Parent Raul Zuniga and his daughter Sandy, a senior at La Habra High in Orange County, receive help with financial aid forms from counselor Rosa Sanchez at a “Cash for College” workshop.
FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY
California is better off when more people have education and training to power our economy and support thriving communities. Financial aid that reduces or fully covers the cost of college or job training is an investment that benefits all of us.
About $550 million in federal and state aid goes unused annually when thousands of eligible California students miss out on financial aid. Many are unaware of financial aid, don’t know how to apply or if they qualify, or fear sharing personal information because of their immigration status.
A new law is helping to ensure that financial aid is not left on the table. Schools must help all high school seniors complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Act Application unless the student formally opts out. Students submit one of these applications, depending on their residential status, to access the grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities, student loans and other forms of aid available to help finance postsecondary education or training.
Providing support for all students as they complete financial aid applications is an equity-driven game changer. This policy encourages students to plan for and attend college or job training programs and ensures that all students and families can make informed plans and decisions about their life after high school.
Achieving universal participation in this student-centered systemic approach to financial aid requires planning and collaboration among K-12 school leaders, counselors, educators, student groups and community organizations. California’s All in for FAFSA/CA Dream Act campaign supports K-12 education partners as they work to achieve universal FAFSA/CADAA completion. Local progress can be tracked on the state’s Race to Submit dashboard. The data can help target assistance for students who may need extra support and encouragement to complete and submit a financial aid application. It also helps us to identify, learn from and share best practices with schools and districts across the state.
Since universal participation was required, the number of California students applying for financial aid increased significantly. More than 60% of California’s high school seniors submitted financial aid applications by March 2, the deadline for students planning to attend a four-year college. By Sept. 5, the deadline for students heading to community college, the total FAFSA or CADAA completion rate for the class of 2023 climbed to nearly 75%. More than 24,000 financial aid applications were completed this year compared with the same time a year ago.
The progress achieved with California’s universal financial aid requirement is due to the hard work of K-12 district leaders, high school principals, counselors and teachers, California Student Opportunity and Access Program counselors, Cash for College workshop coordinators, community-based organizations, and students and their families. They went all in to help more high school students than ever complete financial aid applications.
In a few months, the U.S. Department of Education will release a revised federal aid application called the Better FAFSA. The good news is that the redesigned application will be easier to complete. The bad news is that the Better FAFSA application window will open two months later than in a typical year. This compressed timeline could most disadvantage students and families who need greater support to complete the aid application — and who have the most to gain from filling out the form.
We will need all hands on deck at the state, district and high school levels to keep making progress and ensure that students don’t lose ground in this inaugural year of the Better FAFSA. The California Student Aid Commission will continue to support K-12 districts and high schools as they work to meet the universal FAFSA or CADAA requirement. We have confidence that with planning, collaboration with partners, clear communication and purpose, California can ensure that all high school seniors complete the FAFSA or CADAA, and California’s vision of increasing access to higher education for all students will become a reality.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón was always a very involved parent, from the time her children were in Head Start.
She would volunteer in the classroom and sign up for parent committees throughout elementary and middle school.
But Carbajal Salmerón didn’t realize that her children, who attend school in Pomona Unified, were still considered English learners after years of school, or how that might affect them. Then one day she received notification that her son had been reclassified as fluent and English proficient when he was in eighth grade.
Her first question was, “Why hasn’t my daughter reclassified?”
Carbajal Salmerón’s daughter Mia Mirón was younger and had never learned to speak Spanish fluently, in part because she had always spoken English with her older brother.
“I couldn’t understand it,” Carbajal Salmerón said in Spanish. “My son was the first born and he only spoke Spanish when he entered school. But why would my daughter still be an English learner, if she had had a harder time learning Spanish?”
Courtesy of Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón
Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón (right) with her children Andrew and Mia Mirón at Mia’s eighth grade graduation.
Parents of English learners are often unaware of their children’s progress learning the language, according to advocates from the Parent Organization Network, based in Los Angeles.
The organization is launching a campaign to help parents learn to monitor their children’s progress and advocating for changes in how districts communicate the information to families.
Students are classified as English learners when they first enroll in school if their parents speak a language other than English at home and they do not score high enough on the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC). English learners have to continue to take the test every year, until they show proficiency in English, in addition to meeting other requirements, such as meeting grade level on state standardized tests in English language arts. At that point, they are reclassified as “fluent English proficient.”
As long as students are classified as English learners, they must take English language development classes in addition to their regular classes. If they are not reclassified before middle and high school, those language classes can take up so much of their schedule that they cannot take as many electives as other students, and they may not be able to access as much academic content in other classes.
Araceli Simeón, executive director of Parent Organization Network, said that parents often rely on report cards to monitor their children’s academic progress. “If they’re getting A’s and B’s, they don’t look at anything else,” she said.
Districts have to send information to parents of English learners every year about their children’s progress on the ELPAC, but the reports are often sent in the mail, separate from a child’s report card. Even when parents do receive the scores, they do not always understand what they mean or what their children need to do in order to be reclassified.
In addition, more and more districts are using online portals to share students’ scores on state standardized tests in reading, math and English language proficiency, Simeón said. Often, those portals can be difficult to navigate for parents who don’t speak English or aren’t as comfortable with technology.
“If you don’t know how to navigate that, then essentially years go by without you receiving a note about your child’s progress on the test,” Simeón said.
Last year, staff from Parent Organization Network trained more than 80 parents in three districts – Los Angeles Unified, Long Beach Unified and Pomona Unified.
In one of those trainings, Carbajal Salmerón learned for the first time about the process for students to be reclassified.
“For the first time, someone explained to me the exam that they have to take once a year and that they have to learn how to write, listen, speak and read. The teachers had never told me that my daughter had a 3 in reading, for example, or a 2 in writing. No one had ever told me that,” said Carbajal Salmerón.
Maribel Bautista is another parent who took the training. She has 14-year-old triplets in Long Beach Unified. All three were classified as English learners when they entered kindergarten because the family speaks Spanish at home. When Bautista would receive reports on how her triplets were doing in English, she assumed it was in English language arts, rather than learning the language itself.
When Bautista took training with Parent Organization Network and began to analyze the reports she had received, she realized that one of her triplets was reclassified in second grade and another in third, but one had never been reclassified, and he was in eighth grade.
“I think the most important thing is explaining to parents what the classification of English learner means, why their kids are being placed there, and what steps they need to take to pass the exam before they go to middle school,” Bautista said in Spanish. “It’s about communication.”
Courtesy of Maribel Bautista
Triplets Nick, Jeson and Kendrick Figueroa attend school in Long Beach Unified.
Asked what steps they are taking to help parents understand the reclassification process and their children’s progress, the districts where Parent Organization Network trained parents responded in different ways.
