Students attend Sociology 101 at Aspire Ollin University Preparatory Academy, one of several dual enrollment classes offered at the school in partnership with East Los Angeles College this semester.
Credit: Kate Sequeira / EdSource
A national report finds that dual enrollment can be a powerful strategy for addressing equity gaps in college enrollment and completion rates, but that the students who most need dual enrollment — Black, Latino and low-income students — still struggle to access it.
The problem of limited access to dual enrollment is true in California, as well as the rest of the nation, according to a report released Monday night by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University.
The study followed students who began taking dual enrollment courses in 2015, typically high school juniors or seniors, through 2021 using data from the National Student Clearinghouse. Researchers say this report is the first look at college outcomes for dual enrollment students after they graduate from high school with results broken down by race, income and gender — at both the state and national level.
This report demonstrates how California’s dual enrollment students fare in college compared with other states through a data dashboard.
For instance, it shows that California students earning college credit in high school are about as likely to enroll in college in the year after high school as other dually enrolled students across the country: 80% compared with 81% nationally. However, dual enrollment students in California are less likely to complete any kind of college degree in the four years after high school: 34% compared to 42% nationally.
According to John Fink, a senior research associate at the Community College Research Center who is one of the report’s authors, the report raises questions about why some states have much stronger outcomes or better access than others.
The report shows that some dual enrollment programs have great outcomes but may not have much access, while others have great access but not great outcomes. The best programs, Fink said, have both — the ability to open the doors widely and offer support to ensure students are successful.
That’s the best way to “fully realize the potential of dual enrollment to broaden college access and attainment and equity,” Fink said.
Caliifornia’s Black, Latino and low-income students in dual enrollment lag behind their counterparts on metrics such as college-going rates or college completion, according to the report. However, these same students are much more likely to do better after high school than those students who are not in dual enrollment.
In California, 25% of Black students in dual enrollment courses were able to attain a bachelor’s degree, compared to 17% of those who had no dual enrollment. Likewise, 20% of Hispanic students in dual enrollment received a bachelor’s degree four years after graduating high school compared to 13% who were never dual enrolled.
Black students tend to be underrepresented in dual enrollment nationally, but nationally the students that do enroll are more likely to attend four-year colleges, enroll in more selective colleges and major in STEM fields, which have high-earning potential.
“The implication is that we need to address the issues around access to dual enrollment for Black students and increase the supports, because we see here what the potential is for increasing postsecondary access and attainment,” Fink said.
The report does not have specific data on why one state might perform better than another, but Fink noted that policies such as charging for classes, requiring certain test scores and other administrative hoops can limit access to dual enrollment for groups who could most benefit.
California was notable in that it relied much more heavily on community colleges for dual enrollment: 87% of its dually enrolled students are taking classes through community colleges compared with 72% nationally.
Students who took dual enrollment courses in California were more likely to continue at a community college after high school, 41% compared to 30% for the rest of the country.
The report found that dual enrollment programs offered by four-year universities tended to have better outcomes, but these institutions under-enrolled Black, Latino or low income students. These programs were more likely to be restrictive and have barriers, such as having more eligibility requirements and not offering transportation.
The year that the study began following students — 2015– was an important one for dual enrollment in California. That was the year the state passed the College and Career Pathways Act, which made it easier for colleges and K-12 schools to work together to expand access to college courses for high school students. The legislation specifically named dual enrollment as a strategy to improve outcomes for students who struggle with academics or are at risk of dropping out.
Dual enrollment more than doubled between 2015 and 2021 in California. Though California is the most populous state, its dual enrollment numbers in 2015 were just a fraction of Texas’. Other states with better developed dual enrollment programs in 2015 include Florida and Ohio.
Fink noted that while a lot has changed in dual enrollment since 2015, research has demonstrated that many of the problems highlighted by this study remain, such as persistent gaps in access for students who are Black, Latino and low-income.
An analysis of data by EdSource in 2022 found that Black and Latino students were disproportionately underrepresented in dual enrollment classes.
The pint-sized pupils in Paula Merrigan’s transitional kindergarten, or TK, class often call her mom, or sometimes even grandma. One reason there’s such a strong teacher-student bond boils down to warmth. Merrigan makes sure all the children are greeted with a big smile when they enter the classroom in the morning, she works with every single one of them one-on-one at some point during the day, and she is generous with praise, hugs and affection.
“When a small child tells you they love you, say it back to them!” said the veteran Castro Valley Unified teacher. “They need to know you care. Imagine telling someone, “I love you,” and all you hear back is, “Thank you,” or “OK.” How would that make you feel versus being told, “I love you, too?” If you don’t want to be that specific, you can also say, “I love all of you too.”
Merrigan knows that caring is just as important as the curriculum when it comes to small children. Unless they feel nurtured, they may well struggle to learn.
Paula Merrigan
“It is so important for every child to feel that their teacher truly cares about them, that school is always a safe place to be,” said Merrigan, who also serves on the National Education Association’s (NEA) board of directors for California. “If they don’t make that connection with their teacher, it can impact their learning. When they know you truly care about them, they want to do their best for you, because they are seeking your approval. If they think you don’t care, they don’t care.”
That’s one reason why some little children hate going to school. Consider the case of a first grade boy who had a tantrum when a teacher threw his artwork away. Or a kindergartner who cried when a teacher scolded her for starting her math worksheet too early. Adults may have different criteria for an academic environment, but for small children, friendliness is often the bottom line.
“It’s really just little things like these that make a big difference to a child,” said Merrigan. “When you take them to the office, for whatever reason, they need to know it’s a safe space as well. The cafeteria needs to be welcoming when they are going to get food. Often, young children are just looking for a friendly smile to make them feel better when at school.”
Merrigan also takes pain to listen to the children. She lets them tell her their stories, and she learns where their interests lie so she can engage them more deeply.
“When you learn about certain things they like and tie that into your curriculum, they love it,” she said. “Not that you’re creating a new curriculum. Maybe you’re just recognizing that the children told you they really like dinosaurs so when you’re teaching the letter ‘D,’ you create a dinosaur art project to go with it.”
Separation anxiety hits many youngsters hard as they struggle to let go of their caregiver’s hand when entering the kindergarten classroom. Sometimes it’s the first time they’ll be away from home for a whole day. That stress can feel like a huge chasm for families to cross.
How the child feels at the beginning of their schooling can set the tone for the rest of their academic life, experts say. That’s why the emotional component of early education can not be overlooked.
“This is so important for little ones because this is often the first time that young children are experiencing formal education,” said Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that works to boost student attendance. “It may be one of the first times that they are in the care of someone who is not their parent or another adult family member. They are learning how to learn, make friends, overcome conflicts, and thrive outside their home. … What happens during this time can help lay the foundation for social and academic success.”
Mónica Zegers said her daughter Elena had jitters about starting a new school in the middle of the year. Luckily, the teacher had students write little welcome notes to her before she arrived. It was a small gesture that made a magical difference to the third grader. She now keeps the jar of notes in her desk so she can reread them at her leisure.
“This was a wonderful act of kindness that should be celebrated,” said Zegers, a Concord mother of two and a postdoctoral scholar at the UCSF Dyslexia Center. “Many teachers now are overwhelmed, and they don’t have the cognitive bandwidth to really address these social-emotional needs.”
Creating an atmosphere of kindness and generosity is fundamental to learning in the early grades, experts say. That’s why many believe creating a nurturing environment may be key to healing the rifts between many families and schools that grew during the pandemic. Even one caring adult on campus, whether it’s a teacher, a coach or a music teacher, can make the difference between a child who wants to go to school and one who dreads it.
