برچسب: Change

How more Hispanic teachers could change the face of California education

Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource

California has had a racial imbalance between its teacher workforce and its student population for years, with a majority Hispanic student population being taught by teachers who are mostly white. That could be changing, as more people of Hispanic heritage enroll in college teacher preparation programs in the state.

Overall enrollment in teacher preparation programs in California has decreased in recent years, but the biggest declines have been among white teacher candidates. The result has been a higher percentage of people of color entering teacher preparation programs, according to the state’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

In the 2022-23 school year — the most recent year state data is available — more than half of the new teacher candidates identified themselves as a race other than white. Nearly 40% of the 17,337 newly enrolled teacher candidates that year were Hispanic, and just over 33% were white, according to CTC data.

That was a stark contrast to the racial makeup of the state’s teacher workforce that same year, when 55% of the state’s 312,124 teachers were white, and Hispanic teachers made up 25% of the workforce from transitional kindergarten (TK) through high school.

“Over half of our TK-12 student population identifies, and the majority of our English language learners also are Latino,” said José Magaña, executive director of Bay Area Latinos for Education. “The research is pretty clear that not just Latino students and English language learners, but all students, benefit from having a more diverse educator.”

Latinos for Education offers fellowships to support Latinos in the education system. The Bay Area branch of the organization also has a Latinx Teacher Fellowship program to support beginning teachers and paraprofessionals.

Research shows that when students are taught by educators who reflect their cultural backgrounds and understand their lived experiences, it results in stronger academic outcomes, greater social-emotional growth, and a profound sense of belonging, said Kai Mathews, executive director of the Urban Ed Academy in San Francisco, which recruits and supports Black male teachers.

“Increasing the number of Latinx educators is about more than representation — it’s about creating classrooms where every student feels seen, valued and is liberated to be their authentic self,” Mathews said.

Changing California demographics

The change in the racial makeup of teacher candidates coincides with the evolving population of the state, where 56% of the K-12 student population was Hispanic last school year, according to the California Department of Education. The number increases to over 60% for children younger than age 5, said Shireen Pavri, assistant vice chancellor of California State University’s educator and leadership programs.

In the years between 2018 and 2023, the percentage of Hispanic teacher candidates has slowly increased from 31.4% to 39.7%, while the number of white teacher candidates dropped by 10 percentage points, according to CTC data. The number of Hispanic teacher candidates also has been increasing, although it dropped from 7,154 in 2021-22 to 6,934 in 2022-23, when the overall number of teacher candidates declined for a second consecutive year.

California State University, which prepares the majority of the state’s teachers, had the largest percentage of Hispanic students in its teacher preparation programs in 2022-23 — nearly 50%, according to the CTC’s “Annual Report Card on California teacher preparation programs.” The number is currently 55%, Pavri said.

During that same time, the percentage of white candidates in CSU teacher preparation programs decreased, and the percentage of teacher candidates of other races remained flat.

CSU is leading the way

“Anecdotally, a lot of our Latinx population, who come into our teacher preparation programs, come in because they want to make a difference,” Pavri said. “They didn’t necessarily see people who looked like them when they were going through school. Many of them came in as English learners. They want to make an impact now on their communities and give back.”

Some of the recent success at diversifying the pool of teacher candidates at California State University can be attributed to the Center for Transformational Educator Preparation Programs, which has helped to recruit, prepare and retain teachers of color, according to the university.

Its Transformation Lab, a four-year program that recently ended, increased the retention rate of teacher candidates at some campuses and improved teacher placement numbers at others, Pavri said. At CSU Bakersfield and CSU Northridge, for example, the completion rates for Black candidates increased by 17% and 31% respectively between 2020 and 2023, and Stanislaus State doubled its student teaching placements for historically underserved teacher candidates at Modesto City Schools over a two-year period.

The center’s leadership is seeking additional funding to support similar programs in the future.

The university also operates CalStateTEACH, an online multiple-subject teaching credential program that focuses on recruiting male teachers of color from throughout California.

In University of California teacher preparation programs, 35% of the teacher candidates are Hispanic, 29% are white, 20% are Asian and 2.8% are Black. There are still slightly more white teacher candidates than Hispanic, 38% and 32.6% respectively, in teacher preparation programs at private universities and colleges.

State programs bearing fruit

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

District grow-your-own programs and the state’s Classified School Employee Credentialing program and apprenticeship programs are meant to diversify the educator workforce because school staff recruited from the community more closely match the demographics of the student body than traditionally trained and recruited teachers, according to research.

