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  • New math placement rules undermine preparation of community college STEM majors

    New math placement rules undermine preparation of community college STEM majors


    Credit: Allison Shelley / EDUimages

    For an update on this topic, please see: Community colleges loosen STEM math placement rules, calming some critics

    It should come as no surprise to anyone that to succeed in a science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) field, one needs a solid foundation in mathematics.

    When my sons entered college, even though they had strong math skills, I encouraged all three to retake a transfer-level course they had completed in high school. This both solidified their mathematics foundation and started them off in college with at least one high grade toward their college GPA.

    Unfortunately, a new law, Assembly Bill 1705,  going into full effect in fall 2025, will prevent prospective STEM majors from acquiring or strengthening their foundational math skills at our community colleges.

    An earlier law restricted colleges’ ability to place students into remedial courses that carry no college credit. The noble intent of AB 1705 is to increase equity and student success, in part by extending those placement restrictions on remedial courses to credit-bearing prerequisites to calculus for STEM majors. Well-intentioned special interest groups convinced our politicians that calculus prerequisites such as trigonometry, college algebra or precalculus somehow represent inequitable roadblocks, rather than what they actually are: the building blocks to STEM success.

    This is despite emerging research showing that these kinds of policies only provide short-term benefits and are not actually helping the students in the long run.

    Community colleges have long used multiple measures, including student grades and other assessments, to evaluate mathematics proficiency. STEM majors who need stronger mathematics skills are then placed into college-level foundational courses such as trigonometry, college algebra or precalculus. These STEM building blocks carry college credit. And all students have the option to enroll in these courses to strengthen their math skills if they so choose. The credits and grades earned count toward graduation and toward their college GPA. But under the new law, a community college will only be allowed to enroll a STEM major into a prerequisite to calculus if the college meets strict validation requirements demonstrating that:

    1. The student is highly unlikely to succeed in the first STEM calculus course without the additional transfer-level preparation.
    2. The enrollment will improve the student’s probability of completing the first STEM calculus course.
    3. The enrollment will improve the student’s persistence to and completion of the second calculus course in the STEM program, if a second calculus course is required. (section 3 (f) AB 1705)

    The new law is completely tone-deaf to the critical role broad mathematics skill plays regarding college and career success in STEM fields. Furthermore, these validation requirements have predictably (and perhaps intentionally) proven to be extremely difficult to meet. A statewide study by the RP Group, a nonprofit community college research organization, failed to validate any group of students as needing the prerequisite classes, including even those who had never completed Algebra 2 in high school.

    The study concludes, “Based on high school GPA or high school math preparation, no group was highly unlikely to succeed in STEM Calculus 1 when directly enrolled and given two years.”  Without the validation, the law prohibits colleges from requiring or even placing STEM majors into any calculus prerequisite. Instead, colleges must enroll them directly into calculus.

    While the legislation forbids requiring prerequisites for calculus and STEM without the specified validation, it still allows students to drop the calculus class imposed on them and enroll instead in a calculus prerequisite. But based on the RP Group’s failure to confirm that any group of students meets the law’s absurdly strict validation requirements, the Community College Chancellor’s Office has inexplicably concluded no group would be helped by such prerequisites (see the February 2024 memo, page 5).

    As a consequence of this horrific misinterpretation, their implementation plan will forbid local community colleges from offering STEM majors any calculus prerequisites and instead require them to offer extra support to students while they are in Calculus. (See the Chancellor’s Office FAQs, “STEM Calculus Placement Rules” top of page 15). This means no STEM major would be able to enroll in any building block course like trigonometry even if they want to. The plan clearly goes beyond the law and will accelerate the dismantling of foundational math offerings at the community colleges.

    Having taught math in both the California Community College and State University systems for decades, I and all the math professors I know are convinced the end results of AB 1705 and this extreme implementation policy will be disastrous.

    The elimination of prerequisite courses represents a new artificial barrier that will prevent any underprepared STEM major from achieving the strong mathematics foundation they need to succeed and flourish. This will disproportionately affect underrepresented minorities and eliminate the “second chance” for students who didn’t develop sufficient math skills in high school. And that’s a lot of students. Data from the RP Group report show that between fall 2012 and spring 2020, over 68% of STEM majors were enrolled into foundational prerequisites (25,584 students). These students will now be denied any foundational coursework opportunities and instead be forced directly into calculus.

    We will flood our community college calculus classrooms with a large majority of students inadequately prepared. Grade inflation, increased student failure rates, discouraged faculty and the inadequate mathematics preparation of STEM majors transferring to the California State University and University of California campuses will be the sad but certain outcomes. You can say goodbye to the common sense of building strong mathematics foundations in our community college STEM majors. And cutting off this “second chance” will definitely discourage students from opting to major in a STEM field in the first place.

    The chancellor’s implementation, scheduled to take full effect by fall 2025, must make mid-course corrections to avoid a STEM preparation meltdown.

    The law itself needs major revisions to accomplish its noble equity ambitions. And all of us concerned with equity should be paying close attention to emerging research documenting the longer term outcomes of these experiments with restrictions on mathematics prerequisites.

    •••

    Richard Ford is professor emeritus and former mathematics and statistics department chair at California State University Chico. He served as chair of the Academic Preparation and Education Programs Committee (APEP) of the Academic Senate of the CSU in 2021-2022. A deeper analysis by the author of the AB 1705 implementation policy can be found here.

    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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  • Enrollment ticks up 2% at Cal State, its first increase since 2020

    Enrollment ticks up 2% at Cal State, its first increase since 2020


    Cal State Fullerton commencement 2022

    Credit: Cal State Fullerton/Flickr

    California State University’s fall 2024 enrollment has risen to 461,000 students, driven by record gains among first-time, first-year students that nonetheless left the system short of its fall 2020 peak.

    Preliminary data shows enrollment across the 23-campus system has inched up 2%, buoyed by more than 68,500 new first-year students this fall. 

    But Cal State has not yet returned to its 2020 high point, when enrollment hit 485,550 students. Headcount dipped for each of the next three school years, settling at 454,640 students in fall 2023. 

    In a news release, Chancellor Mildred García said the system is pursuing a “multi-year, holistic enrollment growth strategy” and is focused on recruiting and retaining students, including community college transfers. 

    “This promising upward momentum demonstrates the confidence that Californians have in the extraordinary power of a CSU degree to transform lives, particularly for America’s new majority, comprised of first-generation students, students of color, low-income students and adults seeking new opportunities,” García said.

    Cal State reported a 7% increase in enrollment among transfer students, a 2% increase among graduate students and a 1% increase among continuing undergraduate students.  

