Interview with Damen Lopez, Founder of No Excuses University by Julie Garcia
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April 29, 2013 Issue 3
WE ARE COLLEGE BOUND!
No Excuses University at Liberty
Interview with Damen Lopez,
Founder of No Excuses University
by Julie Garcia
Damen Lopez is the founder of No School District. A teacher once told Da-
Excuses University (NEU), which is what men, “It’s where good careers go to die.”
Liberty is all about. No Excuses! Damen After transforming Los Pen as a principal,
Lopez began No Excuses University Damen received national attention and
when he was a principal at Los Peñas- appeared in a lot of television and news-
quitos (Los Pen), an elementary school in paper stories. It gave Damen and NEU
the Poway Unified School District, in San more attention to tell kids to go to college
Diego. He started NEU after he re- when they get older, so they will have a
searched what kinds of programs were great future. Currently there are 159
available to teach elementary students schools as part of the NEU revolution.
Inside this issue: about going to college. The answer was That is over 100,000 students in 22 differ-
always none. This is how No Excuses Uni- ent states that are learning they can go to
versity was born. college. This number includes students here
NEU: Six Exceptional 2 at Liberty Elementary. Damen is very mo-
Systems So, in 2004, Damen Lopez tivated and is continuing to move forward.
founded the No Excuses University Net- He has written a book for students about
NEU: Liberty Pledges 2 work of Schools. This endeavor helped going to college.
build a bridge for all students to attend
college after they graduate from high Believe it or not, Damen has a
NEU: Symbols 3 school. As his mother used to tell him every few things that he would have changed if
night before he went to bed, “After high he could. He chose to change absolutely
school, comes college.” Two years later, in nothing about NEU, except to be more
Fundraisers 3 2006, Damen co-founded the TurnAround patient. He said he was in a rush to make
Schools (TAS) Network with his brother, it all happen. He also would have
Dan Lopez, who is the president of TAS. changed that he would not have worried if
Character Counts 4 NEU would turn out to be a success or not.
Damen Lopez began his career in
education as a tutor before becoming a Damen Lopez is making a big dif-
Read Across America 5 teacher. When Damen started teaching at ference in the lives of elementary school
Los Pen in 1995 as a one-on-one special students by believing in them and that
support teacher, it was known as the low- they will all have the opportunity to at-
The CST is Here! 6 est performing school in Poway Unified tend college.
Page 2
NEU: Six Exceptional
Systems
by Annaly Medrano and Jessica Murillo
NEU is based on the idea that “Every student deserves
the opportunity to be educated in a way that prepares them
for college if they so choose to attend.” The Six Exceptional
Systems are a guide for schools in the No Excuses University
network to help teachers and students prepare and believe
they can attend college. The Six Exceptional Systems help
schools focus on the most important job of a school, learning
and better result in students’ education.
The Six Exceptional Systems are as follows:
Culture of Universal Achievement: When you believe in
someone so much it can change their attitude and way of
teaching and learning. When teachers believe in their students, lessons. At Liberty: Throughout the year teachers have trainings
students start believing in themselves too, and that makes all that help them analyze data and provide them with new ideas
the difference. At Liberty: Teacher, parents, and students for lessons and interventions.
wrote pledges that say how they will work together to make
sure that all students have the opportunity to attend college. Data Analysis: Data should be the common language at any
NEU school. Teachers analyze the data to plan for interven-
Collaboration: teachers work together in an effort to prepare tions and lessons. At Liberty: During Wednesday collaboration
students for college. At Liberty: Every Wednesday teachers meetings teachers meet to analyze interventions and common
meet after school to create lesson plans, interventions and ana- assessment data.
lyze data.
Interventions: Data is used to plan interventions. Interventions
Standards Alignment: Teachers plan their lessons using the provide data that teachers use to analyze the effectiveness of
right standards for the grade level that they teach. At Liberty: their interventions. At Liberty: Every grade level has Language
Every teacher at Liberty aligns their teaching to the standards. Arts and Math interventions for 30 or 60 minutes every day.
Plan for Assessments: Teachers plan common assessments that Implementing the Six Exceptional Systems is the most
align to standards. Successful common assessments will show important part of being a No Excuses school. With these sys-
teachers, if students have learned the standards. Then the tems in place the opportunities for attaining a college educa-
teacher can plan on changing or continuing interventions or tion increase.
NEU: Liberty Pledges
by Annaly Medrano
An important part of being a No Student Pledge
Excuses University (NEU) school is that eve- My promise to the school is to:
ryone makes the pledge to do their best *Respect school property
effort to send Liberty Elementary students *Come to school with a positive attitude
to college. With Mrs. Garcia’s guidance, *Come ready to learn
every staff member, student, and parent at
Liberty Elementary met to brainstorm ideas *Be respectful at all times
to come up with their pledges. These pledges are an important *Be a good citizen
part of NEU schools because they help set goals for the success NO EXCUSES!
of Liberty Elementary students.
Parent Pledge
Staff Pledge “We the parents promise to be active
“We believe in the academic success of our students and are in our students’ education on a daily
dedicated to providing rigorous standards based instruction in a basis. NO EXCUSES!”
supportive learning environment. NO EXCUSES! NO LIMITS!”
Page 3
NEU: Symbols
by Mariana Bernal
At Liberty Elementary one of the most obvious signs
that we are a proud No Excuses University school, is the use
of No Excuses t-shirts (which we wear on Mondays) and col-
lege symbols. Every classroom adopts a university and its
symbols; t- shirts, flags, cheers, and even mascots. Each
teacher creates a bulletin board to display their collection
of college symbols. As you walk on to our school campus,
you see many college flags hanging outside classroom
doors. Most teachers attended the college that they
adopted. Wednesday’s is our “college day” when everyone
proudly wears their college t-shirts and you can hear cheers
in the hallways.
During the year students also learn about the col-
lege they represent and each grade level has college
words that they learn about. All this is done to get students
to think about college and even planning which college they
would like to attend. Here at Liberty Elementary School,
parents, students, and staff all believe that every child
should begin preparing for college, starting in kindergar-
ten—NO EXCUSES! NO LIMITS!
Ways to Support Our School
On Going Fundraisers
Newspaper
Thank you for supporting Liberty Eagles in Action! Juice Pouches
Please continue to send in those pennies or sign up for a Tar-
get Redcard. Kindergarten is still
collecting juice pouches.
Pennies for the Paper Please continue to send your
CapriSun and Kool Aid juice
You can bring your penny donations to the Office, pouches. Blue collection
the Library, your child’s teacher or to Ms. Chavez in room boxes are outside of Room 14 and in the
12. cafeteria.
Target Redcard
As of April we have 20 people signed up for a
BOX TOPS NEEDED!
Redcard that is linked to our school. Encourage family mem-
bers and friends to link their Redcard to our school. Besides A very big THANK YOU
helping our newspaper you also save 5% on your purchases to all the students and parents
every time you use it. Sign up at Target for a Redcard debit that send Box Tops to school.
or credit card. Then register your card at www.target.com.
As you know, we are
Click on the Redcard link. Go to Rewards & Benefits. Scroll to collecting these in order to help
almost the bottom of the page to Take Charge of Education. pay for 6th grade Science Camp.
Click on the red Enroll. When you are redirected to the next
page click on enroll again on the long blue bar at the top. Please keep collecting these. Turn them in to any teacher.
Our school ID is 34786.
Page 4
Character Counts
by Raven Hall and Sebastian Navarro
Character Counts is very important to our school. RESPECT:
Liberty Elementary students are being very well taught
about the importance of having good character. Respectful students are,
Students learn how important having good charac- - polite and courteous
ter is, not only here at Liberty, but also in everyday life, eve- - treat others nicely even if they don't do the same back to you
rywhere they go. Teaching students how important qualities
like citizenship, responsibility, trustworthiness, being re-
spectful, fairness, and being caring is a good way to help
benefit young students' lives as they are growing up with FAIRNESS:
good character values being taught here at Liberty.
Students are being fair when they,
- play by the rules
CITIZENSHIP:
- take turns and share
Requires students to (be)
- look at their perspective if they disagree with another student
- cooperative with others
- speak up if someone is acting unfair
- obey rules given to them
- help protect the environment
CARING:
Students who show they care,
RESPONSIBILITY:
- are kind with their actions and words
Some examples of responsible actions are,
- help others
- do what they are supposed to do
- think about other people's feelings and needs
- think about how their actions will affect
- are thankful for what others do for them
others
Most importantly students who show true character
- try their best
follow the golden rule, “Treat others the way you want to be
treated.” Having true character also means, doing the right
thing, even when nobody is watching.
TRUSTWORTHINESS:
In order to be trustworthy, students need to,
- be honest
- keep promises
- stand up for what they believe in and what is right
-be a great friend
Page 5
Read Across America
by Emily Martinez
Read Across America (which celebrates Dr. Seuss’s
birthday) was an unforgettable day at Liberty Elementary.
The day started with an all school flash mob directed by
Mrs. Perez and our very own Librarian, Mrs. Kenny, dressed
as The Cat in the Hat. It was a first time event where every-
one dressed in their pajamas and had all kinds of books
such as amazing chapter books, action filled comic books
and of course wonderful Dr. Seuss’s books. Second grade
through sixth grade students had to learn the dance moves
to the song “Gotta Keep Reading.” The audience was our
very own Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade stu-
dents .
Later in the day, we were honored with special
guest readers from our community; firefighters, scholars
from local universities, and Susan Strait, a famous author
and Professor at UCR. Fifth and sixth grade students read
to primary grade students as well. Fifth grade student
Mariana Bernal said, “It was pretty awesome because
they all thought it was funny and they listened to you while
you read.”
As part of this celebration, we also had a hat con-
test where students got creative and showed off their crea-
tions. Some students bought plain hats and decorated them
with a Dr. Seuss theme. Other students went over the top to
design their own hats and make them from scratch. You
could see large hats, small hats, green hats, red hats, simple
hats, and very elaborate hats. Students, who entered the
contest, received a book of their choice from Mrs. Kenny for
their time and effort in their awesome creations.
Our third and fourth grade students got a special
presentation from Riverside author, Susan Strait, who wrote
the book, The Friskative Dog. You may think friskative is not
a real word, you are right, it is not. Third and fourth graders
learned that Mrs. Strait loves to make up her vocabulary.
Just to make Mrs. Strait’s presentation even more special,
students who bought one of her fantastic books also got a
personal autograph from her.
One thing everybody enjoyed was getting to read
their favorite books all day long. Some people stayed cozy
in their classrooms under their blankets, while others got to
go out to a delightful sunny day, laying on their blankets
and enjoying their love for reading. Most will agree that
Read Across America was the best day at Liberty! Liberty
students cannot wait until next year to see what surprises
are in store.
If you are interested in the Read Across
America flash mob video go Liberty Elementary‘s
school website, http://www.rusdlink.org/Liberty,
and check it out. While you are there you can
also see the color version of this issue and previ-
ous Liberty Eagles in Action ! issues.
Page 6
The CST is Here!
by Emily Martinez
Get ready to be tested on what you have learned focusing on, we pick
this year. Wait! Do you even know what the CST is? The new ones to work
California Standards Test, also known as the CST, is a test on.”
that helps teachers and principals see whether students have
learned the California State Standards. It is only given to S in ce the CST is
second through eleventh grade students. Math is only given right around the
to second through seventh, science is given to fifth, eighth, corner here are
and tenth grade. History is given to eighth and eleventh some tips you can
grades. In grades ninth through eleventh students take the follow.
CST for math and science courses.
Get a good
The CST uses below basic, basic, proficient or ad- night’s rest and have a good breakfast every day.
vance to score. The best scores are proficient and advanced
and since only California takes the CST our scores cannot be Cross off the choices that are clearly incorrect. This in-
compared to other states across the nation. CST scores are creases your odds of choosing the correct answer.
also used by the state to measure the performance of a
school. Read the questions again carefully many times to under-
stand.
Liberty Elementary students and teachers have been
working very hard to prepare for this very important test.
Here are some tips that sixth grade teachers gave us. Mrs.
Underline important ideas, units or numbers in a question.
Berndt said, “First of all take your time, don’t rush, read
questions carefully, and read the answer before you pick Answer the easiest question first.
one. In math do all the problems. Trust yourself. You know
what you are doing.” Mrs. Perez also offered some tips; Pace yourself so you have enough time to complete each
“Read the question first, use a highlighter to find clues in the and every question.
story, go back and eliminate the wrong answer and then
MOST IMPORTANTLY, DO YOUR BEST!
chose the best answer.” When she was asked, what she does
in her class to prepare for the CST, she said “In our class we The CST at Liberty will begin on Tuesday, April 30 through
focus on standards. We pick five standards every five Thursday, May 16. Attendance, which includes being on
weeks. We do power points, and lessons on the standards. time, is very important.
When the kids understand those standards we have been
Special Thanks to
Spring Musical UPCOMING EVENTS
Mariana Bernal
“Jack and the Giant * 6th Grade Trip to Fiesta Vil-
Julie Garcia
lage, May 20, 9am-2:45pm
Beanstalk” Raven Hall
* ELAC 9am & SSC 3:15pm Emily Martinez
Come out for a family Meetings, May 21
night of theater and Annaly Medrano
music. * Memorial Day **NO Jessica Murillo
SCHOOL** May 27 Sebastian Navarro
June 6th at 6:00pm
* BOGO Book Fair, May 29-30, for working extra hard to make this
$5 for adults * Art Under The Stars, May 30
issue possible
Sources
$1 for students * Volunteer Tea, June 5, 2013,
http://turnaroundschools.com/neu-network/
Everyone is invited! 1:45pm in MPR (invitation only) No Excuses University — 100's of Schools, 1000's
* Last Day of School June 13 of Students, 1 Big Dream by Damen Lopez
www.greatschools.org
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