The superintendent of Pomona Unified, Darren Knowles, said that collaborating with Parent Organization Network “led to a complete overhaul of the documents that we use to inform parents about the reclassification process.”
Knowles said over the last four years, Pomona Unified redesigned a resource page for parents about reclassification criteria in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. The district also conducts regular presentations and training for parents about what students need in order to reclassify. In addition, he said the district is printing ELPAC score reports to give to families during parent-teacher conferences. Recently, he said the district sent out information about ELPAC scores to parents and offered in-person meetings if they wanted to review their children’s progress. He said 92 parents from 18 different schools requested an in-person meeting.
Spokespersons from Los Angeles Unified and Long Beach Unified shared fewer details. “Our families have various opportunities including notification and consultation letters,” said the LAUSD statement. “The District also offers over a dozen meetings throughout the year where families can deep dive into their student’s educational journey. In addition, families are welcome to call and set up a school visit with the English learner designee or school principal.”
“LongBeach Unified is dedicated to ensuring parents of English language learners receive student progress and reclassification information,” said Long Beach Unified School District spokesperson Evelyn Somoza. “Parents of students who have not yet been reclassified receive information on their student’s English language proficiency at the start of every school year through U.S. mail and our online portal. Parents receive phone calls and emails when test scores from assessments completed during the school year become available.”
Both Bautista and Carbajal Salmerón attended universities in Mexico and want their children to go to college, too. They want their children to be able to enroll in the college preparatory classes they need in high school, which can be hard for students if they are still classified as English learners.
After understanding the process, they began to push for more help for their children and encourage them to work on their English reading and writing skills to improve their scores on the ELPAC.
Carbajal Salmerón’s daughter Mia took a summer school intensive English class, began to attend English classes on Saturdays, and started focusing on improving her reading.
Finally, in the first semester of ninth grade, she was reclassified, allowing her to stop taking English language development classes and freeing up her schedule to take more electives.
Now a sophomore, Mia hopes to go to college to study ethnic studies. She credits her eighth grade English language development teacher, who spoke with her and other English learners and explained to them that they had to pass the English proficiency test in order to be reclassified as fluent.
“She was a teacher that really wanted everybody in the class to reclassify, and she put in the energy and time to really create a connection with every single one of us,” Mia said. “I feel like personally it’s all in the teacher. If they motivate you and make you see that you personally are capable of doing and achieving and reclassifying, it’s the greatest compliment ever.”
The Transfer and Reentry Center in Dutton Hall at UC Davis helps transfers get acclimated to their new environment.
Credit: Karin Higgins/UC Davis
In a bid to make it easier for California’s community college students to transfer to the University of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Tuesday to create a new transfer pathway between the two systems.
The transfer pathway created by Assembly Bill 1291 will start as a pilot program at UCLA, with students getting priority admission if they complete an associate degree for transfer in select majors beginning in the 2026-27 academic year. The specific majors haven’t yet been determined, but UCLA will have to identify at least eight and another four by 2028-29. At least four of the majors will be in a science, technology, engineering or math field.
The new pathway would expand to at least four additional UC campuses, also in limited majors, by 2028-29.
The bill doesn’t, however, guarantee students admission to their chosen campus. If a student is not admitted to their preferred campus, the student will be redirected and admitted to another campus.
Supporters of the legislation say it would help to streamline the state’s complex transfer system since students can already earn an associate degree to get a guaranteed spot in the California State University system.
“By working together, California’s three world-leading higher education systems are ensuring more students have the freedom to thrive, learn, and succeed,” Newsom said in a statement. “With this new law, the Golden State is streamlining the transfer process, making a four-year degree more affordable for transfer students, and helping students obtain high-paying and fulfilling careers.”
Newsom signed the bill despite opposition from the statewide student associations representing UC and community college students. In a statement last month urging Newsom to veto the legislation, they said they were dissatisfied because it doesn’t give students a guaranteed spot at the campus of their choice.
The bill’s author, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, said in a statement that it will help to “tackle a long-standing goal in California: to simplify and streamline the transfer paths” for community college students. “This bill gets UC into the game with universal transfer pathways and will increase economic opportunity and prosperity for all Californians to help our state economy thrive,” he added.
Currently, UC lacks a systemwide transfer guarantee for community college students. There are separate transfer admission guarantees at six of the system’s nine undergraduate campuses — each of them except UCLA, Berkeley and San Diego. But those separate guarantees each have different requirements for admission. And students who are also interested in transferring to Cal State have to simultaneously deal with that system’s own distinct requirements.
Earlier this year, McCarty authored another bill, Assembly Bill 1749, that would have gone further than the more recent legislation by requiring UC to admit all eligible students who complete any associate degree for transfer, like the California State University system already does.
UC opposed that bill, arguing that it would be a disservice to students in certain STEM majors because they would enter UC underprepared for some upper-division courses. UC officials then negotiated the details of AB 1291 with the governor’s office, McCarty and other key lawmakers.
“I am proud that 27 percent of University of California undergraduates begin their educational journey at a California Community College and go on to thrive on our campuses,” Michael Drake, UC’s systemwide president, said in a statement. “The University is committed to attracting and supporting transfer students, and we look forward to continuing to partner with transfer advocates such as Governor Newsom, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, and others in the state legislature on streamlining the transfer process.”
One morning, some 20 years ago, I took an anonymous phone call that stunned me. Years had passed since our decadelong federal class action discrimination lawsuit against the CBEST had ended with only partial reforms in 2000. From its origins in 1982, the California Basic Educational Skills Test, which purports to measure the universal reading, writing and math skills needed to perform in all the varied public school jobs requiring credentials, has been controversial for deterring tens of thousands of educators of color from entering the public school workforce. The horrific first-time pass rates — 38% for Blacks; 49% for Latinos, and 53% Asians vs. 80% for whites — improved, but only modestly, after 1995 changes instigated by our lawsuit.
The caller had personal knowledge that a recently deceased former employee of the defendant Commission on Teacher Credentialing had examined the CBEST for her doctoral dissertation and concluded it was racially and culturally biased. The Commission suppressed the study, including when our lawsuit specifically requested such reports. Instead of producing it or making us and our judge aware of it, the commission’s lawyers quietly procured a protective order from a state judge to keep the study out of the federal case.
From its inception, the racial and cultural bias undergirding the CBEST — like the phantom study — has been suppressed, lurking, just beneath the surface. The sickening pass rates — rather than spurring reform — have been used to support the worst kind of circular reasoning: If it’s failing that many people, especially Black and brown people who’ve been subjected to inferior public education in California, the state’s lawyer repeatedly told the court, it must be working.
Federal guidelines dictate that a test and its passing levels should correspond to “normal expectations of proficiency within the workforce.” Yet there has never been evidence that over half of all Black college graduates (or a fifth of whites, for that matter), are graduating lacking basic reading, writing and math skills.
