Tietjen says Merced County schools on track despite ‘poor’ COVID guidance from Sacramento
Superintendents and administrators from local school districts and several elected officials gathered Thursday for the release of Merced County Office of Education’s annual schools report.
And given that the event at the Downtown Professional Development Center was the report’s first in-person release since 2020, the COVID pandemic definitely was not left off the agenda.
Steve Tietjen, Merced County superintendent of schools, said districts county-wide are still grappling with how to manage students two years into the pandemic.
“There continues to be challenges with how we deal with outbreaks in our schools,” Tietjen said. “Those issues are still going to be in place, and we’re still going to have to mediate them.”
During his speech Tietjen also thanked district superintendents and county public health officials for working together to overcome “poor guidance from Sacramento” with regard to dealing with COVID-19.
Tietjen also alluded to the fact that Merced County for the most part has not seen some of the demonstrations and altercations that have happened in other California school districts over the COVID response.
“We overcame a divisive situation over masking and we resolved it here in Merced County without major strikes, walkouts, or other fuss that districts around the state had to endure,” Tietjen said, to a round of applause. “So congratulations to you.”
Meanwhile special education, career and technical training, high school graduation rates, and reducing barriers to further education of nontraditional students were key among the issues highlighted in the report.
An increase in workforce training programs and career and technical education is a big priority for MCOE, Tietjen said.
Preparing students for jobs after high school remains a big push for local districts, via programs overseen in conjunction with other agencies and groups in Merced County.
“The programs are already showing lots of success,” said Erick Serrato, director of Merced County’s Workforce Investment Office.
“One of the things that excites me most is the work MCOE is doing connecting rural youth with job opportunities in their very own neighborhoods and then connecting them to a deeper career pathway that is going to give them more and more opportunity as they age.”
Keeping students on track to graduate
The county’s high four-year graduation rate, at, 90.3%, was one accomplishment highlighted in this year’s annual presentation.
Efforts to bring students back to school after dropping out of high school include MCOE’s Come Back Charter School, which enrolls adults who want to finish their high school diploma after facing challenges that kept them from graduating in four years as teenagers.
“My experience with Come Back Charter was pretty good,” said Vonnetta Parker, an adult student at Come Back. “One of my teachers was very supportive and understanding, and kept pushing me and telling me this is my goal, and this is what I came here to conquer and not give up. If I’d had that type of support in high school, I would have graduated with honors.”
Other issues account for the dropout rate MCOE tracks.
About 2.5% of students take advantage of the fifth-year rule, Tietjen added, half a percent transfer out of the county during senior year, and 1.5% are in special education programs that don’t put students on track to take the high school exit exam — a requirement in California to graduate from high school.
The fifth-year rule allows students to stay in high school for a fifth year if they weren’t able to graduate in the traditional four years.
“We’re advocating, though, to change the rules so we can provide a pathway to all students for a high school diploma,” Tietjen said. “If a special needs kid is fulfilling their individual education plan goal, shouldn’t they get a diploma? I think so.”
Other MCOE programs, like the Phoenix Project and EMPOWER are designed for young adult students who don’t have traditional systems of support to stay in school, achieve academically and acquire job training.
These students often have a harder time completing their education and connecting to economic opportunities, according to speakers highlighted in an MCOE video on Thursday.
“We know college enrollment has dropped by more than 20% nationwide, even here in Merced County,” said Serrato in an MCOE video during the presentation.
“We know those young people aren’t connecting to their first job like they normally would, and they’re not in vocation programs. That’s where MCOE steps in.”
Serrato outlined that MCOE and other Merced County services help match young people without other educational and career training opportunities to programs that will help them transition to a career.
After developing skills in a specific industry, students who complete the program can pursue jobs in fields like hospitality, retail and food services.
“We’re preparing our clients to get to work,” said Mary Whited, ROP coordinator for the Merced County Office of Education. “For some of them, it’s re-entering the workforce, and for some of them, they’ve never had a job and we’re preparing them for their very first job.”
One thing not included in this year’s report was standardized test scores. “This past year, with what kids have been through (with COVID, the scores) wouldn’t be reliable or valid,” Tietjen said during his presentation.
“If you want to know how well a child is doing, talk to the child. Visit their classroom, talk to their teacher. That’s a much better indicator of what a child is getting out of their education than looking at a standardized test score once a year.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM.