When I first went to a free yoga class at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s recreation center in the winter of my sophomore year of college, I never realized how it would change my life.
I entered the space with a sense of discomfort; I hadn’t practiced yoga in several years and was hesitant to observe the stiffness of my limbs and unevenness of my breath. The other students around me seemed familiar with these classes and overall more comfortable in their skin.
At the time, I was facing mental health challenges, and a counselor recommended that I try the free yoga class at the recreation center. Willing to try anything, I decided to give it a shot.
The first class I took was led by a student. She invited us into a space with lit candles and gentle music. Even though my initial class was an adjustment, I still went back. And then, I went back again. In fact, it soon became clear to me I wanted to be an instructor myself.
I am a journalism major, and could never have imagined that college would allow me access to anything beyond a career in my area of study. But after completing my 200-hour yoga teaching certification over the summer, I was ready to apply to teach at the recreation center.
According to Eric Alexander, assistant coordinator of Cal Poly’s fitness programs, 16 out of the 46 fitness instructors at the recreation center are students. A huge benefit of hiring students as fitness instructors, he said, is the affinity with their peers as students.
“Students bring great energy to fitness programs, and they get the opportunity to positively impact and motivate their peers,” Alexander said. “That student experience is not only valuable to the instructors but to participants and the program as well.”
I saw this as soon as I entered the teaching space. My classes are sometimes filled with 40 or 50 students, many of them regulars who return weekly. I have found that my being a college student makes my students less hesitant to approach me after class to ask questions or simply to share what the class meant to them.
This accessibility to the physical and mental benefits of yoga helped me to recenter and grow as a person and as a student. Additionally, I came to realize I wanted to help others on their journey of healing. In this role as a fitness instructor, I have been able to expand access to yoga in my college community.
Yoga practice draws on a rich history of healing through mind-body connection which can help promote mindfulness and reduce tension. Especially for college students, this kind of physical practice can be incredibly beneficial.
According to research cited by the National Library of Medicine, “Yoga has positive effects on a psychophysiological level that leads to decreased levels of stress in college students.”
With the average yoga class in a commercial studio costing $15-$25 per session, yoga’s benefits are unaffordable to many young people. I’ve seen how free classes on campus solve that problem, and how they may be less daunting for some students to explore on their own.
Cal Poly and other public universities also offer other free group physical activity classes, such as cycling, dance, Pilates, high-intensity interval training and much more, allowing students to explore what activity is most beneficial for them.
I am grateful that pursuing my passion for yoga has been supported by my university, and while teaching me something that I love to share with other college students: Pursuing a passion or side interest while in school will serve to enrich your life, and in my case, the lives of others.
Consistently after my classes, students approach me to share how the space has helped them to recenter and find peace amid busy school days. I encourage them to not only continue practicing yoga but to consider teacher training if they are interested.
Using my platform as a student fitness instructor, I am able to share my passion for yoga to promote healing, growth and mindfulness in my college community. And I have gained experience for a career in teaching yoga, which I intend to maintain as a side job after college.
Four-year-olds are crying, putting their heads on their desks or simply refusing to answer the questions during an English proficiency test they’re required to take in transitional kindergarten.
The initial English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC) is used to determine whether new students will be designated English learners. Under current law, the test must be given to all students whose parents speak another language at home within the first 30 days of enrollment in kindergarten through 12th grade. The test measures proficiency in four domains — listening, speaking, reading and writing in English.
The test is different for each grade. But since transitional kindergarten, often referred to as TK, is classified as the first year of a two-year kindergarten program, and not as a separate grade, schools have had to administer the test to students as young as 4 years old.
School district staff and advocates for English learners and young children say the test was not designed for 4-year-olds, may not be accurate for assessing language acquisition and may misidentify children as English learners when they are simply too young to answer questions correctly.
“We’re assessing children on reading and writing when we know that children that are young 4-year-olds are not reading and writing,” said Carolyne Crolotte, director of dual language learner programs of Early Edge California, a nonprofit organization that advocates for early education.
A new bill, Assembly Bill 2268, introduced by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, would exempt transitional kindergartners from taking the test until they enter kindergarten.
Brett Loring, student services coordinator for Vallecito Union School District, a tiny district in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras County, said giving the ELPAC to a transitional kindergartner was “probably the most frustrating test administration I’ve ever given.”
Loring said the 4-year-old spoke Spanish at home, but he had seen that she understood some English in the classroom. Still, she was intimidated by having to leave her classroom to take the test.
After a few questions, the child said “No want to. No more,” crossed her arms and put her head down on the table.
“Why are we making kids do this?” Loring asked. “Let them develop in the TK year, get them used to the classroom, get them used to socializing. That’s the purpose of TK. It’s really a developmental year. Don’t throw this heavy test on them and expect that you’re going to get good results.”
Concerns have grown as transitional kindergarten is being expanded to all 4-year-olds, meaning younger children are taking the test each year. This school year, children as young as 4 years and 4 months were eligible to enter transitional kindergarten. By 2025, all children who turn 4 years old by Sept. 1 will be eligible.
“Why are we making kids do this? Let them develop in the TK year, get them used to the classroom, get them used to socializing. That’s the purpose of TK.”
Brett Loring, student services coordinator, Vallecito Union School District
The English proficiency test for kindergartners, which is also administered to transitional kindergartners, requires students to read and write simple words like “cat”, “pan” and “dip”, and identify the first letters in words, based on their sounds.
“My experience is ELPAC is very challenging for all kinder and TK students,” said Bernadette Zermeño, multilingual specialist at Oakland Unified School District. “Even if kids were monolingual and only speaking English, it would still be a very hard exam.”
Proponents of the bill said districts should instead use the home language survey, observations by teachers and conversations with families to assess what language help transitional kindergartners need. This would be similar to how school districts and other state-subsidized providers assess students enrolled in preschool programs.
Muratsuchi said he does not believe that students who are English learners could fall through the cracks if not tested in transitional kindergarten.
“All of these children are going to be assessed in kindergarten, so I’m confident that those who really do need the support will be properly identified in kindergarten, but in the meantime, we want to make sure we’re not over-identifying students,” Muratsuchi said.
The state funding formula gives districts more funding based on how many students are English learners, low-income, homeless or in foster care, so this bill could potentially cost districts some funding, but Muratsuchi and proponents of the bill said the loss of funding would be minimal.
“I think more important than funding is making sure that we’re serving our students well with developmentally appropriate assessments,” Muratsuchi said. “We don’t want kids to be having meltdowns over tests that are not appropriate for their age.”