    Preliminary figures show that 54% of CSU’s first-year students are Latino and that 4% of first-year students are Black. CSU did not break out data on Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islander student enrollment, nor was campus-level enrollment reported. The university system expects to release final systemwide numbers in November.

    FAFSA fallout? 

    Increased enrollment at Cal State will be welcome news to observers who feared that the rocky rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application might depress enrollment.

    Changes to the application that debuted last year were designed make the process faster and more efficient for families. But delays and glitches plagued the new form, a critical step students must complete to find out whether they’re eligible for federal aid such as Pell Grants, loans and work-study programs. 

    The troubled FAFSA cycle sparked worries that students who were uncertain about their financial aid packages would put off enrolling in college this school year. Previous research has found that receiving grant aid boosts students’ persistence and degree completion.

    Financial aid officers and advocates also voiced concern about how the new application was affecting California students from mixed-status families. Many of those students — those with at least one parent without a Social Security number — had trouble submitting the FAFSA form.

    The delays prompted both Cal State and the University of California to extend their spring deadlines for new students to declare their intent to register for fall 2024 classes, a recognition that many families would need more time to better understand how much their education would cost.

    California ultimately fared better than most other states in terms of FAFSA completions, according to data from the National College Attainment Network. The state notched a 56% FAFSA completion rate, exceeding a rate of roughly 52% among high school seniors nationwide. That’s despite a 7% year-over-year decline in the number of FAFSA completions in California.

    Cal State credited financial aid staff at its universities with helping students to work through a frustrating FAFSA cycle and processing provisional financial aid offers quickly. (The news release cited a rise in federal Pell Grants at CSU, but did not say how much awards increased.) 

    Difficulties with the FAFSA rollout might also have been offset by California’s universal FAFSA completion policy, which was passed in 2021. Assembly Bill 132 tasks school districts with ensuring that graduating seniors complete the FAFSA or the California Dream Act Application, but gives students the ability to opt out of doing so. A recent report by the Public Policy Institute of California found that applications from high school seniors ahead of UC and CSU’s March 2 deadline climbed 16% in the policy’s first year.

    Denise Luna, the director of higher education policy at research and advocacy nonprofit EdTrust-West, said in a written statement that Cal State’s preliminary numbers indicate that giving prospective students more time to consider the costs of a CSU education was not just the right thing to do, but also “the strategic thing to do.”

    “This year’s applicants need the same flexibility,” she wrote. “Since financial aid application timelines are delayed again, we will be looking to the CSU to plan to once again extend their intent-to-register deadline in 2025.”

    Post-pandemic prognosis

    CSU’s preliminary fall headcount is also a step toward reversing pandemic-era enrollment declines.

    Enrollment across the CSU system fell 1.7% in fall 2021, part of a nationwide drop during Covid-19. Seventeen of the system’s 23 campuses saw a year-over-year enrollment slump. 

    Cal State campuses reacted with strategies designed to entice students back, including programs to re-enroll students who stopped attending college with incentives like waived fees and priority registration.

    But CSU enrollment continued to slide in fall 2022, a consequence of record-low enrollment at the state’s community colleges, which had the knock-on effect of fewer transfer students entering Cal State. 

    Demographic trends in the state’s K-12 system may also affect CSU’s student body going forward. In the 2022-23 school year, K-12 public school enrollment fell for the sixth consecutive year. The California Department of Finance projects a drop of more than 660,000 public K-12 students over the next decade if current fertility and migration trends continue.

    Still, CSU sees this fall’s numbers as a good omen. Preliminary fall 2024 enrollment, though 5% below the 2020 peak, “signals additional growth in the coming years,” a system announcement said.





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  • Upgrading facilities can make schools safer and more sustainable, panel says 

    Upgrading facilities can make schools safer and more sustainable, panel says 


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

    From securing school entrances to making campuses more resilient to climate change, districts throughout the state are looking to voters to upgrade their facilities. 

    An EdSource Roundtable on Tuesday, “Election 2024: How voters can help repair California schools,” discussed what a $10 billion state bond and $50 billion in local construction bonds on the November ballot could make possible. 

    “To make the choice of going to an uncomfortable learning condition in our schools, or to stay at home … .is a choice that students should not have to make,” San Lorenzo Unified Superintendent Daryl Camp said during Tuesday’s discussion. “Students should be able to learn in an environment that’s comfortable for learning.”

    Funding for school facilities 

    This November, California voters will decide whether to support school districts getting money for facilities through two avenues: a $10 billion state bond and, depending on individual location, a local bond measure. 

    State construction bonds require a 50% majority to pass, while local bonds need 55% of the vote. 

    The statewide bond — which would be approved by voters passing Proposition 2 — would give $8.5 billion to K-12 schools and another $1.5 billion to California’s community colleges. Voters haven’t passed a bond of its kind since 2016. 

    Of the funds for K-12 schools, $4 billion will be allocated toward modernizing, retrofitting and rehabilitating buildings, according to Sara Hinkley, the California program manager at UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities and Schools. Meanwhile, $3.3 billion would go toward new construction, and smaller amounts are designated for charter schools and career technical education. 

    But according to Hinkley, the vast majority of funding for school facilities in California comes from local bond measures. 

    Districts can also apply to have the California School Facilities Program match those funds on a project basis, but that money is set to expire in early 2025 unless voters pass Proposition 2 to add funding to it for the first time in eight years. 

    “I know a lot of districts have put measures on the ballot in November in hopes of being able to apply for and secure some of that state funding,” Hinkley said at Tuesday’s discussion. “And for a lot of districts, that is really the only way they’re going to be able to fund some of these projects.” 

    The difference bonds could make

    Del Norte Unified School District has a motto: Keep the wet out. 

    In 1964, the district’s schools were rebuilt following a tsunami and flood. Now, Brie Fraley, a district parent who was on Tuesday’s panel, said some of the schools have leaky roofs and open ceilings. 

    It has been 16 years since the district in the state’s far north had a bond measure on the ballot — and Fraley is concerned about the lack of support so far. 

    “Unfortunately, we did a poll, and the majority of the community members here are not in favor of Measure H that the school board trustees are putting on the ballot,” Fraley said. “So I’m really concerned about access to statewide resources if our community isn’t supportive of it.” 

    Many districts have already benefited from passing local bond measures, the panelists agreed. 

    As a result of poor infrastructure and frequent break-ins, Hallie Lozano, a panelist who is a literacy coach at Dyer-Kelly Elementary in Sacramento County’s San Juan Unified, said their school was completely rebuilt after input from teachers, families and students. 

