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Immigrant parents report faulty, slow translation of special education documents

Carmen Rodriguez, seated right, and other parents meet with state Sen. Anthony Portantino in the State Capitol.

Credit: Courtesy of Innovate Public Schools

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When Los Angeles mother Tania Rivera signed a crucial document for her son Luis’ special education program in 2022, she was hoping he would be able to return to in-person classes after two years of distance learning.

But the individualized education program, or IEP, required for all children who need special education, was available only in English. Rivera’s first language is Spanish.

Later she was told Luis, who has autism, would have to continue with online learning because the document did not specify that he needed in-person classes. In addition, she says, the document removed his occupational therapy for handwriting because a language interpreter erroneously said she objected.

“It is a big disadvantage that we have, because I have some English, but it is very basic,” Rivera said in Spanish. “If we’re talking about educational terms or legal terms, the meaning can be lost with just one word” mistranslated.

Monthslong waits and faulty or incomplete translations of special education documents are widespread across California for parents who speak languages other than English, according to special education advocates. They say these problems violate parents’ rights to participate in their children’s education plans under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal law that regulates special education.

A proposal in the state Legislature, Senate Bill 445, aims to solve some of these problems, but its fate remains uncertain because of concerns over potential cost.

“I’ve never seen a timely translation and I’ve never seen all documents being fully translated,” said Lisa Mosko Barros, founder of SpEducational, an organization that works to educate parents to be advocates for their children with special needs and improve their access to high-quality education. Mosko Barros has worked with dozens of families in Southern California, including Rivera, and trained hundreds of others on navigating the IEP process.

She said she has heard the same complaints over and over.

“I literally spoke to one parent this morning in the Inland Empire who a couple of years ago signed an IEP and didn’t realize she was signing consent to eliminating speech services for her child who is non-verbal with autism,” Mosko Barros said. “It really can make or break a child’s access to a free and appropriate public education.”

Rivera’s son Luis, now in eighth grade, remained in online classes since fifth grade until this fall and regressed as a result, his mother said.

In total, he lost three years of in-person classes, first in 2020-21 when all students had distance learning, again in 2021-22 because he has chronic asthma and his pediatrician recommended he stay home since vaccinations against Covid-19 were not yet available for children. Then, in 2022, the translation problems kept him out of in-person schooling for another year.

“He has had academic setbacks, and socially, he regressed a lot because it was three years without interaction,” Rivera said.

When asked how long the district takes to translate special education assessments and IEP documents, the Los Angeles Unified School District communications team wrote that “the District works to parallel the IEP timeline for consistency and return the translated document within the same 30-day timeframe.” They declined to comment on Rivera’s case.

Rivera and almost 200 other people attended an online meeting in September with state Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-Burbank, at which parents shared how long wait times and poor-quality translations have hurt their children with special needs. They expressed their support for Portantino’s bill, which would require IEPs to be translated into a parent or guardian’s native language by a “qualified translator” within 30 calendar days of an IEP meeting or a later request.

Current federal and state laws require that school districts “take any action necessary” to ensure parents understand IEP meetings, and state law requires they translate a student’s IEP at a parent’s request, but no time frame is specified.

“I believe strongly that parents can best advocate for their children when they have the knowledge to do so. Not being able to read an IEP because of language barriers is unacceptable,” Portantino said. “We must find a way to translate IEPs more quickly.”

Portantino said the issue is personal for him because he struggled with dyslexia and ADHD as a student and received limited help from the schools he attended.

“I largely depended on developing my own learning methods, which included lots of repetition and good listening skills,” Portantino said. But he wants to make sure other children can get the help they need.

The bill passed the Senate, the Assembly Education Committee and the Assembly Appropriations Committee with no opposition. But an analysis by the Assembly Appropriations Committee found that the bill could cost the California Department of Education $409,000 annually and could cost school districts between $6 million and $16 million, which might also have to be reimbursed by the state. Believing there was a risk the bill could be vetoed this year because of those costs, Portantino said he chose to make it a “two-year bill,” giving it more time to be discussed in the Legislature and with Gov. Gavin Newsom.

San Francisco Unified School District passed a policy in 2022 to ensure “every effort shall be made” to translate special education documents before meetings so that parents have time to read and understand them. It also requires meeting times to be extended to allow for interpretation.

Carmen Rodríguez is one of dozens of parents who pushed for that policy. Rodríguez has two children with disabilities. Before the San Francisco Unified policy passed, she said, she waited eight months for a written translation of the first assessment of her older son, who has anxiety and a learning disability, and a year for the IEP for her younger child, who has dyslexia.

“If it’s not in my language, how am I going to understand the document? How do I know that it really says here what my child needs?” Rodríguez said in Spanish.

In addition, she said IEP meetings were often cut short because the district limited them to one hour, with no extra time allowed for interpretation.

Belén Pulido Martínez, senior community organizer for Innovate Public Schools, an organization that worked to get the San Francisco policy passed, said the policy empowers parents.

“Now in San Francisco, the district is training their special ed teachers on the policy, and we’re super happy about that because it’s not just a piece of paper that’s going to die in an office. It’s being implemented,” Martínez said.

Matt Alexander, the San Francisco Unified Board of Education commissioner who worked with parents to write the policy, said school districts have to prioritize translation and interpretation if they want parents to be engaged.

“In our district, over half of our families don’t speak English at home. So if we care about communicating with our families, we have to provide interpretation,” Alexander said. “Step one is, have a clear policy. Step two is, make sure you’re being accountable to families who are directly impacted. Is it working? How do we make it better?”

Rodríguez said since the San Francisco policy passed, several other mothers have thanked her. She said she would love for SB 445 to pass so parents in other districts can also benefit.

“So many children in many different places, many different schools, are not receiving the support they deserve, and their parents have to battle to get an evaluation and to get documents translated, and they find it really hard,” Rodríguez said. “It’s a really, really long document, and it’s a long process. And if it’s in our language, then it will be much easier for us parents to process and understand the document and the evaluation given to our children.”