Crolotte said if students are misidentified as English learners when they actually speak English, resources could be allocated for children that don’t need English language development services.
In addition, Crolotte said she’s worried students could be identified as English learners “and then get in the hamster wheel and not be able to get out of EL status.” Once identified as English learners, students must take the ELPAC every year until their test results, both on the ELPAC and on academic English language arts tests, show they are proficient in English. Some advocates believe many districts have set the bar too high for students to show they are fluent in English.
Crolotte said that Early Edge California has been researching other ways to test young children, including how other states assess young students. She pointed out that Illinois and Virginia only assess English skills in listening and speaking during the first semester of kindergarten, since many children have not yet learned to read or write. Both states wait to begin testing reading and writing skills until the second semester of kindergarten.
Fresno Unified School District board member Keshia Thomas speaks during a 2022 news conference.
Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr
Among accusations of racism, intimidation and political play, ensuing from a March 20 decision by the Fresno Unified School District board to interview internal candidates first in the process to hire a superintendent, some district employees have faced harassment and threats, with some members of the Hmong community also citing attacks against them.
Sources, including district spokesperson Nikki Henry, told EdSource that board members and Deputy Superintendent Misty Her — a candidate for the open position and the presumptive interim superintendent — have been threatened. Her, specifically, has faced racial harassment, Henry said.
“It’s not fair to staff, and it’s not fair to the process,” school board member Keshia Thomas said.
During last week’s board meeting, Kao Xiong, CEO of the Hmong Business Incubator Center, a community-based organization serving the underrepresented Hmong community, said his group has been monitoring racial tensions related to the superintendent search.
Community member John Thao spoke about the “painful” and “hurtful” words someone told him in the wake of the superintendent’s search: “‘Your kind will never be superintendent.’”
On Jan. 22, when Superintendent Bob Nelson announced his plans to leave Fresno Unified, the district announced that if a permanent superintendent isn’t named by his final days, Her would be named interim superintendent.
Plans to name Her as interim superintendent put her at the center of the search as a favored candidate even though she’s not the only internal applicant. Her became the highest-ranking Hmong K-12 professional in 2021 when she was hired as deputy superintendent.
Stacy Williams, a community member who spoke at last week’s meeting, accused the board of favoring Her as the next superintendent for their own political gain.
“I know some of you have something to gain by using the Hmong community as your political pawn for when you want to run for something,” Williams said. A similar sentiment had been expressed in an opinion piece on news site GV Wire, which accused some board members of “pandering to the Hmong community for votes” in their November re-election bids.
Process is compromised
After the March 20 closed meeting of the school board, during which the board decided to interview internal candidates before deciding on how to proceed with the hiring process, details of the 4-3 decision and how each board member voted were leaked to the media, instigating community anger that propelled the board to reverse course in a 5-2 vote last Wednesday and postpone the scheduled internal interviews.
Beyond the threats, the search for the top leader of the state’s third-largest school system is engulfed in community angst about an alleged lack of transparency as well as accusations that the process has been tainted by politics.
Simply put, some say the search process has become “compromised.” But the reason for that conclusion varies, depending on whom you ask.
Trustee Thomas said the process is compromised because board members and staff are afraid but helpless to protect themselves and their families from threats and harassment, incited by the turmoil that the leaked information has caused.
“I don’t know what the next steps are going to be because everybody is uncertain, scared and wants to protect their families and protect employees from the nonsense,” Thomas told EdSource before the board voted to cancel the interviews of in-house candidates. “So now, we may have to pivot and try to figure out: how do we stop the unnecessary nonsense?”
Manuel Bonilla, president of the Fresno Teachers Association, on the other hand, said the process was compromised from the moment the board decided to prioritize district employees rather than conducting an “extensive search to find the best candidate … creating the appearance that politics matter more than students.”
Fifteen community members who spoke at last Wednesday’s board meeting agreed that politics has permeated the process one way or another.
“Is this politics as usual?” asked Terri Kimber-Edwards, who attended Fresno Unified schools, is a parent to former students, and was a teacher and school and district administrator. “Is there some agenda? Are there backroom deals?”
Accusations of a personal or political agenda
A recently launched political action committee, Moving the Central Valley Forward, sent mailers to Fresno residents, asking them to run for a seat in the Roosevelt and Hoover High areas, represented by Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas and Claudia Cazares, who are up for re-election in November. Both trustees’ names were leaked as part of the board majority that voted to start the superintendent search with internal candidates.
Jonasson Rosas did not confirm or deny her part in the March 20 decision because it happened in a closed-door session, and Cazares could not be reached for comment. Both have since voted to cancel the internal candidate interviews. In fact, Cazares led the charge to change the scope of the search at last Wednesday’s meeting.
Board member Andy Levine, who represents the Fresno High area, is also up for re-election but was not included in the mailer, although the area is listed on the political action committee’s website. Last week, Levine stated on Facebook and told EdSource that he supported opening the search to both internal and external candidates from the start.
Board members are not the only ones being accused of having a political agenda in the superintendent search.
Thomas, who says she stands by her decision to interview internal candidates first, questioned the teachers union’s involvement in the April 2 news conference called by board President Susan Wittrup to challenge the board’s decision.
At that news conference, community leaders, including members of the teachers union, urged Fresno Unified board members to conduct the search the “right way,” with a scope that includes at least statewide candidates, and in an open and transparent way, led by and with community involvement.
Thomas said the labor union’s top leaders want to apply for the superintendency, which they couldn’t have done under the board’s original plan to interview internal candidates first.
District leaders, principals, teachers and other staff would be considered internal candidates who could apply.
Union presidents are district employees and could have applied; however, other union leaders and representatives would not have been able to unless the search was expanded to include external candidates.
Fresno Teachers Association leaders Louis Jamerson, pictured in the center, and Manuel Bonilla sign a tentative labor agreement between the teachers union and Fresno Unified School District last October. Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr
The teachers union’s executive director, Louis Jamerson, said he’ll apply to be Fresno Unified’s superintendent if the process is opened to external candidates, but added that questions about the union’s involvement in the search process are “ridiculous.”
The union’s executive board endorses Jamerson’s plan to become superintendent and Bonilla, FTA president, as deputy superintendent.
“We have some support from our executive board and from our teachers to pursue this,” Jamerson said, referring to his public announcement in February to 200 educators who gave him a standing ovation.
