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  • How Oakland Unified is helping immigrant students fill education gaps

    How Oakland Unified is helping immigrant students fill education gaps


    Teacher Shannon Darcey helps a student interpret a graph.

    Zaidee Stavely / EdSource

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    In her home country of Guatemala, Maribel attended a one-room schoolhouse for two years, but the teacher was often absent, causing class to be canceled. She never learned how to read. The school closed during Covid, and she never returned to class until last year, when she moved to Oakland.

    Now 11 and enrolled in middle school, she is learning English and at the same time filling gaps in her education — how to read, interpret graphs and acquire other skills she never learned before.

    Maribel’s school, Urban Promise Academy, is one of four middle and high schools in Oakland trying out a new curriculum developed just for students who did not attend school for years in their home countries. School staff asked EdSource to only use middle names to identify students because they are recent immigrants. There is heightened fear among immigrant students and families because of the Trump administration’s promises to ramp up immigration enforcement.

    In Maribel’s classroom, though, no fear was palpable. Instead, there was joy.

    On one recent morning in her English class, Maribel and her peers were analyzing graphs showing favorite colors, favorite foods, favorite sports and home languages among students in a class. They were practicing marking the x-axis and y-axis, pronouncing numbers in English and talking about what the graphs meant.

    “How many students like pizza?” asked teacher Shannon Darcey.

    “Eight students like pizza,” responded a student.

    Teacher Shannon Darcey teaches new immigrant students skills like interpreting graphs at the same time as they learn English.
    Zaidee Stavely / EdSource

    About 3,300 students in Oakland Unified this school year — close to 10% of the total student population — immigrated from other countries in the last three years. Of those, at least 600 had more than two years in which they did not attend school in their home countries. These students are often referred to as students with interrupted formal education, or SIFE.

    The reasons students missed school vary. Some lived in rural communities far from schools, for example. For others, it was dangerous to attend school because of gang violence or war in their communities. Other students simply had to work.

    When students haven’t yet mastered academic reading, writing, or math in their home language, they have a lot more to learn in order to grasp middle or high-school level material, even as they are learning English. But if the materials or curriculum are designed for younger students, it can be boring or seem too childish for teenagers.

    Before this school year, Darcey taught English to recent immigrant students with a huge range of academic knowledge. Some students were reading at seventh or eighth grade level in Spanish, for example, while others could not read at all. She remembers some students being frustrated.

    “I had one kid … Every single day for six months, he was like, ‘I can’t read. Why are you giving me this?’” Darcey said. “He felt like, ‘Everyone else in here knows what is happening, and I have no idea what this is. Why are you telling me to have a book in my hands?’”

    For years, Darcey tried to access curriculum designed especially for students who have had big gaps in schooling. She had heard about a curriculum called Bridges, developed by researchers at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. But when she tried to get materials from them, she was told they were only available for teachers in New York.

    Julie Kessler, director of newcomer and English language learner programs in Oakland Unified, said many teachers she has worked with in Oakland Unified and San Francisco Unified were frustrated at not being able to access the Bridges curriculum.

    “And so it’s like, who’s got a bootleg copy of it?” Kessler said. “And it’s just been inaccessible to the field.”

    She said she has often seen students with big gaps in schooling disengaged in class.

    “They are experiencing sometimes an alternate assignment, sometimes sitting with like a Disney book or a children’s book, when even the scaffolded newcomer curriculum is inaccessible to them,” Kessler said. “We were seeing a lot of that because teachers didn’t have a way to connect them to what was happening.”

    Last year, though, Kessler was able to secure funding from the California Department of Social Services’ California Newcomer Education and Well-Being program, to develop a new curriculum considering the needs of Oakland’s newcomer population and aligned to the California English Language Development standards. She worked with some of the authors of the Bridges curriculum, who now have an organization called the SIFE Equity Project.

    The resulting Curriculum for SIFE Equity is open source, available to all teachers anywhere on the internet. And Kessler said there are teachers in San Rafael, Elk Grove, San Diego and Vista using it, in addition to Oakland. Outside of California, the curriculum is also being used in New York City and Prince William County, Virginia.

    “We’re hearing a lot of gratitude from teachers who are like, ‘Oh my God, finally something that I can use with this group of students that feels worthy of their time, that feels respectful of them and feels like it’s doing the skill building that we know that they need,’” Kessler said.

    The curriculum currently includes about 50 days of instruction — less than a third of a school year. Kessler said the district is now trying to get more funding from the Department of Social Services to develop a full 180 days, so it can be used for a full school year.

    Darcey said the curriculum has made a huge difference. She now has separate English classes just for students who have gaps in their education.

    A student’s “identity map,” used to organize information that will later be used in a slideshow.
    Zaidee Stavely / EdSource

    The class began the school year with a unit on identity. Studens learned how to say their names, how old they are, where they are from, what language they speak. They later put together “identity maps” with their name in the middle, and information about their hometowns, their ages, their responsibilities, families and what they like to eat and do for fun written in spokes all around. Then they created slideshows with the information and added photos.

    Fourteen-year-old Anallely’s map shows that she likes salad, fish and marimba music, that she speaks the indigenous language Mam in addition to Spanish, and her hometown is in the mountains and forest of Guatemala, where it is hot and rainy.

    Anallely only attended school in her hometown until third grade. After that, she stopped going so she could work with her father, planting and harvesting coffee on a farm. 

    She said she had never learned about graphs or maps to organize information before coming to school in Oakland. 

    “It’s very useful, because you can use them to define how many people like something or which is their favorite, or where they are from,” she said in Spanish.

    She hopes to someday become a doctor to help babies and people who are sick. She’d also like to travel the world.

    Most of Darcey’s students are new to reading in any language, so Darcey also works with them in small groups to teach them letter sounds, and how to sound out syllables and one-syllable words like tap, nap and sat, using a curriculum called UFLI Foundations, adapted for recent immigrant students by teachers at Oakland International High School.

    Teacher Shannon Darcey works with new immigrant students on sounding out syllables.
    Zaidee Stavely / EdSource

    Another student, Arturo, never attended school in his life until he enrolled at Urban Promise Academy at 14 years old.

    “In previous years, a kid like that in my class, I would’ve felt like, ‘Oh my God, they’re like totally lost, and it feels like they’re just sitting there 80% of the time,’” Darcey said. But she doesn’t feel that way about Arturo. “He is engaged, he’s trying. Can he read the words on the page yet? No. But he’s still able to follow what’s happening.”

    Darcey is grateful to work with these students.

    “They bring such an eagerness and excitement, a willingness to try new things that maybe other kids their age are not as enthusiastic about,” Darcey said. “They often bring a work ethic that I think can really help a lot of them be successful in school.”

    Giving these students skills to navigate the world is important, Darcey said, because they are already part of our society. 

    “We’re going to prepare them to be successful in their lives,” she said.

    Maribel, the student who only attended two years of school in Guatemala, said she was afraid to come to school in the U.S. at first, but now she looks forward to it.

    “The teacher speaks some Spanish and she always helps us if we need anything,” Maribel said. “I can write some words in English now, and I’m writing more in Spanish, too. And I’m learning to read.”

    A previous version of this article incorrectly named the literacy curriculum Darcey uses as SIPPS. She uses UFLI Foundations.





