Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs opinion writer for The New York Times. In this post, he excoriates Trump for his arrogance and stupidity in handling the tariffs issue, and especially for his arrogance and stupidity in dealing with China. First, he insisted that he would “hang tough” on his plan to impose draconian tariffs. When the stock and bond markets crashed, he decided to put a 90-day pause on tariffs, exempting China.
He has alienated our allies and outraged China. His arrogance has isolated us in the world as a faithless bully. It seems that Trump’s “art of the deal” consists of bullying, threatening, insulting, and humiliating the other party. It doesn’t work in the international stage. Trump dissipated long-standing alliances and has made us look foolish in the eyes of the world. In less than three months, he has squandered good will, scorned close relationships, and thrown away our reputation as “leader of the free world.” The emperor has no clothes. He stands naked before the world as a stupid and reckless man.
It’s important to remember that Trump was never a successful businessman. He went bankrupt six times. No American bank would extend loans to him because of his abysmal record. Yet his MAGA cult believes in his business acumen because he played a successful businessman on TV. He is a performer who knows nothing about foreign trade, economics, or history.
How will we survive four years of Trump’s demented whims?
Friedman wrote:
I have many reactions to President Trump’s largely caving on his harebrained plan to tariff the world, but overall, one reaction just keeps coming back to me: If you hire clowns, you should expect a circus. And my fellow Americans, we have hired a group of clowns.
Think of what Trump; his chief knucklehead, Howard Lutnick (the commerce secretary); his assistant chief knucklehead, Scott Bessent (the Treasury secretary); and his deputy assistant chief knucklehead, Peter Navarro (the top trade adviser), have told us repeatedly for the past weeks: Trump won’t back off on these tariffs because — take your choice — he needs them to keep fentanyl from killing our kids, he needs them to raise revenue to pay for future tax cuts, and he needs them to pressure the world to buy more stuff from us. And he couldn’t care less what his rich pals on Wall Street say about their stock market losses.
After creating havoc in the markets standing on these steadfast “principles” — undoubtedly prompting many Americans to sell low out of fear — Trump reversed much of it on Wednesday, announcing a 90-day pause on certain tariffs to most countries, excluding China.
Message to the world — and to the Chinese: “I couldn’t take the heat.” If it were a book it would be called “The Art of the Squeal.”
But don’t think for a second that all that’s been lost is money. A whole pile of invaluable trust just went up in smoke as well. In the last few weeks, we have told our closest friends in the world — countries that stood shoulder to shoulder with us after Sept. 11, in Iraq and in Afghanistan — that none of them were any different from China or Russia. They were all going to get tariffed under the same formula — no friends-and-family discounts allowed.
Do you think these former close U.S. allies are ever going to trust getting into a trench with this administration again?
This was the trade equivalent of the Biden administration’s botched exit from Afghanistan, from which it never quite recovered. But at least Joe Biden got us out of a costly no-win war for which America, in my opinion, is now much better off.
Trump just put us into a no-win war.
How so? We do have a trade imbalance with China that does need to be addressed. Trump is right about that. China now controls one-third of global manufacturing and has the industrial engines to pretty much make everything for everyone one day if it is allowed to. That is not good for us, for Europe or for many developing countries. It is not even good for China, given the fact that by putting so many resources into export industries it is ignoring the meager social safety net it offers its people and its even more threadbare public health care system.
But when you have a country as big as China — 1.4 billion people — with the talent, infrastructure and savings it has, the only way to negotiate is with leverage on our side of the table. And the best way to get leverage would have been for Trump to enlist our allies in the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, India, Australia and Indonesia into a united front. Make it a negotiation of the whole world versus China.
Then you say to Beijing: All of us will gradually raise our tariffs on your exports over the next two years to pressure you to shift from your export economy to a more domestic-oriented one. But we will also invite you to build factories and supply chains in our countries — 50-50 joint ventures — to transfer your expertise back to us the way you compelled us to do for you. We don’t want a bifurcated world. It will be less prosperous for all and less stable.
But instead of making it the whole industrial world against China, Trump made it America against the whole industrial world and China.
Now, Beijing knows that Trump not only blinked, but he so alienated our allies, so demonstrated that his word cannot be trusted for a second, that many of them may never align with us against China in the same way. They may, instead, see China as a better, more stable long-term partner than us.
What a pathetic, shameful performance. Happy Liberation Day.
California Department of Education and California Department of Public
Health issue
joint guidance
on the coronavirus to school districts.
Colleges in California and nationally
move to
online instruction in response to the coronavirus. The California
Department of Education
receives
a USDA waiver that enables districts to feed students during
coronavirus-related closures.
Newsom signs
executive order
assuring closed schools remain funded as schools throughout the state
announce closures and distance learning
begins.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond
advises districts
to plan for providing distance learning through the end of the school
year.
Colleges
begin to announce
plans not to resume classes in person. CSU, UC later announce
decision to keep most fall classes online.
EdSource analysis
shows wide disparities in how much school districts will receive
through federal CARES Act.
Newsom projects a $54 billion deficit and $19 billion less in
Proposition 98 funding over two years for schools and community
colleges. Proposed budget
slashes funding for preschool and child care plans, teacher development programs.
Superintendents of urban California districts pen open letter to lawmakers saying proposed budget cuts will set back restarting school.
In historic action, UC
moves to drop
SAT/ACT and develop a replacement exam for admissions.
College graduates forced to abandon the traditional celebrations and
ceremonies associated with graduation turn to
families or even video games to mark their accomplishments.
In Los Angeles, Oakland, West Contra Costa County
, Sacramento and San Francisco, K-12 officials reconsider
whether police should be in schools and activists urge for their
removal in the wake of the George Floyd killing.
A spike in Covid-19 cases prompts
more districts to plan for online education for the beginning of the
2020-2021 school year.
State imposes
strict regulations for school opening and closing based on counties on
state’s monitoring list. Establishes waiver process
to allow some elementary schools to reopen.
In response to new regulations, many school districts abandon plans
for fall hybrid learning and in-person classes.
Los Angeles Unified reaches deal
with teachers over distance learning while other districts struggle to
finalize plans.
State health officials release first health and safety guidance
for how colleges and universities can reopen, but most classes must be
offered remotely and have other restrictions in place.
State-issued guidance
permitting limited openings will apply to districts in counties on the
coronavirus watch list, where schools are shut down, followed by guidance
allowing small cohorts of 14 students and two adults for special
education, homeless and foster students.
Los Angeles Unified announces plan
to offer coronavirus testing to all students, staff. Power outages
due to a heat wave hit California as school resumes virtually across
the state.
Almost all colleges and universities open
with few in-person classes, but dorms still house students and some
campuses plan for testing and contact tracing.
Newsom introduces
four-tiered color coded county tracking system to replace the previous
monitoring list for counties. The “Blueprint for a Safer Economy”
tracks counties by the number of Covid-19 cases recorded each day and
the percentage of positive cases out of the total number of tests
administered, both averaged over seven days. The system has had a
major impact on a school’s ability to reopen for in-person
instruction.