“But that assumes that that’s possible. I don’t know, ultimately, how the board is going to decide on this process,” Jamerson said. “There could be another hurdle that prevents me from being able to apply. But if there are no hurdles, in terms of the ability for me to apply to become the superintendent, I will apply.”
FTA involvement isn’t unique to this search
The teachers union has been involved in the superintendent search process dating back to 2005, when Mike Hanson was hired, and 2017, when Nelson was selected.
Jamerson said that ensuring that the right superintendent is selected isn’t the only action the union takes to improve the education of students in Fresno Unified, where most students are still not meeting state standards.
“In my almost 10-year tenure at FTA, we have been involved in trying to do our best, from where we are, to try to … move this rock up a hill in terms of our students: our student safety, our student academic outcomes, our students’ ability to learn, read, do math — all of that,” Jamerson said about work the union engages in.
Trustee Jonasson Rosas said the situation is causing uneasiness at the district’s many schools, where students are now preparing for testing and other end-of-year obligations, such as college applications. Students who spoke during the April 3 meeting confirmed their worry.
“It’s unsettling for our school sites,” Jonasson Rosas said, “and I’m concerned about the effects that our schools are having because of this.”
Edison High senior Yunah Vang was one of seven students who stood at the podium during last Wednesday’s meeting, though not all spoke.
”Instead of preparing for my graduation or getting ready for my prom, my classmates and I are here addressing issues that we are supposed to trust adults with,” Vang said.
But regardless of how the search unfolds, the next superintendent must address the district’s struggles with student performance, including children’s ability to read and teens’ college readiness.
For third grade — the school year believed to be pivotal in determining reading proficiency and predicting future success — less than 1 in 3 third-graders are at grade level, a GO Public Schools 2023 student outcome report on Fresno Unified showed.
Of high school seniors in Fresno Unified, according to the report, under 20% are ready for college courses in English while less than 5% are ready for college math courses. College readiness is defined by a student exceeding standards on the 11th grade standardized tests.
It’s still unclear how the superintendent selection process will proceed. It’s possible that the board will update the community about the next phase of the process at its meeting on April 10.
Many are wondering whether qualified candidates will risk applying and being part of a process that has questionable community support or to work under a fractured school board. EdSource found that less experienced superintendents are becoming common across the state as there is a rise in superintendents leaving the job; many who are leaving cite threats, stress and politics.
“Interested candidates are going to be looking at the process thus far,” said Henry, the district’s spokesperson. “They’re going to be looking at how the board operates, how district leadership operates, how our schools operate. They’re going to take a deep dive and decide if this is the right fit for them, so I think it’s yet to be seen if this has a positive or negative impact on a wider search.”
California State Board of Education student member Julia Clauson talks with First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom at a convening on smart phones hosted by the governor.
As national conversations about the role of states in public education unfold, it’s crucial to center these discussions around the most important stakeholders in our school system: students. In California, we ensure that student voices are included in policymaking by empowering them to become policymakers.
Within our state, there are numerous opportunities for students to get involved in education policy. One of the most significant opportunities for California students is applying to be the student board member for the State Board of Education, a position I currently hold. Every year, the governor appoints one student to serve, and the application and selection process takes place during the applicant’s junior year.
In fact, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently appointed my successor to the board, Vanessa Ejike, who is currently a junior at Whitney High School in Cerritos, California.
As my one-year term on the State Board of Education comes to an end this July, I reflect on the incredible opportunity I’ve had to represent the nearly 6 million students in California public schools. It’s an immense responsibility to be the only student with voting rights on the board. As the application opens for students in the class of 2027, I highly encourage all students to learn about the position and consider applying.
After the applications are received this fall, a screening committee for the State Board of Education selects 12 semifinalists, who are then invited to the Student Advisory Board on Education (SABE) hosted by the California Association of Student Councils. At SABE, the semifinalists present themselves to student delegates from across the state through speeches and question-and-answer sessions. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to showcase their advocacy, passions, and commitment to leadership. Finally, the student delegates at SABE vote for the top six candidates.
The top six semifinalists then interview with members of the State Board of Education, who select three finalists. During these interviews, candidates have the chance to share more about their past leadership experience, the topics they care about, and why they should be considered for the role. The board members select the three top candidates, who are then submitted to the governor’s office for interviews in the following months. The final selection is made by the governor.
Although the process may seem daunting, each step of the journey offers students opportunities to challenge themselves and develop leadership skills. I remember enjoying the chance to advocate for my community, share my perspective on policy, and engage with passionate students.
Since being appointed by Gov. Newsom, I have been able to connect with students from across California and work hard to bring their voices to the forefront of policy discussions. Outside of the board meetings in Sacramento, I have liaised with the Statewide Model Curriculum Coordinating Council and provided feedback on the developing Native American Studies curricula. I have also engaged with the National Association of State Boards of Education through their Student Advisory Council. Meeting and collaborating with student representatives from other states has been incredible, and together, we have worked to propose new policies that make high schools more engaging.
Last November, I met with the governor, the first partner, and various policymakers and educational leaders to discuss cellphone policies and restrictions. I was able to echo the concerns of my peers, amplify student voices, and learn from our leaders in education, health, and government.
To better connect with the diverse student body in California, I established the first student board member social media account (@ca_sbe_studentboardmember on Instagram). Since its inception, I’ve used the account to make policy more accessible by sharing information about board meetings, highlighting other student leaders, and providing opportunities for students to get involved with various councils and scholarships.
These are just a few examples of the impact the student board member can have. Each student who assumes this role has the freedom to make the position their own, identify their own priorities, and share their unique perspective.
Applying to be the student board member was initially daunting, but I’m incredibly grateful I took the step. Competing for the position offers applicants invaluable leadership and communication skills, fostering collaboration with various stakeholders in education policy.
All students in the class of 2027 should definitely apply to be the next student board member. It’s truly an exceptional and unique opportunity for students across California.
•••
Julia Clauson is the current student board member for the State Board of Education, California’s K-12 policymaking body for academic standards, curriculum, instructional materials, assessments and accountability.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Members of the Los Angeles Unified School District school board continued to discuss student safety Tuesday — and are still a ways away from determining whether to revamp its police presence on individual campuses.
A safety task force — which previously recommended each campus choose whether to have police stationed at its site — made a presentation about LAUSD’s approach to student safety, including community-based safety methods such as restorative justice. They will continue to meet in the coming school year.
Discussions about reintroducing police to individual LAUSD campuses are taking place for the first time since George Floyd’s murder amid a 45% increase in incidents between 2017-18 and 2022-23, including suicide risk, fighting/physical aggression, threats, illegal/controlled substances and weapons.