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  • How to resist Trump’s order imposing classroom censorship and discrimination 

    How to resist Trump’s order imposing classroom censorship and discrimination 


    The LGBTQ+ community rallies in solidarity, opposing the Social Studies Alive! ban in Temecula Valley Unified in June 2023.

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    This week’s executive order by President Donald Trump disingenuously titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” is a brazen assault on our educational freedoms and civil rights. The order directs the secretary of education and other department heads to develop a plan to terminate federal funds that directly or indirectly support classroom instruction on systemic racism or provide supportive school services and protections to transgender youth. 

    The order’s sweeping definition of what it calls “discriminatory equity ideology” could lead to a ban on teaching about slavery, segregation, redlining, voter suppression and other historical realities that continue to shape life and opportunity in America today. The order could also result in a ban on ethnic studies, gender studies, queer studies and other rigorous academic disciplines that prepare students to think critically and to live in a multicultural, multiracial society. 

    Equally troubling is the order’s attack on transgender students and the educators who support them. By directing the attorney general and federal prosecutors to coordinate investigations and prosecutions against educators who provide basic support to transgender students, like psychological counseling, or who use the student’s preferred pronouns, the order puts already vulnerable students at grave risk. 

    Put this all together and what results is a stunning proposal for a federal takeover of local education, where the president of the United States dictates what local schools can teach and which type of student belongs in our classrooms. It is also another attempt by President Trump and many of his right-wing supporters to purge our nation’s history of uncomfortable truths and erase the lived experience of people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

    While the potential consequences of this order are staggering to imagine, the most effective way to resist it is clear: Schools, educators and communities should not cave in to threats and intimidation and rush to voluntarily comply with this likely unconstitutional and unlawful order. Stay the course, partner with students, families and community organizations, and resist unless and until the courts have authorized any aspect of these outlandish proposals. 

    Trump tried something similar and failed in his last days of his first presidential term by issuing Executive Order 13950, which prohibited federal agencies and grant recipients from conducting trainings that included “divisive concepts” such as systemic racism, white privilege and unconscious bias. The order was blocked by a court in Northern California on First Amendment and Fifth Amendment grounds and later rescinded by the Biden administration. 

    Similar attempts to censor classroom discussion and discriminate against transgender students have also faced legal challenges in states across the country, and most challenges have prevailed. Courts have generally protected local control and academic freedom as essential to democracy and have struck down restrictions on federal funding that essentially coerce states to the point of compulsion. Multiple federal statutes dating back to the founding of the U.S. Department of Education, including the bipartisan-supported Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, also prohibit federal officials from controlling specific instructional content or curriculum, and expressly leave such decisions to state and local officials. 

    Even if there are legal setbacks, it will take time, perhaps years, for the courts to resolve these issues. In the meantime, schools have a legal and moral obligation to protect all students and provide an inclusive and honest education. They should stand firm while legal challenges proceed.

    But the fight for educational justice belongs to all of us, not just to lawyers — and it requires a broader movement. Students, parents, educators and community leaders must speak out and stand firm against this dangerous attack on our values. Together, we must continue to make the public case for inclusive education. This includes sharing stories of how discussions of history and identity have transformed our classrooms and our life journeys. Documenting the positive and life-saving impact of supporting LGBTQ+ students. Helping parents understand why preparing diverse teachers to work with students of all backgrounds makes education better for everyone. And importantly, we must document the harm this order would cause to students’ educational experiences. These stories and voices — not just legal arguments in court — will ultimately determine whether we can build schools that truly serve all students.

    In the meantime, stand firm, keep supporting all students and continue teaching truth. 

    •••

    Guillermo Mayer is president and CEO of Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation equity and climate justice.

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





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  • DOGE Kids Are Slashing Government Agencies, While Holding Multiple Jobs

    DOGE Kids Are Slashing Government Agencies, While Holding Multiple Jobs


    Imagine that you are a career civil servant , having worked at the same agency for 30 years. Then one day a 25-year-old youngster arrives with instructions to make rapid, sweeping change. He fires you and everyone else who knows how the agency works. This is called reform. Who are these people? It turns out that they hold jobs in multiple federal agencies. Do they receive multiple salaries?

    Ethics experts have questioned the practice but Trump has never listened to ethics experts.

    Faiz Siddiqui and Jacob Bosage wrote in The Washington Post:

    Gavin Kliger, a U.S. DOGE Service software engineer in his mid-20s, arrived at Internal Revenue Service headquarters in February, telling senior agency officials he was there to root out waste, fraud and abuse.

    Then, according to three people with direct knowledge of the events, he placed five government-issued laptops on a conference table and requested a sixth computer that would give him access at the IRS.

    At the time, court records show, Kliger held two job titles at the Office of Personnel Management, as well as positions at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He was also working on dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development.

    Earlier this month, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, Kliger showed up at the Federal Trade Commission, too.

    Kliger is not alone. His expanding portfolio — which now includes jobs in as many as seven federal offices — is typical of at least a handful of DOGE staffers. The unorthodox practice affords trusted acolytes of billionaire Elon Musk authority across broad swaths of government, as well as access to an array of confidential information, including tax documents, federal workforce records and consumer data.

    Because their jobs are embedded within agencies, the DOGE staffers have far more influence than those who might have worked collaboratively across government before — and their positions raise the possibility that even if Musk leaves government service at the end of May, as he has suggested, his allies will still have power, potentially for years to come.

    “Your people are fantastic,” Trump told Musk in a Cabinet meeting on Thursday. “In fact, hopefully they’ll stay around for the long haul. We’d like to keep as many as we can. They’re great — smart, sharp, right? Finding things that nobody would have thought of.”

    Government policy and ethics experts say the arrangement is unusual — and unprecedented — for the sweeping amount of access it grants to relatively low-level bureaucrats. Government officials have argued that DOGE and Musk do not have formal authority over decisions but rather advise officials at Cabinet departments on actions to take. But that makes the appointments DOGE liaisons are taking at multiple agencies even more influential.

    In addition to Kliger, who worked for Twitter before Musk bought the platform in 2022 and later joined an AI-focused data software firm, numerous DOGE associates have been given extraordinary power to shape government policy at multiple agencies. Among them:

    • Software engineer Christopher Stanley, who worked on the White House WiFi system and was serving at the Office of Personnel Management, was appointed as a director on the board of the mortgage financing giant Fannie Mae. The appointment came with an annual salary ranging from at least $160,000, but Stanley quickly resigned. Stanley, who has worked for X and SpaceX, did not respond to a request for comment.
    • Former Tesla engineer Thomas Shedd, 28, is running the digital arm of the General Services Administration, known as the Technology Transformation Services division but also has served in the office of the chief information officer at the Department of Labor, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.
    • Luke Farritor, a former SpaceX internin his 20s who won a prestigious prize for decoding a Roman scroll, is detailed to at least five agencies, according to a lawsuit challenging DOGE’s authority.
    • And in perhaps the most high-profile case of cross-posting, Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old software engineer who used the online moniker “Big Balls,” was appointed to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, in addition to his position at DOGE.

    Even Amy Gleason, the official administrator of DOGE, is also an “expert/consultant” at the Department of Health and Human Services, a court filing shows. Gleason’s appointment to HHS was reported earlier by Politico.

    White House spokesman Harrison Fields did not directly address multiple positions held by DOGE staffers, but he touted DOGE’s work in a statement to The Post.