    They made the school entirely indoors, built it so visitors had to check in at the front office, added spaces for counselors and other interventionists and ensured there were enough bathrooms. 

    “It makes you feel more valued as a professional,” Lozano said during Tuesday’s discussion. “I think it makes students feel more valued as students, and the families recognize that we’re really giving everything we can to our students and the community.”

    She added that the upgrades have also helped with teacher retention. 

    “Every year, somebody was leaving, or a few people were leaving,” she said. “And now we rarely have people leave unless there’s a promotion, or somebody’s moving out of the area. But it’s not something that happens like it did.”

    Sara Noguchi, the superintendent of Modesto City Schools, said the local bond measure would help the district upgrade the 50- to 90-year-old facilities to 21st century standards. 

    At San Lorenzo Unified, Superintendent Camp is hoping voters pass a local bond measure to help bring air conditioning to its schools amid rising temperatures — in addition to safety and technological upgrades. 

    “The climate situation is real. It’s apparent. I feel it every day I visit classes, especially on the heat wave,” he said. “It’s not every day, but the days that it’s hot, I have to say, yeah, it’s a challenge getting students to be there and to stay there.”

    Other considerations

    As voters decide whether to pass their state and local bonds, superintendents have to weigh their schools’ needs with declining enrollments.

    But Camp said a smaller enrollment doesn’t necessarily mean fewer schools. Instead, he said some facilities could be converted to purposes such as “wellness rooms” to meet the social-emotional needs of students. 

    Camp added that many schools will also need to make sure they have the facilities to accommodate 4-year-olds in transitional kindergarten. 

    Making sure the distribution of state funds is equitable is another concern, the panelists agreed, because wealth disparities between districts are vast. 

    “When I think about equity, I think about what is fair,” Fraley said during Tuesday’s discussion. “And then, if California wants to be the best in our academics, we need to be fair to all students, so that we all have a fair chance at meeting our academic goals.” 





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  • Understanding California’s test scores could hold the key to student improvement

    Understanding California’s test scores could hold the key to student improvement


    Credit: Alison Yin/EdSource

    As states across the nation release their annual data from tests administered to students in the 2023-24 school year, we’re beginning to get a clearer picture of how far along we are in our post-pandemic recovery. The release of California test data today shows our public schools are continuing to turn the corner on pandemic recovery, with gains on most assessments, while highlighting areas where we have more work to do.

    Overall, the percentages of California students meeting or exceeding the proficiency standards for English language arts (ELA), mathematics, and science increased. This is encouraging given that the population of socioeconomically disadvantaged students tested increased again over the past year — as it has for each of the last three years — this time from 63% to 65% — an increase of more than 60,000 students. The number of students experiencing homelessness also rose once again. Despite the challenges they face, achievement levels for socioeconomically disadvantaged students increased more than the statewide average in all three subjects at every grade level. 

    Furthermore, Black and Latino students showed positive score trends in mathematics across all grades, and the stubborn achievement gaps long experienced by Black students began to close with gains larger than the statewide averages in math and ELA at several grade levels. The same was true for foster youth.

    These gains for California’s most vulnerable students are likely due in large part to the investments made by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration and efforts to target inequities in life circumstances and educational opportunities. These include programs like the California community schools initiative that provides wraparound whole child supports, the expanded learning opportunities program (ELO-P) that provides academic support and enrichment after school and over the summer, the literacy coaching initiative, and the equity multiplier — all targeted to high-poverty schools. Attracting and keeping better prepared teachers in these schools has also been enabled by the Golden State Teacher Grants for new teachers and incentives for accomplished veterans who are National Board certified. 

    It is encouraging that overall scores are up, but there is more work needed. And an accurate understanding of what’s being measured and what the scores mean is critically important for diagnosing and improving student learning.

    Smarter Balanced assessments are administered in California and 11 other states and territories that helped develop the tests. California’s Smarter Balanced assessments are more rigorous than those in most other states as they focus on higher-order skills and critical thinking, and measure more standards.

    For example, whereas most states’ English language arts assessments test only reading and use only multiple-choice questions, California’s tests include reading, writing, listening, and even research, as well as open-ended questions and performance tasks that require students to analyze multiple sources of evidence and explain their conclusions.

    Each Smarter Balanced assessment measures grade-level content along a continuum. Higher test score performance represents a student’s ability to handle greater complexity as they use evidence, analyze and solve real-world problems, and communicate their thinking.

    Smarter Balanced defines benchmarks at levels 2, 3 and 4 respectively as foundational, proficient, or advanced levels of grade-level skills, while a “1” shows “inconsistent” demonstrations of grade-level skills. In the case of English language arts, students as early as grade three who achieve levels 2 or above are reading, writing and demonstrating research skills.

    As an example, a sixth-grade writing prompt asks students to research and explain the impact of the 1893 World’s Fair, and different levels of performance show different levels of sophistication, from communicating a few facts to elaborating on how the activities of the fair led to other human accomplishments with long-term impact:

    To understand where improvements are most needed, educators can look at “claim scores” on the assessment — measures of what students have shown they know and can do on specific topics. These show, for example, that 25% of students statewide score below the standard in reading, but 31% score below the standard in writing — an area for greater focus. Since research shows that writing improves reading, ensuring that students are receiving regular writing instruction and practice will improve performance in both areas of literacy.  

    Similarly, in mathematics, California assessments are more sophisticated than those in many other states, as they measure math concepts and procedures (where many state tests begin and end), plus data analysis, problem-solving, and how well students communicate their reasoning through additional performance tasks in which students must solve a complex real-world problem and communicate their reasoning.  

    The states that created and use these assessments believe that when students are asked to learn and show higher-order skills, they are better prepared for later schooling and life than if they were only prepared to bubble in answers on a multiple-choice test.

    A recent study from Washington state provided evidence for this belief. The study found that over half of students who scored a “Level 2 / Nearly Meets” on the Smarter Balanced high school mathematics test (and more than one-third of those who scored a 1) successfully enrolled in post-secondary learning without additional remedial courses, and the large majority succeeded. Among those who scored a 3 or 4, 70% and 82% respectively attended college, and nearly all were successful.

    We hope that educators, parents and policymakers will not only understand and act on what they learn from these assessments, but also use the evidence productively for improving teaching and learning. Smarter Balanced assessments include lesson plans and interim assessments teachers can choose to examine student learning and adjust their teaching throughout the year. The score reports also provide information about the levels at which students are reading and computing, linked to resources parents can access directly to support their children — supplemented by what they know authentically about what their children are learning and doing at home and school. 