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09/07/2025
Trump’s law reshapes federal loans and Pell Grants, impacting California students
UC Berkeley students stroll around campus near the landmark Sather Gate on April 19, 2017.

Photos by Alison Yin for EdSource
Top Takeaways

The law blocks graduate students from taking out new Grad PLUS loans and caps Parent PLUS loans starting in 2026.

To maintain access to federal student loans, academic programs must soon show alumni earn more than peers without the same degree.

The law expands Pell Grants to short-term workforce training and nixes an earlier proposal that likely would have reduced aid to many Pell recipients.
The domestic policy law signed by President Donald Trump will have major implications on how students in California and across the country pay for college, with analysts describing it as the most consequential federal higher education legislation in decades.

The most significant changes will impact access to federal loans and borrower repayment plans. The law also amends Pell Grant eligibility standards, expands qualified expenses for 529 college savings accounts, and is expected to raise the endowment tax on a few private universities, including Stanford.

Republican lawmakers say their suite of higher education policies aims to make college more affordable and reel in student debt while broadening access to career and technical education. Critics warn the package’s financial aid measures will do just the opposite, making higher education more expensive for low- and moderate-income students.

“This is the biggest set of changes to higher education policy in America since at least 1992,” said Robert Kelchen, a professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee, noting that the Higher Education Act hasn’t been reauthorized since 2008. “In this reconciliation bill, there are effectively pieces of legislation that congressional Republicans have been working on for years.”

The Grad PLUS program will stop accepting new borrowers

The federal Grad PLUS program, loans which make it possible for graduate students to borrow up to the cost of attendance minus other financial aid, will stop accepting borrowers this time next year. Current borrowers, however, will be grandfathered in and allowed to continue accessing those loans.

Graduate students will still have access to direct unsubsidized federal loans, but the bill caps those at $50,000 per year for students in professional programs, such as those studying to become lawyers or doctors, and most other graduate degrees at $20,500 per year.

The changes will reduce access to graduate school, particularly for low-income students who don’t have other funding options, said Melanie Storey, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, a nonprofit membership organization representing financial aid professionals at colleges across the country. “Very capable students who come from more modest backgrounds may be unwilling to pursue graduate or professional education.”

Some of those students may borrow from private lenders, but those loans “won’t come with the same kinds of terms and conditions and protections that a federal loan has,” she added.

The University of Southern California may be hit particularly hard by the loss of those PLUS loans. “They have so many graduate programs, and they have a lot of students who do not get financial aid,” Kelchen said.

The Grad PLUS program disbursed about $2 billion to students at California colleges and universities in the 2023-24 school year, federal data shows.

Lower caps on Parent PLUS loans will limit borrowing

Under the federal Parent PLUS loan program, parents used to have the ability to borrow up to the total cost of a student’s college education. A new cap starting July 2026 will limit borrowers to $20,000 per year and a lifetime maximum of $65,000 per student. Supporters argue that borrowing limits will slow rising tuition.

Parent PLUS loans have been “the loans of last resort” for students whose parents don’t qualify for private loans because of their credit, Kelchen said, so reducing the borrowing limit may hit students with substantial financial need the hardest. A brief by the Education Trust characterized them as “a double-edged sword for Black borrowers” in particular, who tend to have fewer resources to pay for college due to long-standing inequities in wealth and income.

Capping the Parent PLUS program will likely either “discourage students from attending college or limit their choices,” Storey said.

Institutions will need to get creative to ensure low-income and first-generation students can continue enrolling, said Emmanual Guillory, senior director of government relations at the American Council on Education.

“It’s hard to say that institutions will just find a way to make up the difference and will offer more institutional aid for low-income students to help them be able to cover the cost,” he said.

Former students’ earnings will determine loan access

The reconciliation bill puts postsecondary programs to a new test: In order to access federal student loans, alumni must earn more than peers who didn’t study for the same degree.

Congressional Republicans say the idea is to hold colleges and universities accountable for what alumni ultimately earn when they join the workforce. Loosely, for a given field of study, an undergraduate degree program can continue accessing federal loans if the median earnings of former students exceed the median earnings of high school graduates in the same state. Graduate programs maintain access to federal loans by comparing former students to similarly situated bachelor’s degree holders.

“It’s a really significant step towards the kind of focus on educational outcomes that we have seen both Republicans and Democrats talk about in recent years,” said Clare McCann, policy director at the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center. But McCann said it’s problematic that the measure doesn’t apply a similar standard to undergraduate certificate programs.

An analysis by Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, found that many associate degree programs could lose access to student loans, although associate degree students may be less likely to finance their educations in the first place.

“The promise of a lot of these programs is that you shouldn’t have to borrow,” Cooper said. “I kind of think that if these programs do have earnings outcomes that are so low, we probably shouldn’t be giving students loans for those programs, because it’s very unlikely that they’ll be able to repay their loans in full.”

SAVE, other repayment plans will close to new borrowers

The repayment terms will also change, reducing the number of plan choices to just two: a standard repayment plan and the Repayment Assistance Plan, which ties payment size to the borrower’s income. Supporters argue that doing so simplifies the options available to borrowers while putting them on a path to repay loan balances in full.

Most existing income-driven plans will later close to new borrowers, including the popular Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, a Biden administration initiative aimed at lowering monthly payments. In California, about 600,000 borrowers are enrolled in the SAVE plan, according to the Student Borrower Protection Center.

“For most borrowers, their payments will be drastically more expensive on a monthly and annual basis,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director of the Student Borrower Protection Center.

Loan deferments for economic hardship will be eliminated, and new limits will be placed on forbearance.

Lawmakers nixed a Pell proposal that worried colleges

The version of the reconciliation bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would have increased academic credit requirements per semester to be considered a part-time or full-time student under the Pell Grant program. That proposal sparked concern among officials at California State University and the University of California that tens of thousands of their students would receive less money from Pell — or would lose eligibility altogether because they don’t take enough classes each term.

The universities may now breathe a sigh of relief: The final law makes more incremental adjustments to Pell, such as making students who receive full scholarships from other sources ineligible for Pell.

Students can use Pell for short-term workforce training

Starting in July 2026, Pell Grant recipients will be able to spend their awards on educational programs that last more than eight but less than 15 weeks at accredited institutions. Supporters of extending Pell to shorter programs say doing so will make educational programs more accessible to adult students who are already in the workforce.

Kelchen said workforce Pell Grants have gained traction among a broad spectrum of policymakers due to frustration regarding the value of a college degree. “The goal is, by trying to encourage short-term credentials, you get people in through [an educational program] fast and back out into the economy,” he said.

But some are skeptical about the return on investment of weeks-long credential programs. Wesley Whistle, a project director who monitors higher education policy at the left-leaning think tank New America, said student earnings after completing short-term certificate programs “aren’t good on average” and that even when they do boost earnings, the positive effect “tends to fade after a year or two.” Researchers with the Institute of Education Sciences reported similar findings.

Families with 529 plans will have more spending options

The law also makes several changes to 529 plans, investment accounts typically used to save money for college, in which earnings are tax-deferred and withdrawals for qualified educational expenses are tax-exempt. The new law, starting in 2026, adds items including tutoring, standardized testing fees and some educational therapies to the list of qualified expenses while students are in K-12. After high school, the law also allows funds to be used for some professional credentials, not just college.

Researchers at the Brookings Institution have found that 529 plans mainly benefit wealthy families while costing the federal government billions in tax revenue. “Low-income people don’t have enough money to be able to save in this way,” McCann said.

In California, the state’s 529 plan — ScholarShare 529 — managed more than $15.6 billion in more than 439,000 accounts as of June 2024.

A few selective universities will see an endowment tax hike

Critics, including the American Council on Education, have also warned that another provision of the law — increasing the endowment tax at a relatively small number of private universities from 1.4% to as much as 8% — could indirectly reduce the institutional financial aid available to their students. However, proponents argue that elite colleges hoard wealth while charging students exorbitant tuition. Based on their current endowment-to-student ratios, Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology would likely be among the universities to see a tax increase, while the University of Southern California, with its much larger student body, would probably be exempt.
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09/07/2025
Invest in high-dosage tutoring to boost student achievement and recruit new teachers

Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

Growing up with a physical disability, I feared that people would only see me on a surface level. I thought teachers, friends and peers would only see me for what I couldn’t do, not what I could.

I’m fortunate, though. I’m strong, and I found those who believe in me. My teachers helped me overcome obstacles and saw that I am multifaceted — as every student is.

Now, I’m in a place where I want to be that person — the role model, the cheerleader, the coach — for others.

I knew from a young age that I wanted to provide that sort of mentorship to others. While in college studying neuroscience, I heard about a high-dosage tutoring program where I could help students with their schoolwork virtually while fostering strong relationships with them. This form of tutoring creates a strong, sustained bond between the tutor and student and provides at least 90 minutes of direct instruction each week. I’m now in my second year of tutoring, and I’m a better person for it. Every school should invest in high-dosage tutoring programs, and anyone interested in pursuing a career in education should sign up. Here’s why.

Tutoring creates a pathway for new teachers. We need more equipped adults in the classroom. My program is the Ignite Fellowship through Teach For America California, which provides robust training so that we have the content knowledge and pedagogical skills we need to feel prepared and sustain our roles. Plus, we are paid stipends so we can afford to focus on this work.

Teaching is a unique profession, and if we want to attract and retain educators, we should give them opportunities to test-drive the role. My experience with tutoring has shown me what it might be like to be a full-time teacher before committing. Since fellows are all college students, we’re also exposing our students to the possibility of college and beyond. I’m a proud member of Gen Z, and while you might only think of Gen Z as the TikTok generation, I think of our mission-driven sensibilities. We’re motivated to give back. A career in education aligns with this, and we should welcome this cadre of potential new teachers.

Relationships matter. Students won’t learn from someone they don’t like. They’re seeking role models who will take the time to get to know them as individuals; tutoring provides space to create that connection.

I remember tutoring a special-needs student for the first time. At first, it was challenging — he could get frustrated and shut down. I didn’t give up on him. If my educators had given up on me when I was seeking support and validation, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I learned his favorite video games and his favorite Pokémon cards, then integrated those themes into our lessons. It’s key to learn your students’ distinct personalities. I watched him open up, and things clicked. The lesson is valuable: When teachers can relate concepts to students’ interests, it makes a huge difference to their learning.

One-on-one attention is powerful. Large classes and high student-teacher ratios don’t always allow teachers to provide the one-on-one attention each student deserves. Enter: tutors. In my program, students receive 45 minutes of personalized tutoring thrice a week. The instruction is research-based and tied into the curriculum. We’re not asking students for extra time or for parents to rearrange their schedules — we’re embedding this high-impact, high-dosage tutoring into the school day.

As the achievement gap persists, it’s crucial that students receive individualized opportunities to learn and catch up. High-dosage tutoring allows this. Each semester I create close relationships with my students and learn their strengths and areas of growth, allowing me to tailor my teaching style to what’s going to be most effective for each student. And it’s working. At one of the schools where I tutor, Aspire Rosa Parks in Stockton, 71% of students working with Ignite fellows met their reading and math goals, and we provided 437 additional hours of individualized learning in just one semester. Plus, 98% of partner schools report that this tutoring boosts students’ academic achievement and engagement.

My experience as a tutor has been incredibly eye-opening. In my two years as an Ignite fellow, I’ve been able to work with elementary and middle school students across five different schools, which allowed me to connect with underrepresented students who need extra resources. Plus, I have found an inclusive and supportive community of those who want to inspire future generations. I have become a better leader and have gained a new perspective on educational equity. High-dosage tutoring helps students reach their academic goals while also facilitating a sense of belonging and connection with adults who want them to succeed — it’s a win-win.

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Roxane Knorr is a Teach For America Ignite Fellow and a 2022 UCLA alumna.

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

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09/07/2025
IRS Rules That Churches May Endorse Political Candidates

Trump and the Republican Party have long advocated for changes in federal law to allow churches to engage in political activities. The Johnson Amendment, enacted in 1954, limited the ability of churches and other religious institutions from issuing endorsements from the pulpit. Trump’s base includes evangelical churches that wanted this ban lifted. Trump didn’t have to change the law. He just had to appoint the Director of the Internal Revenue Service.

The New York Times reported:

The I.R.S. said on Monday that churches and other houses of worship can endorse political candidates to their congregations, carving out an exemption in a decades-old ban on political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits.

The agency made that statement in a court filing intended to settle a lawsuit filed by two Texas churches and an association of Christian broadcasters.

The plaintiffs that sued the Internal Revenue Service had previously asked a federal court in Texas to create an even broader exemption — to rule that all nonprofits, religious and secular, were free to endorse candidates to their members. That would have erased a bedrock idea of American nonprofit law: that tax-exempt groups cannot be used as tools of any campaign.

Instead, the I.R.S. agreed to a narrower carveout — one that experts in nonprofit law said might sharply increase politicking in churches, even though it mainly seemed to formalize what already seemed to be the agency’s unspoken policy.

The agency said that if a house of worship endorsed a candidate to its congregants, the I.R.S. would view that not as campaigning but as a private matter, like “a family discussion concerning candidates.”

“Thus, communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted,” the agency said, in a motion filed jointly with the plaintiffs.

The ban on campaigning by nonprofits is named after former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who introduced it as a senator in 1954. President Trump has repeatedly called for its repeal.

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09/07/2025
Teacher uses jazz to explore California history, race and culture

Guillermo Tejeda and the Neighborhood Orchestra performing at the Venice Beach Jazz Festival.

Guillermo Tejeda

The first thing Guillermo Tejeda does when he visits a new school is hunt for the piano. At most schools, the teacher finds a dusty old instrument, out of tune, stashed away in a dark closet.

The cobwebs tell him all he needs to know about how little arts education those students have been getting. His go-to technique to get them more jazzed about learning is to tickle the ivories, make that piano come back to life.

“I’ll bring it out, dust it off. I’ll bring students into the auditorium and I’ll do lessons there,” said Tejeda, a fourth grade teacher at Wadsworth Elementary in hardscrabble South Central Los Angeles. “I’m telling you, when I bring in song, when I bring music and performance into the classroom, the students light up in a way that really creates a meaningful experience for them.”

A schoolteacher who is also a jazz musician and a member of the Neighborhood Orchestra Collective, Tejeda uses music in general and the narrative of the LA jazz scene in particular, to teach about history, race and culture, as well as to spark joy in the classroom. A father of three currently on parental leave with his 11-month-old daughter Maya, Tejeda started playing the guitar at the age of 6. His grandfather, a migrant farm worker with a love of mariachi and a hand gnarled from picking in the fields, taught him how to play.

“I’m from East LA and I became a teacher because I wanted to be the teacher that I never had,” he said. “We come from a marginalized community where it’s hard to be a teacher. A lot of the adults are stressed out. People are not feeling joy. How do we bring more joy? How do we bring more meaning into our lives? I think music is that vehicle.”

Tejeda takes an expansive view of education that integrates the arts into all the disciplines to bring learning to life for children. His teaching feeds his music, he says, and his music feeds his teaching.

“I wish I had a teacher like Guillermo when I was in fourth grade,” said Elmo Lovano, the founder of Jammcard: The Music Professionals Network, who developed School Gig, an app that connects artists to schools. “He’s a passionate guy. He’s incredibly talented. It’s important for artists to know you can still be doing your art, but being a teacher could be an amazing opportunity for you to make a living, stay at home, support your family, give back to the kids, the next generation, and also still do you.”

Music is the prism through which his students become immersed in the history of their city, its politics and culture. He wants his students to be in tune with their heritage.

“I teach on 41st and Central, which is a historic jazz corridor,” he said. “And when I got to that school site, it surprised me that so few teachers talked about that. The first thing I did was write a lesson plan about it.”

Tejeda, whose students call him ‘Mister’ as a nickname, makes sure his class learns about the rich legacy of jazz in Los Angeles. For example, the historic Central Avenue jazz corridor was, for decades a cultural mecca, the heart of the African-American community in the city. At a time when most of the country was rigidly segregated, it was also something of an oasis, a place where people of all races and classes came together over music. There, a pantheon of jazz luminaries, including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Jelly Roll Morton, played to full houses.

“The giants of Central Avenue may have gone, but their footprints still remain on all of American culture,” as basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once put it. “The jazz musicians and record promoters also gave birth to rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, hip-hop and rap.”

Guillermo Tejeda and members of the band Steam Down at the Venice Jazz Festival.
credit: Luis Hernandez

Steeping in the often overlooked history of their neighborhood, Tejeda says, can help children sharpen their sense of identity, belonging and pride.

“These kids have no idea how special and beautiful their neighborhoods are because all they see on the news is how messed up it is,” said Tejeda, long a champion of culturally relevant pedagogy. “I want them to know this is the place, right here in your hood, this is where a lot of jazz music was born.”

Music often resonates with children on a deeper level than other forms of instruction. Tejeda is moved to tears remembering one little boy who had trouble engaging at school because of trauma at home. He only opened up when they began to play the piano together at recess. The piano became his sanctuary.

“I’m shook when I come home because a lot of these kids are dealing with very hard stuff and they’re so resilient,” said Tejeda, his voice thick with emotion.

“Yes, math and science is important but the whole child is important, that’s what drives me.”

Music also enhances both math and reading performance, experts say, perhaps partly because it enhances the neuroplasticity of the brain. Music amplifies learning across subject areas, experts say.

“Music and movement in addition to the more common modalities of written and verbal instruction is critical for including all kinds of learners in a well-rounded education,” said Jessica Mele, interim executive director of Create CA, an advocacy group. “It’s particularly beneficial for students whose first language is not English. Using art as a window into culture, race and history can engage students in complex conversations that they might not otherwise engage in.”

Music can also be healing, research suggests. As a boy, Tejeda suffered from a stutter that only subsided when he sang.

“I keep it real with the kids because I see myself in them,” he said. “It’s crazy how impactful music has been for me.”

It’s also a uniquely social experience that invites children to collaborate with their peers on projects that both require and reward focus and discipline, qualities that fuel academic success, experts say. Children practiced in the arts become accustomed to working collectively toward ambitious long-term goals.

Perhaps most importantly for Tejeda, children often find their voice through music and the arts. They can gain a sense of confidence, social-emotional well-being and a passion for lifelong learning.

“The end goals of music and education aren’t to memorize curriculums or key terms,” said Tejeda. “It’s really to find out who you are. It’s about self-determination and growing the full human being. I’m so excited to see this synergy of music and education because they are inextricable.”

Tejeda’s ambition is to make school so stimulating that children want to go there every day because they are deeply engaged in their studies. At a time of chronic absenteeism and plummeting test scores, he has a transformative vision of arts education as reinvigorating the classroom.

“I feel a deep calling to help effect change across California classrooms,” he said. “I am never going to stop teaching, because teaching and education is so essential to my soul. It is at the core of who I am,” but this “is a critical time for me to put my work into the next gear and figure out how I’m going to apply my passion and expertise to affect tangible change, more urgently, on a wider scale.”

Going forward, he hopes to pursue arts education advocacy on a broader level. He is also developing a new arts-driven curriculum, to “unleash the symphony of learning,” as Proposition 28, the state’s groundbreaking 2022 arts initiative, ramps up.

“It’s like out of my dreams and into reality,” he said. “We’re going to create a new world for students. This is a revolutionary time.”

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08/07/2025
How UC is navigating the complicated response to the Israel-Hamas war

Student advocates prepare to march outside the UC Board of Regents meeting at UCLA on Nov. 16.

Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

Students on California campuses are fearful and upset six weeks into the Israel-Hamas war, with Islamophobia and antisemitism on the rise at colleges across the country.

The climate across the University of California system is especially tense and has students feeling unsafe, forcing system officials to navigate a delicate issue that is painful for many on its 10 campuses.

Systemwide leaders and campus chancellors have, over the past several weeks, made several statements about the war and what they’re doing to keep students safe, but it’s been a challenging endeavor. Students and other stakeholders have regularly criticized UC officials for both what they have and haven’t said.

Earlier this month, UC and California State University officials were criticized by the California Legislative Jewish Caucus for not more forcefully condemning antisemitism on their campuses. Days later, when UCLA Chancellor Gene Block condemned what he labeled antisemitism at an event organized by Palestinian students, his statement was rebuked by those students who denied the charges of antisemitism and accused UC officials of a double standard for ignoring attacks against Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students.

Now, UC is going beyond words and statements. UC President Michael Drake last week announced that his office is committing $7 million toward addressing antisemitism and Islamophobia on campuses. Drake hopes the effort will tangibly benefit students and ease their anxieties by investing in emergency mental health resources, new educational programs and training for staff, including around free speech.

Students march outside last week’s UC board of regents meeting at UCLA.
Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

It’s a start, said Celene Aridin, a UC Davis student and president of the UC Student Association who had appealed to the president’s office for more mental health services, which she said are necessary because students are grieving.

“It has not been an easy time for students who are impacted. It’s been hard for them really to just go to school and attend classes normally. Their mental health is not OK. They are not OK,” Aridin said.

The $7 million investment is a “smart approach,” according to Kristen Shahverdian, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America, an organization that advocates for free speech on college campuses and in general.

“I think that they’re looking at some of the areas where there clearly are gaps and need some more robust resources,” Shahverdian said. “That it’s not just one lane I think is really important, that they’re coming at this from a lot of different directions.”

The Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel killed about 1,200 Israelis, according to officials. The subsequent Israeli military response in Gaza has killed more than 11,000 people there, including at least 4,500 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

While the war has been ongoing, cases of Islamophobia and antisemitism have increased on U.S. college campuses, including reports of harassment and assaults. It has prompted a federal response, with President Joe Biden’s Department of Education last week announcing it is opening new investigations at six colleges into reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Although none of its campuses are the ones being investigated, UC has been no exception to reports of Islamophobia and antisemitism.

Bears for Palestine, the UC Berkeley chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, wrote on Instagram that Muslim students have been “assaulted, harassed and spat on” and that “in classrooms, Palestinian and Arab students have been the target of genocidal threats.” In a statement to the campus, UC Berkeley’s chancellor, Carol Christ, cited “harassment, threats and doxing that have targeted our Palestinian students and their supporters.”

Palestinian students at other campuses, including UCLA, have made similar reports. Mohammad, a UCLA student and spokesperson for the UCLA chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, said Palestinian students at UCLA have been subjected to physical and verbal assaults.

“By just wearing a keffiyeh, it’s almost like it’s justified to call me a terrorist. By just walking around with a keffiyeh, for my friends, it’s almost justified for them to be pepper sprayed, for them to be jumped,” Mohammad said. He was granted partial anonymity because of concern for his safety.

The California Legislative Jewish Caucus, meanwhile, reported several antisemitic incidents in its letter earlier this month to college leaders, calling on them to take action to protect Jewish students. In the letter, the legislators said they heard from Jewish students at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and San Jose State who were attacked physically for supporting Israel. They also said Jewish students at UC San Diego needed a police escort to safely leave a student meeting.

