FINAL final_(Dec 1, 2020 CoW) Elementary Student Assignment

Elementary School Assignment Policy Committee of the Whole December 1, 2020 Orla O’Keeffe Chief Policy & Operations Henry O’Connell Project Manager Problem Statements School segregation a b b Diversity: Create integrated elementary schools that provide students with the opportunity to experience the rich diversity of our city Predictability: Offer families of elementary students a high degree of predictability about where their elementary children will be enrolled in school Proximity: Create strong community connections to local schools and reduce the number of families with elementary students traveling across the city Focal students attend schools with higher levels of poverty Unconstrained choice leads to self-segregation Meaningful ability to choose is inequitably distributed Our current process causes stress and anxiety for families Disconnect between schools and communities a b Burden on families a Policy Goals Unconstrained choice undermines confidence in school quality Unconstrained choice undermines community cohesion Under enrollment a b Unconstrained choice has contributed to under enrollment Too many children in San Francisco attend private or charter schools instead of SFUSD Historical Context ● 120 years of de jure and de facto school segregation in SFUSD (1851-1971) ● 50 years of school integration efforts SFUSD believes that students are best served in learning environments that are racially and socioeconomically integrated and has, since 1971, implemented a series of court-mandated and voluntary student assignment plans designed to support integrated learning environments: 1937 Redlining Map ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 1971 - Horseshoe Plan 1974 - Operation Integrate 1978 - Educational Redesign 1983 - Desegregation Consent Decree 1999 - Last year using race in student assignment 2002 - Diversity Index Lottery 2010 - Current Student Assignment System 2018 - Board Reso 189-25A1: Developing a Community Based Student Assignment System for SFUSD Our Journey Since 2018 Research, case studies of other districts Define key terms, generate potential concepts for new system Spring 2019 Dec 2018 Resolution 189-25A1 unanimously approved Begins policy development process Summer 2019 Project plan, build team structures, secure grant $ to support robust community engagement Fall 2019 Simulate policy options and evaluate findings Begin to develop policy recommendation Summer 2020 Spring 2019 Conduct extensive communications and community engagement throughout the City Fall 2020 Refine recommendation and bring final policy to Board for a vote Communicate with families to ensure transparency Policy Recommendation Submitted for First Reading on 10/20/2020 Choice within Zones with Diversity Categories ● Move from district-wide choice to choice within zones ○ Preserve access to language pathways, K-8 schools, and special education programs for every child ● Streamline tiebreakers for TK & K and limit the number of requests that receive a tiebreaker ○ Sibling, Equity, and PreK ● Apply “diversity categories” to disrupt segregation ○ Intended long term impact: every elementary school falls within a 15% range of the District’s average for FRPM, and focal students are enrolled in schools with similar poverty rates as non-focal students Choice within Zones Diversity Categories: Every School Resembles its Zone My Home Zone Zone My K-8 Zone School B School A School C School D School A My Language Zone School F - K-8 School E - Language Pathway Orange Circles Purple Stripes Blue Triangles Zone Average 33% 33% 33% School A 33% 33% 33% My Special Education Zone School G - Special Day Class School H - Special Day Class How Policy Recommendation Was Developed Data (demographics, choice, capacities, etc.) Community Input Feedback from the Board of Education Research and Case Studies Simulations of Policy Outcomes Ad Hoc Committee on Student Assignment How well options achieve the Board’s policy goals of diversity, predictability, and proximity? ● Committee Norton, Committee Chair ● Board President Sanchez ● Commissioner Cook Policy Process for Policy Simulations Findings from Simulations ● Research partnership with Stanford University ○ ○ Current policy Neighbor -hood schools Choice within zones Proposed policy Proximity x Y Y Y Irene Lo, Assistant Professor, Management, Sciences and Engineering Itai Ashlagi, Associate Professor, Management, Sciences and Engineering ● Simulated and evaluated thousands of zones ● Optimized to balance students with school capacities, and socio-economic and ethnic diversity before and after choice Predictability x Y Y Y Diversity x x x Y ● Compared different zone shapes and sizes Improvements in diversity: ● Measured predictability, proximity, and diversity of assignments ● Simulations of zones with diversity categories showed significant improvements in socioeconomic diversity and moderate improvements in racial/ethnic diversity Important Tradeoffs ● Smaller zones are less socioeconomically diverse due to residential segregation ● Non-contiguous zones best disrupt existing residential patterns of socioeconomic disparity ● Large zones have most diverse student populations, but choice can lead to resegregation within zone ● Zones with diversity categories can significantly improve diversity, but result in slight decreases in proximity What Feedback Have we Already Heard from the Community? Feedback