    “President Trump is committed to ending waste, fraud, and abuse, and his entire Cabinet, in coordination with DOGE, is working seamlessly to execute this mission efficiently and effectively,” he said.

    In his business empire, Musk has frequently moved staffers and resources across companies, sometimes inviting scrutiny. But such arrangements are unusual in the federal government, where employees traditionally are assigned to one job and one agency at a time.

    Staffers in DOGE’s predecessor agency — the U.S. Digital Service — worked collaboratively across government to improve technology, according to a former employee of the office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Though they might sometimes receive an additional government-issued laptop from an agency they were assigned to work with, they did not typically work with more than one organization at a time, the person said.

    Earlier this month, after Politico reported that Trump had told his inner circle Musk would soon depart government service, Trump told reporters that Musk would leave after “a few months.” Before that, Musk said most of DOGE’s work to find $1 trillion in annual spending cuts would be complete by about the end of May, when his status as a special government employee requires him to leave his White House post.

    Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, which advocates for better government, said that cross-postings might fly at a tech company but that they pose a “huge problem when it’s a governmental entity keeping people safe and providing critical support to millions of Americans.”

    “You’ve got people who have been deputized who have no business doing what they’re doing,” Stier said.

    State Democracy Defenders Fund, a group that aims to safeguard elections and perceived threats to democracy, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of more than two dozen USAID workers challenging DOGE’s constitutional authority, claiming Musk exercised authority that would typically be unavailable to a person who lacked a presidential nomination and Senate confirmation.

    The lawsuit argues that multiple simultaneous postings provide Musk and his allies with extraordinary authority over government functions, as well as backdoor access to agencies that DOGE aims to target for spending reductions.

    The suit cites the case of Farritor, a software engineer who, according to court records, was detailed to five agencies at the same time.

    “You have to ask yourself: When you have people who are appointed to as many as five agencies at times — a single person — and you have others who are obviously not qualified, are those legally valid appointments or are they sham appointments done with intent to evade the law?” Norm Eisen, executive chair of State Democracy Defenders Fund, said in an interview.

    He added: “I have been working for or around the federal government for almost 35 years and I never heard of a detailee with that many different jobs.”



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  • Cal State unveils artificial intelligence tools for students

    Cal State unveils artificial intelligence tools for students


    Credit: Pexels.com

    California State University (CSU) will make generative artificial intelligence technologies like ChatGPT available to students, staff and faculty across its 23 campuses at no personal cost to them in anticipation that AI will reshape higher education and the state’s workforce.

    Seeking to train students in AI skills and boost their career prospects, CSU will also be part of a new body, called the AI Workforce Acceleration Board, according to an announcement Tuesday at San Jose State University. That panel will include CSU academic leaders and representatives from the governor’s office as well as firms like Microsoft, IBM and artificial-intelligence chip manufacturer Nvidia.

    “This initiative will elevate the CSU student experience, enhancing student success with personalized and future-focused learning tools across all fields of study, and preparing our increasingly AI-driven workforce,” Chancellor Mildred García said at a news conference.

    The AI Workforce Acceleration Board will aim to ensure that CSU students are prepared for AI-related jobs or graduate school when they finish their degrees, CSU officials said. The board will also organize events challenging CSU students and faculty to use AI to help address problems like climate change and housing affordability. 

    In addition, CSU plans to facilitate faculty use of AI in their teaching and research. It will also connect students to AI-related apprenticeship programs, according to the announcement.

    The rise of artificial intelligence has provoked optimistic predictions that the technology will trigger rapid innovation in higher education — equipping students with chatbot tutors, administrators with the ability to automate rote tasks and scholars with models that advance their research. But those bright visions are counterbalanced by fears AI will erode the value of a college degree, undermine the academic integrity of research and unleash widespread AI-assisted cheating in classrooms. 

    California leaders have been eager to cement the state’s place as a leader in developing generative AI, and say there is a need to educate more home-grown talent to work in the sector. More than half of AI workers in the U.S. were born in other countries, according to a 2019 report by Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. 

    Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023 signed an executive order directing the state to study the impact of AI on California’s workforce and, in August, announced an agreement with Santa Clara-based Nvidia to offer AI certificate programs and workshops at community colleges.

    CSU’s focus on artificial intelligence comes at a time when campuses across the university system, especially those struggling with troubling enrollment downturns, are looking to trim costs ahead of an expected state budget cut. Noting that financial reality, CSU chief information officer Ed Clark said the chancellor’s office has allocated money from one-time savings to fund AI initiatives. “The truth is, we are piecemealing it,” he said. “We’re doing the best we can with the resources we have available one-time, and we’re going to have to do the same thing next year as well.”

    Among the tools CSU is adopting is OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu, a version of the chatbot already in use at higher education institutions including Arizona State University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Unlike the free version of ChatGPT, conversations using ChatGPT Edu will stay within CSU and cannot be used to train OpenAI models, Clark said. Data privacy is a particular concern for universities, since users may wish to use ChatGPT to analyze sensitive or confidential information.

    An OpenAI official said the agreement with CSU represents the “single largest deployment of ChatGPT around the world.” By negotiating a system-wide deal with OpenAI, Clark said, CSU is making sure the technology is available to all of its campuses, not just those that can afford to purchase enterprise access to ChatGPT on their own.

    The university will pay about $16.9 million over the lifetime of its partnership with OpenAI, which is “less than current and planned expenditures for these technologies,” a CSU spokesperson said.

    Generative AI tools from other companies will also be made available to CSU affiliates, including functions within software the university system already purchases, such as Microsoft Office and Zoom video conferencing. The system also plans to offer AI training modules to teach students, faculty and staff members skills like prompt engineering while guiding them on how to use the technology in a responsible way. Training provided by Nvidia will come with compute power so students can learn to work with GPUs, the electronic circuits used to train and deploy AI models, said Louis Stewart, the company’s head of strategic initiatives.

    CSU officials are still determining the final lineup of the board, Clark said, but anticipate that it will include members of Newsom’s cabinet as well as representatives of Adobe, Google parent company Alphabet, Amazon Web Services, Instructure, Intel, LinkedIn and OpenAI. Clark said CSU-affiliated members will include Elizabeth Boyd, chair of the academic senate; Cynthia Teniente-Matson, the president of San Jose State University; Iese Esera, the president of the Cal State Student Association; and Clark himself.

    Universities have varied in their embrace of artificial intelligence technology, with some eagerly hiring administrators and faculty knowledgeable about the field or updating policies around issues like academic integrity to account for AI. 

    CSU leaders have been contemplating the impact generative artificial intelligence will have on campuses for several years, including in the system-wide academic senate. A CSU committee in June released a list of recommendations for how the university system should incorporate AI.

    The California Faculty Association, which represents CSU employees including professors, librarians and coaches, is seeking to add an article to its contract with CSU regarding the use of AI, citing concerns that adoption of the technology could “replace roles at the University that will make it difficult or impossible to solve classroom, human resources, or other issues” and otherwise negatively impact CFA members. Faculty unions outside CSU have voiced related worries.





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  • Steve Kuninsky On Using (FASE) Reading in Science

    Steve Kuninsky On Using (FASE) Reading in Science


    Steve Kuninsky is one of our twelve Cohort 3 Teach Like a Champion Fellows. His cohort began working with our team in December 2022 and just presented their final projects in January. Steve’s final project explored the use of FASE Reading in high school Chemistry at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology. If you are interested in becoming a TLAC Fellow or know someone who might be a good fit, applications for our fourth cohort are open and available here: https://teachlikeachampion.org/teach-like-champion-fellows/ and are due by May 30, 2025. 

