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  • As California community colleges struggle with transfer, some find success

    As California community colleges struggle with transfer, some find success


    When Allyson Najera enrolled at Irvine Valley College in 2021, she worried her higher education outlook was bleak.

    Najera was admitted to and planned to attend San Diego State University that year, but her family couldn’t afford it, and she instead enrolled in community college with the intention of transferring. She knew of family members who went to a community college and never transferred to a four-year university.

    “I was very scared that was going to happen to me,” she said. “I remember crying the first time I went to campus.”

    Yet two years later, Najera is getting ready to start her first term at UCLA, where she was successfully admitted as a sociology major. She credits her experiences at Irvine Valley: working with committed counselors, getting academic research opportunities and enrolling in an honors program that had a strong track record of transferring students to UCLA. Her time at community college was “the exact opposite” of what she initially expected it to be.

    Courtesy of Allyson Najera

    Allyson Najera

    Najera isn’t the only transfer success story from Irvine Valley. In a state where transfer is often confusing and difficult for students, some community colleges, including Irvine Valley, are doing it better than most. Among Irvine Valley students who completed at least 12 units and left their community college, one-fourth of them transferred to either a University of California or California State University campus, according to a 2022 analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California. Along with Pasadena City and De Anza (in Cupertino), that was the highest mark in the state, where the average was about 17% of those students.

    In some cases, officials acknowledge, the colleges have inherent advantages, like geographical proximity to four-year universities. But officials also say their specific programs and efforts also deserve credit, like proactive transfer centers, strong academics and extracurriculars that keep students motivated.

    “Obviously, UC Irvine is just a few miles away. There’s CSU Fullerton, even Long Beach State. They’re all within driving distance,” said Loris Fagioli, Irvine Valley’s director of research and planning. “Compare that to some community colleges that are more rural and remote, and it’s much tougher for the students they’re serving to transfer.”

    “But then again, there are other community colleges that also have those advantages and they aren’t doing as well,” he added.

    Transfer culture

    At Glendale Community College, there’s an emphasis on convincing students that community college isn’t an alternative pathway, but the predominant pathway to getting a four-year degree, said Ryan Cornner, the college’s president. At Glendale, about 23% of students who earned at least 12 credits successfully transferred to UC or Cal State.

    “More than half of CSU graduates started at a community college. Almost one-third of UC graduates started at a community college,” he noted. “Building an effective transfer is convincing students that this isn’t a second chance or backup; this is a legitimate pathway to get to the university you want to attend.”

    One way they do that at Glendale is with a proactive transfer center. Rather than waiting for them to schedule appointments, counselors are constantly checking in with students who have declared an intent to transfer and making sure they’re staying on track.

    When students do seek out an appointment at Glendale, it’s easy to get one, said Mike Borisov, who is transferring this fall to UC San Diego.

    Borisov earned the credits he needed for transfer by taking classes at both Glendale and Los Angeles Valley colleges. He found it was much easier to get in front of counselors and seek help at Glendale.

    “LAVC is a great campus, but transfer counselors weren’t as helpful as the ones at Glendale. It was harder to meet in person because they were always booked up, while at Glendale, it’s more intimate and the counselors really know their students,” Borisov said.

    Glendale even offers a one-credit class focused on the transfer process, designed to help students better understand it, all while they earn a transferable that is transferable to the state’s four-year universities.

    “It’s really just meant to familiarize students with the transfer process: what the requirements are for transfer, the application timeline, how to prepare successfully for the application, how to write personal statements well,” said Bridget Bershad, a counselor at Glendale.

    Making sure students have that knowledge, whether it’s through a class or meeting with counselors, is imperative because the transfer landscape is “extremely complex,” said Fagioli, the Irvine Valley official.

    Fagioli said Irvine Valley’s transfer center is similarly proactive, regularly reaching out to students to make sure they know what they need for transfer.

    “Because as soon as you change a major, as soon as you switch from wanting to transfer to Fullerton to another CSU, all these requirements change,” he said. “So you need very good and knowledgeable people who are up to date with all the nuances.”

    In a recent EdSource survey of current and former community college students, more than half said the process of transferring to a four-year university is difficult. Many of them cited access to counseling as a roadblock; only about one-third of respondents said it is easy to schedule an appointment with a counselor.

    At some campuses, their record on transfer attracts the students. De Anza College has one of the highest transfer rates in the state and is particularly successful at sending students to the top UC campuses, namely Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego.

    Students come from outside De Anza’s Santa Clara County home base, said Marisa Spatafore, associate vice president of communications.

    “And they say they want to transfer, that they want to go to UCLA or Berkeley,” Spatafore said. “And the tagline our college is known for — ‘Tops in Transfer’ — that’s based in reality. And students understand that.”

    Getting students involved

    Beyond making sure students can navigate the transfer process, campus officials said it’s also key that students have opportunities to get involved on campus so they feel a connection to their college community and stay motivated. In some cases, their extracurriculars can even bolster their applications to UC and Cal State campuses.

    De Anza College, for example, has 18 learning communities designed to connect students to a network of classmates, faculty and advisers who share something in common. There are communities for current and former foster youth, male students of color and students identifying as LGTBQ+. There’s even one for students who need extra help in math to connect them to counselors and tutors.

    “We’re really trying to meet students where they are with these communities so that they develop a community with other students and with the faculty members, to really support their unique needs,” Spatafore said. “Even if they’re not a cohort going through the same exact classes, they still reap the benefit of that personal support, that personal attention and working with other students.”

    At both Irvine Valley and Glendale, officials emphasized the strength and size of their honors programs offered to students. Students who are accepted into the programs get special access to honors courses and get an honors recognition on their official transcripts, which can help when applying to competitive four-year universities. Students in the honors program across majors at Irvine Valley, for example, are essentially guaranteed to be admitted to UCLA if they complete the program, said Fagioli.

    Najera was admitted to the honors program at Irvine Valley, and so she was able to do her own research project on how the social media platform TikTok glamorizes eating disorders among female powerlifters between the ages of 12 and 25.

    She even presented that research at several conferences, including ones at Stanford University and Pepperdine University.

    “I think that’s something that’s very unique with Irvine Valley College. I remember going to the UC Berkeley transfer day, and a lot of students from different community colleges told me they’ve never had experience with research because their community college didn’t offer that opportunity,” Najera said.

    In addition to bolstering her college applications, she said it was also important to “get my feet wet” with research because it gave her a clear direction and made her realize she wanted to attend a university where she’d have more research opportunities. That was a big reason she focused on going to UCLA, where she hopes to conduct research at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. She chose UCLA over UC Irvine and Tufts University, a private college near Boston.

    “This experience at IVC has taught me to never have a closed mindset or let any sort of stigma get in the way,” she said. “Now I actually understand that I have a purpose in my life. IVC helped me with finding that direction.”





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  • Too much talk, not enough action for Black students in California

    Too much talk, not enough action for Black students in California


    Marcus Epps, a resident in the Black Educator Teacher Residency, teaches a math lesson to a third grade class at Castle Elementary School in Bakersfield.

    Credit: Emma Gallegos / EdSource

    California needs to do much better for Black students, and the efforts to do so as of late are few, far between and watered down.

