About Our School...

Oak Valley Middle School is in the City of San Diego, California, nestled within a beautifully master planned community called 4S Ranch. Our student population is well integrated with respect to socioeconomic background, serving families in low-income housing, appartments, established upper income area, and custom multi-million dollar homes. The ethnic distribution is approximately 10% Hispanic, 28% Asian, 3% African American, 8% Filipino, 50% Caucasian, and 1% other.

Oak Valley runs on a block schedule. Students attend four classes a day, not including lunch. Classes rotate on an odd/even schedule. Each Tuesday, students arrive at school later, giving staff the opportunity for 70 minutes of collaboration. The collaboration that takes place includes meetings among grade level teams as well as department teams.

Students who are not performing at grade level are supported through courses that meet on a regular basis. Elective classes are available to all students and the variety of classes is offered. Elective courses were determined based on student and staff interest and also on NCLB credentialing laws.

Currently, our After School Programs at Oak Valley are funded with monies raised by our school's educational foundation and volunteers. We currently offer homework club and a variety of tutorial clubs. In addition, thanks to a grant through a private foundation, we offer a variety of after school sports programs. These programs are intended to create a safe and nurturing environment for students who need a sense of belonging.

A Student Services Specialist works to support student well-being in areas of alcohol and other drug use prevention, tocacco use prevention, assists teachers in presenting anti-bullying education, anger management, and conflict mediation. A student recreation/game center is a place where students can get together during lunch and other free time to relax, talk to friends, make new friends, read, do homework and play games.

The physical educaiton department delivers curriculum which include components that shift the physical education paradigm of teaching students sports to concentrating on student learning life-long health and fitness skills and concepts. The PE Program provides a Fitness Lab to teach students how their bodies work and show them the effects of exercise on their bodies.

ELL students are receiving support from the English Language Development Specialist and within their cluster core classes. All teachers at Oak Valley are either fully certificated to teach ELL students. Our 5th and 6th period elective offers students year round support in English instruction. Students who are intermediate and above in their English skills are placed in clusters in the general education classroom with support provided by an instructional assistant.

To further support our goal of personal and intellectual development we have established two AVID classes and are implementing AVID strategies school-wide. We are committed to college readiness for all of our students, modeling our belief through University Day every Friday. Staff members wear college alumni clothing and each week a staff member and the school he/shee attended are highlighted on morning announcements.

The Oak Valley Middle School Libarary strives to provide a rich selection of resources that support state standards, diverse interests, and multiple reading levels and learning styles. Online resources available throughout the campus and students home include DESTINY (library catalog), WOrld Book Encyclopedia (encyclopedia, atlases, web-links, Spanish langugage encyclopedia), Cengage Learning-Infotrac (newslpapers, magazines, e-books, primary sources, literature databases and reference resources), Today's Science (Science news written specifically for students), Noodle Tools (the most comprehensive and accurate MLA and APA-stylebibliography composer on the Web). The libary has four computer stations with access to the resources and Microsoft suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and three computers with access to DESTINY (library catalog). At present, the OVMS libary has approximately 12,554 books, 14 magazine substriptions, and a collection of DVDs and videos for the classrooms.

Full SARCs are available on the website at http://www.powayusd.com/schools/SARCs/OakValley.pdf

Single Plan for Student Achievement