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  • Advice from former superintendents on retaining those still on the job

    Advice from former superintendents on retaining those still on the job


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtAq3plgZ40

    Dedicated mentorship, training for potential superintendents, and trust-building are some of the solutions to curb the growing number of superintendents in California who are leaving the job, according to panelists at Tuesday’s EdSource roundtable discussion, “Superintendents are quitting: What can be done to keep them?”

    Some of the most cited reasons for exiting the profession include polarizing politics, division over the effects of the pandemic-related school closures, and stress.

    “No matter what we may have thought, superintendents became the public face of the pandemic and, in most instances, they were merely following public health dictates,” said panelist Carl Cohn, former superintendent of the Long Beach and San Diego school systems.

    Four out of the five panelists on the roundtable left their superintendent positions within the last four years. At least one cited the Covid-19 pandemic as his reason for leaving sooner than he planned.

    They are far from alone: Superintendent turnover in California grew by nearly 10 percentage points between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school year, according to research by Rachel S. White of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. After the 2021-22 school year, over 18% of superintendents across the state stepped down.

    “In many cases, it’s not just the divide, but it’s how people are treating each other,” said Chris Evans, who stepped down as superintendent of Sacramento’s Natomas Unified after 11 years. Evans left the position in 2023 after years of personal, hateful threats, some of which led the school board to agree to pay for security at his home.

    It’s evident that much of the political divide seen at a national level is mirrored in California, some panelists said.

    “Anybody who thinks that California is this special place that somehow isn’t part of this national partisan divide… it is really front and center,” said Cohn, now a professor emeritus and senior research fellow at Claremont Graduate University. “So I think we need to spend more time on these issues of who are the good people who can facilitate dialogue across interest groups.”

    Agreeing with Cohn, Gregory Franklin, who served as superintendent of Tustin Unified School District in Orange County for 10 years, added that many superintendents have good relationships with their school board. But he noted that it’s often new school board members who aren’t always well-versed in the importance of a good relationship between the two.

    “How do you bring on board these new board members so that they understand the roles that they’re stepping into, what the role of individual board members is, as well as the superintendent, so that they can try and work in service of children?” he asked, citing the Association of California School Administrators and the California School Boards Association as two potential resources for this issue.

    Public division between superintendents and school board members, panelists said, has become a significant part of why school districts statewide are finding it difficult to attract new superintendents for the positions left vacant by those stepping down.

    Particularly worrying to many of the former superintendents was the issue of potential state budget cuts.

    Some pointed out that the high turnover rate of superintendents in just the last four years has resulted in lower overall experience in the role, just as school districts might begin facing years of financial instability. Their expertise, especially from those who served as superintendents during and after the 2008 recession, could be crucial at this time, they added.

    To increase retention of current superintendents, the panelists suggested greater support for them in the form of mentorships.

    Cathy Nichols-Washer, for example, said that “from Year 1 to Year 20” of her time as superintendent of the Central Valley’s Lodi Unified, “there were times when I needed someone to be a sounding board or even to give advice as a mentor.”

    While she suggested “a veteran superintendent” or “someone in a like position that they can call on,” panelist Vivian Ekchian proposed looking beyond those in the same field.

    That might look like “building cross-sector solutions with communities and community members to solve not just academic but resource, equity, enrollment challenges,” said Ekchian, who recently retired as superintendent of the Glendale Unified School District.

    In addition to a support system, perhaps either the California School Boards Association or the state could offer “annual opportunities for members of the public who might consider running for a school board to come in and understand what the job’s really about,” said Evans of Natomas Unified.

    Given that many superintendents have a background in education, panelists agreed they are often well-versed and trained in building trust and compromising.

    “We know how to work with people, we know how to listen, we solve and come to compromises about differences in our interests, and we’re used to that,” said Franklin, the former Tustin Unified superintendent of Tustin Unified. “This new idea, though, where people are coming in with a set agenda and not interested in a conversation and not interested in reaching an understanding — it’s much more political science than it is social science.”

    In his current role as professor of education at the University of Southern California, he said they have “retooled” many courses “in preparing superintendents to talk about politics and political strategy.”

    Panelists also agreed that public support for superintendents by their school board is paramount in order to attract new talent. As Ekchian stated, public support is important both “in the best of times and also in the most politically charged elements that we see sometimes.”

    That support leads to a strong team between the superintendent and the school board, added Nichols-Washer.

    “It’s all about building a strong governance team; so, a board that is supportive, very clear with expectations, very focused on students and student outcome and student achievement as their priority, strong vision and mission, and ready to support the superintendent as they carry out the goals and directions of the board,” she said.

    The shared expertise among the former superintendents on the panel also led to considering themselves as potential mentors for those currently on the job.

    “I think it’s a great opportunity for retirees like us to get back in and help superintendents and chief business officers and cabinets and boards who haven’t gone through the budget reduction and the times they’re going to face … to be those coaches and mentors and help them manage what we all have done multiple times — and probably is why we all retired and some of us retired early, right?” said Evans.

    And complex as the job of superintendent may be, the discussion ended with panelists offering advice for current and future superintendents. The insight ranged from having a coach built into their contract and relying on county offices for building relationships to forming affinity groups specific to superintendents’ diverse identities and focusing on listening.

    “We’ve talked a lot about the challenges … but being a superintendent is the best job I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything,” said Nichols-Washer. “The most important thing, I think, in being successful in this job is the relationship with the school board. If you have a strong, trusting relationship with your school board members, they will stand by you and they will back you and they will make it a joyful job.”





