Kaura, P., & Melnicoe, H. (2020). COVID-19 Crisis Response in Pajaro Valley Started with Listening to Families. Policy Analysis for California Education, PACE.
COVID-19 presents an array of challenges for school districts. In this brief, we share some promising practices learned from California's Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD), particularly in the areas of family engagement and instructional access for English learners. Annually, Pivot Learning and its subsidiary Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education (CORE) work with nearly 100 school districts in California and nationally. PVUSD, a long-time partner of Pivot Learning and CORE, is a member of the national League of Innovative Schools and a model of inclusive, data-driven decision-making. Over 40 percent of PVUSD's population are classified as English learners, and the district has a history of serving all students through bilingual programming and a whole-child approach. In this brief, we detail the district's efforts to provide educational and other supports for English learners and their families in ways that specifically address educational equity.