برچسب: California

California tribal college looks to become independent, but financial questions loom

A California Indian Nations College flag inside the college’s classroom at College of the Desert’s Palm Springs campus.

Michael Burke/EdSource

After operating for the last six years as an affiliate of a nearby community college, California Indian Nations College (CINC) appears likely to become the state’s only standalone, fully accredited tribal college. It’s something education experts say would be a boon for Native American students who now start and complete college at lower rates than other ethnic groups.

But first, money has to be found to ensure the college can survive, let alone expand and build its own campus.

A two-year and mostly online institution based in the Coachella Valley in Riverside County, the college achieved a big step forward toward its goals recently. It got preliminary approval for accreditation, allowing it to independently offer classes and transferable credits and distribute financial aid. The college expects to have full accreditation within the next year.

The college opened its doors in fall 2018 as an extension of UC Riverside for one semester. Since 2019, its degrees have been awarded via a partnership with College of the Desert. Students dually enroll at both campuses, though starting next semester students will be able to enroll solely at CINC and still get an accredited degree.

College of the Desert also provides classroom space for the tribal college at its temporary Palm Springs campus, made up of a set of trailers. Inside the tribal college’s classroom trailer, visitors can find Native crafts such as dream catchers, fliers with information about transferring to four-year colleges and even a makeshift basic needs center — a filing cabinet with dry food.

College of the Desert’s temporary Palm Springs campus, where California Indian Nations College has a classroom.
Michael Burke/EdSource

CINC enrolls about 150 students and is planning for many more, but it faces an uncertain future even if it achieves full accreditation. It is running low on money and is asking the state for a $60 million infusion in this year’s budget: $50 million to build its own campus and another $10 million in annual funding for operational costs.

Officials say the money is necessary for the college to grow long term and offer a culturally relevant education to Native students who often distrust the U.S. education system. That distrust dates back to the 19th century, when the government began to forcibly send Native children to boarding schools intended to assimilate them, a practice that didn’t end until the late 1960s.

“There’s so many of us here who feel a void and think, ‘Who are we?’ So having an institution that’s empowering and teaching us the truth about who we are is really important,” said Mayra Grajeda Nelson, who graduated last year from CINC with an associate degree in sociology and another in social and behavioral sciences. Originally from Banning, Grajeda Nelson now works as a health educator for the Indian Health Council in northern San Diego County.

The college is not a typical community college governed by the state’s board of governors; instead, even with state funding, it would remain chartered by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, a federally recognized tribe in Southern California.

It would be the only accredited tribal college in the state but not the first. D-Q University operated in Davis from the early 1970s until closing in 2005 after losing accreditation and eligibility for $1 million in federal funding. Across the country, there are more than 30 accredited tribal colleges and universities, spread out across the Southwest, Midwest and other regions. The first tribally controlled college, Diné College in Arizona, was established in 1968 and still operates.

California has the largest Native population of any state, with a concentration of tribes in the desert regions of Riverside County. Yet, American Indian or Alaska Native individuals have the lowest college-going rate of any racial or ethnic group in the state, according to a report published in December by the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center at Cal State San Marcos.

“But if you look at American Indian students who go to tribal colleges or universities, they’re four times more likely to earn their bachelor’s degree,” said Shawn Ragan, CINC’s chief operations officer.

In a recent report following a campus visit, the accrediting commission praised the tribal college for providing “culturally sensitive, academically rigorous” courses and degrees that incorporate Native American culture and for “fostering an environment where both Indigenous and non-Native students can thrive.” The report found that CINC has “solid financial planning in place for the short-range” and noted that the college is still figuring out its long-term funding planning. Otherwise, the commission found only minor problems that college leaders say will be easy to address, such as requiring the college’s board of trustees to undergo a self-evaluation.

California lawmakers, though, have not committed to providing funding this year for CINC, and no funding was included in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January budget proposal.

Assemblymember David Alvarez, chair of the state Assembly’s budget subcommittee on education, said in an interview that he’s supportive of the tribal college and that there is “room for conversation” about funding. But he acknowledged that the timing is not ideal: California’s public universities are facing budget cuts, and it could be difficult to find money for new spending.

To date, the state has given CINC $5 million — a one-time funding allocation in 2022 to help the college apply for accreditation.

Now that the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges has awarded the college candidacy status, CINC can also apply for federal funding, but that too is an uncertainty under the Trump administration. President Donald Trump recently rescinded a White House initiative aimed at strengthening tribal colleges. His proposed federal funding freeze, currently blocked by the courts, would also prevent the colleges from getting federal grants and contracts. The Trump administration’s hostility to any programs promoting racial diversity could also have a chilling effect and make it harder for those colleges to secure funding.

CINC previously received $9 million in seed money from the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. Most of that has been spent, and the college is now surviving off its reserves, which should last for at least the next year.

Open to both Native and non-Native students, the college mostly uses part-time faculty and offers associate degrees in sociology and liberal arts. Students in the liberal arts program can pick one of three concentrations: arts and humanities, business and technology or social and behavioral sciences.

Students at California Indian Nations College’s 2024 graduation ceremony
Courtesy of California Indian Nations College

In addition to courses specific to their major, students are required to take general education classes as well as six units for a Native American breadth requirement. For that requirement, they choose between courses such as Native American literature, Native performing arts and Native languages.

Most classes are online, but the college often holds in-person events, including cultural workshops like basket weaving. There are also talking circles, an Indigenous practice similar to group therapy. Many of the events are led by Kim Marcus, the college’s Elder in Residence and an enrolled Tribal Elder with the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians.

Grajeda Nelson, the recent graduate, enrolled at CINC in 2023, more than a decade after first enrolling in college at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa. She also attended Mount San Jacinto College, but didn’t receive a degree from either institution.

With some credits carrying over from her previous stops, she was able to finish two associate degrees within one year at CINC. During that time, she found the talking circles especially helpful to share her past challenges and get support from people with similar experiences.

“That’s how the Native community is. There’s that closeness and support because we’re all kind of dealing with very similar challenges, especially with intergenerational trauma, substance usage, depression, poverty,” she said. “So having that space gives us time to process those emotions so we don’t have to walk away and feel that grief.”

Kristina Glass, whose family is part of the Cherokee Nation, did make it to and through a non-tribal college, having graduated from Cal State Long Beach in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

In debt and laid off from her job as a graphic designer, Glass last year decided to return to college. She’s pursuing an associate degree in Spanish language from College of the Desert and has been taking general education classes at CINC, including Native American literature.

As a student at Cal State Long Beach, Glass said she felt isolated because she didn’t meet any other Native students. Her experience at CINC has been much better. Just hearing Native American blessings, performed before events on campus, regularly brings her to tears. “It’s special, because you feel that connection to this land and these people,” she said.

Faculty try to incorporate elements of Native culture into the curriculum, even in courses that aren’t part of the Native breadth requirement. Roseanne Rosenthal, an anthropology professor, instructs students to learn about the history of their tribes from elders in their communities.

“Having students going back and bringing that knowledge into the classroom, I think is great,” said Rosenthal, the college’s only full-time faculty member.

If the college can secure more funding, officials plan to add additional full-time faculty and new associate degrees including in business, engineering and food sovereignty.

At the top of their wish list, though, is their own campus, which would take a few years to build. In the meantime, the college will continue to use the College of the Desert facility and UC Riverside’s Palm Desert campus, where CINC’s administration is housed.

Ragan said the college is still looking at potential sites for a permanent campus but expects to stay in Riverside County. He said having a campus would “enable students to come together and build community” by having more in-person events and classes and would allow the college to offer more vocational training.

He added that the college is looking into additional funding possibilities, such as from other tribes, but said the state “is the best option right now.”

“What we’re asking for, it’s not a large amount. So ideally we’ll have some wiggle room and can get us added to the budget,” he said. “California has a tremendous need for tribal colleges. What we’re doing is historic and is going to change lives.”

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17/04/2025
Job hunting is awful. California believes its ‘Career Passport’ can change that

Credit: Alison Yin / EdSource

Travon Reed is currently a housing navigator in South Los Angeles who helps those who live on the street to find housing through the Homeless Outreach Program Integrated Care System (HOPICS). He credits the classes he took at East Los Angeles College for preparing him for his career in social work.

He described his classes at East L.A. as “the gifts that keep on giving.”

But when he was job hunting after graduating in 2022, employers didn’t seem to value what he had learned in his college courses. He settled for an entry-level social work position, repeating most of the training he had already received in college.

“I had to get here, and then kind of prove that I wasn’t brand-spanking new to the concept of social work,” Reed said. “I could have been given a little more recognition.”

Career education is something that happens in school, college, in an apprenticeship, on the job, through the military or even volunteering. But this valuable experience isn’t always reflected in the records of prospective employees like Reed.

That’s why California is embarking on a years-long effort to build infrastructure for a new virtual platform called the Career Passport. Its goal is to bring all these experiences into a digital portfolio — somewhat like a resume — called a “learning employment record.” This record, available to every Californian, would automatically update as a person gains skills and credentials with information validated by schools and employers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom described his vision for the Career Passport in a news conference in December.

“They take all your life experiences, take all of those skills you developed and create a passport where those skills can be utilized in the private sector and advance your opportunities as it relates to your career and your future,” Newsom said.

The concept of a learning employment record can sound deceptively simple, even obvious, but advocates for these records say that actually making this work isn’t easy.

“If this was easy to do, people would’ve done it a long time ago,” said Wilson Finch, vice president of initiatives at the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), a national nonprofit that supports the creation of education-to-career pathways.