$900 billion Covid-19 relief package, including $82 billion for K-12
and colleges, plus $22 billion for Covid-19 testing that could help to
reopen schools. Of the $82 billion, $6.5 billion went to California
for K-12 schools.
, which allowed in-person instruction in counties in “purple” tier
with daily case rate of less than 25, and a $2 billion
incentive program
to bring back in-person instruction for elementary grades and students
with special needs in prioritized categories by mid-February.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump storm the United States
Capitol in a riot. California educators
condemn and reflect
on what many call an “insurrection.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a new state budget increasing funding to
California colleges to stabilize tuition rates, provide emergency aid,
and “re-engage” students who have dropped out due to the Covid-19
pandemic. The budget also proposes $4.6 billion for summer school
programs.
Teachers and other school employees in Mariposa County are among the
first in the state to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
to create a permanent, virtual K-12 academy, citing concerns about the
pandemic’s impact.
Newsom announces the creation of Safe Schools for All Hub, a site
providing resources to school districts regarding California’s Covid-19
strategies.
Covid-19 death toll passes 400,000 in the U.S., CDC announces.
In a news conference, Newsom announces streamlined vaccination efforts,
including an age-based eligibility system and putting teachers high on
the state’s priority vaccination list.
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing extends a waiver
allowing those in preparation programs to continue teaching as they
finish their credentials, the latest move to combat a teacher shortage
during the pandemic.
Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. surpasses 500,000, CDC announces.
The Biden administration confirms all schools must resume annual
standardized testing, with modifications to protect against Covid. The
requirement had been suspended in March 2020.
The California Department of Public Health reports that infection rates
have fallen significantly, allowing many elementary schools to begin
reopening.
The California Legislature approves a plan providing $2 billion in
incentives for districts that reopen for in-person learning beginning
April 1, starting with the earliest grades first.
allocating about $15 billion to K-12 schools in California to combat the
pandemic and related recession.
One-year anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring
Covid-19 a global pandemic.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updates
guidelines on distancing in schools in elementary schools. Elementary
schoolers can safely distance from 3 feet, while middle and high schools
should maintain a distance of 6 feet.
U.S. Department of Education announces California is behind on returning
to in-person instruction.
CDC announces that about 80% of K-12 staff, teachers, staff and child
care workers have received at least their first dose of the Covid
vaccine.
after facing lawsuits and criticism from a group of parents for not
reopening sooner.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announces that it will continue
reimbursing schools and child care centers for free meals, a move
serving food insecure families during the pandemic.
The University of California system announces it will no longer consider
SAT or ACT scores in scholarship or admissions decisions.
California announces a plan to spend $6 billion to expand broadband
internet access to thousands of students underserved by private internet
service providers during distance learning.
State rescinds mandate requiring schools to send home children who
refuse to wear a mask, announcing that it will allow schools to decide
what to do.
The University of California system announces that it will require
students, faculty and staff to show proof of vaccination against Covid.
The California State University System announces that all faculty,
students and staff will be required to show proof of vaccination.
CDC updates masking guidance, recommending masking indoors and in high
transmission areas, amid a surge in the Covid virus’s new delta variant.
Several California community colleges, including ones in the Los Angeles
Community College District and Los Rios Community College District,
implement vaccine mandates amid surging cases.
to be vaccinated against Covid or undergo weekly testing.
Culver City Unified, in west Los Angeles, announces that it will require
all students to be vaccinated against and undergo weekly testing,
becoming the first school district in California to do so.
Several rural districts in California close schools, following an
increase in cases of the delta variant of Covid-19.
The Los Angeles Unified school board votes to require all students 12
and older to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, becoming the largest
public school district to do so.
The chancellor of the California Community College system announces
student enrollment has dropped below 2 million students for the first
time in over 30 years due to the pandemic.
A judge rules that California students with disabilities can resume
independent study after Assembly Bill 130 was passed, requiring all
schools to provide in-person classes. The bill made an exception for
those who qualified for independent study, but shut out several students
who had various disabilities preventing them from wearing a mask or
making them susceptible to Covid.
The UC system announces it will stick with test-free admissions and will
not replace the SAT and ACT with a new exam.
CDC announces the death toll in the U.S. has surpassed 800,000.
Several school districts, including Los Angeles Unified and West Contra
Costa Unified, announce plans to delay vaccine mandate deadlines.
CDC updates quarantine and isolation guidelines, and California
announces the state will follow them.
CDC reports 1 million active Covid cases in the U.S, the highest daily
total of any country.
About 900 teachers and aides stage a “sickout” to protest the lack of
Covid-19 protections in San Francisco public schools in the midst of a
surge of cases.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announces that funding for schools and community
colleges will increase to over $100 million in the midst of a pandemic
affecting state revenue.
Newsom signs an executive order loosening state regulations for
substitute teachers to combat staffing shortages.
protest by several teachers at a West Contra Costa Unified middle
school, over half of Stege Elementary school’s teachers call out to
protest Covid-19 policies.
Oakland-based research group Children Now releases report card detailing
the effects of the pandemic, wildfires and racial injustice on
children’s education and mental health.
Several CSU and UC campuses suspend in-person classes following a surge
of cases.
San Diego State University sees a record number of fall 2022 applicants,
indicating a bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.
The chancellor of the CSU system announces tuition will not increase for
the 2022-23 school year as many students continue to face financial
struggles due to the pandemic.
A panel for the CSU system recommends eliminating SAT and ACT exams for
admission, following several colleges across the nation during the
pandemic.
EdSource reports that graduation rates held steady during the pandemic.
CDC issues new rating system allowing most students in K-12 schools to
remove masks indoors.
Covid-19 deaths worldwide surpass 6 million.
Two year anniversary of when the World Health Organization declared the
coronavirus a global pandemic.
California ends school mask mandate.
President Joe Biden proposes $88.3 billion dollars in new discretionary
funds for American colleges, a 16% increase from the previous year.
Almost 1 million Covid deaths have been reported in the U.S.
The National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers announces
state-based preschool programs suffered from massive pandemic-related
losses, including enrollment decline and loss of state funding.
Biden and the Department of Education announce an extension of the
student loan payment pause until Aug. 31. The pandemic-era policy
assisted millions of borrowers nationwide.
College students introduce a bill to add a 24-hour mental health hotline
number on student ID cards due to the growing mental health crisis
associated with the pandemic and other social justice issues.
U.S. Covid deaths top 1 million.
Newsom announces a revised state budget allocating $128 billion to
schools and community colleges in the state, $20 billion more than
initially proposed. The new budget is slated to provide $3.3 billion for
districts affected by inconsistent attendance due to new Covid variants.
The Public Policy Institute of California reveals that science
instruction decreased in K-12 schools across the state during the
pandemic. More than 200 districts were surveyed, citing teacher burnout
related to the pandemic and a lack of funding for science, technology,
engineering and math programs.
