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  • ‘There was a lot of fear’: Central Valley immigration raids drive up absences in schools, study finds

    ‘There was a lot of fear’: Central Valley immigration raids drive up absences in schools, study finds


    Credit: AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File

    Top Takeaways
    • Absentee rates in five districts cumulatively increased 22% after immigration raids in the Central Valley earlier this year.
    • Raids increase stress levels in school communities, making it difficult for students to learn.
    • Fewer students in class means less funding for schools, which rely on average daily attendance to pay for general expenses.

    Immigration raids in California’s Central Valley earlier this year caused enough fear to keep nearly a quarter of the students in five districts home from school, according to a report released Monday by Stanford University. 

    The study evaluated daily student attendance in the districts over three school years and found a 22% increase in absences after immigration raids in the region in January and February.

    Empty seats in classrooms impact student education and reduce districts’ funding for general expenses, which are tied to average daily attendance. The financial losses are especially difficult now because districts are already grappling with lost funding due to declining enrollment.

    “The first and most obvious interpretation of the results is that students are missing school, and that means lost learning opportunities,” said Thomas Dee, a Stanford professor of education and author of the report. “But I think these results are a harbinger of much more than that. I mean, they’re really a leading indicator of the distress that these raids place on families and children.”

    The raids in the Central Valley began in January as part of “Operation Return to Sender.” U.S. Border Patrol agents targeted immigrants at gas stations and restaurants, and pulled over farmworkers traveling to work, observers reported.

    All five districts analyzed in the study — Bakersfield City School District, Southern Kern Unified, Tehachapi Unified, Kerman Unified and Fresno Unified — are in or near agricultural regions that were impacted by the operation. The districts closest to the raids had the highest absentee rates, Dee said.

    It is unclear how many people were actually arrested during the four-day operation. Border Patrol officials have claimed 78 people were arrested, while observers say it was closer to 1,000, according to the study.

    Raids keep kids out of school

    But whatever the number of arrests, fewer students in these districts attended school in the wake of the raids. The results of the study also suggest that absentee rates in California schools could continue to increase if the raids persist.

    In the Stanford report, Dee cited studies, including one he co-wrote, that found that prior instances of immigration enforcement have negatively impacted grade retention, high school completion, test scores and anxiety disorders. The climate of fear and mistrust caused by the raids impacts children even if their parents are not undocumented, according to the report. 

    An estimated 1 in 10, or 1 million, children in California have at least one undocumented parent. And while most of the children of undocumented parents in the United States are U.S. citizens, approximately 133,000 California children are undocumented themselves, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

    Of the more than 112,500 students attending the five districts studied, almost 82,000 are Hispanic, according to state data. 

    Not all districts impacted by the raids were studied, however. Big Local News, a journalism lab at Stanford University, approached multiple districts to request data. These five districts responded, according to Dee.

    The school’s youngest students were the most likely to miss school because of immigration raids, according to the report. That trend is expected to continue because younger children are more likely to have undocumented parents, Dee said. Parents are also more protective of their younger children, he said.

    “I think it just makes sense that if you’re concerned about family separation, it is a uniquely sharp concern if your kids are particularly young,” Dee said. 

    Family separation has been a constant fear since the Central Valley raids, agrees Mario Gonzalez, executive director of the Education & Leadership Foundation. The nonprofit provides immigration support and educational services to the community, including tutoring in 30 Fresno Unified schools. 

    Gonzalez said the foundation saw a decrease in the number of families participating in onsite services, such as legal consultations, beginning with the first reported immigration raids in Bakersfield in January, and a decrease in school attendance. 

    High school students told the foundation staff that their friends were afraid to come to school.

    Fresno Unified attendance dipped

    Attendance in Fresno Unified — the state’s third-largest district — dropped immediately after the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Donald Trump, said Noreida Perez, the district’s attendance and social emotional manager. Based on internal calculations, a decline in average daily attendance continued until March, with attendance rates decreasing by more than 4% in one week in February, compared to the same time in 2024.  

    Families reported keeping their children home because they were afraid that immigration enforcement officials would be allowed on campus or that parents would be unsafe traveling to and from school for drop-off and pickup, Perez said.

    “There was a lot of fear during that time,” she said. “There’s a lot of stress that’s associated with the threats of something like this happening.”

    Families concerned about sending their children to school have reached out to the Education & Leadership Foundation to ask how their kids can continue to receive services, including bilingual instruction, reading and math intervention, and mentoring. Some wanted to learn about the district’s virtual academy, which Superintendent Misty Her had promoted during her home visits to address increased absenteeism. 

    The fear of immigration operations has also impacted the students who attend classes.

    “If a student is worried about this happening to their parents or to somebody that they love, it makes it really hard to focus on learning or to be present with their peers or with their teacher,” said Perez, who is also a licensed clinical social worker. “If it feels like I might not be safe at school, or I don’t know what I’m going to come home to, that supersedes my ability to really focus and learn.”

    Compensating schools

    Ongoing declining enrollment is causing financial pressure in many school districts. In the 2024-25 school year, enrollment statewide declined by 31,469 students, or 0.54%, compared to last year. The previous school year, attendance declined by 0.25%, according to state data. Immigration raids could make a bad situation worse.

    The issue is so concerning for school districts that the California Legislature is considering a bill that would allow the state to fund districts for the loss of daily state attendance revenue if parents keep their children at home out of fear of a federal immigration raid in their neighborhood. 

    Assembly Bill 1348, authored by Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, D-Delano, would allow the state to credit a district with the attendance numbers and funding they would have received had there not been immigration enforcement activity in their community.

    To receive compensation, a district will have to provide data attributing a decline in attendance in a school — of at least 10% — to fear of federal immigration enforcement. The district must also provide remote learning as an option to families who keep their children home for this reason.