The idea of learning and employment records has been embraced by employers, colleges, workforce boards and political leaders around the country to resolve deep frustration among both job seekers and employers. The idea could have powerful ramifications for local and state economies, its backers contend, as long as potential issues such as fraud and fair representation of skills are solved.

“Any employer will tell you they’re not happy with the candidates they’re getting. They’re getting too many people, many of whom are not anywhere aligned to what they need,” Finch said. “And then you talk to the job seekers, and they’re applying for jobs all over the place and not hearing anything back.”

California won’t have to ‘figure out the potholes’

California’s Career Passport embodies many of the goals of the state’s Master Plan for Career Education, which aims to ease Californians’ sometimes fraught transitions between school, college, vocational training and, ultimately, a career.

Newsom’s proposed 2025-26 budget earmarks $100 million in one-time funding to begin building the infrastructure for the Career Passport and to expand Credit for Prior Learning, which allows students to receive college credit for training they get in the workplace, military service, a hobby or even volunteering.

The California Community Colleges system is leading the effort to build out the Career Passport. It will be a multiyear process, according to Chris Ferguson, executive vice chancellor of finance and strategic initiatives.

He said the effort is “focused on colleges to start, but designed in a way that allows for other entities to ultimately use it and participate as well.”

Finch said he’s excited to see that the Career Passport’s scope is the entire state, not just one group, like unemployed Californians.

“I’ve been working in this space long enough to know that when you only target a specific area, the impact is very limited,” Finch said.

There is a big push for learning and employment records all around the country. Some are happening in metro areas, like Pittsburgh or Dallas-Fort Worth. In Colorado, community colleges have taken the lead. Alabama piloted its version, called Talent Triad, in specific industries, such as health and advanced manufacturing, where the need was particularly great. California could learn from other states’ efforts.

“California shouldn’t have to figure out the potholes, so to speak,” said Mike Simmons, the associate executive director of business development and strategic partnerships for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

What could be tricky is the sheer size and diversity of the state, whose workforce in Fresno looks really different from Silicon Valley, Simmons said.

Over the last year, the state’s Office of Cradle to Career Data hosted wide-ranging conversations about what its Career Passport will look like through a special task force. That group included employers, the California Department of Education, teachers, all three state higher education systems and many state agencies, including the Labor & Workforce Development, Rehabilitation and California Volunteers.

Reed represented the student perspective on the task force.

“I was so stoked to hear that there would be some linkage between schools and employers, and that everything would be cohesive,” he said.

Credit: California Cradle2Career Data System

The problem goes beyond technology

To apply for a job, an applicant may need to request school transcripts, submit copies of professional licenses and put together a resume that distills their work experience and training. This requires time, fees and energy to ensure that a lot of different organizations are swiftly communicating with each other.

“We heard from students that it’s really hard to request transcripts from different institutions,” said Mary Ann Bates, executive director for the Office of Cradle to Career Data.

That’s why the task force is focused on a related effort to improve and expand the state’s eTranscript system, making sharing student transcripts seamless and free.

But the problem goes beyond technology. Those promoting learning and employment records — or career education, in general — say that K-12 schools, colleges, state agencies, community organizations and employers aren’t working together the way they should.

It can feel like educators and employers are speaking different languages. There’s an emphasis on grades and credit for college transcripts, while employers are more interested in whether a prospective employee has certain skills, Finch said.

One problem is that employers don’t always accept that the training and experience are authentic, because anyone can exaggerate or outright lie on their resume. Reed believes that if his colleges had vouched for classes that provided specific skills, such as trauma-informed care and motivational interviewing, it might have saved him from unnecessary training.

The current employment system favors those who have a college degree. Some human resources departments will simply filter out applicants without a bachelor’s degree. A student who is only a few credits short of a degree looks the same on paper as someone with no college experience.

“It’s an all-or-nothing system,” Finch said.

Those who attended college but never received a degree — which describes roughly 1 out of 5 Californians over 25 years old — would benefit from a new system. A learning and employment record could demonstrate that an applicant has the skills needed for a job through specific college courses, job training and maybe a boot camp, Finch said.

Ultimately, the success of the Career Passport depends on buy-in. Employers will go wherever they can find potential employees, and job seekers will go wherever they can find jobs. Making it work requires a critical mass of both.

Reed said his biggest worry about the Career Passport is: “In the land of the free, will we get everyone to uniformly accept it?”

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17/04/2025
California educators nervous about federal plan to investigate schools with diversity initiatives

Flags fly outside of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building in Washington.

Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

The Trump administration doubled down on its plan to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the nation’s schools last week by opening an online portal where parents and other community members can report educators and schools that use the programs.

The announcement about the EndDEI.Ed.Gov portal came on Feb. 27 — the day before a deadline for schools to end diversity and equity programs or risk losing federal funding. The DEI prohibition was issued in a Valentine’s Day missive from the U.S. Department of Education.

The online reporting tool has teachers and other school staff nervous.

“I can say, in general, that there’s a sense of concern (among educators),” said Steven Frazer, president of Associated Chino Teachers, Chino Valley Unified’s teachers union. “… A tool to report teachers, who could just be making sure that their classroom is a safe place for all students, who could potentially be vilified. So, it’s certainly a unique and uncertain, unfortunate climate right now for educators.”

The San Bernardino County school district, which has a conservative school board, has little diversity, equity and inclusion programming, Frazer said. Despite that, teachers in the district feel susceptible to being reported to federal authorities.

The district’s board has already been at odds with the teachers union and the state over a board policy that required teachers and school staff to notify parents if they believe a child is transgender.

Frazer is concerned that the White House effort to end diversity, equity and inclusion will embolden the school district to disregard a California law requiring ethnic studies classes to be offered next school year. There is also concern for the future of clubs that support students of color and LGBTQ youth, among others, he said.

“Things like that, outlets like that, are what make school a safe place for many students,” Frazer said. “A lot of students don’t get recognized enough at home, and so school is an outlet for them. And really, what keeps their mental state positive, what encourages them to learn and be happy and successful, is being able to meet in groups like this.”

Definitions of DEI vary

DEI has become a divisive issue in recent years, with the term’s definition and value dependent on a person’s political ideology.

“For me, it means ensuring that the marginalized are included and that equity is served, in that everyone can receive what they need to thrive, especially in a school district,” said Janice Rooths, executive director of the Center Against Racism and Trauma, which serves the state’s Inland Empire region. “And so, when you say that everyone should get what they need to thrive, it applies to every student.”

Schools with successful DEI programs offer teachers and administrators cultural sensitivity training and ensure students understand that using negative racial epithets or other threatening words is unacceptable, Rooths said.

On the other side, critics of DEI see it as dividing students, or making white students feel uncomfortable or bad about themselves. They say DEI focuses on race and ethnicity over merit.

“For years, parents have been begging schools to focus on teaching their kids practical skills like reading, writing, and math, instead of pushing critical theory, rogue sex education and divisive ideologies, but their concerns have been brushed off, mocked, or shut down entirely,” said Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, in a statement included in a U.S. Department of Education news release announcing the portal.

Moms for Liberty is a far-right organization that has advocated against school curricula that include LGBTQ rights and instruction on race and ethnicity.

Portal opens just before deadline

The End DEI portal is separate from a webpage that already collects complaints of discrimination on the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights website.

“The U.S. Department of Education is committed to ensuring all students have access to meaningful learning free of divisive ideologies and indoctrination,” according to a media release announcing the portal.

In its Feb. 14 letter, the U.S. Department of Education letter claims that white and Asian American students have been discriminated against, and that “educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism.’ ”

The letter states that schools must cease using race preferences in their admissions, hiring, promotion, scholarship, prizes, administrative support, sanctions, discipline and other programs and activities, including race-based graduation ceremonies and dorms.

On Feb. 21, the California Department of Education and State Board of Education issued a joint statement to reassure state residents and school officials that federal laws regarding public education have not changed, and that executive orders from the White House and memos from the U.S. Department of Education cannot modify or override them.

“We advise continued compliance with state and federal laws, and recommend that administrators and governing boards consult legal counsel regarding the impact of any potential federal actions,” the statement read. “If federal laws or regulations do change, we will provide guidance and take action as needed in continued support of California’s students and local educational agencies.”

In his own letter to school district leaders, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said the California Department of Education and other state agencies will consider legal action if the federal government attempts to freeze or cut funding because districts have diversity, equity and inclusion programs in place.

Teachers unions file lawsuits

The U.S. Department of Education letter and its demands have already resulted in at least two lawsuits. Both include the nation’s largest teachers’ unions. The American Federation of Teachers and American Sociological Association filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education on Feb. 25, and the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union did the same on Wednesday.

The lawsuits urge the court to block the Department of Education from enforcing a directive that they say undermines civil rights, stifles free speech and dictates what educators can teach.

“Across the country, educators do everything in their power to support every student, no matter where they live, how much their family earns, or the color of their skin — ensuring each feels safe, seen, and is prepared for the future,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association.

“Now, the Trump administration is threatening to punish students, parents and educators in public schools for doing just that: fostering inclusive classrooms where diversity is valued, history is taught honestly, and every child can grow into their full brilliance.”

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16/04/2025
California college professors have mixed views on AI in the classroom

Cal State Long Beach lecturer Casey Goeller wants his students to know how to use AI before they enter the workforce.

Tasmin McGill/EdSource

Since Open AI’s release of ChatGPT in 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots and models have found their way into the California college systems. These AI tools include language models and image generators that provide responses and images based on user prompts.

Many college professors have spoken out against AI’s use in college coursework, citing concerns of cheating, inaccurate responses, student overreliance on the tool, and, as a consequence, diminished critical thinking. Universities across the U.S. have implemented AI-detecting software like Turnitin to prevent cheating through the use of AI tools.