Here’s what the board members said at Tuesday’s meeting. Their remarks have been edited for length and clarity.
School board President Jackie Goldberg: ‘Not really desirous of having armed police on campus’
I spent 17 years teaching in Compton. … We had two sets of gangs. … We then hired school police to come onto campus. The problem was that there were two (officers). The problem was that when the gangs came over the fences, they came over in 10s and 20s. … How did they have guns? They came over in sufficient numbers to disarm the police. So, I’m not really desirous of having armed police on campus. …
LAUSD Board Member Jackie Goldberg
What do I think school police can do? I think school police can be in neighborhoods where most of the problems happen. … What we mostly had to do was to have them in the community around the school and for us to be able to find out from trusted — usually — graduates of ours when trouble was about to happen. And so, (police) could be not in twos, but they could be sent in fours and fives to neighborhoods where things were about to come down.
… If you want to stop drug abuse, are you going to have a police officer sitting in the bathrooms because that’s where the exchanges take place? No, we’re not. We’re not going to put a police officer to sit in classrooms. Do we want school police on campus when there’s a fight? Yeah, that may be useful.
… Most of the fights are not bad. And I think as we keep statistics, I would like us to have a notion of what the types of fights were. Was this two or three kids who … called your mother something and they’re fighting and it gets stopped? I think they should be counted, but I think they aren’t the problem. The problem is the massive fights, and those do need to be treated differently.
Secondly, we do not have restorative justice in this district. Period. I visited all 151 of the schools I represent, several of them several times, and in only a handful of them did I see anything that resembled restorative justice.
School board Vice President Scott Schmerelson: ‘I also believe in school police’
Let me just tell you what really bothers me: when people think that school police are supposed to do discipline at school. They’re not supposed to be doing discipline at school. That’s the teacher’s job. That’s my job as the principal, or the assistant principal, or the dean. …
LAUSD Board Member Scott Schemerelson Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource
I do believe that we need climate advocates at school. Absolutely — all the help that we can get at making peace at school. Very, very important. … Yes, I do believe in restorative justice. I do. Our kids need to see what they’ve done wrong and how to make amends for what they have done. Very, very important. I also believe in school police.
We are responsible from the minute the kids leave home to the minute they get to school. And, we’re responsible from the minute they leave school to the minute they go home. … That’s why safe passage is really so important too. Kids need to have check-in points along the way home to and from school. Extremely important. Everybody has a job at school, and we should not be pushing people under the bus whether you’re a school police officer, or a climate control officer.
Board Member Rocio Rivas: ‘We do have the data on what we need to do’
We’re not the same since the pandemic. Things have changed. Our students are suffering. They have high anxiety. There’s increase of suicidal ideation.
LAUSD Board Member Rocio Rivas
… We have (positive behavior intervention and support) and restorative justice, but they’re not strengthened. They’re not bolstered. So, the district does have that system in place where we can create safe, loving, culturally responsive schools, but we’re not giving the investments or the support that our schools need.
… The area that needs that support are middle schools. … That is where we start seeing the suicide ideation, when we start seeing the fights, when we start seeing our students needing to medicate themselves.
… We love our kids, and at early ed centers, we love them; we want to protect them. But once they leave those early ed centers, it’s almost as if they lost that system of love and compassion and care. And we put in other systems, and we look at them (as though) all these kids are deviants. No, they are children. They are children until even after they’re 18 … because their brains are still developing.
… We know exactly what we need to do, but we’re not putting the money or the strength or the emphasis. … We’re talking about test scores, but you know what? You are not going to see increases … in student achievement unless that child feels that they’re being heard, that that school cares about them, that they have somebody in there.
… We do have the data on what we need to do. We have the funds. We just don’t have the buy-in from this district, from this building, because it’s so disconnected from our schools and from our communities.
Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin: ‘We’ll keep the conversations going’
LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin
I’ll just bring our attention back to the Community Based Safety Resolution. The last resolve does ask us … to strengthen community-based safety approaches … and resources as a primary means of cultivating and maintaining positive school climates and keeping school communities safe even in emergency situations.
… We need the (restorative) training throughout for all of the staff members — as many folks can come back before the school year starts. We’ve got $350 million invested in people who are focused exclusively on safety. If we can focus on this community, restorative approach as the primary means — really shifting away from that punitive, traditional, policing model — I think we’ll get even closer to the vision of this resolution that we all passed. I think we’ll keep the conversations going next year in the school safety committee.
Board Member Kelly Gonez: ‘It’s about creating a true infrastructure around community-based safety’
I was looking just at the (Local Control and Accountability Plan) information for our meeting later, and it highlights different demographic groups of students and the percent of students reporting that they feel safe in the school experience survey, and there are significant gaps — like for our Black students, who are rating the lowest in terms of whether or not they feel safe, which obviously is very concerning, as well as the number of students who feel like they are part of their school.
LAUSD Board Member Kelly GonezCredit: Julie Leopo / EdSource
Those numbers, it looks like, took a significant dip in the wake of the pandemic and have not really fully recovered, and I would just surmise that there’s a connection between feeling disconnected or not seen at your school site and whether or not there is true safety and belonging for students.
… It’s not just about restorative justice and the practices, but it’s about creating a true infrastructure around community-based safety. And, I think that’s inclusive of a number of staffing positions as well — beyond, just for example, your restorative justice teachers and beyond the partnerships with community based organizations, which are also integral. It’s about, for example, our classified staffing positions. We know that a number of our incidents happen during lunch, during dismissal.
… I would just ask that in any plan … that we’re providing for the necessary staffing and supervision that our schools and our students really deserve — and especially looking at our secondary schools, because we know that’s where the majority of these incidents are happening.
Board Member Nick Melvoin: ‘The glaring omission (is) … the data on the fights.’
LAUSD Board Member Nick MelvoinCredit: Julie Leopo / EdSourc
Regardless of our views of what’s happening outside of the school, our responsibility is for school safety on the school campus, and we have different ideas. … But I do think really the glaring omission (is) … the data on the fights.
… I’m trying to understand where we can trace that based on grade levels, and Covid, and the effects of the pandemic and the success or lack thereof of our positive behavioral intervention supports and restorative justice. … (and) on school campuses with the current deployment model, which is not having police there, except for rare emergencies.
… We have different ideas … and I just hope that we can engage, starting from the premise that we all want kids to be safe and talk to each other and not just about or past each other.