“All of those state investments, particularly around affordability, have helped incredibly with bringing more Black and brown students into our teaching field,” Pavri said.

CSU teacher residency programs outpace even the traditional teacher preparation programs in terms of the number of teachers of color enrolled, she said.

Numbers for other ethnic groups flat

Despite the efforts, California State University continues to struggle to attract Black teacher candidates, hovering around 3% for years, despite several initiatives to improve their numbers, Pavri said.

“While we celebrate this progress, we must confront the persistent underrepresentation of Black, Asian and Pacific Islander educators,” Mathews said. “Our classrooms deserve to reflect the fullness of California’s diversity. Ensuring this kind of equity in the teaching workforce isn’t just good for students—it’s essential to building the inclusive, transformative and liberating system our communities deserve.”

Statewide, Black teacher candidates made up 4%, and Asian teacher candidates about 9.5% of total enrollment in California teacher preparation programs between 2018 and 2023, according to CTC data.

There are fewer Black teachers because of obstacles they encounter on the way to completing their education, including an unwelcoming school environment, disproportionate discipline and overrepresentation in special education, Pavri said.

Pursuing a teaching credential, where traditionally student teaching is unpaid, is not affordable for some. Teacher salaries, which are generally lower than the pay for other jobs with the same qualifications, and working conditions also are a deterrent for students from families with limited generational wealth, Pavri said.

More needs to be done to keep teachers

The increase in the percentage of Hispanic teacher candidates is positive, but not significant enough, Magaña said. In order to reflect student demographics, the state will need to make significant investments to recruit and retain educators.

“The numbers are staggering around the number of educators that are leaving the profession, especially our Latino educators,” he said.

Magaña, who was a classroom teacher for 15 years, said Latino educators often have to take on extra work on campus, whether it is supporting translations or family engagement.

“It can be a lonely role,” he said. “Sometimes there may be just one Latino educator on campus, and without mentorship and community, and network building, it makes it easier for folks to not feel supported.”

Source link

25/04/2025
How a new LAUSD board member hopes to inspire change following Trump’s inauguration

LAUSD school board member Karla Griego reading with students.

Credit: Courtesy of Karla Griego

A lot has changed in the life of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s new board member, representing District 5.

In the past few months, Karla Griego was elected to LAUSD’s school board, was sworn in and now is having to find her stride as a new presidential administration takes charge on Monday.

While many of her priorities remain unchanged — including providing more support for community schools, investing in special education and charter school accountability — Griego said she’s rethinking some of her priorities because of another four years of President Donald Trump.

Despite the potential hurdles ahead, Griego, an educator of more than 19 years and backed by the district’s teacher’s union, emphasized that she is grateful to work with LAUSD’s community as part of a larger movement.

“Change doesn’t happen with individuals, change happens with movements,” Griego, the first Latina to serve her board district in more than 30 years, said in an interview with EdSource.

“And if that’s what we want in our schools — we want schools to be student centered and holistic educational experiences and schools that are healthy, green, racially just, affirming, community schools — then it’s a movement that’s going to make that happen.”

Here’s what she said she hopes to accomplish in her tenure on the board.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are the most critical issues that you most want to address during your term on the Los Angeles Unified board?

The immigration issue is very big here in L.A. because there’s a lot of anxiety among our families, our communities, our students, and so that is definitely one thing that was not on my campaign platform, but it has now risen as a priority. And with that, I’m hoping that we could lead in having “Know Your Rights” sessions for families and parents and students, and provide social-emotional support. It was the student board member who highlighted the need for social-emotional support for students who will be dealing with a lot if their families are in fear of deportation. We saw in 2017 how children were affected by that. I am hoping that we can, as a district, lead in spearheading some of these workshops and support systems for our students and their families.

And then, of course, the budget is always very important. Every year, we need to make decisions. I want to make sure that I involve stakeholders, and I want to host meetings throughout my district to hear from families and parents and teachers, classified staff, administrators about what their priorities are. I want to hear from the community. I made that commitment when I was running, and so one of the first tasks is going to be to host listening sessions throughout the district.

And of course to expand community schools to allow them to grow and thrive as they’re meant to, and to make sure that we keep our promise to our Black students by maintaining the Black Student Achievement Plan.

And, just overall, that as we are making decisions, I bring that voice to the table of seeing the decisions that we make through the lens of supporting our students and supporting our students holistically— so let that be the driving force for all of our decision-making.

