A Blueprint for Change- Southbay, Eureka, CA

The Challenge

South Bay Union School District serves approximately 500 elementary-age students in Eureka, California, at Pine Hill Elementary (k-3) and South Bay Elementary (4-6). Because approximately 70% of the students qualify for free/reduced lunch, South Bay schools are classified as school-wide Title I.

Superintendent Gary Storts has seen a lot in his many years in South Bay. He attended South Bay schools as a child, served as a classroom assistant at Pine Hill while attending college, and since has been a teacher, assistant principal, and principal. He has shared that before South Bay adopted the Success for All program in 2015/2016, they had been without an adopted reading program for more than a decade. Reading instructional practices were classroom created and without a consistent school or district approach. As a result, reading achievement had plateaued.

The Results

At the beginning of their first year, only about 40% of the students in the across the two schools were reading at or above grade level. By the end of 2015-16, approximately 80% of Kindergartners, 1st Graders & 2nd Graders had attained this goal. South Bay has set a district-wide goal of 66% at grade-level by the end of this year, and 80% by the end of 2017-2018. They feel confident that they can build of the successes of last year and hit this target.

Other great things are also happening as a result of implementing Success for All:

  • There is a marked increase in teacher collaboration.
  • Parents and students are reading together at home. (Read & Respond
    rates skyrocketed from below 50% to nearly 75% by the end of last
    school year.)
  • SFA provides the time of day with the most on-task student behavior.
  • At this point in the school year, attendance between the two school
    sites in 96.3% – the highest % in recent memory.
  • They have increased parent involvement and volunteers since
    adopting SFA.