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  • Fresno teachers vote to strike; negotiations with district continue

    Fresno teachers vote to strike; negotiations with district continue


    Thousands of Fresno Unified educators – a part of the Fresno Teachers Association – started voting on whether to strike during an Oct. 18 rally.

    Credit: California Teachers Association / X

    Thousands of educators in Fresno Unified have voted to strike, the Fresno Teachers Association announced Tuesday morning.

    From last Wednesday to Monday, more than 4,000 FTA members had the opportunity to cast their votes on whether to strike. Nearly 3,700 voted with 93.5%, or over 3,400 educators, voting yes.

    Teachers union President Manuel Bonilla said the vote sends a clear message: “We have a mandate, and we are willing to strike.”

    “Our teachers are tired,” he said. “Tired of the empty promises, the nonsense slogans, the highly paid administrators paying lip service to solving real issues on our campuses.”

    After more than a year of negotiations, four key issues have emerged, Bonilla said: reducing class size, reducing the caseload for special education teachers, paying educators a wage that keeps pace with inflation and maintaining the employee health fund.

    If Fresno Unified School District and the teachers union can’t agree by next week, starting Nov. 1, teachers will strike and form picket lines in front of the district’s 100-plus campuses and district office.

    Besides initiating the strike on Nov. 1, educators plan to be at district schools this Friday to inform parents about the four issues and provide information about the strike.

    The district, according to a Tuesday afternoon statement, are prepared for a strike.

    “Fresno Unified reassures its families, students, and staff that we are prepared to keep our schools open, safe, and full of learning during an active teacher strike,” the statement said.

    Can a strike be averted in the face of mutual disrespect?

    Even though the last teachers strike was in 1978, Fresno Unified and the teachers union have been on the brink a few other times. In 2017, teachers voted to strike, but a third party stepped in and negotiated a compromise.

    This time, even a week ahead of a strike, Bonilla said the union is ready “at any moment to come to the table and reach a fair contract.”

    “As we prepare for a potential strike, we are always willing to be at the table,” Bonilla said. “A strike can be averted.”

    Fresno Unified and FTA leaders were in negotiations Tuesday afternoon, according to district spokesperson Nikki Henry.

    And that dialogue will continue, Fresno Unified’s statement said, because “we support our staff, our families, and our students while remaining fully committed to a mutual agreement.”

    Fresno Unified’s latest proposal includes 19% pay increases over the next three years, expanded medical benefits for the rest of employees’ lives and changes to class size overages.

    “Fresno Unified stands proud of the updated offer we have made to the FTA which includes raising the average teacher’s base salary to $103,000 annually, provides affordable, high-quality medical coverage for life, and continues moving towards lowering class sizes,” the district’s statement says. 

    The teachers union rejected the proposal because the offer does not raise teachers’ pay enough to keep pace with inflation and cost-of-living increases, doesn’t reduce class size and still comes with a cut to the district’s health care fund contribution.

    “During the course of negotiations, it has become abundantly clear that Superintendent Nelson is disconnected from the realities of the classroom, out of sync with our district’s needs,” Bonilla said, “and now, he’s out of time.”

    The district’s revised proposal came after daily negotiations with the union, from the Oct. 5 release of a fact finder’s report until Oct. 13, Superintendent Bob Nelson said.

    Much of what’s in the district’s latest proposal was recommended in the report, including creating a problem-solving team to focus on issues, ways to increase pay, expanded medical benefits for employees working in the district for 20 years and the union-district contract becoming a “living document.”

    But there were so many unresolved items ahead of the fact-finding process in early September that Don Raczka, author of the fact-finding report, said it was as if the district and union had not bargained in the year prior.

    In a matter of days, Raczka said, he witnessed both the district and union be “disrespectful” and exhibit behaviors that are detrimental to establishing trust.

    Ultimately, the report, shared publicly on Oct. 16, focused on salary, benefits and class size, three of the four areas that the district and union remain deadlocked on.

    What happens during a strike?

    If teachers strike on Nov. 1, Fresno Unified will keep schools open. But many programs and services may suffer.

    School transportation and before-and-after-school care will continue during a strike, but all Fresno Unified events — including camps, field trips, community meetings, tournaments and access to health centers — outside of regular school and after-school hours, will be canceled, according to a document shared with families and posted on the district website. The only exception will be high school sports practices and competitions, which will be supervised by administrators and hired security.

    Students’ individualized education plan schedules must be adjusted.

    The district also has made plans to ensure that dozens of medically fragile students have uninterrupted access to services.

    As part of a $3 million allocation, the district will pay $451,000 for student health care services as needed because nurses could also strike as members of the union, which represents over 4,000 teachers, nurses, social workers and other professionals. The allocation will also fund curriculum, security and substitute teacher hiring and orientation, not including their daily pay.

    According to Fresno Unified, the district will pay substitute teachers $500 a day if the strike happens. It has over 2,100 subs who are credentialed, qualified, fingerprinted and have completed background checks. But because that isn’t enough to cover the 3,400 union members who voted to strike, the district also plans to put district personnel in the classrooms.

    Bonilla referred to the substitute teachers as babysitters who would hand out packets of work — $2 million worth of curriculum materials, which was part of the $3 million the district allocated to prepare for the strike.

    “That is not quality education,” he said.

    Parents, he said, must choose between sending their children to school during a strike with “a random babysitter” or keeping their kids home — which would bring the strike to a quick end.

    However, students who miss school during the strike will not receive academic or attendance credit, and the absence will not be excused, according to Fresno Unified.

    Despite the district’s reassurance that learning will take place, Bonilla said education won’t be happening during a strike.

    “Teachers are making a sacrifice – in this case, they won’t be compensated for those days,” Bonilla said. “They’re making a sacrifice on behalf of their students in this community…”





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  • UC Riverside’s new health center at forefront of national student wellness trend

    UC Riverside’s new health center at forefront of national student wellness trend


    The lobby at UC Riverside’s new Student Health Center.

    Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside

    A newly built $36 million student health clinic at UC Riverside aims to provide a wide array of medical and mental health services in an attractive building that showcases views of nearby mountains. The two-story Student Health and Counseling Center includes a food pantry, a pharmacy, an outdoor balcony for meditation and waiting rooms that look like hip hotel lobbies. 

    And beyond serving Riverside students, it may become a national model of how campuses are investing more resources to keep their students physically and emotionally well in the post-pandemic era, experts say.  