You’ve already discussed supporting families who fear deportation. But beyond immigration, how has the outcome of the November election impacted your priorities, if at all?

I’m a special education teacher, and with the federal government threatening to disband the Department of Education, special education could be dispersed to another department, and so it won’t have as high a priority. I definitely want to make sure that we continue to center one of our most vulnerable (groups of) students in spite of all the hits that we get (and make) decisions about what’s best for them to be able to access the curriculum and schooling and to be in a safe environment that is equitable and meets their needs.

Special education is an area of concern for me in terms of the new presidency, but it just means that we need to work harder, and we need to bring together special ed parents, special ed students and teachers and administrators to organize and push back on any cuts to what’s already a very small budget. And even though they’re threatening to cut even more, we continue to ask for more.

There are so many stakeholders who sometimes have conflicting views on critical issues, ranging from policing to charter schools. How do you plan to balance all of that feedback and decide what to act on?

When I was a community school coordinator, I learned to do different types of assessments and surveys, but also to have focus groups and to determine to come to a consensus as to what the priorities will be. And so that’s what I’m hoping to do.

Few parents say we want police and, likewise, we don’t want police. The first thing that comes out generally, in my experience with talking to families throughout the campaign and even now, is we want safe schools. And so, what are you going to do to create safe schools? And that’s what they want to hear from the district. I’ve always told stakeholders that I know that there is funding in community-based safety programs. I know that there is funding for restorative practices and de-escalation techniques, and so I want to make sure that we spend that money to support our staff and support our students and to implement Safe Passages in our neighborhoods, especially those where families feel that their kids are not safe going to and from school. I want to make sure that we use that funding for those things as they were meant to be used.

In terms of charters, it’s accountability. That’s huge with charter schools — making sure that they are held accountable in the same way that public schools are held accountable. If they say that they accept special ed students and English language learners, then I want to see that is the case, that that is happening, that children, that families are welcomed, and families are engaged.

How do you plan to engage student voices?

The student voice is super important, and the way that I want to make sure that I engage them is by meeting with different student organizations that already exist in LAUSD. And, in particular, we have a lot of groups of students who are affinity groups: the LGBTQ, trans groups, Latino groups or Black student unions.

I also want to make sure that when I visit school sites, that I also engage with students at the school sites and, at these listening sessions that I’m hoping to have, there’s going to be a concerted effort to make sure that students also attend and (that I) get ideas from them.

What message would you like to send to LAUSD’s student body?

Our students go through so much. All students experience so much stress either just by the mere fact that they are in the developmental stage that they’re in, or social factors. And so, what I want to tell them is to try to find joy in the things that you like and enjoy yourself as much (as you can), because you deserve it. And, yeah, it’s hard. I have an 18-year-old daughter, so I try to stress that to her, to just try to find joy.

There’s so much stress on our students about performance. Even if we don’t tell them, they feel it. They feel the stress of testing, performing graduation, doing better. It’s just the messages that we send to our kids sometimes are always about doing better, and how does that make us feel? That we’re never enough, that we’re just not quite there. And, I don’t want our students to feel that way. They are where they are, and they are strong and resilient.

And also, to lean on the support system that they may have: a sibling, cousin, a friend, an educator, a parent. Whatever that support system may be, lean on that because when you’re in community, you also feel a lot stronger.

Source link

25/04/2025
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?”

Source link

17/04/2025
8 Steps to Structured Literacy Change in Our District

There are numerous steps that our district and school took to help implement Science of Reading strategies and ensure structured literacy was our approach in ELA instruction. These are our steps to structured literacy success.

Before we begin, let’s define some terms. Science of Reading is the research behind how a child’s brain learns to read. Structured literacy is the application. Structure literacy applies the knowledge of Science of Reading to teach children to read in an evidence-based, explicit, and systematic way. Structured literacy approach incorporates skills including phonemic awareness, phonics, orthography, morphology, syntax (sentence structure), semantics.

For more information, I highly suggest the book Structured Literacy Interventions.

Our District’s 8 Steps to Structured Literacy Success

To prepare our teachers for the shift from our previous balanced literacy with guided reading groups to a structured literacy approach with a new curriculum, we took some critical steps. Looking back I believe these 8 steps have helped our teachers and district be successful in implementing a structured literacy approach to our ELA block.