    “When attendance drops, funding disappears, and when funding disappears, all students suffer — regardless of immigration status,” said Bains in a statement after the Assembly passed the bill 62-13 on June 2.

    John Fensterwald and Emma Gallegos contributed to this report.





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  • The Senate Passes Trump’s Big Ugly Budget Deal, and Vouchers Are in It

    The Senate Passes Trump’s Big Ugly Budget Deal, and Vouchers Are in It


    The U.S. Senate just passed Trump’s massive budget bill, which renews tax cuts for the rich and makes deep cuts to Medicaid, about $1 trillion. Three Republican Senators voted against it: Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Susan Collins of Maine. Vice-President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Many hoped that Lisa Murkowski of Alaska would also oppose the bill but the leadership bought her off by adding special exemptions and benefits for Alaskans.

    In The Washington Post:

    Combined with the impact of Trump’s tariffs — which the White House has argued will help pay for the bill’s tax cuts and new spending — the bottom 80 percent of households would see their take-home incomes fall, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

    “The right way to understand this bill is it is the largest wealth transfer from the poorest Americans to the richest Americans in modern history,” said Natasha Sarin, the Budget Lab’s president.

    Shortly before the bill passed, I received two reports on the education section. Contrary to earlier reports, the Republicans restored vouchers. Apparently they satisfied the objections of the Senate Parliamentarian or decided to ignore them.

    Leigh Dingerson, public school advocate who works for “In the Public Interest,” sent out this update shortly before the Senate passed the bill. The biggest takeaway: Vouchers are in again.

    For the last 24 hours (more, actually), the Senate has been voting on a slew of amendments to the bill. Most are going down along party lines. At the same time, the Senate parliamentarian has been reviewing the bill for germaneness.  She has struck out several provisions including, initially, the voucher language (this was Friday). But it was reinserted Saturday morning. Since then, some tweaks to the voucher language were made in an effort to win over some reluctant senators. Each time the language was changed, it had to go back through the parliamentarian. 

    This morning at about 2:15 am, Senator Hirono, along with Senators Reed, Kaine and van Hollen, presented their amendment on the floor of the Senate — an amendment to strike the voucher section altogether.  That amendment needed 51 votes to pass.  It got 50.  All the Democrats voted in favor. All Republicans with the exception of Senators Fischer, Collins and Murkowski opposed it.

     The voucher language currently in the bill has some important differences from where it started. Here are some key changes to the bill:

    • The tax credit is permanent, and now unlimited. There is no federal ceiling on how much can be spent. Republicans removed the $4 billion volume cap on the total amount of donations.
    • But!!  Current language limits the amount a donor can get a tax credit on: The text now allows any individual to donate to an SGO for a dollar-for-dollar tax credit worth $1,700 (rather than 10% of adjusted gross income originally).
    • States can now “opt in” to the program and must provide a list of approved scholarship granting organizations. And the bill clarifies that SGOs can only administer school vouchers within their state. This eliminates our worry that an SGO in Florida, for example, could hand out vouchers in Nebraska.
    • The Senate has removed the provision asserting that there shall be no Federal control over private or religious schools.  In other words, the door has been opened to federal regulation of schools funded with federal vouchers.
    • The bill provides broad authority for the Secretary of Treasury to regulate the program, including explicit authority to regulate scholarship granting organizations and opening the door to regulate private schools.

    So as you can see, there have been a lot of changes, some good, some bad. 

    ###############

    The NATIONAL COALITION FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION released the following statement:

    National Coalition for Public Education Denounces Senate Vote on Private School Voucher Program in “OBBB”

    Today, the Senate voted to include an uncapped national private school voucher program in its budget reconciliation bill. This represents the first time a majority of the lawmakers in the U.S. Senate have ever supported sending public dollars to private schools. Now that both chambers have voiced their support for private school voucher provisions, it is likely to become law this year, forcing tax dollars to support private religious schools that can pick and choose who they educate and discriminate explicitly against students with disabilities.

    Vouchers divert critical funds from public schools, which 90% of American families choose for their children to attend. Vouchers often go to students who never attended public schools in the first place, which drains taxpayer funds to subsidize private school tuition for well-off families who could afford it without money from the government. Under this harmful program, there will be no accountability for money sent to private schools, nor would the private schools be bound by key provisions of federal civil rights laws, which public schools follow.

    If this becomes law, the federal government will give a dollar-for-dollar tax credit to people who give money to use for payments for children to attend private schools or be homeschooled. This was not done previously with any other 501(c)3 donation in our history, and no other non-profit classified as a 501(c)3) would benefit from this one-to-one tax lowering scheme.

    America’s public schools educate all students in every community. Private schools that take taxpayer-funded vouchers, however, often discriminate against students for any number of reasons, including based on their disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, English language ability, academic abilities, disciplinary history, ability to pay tuition, or what their family looks like. The language that was in the House-passed bill about private schools maintaining policies that do not take into account whether or not a student has an Individualized Education Program (though these are not full protections under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was stripped in the Senate bill and supporters of the voucher provision criticized this language.

    Public schools are a cornerstone of American democracy. NCPE condemns Congress diverting billions of dollars away from public education and toward discriminatory, ineffective private school vouchers



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  • The missing element in Cal State’s big investment in AI

    The missing element in Cal State’s big investment in AI


    Credit: Matheus Bertelli / Pexels

    A recent New York Times investigation revealed OpenAI’s ambition to make artificial intelligence the “core infrastructure” of higher education. In California, that vision is already a reality: The California State University system has committed $16.9 million to provide ChatGPT Edu to 460,000 students across its 23 campuses. But this massive investment misses a crucial opportunity to develop the strategic thinking capabilities that make students genuinely valuable in an AI-augmented workplace.