In that Nov. 7 letter, the caucus members criticized UC and Cal State officials for not doing enough in response to antisemitism on their campuses. The caucus called on them to be “crystal clear in word and in deed that antisemitism — like all other forms of hatred and bigotry — will not be tolerated on our campuses.”

A Jewish student at UC Berkeley, Hannah Schlacter, said during last week’s board of regents meeting in Los Angeles that a Jewish student at her campus was hit in the head with a water bottle at a protest. She questioned why the university hadn’t labeled the incident a hate crime.

UCLA’s chancellor, Block, did make a statement on Nov. 10 condemning what he called “despicable Antisemitic language” and “extremely hateful behavior” at an event on the campus that week. He was presumably referring to a Nov. 8 pro-Palestine rally on the campus, which received national attention after some students beat a piñata of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Block’s statement angered the students who organized the rally, including Students for Justice in Palestine and UCLA’s chapter of UC Divest. In a statement, UC Divest said reports that antisemitic language was used at the rally were erroneous. The statement cited a New York Post report that quoted a student saying, “beat that f****** Jew” while hitting the piñata. In reality, according to UC Divest, the student said, “Rip that f****** piñata.”

“UC Divest rejects the claims that anti-Semitic actions were perpetrated by individuals at our rally and condemns anti-Semitism,” the UC Divest coalition added in its statement.

The group also accused UC of a double standard, saying that “when students ask administration for support in the wake of violent hate crimes” against pro-Palestinian Muslim students and others, “we are ignored, gaslit and invalidated.”

Students aren’t the only ones who have demanded more from campus leaders. Faculty members have weighed in too.

Last month, the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council, which includes faculty in ethnic studies across UC, accused UC leadership of statements “that distort and misrepresent the unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and thereby contribute to the racist and dehumanizing erasure of Palestinian daily reality.” The council’s letter was condemned by one UC regent, Jay Sures, who said it was “rife with falsehoods about Israel” and specifically took issue with the faculty asking UC to retract charges of terrorism.

And this month, a faculty coalition at UCLA criticized campus leadership for not denouncing pro-Palestinian rallies on campus. “The atmosphere on campus results in Jewish students, staff and faculty who are afraid to be on campus, show solidarity with Israel, or practice their freedom of religion in public,” the faculty wrote in the letter, which now has more than 350 signatories.

Being met with criticism from students and other stakeholders hasn’t been abnormal for college leaders over the past six weeks, said Michelle Deutchman, the president of UC’s National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.

In Florida, the head of the state’s public university system attempted to ban campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and was subsequently condemned by Palestinian students as well as free speech advocates.

At Harvard, critics said campus officials didn’t condemn Hamas strongly enough in their response to the Oct. 7 attack. Weeks later, when Harvard President Claudine Gay condemned antisemitism during a speech at a Harvard Hillel Shabbat dinner, she was praised by some students and criticized by others. A spokesperson for Harvard Jews for Liberation took issue with Gay conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism and said that a “disproportionate focus on antisemitism on college campuses continues to distract from the devastating siege on Gaza,” according to The Harvard Crimson.

It’s a delicate line that college presidents and chancellors across the country have struggled to balance.

“If and when chancellors or presidents spoke, they were met with some kind of critique about what they said, and if they didn’t speak, they were also met with critique. So unfortunately, right now it feels a little bit like a lose-lose situation,” Deutchman said.

Deutchman added, though, that UC’s decision to invest $7 million into initiatives and programs to address antisemitism and Islamophobia could be a step toward benefiting all students.

Of the $7 million, $3 million will go toward emergency mental health resources for students and staff. Another $2 million will go toward educational programs, which will aim to improve the public discourse on the issue by focusing on a better understanding of antisemitism and Islamophobia as well as how to recognize and combat extremism. The final $2 million will go toward training of faculty and staff, including in areas such as free speech.

“It’s really hard to have a conversation about discourse on campus if people don’t have a foundation of what’s allowed and what isn’t,” Deutchman said. “So to the extent that they’re going to have an infusion of resources into education and training and helping all the different stakeholders on campus learn how to respond in the face of challenging speech and events, I think that’s really important.”

As for the $3 million for mental health resources, Aridin, the UC Student Association president, said she’s optimistic it will help students but she also called on UC officials to consult students at each campus before deciding specifically how to spend the money. What students at one campus need might be different from what would most benefit students at another campus, Aridin said.

“There are different student populations on each campus that need different things,” she said. “It could look like therapy, it could look like support group counseling, but it could also look like funding for some food or money for a space for students to come talk about their grief with one another. And it just depends on what students on each campus need.”

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08/07/2025
A Message to MAGA

It is sickening to realize that the US, our beloved country, is now aligned with Russia and Putin. It is sickening to realize that when the UN took a vote to condemn Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. voted “no,” allied with Russia, North Korea, and Iran. It is sickening to realize that the U.S. is now in cahoots with the enemies of freedom and democracy.

It is sickening to see the Justice Department turned into a weapon for Trump’s personal revenge. It is sickening to see Trump’s vicious assault on higher education and academic freedom. It is sickening to watch the arrest and detention of immigrants by masked men without ID without a semblance of due process. It is sickening to see the massacre of civilians in Gaza. It is sickening to see the Trump family scoop up billlions in real estate deals, crytocurrency and other ventures. It is sickening to see the Republican Party pass a budget that cancels the health insurance of millions of low-income Americans to pay for tax cuts for the richest Americans.

One man is responsible: Trump. He worries about Putin’s feelings, not about Russian bombs hitting Ukrainian schools, playgrounds, hospitals, homes, and its energy supply. He plays with tariffs as a way to humiliate other countries, carelessly wiping out the life savings of people who trusted him. Was it by accident that he excluded Russia, North Korea, Belarus, and Cuba from his tariff threats? Trump jokes about turning Gaza into a luxury resort instead of demanding an end to the war. The cruel budget that takes from the poor and gives to the rich was his budget. It is his massive ego that has turned the Department of Justice into his personal revenge and retribution machine.

