Articles
Explore our collection of articles covering various educational topics in South San.
Was There Evidence That Teaching Was a Significant Problem at South San?
Were Teachers Really What South San Needed to Fix? — Part 2
Before South San’s Board of Managers approved districtwide NIET/TAP on April 14, 2025, what evidence showed that deficiencies in teaching practice were a major cause of low student performance? This article follows the timeline of what the district had identified, what was presented before the vote, what was still being studied, and what remains unclear about the evidence behind the decision.
Read More →Why Did South San Change How Teachers Teach?
Were Teachers Really What South San Needed to Fix? — Part 1
TEA replaced South San’s elected Board primarily to address longstanding governance and management problems. Yet less than two months later, the new Board moved to substantially restructure classroom instruction districtwide by approving NIET/TAP, a management-style model that shifts instructional decision-making toward district-directed expectations and monitoring. What is NIET/TAP—and was deficient teaching really a significant enough problem at South San to warrant such a rapid districtwide restructuring of classroom instruction?
Read More →Where Is the Root-Cause Analysis?
Were Teachers Really What South San Needed to Fix? — Part 3
Four months after South San approved districtwide NIET/TAP, the administration presented what was described as its “data analysis and root cause.” The PowerPoint itself is not visible in the public meeting video or among the workshop materials we located, but the discussion identifies the kinds of data the administration said it reviewed. We followed those sources and later district records to see what can be reconstructed—and what remains unclear about the evidence behind the administration’s conclusions.
Read More →Where Is the Root-Cause Analysis?
Were Teachers Really What South San Needed to Fix? — Part 3
Four months after South San approved districtwide NIET/TAP, the administration presented what was described as its “data analysis and root cause.” But the presentation itself is not visible in the public meeting video or among the workshop materials we located. We followed the record to find out what that analysis showed—and whether it contained the evidence that had been missing before the April 14 vote.
Read More →Was There Evidence That Poor Teaching Was a Significant Problem at South San?
Were Teachers Really What South San Needed to Fix? — Part 2
Before South San’s Board of Managers approved districtwide NIET/TAP on April 14, 2025, what evidence showed that deficiencies in teaching practice were a major cause of low student performance? This article follows the timeline of what the district had identified, what was presented before the vote, what was still being studied, and what remains unclear about the evidence behind the decision.
Read More →