California to provide free lunch to all K-12 students, expanding on the
USDA’s pandemic-era universal meal program.
Several public universities and colleges begin in-person instructions
with few Covid restrictions.
As educators worry about the pandemic’s effect on students, the state
Department of Education announces it will delay release of standardized
test scores from the previous year, prompting a public outcry.
standardized test scores projected to show declines related to global
pandemic. This is a contrast from the initial announcement indicating a
delay.
EdSource reports that California students have performed significantly
worse on state standardized states, highlighting another one of the
pandemic’s impacts on education.
CSU board of trustees abandons a plan to require a fourth year of math
for admission, citing pandemic-related concerns.
Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a budget decrease for California Community
Colleges and K-12 schools, while continuing to allocate funding for
“learning recovery from Covid.”
Officials from the Department of Public Health announce plans to end the
Covid vaccine mandate for school children.
Several elementary schools in Marin County institute a temporary mask
mandate following an uptick in cases.
CDC adds Covid-19 vaccine to recommended immunization schedule for
children ages 6-17.
CalFresh announces it will end two temporary exceptions allowing more
students to qualify for CalFresh during the pandemic.
Despite hopes of return to a “pre-pandemic normalcy,” state data reports
a decline in TK-12 enrollment.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers,
testifies in front of Congress regarding Covid-related closures at
schools.
World Health Organization announces that Covid-19 is no longer
considered a global pandemic.
CalMatters reports that the Golden State Education and Training Grant
Program, which allows those affected by job loss due to Covid to enroll
in a college program, is set to end by June 15 in order to combat
ongoing budget deficit.
School officials and union leaders for Los Angeles Unified reach
agreement to extend winter breaks. If ratified, the measure will extend
the school year in hopes of combating Covid-related learning loss.
State Legislature mandates a change in literacy standards, hoping to
combat reading loss.
In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules President Joe Biden
lacked the authority to implement a plan erasing $400 billion in college
student debt, leaving millions of people affected by financial woes
during the pandemic in a limbo.
The Legislature announces two bills to combat a teacher shortage
exacerbated by the pandemic, including one set to pay student teachers
for their required 600 hours of instruction.
to prevent them from testifying in a suit alleging that the state failed
to prevent learning loss for low-income and other high-risk groups. Some
professors from the university planned to testify regarding the effects
of the pandemic on chronic absenteeism and student engagement/enrollment
measures.
Reversing course, the department announces it will not pursue a lawsuit
against the Stanford researchers.
Chancellor for California Community Colleges announces enrollment has
increased, bouncing back after years of pandemic-related declines.
Los Angeles Unified School District announces it will no longer require
employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The mandate was under
controversy as many claimed it was discriminatory.
CAASPP Smarter Balanced assessments reveal that districts have done
little to reverse learning loss due to the pandemic. The learning loss
disproportionately affected Black, Latino and economically disadvantaged
students.
Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a rainy day fund to protect California
colleges from expected budget shortfalls.
Los Angeles Unified loosens Covid restrictions, allowing children and
school to return to school if symptoms are mild.
A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine finds that long
Covid will have lasting effects on IQ levels and cognitive ability of
schoolchildren.
California Community Colleges reports that the system has lost more than
$5 million due to fraudulent registrations, a trend that has seen an
increase since the pandemic.
Trump-appointed judge in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules
that Los Angeles Unified employees can sue the district over expired
Covid policies. The suit had been thrown out by a lower court as the
rules were no longer in effect.
The New York Times reports that $190 billion given to schools to help
students recover from pandemic-related learning loss did little to
improve test scores.
Toddlers and babies born during the pandemic suffered from significant
developmental delays due to its effects, the New York Times reports.
Los Angeles Unified superintendent announces that the district has
recovered from some learning loss during the pandemic, with reading
scores showing English proficiency increasing from 41% to 43%. Math
scores also rose by 2 percentage points.
Study by Northwest Evaluation Association reports that a significant
number of eighth graders are approximately a year behind in learning
progress due to the pandemic.
EdWeek reports that district administrators have until Sept. 30 to claim
share of Covid-related federal aid set aside to assist homeless
students.
CSU system announces 461,000 enrolled students, the largest number since
the beginning of the pandemic.
State data indicates improving scores on standardized tests, but not to
pre-pandemic levels. Government officials say the scores show that
districts are making up for learning loss.
The Center on Reinventing Public Education gives California a D grade on
its reporting of the effects of Covid on students.
EdSource reports that several schools and colleges around California
will receive over $45 billion in bonds for construction in a “post-Covid
vote of confidence.”
West Contra Costa district announces it will cut several administrative
and staff positions due to a budget deficit, citing declining enrollment
and expiration of Covid-relief grants as causes.
The science is clear: 80% of brain growth happens by the age of 3, laying the foundation for a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. Every moment in which we do not invest in babies’ development is a critical missed opportunity to lay the foundation for our future.
That’s why babies urgently need high-quality, affordable early learning and care from birth. Unfortunately, for many families, this is either too expensive or unavailable, forcing parents into impossible choices between their careers and raising their children.
This dire shortage of care options affects more than just parents. When families can’t find high-quality, affordable care, the ripple effects are felt across workplaces, classrooms, and communities. Parents — and, in most cases, mothers — are often forced to leave the workforce, creating financial instability for their families, reducing career opportunities for women and decreasing the overall productivity in our economy.
To expand access and make early learning and care available to all of California’s children, our educators and caregivers need our support. These professionals, the majority of whom are women of color, are among the lowest-paid workers in the state. This chronic underinvestment has pushed many of them to leave the field, worsening an already extreme shortage of care.
We must expand the workforce because, while 36% of infants and toddlers qualify for subsidized care, only 14% have access to a space. But California — which has led the nation in taking bold action by creating access to universal preschool through the expansion of Transitional Kindergarten (TK) for all 4-year-old children and expanding access to state preschool to 3-year-olds — can close this gap.
It’s time to put solutions into action. Scaling successful models across early learning and care settings means expanding proven, high-quality programs to reach more children, especially those who live in communities that are under-resourced. By adapting these models to child care programs of all sizes — from home-based providers to large early learning centers — we can ensure more children have access to the education and support they need to thrive.
Here’s how we can act now:
Continue to support reforms to child care reimbursement rates to reflect the true cost of care. The goal is to develop policies to give caregivers a just and livable wage.
The Legislature and governor should move ahead with their plans to expand child care access to thousands more children of working-class families through the commitment to funding 200,000 new subsidized child care slots by the 2027-28 state budget, but they should target this access to infants and toddlers, because that is what families need the most.
We must remove the roadblocks to opening new child care centers and home-based providers, such as: allowing new early learning and care teachers to obtain their required college courses while working, as well as speeding up the time it takes for state child care licensing to approve new facilities, as we are currently advocating for at the legislative level.
