The following article was written by Gabriela Mafi, Garden Grove USD Superintendent; Juli Coleman, CORE Districts, Chief of Improvement; and Stephanie Heflin, Garden Grove USD Assistant Superintendent.
“The Garden Grove Way” is a catch-phrase that perfectly captures why California’s 16th largest school district, situated in the heart of Orange County, continues to be extraordinary. The district is a leader in college and career readiness, with a greater number of students prepared for postsecondary success than other districts in the state or county. The key, educators in Garden Grove say, is treating all students as if they are our own children and providing them all the academic and personal skills needed for lifelong success.
In Garden Grove, 85 percent of high school freshmen now can name an adult they can go to for support in school. This year, more students than ever will complete their freshmen year on-track for success after high school. There also will be fewer Ds and Fs on freshmen transcripts and higher freshmen GPAs across all of our high schools.
Garden Grove students and educators are producing these results after several years of hard work as part of the CORE Districts’ multi-district improvement network. All seven of Garden Grove’s comprehensive high schools collaborate regularly with educators from more than 30 other California high schools on improvement efforts aimed to increase the rates of 9th graders on-track for postsecondary success.
Setting Out to Solve a Shared Problem
Garden Grove is one of California’s nine CORE Districts, a collaborative that formed in 2010 to establish a waiver from flawed school accountability laws. At the time and continuing today the districts were committed to cross-district improvement strategies in order to interrupt systemic inequities so that all students thrive. Garden Grove has led many innovative CORE initiatives, including efforts to improve social and emotional learning for students and using improvement science to raise student outcomes.
In 2019, when CORE was awarded a generous grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch a multi-district improvement network focused on 9th grade on-track, Garden Grove again stepped up as a leader. The network’s aim of improving the freshman experience is closely aligned with the district’s strategic direction.
At that time, CORE’s data showed that, across the network, less than half of the freshman class was on-track by the end of their 9th grade year. More concerning, more than 60 percent of African American students, and nearly as many Latinx students, were off track. In Garden Grove, an average of 37 percent of freshmen were off track district-wide, and the percentages of off track freshmen ranged from a high of 56 percent at Los Amigos High School to 22 percent at La Quinta High School.
Ninth grade on-track efforts may be upstream thinking in some districts, especially considering the proliferation of programs aiming to help juniors and seniors pass the finish line. For Garden Grove, though, leaders knew what the research said: Students who leave 9th grade on-track are highly likely to complete the rest of their school years and graduate college and career ready.
Measuring 9th Grade On-Track
To measure 9th grade on-track across all high schools, CORE created an on-track metric that incorporates students’ GPAs, attendance, and performance in A-G courses to predict students’ likelihood to graduate ready for postsecondary success. The on-track metric is based on a 100 point scale, with five on-track levels:
Highly vulnerable: 0-29 points: 1 in 2 chance of graduating; 1 in 20 chance of graduating A-G
Vulnerable: 30-49 points: 4 in 5 chance of graduating; 1 in 5 chance of graduating A-G
Post-secondary Potential: 50-69 points: Will almost certainly graduate high school; 3 in 5 chance of graduating A-G
Post-Secondary Promising: 70-79 points: Will almost certainly graduate high school; 9 in 10 chance of graduating A-G
Post-secondary Competitive: 80-100 points: Will almost certainly graduate high school and graduate meeting A-G; most strongly prepared for success in college
The product of course rigor and grade points earned in a subject emerges as the most significant determinant of a student’s likelihood of success. Notably, different subjects hold different weights, reflecting their varying impacts on a student’s overall academic progress.
In addition to the on-track measure, CORE also tracks the rate of Ds and Fs earned by students, students’ GPAs, and relationship strength that students have with staff members across all schools in the network. These results are provided to participating educators through an online dashboard, giving schools actionable, in-time data.
Collaborating Across the CORE Network
CORE’s 9th grade on-track improvement efforts are guided by a shared set of successful practices developed within the CORE districts, University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research, and other nationally recognized school systems. CORE identified five key drivers that research indicates are most impactful on 9th-grade success: adult teaming; 8th to 9th-grade transition; adult-student relationship; master scheduling, and equitable grading practices. Garden Grove’s high schools have made progress in all of these areas.
The 9th grade on-track network was not an “add on” program for Garden Grove — it became part of district practice and was transformative. Garden Grove supported site leaders in engaging teachers in the network and “driver” teams, so together they could work together to improve outcomes for students, building buy-in and teacher efficacy. Additionally, district leaders supported site leaders with more consistent and effective teacher collaboration structures. Site teams were also empowered to collaborate with one another regularly, either weekly or every other week.
Garden Grove’s administrative leaders modeled an all-in approach to improvement, prioritizing their participation in school site team meetings, reinforcing district-wide priorities, building understanding of school practices, and sharing the learnings across schools. District staff, including data coaches, supported teachers with identifying students who needed additional support and determining strategies to meet those student needs. The district also worked to prioritize teacher collaboration time to monitor, track, and evolve grading practices across the seven high schools.
Among the five drivers for improvement, Garden Grove realized the largest shifts in three areas: 8th to 9th grade transition, fostering strong student-adult relationships, and creating more equitable grading practices.
Supporting the 8th-9th Grade Transition
One successful initiative to support the 8th graders to transition to high school is Summer Bridge, a school summer enrichment program. Research shows that these programs are effective in improving 9th grade attendance and grades. In Garden Grove, the program sends the message to students, “You belong here, and we care about you.” The district’s goal is to build connections with students and encourage their participation even earlier. District leaders ask themselves, “How are we getting our eighth graders already connected in January before their freshmen year to their high school?” Students are encouraged to sign up for a club, a sport, or an activity that is going to take a piece of their time that is not only academics. In phone calls and other communication with 8th graders, educators emphasize connections to coaches and club advisers. School activities build school connectedness, which drives academic success.