Rather, the CBEST’s passing scores, and to some extent its math content, have always been set arbitrarily high, bent more on failing many to justify itself politically than on fairly assessing educators on the minimum level of basic skills needed for their jobs.
The CBEST ran off track from its inception. Rather than being created by employment-testing experts like a civil service exam, it was a high-profile political showpiece, divorced from critical employment testing standards and processes. When employment tests have a substantial adverse impact on diverse candidates, “job-relatedness” requires that assumptions about what skills are needed must be proven by analyzing each job tested. Likewise, untested desires for high performance on partial job elements must be scrutinized. Insisting that all your players sink 90% of their free throws may sound good, but that unexamined standard would fail legions of hall of famers.
Documents uncovered during the case acknowledged that in 1982, California chose the faster and cheaper development plan from Educational Testing Service that specifically rejected making the test “job-related.” Even so, ETS’s initial validity study undertook the most careful and extensive examination to date of where to establish passing scores, for, as required, “minimally competent” (not high or average-performing) educators. Relying on the professional judgment of some 289 educators and academics, that study recommended relatively modest passing scores. A typical employment exam process would likely have called it a day. Instead, a much smaller, politically appointed advisory board of 11 recommended substantially higher passing scores, which were further one-upped by then-State Superintendent of Public Instruction Bill Honig. Spurred on by “campaign promises to raise [teacher] quality,” Honig set yet higher passing scores without regard to job-relatedness. The final effect reduced Black, Latino and Asian first-time pass rates from 63%, 69% and 76% if the 289 ETS panelists had been followed to 38%, 49% and 53%, respectively.
Enter Public Advocates’ litigation 10 years later. The state defendants were blindsided when the courts held the CBEST is an employment exam for public school educators which must be “job-related.” The pre-litigation validity studies admittedly had never taken the essential first step for employment tests — a job analysis of all those educator jobs. When the commission finally attempted one in 1994, its own expert advised that most of the math test — the algebra and geometry portions used since 1982 — was not job-related, that those items should be removed and the test re-scored to pass unfairly failed candidates.
Did the state and the commission acknowledge the harm caused and right the wrong? No. They doubled down on protecting the CBEST and its racially discriminatory failure rates.
The policymakers had their expert “reconsider” and then delete that recommendation. Then, they engineered a revised CBEST that imported the difficulty level and high failure rates for people of color of the prior invalid test by removing much less of the math content than called for, swapping in relatively difficult “lower order” math items and — when test-takers still performed better — raising the math passing score.
In 2000, six judges on a deeply fractured 11-judge federal appellate panel looked the other way and accepted the “revised” CBEST. But state decision-makers don’t have to continue to do so. At its meeting this week, the commission is examining whether to renew the CBEST contract with its vendor. After 40 years, it’s time to retire the CBEST. In a post-George Floyd era of racial reckoning, we should be working to overturn the harms against people of color caused by unnecessary, biased, standardized tests. In 2015, California dropped another discriminatory, misguided “accountability” measure from a bygone era, the High School Exit Exam. The University of California and California State University have dropped the SAT from their admissions processes, and the state has essentially halted community colleges from using questionable exams to place students from marginalized communities in dead-end remedial classes disproportionately. Oregon, the only other state that used the CBEST, phased out administering it years ago, concerned with its redundancy and adverse impacts.
There are more than enough entry requirements to ensure credential candidates possess job-related basic skills. These include requiring a bachelor’s degree, subject matter competency, the California Teaching Performance Assessment, the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment or RICA and, since 2000, transcript reviews of basic skills proficiency as an alternative to the CBEST. It’s time for the credentialing commission and the state to drop the tainted CBEST. It’s also time for some reconciliation. The commission can start by releasing that long-suppressed study of the CBEST’s racial and cultural bias.
•••
John Affeldt is a managing attorney at Public Advocates, a public-interest law firm in San Francisco, where he focuses on educational equity issues.
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.
In my junior year of high school, I walked up to the batter’s box at Oracle Park — the same field where I’d watched the San Francisco Giants play countless times. It was the high school city championship game, and we were playing our rivals, George Washington High School. Taking a deep breath and whispering a quick prayer, I stepped in and looked at the pitcher on the mound — my twin sister.
This was our second time facing off in the San Francisco City Championship. After losing to her the year before, I wanted nothing more than to win.
Twins Ramon and Isabella Fong of San Francisco.
My twin sister, Isabella, and I have been competitive for as long as I can remember. As twins, we were always grouped together, which fueled our rivalry. If we were wearing similar clothes, one of us would have to change.
As we entered elementary school, that competitiveness followed us. Although Isabella and I went to the same school, we always had different teachers, assignments and friends. We would compare test scores and how many books we had read in a month.
However, something changed when Isabella started playing on my Little League baseball team. Besides being the older twin, if there was one thing I was comparatively better at, it was baseball. I could hit the ball further than Isabella could, and throw the ball faster, too.
Under normal circumstances, I’d have flaunted that.
But this time, we were more than simply grouped together. We were on the same team. If Isabella got a hit, I was the loudest in the dugout. I’d permit banter from our teammates, but if they talked about her skills because she was a girl, I was the first one to defend her. I loved knowing that after school, we would go through the same things as teammates and share the same stories about teammates and games at dinner.
Our competitive rivalry was put to the test when we started applying to high schools.
In seventh and eighth grade, getting into Lowell High School in San Francisco was our primary goal. We were awed by its reputation as the only merit-based public high school in the city, which to us was the golden ticket of prestige.
I thought that getting into Lowell would give me gratification, but when I was accepted and Isabella wasn’t, all pride drained out of me as I realized I wasn’t going to be at the same high school as my twin sister.
When I walked in the front doors at Lowell, realizing how big it was and how alone I felt, I cared nothing about winning at that moment. I just wanted to be on the same team as my sister again.
I knew how much Isabella wanted to go to Lowell, and with Lowell’s merit-based admissions, I knew she viewed herself as less capable than I was.
But from what I observed, Isabella never let that stop her.
When she joined the baseball team at Washington as the only girl, all I wanted was to see her succeed. Because of our competitiveness throughout our childhood, I knew how hard she worked, and it was something I wanted to emulate every single day. If she was going to excel, I wanted to do the same.
I realized that the pride from our childhood had been replaced by an instinct to help each other when we were down.
One night, I broke down from the stress of my work and college applications at Lowell. I remember walking down the stairs to go on a walk, crying out of frustration when Isabella walked out of her door and asked me if I was OK.
So, when I stepped into the batter’s box against Isabella, the first girl to be the starting pitcher in a San Francisco Section championship on May 18, 2023, I couldn’t help but be proud of her. And when we talked about the game the next day, it didn’t matter that my team had won. I couldn’t get over the fact that my sister was the coolest person I knew.
Today, Isabella and I go to college on opposite sides of the country.
And every day, I think about how she never gave up when she was rejected, and if she can do it, then why can’t I?
