Pasadena Unified Points to Better Test Scores, Heralds Improvements as School Year About to Start

Students heading back to school Monday for the first day of the Pasadena Unified School District’s 2016-2017 academic year have much look forward to and be proud of, school officials said Wednesday.

In a Start-of-the-School-Year Event for district employees and faculty at Pasadena High School Thursday, Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Brian McDonald said he is “heartened by the fact that state test scores (measuring student academic performance) have gone up greatly.”

District officials reported on changes and program expansion that will be seen across the district’s school campuses.

“We’ve been implementing a lot of changes in our academic programs,” said Pasadena Unified Chief Academic Officer Shawn Bird. “Our main focus is literacy and math all across our schools.”

PUSD is making the transition to the Common Core curriculum system, which is a new set of standards drawing upon international models aimed to help bridge the gap between math standards practiced around the globe.

“We’re giving our teachers more training to ensure student achievement in the areas of math and English,” Bird said.

Pasadena Unified is also focusing on its dual language program, which is gaining popularity throughout the district.

“Our dual language program is one of our best programs PUSD has to offer,” said Bird. “We have Mandarin and Spanish and those programs are growing at a very fast rate.”

“We are looking to open new school sites in the 2017-2018 school year so we will be doing a lot of work around identifying the right sites to expand the program,” he said.

According to Bird, the Mandarin program is among the District’s most popular language programs. He also noted that PUSD had to open an additional class this year to accommodate 23 kindergarteners who exceeded enrollment expectations.

Said McDonald, “Parents are generally excited about what we are doing and are really passionate. They have pushed us over the years to really build on what we have put in place in order to make the programs the best they can be.”

PUSD officials also have plans to address and improve areas outside of the classroom.

Said McDonald, “Apart from the academic focus on literacy, we’re focused also on making sure the district operates in an effective and efficient manner. Last year, we created a new planning model as well as a new budget development process that aligns with our strategic priorities. We are going to continue to refine that this year and also we are looking at a new structure to engage the community and all of our a little more in planning.”

Indeed, as PUSD students head back to school Monday, district spirits seem high and full of optimism.

“It’s a very exciting time,” said Bird.