2010 - Blue Ribbon Schools Program
Type of School: (Check all that apply) / [X]Charter / []Title I / []Magnet / []Choice
Name of Principal: Mr. Scott Barton
Official School Name: The Preuss School UCSD
School Mailing Address:
9500 Gilman Drive
MC 0536
La Jolla, CA 92093-0536
County: San Diego State School Code Number*: 36-68338-3731189
Telephone: (858) 658-7404 Fax: (858) 658-0988
Web site/URL: preuss.ucsd.eduE-mail:
I have reviewed the information in this application, including the eligibility requirements on page 2 (Part I - Eligibility Certification), and certify that to the best of my knowledge all information is accurate.
Date
(Principal‘s Signature)
Name of Superintendent*: Mr. N/A N/A
District Name: N/A Tel: (000) 000-0000
I have reviewed the information in this application, including the eligibility requirements on page 2 (Part I - Eligibility Certification), and certify that to the best of my knowledge it is accurate.
Date
(Superintendent‘s Signature)
Name of School Board President/Chairperson: Dr. Sandra Daley
I have reviewed the information in this application, including the eligibility requirements on page 2 (Part I - Eligibility Certification), and certify that to the best of my knowledge it is accurate.
Date
(School Board President‘s/Chairperson‘s Signature)
*Private Schools: If the information requested is not applicable, write N/A in the space.
The original signed cover sheet only should be converted to a PDF file and emailed to Aba Kumi, Blue Ribbon Schools Project Manager () or mailed by expedited mail or a courier mail service (such as Express Mail, FedEx or UPS) to Aba Kumi, Director, Blue Ribbon Schools Program, Office of Communications and Outreach, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Ave., SW, Room 5E103, Washington, DC 20202-8173
The signatures on the first page of this application certify that each of the statements below concerning the school‘s eligibility and compliance with U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) requirements is true and correct.
1. The school has some configuration that includes one or more of grades K-12. (Schools on the same campus with one principal, even K-12 schools, must apply as an entire school.)
2. The school has made adequate yearly progress each year for the past two years and has not been identified by the state as “persistently dangerous” within the last two years.
3. To meet final eligibility, the school must meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirement in the 2009-2010 school year. AYP must be certified by the state and all appeals resolved at least two weeks before the awards ceremony for the school to receive the award.
4. If the school includes grades 7 or higher, the school must have foreign language as a part of its curriculum and a significant number of students in grades 7 and higher must take the course.
5. The school has been in existence for five full years, that is, from at least September 2004.
6. The nominated school has not received the Blue Ribbon Schools award in the past five years, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 or 2009.
7. The nominated school or district is not refusing OCR access to information necessary to investigate a civil rights complaint or to conduct a district-wide compliance review.
8. OCR has not issued a violation letter of findings to the school district concluding that the nominated school or the district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes. A violation letter of findings will not be considered outstanding if OCR has accepted a corrective action plan from the district to remedy the violation.
9. The U.S. Department of Justice does not have a pending suit alleging that the nominated school or the school district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes or the Constitution‘s equal protection clause.
10. There are no findings of violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in a U.S. Department of Education monitoring report that apply to the school or school district in question; or if there are such findings, the state or district has corrected, or agreed to correct, the findings.
PART II - DEMOGRAPHIC DATAAll data are the most recent year available.
DISTRICT (Questions 1-2 not applicable to private schools)
1. Number of schools in the district: (per district designation) / 0 / Elementary schools (includes K-8)0 / Middle/Junior high schools
1 / High schools
K-12 schools
1 / TOTAL
2. District Per Pupil Expenditure: 9150
SCHOOL (To be completed by all schools)
3. Category that best describes the area where the school is located:
[ X ] Urban or large central city
[ ] Suburban school with characteristics typical of an urban area
[ ] Suburban
[ ] Small city or town in a rural area
[ ] Rural
4. 3 Number of years the principal has been in her/his position at this school.
5. Number of students as of October 1 enrolled at each grade level or its equivalent in applying school only:
Grade / # of Males / # of Females / Grade Total / Grade / # of Males / # of Females / Grade TotalPreK / 0 / 6 / 90 / 84 / 174
K / 0 / 7 / 53 / 62 / 115
1 / 0 / 8 / 61 / 54 / 115
2 / 0 / 9 / 51 / 61 / 112
3 / 0 / 10 / 45 / 57 / 102
4 / 0 / 11 / 43 / 58 / 101
5 / 0 / 12 / 47 / 53 / 100
TOTAL STUDENTS IN THE APPLYING SCHOOL / 819
6. Racial/ethnic composition of the school: / % American Indian or Alaska Native
20 / % Asian
12 / % Black or African American
64 / % Hispanic or Latino
% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
4 / % White
% Two or more races
100 / % Total
Only the seven standard categories should be used in reporting the racial/ethnic composition of your school. The final Guidance on Maintaining, Collecting, and Reporting Racial and Ethnic data to the U.S. Department of Education published in the October 19, 2007 Federal Register provides definitions for each of the seven categories.
7. Student turnover, or mobility rate, during the past year: 0%
This rate is calculated using the grid below. The answer to (6) is the mobility rate.
(1) / Number of students who transferred to the school after October 1 until theend of the year. / 3
(2) / Number of students who transferred from the school after October 1 until the end of the year. / 2
(3) / Total of all transferred students [sum of rows (1) and (2)]. / 5
(4) / Total number of students in the school as of October 1. / 819
(5) / Total transferred students in row (3)
divided by total students in row (4). / 0.006
(6) / Amount in row (5) multiplied by 100. / 0.611
8. Limited English proficient students in the school: 5%
Total number limited English proficient 44
Number of languages represented: 3
Specify languages:
Spanish, Farsi, Vietnamese
9. Students eligible for free/reduced-priced meals: 100%
Total number students who qualify: 819
If this method does not produce an accurate estimate of the percentage of students from low-income families, or the school does not participate in the free and reduced-price school meals program, specify a more accurate estimate, tell why the school chose it, and explain how it arrived at this estimate.
