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  • Trump signs executive order to dismantle Department of Education

    Trump signs executive order to dismantle Department of Education


    President Donald Trump, left, holds up a signed executive order as young people hold up copies of the executive order they signed at an education event in the East Room of the White House in Washington on March 20, 2025.

    Credit: Ben Curtis/AP Photo

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to work toward eliminating the Department of Education, pushing forward a campaign promise to dismantle an agency that has long been maligned by conservatives.

    With a group of students as a prop busily working on school desks behind him, Trump said, “My administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department.” 

    The order instructs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.” 

    The federal government funds less than 10% of public school budgets, though much of that money supports especially vulnerable students. The department also oversees programs that help students pay college tuition, including Pell grants for low-income students.

    The White House has already taken steps to gut the Education Department by roughly halving its workforce of 4,100, but officially eliminating the Cabinet-level agency would require congressional action.

    The administration has also vowed to ship other critical functions to other federal departments — services for students with disabilities and low-income students to the Department of Health and Human Services and student loans to the Treasury Department. 

    “Closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them — we will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs,” McMahon said in a statement. “We’re going to follow the law and eliminate the bureaucracy responsibly by working through Congress to ensure a lawful and orderly transition.”

    Children’s advocates were skeptical. The executive order “could result in a catastrophic impact on the country’s most vulnerable students and cutting much-needed funding will specifically impact students of color, students with disabilities and students in low-income communities,” the Association of California School Administrators said in a statement.

    Over the decades, Republicans have repeatedly called for shutting down the department, although doing so would require 60 votes in the Senate — unlikely because Republicans now hold only 53 seats.

    Nonetheless, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, chairman of the Senate education committee, said in a statement, “Since the Department can only be shut down with congressional approval, I will support the President’s goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible.”

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, praised the order in a post on X “President Trump is keeping his promise and returning education to the states,” but didn’t pledge to bring the issue to a vote. David Cleary, who worked on education issues on Capitol Hill for two decades, indicated he wouldn’t be surprised if Johnson didn’t.  

    “Leaders don’t like to spend time on things they know can’t get over the finish line,” he told the Washington Post.

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has sued the administration over the wholesale firing of federal employees and abrupt cancelation of research contracts, said he would monitor how the executive order is carried out. 

    While acknowledging the obligation to go through Congress, “the Administration continues to do everything it can to destroy the department’s ability to carry out its most vital, congressionally mandated functions — with the clearly stated ‘final mission’ of shuttering the Department for good,” he said in a statement. “My office will be looking at what this executive order actually does — not what the President says it will do.”

    Trump used the executive order to continue his attack on equity-focused education programs. The Secretary of Education will ensure that Department of Education funds will follow federal law and administration policy, it states, “including the requirement that any program or activity receiving Federal assistance terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.”

    In response, Jessie Ryan, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, said the continued attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion and dismantling of the department “will leave millions of students and their families vulnerable to discrimination and deny them the opportunity to succeed in school, achieve their individual potential, and prepare for the future workforce. We cannot allow this administration to steamroll students and communities to achieve its agenda.”

    Guillermo Mayer, President and CEO of the nonprofit Public Advocates, attributed the executive order to the Administration’s larger aim.

    “Nobody should be fooled,” he said. “While this order purports to reduce federal bureaucracy, it’s part of a longer-term plan to eliminate federal oversight in education and give states free rein to redirect billions of dollars away from public schools and towards private school vouchers. The ultimate goal is to erode the public’s trust in our system of public education.” 





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  • Madera drama teacher sees the arts as a gateway to improving literacy skills

    Madera drama teacher sees the arts as a gateway to improving literacy skills


    Students in Julian Ramos’ drama class in Madera.

    Credit: Courtesy of Julian Ramos

    A few years ago, when Julian Ramos first started teaching drama, he was hoping to explore Greek tragedy with his sixth graders. Then he realized only three out of his 30 students were reading at grade level. So, Sophocles was off the table.

    A practical soul, he pivoted to “The Country Mouse and the City Mouse,” a charming fable popular with his second graders. The sixth graders loved it too, but Ramos still worries about their reading skills.

    “Reading has become a chore for a lot of students,” said Ramos, a former English teacher who now specializes in dramatic literature at Pershing Elementary, a TK-6 school in Madera Unified, just northwest of Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. “I’m currently struggling with how I can use my time wisely, productively and efficiently, as a drama class, but also to reinforce and enhance their literacy skills.”

    In an age of widely declining literacy rates, Ramos, who grew up in Madera, realized that he has to meet the students where they are. Like many experts, he blames a confluence of factors, including excessive screen time and pandemic disruptions, for the fact that many students struggle to concentrate long enough to read deeply. One thing he doesn’t do is blame the kids.

    “I myself have fallen victim to it,” he admits with characteristic candor. My whole life I have been a reader, but I’m not reading like I used to either. I find myself scrolling. So I can relate to the kids.”

    Ramos, who studied with the celebrated Cajun playwright Anne Galjour (“Hurricane/Mauvais Temps”) at San Francisco State University, sees drama as a spark to fuel literacy. He hopes to parlay his students’ excitement about storytelling, their insatiable need to spill the tea, into a love of language. 

    “How can I use drama to familiarize them with language, with words, with communication?” he said, given that they are growing up in a texting culture that often eschews words and leans on emojis so hard that it’s “basically like hieroglyphics.” “Drama helps students to understand what motivates characters, and how those motivations can be expressed through written language.”

    Students in Julian Ramos’ drama class in Madera.
    Credit: Courtesy of Julian Ramos

    That’s why he’s so grateful that Proposition 28, the groundbreaking arts mandate, has allowed every Madera school to hire more arts teachers, expanding its music and drama programs substantially.

    “It is important to expose children to the arts because they all have a voice and a story to tell and, without encouragement, many of those voices and stories go silent or become stifled,” said Ramos. “Many of those voices are made to believe what they have to say does not matter.”

    While teaching full-time, Ramos is also pursuing his credential through Cal State East Bay’s new online dance and theater program, which launched in 2021, making it the first CSU to offer those credentials just as Proposition 28 kicked into high gear, creating thousands of new arts teaching jobs at California schools. It’s now the largest such program in the state, with students logging on from San Francisco to Los Angeles, not to mention the state’s geographical center, Madera.

    Initially, many faculty members were skeptical of the efficacy of an online program, but it has proved to be quite popular, particularly with students who have competing responsibilities, such as jobs and children, like Ramos. 

    “The largest obstacle faced was a division in the faculty about whether teacher education could be taught in an online modality,” said Eric Engdahl, professor emeritus in the department of teacher education at CSUEB, who designed the program. “In the opinion of some, not all, teaching is an in-person profession and therefore needs all in-person instruction. However, online learning is what students want.”

