Author: Growing Inland Achievement

Photos of Diana Z Rodriguez and Michelle Decker

For Immediate Release

INLAND EMPIRE, CA – September 16, 2021 – Growing Inland Achievement (GIA), during its Toward a Shared Vision regional convening, announced the addition of two Governing Board Members: Diana Z Rodriguez, Chancellor of San Bernardino Community College District, and Michelle Decker, President and CEO of Inland Empire Community Foundation. They will join a Governing Board of nine other regional leaders who provide strategic direction and guidance on achieving GIA’s mission of creating educational and economic equity by researching issues and opportunities, resourcing innovations and solutions, and connecting diverse stakeholders to transform the Inland Empire through education.

“We are extremely grateful to welcome Diana and Michelle to the GIA Board of Directors,” said Dr. Carlos Ayala, President and CEO at GIA. “They each provide our board with a unique background and perspective and we look forward to benefiting from their expertise and guidance.”

Diana Z. Rodriguez is the 16th chancellor of the San Bernardino Community College District — a system that serves 20,000 students through Crafton Hills College, San Bernardino Valley College, a workforce training facility, and KVCR public radio and television station. As the chief executive officer, Chancellor Rodriguez leads the district’s educational enterprise that generates economic growth for the Inland Empire by adding more than $621 million annually to the regional economy. She is the only Latina chancellor of a community college district in Southern California upon assuming office in August 2021. 

In collaboration with the SBCCD Board of Trustees, Chancellor Rodriguez has laid out four goals: 

• Promoting student academic and career success. 
• Nurturing a learning and working environment based on diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism. 
• Elevating the community college district’s engagement in the region. 
• Ensuring the district’s financial health. 

Like many SBCCD students, Chancellor Rodriguez is the first in her family to achieve a college education. She is a proud graduate of Palo Verde College and a transfer student to California State University, San Bernardino, where she earned a bachelor’s in marketing, a master’s degree in business administration, and another master’s degree in education. She is a doctoral candidate in Higher Educational Leadership at Northcentral University.    

Chancellor Rodriguez previously served as president of San Bernardino Valley College from July 2016 through July 2021. During her tenure, SBVC faculty and staff spearheaded educational strategies to earn the campus the highest level of accreditation — among the best in California. 

Chancellor Rodriguez has a long and distinguished career of more than 30 years working in higher education as a faculty member and an administrator, advocating for student success and a strong connection to the community. Before leading San Bernardino Valley College, she served as Vice President of Student Services and Interim Vice President of Academic Services at Las Positas College in the Bay Area of California and Vice President of Student Services at Palo Verde College in Blythe. 

Her accomplishments have drawn several awards, including the 2018 Woman of the Year Award for the 47th Assembly District of California. 

Michelle Decker is the President and CEO of the Inland Empire Community Foundation serving San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. She held leadership positions in community-based nonprofits for over 27 years, with a focus on community economic development, community development, and sustainability. She has also specialized in building or re-building nonprofit organizations at the local level in both urban and rural communities. All of these efforts have meant developing deep experience in partnerships and collaborations – with other nonprofits, local, state, and federal governments, and private businesses.  

Prior to joining the Foundation, Michelle was the CEO of Rural Action, a membership-based community development corporation in Appalachian, Ohio, working to build a more just economy through leadership development, social enterprises, and environmental restoration.  She initiated multiple social enterprises including a produce auction serving regional farmers, a Zero Waste Event Production business, and a water quality initiative with multiple higher education and natural resource partners. Michelle expanded Rural Action’s national service program from 6 to 40 members. She partnered with the USFS for 10 years to undertake watershed restoration, native plant restoration, and environmental education. She collaborated with the USDA on food systems and local agricultural efforts, and with the Appalachian Regional Commission and Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, now part of LOCUS and Virginia Community Capital, to bring greater entrepreneurship potential and small businesses to towns in southeast Ohio.  

Before working in Appalachian Ohio, Michelle ran Southeast Community Development Corporation in Baltimore City and helped re-build the state’s community development trade association called the Asset Building Community Development Network. She worked at the Faith Fund, a faith-based CDFI, and was the first program officer for Community Economic Development at the Maryland Center for Community Development.  

Today her work is focused on expanding the power of philanthropy across the Inland Empire’s 27,000 square miles and extremely diverse geographies and populations. IECF was California’s ACBO for Region 7 during the 2020 Census, recently hired a Director of Policy and Governmental Affairs, and is establishing the backbone function for the Inland Economic Growth and Opportunity strategy. Michelle lives with her husband Zach, also a community development professional, and their two children in Riverside. 

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The following article is a special feature on 2018-2019 California Math Achievement written by guest blogger, Marcelino Pena.

  There is a great divide among California public students’ math achievement during the 2018-2019 pre-pandemic year that can literally be seen by a simple scatter plot where the Y-axis has the percent of All Students Achieving Grade Level Math Standard and the X-axis having the percent of All Students classified as Socioeconomically Disadvantaged (either the student was a migrant, foster, homeless at any time during the academic year, or they were eligible for Free or Reduced-Priced Meal (FRPM) Program (also known as the National School Lunch Program) or had direct certification for FRPM at any time during the academic year at the testing school, or the parent education level is marked as “both parents did not receive a high school diploma” at the time of testing).  

But digging deeper into the publicly available datasets of the California Department of Education for 2018-2019 we find more intricate details of success and a fostering of systemic solutions that ultimately will enable the Golden State to not just meet the current devastating challenges of student economics but confront the ongoing setbacks caused by the world-wide Covid-19 pandemic.   