     

     

    In order to become better readers, students need to read, and this is why I chose to study FASE Reading in Chemistry for my Fellows project. FASE reading is a systematic approach to having students read out loud and follow along as others read. The goal is to encourage reading that is Fluent, Accountable, Social, and Expressive.  

     

    For years, I would ask my AP Biology students to read their science textbooks in preparation for class. I was consistently frustrated by the lack of compliance and success with what I thought was a very simple request. 

     

    It turns out my request wasn’t actually so simple. I was asking students to read a college level textbook, understand concepts addressed in the text, and come to class with an understanding of those concepts. At some point, I started wondering if I was asking them to demonstrate mastery of a skill on which they had yet to develop proficiency. 

     

    In order to successfully make meaning from any text, students must read with fluency.  And in order to become fluent readers, they need to practice reading – something they typically don’t do enough of on their own, especially in science classes. What I needed was some way to help my students practice reading fluently in a way that held them accountable to participate, provided effective feedback, and modeled what fluent reading looks like.  

     

    In October 2023, I had the opportunity to attend the TLAC Reading Reconsidered Workshop. I had already experimented with FASE on my own, and this workshop inspired and equipped me to deepen my use of this technique. I had recently shifted from teaching AP Biology to Chemistry, which is a 9th grade course. FASE seemed like a great method for working on reading skills with my freshmen, who I knew would be expected to read a college level Biology textbook the following year.   

     

    What I love most about FASE is that it provides a low pressure/low stakes environment in which students can practice reading while receiving immediate feedback. Those who aren’t reading follow along, listen, and hear feedback offered to their peers.  

     

    Here’s a clip of the first time I used FASE Reading in my class back in August: 

     

    Planning and preparation are key to successful use of FASE. Prior to implementing FASE, explain to your students how they are expected to participate.  The video of my roll out is provided here for reference. One of the most important points to make is that mistakes are normal, expected, and ok – Reinforce that Culture of Error. 

     

    When preparing a text for FASE:  

    1. Plan reading sections and identify who will read each section in advance. Mark your copy of the text to indicate when you will transition between readers.  
    1. Keep reading durations short, but variable. 
    1. Keep readers unpredictable. Avoid going in a specific order that allows students to predict the next reader.  
    1. Intentionally match students to a text. Especially for struggling readers, look to provide a section that will challenge but not overwhelm them.  
    1. Identify what section(s) you will read to model fluency for your students – this is called bridging.  

     

    Here’s the text that I marked up for this first instance of FASE Reading in class. Note that the first sentence is marked for bridging (where I read to model fluency), and slashes indicate where I planned to transition between readers. Questions to ask after certain sentences are written on the document to help me check for understanding of students’ comprehension. I preselect students to read and keep a list of their names on a post-it note; this helps me ensure that I hear a multitude of voices across the classroom, and I can use my knowledge of students to determine which portion of the text I want them to read.  

     

     

    Perhaps at this point, you’re wondering how we got here. Some people think that students aren’t okay with reading out loud together. Right before the clip above, I gave a quick Roll Out of FASE Reading. I told students the purpose of the system and how they should expect to be invited to read and what they should do while peers read.  

     

    See my Roll Out of FASE Reading here: 

     

     

    My biggest takeaway is when reading out loud becomes a regular part of class, when mistakes are normalized, and when successes are celebrated, FASE can become a community building experience.  Your students will feel a sense of enjoyment and belonging as you work together with the common goal of reading fluency.  

     

     

     

    Want to bring FASE Reading to your campus or learn more about Science of Reading? Check out:  

     

    The Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading: Translating Research to Reignite Joy and Meaning in the Classroom by Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway, and Colleen Driggs, addresses the pressing challenges educators face in effectively incorporating the Science of Reading into their instruction once students already know how to decode. By offering actionable guidance grounded in seven evidence-based principles, this book helps teachers elevate their instructional practices and better prepare students to be lifelong readers and thinkers. Coming out in late July! Preorder your copy here.  

     

    Plug and Plays: Check out our FASE Reading Plug and Play, a fully-scripted professional development session including the PowerPoint slides, videos, handout, and talking points here.  

     

    TLAC Online: Teachers can study Ways of Reading, including FASE Reading, in these 15-minute teacher-facing modules that include video, quick reading, and practice here. 

     

     

     



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  • CTA chapters band together to leverage districts for higher pay, smaller classes, more resources

    CTA chapters band together to leverage districts for higher pay, smaller classes, more resources


    A group of Bay Area teacher unions rally outside Oakland City Hall on Feb. 4, 2025, demanding fully staffed schools, better wages, more resources, smaller class sizes, and safety improvements.

    Credit: Monica Velez / EdSource

    A California Teachers Association campaign is uniting teachers in 32 school districts to leverage their administrations for higher pay and benefits, smaller class sizes, and mental health support and other resources for students.

    The school districts, from San Diego to Sacramento, employ 77,000 teachers and serve 1 million students. 

    The “We Can’t Wait” campaign, launched during a webinar Tuesday, will offer a united platform that CTA President David Goldberg said will build broader pressure statewide. 

    “That’s never happened before across districts,” Goldberg said during the webinar. “They (the chapters) believe that can force change now, and together we’re demanding that every school district prioritize fully staffed schools, competitive wages and benefits to recruit and retain quality educators, and safe and stable schools where every child can learn and thrive.”

    The CTA represents 310,000 of the state’s educators, including teachers, nurses, counselors, psychologists, librarians, education support professionals and some higher education faculty and staff. 

    The collaboration includes some of the state’s largest school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Diego Unified, San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified and Sacramento Unified.

    Participating union chapters from 10 of the largest districts have contracts expiring on June 30, according to California Teachers Association leaders. The other districts have contracts expiring near that time. While union chapters aren’t permitted to bargain across school districts, the multiyear campaign allows them to support one another, Goldberg said.

    In Sacramento County, for example, three of the larger school districts are part of the coalition. That means all three districts would be negotiating contracts with their unions at about the same time, and — if all three fail to come to an agreement — could ultimately end up at an impasse or even with strikes, all at the same time.

    Union locals held rallies across the state to celebrate the campaign. At a rally of Bay Area educators in Oakland on Tuesday afternoon, the crowd of more than 100 chanted “We Can’t Wait” in the pouring rain. Students, teachers and politicians spoke about the need to keep schools open, increase teacher pay and add resources for students.

    A group of Bay Area teacher unions rally outside Oakland City Hall on Feb. 4, 2025, demanding fully staffed schools, better wages, more resources, smaller class sizes, and safety improvements.
    Credit: Monica Velez / EdSource

    “We see the impact that understaffing has on our teachers and on our classmates when we don’t have enough teachers to cover classes to the point classes are cut,” Skyline High School student Ra’Maur Cash said. “It makes me so sad because so many of our students at our schools love the class that they go to, and when we don’t have enough teachers to teach those classes, classes were cut.”

    U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, who represents Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda and surrounding cities, didn’t attend the rally, but an aide read her statement, which said she stands in solidarity with rallying Bay Area educators.

