State of Education

Kenn Young’s State of Education address yesterday was to cover all of Riverside County. The county of Riverside is the 4th largest educational agency in the State of California with 430,000+ students. 

Supt. Young covered several different topics – starting with the great things that are happening across the county with our students. Additionally, he explored four points including:

1. EVERY student in Riverside County needs to complete high school and graduate.  There are dire economic consequences to the student and the community when that does not happen.  New state data on graduation and completion rates will be released on April 9^th.

2. Technology is an important tool for us to integrate in the instructional process with our students across the county. He said that we need to see that technology as an “everyday essential.”  Supt. Young talked about online classes, blended, flipped, etc.  He gave a special “shout out” to the California Open Campus Initiative.

3. We need to have concern and focus BEYOND high school as that is essential to our economic well-being and development across the county.  As we look at this issue remediation of skills and utilization of the EAP as a predictor are important consider.

4. “Where do we need to improve?” The essence of this question leads to higher expectations for all of us and the academic performance of our students. He specified several areas that we should focus on as we raise expectations and performance.  Ultimately, there is evidence that students that are acquiring skills necessary to be “college/career ready” are those students that are performing at the ADVANCED level on the CST (not just the proficient level).  As such, we need to shift our expectations and metrics.

Last, but not least, he affirmed that, “I believe in Riverside County.”