In high school, I thought that going to different schools would mean I would lose my sister, but I know that no matter what we talk about and how different our lives become, it will always feel like we are in the same uniform, watching each other in the batter’s box with smiles on our faces.
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.
Students at La Salle Avenue Elementary listen to a class presentation. The school is one of 53 schools in the first tier of the Black Student Achievement Plan.
KATE SEQUEIRA/EDSOURCE
The Los Angeles Unified School District is considering broadening the language associated with the Black Student Achievement Plan in an attempt to avoid investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, a move supporters fear could steer the focus of the program away from Black student achievement and wellness.
The potential change in the Black Student Achievement Plan comes after Parents Defending Education, a conservative group with a track record of challenging schools’ efforts to promote equity, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education in July, claiming the program violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment because it specifically supports Black students.
“We are just starting to see the positive impact of BSAP, creating a positive and welcoming learning environment and greater access to culturally and racially responsive coursework and field trips due to dedicated BSAP staff members and community partners,” said school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin in a statement to EdSource.
“With continued investments and support — not diluted or threatened programming —I look forward to seeing our Black students achieve in the ways that we all know is possible.”
While program supporters say the complaint by Parents Defending Education is largely unsubstantiated, they fear any efforts to alter it in response could have consequences for students in Los Angeles and beyond.
An LAUSD spokesperson said in an email to EdSource that the mission and operations of the program will not change and that “the district is ensuring that the associated language aligns with the law and practice by clarifying that BSAP operates in accordance with the District’s Nondiscrimination policy, based on applicable federal and state laws.”
The Education Department has already warned districts to avoid programs that focus on one student group. In August, a month after Parents Defending Education filed the complaint, the department released a guidance letter to school districts in response to an uptick in complaints.
“Schools may violate Title VI when they separate students based on race or treat individual students or groups of students differently based on race,” the guidance reads. “Schools also may violate Title VI when they create, encourage, accept, tolerate, or fail to correct a racially hostile educational environment.”
The letter also adds that “a school-sponsored or recognized group or program with a special emphasis on race, such as a student club or mentorship opportunity, that is open to all students, typically would not violate Title VI simply because of its race-related theme.”
The complaint
The complaint lodged by Parents Defending Education claims LAUSD’s Black Student Achievement Plan discriminates against students of other races. EdSource reached out to Parents Defending Education requesting an interview but did not receive a response.
The program “directly responds to the unique needs of Black students but not students of other races,” the complaint alleges.
“The District makes clear that the program is designed ‘to address the longstanding disparities in educational outcomes between Black students and their non-Black peers.’… And the District notes that the program is meant to address ‘[t]he perennial trend of black student underperformance; and to achieve ‘racial equity.’”
The complaint against LAUSD includes two pieces of documentation: screenshots of the district’s Black Student Achievement Plan website as well as an overview of the program.
But supporters of the district’s plan say the complaint lacks teeth — especially as it does not include a claim that anyone suffered or was discriminated against because of the program.
Amir Whitaker of the ACLU of Southern California’s Senior Policy Counsel said he doubts the U.S. Department of Education will choose to investigate the district.
Parents Defending Education’s goal, he said was about creating “hysteria about the complaint.”
Parents Defending Education, which describes itself as a “national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas,” has levied complaints against educational agencies throughout the country, including in Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont and Oregon.
“I think a lot of other districts and states are really reluctant to kind of engage in something that’s very race specific because of the ways in which we as a country …are not comfortable with having race conversations, despite the disproportion of Black students who are in special education … the number of Black students who are suspended, the high rates of Black students who are chronically absent,” said Tyrone Howard, a professor of education at UCLA.
“So I wish we had just as much energy and anger around those data as we do around the fact that we think that (a law) might be violated.”
Program’s impact
The Los Angeles Unified School District board approved the Black Student Achievement Plan in February 2021 after widespread community calls to action and in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the racial reckoning that followed.
The Black Student Achievement Plan cut the district police budget by more than 30% and vowed to uplift Black student achievement, create “culturally responsive curriculum” and fund a team of counselors, climate advocates and psychiatric social workers at 53 top-priority schools that collectively educate a third of LAUSD’s Black student population.
“The ultimate beauty is that commitment to BSAP will … not only serve the Black students that have been disproportionately underserved for far too long. It has lots of implications on the district just improving as a whole,” said Christian Flagg, the director of training at Community Coalition, a foundation that aims to “upend systemic racism” and played a key role in the plan’s establishment.
In 2011, a decade before the plan was established, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights — which also received the Parents Defending Education complaint — conducted an investigation into LAUSD.
The investigation found discrepancies in the treatment and experience of Black students in comparison to their peers, including the percentage of students admitted to the Gifted and Talented Education program, availability of technological resources, newness of textbooks, prevalence of teacher absenteeism and rates of discipline.
In response to the investigation, LAUSD offered to enter an agreement to resolve the concerns.
A survey of 2,300 students across 100 LAUSD campuses found that since the Black Student Achievement Plan rolled out, 87% ofBlack students had benefited from the program. Still, nearly half the students also said their schools do not have enough resources for Black students.
Lindsey Weatherspoon, a senior at Venice High School who said she has benefited from the Black Student Achievement Plan, credits her campus BSAP counselor for helping her and her peers attend events at which some Historically Black Colleges and Universities made on-the-spot admissions offers to seniors.
Weatherspoon said she strongly hopes LAUSD will “stand strong in their decision to have BSAP and fund BSAP, and it’s not a situation where BSAP gets cut back.”
“I hope, in fact, it gets expanded continuously to more schools, and the program constantly evolves because BSAP is not just something that happened overnight. It’s been years in the making. And it’s been the labor of love of several groups and community members and students and teachers pushing to get this program made.”
The BSAP counselor, she said, gives students more personalized counseling and creates opportunities for Black students to spend time together, which is essential because “it’s really easy to feel disconnected from other Black students when you barely see any.”
Weatherspoon said, “The thought that it could … be degraded from its original purpose or its original use is just mind-blowing and heartbreaking.”
Moving forward
The Black Student Achievement Plan being compromised, either as a result of board action or the complaint itself, could lead to greater consequences for both the district and for the nation, the program’s supporters say.
Channing Martinez, co-director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, said that the program is “not saying that Latinx students or white students or other students don’t deserve equal access to opportunity, but it is saying that Black students have not had equal access.”
He added that while the district may be concerned about Parents Defending Education’s complaint, LAUSD could also face lawsuits or complaints from organizations supporting the program if they dilute the program.
“In 2020, you had George Floyd, and it was pretty easy in the board’s mind to defund the school police as a measure of saying that they’re going to stand with Black students, but this year we don’t have George Floyd. But that doesn’t mean that the lives of Black students don’t matter,” Martinez said.
