School year starts today

The 2009/2010 school year starts today throughout the Martinez Unified School District (MUSD). Hidden Valley Elementary strudents return next Monday as part of the Mt. Diablo Unified School District.

MUSD Superintendent Rami Muth said Friday that although the total enrollment figures are “a moving target,”  until teachers call roll in each class, as it stands the District will be responsible for the education of over 4000 youngsters this year.

 Las Juntas Elementary’s enrollment is up by 40 from last August with 345 registered; Morello Park Elementary has 505; John Muir Elementary is up 20 to 385; John Swett up 10 to 423; Martinez Junior High’s enrollment stays roughly the same at 925; Alhambra High School gained 40 students this year to 1290 and Vicentes/Briones alternative high schools each accommodate 75 students this year, said Muth.

 The District is fully staffed with four new hires replacing those teachers who accepted jobs with other districts after being laid off from MUSD this spring. The recent loan from the City enabled the District to rescind the lay offs of all certificated and five classified staff members.

“We were not able to brings back all but many,” said Muth. “We had a retirement at AHS so there is a new math teacher there and we hired a new music specialist. We’re very excited about the start of the school year, it’s so energizing.”

Friday was an “in-service” day when all teachers and staff reported to their classrooms and school to prepare for tomorrow. At Martinez Junior High, three teachers in particular were eagerly looking forward to their students beginning a new program called Read180.

Already in use at Alhambra High School for the past three years and at Vicentes since 2008, Read 180 is a software and instructional package designed for struggling readers, whether due to the child learning English as a second language, reading disabilities or ineffective prior instruction.

 Created by the Scholastic publishing company, Read 180’s “adaptive, instructional software provides intensive, differentiated skills practice to motivate struggling readers. The software analyzes, monitors, tracks, and reports on student accuracy, noting not only incorrect answers, but also the types of errors made and the time of the response. According to how the student performs, the software continually adjusts instruction offering students immediate feedback. READ 180 goes beyond branched differentiation to offer truly adaptive instruction. After logging into the software, the students are directed through the four Learning Zones,” according to Scholastic literature. “When students reach middle school they are expected to be competent readers; discreet reading instruction is no longer a priority. But where does that leave the 67 pecent of students reading below proficiency levels? They cannot decode grade-level text, and the text they can decode fails to contain interesting or age-appropriate content. These struggling readers become discouraged and fall further behind in school.”

 MJH teachers Jennifer Chiarelli, Noelle Harrison and Sharon Francis will shepard 60 students through the Read 180 course.

“It’s cool that we get to pilot the program here for 6th, 7th and 9th graders [at Martinez Junior High],” said

Harrison. “The money to buy the program came from the federal government, and we’re not hearing a lot about how [American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] funds are actually being spent. [Read 180] enables us to teach each child to their exact needs and this is something that could close the [huge] achievement gap, particularily between African-American and Caucasian or Asian students.”

 The middle school kids are apt to enjoy the computer program’s features, such as the abilitiy to create their avatar, a computer-generated 3D representation of the child, which then demonstrates to the student how to pronouce syllables, establishing explicit facial movements and sounds.

 Muth said the District used federal funds (made available via ARRA and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), “ a law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation; IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education and related services to children and youth with disabilities,” according to U.S. Department of Education) to purchase computers and software licences.

Last week, representatives from Scholastic and various textbook publishing companies visited Martinez schools to tutor teachers to the nuances of Read 180 and new math textbooks to be distributed throughout the District.

 Jessica Pozos, who begins her first year teaching at Martinez Junior High tomorrow, beamed a large smile on Friday when asked if she was nervous.

 “Oh, no, I’m very excited,” said Pozos. “It’s going to be a great year.”