    If not for Engdahl’s prescience, pushing through an online program before the pandemic made such initiatives the norm, it would be even harder for districts like Madera to recruit arts teachers amid a statewide staffing shortage. 

    “I hope for a better hiring season this year, but local options look bleak,” said Brandon Gilles, director of arts education for Madera Unified School District, who has come to rely on the CSU East Bay training program to expand its arts initiatives. “The greatest challenge facing arts education in Madera Unified presently is hiring highly qualified teachers.”

    One ongoing obstacle is the need to further expand the arts credential pipeline, which has withered amid decades of cutbacks. While 64 programs in the state offer a music credential and 57 offer a visual arts credential, right now fewer than two dozen focus on theater and dance. That’s not nearly enough to feed the need created by Proposition 28, which means Engdahl’s students are quite sought after.

    “For the past few years, CSU East Bay has been an important program for training credentialed teachers,” said Gilles. “Many of our recent hires have benefited from their internship program, which allows credential candidates to start working while going to school instead of the traditional student teaching route. … CSUEB remains one of the only stable channels in this time of high demand.”

    Despite the ongoing teacher crunch, there are several ways to work around the shortage. For example, physical education teachers who were credentialed before 2022 may already have dance embedded in their credential, experts say. The same is true for English teachers with a theater credential. Prospective arts educators with sufficient college credits in their discipline can also apply for supplemental authorization to teach instead of getting a full credential. Also, school districts that don’t have enough money to hire a full-time arts teacher of their own, experts say, may also qualify for a waiver to partner with a nonprofit arts provider instead.

    Despite the growing pains of implementing Proposition 28, from finding teachers to navigating the complex spending rules, Engdahl is hopeful that, as the new arts mandate rolls out, more districts will realize what a powerful tool art is for uplifting a generation shaped by the pandemic. 

    Students in Julian Ramos’ drama class in Madera.
    Credit: Courtesy of Julian Ramos

    “Proposition 28 will improve education in California, and it will increase our national standing,” said Engdahl. “One of the things I hope happens is not just a greater understanding of the arts, but that the arts are taught in a much broader and more inclusive and creative and physical way. I’m hoping that, as the arts become more normalized in schooling, we convey the idea of being a lifelong learner, that learning is fun.”

    While some argue that the arts are a nicety and not a core element of education, many educators point to its ability to increase focus and concentration in the classroom, qualities which help students better understand all subjects, from reading and writing to math. Students can also learn life skills such as conflict resolution and social-emotional learning.

    “Theatre engagement brings kids into the present moment and helps silence any chaos outside the rehearsal room, encouraging self-reflection and positive connections,” said Michele Hillen-Noufer, executive director of NorCal Arts, an arts education initiative that uses theater to help prevent violence. “As kids create and develop a character, they gain insight into other perspectives.”

    Ramos particularly enjoys watching children let go of their fears, including the social anxiety that bedevils many children today, and come together with their peers to “create something beautiful.” They grow their creativity and their confidence day by day, he says.

    “Many students enter the library, my classroom, and ask me if they can “act” that day,” said Ramos. “I have seen my students grow comfortable in being silly or serious in front of their peers and embrace new challenges and creative endeavors. Students have grown by collaborating with classmates, and are more comfortable in using their body, voice and imagination.” 

    Ramos has long felt a duty to share his love for dramatic art with the next generation. He sees it as a key to unlocking a love of language that opens the door for lifelong self-discovery, the alchemy of finding the right words. He uses everything from puppetry and poetry to pantomime to unleash that drive to create. 

    “These kids are storytellers, and giving them the opportunity to work on and tell those stories is fuel enough to keep wanting to provide that outlet,” he said.





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  • Five years after Covid shuttered schools, parent empowerment lives on

    Five years after Covid shuttered schools, parent empowerment lives on


    Five years ago, when Esti Iturralde’s daughter was in the first grade, the little girl struggled with learning to read. The teacher told her mother not to worry, Winnie just wasn’t ready yet, but Iturralde knew in her heart something was wrong. 

    She blamed herself, until the pandemic hit, the schools shuttered, and remote learning gave her a chance to peek inside the classroom. What she saw opened her eyes and shocked her into action. 

    “It really wasn’t until the school closures that I began to understand what she was missing,” said the Piedmont mom of two. “I got to see up close what was wrong with the lessons.”

    Five years after Covid shuttered schools, the parent empowerment it sparked is going strong. While the pandemic inexorably disrupted everyone’s lives, parents faced a double whammy. Amid heated debates over masks, vaccines and school shutdowns, many parents found themselves on the front lines of hot-button issues on an almost daily basis. In that time of crisis, some families lost trust in the ability of the schools to meet the needs of their students. 

    Like Iturralde, some came to the conclusion that they had to fend for themselves. That’s one reason the pandemic became a watershed moment for a generation of parents. It shifted the dynamics between communities and schools, and, for some families, shook their faith in the school system in a lasting way.

    “When schools remained closed for far longer than any other institution or business,” said Scott Moore, head of Kidango, a nonprofit that runs many Bay Area child care centers, “this broke the social compact that schools are compulsory for children because it is a critical function of civil society. It left parents in the lurch.”

    That rude awakening spurred some parents to question all aspects of their child’s education, from the length of school closures to how reading is taught and how parental notification policies should work. Parents from all over the ideological spectrum, from people of color fighting for equity to conservative parents upholding traditional values, began to push for change. That surge of parental empowerment may be one of the lasting impacts of the pandemic.

    “Parent empowerment and engagement certainly reached a peak during Covid school closures,” said Megan Bacigalupi, co-founder of CA Parent Power, an advocacy group. “The academic, social and mental health harms done to kids by those lengthy closures kept many parents engaged in their districts long after they reopened. One of the silver linings is that parents got a window into the classroom.”

    All sorts of school governance issues that had long been taken for granted came under intense scrutiny, sparking a shift in thinking about public education. Some families got fed up. Instead of waiting for the system to adapt to their needs, they took matters into their own hands. 

    The dawning realization that Winnie was being taught to read by looking primarily at pictures, instead of words, was a red flag for Iturralde, who has a doctorate in behavioral science. 

    Esti Iturralde and her daughter Winnie read “Harry Potter” together at home in the living room while their dog Roscoe hangs out in August 2022.
    Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource

    She decided to teach her kiddo to read at home, to see if she would bloom with more phonics, which she did. Winnie was soon reading above grade level. That showed Iturralde that sometimes you have to take charge of your child’s learning. 

