Educational Services

Welcome back to the Pomona Unified School District—where Student Success is Our Success! We are excited to begin the 2024-25 school year and continue our collective journey towards excellence in education. As we embark on this academic quest together, we want to take a moment to celebrate the incredible progress made last year, reflect on the valuable lessons learned, and outline our ongoing literacy journey to ensure that all students are reading by third grade. This foundation will continue to support our students as they transition into our secondary schools.

Last year was a resounding success, thanks to your dedication and commitment to our literacy goal. PUSD teachers, along with the supportive expertise of our Literacy Coaches, Resource Teachers, Intervention Teachers, District Teacher Specialists, and our amazing support staff achieved several remarkable milestones together with our site and district leadership:

• We prioritized on forging strong, caring relationships with all our students, staff, and families as an authentic learning community
• We established deeper relationships with our partners and created systems to support all students, especially those historically marginalized.
• We have clearer evidence of the efficacy of our programs, with TK enrollment experiencing significant growth—now up to 500 students—thanks to a movement that started 10 years ago.
• We marked our highest reclassification rate of 15.93%, with 843 English Learners and Multilingual Learners successfully reclassifying.
• Our Lexile levels have been increasing for our student groups from 3rd through 12 grade
• We re-launched a more robust science curriculum, Stemscopes, and delivered inquiry-based science professional development
• We established Math Teacher Leads in elementary and in the process of creating  the same supports for secondary through the Math Teaching Teacher Specialists model

We truly can’t do this without you; we cannot do this alone! 

Within the implementation of our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) we focused on:

Collaborative Professional Development

Our teachers and teacher leaders demonstrated remarkable commitment to ongoing professional development, evident in the successful training sessions and learning opportunities delivered throughout the school year. Your willingness to share and learn best practices and strategies with fellow educators fostered a supportive and collaborative learning environment.

• Our Literacy Coaches facilitated a total of 50 Professional Development Literacy Sessions throughout the year, in addition to conducting 17 Summer Conference Sessions.
• At the secondary level, site based teacher leaders led content learning cohorts in mathematics and English to focus on modifying instruction to meet the needs of all students. This Teacher-Led Cohorts (TLC) work expands this year to science and history/social science

Increased Implementation of Literacy Practices

Our system-wide efforts to provide teacher training based on the science of reading, combined with follow-up support, empowered all teachers to view literacy practices in a new light, creating a culture of literacy within our schools.

• Together, we implemented a Phonological Awareness Screening Test (P.A.S.T.) Completion Rate of 90% for Grades K-2, with the goal of achieving 100% this year and used Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessments to guide our instruction and identify struggling readers.

Key District Initiatives for the New Year

As we continue this journey, we want to highlight some important district initiatives that will guide our efforts in creating a positive and inclusive learning environment for all learners—both students and adults.

Literacy for ALL remains one of our key district initiatives, emphasizing the importance of reading proficiency for every student. We are steadfast in our belief that literacy is the foundation of academic success and lifelong learning. We intentionally built PUSD’s robust literacy framework prior to the announcement of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond’s cohesive literacy program. We will continue to be fierce in our resolve to achieve our goal for all PUSD students to become proficient readers by third grade to ensure that all students are prepared for all content areas in secondary. 

Inclusive - All Means All promotes an environment where every student feels valued, respected, and supported. Recognizing that each student has unique strengths and areas for growth, we will continue to strengthen the implementation of the MTSS approach. This data-driven framework ensures that all students receive equitable academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support through coordinated systems and timely interventions in the least restrictive environment (LRE).

Fostering Positive Culture & Climate

We are also dedicated to fostering a positive Culture & Climate within our schools. We believe that a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment is essential for student well-being and academic success. Through culturally responsive Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS), we will strengthen students’ social-emotional learning with responsive academic supports. This collaborative effort allows us to design targeted and intensive interventions through site Student Success Teams (SST) and Section 504 Teams.

Support for Struggling Readers

Furthermore, the district acknowledges the specific needs of struggling readers and students with dyslexia. Pursuant to the Dyslexia Intervention Policy under the California Dyslexia Guidelines, we have established an approved list of evidence-based screening instruments to identify students at risk of dyslexia. Through the diligent work of our Dyslexia and Struggling Readers Task Force and the K-2 subcommittee, we have made tremendous progress in refining our systems of integrated support. Students who demonstrate characteristics of dyslexia will receive appropriate classroom interventions (Tier I) or be referred to SST for more intensive interventions (Tier II and III).

Looking Ahead

As we look ahead to the new school year, we are confident that we will continue to make a positive impact on the lives of our students and elevate the efficacy of all our teachers as literacy experts. Your passion for teaching and dedication to literacy inspire us, and we are grateful for all you do every day.

Thank you for your unwavering commitment to improving literacy outcomes for our PUSD PreK-12 students as literacy is the key to all students’ success now, through high school, and beyond college and careers. Here’s to a successful and rewarding school year ahead!

Warm regards,

Lilia Fuentes
Deputy Superintendent of Educational Services
Pomona Unified School District