“It does really put us in a really tight spot in which we want to believe in the Black Student Achievement Program. But at the same time, it almost feels as if we are stuck in this program, and that they are using this program to say ‘Look, we’re doing something for Black students.’”
Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed an “equity multiplier” that would grant $300 million in ongoing funding to the state’s poorest students in an effort to uplift Black student achievement. But some critics of the proposal said it would not do enough to specifically support Black students.
Howard, the UCLA education professor, described the nature of the complaint by Parents Defending Education as racist because there has been little opposition to other programs designed to support different groups of students who are more vulnerable, including students with disabilities and those struggling with homelessness.
Programs like the Black Student Achievement Plan are hard to come by, Howard said. And if the complaint succeeds, he is concerned it could deter other schools throughout the state and nation from developing similar programs.
“Essentially, it says we’re fine with Black failure. We’re fine with Black underperformance. We’re fine with Black students consistently not experiencing schools in a way that their peers do,” Howard said. “That’s to me the bigger takeaway message. And why do we feel so comfortable with that?”
Children visit a gallery to learn about bugs by making art projects in Merryl Goldberg’s class at Cal State San Marcos.
credit: Merryl Goldberg
Eric Engdahl once ran away to join the circus. Always one with a flair for the dramatic, he became a ringmaster at Circus Flora, a one-ring boutique circus with a Civil War theme. He says the experience, learning to communicate with gymnasts and clowns, elephants and horses, prepared him well for the challenge of being a teacher.
“There was no one common language,” said Engdahl, now professor emeritus in the department of teacher education at Cal State East Bay. “So I learned how to build communication, how to tell stories, and that a common goal is essential.”
Helping students find their creative voice is a key reason Engdahl spearheaded an online credential program in theater and dance at Cal State East Bay in 2021, making it the first CSU to offer those credentials just as Proposition 28 promises to create thousands of new arts teaching jobs at California schools. Similarly, Cal State San Marcos will soon become the first CSU to create a pathway specifically for undergraduate art majors who wish to teach. Cal State Northridge is poised to launch a dance credential program next spring. Given the anticipated demand for newly minted arts educators in the wake of Proposition 28, the state’s 2022 groundbreaking initiative to bring arts education back into schools, many expect other campuses to follow their lead.
“I would like to claim that I was prescient about Prop. 28, and while I did a lot of groundwork to get the credentials going, there is always the unexpected, e.g. Covid,” said Engdahl, who wrote his dissertation on the antebellum circus movement in America. “It turned out to be great timing.”
Merryl Goldberg, a longtime music professor, has long seen arts education as an equity issue. She believes that all students should have access to the arts, not just the privileged ones, particularly because of the well-established links between arts education, academic achievement and social-emotional learning. That’s what inspired her to launch the state’s first undergraduate pathway to arts education at Cal State San Marcos.
credit: Albert Rascon
Musicians jam during Merryl Goldberg’s arts education class at Cal State San Marcos.
“We have the most wonderful diverse students at CSUSM, who I know will make incredible arts teachers,” said Goldberg, a saxophonist who spent 13 years on the road with the Klezmer Conservatory Band. “It kills me that so many students in California have had a limited arts background, and I’m thrilled this will finally change. The arts truly matter.”
Engdahl’s students are now reaping the benefits of his fortuitous planning efforts. They are sitting in the catbird seat as many school districts are clamoring to hire arts educators to teach classes funded by the state’s historic mandate to restore arts and music education to California schools. Last year, an LAUSD official visiting his theater credential class offered jobs to all his students.
“I regularly get phone calls and emails from people all over the state wanting to recruit my students,” said Engdahl. “Los Angeles, San Francisco, and to some extent, San Diego, the big districts are all aggressively implementing Prop. 28 and hiring people to fill those jobs.”
Goldberg is also hearing from school districts eager to hire arts educators. Some are having to recruit out-of-state teachers to fill the slots, she says.
“This opens up the world to so many students who want to be an art teacher, a music teacher, a dance or theater teacher,” said Goldberg. “It’s especially important for first-generation college students. The majority of our students are first-generation, and many are low-income. They have to work so hard to go to college, and they are beaming with potential to make a difference. They have so much passion.”
credit: Albert Rascon
A student in one of Merryl Godberg’s music education classes at Cal State San Marcos.
One major concern is how best to widen the arts credential pipeline, which has shriveled amid decades of cutbacks, for the next generation of arts ed teachers. While there are 64 programs in the state that offer a music credential and 57 that offer a visual arts credential, only a few focus on theater and dance. That’s not enough to feed a field that has gone from famine to feast, experts say.
“We know we’re short about 15,000 arts teachers in the state,” said Goldberg. “Most of the CSUs or UCs or even private colleges haven’t been churning out a lot of art and music and dance and theater teachers because there haven’t been a whole lot of jobs. Now, all of a sudden, there’s so many jobs.”
Despite this arts teacher crunch, there are various workarounds. For instance, physical education teachers who were credentialed before 2022 already have dance embedded in their credential, experts say. The same goes for some English teachers automatically having a theater credential. Prospective arts educators with sufficient college credits in their discipline can also apply for a supplemental authorization to teach instead of getting a credential.
It should be noted, however, that not all districts are anxious to raise the curtain on new arts programs. The myriad complexities of the Proposition 28 rollout may have contributed to many smaller and rural districts proceeding cautiously as they expand their arts offerings.
“The rural districts are not as well-resourced due to fewer students,” said Letty Kraus, director of the California County Superintendents’ statewide arts initiative, “and it is harder to staff rural schools with credentialed arts teachers due to shortages.”
In the wake of the Covid pandemic, many school administrators are also overwhelmed by pressing matters, experts say, from the dearth of teachers to deep learning loss, marked by falling rates of literacy and numeracy.
“Elementary principals don’t have time to deal with this,” said Engdahl. “You’re already struggling to hire teachers. You’re looking to fill classrooms, you’re doing a lot of jobs and there’s not enough administrative support.”
Some districts, having eliminated their arts classes long ago due to budget cuts, are now starting from scratch with no expertise in the arts. They need help to build out a plan for arts education, and some arts advocates note the California Department of Education, which is administering the program, has not been sufficiently responsive regarding the rules of implementation.
“Many school districts are taking a go-slow approach,” said Engdahl, who is consulting with several districts on how to flesh out their programs. “They want to wait and see how the money flows. They don’t know quite what to do with it because they don’t have enough administrative staff to figure it out.”
A slow-and-steady approach might make sense, some say, because schools have three years to use the funds. A little extra time also means that more colleges can get in on the act and develop their own arts credential programs to help fill the burgeoning pipeline.
“You have to take the long view,” Goldberg said. “It’s not a bad idea to hold off and not rush into things. That gives you time to really look at the language of the law. It also gives colleges time to launch new programs to widen the pipeline. My team feels confident our work is 100% replicable among any of the CSUs, private colleges and UCs.”