    “Before, I was content to just trust and trust, and now I’m less trusting,” said Iturralde, who shared some of her lessons on YouTube to help other parents. “It’s like the curtain gets pulled away, and you see, all of a sudden, there’s no wizard out there.” ​​

    To be sure, Lakisha Young had long walked the do-it-yourself path, but the Covid era gave her new fire. She believes the pandemic merely highlighted the ways public education has always failed to meet the needs of low-income children of color. Nearly 70% of Oakland students failed to meet the standard for reading on the state’s Smarter Balanced test in 2023.

    “Nobody is coming to save us,” said Young, the co-founder and CEO of Oakland REACH, a parent advocacy group. “The system is broken. Black and brown kids are typically already behind their white peers before they even get to kindergarten, and then those gaps just get bigger. The reality is, we keep seeing generation after generation failing. Somebody’s got to stop the bleeding.”

    Young has worked with families where illiteracy has been passed down from one generation to the next, like an heirloom. She has tried to empower parents, to put families in the driver’s seat.

    “We’re freeing our families from the system,” said Young. “We’re liberating them from the system. If a parent shows up, does her part or his part, their kid’s going to get what they need.”

    During lockdown, Young connected families to everything from laptops and cash assistance to a virtual academy. Now REACH is a hub for parent and caregiver tutors, which they call “liberators,” who go into classrooms, teaching reading and math in partnership with Oakland Unified.  

    “These babies have to learn how to read and do math,” she said. “We have to empower families to make sure their kids don’t get left behind.”

    Left to their own devices at the kitchen table, many in the dyslexia community also experienced the pandemic as a lightning rod. 

    “People were frustrated their children were not getting the services they deserved,” said Megan Potente, co-state director of Decoding Dyslexia CA, an advocacy group. “There was a lot of learning happening among parents, who may have left things up to school if it weren’t for the unprecedented times of the pandemic and heightened feelings of urgency associated with seeing your child struggle at home.”

    Many parents first organized out of frustration with extended school closures, she said, but then parlayed that momentum to push for education reforms, such as evidenced-based reading instruction, amid the state’s deepening literacy crisis.

    “California schools are failing at their core function: teaching,” said Moore. “How many decades of data — showing less than half of students achieving proficiency in language and math — are needed before big innovation occurs?”

    Lakisha Young
    Credit: Courtesy of Oakland Reach

    Emboldened by having to step up in a crisis, many parents began to demand a voice. Parents Supporting Teachers (PST) in Los Angeles began as a Facebook group during the LAUSD teachers strike in 2019 but gained momentum during the pandemic as parents began asking questions about how the district uses its funding.

    “It’s important that we parents have a seat at the table when it comes to our children’s education,” said Vicky Martinez, a mother of three Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD) students and member of PST. “We know our kids best. You empower yourself with knowledge and ask questions and do some research and don’t be afraid. We need to be a part of the process so we can support our kids.”

    Many hope that parental empowerment will remain robust even as the Covid years recede into memory. They are optimistic that families will continue to push for more transparency about academic standards and practices in the wake of falling test scores and widening achievement gaps. 

    “People want a fair shake, for themselves and their children,” said Moore. “Education is seen as the main vehicle for upward economic and social mobility. Yet the reality is, California’s education system only does well for those born into privilege, and it fails most everyone else.”

    Many parents will continue to play a more active role in the education of their children. Iturralde, like most parents, has “bad memories” of the pandemic years and struggling to get her daughter what she needed, but all that effort has paid off. 

    She used what she learned about the science of reading, from the need for phonics to the importance of background knowledge, to tutor her younger daughter, Lorea, as well. She now also coaches Winnie on math, a subject in which she is poised to skip ahead a year. 

    “What I try to advise parents to do is to take care of your kid and advocate for your kid, but also try to think about the community,” she said. “When I make a fuss about something, I’m doing it because I think there are other kids whose parents are not going to be able to help them. You’ve got to zoom out and think about the big picture.”





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  • California can strengthen its teacher workforce; here’s how

    California can strengthen its teacher workforce; here’s how


    A teacher reviews students’ project notes on a computer.

    Credit: Allison Shelley for EDUimages

    California’s teacher workforce needs stronger stewardship.

    Our state has established high standards for English, math, science and history that lay out what students must know and be able to do. But, as I have argued before, California has failed to adequately ensure even a majority of local educators are trained on — and equipped to teach to the level expected by — these standards.

    There are many reasons for this failure, but the state can provide more coherent and effective leadership.

    Here’s the improvement I propose:

    Currently, the state has one entity responsible for preparing and licensing teachers, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). But once teachers receive their credential, responsibility for professional development and educator support falls to the districts and county offices of education where they work. With nearly 1,000 local school districts and county offices of education, there is no oversight of whether experienced teachers are prepared to implement state standards.

    Some state entity needs to take charge, and overcome the current situation: no large-scale vision, too many small-scale, one-time initiatives, and fragmented programs and governance.

    We need legislation that would empower the current California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to provide the needed overall leadership. Currently, the commission, whose members are appointed by the governor, sets teacher preparation standards and approves postsecondary teacher preparation programs that meet the standards. Also, the commission provides teacher performance assessments that prospective teachers must pass to attain a credential.

    California is one of 10 states that has a state Department of Education and a separate agency — the Commission on Teacher Credentialing — overseeing teacher preparation and licenses. But we can take advantage of this division by increasing the CTC’s role. It makes no sense, given the conditions of education today, to force the commission to stop working with teachers and principals once they have their credential. Rather, it should also be responsible for a career continuum and a long-term educator learning system.

    Legislation should specify that the commission will encompass the entire career of a principal, teacher and early childhood permit holder. It might make sense to start with early career teachers and scale up from there, because this would be a continuation of what it does now. The legislation should empower the commission to support professional development across the spectrum, from candidates working toward a credential to experienced senior teachers, principals, instructional coaches, and other leaders.

    Of course, this needs to be done carefully and deliberately. The kinds of things we want to get right require the teacher commission to work closely with school districts and county offices of education.

    CTC should start with a strategic plan and road map reaching teachers statewide to signal that building educators’ skills is a major state role and responsibility. The road map would include the many moving parts that must be integrated into subject matter teaching. This includes key suppliers of products, curriculum developers, textbook publishers, universities, county offices and much more. The role of school districts must be rethought, including how to develop teaching capacity within districts and rely less on vendors that come and go.

    The plan would create micro-credentials or other forms of state recognition of teaching competence in current state subject matter frameworks, such as the new math framework. Some districts in California have already been experimenting with micro-credentials. Other states such as Mississippi and New York have used micro-credentials to enhance pupil outcomes. The plan should include integration of current fragmented state-funded capacity grants. The commission would lead a project to estimate the costs of implementing the proposed state and local capacity-building role, including analyses of cost-effectiveness, such as using digital professional development delivery.