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  • Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Immigration Policy Is Wrong

    Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Immigration Policy Is Wrong


    The conservative, Murdoch–owned Wall Street Journal editorialized that Trump’s immigration plan is in deep trouble, and rightly so. His goal (Stephen Miller’s) is to deport 11 million immigrants (one of every 20 people in the country. That’s led to raids at workplaces. Even his supporters are shocked. They voted to deport criminals, “the worst of the worst,” not the hard-working people who contribute to the economy.

    Vincent Scardina is a Trump voter in Key West, Fla., who owns a roofing company. Six of his workers, originally from Nicaragua, were en route to a job late last month when they were detained, according to a report by a local NBC affiliate. Their attorney says five of those men have valid work permits, pending asylum cases, and no criminal records. We haven’t been able to verify that, but if it’s correct, jailing them is a strange enforcement priority.

    “It’s going to be really hard to replace those guys,” Mr. Scardina said. “We’re not able, in Key West, to just replace people as easily as, say, a big city.” He also got emotional. “You get to know these guys. You become their friends,” he said. “You see what happens to their family.” Mr. Scardina’s message to the President that he helped to elect: “What happened here? This situation is just totally, just blatantly, not at all what they said it was.”

    Four hours after that post about farms and hotels, Mr. Trump was back on Truth Social. President Biden let in “21 Million Unvetted, Illegal Aliens,” who have “stolen American Jobs,” he said. “I campaigned on, and received a Historic Mandate for, the largest Mass Deportation Program in American History.” For the record, the Census Bureau says the U.S. population is about 342 million, so he’s talking about maybe deporting 1 person in every 20.

    Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s deportation maestro, Stephen Miller, wants the immigration cops to arrest 3,000 migrants a day. That means raiding businesses across the country. Mr. Trump prefers to talk about “CRIMINALS” because he knows that’s where he has broad public support.

    But his federal agents are out raiding job sites full of non-criminal, hard-working people who are contributing to the American economy. The real policy isn’t what Mr. Trump says, but what his agents do on the ground.

    How can immigration czar Miller meet his goal without deporting farm workers, construction laborers, restaurant staff, and hotel workers?



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  • Teachers need a better way to ensure their curricula are culturally relevant

    Teachers need a better way to ensure their curricula are culturally relevant


    Credit: Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for American Education

    In a 2023 survey, Educators for Excellence found that only 26% of educators nationally believe that their classroom curriculum is culturally relevant for their student population, and the truth is no different in Los Angeles Unified, where I teach. I have been in the classroom for 25 years, and I agree. 

    Culturally responsive education refers to the combination of teaching, pedagogy, curriculum, theories, attitudes, practices, and instructional materials that center students’ cultures, identities, and contexts throughout educational systems. What’s more, culturally relevant education increases the sense of community and builds trust and connection between educators and students, resulting in better academic outcomes. 

    This is important for students because we do not live in isolation. The world is growing smaller as we connect through different types of media and are constantly introduced to different cultures, beliefs and customs. A 2019 report shows that since 2000, classrooms in our country have become increasingly diverse, with the Latino student population growing from 16% to 25%. This is especially pertinent in LAUSD classrooms. 

    My classroom is made up of approximately 20% African American students and 80% Latino students. As a kindergarten teacher, my focus is on the social-emotional development of my students, and I try to build a strong cultural competency, where students become familiar with aspects of other cultures. This helps to expose students to the differences and similarities that exist within their identities, and therefore within our classrooms. One age-appropriate way I do this is by focusing on different holidays and cultural celebrations. I will bring in food or showcase dances, arts and crafts that represent various cultures and allow the students to immerse themselves with their senses, trying to expand their knowledge and understanding.  

    Unfortunately, I do not feel supported in my culturally relevant education efforts in the classroom. There must be ways to create more welcoming classrooms and foster understanding and appreciation among students for each other’s unique identities and backgrounds. I need more support to do this, more understanding of how to embed cultural awareness and relevance into my curriculum and teaching.

    That’s why I have joined a teacher action team with some of my colleagues and the help of Educators for Excellence – Los Angeles. This group allows us to come together to discuss ideas and put together a plan to help improve cultural relevancy throughout LAUSD. We’re calling for a public rubric to help the district succeed with its commitment to safe, inclusive learning environments. This rubric would list requirements for curricula to be culturally relevant and would be a way for schools to ensure that what they are teaching meets a predetermined district standard. 

    For example, over 50 of my colleagues and I from across LAUSD have evaluated our curriculum with a rubric developed by the New York University Steinhardt school. This process has allowed us to determine that our curriculum was satisfactory when it came to connecting the local community to the texts, but it falls short when it comes to the representation of LGBTQ+ and disabled identities, as well as in providing opportunities for students to bring their own community experiences to the classroom. If this rubric were used districtwide, we could improve our implicit-bias training, give teachers more support, and have a specific long-term vision for the type of curriculum we’re using in LAUSD, all leading to the achievement of the goals outlined in the district’s strategic plan.  

    Meeting these standards will not only give educators a guiding light in making their classrooms more inclusive, but it will also give students the opportunity to expand their knowledge and understanding of society. As I mentioned, I already incorporate diverse practices and lessons into my classroom. In return, I see students being more understanding of one another, and I see students from all backgrounds connecting to the material we are learning. It helps me to build a love of learning and a tolerance for others’ differences. 

    Having a higher level of cultural relevancy in our district-approved curriculum would allow students to meet their differences with an open mind and heart, and help them to build a foundation for acceptance and inclusion. Additionally, seeing themselves represented in the classroom allows students to connect better with lessons and demonstrate more interest in their academic success. 

    Even in a district as diverse and progressive as LAUSD, the long-term quality and inclusiveness of classroom curriculum is under attack. Efforts to attack student learning environments are no longer just distant issues that confront other districts and other states; it is here in California. This problem is not going away. LAUSD has already committed to increasing inclusion efforts in the classroom. My colleagues and I want to help this commitment come true. By collaborating with the district to develop a rubric that contains the cultural relevancy we are demanding, we are giving the district a recommendation directly from LAUSD classroom teachers on what needs to happen to improve our classrooms and create a more robust curriculum.

    Our schools need culturally relevant education to educate tolerant, understanding, knowledgeable and successful students. We need more educators on board with calling on the district to partner with us and update the curriculum in our classrooms. Speak up to your administrations, and collaborate with colleagues on a way to build more inclusive classrooms throughout LAUSD. Our students and our future generations deserve it.

    ●●●

    Petrina Miller is a longtime educator in Los Angeles Unified, and is an active member of Educators for Excellence – Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization of more than 30,000 educators united around a common set of values and principles for improving student learning and elevating the teaching profession.

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





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  • More adults in California earning degrees, data show

    More adults in California earning degrees, data show


    Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages

    More adults in the United States are obtaining degrees or other credentials after high school but not quickly enough to meet the goals set 16 years ago by an independent, private foundation focused on access to higher education.

    The Lumina Foundation set a goal in 2008 as part of the Stronger Nation project to have 60% of adults in the country obtain a degree or other credentials beyond high school by 2025. Although officials predict the goal won’t be reached in time, progress has been made.

    “We hear so often that higher education is in decline. We hear so often that students don’t need to go to college,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, during a live webinar Wednesday. “You could expect the data to show some of that, but it didn’t. It showed just the opposite. It shows college matters.”

    The foundation released 2022 data, the most recent available, that shows 54% of 25- to 64-year-olds hold college degrees, certificates or industry-recognized certifications, nearly a 16 percentage point increase since 2009. 

    “Some of that is attributed to finding a way to measure and then add short-term credentials, but a substantial portion, about 8 and a half percentage points, is the rise in the attainment of bachelor and associate degrees,” said Courtney Brown, Lumina’s vice president of strategic impact and planning and director of the A Stronger Nation project. 

    The No. 1 action the nation can take to reach the goal of 60% is to increase graduation rates, Mitchell said. One strategy is to do a better job of reaching out to people who have some college but no degree. 

    Brown said there are about 40 million people in the country with some college and no degree.

    “We have to ensure those people don’t have a broken promise,” Brown said. 

    California is slightly above the national average at 55%, ranking near the middle compared with other states. Nevada has the lowest percentage of adults with degrees or certificates, nearly 43%, according to 2022 data, and Washington, D.C. has the highest at about 75%. 

    The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 42 states all saw an increase in adults having degrees, data show. In 2009, less than 38% of adults ages 25 to 34 had degrees, and in 2022 that’s increased to about 56%. A big part of the increase is because of the Latino population, Brown said. The number of Latino Americans holding degrees went from about 19% in 2009 to about 34%, according to the most recent data. 

    But there are still wide gaps between white people earning degrees after high school compared to people of color.

    “We’re getting closer and closer, but we’re still seeing stubborn equity gaps with Black and Hispanic Americans sitting on one side of the spectrum to white and Asian Americans on the other,” Brown said during a media call. 

    The national percentage of adults ages 25-64 with either an associate, bachelor’s, graduate or professional degree is 46.5% and all racial groups except white (52%) and Asian Americans (67%) fall below that percentage, data show. Nearly 30% of Hispanic Americans have a degree, while about 36% of Black Americans and about 27% of American Indian or Alaska Natives do. 

    In California, according to the data, the percentage of Latino Americans who obtained a degree is even lower, nearly 24%. About 40% of Black Americans obtained a degree, compared with 30% of American Indians or Alaska Natives, 67% of Asian Americans, and about 59% of white Americans, according to data. 

    To look at data by county in California, go here

    NOTE: EdSource receives funding from several foundations, including the Lumina Foundation. EdSource maintains sole editorial control over the content of its coverage.





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  • ‘Happy, but tense’: LAUSD graduations continue safely amid regional ICE activity

    ‘Happy, but tense’: LAUSD graduations continue safely amid regional ICE activity


    Jackie, a Maywood Academy High School graduate, wrapped the Mexican flag around her gown as she looked for her mother in the crowd after the ceremony.

    Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Top Takeaways
    • Students and families experienced a mix of joy and anxiety before and during ceremonies.
    • Commencements remained safe amid regional ICE presence.
    • LAUSD deployed school police and communities established volunteer efforts to ensure safety.

    Maywood Academy High School’s graduation Thursday was classic in a county where nearly half its population identifies as Latino. 

    Students decorated their caps with photos of loved ones and messages of gratitude to God and their immigrant families. A student’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was met with cheers from the crowd; some graduates carried lavish bouquets of roses, commonly known as ramos buchones; their guest speaker was a prominent record label owner pivotal in the rise of corridos tumbados, a now-mainstream genre of Mexican American music with a stronghold in Los Angeles; some students’ stoles featured flags from both the United States as well as Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala — their families’ home countries. 

    Among them was Jackie, a graduating senior who plans to study cosmetology at Cypress College in the fall. She was wrapped in the Mexican flag, and in Spanish, her cap read: “For my mom, who arrived with nothing and gave me everything.” 

    “I’m first-generation — everything is for my mami,” said Jackie, who declined to share her last name out of fear of immigration raids by federal agents. “I’m proud of my culture.”

    Anxiety about immigration enforcement actions was omnipresent. They have largely targeted predominantly working-class, Latino, and immigrant neighborhoods like Maywood, a densely populated city that is just over 1 square mile wide.

    “I apologize to you for the words of many who insult and demean and diminish your parents, in some cases yourselves, and I have to admit to you, me. For I am you,” said Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who was once an undocumented immigrant, during the ceremony.

    Children of color make up the great majority of the district’s students, with nearly 75% identifying as Latino or Hispanic. And with families hunkering inside their homes to avoid potential interactions with ICE, many parents and relatives of this year’s graduates took the risk to celebrate.  

    “I’m so proud of her because she’s always worked hard,” said Rocio, Jackie’s mother. “We’re here with fear because of everything that is happening. And, we’re happy — but tense.” 

    On June 9, Los Angeles Unified announced a series of protocols to keep graduations as safe and normal as possible. 

    District police forces were deployed and formed a “perimeter of safety” around each LAUSD site where a graduation took place. Families were welcome to stay at the graduations as long as possible to avoid contact with ICE, and principals were instructed to avoid lines so parents didn’t have to wait on the streets. 

    The measures proved effective. And graduation ceremonies across Los Angeles Unified’s 86 senior high schools were not interrupted by any sign of immigration authorities’ presence. The final graduation ceremony is scheduled for Monday evening. 

    “We made a promise that our graduations are an extension of the school experience, therefore they’re protected spaces,” Carvalho said. 

    At the heart of ICE raids in Los Angeles

    Part of the Maywood Academy campus sits within the city limits of Huntington Park, where, on the early morning of graduation day, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was present at an ICE raid at the home of a pregnant U.S. citizen. 

    On Friday, the day after the graduation, immigration agents were seen accosting and detaining people in Maywood. In the days leading up to the ceremony, immigration agents chased day laborers at the local Home Depot in Huntington Park.

    And then there was the unspoken awareness that one of their peers, a 17-year-old Maywood Academy sophomore, was one of the hundreds of Angelenos recently detained by immigration agents. On June 3, 18 months after fleeing violence in their home country of Guatemala, Johanna, alongside her mother, Elizabeth, and youngest sister, Jessica, were detained by ICE while attending a scheduled immigration court appearance for their legal asylum case. The family declined to share their last name out of security concerns.

    Maywood Academy graduates accept their diplomas. Some wore stoles featuring flags from the United States as well as Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala — their families’ home countries. (Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales)
    Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Johanna’s father, Hector, suddenly stopped receiving messages from his wife and daughters soon after they arrived at the court, and then they vanished for two days. He and his third daughter, Dulce, searched for them on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s website. By the time their information appeared on the site, they had been transferred to a detention center in Texas, where they remain as an attorney handles their case.

    “I want my daughters to grow up and realize all their goals in the United States,” said Hector. “They’re all so intelligent, hardworking, and really amazing people to serve this country.”

    Before the ICE raids started, his daughters had felt safe in their home and neighborhood.

    “They’re so happy here. It’s a beautiful neighborhood, and their school is nearby,” Hector said. “They’re really happy.”

    He said Maywood Academy is in constant contact, offering support, though the school declined to comment on the case. 

    Austin Santos, a geography and world history teacher who has taught both of Hector’s daughters in high school, said Johanna is on the path to becoming valedictorian and is “all-around a great student.” 

    “We made sure to tell the other students to be careful and used Johanna’s story to bring awareness to the situation because it’s not only happening at our school,” said Santos. “Her classmates and everyone around her — once the story broke, and they found out who was detained, they all rallied around her.”

    Beyond Maywood

    The area surrounding Maywood Academy is a hotbed of ICE activity. And it isn’t alone. 

    “We saw an ICE vehicle going toward St. George Church; I have friends in the court, and they’re not coming out; I saw two immigration officers on the sidewalk; there’s a community school nearby where the raid happened,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), reading Rapid Response notifications aloud during an interview with EdSource. 

    LAUSD was early to establish itself as a sanctuary district — and the school board unanimously affirmed its commitment to immigrant students in November. The resolution also vowed to “aggressively oppose” any efforts to make districts work with federal agencies on matters dealing with immigration enforcement. 

    Months later, administrators at Lillian Street Elementary and Russell Elementary, both in South Los Angeles, denied entry to two officials from the Department of Homeland Security. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KibeV-R_k

    “The district has acted superbly and bravely — and they have set up the atmosphere to … welcome everyone and ensure that every child, regardless of their immigration status or background, feels safe,” Cabrera said. 

    “They are an example for us to follow, and we will continue to collaborate with them on as many opportunities as possible.” 

    Roughly five and a half miles from Maywood, in Boyle Heights — the home of Roosevelt High School and Garfield High School — sightings of ICE agents and unmarked cars have become more common. A checkpoint was stationed just outside a freeway entrance. 

    At the same time, June 8 was supposed to be about celebrating. 

    But in a community like Boyle Heights, with its history of law enforcement violence, Roosevelt High social studies teacher Thalia Cataño said the district’s approach to commencement safety was “tone deaf.” Volunteers organized hours ahead of the graduation ceremony to have teachers, locals and members of CHIRLA’s Rapid Response team patrol the area. 

    At the same time, leading up to the ceremonies, students contemplated whether to have their families come and support them. Others wondered if they should attend their graduation.

    Most did. 

    And when the now-alumni of Roosevelt High returned to school on June 9 to officially wrap up their high school careers, they reminisced on the ceremony — the highs and lows. 

    “We’re there. We’re happy,” Cataño heard her students sharing. “But we’re looking over our shoulder … just waiting for anything to happen.” 





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  • Anticipating less state aid, CSU campuses start making cuts

    Anticipating less state aid, CSU campuses start making cuts


    Gov. Gavin Newsom announces his 2024-25 state budget proposal, including his plans to deal with a projected deficit in Sacramento on Jan. 10.. Credit: Brontë Wittpenn / San Francisco Chronicle / Polaris

    The Cal State System is anticipating more university-wide budget cuts as it faces expected cuts in state aid due to the state’s budget deficit for the 2024-25 budget year. 