Cal State San Marcos plans to welcome its first arts education cohort next fall. Goldberg says there’s been a lot of demand thus far from both arts-focused undergraduates who want to teach their craft and from seasoned teachers interested in transitioning into arts education.
“We are reaching out to teaching artists who may wish to come back to get a credential, and to in-service teachers who have already or might soon transition to becoming an arts teacher,” she said. “We want to ensure they have the support and training they need. There is an extreme need for new arts teachers and support for transitioning teachers.”
She also argues that California offers many career opportunities for graduates with arts expertise, from arts education and the entertainment industry to the exploding cybersecurity sector, which has been known to recruit music majors for their ability to construct complex elements into intricate patterns.
“The amount of jobs relating directly to the arts is crazy,” said Goldberg. “Arts ain’t fluff, they really are a career opportunity. The importance of arts in preparation for careers is giant.”
For his part, Engdahl is hopeful that as the new arts mandate rolls out, more districts will see that arts education could also be a powerful tool for healing children traumatized by the pandemic.
“The arts and arts education, because of the way it’s taught, could really be a wonderful resource for helping students heal from the pandemic and catch up with the developmental and the social skills that they lost,” he said. “I think probably many administrators know that, but it’s just they’re so overwhelmed with what’s going on in the trenches right now.”
More than a thousand members of the Fresno Teachers Association rallied in late May and vowed to strike if the union and school district fail to agree to a contract by Sept. 29, 2023.
Credit: Courtesy of Fresno Teachers Association
The Fresno Teachers Association swiftly rejected the latest proposal by Fresno Unified Friday because the offer does not raise teachers’ pay enough to keep pace with inflation and cost-of-living increases, union president Manuel Bonilla said.
The district’s offer, which Superintendent Bob Nelson said is “above and beyond” educators’ requests, came only days ahead of Wednesday’s teachers union vote on whether to strike.
“No new investments to reduce class size. No new investments to reduce special education (caseloads). A salary that doesn’t keep up with inflation. They want to cut our healthcare (contribution),” Bonilla said. “Those are the four remaining items we don’t agree on.”
Both the school district and teachers union admit that they’ve failed to agree on “critical” items, such as salary and class size, but Nelson said there’s been “significant progress” with the district’s proposals, including, 19% pay increases over the next three years, expanded medical benefits for the rest of employees’ lives, even after retirement, and changes to class size overages.
“I believe this is a historic proposal for… pay increases and health benefits like we’ve never seen before in Fresno Unified.“ Trustee Susan Wittrup said.
But Bonilla said the Fresno Teachers Association disagrees with the district’s characterization of the offer.
More pay on the table
For salary, the district is now proposing 19% salary increases or 14% in raises and 5% in one-time payments — up from its previous offer of 11% raises.
Over three years, that includes:
A 8.5% raise this school year
A 3% raise and a 2.5% one-time payment in the 2024-25 school year
A 2.5% raise and a 2.5% one-time payment in 2025-26
The 3% and 2.5% raises for the next two school years are contingent on the school district having an Average Daily Attendance (ADA) of 92%, according to the revised proposal. The district’s ADA currently hovers around 92%, district spokesperson Nikki Henry said. If the district doesn’t meet that threshold, the district and union would have to negotiate the raises again. If cost-of-living adjustments increase, so would the raises.
The raises put teachers’ average salary at $103,000, Nelson estimated.
Plus, starting pay and max salary for teachers in other Central Valley school districts outrank the pay of teachers in Fresno Unified, though the district is the largest in the region, Bonilla said.
Based on Fresno Unified’s pay schedule, salary currently ranges from $56,013 for new teachers to about $102,000 for teachers with loads of experience, not including those with professional development.
Based on a compensation comparison of 16 districts across the Central Valley, data provided by the union, the $56,013 for new teachers and $102,000 max salary rank at the bottom among the other school districts.
Fresno Unified’s proposal also still comes with a cut to how much the district contributes to the healthcare fund, Bonilla noted. The health fund, in part, determines employee healthcare benefits.
The suggested contribution cut saves the district money, which Fresno Unified will use to fund its proposed salary increases, Bonilla asserts.
“They want to reduce the amount of money that goes into our health fund so that they can use some of it to pay for the salary increases,” Bonilla told EdSource.
District’s offer achieves the same thing as lifetime retiree benefits, Nelson says
The teachers union has proposed district-provided medical benefits for the rest of employees’ lives, even after retirement, restoring the practice, which ended in 2005.
Instead of lifetime medical benefits after retirement, Fresno Unified proposes:
At age 57.5, if an employee has worked in Fresno Unified for 20 years, they’ll be offered the same healthcare plan, and at the same rate, as current employees.
At 65 when employees become eligible for Medicare, they will have access to a district health plan that covers medical procedures that Medicare doesn’t pay for.
Nelson called the proposal a bridge to Medicare, which will meet the same goal as lifetime retiree benefits.
“What does that mean?” Nelson posed. “If you work for us for 20 years and retire, you will never be without medical coverage.”
The district’s move doesn’t invest more money in teachers, Bonilla argues, because money was already in the healthcare fund to provide what Fresno Unified is proposing. The health care fund has a surplus of money, which will cover the costs of the district’s healthcare proposal.
“The money’s already there,” Bonilla said.
Still no on class size caps
The teachers union wants to cap class size with contract language offering parents the choice of moving their children to smaller classes before the cap is exceeded or giving teachers an increased stipend.
Many districts utilize class size caps or maximums, including Madera, Sanger and Selma school districts in Fresno County.
The district won’t budge on implementing class size caps, Nelson said, but lowering class size is a priority for Fresno Unified.
Maintaining existing class size averages or ratios, the district is proposing reducing the number of students over that average that triggers a teacher stipend.
Currently, teacher-student ratios are one teacher for:
24 students in transitional kindergarten to third grade classes
29 students for grades 4-6
28 students for grades 7-8
29 students for high school classes
Elementary teachers have the option of an aide or a $2,000 annual increase if their classes have more than 33 students for more than half of the school year. Secondary grade teachers have the same option of an aide or stipend, if their classes have more than 36 students.
Fresno Unified’s revised proposal reduces that to offer the stipend:
If K-3 grade teachers have more than 28 students in the 2024-25 school year and more than 27 students in 2025-26
If 4-6 grade teachers have more than 34 students this year, over 32 next year and more than 31 the following year
If 7-8 grade teachers have more than 37, 35 and 34 students this year, next year and the following year, respectively
If 9-12 grade teachers have more than 37, 36, and 35 students this year, next year and the following year, respectively
To help lower class sizes, the district, according to its proposal, will also reassign 50 teachers on special assignment back to the classroom.
And to continue to address class size and other issues, the district is proposing a problem-solving team with four district leaders, including the superintendent, and four FTA leaders.
Even though the union agrees with the concept to create a problem-solving team, Bonilla said negotiations are the time and place to address areas such as class size reduction.
