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Garden Grove Context

District Enrollment and Demographics

Garden Grove Unified School District Enrollment Report. Retrieved on June 24, 2014 from DataQuest, California Department of Education. Available for members at this link.

This table provides Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD) and California’s student enrollment by race/ethnicity and for English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities in the 2013-2014 school year.

Student Performance

State, County, and Garden Grove Unified School District A-G Completion Rates. Retrieved on June 24, 2014 from DataQuest, California Department of Education. Available for members at this link.

This graph provides GGUSD, Orange County, and California’s A-G completion rates – the percentage of 12th grade graduates completing all courses required for UC and/or CSU entrance – over the span of the 2004-2013 school years.

Garden Grove Unified School District. (2014). Advanced Placement Enrollment. Garden Grove, CA: Author.Available for members at this link.

This graph provides GGUSD’s Advanced Placement student enrollment for the years 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2013.

Garden Grove Unified School District English-Language Arts Proficiency Rates. Retrieved on June 24, 2014 from DataQuest, California Department of Education. Available for members at this link.

This graph provides California district English-language arts proficiency rates over the span of the 2004-2013 school years.

Garden Grove Unified School District Mathematics Proficiency Rates. Retrieved on June 24, 2014 from DataQuest, California Department of Education. Available for members at this link.

This graph provides California district mathematics proficiency rates over the span of the 2004-2013 school years.

District Approach to Human Capital Development

Knudson, J. (2013). You’ll never be better than your teachers: The Garden Grove approach to human capital development. San Mateo, CA: California Collaborative on District Reform. Available at this link.

Teachers matter. Educators, policymakers, and the general public alike agree that great teachers are vital to a thriving K-12 education system, yet the pathways to assembling a high quality teaching force remain elusive. This case study of GGUSD demonstrates what a comprehensive approach to maximizing teacher quality can look like in practice. The report examines the strategies behind the district’s two key levers for improvement: (1) getting the best teachers and (2) building the capacity of the teachers it has. The story of Garden Grove is less about what it does, however, than how the district approaches its work. The report therefore explores the district culture and commitment to continuous improvement that produces effective practices of human capital development and enables these practices to achieve success.