Let’s Do This, Together
By listening to families; supporting early learning educators and providers; and working collaboratively with our governor, the Legislature, state leaders, and our partners, we can build a system that works for everyone. The future of our state depends on the decisions we make today.
Our babies can’t wait. Let’s act now to ensure they get the support they need to thrive.
•••
Patricia Lozano is the executive director of Early Edge California, a nonprofit organization that advocates for accessible, high-quality early learning and care for communities that are under-resourced, with a primary focus on babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. Scott Moore is the CEO of Kidango, a leading early childhood non-profit that serves thousands of low-income children and families.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
In the dynamic world of education, specifically providing 1:1 support in the classroom, instructional coaches serve as the crucial bridge between administration and teachers, facilitating professional growth and enhancing student learning outcomes. However, the growing complexity of this role demands more than just pedagogical expertise – it requires masterful organization and efficient productivity systems.
When I first took on the role of an Instructional Coach more than 15 years ago, I had nothing more than the tools provided to me by my district, specifically the ones in what was then called Google Apps. Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, Classroom. It was primative at the time, but that was what we had to use.
Why Productivity Matters in Instructional Coaching
The modern instructional coach wears multiple hats: mentor, data analyst, professional development facilitator, and change agent. Without robust productivity systems in place, these diverse responsibilities can quickly become overwhelming, potentially diminishing the coach’s effectiveness and impact on teacher development.
Consider these daily coaching responsibilities:
Conducting classroom observations and providing timely feedback
Analyzing student achievement data to guide instructional decisions
Planning and facilitating professional development sessions
Meeting with teachers for one-on-one coaching sessions
Documenting coaching cycles and tracking progress
Communicating with administrators and stakeholders
Each of these tasks generates valuable data that needs to be collected, organized, analyzed, and presented effectively. This is where the right productivity tools become indispensable.
The Power of Digital Forms in Instructional Coaching
Why Digital Forms Are Essential
The first tool in our productivity arsenal is a robust digital forms platform, such as Google Forms or Microsoft Forms. These tools revolutionize how coaches collect and organize data, making the process more efficient and accurate.
Key Benefits of Digital Forms
Instant data collection and organization
Customizable templates for different observation types
Mobile accessibility for real-time documentation
Automatic time-stamping of observations
Easy sharing and collaboration capabilities
Practical Applications for Instructional Coaches
Digital forms can transform various aspects of coaching:
1. Classroom Observations
Create customized observation forms that align with your school’s teaching framework. Include both quantitative and qualitative data points, making it easy to track specific teaching strategies and student engagement levels.
2. Teacher Feedback Surveys
Develop forms for teachers to reflect on their practice and provide feedback on coaching support. This data helps coaches adjust their approach to better meet teacher needs.
3. Professional Development Planning
Use forms to gather information about teachers’ professional learning needs and preferences, ensuring that professional development initiatives are targeted and effective.
Spreadsheet Analytics: Converting Data into Insights
The second essential tool is a powerful spreadsheet application like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. These platforms transform raw data into meaningful insights that drive coaching decisions.
Why Spreadsheets Matter in Coaching
Spreadsheets serve as the engine room for data analysis, helping coaches:
Track patterns in teaching practices over time
Identify areas of strength and growth opportunities
Generate visual representations of progress
Create data-driven coaching plans
Essential Spreadsheet Applications for Coaches
1. Teacher Growth Tracking
Create comprehensive spreadsheets that monitor teacher progress across multiple indicators, making it easy to identify trends and celebrate growth.
2. Student Achievement Analysis
Design systems to analyze student performance data, helping teachers make data-informed instructional decisions.
3. Coaching Impact Metrics
Develop dashboards that showcase the impact of coaching interventions on teacher practice and student learning.
Notion: The Game-Changing Platform for Instructional Coaches
While forms and spreadsheets are valuable tools, Notion represents the evolution of productivity applications, offering a comprehensive solution that combines the best features of multiple tools into one powerful platform.
Why Notion Stands Out
Notion’s unique architecture makes it particularly well-suited for instructional coaching:
1. Unified Workspace
All coaching documentation, resources, and data live in one searchable, organized space. No more switching between multiple applications or hunting for important documents.
2. Customizable Systems
Create personalized workflows that match your coaching style and school’s needs. From observation templates to professional development tracking, everything can be customized.
3. Interactive Databases
Build dynamic databases that track teacher progress, professional development participation, and coaching cycles with ease.
Practical Applications of Notion in Coaching
1. Coaching Cycle Management
Design comprehensive systems to track multiple coaching cycles, including pre-observation conferences, classroom observations, and follow-up meetings.
2. Resource Library
Create a searchable database of teaching strategies, professional articles, and instructional resources that teachers can easily access.
3. Professional Development Hub
Manage professional learning initiatives, track participation, and house all related resources in one organized space.
4. Data Dashboard Creation
Build beautiful, interactive dashboards that showcase coaching impact and teacher growth over time.
Getting Started
To successfully implement these tools in your coaching practice:
Start small and gradually expand your use of each tool
Focus on one system at a time to avoid overwhelming yourself or your teachers
Regularly gather feedback from teachers about the effectiveness of your digital tools
Continuously refine and adjust your systems based on actual usage and needs
Building Sustainable Systems
The key to long-term success with these tools is creating sustainable systems that:
Save time rather than create additional work
Provide clear value to both coaches and teachers
Scale easily as your coaching responsibilities grow
Support your school’s professional development goals
The Future of Instructional Coaching
As education continues to evolve, the role of instructional coaches will become increasingly data-driven and technology-dependent. The coaches who thrive will be those who effectively leverage productivity tools to enhance their impact.
Your Next Steps
Ready to transform your Instructional Coaching? Start by exploring Notion’s free platform. Its combination of flexibility, organization, and data management capabilities makes it the perfect foundation for building a more efficient and effective coaching system. Join the growing community of instructional coaches who are using Notion to amplify their impact and better serve their teachers.
If you are looking for help getting started with your Instructional Coaching Data Dashboard in Notion, I have put together a fantastic Data Dashboard and Command Center that is now being used by hundreds of Instructional Coaches. I hope you have a chance to check it out today!
Remember, the goal of implementing these tools is not just to be more organized – it’s to create more time and space for what matters most: supporting teachers in their professional growth and, ultimately, improving student learning outcomes.
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The Sonoma State University men’s soccer team practices in the rain recently on the campus in Rohnert Park. Division II sports are on the chopping block to save money.
Credit: Amy DiPierro / EdSource
On the soccer pitch, inthe physics classroom and in the office of a trusted professor, students at Sonoma State University are confronting a demoralizing challenge: What happens if my program gets cut?
The Rohnert Park campus, 50 miles north of San Francisco, has announced a contentious proposal to close a $24 million budget deficit by nixing six academic departments entirely, eliminating about two dozenmajor degree programs and cutting all NCAA Division II sports, among other measures.