    For years, our state has been looked to as a leader on education equity and pointed to as a model for other states on equitable funding and other programs. Yet from its inception, the Local Control Funding Formula has left out Black students, the student group denied the most support and resources from schools. And despite years of “equity” being an increasingly heard buzzword in Sacramento, we are still seeing alarmingly low progress on academic outcomes.

    Now, in the wake of increasing hostility around acknowledging the legacy of slavery and its continued impact on Black people in America, the recent rollback of affirmative action, and an all-out assault against teaching the truth in classrooms around the country, California leaders need to be as bold with their actions as they are with their rhetoric.

    Take, for instance, the current state of California’s ethnic studies course requirement. Ethnic studies help broaden awareness of the experiences of Black people, ensuring Black students see themselves reflected in the curriculum, and improve Black students’ academic achievement. In 2021, state leaders approved the course as a requirement that all graduating high school seniors must complete by 2030.

    While the California Department of Education has taken some initial steps to support implementing this new requirement, there is much more to do to make universal ethnic studies a reality — as Gov. Gavin Newsom recently pointed out in a letter to districts. Implementing ethnic studies now requires a concerted effort from state and district leaders. First, district leaders must prioritize developing locally adapted curriculum, adopting high-quality instructional materials, and ensuring teachers have high-quality professional development opportunities.

    Districts should also consider innovative ways to fully incorporate and align ethnic studies with other offerings, like dual enrollment, so that students can take college-level ethnic studies courses and simultaneously fulfill the high school graduation requirement while earning college credits. Districts should also be communicating with students and their families to ensure they are aware of the new requirement and upcoming opportunities to take the course.

    Lastly, these and other implementation needs come with costs that the state has not yet fully addressed. Legislators should provide targeted financial resources in the state’s next budget cycle to guarantee ethnic studies implementation is fully funded and on track.

    Effectively implementing ethnic studies is not a panacea that will eradicate racism from California schools. But it is a tangible step, one that is all the more important in the wake of an increasingly aggressive backlash against addressing the hundreds of years of oppression experienced by Black people in America. In fact, numerous California district leaders are welcoming this backlash through their own discriminatory actions, with multiple school boards around the state restricting teachers from discussing race in their classrooms. To be frank, this is not just a Florida problem.

    We seem to shy away from a more honest conversation in our own state, at times almost dismissing racist occurrences as outliers and pointing fingers at other states from a supposed mantle of progressivism and anti-racism. But for the Black students in Anaheim who were threatened with images of guns and racial slurs from fellow students, for the Black students in Dixon who were posted about online, labeled as monkeys by a fellow student, these occurrences are not outliers, they are part of what living in California means to them. Our commitment to valuing diversity must include not just denouncing these incidents, but taking tangible, proactive actions to prevent them while uplifting Black students.

    California can truly be at the forefront of the national movement to definitively reject the white nationalism that is increasingly creeping into the mainstream — but only if we prioritize tangible action as much as compelling rhetoric. We should be the state that leads the way in not just passing legislation, but in developing and implementing policies and practices that center serving Black students and other marginalized students, knowing that ultimately all students will do better if we prioritize the students currently at the margins.

    From funding decisions and ethnic studies implementation to the policy changes suggested by the California Reparations Task Force, the state has a myriad of tangible strategies to pull from that are completely legal even in the face of the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action — and now is the time to double down on such strategies. After all, as goes California, so goes the nation.

    •••

    Natalie Wheatfall-Lum is director of TK-12 education policy at The Education Trust–West, a statewide research, policy and advocacy organization focusing on educational justice and closing achievement and opportunity gaps for underserved students, especially students from lower-income communities.

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





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  • Interactive map: California schools on state audit list for low vaccination rates

    Interactive map: California schools on state audit list for low vaccination rates


    This map only includes schools that had 10% or more kindergartners not fully vaccinated.

    Note: Unvaccinated includes students with overdue vaccinations and those in the process of getting vaccines. Numbers do not include special education students and those with medical exemptions.

    NA: Accurate information was not immediately available from CDE.

    Source: California Department of Education

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  • 570 California schools targeted for low vaccination rates

    570 California schools targeted for low vaccination rates


    More than 500 California public schools are being audited by the state because they reported that more than 10% of their kindergarten or seventh-grade students were not fully vaccinated last school year. Schools that allow students to attend school without all their vaccinations are in jeopardy of losing funding.

    The audit list, released by the California Department of Public Health, includes 450 schools serving kindergarten students and 176 schools serving seventh graders with low vaccination rates. Fifty-six of the schools serve both grade levels. Another 39 schools failed to file a vaccination report with the state.

    “Schools found to have improperly admitted students who have (not) met immunization requirements may be subject to loss of average daily attendance payments for those children,” the California Department of Public Health said in an email.

    Students who are overdue for their vaccinations or who have been admitted to schools conditionally while they catch up on vaccines are not fully vaccinated, according to the state. Students who are in special education or have a medical exemption are not required to be vaccinated.





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  • Orange Unified becomes sixth California district to adopt transgender parental notification policy

    Orange Unified becomes sixth California district to adopt transgender parental notification policy


    Packed crowd anticipates discussion on Orange Unified Parental Notification Policy on Sept. 8, 2023.

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    In a unanimous 4-0 vote, the Orange Unified School District passed a policy Thursday evening that would require school officials to notify parents and guardians if their child asks to use a name or pronoun different than what was assigned at birth, or if they engage in activities and use spaces designed for the opposite sex.

    The policy, which has now percolated through a half dozen California districts, has its origins in Assembly Bill 1314, proposed by Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, which was denied a hearing at the state level in April.

    Rocklin Unified School District passed such a measure Wednesday. Previously, Temecula Valley Unified (Aug. 22), Anderson Union High School District  (Aug. 22) Murrieta Valley Unified (Aug.10) and Chino Valley Unified (July 20) passed almost identical policies.

    The policies passed by Chino Valley Unified and Murrieta Valley Unified have garnered backlash from state officials – who called the decisions a violation of students’ civil rights and have initiated an investigation into Chino Valley Unified. A Superior Court judge in San Bernardino County has also temporarily halted Chino Valley Unified’s policy.

    It would specifically require parents and guardians to be notified if their child asks to use a different name or set of pronouns, or if they ask to use a different sex’s segregated spaces, such as bathrooms or locker rooms.

    The policy would also mandate school principals be informed of pupils experiencing gender dysphoria or gender incongruence.

    District officials would be required to tell school principals or counselors if a student makes any attempt or threat of suicide. The principal would then have to seek out medical or mental health treatment for the student, ensure that they are supervised until their parents, guardians or another support agency intervenes, and notify emergency assistance – such as law enforcement – if necessary.

    Verbal and physical altercations, along with complaints of bullying, would have to be relayed to parents within three days.

    But the policy’s opponents say denying student’s a source of support at school – especially if they come from toxic home environments and non-accepting parents – could exacerbate their mental health.

    “When our lawmakers fail, when our families don’t accept us, when our friends leave us…I just want to feel safe at school,” said an Orange Unified School District high school student at the previous Aug. 17 meeting.

    School Board Member Angie Rumsey said the majority of teachers would also back the policy.