Days ahead of a strike vote
The school district, according to Nelson, is still willing to adjust its proposal based on continued negotiations. Bonilla, too, said he is willing to return to the bargaining table.
“It’s largely dependent on where the district is and how they value their educators,” Bonilla said. “Superintendent Nelson has my phone number, and we’ll be willing to talk anytime, anywhere.”
In the meantime, Nelson and Fresno Unified board members urged teachers to read the district’s current proposal for themselves – especially before voting to strike this coming Wednesday.
When Wednesday does come, teachers’ vote to strike, Bonilla said, could be a vote on whether “enough is enough.”
“We believe that thousands of educators will be able to cast their vote and make their voice heard,” Bonilla said. “We believe that people are ready to strike because enough is enough with a (school) system that devalues our educators and doesn’t listen to the things that they (teachers) feel are needed to improve this system.”
Our country is facing an urgent crisis: the early-educator shortage. Earlier this year, the National Head Start Association reported that 19% of Head Start staff positions were vacant nationwide, leading to the closure of 20% of all Head Start classrooms. As of August, the entire child care workforce was 40,000 less than pre-pandemic.
As the largest Head Start provider in Los Angeles County and the state of California, the Los Angeles County Office of Education feels shortage acutely. We recognize the immense responsibility we have to children, families and communities, as well as the elementary schools where our youngest learners will continue their educational journeys. It takes educators to meet that commitment.
It is time for Congress to fulfill the promise of Head Start by investing in the highly qualified, professional educators who teach our youngest learners through funding that at least keeps pace with inflation.
In the meantime, we at the county office, like many early-learning providers, are doing what we can to address the staffing crisis.
In August, I had the pleasure of addressing a graduating class of brand-new educators. Not fresh-faced young college grads just setting off into the world, these new teachers were already parents, enrolled in our Head Start program, and ready to change their life trajectories.
There was Maria Riley, a Head Start mom decades ago, and now a Head Start grandma as she fosters her two young grandsons. Reengaging with Head Start had ignited a spark she will now share with more young learners.
There was Martha Rebollar, initially hesitant to return to school after so long away, convinced she wouldn’t finish, and always on the verge of dropping out. But she was always persevering. And, ultimately, she was the first to be hired.
There was Georgina Perez, whose childhood dream of becoming a teacher was first put on hold, then nearly derailed by cancer. But she would not give up. Though she had to attend the first few classes virtually from her hospital bed, she never quit.
Then there were three dozen more of their peers, each with their own story. They joined us as parents, became our students, and are now fully qualified, professional early educators.
Each is a testament to what the Head Start program can accomplish and a reminder of the promise made by our elected representatives in Washington for nearly six decades — a promise Congress must now reignite.
Launching Head Start as a new front in the War on Poverty in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson declared it “one of the most constructive, and one of the most sensible, and also one of the most exciting programs that this nation has ever undertaken.”
Proclaiming Head Start Awareness Month in October 1982, President Ronald Reagan recognized that “the services provided by dedicated Head Start staff have been instrumental in creating a quality program that truly provides young children with a ‘head start’ in life.”
Head Start’s inclusive, comprehensive, whole-family, whole-child approach is what makes the difference — even more so in this post-pandemic world. Beginning with supporting expectant parents, collaborating with and empowering families while nurturing children educationally, nutritionally, socially and emotionally from birth until school entry, Head Start prepares children for success in school and in life.
Head Start teachers are required to tailor activities to meet each child’s unique needs. Home visitors empower parents to be their child’s first and best teachers. Family service workers help families move toward self-sufficiency. Health and nutrition specialists build the foundation for a lifetime of healthy habits. And disabilities managers ensure that children of all abilities thrive in an inclusive classroom.
Achieving all this, however, takes qualified, passionate staff who feel supported, are fairly compensated, and have opportunities for career growth. With proper funding, the result will be a stable workforce backed with the support needed to be present for our young learners and prepare them for the TK-12 journey ahead.
That’s why the Los Angeles County Office of Education launched our Career Development Initiative to provide an innovative, fast-track career growth opportunity for talented, committed individuals like Maria, Martha, Georgina and so many more.
And that’s why I’m calling on all of our elected officials to prioritize Head Start. As a society, we cannot afford to let our children, our families and our teachers down. Our future depends on it.
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.
Students at UCLA Community School pass by one of several outdoor campus murals on their way to class.
Credit: Allison Shelley/EDUimages
EdSource asked Martin Blank for his perspective on California’s massive investment in community schools in the context of the community schools movement that he was instrumental in creating.
For 20 years after he co-founded it in 1997, Blank directed the Coalition for Community Schools, a national organization that advocates for policies that support the implementation of quality community schools. He also served as president of the Institute for Educational Leadership, the coalition’s home.
Marty Blank
After serving as a VISTA volunteer in the Missouri Bootheel region, Blank, an attorney, was a senior staff member at A.L. Nellum and Associates, the nation’s first African American-owned consulting firm.
Through two-year planning and five-year implementation grants, more than 2,000 schools could become community schools to broaden services to meet children’s multiple needs and schools’ connections with the community. More than a place, the book says, a community school “is a set of partnerships built on a foundation of mutually beneficial relationships between schools and communities.”
With growing gaps in wealth and an increase in poverty, is it important that schools take a larger role than traditionally people have thought schools should take?
Yes, the school should have a larger role, but that role should be as an ally with an array of partners with expertise and people who want to help kids thrive.
The idea that schools could take on a larger role and do everything is mistaken. You open up the school to the community, you open up the potential for greater family engagement, and you get people to think about kids in different ways. Health people, youth people, school people, organizers all have a slightly different view of the world and how it should change. When you put them together, you can really create a synergy that leads to a better strategy and better results. It’s the wisdom of the group, rather than a single entity being in charge of everything.
The title of your book is “The Community Schools’ Revolution: Building Partnerships, Transforming Lives, Advancing Democracy.” What’s revolutionary, and how would parents and teachers know that they’re in the middle of a revolution?
That partnerships are essential in today’s public school and policy environment is a revolutionary concept. The power of partnership between schools and community is the essence of our work. We’ve begun to demonstrate how powerful that is.
Listen: How parents, teachers, and the community can tell if the community schools “revolution” is in their midst
We also have leaders in community schools who are thinking and acting differently. Principals are not only focused on their school, on their academic responsibilities, but they also recognize their ability to build a community of parents, teachers and now partners that support their students.
The community schools revolution is also demonstrated by their growth. There are thousands of schools across the country. We have evidence of success, and we have a growing investment. California’s is significant and we’ve got substantial federal money. Maryland has embedded community schools across all school districts, by including them in the school funding formula, and a growing number of states are funding community schools development.
