Section 58905 Of Article 2. Demonstration Elements From California Education Code >> Division 4. >> Title 2. >> Part 31. >> Chapter 9. >> Article 2.
58905
. Each school included in the application shall design and
implement policies and procedures that include all of the following
core restructuring elements when applicable to elementary or
secondary schools or both:
(a) Curriculum, instruction, and assessment designed to meet
individual pupil needs while assisting all pupils to meet high
subject matter standards.
Instructional strategies shall go beyond teacher lectures and may
include cooperative and mastery learning as a school-wide strategy.
Strategies should decrease teacher workloads and increase contact
time between teachers and pupils. This may be accomplished, for
example, by organizing teachers into teams in two or more subject
areas in order to promote a rigorous core curriculum for all pupils,
including reading and writing skills for their development and
critical thinking skills in the core subject matter areas required
for high school graduation.
An expanded and enriched curriculum should be offered to all
pupils within and across subject matter areas, for example, by
organizing teachers into teams, or by promoting cross-discipline
curriculum development and implementation on an articulated,
multigrade basis.
The curriculum and the instructional strategies to implement these
objectives shall provide early and sustained opportunities for
limited-English-proficient and non-English-speaking pupils to become
proficient in all English language skills by using a variety of
instructional methods. The school curriculum may also offer
opportunities for pupils to become proficient in two or more
languages.
The testing of pupils in demonstration schools shall move away
from reliance on multiple-choice testing to an authentic pupil
performance based system that strives to provide a holistic
assessment of each pupil's improvement and achievement. Greater
emphasis shall be placed, for example, upon a pupil's writing as a
better way of assessing thinking and problem solving skills.
The curricular, instructional strategies, and assessment tools
shall also provide for accelerating the achievement of pupils
performing below their potential to levels beyond the overall rates
of pupil improvement and achievement.
(b) A plan for inclusion in appropriate curriculum programs new
and expanded opportunities for 11th and 12th grade pupils to attend
classes in colleges and universities, to enroll in specialized
schools and programs, and to participate in internships or other
field work with business, industry, schools, and community
organizations. These opportunities shall be fostered and implemented
in both the public and private sectors.
No project shall receive funding if there is any indication that
this component is designed or implemented in a fashion so that pupils
are directed, rather than counseled, regarding these opportunities,
or if the activities in any way foster the tracking of pupils.
(c) Assess, and where necessary, redesign the roles and
involvement of parents and all other persons who participate or work
in the educational program at the school. Staff development,
including leadership development, which emphasizes decisionmaking
skills and organizational principles of teamwork and collaboration,
shall be a critical component in reorganizing and restructuring the
school for effective instruction.
(1) Roles and responsibilities may be differentiated among all
school personnel, particularly instructional personnel, in order to
provide more effective instruction to pupils. The anticipated need to
provide increased support and assistance to beginning teachers may
be achieved, for example, by reducing their instructional or pupil
loads to permit their observation of instructional approaches
utilized by experienced and effective teachers, or to allow time for
mentoring and peer assistant relationships among all teachers.
(2) Meaningful roles and responsibilities for parents shall be
included as a part of the project. In addition to assisting pupils at
home and at school, parents shall be given greater amounts of
information and authority to participate in the placement decisions
for their children in specific classes or programs. Placement
considerations may include schools within schools to expand program
diversity, open enrollment among schools that have different programs
and instructional emphases, and specialized high schools to enhance
particular talents in pupils.
(d) The use of technology shall be addressed, at a minimum, in the
following dimensions:
(1) Technology as an instructional methodology to assist and
enhance pupil learning.
(2) Teaching pupils how to use the technology.
(3) Technology as an instrument to better manage information and
to enhance the organizational and administrative functioning of the
school.
(e) Subject to the availability of separate funding pursuant to
Section 58925.5, elementary school projects shall include a preschool
program component such as the federal Headstart Program, or a
program with similar goals operating as a state preschool program
pursuant to the requirements of Chapter 2 (commencing with Section
8200) of Part 6, or which may require requests to waive provisions of
the Education Code or state regulations pursuant to Sections 33050
and 33051. All children four years of age or older from low-income
families shall be given the opportunity to attend a preschool
program.
Subject to the availability of separate funding pursuant to
Section 58925.5, a restructuring proposal which involves a high
school may include a schoolage parenting and infant development
program operated pursuant to the requirements of Chapter 2
(commencing with Section 8200) of Part 6.
It is the intent of the Legislature that applicant school
districts and schools consider contracting with local community
agencies that may offer state-subsidized child development, preschool
or schoolage parenting and infant development, in order to provide
linkages to existing child care and development programs and to avoid
duplicating or fragmenting child development service delivery.
The child care components authorized by this subdivision shall be
deemed an expansion of existing state supported programs and an
integral enhancement of the restructuring proposal. If separate
funding pursuant to Section 58925.5 is made available for those
purposes, the superintendent, subject to existing statutes and
regulations, and a review of the quality of competing applications
for preschool and schoolaged parent funding, shall give preference to
high quality proposals that are included in a demonstration proposal
in the approval of any expansion funding to demonstration district
projects providing for one or both of these programs.