    The 40,000-square-foot clinic will provide “one-stop shopping for wellness” that integrates physical and mental health services, said Denise Woods, UC Riverside’s associate vice chancellor of health, well-being and safety. During a recent tour, she said she expects that the building will make it easier for a student to tap into multiple types of services.

    The new UC facility replaces a 60-year-old building that is half its size and was built when the student population, now about 27,000, was much smaller. Paid for by UC bonds and other funds, the clinic centralizes services that had been scattered around campus and moves them closer to dormitories for students’ convenience.  

    Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside

    The new Student Health Center at UC Riverside.

     Nadia Colón, a fourth-year psychology and law and society double major who is a student senator, said many students have been looking forward to the new building, which opened last month. “I think it will be perfect for students who need medical or counseling help,” she said. The old, smaller building has some good services, but “the new building, from what I have seen, is updated and has more resources.”

    The medical health clinic and pharmacy are on the first floor along with a satellite food pantry for students who need food or household supplies to get through the week. Mental health counseling rooms are on the second floor, with extra soundproofing so passersby cannot hear therapy sessions. 

    Helps with recruiting

    Experts say the new health center is an example of how colleges and universities are emphasizing students’ medical and psychological wellness much more than in the past, particularly after the challenges posed by the pandemic and the emergence from it. In the long run, they say, such attention pays off for the schools, helping to recruit new students and improving graduation rates and alumni relations.  

    “For a long time, we’ve known that physical and mental health and well-being are an important part of academic success, retention and graduation. It’s been shown that when students are physically and emotionally well, they perform better,” said physician Michael Huey, former interim chief executive officer of the American College Health Association and former executive director of Emory University’s health and counseling services. 

    More universities are renovating or replacing old health facilities and grouping services under one roof, he said. For students seeking medical or counseling assistance for the first time without their parents’ guidance, encountering a “modern, spacious, clean and professional-appearing center” helps them get past initial fears, Huey added. And ensuring privacy in counseling rooms helps to ease the stigma some young people might feel about reaching out for emotional help, he said. 

    New health centers can also bolster new enrollment, according to Richard Shadick, who is a board member of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors and director of the counseling center at Pace University in New York City. “I think having a new building that addresses the needs of students, the physical and psychological needs of students, is a great idea. More and more families are looking at the wellness services provided by schools when making a decision about where the students go to college. It’s become rather common for that being a selling point for a college or university,” he said. 

    Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside

    The pharmacy at the Student Health and Counseling Center.

    National surveys by the American College Health Association show a significant drop this past spring in the rate of undergraduates who rated their health as very good or excellent compared with 2020: 47% compared with 55%. However, it shows that the most common health ailments are not life-threatening at their age, such as allergies, back pain, sinus infections and colds.  

    On the psychological side, more students are coming to college already having experience with mental health counseling or medication. Research by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health, which is located at Penn State, showed that about 60% of students who use college counseling services had been in prior mental health treatment, compared with 48% about a decade ago. Social anxiety among students is on the rise, fueled by social media and concerns about coming back to in-person classes after isolation during the pandemic, according to the center. 

    Credit: Larry Gordon / EdSource

    Dr. Kenneth Han, UC Riverside’s chief medical officer in the new clinic.

    At UC Riverside, the new center’s layout placing counseling on a separate floor provides privacy, but the easy proximity to the medical floor also can help physicians and counselors to work closely together and with patients if need be, said Kenneth Han, UC Riverside’s chief medical officer.

    “It’s not just about a specific ailment. It’s so much more than that for (a student) to be successful. How are things going in with your classes? With your friends? With your professors? I can see you for your diabetes, your cough, your cold. And we will talk about all those things,” he said. 

    Last year, about 1,840 students a month came for medical visits and about 590 for counseling and psychological care, the campus reports.

    The center handles mainly routine illnesses and injuries like flu, urinary tract infections, stomach pain and sprains and offers vaccinations and birth control. It sends students to local hospitals for emergencies and surgeries.

    Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside

    The Student Health and Counseling Center has 25 exam rooms, more than twice that of the old building.

    For example, the center’s doctors will not reset bones and will stitch wounds only if away from the face or hands, officials said. It is open weekday daytime hours, although a nursing phone line is available around the clock, seven days a week, and students may be referred to off-campus urgent care centers on nights and weekends.

    Fourth-year student Allison Escobar, a psychology major from Redwood City, said she thinks the new building will attract more students. Recently she worked there as part of a team preparing the center for its opening. It is a big improvement over the old one, which she said “had a lot of things wrong with it.”  Here, she said, students especially appreciate the improved and soundproofed counseling rooms. “Students care about their privacy during what they are going through. A lot of consideration for privacy is a huge thing,” she said.

    Counselors respond to mental health emergencies

    Set to launch within months, a new emergency response team of mental health professionals — rather than campus police — will be first responders to most mental health emergencies such as a suicide threat or depression. In response to systemwide UC policies enacted two years ago, all UC campuses have formed or are starting similar teams.

    Credit: Larry Gordon/EdSource

    The van of the new crisis response team at UC Riverside.

    That is now the preferred alternative to dispatching uniformed police in patrol cars whose presence sometimes escalates a situation, although police are available to counter any violence, officials say. The Riverside campus experiences about four such emergency episodes a month on average.

    The new emergency intervention team will have offices in the health center, and its blue van is parked just outside, painted with a rainbow logo declaring “UCR Health, Well-Being & Safety, Supporting Student Success Holistically.”  

    “We want the right people to address the right issues,” Han said. “If there is an underlying mental health issue, we don’t necessarily need to have security get involved.”

    Bringing in the outdoors

    The clinic was designed by the HGA architectural firm, which has several offices around California, and was built by Turner Construction. Kevin Day, the project’s design principal architect at HGA, said it was important to provide views of the Box Springs Mountain Reserve, a large park next to campus, through the lobby’s glass walls and big windows as well as to have an outdoor courtyard and balcony with shade. Appointment windows on both floors look like contemporary theater box offices, and the interiors are painted in cool pastel shades.   

    Connecting the clinic to the natural landscape “becomes a part of the healing process. It is really about creating a welcoming environment,” Day said. Knowing that coming to a medical appointment can be stressful, his team’s goal was to design a building that would help “lower the blood pressure.” 

