SDSU Names New Executive Director of City Heights Educational Collaborative

SDSU announced today that Tim Allen, currently superintendent of the San Ysidro School District, will be the new executive director of San Diego State University’s City Heights Educational Collaborative. Allen will assume leadership of the collaborative on February 1, 2007.

“I deeply respect the role that we as educators are fortunate to perform in enhancing the lives of our students and their families,” Allen said. “As executive director, I look forward to working with all the Collaborative partners and participants to ensure that everything that can be done to improve the educational experiences and outcomes of our Collaborative students is implemented and sustained.”

Allen has served as superintendent of the San Ysidro School District since 2003, and prior to that was its assistant superintendent. He has worked as a principal in the Chula Vista School District and as the director of the English Language Learners program for the San Diego Unified School District.

“Our search for the executive director position was highly competitive, and we are most fortunate that our top candidate for the position, Tim Allen, will be joining the Collaborative team,” said Ethan Singer, SDSU’s Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. “We believe Tim’s keen mind, outstanding educational experience, and collegial style will provide the Collaborative with exceptional leadership.”

The City Heights Educational Collaborative is an innovative partnership among the San Diego Unified School District, Price Charities, the San Diego Education Association and SDSU. Under an agreement with the district, SDSU has the operating authority for the three City Heights Collaborative schools—Rosa Parks Elementary, Monroe Clark Middle School and Hoover High School.

The principal goals of the collaborative are to significantly enhance the academic achievement, health and social development of these students. The schools have a combined population of 5,000 inner-city students speaking more than 30 different languages. The median income of City Heights residents is the lowest of any City of San Diego community, with more than 95 percent of students qualifying for free or low-cost lunch programs.

“I greatly value teachers, students, families and the community as partners in the education process,” Allen said. “I want to develop innovative and rigorous educational approaches that will add to students’ educational success in a spirit of advocacy.”

Since it was established, the three Collaborative schools have improved considerably in the statewide standardized Academic Performance Index (API). Monroe Clark ranked first among all San Diego Unified School District middle schools in growth for their test scores between the 1998-1999 school year and the 2004-2005 school year. Rosa Parks ranked second among district elementary schools, and Hoover ranked third among district high schools for improving their respective API scores.

“The success of the City Heights Educational Collaborative is a great tribute to the teachers, staff, administrators and partners of the Collaborative schools,” said SDSU President Stephen L. Weber. “We are immensely pleased to have someone of Tim’s caliber and breadth of experience on board to lead us forward in this most essential SDSU community engagement project.”

The Collaborative also has established parent centers at the three campuses to increase parent involvement, as well as health and dental clinics to provide care to students. In addition, nurses and social workers have been added to improve care and support at all three schools.

Price Charities has provided more than $30 million to support the City Heights Educational Collaborative since its inception in 1998. SDSU has received more than $28 million in additional grant and gift awards in support of this effort.

The City Heights Educational Collaborative also works as an extension of SDSU’s College of Education, with the schools serving as an on-site SDSU teacher credential program. Qualifying teachers from Collaborative schools have access to SDSU’s masters’ programs in education with all registration fees paid by the Collaborative.

“From the outset, the collaborative has been a College of Education and university-wide effort,” said Skip Meno, dean of SDSU’s College of Education. “Tim Allen will have the full support of the college and university’s faculty, staff and students to support him in his efforts on behalf of the City Heights Educational Collaborative.”

Every university division and college has contributed to the Collaborative, and SDSU students devote more than 150,000 hours of course work, fieldwork and research to Collaborative-related projects each year, Meno said.

More than 100 SDSU students serve as tutors each semester at Rosa Parks, Monroe Clark and Hoover. Hundreds of others are involved as student teachers working on their credentials, and dozens more participate in teaching as part of graduate and undergraduate classes and research.