    The irony is striking. OpenAI helped to create the problem of students outsourcing critical thinking to chatbots, and now presents itself as the solution by making that outsourcing even more seamless. Recent research in Psychology Today found a negative correlation between frequent AI use and critical thinking abilities, particularly among younger users. When students delegate decision-making and problem-solving to AI, they bypass the very mental processes that build strategic capabilities.

    California State University’s investment in ChatGPT Edu is significant and potentially transformative. But spending almost $17 million on AI tools without a strategic framework is like buying students calculators without teaching them mathematics. The investment is sound; what’s missing is teaching students how to direct these powerful capabilities strategically rather than becoming dependent on them.

    Students in the CSU system already possess remarkable strategic thinking skills that traditional academic metrics don’t capture. Here are a few examples. Working multiple jobs while attending school requires sophisticated resource optimization. Supporting families demands stakeholder management and priority balancing. Navigating complex bureaucracies develops systems thinking. Translating between different cultural communities builds pattern recognition across domains.

    These aren’t just life experiences — they’re strategic capabilities that, when developed and articulated, become powerful career advantages in an AI-augmented workplace. The goal should be to help students recognize and leverage these skills, not replace them with chatbot dependency.

    European business schools are already proving that the strategy-focused approach works. At Essec Business School, outside of Paris, executive education programs focus on developing “strategically fluent leaders” who use AI as a strategic tool rather than a replacement for thinking. Students learn to maintain strategic direction while leveraging AI capabilities — exactly what CSU students need. When executives can apply strategic frameworks to AI integration, they don’t merely use the technology better; they direct it toward genuine business value.

    A recent University of Chicago Law School study found that even AI systems trained on specific course materials made “significant legal errors” that could be “harmful for learning.” This isn’t about AI’s current limitations; it’s about the fundamental difference between tactical execution and strategic judgment. AI excels at processing information within defined parameters, but strategic thinking requires the uniquely human ability to see patterns across domains, understand complex motivations, and envision new possibilities.

    The democratization of AI tools actually creates unprecedented opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds to translate their strategic insights into career success. But only if we teach strategic frameworks, not just tool usage.

    In my courses at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School — spanning advertising, social media, public relations and political communications — I’m developing approaches that emphasize strategic thinking alongside AI capabilities. Rather than just teaching AI literacy, I focus on helping students develop strategic frameworks for directing these tools effectively. The goal isn’t AI literacy — it’s strategic literacy enhanced by AI capabilities.

    Rather than criticizing CSU’s AI investment, we should help the system maximize its value. Imagine courses that help students identify their strategic thinking patterns from real-world experience, develop frameworks for human-AI collaboration, and practice directing AI capabilities toward strategic goals. Students would graduate not as AI users, but as strategic directors of AI — exactly what employers need, and exactly what justifies CSU’s significant investment.

    This isn’t about rejecting AI in education. It’s about ensuring that as AI handles tactical execution, we develop the strategic thinking capabilities that become more valuable, not less. CSU students bring strategic insights from lived experience that no chatbot can replicate. The question is whether we’ll help them recognize and develop these capabilities, or teach them to depend on tools instead.

    We don’t need AI-native universities. We need strategic-thinking native students who can direct AI capabilities toward human purposes. That’s the transformation worth investing in.

    •••

    Steve Caplan teaches strategic communications at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and is the author of “Strategy First: Thriving in the Face of Technological Disruption.”

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Trump freezes grant funding, upending school budgets

    Trump freezes grant funding, upending school budgets


    California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond speaks at a press conference Tuesday, July 1, 2025.

    Credit: Kindra Britt/California County Superintendents

    Top Takeaways
    • The Trump administration announced it would withhold $811 million in grant funding the day before the money was to be released.
    • The grants fund teacher training, migrant education, school enrichment courses, summer school and after-school programs, and support English learners.
    • California education leaders call the funding freeze a political move that hurts the neediest children.

    The Trump administration’s decision to withhold $811 million in grants to California schools is a political move that weaponizes federal funding, California education leaders said at a press conference Tuesday.

    California isn’t the only state in President Donald Trump’s crosshairs. The White House has frozen a total of $6.2 billion in grants that Congress allocated to support English learners, teacher training, after-school programs and migrant education in schools in every state.

    State departments of education were notified of the funding freeze in an email sent on Monday, just a day before the money was scheduled to be released to school districts. The 84-word message said that the federal grants weren’t “in accordance with the President’s priorities,” said California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond at the press conference.

    The president intends to withhold the funding approved in the 2024-25 federal budget while the grants are reviewed, according to Politico. In the meantime, Congress is set to approve a budget for 2025-26 that could eliminate the grants altogether or lump them into a block grant.

    “The president and his administration continue to pick on and bully those who are the least among us — students, those who rely on health care, those who rely on the federal government to have a chance at a great education and a great life,” said Thurmond, flanked by the leaders of various state education organizations. “And we won’t stand for it. It will not happen on our watch.”

    The loss of grant funding will impact students across the state, “in red and blue counties, in rural and urban areas,” said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association.

    Among the programs at risk are Supporting Effective Instruction grants to improve the quality of the nation’s educators; 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which fund high school extended-learning programs; English language acquisition; migrant education; and Student Support and Academic Enrichment, which funds music, technology and other programs schools can not afford on their own. 

    Although the federal grant funds are only a small portion of the $8 billion in federal funding California receives for education, their sudden loss is a major disruption for school districts that have already budgeted funds for the upcoming school year.

    Freeze unravels school funding plans

    The U.S. Department of Education action will withhold $110 million from Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school district, said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Tuesday.

    “The majority of funds are targeting student populations that have some degree of association with fragile communities, and certainly, immigrant communities,” Carvalho said. “And, all this is happening today, as summer school continues, and (we) have immigration enforcement actions around our schools, spreading fear and intimidation.”