Deborah Stipek
“I’m not sure there is anything as important for young children than feeling comfortable with the teacher,” said Deborah Stipek, an expert in early childhood education at Stanford University. “There is a lot of research on the importance of teacher sensitivity to young children and the relationship between teacher and child. And there is evidence that mental health and behavioral problems have risen since Covid, and the teacher’s sensitivity is all the more important now.”
Amid the youth mental health crisis, it’s more important than ever to make sure children feel a sense of belonging on campus, experts say. The emotional connection between adult and child can be the reason children feel motivated to overcome obstacles, from social anxiety to coping with a playground bully at school.
“What are the little teeny steps that you can provide so people feel comfortable?” said Mary Jane Burke, who served 28 years as Marin County’s superintendent of schools and serves on the EdSource board of directors. “If you are in a great classroom, you can see it in everything that they do. It’s there in the way they greet the children in the morning. I’m huge on relationships; those are the things that I think buoy us in hard times. It can just make such a difference in how you feel.”
Despite its significance to student achievement, not all teacher preparation programs cover how to meet emotional needs as comprehensively as they should, experts say.
“Teacher prep programs vary hugely in how much and how well they address social-emotional issues,” said Stipek, who helped develop the new PreK-3 credential.
Merrigan, for one, will never forget the year her son Andrew had a teacher who didn’t seem to prioritize emotional validation. It was hard on both of them.
“He was a rule follower, and he just wanted to please his teacher,” she remembers. “The constant look of defeat on his little face when he got home from school was heartbreaking. I don’t ever want a child to feel that way.”
Bonding might even be a secret weapon in the battle against chronic absenteeism, which has skyrocketed in the wake of the pandemic, experts suggest. USC researchers found that students of all ages who miss an excessive amount of school often suffer from mental and emotional issues. They may need to feel nurtured, experts say.
“To the degree that parents keep kids home from school because the kids say they don’t want to go,” said Stipek, “children’s relationship with the teacher should be an important factor.”
Merrigan, who herself remembers faking being sick a few times as a child, couldn’t agree more.
“When it comes to truancy, sometimes a child will fake being sick because they just want to take a day off to spend with family,” Merrigan said. “I’ve found most young children want to be in school; they thrive off the consistent expectations for them. Of course, that’s in a school where children know their teachers and staff truly care about them.”
A student practices graphing in Algebra I at Rudsdale Newcomer High School in Oakland.
Anne Wernikoff for EdSource
Enrolling students in high school math courses is a high-stakes endeavor with an outsize effect on students’ college opportunities and even on their entire careers.
The pressure to reach Calculus by a student’s senior year of high school often translates into pressure to take Algebra I, the first course in a five-course sequence, by eighth grade. Algebra I (or Integrated Math I) is considered a ninth grade course, but taking it on that schedule typically doesn’t allow students to meet the prerequisites for Calculus in their remaining three years of high school. This is important when we consider that advanced math classes on a student’s transcript can boost their chances of admission to certain colleges.
But the benefits of eighth-grade math acceleration are neutralized when students who perform well in Algebra I are nevertheless required to repeat that course in ninth grade.
Students of color and low-income students face that predicament disproportionately under their schools’ placement practices. This glaring inequity was highlighted more than a decade ago by civil rights advocates in California — and confirmed in multiple research studies since then, including this one by our organizations last year.
Legislation targeting this unfair practice was passed in 2015. It requires the use of multiple objective measures to place students. “Successful pupils are achieving a grade of ‘B’ or better, or are testing at proficient or even advanced proficiency on state assessments. Nevertheless, they are held back to repeat 8th-grade mathematics coursework rather than advancing to the next course in the recommended mathematics course sequence,” the legislation noted.
But nine years since the bill’s passage, we still lack a clear picture of its impact — if any — on equitable ninth-grade math placement. In the meantime, numerous states have adopted policies that have demonstrated preliminary success in expanding access to acceleration opportunities in middle and/or high school.
California cannot afford to leave this equity issue to chance — especially because what we know to date about the implementation of California’s policy is not encouraging.
The law, the California Math Placement Act of 2015, requires a “fair, objective, and transparent” math placement policy using multiple objective measures of student performance to determine placement. It discourages the use of subjective measures such as teacher recommendations, because of the risk of bias. In particular, it says that teacher recommendations may be used only to advance students, not to hold them back.
But, according to a recent report from Rand Corp., high schools in California are more likely than schools elsewhere to use teacher recommendations to inform how students are placed into math classes.
In fact, data from the survey of high school principals analyzed in the report suggest that 95% of California high schools that track students into different math courses use teacher recommendations as part of their placement process. That’s more than the national average of 86% and far more than other large states such as Florida (56%), New York (78%) and Texas (70%).
In what appears to be a violation of the law, almost a third (31%) of California schools — more than twice the national average of 14% — use recommendation data exclusively.
Put another way, only 69% of California principals report using some form of assessment data — whether grade-level tests, diagnostic tests, in-class tests, or classroom assignments — to inform placement decisions. Nationally, the proportion was 85%, the researchers found.
Without further research, we won’t know why these teacher recommendation practices prevail. More importantly, we won’t know whether the past decade has brought any improvement in access to accelerated course sequences for students of color and low-income students. The available research on 12th grade course-taking before the Covid-19 pandemic shows continued inequities in access to advanced math for students who are Black, Latino, socioeconomically disadvantaged or English learners.
The issue of teacher recommendations is a nuanced one, as researchers from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) pointed out in 2016. If bias is addressed, teacher input can have benefits — by accounting for factors such as students’ motivation and persistence, which metrics such as test scores may obscure. But no research suggests they should be used to the exclusion of objective measures.
The provision that teacher recommendations can be used only to advance students creates opportunities for students who perform better in class than on standardized assessments. PPIC noted that schools need better guidelines to comply with that provision. Many schools using recommendations may be doing so appropriately. But without further research, it’s hard to imagine how the 31% of schools that are relying solely on teacher recommendations and no assessment data could be doing what the law envisioned.
That is why we need clear measures of how students are being placed into math classes across the state.
While California has been in the dark about students’ math enrollment patterns, numerous other states have adopted automatic enrollment policies. Under such policies, students who meet a certain benchmark in math are automatically enrolled in an advanced math course the following year. Such enrollment policies have shown promise to address the very problem California lawmakers set out to fix nearly a decade ago.
Beginning in 2014, districts in Washington state widened access to more rigorous math for Black and Latino students, whose enrollment in accelerated sequences increased by 3.1 percent more than their peers. As a result, Washington mandated automatic enrollment across the state in 2019.
North Carolina adopted similar legislation in 2018, guaranteeing accelerated math opportunities for students who score at the highest level on an end-of-grade test.
Schools in Dallas have also demonstrated success with this approach. From 2019-20 to 2022-23, the proportion of Black and Latino students who met fifth-grade standards and subsequently enrolled in sixth-grade honors math increased from 58% to 92% and 69% to 94%, respectively. These results led Texas to adopt its own statewide automatic enrollment policy last year.
Given the major role math placement exerts on students’ future opportunities, California leaders similarly should insist on rigorously measuring access to advanced math courses to ensure that it is equitable regardless of race or socioeconomic background.
•••
Pamela Burdman is executive director at Just Equations, a policy institute that reconceptualizes the role of math in education equity.