However, some professors have embraced the use of generative AI and envision its integration into curricula and research in various disciplines. To these professors, students learning how to use AI is critical to their future careers.

An October 2024 report from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business found that 38% of the school’s faculty use AI in their classrooms.

Ramandeep Randhawa, professor of business administration and data science at USC, was one of the report’s 26 co-authors and organized the effort.

“As companies increasingly integrate AI into their workflows, it is critical to prepare students for this AI-first environment by enabling them to use this technology meaningfully and ethically,” Randhawa said. “Universities, as bastions of knowledge, must lead the way by incorporating AI into their curricula.”

All in on AI

At California State University, Long Beach, gerontology lecturer Casey Goeller has incorporated AI into his course assignments since fall 2023.

Students enter Goeller’s Perspectives on Gerontology course with various levels of experience with AI. By asking students for a show of hands, Goeller estimates the class is usually evenly split, with some students having no experience, others having dabbled with it and some who have used it extensively.

Goeller aims to help students understand how AI can be beneficial to them academically, whether it be assisting with brainstorming, organizing, or acting as a 24/7 on-call tutor.

To achieve this, Goeller’s assignments include students using an AI tool of their choice to address his feedback on their essays based on criteria such as content, flow and plagiarism concerns. Another assignment, worth 15% of their grade, emphasizes the importance of prompt engineering by having students use AI-generated questions to interview an older person in their life.

While Goeller gets a lot of questions from fellow faculty members about how AI works and how to implement it, he also hears plenty of hesitation.

“There’s a lot of faculty who’s still riding a horse to work, I call it,” Goeller said. “One of them said, ‘I am never going to use AI. It’s just not going to happen.’ I said, ‘What you should do if you think you can get away with that is tomorrow morning, get up really early and stop the sun from coming up, because that’s how inevitable AI is.’”

Goeller heeds the difficulties in establishing a conclusive way to incorporate AI into curricula due to different academic disciplines and styles of learning, but he does recognize the growing presence of AI in the workforce. Today, AI is filling various roles across industries, from analyzing trends in newsrooms and grocery stores, to generating entertainment, a point of contention for SAG-AFTRA members during 2023’s Hollywood strikes.

“If we don’t help our students understand AI before they escape this place, they’re going to get into the workforce where it’s there,” Goeller said. “If they don’t know anything about it or are uncomfortable with it, they’re at a disadvantage compared to a student with the same degree and knowledge of AI.”

California State University, Northridge, journalism lecturer Marta Valier has students use ChatGPT to write headlines, interview questions and video captions in her Multimedia Storytelling and Multi-platform Storytelling classes due to the inevitability of AI in the workforce.

The goal of the implementation is to teach students how AI algorithms operate and how journalists can use AI to assist their work. Not using it, she said, “would be like not using ink.”

“I absolutely want students to experiment with AI because, in newsrooms, it is used. In offices, it is used,” Valier said. “It’s just a matter of understanding which tools are useful, for what and where human creativity is still the best and where AI can help.”

AI tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot are frequently updated, so Valier emphasizes flexibility when teaching about these technological topics.

“I basically change my curriculum every day,” Valier said. “I think it reminds me as a professional that you need to constantly adapt to new technology because it’s going to change very fast. It’s very important to be open, to be curious about what technology can bring us and how it can help us.”

However, Valier acknowledges the issues of AI in terms of data privacy and providing factual responses. She reminds students that it is their responsibility to make sure the information ChatGPT provides is accurate by doing their own research or rechecking results, and to avoid reliance on the platform.

“Be very careful with personal information,” Valier said. “Especially if you have sources, or people that you want to protect, be very careful putting names and information that is sensitive.”

Valier sees a clear difference in the quality of work produced by students who combine AI with their own skills, versus those who rely entirely on artificial intelligence.

“You can tell when the person uses ChatGPT and stays on top of it, and when GPT takes over,” Valier said. “What I am really interested in is the point of view of the student, so when GPT takes over, there is no point of view. Even if [a student] doesn’t have the best writing, the ideas are still there.”

Balancing AI use in the classroom

Many AI-friendly instructors seek to strike a balance between AI-enriched assignments and AI-free assignments.

At USC, professors are encouraged to develop AI policies for each of their classes. Professors can choose between two approaches, as laid out in the school’s instructor guidelines for AI use: “Embrace and Enhance” or “Discourage and Detect.”

Bobby Carnes, an associate professor of clinical accounting at USC, has adopted a balance between both approaches while teaching Introduction to Financial Accounting.

“I use it all the time, so it doesn’t make sense to tell (students) they can’t use it,” Carnes said.

An avid user of AI tools like ChatGPT, USC associate professor of clinical accounting Bobby Carnes encourages AI experimentation for some assignments, but prohibits students from using it on exams. (Christina Chkarboul/EdSource)

Carnes uses AI to refine his grammar in personal and professional work and to develop questions for tests.

“I give ChatGPT the information that I taught in the class, and then I can ask, ‘What topics haven’t I covered with these exam questions?’ It can help provide a more rich or robust exam,” Carnes said.

He doesn’t allow students to use AI in exams that test for practical accounting skills, though.

“You need that baseline, but we’re trying to get students to be at that next level, to see the big picture,” he said.

Carnes said he wants his students to take advantage of AI tools that are already changing the field, while mastering the foundational skills they’ll need to become financial managers and leaders.

“The nice thing about accounting is that the jobs just become more interesting (with AI), where there’s not as much remedial tasks,” Carnes said.

Preserving foundational learning

Olivia Obeso, professor of education and literacy at California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, believes establishing foundational knowledge and critical thinking skills through AI-free teaching is non-negotiable.

Obeso enforces her own no ChatGPT/AI usage policy in her Foundations of K-8 Literacy Teaching class to prepare her students for challenges in their post-collegiate life.

“AI takes out the opportunity to engage in that productive struggle,” Obeso said. “That means my students won’t necessarily understand the topics as deeply or develop the skills they need.”

Obeso is also concerned about ChatGPT’s environmental impact: For an in-class activity at the start of the fall 2024 semester, she asked students to research the software’s energy and water use.

The energy required to power ChatGPT emits 8.4 tons of carbon dioxide per year, according to Earth.Org. The average passenger vehicle produces 5 tons per year. Asking ChatGPT 20-50 questions uses 500 millliters (16.9) ounces of water, the size of a standard plastic water bottle.

By the end of the exercise, Obeso said her students became “experts” on ethical considerations concerning AI, sharing their findings with the class through a discussion on what they read, how they felt and whether they had new concerns about using AI.

“You are a student and you are learning how to operate in this world, hold yourselves accountable,” Obeso said.

Jessica Odden, a senior majoring in child development, said Obeso’s class helped them understand AI use in the classroom as an aspiring teacher.

“For people that are using (AI) in the wrong ways, it makes people reassess how people might be using it, especially in classes like this where we are training to become teachers,” Odden said. “What are you going to do when you actually have to lesson-plan yourself?”

Odden makes sure she sticks to learning the fundamentals of teaching herself so that she will be prepared for her first job.

AI in curricula

At the University of California, San Diego, some faculty members have echoed a concern for AI’s infringement upon independent learning.

Academic coordinator Eberly Barnes is interested in finding a middle ground that incorporates AI into curricula where it complements students’ critical thinking, rather than replaces it.

Barnes oversees the analytical writing program, Making of the Modern World (MMW), where her responsibilities include revising the course’s policy of AI use in student work.

The current policy enables students to use AI to stimulate their thinking, reading and writing for their assignments. However, it explicitly prohibits the use of the software to replace any of the aforementioned skills or the elaboration of the written piece itself.

Despite the encouraged use of AI, Barnes expressed her own hesitancy about the role of AI in the field of social sciences and the research and writing skills needed to work within it.

“One of the goals in MMW is to teach critical thinking and also to teach academic writing. And the writing is embedded in the curriculum. You’re not going to learn to write if you’re just going to machine,” Barnes said. “The policy is inspired by the fact that we don’t think there’s any way to stop generative AI use.”

When Barnes designs the writing prompts for the second and third series in the MMW program, she collaborates with teaching assistants to make assignment prompts incompatible with AI analysis and reduce the likelihood that students will seek out AI’s help for passing grades.

“Students feel absolutely obsessed with grades and are very pressured to compete,” Barnes said. “That’s been around. I mean it is definitely worse here at UCSD than it was at other colleges and universities that I’ve been at.”

A tool, not a cheat code

Dr. Celeste Pilegard

Celeste Pilegard is a professor of cognitive science and educational psychology at UCSD. She has been teaching introductory research methods since 2019, focusing on foundational topics that will prepare students for higher-level topics in the field.

Educators like Pilegard have been struggling to adapt after the widespread adoption of AI tools.

“For me and a lot of professors, there’s fear,” Pilegard said. “We’re holding onto the last vestiges, hoping this isn’t going to become the thing everyone is using.”

Pilegard is concerned that students rely on AI tools to easily pass their intro-level courses, leaving them without a firm understanding of the content and an inability to properly assess AI’s accuracy.

“It’s hard to notice what is real and what is fake, what is helpful and what is misguided,” Pilegard said. “When you have enough expertise in an area, it’s possible to use ChatGPT as a thinking tool because you can detect its shortcomings.”

However, Pilegard does believe AI can assist in learning. She likens the current situation with AI to the advent of statistical analysis software back in the 1970s, which eliminated the need to do calculations by hand.

At that time, many professors argued for the importance of students doing work manually to comprehend the foundations. However, these tools are now regularly used in the classroom with the acceptance and guidance of educators.