I wish he could watch Charlie Chaplin in this speech from his film The Great Dictator. It is only three minutes. Please watch. These thoughts are needed today more than at any time since 1945.

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08/07/2025
What is arts integration? Q&A with Mike Stone

Credit: Alison Yin for EdSource Today

Maverick American maestro Leonard Bernstein once said that “a work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.”

That power to cultivate critical thinking is part of why Bernstein was a champion of arts integration, an innovative approach many educators are exploring these days as a creative way to amplify student learning amid an era of steep learning loss.

Certainly, Mike Stone, a veteran music teacher who cut his teeth on the baritone horn in the fourth grade, is a devotee of the practice. Coordinator of the visual and performing arts with the Bakersfield City School District, Stone is planning to use Proposition 28 funds, which are slated to arrive in schools in February, to bolster his already robust arts education program with 13 new teachers, all devoted to the benefits of art integration.

In arts integration, students meet dual learning objectives when they engage in the creative process to explore connections between an art form and another subject, say history or science, to gain a more nuanced understanding of both. Stone, who plays in the quartet Brass A La Carte and is also the president-elect of the National Association for Music Education, Western Division, recently made time to chat about why arts integration can spark deeper learning.

Brass A La Carte includes Mike Stone, right, on baritone horn.
Photophoto credit: Ron Christian

Q: Can you give me an example of arts integration in a classroom?

A: An arts-integrated lesson might include students listening to “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” a Civil War melody. Students would then learn to play the famous melody on a recorder, followed by a writing assignment on the sacrifices of soldiers who fought in the Civil War. In this example, there could be English language arts, history-social science, and music standards all integrated into the lesson.

Q: How does this kind of cross-pollination enhance learning?

A: Integrating arts standards in instruction enhances student learning by connecting the dots, so to speak. When we play an instrument, sing, dance or draw, we experience the learning by doing. My experience as a teacher is that such an approach connects cognitive and social realms of learning as students experience the learning firsthand.

It provides a synergetic connection that helps students learn across various content disciplines. Teachers have been using the concepts embedded in integration for many years. As the saying goes, we do not learn in a vacuum.

Q: What are you most excited about with this expansion of arts ed in your district?

A: I am truly inspired by the learning I have observed in our classrooms this fall. The district invested in 13 new arts teachers who are inspiring our students daily through dance, media arts, music, theater and visual arts. I think the fact that we are early adopters has given us a chance to create a model arts education program for California and the nation. Our music education program has been strong for years; now, we have the opportunity to build access and excellence in all the arts-dance, media arts, music, theater and visual arts. The sky’s the limit.

Q: What is the biggest challenge? Reward?

A: Our biggest challenge will be the recruitment and retention of teachers, since California and the nation are competing for teachers in a market where we have a severe shortage. In fact, with the passage of Proposition 28 in California, I estimate that our state could need over 7,000 credentialed arts teachers over the next year. It will mean that school districts must create arts education jobs where infrastructure, instructional support and scheduling promote a positive work environment where arts learning may thrive.

The biggest reward? Knowing that our children are getting a top-notch education that will help them succeed in life.

Q: Are all 13 new teachers you have coming on board in Bakersfield part of the arts integration theme?

A: Our teachers teach discrete arts standards, and also work to integrate standards, all while the classroom teacher is in the classroom supporting student learning. There is a collaborative spirit with our arts integration approach. We had training the other day, and the energy in that room was incredible.

Q: What are you doing to boost teacher retainment?

A: I’m working hard to make the teaching environment and the experience of these 13 new teachers as positive as possible because I know I won’t retain them unless they like coming to school. I really value that in our district. Retention of teachers is going to be as important as recruitment.

Q: What’s been the biggest hit with the children so far?

A: I have been in all of those teachers’ classrooms, and the kids are just loving it, especially visual arts. Middle school kids want to be expressive in a safe environment. What I see with our teachers is that they’re getting that opportunity to be expressive and kind of mellow out from a normal, hectic school day. They get to create at their own pace and follow the teacher’s lessons. That’s been very popular.

Q:What’s it like for you, visiting those new classes?

A: I enjoy visiting our primary classrooms more than any others. Learning is so new to these students, and they are very excited. Their smiles make all the work worth it. I look forward to seeing our young children move through the grade levels over the next few years. I even suspect that our students will do better in school because they are so motivated by their arts teachers. After all, kids who are learning the arts are happy to be at school.

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08/07/2025
All kids need access to after-school programming

Students work together during an after-school tutoring club.

Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

Last week, as one of Los Angeles’ major freeways was closed indefinitely and rainstorms hit the city, to top it all off, school was also out early in the Los Angeles Unified School District for parent-teacher conferences. These conferences provide valuable individualized feedback — but even with optimal weather and traffic conditions, shortened school days also mean that families scramble for child care and to ensure students continue learning.

Fortunately, we have a way to support families in weeks like this and in other weeks when school still gets out well before the work day ends — effective after-school programming. It’s high time that enrichment, social, and academic support during the hours after school get the attention and investments they deserve.

No matter what time that final bell rings, there is no doubt that after-school programming has become a vital supplement to a well-rounded public school education. By bridging the gap between school and home, after-school programs extend the academic support students receive during the day, ultimately leading to improved educational outcomes, social-emotional skills and more enriched lives. One national study showed that half of students regularly attending these programs made gains in their math and reading grades — and more than 60% improved their homework completion, classroom participation and behavior.

After-school programs also offer a safe and supportive environment for students, reducing crime and juvenile delinquency. When students have a constructive, nurturing place to spend their time after school, studies show they are less likely to engage in risky or harmful behaviors. According to a 2005 study from the Rose Institute at Claremont McKenna College, every dollar invested in afterschool programs saves at least $3 by increasing youths’ earning potential, improving their performance at school and reducing crime and juvenile delinquency. This not only benefits individual students but also offers working parents and guardians peace of mind by providing a reliable, quality child care option.