Rachel Ruffalo is senior director of strategic advocacy at EdTrust-West, an evidence-driven advocacy organization committed to advancing policies and practices to dismantle racial and economic barriers in California’s education system.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
This is the fourth in a series of stories on the challenges impacting California’s efforts to offer high-quality instruction to all 4-year-olds by 2025.
Transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-olds has been touted as a way to boost declining enrollment and offer universal preschool. One major roadblock: Some districts just don’t have the space.
Some districts do not have room to accommodate additional transitional kindergarten, or TK, classes at all schools. Others, especially those in less affluent areas, lack the resources to add toilets and playground equipment made for 4-year-olds. A lack of state funding makes the problem worse.
“We’re going to see inequitable outcomes as a result of the inequitable access to appropriate facilities for transitional kindergarten,” said Jessica Sawko, education director at Children Now, an advocacy organization. “The state needs to continue to invest in the facilities that it has asked school districts to create.”
Some districts, such as Oakland Unified, are losing potential TK students because they don’t have space at all schools. Some elementary schools in Oakland don’t have any TK classrooms, and many have only one. As a result, some children end up on waitlists for their preferred school, and families are opting to wait until kindergarten to enroll their children.
Oakland district spokesperson John Sasaki acknowledged in an email that “there is a general capacity issue as we build out TK-appropriate classroom spaces,” noting that demand also varies between schools.
“School A may have 100 applications for 24 seats and school B may have 15 applications for 24 seats. Those families for school A may not go to school B because it’s far away, etc. and so it’s less that we weren’t able to accommodate, and more about family choice and preference,” Sasaki wrote.
Emily Privot McNamara applied for her 4-year-old son to attend transitional kindergarten in Oakland as soon as the district opened enrollment in 2023.
She was hoping for her son to attend his neighborhood school, Montclair Elementary, less than a two-minute drive from their house. Her neighbors told her getting into Montclair for kindergarten was easy for their children, since the district gives priority to students who live in the neighborhood.
But getting into TK there was different. Montclair has far fewer TK classrooms than kindergarten classrooms; in 2023-24 the school enrolled 28 students in TK, compared to 90 in kindergarten. McNamara’s son didn’t get into Montclair or Thornhill Elementary, another nearby school. Instead, the district offered him a seat at Emerson Elementary, more than 3 miles from their house and a 10-minute drive each way.
The McNamaras considered sending their son to Emerson for TK and then moving him to Montclair for kindergarten, but felt that would be too many transitions.
“We’d had several years of shifts and changes. We wanted to start consistency. The idea was once we got into TK, we could stay there a number of years,” McNamara said.
So the McNamaras declined the spot at Emerson and kept their son in private preschool, paying $1,900 a month for tuition. They stayed on the waitlist for Montclair but were never admitted.
McNamara’s son is one of 143 children who applied to transitional kindergarten in Oakland Unified in 2023-24 but ultimately chose not to enroll, according to Sasaki. That number is equivalent to about 12% of the district’s total transitional kindergarten enrollment that year.
TK enrollment has been lower than expected statewide. According to the California Department of Education, 151,491 students were enrolled in TK in the 2023-24 school year, far below projections. The Learning Policy Institute had estimated that between 159,500 and 199,400 would enroll.
A lot of districts, on paper, they’re under-enrolled. However, the devil’s in the details. … Is there potential extra space where it’s actually needed? And what’s the condition and quality of those spaces?”
Jeff Vincent, Center for Cities+Schools
Oakland Unified and Alum Rock Unified in San Jose are both trying to use empty space creatively, revamping previously closed elementary school campuses and converting them into early childhood centers to serve both TK and younger students in preschool. Oakland gives priority at this center and another early childhood center to students who come from neighborhoods with schools that don’t have a single transitional kindergarten classroom. Yet the situation in Oakland, where some schools are under-enrolled, while others have waitlists, shows that expanding TK is more complicated than simply filling empty classrooms with 4-year-olds, said Jeff Vincent, who co-directs the Center for Cities + Schools at UC Berkeley and has done extensive research on school facilities.
“A lot of districts, on paper, they’re under-enrolled,” said Vincent. “However, the devil’s in the details on that, right? Is there potential extra space where it’s actually needed? And what’s the condition and quality of those spaces, and what would it take to turn them into TK-appropriate classrooms?”
A problem statewide
According to a February 2023 Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) budget brief, 25% of districts said they did not have adequate classroom space to meet projected transitional kindergarten enrollment. Similarly, a survey conducted by the California Department of Education and analyzed by the Learning Policy Institute found that 18% of school districts did not have enough classroom space for transitional kindergarten expansion, and more than a third cited facilities as the biggest challenge.
That report found that school districts will need 946 additional classrooms to enroll all projected transitional kindergarten students in 2025-26. TK has been gradually expanding since 2022 to reach all the state’s 4-year-olds by the 2025-26 school year.
One of the challenges for districts is the requirement for transitional kindergarten classrooms.
State guidelines for TK and kindergarten classrooms are more stringent than for classrooms for older children. New classrooms must include bathrooms with toilets sized for young children, and be at least 1,350 square feet. Renovated classrooms must be at least 1,250 square feet. In contrast, classrooms for grades 1-12 must be at least 960 square feet.
Victoria Wang, one of the authors of the report, said some districts told the Learning Policy Institute that the lack of classrooms has made it difficult to offer full-day TK and that they are instead offering half-day morning and afternoon TK sessions in the same classrooms, in order to accommodate more students. Parents who need a longer program to meet their child care needs are unlikely to enroll in half-day TK.
Many districts cited not being able to provide bathrooms connected to classrooms as a challenge.
“If they don’t have a bathroom that’s in the actual classroom space, a staff member will need to walk with the child to go to the bathroom,” Wang said. “That’s just an additional layer of challenge staffing-wise.”
In San Juan Unified, near Sacramento, lack of classrooms “has been a concern,” said spokesperson Raj Rai. In 2023-24, 16 of the district’s 28 transitional kindergarten classrooms had waitlists, and about 249 students who applied eventually declined to enroll in TK at the schools where they were assigned, she said. The district has been offering spots in state-subsidized preschool to some families on the waitlist.
San Diego Unified and San Francisco Unified also had waitlists at some schools, but they would not share how many of the children who applied did not enroll.
Some districts that wanted to expand to more 4-year-olds faster than the state’s phased timeline for TK expansion could not because of facilities constraints, Wang said. The state required schools to offer TK to all 4-year-olds who would turn 5 before April 2 in 2023-24, and to all 4-year-olds who would turn 5 before June 2 in 2024-25, but districts could enroll younger children if they had room and met stricter rules: a 1:10 adult-child ratio and a maximum class size of 20.
A spokesperson for Garden Grove Unified in Orange County said the district had to place 84 children who were younger than the TK birthday cutoff on a waitlist this year; 25 had been pulled from the list as of mid-September.
Inequitable access to funding
Districts are often forced to choose between renovating current classrooms, demolishing, then reconstructing new transitional kindergarten classrooms, or purchasing portables, said John Rodriguez, facilities planning director for Central Unified, a 16,000-student district in Fresno County.
“What do you do when there’s growth?” he said. “And where’s the money going to come from?”
This year, overall facilities funding was cut by $500 million to address the budget shortfall, and funding set aside for transitional kindergarten facilities has run out. The state had provided $490 million in grants to construct or retrofit early education facilities, including for TK, in 2021-22 and $100 million in 2022-23, but that funding was “oversubscribed,” the LAO budget brief found. Additional promised funding of $550 million for TK facilities was first delayed to 2024-25, then to 2025-26, and ultimately was eliminated from the budget altogether.