    Already many campuses have started consolidating programs, freezing hiring, eliminating positions, deferring maintenance projects and restricting purchases. 

    At San Francisco State, President Lynn Mahoney said the campus has a hiring freeze and is starting a “voluntary separation program” this spring. It is also restructuring courses with actual enrollment. Last fall, the campus said it would need to cut about 125 positions this spring. 

    “The reductions have been and will continue to be painful,” Mahoney said. But the campus’ reductions and changes will “hopefully within about four years achieve enrollment and budget stability.” 

    In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom made an agreement to give CSU annual 5% base funding increases over five years in exchange for increasing enrollment and improving graduation rates. However, with the state’s $38 billion projected budget deficit, this year the governor proposed delaying the $240.2 million increase for the 2024-25 budget year to the following year.

    While CSU would then get two years’ worth of increases, the system would have to borrow the money to get through next year. 

    The plan is still risky for the university system if the state’s budget situation worsens and it is unable to fulfill its commitment next year. 

    “The governor’s administration has supported and continues to signal future support for the CSU and its compact,” said Steve Relyea, executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer for the system. “But the proposed deferral raises significant concerns, and we must proceed with fiscal prudence and caution.” 

    The 23 campuses are already being asked to help cover a $138 million shortfall this year. The system is projected to be short at least $184 million more from 2024-26.

    Relyea said the system will move forward with cost-cutting strategies but still find support for compensating faculty and staff, protecting students’ education, improving the handling of Title IX complaints and other priorities. 

    Trustee Julia Lopez warned the board that CSU’s financial commitments may have put the system in a deeper financial hole than is being projected once it includes promises like improving Title IX and repatriating cultural and human remains to Indigenous people. The only revenue outside of state dollars is the tuition increase, and at least a third of that money will go to improving financial aid, she said. 

    “There’s a huge gap between what we have to pay for in commitments and the revenues we identified,” Lopez said. “The conversation in Sacramento is just beginning. We need to have our voices heard, and we need to be very clear.” 

    Trustee Jack McGrory said the message to the Legislature has to be what happens if CSU doesn’t receive funding. 

    “There are courses that are going to be cut, there will be employees that are going to have to be cut, and that’s the reality of what we’re dealing with,” he said. 





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  • ‘Happy, but tense’ – LAUSD graduations continue safely amid regional ICE activity

    ‘Happy, but tense’ – LAUSD graduations continue safely amid regional ICE activity


    Jackie, a Maywood Academy High School graduate, wrapped the Mexican flag around her gown as she looked for her mother in the crowd after the ceremony.

    Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Top Takeaways
    • Students and families experienced a mix of joy and anxiety before and during ceremonies
    • Commencements remained safe amid regional ICE presence
    • LAUSD deployed school police and communities established volunteer efforts to ensure safety

    Maywood Academy High School’s graduation Thursday was classic in a county where nearly half its population identify as Latino. 

    Students decorated their caps with photos of loved ones, and messages of gratitude to God and their immigrant families. A student’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was met with cheers from the crowd; some graduates carried lavish bouquets of roses, commonly known as ramos buchones; their guest speaker was a prominent record label owner pivotal in the rise of corridos tumbados, a now-mainstream genre of Mexican-American music with a stronghold in Los Angeles; some students’ stoles featured flags from both the United States as well as Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala — their families’ home countries. 

    Among them was Jackie, a graduating senior who plans to study cosmetology at Cypress College in the fall. She was wrapped in the Mexican flag, and in Spanish, her cap reads: “For my mom, who arrived with nothing and gave me everything.” 

    “I’m first-generation – everything is for my mami,” said Jackie, who declined to share her last name out of fear of immigration raids by federal agents. “I’m proud of my culture.

    Anxiety of immigration enforcement actions was omnipresent. They have largely targeted predominantly working-class, Latino, and immigrant neighborhoods like Maywood, a densely populated city that is just over 1 square mile wide.

    “I apologize to you for the words of many who insult and demean and diminish your parents, in some cases yourselves, and I have to admit to you, me. For I am you,” said Los Angeles Unified superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who was once an undocumented immigrant, during the ceremony.

    Children of color make up the great majority of the district’s students, with nearly 75% identifying as Latino or Hispanic. And with families hunkering inside their homes to avoid potential interactions with ICE, many parents and relatives of this year’s graduates took the risk to celebrate.  

    “I’m so proud of her because she’s always worked hard,” said Rocio, Jackie’s mother. “We’re here with fear, because of everything that is happening. And, we’re happy — but tense.” 

    Monday, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced a series of protocols to keep graduations as safe and normal as possible. 

    District police forces were deployed and formed a “perimeter of safety” around each LAUSD site where a graduation took place. Families were welcomed to stay at the graduations as long as possible to avoid contact with ICE, and principals were instructed to avoid lines, so parents didn’t have to wait on the streets. 

    The measures proved effective. And graduation ceremonies across Los Angeles Unified’s 86 senior high schools were not interrupted by any sign of immigration authorities’ presence. The final graduation ceremony is scheduled for Monday evening. 

    “We made a promise that our graduations are an extension of the school experience, therefore they’re protected spaces,” Carvalho said. 

    At the heart of ICE raids in Los Angeles

    Part of the Maywood Academy campus sits within the city limits of Huntington Park, where, on the early morning of graduation day, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was present at an ICE raid at the home of a pregnant U.S. citizen. 

    Friday, the day after the graduation, immigration agents were seen accosting and detaining people in Maywood. In the days leading up to the ceremony, immigration agents chased day laborers at the local Home Depot.