    LAUSD serves the country’s largest population of immigrant children and English learners, including through federally funded programs like the Migrant Education Program, which provides additional support for children of migrant agricultural workers.

    LAUSD recently approved an $18.8 billion budget that includes state and federal funding for the upcoming school year. 

    “The vast majority of districts across the state have already approved budgets, and the (Trump) administration knows very well what they’re doing,” Carvalho said. “They’re creating a disruption to the orderly operation of school districts by imposing a potential reduction after the approval, which would force us to reopen the books.”

    Carvalho said the district has “the reserves necessary to fill the gap in the short term,” caused by the $110 million rescission, and will not make immediate reductions to personnel or programs.

    To prevent long-term cuts, he said the district will join the expected legal action by California Attorney General Rob Bonta in hopes of an injunction and the release of withheld funds. 

    Other districts, such as West Contra Costa Unified in the Bay Area, will have a more difficult time managing without the federal funds. The district was able to approve a balanced budget for the upcoming school year, but only by spending down its reserves, said board President Leslie Reckler.

    The district has relied on the funding provided by the grants for years for a range of services, Reckler said.

    The announcement comes as the district is still digesting the fallout from being informed by the U.S. Department of Education that a five-year $4.2 million federal grant it had been awarded to place mental health interns in several schools would be cut to only one year for $600,000. The department told the district that the grant was no longer “aligned with the current goals” of the administration.

    Migrant education at risk

    The Monterey County Office of Education operates several migrant education programs during the summer break. The programs are for students whose parent or guardian is a migratory worker in the agricultural, dairy, lumber or fishing industries and whose family has moved during the past three years for work.

    The programs include academic intervention programs and tutoring to help students catch up with English, math, or other subjects; health services; family literacy programs for parents and guardians; and exchange programs for teachers from Mexico to support students who travel back and forth between Mexico and the U.S.

    The Trump administration is withholding $121 million in grants for migrant education in California.

    Constantino Silva, senior director of migrant education in Monterey County, said the county superintendent has said these programs will continue through July, even if federal funding does not come through. The county will either use leftover funds from the previous fiscal year or pull them from another source. 

    After July, he does not know how long programs will continue without federal funding, although the outlook is not good, he said.

    State has 1 million English learners

    Withholding $158 million in grants for English language acquisition could have a huge impact on California K-12 schools where 1 in 3 students speak a language other than English at home, Goldberg said.

    Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, said the announcement that federal funding is being withheld for English language acquisition has districts scrambling to figure out how they will provide legally mandated services to English learners.

    Administrators are frantic about what they’re going to do, particularly about staffing, because state law requires school staff to be notified in March if they are going to be laid off, she said. 

    “So now, having to think about, with declining enrollment and budgets already being tight, how are they going to possibly retain staff that have been paid for out of Title III?” Hernandez said.

    Districts are still required under federal law to provide services to English learners to help them learn English and help them understand their classes, she said.

    “It’s just an unconscionable blow to districts. To cut it on July 1, when the funding was supposed to be disbursed, is just really cruel,” Hernandez said.

    Summer school, teacher training impacted

    Several of the frozen grants could impact over 10,000 after-school and summer programs serving 1.4 million students, said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance. Many will have to close, leaving more children unsupervised.

    “Parents across the country are counting on these programs to support their kids this summer, this fall, and throughout the school year,” Grant said.

    The largest chunk of funding being frozen is $232 million from the Supporting Effective Instruction grant, which can be used to reform certification programs, support new teachers, provide additional training for existing teachers and principals, and reduce class size by hiring more teachers. 

    In February, the Department of Education threatened to withhold federal funding from schools and colleges that did not abandon “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.

    Last month, Trump also threatened to withhold federal funding from states or schools that allow transgender students to play sports on teams that align with their gender identity. The state went to court seeking to have the funds restored and won. 

    But even after California won cases against the Trump administration, it has sometimes had trouble drawing down funds from the federal government.

    Thurmond said it may look for legal recourse again to restore the grant funding.

    “We are going to push back on these egregious overreaches by the federal government and what we’re calling an illegal impoundment of federal education dollars,” Thurmond said.

    In the meantime, David Schapira, chief of staff for Thurmond, recommended that school districts consult their legal counsel on how to proceed while the grants are in limbo and make individual decisions about what is best for their communities based on the information available.

    Education leaders at the press conference had strong words about Trump’s actions. The president is willing to punish students in states that refuse to conform to his political ideology, Schapira said.

    “The taxpayers entrusted their elected representatives in Congress to appropriate dollars that are meant to serve students across this country. Those should not be held hostage by the priorities of one person,” Schapira said.

    Lasherica Thorton and Louis Freedberg contributed to this report.





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  • Advocacy group leader talks about the challenges of transitional kindergarten

    Advocacy group leader talks about the challenges of transitional kindergarten


    Credit: Randall Benton / EdSource

    Michael Olenick has spent his life pondering the preschool years. His mother, a childhood development professor, was one of the first Head Start teachers back in the 1960s, so he started preschool at age 3.

    credit: CCRC

    In some ways, he has never left that space. Olenick, a lifelong advocate for children and families and president of the Child Care Resource Center, a California-based advocacy organization, has long been a champion of early childhood education, having seen its power to uplift lives firsthand. But he worries that the educational system often pits the needs of one age group of children against another. 

    For instance, he worries that the rollout of transitional kindergarten, or TK, not only has undermined the preschool sector by stealing away some of its 4-year-olds. He also notes that TK is poised to run into a number of speed bumps ahead, including a lack of facilities and the need for more child developmental training, as it reaches full implementation in the fall. 

    Olenick, who received his Ph.D. from UCLA in educational psychology and has shaped the field with influential research on the importance of quality child care, recently made time to chat about his passion for early education and what he sees as the key challenges facing TK.