“It puts at risk the ability for school districts who do not currently have the right facilities to provide those proper learning environments,” Sawko, from Children Now, said.
The ability to build new classrooms or renovate old ones is often tied to a district’s property wealth, said Sara Hinkley, California program manager for the Center for Cities + Schools at UC Berkeley.
“The only way for districts to do real facility upgrades, like adding bathrooms and reconfiguring a number of classrooms, is by getting capital funding, which means going to their voters or tapping into an existing bond measure, and districts have really different capacities to do that,” said Hinkley. “If they have less property wealth, they just have less ability to tap their voters to pay for those kinds of things.”
Julie Boesch, the administrator for small school district support in Kern County, said some of the county’s small districts don’t have the classrooms to serve transitional kindergartners at all sites, so they bus them all to one school, sometimes far from home. Other superintendents have said they may not offer transitional kindergarten at all, she said.
She said one small school district north of Bakersfield is constructing a new building for transitional kindergarten but could not afford a new playground. Another district was approved for some state funding for a new TK building but had to put it off because it could not afford its portion. The district did not qualify for the state to pay the full share because its total assessed property value was just over the current $5 million limit. That limit for a district to qualify for full financial help would be increased to $15 million in assessed property value if voters pass Proposition 2, the state construction bond.
“People are really struggling with figuring out what to do and having enough money when they do get funding,” Boesch said. “The frustrations are real.”
Winters Joint Unified School District, a small district serving about 1,500 students in Yolo County in the Central Valley, had to divert funds planned for other facilities to meet the urgent demand for TK classroom space. According to Superintendent Rody Boonchouy, voters passed a bond measure in 2020 to address major maintenance issues, including adding a multipurpose room to an elementary school. But then, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation to expand TK to all 4-year-olds.
“It was a big, ‘Uh oh, what do we do?’ Everything came to a halt and everything shifted toward, ‘How do we ensure we have capacity for TK as it expands?’” Boonchouy said.
After a long process that included a demographic study and analysis of all facilities needs, the district is using some of the bond money to build four transitional kindergarten classrooms in a dedicated wing of the elementary school, with its own playground. The district was also able to do some maintenance at other schools, but it no longer has funds for the planned multipurpose room.
Without that bond money, the district wouldn’t be able to build new TK classrooms at all, a situation Boonchouy knows many other districts face.
“Ideally, in a perfect world,” Boonchouy said, “that legislation (expanding transitional kindergarten) would have come with money to build facilities for it.”
In California and across the country, English learners are too frequently an afterthought.
Though they are one of the largest student groups — California has more than 1 million students who are learning English as a second language, and that number is growing — their academic performance has barely budged over the last two decades. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 4% of English learners are proficient in eighth grade math, compared with 29% of non-English learners. Furthermore, NAEP reading scores revealed that only 10% of fourth grade English learners are proficient in reading, compared to 37% of non-English learners in the same grade.
There are many reasons for this. But one of the most important is also one of the most fundamental: The textbooks and other instructional materials used in classrooms every day are typically not written with English learners in mind. While these textbooks may be rigorous and aligned with state standards, they lack the cultural relevance and language support necessary for students who are learning English. Teachers know this to be true. A survey found that 82% of teachers believe their current materials either somewhat or not at all reflect the needed academic rigor for English learners.
Fortunately, California has an opportunity to start making this right. Next year, our State Board of Education will release its first math adoption list of state-approved curricula since 2014 — recommending math instructional materials that state education leaders believe align with California’s revised math framework. While some California districts have already started or completed their selection process, many districts in the state will soon choose a new math curriculum from that list.
There is a common misconception that mathematical concepts transcend linguistic differences, so the needs of English learners shouldn’t be a concern. However, the reality is that language is critical for math instruction — and so math instruction materials that incorporate language support can help all learners. If the state recommends materials that center on the needs of English learners — and districts ultimately purchase and adopt them — we can make significant progress toward making our math curriculum more accessible for all students.
Curriculum adoption may feel technical and esoteric, but it is essential to promote equity — especially for English learners. High-quality instructional materials serve as a “floor” for instruction, providing teachers with the materials they need to connect with every student in their classroom.
Unfortunately, our classrooms — especially those serving English learners — too often fail to reach that floor. A recent report from the Center for Education Market Dynamics revealed that California districts with greater percentages of English learners are the least likely to have adopted a new math curriculum. Many of those districts are waiting for the state adoption list before moving forward. This means that the adoption — and the curricula ultimately selected by districts — will have a dramatic effect on the academic experience of English learners, in particular.
How can we get this process right? While California provides a list of state-approved curricula, it does not review instructional materials for specific populations, including English learners. This means districts and counties must figure out which math curriculum is most supportive of English learners. State leaders should provide guidance and resources to county offices of education so that districts are well positioned to run their own adoption processes. To support these efforts, California created math criteria that feature guides for how curriculum should support language and English learners. Districts should then base their curriculum selection on clear, research-based criteria focused on meeting the needs of all learners.
Many districts in California and across the country are facing fiscal challenges due to the expiration of federal Covid-relief (ESSER) funding, declining student enrollment and other factors. This is likely to reduce the resources districts can target to the needs of English learners and other marginalized groups.
But selection and adoption of instructional materials is likely already in district budgets — and so, by picking an inclusive curriculum, district leaders can make significant headway on equity without significant additional investment. After all, it will always be more resource-intensive and less effective to supplement or modify curriculum after the fact.
Additionally, teachers currently spend their own money on supplemental materials to fill gaps in existing curricula, a trend that is both unsustainable and inequitable. By adopting inclusive materials and ensuring teachers are supported in implementing those materials, districts will reduce these additional costs and provide a more cohesive and effective learning experience for all students.
We are proud to say that California’s math vision is strong and there are many possibilities in terms of changing the way instruction happens in the classroom. It’s time to ensure that districts act wisely in their curriculum adoption.
School districts with high English learner populations need to come together and demand better options for our students. We have a chance to set the tone for the rest of the nation in developing and adopting instructional materials that truly support all students.
It is time to invest in adopting educational resources that reflect our state’s — and our country’s — wonderfully diverse student population.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
As a former math teacher, every Teacher Appreciation Week reminds me of the math-themed gifts I received from students — from a personalized calculator to a coffee mug adorned with equations.
As I reflect on my time teaching, I realize that alongside these gifts, what would have empowered me most as a math teacher was consistent access to a high-quality curriculum: one that is content-rich, enables each and every student to deeply understand and apply math in meaningful ways, and supports — not replaces — teachers’ professional judgment.
Researchshows that high-quality instructional materials, together with teacher professional learning aligned to them, are a potent combination to help teachers improve math outcomes for students. Plus, high-quality materials save teachers precious time, as teachers spend an average of seven hours per week searching for or creating their own materials.
Ensuring access to high-quality instructional materials aligns with the California Mathematics Council (CMC) mission to support and empower a thriving mathematics community dedicated to fostering effective teaching and learning for every student in California. We believe that mathematical thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving are critical to students’ future success and to our state economy.
We also know that California students and educators have incredible strengths and potential. I have seen firsthand how students and educators thrive when given opportunities to engage with authentic, relevant math content. Unfortunately, though, the most recent Nation’s Report Card shows that California students’ math achievement lags behind national averages and remains below pre-pandemic levels.