    And then there was the unspoken awareness that one of their peers, a 17-year-old Maywood Academy sophomore, is one of the hundreds of Angelenos recently detained by immigration agents. On June 3, 18 months after fleeing violence in their home country of Guatemala, Johanna, alongside her mother, Elizabeth, and youngest sister, Jessica, was detained by ICE while attending a scheduled immigration court appearance for their legal asylum case. The family declined to share their last name out of security concerns.

    Maywood Academy graduates accepting their diplomas. Some wore stoles featuring flags from the United States as well as Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala – their families’ home countries. (Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales)
    Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Johanna’s father, Hector, suddenly stopped receiving messages from his wife and daughters soon after they arrived at the court, and then they vanished for two days. He and his third daughter, Dulce, searched for them on Immigration & Customs Enforcement’s website. By the time their information appeared on the site, they had been transferred to a detention center in Texas, where they remain as an attorney handles their case.

    “I want my daughters to grow up and realize all their goals in the United States,” said Hector. “They’re all so intelligent, hardworking, and really amazing people to serve this country.”

    Before the ICE raids started, his daughters had felt safe in their home and neighborhood.

    “They’re so happy here. It’s a beautiful neighborhood, and their school is nearby,” Hector said. “They’re really happy.”

    He said Maywood Academy is in constant contact, offering support, though the school declined to comment on the case. 

    Austin Santos, a geography and world history teacher who has taught both of Hector’s daughters in high school, said Johanna is on the path to becoming valedictorian and is “all-around a great student.” 

    “We made sure to tell the other students to be careful and used Johanna’s story to bring awareness to the situation because it’s not only happening at our school,” said Santos. “Her classmates and everyone around her — once the story broke, and they found out who was detained, they all rallied around her.”

    Beyond Maywood

    The area surrounding Maywood Academy is a hotbed of ICE activity. And it isn’t alone. 

    “We saw an ICE vehicle going toward St. George Church; I have friends in the court, and they’re not coming out; I saw two immigration officers on the sidewalk; there’s a community school nearby where the raid happened,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), reading Rapid Response notifications aloud during an interview with EdSource. 

    LAUSD was early to establish itself as a sanctuary district — and the school board unanimously affirmed its commitment to immigrant students in November. The resolution also vowed to “aggressively oppose” any efforts to make districts work with federal agencies on matters dealing with immigration enforcement. 

    Months later, administrators at Lillian Street Elementary and Russell Elementary, both in South Los Angeles, denied entry to two officials from the Department of Homeland Security. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KibeV-R_k

    “The district has acted superbly and bravely — and they have set up the atmosphere to… welcome everyone and ensure that every child, regardless of their immigration status or background, feels safe,” Cabrera said. 

    “They are an example for us to follow, and we will continue to collaborate with them on as many opportunities as possible.” 

    Roughly five and a half miles from Maywood, in Boyle Heights — the home of Roosevelt High School and Garfield High School — sightings of ICE agents and unmarked cars have become more common. A checkpoint was stationed just outside a freeway entrance. 

    At the same time, Sunday, June 8, was supposed to be about celebrating. 

    But in a community like Boyle Heights, with its history of law enforcement violence, social studies teacher Thalia Cataño said the district’s approach to commencement safety was “tone deaf.” Volunteers organized hours ahead of the graduation ceremony to have teachers, locals and members of CHIRLA’s Rapid Response team patrol the area. 

    At the same time, leading up to the ceremonies, students contemplated whether to have their family come and support them. Others wondered if they should attend their graduation.

    Most did. 

    And when the now-alumni of Roosevelt High returned to school Monday to officially wrap up their high school careers, they reminisced on the ceremony — the highs and lows. 

    “‘We’re there. We’re happy,” Cataño heard her students sharing. “‘But we’re looking over our shoulder… just waiting for anything to happen.’” 





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  • Trump Halts ICE Raids at Farms, Restaurants, Hotels


    Social media was ablaze yesterday and today with videos of ICE agents grabbing farm workers as they did their jobs in the fields and arriving at hotels and other places of employment to arrest undocumented workers.

    Trump must have been bombarded with calls from farmers and business owners, outraged that their long-time workers were seized. Who will pick the fruits and vegetables? Who will clean the hotel rooms? Who will staff the kitchen and bus tables?

    These were his supporters. They wanted the illegals deported, but not their workers. How would they function without their staff and their laborers?

    Trump heard them. Late Friday he issued an order to ICE to avoid farms, restaurants, hotels, and meat packing facilities.

    Maybe it suddenly occurred to him that removing the workforce from so many basic industries would be bad for the economy. Maybe Stephen Miller was out of town and turned off his cell phone.

    The New York Times reported on his sudden change of plans:

    The Trump administration has abruptly shifted the focus of its mass deportation campaign, telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to largely pause raids and arrests in the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants, according to an internal email and three U.S. officials with knowledge of the guidance.

    The decision suggested that the scale of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign — an issue that is at the heart of his presidency — is hurting industries and constituencies that he does not want to lose.

    The new guidance comes after protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s immigration raids, including at farms and businesses. It also came as Mr. Trump made a rare concession this week that his crackdown was hurting American farmers and hospitality businesses.

    The guidance was sent on Thursday in an email by a senior ICE official, Tatum King, to regional leaders of the ICE department that generally carries out criminal investigations, including work site operations, known as Homeland Security Investigations.

    “Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,” he wrote in the message.

    The email explained that investigations involving “human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling into these industries are OK.” But it said — crucially — that agents were not to make arrests of “non-criminal collaterals,” a reference to people who are undocumented but who are not known to have committed any other crime.