Sonoma State’s experience is the most dire example of the cost reductions at many of the 23 Cal State campuses, which in total serve more than 450,000 students around the state. The university system’s leaders say cuts are prompted by an anticipated decrease in state funding, rising costs and, on some campuses,slumping enrollment figures. The number of students at Sonoma State has plunged dramatically, from 9,400 students in 2015 to a nadir of about 5,800 in2024.
On a recentvisit to the campus, an EdSource reporter spent time with students, faculty and coachesdirectly impacted by the expected cuts. The most defiant promised to fight for reprieves or backed state legislators’ demands for a turnaround plan. This month, some students sued to try to block proposed cuts.
But mostly, students and faculty expressed worry that this could be the last time a Sonoma State undergraduate sees the advanced math explaining why light moves more slowly in air than in a vacuum, ponders the differences between second and third wave feminism or masters the subtle finesse of playing one-touch soccer in the rain.
Geology: ‘All of that will be gone’
Jackson Kaiser grew up at the foot of Mount Konocti in Lake County, part of a volcanic field three hours north of San Francisco that feeds what is reckoned to be the largest geothermal complex in the world. “I had a lot of questions that I didn’t know how to answer,” he said. And that’s why he majored in geology at Sonoma State University.
But the department that has turned Kaiser’s curiosity into a promising career may soon disappear.Kaiser could be among the last 40 or so Sonoma State geology majors, according to a professor in the department, if the university goes ahead with plans to eliminate the department. Sonoma State spokesperson Jeff Keating confirmed that all tenured and tenure-track geology faculty have received layoff notices, though several may be asked to teach temporarily.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Kaiser reverently held his favorite rock samples in theclassroom where geology majors take most of their classes. “The idea that that place won’t be here to come back to, that I won’t have an alma mater — it feels like our administration doesn’t want me to be a proud Seawolf,” he said,referring to the campus mascot.
Student Jackson Kaiser, who grew up fascinated by a volcanic field near a large geothermal complex north of San Francisco, laments that he may be among the last geology majors at Sonoma State.Amy DiPierro
Kaiser, 36, was working in the produce department of a Safeway grocery store when he found himself researching the chemical formulas of minerals. He marveled at their straight lines and geometric forms, so elegant they appear unnatural. He wanted to know more.
So around 2022,Kaiser, his partner and their two children, now 4 and 6, started commuting an hour and half or more every weekday from Lake County to Sonoma State, sending the kids to the Children’s School on campus while both parents took undergraduate classes. These days, Kaiser bunks with classmates from Monday to Friday, returning home to his family on weekends. “It’s not great,” he said. “But I’m working towards a better future, where I’ll have a real career and not just be working in a grocery store.”
His chosen career can have high stakes. After all, Kaiser said, it was a careful geological study in the 1960s that ultimately blocked a plan to build a nuclear power plant just 30 minutes from campus on a site traversed by the San Andreas Fault. A geological assessment is often a necessity for construction projects, especially in a region where debris flows can follow climate change-fueled wildfires. But geologists worry their numbers are waning despite growing demand for their skills.
A geology classroom on the campus of Sonoma State University on Feb. 12,Amy DiPierro
Kaiser, who will graduate at the end of the summer, has been collecting business cards from potential employers like geologic consulting firms. Thanks to the department’s frequent field trips, he’s had opportunities to practice skills like mapping, sample collection and paleontology.
He’s also taken part in department traditions, like feasting on watermelon at the summit after mountainous hikes or visiting the mammoth fossil that Sonoma State students excavated in 1981. “I hate the thought,” he said, “that all of that will be gone.”
Soccer: ‘Play all the way through’
The weather was lousy, but there they were in the rain at 9:15 a.m., the Sonoma State University men’s soccer team, lacing up their boots and stowing their belongings in white garbage bags to keep them dry. They had come from nearby Santa Rosa and far away Kapolei, Hawaii, to attendthe university. Together, they navigated the difficult reality that this could be their team’s last season,no matter how well they played.
There was Carson Sterling, a freshman center back from 18 miles north in Windsor, whose father and mother played soccer for Sonoma State before him. There was defender Cameron Fisk, a junior from Los Angeles studying business marketing, who had rebounded from injuries to play this fall.And, of course, there washead coach Marcus Ziemer, leading the Seawolves for the 34th year.
Ziemer watched the players warm up, his eyes shielded from the drizzle under a black baseball cap and glasses. Since he started as head coach in 1991, the men’s soccer team has won eight conference championships and earned its first and only national title in 2002.
But now things are grim. The university announced on Jan. 22 that it planned to eliminate men’s soccer along with the school’s other NCAA sports, among other austerities.
“It’s a very difficult kind of limbo right now,” he said. “We’re fighting hard to try and save the program and some of the other majors as well, trying to get them to reconsider.”
The Sonoma State University men’s soccer team practices recently in Rohnert Park. With the school’s whole Division II sports program potentially being cut, some team players are looking to transfer through the NCAA portal.Amy DiPierro
Ziemer himself is in limbo, too. Unless efforts to save the Sonoma State Division II sports programs succeed, his contract will end on June 30. He would probably retire rather than seek another coaching job.
In the meantime, Ziemer and his four assistant coaches have advised players who wish to continue their collegiate soccer careers to enter the NCAA transfer portal,expressing interest in moving to other schools. A few already have offers.
“I’m just grateful that with everything going on, we have coaches like them that are willing to help us and see other opportunities,” said Fisk, who has entered the transfer portal while the Sonoma State team’s status is uncertain.
But for now, the team’s focus was on preparing the Seawolves for a challenging spring season, including matchups against NCAA Division I and semi-professional sides. Practice started with dynamic stretches, then a frenetic game of keep-away and a shooting drill to loosen quads grown stiff in the damp.
“The energy is still really high,” said Sterling, who is in talks with soccer programs at other schools. “Obviously, it’s a kind of bad situation, and we’re just hoping for the best. But we’re going to play all the way through no matter what, and we’re going to play hard for each other.”
The squad split into teams for a scrimmage, an assistant coach barking urgent encouragement as they played. He called a time-out. “What does it take? Communication. Thinking one pass, two passes, three passes ahead. Moving, adjusting, being aware,” he yelled, his voice booming over the slick turf. “So because we’re struggling, should we say, ‘Ehh, f— it, move on.’? Or should we grow through it? Let’s grow through it — let’s grow through it together!”
The Sonoma State University men’s soccer team practices in the rain recently in Rohnert Park.Amy DiPierro
Women’s and gender studies: ‘I didn’t get that anywhere else’
Under the fluorescent lights of a windowless basement classroom, Xochilt Martinez Balladares and about 20 other students eagerly awaited a discussion on queer and trans theory. But before they could unpack works by critical heavyweights like Adrienne Rich, they trained their attention on an issuecloser at hand: the plan to dismantle the Sonoma State University Women’s and Gender Studies Department.
