it really empowered our teachers. They felt much more confident in the teaching of reading. And they're already asking for their next steps. They want to now learn more about phonics and phonemic awareness and really get down that area of the early literacy. So, really empowering the teachers. It was really exciting to come to that -- and it made a difference.

Jason:

Yeah, that's a great, that's a fabulous story. Thanks so much for sharing that. 

Music.

Jason:

So as you know, Adela, as part of this series, we really want to help California education leaders and communities understand, you know, these dimensions of resource equity and public education, and are really hoping to provide some tangible examples, guidance, experiences, to support and inspire those leaders and practitioners. And you've already offered some of those clear examples, which is really great. And can you talk about, as you like reflect on your experience within Sanger, what have been some of maybe the easier, or some of the harder places that you found to advance the equitable distribution of resources in the system?

Adela:

Yeah. Some of the easier places to advance I would say was, is around specifically identified groups of students where the measurable outcomes are easy to monitor. So, for example, English learners, you know, it's easy to disaggregate their data, we could monitor our reclassification rate, build the capacity of our teachers to ensure that ELD [English Language Development] is not only taking place, but it is effective and done with high quality teaching. So, being able to lean on what are best practices when it comes to teaching English learners has been an easy way to say, okay, our dollars are going to go towards this -- and it's easy to monitor. 

I would say a difficult area in our district and in my experience is more around when it's difficult to get to the root cause of lack of outcomes and results in our students. And, you know, we are a strong PLC district, professional learning community, where our teachers are given time built-in during the week to discuss data and talk about what are the needs of the kids. So, sometimes the difficulty is again, focusing on what could be the root cause that you can actually then take actions towards.

Jason:

Mmm. So, like a lot of what I'm hearing here is being clear about the type of students that you are wanting to serve and the needs that those students have. And the more clarity you have, that your team has, the easier it is to advance conversations about directing resources to their needs?

Adela:

Right. It's always about showing us the data. So, when we have a principal who might request a need, it's always back to demonstrating the data that shows, how do you know that, what action you want to take is really going to impact and have the results that you're seeking. 

Outro music starts

Jason:

Coming up in our next episode: We’ll take an even closer look at this unique situation schools finds themselves in now, with a major influx of additional state and federal dollars to drive positive system change emerging from the pandemic. 

Michael Fullan (Episode 4 guest):

There’s an amount of money here to be invested in things, and that’s the context, and it's exciting.…because now we have some elbow room to actually invest money that gives yield..."

Jason:

Budgeting for Educational Equity is presented by CASBO and West Ed. This series is also made possible by the generous support of the Sobrato Family Foundation. We’re grateful to all of the hard-working, dedicated education and policy leaders who graciously shared their time and expertise with us. 

Our series is written and produced by Paul Richman and by me, Jason Willis. Sound, mixing and original music are by Tommy Dunbar. John Diaz develops our related written materials. Be sure to check those out online and in our show notes. And please, if you find this podcast valuable, help spread the word. 

We’ll see you out there.