”I don’t want to be the stick in the mud in terms of artificial intelligence,” Pilegard said. “Maybe there are some things that aren’t important for students to be doing themselves. But when the thing you’re offloading onto the computer is building the connections that help you build expertise, you’re really missing an opportunity to be learning deeply.”

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15/04/2025
Feds shutter California civil rights office: ‘The students are going to suffer’
Credit: Carlos Kosienski/Sipa via AP Images

Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.
TOP TAKEAWAYS

The U.S. Department of Education announced that it is reducing its workforce by half, shutting seven of 12 regional branches of its Office for Civil Rights.

California has over 700 pending cases with the Office for Civil Rights. The Trump administration has not provided details on what happens to cases handled by the shuttered regional office in San Francisco.

The administration said this dramatic slashing would be followed by “significant reorganization to better serve students, parents, educators and taxpayers.”

Educators and civil rights advocates say that vulnerable students will not have recourse when schools violate their civil rights.
The announcement of a large-scale effort to reduce the workforce of the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday — or nearly half of the agency’s staff — is raising concerns among California educators and advocates about the future of civil rights enforcement and funding for vulnerable students.

About 1,300 federal workers will be placed on administrative leave as of March 21 or have accepted a voluntary resignation agreement, according to a news release by U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

Seven of 12 regional offices that handle federal civil rights complaints were shuttered, including the Office for Civil Rights branch in San Francisco, which handles complaints filed in California.

“There is no federal presence enforcing civil rights in schools in California,” said Catherine Lhamon, the former assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education. “Our country and California will effectively see an end to a federal backstop of harm in schools.”

While local and state governments provide the vast majority of funding and governance for TK-12 schools and higher education, the federal government handles key aspects of education in the U.S., including disbursing student loans and Pell Grants; funding programs for students with disabilities as well as schools serving low-income students; and overseeing national research that provides critical data for educators and policymakers.

The U.S. Department of Education is also tasked with enforcing federal civil rights laws, authorized by Congress, through its Office for Civil Rights in order to protect students from discrimination. California alone has more than 700 pending complaints of civil rights violations.

“I don’t know what is going to happen to those cases,” said an attorney who works in the San Francisco branch of the Office for Civil Rights. The attorney declined to be identified, citing concerns about retaliation for speaking out. “The students are going to suffer.”

McMahon said in a statement that the reduction in force reflects a commitment to efficiency and accountability, and that the department will “continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.”

Some conservative groups, such as the Cato Institute, applauded the dramatic slashing of staff.

“We don’t know how many people are actually needed to execute (the U.S. Department of Education) jobs, and it’s time to find out if it’s been a bloated bureaucracy all along,” said Neal McCluskey, director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom.

But many educators and advocacy groups who work with students forcefully condemned the cuts.

The Los Angeles Unified School District board passed a resolution Tuesday condemning the cuts to the U.S. Education Department, as well as cuts to other federal funding for school meals and Medicaid. Board member Kelly Gonez called on legislators to “push back against this radical and cruel agenda.”

“The Trump administration and its allies in Congress are looking to decimate federal funding to schools, including cuts to school meals, MediCal, and education block grants,” Gonez said. “More threats are on the horizon due to Trump’s ongoing efforts to dismantle the Department of Education entirely. We will not stand by while this administration removes essential support for students.”

‘These are not minor issues’

After a student with autism died after being restrained, Davis Joint Unified agreed to change its policies and training related to secluding and restraining students in 2022. That same year, Los Angeles Unified promised to address the concerns of disabled students who said they received little legally required special assistance during the height of the pandemic.

These are just a few of the high-profile complaints that the Office for Civil Rights investigated and settled in California.

“These are not minor issues,” said Lhamon, who was then the assistant secretary for civil rights.

The Biden administration pleaded with Congress for additional funding to staff the Office for Civil Rights, which was facing a mushrooming caseload that reached an all-time high during his presidency, according to the Office for Civil Rights’ annual report. Now staff face the prospect of their caseload doubling from 50 cases per person to 100 cases — an “untenable” number, Lhamon said.

The increase in cases, combined with an existing staffing shortage has likely created a backlog, extending the wait time for investigations to be completed and findings issued, said Megan Stanton-Trehan, a senior attorney at Disability Rights California who represents students with disabilities.

“With increasing complaints and an idea that we want to increase efficiency, what we shouldn’t be doing is closing offices and decreasing the workforce, unless what we really want is to not enforce civil rights,” said Stanton-Trehan.

The federal government is sending the message that though students are required to attend school, there is no federal agency that will protect them from harm, Lhamon said.

“That’s dangerous for democracy; it’s dangerous for schools,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Education has not announced a plan for transferring cases from San Francisco or any other shuttered regional office.

“We are in this work because we care, and we are compassionate,” said the San Francisco Office for Civil Rights attorney. “We are devastated for our students.”

The Office for Civil Rights page listed 772 records of pending cases that the office is currently investigating in the state of California, though it does not include any cases filed after Jan. 3. Of those, 597 of the listed cases involved K-12 institutions, while another 175 involved post-secondary education. Many of the complaints — 388 pending cases — involve disability discrimination complaints.

The cases date back to complaints filed in 2016 on a range of topics, including discrimination on the basis of national origin, religion and English learner status, as well as allegations of sexual violence, racial harassment and retaliation.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that it had sent letters to 60 universities to inform them that the Office for Civil Rights was investigating them for antisemitic discrimination. That list included Sacramento State, Chapman University, Pomona College, Santa Monica College, Stanford University, UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley.

Ana Najera-Mendoza, director of education equity and senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Southern California, is concerned that these complaints may take precedence over others. Every complaint filed in the Office for Civil Rights deserves to be considered in good faith, she said.

Stating that a reduction in force doesn’t equate to a reduction in the department’s responsibilities, Najera-Mendoza said, “No administration should elect to enforce some complaints over others to enforce a specific agenda.”
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15/04/2025
Thousands of California educators issued pink slips again this year

San Diego Unified teachers protest pink slips before a school board meeting last year. The district plans to issue 30 preliminary layoff notices this year.

Courtesy of San Diego Education Association

San Francisco Unified announced the evening of March 13 that it will not lay off classroom teachers.

California school districts are again turning to layoffs to shore up budgets shrunk by declining enrollment, expiring federal Covid relief funds and a leveling off of state funding. So far, more than 2,300 school employees have received preliminary layoff notices, and the number is expected to grow.

More than 2,000 of the pink slips have gone to credentialed school staff — primarily teachers, school nurses and librarians, according to the California Teachers Association, which represents 300,000 school employees.

State law requires that districts send pink slips by March 15 each year to any employee who could be laid off by the end of the school year. Although many of the layoff notices are withdrawn by May 15 — the last day final layoff notices can be given to tenured teachers — the annual practice is criticized by many for demoralizing school staff and causing disruption to school systems.

“Layoffs are devastating and chaotic to our school communities and harm student learning conditions,” said CTA President David Goldberg. “This is even happening in communities like Pasadena, where educators and students lost their homes in wildfires. Our union will not stand by. We will demand that every single one of these notices is rescinded in the coming weeks.”

Pasadena Unified has issued 117 preliminary layoff notices, including 115 to credentialed staff.

Districts tried to avoid large layoffs

Some districts tried to avoid large-scale layoffs by considering other options, including early retirement incentives. San Francisco gave buyouts to 300 veteran teachers and other staff, and Santa Ana Unified gave that option to 166 teachers, but ultimately both districts are still laying off staff.

In fact, the two districts have issued the largest number of pink slips in the state so far, according to CTA data. San Francisco Unified notified 395 teachers of potential layoffs and Santa Ana Unified sent pink slips to 351 teachers, according to the CTA. Santa Ana Unified Chief Business Officer Ron Hacker says that number has since been reduced to 280.

San Francisco Unified, the state’s sixth-largest school district, has been struggling to close a $113 million deficit that helped put it on the list of the state’s most financially strapped districts. The district has also sent preliminary layoff notices to 164 teachers’ aides, and to 278 administrators and other staff.

Santa Ana Unified is attempting to reduce a $180 million structural deficit, but it also needs to reduce staff, Hacker said. In 2018, the school board decided not to pursue layoffs despite overstaffing and a structural deficit. The overstaffing problem continued through Covid when funding was tied to a state stipulation that districts can’t lay off employees, he said.

“The Covid relief grant funds are no longer flowing, and they’re expired, so we’re at the point now where we can’t sustain the counseling ratios and the class sizes that we have,” Hacker said.

The district also plans to make cuts to supplies, services and capital outlay to help balance the budget, Hacker said in an interview last month.

“That being said, 80% of our budget is salary and benefits, so the only way to tackle that entire structural deficit is to include positions too,” he said.

Most districts overstaffed

Some school districts avoided making staffing cuts despite declining enrollment, said Michael Fine, chief executive director of the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team.

“I think if you were to look at some statewide data on staffing versus enrollment, you’d see that almost everybody’s overstaffed in some fashion, at least on the certificated side, which is where we see that data,” Fine said.

Data on support staff, also known as classified staff, is not being collected by the state, he said.

District offered early warning bonuses

Santa Rosa Elementary School District and San Ramon Unified issued more than 100 pink slips to teachers and other credentialed staff in recent months, with the districts sending out 151 and 129 pink slips respectively, according to the CTA list.

Santa Rosa City Schools is trying to trim its budget by $30 million to reduce a structural deficit. The district, which operates 24 schools, has lost 3,000 students over the last decade.