If the proposal goes forward, Sonoma State will offer the last women’s and gender studies classes in spring 2026. That could mark the end of a more than 50-year run that started with the founding of the program in the early 1970s and evolved into the Women’s and Gender Studies Department in 2001. Several students said the plan compounds their feeling that historically marginalized groups are under attack as the Trump administration seeks to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Martinez and her classmates also argued that the department teaches skills central to future careers, while providing community when they need it most. For Martinez, a women’s and gender studies major and Chicano and Latino studies minor, the long-term goal is to go into immigration law. In the short-term, she is considering a social work degree so she can work with at-risk youth and families.
“I almost dropped out twice because I felt very out of place,” said Martinez, 32. But she persevered thanks to a women’s and gender studies instructor who “talked to me on a personal level and made sure that I could continue my education. I didn’t get that anywhere else.”
The department typically attracts 25 to 35 majors a year, said Don Romesburg, the professor who teaches the theory course, but many more students who aren’t majors take its classes. Campus spokesperson Keating confirmed that all the department’s professors have been laid off, but said the university “will continue to support and encourage the teaching of courses that support women’s rights and the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Janis Phillips, 46,an education graduate student, said the loss of the department makes her question whether the university shares her commitment to students’ social and emotional learning.
“When students feel safe and seen and heard on campuses, that is one of the best predictors of academic success,” she said, facing her classmates around the circle of desks. “So to take a bunch of students and make them feel like they are not seen and not heard will be detrimental to their academic success.”
Students said the major prepares them for careers as psychologists, marriage and family therapists or health care providers. Because majors have to complete a community service requirement, students work with local organizations that help unhoused families, prevent sexual assault and support LGBTQ youth. “We’ve really taken seriously this question that parents often ask their students, which is, ‘What would you do with that degree?’” Romesburg said.
Despite the uncertain future of the department, students are doing the reading, Romesburg said, mindful that those who come behind them might not get the same opportunity. “They’re ready to roll up their sleeves and do project-based work, where they’re really generating ideas and reflections and engaging with the material,” he said.
A flier is posted to a bulletin board on the campus of Sonoma State University.
Physics: ‘Watching something that you love die’
The physics students filing into Scott Severson’s 9:30 a.m. optics class brightened with the wide-eyed surprise of children peeking at a gift: a sturdy wooden crate.
“It’s Christmas in our labs,” Severson said, gesturing toward the crate, which was filled with professional-gradelaboratory hardware. “We ordered this in better days,” he added, and a few students chuckled.
The Sonoma State Physics and Astronomy Department has indeed seen better days. Its alumni have gone on to lead companies, earn advanced degrees and become professors themselves. One of the department’s proudest moments came in 2016, when professor Lynn Cominsky was part of the team that documented a phenomenon called gravitational waves, an achievement that won three of her collaboratorsthe Nobel Prize. Cominsky said she has raised more than $43 million in grants for Sonoma State.
Such prestige has not shielded the Physics and Astronomy Department from cost-cutting plans. Though the department will avoid total elimination, Sonoma State plans to phase out its physics major. It is giving 30 majors two years to graduate and leaving 10 first-year students to find another degree or transfer, Severson said. After that, physics faculty memberswill only teach physics courses for students in other programs, like biology or engineering.
Already, one of the department’s lecturers has received a layoff notice, according to the university. Severson said he and three other remaining tenured faculty will cover the teaching load as the physics degree winds down. He doesn’t anticipate that tenured faculty will lose their jobs, but said some may seek work elsewhere or retire.
Troy Wilson and Jeffery Reedy at Sonoma State University demonstrate an experiment created as part of a program aimed at introducing middle and high school students to STEM fields on Feb. 12.Amy DiPierro
Ending the physics major also could reverberate at Cominsky’s EdEon STEM Learning program, which creates educational materials aimed at inspiring middle and high school students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
EdEon’s work depends on Sonoma State undergraduates, Cominsky said, and currently employs between 15 and 20 students in fields including physics. “None of the research grants I write would have been possible without physics majors,” she said.
Meanwhile, the students in Severson’s optics class watched as he played them a video illustrating the spiral of two black holes.
“I want you to notice the colors of this,” said Severson, who has taught at the university since 2007. “The brighter the red, the greater the distortion of spacetime as this is happening.”
Among the optics students was Madison Ambriz, who plans to graduate at the end of fall 2025.Ambriz spent the summer learning to assemble circuit boards as part of a collaboration to upgrade the Large Hadron Collider, a famed particle accelerator used to test physicists’ theoretical predictions. “I had such a blast with it,” she said, but her enthusiasm has been tempered by the feeling that it’s too late to save the major.
“It doesn’t matter what we say, doesn’t matter how heartbroken we are, doesn’t matter what the numbers say, they’re still going to cut the [major],” Ambriz said. “And it’s just watching something that you love die, and it’s horrible.”
As parents, one of our greatest desires is to see our children thrive in every aspect of life. A key ingredient to this success is fostering a genuine love for learning in them. But in a world filled with distractions and pressures, how do we motivate your child to embrace this love for learning? Let’s explore some practical and effective strategies that can help spark and sustain your child’s enthusiasm for learning.
1. Make Learning Fun and Engaging
Children are naturally curious. They love to explore, ask questions, and discover new things. To motivate your child, try to make learning an enjoyable experience. Use games, hands-on activities, and creative projects that align with your child’s interests. For example, if your child loves dinosaurs, incorporate them into reading activities or visit a natural history museum. When learning feels like play, children are more likely to develop a positive attitude toward it.
2.Create a Positive Learning Environment
A supportive and nurturing environment at home can significantly motivate your child’s attitude toward learning. Set up a dedicated space for study, free from distractions, where your child can focus on their tasks. Ensure that this space is well-lit, comfortable, and stocked with all the necessary supplies. A well-organized learning area can help children feel more motivated and less stressed, making learning a more enjoyable experience.
3.Be an Enthusiastic Role Model
Children learn by observing the adults around them. If they see you engaged in reading, exploring new hobbies, or discussing interesting topics, they’re likely to mirror that behavior. To motivate your child, share your excitement about learning something new with them. Discuss books, documentaries, or interesting articles at the dinner table. Your enthusiasm for knowledge will be contagious and inspire your child to develop a similar passion.
4. Encourage Questions and Curiosity
Encourage your child to ask questions and explore their interests. Instead of giving them direct answers, guide them in finding the information themselves. This could involve looking things up together online, visiting the library, or conducting simple experiments at home. When children are actively involved in the learning process, it helps motivate your child to develop critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
5.Celebrate Effort, Not Just Results
It’s essential to emphasize the importance of effort over achievement. Praise your child for the hard work they put into learning something new, regardless of the outcome. This approach helps motivate your child by making them understand that learning is a process and that mistakes are a natural part of it. Celebrating effort encourages resilience, persistence, and a growth mindset, which are crucial for lifelong learning.