    Students’ engagement, parents’ observations, teachers’ reports and classroom-based assignments will always provide more detailed, timely and useful information about individual students’ interests, needs and progress. Hopefully, these assessments can provide a useful adjunct if we know what they mean and how to use them productively. 

    •••

    Linda Darling-Hammond is the president of the California State Board of Education.

    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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  • California CAASPP Smarter Balanced Test Results


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  • Statewide test scores improved in 2024, but achievement still not back to pre-Covid levels

    Statewide test scores improved in 2024, but achievement still not back to pre-Covid levels


    Students in a Fresno Unified classroom.

    Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr

    This story was updated at 4:25 pm with more details on the assessment results.

    California students made some progress toward regaining their pre-Covid levels of achievement with incremental increases in English language arts, math and science scores last school year, according to state data released Wednesday.

    English language arts test scores overall increased slightly, from 46.7% of the state’s students meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in 2023 to 47% in 2024. Math and science scores also edged up incrementally, with 30.7% of students in both subjects meeting or exceeding proficiency standards compared with 30.2% the year before. 

    Smarter Balanced tests are given to students in third through eighth grades and in 11th grade. They are part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), which also includes the English Language Proficiency Assessment.

    Last school year was the third year students returned to school since the Covid pandemic pushed schools into distance learning and caused dramatic declines in test scores after years of progress. In 2019, more than half of California students, 51.7%, met or exceeded state standards in English language arts, and 37.1% met or exceeded state standards in math.

    Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the State Board of Education and an adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom, said she found reason for encouragement in the scores. She said that the overall gains were consistent across grades and for Latino and Black students.

     “California’s public schools are making encouraging gains in all of the key subject areas, and these gains are largest for our most vulnerable groups of students,” Darling-Hammond said in a statement. “Our governor and the Legislature have, in recent years, prioritized … accelerating learning and equity: community schools, expanded learning time, transitional kindergarten, and investments in literacy and math. Those efforts are paying dividends.” 

    Students from low-income households made larger gains in all three subjects on the tests than students overall — a change from initially after the pandemic. Low-income students’ scores in English language arts increased 1.5 percentage points over the previous year, with 36.8% meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in English. There was a similar increase in both math and science, with 20.7% meeting or exceeding standards — a 1.4 percentage point increase in each.

    Darling-Hammond attributes the academic improvement to billions of dollars in federal and state assistance directed to students with the most needs. She acknowledged it’s not possible to tease out the impact of the state’s expanded after-school learning program relative to money spent on community schools or literacy coaches. But it’s apparent that the combined money is making a difference; for families experiencing evictions and illnesses in high-poverty neighborhoods, the pandemic isn’t over, she said. 

    “My heart goes out to those in the schools that deal daily with these issues,” Darling-Hammond said.

    This narrowing of the performance gaps occurred even though the proportion of low-income students in California has grown significantly in the last seven years, from 58% to 65%, Darling-Hammond said. And the numbers of homeless and foster children are up too, she said.

    After looking at the same state data, however, the nonprofit advocacy group Children Now expressed alarm. “California’s lack of progress in closing the education achievement gap over the past 10 years is completely unacceptable,” it said in a statement. “We have made almost no progress for our Black and Latino students, who make up more than 60% of California’s TK-12 student population, since the start of the Local Control Funding Formula and associated accountability system a decade ago.”

    Additional protections are needed, Children Now stated, “to ensure the equity-focused funding that is the hallmark (of the funding formula) goes to the schools and students most in need to close our state’s unconscionable achievement gap.”

    Racial/demographic breakdown of test scores from 2015 – 2024

    English and math scores for students in all California schools and districts showing gaps in proficiency.

    California school districts have received record levels of one-time and ongoing funding since the start of the Covid pandemic. But the last $12.5 billion in federal pandemic relief — 20% of which was required to be spent on learning recovery — had to be spent by last month.

    California schools are getting creative to continue to fund positions and other support once funded by Covid dollars, said Alex Traverso, spokesperson for the California State Board of Education. Some schools in San Diego County, for example, are funding counselors and social worker positions, once paid for with federal Covid dollars, with the community schools dollars.

    “So I think as much as we can, we are trying to find strategies and techniques that can keep these programs moving forward and keep student achievement on the rise,” Traverso said.

    The gap in proficiency between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students remains daunting in 2023-24: 29.3 percentage points in English language arts and 30.2 percentage points in math — about 1 percentage point smaller than in 2022-23.

    States’ scores flat after dropping

    An analysis of third-grade reading by David Scarlett Wakelyn, a partner with Upswing Labs, a nonprofit that works with school districts to improve reading instruction, found that California’s scores were similar to 29 other states he has examined: flat after falling sharply after the pandemic.

    Third grade is a benchmark year for achieving fluency. In 2018-19, the last year before the pandemic, 48.5% of California students were proficient or advanced; in 2023-24, 42.8% were, a drop of 5.7 percentage points. In the past three years, reading scores rose less than 1 percentage point.

    Other states that take the Smarter Balanced assessments followed the same pattern, including Oregon, Nevada and Delaware, whose scores were below California before the pandemic and were again in 2023-24. Washington State, where 55% of students were proficient in 2018-19, fell to 47% and has stayed there the past three years.  

    None of the nation’s 10 largest states have bounced back to where they were before the pandemic, Wakelyn found. But in four “bright spot” states — Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana and South Carolina — reading scores increased by 3 to 5 percentage points each of the past three years and are now ahead of where they were before the pandemic. The state leadership in Louisiana, he said, has long focused on adopting high-quality instructional materials and giving teachers deep professional learning opportunities in the new curricula, he said.  

    Smarter Balanced test results divide student scores into four achievement levels, but this year the names of the levels have changed. Instead of “not meeting standards,” “standards nearly met,” “standards met” or “standards exceeded,” they are now “advanced,” “proficient,” “foundational” or “inconsistent.” 

    English learners have mixed results

    Fewer English learners tested as proficient on the summative English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC) than last year. The percentage of English learners who tested as proficient went down from 16.5% in 2023 to 14.6% in 2024, while the percentage of English learners who had the most basic level of English increased from 20.33% to 23.93%.

    Students classified as English learners have to take the summative ELPAC every year until they achieve proficiency. There are four levels of proficiency — “beginning to develop,” “somewhat developed,” “moderately developed,” and “well developed.”

    Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, strategic adviser to the Californians Together, a nonprofit organization that advocates for English learners, said it is difficult to know what these numbers mean, because they could be due to a change in the demographics of English learners. For example, the increase in the percentage of students with the most basic level of English could be due to an increase in students who recently arrived in the U.S., she said. In addition, there is no information about how many students are reclassified as proficient in English.

    However, she said, “it would suggest that districts take a look at their English language development program and see if there is a need for intentional work to enhance it.”

    Los Angeles, Compton see gains

    The number of students in Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD) who met or exceeded state proficiency standards in both English language arts and math increased by about 2 points since 2023. Now, 43% of students meet or exceed standards in English language arts and 32.83% of students meet or exceed standards in math.

    School board member Kelly Gonez said the district is committed to continuous improvement and equity.

    “Every day, we’re showing up for our students, and it’s showing results,” Gonez said at a news conference in July, when the district announced preliminary scores. “I believe that we’re at the tipping point of really achieving the ambitious goals that we have for our students in our school district.”

    Nearby Compton Unified also saw improved test scores last school year. Roughly 43% of students met or exceeded proficiency standards in English language arts this year, compared with about 40% the previous year. The number of students who met or exceeded math standards also rose, from just over 31% to nearly 35% this year. 

    “Compton Unified School District has shown steady and remarkable progress in both math and English language arts, with our CAASPP scores far exceeding the state average for school districts with an unduplicated pupil count exceeding 90%,” Compton Unified School District Superintendent Darin Brawley said in a statement to EdSource. 

    Along with Compton and Los Angeles, the California Department of Education singled out Benicia Unified, Fallbrook Union Elementary and Santa Maria Joint Union High School districts for sharp gains in scores.

    Benecia’s 8 point gain in math scores, to 53% proficiency, was led by two years of growth by Hispanic students. At 40.7% proficiency, they are the first student group in the district to exceed its pre-pandemic 2018-19 rate. Superintendent Damon Wright credited the funding of districtwide professional learning and instructional coaches as factors.  

    Fallbrook’s one-year 5.2 point gain in English language arts and 5.9 pont gain in math bring the district almost back to pre-pandemic levels. Superintendent Monika Hazel also credits additional district-level math teaching specialists, leadership coaches and school-level instructional coaches for contributing to the improvement. The state’s $6 billion Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant, which will continue after federal Covid relief runs dry this fall, paid for some of the positions.

    Bay Area schools’ results vary

    In the Bay Area, some districts had big test score gains, while others stayed stagnant. Benicia Unified had a 4-point gain in its overall English test score, and an 8-point gain in math. San Francisco and Oakland test scores were mostly stagnant.

    West Contra Costa Unified is laboring to bring its scores back to pre-pandemic levels. Since the 2021-22 school year, slightly more West Contra Costa students have tested proficient or higher in math — up 2 points to 23% this year. Students who meet or exceed state proficiency standards in English language arts have been flat since 2021 at 32%, compared with 34.9% pre-pandemic.

    To help improve reading scores, the district created a 13-member literacy task force about a year ago to create a literacy plan and improve literacy instruction in the district. District officials did not respond to requests for an update on the task force’s progress.

    Big gains for Central Valley migrant students

    Tulare Joint Union High School District in the Central Valley region had data points worth celebrating and data pointing to areas that need improvement, said Kevin Covert, assistant superintendent for curriculum, technology and assessment of the test results. 

    Based on the 2024 tests, 53.5% of the 1,300 11th graders who took the exam met or exceeded English proficiency standards, a 2.2 point gain from the previous year. In math, 18.3% of students met or exceeded standards — an improvement of less than 1 point. 

    “Some people want to hang their hat on an overall test score,” Covert said. “We’re also looking at how our subgroups are doing.”

    The percentage of Tulare Joint Union students with disabilities meeting or exceeding standards was 12.7% in English, a jump of more than 5 points, and 3.5% in math, an improvement of more than 2 points. Though scores have fluctuated for students with disabilities, the 5.5-point gain in English is the largest percentage growth the group has made within the last decade.

    Though migrant students are a small population of the district’s students, 63.6% met or exceeded English standards, representing a double-digit gain. Only 18.2% met or exceeded math standards, although the increase of 1.5% was higher than the overall district increase.

    “Our success on this test can only be as good, partly, as the instruction that’s going on in the classroom,” Covert said. But educators must also know where students are academically, which is harder to track in Tulare Joint Union.

    Fresno Unified, the state’s third-largest district, is struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels of achievement of 38% proficiency and above in English language arts and 29% proficiency and advanced in math. Superintendent Misty Her expressed confidence in the districtwide strategy known as “data chats.” At Data Chats, principals and staff evaluate data and set goals, including the need for intervention, for students to progress.





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  • Teachers are still leaving, but these aspiring educators are excited to join the profession

    Teachers are still leaving, but these aspiring educators are excited to join the profession


    A teacher shows 12th grade students how to construct a small animal house.

    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    Amid a statewide teacher shortage, talk of teachers leaving the profession or simply not going into it in the first place is widespread. In a 2022 UCLA study, 1 in 5 California teachers said they would probably or definitely leave the profession in the next three years because of burnout, low pay and student apathy and misbehavior.

    But what about the teachers who are joining the profession? What motivates Gen Z students to go into teaching today, when it’s seemingly less lucrative and less attractive than ever? 

    One reason students like Katherine Osajima Pope — a recent University of California Santa Cruz graduate who is earning her master’s degree and teaching credential at Stanford University — decide to become teachers is to effect change. Osajima Pope wants to have a positive impact on her students, and, by extension, her community, “even if that’s one person at a time, or one classroom at a time.” 

    Chloe Decker, a rising senior at UC Berkeley, has noticed an increase in students who approach teaching from an advocacy perspective. As a peer adviser in UC Berkeley’s CalTeach program, through which undergraduates can gain teaching experience and even get their credentials, Decker regularly meets with students considering the teaching profession.

    “I have seen so many inspired students excited for student advocacy. They want to change people’s lives, they want to be there for the kids, they want to be one person of influence that can change minds as to how they view education,” Decker said. 

    CalTeach and other undergraduate and graduate credential programs place a heavy emphasis on the role of teaching in equity and social justice. One of the required courses for CalTeach’s program focuses on equity in urban schools, and the program lists increasing “access, equity, and inclusion for STEM learning” as one of its core principles. Osajima Pope said she was “pleasantly surprised” by Stanford’s commitment to educating its students on anti-racism and equity.

    Decker, who aims to become a teacher and then a school social worker, said she has seen a change in “what school actually means.” Beyond “just emphasizing academic requirements,” schools now see themselves as a support and social system for kids — and Decker and many of her peers are excited to engage in this aspect of the job. 