    “As a [someone in education], I hold and hide nothing from the parents of my students. The relationship begins with a realization that, as the teacher, I am not going to hide anything or keep information from a parent,” Rumsey said during the meeting. “Teachers should communicate with parents regarding any change in behavior.”

    However, before the Aug. 17 meeting, the Orange Unified Educators Association released a letter, arguing the policy would violate various aspects of California law as well as “student privacy rights grounded in the California Constitution.”

    The union added that the policy would burden teachers with the difficult task of discussing sensitive issues about their students with parents.

    “In addition to the legal issues, this policy requires certificated employees to have the appropriate knowledge, training, and time to have communication with students and guardians about sensitive and confidential issues,” the letter stated.

    “With the number of requirements and expectations already placed on certificated staff, this is an unreasonable and highly concerning expectation.”

    Thursday evening, California Attorney General Rob Bonta also issued a letter to the board opposing the measure.

    The school board meeting was heated – and dozens of activists spoke passionately for the measure, including many who didn’t have a direct connection to the district.

    The three board members who opposed the policy walked out of the meeting before the vote, following a disruption.

    “There’s a chilling effect that occurs for folks who then are unsure about what they can say and not say or what they’re required to do, and…. it creates a lot of stress on top of what is already a very stressful job for teachers,” said USC Professor of Education Julie Marsh.

    “…But the broader ripple effect is that you know, might it dissuade potential teachers from actually going into the teaching profession.”

    The policy

    Orange Unified School District is now the sixth district in California to pass a policy that would require parental notification when students show signs of being transgender.

    The district had originally considered that same policy at its meeting on Aug. 17, but Thursday’s agenda included a version where school counselors or psychologists would be informed instead of parents and guardians.

    The board ultimately decided to revert back to a parental notification policy between Thursday’s closed and open sessions.

    In response, several board members objected to discussing the item and tried to postpone the vote to a later meeting, after the Superior Court heard arguments for Chino Valley on Oct. 13. Those board members also claimed that they did not have enough time to adequately review the policy.

    The version that ultimately passed reverted back to the policy’s original intention.

    After the proposed AB 1314 was denied a hearing at the state level,  Essayli – who spoke at Thursday’s meeting – vowed to bring it to local districts and encouraged parents to pursue litigation.

    “In a state like California… a blue state, it becomes really the only option for these kinds of policies and actions to be occurring,” Marsh said. “And it shows us that we’re not immune.”

    The protocols outlined in the policy in response to bullying and threats of suicide have become a common argument in favor of its passage – but detailed policies and protocols to support students through these challenges already exist in Orange County and other districts.

    The 2023 Lead-Up at Orange Unified

    January – The new Orange Unified School Board fired then-Superintendent Gunn Marie Hansen during a closed session meeting without a stated reason. She was out of the country at the time. Angered by that board decision, parents have dubbed that night the “Thursday night massacre.”

    Later that month, the board suspended the district’s digital library in response to parents’ complaints about the book “The Music of What Happens.”

    February – Orange Unified School District’s interim superintendent Edward Velasquez resigned after one month in the position.

    The board also faced a Brown Act complaint for allegedly not providing enough notice prior to a meeting, among other claims.

    March: The district faced two lawsuits about alleged Brown Act violations as well as one from parents about the Superintendent firing.

    June – The Orange Unified School Board adopted a policy that would ban Pride flags and other flags, calling them divisive.

    August – The OUSD School Board appointed Ernie Gonzalez as its new superintendent and held an initial discussion of the new parental rights policy that would require school staff to inform parents if their child indicates they are transgender.

    For the past several months, community activists have been calling for a recall of Board Members Rumsey, John Ortega, Madison Miner and Rick Ledesma, the president.

    “All that we’re seeing in Temecula and Chino and Orange and other places around the state are examples of the same thing, where we’ve got a very concerted effort that started with trying to elect conservative members to the board to get a majority and to then advance policies that are more conservative in nature,” Marsh said.

    “Some would argue it’s a politics of distraction to distract us from the core work of what schools are supposed to be doing around teaching and learning. And others would even go further to say this is an explicit effort to undermine public confidence in the public school system.”

    Marsh added, “I feel like it’s a wake-up call for folks to just pay a little bit more attention to school boards.”





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  • Trump wants to cut college access programs for low-income students; California educators are pushing back

    Trump wants to cut college access programs for low-income students; California educators are pushing back


    Students at a National TRIO Day Celebration at Cal Poly Pomona.

    Courtesy of Laura E. Ayon

    Around California this summer, low-income and first-generation students are staying in college dorms for the first time. High schoolers are camping beside the Klamath River. Undergraduates are presenting research at a symposium for budding scholars in Long Beach.

    All are part of federally funded TRIO programs — like Upward Bound and McNair Scholars — based on California campuses, from rural Columbia College neighboring Yosemite National Park to private four-year institutions in Los Angeles like the University of Southern California. TRIO reaches children as young as middle school, preparing them to enroll in college and providing mentorship, academic advice and research opportunities when they do. In California, the programs served over 100,000 participants in the 2023-24 academic year.

    “I really don’t think I could have made it through City College [of San Francisco] without them,” said Ekaterini Stamatakos, 22, a psychology major and TRIO student who earned an associate degree and then transferred to UCLA, where she will start her junior year this year. “I think these kinds of programs really go beyond whatever they might say on their profiles or the paragraphs that they have on their webpages — it really does make such an impact on students’ lives.”

    But hanging over TRIO programs like Talent Search and Student Support Services is a Trump administration proposal to eliminate them. If Congress enacts that plan, all TRIO Student Support Services — such as tutoring in reading, help with college applications and workshops in financial literacy — would be defunded starting in fiscal year 2026. Their funding is uncertain until Congress finalizes the appropriations bill later this year.

    TRIO, whose name derives from an original group of three programs but now includes eight, has largely prevailed in past funding battles. With an annual budget now exceeding $1 billion, it continues to garner significant bipartisan support. But a White House budget request released in the spring argues that TRIO programs, rooted in 1960s anti-poverty policy, are now “a relic of the past.”

    “Today, the pendulum has swung and access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means,” the budget request says. Colleges “should be using their own resources to engage with K-12 schools in their communities to recruit students, and then once those students are on campus, aid in their success through to graduation.”

    The threat has mobilized TRIO supporters to redouble a public awareness campaign aimed at persuading lawmakers to maintain the programs. In California, there were about 450 TRIO programs in the 2023-24 academic year, an EdSource analysis of federal data shows, with most of that funding flowing to programs housed at more than 100 colleges and universities.

    The proposal to sever funding for TRIO comes as the Trump administration has notched a U.S. Supreme Court victory that clears the way for mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education. This month, California joined a coalition of states suing for the release of $6.8 billion in federal school funding that has been frozen by the federal government. Since January, the White House has enacted or attempted a host of other changes affecting areas like financial aid and how the federal government interprets civil rights law. 

    TRIO programs based on California campuses like Sonoma State University, Cal Poly Pomona and UC Davis each receive millions of dollars annually and are funded to serve thousands of participants per campus, the analysis shows. Smaller TRIO programs, many at community colleges, may work with dozens or hundreds of students on a budget of less than $300,000. 

