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Artificial Intelligence for Remote Learning

One of the greatest challenges that teachers face is the ability to personalize learning for each student. With only one teacher and often more than 30 students, teachers have trouble finding the right pace. What may be too fast for some students is too slow for others. The solution many teachers settle on is to teach to the middle student. The slower students often get left behind, the more advanced students quickly become bored.

Even teaching one student, the teacher is challenged to find the right curriculum path that meets the needs of that individual student.

Using artificial intelligence, Wowzers adjusts the content, tailoring learning to each individual student. Additionally, teachers are able to monitor student progress through the Wowzers’ Learning Management System. This is extremely beneficial as the new normal adjusts to Remote Learning.

Wowzers takes advantage of the power of artificial intelligence in its adaptive nature and design. When a student makes a mistake in the curriculum, the program automatically checks for common errors and detects what the student did incorrectly. This information is used to craft an intelligent response to the student to get them back on track.

In the practice portion of the curriculum, artificial intelligence is used to balance the questions asked of the student. When the student gets multiple questions correct, the math becomes harder, but they’re not required to answer as many questions. When the student begins to struggle, the math becomes easier, but they’re presented with additional problems before they progress to the next activity.

Artificial intelligence is also used when the Wowzers system syncs with NWEA’s API to fetch RTI scores to intelligently create a personalized curriculum that challenges the student at their individual skill level.

This decade will see more use of artificial intelligence to help guide students on a path of learning that includes the ability for more student choice based on data. Wowzers is proud to be a part of the first wave in the development of a product that uses artificial intelligence and intends on growing and expanding content using artificial intelligence to enhance the learning experience.

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15/04/2025
Feds shutter California civil rights office: ‘The students are going to suffer’
Credit: Carlos Kosienski/Sipa via AP Images

Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.
TOP TAKEAWAYS

The U.S. Department of Education announced that it is reducing its workforce by half, shutting seven of 12 regional branches of its Office for Civil Rights.

California has over 700 pending cases with the Office for Civil Rights. The Trump administration has not provided details on what happens to cases handled by the shuttered regional office in San Francisco.

The administration said this dramatic slashing would be followed by “significant reorganization to better serve students, parents, educators and taxpayers.”

Educators and civil rights advocates say that vulnerable students will not have recourse when schools violate their civil rights.
The announcement of a large-scale effort to reduce the workforce of the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday — or nearly half of the agency’s staff — is raising concerns among California educators and advocates about the future of civil rights enforcement and funding for vulnerable students.

About 1,300 federal workers will be placed on administrative leave as of March 21 or have accepted a voluntary resignation agreement, according to a news release by U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

Seven of 12 regional offices that handle federal civil rights complaints were shuttered, including the Office for Civil Rights branch in San Francisco, which handles complaints filed in California.

“There is no federal presence enforcing civil rights in schools in California,” said Catherine Lhamon, the former assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education. “Our country and California will effectively see an end to a federal backstop of harm in schools.”

While local and state governments provide the vast majority of funding and governance for TK-12 schools and higher education, the federal government handles key aspects of education in the U.S., including disbursing student loans and Pell Grants; funding programs for students with disabilities as well as schools serving low-income students; and overseeing national research that provides critical data for educators and policymakers.

The U.S. Department of Education is also tasked with enforcing federal civil rights laws, authorized by Congress, through its Office for Civil Rights in order to protect students from discrimination. California alone has more than 700 pending complaints of civil rights violations.

“I don’t know what is going to happen to those cases,” said an attorney who works in the San Francisco branch of the Office for Civil Rights. The attorney declined to be identified, citing concerns about retaliation for speaking out. “The students are going to suffer.”

McMahon said in a statement that the reduction in force reflects a commitment to efficiency and accountability, and that the department will “continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.”

Some conservative groups, such as the Cato Institute, applauded the dramatic slashing of staff.

“We don’t know how many people are actually needed to execute (the U.S. Department of Education) jobs, and it’s time to find out if it’s been a bloated bureaucracy all along,” said Neal McCluskey, director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom.

But many educators and advocacy groups who work with students forcefully condemned the cuts.

The Los Angeles Unified School District board passed a resolution Tuesday condemning the cuts to the U.S. Education Department, as well as cuts to other federal funding for school meals and Medicaid. Board member Kelly Gonez called on legislators to “push back against this radical and cruel agenda.”

“The Trump administration and its allies in Congress are looking to decimate federal funding to schools, including cuts to school meals, MediCal, and education block grants,” Gonez said. “More threats are on the horizon due to Trump’s ongoing efforts to dismantle the Department of Education entirely. We will not stand by while this administration removes essential support for students.”

‘These are not minor issues’

After a student with autism died after being restrained, Davis Joint Unified agreed to change its policies and training related to secluding and restraining students in 2022. That same year, Los Angeles Unified promised to address the concerns of disabled students who said they received little legally required special assistance during the height of the pandemic.

These are just a few of the high-profile complaints that the Office for Civil Rights investigated and settled in California.

“These are not minor issues,” said Lhamon, who was then the assistant secretary for civil rights.

The Biden administration pleaded with Congress for additional funding to staff the Office for Civil Rights, which was facing a mushrooming caseload that reached an all-time high during his presidency, according to the Office for Civil Rights’ annual report. Now staff face the prospect of their caseload doubling from 50 cases per person to 100 cases — an “untenable” number, Lhamon said.

The increase in cases, combined with an existing staffing shortage has likely created a backlog, extending the wait time for investigations to be completed and findings issued, said Megan Stanton-Trehan, a senior attorney at Disability Rights California who represents students with disabilities.

“With increasing complaints and an idea that we want to increase efficiency, what we shouldn’t be doing is closing offices and decreasing the workforce, unless what we really want is to not enforce civil rights,” said Stanton-Trehan.

The federal government is sending the message that though students are required to attend school, there is no federal agency that will protect them from harm, Lhamon said.

“That’s dangerous for democracy; it’s dangerous for schools,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Education has not announced a plan for transferring cases from San Francisco or any other shuttered regional office.

“We are in this work because we care, and we are compassionate,” said the San Francisco Office for Civil Rights attorney. “We are devastated for our students.”

The Office for Civil Rights page listed 772 records of pending cases that the office is currently investigating in the state of California, though it does not include any cases filed after Jan. 3. Of those, 597 of the listed cases involved K-12 institutions, while another 175 involved post-secondary education. Many of the complaints — 388 pending cases — involve disability discrimination complaints.

The cases date back to complaints filed in 2016 on a range of topics, including discrimination on the basis of national origin, religion and English learner status, as well as allegations of sexual violence, racial harassment and retaliation.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that it had sent letters to 60 universities to inform them that the Office for Civil Rights was investigating them for antisemitic discrimination. That list included Sacramento State, Chapman University, Pomona College, Santa Monica College, Stanford University, UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley.

Ana Najera-Mendoza, director of education equity and senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Southern California, is concerned that these complaints may take precedence over others. Every complaint filed in the Office for Civil Rights deserves to be considered in good faith, she said.

