Program Overview Marks End of School Year

The recent San Mateo-Foster City School Board meeting wasn't only dedicated to . The June 16 meeting was also the first one after the start of summer, meaning that several students got a chance to share their projects from the 2010-11 school year.

One project in particular reached great heights: Students from involved in the San Mateo Park Rocketry Program said they had managed to launch rockets as high as 17,000 feet during a field trip.

The students put together a presentation for the meeting, complete with posters and detailed descriptions of their launches, as a way to express their gratitude to the school board.

“We want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to have this experience,” said one young student.

But most of the programs discussed were more educator-based, and concerned with tackling such problems as English language proficiency.

According to the district, San Mateo-Foster City students are 73 percent Spanish speakers, 4 percent Mandarin, 3 percent Cantonese, 3 percent Japanese, 2 percent Arabic and 2 percent Hindi.

Given these numbers, it is a major district goal to keep students on track and passing the California English Language Development test. The district says 38 percent passed in 2010-11 district-wide -- up half a percentage point from the 2008-09 school year.

District officials pointed to several programs for keeping the scores up, including intersession programs, newcomer classes, summer school, Guided Language Acquisition and design training for all teachers.

A new program was discussed as well: The English Language Development and English Language Arts Intervention Pilot introduced "Read 180 Next Generation," a computer program which matches each student’s reading level in order to accelerate learning. 

The program, expected to begin in the fall of 2011, is designed for students between 4th and 8th grade. Because there is not enough funding in the budget to provide the program to all schools, only those with the greatest necessity will receive access.

Magnet Schools

Another program discussed at the meeting was the Magnet Schools Assistance Program. Some of the goals of this program are to decrease minority group isolation, as well as enhance student involvement and education by providing teacher training and training on technology to students and teachers.

As a result of the program's efforts, each school in the district increased by about 5 percent the number of students attaining "grade appropriate technology skills," according to a program representative.

Also, the Magnet Schools Assistance Program was able to introduce its Mandarin Pre-School this year, which representatives said started off with only six students and now has 59 enrolled.

“It is great to get a preview on programs such as the Magnet Schools. … I am very excited to work with this district,” said Cynthia Simms, San Mateo-Foster City’s incoming superintendent.