    At Cal Poly Humboldt, high school students and rising college freshmen this summer read an August Wilson play before venturing on a field trip to see it performed live at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. At Cal Poly Pomona, peer coaches prepare presentations for fellow students on such topics as artificial intelligence and summer internships. At Columbia College, a community college 50 miles northeast of Modesto, a TRIO director said she’s worked with everyone from 14-year-olds in dual enrollment programs to 72-year-olds advancing toward master’s degrees.

    Decades of consensus meets partisan divides

    Studies generally suggest TRIO has a positive effect on academic outcomes, such as enrolling in college or completing a degree. Supporters also tout the success of alumni — some of whom have gone on to become lawmakers, astronauts, and in many cases, leaders of local TRIO programs themselves — as evidence of a positive impact on families and communities. 

    “I have alumni whose kids are now in college and thriving, or have graduated college,” said Rafael Topete, who leads the TRIO Student Support Services Program at Cal State Long Beach. 

    But this is not the first time TRIO programs have faced Republican-led challenges. Under President Ronald Reagan, TRIO advocates blocked an attempt to halve the program’s budget. Bipartisan support again thwarted a bid to eliminate TRIO funding during the Clinton administration. 

    TRIO’s critics point to a U.S. Department of Education-sponsored 2009 study finding that Upward Bound did not have a statistically significant impact on overall postsecondary enrollment. (The Council for Opportunity in Education, which advocates for TRIO and other college access programs, later sponsored a rebuttal study, which found Upward Bound had a strong positive impact on students.)

    Two recent U.S. Government Accountability Office reports argue that the federal Department of Education could improve how it evaluates TRIO. The department has said further steps to verify data depend on the agency having adequate staff.

    Educational Talent Search and Cal-SOAP students at Cal State Long Beach attend a workshop to help rising seniors get ready for college applications and financial aid. (Courtesy of Jesus Maldonado)

    Education Secretary Linda McMahon this spring resurrected such accountability arguments to justify defunding the programs. “I just think that we aren’t able to see the effectiveness across the board that we would normally look to see with our federal spending,” McMahon said at a June budget hearing.

    People who work for TRIO programs object to those criticisms. In interviews, many named by memory the metrics they report as a condition of receiving federal funding, like high school graduation rates and college enrollment statistics. “Every year, we report data to verify we are doing what we said we would do,” said Kathy Kailikole, who has had a 30-year career in TRIO programs and currently works at San Diego State University.

    There are signs that TRIO remains a point of agreement in a Congress more often divided along party lines. Federal funding for TRIO has climbed from $838 million in 2014 to almost $1.2 billion in 2023. And of the 130 members in the Congressional TRIO Caucus, 26 are Republicans. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho are among the Republicans who have vocally questioned cuts to TRIO.

    Today’s bitter ideological divides may test that consensus. 

    In May, three Upward Bound grantees outside California received notice from the Department of Education that their funding would not be continued due to conflicts with Trump administration priorities, said Kimberly Jones, president of the Council for Opportunity in Education.

    A copy of one such cancellation letter provided to EdSource by Jones said the grants “violate the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law; conflict with the Department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education; undermine the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help; or constitute an inappropriate use of federal funds.” 

    Overcoming distance and doubt in rural California 

    Jen Dyke directs the Upward Bound program at Cal Poly Humboldt where, years ago, she was once a student. Today, she travels hundreds of miles to recruit students from rural Hayfork, South Fork and Hoopa. It’s a region where rural schools often contend with high teacher turnover rates, low math test scores and an uncertain economic outlook, Dyke and her colleagues said. 

    “Timber is already gone. Fishing is already gone. Tourism is now something that is not super strong because of wildfires,” Dyke said during a lull in Upward Bound’s summer academy, which brings 27 high school-age students on campus to take classes and live in dorms. “So these areas that we serve are, once again, facing dismal futures if we also cut TRIO.”

    Cal Poly Humboldt’s TRIO initiatives are among dozens of TRIO programs in California — and more than 500 in the U.S. — that reach participants in predominantly rural communities and remote towns, an EdSource review of federal data found.

    Rose Sita Francia, who directs another Cal Poly Humboldt TRIO program called Talent Search, tries to expose students as early as sixth grade to careers that give them a reason to consider postsecondary education. The first step, she said, is to put college on the map for them — literally. 

    “Many students don’t know where Arcata is, where Cal Poly Humboldt is located,” she said. “And so we have teachers ask us regularly, ‘Will you show us some geography of college-going, and will you talk to us about trade school options as well?’”

    Associate degree students at Columbia College tour a Humboldt County forest while on a trip to visit Sonoma State University and Cal Poly Humboldt on Sept. 17, 2024. (Courtesy of Anneka Rogers Whitmer)

    Anneka Rogers Whitmer oversees TRIO programs housed at Columbia College, more than an hour’s drive from the two nearest four-year universities, Stanislaus State University and UC Merced. The college’s Educational Opportunity Center serves more than 1,000 people across five counties with just two staff members, who visit places like prisons and social service agencies. The TRIO staff have had to overcome distrust of college degrees, Whitmer said, by offering advice on how to apply for financial aid and where to find vocational training.

    “We’re an education desert, no doubt,” she said, “but we just have to think more creatively about how we’re going to reach the folks.”

    Ekaterini “Kat” Stamatakos and Ghislaine Maze pose for a photo at the City College of San Francisco commencement ceremony in May 2025. (Courtesy of Ghislaine Maze)

    ‘It’s easy for students to get lost or discouraged’

    The program Ghislaine Maze coordinates at City College of San Francisco may be called the TRIO Writing Success Project, but it does much more than provide writing workshops and embedded tutors in English classes.

    “So many students are trying to figure things out on their own, on the fly, with just a few hours on campus,” said Maze, whose program is funded to serve 310 students on a budget of roughly $485,000 a year. “It’s easy for students to get lost or discouraged.”

    Tight campus budgets may leave other academic advisers on campus so overbooked that students struggle to get appointments, she said. A trusted TRIO mentor can help navigate financial aid and plan a student’s academic schedule. “That’s where a program like ours kind of fits in,” Maze said.

    Before Ekaterini Stamatakos got to City College, she attended four high schools. She thinks she must have missed hundreds of days of school in that time, a consequence of housing instability. She struggled academically, but finished at a credit recovery school.

    Stamatakos, who goes by Kat, was retaking an English class at City College when a tutor from the TRIO Writing Success Project explained that it provided feedback on writing assignments, mentorship and a place to hang out at the library, complete with snacks. “This is perfect,” Stamatakos thought. “I’m just going to basically live there.”

    With assistance from a writing tutor, Stamatakos earned an ‘A’ in the course. “I don’t think I ever imagined that I would get an ‘A’ after my years of failing classes,” she said.





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  • California releases long-awaited teacher data, revealing demographic shifts

    California releases long-awaited teacher data, revealing demographic shifts


    Juniors attend a U.S. History class at Oakland Technical High School in Oakland, Calif., May 1, 2017.

