Education
There Is Great Hope: A Conversation With Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser
By Melissa Morgan
“The vast majority of students enrolled in LBUSD (Long Beach Unified School District) are Hispanic, roughly 55%,” according to District Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser.
Steinhauser says the 2014 Hispanic student graduation rate in Long Beach was higher than state and countywide graduation rates. It was 78.8% in LBUSD, compared to 76.4% statewide and 74.8% countywide.
But, even with these district graduation rates, Steinhauser says he and his team want students to reach above the 90% level. There’s “still a long way to go.”
Steinhauser, who has served in this role since 2002 with LBUSD, California’s third largest school district, has a positive outlook on local education initiatives and future outcomes.
When looking at college-going rates, students do better in Long Beach than statewide as well. “But, we’ve doubled down and offered extra counseling support and interventions for particular subgroups of students, Hispanic students being one of them,” says Steinhauser, “ and [info about] how to apply to go to college via Long Beach College Promise.’”
Model Programs
The Superintendent spotlights the College Promise as one of the LBUSD programs that has been replicated in districts across the state. “It’s a national model with “our higher ed partners”, Long Beach City [College] as well as Cal State.”
The other program on his spotlight list is the Male and Female Academy Programs with 750 young men, mostly Hispanic, Asian and African American, as well as 350-400 young women. “They’ve been highly successful in getting our kids to graduate- and some of these are some of our most at risk students we’re working with —as well as getting our kids to go on to college and to take advantage of the activities outlined in the Long Beach College Promise.”
The Long Beach College Promise is a partnership between local higher education institutions and the school district to make college an attainable goal for all students. This program includes college scholarships, guaranteed college admission and support for Long Beach students and parents.
Dual Immersion
In LBUSD, about 25% of students are English Language Learners, “the vast majority of those are Hispanic,” says the Superintendent. All parents are asked what type of program they would like to participate. Steinhauser says, “Many of our parents decide on dual immersion.”
Currently, four elementary schools offer two different models of Dual Immersion. One model offers Dual Immersion of 50% English and 50% Spanish. The second offers 90% in Spanish to begin and then it increases to more English in the upper grades with some content always taught in Spanish.
There’s one middle school currently offering Dual Immersion. In addition, the middle school offers a Spanish Language AP test to 8th graders, which is traditionally offered to 9th-10th graders. According the LBUSD Superintendent, “Those students have done a remarkable job and are passing the AP Spanish test with very high marks and a very high pass rate.” Those students can then go on to take a third language when they go to high school.
The goal of such programs is to help students become “bi-literate.” The superintendent explains, “We’re finding that the students who take advantage of the program and have great support, both at home and at school, actually do quite well.”
Some students leave the program after the third grade for a variety of reasons. “However, we encourage everyone who starts with the program to end with the program.” He adds, “We’re finding that 60% of 5th graders are requesting to go on to the middle school component (of dual immersion) because of the other options (electives) offered in middle schools.”
Ethnic Studies
Steinhauser shares that Ethnic Studies courses have been held in high schools for over a decade as electives. “Next year there will be 1,000-1,500 students participating in the program depending on who signs up,” he states.
A partnership with California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) will result in a pilot program in the fall. “We’re piloting a new program with Cal State Long Beach which will be launched in the fall at each of our comprehensive high schools where Students who are 11th and 12th graders will be given the opportunity, if they choose, to take a college Level One Survey Class on ethnic studies,” says Steinhauser.
This course will be offered to high school students on Saturdays. If they pass, they get three units of college credit and five units of Social Studies credit by the district. Students may then be offered the opportunity to participate in a series of additional courses, which may include Chicano Studies, African American studies, Native American Studies and/or Women’s Studies. Completion could result in additional college units in ethnic studies.
“This could be a national model for other universities and school districts to emulate in the future,” Steinhauser says, as the school district board has set aside funding for this program for the next five years, with the intention to serve close to 1,000 students each year.
Parental Engagement
A key ingredient to a student’s success, says Steinhauser, is parental engagement. “All parents need to see themselves as equal partners so they need to see themselves as active learners and participants with their child’s education,” he shares.
“You don’t have to be the president of the PTA or the president of School Site Council to be an active member,” according to the Superintendent. He encourages parents to follow up with all the school resources they have for you, get their students to school on time and to complete their homework, and participate in parent conferences.
And, he says, any supportive family member can be key, including an active parent, guardian, and grandparent, even an older sibling. “Truly be an active participant in that child’s education and be a good advocate for what happens because that’s the key,” advises Steinhauser.
The Future
For Superintendent Steinhauser, the future of Education for Latinos is very positive. “I tell everybody the students of today are better prepared than the students of the past. The level of rigor is much higher. The demands on them are greater. We have to be sure the students are prepared for all the choices that they have,” says Steinhauser. Whether it’s preparing them for a two or four year institution, going straight to an internship in the workforce, or preparing them for the military. Steinhauser says, “You have to have high levels of success in mathematics, language arts, and technology and so on.”
The Superintendent adds, “Our job is to make sure all these things are integrated through our pathways in our high schools and that the doors continue to open up for all of our students.”