And then the last thing, too. … I just want to make sure that the city and the county aren’t off the hook for this — and that as we’re talking amongst each other, we’re also bringing them in.
Board Member George McKenna: ‘We still haven’t come to grips with the reality of what makes the schools safe’
I’ve been in this for 62 years — I’ve never seen police criminalize the children. I’ve seen them respond.
… Do you know that there is no guideline in a teacher’s contract — or even an administrator’s contract — that says you must go break up a fight? The only one that has to do that is someone who’s trained to do that. And that will be a school police officer.
Board Member Dr. George J. McKenna IIICredit: Julie Leopo / EdSource
… I have no problem with the climate coaches or whatever they’re called, in addition to the people that have been there in uniform with the licensure and the legal responsibility for student safety … And the only people that have voted for the safety of school police being on campus are people who have been on the campus as administrators, including principals. … The most important people in the school district are the people who run the school, that’s the principal.
… The most police officers we’ve ever had on the campus … is two, and I think it’s understaffed if you only put one on it because they have no backup. They need to be visible in order to assist the students and the prevention of incidents that occur because … the students will confide in them.
….We’re not OK the way we are. And we still haven’t come to grips with the reality of what makes the schools safe and whether or not our school safety officers are a benefit to us. When you start with the premise and use the word the “punitive school police” and that’s the way you introduce it, you are already biased because that means you don’t understand what they do. And you can fill up the room with your accolades and your people that you’ve encouraged to be here, but we have to go to the schools on a regular basis. It makes a school safe.
The 12th board results are out, and for lakhs of students across India, it’s time to make one of the biggest decisions of their life: choosing the right career path.
But here’s the truth — the job market in 2025 isn’t just about degrees or what’s popular. It’s about long-term growth, job security, and staying relevant in a fast-changing world.
With AI and automation reshaping industries, the “safe” career options of the past may no longer guarantee success. That’s why it’s more important than ever to explore career options that are future-proof, high in demand, and offer global opportunities.
In this guide, we’ve curated the best career paths after 12th that will not only survive the wave of change but thrive in it. Whether you’re from Science, Commerce, or Arts, your roadmap starts here.
Let’s dive in.
Future-Proof Careers for Science Students (2025)
Choosing a science stream opens doors to some of the most AI-resilient, in-demand, and globally relevant career paths. These fields offer not just high salaries, but long-term growth and security in an evolving job market.
1. AI & Machine Learning Specialist
Why It’s Future-Proof: AI is no longer the future — it’s the present. From healthcare to finance, AI is revolutionising industries. India’s AI market alone is expected to add over $400 billion to GDP by 2030.
Recommended Degree: B.Tech in AI / CSE (AI) – IITs, IIIT-Hyderabad, VIT
Entrance Exams: JEE Main / Advanced
Boost With: Google AI Certs, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Kaggle Projects
2. Data Scientist & Analyst
Why It’s Future-Proof: We live in the era of data. From YouTube algorithms to medical research, data is everywhere. Skilled analysts and data scientists are in short supply globally.
Recommended Degree: B.Tech in Data Science / B.Sc in Statistics or Mathematics
Entrance Exams: CUET / Institute-Specific Tests
Boost With: IBM Data Science Cert, SQL, Power BI, Python
3. Cybersecurity Expert
Why It’s Future-Proof: As everything goes digital, cyber attacks are rising sharply. Every company — from startups to governments, needs protection.
Why It’s Future-Proof: Automation is replacing routine jobs, and someone has to build and maintain those machines. That someone could be you.
Recommended Degree: B.Tech in Robotics / Mechatronics – IIT Kanpur, SRM, UPES
Entrance Exams: JEE
Boost With: Arduino, SCADA/PLC, ROS, AI Integration Skills
5. Sustainable Energy & Environmental Specialist
Why It’s Future-Proof: Climate change is real, and it’s forcing companies and countries to go green. That’s creating a wave of high-paying jobs in renewable energy and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance).
Recommended Degree: B.Tech in Renewable Energy / Environmental Engineering – TERI, DTU
Entrance Exams: JEE / CUET
Boost With: Solar System Design, Energy Auditing, ESG Fundamentals
6. Healthcare & Biotech Innovator
Why It’s Future-Proof: The pandemic showed us that health tech and biotech are critical. From genetic engineering to clinical research, this field is exploding with innovation.
Recommended Degree: MBBS / B.Tech in Biotechnology / B.Sc Life Sciences – AIIMS, IISc, IITs
Entrance Exams: NEET / JEE / CUET
Boost With: CRISPR Courses, Bioinformatics, Clinical Research Certifications
Future-Proof Careers for Non-Science Students (2025)
If you’re from a commerce or Arts background, the good news is this: the future isn’t only for coders. With the right blend of human creativity, emotional intelligence, and digital adaptability, you can build a high-demand, AI-resilient career that grows with time, not against it.
1. UX/UI Designer
Why It’s Future-Proof: Every digital product — app, website, or platform — needs great design. And while AI can generate interfaces, it can’t replace human creativity and empathy, which are core to UX.
Recommended Degree: B.Des in UX / Any degree + UX Diploma – NID, Pearl, MIT Pune
Entrance Exams: NID DAT / CUET
Boost With: Google UX Certificate, Figma, Adobe XD, a strong design portfolio
2. Digital Marketing & E-Commerce Strategist
Why It’s Future-Proof: With brands going fully digital, companies need marketers who understand people, not just platforms. Digital marketing roles are growing across industries — and they’re here to stay.
Recommended Degree: BBA/BMS in Marketing, B.Com – DU, Christ, NMIMS
Entrance Exams: CUET / NPAT
Boost With: Google Ads, Meta Blueprint, HubSpot, SEO, Influencer Campaign Strategy
3. Mental Health Professional
Why It’s Future-Proof: AI can detect stress, but it can’t heal trauma or offer empathy. India faces a massive shortage of trained psychologists and counselors, making this one of the most meaningful and growing careers.
Recommended Degree: B.A./B.Sc in Psychology + M.A. / M.Phil – TISS, Delhi University
Why It’s Future-Proof: From Instagram reels to YouTube videos, audiences crave authentic human stories, not AI scripts. If you can inform, entertain, or inspire, this career is a goldmine.
Boost With: Storytelling Mastery, Video Editing (Premiere Pro), Social Media Strategy
5. FinTech & Tech-Driven Finance Roles
Why It’s Future-Proof: Finance is no longer just about ledgers — it’s about tech. India is one of the top adopters of FinTech globally, and the industry needs professionals who understand money and machines.