    Credit: Alison Yin / EdSource

    Top Takeaways
    • The number of teachers in the state increased to 285,891 since the 2019-20 school year.
    • Hispanic teachers increased 19%, growing from 61,518 to 73,400.
    • Student-to-teacher ratios and administrator-to-student ratios are improving.

    California added 3,000 new classroom teachers and a significant number of new administrators despite declining student enrollment and budget reductions brought on by the end of pandemic funding, according to long-awaited data released by the California Department of Education on Thursday.

    Researchers and education advocates have been calling for the release of the data for years. Although the information is submitted by school districts annually, it had not been updated on the CDE’s DataQuest website since the 2018-19 school year. The release fills in the gaps, including data through the 2023-24 school year.

    “It’s very difficult to do this work without having the data in front of us to know what we can do and what is working,” said José Magaña, executive director of Bay Area Latinos for Education. “It’s something that we hope can become accessible or more accessible to folks now and in the future years, so that we can continue to invest in things that are working and also make tweaks and say what can we do differently.”

    The delays were due to a lack of staffing, additional state reporting requirements and a backlog of reports that had to be reconfigured because the state changed course codes in 2018-19, said Cindy Kazanis, the director of the Analysis, Measurement and Accountability Reporting Division at CDE, in a previous interview with EdSource.


    Now, parents, educators and researchers using the CDE’s DataQuest database can access information, updated through the 2023-24 school year, about teachers, administrators and other credentialed staff. The CDE plans to release data for the 2024-25 school year later this year.

    The release is expected to include an upgrade that gives users the ability to filter information by gender, grade span, school or staff type, allowing them to learn, for example, how many Hispanic teachers worked in non-charter public schools in a district in a particular year, or how many credentialed administrators in elementary schools in a district were women.

    The CDE has also added student-to-teacher ratios and administrator-to-student ratios, which also seem to be improving, according to the CDE.

    The data is crucial to ensure California schools have a diverse teacher workforce, said Natalie Wheatfall-Lum, director of TK-12 policy for EdTrust-West. 

    “Essentially, we can’t give California students the teachers that they need, which are diverse teachers, without being able to see where they are and see how they are being recruited and retained,” Wheatfall-Lum said. “It’s very important for us to have this information because we know the significant impact having teachers of color has on students of color and their success.”

    Growth takes off in Fresno

    The state has added 3,000 classroom teachers since the 2019-20 school year for a total of 285,891. The data shows that Fresno had the largest increase in the number of teachers in its schools, with 8% more over the five-year period ending in 2023-24. Napa County, on the other hand, lost 6.5% of its teachers over the same period.

    It’s unclear if the number of teachers in the state has changed in the 21 months since the data for 2023-24 was collected. Declining enrollment, a smattering of teacher layoffs and tightened school budgets may have erased some of the increases in schools where 5% of the teachers are not qualified to teach the courses they teach. 

    These gains could also be undermined by the recent freeze of federal teacher preparation grants and budgetary problems at California State University and the University of California, which could further reduce the number of teachers entering the field.

    The state has also had an increase in the number of new administrators and pupil services staff in 2024-24. The number of administrators grew from just over 25,000 in 2019-20 to 28,780 in 2023-24. Pupil services staff grew from more than 30,000 to 36,535 in the same time period.

    Number of Hispanic teachers growing

    Much has changed in the five years since the data was last updated. The number of Hispanic teachers in California classrooms increased by more than 19% during that time, growing from 61,518 to 73,400, according to the CDE.

    There was also a 21% increase in the number of Hispanic administrators and a 48.2% increase in the number of Hispanic school nurses, counselors and other pupil services positions.

    The number of white teachers declined over the five-year period by 7%, reducing their number to 158,064, or 55% of the teaching workforce.

    The change in the racial makeup of teacher candidates coincides with the evolving population of the state, where 56% of the K-12 student population was Hispanic in the 2023-24 school year, according to the CDE. 


    There has also been an increase in the number of Filipino, Asian, American Indian and Pacific Islander teachers, while the number of Black teachers declined incrementally, despite state initiatives to recruit and retain them.

    The trends are exciting, but more needs to be done to recruit and retain educators, especially as new research shows that 1 in 3 teachers anticipate leaving the profession, Magaña said.

    Teachers of color are asking for more inclusive and supporting school environments, stronger systems to meet students’ behavioral and academic needs, and a healthier work-life balance, he said.

    The increase in the number of teachers of color and teachers overall could be attributed to efforts by state lawmakers to ease the teacher shortage and diversify the teacher workforce by making earning a credential easier and more affordable. The state has also offered degree and coursework alternatives to several tests, established residency and apprenticeship programs, and paid for school staff to train to become teachers.





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  • How these bills before Gov. Gavin Newsom could change education in California

    How these bills before Gov. Gavin Newsom could change education in California


    Senate Bill 1263 will be heard by the full Assembly if it makes it through the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

    Credit: AP Photo/Terry Chea

    Within the past week, the Legislature dispatched hundreds of bills, including several dozen affecting TK-12 and higher education.

    Important education bills heading to Gov. Gavin Newsom include extending the ban on suspending students for willful defiance in high schools, creating more training for bilingual teachers, requiring gender-neutral student bathrooms by 2026, and enticing retired teachers to return to the classroom for the next few years.

    We include one bill dealing with the Local Control Funding Formula that was withdrawn at the last minute but could find its way into next year’s budget. Newsom has through Oct. 14 to sign or veto bills he received by Sept. 14. Two bills to place a school bond before voters next year were also pulled; negotiations with Gov. Gavin Newsom will determine which moves forward next year. 

    Teacher shortage

    Retired teachers: Senate Bill 765 would temporarily increase the amount teachers can earn post-retirement so that they can return to the classroom to take teaching positions that districts otherwise can’t fill. If the governor signs the bill, retired teachers will be able to earn 70% of the median final compensation of all California State Teachers Retirement members who retired the previous year, instead of the current 50%. The temporary measure would start July 1, 2024, and end on July 1, 2026. 

    “California has a teacher shortage, and we must do more to get teachers back in the classroom,” said state Sen. Anthony Portantino on Friday. “This is the most critical investment we can make and one that our students deserve. SB 765 makes it easier for retired teachers to come back to their teaching positions, and I look forward to the governor’s signature on this important measure.” 

    The bill originally called for increasing the grant award for teacher candidates participating in the Teacher Residency Grant program from $25,000 to $40,000, but the increase was included as part of the state budget earlier this year.

    Teacher recruitment: Assembly Bill 934, authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, would require the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to spend up to $900,000 to contract with a public relations organization to develop a campaign highlighting the value of educators and urging people to become preschool to 12th-grade teachers. The campaign would also include information about the various pathways teacher candidates can take to earn their credentials.

    “Most districts have found teachers to be in short supply, especially for math, science, special education and bilingual education,” said Muratsuchi, in his author’s statement. “Most districts are filling hiring needs with teachers on substandard credentials and permits, reflecting a statewide trend of increasing reliance on underprepared teachers. AB 934 will support the state’s numerous efforts to recruit and retain high-quality teachers, by building public awareness about the exciting and meaningful career of teaching.”

