Strategies: Paradise Unified School District (Organizational and Instructional Strategies)
Academic interventions within PUSD have continued to evolve over the years. A variety of specific research-based interventions targeting reading, math and writing across a continuum of grade levels are available. Interventions and learning strategies are reviewed at district-wide academic support team meetings to facilitate the implementation of effective interventions at each school site. The goal of academic interventions is to provide a “double dose” of instruction in addition to core curriculum classroom instruction. Academic interventions are offered through a variety of means at different school sites. Instruction takes place in learning labs, small groups within the classroom or lab, and push-in classroom support with targeted students. These interventions often take place at grade level intervention times, insuring no child misses core classroom instruction, and allowing regular education teachers to lead interventions. Through grade-level collaboration meetings, students are flexibly shifted among interventions that address current student need. PUSD has eliminated an institutionalized “low group” by flexibly moving students to appropriate supplemental instruction in response to assessment data.
District, in conjunction with the County Office of Education, has provided each school site with professional development in school-wide discipline practices. District is currently a Building Effective Schools Together District, housing 8-leadership teams that support District-wide Behavioral Expectations: Be Safe, Be Responsible & Be Respectful. District has provided staff and parent seminars in, Love and Logic and the Virtues Project to create positive school and home environments that support students. Individual Behavior Support Plans are created for students experiencing severe behavior problems. Site-based counselors are at elementary sites providing mental health services to students and families. Paradise Unified School District was awarded in 2007 the SHINE (Safe and Healthy in Northern) California Project in collaboration with a community-wide partnership, promoting healthy childhood development and preventing violence and alcohol and other drug abuse.
Last updated: 06/09/2010