Another initiative Garden Grove high schools implemented is dubbed “Starting Strong” and focuses on the first missed assignment response, 2×10 connections, and make-up days. CORE data shows that the first six week GPA is usually the highest of all the marking periods. Efforts by teachers during the first six weeks of school are helping students start the year with the highest GPA possible.
For example, when a student fails to submit a major assignment, the teacher provides a supportive response. Teachers provide these students with a new assignment copy and a note highlighting their belief in the student’s ability to complete it. This note also includes guidance on accessing resources for the task, teacher support availability, and a timeframe for penalty-free submission. The intention is to assure students that their academic progress is noticed and supported. The 2×10 method used at sites involves teachers spending two minutes per day for ten consecutive days talking to a student about non-academic topics, which is showing promise in strengthening student-teacher relationships. Lastly, teachers are providing make-up days within the first six weeks to help students catch up on any missing work, thus increasing GPA.
Taken together, these Tier 1 and Tier 2 initiatives provide comprehensive support for students during the often perilous transition between middle and high school.
Student Adult Relationships
In fall 2020, CORE launched the Developmental Relationship Survey to measure adult-student relationships at school sites. The survey is administered twice annually and it contains 20 questions across five elements from the SEARCH Developmental Relationship Framework, plus open-ended questions that allow educators to hear directly from students about their relationships. Results show that Garden Grove has stronger student-adult connections than any other high schools in the CORE network.
One of the most significant lessons learned from the survey is the importance of nurturing relationships between students and teachers. Teachers have consistently reported that these connections simplify various aspects of classroom management, including behavioral control and academic engagement. Moreover, the data from the question, “Do you have an adult that you can go to for help, support, or guidance?” provides actionable insights, pinpointing students who lack strong adult connections and might require additional relational support.
At Pacifica High School, for example, teachers hold one-on-one conferences with academically struggling students, leveraging established relationships to motivate and help students devise plans for improvement. As a result of these positive connections and a greater sense of school community, more than half of Pacifica 9th graders have improved their grades.
Equitable Grading Practices
Garden Grove leaders have been working to implement new secondary grading guidelines since 2010. These guidelines indicate that 10 percent or less of a student’s total course grade may come from homework, 40 percent or less may come from formative assessments (class work, notes/notebook, independent or group work, presentations or quizzes), and 60 percent or more may come from summative assessment (examples include projects, final essays, presentations, tests, and labs). Participation in the CORE network has helped the district improve conversations about equitable grading practices among teachers and administrators and empower data coaches across school sites.
CORE has helped Garden Grove establish data protocols. The work is guided by four beliefs that are established before any data is put before educators. First, data are not just numbers, they are stories too. Secondly, data act as the voice of the system, and every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. Thirdly, data are a place to start addressing social justice because it reveals things about our system, including highlighting the students our system is serving, and pinpointing the students our system is not serving. Lastly, data are for learning, not judgment. Then, protocols are put into place that support teachers to interrogate the data and learn from it. These beliefs and protocols have led to more equitable grading throughout high schools and contributed to higher student outcomes.
Results in Garden Grove Are Worth Celebrating
Participation in the CORE network has enabled Garden Grove to further the district’s vision, and kept the work closely aligned with the “Garden Grove Way.” On-track rates at Garden Grove’s comprehensive high schools have improved considerably. At Los Amigos and Pacifica High Schools, for example, educators have increased the on-track rate by more than 10 percent. In 2019-20, Los Amigos had an on-track rate of 44 percent while today the on-track rate is 62 percent. Pacifica had an on-track rate of 72 percent, today the on-track rate is 84 percent. Bolsa Grande, Garden Grove, La Quinta, Rancho Alamitos and Santiago High Schools all have improved the rates of 9th graders who are on-track to graduate.
This collective work also has led to improvements in GPAs, with a districtwide average GPA of 3.0 for freshmen currently. Conversely, there are fewer Ds and Fs in A-G classes. From 2020-21 to 2023-24, the D/F rate dropped from 24 percent to 13 percent. Most notably, the D/F rate continues to decrease for Latinx students, and since 2020, has decreased by 10 percent. Garden Grove 9th graders also report a greater sense of belonging at their schools compared to the start of this work. The percentage of Garden Grove USD freshmen who say that they have an adult they can go to for support, help or guidance has increased significantly.
In addition to improvements in student outcomes, the district has benefitted from more teacher collaboration, shared learning, data-driven decision-making, and the fostering of a community among educators that CORE helps facilitate. Garden Grove is unique in having a superintendent, district staff, school sites, and school board deeply committed to supporting innovation and minimizing bureaucratic obstacles. It has also been extremely helpful that the district knows when to say no, and that Garden Grove makes the effort to weave improvement team time into existing structures.
As partners in this improvement journey, we are learning how stable leadership and teams play pivotal roles. Consistent leadership has helped build collective knowledge, experience, and understanding of our improvement strategies and continuity in team members from one year to the next aids in ensuring that the progress and lessons learned are not lost but built upon.
Garden Grove remains deeply committed to supporting 9th grade on-track improvement efforts and continuing the work across high schools. In the meantime, as we celebrate the successes of 9th graders across the CORE network, we acknowledge wholeheartedly our responsibility to keep focusing on improvement so all our students are college and career ready.
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