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  • CSU to expand student grants to cover full  tuition and living expenses

    CSU to expand student grants to cover full  tuition and living expenses


    Briana Munoz felt forced to take seven courses last semester to graduate on time and protect her financial aid status.

    Courtesy, Briana Munoz

    California State University trustees voted Wednesday to expand grants to fund the full cost of tuition and living expenses for students who show they need it to attend college. 

    The decision is the first step in a commitment the trustees made to students last fall that at least a third of revenue from a  6% annual tuition hike would go to financial aid. A more detailed plan will be presented to the board in May.

    Over the five-year period of the tuition increase, more than $280 million will go toward financial aid, increasing total funding to the State University Grant to $981 million by the 2028-29 school year.

    About 87% of Cal State students have their tuition fully or partially covered by grants and aid. Yet, some students still struggle with the cost of attending college due to living expenses such as food, housing and transportation. 

    Although there is regional variation of housing and food costs, total attendance costs statewide range from $22,000 to $32,000 annually. Nearly 40% of CSU students rely on loans to make up the difference between financial aid and actual costs.

    “The fact is tuition as the price of admission is not what keeps students away from CSU,” trustee Julia Lopez said. “Almost nine out of 10 students get some sort of tuition grant, but it’s other costs.” 

    The trustees favored giving students stipends, once their tuition costs are met, to cover their expenses, with the expectation that students would work less and graduate sooner. The State University Grant has traditionally been used to cover tuition. The stipends would be up to $5,000 and prioritize students with the greatest needs. 

    The trustees also voted to create consistent financial aid measurements and communications for students and their families after learning of significant differences across the 23 campuses, making it difficult for families to compare financial aid offers.

    But there is one immediate challenge CSU is facing in its financial aid improvement goals – the current national rollout of FAFSA simplification. The new, simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid application was delayed from Oct.1 to Dec. 31. Colleges and universities received notification on Tuesday that they wouldn’t receive students’ financial aid information until March, squeezing students who generally have until May 1 to select a college.

    Nathan Evans, CSU’s vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, said the problems with the new FAFSA may be even worse for California.

     Students who are permanent residents or U.S. citizens, but who have an undocumented parent, are unable to complete the new application because the system requires a Social Security number for each parent or guardian. Parents without Social Security numbers are also locked out of contributing to existing FAFSA forms.

     Evans said leaders from CSU, the University of California, the community colleges, and the state’s independent colleges met earlier this week with the California Student Aid Commission to plan potential workarounds. 

    Another complication for CSU’s financial aid plans – the scheduled expansion of the Cal Grant, which aids the state’s low-income students – was expected to also begin in 2024-25. But the Legislature must first approve funding. CSU’s institutional aid numbers to students would depend on the amounts students receive in other federal and state aid. 

    “This is a year like none other,” Evans said. “There are some additional complexities this year, given that not only has the application been revamped, but calculations are changing … so there is a lot of unpredictability in the process.”





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  • California agrees to target the most struggling students to settle learning-loss lawsuit

    California agrees to target the most struggling students to settle learning-loss lawsuit


    Students work together during an after-school tutoring club.

    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    In an agreement ending a 3-year-old lawsuit brought by families of 15 Oakland and Los Angeles students, the state will target billions of dollars of remaining learning-loss money to low-income students and others with the widest learning disparities.

    State officials have also agreed to pursue statutory changes that would commit districts and schools to measure and report on student progress using proven strategies, like frequent in-school tutoring, in ways that the state hadn’t required in other post-Covid funding. If the state reneges or the Legislature fails to follow through, the plaintiffs can revoke the deal and return to court for trial.

    The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Mark Rosenbaum, director of the Opportunity Under Law project for the nonprofit law firm Public Counsel, said he was optimistic that won’t be necessary.

    “The state stepped up in focusing on those kids who have been hardest hit,” Rosenbaum said. “The urgent vision of this historic settlement is to use strategies that not only recoup academic losses but also erase the opportunity gaps exacerbated by the pandemic.”

    Districts are receiving the state block grant based on the proportion of low-income students, foster children, and English learners enrolled, although they can currently use the funding for all students. The program lists various possible uses to “support academic learning recovery and staff and pupil social and emotional well-being,” including more instructional time, learning recovery materials, and counseling. The money can be spent through 2027-28. 

    The settlement covers what’s remaining of the $7.5 billion Learning Recovery Block Grant, which Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature reduced to $6.3 billion in the current state budget. The largest Covid pot of relief money for districts — $12 billion from the federal government under the last phase of the American Rescue Act — expires on Sept. 30.

    The settlement would limit funding to the lowest performing student groups and chronically absent students, including Black and Hispanic students, and would narrow the list of permitted uses while requiring strategies backed by evidence that they are effective. Districts would create a plan for the money, which is not currently required, and track the outcome of at least one strategy over the following three years.

    Newsom kept the remainder of the block grant intact in his proposed 2024-25 budget, although he based the budget on optimistic revenue forecasts. To guard the block grant from future cuts, the settlement would guarantee a minimum of $2 billion will be protected.

    “One of the reasons that animated our settlement was, we didn’t want to go to trial and then, at the end of the trial, get a decision and then find that the cupboard was bare,” Rosenbaum said.

    In a statement on behalf of the Newsom administration, State Board of Education spokesperson Alex Traverso called the agreement’s use of one-time dollars “appropriate at this stage coming out of the pandemic.”

    “We look forward to engaging with the Legislature and stakeholders to advance this proposal and focus learning recovery dollars on serving the students with the greatest needs,” he wrote.

    Did the state fail its constitutional duty?

