William Huyett, Superintendent           2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way | Berkeley, CA 94704-1180 | 510-644-6348
You are here: Home » Departments » Educational Services
Print this page

Educational Services

Neil Smith, Assistant Superintendent
Christina Faulkner, Director, Curriculum and Instruction
Felton Owens, Director, Special Education
Barret Donahue, Administrative Coordinator
2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
Phone: (510) 644-6257
Fax: (510 644-8815

The Educational Services Department includes all personnel and programs that deliver instructional support to the schools. The goals of the department are to provide high quality staff development to all teachers and paraprofessionals, to improve student achievement, and to develop curriculum to meet the state content standards. The budget for these programs is based largely on grants and categorical funding.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Berkeley Unified School District, a diverse community deeply committed to public education, is to ensure that all students discover and develop their special talents, achieve their educational and career goals, become life long learners, and succeed in a rapidly changing society by:

  • empowering students, parents and staff,
  • providing a strong standards based curriculum, and
  • offering alternative learning experiences in a racially integrated, multilingual environment.

Curriculum Standards

Curriculum standards are set by the State of California Department of Education and adopted by the Berkeley Unified School District. These content standards were designed to encourage the highest achievement of every student, by defining the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students should acquire at each grade level. Electronic versions are available for the following content standards adopted by the California State Board of Education:

  • English-Language Arts including ELD (English Language Development)
  • Mathematics
  • History-Social Science
  • Science
  • Visual and Performing Arts

View the full text of the standards in PDF format here:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/index.asp

To order printed versions of the standards, contact CDE Press at
http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/pn/rc/content-standards-titles.asp

To see the 2008-09 LEA Plan Addendum, click here.

 

Staff Development

Sharon Friedman
Coordinator of Staff Development

The primary goal of the District's Staff Development Plan is to engage teachers, administrators and staff in developing, researching and disseminating effective models of instruction, particularly in the areas of Language Arts and Mathematics. The California Department of Education's key goal is to develop high quality teachers whose training enables them to enter the classroom with the skills and knowledge to effectively serve students and enhance K-12 student achievement. The Plan includes these components:

  • Guided Language Acquisition Development (GLAD) - Training in a standards-based instructional model that incorporates differentiated instruction and metacognition.
  • Strategic Schooling with Charlotte Knox - Assisting K-5 schools with analyzing data and using teachers' collaboration time to improve instruction.
  • Literacy Teacher Leaders on each campus - Providing classroom coaching and professional development for teachers on site.
  • EL Lead Teachers at targeted schools - Providing classroom coaching in EL teaching strategies for all teachers working with EL students.
  • Math Teacher Leaders on each campus - Guiding teachers in aligning instruction with Math Standards.
  • Subject Area Specialists - Department chairs in each subject area — at each middle school — who lead site based staff development in response to the needs at each school.
  • Diversity in Math Education (DiME) - A project with U.C. Berkeley, helping middle school Math teachers prepare all students for Algebra.
  • BTSA support for new teachers - A two-year structured program that uses the California Formative Assessment and Support System for Teachers (CFASST).
  • Lesson study - A method for teachers to plan, observe and refine "research lessons" collaboratively in order to improve student learning.
  • Linking Education and Food (LEAF) - Bringing middle school Science and P.E. teachers together with the District's Child Nutrition Services Department to focus on nutrition and fitness.

Other pages have information on:


^ Top