    California has high academic standards and a talented teaching force. With effective statewide leadership and oversight, we can address persistent achievement gaps and help our students succeed. 

    •••

    Michael Kirst is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and served 12 years as president of the California State Board 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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  • Let’s fully fund restorative justice — because it works

    Let’s fully fund restorative justice — because it works


    Fremont High School students in Oakland Unified use restorative justice circles to welcome newcomers, get to know each other and build bridges between different cliques and ethnic groups.

    Credit: Tatiana Chaterji / Oakland Unified

    A change has come to my classroom, and I didn’t even know it. 

    While I’ve been busy teaching, California passed Senate Bill 274 expanding the prohibition of suspensions for low-level defiance behaviors to higher grades. I had no idea, nor did any of the colleagues I’ve spoken to recently.

    Perhaps that is because my school is in the San Diego Unified School District. Along with other districts like Los Angeles Unified, we’ve been focused on restorative practices, instead of punitive ones (like suspending students) for nearly a decade. At my school, for example, we have an amazing counselor and a part-time restorative justice lead.

    But I’ve learned recently that my experience isn’t normal. Many schools do not have any training or funding for this type of training. And this lack of both training and funding is going to put any California teacher in between the new law and a hard day if we don’t address it statewide soon.

    What is restorative justice?

    Essentially, restorative justice practices are relationship-building. They fundamentally weave in and under everything about a school built on respect and collaboration. These practices include, but are not limited to, affirmations, restorative circles, student check-ins, community circles, social contracts, and activities that enhance relationships.

    We know that when a school puts restorative justice in place with fidelity, suspension rates decrease and student learning outcomes improve. Students themselves report a preference when restorative measures are taken over traditional ones. Importantly, this means that defiance issues are far less common or reported in schools effectively implementing restorative justice.

    Restorative justice is erroneously seen by some as an alternative way of addressing serious school incidents. It is not, nor has it ever been, a solution for things like sexual harassment, physical assault, hate crimes, vandalism or other serious incidents at a school.

    Some believe that restorative justice is mostly concerned with helping the student who causes harm, not the child who is harmed. This, we have found, is often based on a teacher’s experience with improper implementation at the administrative level.

    When this occurs, it rightly causes frustration. It also causes some to express that they do not believe justice has been served for the person who was harmed. When restorative justice practice fails to restore justice, it cannot be called restorative, or justice.

    Another fallacy is that restorative justice is only used to “put out fires,” when students are in trouble. However, when properly implemented at a school, most restorative practices occur before any issues arise.

    Through the work of our council, we’ve found that even though our district leadership actively supports, advocates for and prioritizes restorative justice practices, the lack of state funding has made implementation extraordinarily difficult.

    For example, elementary, middle and high school levels within San Diego Unified have been funded quite differently. While middle schools have been funded for a two-day-a-week position, high schools have only had funding for a position one day a week. Worse, elementary schools were not allocated any funding for a restorative lead. That lead position is essential for restorative justice to work well. Restorative leads schedule positive school events, conduct restorative circles and follow up to ensure resolutions — while teachers teach — just like a doctor might follow up to be sure an illness is cured. 

    If an elementary school wanted to pursue restorative practices, they had to hire a restorative lead out of their limited site funds. This lack of alignment between different grade levels in a district the size of San Diego Unified, we found, mirrors the type of limited training and funding allocation for other districts throughout California. In other words, districts like ours want to implement restorative justice, but they can’t afford to do so properly. Meanwhile, state laws like SB 274 have changed the expectations for how teachers interact with students daily.

    This discrepancy between legislation and funding can put teachers in a difficult situation — unable to suspend students who are disrupting their classrooms, and lacking restorative justice training and support that would enable them to more effectively manage their classrooms. And this leads our council to the following recommendations for all California districts, public and charter, and state educational leaders.

    • State funding should be earmarked for ongoing restorative training and professional development for all staff in K-12 schools.
    • State funding should be allocated for the restorative lead position uniformly in all public schools and public charter schools.
    • Districts must support transformation within their schools, like San Diego Unified’s leadership does. 

    Our council is eager to work with any parent or educational advocacy group, state legislator, or public or charter district leader interested in taking on this important work with us. 

    •••

    Thomas Courtney is a sixth-grade humanities and English language arts teacher at Millennial Tech Middle School in southeast San Diego.

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





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  • At community colleges, online classes remain popular years after pandemic

    At community colleges, online classes remain popular years after pandemic


    Ricardo Alcaraz is taking three of his five courses online this semester at Santa Ana College: an anthropology class, business calculus and business law. It’s a course schedule that reflects a new reality and shift toward distance learning across California’s community colleges, largely sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

    Taking classes online, though, isn’t ideal for Alcaraz, who is majoring in business administration and plans to transfer to Cal State Fullerton this fall. He enjoys in-person classes because he likes to arrive early and ask questions of his professors. His online classes, on the other hand, are asynchronous, meaning there’s no live instruction, and he has to direct his questions via email.

    But like hundreds of thousands of other students in California, Alcaraz opts to enroll in many online classes because they fit better into his schedule. While enrolled at Santa Ana, he has worked up to 20 hours a week at the college’s Undocu-Scholars Center, a resource center for the college’s undocumented students. He’s also the student trustee for the Rancho Santiago Community College District, requiring him to be at board meetings and many campus events.

    “It’s been hard to adapt to online classes. But due to how busy I’ve been and needing to be present in different areas, I feel like it’s been very helpful in a way,” he said.

    During the pandemic five years ago, a significant majority of California community classes shifted online. Despite some early confusion and bumps in adapting to online education, distance education has firmly taken hold in the years since.

    More than 40% of community college classes remain online statewide as of this year, about double what it was before the pandemic, and a much higher rate of remote education than exists at the state’s four-year universities. That includes hybrid classes, which mix online and some required in-person instruction. Some colleges also offer HyFlex courses, which give students the option of attending online or in person. The vast majority of the system’s online classes, however, are taught fully online and asynchronously. 

    Many campuses also have no choice but to cater to students to stabilize their enrollments and finances. Enrollment across the state plummeted during the pandemic — dropping 19% statewide — and is still below pre-pandemic levels. 

    College leaders and instructors say online education has proven an effective enough teaching and learning method, especially for general education classes, the lower-level coursework students take before diving into much of their major studies. Statewide, students pass both synchronous and asynchronous online courses at only a slightly lower rate than students pass in-person courses. 

    Still, officials acknowledge that many students benefit from face-to-face instruction and social interactions with their peers. Such interactions are less common now than they were pre-pandemic, with many campuses quieter and noticeably less crowded. Some colleges have begun to consider how they can entice students to return to campus. 