    “Now is the time to act,” Simon wrote. “We must demand fully funded, well-staffed schools where teachers thrive and students succeed. The future of our children depends on it. Together, we will secure a brighter, more equitable future for every child in America.”

    California teacher pay isn’t keeping up with inflation or the cost of housing, CTA leaders said in the webinar, citing “California Teacher Pay: Decades of Falling Behind,” research by Sylvia Allegretto from the Center for Economic and Policy research based in Washington, D.C. 

    The pay gap between teachers and other professionals with similar educations has widened for four decades, according to the research.

    “That really influences the teacher shortages, the retaining of current teachers, the recruitment of future teachers into the profession,” Allegretto said at the webinar. “And here in California … the high cost of living is a serious problem. The complexity of these challenges calls for a massive coordinated effort.”

    California teachers have the highest average pay in the nation, compared with teachers in other states, according to National Education Association (NEA) data that does not factor in the cost of living.

    In 2024, the average starting salary for a California teacher was $55,283 and the average salary was $95,160, according to the NEA.

    The high cost of living in California, especially the cost of housing and health care, still keeps many teachers from meeting their most basic needs, Goldberg said when asked about the NEA data.

    “We are facing a crisis in our public schools,” Goldberg said. “There are not enough educators on our school campuses. California ranks in the bottom five of states for class-size ratio. We rank 48th in the nation for access to school counselors. The resources we do have are constantly under attack.”

    Local union chapter leaders plan to approach school district administrators in the coming weeks to begin bargaining, according to CTA leaders. 

    By aligning their contracts, the unions are raising awareness in the major metro areas of the need to invest in schools, said Ken Jacobs, senior policy adviser at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. 

    “CTA is correct to say this is unprecedented for teachers’ unions,” Jacobs told EdSource. “We have seen success in private sector unions aligning contracts across regions. The best recent example is UNITE HERE locals successfully carrying out coordinated hotel strikes around the country.”

    But how will districts afford raises and other increased costs when some are inching closer to the fiscal cliff and considering buyouts, layoffs or school closures?

    “It is really a matter of priorities,” said Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, president of the Oakland Education Association.

    Oakland Unified’s school board is considering merging schools and making other cuts to close budget deficits, but Taiz-Rancifer said the district has the resources to keep schools open and to put teachers and other resources in the classroom. 

    Parent and executive director of Parent Voices Oakland, Clarissa Doutherd, who was at the rally in Oakland Tuesday afternoon, agrees.

    “When underfunding leads to the threats of budget cuts and closures … that jeopardizes our school communities,” Doutherd said. “When we unite across the Bay Area and across California to demand that districts prioritize spending that directly impacts our children and our schools, so that our kids have stability, so that our kids have fully staffed schools that aren’t in threat of closure every single other year.”





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  • Politico: MAGA Loyalist Describes a Month of Chaos at the Pentagon

    Politico: MAGA Loyalist Describes a Month of Chaos at the Pentagon


    A Trump loyalist wrote an article in Politico blaming Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for chaos and dysfunction at the Defense Department.

    Before he was confirmed by the Senate, critics warned that the FOX News host had minimal administrative experience and was completely unqualified to lead one of the nation’s largest bureaucracies. He had run two small veterans’ groups into the ground and was fired from both.

    In addition, the media reported that Hegseth conducted yet another Signal chat about bombing targets that included unauthorized people, including his wife, his brother, his personal lawyer, and a dozen other friends.

    In the following article, John Pullyer predicts that Trump will replace Hegseth swiftly.

    John Ullyot is former chief Pentagon spokesman and led communications at the National Security Council and the Department of Veterans Affairs in President Donald Trump’s first term. He resigned from the Pentagon last week. He was a senior communications adviser on Trump’s 2016 campaign.

    It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership.President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.

    The latest flashpoint is a near collapse inside the Pentagon’s top ranks. On Friday, Hegseth fired three of his most loyal senior staffers — senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of Defense. In the aftermath, Defense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters, claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an investigation ordered earlier this month.

    Yet none of this is true. While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test. In fact, at least one of them has told former colleagues that investigators advised him he was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing. Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.

    On Friday, POLITICO reported that Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, was leaving his role. Kasper had requested the investigation into the Pentagon leaks, which reportedly included military operational plans for the Panama Canal and a pause in the collection of intelligence for Ukraine.

    Hegseth is now presiding over a strange and baffling purge that will leave him without his two closest advisers of over a decade — Caldwell and Selnick — and without chiefs of staff for him and his deputy. More firings may be coming, according to rumors in the building.

    In short, the building is in disarray under Hegseth’s leadership.



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  • Fresno Unified teachers say district is slow-walking ethnic studies launch

    Fresno Unified teachers say district is slow-walking ethnic studies launch


    Last school year, Duncan High School students in Gabriel Perez’s ethnic studies class discussed how hip hop and rap music originated from young African American artists highlighting their lived experiences, which were often characterized by social issues such as poverty, gang violence and racism.

    Credit: Lasherica Thornton / EdSource

    In October 2017, Fresno Unified teacher Lauren Beal proposed an ethnic studies class at Edison High because she saw “a need for students to learn the historical truth about Black Americans,” an effort supported by the school, which serves higher percentages of Black students than the district, county or state. An ethnic studies class about Latino Americans was also proposed and adopted at the school. 

    Other teachers across the state’s third-largest district spearheaded such action in their schools. 

    By 2020, ethnic studies teachers envisioned thousands of Fresno Unified students — not just a few hundred in some schools — having the space to learn the untold stories of diverse communities. They formed the Fresno Ethnic Studies Coalition in hopes of establishing and implementing the course districtwide and increasing the district’s investment. 

    Following their efforts, in August 2020, the Fresno Unified school board passed a resolution to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement, the Fresno Bee reported at the time. Last school year, 2023-24, ahead of the state’s 2025-26 mandate for an ethnic studies course, Fresno Unified students were required to complete a two-semester course to graduate, according to the Bee. 

    Despite the enthusiasm that led to the creation of ethnic studies courses and the graduation requirement in Fresno, the development of the program is reportedly at a standstill, leaving some teachers to question whether it’s related to dissension in other parts of the state.  

    “In a few years, we have come a long way,” said Beal, who is teaching AP African American studies this year. 

    District leaders consider their decision to create the requirement a bold move because only a few California school systems have mandated ethnic studies classes so far. For instance, some districts have implemented ethnic studies gradually, starting with introductory classes or incorporating concepts of ethnic studies into other courses. Without state funding for implementation, other districts may opt out of the requirement altogether.

    In addition to the classes, Fresno Unified has offered its teachers professional development in ethnic studies, providing them opportunities to visit other educators across the state and to obtain graduate certifications in the subject.

    Even so, Beal and others accuse the district of being ambivalent in their decision-making, causing the program to stall. 

    “It’s not that they’ve completely dropped funding and completely dropped support,” Marisa Rodriguez, a Roosevelt High ethnic studies and Chicano studies teacher, said. “There’s no clear rationale and accountability for the decisions being made.”

    As a result, although led by educators, the implementation of ethnic studies has not been done with teachers, Fresno Teachers Association President Manuel Bonilla said. 

    Being supported 

    Ethnic studies in Fresno Unified

    Courses, some of which are offered under dual enrollment, now include comprehensive ethnic studies, Chicano studies, African American studies, Asian American studies, women and gender in ethnic studies and Advanced Placement offerings. 

