Alhambra High presents Ed Trust West equity review, lays out three-year action plan

Alhambra High School leaders on Thursday presented a systemic equity review conducted by Ed Trust West and a three‑year “blueprint” of actions the school will use to close gaps in access to college‑preparatory courses and improve school climate.

Principal Dr. Keisha Amadorfer told the Martinez Unified School District board the review used both quantitative sources — transcript analysis, publicly available performance data and stakeholder surveys — and qualitative sources including classroom observations, focus groups and interviews. She said the district examined 586 student surveys, 41 staff surveys, 193 parent English surveys and additional Spanish‑language responses.

The report found the district’s A–G completion rate for 2022–23 was 47 percent for all students, but only 13 percent for multilingual learners (below the state average cited in the report) and effectively 0 percent among students in special day classes, Amadorfer said. That shortfall, she said, points to a lack of equitable and meaningful access to grade‑level standards and college‑prep courses for some student groups.

“Equity means that each student receives what they need to develop their full academic and social potential,” Amadorfer said, quoting the working definition the committee adopted from the National Equity Project.

Sam Gross, English department co‑chair and one of the report co‑presenters, summarized the blueprint’s academic aims: align graduation requirements and course offerings with A–G standards, examine grading practices that can create barriers to college eligibility and begin an awareness campaign so families and students understand A–G pathways earlier than high school. Gross said the committee decided to combine academics and college‑and‑career work because of overlap between the two areas.

Music director and visual and performing arts chair Sarah Stafford described the climate and culture portion of the plan. It calls for building on existing strengths such as leadership programs and arts opportunities, expanding student voice and student representation in focus groups and developing a three‑year staff training calendar to help staff engage constructively with students’ critical identities. "We want students to feel like they belong," Stafford said.

Presenters described next steps that include refining the draft blueprint with community feedback, assigning teams to implement action items, setting clear timelines and metrics and aligning the blueprint with the district LCAP and WASC accreditation work. The presenters said some components are already in motion: Alhambra has used a transcript evaluation service for course‑tracking and the district has enabled additional academic planning tools in its student information system.

Student speakers and board members praised the committee’s work while urging patience: one student who served on the committee said change “is not gonna happen overnight,” noting trust has been broken in prior years and new practices take time to show results.

Board members asked about how student voices would be engaged going forward; presenters said future focus groups will be assembled to reflect school diversity (AP students, athletes, students with IEPs, English learners) so the blueprint’s implementation reflects varied student experiences.

The board took no formal action on the presentation; trustees requested the item remain part of ongoing LCAP alignment and implementation conversations.