From Spring 2019 Community Workshops 10 Read our full community engagement report online at www.sfusd.edu/studentassignment Above all, families want to send their children to high quality schools and expressed that student assignment would not be as important if all schools were considered high quality Many African American and Latinx families were distrustful of the motivations for redesigning student assignment Families raised serious concerns that a neighborhood-based system would harm those with the least resources Families recognize that school choice can be inequitable and can harm schools that are perceived as being less desirable At the same time, families want to be able to choose a school that works for them All else equal, most families would prefer to send their children to school close to home However, most families would not want to send their child to a neighborhood school unless they viewed it as a high quality school 17 Questions SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 18 Appendix SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Policy Development Timeline 2020-21 School Year Aug Sep Oct Nov 2021-22 SY Dec Spring Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall 2022-23 SY 2023-24 SY Winter Spring Summer Fall Develop ● Aug 31 - pm, Ad Hoc ● Sep 11 - pm, Speaker Series - History Decide ● Sep 14 - pm, Ad Hoc ● Sep 17 - pm, Speaker Series - Integration ● Sep 21 - pm, Speaker Series, Choice ● Sep 29 - pm, Ad Hoc ● Oct 14 - pm, Ad Hoc Recommendation ● 10/20/20 First Reading Implement* ● Community Engagement ● 12/1/202 pm Committee of the Whole ● 12/8/20 Second Reading and Action ● ● ● ● ● Boundaries & feeders Transportation routes Programmatic changes Enrollment infrastructure Marketing & communication Enroll Launch enrollment * Might require more time depending on the scale of change Start of School Stanford Research Team ○ ○ Itai Ashlagi, Associate Professor of Management Science and Engineering Irene Lo, Assistant Professor of Management Science and Engineering 20 ● Adonis Pugh, Undergraduate student in Chemistry ● Faidra Monachou, PhD student in Management Science and Engineering ● Juliette Love, Masters student in Computer Science ● Background/expertise in matching markets & algorithm design Kaleigh Mentzer, PhD student in Computational and Mathematical Engineering ● Lulabell Ruiz-Seitz, Undergraduate student in Mathematics ● Max Allman, PhD student in Management Science and Engineering Suggested Reading and Podcasts 21 ● Web page: www.sfusd.edu/studentassignment ○ Community Engagement Report ● Class Action: Desegregation and Diversity in San Francisco Schools, by Rand Quinn (UPenn) ● Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works, by Rucker Johnson (UC Berkeley) ● The Color of Law : A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein ● How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X Kendi ● Nice White Parents, New York Times Podcast Supporting Materials 22 Policy Development Materials ● Resolution 189-25A1: Developing a Community Based Student Assignment System for SFUSD (Approved 12/11/2018) ● Ad Hoc Committee on Student Assignment ● www.sfusd.edu/studentassignment ● Community Engagement Report ● Speaker Series ● Blog ● Analysis of Current State of Portfolio of Elementary Schools ● First Reading 10/20/2020 Current Student Assignment Policy ● ● ● ● ● Video Board Policy Enrollment Guide School Finder Steps to Apply for 2020-21 23 Quality Schools What We’ve Heard From the Community (2007-2018) ● 24 Summary of Findings and Recommendations from Stakeholder Engagement to Inform SFUSD Student Assignment Policy [2019] ● Feedback on Resolution 189-25A1: Developing a Community Based Student Assignment System for SFUSD ○ Joint Considerations from SFUSD’s District Advisory Bodies [2019] ○ Community Advisory Committee for Special Education [2019] ● AAPAC Reflections on SFUSD’s Student Assignment Policy [2017] ● Report of Findings from Community Forums about Proposed K-8 Pathways and Building Quality Middle Schools [2011] ● PAC Feb 2010 Report: Recommendations for Changing the Student Assignment System ● Findings & Recommendations from Community Conversations about Changing the Student Assignment System [2009] ● Student Enrollment, Recruitment and Retention: Community Conversations about San Francisco Public Schools [2007] Big Picture: Student Assignment Policy in Context 25 ● ● School quality is the paramount concern, and student assignment does not create high quality schools Providing equitable access to quality schools is not the same as ensuring that each and every elementary school is high quality Quality teaching and learning Programs & Services e.g After School Structures e.g Size, Start Times Student Assignment policy Transportation Vision 2025 Resources Family & Community Partners Human Capital Facilities Capital Plan Marketing & Outreach Quality Schools 26 SFUSD’s Core Belief ● Quality schools offer engaging and challenging programs, caring and committed staff, strong and visible leaders, and instruction differentiated to meet each child’s needs Student Assignment and Quality Schools ● Student assignment does not create high quality schools; it can help create equitable access to quality schools ● Creating equitable access to quality schools is not the same as ensuring that each and every one of our schools is high quality ● We believe creating a measure to rank quality within the context of student assignment might be harmful to