6.Connect Learning to Real Life
Help your child see the relevance of what they’re learning by connecting it to real-life situations. Show them how math is used in cooking, how science explains the world around them, or how history shapes the present. When children see the practical applications of what they’re learning, it’s easier to motivate your child to value and enjoy the process.
Motivating your child to love learning is a gradual process that requires time, patience, and a lot of encouragement. By creating a positive and engaging learning environment, being an enthusiastic role model, and celebrating their efforts, you can help motivate your child to develop a lifelong love for learning. Remember, the goal is not just academic success but fostering a curious, confident, and resilient learner who is excited about discovering the world around them.
Trump has been waging war against the nation’s top universities, demanding that they accept his orders to stamp out DEI or lose their federal grants. Trump uses the phony claim that he is combatting anti-Semitism, but the reality is that he is silencing academic freedom and free speech. For the record, Trump has accepted the support of American Nazis, so his concern for Jews cannot be taken seriously.
The first campus to receive Trump’s demands was Columbia University. Trump threatened to withhold $400 million if Columbia did not put several departments (Middle Eastern Studies, African American Studies, and South Asian Studies) into receivership. Sadly, Columbia complied.
Harvard was threatened with the loss of $9 billion in research grants. Harvard said NO. Harvard will not bend the knee to Trump as he seeks to trample academic freedom of faculty and students.
Lawyers for Harvard University said Monday the school will not comply with a new list of demands sent by the Trump administration on Friday, as part of the government’s purported crackdown on antisemitism and alleged civil rights violations at elite universities.
The new demands expand on a previous list sent to Harvard’s leaders on April 3, which ordered Harvard to close diversity offices and cooperate with federal immigration authorities, among other directives.
In a message to the campus community Monday, Harvard president Alan Garber vowed that the university will not yield to the government’s pressure campaign.“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber said.
Harvard’s stance is the most forceful pushback yet against the Trump administration’s crackdown on elite universities. It is a sharp contrast to the approach taken by Columbia University’s leaders who acquiesced to a list of demands from the Trump administration last month. Columbia promised to change student disciplinary procedures and place a Middle East studies department under new oversight, among other measures.
Then, last Friday, the government sent Harvard a much more detailed explanation of its demands, which Harvard released Monday afternoon. Harvard’s lawyers said the university“is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”
We’ve been receiving a lot of questions lately about how Wowzers can be used with Google Classroom. Google Classroom is a fantastic tool that helps students and teachers organize assignments, boost collaboration, and foster better communication, particularly for virtual learning. By assigning work from one central platform, teachers and students can easily find all their assignments, grades, and feedback in one location. We’ve put together some suggestions and tips on how to best incorporate Wowzers into this tool.
Assign work through Google Classroom
The first step is to assign specific content to students through Google Classroom. This can be a particular activity, section, or amount of time. For example, one of our teachers who currently uses Google Classroom often assigns, “Complete at least one lesson, game, and assessment in Wowzers.” This allows students to follow their own personalized curriculum path, but keeps all students moving at the same pace so no one gets left behind. When a student completes that assignment, they can mark it off as complete so you know it’s time to check their report. At that point, you can immediately review math concepts together using a digital whiteboard, if needed.
Open a line of feedback
Google Classroom allows students and teachers to communicate about particular assignments. Encourage students to provide feedback about each lesson. Was it too hard, too easy? Did they understand the content? Use this feedback to adjust the student’s curriculum path as needed, such as assigning an extra remediation video to reinforce a concept, or even moving them back to review a previous concept. Similarly, be sure to communicate back to your students. Congratulate them when they’re thriving or completing extra work, and provide support when they struggle. Let them know when you’re rewarding them with extra Wowzers coins.
To keep a record of this communication, you can open up a private Google doc with each student and attach it directly to the assignment in Google Classroom. You could also consider using a digital whiteboard to review concepts and collaborate. To review a student’s progress, share your screen with the student, and go over their recent reports. It’s even possible to use tools such as Google Docs to group students into a collaborative discussion. This allows all students can participate and contribute.
Provide supplemental activities
Did you know Wowzers includes offline activities, worksheets, discussion questions, and projects as well? These supplemental materials are available as PDFs, which can be attached to an assignment in Google Classroom. You could even use Google Docs or Google Slides to have students work together as a group and prepare a write-up or presentation of their project to share with the rest of the class. Using the rubrics available in Wowzers, you can grade these supplemental activities directly in Google Classroom.
Do you use Google Classroom alongside Wowzers? We’d love to hear your tips and tricks as well!
Cerritos College students honing their skills in ironworking during hands-on training.
Credit: Courtesy Cerritos College
A college degree or certificate is a proven pathway to higher earnings, job stability and economic mobility. Yet, nearly half of California’s adults have not pursued higher education due to barriers like cost, rigid schedules and a lack of local options.
California set an ambitious goal: By 2030, 70% of working-age adults should hold a college degree or certificate. However, instead of making it easier to achieve this, public universities are blocking one of the most promising solutions — community college bachelor’s degree programs.
Cerritos College is leading the way with its first-of-its-kind field ironworker supervisor bachelor’s degree, which was developed with the California Field Ironworkers. The program creates a direct path from apprenticeship to high-paying supervisory roles. Designed for working professionals, it offers flexible online coursework that fits the schedules of full-time ironworkers.
With over 1,300 supervisor job openings annually in Los Angeles County alone, this program helps close critical workforce gaps while fostering regional social and economic mobility. First-line supervisors with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of $34,000 more in their annual salary than those with a high school diploma or associate degree. At under $11,000 in total tuition costs — less than half the price of even the most affordable public universities, our students can recoup their investment in as little as four months, making this program a powerful tool for upward mobility.
Beyond the numbers, programs like these change lives. Rocio Campos, an ironworker and mother, defied societal expectations to pursue a career in construction. While balancing work, family and education, Rocio gained the training and resources to grow her career in ironworks through the field ironworker apprenticeship program at Cerritos College. She aims to earn a bachelor’s degree in ironworker supervision once the program receives full approval, giving her a chance to advance into a supervisory role.
Community college bachelor’s degrees are game-changers, especially for underrepresented communities. At Cerritos College, 73% of students in the ironworker apprenticeship program come from diverse backgrounds, and active recruitment efforts are bringing more women into this historically male-dominated field. These programs don’t just increase wages; they provide economic mobility by helping workers build stability, advance their careers, and lift their families into greater financial security.
Several community colleges have received provisional approval to launch bachelor’s degree programs in health care, technology and public safety — fields where California urgently needs skilled professionals. However, many of these proposals remain under review because of objections from public universities, particularly within the CSU system. Despite meeting workforce demands and serving students who might not otherwise pursue a four-year degree, these programs face unnecessary roadblocks. The final approval ultimately rests with the California Community Colleges board of governors, but these initiatives risk being delayed indefinitely without broader policy support.