Stating that a reduction in force doesn’t equate to a reduction in the department’s responsibilities, Najera-Mendoza said, “No administration should elect to enforce some complaints over others to enforce a specific agenda.”
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15/04/2025
As Global Economy Imploded, Trump’s Cash Register Was Going Ka-Ching

Investigative reporters at the New York Times–Eric Lipton, Theodore Schleifer, and Zoltan-Youngs, with assistance from Maggie Haberman– were watching the busy scene at Mar-a-Lago during the brief period when Trump announced draconian tariffs on other economies (but not Russia, North Korea, Belarus or Cuba), but before his decision to postpone the tariffs for 90 days. Trump demonstrated that he could rattle the global economy with a statement, then shift gears a few days later. What fun he must have had! He knew he could crater the stock markets and he knew that he could make it soar.

In between times, Mar-a-Lago was enriching Trump and his PACs.

The financial market meltdown was underway when President Trump boarded Air Force One on his way to Florida on Thursday for a doubleheader of sorts: a Saudi-backed golf tournament at his family’s Miami resort and a weekend of fund-raisers attracting hundreds of donors to his Palm Beach club.

It was a fresh reminder that in his second term, Mr. Trump has continued to find ways to drive business to his family-owned real-estate ventures, a practice he has sustained even when his work in Washington has caused worldwide financial turmoil.

The Trump family monetization weekend started Thursday night, as crowds began to form at both the Trump National Doral resort near Miami International Airport, and separately at his Mar-a-Lago resort 70 miles up the coast.

Mr. Trump landed on the edge of one of the golf courses in a military helicopter — just in time for a dinner at Doral. The next day, LIV Golf, the breakaway professional league backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, was scheduled to hold a tournament at the course for the fourth time.

On Thursday at Mar-a-Lago, hundreds of guests gathered for the American Patriots Gala, a conservative fund-raiser that featured Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and President Javier Milei of Argentina, who told his supporters back home that he was hoping to catch up with Mr. Trump while there, seemingly unaware that Mr. Trump was double-booked at two of his family properties that night.

And that was just the weekend’s lead-up.

Mr. Trump ordered a new set of global tariffson Wednesday from the White House using his trademark Sharpie pen, a version of which is on sale at Mar-a-Lago for $3.

The announcement set off one of the largest market crashes in American history, erasing $5 trillion in market value from companies in the S&P 500 in just two days. Mr. Trump has said his policy would reverse what he calls unfair trade practices, and that eventually the “markets are going to boom.”

On Friday, as markets continued to tumble, thousands of golf fans visited Doral, as did Eric Trump, Mr. Trump’s son, and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s $925 billion sovereign wealth fund. Mr. Al-Rumayyan is also the chairman of LIV Golf, and was there to see its stars compete.

“It is a nice club,” Mr. Al-Rumayyan said as he walked around the golf course watching the players tee off.

LIV Golf — a venture intended to lift the Saudi profile worldwide even as it has burned through hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds — is styled as a daylong party, with club music pumping out of speakers lining tournament courses and machines dispensing wine and large beers. On Friday, fans watched a bit of golf and danced on the edges of the course. Others in MAGA hats walked around smoking cigars.

In short, the economic turbulence seemed far away.

“You are all looking a little too stiff!” said Matt Rogers, a LIV Golf announcer, as he yelled into a microphone, blasting his message across the greens as the first group of golfers on Friday prepared to play with dance music blaring in the background. “You need to turn this up! This is LIV Golf.”

Every room at the 643-room Trump Doral, including the $13,000-a-night presidential suite, was sold out through the weekend. Not a seat could be found at the BLT Prime steakhouse bar, where a porterhouse steak cost $130.

“This is the perfect venue,” Eric Trump said as he strolled the golf course Friday.

He had driven his father in a golf cart from the military helicopter to the resort dinner the day before, as the festivities over the big moneymaking weekend were getting underway.

The president spent much of Friday at yet another Trump family venue, Trump International Golf Club, not far from Mar-a-Lago, sending out social media messages during the day, including, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE.” [Had he already decided to pause the tariffs?]

By Friday night, the center of attention had shifted back to Mar-a-Lago, as Mr. Trump held another in a series of $1 million-a-head dinners at his private club in Palm Beach.

Since he was elected in November, Mr. Trump has hosted at least four of the fund-raisers, including one in December, two in March and the one Friday night, with a fifth planned for April 24.

The fund-raisers unfold in similar ways, according to people who have attended them.

Roughly 20 people gather around a candlelit table with big white flowers in the club’s “White and Gold Room” after a photo session. Mr. Trump speaks, then listens to the guests discuss their businesses, one by one. In just an hour or two, he can raise as much as $20 million — a great return on his time investment, associates say.

Attendees at some of the post-election dinners at Mar-a-Lago hosted by MAGA Inc., one of Mr. Trump’s fund-raising political action committees, have included the casino owner Miriam Adelson, the sugar magnate Pepe Fanjul and James Taiclet, the chief executive of Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest military contractor, along with representatives from the cryptocurrency and energy industries.

On Friday, Ronald S. Lauder, the cosmetics heir, and Steve Wynn, the former casino executive, both billionaires, were among the guests at the Mar-a-Lago fund-raiser, according to two people briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the event.

The dinners have been just the start. Mar-a-Lago remains a popular site for Republicancandidates to host their own fund-raisers, Federal Election Commission records show. It is not clear to some Republicans why Mr. Trump has been raising money so aggressively, according to eight people involved in conservative fund-raising who have kept track of his efforts. Never before has a president ineligible for re-election vacuumed up so much money for a super PAC.

Some of Mr. Trump’s associates believe it is prudent to fund-raise when the money is available, as corporate interests and others seek to get access to the president or make amends for perceived slights, people close to him acknowledge.

The packed agendas at the two Trump venues recalled the constant buzz and spending by lobbyists, members of Congress and foreign leaders at Trump International Hotel in Washington before the Trump family sold its lease after Mr. Trump’s first term.

In addition to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, top sponsors of the Doral golf tournament included Aramco, the Saudi oil company; Riyadh Air, the airline owned by the sovereign wealth fund; and TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media company whose fate Mr. Trump is helping to decide, according to a large billboard outside one of the event’s party tents.

Mr. Trump’s merchandise shops — there are at least three of them at Doral — were also doing swift business, selling everything from a $550 Trump-branded crystal-studded purse to $18 Doral-branded paperweights made in China. The store clerk said that he did not know if new tariffs on imported products would mean price increases.

Fans in the crowd said that they had traveled from as far as South Africa to attend the event. Some purchased special tickets that cost as much as $1,400 to enter exclusive party areas with free drinks and food — tickets that were sold out as of Saturday.

In interviews, tournament attendees and others said that they did not mind the disconnect between the Wall Street meltdown and the events at the Trump properties.

“The sky is falling every day,” said Mike Atwell, a Key Largo, Fla., restaurant owner who was attending the LIV event with his wife enjoying lunch and drinks. “When you are happy, you drink. When you are sad, you drink. It all works out.”

Tyrell Davis, a 39-year-old entrepreneur spending Saturday afternoon in Palm Beach, said that he admired Mr. Trump for focusing on his own businesses while also implementing tariffs that he believed would benefit Americans.

Mr. Davis said that the United States had given away money to other countries for years while not investing in American cities, and that it only made sense Mr. Trump would continue to bolster his own businesses while in office.

“It’s all about business and money,” Mr. Davis said. “That’s what it’s all about. America is a business. It’s a corporation.”

On Saturday, as the tournament continued at Doral, Mr. Trump showed up at yet another family golf course, in Jupiter, Fla., which is holding its own, more modest tournament.

Good news was announced by the White House staff: “The president won his second round matchup of the senior club championship today in Jupiter, Fla., and advances to the championship round on Sunday.” Reporters and photographers were prohibited from watching him play, and were held down the street at a coffee shop.

As Mr. Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago, one of his political committees sent out an offer to his followers: They could buy a signed replica of his executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The minimum contribution was $50. “I want you to have a PIECE OF HISTORY in your home,” Mr. Trump said in the solicitation.

The White House then announced that there would be no more public events on Saturday.

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15/04/2025
Dietary restrictions? Here’s what to know about university dining halls | Quick Guide

A dining commons at University of California Davis

Credit: Gregory Urquiaga / UC Davis

From curriculum to location, there’s so much to weigh when choosing a college or university.

And for high school seniors or prospective transfers who have dietary restrictions — particularly for medical reasons, including food allergies and chronic conditions such as celiac disease — picking a school that can accommodate their dietary needs is critical.

Before May 1, the official day to commit, here’s what to ask about dining halls, kitchen access and beyond.

Who should I reach out to?

The availability and range of options vary greatly from campus to campus, and the best way to get information is to ask the right people.

Reaching out to and scheduling an appointment with a campus dietitian nutritionist can be the easiest way to understand what options are available in the dining halls, and the extent to which the campus can guarantee safe options.

Some campuses have made extensive efforts. But others, like Cal Poly Humboldt and San Francisco State, can’t guarantee that meals can be made without cross-contamination.

“We understand how serious food allergies, celiac disease, and religious dietary needs can be, and we take those concerns to heart,” Todd Larsen, senior executive director for enterprise services at Cal Poly Humboldt, told EdSource. “While our kitchens are held to high safety and sanitation standards, they are not fully equipped to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination for individuals with severe dietary restrictions.”

Sometimes, campuses will also allow you to speak with a chef before a student enrolls; the chef can help answer specific questions about how meals are prepared and what kinds of measures they can take to prevent cross-contamination.

It’s also worth reaching out to current students or campus organizations focused on certain dietary needs for their perspective on the availability and safety of foods. This can also be helpful if you’re exploring what kinds of kosher or halal options are available.

Beyond dining services, it’s worth speaking with campus housing officials about living arrangements that include access to a kitchen.

What options are available at dining halls?

While dedicated kitchens are rare, many campuses throughout the state try to accommodate those with serious dietary needs — including labeling for top allergens and training for kitchen staff — but their approaches vary.

At some campuses, the options are more limited, with students being granted access to a common refrigerator stocked with frozen meals, whose labels students should read carefully before consuming.

UCLA, for example, takes such an approach, granting students with celiac disease, wheat allergies or gluten intolerance access to rooms with their own microwave, refrigerator, freezer, toaster and gluten-free meals.

Other campuses, like Sacramento State, have a dedicated station at a dining hall that features only allergen-free/friendly options or will allow students to work directly with an individual chef. And some, including UC Davis’s Dietary Support Program, grant students opportunities to order customized meals that are “prepared in a separate area, on separate equipment and by staff who have been trained on the dangers of cross-contact,” according to Emily Ortega, a registered dietitian nutritionist with the UC Davis Dining Services nutrition programs.

And if a student isn’t sure if something served in the dining halls is safe, or looks like it could be improperly labeled, it is important to check with the chef and inform the campus nutritionist.

Some campuses, like UC Merced, allow students to forgo their dining plan if the university cannot meet their needs. They may use a process that campus spokesperson Alyssa Flores Johansen says “involves multiple conversations, medical certification, and coordination with several campus stakeholders.”

What about access to a kitchen?

In addition to talking with the college or university’s dining program, it’s also important to contact housing to see what accommodations are provided.

For example, if a student needs access to an allergen station in a single dining hall, housing officials can sometimes place them in a dorm that’s closer.

At some campuses, like Cal State East Bay, all student housing includes a kitchenette. But that’s often not the norm, and housing officials can help explore options that include kitchen access, whether it’s living on the same floor as a communal kitchen where students can cook with their own pots and pans, or being assigned to an on-campus apartment.

On a smaller scale, within an individual dorm, it’s sometimes possible to request a separate refrigerator or microwave to help limit cross-contamination.

Think beyond the school year

It’s a good idea to jump on housing accommodations as soon as possible, and make sure a student’s needs will be met at dining halls from their first day of residency.

Ask about the hours of any dedicated station, what is provided during orientation, and what options are available during breaks.

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15/04/2025
Thousands of California educators issued pink slips again this year

San Diego Unified teachers protest pink slips before a school board meeting last year. The district plans to issue 30 preliminary layoff notices this year.

Courtesy of San Diego Education Association

San Francisco Unified announced the evening of March 13 that it will not lay off classroom teachers.

California school districts are again turning to layoffs to shore up budgets shrunk by declining enrollment, expiring federal Covid relief funds and a leveling off of state funding. So far, more than 2,300 school employees have received preliminary layoff notices, and the number is expected to grow.

More than 2,000 of the pink slips have gone to credentialed school staff — primarily teachers, school nurses and librarians, according to the California Teachers Association, which represents 300,000 school employees.

State law requires that districts send pink slips by March 15 each year to any employee who could be laid off by the end of the school year. Although many of the layoff notices are withdrawn by May 15 — the last day final layoff notices can be given to tenured teachers — the annual practice is criticized by many for demoralizing school staff and causing disruption to school systems.

“Layoffs are devastating and chaotic to our school communities and harm student learning conditions,” said CTA President David Goldberg. “This is even happening in communities like Pasadena, where educators and students lost their homes in wildfires. Our union will not stand by. We will demand that every single one of these notices is rescinded in the coming weeks.”

Pasadena Unified has issued 117 preliminary layoff notices, including 115 to credentialed staff.

Districts tried to avoid large layoffs

Some districts tried to avoid large-scale layoffs by considering other options, including early retirement incentives. San Francisco gave buyouts to 300 veteran teachers and other staff, and Santa Ana Unified gave that option to 166 teachers, but ultimately both districts are still laying off staff.

In fact, the two districts have issued the largest number of pink slips in the state so far, according to CTA data. San Francisco Unified notified 395 teachers of potential layoffs and Santa Ana Unified sent pink slips to 351 teachers, according to the CTA. Santa Ana Unified Chief Business Officer Ron Hacker says that number has since been reduced to 280.

San Francisco Unified, the state’s sixth-largest school district, has been struggling to close a $113 million deficit that helped put it on the list of the state’s most financially strapped districts. The district has also sent preliminary layoff notices to 164 teachers’ aides, and to 278 administrators and other staff.