    The building takes into account the recent pandemic. The 28 counseling rooms are much larger than usual to provide safe distances between therapist and patient. Several of the 25 urgent care and primary care exam rooms have special ventilation systems to limit the spread of air-borne illnesses.

    Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside

    A Student Health and Counseling Center exam room.

    The soundproofing for counseling rooms is a switch from the old building, where therapists sometimes had to use noise machines to block conversations from the public. All those rooms have windows, for a brighter atmosphere. Plus, the center is developing a mobile check-in system so students who do not want to wait in a public lobby can go directly to their appointments when notified via text.

    Online counseling became more popular during the pandemic, and that will still be offered as an option. However, many colleges and universities across the nation reported overall declines in demand for all counseling services during the pandemic even as mental health problems increased. Numbers have rebounded at many schools but not to the pre-pandemic level. UC Riverside hopes to build up those visit numbers as students get familiar with the new building.

    Unless they opt out and use family or other coverage, UC Riverside students pay about $2,100 a year for campus health insurance as part of their registration fees and receive most medical services without any additional costs. All students, regardless of insurance status, can get free, unlimited counseling sessions, although most usually need only four to six visits; that is funded through the mandatory $410 annual student services fee.





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  • When we fail education, we fail democracy

    When we fail education, we fail democracy


    Credit: Thomas Galvez/Flickr

    There comes a time in every profession when it becomes imperative to address the big ideas and to leave aside, at least for a moment, the trivial pursuits that engage us. One big idea that we educators have ignored for too long is the relationship between education and our democracy. Sadly, we have succumbed to the pathology of focusing almost exclusively on reading and math to achieve proficiency cut scores on state tests rather than growing civically competent students. Only 22% of eighth graders tested on the 2022 NAEP assessment were proficient or advanced in civics.

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choices are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of our democracy, therefore, is education.”

    My colleagues, I suggest to you that we as educators have failed dramatically in our responsibility to help build a strong democratic society. We cannot be solely responsible for this debacle, as our democratic demise has accelerated through the decay of our institutions, money in politics, social media and voter suppression. Nonetheless, we played a significant role in this demise.

    Our first failure is the inability to ensure that all our students, especially those from the most marginalized communities, are literate in reading, mathematics and science. Without strong literacy skills, no amount of civics education will make a difference. Over half the children in California cannot read at grade level. Only one-quarter of Black students are at grade level in math. We rank 19th in countries taking the 2018 PISA science test.

    We are just too good now at blaming the children, the parents, society, the tests or the pandemic. We redirected our focus from academics to a plethora of distractions like the use of all manner of educational technologies. We moved away from our primary mission of fostering student academic achievement.

    We know that the teacher is the key when it comes to student academic achievement, but it would be unfair to lay all the blame for the failure of K-12 education on teachers. We have failed our teachers in their preparation and support throughout their careers. Probably the biggest failure is our inability to recruit the finest teaching candidates and to train them well in content, professional practices and assessment skills. A second failure is the lack of career ladders where teachers advance from novice to master with plenty of guidance, support, monitoring and accountability.

    We also have big problems in figuring out what is the right stuff to teach. Over 20 years ago, esteemed researchers on the National Reading Panel handed educators the recipe for effectively teaching reading. What did educators do? They turned away from the science of reading toward the alchemy of the Balanced Reading Approach that even its founder Lucy Calkins recently admitted failed.

    Even with the ascendancy of evidence-based approaches to teaching reading, we see a regression toward accommodating the failed Balanced Reading Approach. We are not too keen on paradigm shifts. We like to go along to get along. Keep the adults happy rather than take a hard line on effective ways to teach reading. Who is watching out for the children and families?

    Even if by some extraordinary effort, school districts were able to plan, implement and monitor student achievement goals aligned with reading, there is still the problem of teaching reading in ways that intertwine with students’ everyday lives and the democratic needs of the community.

    The great Brazilian educator and philosopher, Paulo Freire, understood the relationship between the fundamentals of learning to read and how reading can be used to effectively transform society when he said, “Reading does not consist merely of decoding the written word or language; rather, it is preceded by and intertwined with knowledge of the world.” Freire does not diminish the importance of learning to read but emphasizes the need to make sure that reading with the purpose of improving community is what drives our democracy.

    Similar systemic issues exist in the teaching of mathematics and science. Unwillingness to take vaccinations to protect individuals and the community against the ravages of Covid is emblematic of a citizenry that is fundamentally uneducated about the power of vaccinations and the role that vaccinations play in the protection not only of individuals but communities as well. This lack of fundamental scientific knowledge is a real drag on our democracy. Time should have been spent on explicit science instruction rather than project-based learning.

    There is no doubt that we educators played a significant role in the demise of our democracy. While there are many outstanding educators, there are not enough highly qualified professionals to turn teaching and administration into a real profession yet. We overemphasize the need for student compliance with ersatz rules like seating assignments at lunch rather than engaging students in their own decision-making and critical thinking — fundamental democratic skills.

    The solution is available but still invisible. Many adults in the system are not committed to approaching teaching and learning systematically and scientifically. An educational system that is in crisis should consider adopting a few high-quality research-based teaching and aligned administrative practices like explicit instruction or formative assessment with descriptive feedback. When all teachers within the system can effectively assess, evaluate, intervene and monitor student understanding, especially for struggling students, academic achievement will soar.

    Our democracy and its K-12 education system are in the emergency room with a life-threatening disease. Sadly, we educators are more interested in the feng shui of the ER rather than taking the necessary key steps to save the patient.

    For me? I will enter the twilight of my career tutoring students in reading, math and science. Best to deploy my formidable teaching skills in saving one starfish at a time.

    •••

    Bill Conrad has been an educator for over 45 years and he has worked extensively within school districts throughout the country in a wide variety of capacities including as an Honors Middle School Science Teacher and administrator. His memoir about his educational experiences is The Fog of Education.

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





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  • Regional Parent Center opens in Contra Costa middle school as part of community schools initiative

    Regional Parent Center opens in Contra Costa middle school as part of community schools initiative


    Sandra Figueroa, navigator of Lovonya DeJean Middle School’s newly-launched Parent Center, meets with a student on campus.

    Credit: Contra Costa County

    Lovonya DeJean Middle School, located in the heart of Richmond, has its share of obstacles. Most of its 400 students struggle with poverty, and the challenges that come with that can affect their attendance, test scores and overall learning outcomes.

    But a newly launched community resource center at DeJean will go a long way toward providing additional support to families who struggle to meet basic needs, in hopes of improving student outcomes. 