    Public Counsel and the San Francisco law firm Morrison Foerster filed Cayla J. v. the State of California, State Board of Education, California Department of Education, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in November 2020, eight months after Covid-19 forced a statewide shutdown of schools and a quick transition to distance learning. The state was slow to provide computers and connections, and the Legislature, anticipating a recession, initially included no extra funding for them. Billions of federal and state dollars specifically for learning loss came later.

    The rollout of distance learning and equipment was uneven among districts. The quality and extent of remote learning also varied widely among districts initially and when schools restarted in the fall.

    The lawsuit charged that “the delivery of education left many already-underserved students functionally unable to attend school.”

    “In addition,” it said, “students are being harmed by schools that fail to meet minimum instructional times, which the state has done nothing to enforce.”

    The lawsuit pointed to then 8-year-old twins Cayla J. and her sister Kai J., from a low-income family and attending third grade in Oakland Unified. They had remote classes only twice between March and the end of school in 2020. Because some of the students in the class lacked the equipment for remote learning, the teacher told their mother that classes were canceled for the other students, according to the lawsuit. 

    Oakland and Los Angeles Unified had among the fewest minutes of live daily instruction during distance learning and were among the last districts to return to in-person learning in spring 2021. Los Angeles Unified students missed 205 in-person days, and Oakland students missed 204 days.

    In subsequent court filings, as the case dragged on, the California Department of Education pointed to the massive state and federal Covid aid for districts, the minimum daily minutes of instruction that the Legislature set, and the many webcasts and guidance that the department gave on strategies for remote instruction and learning recovery. It cited districts’ authority to make decisions under local control and the transparency requirements for reporting spending through their Local Control and Accountability Plans.

    Rosenbaum told EdSource when the lawsuit was filed that the state was shirking its constitutional obligation to prevent education inequality. “The state cannot just write big checks and then say, ‘We’re not paying attention to what happens here,’” he said. “The buck stops with the state. The state’s duty is to ensure that kids get basic educational equality and that the gaps among the haves and the have-nots do not widen.” 

    Providing expert testimony for the plaintiffs, Lucrecia Santibañez, professor at UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies, wrote, “Our decentralized school system in California, and the minimal guidance that was received from the state appears to have left many (districts) to their own devices.”

    “Data collection was minimal to non-existent, and monitoring of the learning and continuity plans was superficial at best,” she wrote.

    Dispute over test scores

    Meanwhile, chronic absences soared to set new records in 2022-23, and test scores fell sharply. In 2022-23, 34.6% of students met or exceeded standards on the Smarter Balanced math test, which is 5.2 percentage points below pre-pandemic 2018-19. Only 16.9% of Black students, 22.7% of Latino students, and 9.9% of English learners were at grade level.

    There was a similar drop in English language arts results by 2022-23: 46.7% of students overall met or exceeded standards. Only 29.9% of Black students and 36.1% of Latino students were at grade level, compared with 60.7% of white students and 74% of Asian students.

    The key issue in the case was whether the pandemic effects were disproportionate and whether the digital divide contributed to it. State officials acknowledged the impact of the pandemic but asserted that the declines were similar, within one or two percentage points, for all groups. In rebuttal, Harvard University education professor Andrew Ho, a nationally known psychometrician, charged that the state intentionally used “a biased calculation of achievement gaps” that led to the finding it sought.

    The state used the method displayed on the California School Dashboard that compares the percentages of student groups that met a single pre- and post-pandemic target — scoring at or above meeting standards from one year to the next. Ho wrote that it should have compared individual students’ losses and gains in scale points, a more refined measure that other states use.

    Using that methodology, Ho wrote, “California test scores show that racial inequality increased in almost all subjects and grades. Economic inequality also increased.” An independent analysis of state test data by EdSource corroborated that finding.  

    Advocates for a more precise system of measuring students’ growth on test scores have also called for the use of scale scores. In a move that could accelerate that adoption in California, the settlement calls for using scale scores to determine which student groups will be eligible for the block grant funding.

    Last August, in a decision that prompted negotiations to settle the case, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman denied the state’s motion to dismiss the case and ordered the parties to go to trial. He concluded that the state had not established that it made adequate and reasonable efforts to respond to the pandemic’s impact and that Ho’s finding on increased learning disparities was credible. Under the settlement, the state would pay $2.5 million in attorneys’ fees.

    Credit to local nonprofits

    During the summer of 2020, Cayla J. and her sister turned to a nonprofit for help the district didn’t provide. Calling The Oakland REACH “a lifeline” for the two girls, the lawsuit said it “provided a safe space for learning and community advocacy” while offering enrichment online summer courses. Its family liaisons helped keep Cayla J. and Kai J. from falling further behind, it said.

    Oakland REACH’s counterpart in Los Angeles, the Community Coalition, provided similar services. Both signed on as plaintiffs.

    Efforts by The Oakland REACH evolved into a novel early literacy and early math tutoring partnership with Oakland Unified, employing trained community members and parents. In a nod to both nonprofits’ good work, the settlement calls for amending the education code to encourage districts to contract or partner with community-based organizations “with a track record of success” for services covered by the block grant.

    Michael Jacobs, a partner with Morrison Foerster working pro bono on the case, called the provision an important and landmark element of the agreement. 

    “We saw during the pandemic that community-based organizations filled critical needs,” he said. Pointing to The Oakland REACH, he said, “Now the evidence is in that the services made a significant difference in educational achievement.”

    Lakisha Young, CEO and founder of The Oakland REACH said she has been speaking with community partners in other districts about their work “building solutions for our kids to be reading proficiently.” She called the agreement a “historic win” and praised the families involved in the lawsuit for “the courage to step forward, not knowing their voices would make a difference.”





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