Santa Ana Unified is attempting to reduce a $180 million structural deficit, but it also needs to reduce staff, Hacker said. In 2018, the school board decided not to pursue layoffs despite overstaffing and a structural deficit. The overstaffing problem continued through Covid when funding was tied to a state stipulation that districts can’t lay off employees, he said.

“The Covid relief grant funds are no longer flowing, and they’re expired, so we’re at the point now where we can’t sustain the counseling ratios and the class sizes that we have,” Hacker said.

The district also plans to make cuts to supplies, services and capital outlay to help balance the budget, Hacker said in an interview last month.

“That being said, 80% of our budget is salary and benefits, so the only way to tackle that entire structural deficit is to include positions too,” he said.

Most districts overstaffed

Some school districts avoided making staffing cuts despite declining enrollment, said Michael Fine, chief executive director of the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team.

“I think if you were to look at some statewide data on staffing versus enrollment, you’d see that almost everybody’s overstaffed in some fashion, at least on the certificated side, which is where we see that data,” Fine said.

Data on support staff, also known as classified staff, is not being collected by the state, he said.

District offered early warning bonuses

Santa Rosa Elementary School District and San Ramon Unified issued more than 100 pink slips to teachers and other credentialed staff in recent months, with the districts sending out 151 and 129 pink slips respectively, according to the CTA list.

Santa Rosa City Schools is trying to trim its budget by $30 million to reduce a structural deficit. The district, which operates 24 schools, has lost 3,000 students over the last decade.

Instead of offering an early retirement incentive, which wouldn’t save money for the district, Santa Rosa Unified gave employees bonuses if they gave advance notice that they wouldn’t be working at the district next school year, said Lisa August, associate superintendent of business services. Employees who gave notice by Jan. 31 received a $1,000 bonus, $750 if they gave notice by Feb. 15, and $500 if by Feb. 28.

The CTA list does not include many districts still in the process of issuing layoff notices, or whose unions did not report their numbers. Among them is Berkeley Unified, whose school board voted last week to notify 180 employees, 10 of whom are teachers, that they could lose their jobs, according to Berkeleyside.

Oakland Unified, which is on the state’s list of most financially strapped districts, also plans to issue 97 pink slips to teachers and central office staff, according to district information. And, Oxnard Union School district projects it will issue 91 pink slips to school staff, including 41 teachers and counselors, according to the Ventura County Star.

Layoffs can make recruitment harder

Layoffs can hurt teacher recruitment and make it more difficult to find teachers for hard-to-fill positions teaching special education, science, math, special education and English learners.

Teacher layoffs during the Great Recession, between 2007 and 2009, are widely considered to be one of the causes of the current teacher shortage because they discouraged people from entering teacher preparation programs. In recent years, enrollment in teacher preparation programs in the state has declined.

It’s unclear how many teachers will actually be laid off before next school year, as many pink slips are rescinded after district officials review credentials, expected retirements and projected enrollment numbers at school sites, and hearings with an administrative law judge are held to determine who stays and who goes.

The annual process can be nerve-wracking for teachers, especially those at the bottom of the seniority list, who could be issued pink slips in consecutive years.

“More than 2,000 educators have received a notice that they may not have a job next year, and tragically, that number increases each day,” Goldberg said. “These are the people who show up every day to teach and care for students in public schools across California — teachers, school counselors, social workers, instructional aides, custodians, and more.

“At a time when our students deserve a stable learning environment, smaller class sizes, and more mental health support, it is unconscionable to even think about laying off public school educators,” Goldberg said.

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15/04/2025
Upcoming Features for the New School Year

With virtual learning more relevant than ever, we at Wowzers are working hard to release a variety of new features for the upcoming 2020-2021 school year. As more schools make the move to virtual learning, our goals are to better support the diverse needs of students, provide more automation and adaptive features to personalize content, and encourage student accountability over their own learning. Here’s a rundown of what to expect in the coming months:

Automated Personalized Learning Paths

Soon, Wowzers will be able to automatically generate a personalized curriculum for all students. After completing our comprehensive pre-assessment, your students are assigned a curriculum path that meets them at their individual needs. As students work seamlessly across grade levels, they receive exactly the right content to accelerate their learning and engagement. This new feature is in addition to our integration with NWEA, which gives each student a personalized learning path based on their MAP Growth assessment results. Now, even schools that don’t use NWEA assessments will be able to automatically generate a personalized curriculum for all their students.

Offline Mode for the Wowzers App

Available on Chromebooks, iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS, our new app can be downloaded on almost any device. Because each student’s progress is stored in the cloud, they can switch devices whenever needed and pick up where they left off in the curriculum. With new optimizations, the app downloads up to four times faster than when students access Wowzers via a browser window.

Even when an internet connection isn’t available, the Wowzers app will soon be able to work offline, which allows students to work on Wowzers anywhere. Their progress is immediately retrieved when they sign in where there is an internet connection. The app is a perfect solution for students living in remote areas of the US, and the rest of the world, who don’t have internet access at home. When using the Wowzers app offline, it also requires very little time to load and uses less battery power.

K-2 in Spanish

The kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade content in Wowzers will soon be available in Spanish! Both the text and the voiceover can be switched to Spanish to support our younger ELL students.

New Student Dashboard

The new student dashboard allows students to more easily track their own progress. They will be able to easily see their latest scores and usage, encouraging them to remain accountable in their education journey.

New Remediation Videos

We’re also adding brand new remediation videos to the kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade content, just like the ones found in the older grades. These 100+ videos target exactly where students are struggling and help get them back on track with a short whiteboard lesson.

Additional Adaptive Features

When a student doesn’t quite pass the cumulative assessment at the end of a section, we’ll now move them backward in the curriculum to review the content. Teachers no longer need to manually adjust students’ curriculum paths when they’re struggling and not quite ready to move forward.

Our hope is that these features will make all our users’ lives easier, from students and their parents to teachers and administrators.

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15/04/2025
Thomas L. Friedman: After Trump’s Tariff Fiasco, Will Any Other Nation Trust America?

Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs opinion writer for The New York Times. In this post, he excoriates Trump for his arrogance and stupidity in handling the tariffs issue, and especially for his arrogance and stupidity in dealing with China. First, he insisted that he would “hang tough” on his plan to impose draconian tariffs. When the stock and bond markets crashed, he decided to put a 90-day pause on tariffs, exempting China.

He has alienated our allies and outraged China. His arrogance has isolated us in the world as a faithless bully. It seems that Trump’s “art of the deal” consists of bullying, threatening, insulting, and humiliating the other party. It doesn’t work in the international stage. Trump dissipated long-standing alliances and has made us look foolish in the eyes of the world. In less than three months, he has squandered good will, scorned close relationships, and thrown away our reputation as “leader of the free world.” The emperor has no clothes. He stands naked before the world as a stupid and reckless man.

It’s important to remember that Trump was never a successful businessman. He went bankrupt six times. No American bank would extend loans to him because of his abysmal record. Yet his MAGA cult believes in his business acumen because he played a successful businessman on TV. He is a performer who knows nothing about foreign trade, economics, or history.