    The Parent Center, which officially opened on Sept. 21, serves as a regional hub where students and their families can receive assistance in obtaining resources like health insurance, food stamps and cash assistance.

    On Oct. 24, the center also started technology assistance sessions — offered in English and Spanish — where parents can learn computer skills. They will receive a free laptop after attending four of these two-hour sessions. Additional sessions are scheduled on Nov. 2, 7 and 14, from 5 to 7 p.m.

    According to John Gioia, the county supervisor for Contra Costa County’s District 1, the city of Richmond and West Contra Costa Unified School District have been working together for several years to provide resources like the Parent Center for student families. District spokesperson Liz Sanders said such collaboration is vital to provide resources to school communities. 

    “We know that in order to meet the needs of the whole child and the whole community, we need resources in partnership beyond our own resources as a school district,” Sanders said.

    Sandra Figueroa, the Parent Center’s navigator, is the first to be funded by Measure X, a 20-year half-cent sales tax that was approved by Contra Costa County voters in 2020. The approximately $110 million in annual tax revenue goes toward community services like the county hospital, health centers and early childhood services. 

    Employed by Contra Costa County’s Employment & Human Services department, Figueroa is one of five Measure X-funded “4 Our Families” navigators who each represent one of the county’s supervisorial districts. Figueroa’s work varies day to day, but she’s always working with families to ensure they have access to and are using available community resources, whether it’s expediting access to Medi-Cal insurance, getting legal help or finding grief assistance for families suffering a loss. She said the Parent Center is “the puzzle piece that was missing” at DeJean. 

    Figueroa said DeJean’s students struggle with a variety of challenges at home that affect their learning at school. Many are learning English as a second language, and some are undocumented immigrants, with parents who are often scared to apply for benefits out of fear of being deported, or are unaware that they’re eligible for them. Some students, without access to health insurance, have vision or dental problems that can make it difficult for them to focus in school. 

    “If students are having an attendance or behavioral problem, there’s something probably happening in the home,” Figueroa said. 

    Figueroa hopes her position as navigator and the new Parent Center will help parents find solutions to issues happening at home, subsequently leading to improved student outcomes. As a local to Richmond and an employee of Contra Costa County for 31 years, she feels like the DeJean Parent Center is where she belongs. 

    Sanders said the DeJean Parent Center aligns with WCCUSD’s community schools initiative. The school district has employed the community schools strategy since 2007 and received $30 million from the state in May 2022 to support the initiative. The most recent contract between WCCUSD and the teachers union includes, for the first time, language about shared decision-making for community schools. 

    The Parent Center, Sanders said, “really fits into the broader programming of community schools at West Contra Costa by making sure that we’re serving the whole community while we’re serving the whole child,” Sanders said. 

    Community schools focus on the “whole child,” and under the strategy, districts and schools collaborate with teachers, students and their families to improve overall student learning and success. According to the California Teachers Association, community schools implementation can lead to lower rates of absenteeism; better work habits, grades and behaviors; higher enrollment in college prep classes; and higher graduation rates. 

    “When the family is doing better, the children are doing better,” Gioia said. “The idea is to treat the family as a whole unit. If the family has access to better health and social services, the parents and the children are all doing better.”





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  • EdSource unveils a new brand identity

    EdSource unveils a new brand identity


    Since 1977, EdSource has delivered nonpartisan reliable insights about California education, no easy feat in a state that’s home to the largest public education systems in the nation. 

    We have evolved and reimagined the ways in which we provide our in-depth analysis on critical issues, such as early literacy, learning amid a pandemic and college graduation rates. Unwavering, though, is our commitment to our audience: We explain education policy and facilitate conversations so that all who care about educating future generations are informed and prepared to make a meaningful impact, no matter how big or small.

    As we march toward our 50th anniversary, EdSource now stands as the state’s largest newsroom of education reporters. Today, we’re proud to unveil the latest update to EdSource’s brand – a new look and feel that we hope reflects boldness, urgency and dedication. Over the coming months, we will continue to roll out additional changes to our website with the explicit purpose of making our journalism more accessible.

    This December marks my 5th anniversary with EdSource, the last 2.5 years as its CEO. Nothing has made me more proud than to lead an organization of journalists and nonprofit leaders devoted to championing the belief that all students deserve access to a quality and equitable education regardless of where they live or their personal circumstances. 

    Over these past two years, EdSource embarked on a number of initiatives designed to usher in a new chapter of the organization’s storied history:

    • STRATEGY: Last year, we completed the organization’s first strategic plan, laying the foundation for the next three years. We set ambitious external and internal goals with the aim of thoughtfully expanding EdSource’s reach and positioning the organization for sustainable growth.
       
    • PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABORATIONS: This summer, EdSource partnered with Distributed Media Lab (DML) to launch the California Education News Network with funding from the Google News Initiative. The network amplifies important education stories by EdSource and other notable sources, empowering communities with trusted information and analysis. We also continue to team up with other news organizations to publish collaborative projects, such as this summer’s multi-part special report on the post-pandemic jump in chronic absenteeism, in partnership with the Associated Press and Stanford University.
    • STELLAR JOURNALISM: In a comprehensive audience survey with over 1,400 respondents, nearly all described EdSource’s journalism as “excellent” (56%) or “good” (35%). This summer, EdSource won more than a dozen state and national awards, including 1st Place for its investigation into poor working conditions for adjunct professors teaching in community colleges, as well as another for chronicling one town’s fight to save its library.
    • COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: EdSource hosts monthly Roundtable conversations that bring together educators, parents, students and policymakers to talk about pressing topics, such as teacher preparation, grading policies and the college transfer process. We also encourage the sharing of varying perspectives by publishing a pipeline of commentaries from many in the education community.
    • INCLUSIVITY: EdSource believes a staff that reflects the diverse communities in which we live are better positioned to tell stories with nuance and accuracy. For the first time in the organization’s history, EdSource is more than 50% composed of people of color. 

    EdSource’s new brand and design came together thanks to those who work behind the scenes to help deliver our journalism to readers like you. In collaborating with the web design firm Extra Small Design, we considered accessibility when choosing our new colors, ease of navigation when deciding how to organize our content, and additional opportunities for discovery when reading our stories.

    We hope you’ll let us know what you think in the coming weeks and months.