Moreover, California trails the nation in how our education leaders understand, identify and use high-quality instructional materials to boost math learning. A recent poll from Gallup found that only 11% of California’s district leaders and school principals are very familiar with high-quality instructional materials, compared to 20% of their peers nationally. Similarly, only 13% of California leaders said their district had an official definition of high-quality instructional materials — significantly lower than the 25% of leaders nationally who said the same. And only 11% of the leaders in our state say all the math professional learning in their school or district is aligned with their math curriculum, compared to 22% nationally.
For high-quality instructional materials to empower teachers to unleash their care, creativity, and knowledge in supporting students’ math learning, California must have a stronger and clearer vision of what constitutes quality in curriculum. This should start at the state level, as Gallup found that more than three in four California district leaders and principals say they look to state guidelines when deciding whether a curriculum is high-quality.
Fortunately, state leaders have an imminent and critical opportunity to lead with a clear definition of quality. This summer, the state will engage teacher-reviewers to evaluate and select instructional materials to include on the state list of recommended math curricula. In advance of the review process, the state’s Instructional Quality Commission should define ‘high quality’ in math curricula and ensure that all of the recommended materials meet this definition. The recommended materials should also align with state standards and include the instructional strategies reflected in the 2023 California Math Framework to promote every student’s access to grade-level content.
Also at the state level, leaders should provide professional learning to support the implementation of these materials and allow teachers to lead this work with integrity and impact. Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $250 million for math coaches in the budget he proposed in January. It is critical that the Legislature acts on the governor’s proposal and continues to invest in math teachers’ development, including through professional learning and coaching aligned with high-quality materials.
District leaders must also clearly define what high-quality materials mean in their context and use this definition to guide their district’s math materials selection process. This definition from a coalition of organizations committed to high-quality math materials offers more guidance for district leaders as they define their vision.
For both our students and our state to thrive, we must ensure our teachers have high-quality materials to foster achievement and joyful experiences in math. Let’s appreciate California’s teachers — during this Teacher Appreciation Week and every week — by equipping them with the high-quality resources they deserve as they do the indispensable work of nurturing the mathematical understanding of each and every student.
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Ma Bernadette Andres-Salgarino is the president of the California Mathematics Council. She is also the assistant director of iSTEAM at the Santa Clara County Office 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.
When a college student’s GPA dips below 2.0 — lower than a C average — schools often send a notice meant to serve as a wake-up call: Improve your grades or risk losing financial aid and being kicked out of college.
But the way that universities and colleges deliver this wake-up call could be backfiring and pushing students to give up on higher education altogether, according to new research.
That’s what California Competes, a nonpartisan policy and research organization, concluded in a recent report on “academic probation.” The policy report was born out of a study that relied on interviews with over 50 “comebackers” — students who returned to higher education years after stopping out — from Shasta College and Sacramento State.
Academic probation wasn’t on the radar of researchers until the comebackers, brought on to co-design the study, raised academic probation as a serious issue that led many students to give up on their studies.
Su Jin Gatlin Jez
“I was very surprised that this came up from the students, but this is why we center students in our work,” said Su Jin Jez, California Competes CEO, in an interview with EdSource.
Jez said students perceived being put on academic probation as a message that they aren’t cut out for higher education, not as a wake-up call. This was especially true when an automated notice did not offer clear next steps for a student to begin to turn their academic career around.
This is an issue that affects a lot of students. One national study by the Center for Analysis and Postsecondary Education and Employment found that 1 in 5 first-year students on Pell Grants were at risk of losing their grants due to low GPAs. But there’s no California-specific data about these students — something California Competes would like to see changed.
Laura Bernhard
The organization calls on the state to create a task force to examine academic probation policies at California public universities and promote practices that will help students. It also calls on each of the state’s higher education segments — community colleges, the CSUs and the UCs — to address this issue. That is happening already.
“There is interest. There’s growing recognition of the need to make these changes,” said California Competes senior researcher Laura Bernhard. “I think that’s exciting.”
Bernhard acknowledges it can be tough to roll out sweeping policy changes in a higher education system as decentralized as California’s, but there are signs of progress. During the study, the University of California announced that it would be following one of the study’s recommendations: calling it “academic notice” rather than academic probation, a phrase that makes getting D’s or F’s sound like a crime.
In this Q&A, Jez and Bernhard detail what they have learned in their research and, specifically, what they want to see happen in California. It has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
What typically happens when a student’s GPA drops below 2.0?
Bernhard: Most schools use an automated system where a student will receive a form email notifying them of this status. Campus policies vary. California Community Colleges are required to notify students when their GPA falls under this threshold.
There is not a systemwide process, which is one of the things we wanted to flag. So the student experience varies pretty widely. It’s also going to vary based on if they’re in a targeted program that receives specialized advising, such as student athletes or people who are in an honors college, but in a lot of ways it’s left to the student. I don’t think we do a lot.
What is the problem with telling a student they are on academic probation?
Bernhard: The first, perhaps the most obvious one, would be the link to the carceral system. That can be very triggering for many people.
One of our institutional partners was reviewing their website about academic probation, and she was taken aback by the language. After they are given notice, the first image students see is a cop holding a stop sign saying, “You’re on probation.” She was horrified. Then she remembered 20 years ago, she was one of the people who helped write that policy. It was just a real moment of, “Oh goodness, what have we done?”
Jez: I think previously there wasn’t a lot of concern about a letter with that kind of language because people assume students were on academic probation because they couldn’t hack it. Because they truly weren’t college material. They couldn’t handle the coursework.
Fast-forward to today, there’s a growing understanding that students can be academically capable and excellent — and still not be getting good grades. There are all of these factors in students’ lives that impact their academic performance. Institutions want to figure out how they can help students navigate those sorts of life circumstances, so that they can succeed in the classroom. For that reason, institutions are really wanting to make sure they have the right tone in these letters.
So are some of these assumptions based on an outdated vision of who a college student is?
Jez: Traditionally, we’ve had a student who is full-time focused on academic studies. You wouldn’t think of life outside of school being a major factor for them. So if they weren’t performing academically, it was because there was some academic shortcoming.
But now most students have heavy workloads, particularly at community colleges and the CSUs. Over 400,000 students in California have children. It’s just a very different student. I think we’re beginning to tackle our policies one by one as we look back and sort of realize they don’t work anymore.
Besides that phrase “academic probation,” what are some other problems with those automated notices sent to students when their GPA dips?
Bernhard: Usually just the length. It’s long, it’s verbose, it’s wordy, it’s complex. There’s jargon. It’s not clear what steps I need to take. It’s not clear who I need to reach out to. It’s not personal. It can tend to use deficit-minded language: “You’ve done something bad; you are on probation; you are in trouble.”
Instead, things can really be flipped. It can be short; it can be clear. It can be: ‘This is temporary. This is a setback. This happens to a lot of people. We all struggle sometimes.” We can normalize this behavior. ‘These things happen sometimes. It’s out of our control and here are the steps you can take. We care about you as our person. Please talk to us. Reach out.”
I think a lot of colleges have also realized that, in addition to sending an email, we can text, we can call, we can have tables on campus. We can have an academic event with more personal outreach, which we realize is bandwidth-heavy. But sometimes that makes a huge difference for people.
This policy analysis mentions that nationally, 1 out of 5 first-time college students receiving Pell Grants end up with a GPA below a 2.0. Is there any statewide data on that?
Bernhard: I think that’s one of the biggest issues. It’s not a publicly shared data point in most cases. It’s usually within an institution. It’s hard to get good, comprehensive, systemwide statewide information about students who have a certain GPA. We obviously believe in the power of data, so that is something we would love to be able to collect and analyze.
