Success Story:
Elk Grove Unified School District

Click here to see Elk Grove Unified's TQI data

District profile

Located in southern Sacramento County, Elk Grove Unified School District is the 12th largest school district in California and one of the fastest growing districts in the country.  Student enrollment is currently about 52,500, but this number is expected to reach 80,000 by 2010. 

36% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.  20% of the students are classified as English Language Learners and over 80 languages are spoken.

Only .7% of the teachers in Elk Grove Unified are working without credentials.  This is well below the state average of 12% for non-credentialed teachers and Sacramento County's average of 7%. 

Approximately 12% of the teachers in Elk Grove Unified are beginning teachers (i.e., in their first or second year) which is virtually the same percentage for California.

The average TQI rating for all schools in Elk Grove Unified is 8.9 and the distribution of qualified teachers throughout all of its schools is VERY EVEN.

A brief interview with Dave Gordon, Superintendent of Elk Grove Unified School District
Conducted by Ken Futernick, September 18, 2002.

KF: Your district has managed to dramatically reduce its reliance on underqualified teachers.  How challenging has this been?

DG: Not very.  Elk Grove is an attractive place to work because we offer good salaries and benefits.  We have strong leadership district-wide, our schools are well-maintained, and class sizes are low. We also have a very good relationship with the teachers' union which allows us to talk regularly with them about program quality.

KF: These things are expensive.  How have you managed to find the funds to pay for them?

DG:  We have been very careful to use our resources wisely and are always planning for several years in advance.  We have actually managed to keep money in reserve assuming that funding allocations might be reduced.  The state budget crisis will likely hurt other districts more than us.

KF: What, specifically, have you done to ensure that all students in your district are taught by qualified teachers?

 DG: Our district has made it a priority to compensate teachers well.  We have a very competitive salary and benefits package.  For instance, unlike most neighboring districts, our benefits program covers the entire family and not just the employee.  We also offer retiree health benefits through a trust managed jointly by the district and our employee organization.

We also work hard to ensure that our Title I schools* have the right kind of leadership.  We assign people who are especially capable of creating a sense of hope at the school--people who can create a strong team environment.

We work very hard to see that the staff at each school has a sufficient number of strong, experienced teachers.  When we open new schools, which we do frequently because of our growth, we do not allow principals to strip down any one school.  We place limits on who they can take and from which schools.  

KF: The district recently reduced class size to 24 to 1** in grades 4 - 6 in all of its Title I schools.  How were you able to accomplish this?

DG: When we set out to reduce teacher turnover in our Title I schools and to make sure they would all be staffed with qualified teachers, we talked to the teachers' union first.  We discussed a variety of incentives including stipends, but we eventually landed on lower class sizes in grades 4 through 6.  The staff at each Title I school had an opportunity to vote on whether it would use its Title I funds to support this change.  Each of them elected to do so which meant they had to shift support away from pull-out programs.  Many of our resource teachers went back into the classroom.

KF: How successful was this?

DG:  Very.  Far more teachers in the district have requested transfers to these schools and far fewer already there want transfers out.  The problem we face now is that we will soon reduce class size in grades 4 through 6 in all of our elementary schools.  This will probably eliminate the extra incentive to work in our more challenging schools which means we will have to address this problem again with the union in the near future.

* Title I schools are those which qualify for federal assistance by virtue of the high percentage of students who come from poor families.  

** In California state support has been available for several years to support teacher-student ratios of 20 to 1 in grades K - 3.