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  • Panel discusses how to reduce the dizzying cost of textbooks for California college students

    Panel discusses how to reduce the dizzying cost of textbooks for California college students


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJlWFK9E60A

    California’s public institutions of higher education have launched efforts — some more extensive than others — to dramatically reduce or eliminate the cost of course materials, which can sometimes rival the price of tuition. 

    Textbook costs affect academic success

    Higher education leaders and advocates, including leaders from California Community Colleges and the California State University system, discussed the biggest successes and hurdles for California colleges during a Thursday panel “Free college textbooks: Dream or reality?” hosted by EdSource.

    Cailyn Nagle, open educational resource program manager for Michelson 20MM Foundation, said that 65% of students who responded to a national survey by the Public Interest Research Group skipped out on buying textbooks or course materials because they were too expensive. That figure was 82% for students who had also skipped a meal; many students also declined to buy access codes that courses may require for quizzes or assignments.

    “This means students are being priced out of participating in classes that they’ve already paid tuition for,” Nagle said.

    According to the California Student Aid Commission, the average student spent $630 on books during the 2022-23 academic year. That doesn’t take into account other course materials, such as clickers, that are increasingly used for attendance and to answer questions in class, Nagle said. With the cost of supplies, the total rises to $1,152 per student annually.

    Aya Mikbel, a Sacramento State student, found through interviewing other students in California the various ways they have softened the high cost of textbooks, including buying used copies, shopping for cheaper copies online or renting textbooks. They also borrow textbooks from classmates or forgo textbooks altogether. 

    These alternatives can affect students’ academic performance. One student told Mikbel that borrowing a textbook often meant it was difficult to check on answers to problem sets or to review previous lessons.

    “Students should never feel like they’re focusing more on the price tag of the course rather than the content itself,” Mikbel said.

    How California institutions are reducing textbook costs

    The California Community College system has received systemwide funding from the state to create zero-textbook-cost pathways. This includes a $5 million pilot program in 2016 and an additional $115 million in 2021 to expand that effort.

    The 2016 pilot demonstrated that textbook costs affect academic performance. According to the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Rresources, grades for students in zero-textbook-cost classes were 3% higher than in the same classes taught with traditional class materials, and grades were 7.6% higher for Pell Grant recipients, who can use their grants on textbooks but may opt to use them on other college expenses.

    State funding has been key for creating zero-cost pathways at community colleges, but they may not be able to continue doing this work when the funding runs out, said Rebecca Ruan-O’Shaughnessy, vice chancellor of educational services and support at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

    “The money is not enough; we need sustainable funding,” said Ruan-O’Shaughnessy.

    The CSU and UC systems have not yet received the same kind of statewide funding as community colleges. But there are other efforts within the systems and at individual universities to address the costs of textbooks and create four-year degree zero-cost pathways.

    Leslie Kennedy, assistant vice chancellor of academic technology services in academic and student affairs at CSU’s Office of the Chancellor, called the lack of funding “challenging.” But she noted that the system provides internal funding to the individual campuses ranging from $15,000 to $20,000 each year and is also hiring coordinators for affordable learning solutions. 

    Libraries play a key role in reducing course costs for students. The CSU system has negotiated with publishers to purchase electronic textbooks that can be offered to students for free. CSU is also ensuring that faculty puts a direct link to these resources on their syllabi. 

    Carole Goldsmith, chancellor of the State Center Community College District, added that publishers and bookstores have employed strategies to reduce costs, such as renting out copies of books or offering lower-cost digital copies.

    But Nagle is skeptical of the three big publishers, saying they still have a monopoly on most publishing and are responsible for the steep rise in textbook costs. Publishers could hike rates later, leading to the “Amazonification” of course materials, Nagle added.

    “If someone came into my home, lit my curtains on fire and then turned around and put a fire cap on and said, ‘Don’t worry, I can fix this,’ I would not trust them to save my home,” Nagle said.

    Nagle said she is particularly worried about automatic billing, the practice of automatically charging students for textbooks and access codes on their tuition bill, typically with discounted bulk rates. 

    “I know people don’t always agree with me on this,” Nagle said, “and they see this as a great way to leverage bulk purchasing to get students a great deal.” 

    Open resources hold promise

    Open educational resources are a particularly powerful and increasingly popular tool to reduce or eliminate the costs associated with courses. Opern educational resources include freely accessible textbooks, lecture notes, quizzes and other assets released under an open license and can be adapted, modified or reused as students or faculty see fit.

    There are many benefits besides being free, easily accessible resources. It’s much easier to update or correct a mistake in an open resource than it is to do in a copyrighted text by a publisher, said Ruan-O’Shaughnessy. The open nature of the resources also allows faculty to customize course materials.

    Drop rates and retention rates have improved in pilot courses that relied on open educational resources at State Center Community College, Goldsmith said. 

    What was really exciting about these courses, she said, was the increased engagement among faculty and students alike. Because they have reliable source texts, they no longer have to rely so heavily on lecture notes, and it’s easier for students to participate in class. Faculty at community colleges also are working to ensure that open-source texts better reflect student diversity. It’s been a win for everyone, she said.

    “Faculty were able to curate the coursework, so they felt more engaged,” Goldsmith said. “Students saw more reflective stories of themselves and their culture in the work that they were reading about.”





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  • Students seek new study spots as Cal Poly’s library closes until 2025

    Students seek new study spots as Cal Poly’s library closes until 2025


    Fencing blocks the Kennedy Library at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which is closed for renovations until 2025.

    Credit: Arabel Meyer / EdSource

    Until 2025, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will be the only public university in California without access to a library space for students. With the university’s Robert E. Kennedy Library in the midst of a large renovation project, questions arise: In a digital age, are libraries still relevant to college students? How will the lack of a library impact campus culture? 

    “Libraries are definitely still relevant,” said Nina Florrick, a fourth-year math major at Cal Poly. “I know a lot of people struggle to study at their houses. Having a quiet space to go outside your house is really useful for a college student.”

    Penny Alioshin, a fourth-year electrical engineering major, agreed. “The Cal Poly library was never just about books, which is kind of a weird thing to say, but it was about the environment. It was about the study space. It was about the safe place that it provided for people to just go to do their own thing or work collaboratively. It was such a great resource beyond just being a library where you can check out books.” 