    “It’s just deeper than having them learn what one plus one is,” she said.

    Excited by the idea that educators can do more than teach facts and figures, many future teachers plan to bring their own educational experiences into the classroom, while parting ways with some aspects of traditional pedagogy. 

    Osajima Pope has been working with children for years, volunteering at schools and libraries since she was a child. She called her educational experience growing up in Oakland “transformative,” and said she wants to go back as an ethnic studies teacher to “teach to the same person that (she) was.”

    Susana Espinoza said her high school Spanish teacher exposed her to the world of Chicano/Latino studies, and she wants to similarly broaden students’ horizons. Espinoza, who is currently studying at UC Berkeley, remembers that Spanish class as the first time she saw herself reflected in the classroom, or in “any type of story that was told.” 

    Espinoza hopes to be “that one steppingstone” that allows students to achieve their dreams, as her teacher did for her.

    While equity and access to education are powerful motivators, some future teachers are just as excited by the potential of a job that allows for creative expression and deep interpersonal connections. For Lindsay Gonor, a recent Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo graduate who is now earning a teaching credential there, it was working at a theater camp through her teen years that led her to education. Gonor said the experience contrasted with what she heard from her parents about their jobs, and specifically her father, who was a lawyer.

    “I would ask (my dad) how work was, and he’d be like, ‘They don’t call it going to fun.’ And I was like, well, that’s not what I want to do. I work at the theater camp, and work is fun,” Gonor said.

    These Gen Z-ers are not ignorant of the challenges that come with teaching. Decker said that each time CalTeach hosts a teacher panel, at least one speaker discourages the students from joining the profession — citing the common problems of low pay and long hours.

    Gonor even acknowledged that her credential program is not a good “bang for your buck.” However, Gonor said, “The people that want to be teachers want to be teachers.” 

    Osajima Pope said she’s confronted with the realities of the job practically every time she tells someone her intended field, and she’s met with resistance. But for her, a part of the desire to teach is intrinsic, and possibly inexplicable. 

    “For me, my job isn’t about the money I make, it’s about what I feel passionate about,” Osajima Pope said. “It’s definitely hard to explain choosing happiness over money just because those two are equated so frequently, but I guess it was just (that) there’s literally nothing else I could see myself doing. Like, absolutely nothing else.”

    Clara Brownstein is a third-year student studying English, Spanish and journalism at UC Berkeley, and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.





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  • Grant rollout fiasco: CDE announces $470 million in Golden State Pathways awards for a third time

    Grant rollout fiasco: CDE announces $470 million in Golden State Pathways awards for a third time


    Students in a Linked Learning Engineering Pathway.

    Photo: Linked Learning Alliance

    This story has been updated to include the news that the California Department of Education announced the awards for a third time.

    Will the third time be a charm?

    The California Department of Education announced the recipients of $470 million in grants for the Golden State Pathways Program, for a third time on Friday.

    The ambitious effort is aimed at high schools creating career pathways in fields such as STEM, education and health care, but it has faced a troubled rollout.

    CDE first announced the grant awards in May and then pulled them back in July. The announcement that the grants were revoked once again came on Oct. 1.

    CDE said the agency temporarily removed the September grants results after school districts “questioned the funding results,” according to a statement from CDE spokesperson Scott Roark. This decision was made to “ensure the integrity of the grant distribution process, so that all [Local Educational Agencies] receive their allocated funds based on correct and verified data.”

    Advocates call the Golden State Pathways an important investment to improve the economic mobility for the next generation of Californians. But they are frustrated that more than two years after the legislature approved the program, money has not begun to roll out.

    “To our knowledge, the CDE hasn’t been forthcoming about why they’ve recalled these latest results, nor why we’re seeing yet another delay, which we find alarming,” said Denise Luna, the higher ed policy director for EdTrust-West. “What we need to see as soon as possible is grant award information that the CDE can stand by and for those monies to flow to districts immediately.”

    The advocacy group was one of the signatories of a September letter calling on state leaders to release the promised funds by November.

    The Golden State Pathways Program was approved by the legislature in 2022. The application called for grant proposals for programs that would begin in April. But the CDE didn’t announce the grant results until May 31. In July, CDE announced it was recalling and reviewing those grants.

    CDE has offered no explanations about what caused the problems that led to the recall of the May grant results or those results announced Sept. 20.

    After the July recall, administrators told EdSource that there were some clear red flags: some school districts had been awarded up to three times the amount of funding that they had applied for. Schools were counting on that money for this school year. 

    Roark acknowledged that this delay is “frustrating” but stated that the reevaluation was done to “ensure the integrity of the grant distribution process.” 

    “The review of these results is a top priority for CDE as we work to expedite the process and deliver final outcomes as quickly as possible,” he wrote, in a statement.

    Tulare County Superintendent of Schools Tim Hire, who is heading the lead agency for the state, said that he is not sure what kind of technical issues the CDE is facing in rolling out these grants. However, he has seen the CDE take additional steps to ensure the grants are rolled out more smoothly, such as bringing on Erika Torres, deputy superintendent of strategy, policy and special projects.

    “I think there’s been some movement and some effort by the CDE to improve the process,” he said.

    Right now, everyone is in a “holding pattern,” said Hire, but these regional agencies are doing everything they can to prepare for the grants to be disbursed — and ultimately help students to have unique experiences and opportunities that prepare them for fulfilling careers.

    “We’re continuing to plan and try to do everything we can to prepare the regional leads,” he said, “so that when the allocations come — and everyone agrees that they’re appropriate and accurate — they can fast-track the work of the districts.”





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  • LAUSD celebrates academic recovery, but a rough road lies ahead without Covid relief money 

    LAUSD celebrates academic recovery, but a rough road lies ahead without Covid relief money 


    LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho applauds the district’s improvement in state test scores.

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri

    This story has been updated to include more community voices.

    The Los Angeles Unified School District celebrated its students’ academic achievement in the 2024 California Smarter Balanced test scores during a press conference Friday. The district’s scores reflect a near realization of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s 2022 promise to overcome pandemic learning losses within two school years. 

    Across each grade level, most demographics and LAUSD’s Priority Schools, the district showed growth in both English Language Arts (ELA) and math. 

    Between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years, scores in English Language Arts increased from roughly 41% of students meeting or exceeding standards to just over 43%. 

    Math scores also rose. In the 2022-23 academic year, 30.5% of LAUSD students met or exceeded state standards. This past year, that number grew to 32.83%. 