Boost With: Python for Finance, Blockchain Courses, CFA Level 1, FinTech Certifications
Why Communication Skills Still Matter — In Every Career
No matter which future-proof path you choose — whether it’s AI, design, psychology, or finance — your ability to communicate clearly and confidently will set you apart.
In a world full of automation, your voice is your value.
From cracking interviews and writing SOPs for global universities to leading teams and closing deals, employers don’t just look for degrees — they look for confident communicators.
And when English is the global language of business, your fluency becomes a career advantage.
The best time to prepare for your future is today.
Now that you’ve explored the top career options after 12th that offer job security, long-term growth, and real-world relevance, you’re not just dreaming — you’re planning.
✅ Choose the career that matches your strengths ✅ Start building the skills that matter ✅ Practice the one skill that ties it all together — communication
Because in the age of AI, your edge isn’t just technical. It’s human.
So go ahead — take the first step toward a future you won’t just survive in but lead.
Third graders at Alpha Cornerstone Academy join their individual Ignite Reading tutors for their 15-minute daily session on phonics and other fundamental skills in reading,
John Fensterwald / EdSource
Top Takeaways
Up to 40 districts and charter schools can sign up to design their own high-impact tutoring.
Unless they’ve spent billions already, districts should have funding available.
Both online and in-person high-impact tutoring will work can show impressive results – if done right,
A recent visit to Alpha Cornerstone Academy, a TK-8 charter school in San Jose, offered a glimpse of high-impact tutoring. It was during the intervention period in third grade, a time when teacher specialists work in small groups.
In one corner, five students in their maroon Alpha school shirts sat around a horseshoe table, listening intently through earphones to their own tutor from Ignite Reading, a growing Oakland-based public benefit corporation operating in 20 states. Ignite specializes in tutoring foundational skills – phonics and phonemic awareness. Each lesson was different; some students were repeating words with similar letter sounds. One girl, Sophia, was reading paragraphs to her tutor.
At the start of the year, 103 students were reading from kindergarten and first grade levels, said Fallon Housman, the school’s principal; some were newcomers to the school; others were English learners, fluent in their home language but needing extra time, and others have been identified as having a learning disability.
Now, with the school year coming to a close, all but 20 are reading at third-grade level, Housman said. Sophia is now among them. “I feel like it’s earlier to read,” Sophia said quietly.
“We see a lot of our third graders actually do really well towards the end of third grade because of all of the interventions and supports. We’re excited to have Ignite because it’s an extra push, focusing on foundational skills,” Housman said.
What’s happening at Alpha Cornerstone Academy classroom could be in many California districts. Unlike districts in other states that are scrambling for money to continue tutoring funded with now-expired federal Covid aid, California districts potentially still have multi-billion-dollar state funding for accelerating learning over the next several years.
And having watched tutoring elsewhere from the sidelines for the past four years, the state can avoid other states’ missteps and build programs based on their successes – if California makes tutoring a priority.
“Tutoring isn’t just a tool for learning recovery,” said Jessica Sliwerski, co-founder and CEO of Ignite Reading. ”It’s serving as an essential classroom support that students need to build strong literacy skills.”
A second or “Western” wave of tutoring
“Lots of other states have helped push tutoring along more than California has. I’m really optimistic that in some ways, it [California] can be a leader, because we’ve learned so much that they could really do it more effectively immediately than we could right at the beginning,” said Susanna Loeb, a professor at the Graduate School of Education as well as the founder and executive director of the National Student Support Accelerator.
Loeb sees an opportunity for California to jumpstart the state’s laggard performance on state and national achievement assessments, especially in early literacy, by creating a second or “Western” wave of tutoring.
In four years, the National Student Support Accelerator has become the foremost source of information on and coordinator of research into online and in-person “intensive, relationship-based, individualized instruction” called by various names, high-dosage, high-impact, or high-intensity tutoring.
This week, three state agencies – the California Department of Education, the State Board, and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence – will make the first joint effort in promoting it. They will join the nonprofit Results for America, and Loeb’s organization in sponsoring a webinar explaining high-impact tutoring.
The May 13 event serves as an invitation for up to 40 school districts to design their own high-impact tutoring programs that could serve as a model for other district cohorts.
It isn’t clear what happens after the event, but tutoring providers are hoping the state will get more involved.
“This is the first time that the state has recognized high-impact tutoring as desirable. We know what the research has found; we know the formula for making tutoring work,” said Chris Norwood, founder of Bay Area Tutoring Association, which works with school districts on creating effective programs. “Now we have to get the word out through channels of information that districts use, like county offices of education.”
An exciting prospect, hard to do
Many parents, teachers, policy makers and student equity advocates looked at tutoring as a recovery strategy coming out of Covid.
“What was not so clear was whether they could actually pull it off at any kind of scale,” said Loeb who acknowledges it’s easier for smaller states with a less complex system of governance to say, “Here’s the guidance on how to do high-impact tutoring; here are some funds to do it, and here are professional support.”
The federal Institute of Education Services identified “high-quality” tutoring as one of several effective strategies for schools. An analysis of 96 rigorous studies comparing results of students who had high-impact tutoring with those who hadn’t found significant improvement in 87% of the programs, equivalent to a half-year growth in many cases. The strongest gains were in early grades in literacy and when it was given during, rather than after, school.
Based on research, the National Student Support Accelerator says that effective, high-impact tutoring programs have these elements in common:
A high-dosage delivery of three or more sessions per week of required tutoring, each 15 to 30 minutes.
An explicit focus on cultivating tutor-student relationships, with tutors assigned with the same students throughout. Consistency is critical to building a solid relationship, and the tutor should be “someone who is engaging and motivating,” Loeb said.
Alignment with the school curriculum.
Formalized tutor training and support.
The use of formative assessments to monitor student learning.
There are different models for districts: training paraprofessionals as full-time tutors, hiring outside tutoring organizations for in-person tutoring, or turning to online nonprofits; the latter lack the face-to-face connection but can better scale up to serve more students, she said.
But many California districts found that creating a system with all of the elements was hard to pull off, and outside of urban areas and university towns, many had difficulty finding organizations and trained tutors for in-person instruction. Districts lacked experience evaluating tutoring outfits’ promises and measuring results. Communication over student results could be erratic; arranging schedules could be a challenge.
Given other, more familiar options, many overstretched California districts and schools made tutoring a low priority; they invested instead in hiring teacher aides and counselors.