The vast majority of parents believe that after-school opportunities are important to support their children’s safety and development—however, for every student enrolled in one of these programs, there are two students who would participate if given access. This disparity often falls predictably along socio-economic lines, widening the very achievement gap that it has the power to help close. And with a patchwork of funding and service models, we don’t always know which programs serve students best.

While the list of proven benefits is seemingly endless, the funding and resources needed to make high-quality programs equitably accessible to more families are not. The Expanded Learning Opportunities Program funding that Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced two years ago is a great start. At the same time, we need to ensure that this funding is ongoing, coherent with other funding streams, and remains flexible enough to make the most of these dollars and meet the needs of local students.

That is why I brought forth a resolution that my board colleagues passed unanimously this week, calling on LA Unified to do more to study, fund and advocate for after-school programming and expanded learning opportunities to be available to all our students. We must collectively imagine what we can do for children all day long, including during the hours from when the bell rings until dinner. This will require expanded and flexible state funding, research and data analysis from our school systems and institutions of higher education, and collaboration with nonprofits and local entities who have been doing this work in silos for decades. We also need to find ways to ensure that we can staff after-school positions, which historically have been part-time jobs, with the caring adults we know our students need to thrive.

As we continue to address the learning gaps and emotional hurdles facing students after the pandemic, we cannot afford to go back to business as before. If time is one of the most significant things that our students missed during the pandemic, then I’ve found a few hours every day where we can make up lost ground and prepare our kids to be the best versions of themselves — after school.

•••

Nick Melvoin is a member of the Los Angeles Unified school board, representing the Westside and West San Fernando Valley, and is currently running for Congress.

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

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08/07/2025
The science of reading also applies to students learning English as a second language

Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource

As California pushes schools to adopt research-based approaches to teaching children how to read, often called the “science of reading,” some teachers and advocates for English learners have expressed concerns that techniques used to teach reading in English to native speakers may not work for students who are learning English as a second language.

But an in-depth look at the science behind how language is developed reveals an interesting parallel between the science of reading and second language learning. In fact, the science of reading can actually provide support when it comes to teaching students whose native language is not English.

The science of reading and the science of language learning both require an explicit and structured approach to literacy that can actually help answer the longstanding question of: How can I teach English academic skills to a student who has no English oral ones?

A key strength of the science of reading approach is its focus on the development on both language (speaking) and literacy (reading) within the same instructional space. Gone are the days of encouraging separate subject blocks within English language arts, where literacy and oral fluency are taught as separate entities. Science-based approaches encourage teaching language and literacy hand-in-hand, complementing and building off one another based on each child’s development and progression. This focus is effective for all students, but especially for English learners who must learn oral skills at the same time as they are learning academic ones. As they are sounding out the word, they are also learning what that word means.

The traditional separation of oral language and literacy skills in English leads to an increase of “scaffolding” support for native English speakers — and even more so for non-native English speakers. Already pressed for time, teachers often find themselves supporting needed oral skills within literacy instruction, only to turn around and add needed literacy skills within oral language instruction. By teaching the two skills separately, teachers end up taking more time for each skill that is developmentally intertwined with the other.

The science of reading approaches these skills as interwoven, giving equal importance to both oral language and literacy instruction within the same space. This immediately reduces the need for scaffolds and emphasizes looking at language and literacy through a lens of cognition and development, instead of repetition and memorization.

Teaching oral, comprehension and vocabulary skills alongside language structure and syntax is something that has been much-needed for teaching English learners. Take Marco, an English learner, for example. Marco might sound out the word “net” correctly and might recognize a sight word (a commonly used word such as “she,” “be” or “had”) when reading. But does he know what those words mean, or how to apply them in context? Is he even given the opportunity to find out? Too often, Marco has no idea. He simply gets a “high five” for decoding one word correctly and recognizing another with no comprehension because that was the skill focus for that lesson. Marco continues in his learning process, only learning certain skills in a limited sense and not a fully comprehensive and applicable one.

This not only limits Marco’s literacy skills in the other language, but his language proficiency skills as well. He misses out on the opportunity for comprehension, vocabulary expansion, and active skill application of the language being learned because of this compartmentalized approach.

Marco needs both the functional application and the comprehensive skills to be taught purposefully and in combination. He also needs this done within the same learning period while the concepts are still fresh and relatable.

It’s an important step forward that this combined approach of language and literacy is now encouraged in whole-group and small-group instructional settings through the science of reading.

Looking at reading and the science behind it from a cognitive standpoint can provide us with a more equitable approach to teaching because it is based on what constitutes — and makes sense functionally — in the brain’s processing of information, something that is universal. How vocabulary is developed, alongside its symbols and sounds in reading and writing, is simultaneously developed in all language and literacy learning.

The science of reading challenges teachers to look beyond the surface of the language spoken and more deeply into how it functions. On the surface, it is easy for teachers to fear they cannot help or support English learners if they do not speak the student’s language. However, by applying the science of reading’s explicit language and literacy approach, teachers will be reminded of how they themselves made meaning and developed English literacy. Yes, they spoke English, but they still had to learn the structure and written form and how to read English in the classroom, just as their English learner students will. A key difference is that the English learner may not have any pre-existing English oral skills, but these skills, now more than ever, are encouraged and can be taught as they are developed, alongside literacy instruction.

Simply applying the science of reading won’t provide all the solutions to the complexities of teaching English learners, but it can provide teachers with a purposeful starting point through its explicit focus on, and the equal importance given, to both language and literacy development.

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Rachel Hawthorne has a background in linguistics and taught for several years as a bilingual teacher for grades preK-5. She now works as an English learner product developer for Really Great Reading, a company that provides literacy instruction support to educators.

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

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08/07/2025