    “For a lot of students and a lot of instructors, the preference is to be in the classroom,” said John Hetts, executive vice chancellor for the statewide community college system. “That regular personal contact matters. I think a lot of students feel it, but the challenge we have as a system is that the vast majority of our students work.

    “So how do we balance that? I think that’s going to be the challenge for our institutions, to support students getting what they need to thrive, but also what they need to be able to work,” he added.

    Los Angeles City College

    Just prior to the pandemic, 21% of community college classes were online. That rate ballooned to nearly 70% of classes in 2020-21. 

    Some hands-on programs, like respiratory care and other health programs, were taught in person even during the pandemic because they met the state’s definition of essential education. Beyond those, most community colleges required other classes to be held online throughout the 2020-21 academic year. The next year, colleges began reopening in-person classes, with vaccine mandates in place.

    Taylor Squires, a second-year technical theater arts student at Saddleback College in Orange County, takes as many of her general education classes online as possible, and sometimes other courses too. This past fall, her entire course load was online.

    “It depends on the semester, but the reasoning is pretty much the same: it frees up time in my day to go do other things,” Squires said. 

    The state’s four-year university systems are also offering more classes online now than they did pre-pandemic. They offer them at a lower rate than the community colleges, but many of their students take at least one class online every semester or quarter. At the University of California’s nine undergraduate campuses, 6.4% of course sections were fully online in 2023-24, up from 1.8% in the year leading up to the pandemic. That percentage does not include hybrid classes.

    Before the pandemic, online classes were a rarity at the 23-campus California State University. More than 90% of course sections were taught in person in each school year between 2016-17 and 2018-19. Then, the start of the pandemic supercharged what had been a gradual trend toward virtual learning.

    Cal State campuses have not fully reverted to the pre-pandemic norm now that their campuses are no longer subject to restrictions on in-person gatherings. In the 2023-24 school year, 73% of course sections were taught face-to-face, and 75% of students took at least one course online. The percentage of courses offered in a hybrid format has more than doubled between 2016-17 and 2023-24.

    At community colleges, some hands-on classes and programs need to be taught face-to-face because of the nature of the work, like science labs or trade programs such as welding or construction.

    Otherwise, most community colleges and their academic departments decide on instructional delivery methods based on what will bring the most enrollments. At the state’s largest district, the nine-college Los Angeles Community College District, between 40% and 50% of classes are now taught online each semester. Before the pandemic, between 10% and 15% of classes were taught online.

    “Based on our assumption of student demand, we may plan that 40% of our classes need to be online and 60% need to be in person. And if that 60% doesn’t materialize, we may shift some of that to online to give students more time to enroll,” said Nicole Albo-Lopez, the district’s deputy chancellor.

    At the communication and media studies department at Folsom Lake College, department chair Paula Cardwell said the “North Star” is to offer classes the way students want them. 

    Cardwell has been teaching online classes since 2007, much longer than most, and said she finds it can be done “really, really well.” She said students in her public speaking classes tend to give each other even better feedback in Zoom chats than they do in person because they are less worried about hurting one another’s feelings.

    Cardwell added, however, that there are challenges, especially with the proliferation of artificial intelligence and the likelihood of students using it to write their assignments. “So we are rethinking which classes we teach online or how we teach them because of that,” Cardwell said.

    Foothill College in Santa Clara County has also been rethinking its approach, hoping to ease isolation and improve student mental health. The college, where about half of the classes were remote even before the pandemic and 55% remain online, is actually seeing face-to-face enrollment increase at a faster rate than courses taught online. This quarter, enrollment is up about 19% for in-person classes, said Kristina Whalen, the college’s president.

    The college has opened new in-person facilities, including a wellness lounge where students can relax in massage chairs, meditate or talk to staff about getting connected to mental health services. 

    “Students are looking for that social interaction and the services that a campus affords,” Whalen said.

    But Foothill still relies heavily on distance education and is constantly trying to refine its online instruction, Whalen said. The college this year began requiring additional training to ensure faculty teaching online are still engaging with students, such as by providing prompt and personalized feedback on student coursework.

    “Up and down the state, I think colleges are asking and answering that question about how they are monitoring their online instruction to ensure that it’s of a quality that matches our on-ground instruction,” Whalen said. 

    Hetts, the executive vice chancellor for the community college system, noted that the chancellor’s office provides a rubric to ensure online classes are high quality. But he added that much of the training and review of those classes happens locally.

    At the Los Angeles district, faculty are required to be certified to teach online as part of their union contract. Most faculty opt in to additional training, such as one focused on using artificial intelligence in the classroom, said Albo-Lopez. Faculty are regularly looking to build new skills because they know distance education is their new normal, she added.

    “It’s here to stay because it’s created a new niche of flexibility both for our students, but also for our workforce,” she said. “And I think that that’s something that is going to be really difficult to change back.”

    EdSource staff writer Amy DiPierro contributed reporting to this article. Abby Offenhauser, a member of the EdSource California Student Journalism Corps, also contributed reporting.





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  • What do you miss when your college doesn’t have a library?

    What do you miss when your college doesn’t have a library?


    The Cal Poly library is closed for a two-year $78 million renovation project.

    Credit: John Washington / EdSource

    When I arrived at campus at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, ahead of the 2023-24 school year, I decided to walk around and get the lay of the land. As a transfer student from a community college, I was wildly impressed with the facilities and started feeling energized for the heavy workload ahead of me that quarter.

    That was, until I walked by the library. It was completely fenced off, so I checked online, hoping to find out it was off limits during some summer construction. I shortly figured out it was not.

    That summer, Cal Poly had closed its library for two years to upgrade the building with an estimated $78 million in renovations. Those two years coincided with the two years I would spend at the school; it is scheduled to reopen in the fall, a few months after I graduate. 

    Call me a nerd, but by not having access to a library building, I feel like I missed out on an important part of my education and overall college experience. And I don’t think I am alone in this sentiment — a 2022 survey by Library Journal found that 78% of college students believe their library contributes to their overall academic success.

    This is not meant to bash Cal Poly’s library staff, which has excelled at adjusting to the changes amid a difficult situation. Even though 240,000 of the books sit in storage in Sacramento, I always receive the books I request through the online system within a week — whether they come from Northern California or from Florida as an interlibrary loan.

    For many students, the issue has been primarily a lack of adequate study spaces on campus. With five stories of study space no longer available, the University Union and other alternative spots became overcrowded. The university responded by putting up tents around campus with tables and chairs inside. As you might expect, this did not exactly solve the problem. 