Instead of offering an early retirement incentive, which wouldn’t save money for the district, Santa Rosa Unified gave employees bonuses if they gave advance notice that they wouldn’t be working at the district next school year, said Lisa August, associate superintendent of business services. Employees who gave notice by Jan. 31 received a $1,000 bonus, $750 if they gave notice by Feb. 15, and $500 if by Feb. 28.

The CTA list does not include many districts still in the process of issuing layoff notices, or whose unions did not report their numbers. Among them is Berkeley Unified, whose school board voted last week to notify 180 employees, 10 of whom are teachers, that they could lose their jobs, according to Berkeleyside.

Oakland Unified, which is on the state’s list of most financially strapped districts, also plans to issue 97 pink slips to teachers and central office staff, according to district information. And, Oxnard Union School district projects it will issue 91 pink slips to school staff, including 41 teachers and counselors, according to the Ventura County Star.

Layoffs can make recruitment harder

Layoffs can hurt teacher recruitment and make it more difficult to find teachers for hard-to-fill positions teaching special education, science, math, special education and English learners.

Teacher layoffs during the Great Recession, between 2007 and 2009, are widely considered to be one of the causes of the current teacher shortage because they discouraged people from entering teacher preparation programs. In recent years, enrollment in teacher preparation programs in the state has declined.

It’s unclear how many teachers will actually be laid off before next school year, as many pink slips are rescinded after district officials review credentials, expected retirements and projected enrollment numbers at school sites, and hearings with an administrative law judge are held to determine who stays and who goes.

The annual process can be nerve-wracking for teachers, especially those at the bottom of the seniority list, who could be issued pink slips in consecutive years.

“More than 2,000 educators have received a notice that they may not have a job next year, and tragically, that number increases each day,” Goldberg said. “These are the people who show up every day to teach and care for students in public schools across California — teachers, school counselors, social workers, instructional aides, custodians, and more.

“At a time when our students deserve a stable learning environment, smaller class sizes, and more mental health support, it is unconscionable to even think about laying off public school educators,” Goldberg said.

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15/04/2025
Moments that defined Covid-19’s impact on education in California
March 4, 2020

March 7, 2020

California Department of Education and California Department of Public
Health issue

joint guidance
on the coronavirus to school districts.

March 10, 2020

Colleges in California and nationally

move to
online instruction in response to the coronavirus. The California
Department of Education

receives
a USDA waiver that enables districts to feed students during
coronavirus-related closures.

March 13, 2020

Newsom signs

executive order
assuring closed schools remain funded as schools throughout the state

announce closures and distance learning

begins.

March 31, 2020

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond

advises districts
to plan for providing distance learning through the end of the school
year.

April 1, 2020

April 16, 2020

April 30, 2020

Colleges

begin to announce
plans not to resume classes in person. CSU, UC later
announce
decision to keep most fall classes online.

May 5, 2020

EdSource analysis
shows wide disparities in how much school districts will receive
through federal CARES Act.

May 12, 2020

May 14, 2020

Newsom projects a $54 billion deficit and $19 billion less in
Proposition 98 funding over two years for schools and community
colleges. Proposed budget

slashes funding for preschool and child care plans, teacher development
programs.

May 17, 2020

May 18, 2020

Superintendents of urban California districts pen
open letter to lawmakers saying proposed budget cuts will
set back restarting school.

May 21, 2020

In historic action, UC

moves to drop
SAT/ACT and develop a replacement exam for admissions.

May 25, 2020

May 29, 2020

College graduates forced to abandon the traditional celebrations and
ceremonies associated with graduation
turn to
families or even video games to mark their accomplishments.

June 11, 2020

In Los Angeles,
Oakland, West Contra Costa County
, Sacramento and San Francisco, K-12 officials
reconsider
whether police should be in schools and activists urge for their
removal in the wake of the George Floyd killing.

June 23, 2020

June 25, 2020

July 10, 2020

A spike in Covid-19 cases
prompts
more districts to plan for online education for the beginning of the
2020-2021 school year.

July 17, 2020

State
imposes
strict regulations for school opening and closing based on counties on
state’s monitoring list. Establishes
waiver process
to allow some elementary schools to reopen.

July 24, 2020

In response to new regulations, many school districts
abandon plans
for fall hybrid learning and in-person classes.

Aug. 3, 2020

Los Angeles Unified
reaches deal
with teachers over distance learning while other districts struggle to
finalize plans.

Aug. 7, 2020

State health officials release first health and safety
guidance
for how colleges and universities can reopen, but most classes must be
offered remotely and have other restrictions in place.

Aug. 14, 2021

State-issued
guidance
permitting limited openings will apply to districts in counties on the
coronavirus watch list, where schools are shut down, followed by
guidance
allowing small cohorts of 14 students and two adults for special
education, homeless and foster students.

Aug. 17, 2020

Los Angeles Unified announces
plan
to offer coronavirus testing to all students, staff.
Power outages
due to a heat wave hit California as school resumes virtually across
the state.

Aug. 24, 2020

Almost all colleges and universities
open
with few in-person classes, but dorms still house students and some
campuses plan for testing and contact tracing.

Aug. 28, 2020

Newsom
introduces
four-tiered color coded county tracking system to replace the previous
monitoring list for counties. The “Blueprint for a Safer Economy”
tracks counties by the number of Covid-19 cases recorded each day and
the percentage of positive cases out of the total number of tests
administered, both averaged over seven days. The system has had a
major impact on a school’s ability to reopen for in-person
instruction.

Aug. 31, 2020

The U.S. Department of Agriculture

reverses

earlier plans, allows schools to continue offering free grab-and-go
meals to any student, regardless of eligibility, as they did over the
summer.

Sept. 4, 2020

Lucerne Valley Elementary in San Bernardino County is one of the first
public schools in the state to get approval to

reopen

under state’s waiver program.

Sept. 21, 2020

California community colleges see

drops

in fall enrollment with some showing double-digit losses.

Oct. 20, 2020

UCLA researchers announce

research

showing big jump in homeless students.

Nov. 2, 2020

“Leading school superintendents

call on Newsom

to impose a “common standard” for reopening schools in California.”

Nov. 3, 2020

Joe Biden is elected 46th president of the United States, with
arguably the most ambitious education agenda of any president.
California voters

reject

Proposition 16 to restore affirmative action as well as

Proposition 15

to raise commercial property taxes denying schools more revenue from
this source in the future.

Nov. 16, 2020

As Newsom “sounds the alarm,”

pandemic surge

puts 28 more counties in the “purple” tier, putting opening of regular
classrooms on hold for millions of California students.

Dec. 1, 2020

Dec. 8, 2020

Impatient with Newsom’s policies on school reopening, California
Assembly leaders

press

for all districts to resume in-school teaching in the spring.

Dec. 21, 2020

Congress

approves

$900 billion Covid-19 relief package, including $82 billion for K-12
and colleges, plus $22 billion for Covid-19 testing that could help to
reopen schools. Of the $82 billion, $6.5 billion went to California
for K-12 schools.

Dec. 30, 2020

Newsom announces

“Safe Schools For All” plan

, which allowed in-person instruction in counties in “purple” tier
with daily case rate of less than 25, and a $2 billion

incentive program

to bring back in-person instruction for elementary grades and students
with special needs in prioritized categories by mid-February.

Jan. 6, 2021

Supporters of former President Donald Trump storm the United States
Capitol in a riot. California educators

condemn and reflect

on what many call an “insurrection.”

Jan. 8, 2021

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a new state budget increasing funding to
California colleges to stabilize tuition rates, provide emergency aid,
and “re-engage” students who have dropped out due to the Covid-19
pandemic. The budget also proposes $4.6 billion for summer school
programs.

Jan. 11, 2021

Teachers and other school employees in Mariposa County are among the
first in the state to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Jan. 13, 2021

West Contra Costa Unified

announces plans

to create a permanent, virtual K-12 academy, citing concerns about the
pandemic’s impact.

Jan. 14, 2021

Newsom announces the creation of Safe Schools for All Hub, a site
providing resources to school districts regarding California’s Covid-19
strategies.

Jan. 18, 2021

Covid-19 death toll passes 400,000 in the U.S., CDC announces.

Jan. 25, 2021

In a news conference, Newsom announces streamlined vaccination efforts,
including an age-based eligibility system and putting teachers high on
the state’s priority vaccination list.

Feb. 12, 2021

The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing extends a waiver
allowing those in preparation programs to continue teaching as they
finish their credentials, the latest move to combat a teacher shortage
during the pandemic.

Feb. 21, 2021

Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. surpasses 500,000, CDC announces.

Feb. 22, 2021

The Biden administration confirms all schools must resume annual
standardized testing, with modifications to protect against Covid. The
requirement had been suspended in March 2020.

Feb. 23, 2021

The California Department of Public Health reports that infection rates
have fallen significantly, allowing many elementary schools to begin
reopening.

March 4, 2021

The California Legislature approves a plan providing $2 billion in
incentives for districts that reopen for in-person learning beginning
April 1, starting with the earliest grades first.

March 11, 2021

President Joe Biden signs the $2 trillion

American Rescue Plan

allocating about $15 billion to K-12 schools in California to combat the
pandemic and related recession.

March 11, 2021

One-year anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring
Covid-19 a global pandemic.

March 19, 2021

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updates
guidelines on distancing in schools in elementary schools. Elementary
schoolers can safely distance from 3 feet, while middle and high schools
should maintain a distance of 6 feet.

March 24, 2021

U.S. Department of Education announces California is behind on returning
to in-person instruction.

April 6, 2021

CDC announces that about 80% of K-12 staff, teachers, staff and child
care workers have received at least their first dose of the Covid
vaccine.

