Chaffey District Report to Community Highlights Strong Growth

ONTARIO, CA – Today’s students must be better prepared, better educated and more resilient to a changing world than any prior generation if they’re to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities that await them.

“We promise you that your students will have a post-college plan – that when they shake the principal’s hand at graduation, they’re not only college ready but career ready,” Dr. Mathew Holton, Superintendent of the Chaffey Joint Union High School District, said Tuesday during the District’s annual Report to the Community.

Speaking to more than 200 community and business leaders, Holton highlighted the District’s successes in preparing students for the 21stcentury economy. Among those accomplishments:

• The percentage of Chaffey District students passing the A-G coursework needed for admission into the Cal State or University of California systems has jumped from 24.6% in 2008 to 63.6% last year – one of the highest rates of growth in California.
• The number of students exposed to at least one career pathway has increased from 300 in recent years to nearly 10,000 now.

“Ninety-five percent of our parents want their students to earn a four-year degree,” Holton said. “Along with that, we recognize that preparing students for life beyond college is a critical part of our mission. It requires the commitment of every one throughout our District and the support of all of our business and community partners.”

The District’s career readiness focus includes developing student competencies in TCELL – Technical Skills, Career Exploration and Assessment, Employability Skills, Learning Skills and Life Skills. Increasingly, students are recognizing how important it is to obtain those skills and see that as an essential part of their academic experience.

It’s one of the defining characteristics of Generation Z, those born between 1996 and 2012 and who make up today’s high school population. “GenZ’s” also tend to be self-motivated and less entitled, are able to multitask and are less likely than their predecessors to ask for help.

A major portion of the District’s Report to the Community was spent describing the differences in generations – from the Baby Boomers and Generation Xers who make up most of today’s faculty to the Millennials and GenZ’s who represent the future.

One notable difference is the way each generation receives information. Research shows that Baby Boomers average 24.1 hours per week watching television. The typical GenZ, on the other hand, spends 13.2 hours a week watching TV, but is far more reliant on smart phones. “They don’t remember a time before technology,” Holton said.

The Report to Community was opened by U.S. Rep. Norma Torres, who described Chaffey as “one of the most progressive school districts in California.”