    The tents could not replicate the library atmosphere, and I preferred to have the choice of studying indoors or outdoors, not some weird in-between that failed to capture the best aspects of either environment. Only one of these tents remains on campus; the rest were closed last school year due to lack of use.

    Students at other schools may not think of their library as important or essential. But imagine if it wasn’t there. Many students would not know where to go during the gaps in their classes. Or where to get their books. They wouldn’t seek out resources like research help that would normally be easily and obviously available to them in the physical building.

    Jealousy may be a factor here as well. Every class before mine got to enjoy the building before its renovations and every class after mine will be able to enjoy the benefits of the building with the improvements.

    At Cal Poly, there are numerous construction projects I get to watch from afar but will never reap the rewards of. But this one means the most to me and much of the student body.

    In a way, it’s a $78 million cookie I am teased with but not allowed to eat. It’ll be fenced off and unavailable until I leave.

    As an avid reader, the library is a sacred place to me. With so many institutions moving online and there being less public community space in general, an accessible library at a large public university is a necessity.

    Thus, I strongly encourage not only the Cal Poly underclassmen, but all students to take advantage of the space and resources available through your library for the rest of your time at your school. And while we’re here, don’t forget your local public library in the years to come.

    •••

    John Washington is a senior journalism student at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

    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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  • How Covid’s mental health toll transformed California’s schools

    How Covid’s mental health toll transformed California’s schools


    Top Takeaways
    • Growing numbers of California students reported feeling hopeless in the wake of the pandemic, with 42% of juniors reporting chronic sadness in a 2019-21 state survey.
    • California has made substantial investments in its mental health infrastructure, including the $4 billion Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative.
    • School mental health professionals say they feel more valued as essential partners in education.

    When schools shuttered five years ago, many students like Benjamin Olaniyi turned to their phones to find connection during a profoundly unsettling and isolating time.

    “Social media made us feel more connected with the world,” said Olaniyi, who is now a junior at King/Drew Medical Magnet High School in Los Angeles.

    Benjamin Olaniyi

    The pandemic struck in the spring of his sixth grade year, causing him to miss a school camping trip he had looked forward to. He remembers a sense of unity online in those early days amid the uncertainty and fear.

    People were afraid of an unknown disease, profound isolation, economic instability and grief for family members killed by the virus.

    Young people logged on to share how they felt about what they were facing in real time: the loneliness, the hopelessness and the fear that they could lose family or friends to the strange illness.

    This exposure to frank discussion of mental health on social media “probably made us more aware of mental health struggles that previous generations wouldn’t have been exposed to,” Olaniyi said.

    The early years of the pandemic turned out to be a key moment when the conversation about students’ mental health and wellness went mainstream. And it wasn’t just students who took note that their peers were struggling with depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    This showed up in the pandemic era of the California Healthy Kids Survey, where more students reported that they experienced hopelessness. In data collected in 2019-21, 42% of 11th grade students reported chronic sadness, up from 32% just four years earlier.

    Dr. Ijeoma Ijeaku, president of the California Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, said that the pandemic lifted a veil on a worsening crisis among young people.

    “It has forced us to look at our mental health in a way we had never looked at it before,” Ijeaku said.

    She credits Gen Z, in particular, for their searing honesty about mental health: “They said, ‘Yes, it’s OK to not be OK.’”

    Five years after the pandemic began, experts say that the way students, educators and policymakers discuss mental health has dramatically changed and that, though there is more work to be done, policy changes and substantial state investments made in the wake of this crisis have had a lasting positive impact in schools.

    “So much of the infrastructure is really enduring past the pandemic,” said Kendra Fehrer, the founder of Heartwise Learning, who has worked as a consultant for schools and community organizations to improve mental health services for students.

    Pandemic’s unequal effects

    Medical professionals have become more vocal about the mental health crisis that children and adolescents have faced due to the pandemic — and how students living in high-poverty communities and Black and brown students have borne the brunt of the crisis.

    In 2021, a declaration from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association said the pandemic added fuel to already rising rates of childhood mental health concerns, including suicide, noting that communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by Covid’s medical and social problems.

    The pandemic represented the “unveiling of how the status of our health is determined by our ZIP code, not our genetic code,” Ijeaku said.

    More affluent teens, who lived in houses with more space and more privacy, fared better during the pandemic, said Andrew Fuligni, co-executive director of the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent. These kids were more likely to live in communities where they could escape to a park to congregate safely or have reliable internet access to keep in touch virtually. 

    Conversely, teens with fewer resources tended to live in overcrowded homes where rates of Covid transmission were high. They were more likely to live with those deemed essential workers exposed to the virus and faced a more serious threat of death or serious illness, factors that take a toll on mental wellness.

    While the whole-child approach to education — championing the importance of school climate, student safety and health for learning, alongside curriculum and instruction — has been growing for decades, schools began to take mental health even more seriously, said Loretta Whitson of the California Association of School Counselors. 

    Teachers are asking for more support from counselors and other mental health professionals, Whitson said. There is a great appreciation for “the value of the work that is being done and how that complements the classroom work in developing a highly functioning adult.”

    State invests billions in mental health

    In the past, when school districts faced a budget crunch, it was typical for counselors, psychologists and social workers to be first on the chopping block.

    “The rest of education caught a cold, we caught pneumonia,” Whitson said.

    But Whitson says things are changing, thanks not just to a shift in the mindset, but also to the infrastructure, such as the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, that the state has worked on for the last few years. In 2021, the state launched the effort with $4 billion to be invested over five years, which aims to support those under age 26.

    This year, the initiative launched a fee schedule that enables mental health professionals on campus, such as school counselors, psychologists and social workers, to bill Medi-Cal and other types of insurance for the work they do on campus. 

    It can be extremely complicated to get two very different systems — education and health care — working together. Medical billing isn’t the traditional purview of education. Whitson says, however, that this is providing a real alternative to the boom and bust budget cycle that makes it hard to sustainably fund mental health professionals.

    “We’re trying to fully employ people on school campuses that are going to be focused on children’s mental and behavioral well-being,” Whitson said. “This is a big piece of that, to make sure that we have funding that sustains.”

    However, this new funding model could be undercut if Medicaid is slashed, as some fear Republicans intend.

    California has been moving in the right direction over the last decade, Whitson says, and has roughly doubled its school counselor ratio. Still, the state has a ratio of 1 counselor for about 400 students, well above the 250 students recommended by the American School Counselor Association. 

    California school districts have been laying off staff in the wake of budgets weakened by the sunsetting of Covid-era federal funding and shrinking enrollment. Whitson said the good news amid the layoffs is that job cuts are not disproportionately hitting school counselors as they did in the Great Recession in 2009.