    The Kennedy Library is a highly trafficked place on campus and receives 1.5 million visits from students a year, according to Cal Poly Library Services, and students have voted it the “best study spot” in multiple campus surveys. The library offers more than 2,000 seats for working students, along with 40 private study spaces, a 24-hour section, printing services, a cafe and on-campus employment opportunities. 

    Despite the inconvenience of closing the library, university leaders say that the renovation of this space is necessary for Cal Poly’s future.

    Signs guide students to find alternative study spots while the library at Cal Poly undergoes major renovations.

    “The Kennedy Library transformation project is part of the university’s master plan, which defines the university’s plans for growth and innovation through 2035,” said Keegan Kolbert, a university communications representative. “The library building is over 40 years old and in need of upgrades.”

    The school has opened temporary study spaces around campus, such as classrooms and lounges to accommodate students’ needs, but many students don’t feel that this makes up for the loss of their library.

    With the building closed until the summer of 2025, this will impact student’s campus experience. Florrick said she has experienced a big change in her study habits since the closure of the Kennedy Library. 

    “It’s a lot harder to find places on campus that aren’t as crowded to study at,” she said. “I think a lot more people are inclined to stay at home to study than go to campus and study.”  

    In an interview, Karen Schneider, library dean at Sonoma State University, called libraries “the living room of the university” because students use California universities as both places to find community and to fulfill educational needs. 

    Data from 2014-15 shows that California State University libraries are visited by 800,000 students every week, a number likely to have increased as universities like Cal Poly expand student enrollment. 

    For students of many majors, especially students in science, tech, engineering and math, the loss of the library is particularly felt. Alioshin talked about the difficulty of not having an open library on campus. 

    “For STEM majors specifically, we spend a lot of time on campus, and during those in-between times, it’s really nice to have somewhere to go and hang out,” she said. “It was a great, collaborative environment because I would always find other electrical engineers there.”

    She finds campus a “little lonelier” without the library and is disappointed by the “less collaborative” study environments that are available.

    Continued Alioshin, “I think libraries are a huge part of college culture. … It’s a big meeting place for people to go and do work by themselves or together, so it’s sorely missed. I want our library back.”

    Arabel Meyer is a fourth-year journalism major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She is a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.





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  • Erratic results, high costs doomed this districtwide student improvement program

    Erratic results, high costs doomed this districtwide student improvement program


    Students in a Fresno Unified classroom.

    Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr

    Top Takeaways
    • Fresno Unified and its teachers union reached an agreement in mid-June to attempt to mitigate the impacts of a long-standing program ending. 
    • The multimillion-dollar program was touted by the district as a way to close gaps between student groups less than three years ago. 
    • Finances, inconsistent program implementation and varied results are some of the reasons the district says the program was eliminated. 

    The Fresno Unified School District and its teachers union have reached an agreement to terminate a decade-old, once-promising student improvement program that expanded from a pilot in a handful of low-performing schools to 40 of the district’s 67 elementary schools and one middle school. 

    Faced with rising program costs, declining enrollment and cuts in revenue, the district decided that inconsistent results could not justify the program’s high expense of almost $30 million.

    “When you have finances crash with programmatic inconsistencies … just kind of created the perfect storm for us to go a different direction,” said David Chavez, district chief of human resources, who also worked for two former superintendents. 

    The Designated Schools program, which operated under three superintendents, was a district initiative to improve achievement through additional daily instruction by targeting the specific needs of students. The effort was extensive: 30 additional instructional minutes per day for students, 10 extra paid days of professional development for teachers, and either a math or reading coach in each school.

    Under the agreement with the Fresno Teachers Association, the coaches will return to the classroom as regular teachers, and teachers will see a phaseout of their 10-day training over the next few years. For students, aside from losing 30 minutes of instruction, there will be no transition. They can participate in the after-school program they are already entitled to attend, where they may receive intervention or instruction from teachers who choose to participate.    

    Dismantling the previously praised program raises questions about how and why it went awry. 

    The district blames inconsistent program implementation across schools, but it failed to set standards or hold schools accountable to the program’s tenets. 

    Going Deeper: Who Designated Schools served 

    Designated Schools, affecting 24,000 students and over 1,250 educators across 41 campuses, were intended to close academic gaps among students and were typically located in neighborhoods with large numbers of socioeconomically disadvantaged students. In the extra 30 minutes, all students received additional instruction or intervention in some way.

    Reading specialists at Wilson Elementary, a Designated School, used those extra minutes on remedial instruction for struggling fifth graders who were unable to read even at a third or fourth grade level, said Drew Colburn, a fifth grade teacher. 

    During intervention time, Colburn and other teachers divided their classes into small groups by proficiency level and targeted students’ weak points, allowing all students to get additional support, without missing core instruction. 

    At Wilson, following slight improvements, 18.6% and 12.1% of students achieved reading and math proficiency in the 2023-24 school year, according to Ed-Data. 

    Teachers say they saw improvements, which may not have been as apparent on summative state tests that the district evaluated to determine program effectiveness. 

    “If you take that 30 minutes away from them, they’re going to come to fifth grade with even more of a deficit,” Colburn said. 

    Inconsistent implementation or lack of oversight?

    The first “Designated Schools” were actually three of the district’s lowest-performing schools. Fresno Unified gave teachers more time to plan, additional instruction time with students and extra support as part of the state’s turnaround model to reform persistently low-achieving schools.

    The schools started to see improved student performance, including double-digit gains in some instances, according to district Superintendent Misty Her.  

    “We thought, ‘Can we take what happened there and now replicate it into other schools?’” said Her, who was a school administrator at the time. 

    In 2014-15, under the label of Designated Schools, two schools, along with nine others, implemented the model. Over the last decade and multiple years of implementation, the program expanded with the district being the initiative’s biggest advocate.

    The model, when implemented as intended, supported improved student outcomes on state assessments for English and math, Fresno Unified said in May 2021 in its accountability plan for the 2021-22 school year, when the program cost $19.9 million across the 41 schools.  

    But, according to district leaders, schools implemented the program differently, undermining the effectiveness of the extra staff and extra 30 minutes, and leading to varying results. 

    Timeline of Designated School expansion, elimination

    2014-15: Fresno Unified implemented the Designed Schools initiative at 10 elementary schools and one middle school

    2015-16: 20 schools were added as Designated Schools

    2016-17: 10 more elementary schools became Designated Schools

    From 2017-2019: The model had improved scores on state assessments for low-income, foster youth and English learner student populations, according to district accountability plans.