How will we survive four years of Trump’s demented whims?

Friedman wrote:

I have many reactions to President Trump’s largely caving on his harebrained plan to tariff the world, but overall, one reaction just keeps coming back to me: If you hire clowns, you should expect a circus. And my fellow Americans, we have hired a group of clowns.

Think of what Trump; his chief knucklehead, Howard Lutnick (the commerce secretary); his assistant chief knucklehead, Scott Bessent (the Treasury secretary); and his deputy assistant chief knucklehead, Peter Navarro (the top trade adviser), have told us repeatedly for the past weeks: Trump won’t back off on these tariffs because — take your choice — he needs them to keep fentanyl from killing our kids, he needs them to raise revenue to pay for future tax cuts, and he needs them to pressure the world to buy more stuff from us. And he couldn’t care less what his rich pals on Wall Street say about their stock market losses.

After creating havoc in the markets standing on these steadfast “principles” — undoubtedly prompting many Americans to sell low out of fear — Trump reversed much of it on Wednesday, announcing a 90-day pause on certain tariffs to most countries, excluding China.

Message to the world — and to the Chinese: “I couldn’t take the heat.” If it were a book it would be called “The Art of the Squeal.”

But don’t think for a second that all that’s been lost is money. A whole pile of invaluable trust just went up in smoke as well. In the last few weeks, we have told our closest friends in the world — countries that stood shoulder to shoulder with us after Sept. 11, in Iraq and in Afghanistan — that none of them were any different from China or Russia. They were all going to get tariffed under the same formula — no friends-and-family discounts allowed.

Do you think these former close U.S. allies are ever going to trust getting into a trench with this administration again?

This was the trade equivalent of the Biden administration’s botched exit from Afghanistan, from which it never quite recovered. But at least Joe Biden got us out of a costly no-win war for which America, in my opinion, is now much better off.

Trump just put us into a no-win war.

How so? We do have a trade imbalance with China that does need to be addressed. Trump is right about that. China now controls one-third of global manufacturing and has the industrial engines to pretty much make everything for everyone one day if it is allowed to. That is not good for us, for Europe or for many developing countries. It is not even good for China, given the fact that by putting so many resources into export industries it is ignoring the meager social safety net it offers its people and its even more threadbare public health care system.

But when you have a country as big as China — 1.4 billion people — with the talent, infrastructure and savings it has, the only way to negotiate is with leverage on our side of the table. And the best way to get leverage would have been for Trump to enlist our allies in the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, India, Australia and Indonesia into a united front. Make it a negotiation of the whole world versus China.

Then you say to Beijing: All of us will gradually raise our tariffs on your exports over the next two years to pressure you to shift from your export economy to a more domestic-oriented one. But we will also invite you to build factories and supply chains in our countries — 50-50 joint ventures — to transfer your expertise back to us the way you compelled us to do for you. We don’t want a bifurcated world. It will be less prosperous for all and less stable.

But instead of making it the whole industrial world against China, Trump made it America against the whole industrial world and China.

Now, Beijing knows that Trump not only blinked, but he so alienated our allies, so demonstrated that his word cannot be trusted for a second, that many of them may never align with us against China in the same way. They may, instead, see China as a better, more stable long-term partner than us.

What a pathetic, shameful performance. Happy Liberation Day.

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15/04/2025
Moments that defined Covid-19’s impact on education in California
March 4, 2020

March 7, 2020

California Department of Education and California Department of Public
Health issue

joint guidance
on the coronavirus to school districts.

March 10, 2020

Colleges in California and nationally

move to
online instruction in response to the coronavirus. The California
Department of Education

receives
a USDA waiver that enables districts to feed students during
coronavirus-related closures.

March 13, 2020

Newsom signs

executive order
assuring closed schools remain funded as schools throughout the state

announce closures and distance learning

begins.

March 31, 2020

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond

advises districts
to plan for providing distance learning through the end of the school
year.

April 1, 2020

April 16, 2020

April 30, 2020

Colleges

begin to announce
plans not to resume classes in person. CSU, UC later
announce
decision to keep most fall classes online.

May 5, 2020

EdSource analysis
shows wide disparities in how much school districts will receive
through federal CARES Act.

May 12, 2020

May 14, 2020

Newsom projects a $54 billion deficit and $19 billion less in
Proposition 98 funding over two years for schools and community
colleges. Proposed budget

slashes funding for preschool and child care plans, teacher development
programs.

May 17, 2020

May 18, 2020

Superintendents of urban California districts pen
open letter to lawmakers saying proposed budget cuts will
set back restarting school.

May 21, 2020

In historic action, UC

moves to drop
SAT/ACT and develop a replacement exam for admissions.

May 25, 2020

May 29, 2020

College graduates forced to abandon the traditional celebrations and
ceremonies associated with graduation
turn to
families or even video games to mark their accomplishments.

June 11, 2020

In Los Angeles,
Oakland, West Contra Costa County
, Sacramento and San Francisco, K-12 officials
reconsider
whether police should be in schools and activists urge for their
removal in the wake of the George Floyd killing.

June 23, 2020

June 25, 2020

July 10, 2020

A spike in Covid-19 cases
prompts
more districts to plan for online education for the beginning of the
2020-2021 school year.

July 17, 2020

State
imposes
strict regulations for school opening and closing based on counties on
state’s monitoring list. Establishes
waiver process
to allow some elementary schools to reopen.

July 24, 2020

In response to new regulations, many school districts
abandon plans
for fall hybrid learning and in-person classes.

Aug. 3, 2020

Los Angeles Unified
reaches deal
with teachers over distance learning while other districts struggle to
finalize plans.

Aug. 7, 2020

State health officials release first health and safety
guidance
for how colleges and universities can reopen, but most classes must be
offered remotely and have other restrictions in place.

Aug. 14, 2021

State-issued
guidance
permitting limited openings will apply to districts in counties on the
coronavirus watch list, where schools are shut down, followed by
guidance
allowing small cohorts of 14 students and two adults for special
education, homeless and foster students.

Aug. 17, 2020

Los Angeles Unified announces
plan
to offer coronavirus testing to all students, staff.
Power outages
due to a heat wave hit California as school resumes virtually across
the state.

Aug. 24, 2020

Almost all colleges and universities
open
with few in-person classes, but dorms still house students and some
campuses plan for testing and contact tracing.

Aug. 28, 2020

Newsom
introduces
four-tiered color coded county tracking system to replace the previous
monitoring list for counties. The “Blueprint for a Safer Economy”
tracks counties by the number of Covid-19 cases recorded each day and
the percentage of positive cases out of the total number of tests
administered, both averaged over seven days. The system has had a
major impact on a school’s ability to reopen for in-person
instruction.

Aug. 31, 2020

The U.S. Department of Agriculture

reverses

earlier plans, allows schools to continue offering free grab-and-go
meals to any student, regardless of eligibility, as they did over the
summer.

Sept. 4, 2020

Lucerne Valley Elementary in San Bernardino County is one of the first
public schools in the state to get approval to

reopen

under state’s waiver program.