    The state has supported bringing a broad array of health services to campuses in low-income neighborhoods through the California Community Schools Partnership Program to the tune of $4 billion. This early post-pandemic effort is continuing to grow, according to Fehrer, the founder of Heartwise Learning.

    Fehrer applauds the state’s investments but says a lot of the real work of transforming school cultures doesn’t happen in Sacramento.

    “The hardest stuff to change is stuff you can’t legislate,” she said.

    ‘Coalition of the willing’

    Fehrer said a major transformation is reshaping the way schools respond to mental health and that it transcends economic divides, and is happening in wealthy enclaves like Palo Alto and farmworker communities like Pajaro Valley. 

    Fehrer calls this a “coalition of the willing.”

    Alexis Mele, a school counselor at Laguna Beach High School, credits her school district and school board for understanding the value of school counselors, who are too often viewed as people who mostly handle academic scheduling and college planning.

    Mele calls the work she can do with a caseload of 250 students “transformative.” At the beginning of the year, Mele holds a one-on-one meeting with every single one of her freshman students with their families, deepening her relationships right from the start.

    On a recent morning, a student dropped by her office to say they were struggling. She said that’s a moment that reinforces the importance of her role.

    “That student was sitting at home this morning, waking up feeling like, ‘This isn’t going to be a good day, but I can go to the office and talk to Miss Mele and that might help.’ And that to me is everything,” Mele said.





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  • How Covid changed teaching in California: fewer pencils, more technology

    How Covid changed teaching in California: fewer pencils, more technology


    The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly changed how students and teachers spend their time in the classroom. Now, instead of writing with paper and pencil, students use computers for most assignments.

    Teachers lecture less and spend more time on individualized instruction, social-emotional learning and relationship building.

    The last five years have not been easy. Students returned to campuses in the spring of 2021, after spending more than a year learning alone from home on computers. They had knowledge gaps, and many felt isolated and unsure, often resulting in chronic absenteeism and bad behavior. 

    Thousands of California teachers, discouraged by disciplinary problems, quit the profession.

    But others doubled down on individualized instruction and social-emotional support, spending a good portion of class time reacquainting their students with how to behave in the classroom and encouraging them to socialize with their peers.

    Now, five years after Covid closed schools, student scores on the state’s standardized Smarter Balanced tests have improved slightly, although achievement is still not back to pre-Covid levels. 

    California teachers interviewed by EdSource are optimistic, reporting that interventions are working and that student discipline is improving.

    “They don’t miss their houses,”  said Erika Cedeno, who teaches Spanish at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita. “They don’t miss anything related to Covid. They want to be at school, and they are enjoying sports. They are playing tennis and swimming. It’s very different. I think we are probably getting to the point that we were before Covid.”

    More personalized learning

    Teachers report placing a greater emphasis on small-group instruction and personalized learning to accommodate students who returned from school closures with diverse learning needs, according to “Rewiring the classroom: How the Covid-19 pandemic transformed K-12 education,” released in August by the Brookings Institution. 

    The spring 2023 survey of 1,000 K-12 teachers and administrators across the country revealed that students now spend less time in lectures and more time working on educational software tailored to their needs. The increased use of technology by students, teachers and parents is the biggest change in the classroom since Covid-19 closures, said Brian Jacob, who co-authored the Brookings report. 

    After months of working on educational software during pandemic school closures, teachers are now more likely to incorporate it into their classrooms, according to the report. In early 2023, 70% of all students and 80% of all middle and high school students in the United States had a personal computing device.

    “I use technology more freely in the classroom now, and it’s an expected part of the day,” Todd Shadbourne, a sixth grade teacher at Foulks Ranch Elementary School in Elk Grove, told EdSource. 

    “We used to do a research project and everybody had to go to the library and get a book, and hope they could get a book,” Shadbourne said. “And we couldn’t study biographies when my neighboring class was doing biographies because there’s only so many books. … Now you have other resources because you have a computer in front of you.”

    Too much technology isn’t good

    There are some drawbacks to the increased use of technology in schools, however. Research shows that reading comprehension is better when students read printed texts instead of online materials, Jacob said. Students also struggle with writing and spelling because all their school work is done on computers equipped with programs that correct spelling and grammar, he said.

    “School officials and researchers really need to look at that carefully and determine how much time students are spending on devices, and how is that going?” Jacob said.

    Some California teachers try to limit their students’ screen time and require them to spend more time reading text, writing with pencil and paper and collaborating with their classmates.

    San Diego special education teacher Carly Bresee says the use of technology by students outside the classroom has also increased, prompting her to use less technology in class than before the pandemic.

    “I know that general ed teachers are kind of facing that question,” Bresee said. “How much computer use is healthy and positive for the students? They are having difficulty with that balance, knowing what the best formula is for learning.”

    Back to classroom carts at some schools

    School officials at James Lick Middle School have decided to go back to classroom computer carts because the school, in financially strapped San Francisco Unified, could no longer afford to maintain and replace student computers that are broken, lost or outdated.

    “Kids have broken them on purpose,” said Keith Carames, who teaches theater arts and English at the school. “Kids have lost them. Kids have dropped them.”

    That move away from technology is a big disappointment to Carames, who became a convert after spending three months learning how to use Zoom, Google Classroom and other online education programs. 

    “I saw the light,” Carames said. “I can edit stuff online with them (the students). I can post videos. I have resources that are accessible. If they are absent, they can get work. There are letters that you can send to the family and newsletters and interactive things. It changed my practice as an educator. ”

    Carames calls the transition back to paper and pen “a nightmare.”

    “There are some kids who don’t even know how to spell their own first name,” he said.

    Changing views on school attendance

    The biggest change for Elk Grove’s Shadbourne since Covid is the perception among some students and parents that attending school is optional. Students go on vacation during the school year or decide to work from home on a given day because they think they can get assignments on Google Classroom and email them to the teacher.

    “And the social benefits of school, and the problem-solving that we do as a group, and the common culture we hope to create, it’s hard to do that when people are gone,” Shadbourne said. 

    The impact of absences is amplified in special education, where a student might make progress one day, miss a day of school, and lose that progress, Bresee said.

    Students need social-emotional support

    Since schools reopened in 2020, California teachers have been spending more time greeting their students at the door, sending them notes and planning activities that encourage communication and help build relationships. Making these connections helps students develop social-emotional skills and encourages them to come to school.

    “In special education, we saw a huge increase in maladaptive behaviors, and that was really difficult both for the students, the support staff and for teachers,” said Bresee, a TK-1 special education teacher at Perkins K-8 School. “… It was hard to maintain a regular routine because it felt like we were more frequently in crisis mode.”