Jez: I would love to see that, as the launch of the Cradle-to-Career data system happens, we have students’ GPA information.
Is there any kind of pushback to these changes you’re suggesting? What’s the attitude among campus leaders?
Jez: Across the three systems, I will say that there’s a growing recognition that this is a really critical issue that needs improvement. And so we’re seeing attention to this at the systemwide level.
At the campus level, there are a number of campuses that are just picking it up and sprinting with it. In many ways, our work has been thinking about how we get a more consistent, comprehensive approach, so we can pick up on campuses leading the way, learn from what they’re doing, and then sort of broaden it across the system. So the systems are all in and then the campuses are in.
You’re calling for a statewide task force. Why would that be helpful?
Jez: Unlike literally every other state in our country, we don’t have a coordinating entity that would be thinking about these issues statewide, centering the student and the students who are attending multiple institutions. It’s critical, then, that we pull it together — in these more ad hoc ways, sadly — to be able to address this.
We are hopeful that there will be a proposal in the next 12 months, maybe even the next two or three months, that will tackle this.
Was there anything that surprised you as you researched this issue?
Bernhard: I think we could have named 17 other things that we think would have led people to stop out and make returning to complete their degree more difficult. I don’t think academic probation would necessarily have been on that list.
The other thing I just really wanted to tout is that this feels, to me, like a relatively easy win. It’s essentially free. It feels small, but it could be incredibly impactful for students. There really hasn’t been pushback, because it just feels very common-sense. Now it’s just like, “Great, how do we get momentum, take action and make this change statewide?” I feel like in a year when we’re sort of feeling financially constrained, I think we should take the win.
A lot of what you’re talking about and pushing for is systemic change, but I want to close by asking you what your message would be to students on academic notice or probation right now.
Jez: When we’ve done previous research and we’ve talked about academic probation, what we hear from faculty and staff is they really saw it as an early warning sign, like “Hey, pay attention.” And then what we heard from students was the opposite. It was more like “You don’t belong, you’re not college material.”
So I think that a student should know that this status doesn’t mean you’re not college material and you don’t belong and you can’t do it. I think of it more like a wake-up call. Obviously, there are some students where some sort of crisis happens in their life, and they need to get through that moment and then get back on track. And when they hit that crisis, it’s really important to reach out to their institution because they can take incompletes or withdraw or there are other strategies that make it so that this doesn’t have an impact on their GPA.
If it’s something that’s sort of like a bigger issue where they’re having to work full time and trying to figure out how they balance their studies, reach out to your institution. There are also a number of community-based organizations that can support students. Also, many struggles aren’t visible, but students are far from alone in grappling with this. In many ways, it is a very normal experience. Students can successfully, absolutely make it out of this temporary status.
It’s really like the institution’s obligation to help the student. It is not like, “Go figure it out, student.” The institution needs to help figure out with the student, “How do we support you to success?
My last recommendation is a general customer service one. If you call customer service and the person’s not helpful, I wouldn’t try to convince that person how they should help you. Sometimes, you just hang up and find someone else. Our institutions are pretty big, so there are lots of people. Find a person that can get to your issue and that’s willing to help.
Trees are teaching tools at the Berkeley Forest School. Credit: Courtesy of the Berkeley Forest School
At a forest school, the roof is the bright blue sky, a cluster of ladybugs flying through the air can turn into a science lesson and the fog lingering on your face becomes an example of the water cycle.
Learning amid the leaves is the core of the curriculum in outdoor early learning programs, which often focus on children aged 3 to 5. Mother Nature provides the classroom where the littlest learners can dig up snake skins, bury treasure maps and climb trees, steeping in the myriad wonders of life.
Yet, that’s the exception to the rule these days, as many preschool children spend too much time indoors huddled around screens. Despite the fact that time in nature increases opportunities for play and exercise, boosting children’s health and development and reducing hyperactivity — the bane of our short-attention span era — most American preschoolers don’t get enough time outdoors, according to a new national report from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).
“Outdoor nature-based learning is vital for young children’s health, development, and education,” according to the report, which was written by W. Steven Barnett, the institute’s senior co-director and founder, and Kate Hodges, an early childhood education policy specialist. “Increased screen time and reduced exposure to nature are linked to serious health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, hyperactivity, stress, asthma, and allergies.”
Sharpening a sense of stillness, calm and focus is easier for children in a natural setting, experts say. Amid the post-pandemic rise in child behavioral issues, some suggest that outdoor education might be an antidote to shattered attention spans and frayed nerves.
“The kids are play-deprived,” said Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of Timbernook, a research-backed therapeutic play program. “Once they dive deep into the play, they calm down. It’s very interesting to watch. Being outside also helps you get you into an alert state of mind, which is ideal for the brain.”
Giving children enough time for free play, experts say, may make it easier for them to sit quietly at their desk later. As with many aspects of the educational system, the risks of getting stuck too long indoors are elevated for low-income students, according to the institute’s report.
“These issues are particularly concerning for low-income children who often have limited access to safe outdoor spaces. By prioritizing nature-based learning in early childhood programs, states can help mitigate these health risks.”
Hanscom notes that in an attempt to keep kids safe, we may have unwittingly put them in a new kind of danger. Some of the children she works with now require the kind of physical therapy, particularly balance and flow exercises, that were previously reserved for the geriatric. We force children to sit still at an age when they are built to move, she says, which has hampered their development.
“Their neurological system is not developing properly,” Hanscom said. “We’re overly restricting children’s ability to move and play in pretty profound ways, and we’re actually causing harm to their development now. They’re literally falling out of the chairs and they’re having trouble paying attention, and they’re becoming more and more clumsy in their environment.”
The lack of nature exposure in many kindergarten programs is ironic given that the term originated with visionary 19th century educator Friedrich Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten movement, “who believed that children are like flowers and need care and cultivation to grow and blossom, hence the name,” notes Barnett. Froebel’s original program featured an actual garden in which children each tended to their own plots.
“Learning through nature was an important part of the program,” said Barnett. “Froebel also emphasized the preparation of highly proficient teachers, so it was not just the outdoor/nature aspect that has been lost.”
Rethinking the preschool experience to include the myriad wonders of the natural world is part of the purpose of the report. There is much to be learned from stomping through puddles, scrambling over fallen logs and digging in the dirt with sticks, some say.
Students explore at the Berkeley Forest School. Credit: Courtesy of the Berkeley Forest School
“Considering that many preschool children attend for at least four to six hours per day, leaders should consider whether 30-60 minutes of outdoor time is sufficient,” said Barnett. “Many lessons can also be learned from forest or outdoor preschools in which children interact with a natural landscape and spend the entire preschool day outside.”
Rooted in the Scandinavian education tradition, forest schools got a huge boost in popularity during the pandemic as a safe way to keep learning going even when buildings were closed. There are roughly 800 nature preschools in the U.S., a 200% increase since 2017, according to a survey by the Natural Start Alliance.
Science has long suggested that children’s mental and academic health can be buttressed by increasing exposure to nature while decreasing time online. One report, which distilled the results of 186 studies, noted that most researchers find that time spent in nature contributes to both psychological stability and academic agility. Time spent gazing at glowing screens, meanwhile, has often been associated with poor outcomes, including increased mental illness and diminished cognition. That should not come as a surprise, experts suggest.