    What fascinates you most about early ed?

    My mother said that I always liked kids because I always had to be there in her classrooms. To me, it’s the most hopeful period of time, the opportunity to change kids’ trajectories the most. It’s the most hopeful time in life.

    What are the biggest challenges in the expansion of TK? Do you worry about too much academic rigor, potty training incidents, the need for nap time?

    All of those issues. In the ’80s I evaluated hundreds of preschool programs and kept running into large numbers that were drilling children on colors, numbers and letters for inordinate amounts of time. Boys had a harder time with this than girls. In looking at teacher qualifications, I saw lots of certificated teachers who were doing the drilling. I realize that’s a long time ago, but I keep hearing from colleagues seeing the same thing now. That’s why we pushed for early childhood education units for TK teachers. The other issue that comes up is many schools are designed for children to go to the bathroom unescorted. Four-year-olds can get lost there.

    What do you think is the root source of the problem? A lack of understanding of child development, like the realities of potty training?

    I don’t think most current teachers understand early development. Over time, this may right itself if they get the education they need. But principals have to have the expectation that TK is not first grade. Also, teachers do not generally handle toileting issues, and schools are not designed for 4-year-olds.

    Is the academic pressure too high today? 

    I recently got an email from my first adviser at UCLA saying she went to half a dozen TK classrooms, and it looked like first grade. I wrote her back and I said, I told you so. We don’t have enough people yet that understand that kids learn differently. People learn at different rates, and we try to put them all into the same box and have them all learn stuff at the same time. Some of them are just not ready yet. You have to individualize instruction. 

    Why do you think the TK take-up rate has been more sluggish than expected?

    Some of the biggest challenges are in rural districts, where they can’t get a very large number to attend, and the lack of child-sized facilities, especially easily accessible bathrooms. Also, I don’t buy the part about this helping all lower-income children because their parents need a full-day, full-year solution, not just three hours. For families who have a predictable schedule, a 9-to-5 job, TK with aftercare probably works pretty well, but some families need more flexibility.

    Why are small ratios so important?

    There has always been the rationale for safety. But more recent literature focuses on individual interactions between adults and children, and the fewer children per adult increases interactions, learning and attachment.

    Why is play so key in TK?

    Play is so important. I’ve heard from several TK program directors who said it took their administrators five years to recognize that play was learning. It’s not just the teachers that need to be trained on what’s developmentally appropriate; it’s important for principals, too. You know, a principal comes into a classroom and expects to see that teacher up in front of that class teaching. So if you go in and you see all these kids are playing, you may not realize they are being taught. It’s all about how you structure things in the classroom because you can get the same results in a play environment. You don’t have to drill kids. 

    Do you think we focus on setting a solid preschool foundation too much when financial stability may be more important for families?

    It’s at least as important. We do a lot of work with families that are below the federal poverty line, the poorest of the poor. There are classrooms where there are kids who seem to be defiant. There was one kid who, it turns out, was deaf, and it took a long time to get him checked. He wasn’t being defiant; he just couldn’t read our lips. We have to work to give families what they need. 





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  • Randi Weingarten: Trump’s Big Bad Bill Is Good for His Billionaire Buddies

    Randi Weingarten: Trump’s Big Bad Bill Is Good for His Billionaire Buddies


    The American Federation of Teachers released a statement by its President Randi Weingarten:

    Contact:
    Andrew Crook
    607-280-6603
    acrook@aft.org

    AFT’s Weingarten on Senate’s Big, Ugly Betrayal of America’s Working Families

    As we prepare to celebrate our independence, the promise of the American dream, of freedom and prosperity for all, is now further out of reach.’

    WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after the Senate passed President Trump’s billionaire tax scam:

    “This is a big, ugly, obscene betrayal of American working families that was rammed through the Senate in the dead of night to satisfy a president determined to hand tax cuts to his billionaire friends.

    “These are tax cuts paid for by ravaging the future: kicking millions off healthcare, closing rural hospitals, taking food from children, stunting job growth, hurting the climate, defunding schools and ballooning the debt. It will siphon money away from public schools through vouchers—which harm student achievement and go mostly to well-off families with kids already in private schools. It’s the biggest redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich in decades—far worse, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, than the version passed by the House.

    “But if you only listened to those who voted yes, you wouldn’t have heard anything like that. You would’ve heard bad faith attempts to rewrite basic laws of accounting so they could assert that the bill won’t grow the deficit. You would’ve heard false claims about what it will do to healthcare and public schools and public services, which are the backbone of our nation.

    “The reality is that the American people have rejected, in poll after poll, this bill’s brazen deception. As it travels back to the House and presumably to the president’s desk, we will continue to sound the alarm and let those who voted for it know they have wounded the very people who voted them into office. But it is also incumbent on us to fight forward for an alternative: for working-class tax cuts and for full funding of K-12 and higher education as engines of opportunity and democracy.

    “Sadly, as we prepare to celebrate our independence, the promise of the American dream, of freedom and prosperity for all, is now further out of reach.”

     ###

    The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.



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  • Building sustainable STEM pathways requires trust, collaboration 

    Building sustainable STEM pathways requires trust, collaboration 


    Bianca Alvarado debriefs the San Diego STEM Advisory Community Committee during a meeting at the Elementary Institute of Science.

    Credit: Courtesy Digital Promise

    In sunny San Diego, opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are steering the city’s economic growth more than ever before — presenting a future bright with possibilities.

    Yet too many students are missing out on opportunities to access the STEM careers that advance the region’s prosperity. 

    According to San Diego’s 2030 Inclusive Growth Framework, 65% of low-income jobs in San Diego are “predominantly held by people of color.” In the technology, biotech and clean tech sectors, Hispanic and Latino communities are underrepresented, despite the projection that they will constitute nearly half of San Diego County’s future workforce. At the same time, talent scarcity has become a new normal in San Diego.

