Closing the Achievement Gap and Improving our Curriculum

By Matt Haney

SFUSD must offer a curriculum that prepares all of its students for their future. We need to ensure that we set high standards for all of our students while giving them the tools to succeed. Matt will work with SFUSD teachers to establish a high quality, modern, and engaging curriculum that gives all students a pathway to success.

As a Commissioner on the Board of Education, Matt will:

• Advocate for a creative, engaging, relevant, modern curriculum, including career Academy and Pathway programs, with a strong emphasis on project based learning, leadership, and the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century economy.

• Provide close monitoring and oversight of the District's new "A-G" graduation requirements, and ensure that we are investing in in-school, extended day and summer credit recovery opportunities for students to make up classes they have not passed.

• Invest in high quality academic support, tutoring, mentorship and intervention for students that are struggling.

• Expand the use of data analysis and prioritize the use of this data by district administration, principals and teachers.

• Fight to protect "seat time" for students critical to closing the achievement gap by standing against efforts to cancel summer school, shorten the school day, or shorten the school year.

• Maintain support for the Superintendent Zones, which have had great success in closing the racial achievement gap, and develop a comprehensive strategy to expand and extend the approaches in our Zone schools that have worked at helping ensure we are serving all of our students, especially our African-American, Latino and Pacific Islander students.

• Expand and streamline dual enrollment opportunities at CCSF, SFSU and other institutions for SFUSD students, and determine how these opportunities can assist with credit recovery needs.

• Fully implement our 9th grade "early warning" system, and provide effective intervention for students with one or two "risk factors" to ensure support for the students that most need it as early as possible.

• Support Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth's call for a Budget "Equity Report" which would present in clearer and more straightforward language exactly what cuts in funding that SFUSD is expecting, including which departments, programs and schools will be most impacted, and how it impacts our African-American, Latino and Pacific Islander students.