“Natural spaces are the context the human body has evolved in,” said Lia Grippo, founder of Wild Roots Forest School in Santa Barbara. “Our bodies expect variations in light, air temperature and movement, sights and sounds far and near, uneven terrain, space for a plethora of movements, and a host of life around us, doing what life does. When these expectations are met, we tend to be alert and relaxed. This is the state we learn best in.”
More outdoor time has also been associated with better executive functioning. One study of 562 Norwegian preschoolers found a link between time spent outdoors and sharpened executive functioning, which includes attention and short-term memory. That study also found a connection between too much time indoors and hyperactivity symptoms.
“Outdoor and nature-based preschool activities contribute to children’s health development directly, support more complex play,” said Barnett, “and offer a teaching tool for children to learn about nature and the environment.”
When Grippo taught at a traditional preschool, she tried hard to get the children outside into green spaces for playtime. She noticed that a lot of behavioral issues disappeared when the little ones were playing in meadows or woodlands. The children were quickly soothed by the pleasures of the natural playground, she said.
“Over time, this pattern became painfully clear,” said Grippo, who learned to forage in the woods as a child in Latvia. “Many of the problems I was working with were in fact problems of the environment rather than the children. Over the next few years, I spent more and more time in natural settings with the children until I finally abandoned the indoor space all together. It was the children who showed me what they needed.”
Anything children encounter in nature can become a springboard to learning, some say. A dead bug can spark a discussion about the circle of life. A muddy stream becomes an art studio for a clay-based art project. A stack of sticks can be the raw material to build a fort in the forest.
“Young children need a tremendous amount of movement in order to develop the capacity for stillness,” said Grippo, president of the California Association of Forest Schools. “They need an environment that offers a rich diversity of experiences with a healthy blend of predictability and novelty, in order to incorporate new information and understanding. They need to feel a part of a large family, larger than just the human family. Nature provides for all of these needs.”
The classroom is outside at many forest schools.credit: Berkeley Forest School
Boosting opportunities for exploration and free play is just one reason that the National Institute for Early Education Research report argues that little children need more outdoor time. Play, some experts suggest, may well be characterized as the superpower of the young. A growing body of research suggests that play may even be a way to help close the achievement gap.
“Just one of the many important reasons for increasing preschoolers’ time in natural spaces is that it improves the amount and quality of young children’s play,” said Barnett. “Research suggests that additional guidance and funding to support outdoor, nature-based learning in preschool settings could lead to positive early childhood educational experiences and cognitive, physical and social-emotional benefits for young learners.”
For the record, California fares better than many states because it requires some outdoor time in its subsidized preschool program, the report suggests, but it fares less well in terms of supporting nature-based schools in general.
“California is among the states with stronger policies because it requires outdoor time every day for a substantial portion of the day, sets standards for air quality for children’s outdoor time, and requires preschool programs to have outdoor space,” said Barnett. “However, it is not one of the leaders with policies specific to outdoor and nature-based programs, which do not always fit well into the usual regulations for preschool and child care programs.”
While California has more outdoor schools than most states, it should be noted that most forest schools aren’t licensed in the Golden State because they often do not have a permanent indoor venue. Washington became the first state to license outdoor preschools in 2019. There are roughly 80 such schools in California, according to the California Association of Forest Schools.
Given its storied roots and the exhaustive research proving its efficacy, why has outdoor education struggled to take root in the American educational system? Why do many assume that schooling should be dominated by fluorescent lighting, asphalt and edtech?
Students at the Berkeley Forest School have story time by the bay.Credit: Courtesy of the Berkeley Forest School
“Inadequate funding explains a lot,” said Barnett. “We don’t invest in preschool teachers and, as a result, many do not have the knowledge and skills needed. Legal worries probably make it seem risky. Public programs tend to be built as cheaply as possible with no consideration for beauty or nature. Even for older children, it is hard to tell the difference between schools and prisons when they are being built.”
While some teachers can’t wait for the latest ed-tech breakthrough to engage their students, others point to the majesty of the natural world and its ability to spark our curiosity.
“Nothing I can do as an educator can begin to approximate the depth and breadth of what the natural world has to offer,” said Grippo. “Nature teaches us to pay attention, expand awareness, move with aliveness and agility, respond to our environment, experience awe, gratitude and love, develop fortitude, make mistakes and try again, and all in a space that makes the body healthier, happier, and smarter.”
Every election cycle we hear about the challenges of getting certain groups of people to vote. This is particularly true of younger and more diverse voters who typically vote at rates well below other groups.
Often, the disconnect between these voters and the ballot box is caused by structural barriers; sometimes it has more to do with an absence of prioritization by candidates and campaign strategists.
Low turnout among younger and more multicultural voters not only reflects the troubled state of our democracy, but it also it stifles progress toward a society and economy that is more representative and more responsive to the needs of 21st century America. When these groups do turn out to vote, they tend to support more forward-looking policy positions that would help people and communities in need to achieve far greater economic security, including increased public investment in child care, education, affordable housing, and accessible transportation. When they don’t vote in proportion to their eligibility and interests, our democracy and societal well-being are the poorer for it.
Recognizing this, California cities like Oakland and Berkeley are beginning to support efforts to engage high school student voters as young as 16 and 17 years old, by enabling them to register and vote in local school board elections, beginning this fall. Other California cities should follow suit.
We know that voting is a habit. Once people start voting regularly, they continue to do so. Increasing voter turnout in the short run is essential to establish regular voting habits in the long run. In our current system, political campaigns are often tasked to lead get-out-the vote efforts by default, but campaigns are temporary and focused on winning elections, not stewarding a healthy democratic system. They are not designed to spend a lot of time and resources on hard-to-reach and hard-to-mobilize voters because the cost of turning out a likely voter is cheaper than the cost of turning out an unlikely voter.
Elections are all about who gets the most votes, and campaigns focus on the cheapest and easiest ways to get there. For that reason, low-propensity voters, like eligible high school and college students, are largely ignored. This is where nonprofit organizations can step in.
We’re seeing nonprofits playing an increasingly vital role in student’s lives — starting with out-of-school services like after-school programs, club sports, arts (like theater and dance), and camp activities. More and more now, nonprofits are involved with curricular support in areas where districts are short-staffed or just don’t have solid programs in specific areas of work (sometimes even embedding in the school-day offerings). Then, of course, there are myriad field trips and specific academic add-ons that are run by nonprofits in partnership with districts.
Research shows that turnout rates increase significantly when voters are encouraged to vote by nonprofit leaders they have relationships with, in a nonpartisan and active way. This kind of nonprofit engagement has been shown to make particularly significant improvements in turnout rates for young voters, voters of color and low-income voters.
Once turnout rates improve, campaigns start giving that category of voters more attention. This attention in turn engages voters further and encourages even higher turnout rates, creating a kind of virtuous engagement cycle. Census data indicates that about 80% of people who register to vote in a presidential election year actually go out and vote. This makes the next few weeks crucial for increasing turnout and creating new habitual voters during the 2024 cycle.
Recent research by political scientists and advocacy groups like NonprofitVOTE confirms that there are two things that nonprofits can do to increase voter turnout among their clients: Get them registered and then remind them to vote with a message that their vote matters and can make a difference. The message that “you matter” works a lot better in turning out disengaged youth voters than a policy message.
This is likely because they often assume that their vote will not have an impact on the election outcomes, so when a trusted source contacts them and tells them that their vote is important, it resonates.
So if your nonprofit can only do one thing this election season, make sure you encourage all eligible voters in your communities to get out and vote. Hearing from you that their voices are important can make a huge difference.