    The high school ethnic studies courses meet the A-G graduation requirement to gain admission to the University of California and California State University systems. Middle school courses are an introduction to ethnic studies but do not count toward the A-G or Fresno Unified graduation requirement.

    Nine Fresno Unified high schools have at least one ethnic studies course. Ten of the district’s middle schools and Phoenix Secondary, a 7-12 grade community day school, also offer ethnic studies courses. 

    The success of ethnic studies implementation has depended, in part, on Fresno Unified’s ability to recruit, train and continually support its teachers. Over the years, the number of staff supporting the program has remained the same as the number of teachers and classes has increased.

    To this day, nearly five years after the district’s initial action to require the course, ethnic studies has one vice principal on special assignment, Kimberly Lewis, leading and a teacher on special assignment supporting the program of 28 instructors and 1,600 students currently enrolled in courses.

    To help support educators, many of whom don’t have a background in ethnic studies, Fresno Unified has developed and offered teachers a chance to learn from each other, but the educators say they desire and need more robust training and “meaningful support.” 

    Educators with teaching credentials in subjects like history aren’t necessarily experts in ethnic studies, let alone the specific topics that must be covered, said Edison High teacher Heather Miller. For newly offered classes, such as Miller’s Women and Gender in ethnic studies, teachers must gain foundational knowledge of the course and be trained on how to teach ethnic studies and create a curriculum that is relevant, engaging and accessible to high school students, even though much of the existing ethnic studies content has been developed for college. 

    So, along with district-level support, the district needs experts in the ethnic studies discipline to help in the continual professional development of current and future educators, teachers say. And they want to have input on that. 

    Having a voice

    The termination of professional development without staff or community input continues to cause angst over a year later.

    In June 2023, the school board approved an $88,000 contract with San Francisco State professor Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales and her organization, Community Responsive Education, to provide monthly professional development and learning for Fresno Unified instructors. In November 2023, Fresno Unified did not renew the agreement as planned — and still hasn’t, despite it being proposed again last October. 

    Based on Nov. 1, 2023, board documents, Community Responsive Education would have continued to provide instructional coaching for Fresno Unified middle and high schools offering ethnic studies as part of a three-year partnership. The amended contract to increase services by up to $100,000 was removed by staff from the November 2023 agenda and was not added back in the 2023-24 school year.

    According to Rodriguez, teachers learned in November 2023 that the district did not renew its contract with Community Responsive Education, without seeking input on how it would impact teachers or their curriculum development.

    Between 2015 and 2017: High school ethnic studies courses in California began gaining momentum as more school districts started offering the class, Education Week reported.

    Between 2017 and 2020: Fresno Unified teachers spearheaded the creation of ethnic studies classes, and schools across the district adopted the courses.

    May 2020: Ethnic studies instructors, along with students and families, formed the Fresno Ethnic Studies Coalition to advocate for Fresno Unified to establish, fund and staff a districtwide ethnic studies program and implement a graduation requirement.

    August 2020: As a result of the teacher-driven efforts, the Fresno Unified school board passed a resolution to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement.

    Between the 2020-21 and 2022-23 school years: The district recruited and trained educators interested in teaching ethnic studies and expanded course offerings. The initial plan to require the course for incoming freshmen starting in 2022-23 was delayed in order to recruit teachers.

    June 2023: The school board approved an $88,000 contract with the organization Community Responsive Education to provide teacher and curriculum development from July 1, 2023, to June 28, 2024.

    Summer 2023: Ethnic studies teachers started meeting with Community Responsive Education consultants to create a framework to guide the teaching method for ethnic studies. The co-developed VALLEY framework — meaning voices, ancestors, liberation, love, empathy and yearning — ensures lessons are relevant for Fresno students. The consulting contract included at least 10 two-hour sessions with teachers and community members.

    August 2023: After being delayed by one school year, Fresno Unified started requiring incoming freshmen to take a yearlong ethnic studies course to graduate. The district’s graduation requirement is ahead of the state’s mandate.

    Teachers incorporated the VALLEY framework into their classes.

    September 2023: Pajaro Valley refused to renew its 2023 contract for the ethnic studies program curriculum of Community Responsive Educaton. Pajaro Valley’s three high schools had been using the curriculum since 2021.

    Pajaro Valley Unified had accused San Francisco State University professor Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, the program’s creator, with “unfounded allegations” of being antisemitic, according to The Pajaronian news organization. Tintiangco-Cubales was a part of a 2019 committee selected by the State Board of Education to draft a model curriculum for California. The curriculum was initially rejected amid accusations of political bias and rewritten. Many deemed the curriculum as antisemitic because it did not include the contributions of Jewish Americans as it did for Arab Americans, among other concerns. (Historically, ethnic studies has focused on African, Native, Latino and Asian Americans with the ability to include other racial-ethnic groups or marginalized communities.)

    November 2023: The services being offered through Community Responsive Education, which had been underway for nearly five months in Fresno Unified and were being utilized by teachers, needed to be increased. An amended contract to increase those services by up to $100,000, bringing the contract total to $188,000, was presented for board approval.

    Former Superintendent Bob Nelson recommended the amended contract for approval at the time.

    District staff removed the contract renewal from the school board agenda, essentially terminating the contract and ending services.

    In addition to helping create the VALLEY framework that guides the program, the organization was supposed to help develop and align the ethnic studies curriculum to the framework.

    November 2023 to September 2024: District leaders, including Instructional Superintendent Marie Williams, said Fresno Unified pulled the contract “out of an abundance of community concern.” She maintained that the district would not say what the specific concerns were.

    “We are not in a position to answer that question,” she told EdSource. “Here’s what we are in a position to do: We are in a position to get professional learning (for) the teachers; we’re in a position to contract with other vendors.”

    Over time, teachers used professional development they’d received — Community Responsive Education’s monthly 2023 sessions previously offered, other consultant training or district-provided opportunities, such as conferences — to guide their course and curriculum development. Ethnic studies teachers report that they are again “working in silos,” one reason they pushed the district to establish a districtwide program in the first place.

    October 2024: On Oct. 9 and Oct. 23, a $100,000 Community Reponsive Education contract was reintroduced for board approval. Again, as in 2023, district staff removed the contract from the agenda before it could be presented or discussed by the board.

    Interim Superintendent Misty Her recommended the contract for approval both times.

    Up until that point, Fresno Unified’s ethnic studies educators had been meeting with curriculum consultants of Community Responsive Education, including during the summer of 2023, to create the VALLEY framework – voices, ancestors, liberation, love, empathy and yearning – that intentionally centers “local, community, familial and personal experiences,” to guide ethnic studies in the district. 

    “Out of an abundance of community concern, a decision was made to not move forward with that contract,” said Marie Williams, instructional superintendent for curriculum and professional learning.  

    The district wouldn’t — and still hasn’t — named the specifics or the source of that concern, despite inquiries by ethnic studies teachers and by EdSource. As part of curriculum development, Community Responsive Education and the district would have garnered feedback from Fresno Unified’s students and community members, according to the scope of the work defined in the contract. 

    “We asked if it was due to anything in our curriculum,” Beal told EdSource. “How do we know — if you’re not naming the reason the contract was pulled — that we’re fair to teach what we’re teaching and how we’re teaching, and that you’re going to have our backs in the classroom? What is the line that we can’t cross as teachers?”

    It left them to speculate why. 