10. Students receiving special education services: 1%
Total Number of Students Served: 10
Indicate below the number of students with disabilities according to conditions designated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Do not add additional categories.
1 / Autism / 0 / Orthopedic Impairment0 / Deafness / 0 / Other Health Impaired
0 / Deaf-Blindness / 4 / Specific Learning Disability
0 / Emotional Disturbance / 1 / Speech or Language Impairment
1 / Hearing Impairment / 0 / Traumatic Brain Injury
0 / Mental Retardation / 3 / Visual Impairment Including Blindness
0 / Multiple Disabilities / 0 / Developmentally Delayed
11. Indicate number of full-time and part-time staff members in each of the categories below:
Number of StaffFull-Time / Part-Time
Administrator(s) / 2 / 0
Classroom teachers / 35 / 9
Special resource teachers/specialists / 0 / 1
Paraprofessionals / 0 / 1
Support staff / 20 / 1
Total number / 57 / 12
12. Average school student-classroom teacher ratio, that is, the number of students in the school divided by the Full Time Equivalent of classroom teachers, e.g., 22:1 21 :1
13. Show the attendance patterns of teachers and students as a percentage. Only middle and high schools need to supply dropout rates. Briefly explain in the Notes section any attendance rates under 95%, teacher turnover rates over 12%, or student dropout rates over 5%.
2008-2009 / 2007-2008 / 2006-2007 / 2005-2006 / 2004-2005Daily student attendance / 97% / 97% / 97% / 98% / 96%
Daily teacher attendance / 97% / 97% / 97% / 98% / 97%
Teacher turnover rate / 11% / 12% / 11% / 11% / 11%
Student dropout rate / 0% / 1% / 0% / 0% / 0%
Please provide all explanations below.
Teacher Turnover Rate
Our teacher turnover rate is high because Student Teacher Interns are counted in this rate. We employ Student Teacher Interns as part of our relationship with the Educational Studies Program at UC San Diego. These teachers teach at The Preuss School for one year and then leave to seek employment outside of our school. We count these teachers in our turnover rate.
14. For schools ending in grade 12 (high schools).
Show what the students who graduated in Spring 2009 are doing as of the Fall 2009.
Graduating class size / 96Enrolled in a 4-year college or university / 85 / %
Enrolled in a community college / 11 / %
Enrolled in vocational training / 0 / %
Found employment / 0 / %
Military service / 1 / %
Other (travel, staying home, etc.) / 0 / %
Unknown / 2 / %
Total / 100 / %
PART III - SUMMARY
College me cadena eu! --Tygrynia
Yo voy a ir ala Universidad! --Spanish
Tôi sá»… Ä‘i há»™c ai há»™c o! -- Vietnamese
College mehedachinen!--Amharic
No matter what the home language, students of The Preuss School UCSD, grades 6-12, exclaim with pride and determination, “I am going to college!”This beliefhas become reality since 2004 when the first Preuss graduating class were admitted to the University of California, Harvard, MIT, and other prestigious universities.The Preuss School hasa tradition of more than 90% of our students being accepted intofour-year colleges and more than 85% of our graduates enroll in a four-year college or university.
Mission
The Preuss School UCSD is an independent charter school, and we are our own Local Education Agency (LEA). We are authorized by San Diego Unified School District and governed by The University of California.Our expenditure per pupil is more than most public schools in California because we have a longer school year (198 days as compared to 180 days for most schools) and we provide bus transportation for 95% of our students. Both of these costs increase our per pupil expenditures to the level indicated earlier in this report.
The mission of The Preuss School, located on the UCSD campus, is to ensure that our students who are from low income families and who are traditionally under-represented in most colleges, will be admitted to a university as the first generation in their families to attend college.To achieve this, we apply research-based best practices to provide an intensive college-preparatory curriculum.Chartered as a model to foster excellence,The Preuss School also is committed to its mission to contribute to the educational community’s knowledge of how best to close the achievement gap among disadvantaged students.
The story of Preuss begins as soon as our new sixth graders scamper off the buses and into classes that offer a rigorous curriculum taught by teachers who provide strong academic and personal student support. Additionally, students are supported by the expertise of community stakeholders, including UCSD student tutors in classrooms, active or retired professionals who are mentors, community business leaders, or UC professors. And always, our parents provide a rich foundation of support to their children and to everyone at Preuss involved in their children’s education: administrators, counselors, teachers, and support staff.
Traditions and Milestones
The foundation to the success of Preuss is our climate of high expectations and a strong academic culture.We have worked to fortify this by:
· Emphasizing student understanding and literacy through both a traditional liberal arts curriculum and sequenced science and math curricula for every student;
· Providingpersonalized instruction, including offering an Advisory course so students remain with the same teacher all seven years, 6th – 12th grades;
· Focusing on teaching and learning by employing research-based and classroom-proven teaching strategies;
· Using analysis of student work and refining teaching practices through weekly staff development and team meetings by department or by grade-level;
· Sharing university resources to enhance teaching and learning, such as allowing students access to the university library resources and science labs; and
· Exhibiting student work in exhibitions and competitions: FIRST Robotics, Science Fair, Senior and Spring Showcases, literary and fine arts competitions
In 2005 Preuss was fully accredited through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). In 2006 Preuss was honored as a California Distinguished School Preuss has been recognized for its excellence in numerous other awards, including being among the top ten schools (Newsweek 2007-2009) and for being the top charter school in California in achievement.