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Robb Smithis a political consultant, voting rights lawyer, and the author of the Margin of Error blog, a newsletter for progressives on polling, campaigns and election law.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Students work on homework during an after-school program in Chico, the largest city in Butte County. (File photo)
Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource
At 14, Charlotte Peery dropped out of high school.
“I was one of those silent sufferers,” Peery said. “I was battling with addiction, and once I finally decided I couldn’t go to school anymore, there wasn’t anyone around to say, ‘Well, let’s see what we can do’.”
It took another four years for Peery, raised in rural Tehama County, to return to school and enroll in an alternative education program. There, she met a counselor who provided the academic guidance and mental health counseling she needed to graduate from high school. Peery has since started earning her bachelor’s degree in social work and has become one of Tehama County schools’ first certified wellness coaches.
“When I had the opportunity to apply to be a wellness coach — it was everything I’ve always wanted to do — to provide the kind of support that I lacked when I needed it most,” Peery said.
As an entry-level wellness coach, Peery provides students with nonclinical support such as quick check-ins, screenings, referrals to specialists, structured mental health curriculum and outreach to their families.
Peery’s role is part of the state’s $4.6 billion Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, for which the Department of Health Care Access and Information received $278 million to recruit, train and certify a diverse slate of mental health support personnel, known as certified wellness coaches, for schools and community-based organizations. Since February 2024, the department has hired over 2,000 certified wellness coaches.
“The wellness coach program helped define what coping skills and home-to-school services I could focus on,” said Jacque Thomas, who serves as a certified wellness coach II and is able to provide more in-depth services to students, such as individual 30-minute sessions focused on coping skills, goal-setting and life skills.
According to a 2021 study, 45% of California youth between the ages of 12 and 17 reported having struggled recently with mental health issues. The overall suicide rate in Tehama and neighboring counties is more than twice the state average, and according to a 2017-2019 survey, more than a third of 11th graders in Tehama County reported feelings of depression.
Research shows that children ages 2 to 8 in rural communities consistently have higher rates of mental, behavioral and developmental disorders than children in urban communities, largely due to financial difficulties and geographic isolation. Students in Tehama County tend to start struggling with mental health issues at a younger age, said Savannah Kenyon, a parent to a fourth grader and an education behavior assistant at Red Bluff High School.
“Our neighbors could be acres and acres away, and we don’t know them by name — so there’s a lot less socializing,” Kenyon said. “A lot of our students also come from a family of addiction or have to be the providers for their families.”
In Tehama County, nearly 1 in 5 children, and a third of children under the age of 5, live below the poverty line. The county also ranks sixth in California for the number of children who have experienced two or more adverse childhood events, such as abuse, neglect, substance use or mental health problems, known to have lasting impacts on health and well-being.
“It’s hard to see our children dealing with adult problems, and as a result, adult mental health problems, way younger,” Kenyon said.
Wellness coaches like Thomas and Peery try to understand students’ needs as they evolve. Thomas said that in the past school year, they saw an increase in students referred for substance use intervention, mirroring troubling rates of adolescent drug use and fatalities in the U.S.
In response to the increase in referrals, Thomas and Peery decided to become trained in Mindfully Based Substance Abuse Treatment, a program focused on building emotional awareness and examining cravings and triggers in youth substance use. In the process, they also learned about students dealing with unhealthy relationships or domestic violence at home. In response, Peery developed and ran a 16-week curriculum in three schools and a juvenile detention center, teaching students how to identify and respond to issues like abuse and family trauma.
Charlotte Peery, certified wellness coach I in Tehama County.
Peery is often the first point of contact for a student struggling with mental health issues. On paper, her job spans the next two or three steps in the process — a mental health screening, a mindfulness and stress reduction session, or a referral to a specialist. But in practice, she hopes to strengthen the long-term network of care available to students. She has partnered with the Tehama County Department of Behavioral Health, which provides substance use recovery treatment, and Empower Tehama, which helps victims of domestic violence, for example.
“I’m making connections with drug and alcohol counselors and becoming more aware of which clinicians are accepting new clients once students transition out of our program,” Peery said. “To have that open communication, I’ve seen a huge shift in the way all of our partners are working together.”
School-based support is likely the most effective way to reach Tehama County students in need, she said, because most families cannot easily access major services, in part due to a disproportionate shortage of mental health providers,
“We’ve been able to provide more services to the farthest outreaches of our community and helped build rapport with every school,” Thomas said. “We go out to all 33 schools in the county to provide check-ins and open up the doors for our clinicians to meet with high-need students.”
Early intervention matters
After her daughter’s school shut down at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, just as she was starting transitional kindergarten, Kenyon noticed that her daughter was missing some key developmental milestones.
“We were realizing that the kids were not socializing at some of their peak times when they should be learning social skills,” Kenyon said. “I knew at an early age that she was going to be struggling with her ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), so we knew that starting young was going to be the best way to help her in the long run.”
Early intervention for Kenyon’s daughter began with a screening and diagnosis of ADHD. From there, she said, her daughter’s counselor and teacher helped with little things like — motivating her through action-oriented feedback on her work, or teaching her mindful, deep breathing when she feels anxious — that allowed her daughter to handle emotional distress as well as social expression and inattentiveness in the classroom on a day-by-day basis.
“We’re always having open communication with the counselor or teacher. Being able to tell them, ‘We struggled last night, so she might be a little tired today; she might be a little bit emotional,’ has been imperative to her success,” Kenyon said.
Research shows that early, multidisciplinary interventions, such as a combination of school-based programs and family support initiatives, significantly reduce the risk of carrying mental health disorders into adulthood.
School shutdowns during the pandemic compounded the youth mental health crisis in California. About 65% of young people with depression did not receive treatment during the pandemic, while the rate of suicide among adolescents rose by 20%.
“We saw heightened anxiety, depression and delays in social development for students that had gone longer without intervention than they typically would have if they were on a school campus,” said JoNell Wallace, school mental health and wellness team coordinator at the Tehama County Department of Education. “We’re now starting interventions in third or fourth grade that we would’ve caught in second grade.”
Jacque Thomas, certified wellness coach II in Tehama County.
Despite the additional support, Thomas said she has been flooded with students approaching her for help (“which is amazing,” she adds) and that students’ needs in Tehama County are still outpacing available staff and services at schools. She frequently eats in her car on the way to a counseling session, or sometimes skips lunch altogether, to fit another student into her schedule.
“You start to get stretched thin, and I don’t want any one student to have to be on a waitlist,” Thomas said.
Understaffing has also underscored the weaknesses of the referral system, a process through which schools assess students and refer them to wellness coaches, depending on the level of support they need. Schools do not always connect students to the support they need because of how time-consuming referrals can be.
“I think schools would much rather prefer it if we were on site,” Thomas said. “And that’s the goal — that more schools are qualified to have more wellness coaches, so their referral process will be in-house, and those services can start happening with a lesser barrier.”
There will be some relief starting this fall, when five additional certified wellness coaches will be placed at elementary and middle schools in Tehama County. Kenyon said the expanded service is a win for students like her daughter.
“She used to hide under the table if she got any type of feedback or if she felt like she had done something wrong,” Kenyon said. “But she hasn’t done it this entire year, which is such a big change from how she would try and escape her feelings.”
Now, with help from her counselors, coaches and teachers, her daughter comes home excited to talk about her day, feeling more confident and self-assured.
“Knowing that she’s coping, and for me to have help beyond just parental help — I know she’s a hundred percent supported through these programs,” Kenyon said.