Sept. 21, 2020

California community colleges see

drops

in fall enrollment with some showing double-digit losses.

Oct. 20, 2020

UCLA researchers announce

research

showing big jump in homeless students.

Nov. 2, 2020

“Leading school superintendents

call on Newsom

to impose a “common standard” for reopening schools in California.”

Nov. 3, 2020

Joe Biden is elected 46th president of the United States, with
arguably the most ambitious education agenda of any president.
California voters

reject

Proposition 16 to restore affirmative action as well as

Proposition 15

to raise commercial property taxes denying schools more revenue from
this source in the future.

Nov. 16, 2020

As Newsom “sounds the alarm,”

pandemic surge

puts 28 more counties in the “purple” tier, putting opening of regular
classrooms on hold for millions of California students.

Dec. 1, 2020

Dec. 8, 2020

Impatient with Newsom’s policies on school reopening, California
Assembly leaders

press

for all districts to resume in-school teaching in the spring.

Dec. 21, 2020

Congress

approves

$900 billion Covid-19 relief package, including $82 billion for K-12
and colleges, plus $22 billion for Covid-19 testing that could help to
reopen schools. Of the $82 billion, $6.5 billion went to California
for K-12 schools.

Dec. 30, 2020

Newsom announces

“Safe Schools For All” plan

, which allowed in-person instruction in counties in “purple” tier
with daily case rate of less than 25, and a $2 billion

incentive program

to bring back in-person instruction for elementary grades and students
with special needs in prioritized categories by mid-February.

Jan. 6, 2021

Supporters of former President Donald Trump storm the United States
Capitol in a riot. California educators

condemn and reflect

on what many call an “insurrection.”

Jan. 8, 2021

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a new state budget increasing funding to
California colleges to stabilize tuition rates, provide emergency aid,
and “re-engage” students who have dropped out due to the Covid-19
pandemic. The budget also proposes $4.6 billion for summer school
programs.

Jan. 11, 2021

Teachers and other school employees in Mariposa County are among the
first in the state to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Jan. 13, 2021

West Contra Costa Unified

announces plans

to create a permanent, virtual K-12 academy, citing concerns about the
pandemic’s impact.

Jan. 14, 2021

Newsom announces the creation of Safe Schools for All Hub, a site
providing resources to school districts regarding California’s Covid-19
strategies.

Jan. 18, 2021

Covid-19 death toll passes 400,000 in the U.S., CDC announces.

Jan. 25, 2021

In a news conference, Newsom announces streamlined vaccination efforts,
including an age-based eligibility system and putting teachers high on
the state’s priority vaccination list.

Feb. 12, 2021

The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing extends a waiver
allowing those in preparation programs to continue teaching as they
finish their credentials, the latest move to combat a teacher shortage
during the pandemic.

Feb. 21, 2021

Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. surpasses 500,000, CDC announces.

Feb. 22, 2021

The Biden administration confirms all schools must resume annual
standardized testing, with modifications to protect against Covid. The
requirement had been suspended in March 2020.

Feb. 23, 2021

The California Department of Public Health reports that infection rates
have fallen significantly, allowing many elementary schools to begin
reopening.

March 4, 2021

The California Legislature approves a plan providing $2 billion in
incentives for districts that reopen for in-person learning beginning
April 1, starting with the earliest grades first.

March 11, 2021

President Joe Biden signs the $2 trillion

American Rescue Plan

allocating about $15 billion to K-12 schools in California to combat the
pandemic and related recession.

March 11, 2021

One-year anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring
Covid-19 a global pandemic.

March 19, 2021

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updates
guidelines on distancing in schools in elementary schools. Elementary
schoolers can safely distance from 3 feet, while middle and high schools
should maintain a distance of 6 feet.

March 24, 2021

U.S. Department of Education announces California is behind on returning
to in-person instruction.

April 6, 2021

CDC announces that about 80% of K-12 staff, teachers, staff and child
care workers have received at least their first dose of the Covid
vaccine.

April 13, 2021

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second-largest school
district in the nation,

reopens for in-person learning

after facing lawsuits and criticism from a group of parents for not
reopening sooner.

April 20, 2021

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announces that it will continue
reimbursing schools and child care centers for free meals, a move
serving food insecure families during the pandemic.

May 14, 2021

The University of California system announces it will no longer consider
SAT or ACT scores in scholarship or admissions decisions.

July 12, 2021

California announces a plan to spend $6 billion to expand broadband
internet access to thousands of students underserved by private internet
service providers during distance learning.

July 13, 2021

State rescinds mandate requiring schools to send home children who
refuse to wear a mask, announcing that it will allow schools to decide
what to do.

July 15, 2021

The University of California system announces that it will require
students, faculty and staff to show proof of vaccination against Covid.

July 27, 2021

The California State University System announces that all faculty,
students and staff will be required to show proof of vaccination.

July 27, 2021

CDC updates masking guidance, recommending masking indoors and in high
transmission areas, amid a surge in the Covid virus’s new delta variant.

Aug. 5, 2021

Several California community colleges, including ones in the Los Angeles
Community College District and Los Rios Community College District,
implement vaccine mandates amid surging cases.

Aug. 11, 2021

California becomes the first state in the nation to

require school staff

to be vaccinated against Covid or undergo weekly testing.

Aug. 18, 2021

Culver City Unified, in west Los Angeles, announces that it will require
all students to be vaccinated against and undergo weekly testing,
becoming the first school district in California to do so.

Sept. 3, 2021

Several rural districts in California close schools, following an
increase in cases of the delta variant of Covid-19.

Sept. 9, 2021

The Los Angeles Unified school board votes to require all students 12
and older to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, becoming the largest
public school district to do so.

Nov. 4, 2021

The chancellor of the California Community College system announces
student enrollment has dropped below 2 million students for the first
time in over 30 years due to the pandemic.

Nov. 5, 2021

A judge rules that California students with disabilities can resume
independent study after Assembly Bill 130 was passed, requiring all
schools to provide in-person classes. The bill made an exception for
those who qualified for independent study, but shut out several students
who had various disabilities preventing them from wearing a mask or
making them susceptible to Covid.

Nov. 18, 2021

The UC system announces it will stick with test-free admissions and will
not replace the SAT and ACT with a new exam.

Dec. 15, 2021

CDC announces the death toll in the U.S. has surpassed 800,000.

Dec. 17, 2021

Several school districts, including Los Angeles Unified and West Contra
Costa Unified, announce plans to delay vaccine mandate deadlines.

Dec. 28, 2021

CDC updates quarantine and isolation guidelines, and California
announces the state will follow them.

Jan. 3, 2022

CDC reports 1 million active Covid cases in the U.S, the highest daily
total of any country.

Jan. 7, 2022

About 900 teachers and aides stage a “sickout” to protest the lack of
Covid-19 protections in San Francisco public schools in the midst of a
surge of cases.

Jan. 10, 2022

Gov. Gavin Newsom announces that funding for schools and community
colleges will increase to over $100 million in the midst of a pandemic
affecting state revenue.