    Students, especially younger ones, had to learn how to play and communicate effectively with others. That meant more time was set aside for adult-facilitated playtime than before the pandemic, Bresee said.

    “It became, in my eyes, an even more important part of the day, right up there with our literacy and math lessons,” Breese said.

    The effort seems to be paying off. This year, student behavior has improved, and the class routine is back on track, according to Bresee.

    Social-emotional support and building connections between students and their teachers and classmates are equally important for older students.

    Cedeno greets her Spanish students at the door every day and then spends roughly seven minutes at the beginning of each class asking questions to draw students into conversations meant to help them connect with her and their classmates.

    “Cuál es tu color favorito (What is your favorite color)?” she asks one day. “Cuál es tu dulce favorito (What is your favorite candy)?” she asks on another day.

    Cedeno also invites students to have lunch in her classroom if they need a safe space to relax and a microwave to heat their food.

    “We are trying to rebuild this step by step,” Cedeno said. “We are not there yet. But I think we are going to get there if we put in a lot of effort, a lot of compassion and empathy, because these kids, they need this.”





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  • Pandemic-era push to ‘build solutions’ must continue, panel says

    Pandemic-era push to ‘build solutions’ must continue, panel says


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nemKlBPWB2E

    The Covid-19 pandemic, which first shuttered schools five years ago, disrupted learning, disengaged students and harmed their mental health, amplifying the long-standing inequalities in their achievement.  

    Recovering from the effects of the pandemic has proven difficult for most California schools, and the challenges that defy easy fixes, such as chronic absenteeism, require partnerships with families, community members and organizations to develop support systems that will focus on student academic success, as well as a willingness to analyze and change those approaches, according to panelists at EdSource’s Thursday roundtable, “Five years after Covid: Innovations that are driving results.”

    “The pandemic showed us that schools are so much more than just places to teach our students in the classroom,” said Lorena Solorio, associate director of the Care Corps Program at Rocketship Public Schools, a group of TK-5 charter schools, mostly in East San Jose, that enlisted care coordinators during the pandemic. “We have to support our students and their families to get them to school, but also that they’re prepared to learn because our students can’t learn if they’re coming to school hungry.”

    While the pandemic is mostly defined by the personal loss and academic setbacks that most experienced, it presented opportunities for some communities to become creative and innovative in igniting change to improve the conditions that the pandemic magnified. 

    The policy and advocacy work of Oakland REACH, for instance, wasn’t improving student outcomes before the pandemic. The pandemic became an opportunity for the parent advocacy group to “build the solution around education that we really know that our families wanted and needed,” co-founder and CEO Lakisha Young, a panelist, said. 

    Oakland REACH created a virtual family hub that trained parents and caregivers to tutor their children in early literacy — “a model that takes parents off the sidelines and to the front lines in an academic way.” 

    “Parents set the tone for how kids decide they want to engage in education,” Young said. 

    After five weeks of remote learning with the virtual hub, long before anyone realized school closures would last for at least a year, students in grades K-2 saw significant gains, as 60% improved by two or more reading levels and 30% increased by three or more reading levels on Oakland Unified’s assessment.

    Since the return to in-person learning, REACH has partnered with the school district to train parents, caregivers, and community members to go into classrooms as tutors teaching reading and math. 

    Rocketship Public Schools was inspired at the height of the pandemic to work directly with families and connect them with resources and services through care coordinators in all of its charter schools, according to Solorio. 

    The care coordinators, for example, connected families struggling with housing with community partners and hosted on-campus resource fairs and health, vision and dental screenings, referring students for additional services, as necessary, and allowing them to “show up and learn in the classroom,” Solorio said. 

    Today, the coordinators’ roles have expanded to help school leaders address chronic absenteeism. 

    “Helping support a culture of learning, a culture of coming to school is important,” Solorio said about coordinators helping families, “whether it’s changing mindsets or it’s driving out core root causes of some of these obstacles.” 

    Finding, providing and sustaining innovation

    Districts have used one-time pandemic relief funding and/or their own resources to address the persistent challenges facing students during and since the pandemic, including the fact that California schools have more staff now than at any time in history. 

    Federal pandemic relief and recovery funds from the state put California’s spending at over $18,000 per student, said panelist Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab, an education finance research center based at Georgetown University. 

    “While the state was seeing some growth in scores earlier in 2014, 2016, there’s some decline during the pandemic,” she said. “But the part that frustrates us, I think, is the continued decline, on average, even after these investments were happening.”

    The high spending and low test scores make the state one of the nation’s worst in its “returns on investments,” the Edunomics Lab found. 

    There are districts, such as Compton and Milpitas Unified, that defy the average and show a rapid recovery for their students, Roza said. 

    Now, billions in pandemic-era funding have expired. California districts still have $6 billion in state funding to replace the federal relief, but as the Edunomics research shows, the spending alone won’t address student success. From now on, schools must know when to change their approach, panelists said. 

    Compton Unified exemplifies the importance of doubling down on a strategy that works. Compton Unified Superintendent Darin Brawley said that consistently assessing student performance to determine the academic strategies that schools use has led to the district being No. 1 in California in terms of growth in English and math test scores.

    “We’re measuring everything,” including graduation rates, core graduation requirements and chronic absenteeism rates that are also improving, Brawley said.  “It’s all about data: reflecting on that data, coming together as teams to reflect on how each individual school is doing, receiving that feedback.” 

    The common characteristic of districts nationwide that beat the odds for their kids, Roza said, is “they really focused on reading and math.” 

    Roza attributed the reading and math focus of Oakland REACH to its success. 

    Although the group will soon end its partnership with the district, Oakland Unified can continue the approach Oakland REACH started, much like 12 Denver schools recently did by replicating the model.

    “REACH exists out of a problem,” Young said about not knowing if the literacy and math it brought into the homes of low-income families would work, at first. Whether we think something is good or not, let’s test it. We cannot be so vulnerable to system disruption. When we’re vulnerable to disruption, our families are vulnerable to disruption.”

    Panelists echoed the importance of finding a method that works — and being unafraid to try things. 

    “If it doesn’t work, you’ve got to try something else, including nontraditional strategies,” especially in addressing attendance, Roza said. “I think we hear from district leaders all the time: ‘I would love to do these great ideas, but we can’t because dot, dot…”

    It’s that fear that leads to the status quo, Brawley said. 

    Cheryl Jordan, superintendent at Milpitas Unified, which developed an Innovation Campus that offers students real-world work and life experiences through internships, apprenticeships and project-based learning, said that it is only through looking at the opportunities that a crisis provides that schools and districts can “develop something that’s better and meets the needs of our learners in a way that is innovative and really excels them to become the leaders and creators of the future.” 





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