    Rodriguez said it was because of Community Responsive Education’s association with Liberated Ethnic Studies, an approach to teaching ethnic studies that centers around the liberation of marginalized and oppressed communities by dismantling racism and systems of power. 

    Ethnic studies educators and activists from across California created Liberated Ethnic Studies and formed the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium after the State Board of Education rejected the 2019 draft curriculum that they had recommended. According to the consortium, the model curriculum that the state board eventually adopted in 2021 removed or redefined critical terms such as capitalism, “fails to depict the true causes of police brutality” and lacks the history of Palestine, among other critiques.

    Advocates describe Liberated Ethnic Studies as criticizing and challenging systems of power and oppression, such as white supremacy, imperialism and “settler colonialism,” a system of oppression caused by a settling nation displacing another nation. Critics characterize it as a left-wing ideology focused solely on the oppression of those systems.

    There have been conflicts and lawsuits in districts that have worked with the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium. For example, in December, a federal judge rejected a lawsuit against the consortium, a Los Angeles teachers union and educators who created a “liberated” curriculum adopted by at least two dozen school districts. The judge cited a lack of evidence. 

    Even when curriculums aren’t developed through the organization, a connection to members of the committee that drafted the initial model curriculum and are leaders in the consortium, such as Tintiangco-Cubales, has seemingly led to backlash. 

    “Where does that leave us if we want to teach anything that is, in any way, connected to Liberated Ethnic Studies?” Rodriguez said.

    Lewis, the vice principal on special assignment for ethnic studies, said that the district assured teachers the curriculum was not the concern. 

    In fact, the district still uses the VALLEY framework that was formed with Community Responsive Education as it was built and co-designed by Fresno Unified educators to be the “foundation” of ethnic studies, Lewis said. 

    “It is the voices of our teachers,” she said. 

    Using that VALLEY framework, classes, such as Gabriel Perez’s at Duncan High, discuss the establishment of Fresno’s Chinatown near slaughterhouses and the tens of thousands of people from across California who attended a Ku Klux Klan Fiesta at the Fresno Fairgrounds in the 1920s. 

    “These were doctors. These were lawyers,” he said. “These were political leaders, a part of this community, who had this racist ideology.” 

    Rodriguez also incorporates the VALLEY framework into her classes at Roosevelt High. Student reflections on a comic novel about redlining in Fresno revealed their understanding of how race and class can be used to separate people. 

    The VALLEY framework is an approach to teaching the ethnic studies content, which is currently based on the state’s model curriculum meant to guide districts. In the absence of a consultant to further guide that curriculum and program development, the district has provided opportunities for teachers to attend conferences and learn from other local college professors. 

    “That doesn’t change our lack of faith or trust in them,” Rodriguez said.

    This past semester, the district reintroduced a Community Responsive Education contract, fostering hope among teachers that they’d regain ongoing support through professional learning, curriculum development and coaching from Community Responsive Education.  

    On Oct. 9 and 23, a $100,000 Community Responsive Education contract was on the agenda for board approval but was removed without discussion — just as it was in 2023. Each time it’s been pulled by staff, it’s been with the understanding, according to some board members, that district leaders will address any concerns. 

    Eliminating professional development without input or discussion — now three times — impacts educators’ confidence in teaching the course in a thoughtful, authentic way, said Bonilla, the teachers union president. 

    And it creates a culture of fear among teachers, Beal said. 

    Feeling protected

    Ethnic studies courses and curriculum are not submitted for school board approval. As long as the course and curriculum meet state guidelines, teachers have the autonomy to choose their teaching materials. 

    But teachers fear that what they teach will be brought under scrutiny. That fear, they say, could impact the district’s ability to recruit or retain ethnic studies teachers.

    “Too many times in this district, teachers have been thrown under the bus for teaching material,” Bonilla said. 

    With ethnic studies content, oftentimes, teachers are tasked with connecting material to something that’s happening in real time, he said. 

    “We don’t have safety or guidance on how they want us, as teachers, to discuss current events or real-world connections,” Beal said. “It’s a lot of autonomy, but it’s also a lot of fear.”

    The district has worked to mitigate such concerns, instructional superintendent Williams said, by building and strengthening administrators’ knowledge and understanding of ethnic studies so that administrators have confidence in the materials teachers present. 

    “If somebody has a problem with my curriculum, the only way that you can protect me is if you know what it is I’m doing,” said Amy Sepulveda, who has taught Intro to Ethnic Studies at Fort Miller Middle School for four years. “A lot of our leadership don’t know what ethnic studies is.”

    When principals and district leaders have a clear understanding of ethnic studies and the curriculum that teachers develop, they can defend and support teachers and their work. 

    The district has organized monthly meetings “to continue developing curriculum knowledge” among teachers and administrators and arranged for board members to visit ethnic studies classes. 

    Worry remains.

    Lewis, the vice principal on special assignment, attributes some worry to the idea of ethnic studies. A key concept of ethnic studies is to teach the counter narrative, stories and perspectives never documented or left untold in other classes, many advocates and educators say. 

     “I think everyone is struggling with how we work and shift mental models in a system that has been boxed in K-12 education.” Lewis said. “How do we unlearn and shift mental models on teaching the counter narrative?”

    Lewis realizes that teachers want protection of the materials that they use, including those presenting counter narratives. 

    But there is none, she said. There’s not a policy or practice.

    Without that protection, can ethnic studies thrive? 

    “We keep on moving forward without assuring the safe and sacred protection of the teachers, students and community that ethnic studies is supposed to uplift,” Sepulveda has said about ethnic studies implementation thus far. 

    To Williams, the way to assure staff of that safety and support is a consistent and continued commitment to move forward. 

    “We recognize that we are in this moment where there is concern and consternation,” she said. “To keep leaning in and to keep listening, to keep being responsive — I think that’s how you reassure them. I think it’s your actions.”





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  • Small College America – Profile Earlham College – Edu Alliance Journal


    February 17, 2025, by Dean Hoke: This profile of Earlham College is the second in a series presenting small colleges throughout the United States.

    Background

    Founded in 1847 in Richmond, Indiana, Earlham College is a private liberal arts institution with deep Quaker roots. The college maintains its commitment to principles such as integrity, peace, social justice, and community engagement, which shape both its academic and extracurricular life. Despite its modest size, Earlham has built a reputation for academic rigor, experiential learning, and global perspectives. Dr. Paul Sniegowski, a biologist and former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, has served as President since August 2024.

    For the 2023-24 academic year, U.S. News & World Report estimates Earlham’s total annual cost (including tuition, housing, and other expenses) at $53,930, with an average net price after aid of $25,496.

    Curricula

    Earlham College offers a diverse range of undergraduate programs, with popular majors including Biology, Environmental Science, International Studies, Business, and Psychology. The college places a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary learning, allowing students to engage in cross-disciplinary courses and independent research. The Epic Advantage Program provides students with up to $5,000 in funding for hands-on learning experiences, such as internships, field studies, and international travel.

    The college also offers a 3+2 Engineering Program, where students spend three years at Earlham before transferring to an affiliated university, such as Columbia or Case Western Reserve, to complete an engineering degree. This dual-degree approach combines the benefits of a liberal arts education with technical training, preparing students for careers in engineering, business, and technology fields.