An examination by Edunomics Lab, a Georgetown University-based education research nonprofit, found that 70% of California’s public school districts, charter schools and county offices of education didn’t report spending any money on tutoring from the last and biggest outlay of federal learning loss funding for California – ESSER III. Of the 30% of districts that did, spending on tutoring totaled 1.5% – $190 million out of $13.5 billion. (Go here for an interactive graphic on California districts’ tutoring spending.)
Meanwhile, other states became directly involved in high-impact tutoring. According to the National Student Support Accelerator’s 2024-25 summary of states’ activities, two dozen states allocated specific funds for high-impact tutoring, while others provided technical help to set up programs. One state, Tennessee, is funding tutoring through its annual school funding formula.
Nine states have ongoing partnerships between higher education institutions and tutoring organizations.
Norwood is partnering with San Jose State to hire students on an education track to serve as tutors in the schools while earning federal work-study money. If all teacher preparation programs credited time tutoring toward fulfilling time required in the classroom, California could add thousands of tutors to the ranks.
Money to spend
California had the advantage of surging state revenues from a post-pandemic economic boom to set aside more than $10 billion in one-time and ongoing money for schools in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The state lists tutoring as one of the evidence-based options that districts can choose for their unspent share of the $6 billion Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant; they have through 2027-28 to use it. It’s not clear how much remains; districts filed the first spending report in late 2024.
The advent of universal transitional kindergarten next fall and rollout of a new math framework are touchpoints for high-impact tutoring, Loeb said.
“If I had to think about where California could embed tutoring just as part of normal operations, it would be in early literacy,” she said. “It is a shame and a detriment to the state that so many students are not learning how to read before third grade. There’s lots of evidence that high-impact tutoring can help get us there.”
The selection of new materials aligned with the math framework will lead districts to rethink how math is taught.
“That’s a really good time to say, ‘OK, within this structure, how do we get students who aren’t making progress at the rate of the class or rate the state expects to get that individual attention so that they can accelerate their learning and excel in school?’ We’re not really doing that, so students are kind of falling off as we move quickly through the curriculum.”
Oakland High teacher Rachel Reinhard guides her students through the functions of the legislative branch during a U.S. Government class last week.
Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource
In the months preceding this week’s election, some California history and social studies teachers have proceeded cautiously in covering the presidential campaign, while others have embraced the opportunity confidently and comprehensively. But most included instruction about the presidential election in their courses, according to responses to an EdSource survey of California history and social science teachers.
Their responses underscore that most teachers understood the potential pitfalls of teaching politics in polarized times, compounded by a contagion of misinformation on social media. (Go here to read the questionnaire.)
“A lot of kids are turned off about government and politics. We in the classroom are giving them a sense of access and empowerment,” said Rachel Reinhard, who teaches 12th grade U.S. History and Government at Oakland High School. “We’re showing that elections are ways that individuals can exert power on the system and make sense of an incredibly fast-paced and changing world.”
Yet some teachers have struggled to explain how Republican Donald Trump’s rhetoric, threats of retribution, and vows to expel undocumented immigrants have added anxiety to an unprecedentedly tense and divisive election.
“The dilemma for any responsible teacher right now is to explain the stakes while being nonpartisan,” said Mike Fishback, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade social studies at Almaden Country Day School, a private school in San Jose.
The California Council for the Social Studies agreed to send EdSource’s survey to its 2,000-member email list, which includes more than 500 active members, most of them teachers. Of those, 64 teachers — about 1 in 8 member teachers — returned the survey by the Oct. 16 deadline. EdSource did not require teachers to submit their names or their schools, although 16 teachers did identify themselves, and many said they were willing to be contacted for an EdSource article.
Among the top-line results of the survey:
More than three-quarters of teachers who answered the survey said they are teaching about the election and the presidential campaign, and most of those who aren’t said it was their choice, not a district mandate.
Asked if they planned to discuss the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, 37% said no, 29% said yes, and 34% said maybe.
Asked if they planned to discuss potential election interference, 39% said no, 23% said yes, and 38% said maybe.
Asked to express their level of concern about student incivility in dealing with the election, 44% said they were slightly or not at all concerned; 23% said they were somewhat concerned; and 15% said they were moderately, very or greatly concerned. An additional 19% said they were neutral on the issue.
Inoculating for incivility
Creating a classroom culture of respect is critical to promoting openness and avoiding disrespect amid disagreements, Barrett Vitol, a U.S. History and Government teacher at Aptos High in Pajaro Valley Unified, told EdSource. He characterized the district as politically and economically diverse with “extreme wealth and hard poverty,” where some students in farmworker families “are genuinely worried” about the outcome of the election.
“When we come together in August, we spend a lot of time helping to build community,” said Vitol, who said he shares with students his own experience as a volunteer for the 2000 Democratic presidential campaign for then Vice President Al Gore.
“You have to role model someone who will be politically active without disrespecting other people,” he said, adding that he also relies on humor to defuse tensions.
Bob Kelly, a U.S. History and Government teacher at the 500-student Minarets High and Charter High School in Chawanakee Unified, also set class norms early in the year, with a “social compact that holds the students accountable to being respectful to each other,” he said. The rural school district abuts Yosemite National Park.
Bruce Aster, who teaches U.S. Government at Carlsbad High School, said that his goal “is to teach civil discourse from day one.” He tells his students, ‘If you demonize your opponent, you will not get their ears.’ That’s a big theme in all my classes.”
Many of the teachers cited guides and resources they drew on to promote civil dialogue, bridge differences of opinion and lay out frameworks for discussions. Popular sources include Braver Angels, a volunteer-led national nonprofit, and Boston-based Facing History and Ourselves, which offers lessons, explainers and activities on teaching the election.
While sources of misinformation have proliferated on the internet, so have tools to expose them. Teachers pointed to sites like adfontesmedia.com, AllSides.com and mediafactcheck.com that analyze news sources’ reliability and point to alternative sources with different political perspectives.
Reinhard refers to encouraging students to seek trustworthy and accurate news sources as building a “muscle memory.”
“I am hoping they would create a habit to counter what they are seeing on social media,” said Reinhard, who is in her second year teaching high school in Oakland after serving as director of the UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project; it supports K-12 teachers in planning for history instruction.
Oakland High teacher Rachel Reinhard interacts with students during a U.S. Government class last week.Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource
Karen Clark Yamamoto, who chairs the history department at Western High in the Anaheim Union High School District, said students found the revelations of bias in their favorite sites enlightening. “They realized, ‘I don’t know as much as I thought I did,’” she said.
