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State education advisers outline why Barstow Unified qualifies for intensive support
Summary
A California Collaborative for Educational Excellence adviser told Barstow Unified trustees that multiple student groups meet the criteria for direct technical assistance after multi-year declines in ELA and math, high chronic absenteeism and disproportionate suspension and graduation gaps.
Jenny Wright, a senior adviser with the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, told the Barstow Unified School District Board of Trustees on Oct. 20 that the district meets the statutory criteria for direct technical assistance because several student groups have been in the red on key LCFF priority measures for multiple years.
Wright said Barstow first became eligible for differentiated assistance in 2017 and was later identified for the most intensive level of support, direct technical assistance, in 2022. She described the tiers of California’s statewide system of support and said CCE’s role in Barstow is a collaborative facilitation with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools: “We co-facilitate improvement sessions with the county and we remain in close partnership through all of the improvement efforts,” Wright said.
Why it matters: Wright presented district and student-group data that show Barstow trailing statewide recovery in both English language arts and math since the COVID gap period. She noted that in 2017–18, Barstow’s percent of students meeting or exceeding ELA standards was about 31 percent versus roughly 50 percent statewide then. The district’s chronic absentee rate was described as approximately 45 percent overall; Wright highlighted extreme disparities for some groups, including a roughly 70 percent chronic absenteeism estimate reported for homeless youth and suspension rates exceeding district averages for African-American students and students with disabilities.
Wright explained how CCE’s direct technical assistance works in practice: a district-level team that includes central-office administrators, principals, teachers and classified staff will assess systems, design focused pilots (for example on literacy), and test strategies in a cycle of improvement. She urged the board to prioritize data culture, multi-year professional learning and a comprehensive service model to wrap supports around school sites.
Trustees pressed Wright on whether CCE’s work goes directly to teachers or focuses at the administrative level. Wright said CCE meets districts where they are and that, in Barstow, the DTA team is multi-representative: “Our idea is always that the answers are in the room,” she said, adding that the team will get “proximal to the work” by talking to teachers and users of the literacy system before piloting strategies.
Wright also noted that Barstow currently has seven student groups that meet the three-out-of-four-years threshold for DTA eligibility under Education Code 52072 and related dashboard criteria. She declined to speculate about the upcoming statewide dashboard release, which she said will provide updated status for 2025.
What happens next: Wright said the DTA team will reconvene in about a month to collect teacher and site-level input and to design feasible strategy tests. The board agreed to continue partnering with the county and CCE on improvement work.
Provenance: Presentation begins with Jenny Wright’s remarks (transcript SEG 631) and continues through trustee questions and answers (ends SEG 1271).