    2019: Annual funding for the program continued to increase, rising to over $18.6 million.

    2020-21: Hanover Research conducted its analysis, showing mixed results from the program.

    2021: Fresno Unified, in its accountability plan for the 2021-22 school year, said the initiative would “address the needs of students by providing extended time to accelerate learning and close the gap of learning loss resulting from the pandemic.” 

    2022: The district suggested expanding the program to its remaining two dozen elementary schools. 

    2023-24: Fresno Unified proposed phasing out the initiative before abandoning the idea later in the school year. 

    2024-25: The district announced the program’s elimination for the 2025-26 school year. 

    The district added a special assignment teacher to every Designated School, but gave schools the autonomy to use that position as they saw fit. Some schools used the position as an intervention teacher; others used the extra support to assist during class or pull students out for individualized or group instruction. A few schools required the specialists to take on multiple duties, consequently hindering their work in the classroom. 

    Laura Schwalm, chief of staff for California Education Partners, where she works with about 50 school districts on systemic change and improvement, said that before expanding an initiative, districts should have a plan, including how to fund it; set clear expectations; monitor the program and its results throughout the year to make adjustments; and invest in teachers and administrators to deliver the program. 

    An analysis of the program, conducted by Hanover Research in the 2020-21 school year, found that:

    • Academic outcomes were mixed
    • Program implementation varied across campuses, with only some schools aligning resources with data-driven practices 

    District administration had the authority and ability to address the program’s flaws. In fact, the Hanover report recommended that Fresno Unified establish a set of standards on how staff should use its additional time at Designated Schools. 

    The autonomy, alone, wasn’t the problem; a lack of district monitoring was. Schwalm said using different approaches could have led to improved student results and could have been used in other schools.

    “If you’re not monitoring and not adjusting what you’re doing to get better results, then you can’t be surprised when you don’t get good results,” she said.

    Former Superintendent Bob Nelson, who led the district from 2017 until 2024, said he and the district leadership “didn’t pay close enough attention to schools that were doing it well” to be models for other schools. 

    “The issue was we were not learning from the sites we had. That’s what was missing.”

    Bob Nelson, former superintendent of Fresno Unified

    According to a June 2022 accountability plan, the district still hailed the initiative as being “critical” to the achievement of English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and foster youth.

    By November 2022, Fresno Unified wanted to expand the initiative to all elementary schools to improve academic outcomes for students, according to contract negotiation documents with the teachers union. 

    “Less than a year and a half after they proposed every school site become a Designated School, they’re saying, ‘This program doesn’t work,’” said Manuel Bonilla, teachers union president. 

    Chavez, the chief of human resources, said Fresno Unified had evaluated the program’s effectiveness every year since its inception and that its continuation, especially since it was meant to be a pilot, had been a part of conversations for years. 

    But was it effective? 

    Parents, teachers and administrators told EdSource they believe students benefit from more time with their teachers. The extra 30 minutes amounted to 90 additional instructional hours each year.

    “I believe it does give teachers a little bit more time to be able to work with each kid,” said Adriana Ramirez, a Wilson Elementary parent.

    But both the district and teachers union agreed that its effectiveness was not a simple yes or no answer. 

    “Depending on the situation, some components were really good at this site, some weren’t at this (school), and one component that could have been good somewhere wasn’t necessarily really good at another place,” Chavez said. 

    There were “pockets of excellence,” he and other district officials admitted, but students were not seeing the academic gains the district envisioned. 

    Though not school-specific, the district provided data measuring the yearly progress of students at Designated Schools compared to students at non-designated schools. 

    EdSource also evaluated school-specific data from a GO Public Schools 2024 student outcome report based on the 2023-24 school year.

    The district-provided and school-specific data is indicative that many schools were making progress under the initiative, as teachers say, while also depicting the district’s point that it was not across the board.

    Without data from a 10-year longitudinal study, Bonilla, the teachers union president, said he couldn’t say whether the Designated Schools initiative was effective. 

    “Some of our teachers felt that it was effective and some teachers felt that there were components that could make it even more effective because it wasn’t,” Bonilla said.

    Mitigating impact

    The district and teachers union spent six months negotiating how to maintain student support through other programs. 

    The agreement approved on June 18 dedicates an additional $4 million in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years for educators at Designated Schools to offer after-school literacy instruction or intervention. 

    Educators at Designated Schools, under the agreement, will have the right to refuse the work. If given the opportunity, Drew Colburn, a fifth grade Wilson Elementary teacher who was also a former after-school program coordinator, is confident educators are going to want to do that extra 30 minutes, if not more. 

    But if teachers decline the assignment, the after-school intervention won’t be as consistent or effective, he said. 

    And unfortunately, families won’t know the repercussions of the program’s elimination until this school year when it’s no longer in place, Ramirez said. “Parents,” she said, “won’t notice until it’s not there.”





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  • It’s time to end high-stakes testing

    It’s time to end high-stakes testing


    Students in Megan Thiele Strong’s Sociology of Higher Education work in small groups.

    Credit: Courtesy of Megan Thiele Strong

    We are in midterms — the season when many students realize their course participation is already subpar. Every semester, a handful of students in my courses do not “make it.” When grades are due, there are F’s.

    The terrain of higher education is replete with obstacles. Many students are anxious and lack hope for their futures. California State University tuition hikes add to their unease.

    Students are stressed. As professors, it is on us to help shift this dynamic in the classroom.

    Last year, CSU dropped the SAT/ACT tests from its admissions criteria following research showing high-stakes exams are racist, classist, sexist and stressful. It is past time to integrate this approach into our schools and remove traditional high-stakes testing at the classroom level as well. 

    I have taught university-level courses to thousands of students in the University of California and CSU systems in my 15-year career. I currently teach several courses at San José State University, including a course on quantitative research methods.

    In fall 2020, as we moved our courses online because of Covid, I was inspired to experiment, and I eliminated high-stakes exams, both midterms and finals in all my classes. I had been considering this shift for a long time as a way to mitigate harm and boost student investment. It felt like a big step. I could hear the critics: that eliminating exams caters to weakness, gives students a free pass, makes their education worth less. And yet, I knew I could rearrange the classroom from “teaching to the test” to teaching to the students in front of me. And, in so doing, also build marketable strengths like critical, analytical and creative thinking, leadership, curiosity and love of learning. 