    Strengths

    • Commitment to Experiential Learning – Programs like Epic Advantage provide students with real-world experience, enhancing their competitiveness in the job market.
    • Strong International Focus – Nearly 70% of Earlham students study abroad, and the college has partnerships with institutions worldwide.
    • Small Class Sizes – With a 9:1 student-faculty ratio, Earlham offers personalized attention and mentoring opportunities.
    • Values-Driven Education – Quaker principles of peace, social justice, and ethical leadership are embedded in the curriculum and campus culture.
    • Strong Science and Environmental Programs – The Joseph Moore Museum and expansive natural study areas provide unique hands-on research opportunities.

    Weaknesses

    • Financial Stability Challenges – Like many small liberal arts colleges, Earlham faces financial pressures, including declining enrollment and reliance on tuition revenue.
    • Leadership Continuity – Since 2011, Earlham has had four Presidents and one interim.
    • Limited Graduate Programs – Earlham focuses almost exclusively on undergraduate education, which may limit options for students seeking to continue their studies within the same institution.
    • Limited Name Recognition – Despite its strong academic reputation, Earlham struggles with brand recognition outside the Midwest and higher education circles.

    Economic Impact

    Earlham College is a major economic driver in Richmond, Indiana, and the surrounding region. The college employs hundreds of faculty and staff, supports local businesses, and contributes significantly to the local economy.

    According to the Independent Colleges of Indiana, Earlham College has a total economic impact of $76 million on the state and has created nearly 725 jobs in Indiana. LinkedIn data suggests the college has nearly 9,000 alumni, with 1,400 residing in Indiana and 366 in the Richmond area.

    Through programs like the Center for Social Justice and the Bonner Scholars Program, Earlham students engage in community service projects throughout Richmond. The college also frequently hosts cultural and educational events open to the public, further integrating itself into the civic life of the region.

    Enrollment Trends

    Earlham College has experienced a decline in full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment over the past decade. In the 2013-14 academic year, enrollment stood at 1,159 students, dropping to 677 students in 2022-23. In the 2024 academic year, undergraduate FTE enrollment was 691.33 in the fall and 620.33 in the spring, reflecting ongoing challenges in retention and recruitment.

    Degrees Awarded by Major

    In 2024, Earlham College awarded 123 undergraduate degrees, including 84 single majors, 18 double majors, and one triple major. The distribution by major category is as follows:

    Alumni

    According to Earlham’s First-Destination Survey Report (2019-23):

    • 28% of graduates continue their education within six months of graduation.
    • 57% are employed within six months.
    • The top five employment industries are Education, Healthcare, Internet & Software, and Research.
    • Nearly 50% of alumni pursue graduate or professional school within 10 years.

    Notable Alumni:

    • Michael C. Hall (1993) – Emmy-nominated actor (Dexter, Six Feet Under).
    • Margaret Hamilton (1958) – NASA software engineer, led Apollo Program flight software development.
    • Michael Shellenberger (1993) – Author and journalist on free speech and environmental policy.
    • Venus Williams (2015) – Former World No. 1 tennis player and Olympic gold medalist.
    • Wendell Meredith Stanley (1926) – Nobel Prize-winning chemist in virus research.

    Endowment and Financial Standing

    Earlham College’s current endowment is $419 million, down from $475 million in 2021. Financial challenges stem from declining enrollment and reduced tuition revenue. In FY 2023, the college reported a net loss of $11.1 million.

    Despite these challenges, Forbes (2024) rated Earlham A- with a 3.499 GPA, signaling relative financial resilience. The college is actively implementing strategic budget adjustments and seeking alternative revenue sources to ensure long-term sustainability.

    Why Earlham Remains Relevant

    In an era where liberal arts colleges must justify their value, Earlham College stands out for its values-driven, experiential education. Its commitment to academic excellence, social responsibility, and global engagement makes it an attractive option for students looking for more than just a degree.

    Earlham’s focus on sustainability, diversity, and international collaboration positions it as a model institution that integrates ethical leadership with practical learning. As higher education continues to evolve, Earlham demonstrates that a small college can have a big impact on both students and the world.

    Dean Hoke is Managing Partner of Edu Alliance Group, a higher education consultancy, and formerly served as President/CEO of the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA). With decades of experience in higher education leadership, consulting, and institutional strategy, he brings a wealth of knowledge on small colleges’ challenges and opportunities. Dean, along with Kent Barnds, are co-hosts for the podcast series Small College America. Season two begins February. 25, 2025



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  • West Contra Costa school board slashes staffing to avoid deficit

    West Contra Costa school board slashes staffing to avoid deficit


    A special education class at West Contra Costa Unified’s Stege Elementary School in Richmond.

    Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource

    West Contra Costa Unified School District’s school board approved a plan Wednesday night that will cut educator and administrative positions, and reduce funds for programs and supplies in order to stay fiscally solvent and avoid a state takeover. 

    District officials have been grappling with how to cut $32.7 million in costs between 2024 and 2027; cuts for the current school year total $19.7 million.

    Cuts for the rest of the deficit, $13 million, will be spread out over the next two school years: $7 million in 2025-26 and $6 million in 2026-27. District officials warned it’s likely more reductions will occur after 2027.

    Board members Leslie Reckler, Cinthia Hernandez and Guadalupe Enllana voted for the plan. Reckler, board president, said she voted for the solvency plan to “literally save the district.”

    “No one wants to do this; no one runs for office to do this; no one works here to do this,” Reckler said. “This is an absolute necessity. We are staring down a dire fiscal situation.”

    Trustee Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy was absent while trustee Jamela Smith-Folds abstained from voting. 

    “I want us to start coming together, and I think the way to say that is to abstain,” Smith-Folds said. “This is part of the board’s job that is the hardest because these numbers (budget cuts) are attached to people.”

    According to district officials, declining enrollment, expiration of Covid-19 relief funds, increased costs for special education programs, and underfunded mandates from state and federal governments are reasons West Contra Costa is strapped for cash. Districts across the state have been dealing with the same issues, including San Francisco and Oakland.

    It’s not the first time West Contra Costa has faced challenging budget deficits. In 1991, the district became the first in the state to go insolvent and received a $29 million bailout loan, which took 21 years to pay off. 

    District officials presented a detailed list of staffing cuts — including teachers, social workers, speech therapists, assistant principals, and administrators — spanning from the 2025 school year through 2027.  Over the next two school years, about 1.6% of staff in the teachers’ union will be let go for a total savings of about $3.7 million. 

    Cuts to educator positions are also coming during a time when West Contra Costa schools are struggling to fill vacant positions. Dozens of educators have, at various board meetings, expressed the hardships of not having fully staffed schools. Francisco Ortiz, president of United Teachers of Richmond, said last month that most schools have to use substitutes on a daily basis.

    The majority of school budgets are used to pay staff salaries and benefits, district officials said. In West Contra Costa, that amounts to nearly 84%. This is the reason it wasn’t possible to avoid cutting staffing positions, district officials say. 

    Recent salary increases have also affected spending, district officials said. Salaries have increased 19.5% over the past five years, and benefits have increased by about 26%.

    For the next school year, about $100,000 will be cut from the International Baccalaureate (IB) program; the high school theater budget will be reduced by $20,000, and art supplies by $14,000.

    District officials said they are exploring other ways to save money that don’t impact the classroom, including increasing annual daily attendance, which is how the district receives revenue. For every 1% increase in attendance, the district would generate $2.75 million in additional state funding.





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