Jan. 11, 2022

Newsom signs an executive order loosening state regulations for
substitute teachers to combat staffing shortages.

Jan. 12, 2022

Following a

“sickout”

protest by several teachers at a West Contra Costa Unified middle
school, over half of Stege Elementary school’s teachers call out to
protest Covid-19 policies.

Jan. 12, 2022

Oakland-based research group Children Now releases report card detailing
the effects of the pandemic, wildfires and racial injustice on
children’s education and mental health.

Jan. 14, 2022

Several CSU and UC campuses suspend in-person classes following a surge
of cases.

Jan. 14, 2022

San Diego State University sees a record number of fall 2022 applicants,
indicating a bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.

Jan. 25, 2022

The chancellor of the CSU system announces tuition will not increase for
the 2022-23 school year as many students continue to face financial
struggles due to the pandemic.

Jan. 27, 2022

A panel for the CSU system recommends eliminating SAT and ACT exams for
admission, following several colleges across the nation during the
pandemic.

Jan. 28, 2022

EdSource reports that graduation rates held steady during the pandemic.

Feb. 25, 2022

CDC issues new rating system allowing most students in K-12 schools to
remove masks indoors.

Feb. 28, 2022

March 10, 2022

Covid-19 deaths worldwide surpass 6 million.

March 11, 2022

Two year anniversary of when the World Health Organization declared the
coronavirus a global pandemic.

March 15, 2022

California ends school mask mandate.

March 28, 2022

President Joe Biden proposes $88.3 billion dollars in new discretionary
funds for American colleges, a 16% increase from the previous year.

March 30, 2022

Almost 1 million Covid deaths have been reported in the U.S.

April 1, 2022

The National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers announces
state-based preschool programs suffered from massive pandemic-related
losses, including enrollment decline and loss of state funding.

April 6, 2022

Biden and the Department of Education announce an extension of the
student loan payment pause until Aug. 31. The pandemic-era policy
assisted millions of borrowers nationwide.

April 15, 2022

College students introduce a bill to add a 24-hour mental health hotline
number on student ID cards due to the growing mental health crisis
associated with the pandemic and other social justice issues.

May 12, 2022

U.S. Covid deaths top 1 million.

May 13, 2022

Newsom announces a revised state budget allocating $128 billion to
schools and community colleges in the state, $20 billion more than
initially proposed. The new budget is slated to provide $3.3 billion for
districts affected by inconsistent attendance due to new Covid variants.

Aug. 11, 2022

The Public Policy Institute of California reveals that science
instruction decreased in K-12 schools across the state during the
pandemic. More than 200 districts were surveyed, citing teacher burnout
related to the pandemic and a lack of funding for science, technology,
engineering and math programs.

Aug. 16, 2022

California to provide free lunch to all K-12 students, expanding on the
USDA’s pandemic-era universal meal program.

Aug. 23, 2022

Several public universities and colleges begin in-person instructions
with few Covid restrictions.

Sept. 14, 2022

Sept. 22, 2022

As educators worry about the pandemic’s effect on students, the state
Department of Education announces it will delay release of standardized
test scores from the previous year, prompting a public outcry.

Sept. 27, 2022

California Department of Education

announces it will release

standardized test scores projected to show declines related to global
pandemic. This is a contrast from the initial announcement indicating a
delay.

Oct. 24, 2022

EdSource reports that California students have performed significantly
worse on state standardized states, highlighting another one of the
pandemic’s impacts on education.

Nov. 15, 2022

CSU board of trustees abandons a plan to require a fourth year of math
for admission, citing pandemic-related concerns.

Nov. 23, 2022

Jan. 10, 2023

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a budget decrease for California Community
Colleges and K-12 schools, while continuing to allocate funding for
“learning recovery from Covid.”

Feb. 1, 2023

Officials from the Department of Public Health announce plans to end the
Covid vaccine mandate for school children.

Feb. 7, 2023

Several elementary schools in Marin County institute a temporary mask
mandate following an uptick in cases.

Feb. 10, 2023

CDC adds Covid-19 vaccine to recommended immunization schedule for
children ages 6-17.

April 3, 2023

CalFresh announces it will end two temporary exceptions allowing more
students to qualify for CalFresh during the pandemic.

April 4, 2023

Despite hopes of return to a “pre-pandemic normalcy,” state data reports
a decline in TK-12 enrollment.

April 26, 2023

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers,
testifies in front of Congress regarding Covid-related closures at
schools.

May 5, 2023

World Health Organization announces that Covid-19 is no longer
considered a global pandemic.

June 1, 2023

CalMatters reports that the Golden State Education and Training Grant
Program, which allows those affected by job loss due to Covid to enroll
in a college program, is set to end by June 15 in order to combat
ongoing budget deficit.

June 5, 2023

School officials and union leaders for Los Angeles Unified reach
agreement to extend winter breaks. If ratified, the measure will extend
the school year in hopes of combating Covid-related learning loss.

June 12, 2023

State Legislature mandates a change in literacy standards, hoping to
combat reading loss.

June 30, 2023

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules President Joe Biden
lacked the authority to implement a plan erasing $400 billion in college
student debt, leaving millions of people affected by financial woes
during the pandemic in a limbo.

July 7, 2023

The Legislature announces two bills to combat a teacher shortage
exacerbated by the pandemic, including one set to pay student teachers
for their required 600 hours of instruction.

July 28, 2023

The state Department of Education

plans to sue Stanford researchers

to prevent them from testifying in a suit alleging that the state failed
to prevent learning loss for low-income and other high-risk groups. Some
professors from the university planned to testify regarding the effects
of the pandemic on chronic absenteeism and student engagement/enrollment
measures.

Aug. 16, 2023

Reversing course, the department announces it will not pursue a lawsuit
against the Stanford researchers.

Sept. 22, 2023

Chancellor for California Community Colleges announces enrollment has
increased, bouncing back after years of pandemic-related declines.

Sept. 27, 2023

Los Angeles Unified School District announces it will no longer require
employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The mandate was under
controversy as many claimed it was discriminatory.

Oct. 18, 2023

CAASPP Smarter Balanced assessments reveal that districts have done
little to reverse learning loss due to the pandemic. The learning loss
disproportionately affected Black, Latino and economically disadvantaged
students.

Jan. 12, 2024

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a rainy day fund to protect California
colleges from expected budget shortfalls.

Jan. 25, 2024

Los Angeles Unified loosens Covid restrictions, allowing children and
school to return to school if symptoms are mild.

Feb. 28, 2024

A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine finds that long
Covid will have lasting effects on IQ levels and cognitive ability of
schoolchildren.

April 3, 2024

California Community Colleges reports that the system has lost more than
$5 million due to fraudulent registrations, a trend that has seen an
increase since the pandemic.

June 7, 2024

Trump-appointed judge in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules
that Los Angeles Unified employees can sue the district over expired
Covid policies. The suit had been thrown out by a lower court as the
rules were no longer in effect.

June 26, 2024

The New York Times reports that $190 billion given to schools to help
students recover from pandemic-related learning loss did little to
improve test scores.