    But we can reverse those trends by investing in cross-sector partnerships and community-driven collaborations to help students access more opportunities in STEM fields.

    That’s why we launched the San Diego STEM Pathways initiative, which involves a wide range of community partners working to guide more than 100,000 students toward well-paying STEM careers in San Diego’s high-impact industries. This bold ambition reflects a statewide opportunity to align local innovation with California’s broader economic and impact goals.

    To bring everyone together, we engaged different industries through a collaborative design process that ultimately laid the groundwork for our efforts in the region. A 14-member committee of regional leaders representing early childhood education, K-12, postsecondary, workforce development, community-based organizations, and philanthropy reflected on why prior collaborations failed and identified some key factors missing. 

    To achieve our shared vision of building STEM pathways rooted in community co-design and shaped by the innovation and talent already present in the region, connection, trust and co-creation are essential. Our goal is to build upon existing efforts by fostering alignment across systems, thereby expanding access to opportunities for all students. Achieving meaningful collaboration also requires creating an environment where participants can openly address challenges.

    The cross-sector team devoted months to listening, learning and documenting insights. Key emerging themes included the need for: 

    • Clear communication and a deep understanding of partners’ motivations and aspirations.
    • Aligning efforts through early and ongoing conversations with community members, students, industry leaders and local partners to co-design well-rounded STEM pathways. 

    With support from Digital Promise through dedicated staff to help facilitate the advisory committee and track progress, we have created space to foster relationships and trust. (Digital Promise is a global nonprofit that works with educators, researchers, technology leaders, and communities to design, investigate, and scale up innovations that empower learners.)

    Building trust involves planning, consistency and taking actions that contribute to a larger goal. Demonstrating a long-term vision through smaller, incremental actions helps maintain momentum. Given that our advisers are high-level executives, flexibility and a collaborative space where their contributions are valued and not burdensome are crucial for their input to flourish. This requires ongoing nurturing, especially as we move toward a collective regional collaboration. 

    When communities feel seen, heard and valued, they become co-architects of change. They readily contribute when we engage with them on their terms and at their capacity, rather than expecting them to adapt to our requirements. By accommodating their needs and meeting them where they are — whether they are ready to collaborate, learn, stay informed, or actively participate — we uplift collaborators to become co-creators of change and engage at their desired level. 

    That’s how we’re building durable systems that truly reflect and serve the needs of all learners across the state of California. 

    Advisory members began developing their solution concept ideas earlier this year and are now moving toward launching a mini-pilot. Their innovative, community-driven concepts include: 

    • An effort to support preschool and elementary educators with real-world training that inspires young students in math and science and sets them on a path toward future success through partnerships with local colleges, experts and community partners.
    • A program that will work closely with students and families — especially those experiencing housing insecurity — to expand access to STEM through after-school activities, college visits and campus stays that build excitement and readiness for higher education.
    • A South Bay initiative that helps students grow their interest and confidence in STEM from middle school through college by combining hands-on learning, career exploration and local partnerships to prepare them for real-world success.
    • An easy-to-use online hub where families, educators and partners can find local STEM programs, support services, and ways to work together to create opportunities for all students.

    “Building Bridges: Cultivating Interconnectedness for STEM Pathways in San Diego,” a new report produced by the initiative, provides additional information about each of the concept ideas. 

    As this work continues to gain momentum, the path forward demands deeper engagement with those most impacted — parents, community members and local leaders. But authentic collaboration doesn’t begin with action plans; it begins with trust. As we continue to deepen our partnership, we are constantly reminded that investing in trust-building isn’t a detour from progress; it is progress.

    •••

    Bianca Alvarado is the director of the San Diego STEM Pathways Initiative at Digital Promise, where she spearheads a collaborative effort to ensure access to STEM education and career pathways in San Diego County.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • A Teacher’s Guide to Visual Planning – TeacherCast Educational Network

    A Teacher’s Guide to Visual Planning – TeacherCast Educational Network


    Jeffrey D. Bradbury
    Latest posts by Jeffrey D. Bradbury (see all)

    Are your students struggling to understand complex historical timelines? Many history teachers face a common challenge – helping students grasp and visualize interconnected historical events, especially during pivotal periods like World War II. Traditional textbooks, with their dense paragraphs, often leave students overwhelmed and disconnected from the material.

    Here’s where Google Sheets comes to the rescue with its powerful timeline feature. This versatile tool transforms complex historical data into clear, interactive visual timelines that enhance student comprehension and engagement. Through hands-on experience with several history classes, I’ve seen how this simple yet effective tool helps students better understand historical relationships and concurrent events.

    In this comprehensive guide, I’ll walk you through creating dynamic, engaging timelines using Google Sheets. Whether you’re a history teacher mapping out World War II events, a curriculum planner organizing yearly objectives, or an educator helping students manage project deadlines, you’ll discover how to create interactive timelines that make learning more accessible and engaging.

    What You’ll Need

    • A Google account (your school account works perfectly)
    • Basic familiarity with Google Sheets
    • Events or milestones you want to visualize

    Let’s Create Your Timeline

    Step 1: Setting Up Your Data

    First things first – let’s organize our information in a way that Google Sheets can understand:

    • Open a fresh Google Sheet (I like to name mine right away to stay organized)
    • Create three columns: Date, Event Title, and Description
    • Pro Tip: I always freeze my header row to make scrolling easier later

    Step 2: Creating Your Timeline Chart

    Here’s where the magic happens:

    • Highlight your data range (including headers)
    • Click Insert > Timeline
    • Watch your data transform into a visual timeline!