    Assembly Bill 238, also authored by Maratsuchi, would have paid student teachers. The bill did not make it through the Legislature by Thursday’s deadline and was put in the inactive file. Legislators will consider the bill again next session, said Kerry Jacob, communications director for Muratsuchi. 

    “We will continue to work with the administration and stakeholders on solutions to pay student teachers, which will improve teacher recruitment to address California’s teacher shortage,” Jacob said. 

    School nurse shortage

    Vocational nurses in schools: Senate Bill 1722 will allow licensed vocational nurses to serve as school nurses when there are not enough credentialed school nurses. The licensed vocational nurses must be supervised by a credentialed school nurse.

    There has been a shortage of credentialed school nurses for years. Although school nurses often work fewer days than their peers in hospitals and clinics, they are paid less and must take additional classes and pay more fees to get the job, which requires a school nurse services credential. 

    School districts can only hire a licensed vocational nurse if they can not find a credentialed school nurse for the job and if their school board votes to approve the hire.

    “AB 1722 is a step toward enhancing the health and safety of our students in the face of a growing school nurse shortage,” said Assemblymember Megan Dahle, author of the bill. “This legislation recognizes the urgency of the situation — especially in rural areas of California, such as the 1st Assembly District — and provides schools with a viable solution to ensure trained medical professionals are available to address students’ medical needs.”

    English learners and immigrant students 

    Seal of biliteracy: In order to earn the state seal of biliteracy on their high school diploma, students must show proficiency in English and another language. Assembly Bill 370 gives more opportunities for students to show proficiency in English, including high school GPA, standardized test scores, college-level English language arts class, Advanced Placement exams or SAT scores.

    This is similar to what is required of students to show proficiency in a language other than English to obtain the seal. 

    Advocates say that many bilingual students, particularly English learners, have not received the state seal of biliteracy because there weren’t enough options to show students are proficient in English.

    Newcomer data: Assembly Bill 714 requires the state to report the number of newcomer students, defined as students who were born in another country and arrived in the U.S. within the past three years. 

    It would also require the state to consider including resources specifically for teaching newcomers in the next revision of the English Language Arts and English Language Development framework. Currently, the framework includes resources for teaching all English learners, but not specifically for newcomer students.

    In addition, the bill allows schools to exempt all newcomer students in middle and high school from some required coursework. Current law only exempts students enrolled in programs just for newcomers.

    “AB 714 will ensure that newcomer students are more visible in our education system and receive the support they need for success,” said Martha Hernández, executive director of Californians Together, an organization that advocates for English learners.

    Child care language surveys: Assembly Bill 393 requires child care centers and family child care homes that serve low-income children with state subsidies to ask all families about the languages they speak at home.

    The idea is to incorporate more of children’s home languages in the child care program, to help support them in maintaining those languages and learning English. The information will also be shared with the state to monitor how many children speak languages other than English at home.

    State-subsidized preschool programs have already been conducting the language surveys. 

    Bilingual teacher preparation: Assembly Bill 1127 re-establishes the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program to help prepare more teachers to work in dual-immersion schools or with English language learners.

    The budget included $20 million to re-establish the program for five years. School districts in California have struggled for years to hire teachers with bilingual authorizations — a specialized credential required to teach English language learners.

    In-state tuition for Mexico residents: Students who live in Mexico within 45 miles of the border would be eligible for in-state tuition at community colleges under Assembly Bill 91.

    The bill would apply to community colleges near the border — Cuyamaca College, Grossmont College, Imperial Valley College, MiraCosta College, Palomar College, San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego Miramar College, and Southwestern College. Each college could enroll the equivalent of up to 150 full-time students.

    In order for the bill to go into effect, however, the governing board of the California Community Colleges would have to enter into a similar agreement with a university in the state of Baja California, to allow California residents to attend there with in-state tuition as well.

    Dream resource centers: Assembly Bill 278 would establish a grant program to help more high schools set up Dream Resource Centers. Dream Resource Centers provide counseling on financial aid, immigration law, and other resources to help immigrant students and children of immigrants.

    There is no funding in the budget for this grant, however, and the bill would not go into effect until the Legislature funds it.

    School finance and funding

    School facilities bonds: Given the choice of two very different bills to place a large school facilities bond issue before state voters in 2024, the bills’ authors and legislative leaders chose to hold back both in the final days of the legislative session. It will be up to the Newsom administration, through negotiations, to determine which version — or a blend of the two — makes the ballot.

    Assembly Bill 247, authored by Assembly Education Committee Chair Muratsuchi, calls for a $14 billion bond issue for TK-12 and community colleges. Muratsuchi said it would include money for renovations and new construction, including transitional kindergarten facilities; seismic retrofits and safety repairs; improvements to adapt to climate change, reflecting the dangers of extreme heat, fire and flooding; and abatements from lead in water. The bill doesn’t say how the money will be apportioned. Senate Bill 28, authored by Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, would be for $15 billion, and would provide $9 billion for TK-12, including $500 million for charter schools and $500 million for career education, and $6 billion for UC, CSU and community colleges. It would be similar to a Proposition 13 that voters defeated by 47% to 53% in March 2020.

    Advocates for a TK-12-community college bond will point to Proposition 13’s rejection as evidence that including higher ed bonding reduces the odds of passage. But others argue there were other reasons for the loss, including confusion over the number 13: a previous Proposition 13, still much in voters’ minds, was the 1978 anti-tax initiative. What’s clear is the need. Voters last passed a state bond, for $9 billion, in 2016, and there is already a nearly $4 billion backlog of school projects waiting for new money.

    Raising LCFF funding: Legislation that would aim to increase funding for the Local Control Funding Formula by 50% over the next seven years almost made it to Newsom’s desk. But uncertainty about whether Newsom would sign it led the author of Assembly Bill 938 to pull the bill in the last week of the session.

    The bill would re-establish a long-term funding target that was a feature of the 2013 law phasing in the funding formula. Since reaching the target amount in 2018-19, two years early, the Legislature has annually increased LCFF based on the cost-of-living (last year being an exception, with several billion dollars beyond the growing cost of living). AB 938 would increase base funding by 50% by 2030-31, while encouraging districts to use the new money to increase staff pay by that percentage over that time.

    The author, Muratsuchi, said he would continue talks with Newsom’s finance team with the intent of incorporating the bill in the 2024-25 budget. He said it is needed to address staff shortages, although critics say districts should decide, without state pressure, how to balance the need for higher pay with other priorities, like reducing class sizes.

    Instruction and testing

    Textbook and library book censorship: Pushed by Newsom after a confrontation with the Temecula Valley Unified school board, Assembly Bill 1072 states that school boards would be committing censorship and discrimination if they refused to include materials or removed library books or textbooks that would interfere with California’s FAIR Education Act. The Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act, passed in 2011, requires instructional materials to accurately portray the history, viewpoints and experiences of California’s diverse and underrepresented racial, ethnic and other groups, including LGBTQ+ Californians.

    The bill, authored by first-term Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Perris, would enable parents and others to file a complaint charging a violation with their county superintendent or directly with the state superintendent of public instruction, who could order a remedy, such as the purchase of a library book or instructional material. If a school district refuses to update a curriculum or textbook intentionally to avoid FAIR Act compliance, the state superintendent could order a FAIR Act-compliant textbook for students, charge the district, and impose a one-time penalty of about $95 per student or $950,000 for an average district with 10,000 students.