April 13, 2021

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second-largest school
district in the nation,

reopens for in-person learning

after facing lawsuits and criticism from a group of parents for not
reopening sooner.

April 20, 2021

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announces that it will continue
reimbursing schools and child care centers for free meals, a move
serving food insecure families during the pandemic.

May 14, 2021

The University of California system announces it will no longer consider
SAT or ACT scores in scholarship or admissions decisions.

July 12, 2021

California announces a plan to spend $6 billion to expand broadband
internet access to thousands of students underserved by private internet
service providers during distance learning.

July 13, 2021

State rescinds mandate requiring schools to send home children who
refuse to wear a mask, announcing that it will allow schools to decide
what to do.

July 15, 2021

The University of California system announces that it will require
students, faculty and staff to show proof of vaccination against Covid.

July 27, 2021

The California State University System announces that all faculty,
students and staff will be required to show proof of vaccination.

July 27, 2021

CDC updates masking guidance, recommending masking indoors and in high
transmission areas, amid a surge in the Covid virus’s new delta variant.

Aug. 5, 2021

Several California community colleges, including ones in the Los Angeles
Community College District and Los Rios Community College District,
implement vaccine mandates amid surging cases.

Aug. 11, 2021

California becomes the first state in the nation to

require school staff

to be vaccinated against Covid or undergo weekly testing.

Aug. 18, 2021

Culver City Unified, in west Los Angeles, announces that it will require
all students to be vaccinated against and undergo weekly testing,
becoming the first school district in California to do so.

Sept. 3, 2021

Several rural districts in California close schools, following an
increase in cases of the delta variant of Covid-19.

Sept. 9, 2021

The Los Angeles Unified school board votes to require all students 12
and older to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, becoming the largest
public school district to do so.

Nov. 4, 2021

The chancellor of the California Community College system announces
student enrollment has dropped below 2 million students for the first
time in over 30 years due to the pandemic.

Nov. 5, 2021

A judge rules that California students with disabilities can resume
independent study after Assembly Bill 130 was passed, requiring all
schools to provide in-person classes. The bill made an exception for
those who qualified for independent study, but shut out several students
who had various disabilities preventing them from wearing a mask or
making them susceptible to Covid.

Nov. 18, 2021

The UC system announces it will stick with test-free admissions and will
not replace the SAT and ACT with a new exam.

Dec. 15, 2021

CDC announces the death toll in the U.S. has surpassed 800,000.

Dec. 17, 2021

Several school districts, including Los Angeles Unified and West Contra
Costa Unified, announce plans to delay vaccine mandate deadlines.

Dec. 28, 2021

CDC updates quarantine and isolation guidelines, and California
announces the state will follow them.

Jan. 3, 2022

CDC reports 1 million active Covid cases in the U.S, the highest daily
total of any country.

Jan. 7, 2022

About 900 teachers and aides stage a “sickout” to protest the lack of
Covid-19 protections in San Francisco public schools in the midst of a
surge of cases.

Jan. 10, 2022

Gov. Gavin Newsom announces that funding for schools and community
colleges will increase to over $100 million in the midst of a pandemic
affecting state revenue.

Jan. 11, 2022

Newsom signs an executive order loosening state regulations for
substitute teachers to combat staffing shortages.

Jan. 12, 2022

Following a

“sickout”

protest by several teachers at a West Contra Costa Unified middle
school, over half of Stege Elementary school’s teachers call out to
protest Covid-19 policies.

Jan. 12, 2022

Oakland-based research group Children Now releases report card detailing
the effects of the pandemic, wildfires and racial injustice on
children’s education and mental health.

Jan. 14, 2022

Several CSU and UC campuses suspend in-person classes following a surge
of cases.

Jan. 14, 2022

San Diego State University sees a record number of fall 2022 applicants,
indicating a bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.

Jan. 25, 2022

The chancellor of the CSU system announces tuition will not increase for
the 2022-23 school year as many students continue to face financial
struggles due to the pandemic.

Jan. 27, 2022

A panel for the CSU system recommends eliminating SAT and ACT exams for
admission, following several colleges across the nation during the
pandemic.

Jan. 28, 2022

EdSource reports that graduation rates held steady during the pandemic.

Feb. 25, 2022

CDC issues new rating system allowing most students in K-12 schools to
remove masks indoors.

Feb. 28, 2022

March 10, 2022

Covid-19 deaths worldwide surpass 6 million.

March 11, 2022

Two year anniversary of when the World Health Organization declared the
coronavirus a global pandemic.

March 15, 2022

California ends school mask mandate.

March 28, 2022

President Joe Biden proposes $88.3 billion dollars in new discretionary
funds for American colleges, a 16% increase from the previous year.

March 30, 2022

Almost 1 million Covid deaths have been reported in the U.S.

April 1, 2022

The National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers announces
state-based preschool programs suffered from massive pandemic-related
losses, including enrollment decline and loss of state funding.

April 6, 2022

Biden and the Department of Education announce an extension of the
student loan payment pause until Aug. 31. The pandemic-era policy
assisted millions of borrowers nationwide.

April 15, 2022

College students introduce a bill to add a 24-hour mental health hotline
number on student ID cards due to the growing mental health crisis
associated with the pandemic and other social justice issues.

May 12, 2022

U.S. Covid deaths top 1 million.

May 13, 2022

Newsom announces a revised state budget allocating $128 billion to
schools and community colleges in the state, $20 billion more than
initially proposed. The new budget is slated to provide $3.3 billion for
districts affected by inconsistent attendance due to new Covid variants.

Aug. 11, 2022

The Public Policy Institute of California reveals that science
instruction decreased in K-12 schools across the state during the
pandemic. More than 200 districts were surveyed, citing teacher burnout
related to the pandemic and a lack of funding for science, technology,
engineering and math programs.

Aug. 16, 2022

California to provide free lunch to all K-12 students, expanding on the
USDA’s pandemic-era universal meal program.

Aug. 23, 2022

Several public universities and colleges begin in-person instructions
with few Covid restrictions.

Sept. 14, 2022

Sept. 22, 2022

As educators worry about the pandemic’s effect on students, the state
Department of Education announces it will delay release of standardized
test scores from the previous year, prompting a public outcry.

Sept. 27, 2022

California Department of Education

announces it will release

standardized test scores projected to show declines related to global
pandemic. This is a contrast from the initial announcement indicating a
delay.

Oct. 24, 2022

EdSource reports that California students have performed significantly
worse on state standardized states, highlighting another one of the
pandemic’s impacts on education.

Nov. 15, 2022

CSU board of trustees abandons a plan to require a fourth year of math
for admission, citing pandemic-related concerns.

Nov. 23, 2022

Jan. 10, 2023

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a budget decrease for California Community
Colleges and K-12 schools, while continuing to allocate funding for
“learning recovery from Covid.”

Feb. 1, 2023

Officials from the Department of Public Health announce plans to end the
Covid vaccine mandate for school children.

Feb. 7, 2023

Several elementary schools in Marin County institute a temporary mask
mandate following an uptick in cases.

Feb. 10, 2023

CDC adds Covid-19 vaccine to recommended immunization schedule for
children ages 6-17.

April 3, 2023

CalFresh announces it will end two temporary exceptions allowing more
students to qualify for CalFresh during the pandemic.

April 4, 2023

Despite hopes of return to a “pre-pandemic normalcy,” state data reports
a decline in TK-12 enrollment.

April 26, 2023

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers,
testifies in front of Congress regarding Covid-related closures at
schools.

May 5, 2023

World Health Organization announces that Covid-19 is no longer
considered a global pandemic.

June 1, 2023

CalMatters reports that the Golden State Education and Training Grant
Program, which allows those affected by job loss due to Covid to enroll
in a college program, is set to end by June 15 in order to combat
ongoing budget deficit.

June 5, 2023

School officials and union leaders for Los Angeles Unified reach
agreement to extend winter breaks. If ratified, the measure will extend
the school year in hopes of combating Covid-related learning loss.

June 12, 2023

State Legislature mandates a change in literacy standards, hoping to
combat reading loss.

June 30, 2023

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules President Joe Biden
lacked the authority to implement a plan erasing $400 billion in college
student debt, leaving millions of people affected by financial woes
during the pandemic in a limbo.

July 7, 2023

The Legislature announces two bills to combat a teacher shortage
exacerbated by the pandemic, including one set to pay student teachers
for their required 600 hours of instruction.

July 28, 2023

The state Department of Education

plans to sue Stanford researchers

to prevent them from testifying in a suit alleging that the state failed
to prevent learning loss for low-income and other high-risk groups. Some
professors from the university planned to testify regarding the effects
of the pandemic on chronic absenteeism and student engagement/enrollment
measures.

Aug. 16, 2023

Reversing course, the department announces it will not pursue a lawsuit
against the Stanford researchers.

Sept. 22, 2023

Chancellor for California Community Colleges announces enrollment has
increased, bouncing back after years of pandemic-related declines.

Sept. 27, 2023

Los Angeles Unified School District announces it will no longer require
employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The mandate was under
controversy as many claimed it was discriminatory.

Oct. 18, 2023

CAASPP Smarter Balanced assessments reveal that districts have done
little to reverse learning loss due to the pandemic. The learning loss
disproportionately affected Black, Latino and economically disadvantaged
students.

Jan. 12, 2024

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a rainy day fund to protect California
colleges from expected budget shortfalls.

Jan. 25, 2024

Los Angeles Unified loosens Covid restrictions, allowing children and
school to return to school if symptoms are mild.

Feb. 28, 2024

A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine finds that long
Covid will have lasting effects on IQ levels and cognitive ability of
schoolchildren.

