Stockton Unified School District Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez showcased the growth in career learning pathways during her third State of the District address.
At Cesar Chavez High School on Tuesday, Rodriguez stood before a crowd of about 200 staff, parents and city officials, highlighting progress under the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan, a state-required framework that outlines goals for improving student outcomes.
With 81% of the district’s more than 32,000 students living in poverty, 15% in special education, and 3% in foster care or living unhoused, Rodriguez highlighted the innovative educational programs aimed at engaging student passion.
“We want to make sure that our children love school, and that is by continuing to expand their technical education,” Rodriguez said.
A key focus for the district is prioritizing student engagement through career technical education, also known as CTE, as well as arts and culturally relevant curricula. She said the district is working to ensure students want to be at school.
“This year we have our elementary schools giving arts instruction to each and every child in that school,” Rodriguez said. “Not just some grades, not just upper grades, but every single child within the school. So whether it’s sports or art or project lead-the-way and career technical education, we’re making kids love school and love learning.”
Rodriguez also showcased CTE pathways during a virtual tour of a robotics classroom at Cesar Chavez High School. Over 5,000 students this year are taking hands-on career technical education courses, Rodriguez said, more than doubling enrollment growth since 2021.
“We’re making sure that our students have (CTE courses), because we want to make sure that kids have the program that they want,” Rodriguez said.
Ethnic studies initiatives also drew praise from Rodriguez for their acceleration, despite not being state-funded. SUSD is the first district in California to integrate ethnic studies as U.S. history courses from the perspective of different ethnicities and cultures, Rodriguez said.
“They can have black history as part of their U.S. history. So, instead of learning U.S. history from a regular perspective, they actually can do it from a perspective of Black history, or Native American history, Filipino history, and Mexican-American history,” Rodriguez said. “We have all of these courses that (students) can do that speak to them, so that they actually see the beauty, the power and the purpose of the ethnic group that they want to learn in.”
Partnerships amplify these efforts, including with the Latino Film Institute, Rodriguez said, where students premiere films at Hollywood’s Chinese Theater. An English language development collaboration also ensures English language learners have access to CTE courses, she added.
“We know that our children, even if they’re English learners, they actually still need to make sure that they have courses that they want,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez also tied these efforts to broader district outcomes, such as rising graduation rates, and expressing the goal that “all students graduate college, career and life ready.”