    Passed with an urgency provision, AB 1078 will take effect as soon as Newsom signs it, which is expected any day.

    Reporting Smarter Balanced results: The California Department of Education will face a deadline to release Smarter Balanced results and other state testing data by Oct. 15 each year, starting in the fall of 2024, as a result of legislation that Newsom signed earlier this month.

     Senate Bill 293,otherauthored by Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, comes one year after EdSource challenged the department’s decision to delay the release of the statewide test results until December 2022 to coincide with the release of data measures, such as chronic absentee data, in the California State Dashboard. EdSource argued that there was no legal justification for withholding test results because school districts and schools receive their numbers in late summer.

    The Association of California School Administrators agreed in its letter supporting the bill. School districts will use the earlier release “to make informed decisions on many issues, including how to effectively distribute resources to maximize support for students,” the group wrote. “Parents and guardians will better understand how well their children are performing and how best to help them.”

    Eliminating willful defiance: Senate Bill 274 would prohibit teachers from suspending fifth- through 12th-grade students for willful defiance until July 1, 2029. It would also extend the ban on willful defiance suspensions for sixth through eighth grades until July 1, 2029. 

    Willful defiance, as defined by the bill, involves disrupting school activities or the “valid authority” present. 

    The bill would expand on current California law, where students in first through fifth grades cannot be suspended for willful defiance, and first through 12th grade students cannot be expelled for the same reason.  SB 274 would retain a teacher’s current authority to suspend any pupil in any grade from class for willful defiance for the day of the suspension and the following day, as long as the student is under supervision during an in-house suspension. 

    Basic Needs 

    CalFresh eligibility: Under Assembly Bill 274, grants, awards, scholarships, loans and fellowships will not be considered as income when determining eligibility for CalFresh. 

    Additionally, lump sums would only be considered for the month it is received, with the exception of social insurance payments such as veteran’s benefits, social security income, railroad retirement benefits and disability insurance. 

    Income from the U.S. Census Bureau and other government entities – along with federal pandemic unemployment aid – would also not be considered.   

    Mental health access: AB 665, authored by Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, would allow children 12 years and older to consent to mental health treatment or counseling without the involvement of their parent or guardian. Under existing law, children 12 and older are allowed to consent to mental health treatment or counseling without the involvement of parents, but only after they demonstrate that they are in danger of serious physical or mental harm to themselves or to others, or be the alleged victim of incest or child abuse.

    This bill, which would take effect July 1, 2024, would require the mental health professional to consult with the child before determining whether involvement of the child’s parent or guardian would be appropriate.

    Lead in school water: California would expand its testing and treatment for lead found in public school water with more stringent standards under new legislation.

    Water companies serving schools receiving federal Title I funding would be required to test all water outlets by Jan. 1, 2027, and report the findings to the state and school districts. Districts would be required to shut down the contaminated outlet immediately, notify parents within 30 days, and then replace the outlet or take measures other than running the water before school to dilute concentrations of lead, a standard remediation until now.

    Assembly Bill 249, authored by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, would cover all outlets, not just some, as a 2017 law requires, and also cover all pre-schools built on public property. The standard for taking action would be 5 parts per billion instead of the current 15 parts per billion. A 2018 analysis by EdSource estimated that 4% of outlets in schools had more than 15 parts per billion and 1 in 5 school outlets tested between 5 and 15 parts per billion. Scientists have concluded that tiny exposures to lead could damage children’s nervous system and organs and cause learning and attention difficulties.

    State analysts project significant one-time costs for districts to do the remediation — money that might be reimbursable as a state mandate or funded through federal or perhaps state construction bonds.

    Narcotic abuse treatment: Assembly Bill 816 would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to consent to replacement narcotic abuse treatment that uses buprenorphine by a medical professional or other medication-based opioid use disorder treatment by a licensed narcotic treatment program without the consent of their parent or guardian. Buprenorphine, one of the active ingredients in Suboxone, partially activates opioid receptors in order to reduce withdrawal symptoms in opioid addicts as they wean off of the drug.

    LGBTQ students

    Gender-neutral bathrooms: Senate Bill 760 requires all public K–12 schools in the state to provide gender-neutral restrooms for students to use during school hours by 2026, as long as they have more than one male and female restroom for students.

    State law already allows students to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. However, some students who identify as non-binary require gender-neutral bathrooms, and some students who identify as transgender feel safer using a gender-neutral bathroom. This bill was written after meetings of an ad hoc committee on safe school bathrooms that was created by State Superintendent Thurmond in response to a 2021 proposal by Chino Valley Unified School District that would have required students to use the bathroom of their biological sex. That proposal did not pass.

    According to a 2019 National School Climate Survey, 45% of LGTBQ+ and nonbinary students avoid gender-segregated school bathrooms because they feel uncomfortable and unsafe using them. Thurmond, who sponsored the bill, said providing an all-gender restroom at every public school is a “critical step toward preparing California students to succeed by ensuring the necessary steps of having a safe foundation to rely on: having a safe and inclusive place to use the restroom.”

    Safe and supportive schools: Assembly Bill 5, authored by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Hollywood, would require public school teachers and credentialed staff to take online training in LGBTQ+ cultural competency starting with the 2025-26 school year. Previously, the state “encouraged” schools to provide training on these topics every two years.

    Zbur, in his comments supporting the bill, said despite progress, LGBTQ+ students still often experience harassment, violence and a lack of affirmation at school.

    “AB 5 will provide public school teachers and staff, who are on the front lines of supporting California students, with the training and support they need to better serve LGBTQ+ and all students,” Zbur said.

    Higher education

    Community college transfer – Assembly Bill 1291, which the Legislature passed last week, attempts to simplify the process of transferring from a California community college to a University of California campus. Under a new pilot program starting at UCLA, students who complete an associate degree for transfer in select majors would be prioritized for admission. The program would later expand to additional campuses in limited majors. 

    Proponents say it would streamline the state’s transfer system since students can get a guaranteed spot somewhere in the California State University system by completing an associate degree for transfer. But the student associations representing UC and the community college system are opposed to the bill.

    “The pilot ADT admissions program this bill would create does not contain any assurances for students that their hard-earned ADT can be used for admission at a UC or CSU of their choice. … Instead of attempting to pass a hastily drafted and last-minute legislation with no student input, we urge you to veto AB 1291,” the students wrote in a message to Newsom.

    EdSource reporters Michael Burke, John Fensterwald, Diana Lambert, Mallika Seshadri, Zaidee Stavely and Ali Tadayon contributed to this story. 

    Correction: Two competing bills to create a state school facilities bond did not move forward, as first reported; they were held back for negotiations to determine which version will go to voters in 2024.





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  • California leaders should focus on getting our money’s worth from public schools

    California leaders should focus on getting our money’s worth from public schools


    Credit: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    After years of promoting “local control” in education, the latest news is full of stories on state intervention in decisions being made by local school boards.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom has threatened the Temecula Valley school district with fines for exercising its local control. He disagrees with their decisions on curriculum. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond flew to Southern California to stand at the lectern during a Chino Valley Unified School District board meeting and lambasted the members over their policy change strengthening the rights of parents to be involved when their child is facing mental health challenges.