July 3, 2024

Toddlers and babies born during the pandemic suffered from significant
developmental delays due to its effects, the New York Times reports.

July 23, 2024

Los Angeles Unified superintendent announces that the district has
recovered from some learning loss during the pandemic, with reading
scores showing English proficiency increasing from 41% to 43%. Math
scores also rose by 2 percentage points.

July 24, 2024

Study by Northwest Evaluation Association reports that a significant
number of eighth graders are approximately a year behind in learning
progress due to the pandemic.

Aug. 7, 2024

EdWeek reports that district administrators have until Sept. 30 to claim
share of Covid-related federal aid set aside to assist homeless
students.

Oct. 8, 2024

CSU system announces 461,000 enrolled students, the largest number since
the beginning of the pandemic.

Oct. 10, 2024

State data indicates improving scores on standardized tests, but not to
pre-pandemic levels. Government officials say the scores show that
districts are making up for learning loss.

Jan. 12, 2025

The Center on Reinventing Public Education gives California a D grade on
its reporting of the effects of Covid on students.

Jan. 16, 2025

EdSource reports that several schools and colleges around California
will receive over $45 billion in bonds for construction in a “post-Covid
vote of confidence.”

Feb. 6, 2025

West Contra Costa district announces it will cut several administrative
and staff positions due to a budget deficit, citing declining enrollment
and expiration of Covid-relief grants as causes.

It’s time to prioritize our youngest Californians

It’s time to prioritize our youngest Californians

Credit: Courtesy of Kidango

California is home to more than 1.7 million children under the age of 3 — our future doctors, teachers, engineers, and leaders. These youngest Californians represent about 4% of our state’s population and are from diverse backgrounds, with nearly 60% speaking a language other than English at home. Yet, for too long, they have been left behind in policy discussions and funding decisions.

The science is clear: 80% of brain growth happens by the age of 3, laying the foundation for a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. Every moment in which we do not invest in babies’ development is a critical missed opportunity to lay the foundation for our future.

That’s why babies urgently need high-quality, affordable early learning and care from birth. Unfortunately, for many families, this is either too expensive or unavailable, forcing parents into impossible choices between their careers and raising their children.

This dire shortage of care options affects more than just parents. When families can’t find high-quality, affordable care, the ripple effects are felt across workplaces, classrooms, and communities. Parents — and, in most cases, mothers — are often forced to leave the workforce, creating financial instability for their families, reducing career opportunities for women and decreasing the overall productivity in our economy.

To expand access and make early learning and care available to all of California’s children, our educators and caregivers need our support. These professionals, the majority of whom are women of color, are among the lowest-paid workers in the state. This chronic underinvestment has pushed many of them to leave the field, worsening an already extreme shortage of care.

We must expand the workforce because, while 36% of infants and toddlers qualify for subsidized care, only 14% have access to a space. But California — which has led the nation in taking bold action by creating access to universal preschool through the expansion of Transitional Kindergarten (TK) for all 4-year-old children and expanding access to state preschool to 3-year-olds — can close this gap.

It’s time to put solutions into action. Scaling successful models across early learning and care settings means expanding proven, high-quality programs to reach more children, especially those who live in communities that are under-resourced. By adapting these models to child care programs of all sizes — from home-based providers to large early learning centers — we can ensure more children have access to the education and support they need to thrive.

Here’s how we can act now:

Continue to support reforms to child care reimbursement rates to reflect the true cost of care. The goal is to develop policies to give caregivers a just and livable wage.
The Legislature and governor should move ahead with their plans to expand child care access to thousands more children of working-class families through the commitment to funding 200,000 new subsidized child care slots by the 2027-28 state budget, but they should target this access to infants and toddlers, because that is what families need the most.
We must remove the roadblocks to opening new child care centers and home-based providers, such as: allowing new early learning and care teachers to obtain their required college courses while working, as well as speeding up the time it takes for state child care licensing to approve new facilities, as we are currently advocating for at the legislative level.

Let’s Do This, Together

By listening to families; supporting early learning educators and providers; and working collaboratively with our governor, the Legislature, state leaders, and our partners, we can build a system that works for everyone. The future of our state depends on the decisions we make today.

Our babies can’t wait. Let’s act now to ensure they get the support they need to thrive.

•••

Patricia Lozano is the executive director of Early Edge California, a nonprofit organization that advocates for accessible, high-quality early learning and care for communities that are under-resourced, with a primary focus on babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.
Scott Moore is the CEO of Kidango, a leading early childhood non-profit that serves thousands of low-income children and families.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

3 Productivity Applications for Instructional Coaches

3 Productivity Applications for Instructional Coaches

Jeff Bradbury is an author, podcaster, public speaker, creator of the TeacherCast Educational Network and father of the world famous #EduTriplets.

Latest posts by Jeffrey D. Bradbury (see all)

In the dynamic world of education, specifically providing 1:1 support in the classroom, instructional coaches serve as the crucial bridge between administration and teachers, facilitating professional growth and enhancing student learning outcomes. However, the growing complexity of this role demands more than just pedagogical expertise – it requires masterful organization and efficient productivity systems.

When I first took on the role of an Instructional Coach more than 15 years ago, I had nothing more than the tools provided to me by my district, specifically the ones in what was then called Google Apps. Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, Classroom. It was primative at the time, but that was what we had to use.

Why Productivity Matters in Instructional Coaching

The modern instructional coach wears multiple hats: mentor, data analyst, professional development facilitator, and change agent. Without robust productivity systems in place, these diverse responsibilities can quickly become overwhelming, potentially diminishing the coach’s effectiveness and impact on teacher development.

Consider these daily coaching responsibilities:

Conducting classroom observations and providing timely feedback
Analyzing student achievement data to guide instructional decisions
Planning and facilitating professional development sessions
Meeting with teachers for one-on-one coaching sessions
Documenting coaching cycles and tracking progress
Communicating with administrators and stakeholders

Each of these tasks generates valuable data that needs to be collected, organized, analyzed, and presented effectively. This is where the right productivity tools become indispensable.

The Power of Digital Forms in Instructional Coaching

Why Digital Forms Are Essential

The first tool in our productivity arsenal is a robust digital forms platform, such as Google Forms or Microsoft Forms. These tools revolutionize how coaches collect and organize data, making the process more efficient and accurate.

Key Benefits of Digital Forms

Instant data collection and organization
Customizable templates for different observation types
Mobile accessibility for real-time documentation
Automatic time-stamping of observations
Easy sharing and collaboration capabilities

Practical Applications for Instructional Coaches

Digital forms can transform various aspects of coaching:

1. Classroom Observations

Create customized observation forms that align with your school’s teaching framework. Include both quantitative and qualitative data points, making it easy to track specific teaching strategies and student engagement levels.

2. Teacher Feedback Surveys

Develop forms for teachers to reflect on their practice and provide feedback on coaching support. This data helps coaches adjust their approach to better meet teacher needs.

3. Professional Development Planning

Use forms to gather information about teachers’ professional learning needs and preferences, ensuring that professional development initiatives are targeted and effective.

Notion Template - Instructional Coaches Command Center and Dashboard