    “I made a prediction about two years ago that within two years, we would begin to see recovery at a level impacting some subgroups that would hit or exceed pre-pandemic levels,” Carvalho said.

    “I am heartened by the fact that the students who historically performed at the lowest levels are actually the ones that have already exceeded pre-pandemic achievement levels.”

    Carvalho added that LAUSD’s Black and Latino students outperformed their counterparts throughout the state. Meanwhile, both students with disabilities and English learners performed better than they did before the pandemic. 

    While district officials say they are prepared to maintain students’ level of performance, they are dealing with the end of the one-time Covid relief money that expired last month and pressing federal and state legislators for more support moving forward. 

    “I believe that to the bottom of my gut and my heart, that we have to provide the conditions where every child can learn. And that means smaller class sizes. It means more mental health support. It means a nurse at every school. It means [psychiatric social workers] at every school. It means things that right now we can no longer afford because the Covid money is gone,” said LAUSD’s school board president Jackie Goldberg during the event. 

    “This is remarkable, but if we’re to keep it forward, the state has got to find a way….to do something.”

    How did the district’s highest needs students perform?

    Students with disabilities showed a roughly 1% increase in scores compared to the previous year. Still, just over 13% of LAUSD students with disabilities met or exceeded California ELA standards, with nearly 11% meeting or exceeding math standards. 

    Homeless students’ performance remained roughly the same as the previous year — with marginal increases, less than 1% in both subject areas. Foster youth, meanwhile, experienced a slight decline in ELA scores — with just over 20% meeting or exceeding standards — and a slight increase to 13.08% in math. 

    Migrant students performed better on the 2023-24 tests, and English learners saw a significant jump in improvement. 

    Between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years, the number of English learners who met or exceeded state ELA standards doubled from 4.44% to 8.88%. Meanwhile, the percentage of English learners who met or exceeded math standards rose from 6.80% to 10.65%. 

    “Los Angeles is not like the rest of the state of California. The challenges in our community are far greater. The level of poverty is higher. The percentage of students who are English language learners is significantly higher. The percentage of students with disabilities is higher. The percentage of students who are newly arrived international newcomers is significantly higher. The percentage of students experiencing homelessness is unparalleled,” Carvalho said Friday. 

    “That is why anytime that the unnatural, the almost impossible becomes the inevitable, we ought to come together and celebrate.” 

    Not everyone agrees. Evelyn Aleman, the organizer of the Facebook group Our Voice/Nuestra Voz, maintained that the district’s scores are still not adequate and that more investments need to be made to support student achievement. 

    “We cannot be satisfied with substandard scores,” she said, “…especially for vulnerable, high-need, student populations. There are no gains when most of our children aren’t meeting state standards in basic subjects.” 

    How much variation was there between non-charter and charter schools? 

    In both English Language Arts and mathematics, LAUSD’s charter schools outperformed non-charters. 

    Roughly 49% of students in district charters met or exceeded standards in English Language Arts and just above 35% met or exceeded standards in math compared to non-charters where just over 40% met or exceeded English Language Arts standards, and just over 30% met or exceeded standards in math. 

    How did students perform in science? 

    While LAUSD’s scores in science rose, they are still lagging behind other subject areas. 

    In the 2023-24 academic year, nearly 24% of LAUSD students met or exceeded state standards in science in comparison to 22.17% the previous year. 

    What strategies helped at the local level?

    While district officials emphasized that a lot of work is required to sustain and improve this year’s numbers, they also said their growth reflects the hard work of LAUSD’s teachers and employees at every level. 

    “We’ve [improved our scores] by intention,” said Elesia Watkins, the principal of 54th Street Elementary, “intentionally ignoring the stigma that Black and Brown children cannot achieve greatness.” 

    Principals from other LAUSD schools with increased scores chimed in, emphasizing the importance of tracking data and making sure students are also aware of where they stand and what they need to work on. 

    Others stressed the importance of students participating in both lab enrichment classes along with elective courses every day — and even after school hours, if possible.

    Student board member Anely Cortez Lopez also applauded the hard work and resilience of the student body. 

    “I believe it will be wrong with me not to highlight the immense resilience and dedication our students have shown,” she said. “We have seen an unprecedented event occur, many falls….not only academically, but emotionally, physically and spiritually for many of our students. ”

    “But [we] were dedicated to bounce back better.” 





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  • Can a final push save San Francisco State’s marine research campus on the bay?

    Can a final push save San Francisco State’s marine research campus on the bay?


    Katharyn Boyer, the interim executive director of San Francisco State University’s Estuary and Ocean Science Center, walks the grounds of the Romberg Tiburon campus on Feb. 13, 2025.

    Amy DiPierro, EdSource

    Top Takeaways
    • University says attempts to make the Romberg Tiburon campus financially self-sustaining have fallen short.
    • The likely closure shows the challenges facing some Cal State campuses amid tepid enrollment, anticipated state budget cuts and a maintenance backlog.
    • One researcher’s specialty is studying eelgrass, a plant important to sustaining the bay ecosystem.

    To the untrained eye, the eelgrass in San Francisco Bay is unremarkable, a slimy marine plant easily mistaken for seaweed. But to the ecologist, it is essential: a natural carbon storage system, a hedge against climate change, and a protector of shorelines threatened by rising seas.

    That’s why Katharyn Boyer, a biology professor who leads San Francisco State University’s estuary and ocean science center in Marin County, has spent much of her career studying how to restore and maintain the bay’s underwater meadows of ribbon-like eelgrass. It’s an effort growing more urgent as climate change nudges sea levels ever higher.

    Working for the past two decades at the marine research campus, a 13-mile drive north of San Francisco, Boyer and her colleagues have trained the next generation of scientists and conservationists. Budding researchers hone their field skills at the site, where saltwater tanks act as a temporary home for eelgrass plants waiting to be replanted in the bay. “You really have to treat the plants well while you’re doing this restoration work,” Boyer said. “Having this nice, cool, natural supply of water — it’s the perfect kind of condition.”

    Seawater tanks provide a temporary home for eelgrass before replanting.
    Seawater tanks at Romberg Tiburon provide a temporary home for eelgrass.

    But the 53-acre marine research campus where Boyer works could soon close as the university contends with declining enrollment and a likely cut to state funding.

    San Francisco State says it can no longer afford to keep the lights on at the site, a former Navy base now called the Romberg Tiburon campus. Since the university announced plans to close Romberg Tiburon in February, Boyer has redoubled efforts to secure enough outside funding to save it. As of last week, Boyer said, San Francisco State finance officials have indicated that the funds she has raised are not enough. The site would start to wind down over the coming months unless a last-minute solution emerges.