1. Built the “Why”

We all want to know “why” we are doing something. We want to see the reasons, the proof, and the theory behind our change. Education is constantly changing and like many things in education we didn’t want our teachers believing that science of reading was only a pendulum swing. We wanted to prove to teachers this is the best approach to teach our students to be successful readers. We provided short articles and a few videos to introduce our teachers to the Science of Reading. We also started various book study groups working through Natalie Wexler’s book The Knowledge Gap.

2. Introduced Instructional Coaches

This new position of an instructional coach was designed to support teachers in their shift from balanced literacy to structured literacy approach. We are lucky to have one instructional coach for each of our elementary buildings. During our first months in this new role, we devoured all the information about science of reading, structured literacy, explicit phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, etc.. We attended any professional development opportunities. We became “experts” so that we could better support teachers throughout this process.

3. Demolished Guided Reading

At the beginning of the year, we demolished our previous guided reading group method and rebuilt a stronger approach to this precious time within our day. We first changed the title to WIN (What I Need) time. We wanted a clean break, even in name, from our previous guided reading group structure and instruction. Instructional coaches research best practices and after looking at school data, we helped to create more meaningful groups and provided teachers with a new framework for teaching. Many of our students had phonics gaps, so our first year we targeted this area while addressing other components. We also introduced teachers to decodable readers instead of leveled readers.

4. Pilot New ELA Programs

Our district was already piloting many programs before COVID. Honestly, COVID saved us from making a wrong decision in curriculums since all curriculum pilots were on pause for a year. During this time, Science of Reading information was exploding and we used this time to reevaluate some of our pilots. We dropped a few programs that were not Science of Reading aligned. We focused all our attention to a very few select programs and dove into them deeply. Coaches were able to observe teachers in the different pilots and talk with students about what they were learning. We were able to see mid-year data and formative assessments. In the end, it was a no brainer. We had made our decision!

5. Selected ELA Program & Celebrated!

In January we decided on a curriculum and moved forward with board approval and budget. Our next district professional development day in March was our biggest day. We celebrated with teachers! I have never been to a PD that was more exciting. We were moving forward! We were excited! We were ready to see our kids’ reading improve! During this day, we gave teachers a sneak peak at the new curriculum and our reps were there to answer questions. Pilot teachers provide the rest of the grade level teachers with a demonstration of a lesson so they could see the curriculum in action. We also had Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap, as our Keynote speaker.

6. Support!!

As our new year started, instructional coaches, pilot teachers, and administration were available and ready to support teachers with the new curriculum. We knew it would be a heavy lift but we knew the key to success was to provide help and support along the way. Instructional coaches attended private coaching training with our curriculum reps to find ways to better support teachers and brought that knowledge back to grade level PLC meetings. We also helped with unit planning and attending meetings where teachers could ask questions, voice concerns, or seek feedback/help. All hands were on deck!

7. Carefully Selected & Meaningful PD

Our new curriculum was a heavy lift. We knew that leaving teachers to work independently was not going to be successful. Also we knew our teachers would be drowning and we wanted to have lifeboats, life vests, and the whole Coast Guard ready to help. Therefore, our administration built a district calendar based around carefully selected days that teachers would have time to work together with grade level teams, curriculum reps, and coaches to build capacity one or two units at a time.

During each PD, instructional coaches were providing various training along with our curriculum reps. Teachers were provided time to work through a unit with their district wide team and instructional coaches while curriculum reps guided them through the process. Teachers had time for collaboration and sharing. Our administration did a great job at chunking the professional development offered by our curriculum company so that teachers could digest a small amount of information and implement it in their classroom before learning something new.

8. Building PD

Meaningful professional development is essential. There is nothing worse than leaving a meeting thinking- “That could have been an email” or “I didn’t learn anything”. One of our goals was to ensure that teachers learned something new and it was meaningful. In our district, instructional coaches are responsible for providing building-wide professional development. Our district is a large district with 8 elementary schools and growing quickly. The first year as a coach we noticed that every school did things differently. Our first main goal was to bring consistency to the buildings.. We took teacher feedback, classroom observations, and new implementations to build our professional development presentation together. This way each school was getting the same information from their instructional coaches.

Success

These steps crucial in our new curriculum being successful and our shift to structured literacy. Our teachers worked hard and had support at every turn. I truly believe these steps helped our district be successful.

“Most transformation programs satisfy themselves with shifting the same old furniture about in the same old room. But real transformation requires that we redesign the room itself. Perhaps even blow up the old room. It requires that we change thinking behind our thinking.”

Dahah Zohar (1997, p.243)

Source link

12/04/2025