schools [10/21/2019 Ad Hoc Committee on Student Assignment] Theory of Action for Student Assignment If… (implementation of change idea) then (immediate impact) so that… If the Student Assignment System: ● Creates assignment zones that are socioeconomically, racially/ethnically, linguistically, and academically diverse; and ● Limits the number of schools included in each zone and reduces the distance students must travel to attend any school in their zone; and ● Ensures every zone has sufficient capacity to accommodate all residents; and SFUSD will achieve these outcomes in the short term: ● Student assignment will provide students with equitable access to the range of options in the District; and ● Student assignment will help create more diverse enrollment and will help increase enrollment in currently under-enrolled schools; and ● Elementary schools will have the opportunity to facilitate positive interaction across difference and provide equitable access to resources and opportunities that exist within the school; and ● All students will have certainty that they can be enrolled in a school in their zone; and ● All students will have the opportunity to live within a reasonable geographic distance to school And therefore the long term impact will be that: ● Each and every elementary school is socioeconomically representative of the District Specifically, every elementary school falls within a 15% range of the District's average for FRPM; and ● The District’s focal students are enrolled in elementary schools with similar poverty rates (as measured by FRPM) as non-focal students; and ● Integrated schools and classrooms will help narrow the opportunity and achievement gap in the District; and ● Each and every student will receive the quality instruction and equitable support required to thrive in the 21st century ● ● ● ● ● Is supported by transportation services designed to support zone assignments; and Gives all students access to the range of programs in the District; and Prioritizes students who reside in Federal public housing or historically underserved areas of San Francisco; and Assigns students so that every school mirrors the diversity of its zone; and Offers a simple process that makes it easy for families to apply and enroll (long term impact) 27 28 Definitions Definition of Diversity Diversity in SFUSD refers to the presence of the many identities, experiences, ways of making meaning and perspectives of students, families, community, and staff in our District These include differences in background, thought, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, religion, language, national origin, ability, and other socially constructed characteristics Diversity is greatest when a range of identities, experiences, ways of making meaning, and perspectives are present in a school, classroom, or workplace Definition of Integrated Schools An integrated school is diverse, facilitates positive interaction across difference, and provides equitable access to resources and opportunities that exist within the school 29 SFUSD’s Definition of Equity Every learner receives what they need to develop to their full potential SFUSD’s Definition of Working Towards Equity The work of eliminating oppression, ending biases, and ensuring equally high outcomes for all participants through the creation of multicultural, multilingual, multiethnic, gender equitable, multiracial, and inclusive practices and conditions; removing the predictability of success or failure that currently correlates with any social or cultural factor 30 SFUSD’s Definition of Anti-Racism Anti-racism is the active, conscious, and non-neutral process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies, practices, and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably The heart of an anti-racist system is personal, professional, and system-wide accountability - adapted from NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity SFUSD’s Definition of Race Equity Culture 31 A Race Equity Culture is one that is focused on proactive counteraction of race inequities inside and outside of an organization Building a Race Equity Culture is the foundational work when organizations seek to advance race equity; it creates the conditions that help us to adopt anti-racist mindsets and actions as individuals, and to center race equity in our life and in our work A Race Equity Culture is the antithesis of dominant culture, which promotes assimilation over integration and dismisses opportunities to create a more inclusive, equitable environment The work of creating a Race Equity Culture requires an adaptive and transformational approach that impacts behaviors and mindsets as well as practices, programs, and processes Equity in the Center https://www.equityinthecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Awake-to-Woke-to-Work-Glossary-of-Terms-.pdf ... year using race in student assignment 2002 - Diversity Index Lottery 2010 - Current Student Assignment System 2018 - Board Reso 189-25A1: Developing a Community Based Student Assignment System... 189-25A1: Developing a Community Based Student Assignment System for SFUSD (Approved 12/11/2018) ● Ad Hoc Committee on Student Assignment ● www.sfusd.edu/studentassignment ● Community Engagement Report... rank quality within the context of student assignment might be harmful to schools [10/21/2019 Ad Hoc Committee on Student Assignment] Theory of Action for Student Assignment If… (implementation