    “You can bring in the grant money, but you have trouble with covering your basic operations costs,” Boyer said while walking the property on a blustery day. “I don’t think it’s a unique problem here. It just has gotten to the point where our university is just struggling so much financially that it’s hard to justify the costs of it.

    “That’s very hard for us to take because we think that we do — and we know that the community thinks what we do — is really valuable,” Boyer added, as a gust of wind blew her ball cap from her head. 

    The plan to close Romberg Tiburon is one sign of how lower enrollments are setting off a financial domino effect at some California State University campuses. While some campuses, especially those in Southern California, attract a growing student body, San Francisco State’s enrollment fell 26% between 2015 and 2024. That means San Francisco State will receive less money not only from student tuition but also from the 23-campus Cal State system. All of that could be crunched further by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to reduce funding to CSU and the University of California by almost 8%.

    Reductions are surfacing in varied forms at CSU campuses. Sports teams and the geology department are among the cuts proposed at Sonoma State University. Cal State East Bay will close its downtown Oakland conference and classroom center when its lease ends in June. Sacramento State, where enrollment is up 2% year-to-year, plans to cut $24 million from its department of academic affairs over the next two years. Even Cal State San Marcos, among the system’s fastest-growing campuses, is offering retirement incentives to manage a tight budget.

    Amy Sueyoshi, San Francisco State’s provost, said her campus is “scaling back everywhere,” with at least 30 faculty members leaving each year and only a handful joining to replace them.

    “At this point, with our limited resources, it’s actually not OK for us to have so much of our resources flowing in a direction that doesn’t serve our undergraduate students directly,” she said.

    Romberg Tiburon — named for Paul Romberg, who was president of San Francisco State when the university took over the site — is also an example of the worsening condition of facilities across CSU. San Francisco State estimates the Romberg Tiburon campus needs about $4 million in critical safety repairs. Such expenses barely scratch the surface of the roughly $8 billion maintenance backlog around the Cal State system. 

    What happens next to the marine campus is uncertain. Boyer continues to seek donors or nonprofits interested in leasing the site. San Francisco State plans to give all estuary and ocean science faculty an opportunity to relocate to the main campus, though lab space is limited. But Boyer says the transition only guarantees lab space to tenured faculty and may leave nontenured faculty, in effect, “homeless,” complicating things for their graduate students.

    “There’s a lot of people’s careers and livelihoods that are at stake,” she said.

    A marine lab ‘in the middle of gritty San Francisco Bay’

    In mid-February, Boyer walked the grounds of the Tiburon campus wearing a parka and baseball cap, a stadium umbrella tucked under one arm in case the scattered drizzle turned into a downpour. To the north, the ghostly outline of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge emerged from the fog like a half-finished sketch leading east to the unseen Chevron refinery on the opposite side of the bay.

    Marine laboratories tend to be located in remote places, where scientists study life in pristine ecosystems relatively untainted by human interference. Romberg Tiburon breaks that mold.

    “This one is in the middle of the gritty San Francisco Bay, with all of the problems of the large population that we have here, all of the impacts that that creates, all the opportunities for restoration and conservation that that creates,” Boyer said. 

    Boyer pointed out barracks and other holdovers from the site’s past lives as a Navy base, coaling station and nautical training school. San Francisco State established a research beachhead at Tiburon in 1978, taking over ownership from the federal government. Today, researchers work out of Delta Hall, a converted warehouse from the 1940s. 

    A former coal trestle frames a barracks building at the Romberg Tiburon campus on Feb. 13, 2025.
    Amy DiPierro, EdSource

    Working along the shoreline makes it possible to offer hands-on classes in wetlands ecology and biological oceanography, including for undergraduates, Boyer said. “It’s an amazing place to do that, because [students] can do experiments here,” she said. “They can develop a hypothesis and test it from start to finish over the course of a semester.”

    The marine research campus currently hosts about 30 graduate students, Boyer said, and as many as 100 undergraduates use the Tiburon campus in a typical year. Recent master’s students have landed jobs at places like the Environmental Protection Agency and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. Even with those success stories, Sueyoshi said a master’s program through the estuary and ocean science center has already been discontinued due to a lack of students.

    The campus is also showing its age and a lack of upkeep. Signs emblazoned “DANGER” and “RESTRICTED AREA” urge visitors to stay away from buildings whose chipped paint exposes wood beneath. 

    As recently as 2019, San Francisco State sketched blueprints to redevelop and repurpose buildings on the site. One plan suggested a reinvigorated campus could “amplify SF State’s social justice legacy” and proposed building new housing and academic space while refurbishing existing facilities.

    Such ambitions would require a private developer to purchase and invest in the campus, Sueyoshi said, adding that San Francisco State has also explored returning the site to the federal government or persuading other universities to take it over. 

    A view of San Francisco Bay from the Romberg Tiburon campus on Feb. 13, 2025.
    Amy DiPierro, EdSource

    ‘You can’t just rebuild it’

    As the financial pressures on San Francisco State have grown, many faculty at the Romberg Tiburon campus now raise the money to pay their own salaries through state and federal grants, Boyer said, rather than relying on San Francisco State. The Tiburon campus also earns money by leasing space, including an onsite conference center, to third parties.

    Entrepreneurial efforts aside, the Tiburon campus still counts on San Francisco State for some important costs, including the salaries of facilities and administrative staff members as well as tenured faculty, a university statement noted.

    A tight budget has not stopped San Francisco State from investing in other campus improvements. The university combined funding from CSU and private donors to build a new 125,000-square-foot science and engineering building on its main campus, which opened last year. In April, it unveiled a new student housing project that includes a health center and dining hall, funded in part by a state grant.

    But the lack of long-term funding for Romberg Tiburon leaves Boyer’s eelgrass projects in limbo. She expects to continue the work at Tiburon through the fall, “but after this field season, basically, I don’t know,” she said. 

    A chain of interconnected life relies on eelgrass to thrive. As the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels, it becomes less hospitable to oysters and, in turn, less welcoming to birds like the appropriately-named black oystercatcher. But beds of spindly green eelgrass capture carbon, creating a refuge for native oysters and a marine buffet for birds of prey.  

    Once lost, it is an ecosystem that can be labor-intensive to restore. It’s the kind of work that Marilyn Latta, a project manager at the California State Coastal Conservancy, said requires “early mornings, wetsuits, boat access, all sorts of hard work that’s best suited for a shoreline, marine science location on the water” like the Romberg Tiburon campus. 

    “If we were to lose that expertise,” she said, “you can’t just rebuild it.”





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