California cannot rely on four-year universities alone to meet its growing workforce needs. Expanding community college bachelor’s degree programs will strengthen industries, create more opportunities and solidify California’s leadership in workforce innovation. It’s time for policymakers, industry leaders and educators to support these programs and invest in the future of our state.
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Jose Fierro is the president/superintendent of Cerritos College in Norwalk. Cerritos College serves as a comprehensive community college for southeastern Los Angeles County.
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.
Wildfire smoke fills the air over the 110 freeway in Los Angeles.
Credit: AP Photo / Etienne Laurent
Before the Eaton fire this January, Alexander Ballantyne lived in Altadena, just a few minutes away from his Pasadena City College campus.
That all changed on Jan. 7 when the fire reached the home he’d lived in the past three years with his aunt and uncle, forcing them to quickly evacuate. He left with only the clothes he was wearing and the school backpack he had left in his car.
The home burned down later that day, and he was suddenly homeless, a situation he’d been in just a few years prior.
Among the people who lost their homes, livelihoods, and lives in the fires that ravaged Los Angeles early this year is a subset of young people who are in the foster care system and already knew the trauma of losing a home.
Ballantyne’s recovery from the devastation of the fire has not been easy, but it has been remarkably quick, a feat that highlights how imperative it is to pair stable housing with consistent, individualized support.
“I had stable housing with my legal guardians (in high school) and I had stable housing with my aunt. If it was just the stability, theoretically, I should have gotten through all of high school amazingly, flying colors,” he said. “I think it’s more so the type of support you get — you know it’s unconditional.”
Ballantyne, 25, was in the final stretch of transfer applications as the Eaton fire started. He was preparing the supplemental application for UC Berkeley’s business school, a highly competitive program. Less than 24 hours after it became available, however, he was fleeing from his family’s home, pushing finishing the application down his list of priorities.
Alex Ballantyne is a student at Pasadena City College, where he’s finishing his last semester before transferring to a four-year university.
“I almost felt like I was in my element, in the sense that it really wasn’t the first time I had nothing,” Ballantyne said in a recent interview. “And even though I say it feels pretty similar to how it was when I was homeless at 18, just having the support of my family … I feel like I landed on my feet.”
As soon as his friends and network found out that he had lost his home, they stepped in to help him rebuild. A friend started a GoFundMe donation page for him, and it quickly reached its goal. One Simple Wish — an organization that directly funds any need or want a foster youth might have — crowdfunded additional money to replace the school and office supplies he’d lost.
This quick support came from networks that Ballantyne had built over the years. He’s been part of organizations like First Star, a college readiness program for foster youth, where he met people like the founder of Jenni’s Flower, an LA-based organization that organizes events to empower foster youth. He is part of the foster youth programs at Pasadena City College, and he’s on the board of two nonprofits.
What mattered to Ballantyne, more than anything else, was that the support he received came with no strings attached and from people he knew truly cared for him.
“It’s really not the money that will get a foster kid through school or training or whatever they want to do,” Ballantyne said. “It’s the support, it’s the human connection, and it’s the feeling like they have somebody to lean on. That’s the most important part.”
In the months since the fires, One Simple Wish has provided thousands in funding to 12 foster youth in Los Angeles alone, including Ballantyne.
“Especially for minor children moving through the system, there’s not a lot of choice. You don’t often get to choose the neighborhood or the church you go to, the school you go to, the friendships that you can or can’t maintain, whether or not you get to stay with siblings; there’s just so much choice already being removed,” said Danielle Gletow, founder of One Simple Wish.
Her organization’s mission is to fill the gaps that other groups might leave: Instead of asking someone if they need a backpack, her team leaves the question open-ended, asking, “What would you like to put your belongings in?”
“Our goal is to just make sure that … what an individual needs in a time of crisis or challenging times, we put that power back in their hands,” said Gletow, who said the majority of funds come in as donations from supporters across the country.
Ballantyne knows that lack of choice firsthand. He entered the foster system during middle school after an unstable childhood, andmoved through four placements during his freshman year of high school, before being placed with a family who became his legal guardians until the age of 18. He said that despite having housing stability through most of high school, he earned a 2.9 GPA.
Today, weeks after his home burned down along with all of his belongings, coupled with the stress of waiting to hear back from colleges he applied to as he finishes his spring semester, he has maintained a 3.6 GPA.
It’s all in the support
At 18, shortly after graduating from high school, Ballantyne said he was kicked out of his foster home of three years and was homeless, couch surfing and working four jobs to get by, until he landed in transitional housing.
He enrolled in community college shortly after, but left before the semester was over, right as the Covid-19 pandemic was starting. He fell into a deep, long-lasting depression, and for the next three years, he spent most days playing video games, drinking, smoking weed and taking pills, he said.
His “wake-up call,” as he calls it, came in March 2021, when he received a text notifying him his grandmother was dying in the hospital. “I just remember feeling so helpless. I didn’t have the money to get an Uber to go see her,” he said. “I didn’t drive. I was doing nothing with myself.”
Ballantyne’s grandmother had been like his mother, he said, and she’d just died in the same hospital he’d been born in about two decades earlier. She was his champion, always reminding him how much she loved him.
While in the foster system, he had been estranged from his family for years, but as he helped his aunt prepare his grandmother’s home for sale, he told her about his living condition.
It was around this time that Ballantyne’s life started turning around. His decision to get a job at a Best Buy “changed everything.” He initially wanted the job just for the discounts on video games, but he came away with companionship, which he needed after having been isolated in his depression for years.
His aunt soon invited him to move in with her rent-free as long as he worked or attended school full-time and helped out around the house. He grabbed the opportunity and enrolled at Pasadena City College, where he is now just months from transferring to a four-year college.
He learned what it was like to receive unconditional support when he moved in with his biological family as an adult.
“I don’t think I was ever dumb,” he said, referring to the many years in which he didn’t excel academically. “I just don’t think I ever was in a situation where I truly, 100% felt comfortable and secure with where I was at.”
Ballantyne is currently living in Burbank, renting a room in a classmate’s apartment, while his uncle and aunt are staying with family farther north in Los Angeles County.
He’ll be there through the end of the summer, at which point he’ll be moving to whichever university he chooses among the four that accepted him so far. His rent is paid through August, thanks to the funding he received after the fires.
The network of friends and resources that stepped up to support Ballantyne is there for all other foster youth, both he and Gletow emphasized.
“We really do stress the importance of making connections wherever you can because it will matter as you get older. And as you become an adult, you have less and less of a network or safety net,” said Gletow, whose organization also has an educational wish fund where school staff can submit requests for flexible funding to use as needed.
Ballantyne did eventually submit his supplemental application to UC Berkeley’s business school on time when he was sheltering at a family member’s home. The application had a video component requiring applicants to record themselves answering prompt questions, but the desk in the room he was staying in was inside a closet — not an ideal setting for such an important video.
But Ballantyne knew he had everything he needed, including a newly replaced laptop, thanks to his friends and network, so he hit the record button and got to work making his goals a reality.