    I also had a hunch that learning experiences such as orating course content are every bit as effective for knowledge retention as checking boxes and regurgitating the points of an essay response. Does every student pass my class? Nope. And, I have seen immense benefits since I  transitioned away from high-stakes testing.

    How do I prioritize the student over the exam?

    First, I center dialogue in my teaching experiences. This oral engagement piece is worth nearly 20% of the student grade and I give time for it every class. It takes a variety of forms: I facilitate group conversation among students. I ask for volunteers to answer questions or discuss content with the group at large. Sometimes, I use a random number generator to call on students. Other times, I have every student answer a prompt to the full group. And, instead of student presentations, we do student facilitations where students create a version of chat stations with prompts and questions about the course content and facilitate a conversation with a small group of their peers.

    I also create outside-of-class assignments, such as students hosting watch parties with a required post-viewing discussion segment or asking them to talk to someone about particular course content and report on it. The benefits of dialogue for our students and our society span educational, social and economic realms. I have found this approach helps students build their capacity for thought, engagement and discourse both in and outside the classroom.

    Second, I adjusted my assessment strategy, moving from high-stakes exams to smaller, lower-stakes assessments; up to 35 graded learning experiences per student, per course, per semester. I incorporate content from my past exams into learning experiences, open-book quizzes and self-grade assignments. I construct my courses with varying levels of low-stakes opportunities for them to demonstrate proficiency in a topic — a video game mentality of earning points to level up, to build their investment in the course. It also makes it easier for the student — and professor — to spot gaps in understanding early, when there’s still time to address them.

    Third, and following the logic that options boost student buy-in, I increase student choice in our curriculum. Where possible, students choose content. If there are larger edited volumes on a course topic, students choose the chapters they read. In Statistics, it’s choosing which graphs from The New York Times they want to analyze.

    Fourth, I increase student agency by encouraging students to opt out of some of the curriculum. By constructing my courses with varying levels of low-stakes opportunities that build student buy-in, it feels responsible and empowering to make some content optional. As part of this strategy, I began to offer extra credit opportunities and other very low-stakes options, including learning experiences worth less than 1% of the total points. 

    Finally, and most importantly, having witnessed students in crisis over the years, and based on personal experience, I include content focused on student mental health. For example, I include optional student check-ins, where students can earn a few points by describing their experience both in and outside the classroom. I ask them, “Are you OK?”  These experiences bring to the forefront how deeply valuable and vulnerable our classroom space is.

    I trust my students, and I work to gain their trust not only by how I interact with them, but also through curricular decisions that constitute their classroom experience. Even if high-stakes testing is appealing to some students, even if it maintains a tradition that feels endemic to higher education, we know it devalues nontraditional student experience, perpetuates the wealth test as a proxy for merit, is a part of the racialized school-to-prison pipeline and is anathema to imagination.

    Students are having learning experiences, for better or for worse, in our classrooms. Education should not be a burden to bear, a hazing experience, nor an obstacle to individual worth, even if that has been its tradition. 

    If the California State University system can forgo long-standing traditions of high-stakes assessment across 23 campuses, we can do it in our university classrooms. 

    •••

    Megan Thiele Strong, Ph.D., is a professor at San José State University and a 2023-24 Public Voices Fellow at the TheOpEdProject.

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





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  • California universities evacuate students from Israel, citing war risk

    California universities evacuate students from Israel, citing war risk


    The entrance to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

    Credit: Wikimedia Commons

    Following government warnings about the dangers of being in a war zone, California universities and colleges have safely evacuated their students who were attending study abroad programs in Israel.  The future of those programs for the rest of the school year remains uncertain.

    The U.S. State Department recently has categorized Israel as a Level 3 travel risk, which urges U.S. citizens to “reconsider” their travel and presence in the country “due to terrorism and civil unrest” in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s current retaliations in Gaza. The Level 3 ranking and family concerns were enough for the University of California and the California State University systems to take action. Level 4, the worst potential ranking, is an outright travel ban.

    UC’s Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) reported that its students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have left Israel and are all safe. However, UC declined to say how many students were involved and where they are now. Mandatory travel insurance covered the evacuation expenses.

    “We can confirm that students on UCEAP-sponsored programs are safe and have departed Israel. It’s our policy, following best practices on travel safety abroad, not to disclose the number of students in a given location or their specific location during emergency or urgent location changes,” Jennifer Monroe, UCEAP’s Director of Marketing, Communications, and Engagement, said in an email to EdSource.

    The students are now taking online or hybrid courses in connection with Hebrew University, she said. And UCEAP “continues to evaluate the safety and security conditions at the program location and region to determine if in-person programming can continue,” Monroe added. 

    The California State University reported that a Chico State student in an internship in Israel has returned to California. Another student, from the CSU Northridge campus, was about to leave home to start a program at the University of Haifa but did not depart because of the situation there.

    “We will be suspending our program and not sending anyone there, said Jaishankar Raman, director of CSU’s International Programs. “We are waiting until we see how the situation unfolds for the spring and we will await what the State Department advises us.” The Northridge student was offered a spot in other overseas programs but declined. He “decided not going anywhere now would be better and to assess the situation in the spring,” Raman said.

    Three years ago, universities in California and across the U.S. canceled overseas studies programs as the pandemic took its toll worldwide. It took more than a year for some programs to reopen and then some other nations with higher Covid rates remained off limits for a while longer.

    Many U.S. institutions are suspending programs to Israel for the time being and pausing plans for future programs, according to a statement from Caroline Donovan-White, an official with NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that encourages and supports study abroad and exchange programs. Institutions rely on their existing risk management resources and tools like the State Department travel advisories to guide them in times like this, she explained. (NAFSA was founded as and used to be known as the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers.).

    “The pausing of programs happens from time to time for many reasons and universities have plans and policies in place for those situations. Our members tell us they are in close contact with their students studying all over the world–not just in the Middle East–as they may feel especially vulnerable and isolated from their support network right now, particularly those of Jewish and Muslim faiths,” Donovan-White said.

    The University of Southern California offers studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya in the Tel Aviv area (also known as Reichman University). But USC said that since no student had signed up this fall, no special action was needed.

    “USC does not have any students studying in Israel during this fall semester. The university will not be offering study abroad programs in Israel this upcoming spring semester and is closely monitoring the situation in the area,” Anthony Bailey, Vice President for Global and Online Initiatives & Dean, USC Bovard College, said in a statement to EdSource.

    Stanford University said it has no programs in Israel.





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