April 3, 2024

California Community Colleges reports that the system has lost more than
$5 million due to fraudulent registrations, a trend that has seen an
increase since the pandemic.

June 7, 2024

Trump-appointed judge in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules
that Los Angeles Unified employees can sue the district over expired
Covid policies. The suit had been thrown out by a lower court as the
rules were no longer in effect.

June 26, 2024

The New York Times reports that $190 billion given to schools to help
students recover from pandemic-related learning loss did little to
improve test scores.

July 3, 2024

Toddlers and babies born during the pandemic suffered from significant
developmental delays due to its effects, the New York Times reports.

July 23, 2024

Los Angeles Unified superintendent announces that the district has
recovered from some learning loss during the pandemic, with reading
scores showing English proficiency increasing from 41% to 43%. Math
scores also rose by 2 percentage points.

July 24, 2024

Study by Northwest Evaluation Association reports that a significant
number of eighth graders are approximately a year behind in learning
progress due to the pandemic.

Aug. 7, 2024

EdWeek reports that district administrators have until Sept. 30 to claim
share of Covid-related federal aid set aside to assist homeless
students.

Oct. 8, 2024

CSU system announces 461,000 enrolled students, the largest number since
the beginning of the pandemic.

Oct. 10, 2024

State data indicates improving scores on standardized tests, but not to
pre-pandemic levels. Government officials say the scores show that
districts are making up for learning loss.

Jan. 12, 2025

The Center on Reinventing Public Education gives California a D grade on
its reporting of the effects of Covid on students.

Jan. 16, 2025

EdSource reports that several schools and colleges around California
will receive over $45 billion in bonds for construction in a “post-Covid
vote of confidence.”

Feb. 6, 2025

West Contra Costa district announces it will cut several administrative
and staff positions due to a budget deficit, citing declining enrollment
and expiration of Covid-relief grants as causes.

Why California must champion community college bachelor’s degrees

Why California must champion community college bachelor’s degrees

Cerritos College students honing their skills in ironworking during hands-on training.

Credit: Courtesy Cerritos College

A college degree or certificate is a proven pathway to higher earnings, job stability and economic mobility. Yet, nearly half of California’s adults have not pursued higher education due to barriers like cost, rigid schedules and a lack of local options.

California set an ambitious goal: By 2030, 70% of working-age adults should hold a college degree or certificate. However, instead of making it easier to achieve this, public universities are blocking one of the most promising solutions — community college bachelor’s degree programs.

Cerritos College is leading the way with its first-of-its-kind field ironworker supervisor bachelor’s degree, which was developed with the California Field Ironworkers. The program creates a direct path from apprenticeship to high-paying supervisory roles. Designed for working professionals, it offers flexible online coursework that fits the schedules of full-time ironworkers.

With over 1,300 supervisor job openings annually in Los Angeles County alone, this program helps close critical workforce gaps while fostering regional social and economic mobility. First-line supervisors with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of $34,000 more in their annual salary than those with a high school diploma or associate degree. At under $11,000 in total tuition costs — less than half the price of even the most affordable public universities, our students can recoup their investment in as little as four months, making this program a powerful tool for upward mobility.

Beyond the numbers, programs like these change lives. Rocio Campos, an ironworker and mother, defied societal expectations to pursue a career in construction. While balancing work, family and education, Rocio gained the training and resources to grow her career in ironworks through the field ironworker apprenticeship program at Cerritos College. She aims to earn a bachelor’s degree in ironworker supervision once the program receives full approval, giving her a chance to advance into a supervisory role.

Community college bachelor’s degrees are game-changers, especially for underrepresented communities. At Cerritos College, 73% of students in the ironworker apprenticeship program come from diverse backgrounds, and active recruitment efforts are bringing more women into this historically male-dominated field. These programs don’t just increase wages; they provide economic mobility by helping workers build stability, advance their careers, and lift their families into greater financial security.

Several community colleges have received provisional approval to launch bachelor’s degree programs in health care, technology and public safety — fields where California urgently needs skilled professionals. However, many of these proposals remain under review because of objections from public universities, particularly within the CSU system. Despite meeting workforce demands and serving students who might not otherwise pursue a four-year degree, these programs face unnecessary roadblocks. The final approval ultimately rests with the California Community Colleges board of governors, but these initiatives risk being delayed indefinitely without broader policy support.

California cannot rely on four-year universities alone to meet its growing workforce needs. Expanding community college bachelor’s degree programs will strengthen industries, create more opportunities and solidify California’s leadership in workforce innovation. It’s time for policymakers, industry leaders and educators to support these programs and invest in the future of our state.

•••

Jose Fierro is the president/superintendent of Cerritos College in Norwalk. Cerritos College serves as a comprehensive community college for southeastern Los Angeles County.

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

Covid recovery funds are gone; what now for California students?

Covid recovery funds are gone; what now for California students?

Credit: Pexels / Mikhail Nilov

California’s most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores revealed troubling trends in student achievement. Despite significant financial investments, student performance continues to struggle to reach full academic recovery. Worse, achievement gaps between the highest- and lowest-performing students widened even further.

The timing of these results couldn’t be worse. With California districts spending the last of their $23 billion in federal relief funds last year, schools are now facing a critical juncture. With declining enrollment reducing their budgets and only modest new state investments coming this year, it will be tough for districts to dramatically scale up promising initiatives like high-dosage tutoring or extensive summer programming.

So, what levers do state and local policymakers have at their disposal? By looking at the data and learning from other successful low-cost interventions, the state has an opportunity to reverse its slide and drive student gains.

First, kids have to be in school to learn. In California, chronic absenteeism rates have come down significantly from their pandemic levels, but they’re still nearly twice as high as they were five years ago. Black students, English learners, students with disabilities, and other marginalized groups are missing too much school.

Fortunately, there are low-cost, high-impact strategies that schools can adopt to ensure students are present and engaged. For example, a research study looking at a large California district found that missing a part of the school day — for referrals for in-school discipline or participation in extracurricular activities — predicted short- and long-run outcomes for students. Many school districts are already tracking these measures; the next step is using them to inform and implement interventions such as parent notifications or individualized support.

Second, once kids are back in school, the next step is ensuring that classroom time is used well. This is especially critical in California, given that it ranks in the bottom 10 states in terms of total instructional hours per school year. Last year’s law to ban or limit the use of cell phones during school hours should help reduce digital distractions, but the research on attention is clear that humans are not good at multitasking and can take a long time to refocus when our thinking is interrupted.

For schools, that means that every little interruption counts. Students being pulled out of class for special interventions or testing, outdoor noise and intercom announcements are all important in their own way, but they also add up. One study found that a typical classroom might be interrupted 2,000 times per year and that these disruptions can result in the loss of 10 to 20 days of instructional time. School district leaders could conduct attention audits to maximize and better understand how schools are using time and all of their technological tools.

Last but not least is the question of what students are (and are not) learning. California’s test results suggest that reading is a particular problem area. Since 2019, California’s reading scores on NAEP are down 4 points in fourth grade and 5 points in eighth grade. But those are averages. Last year, just 7% of California’s Black students met the “Proficient” benchmark and 72% fell below “Basic” in fourth grade reading.

When students lack foundational reading skills, the impact compounds across subjects. All students need and deserve evidence-based literacy instruction, with sustained focus on the relationships between sound and print, exposure to rich text, thought-provoking content, and both general and domain-specific vocabulary that builds knowledge of the world.

Improving reading scores is hard work, and other states are dealing with similar challenges. But California — unlike many other states — has not yet passed a comprehensive reading bill.

This is where California could stand to learn from some of the higher-performing states on NAEP, sometimes called “the nation’s report card.” Specifically, it might surprise some readers to learn that Mississippi made the largest reading gains over the last 10 years. Last year, Mississippi ranked seventh overall but third for Black students and first for low-income students. California, in contrast, came in 37th, 33rd and 28th, respectively.

How did Mississippi make this turnaround? It took a long-term, systematic approach to its literacy efforts. It invested in teacher development and coaching, identified and supported struggling readers as early as possible and equipped teachers with high-quality instructional materials.

This combination of high-quality instructional materials with diagnostic data and student supports has the potential to improve outcomes for California’s most vulnerable students, and to create a more equitable education system for all. By leveraging data it already tracks and focusing on the delivery of core instruction, California can build a stronger foundation for student success.

•••

Lindsay Dworkin is senior vice president of policy and government affairs at NWEA, a K-12 assessment and research organization.

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

Covid’s long shadow in California: Chronic absences, student depression and the limits of money

Covid’s long shadow in California: Chronic absences, student depression and the limits of money

TOP TAKEAWAYS

The Covid-19 pandemic amplified long-standing inequalities; there are no quick fixes to high chronic absentee rates and other challenges.
A return to “normal” won’t address post-Covid students feeling disengaged – nor should it.
Unlike other states, California districts have a $6 billion Covid block grant to replace federal relief that expired.

In March 2020, the Covid pandemic shut down schools, creating havoc, particularly among California’s most vulnerable children. Five years later, despite unprecedented funding from the state and federal governments, most districts continue to struggle to recover the ground they lost amid multiple challenges: more disgruntled parents and emotionally fragile students, a decline in enrollment, and uncertain finances.

According to calculations by researchers at Stanford and Harvard universities, most California school districts remain below pre-pandemic levels in standardized test scores — 31% of a grade equivalent below in math and 40% of a grade equivalent in reading. These averages understate the widening gaps in living conditions as well as test scores between the lowest-income and least-impoverished districts and schools.

The drop in the average scores in California and the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2024 “masks a pernicious inequality,” said Sean Reardon, faculty director of the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford.