    Step 3: Making It Look Professional

    Let’s make your timeline pop with some educator-friendly customizations:

    • Use different colors to categorize events (great for visual learners!)
    • Add detailed tooltips to provide additional context
    • Adjust the date format to match your needs (especially helpful for historical events)

    Classroom Application Ideas

    • Historical Event Mapping: Perfect for showing cause and effect relationships
    • Project Management: Help students track group project milestones
    • Curriculum Planning: Map out your units across the school year
    • Literary Timeline: Track events in a novel or play

    Troubleshooting Tips

    After helping dozens of teachers implement this in their classrooms, here are the most common issues I’ve encountered and their solutions:

    • Dates not showing correctly? Double-check your date format consistency
    • Timeline too crowded? Try creating separate timelines for different themes or periods
    • Need more visual impact? Experiment with different colors and font sizes in the Chart Editor

    What Can You Do with Google Sheet Timelines?

    Remember, the goal isn’t just to create a pretty timeline – it’s about making information more accessible and engaging for our students. I’d love to hear how you’re using timelines in your classroom! Reach out on social media to share your ideas.

    Happy teaching!

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  • California retires RICA; new teacher test to focus on phonics

    California retires RICA; new teacher test to focus on phonics


    During small group reading instruction, AmeriCorps member Valerie Caballero reminds third graders in Porterville Unified to use their fingers to follow along as they read a passage.

    Credit: Lasherica Thornton/ EdSource

    Top Takeaways
    • On July 1, the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment will be replaced by a literacy performance assessment.
    • The licensure test puts a sharpened focus on foundational reading skills.
    • The new test is one of many new changes California leaders have made to improve literacy instruction.

    Next week, the unpopular teacher licensure test, the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment, will be officially retired and replaced with a literacy performance assessment to ensure educators are prepared to teach students to read.

    The Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA) has been a major hurdle for teacher candidates for years. About a third of all the teacher candidates who took the test failed the first time, according to state data collected between 2012 and 2017.  Critics have also said that the test is outdated and has added to the state’s teacher shortage.

    The literacy performance assessment that replaces the RICA reflects an increased focus on foundational reading skills, including phonics. California, and many other states, are moving from teaching children to recognize words by sight to teaching them to decode words by sounding them out in an effort to boost literacy.

    Mandated by Senate Bill 488, the literacy assessment reflects new standards that include support for struggling readers, English learners and pupils with exceptional needs, incorporating the California Dyslexia Guidelines for the first time.

    “We believe the literacy TPA will help ensure that new teachers demonstrate a strong grasp of evidence-based literacy instruction — an essential step toward improving reading outcomes for California’s students,” said Marshall Tuck, CEO of EdVoice, a nonprofit education advocacy organization.

    Literacy test on schedule

    Erin Sullivan, director of the Professional Services Division of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, said the literacy performance assessment is ready for its July 1 launch.

    “We’ve been field-testing literacy performance assessments with, obviously, the multiple- and the single-subject candidates, but also the various specialist candidates, including visual impairment and deaf and hard of hearing,” Sullivan said. 

    California teacher candidates must pass one of three performance assessments approved by the commission before earning a preliminary credential: the California Teaching Performance Assessment (CalTPA), the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA), or the Fresno Assessment of Student Teachers (FAST).

    A performance assessment allows teachers to demonstrate their competence by submitting evidence of their instructional practice through video clips and written reflections on their practice. 

    “It’s very different,” said Kathy Futterman, an adjunct professor in teacher education at California State University, East Bay. “The RICA is an online test that has multiple-choice questions, versus the LPA — the performance assessment — which has candidates design and create three to five lesson plans. Then, they have to videotape portions of those lesson plans, and then they have to analyze and reflect on how those lessons went.”

    Field tests went well

    This week, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing board is expected to hear a report on the field test results, approve the passing score standards for the literacy cycle of the performance assessment and formally adopt the new test.

    All but one of the 280 teacher candidates who took the new CalTPA literacy assessment during field testing passed, according to the report. Passing rates were lower on the FAST, with 51 of 59 passing on the first attempt, and on the edTPA with 192 of 242 passing.

     Cal State East Bay was one of the universities that piloted the test over the last two years. 

    “It’s more hands-on and obviously with real students, so in that regard I think it was very helpful,” Futterman said.

    State could offer flexibility

    Upcoming budget trailer bills are expected to offer some flexibility to teacher candidates who haven’t yet passed the RICA, Sullivan said. 

    The commission is asking state leaders to allow candidates who have passed the CalTPA and other required assessments, except the RICA, to be allowed to continue taking the test through October, when the state contract for the RICA expires, she said.

    “We are looking forward to putting RICA to bed and moving on to the literacy performance assessment, but … we don’t want to leave anybody stranded on RICA island,” Sullivan said.

    The commission has approved the Foundations of Reading examination as an alternative for a small group of teachers with special circumstances, including those who would have completed all credential requirements except the RICA by June 30, but the test may not be the best option for them, Sullivan said.

    “It’s just a very different exam,” Sullivan said. “It’s a national exam. And while the commission looked at it and said, ‘We think this will work for our California candidates,’ it’s not the best-case scenario. So, trying to get these folks to pass the RICA and giving them every opportunity to do that until really it just goes away, that’s kind of what we’re looking at.”

    The Foundations of Reading exam, by Pearson, is used by 13 other states. It assesses whether a teacher is proficient in literacy instruction, including developing phonics and decoding skills, as well as offering a strong literature, language and comprehension component with a balance of oral and written language, according to the commission’s website.

    Teacher candidates who were allowed to earn a preliminary credential without passing the RICA during the Covid-19 pandemic; teachers with single-subject credentials, who want to earn a multiple-subject credential; and educators who completed teacher preparation in another country and/or as a part of the Peace Corps are also eligible to take the Foundations of Reading examination.