California’s is the biggest bet yet on community schools. In part, it was driven by money. California had a huge surplus, and so the Legislature and the Newsom administration, at the encouragement of State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond, put down $4.4 billion over seven years. It made this commitment without really anything in place as a state system. Does it concern you that it might fall short of its potential?
If I could control the way policy functions, one might do very careful planning, then implement, then evaluate. But in the United States, we don’t do policy that way. It’s all a bit chaotic, and that makes it really hard for school people.
We were worried when New York expanded from 40 community schools to 150, because we thought that was going to be challenging. And it was. But in time, because the school system and the city government and the community-based organizations and the school leaders stayed together, there are now 420 plus community schools in New York, and they’re working toward a set of common goals. Are there challenges? Do we worry that money is going to be taken away? Of course, but sustainable partnerships emerging.
Listen: Whether California’s approach to community schools, through planning grants, followed by implementation grants on a mass scale, makes sense
We saw measurable progress in New York. A report by Rand demonstrated there was some improvement in math achievement, that students were more connected to adults and to the school, that there were improvements in attendance. We saw progress in California, where there are community schools that people could draw on — in San Francisco, West Contra Costa, Oakland, Los Angeles and other places.
We’re hoping that school and community organization leaders will realize that if they go beyond vendor and contract relationships, to really become partners, there will be a foundation on which to continue. Grants may come, but if the relationship between the school and their partners remains, then the essence of the community school will remain.
California is investing many billions of dollars in other services, too, such as mental health, transitional kindergarten, and an extended day and year, particularly for low-income schools. What difference will this make in a community school?
California represents a real opportunity. If it works the way we hope, the person in charge of new mental health money, the person running the after-school program, and other partners will be talking to each other and educators about what they want to accomplish. I remember a principal telling me he was responsible for all partners. They would ask for space and for equipment. He held a meeting and said, “Who are you and why the hell are you here?” What we want is for those potential allies to sit and talk regularly, to listen to students and their families and figure out how to make progress together.
Oakland and UCLA are prominent in your book. Any school would be fortunate to be associated with a university like UCLA. And Oakland has more nonprofits than coffee shops. But there are lots of communities that don’t have those opportunities. If you are in rural San Bernardino County or Humboldt County, what do you do?
The first thing is to go out in the community and talk to the business community, to the religious community. In every community, there are some nonprofit organizations. Every community has resources. We’ve had community schools where the emphasis was on bringing in elders from Appalachian communities to teach about the local history. We’ve had community schools where the kids have learned about the fishing industry. 4H is a significant player in many rural communities.
It’s a mindset issue. People have assets and expertise. If you assume there’s nothing, it puts the school and the teachers in a very negative mindset about what they’re trying to accomplish.
A crucial person will be the community schools coordinator, which all community schools in California must hire to receive state funding. Whom should districts be looking for, and why is that person important?
A community school coordinator is a bridge builder. We’ve had innumerable principals say, “I don’t know how I managed before I had a community school coordinator.” A community school coordinator is vital to connecting the work of partners and school staff. They should be collaborative and like to work with other people; they should be someone who knows how to listen to families and young people, who can bring ideas from partners to the principal and teachers and be part of the school leadership team.
The California Teachers Association has taken a position and some local unions in negotiations that the community schools coordinator should be a certificated teacher. A number of districts have said that first and foremost, the person should come from the community and know the community. What’s your view?
Sometimes you’ll find a social worker with community organizing training. Or a teacher who was a Peace Corps volunteer, a parent or community resident with strong relational skills. We need someone who can build bridges to the community whether they work for a school system, a nonprofit organization or a higher education institution. We should not limit ourselves when we think about where we look for people.
What might be early wins that might set the right tone and culture for community schools?
Attendance is a big issue and really a critical place to start. People are worried about it all across the country. When you have partnerships, whether it’s around health and mental health or just outreach with the ability to talk to parents and meet in their homes or workplaces, you can encourage improvement in attendance. In Baltimore, grassroots groups of Black men, some of whom are formerly incarcerated, have become involved with schools to try to make connections.
I can imagine some principals and teachers might say, “We welcome the partnerships, we welcome the additional resources, but leave instruction and learning to us.” How can what goes on in the school day be integrated into the community school?
We’ve seen teachers do walk-arounds in neighborhoods, so they understand their students’ lives and communities and use that knowledge in the classroom. At the UCLA Community School, the kids have worked on immigration and housing issues. We’ve seen young people get involved in dealing with hunger and nutrition issues in their neighborhoods. Partners can help facilitate that.
Listen to kids. You can build a standards-based curriculum that involves kids dealing with science and math, and everything else around problems that matter to them and to their neighborhood.
Listen: How principals must open up schools and themselves for community schools to succeed
The community can be a resource for learning apprenticeships and internships. The University of Pennsylvania has students going into labs and doing summer work. All of that is part of what can happen in a community school.
For this $4 billion public investment, what metrics should the public use to gauge whether community schools are making a difference in the lives of students including, academic achievement?
They would see better attendance. They might see reductions in disciplinary incidents because they’ve applied restorative justice practices. They might see indications of improvement in mental health, not only because young people have had access to mental health professionals, but also because they’ve just had more opportunities to be on a team, whether it’s a robotics team or a football team, They should be looking for parents to stand up and say, “This school works for our kids” and for kids to be saying the same kinds of things.
I was told by a high school principal who was a community schools manager that building trust can be difficult and that the initial efforts can be frustrating. Parents are busy, and perhaps their own experiences may have turned them off to school.
It’s a never-ending process. Each of us, in our personal lives, in our professional lives, has had situations where we built some trust, we lost the trust, we had to rebuild it. Parents are busy, but if you knock on doors and listen to them, you can capture the essence of what they want. Educators and partners build trust when they look at data together to solve problems.
You mentioned timing may be both right and difficult now, with so much scrutiny on schools for various reasons and tensions brought into schools from the outside. Your book ends with this quote: “Now more than ever, with a deeply divided electorate and an often toxic political environment, community schools may represent a strategy that can bring people together, build community, and even bridge ideological divides.” Why are you confident that a community school can achieve such ambitions?
If you’re not a dreamer or ambitious, then you’re not going to be able to overcome the historic inequities that have existed in our public school system and society. I’ve been at this work for 60 years, and it’s been urgent for all 60 years. When we first opened the migrant education program in a formerly segregated school in southeast Missouri, it was urgent. Now, with our politics so divided, the fact that there can be community schools in Florida and Idaho, in New York and California, in Wisconsin and Texas, indicates there’s a power in the idea of public school being the vehicle around which we build community.
School leaders have to realize that they gain power by being more open. And that’s a challenge, given the politics of the moment. But our schools are a place that everyone knows, where we can all come together and act democratically. It’s not the only solution, but it offers the possibility of creating the kind of trust, the kind of relationships and the kind of places where people can come and see that we all care about each other’s kids.
Community schools show how people and organizations can come together to solve problems.