    State Attorney General Rob Bonta has even gone so far as to sue Chino Valley Unified for approving the parental notification policy, with the implicit threat this may extend to other districts that have passed or are considering the same policy.

    So much for local control.

    With all this state-level attention to local school districts, does it surprise anyone that none of that focus has anything to do with actually improving education?

    As we’ve seen in headline after headline, actual education in our state is doing nothing but getting worse. By every objective measure, there is — including NAEP scores, SAT/ACT results, and the state’s own CAASPP/SBAC testing system — our education system is doing worse than ever at its core function: educating our kids.

    In 2022, according to the Smarter Balanced testing, less than half of our kids (47%) were proficient in English, and a miserable 28% (fewer than one-third of students) were proficient in math.

    Results from the statewide CAASPP/Smarter Balanced standardized tests, which are administered to students in grades 3-8 and 11 each spring. No data available for 2020, when testing was suspended due to the Covid pandemic.

    Our educational system is clearly failing our kids.

    Meanwhile, districts are spending record amounts of money achieving those dismal results. In 2023-24 our state will spend $127.2 billion on K-12 education, more than any year in history.

    Since 2012, when California voters approved Proposition 30 to increase taxes on ourselves to “better fund education,” per-student funding has skyrocketed. Based on school district financial data published by Ed-Data, in 2012 the state provided $8,832 per student. In 2022 that number was $18,827.

    That means in the last decade, education spending has grown by almost $10,000 per student, which works out to an annual increase rate of 7.86% per year. During that same period, the state reports inflation averaged 2.97% per year. Education funding has risen at a rate over 2½ times faster than inflation.

    This doesn’t include one-time Covid mitigation funding, but does include the extraordinary post-Covid increase in tax revenue. This increase is not expected to continue, meaning districts that used that money to increase spending on ongoing expenses (like pay and benefits) will be facing decisions on what to cut from our kids when the expected “fiscal cliff” arrives.

    The California Department of Education appears to have stopped reporting class size data in 2019, but as of then, the average class size in the state was about 26 kids; $20,000 times 26 students equals $520,000 per classroom.

    Some may think over a half-million dollars a year per classroom should be adequate to provide kids with a good education, but not the education establishment. In a private business, having revenue rising at rates so far above inflation would result in the sound of champagne corks popping. In education, all we hear are continued complaints about “lack of funding.”

    To our education leaders, it’s not about how the money is spent, it’s all about insufficient funding. This is said to us by people who clearly benefit personally from those increases in funding.

    If we look at pay and benefits for education employees, the graph looks much more like the trend in revenue than the graph of academic performance.

    Data for 2022 is not yet complete, but in 2021 according to public pay data collected by Transparent California, the median total compensation for a K-12 administrator was $167,857, and for the certificated group (primarily teachers), $124,513.

    Now, as I said in my EdSource article on respect for teachers, I’m very happy we can afford to pay our education professionals well. But are we getting the results we’re paying for?

    The failure of education in our state is a crisis. For our kids and for the future of the state. The need for leadership to focus on improvements is clear.

    Why, then, is Superintendent Thurmond not showing up at the lectern of board meetings in failing districts and talking about that?

    San Diego Unified recently approved a bonus raise for employees adding tens of millions to future deficits. Funding this will require cuts to programs and services for kids. With only 53% of its kids proficient in English and 41% achieving state standards in math, why did Mr. Thurmond not stand up at their meeting and demand they use their funding to improve education, rather than improving their personal bank accounts?

    Los Angeles Unified is spending $18 billion dollars, with similar failing results. Why is Gov. Newsom not threatening them with fines, or having Mr. Bonta file lawsuits for misuse of government funds?

    Self-serving actions by politicians calculated to appeal to their base rather than improve government services are common in politics. But this is the education of our kids; shouldn’t that be different?

    Why do we accept this? Why do “We the People” not stand up and demand action, from both our local district and our state? An entire generation (and perhaps more) of our kids is at stake. Perhaps that should be more important to our state leadership than grandstanding on political issues that play to their base?

    •••

    Todd Maddison is the director of research for Transparent California, a founding member of the Parent Association advocacy group in San Diego, and a longtime activist in improving K-12 education.

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





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  • University of California to offer college classes to low-income high school students

    University of California to offer college classes to low-income high school students


    Student walk up and down the Promenade to Shields Library at UC Davis.

    Credit: Gregory Urquiaga / UC Davis

    The University of California is joining a national initiative to offer free online courses to students at low-income high schools across the country beginning next year.

    The university system is joining the National Education Equity Lab and beginning in the winter term of 2024 will offer two for-credit classes to students enrolled in Title I schools, a federal designation for schools with high numbers of low-income students, UC’s board of regents learned Wednesday. UC is hopeful that the program will allow students — who might not otherwise have access to college courses — the opportunity to take UC classes and get a taste of college.

    The classes are free to students, but the participating high schools will need to pay a fee of $250 per student to the equity lab to cover administrative and support costs.

    The specific classes that will be offered haven’t yet been determined, but they will be for college credit and are existing courses developed by UC faculty. Currently, 12 other universities participate in the national program. The classes available to students include a poetry course from Harvard, an environmental studies course from Howard University and a bioengineering course from Stanford.

    UC will be the second public university to join the partnership and also the second university from California, joining Stanford.

    The program will allow the university to expand access to low-income high school students who might not otherwise have a chance to take rigorous courses, said Rolin Moe, executive director of UC Online.

    “These courses are focused on establishing that love of learning and that opportunity to show people that they can succeed in college,” Moe added. “A student who gets to say, ‘I took a course from Berkeley,’ or ‘I took a course from Santa Cruz,’ what that means for somebody internally and intrinsically could be all the difference.”

    UC faculty will be responsible for creating the course syllabus and course materials as well as developing assessments. Teaching fellows, including UC undergraduate and graduate students, will help facilitate the courses by leading Zoom sessions, grading student work and answering questions. Teachers at the local high schools will also work with UC faculty to help facilitate the courses.

    Students across the country and in California can already access college courses through dual enrollment programs that are offered mainly by community colleges. One regent, Jose Hernandez, said during Wednesday’s meeting that he’s concerned UC is “late to the game” and that community colleges have already “cornered the market” when it comes to offering college courses to students still enrolled in high school.

    UC’s courses will be different from traditional dual enrollment courses, said Yvette Gullatt, UC’s vice president for graduate and undergraduate affairs, because they will be classes and subjects that students “can’t get in high school or community college.”

    She said the courses “resemble our university deep dive courses.  These are the things our faculty do so very well. This is their research in the classroom. This is their teaching. So this goes beyond our traditional A through G and our general ed and into those spaces where our faculty’s teaching and research come together.”

    The program will also be reaching different students.  The students who typically enroll in dual enrollment courses “tend to be a much more middle class constituency,” whereas the UC program will be targeted to low-income students, said Katherine Newman, UC’s provost and executive vice president of academic affairs.

    “And it’s that connection to the university world, the four-year university world that I think is going to make this particularly attractive,” Newman added.





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