    The Foundations of Reading test has been rated as strong by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

    State focus on phonics

    SB 488 was followed by a revision of the Literacy Standard and Teaching Performance Expectations for teachers, which outlined effective literacy instruction for students.

    California state leaders have recently taken additional steps to ensure foundational reading skills are being taught in classrooms. On June 5, Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed that the state budget will include hundreds of millions of dollars to fund legislation needed to achieve a comprehensive statewide approach to early literacy.

    Assembly Bill 1454, which passed the Assembly with a unanimous 75-0 vote that same day, would move the state’s schools toward adopting evidence-based literacy instruction, also known as the science of reading or structured literacy. 





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  • David Dayen: What Else Is Included in the Big Ugly Budget Bill?

    David Dayen: What Else Is Included in the Big Ugly Budget Bill?


    Since this is a mostly education blog, I have covered the budget debate by focusing on what the GOP is doing to maim public schools and enrich private (especially religious schools). In the past, Republicans were strong supporters of public schools. But the billionaires came along and brought their checkbooks with them.

    The rest of the Ugly bill is devastating to people who struggle to get by. Deep cuts to Medicaid, which will force the closure of many rural hospitals. Cuts to anything that protects the environment or helps phase out our reliance on fossil fuels. Well, at least Senator Schumer managed to change the name of the bill, new name not yet determined.

    One Republican vote could have sunk the bill. But Senator Murkowski got a mess of pottage.

    David Dayen writes in The American Prospect:

    Welcome to “Trump’s Beautiful Disaster,” a pop-up newsletter about the Republican tax and spending bill, one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in a generation. Sign up for the newsletter to get it in your in-box.

    By the thinnest of margins, the U.S. Senate completed work on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Tuesday morning, after Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) decided that she could live with a bill that takes food and medicine from vulnerable people to fund tax cuts tilted toward the wealthy, as long as it didn’t take quite as much food away from Alaskans.

    The new text, now 887 pages, was released at 11:20 a.m. ET. The finishing touches of it, which included handwritten additions to the text, played out live on C-SPAN, with scenes of the parliamentarian and a host of staff members from both parties huddled together.

    At the very end, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer knocked out the name “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” with a parliamentary maneuver, on the grounds that it was ridiculous (which is hard to argue). It’s unclear what this bill is even called now, but that hardly matters. The final bill passed 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie.

    Murkowski was able to secure a waiver from cost-sharing provisions that would for the first time force states to pay for part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In order to get that past the Senate parliamentarian, ten states with the highest payment error rates had to be eligible for the five-year waiver, including big states like New York and Florida, and several blue states as well. 

    The expanded SNAP waivers mean that in the short-term only certain states with average or even below-average payment error rates will have to pay into their SNAP program; already, the language provided that states with the lowest error rates wouldn’t have to pay. “The Republicans have rewarded states that have the highest error rates in the country… just to help Alaska, which has the highest error rate,” thundered Sen. Amy Klobuchar (R-MN), offering an amendment to “strike this fiscal insanity” from the bill. The amendment failed along party lines.

    The new provision weakens the government savings for the bill at a time when the House Freedom Caucus is calling the Senate version a betrayal of a promise to link spending cuts to tax cuts. But those House hardliners will ultimately have to decide whether to defy Donald Trump and reject the hard-fought Senate package, which only managed 50 votes, or to cave to their president.

    In addition, Murkowski got a tax break for Alaskan fishing villages and whaling captains inserted into the bill. Medicaid provisions that would have boosted the federal share of the program for Alaska didn’t get through the parliamentarian; even a handwritten attempt to help out Alaska on Medicaid was thrown out at the last minute. But Murkowski still made off with a decent haul, which was obviously enough for her to vote yes.

    All Republicans except for Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Susan Collins (R-ME) voted for the bill. Tillis and Collins are in the two most threatened seats among Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections; Tillis decided to retire rather than face voters while passing this bill. Paul, a libertarian, rejected the price tag and the increase in the nation’s debt limit that is folded into the bill.

    Other deficit hawks in the Senate caved without even getting a vote to deepen the Medicaid cuts. That could be the trajectory in the House with Freedom Caucus holdouts. But the House also has problems with their handful of moderates concerned about the spending slashes in the bill.

    The bill was clinched with a “wraparound” amendment that made several changes, including the elimination of a proposed tax on solar and wind energy production that would have made it impossible to build new renewable energy projects. The new changes now also grandfather in tax credits to solar and wind projects that start construction less than a year after enactment of the bill. Even those projects would have to be placed in service by 2027. The “foreign entities of concern” provision was also tweaked to make it easier for projects that use a modicum of components from China to qualify for tax credits.

    The bill still phases out solar and wind tax credits rather quickly, and will damage energy production that is needed to keep up with soaring demand. But it’s dialed down from apocalyptic to, well, nearly apocalyptic. And this is going to be another source of anger to the Freedom Caucus, which wanted a much quicker phase-out of the energy tax credits.

    The wraparound amendment also doubled the size of the rural hospital fund to $50 billion. The Senate leadership’s initial offer on this fund was $15 billion. Overnight the Senate rejected an amendment from Collins that would have raised the rural hospital fund to $50 billion. Even at that size—which will be parceled out for $10 billion a year for five years—it hardly makes up for nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts, which are permanent. The hospital system is expected to buckle as a result of this legislation, if it passes.

    Some taxes, including a tax on third-party “litigation finance,” were removed in the final bill. But an expanded tax break for real estate investment trusts, which was in the House version, snuck into the Senate bill at the last minute.

    The state AI regulation ban was left out of the final text after a 99-1 rejection of it in an amendment overnight.

    The action now shifts to the House, where in addition to Freedom Caucus members concerned about cost, several moderates, including Reps. David Valadao (R-CA) and Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), have balked at the deep spending cuts to Medicaid and other programs.



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