Sanger Unified’s yearslong achievement tied to engaging instruction, focus on student growth is a recent EdSource article that paints an impressive picture of what’s happening at the Sanger Unified School District in California.

Unfortunately, though, the article only quotes two administrators – no teachers, no parents/guardians, and no students.

I’d love to hear from non-administrators : Do you agree with the thrust of the article?

Contact me here or on social media.

Here is an excerpt:

According to Lopez, the same actions that brought the district out of improvement status in the early 2000s were used to respond to pandemic-era learning loss: weekly professional learning communities with educators working collaboratively rather than in isolation and effective instruction determined by teachers and administrators.

Following the pandemic, the district also strengthened its education around social-emotional well-being and its support systems that identify students and provide different levels of academic and behavioral resources. The district added wellness coaches to each elementary school, psychologists to all campuses, and special-assignment teachers for academic support and intervention.

“We doubled down on not buying things but rather support for kids to enable (us) to get back to where we were,” Lopez said.

As a result, the students’ English scores have returned to pre-pandemic levels, and math scores are off by less than 3 percentage points.

A key component of Sanger’s instructional approach is academic discussion between students, Lopez said. Students explain their thinking and justify their answers to each other.

“(They) understand problems at more than the surface level,” Lopez said.

Student engagement is what made the difference at Washington Academic, where proficiency grew by 3.6 percentage points in math from 28% to 32% of students meeting or exceeding standards. 

The entire school also focuses on writing, even in math classes. 

“We are all writing teachers,” Muñoz said about a culture shift at the school.