Scores are a shorthand measurement of learning, and they do not address the deeper, latent impact of the pandemic.

“We tend to overlook the longer-term effects of the delay in socialization and self-discipline — things that schools nurtured in young people,” said Vito Chiala, principal of William C. Overfelt High, whose 1,400 primarily low-income Hispanic and Vietnamese American students live in East San Jose. “Young people becoming adults at the high school level seem to be maybe two or three years behind where it used to be.”

In the first year of returning from remote learning, the focus was on school-related behaviors and self-management, Chiala said. “Students who had spent over a year saying whatever they wanted on social media had to face people in person, and that was super-uncomfortable sometimes. Now it’s much more about endurance, being willing and able to do hard academic work for longer periods of time.”

Overfelt High is far from unique. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that in 2021-22, 87% of public schools said the pandemic harmed student socioemotional development, and 56% reported increased incidents of classroom disruptions from student misconduct.

Educators, in turn, have taken a more holistic approach to building students’ mindsets and meeting families’ basic needs, said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California Berkeley, who is studying nine California districts’ post-Covid responses.

Recognizing that Covid amplified the harsh conditions of living in poverty, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators put $4 billion into creating community schools in low-income neighborhoods to strengthen ties to parents and open health clinics at schools. The state began to fund free universal school breakfasts and lunches.

With state grants, Rocketship Public Schools hired care coordinators in all of its charter schools, most in East San Jose, to cope with the aftermath of Covid.

Fabiola Zamora, a mother of four children from ages 2 to 10, described the support from the care corps coordinator for her school when she became homeless. “We received blankets, diapers, warm clothes. Mrs. Martinez guided me to a shelter and helped get my daughter to school,” she said. “It was hard. I was scared; it made me feel I wasn’t alone.”

Mental health responses

The proportion of students experiencing mental health issues had been rising before Covid. It accelerated during remote learning and coincided with an explosion of social media and cell phone use. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the incidence and prevalence of depression among 1.7 million 5- to 22-year-olds served by Kaiser Permanente in Southern California rose by about 60%, and the incidence of anxiety increased 31% from 2017 to 2021.

School districts in turn hired more counselors and psychologists using mental health funding and $13.4 billion the state received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the last and biggest installment of the $23.4 billion in Covid aid from Congress. Savvy districts have tapped Medi-Cal, the California version of Medicaid, to reimburse school mental health services, although Republican plans for massive cuts to Medicaid could jeopardize the funding.

Addressing the whole child makes sense. Disengaged and depressed students can’t focus; chronically absent students fall behind, complicating efforts to catch them up while moving others ahead.

But have these added responsibilities overburdened and preoccupied districts? In a fifth-year Covid reassessment, Robin Lake, director of the Center for Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University, and Paul Hill, the center’s founder, raised that issue. “By easing up on graduation requirements” (which the California Legislature did), “making it easier for students to earn good grades, excusing frequent absences, and prioritizing social-emotional learning curricula over core academics,” they wrote, “the pendulum has swung too far away from the core business of schooling.”

Stubbornly high chronic absenteeism

The persistently high rates of chronic absences in California since Covid underscore complex challenges. In the first full year back from remote learning, chronic absenteeism nearly tripled statewide from 12% in 2018-19 to 30%, mirroring that of other states.

Just as with test scores, the averages masked yawning differences between ethnic and racial groups and levels of poverty: 35% for Hispanics, 42.5% for Black students, and 46% for homeless and foster youths, compared with 11% for Asian and 23% for white students. Students are chronically absent when they miss 10% or more days of school.

By 2023-24, the statewide rate declined, first to 25% in 2022-23 and then to 20% — still two-thirds higher than pre-Covid. An analysis by researchers Heather Hough of Policy Analysis for California Education and Hedy Chang of Attendance Works helps explain why learning recovery has been slow in impoverished schools. Only 2% of schools with the fewest low-income students had high or extreme levels of chronic absences, compared with 72% of schools in which three-quarters or more of students were low-income. The disparity isn’t new; the dimensions of the divide are.

“If you want to reduce chronic absence, you need to solve the root causes that result in kids not showing up to school in the first place,” said Attendance Works founder Chang. “The barriers — poor transportation, homelessness and food insecurity — are huge, and these issues are hard to solve.”

Schools also had a messaging problem. “During the pandemic, we said, ‘You should stay home for any reason for illness, any symptom.’ I don’t think we had counter-messaging when we wanted kids to come back.”

“The imperception was maybe missing school doesn’t matter so much if I think my kid might be sick,” Chang said.

Some high school students reached the same conclusion, added Overfelt principal Chiala. “We always said school is mandatory, school is important. And then we said for a year and a half (during remote learning) it wasn’t,” he said. “I think psychologically, a lot of young people are like, ‘”If it was really important, you would’ve made me keep coming.’”

Computers for all students

There is an unmistakable positive legacy of Covid: the equitable spread of technology after initial chaos.

Covid caught the state flat-footed, without a plan or the capacity to switch on a dime to remote learning; in many districts, this did not go well, as kids with home computers but spotty internet drove to fast-food parking lots to download the week’s homework assignments and to upload their answers.

In June 2020, the California Department of Education estimated that 700,000 students lacked a home computer — which soon rose to 1 million, or about 17% of students — and that there were 322,000 hot spots for internet service.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond created the Bridge the Divide Fund. With $18.4 million in donations, it distributed 45,000 Chromebooks, plus 100,725 hot spots.

The difference-maker arrived in 2021 with $7 billion as California’s share of the Biden administration’s Emergency Connectivity Fund. Federal funds have enabled more than 75% of schools nationwide to provide a computer for every student, and more than 80% of schools have high-speed broadband service, said Evan Marwell, the founder of the San Francisco-based nonprofit EducationSuperhighway.

Soon, it will be time to recycle personal computers. The good news, Marwell said, is a Chromebook can now be bought for $200.

Low return on federal investment?

On the 2021-22 Smarter Balanced tests, low-income students fell back after years of slow improvement. The overall 35% proficiency in English language arts was 4 percentage points lower than in pre-pandemic 2018-19. The 21% proficiency in math was a drop of 6 percentage points. Two years later, low-income students had regained half of what they had lost on both tests.

During these three years, per-student spending in California mushroomed by about 50% per student because of federal Covid relief and one-time state funding due to record-setting revenues, according to data assembled by Edunomics Lab, an education finance organization. The combination of high spending and lower test scores earned California one of the nation’s worst “returns on investments.”

However, a newly released deeper analysis of district-by-district Smarter Balanced results by researchers at UC San Diego, American Institutes of Research, UC Berkeley and Public Policy Institute of California showed that two years of federal Covid spending had a statistically significant effect in 2021-22. It was equivalent to a gain in math and English language arts of about 10 days of learning, said economics professor Julian Betts of UC San Diego.

Schools that reopened a year earlier from remote learning than most schools in California showed a bigger gain: about 20 days of learning.

However, those positive factors were not big enough to offset the effects of poverty — a loss of a quarter year of learning for schools with a high percentage of low-income students.

Researchers also looked at the results of the California Healthy Kids Survey that students fill out annually to see if there was a correlation between widespread bullying and student harassment with test scores. The effect was large: the equivalent of a half-year of lost learning in math and a third of a year in English language arts in 2021-22. The data document what socio-emotional learning advocates have preached for years: School climate matters in recovering academically from Covid declines.

One last source of funding

Starting with the 2021-22 state budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature invested more than $10 billion in TK-12 in the post-Covid years. The bulk of it went to transitional kindergarten (TK) and extended learning programs. What Newsom didn’t direct funding to were comprehensive, statewide, early reading and numeracy programs and high-intensive tutoring — two strategies that other states like Louisiana funded to respond Covid-era declines in test scores. Newsom had proposed $2.6 billion for “high-dosage” in-school tutoring; it vanished in the final budget.

What did survive was a $6 billion Learning Loss Emergency Block Grant program. Apparently unique among states in providing substantial money beyond the expiration of the $23.4 billion federal Covid funding, it directs most money to heavily low-income districts through 2026-27. In settling the Cayla J. lawsuit filed by Oakland and Los Angeles families over the state’s failure to meet their children’s education needs during remote learning, the state agreed to require that districts use the block grant for evidence-based strategies, like high-dosage tutoring. Districts must also conduct a needs assessment study, create a plan for the money, and present it to the public.

The learning recovery block grant provides an opportunity to ask questions raised by the Center for Reinventing Public Education in its five-year reassessment:

What worked and didn’t work over the last five years?
How are the students most in need going to get extra time and attention?
What skills and new work habits are required of teachers?

Authors Robin Lake and Paul Hill concluded that the needed systemic changes would be “a heavy lift.” The necessary changes “probably can’t be done unless state officials seriously consider major waivers of regulation and teacher unions allow experimentation with new teacher roles and school staffing rules.”

Vito Chiala

Bruce Fuller, the UC Berkeley professor who is analyzing the learning recovery plans of 700 California districts, agrees. “It’s hard to sustain anything that’s seriously innovative,” he said.

Vito Chiala at Overfelt High in San Jose, however, said Overfelt is becoming a different place. “When we came back (from remote learning), we really spent a lot of time radically dreaming about how will we treat our kids? How will we grade work? How, what will we be teaching them? How will we embrace our students’ humanity?”

The result: “We don’t grade the same way we used to. Classes aren’t rushing through curriculum like they used to. Teachers aren’t feeling they have to move on, even though half the class hasn’t learned. We’re really trying to motivate students to feel the intrinsic need to learn and get better.”

“We’re still finding our footing in sort of this post-pandemic world,” he said.