California Department Education surveyed Local Education Agencies (School Districts) to self-assess through either their own narrative summary or using a “Self-Reflection Tool” which asks each agency to scale their level of providing professional and aligned common core standards using the following scale: 

1= Exploration and Research Phase 

2= Beginning Development 

3= Initial Implementation 

4= Full Implementation 

5= Full Implementation and Sustainability 

Using the above school district level of implementation and the “California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Smarter Balanced Assessments” which provides all the different student demographic math achievement levels per school we can begin to see the relationship between Common Core mathematics and overall student math achievement. 

Student math achievement was shown statistically to improve significantly as the unit of implementation level increased for three major demographic controls of Parent Education, Socio-Economic, and Socio-Economic interacting with Race and most math achievements were found in Districts and Schools site commitment to level 5 implementation.   

Using the Tableau dashboard available at the end you will be able to select the grades and demographics enabling yourself to see the different math achievement results based on the available dataset of 2018-2019.   

Below is a sample for the Parent Education and 3rd graders across the state where the level of implementation (1 to 5) is the x-axis while the student Math Content Grade Level is the y-axis (note the grey are the expected grade level ranges for 3rd graders). 

Similarly, below is a sample of SES demographics but with all Grades shown.  Again, as before the Vertical Axis is the Math Content Grade Level Score and the horizontal axis is the aggregate average of all the 5 categories of Common Core Math and Teacher Professional Development, this time the grades are shown as colors from 3rd grade to 11th grade. 

Lastly, this is an example of the interaction of Low SES and Race who I have shown in the beginning to be the majority of California and therefore, the key students of our study.  These are the students that California must focus its attention on, and we can again see a strong trend in the right direction as the level of implementation increases for each group of students.  Here we want the percentage volumes to go from Not Met to Met and Above so this model must be replicated every year to determine how the percentages have changed from Not Met to Met and Above. 

Socio-Economic Status (SES) and Common Core Mathematics show how SES exacerbates foundational mathematical acquisition, Schmidt 2021 “The Role of Opportunity to Learn in Ethnic Inequality in Mathematics.”, and the overall framework of Common Core Mathematics can be described as the five interwoven strands of Conceptual Understanding (math concepts), Procedural Fluency (math applications), Strategic Competence(use math appropriately), Adapting Reasoning(create mathematically), and Productive Disposition(value math as an essential tool), Kilpatrick et al., 2001 “Adding It Up, Helping Children Learn Mathematics”.  Thus, Common Core Mathematics pulls together the hallmark concepts of “Coherence” and “Opportunity to Learn” that empower every student regardless of SES the keys to the infinite doors they will encounter in their futures. 

Finally combining professional teacher development with common core mathematics is like putting Alteryx and Tableau together or peanut butter and jelly namely having the best of both worlds that is the science and art.  In Darling-Hammond 2020 “Implications for the educational practice of the science of learning and development” science of learning and development (SOLD) we find the following key importance: 

“…children have individual needs and trajectories that require differentiated instruction and supports to enable optimal growth in competence, confidence, and motivation. 

From an ecological systems framework, the school serves as an immediate context shaping children’s learning and development through instruction, relationships with teachers and peers, and the school culture.” 

What we find ultimately is that critical independent thinking is fostered in communal environments of support that allowed students to be challenged to answer their own questions.  Or as the late great scholar Robert Moses stated in his 2002 “Radical Equations, Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project”: 

“Teachers, of course, are another part of this equation.  It should be clear by now that underlying our curriculum and pedagogy is the expectation that teachers will make fundamental changes in the way they teach.  They cannot simply be lecturers attempting to pour knowledge into their heads of students who sit passively like inanimate vessels.” 

The research document below provides all the details on California math achievement for 2018-2019 and hope to receive many questions from all California stakeholders, including students and parents.

Media inquiries and questions should be directed to Marcelino Peña, Organization Optimization Engineer / Tableau Developer / Math Educator, mp.marcelinopena@gmail.com. For more information visit www.mathpowerimagination.com.

Inland Empire regional leaders and practitioners urge Inland Empire high schools to achieve 90% FAFSA completion by 2026.

According to the California Student Aid Commission’s Race to Submit dashboard, just 49% of Inland Empire students (San Bernardino & Riverside Counties combined) in the class of 2021 have completed the FAFSA as of early August. Determined to make change for our students, GIA’s Financial Affordability Action Network Team (ANT) proposed an ambitious achievement goal for the region – 90% FAFSA completion by all high school seniors by 2026. This means the region must reach a minimum of 5,000 additional students every year. GIA’s Board of Directors including both Riverside County and San Bernardino County Superintendents endorsed this bold objective in a Regional Call to Action.

“By providing students and families support with completing and submitting a FAFSA, the chances of college enrollment increase significantly. Many of our 56 districts across Riverside and San Bernardino Counties are already making great strides to increase their numbers; some have surpassed 90%. Yet, we still have work to do to achieve 90% completion region-wide, and it will take the entire Inland Empire educational network coming together to get there.”

Additional information and resources to support schools in achieving the FAFSA completion goal can be found at https://gia.echofactory.dev/fafsa-completion/. Learn more about the work of Growing Inland Achievement at https://gia.echofactory.dev.

GIA is a regional collective impact organization aimed at increasing postsecondary credential attainment, adding more qualified people to the workforce, and contributing to a thriving economy. GIA brings together leaders across K-20 education, civic, and business sectors to work together through a networked approach to achieve educational and economic success. Several grants have helped GIA carry out their work, including a Governors Innovation Award, College Futures Foundation, James Irvine Foundation funding, and a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Learn more at https://gia.echofactory.dev.