Pasadena’s PI Status Lays Groundwork for Improvement

JOYCE LAM
Editor in Chief
Currently, one of our neighboring districts, Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD), has 11 schools listed as Program Improvement (PI). They include both elementary and secondary, with some ranging from first year PI schools to fifth year PI schools. Although some of the schools have been classified with this status, none of those schools have been taken over by California’s Department of Education.
“There are so many districts that have schools in [Program Improvement] and [so] many are in Year 5,” said Carla Boykin, Coordinator of Student Support Programs for PUSD. “The state [cannot] possibly take care of all of them and [decide what to do with each].”
Because the schools have not been taken over by the Department of Education, the staff, faculty and class sizes have not been affected. However, the employees of a PI school are nonetheless affected because they must restructure their teaching methods and put strategies into action in order to help students learn and understand the material. If a school remains a PI school for long enough, a restructuring plan can involve replacing the entire staff and faculty, including the principal.
“If we have to restructure, teaching becomes very robotic and the teaching style may not meet a student’s learning style or the teacher’s teaching style,” said AHS Principal Brad Walsh. “It’s no good for the student or the teacher.”
Although AHS has been classified as a PI school, there is still time to change things around. Being in our third year of PI, AHS has implemented changes to help students take the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) and California Standardized Tests (CST) seriously, as well as education in general.
As seen in the Daily Bulletin, the “Word of the Day” is now being emphasized in hopes of expanding the vocabulary of the student body. As simplistic as it is, one word each day can help students broaden their vocabulary, hopefully expanding their knowledge to understand what is being asked on standardized testing. This is one of many steps designed to help pull AHS out of its PI status.
“To me, it doesn’t matter what kind of school you go to and how bad it is,” said junior Nina Najera. “It is what you make out of your education. [If students] are willing to learn, then the school would have [higher] scores and [it will] give us more opportunities to learn with [a] variety of classes.”