To help students clarify their own political views, several teachers had students take the Pew Media Typology Quiz, whose questions reveal whether students have conservative or liberal philosophies.
Classroom priorities and strategies
The EdSource questionnaire asked teachers to describe the focus of their instruction and their plans for covering the election. The consensus was that a teacher should give students the tools to make informed choices about candidates and ballot issues.
James Yates, a teacher at Stellar Charter School in Redding, wrote, “I will teach my students how to investigate each candidate. I want them to look past the rumors and prejudice to see who will really help our country thrive.”
Kelly wrote, “We focus on helping the students make sense of the offices, candidates and propositions by understanding which issues matter to them the most.”
“Essentially, we focus on students informing themselves and using their own ideology to decide what is best,” said Jon Resendez, a U.S. Government and Economics teacher at Portola High in Irvine Unified. He has found that students, unlike some of their parents, are open when forming their political beliefs.
Irvine Unified teacher Jon Resendez discusses the political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence during a recent class at Portola High. Credit: Kaushika (Kaushi) Palliboyina
“It’s normal for teenagers to be more flexible than adults in their perspective as they learn more,” he said. “They adjust their voting behavior.”
Little outside criticism
Slightly more than a third of teachers responded to the question about whether they had experienced any criticism from teaching about the presidential election. The majority — 16 of 23 — said they had not, but five reported being criticized by parents, three by students and two by administrators or other colleagues.
All eight teachers EdSource spoke with said they were unconcerned about parental pressure or criticism.
“No parents are reaching out to express concern,” said Resendez. “Parents assume we will tackle issues head-on.”
Kelly, of Chawanakee Unified, uses his students’ work to inform parents about the elections. His students created election guides that they shared at the school’s back-to-school showcase in late October. It included separate objective profiles of Democrat Kamala Harris and Trump, drafted by students chosen because they didn’t support the candidates, Kelly said, along with summaries of local candidates and statewide ballot propositions.
At his back-to-school night, Fishback, of the Almaden County Day School in San Jose, encourages parents of his middle school students to discuss election issues and candidates with them.
He said that he tells them, “’I need you. If you have not passed along your political values, now is the time to do it. I want them to come to class knowing what families believe and why. My job is to help the students encounter and engage with different perspectives on a variety of contentious issues.’ ”
What the teachers taught and how
The survey asked teachers to check off a list of topics for presenting the presidential election and to add to it. Of 48 teachers who responded to the question, 37 said they reviewed candidates’ positions on key issues and 35 discussed the Electoral College; 28 asked students to explain issues that are important to them and 23 included fact-checking candidates’ claims and statements. Fifteen said they discussed claims that there would be widespread voter fraud.
One teacher included discussing gerrymandering, and another said classes would focus on differences among political parties but not the candidates themselves.
The teachers reported that they approached the topics with different strategies. Some had students participate in the traditional statewide mock election organized by the California Secretary of State or held their own elections. Some teachers held candidates’ debates, while others intentionally did not, focusing instead on objective analyses of candidates’ positions and the accuracy of media coverage.
“I’m not interested in debates,” said Reinhard of Oakland High. “Debates often create false parity. I’m not interested in having students try to win a debate around some information I find problematic.”
Yamamoto asks her students in Anaheim to pick five issues they care about and investigate the positions of the parties and the candidates’ websites to determine which party more closely aligns with their views. Inflation, health care and reproductive rights were among the issues. They did the same process with the 10 state initiatives on the ballot.
Barrett organized a model Congress for his students at Aptos High. Students wrote their own bills and had to persuade committee chairs and each legislative house to pass them. “Extreme” bills on immigration didn’t make the cut; those that did pass include creating affordable health care, limiting homework, requiring those over 70 to take an extra diving test, taxing billionaires, and granting immigrants who pay taxes for five years a path to citizenship, he said.
Some students become deeply invested in their bills, but usually they can control themselves, Barrett said.
Aster, of Carlsbad, and Kelly, of Chawanakee Unified, continued what they have done for years: bringing in outside speakers to represent parties and candidates for a debate run by students. “We seek regular folks, not politicians,” said Aster. “It’s always civil, and students see that you can be gracious while speaking strongly.”
Several teachers said they didn’t avoid controversy, including looking at the rhetoric of the campaign: Trump’s racist language and post-election authoritarian threats and Democrats’ calling him a “fascist” and a “clown.” But students looked at the furor through an analytical lens to keep discussions “from going off the rails,” said Fishback. He asked his students, How would you characterize Trump, and what has been the impact of his language on the campaign?
Most teachers emphasized they kept their own presidential preferences to themselves. “I work hard to be objective; I want it to be a mystery as to my views, though I don’t want them to think I don’t care,” said Aster. Kelly said he would tell students after the election whom he voted for if they asked.
“As much I like to lean into politics, the line I don’t cross is siding with one candidate over another,” said Fishback.
Seeing themselves as voters
Aster has been teaching high school for more than three decades.
“I see part of my job is to be a cheerleader for the American system and to have them look forward to participating in it,” Aster said. “I don’t want them to come away thinking the system is rigged.”
Last spring, when it appeared likely to be Trump vs. Joe Biden, students in Reinhard’s Government class at Oakland High had no interest in the election. “They were deadened by it,” she said. The nomination of Harris, the hometown candidate and a younger woman of color, however, at least sparked interest, she said.
More findings in the EdSource Questionnaire
The teachers were from all regions of the state, with 27% from Southern California, 17% from the Central Valley and Central Coast and 17% from the San Francisco Bay Areas, 14% from the Sacramento area, 10% from Northern California, 9% from the San Diego area and 3% from the Inland Empire of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Of the teachers who said they aren’t teaching about the presidential election, only three – two who teach in a largely Democratic district and one from a largely Republican district – said it was their school’s and/or district’s policy not to discuss the subject. Another teacher is discussing the election but not the candidates.
Offered multiple choices to explain their reasons for not teaching the election to their students, the majority said there is too much other course material to get through, especially AP courses in U.S. History and Economics and one semester in Government. However, one-third of the 24 respondents to this question said they were concerned about complaints from parents, and five teachers said they had reservations that students would discuss the election respectfully. Five teachers said they were unsure how to address the subject.
Teachers were evenly split on how much time to spend on the election, with 39% of 49 respondents spending more than one week on it and 39% spending between two days and a week. Several said they spread discussion of the election out over time, based on topics in the courses they were teaching, and another teacher said five to 10 minutes per day.
Most of the respondents were high school teachers who teach multiple subjects; 43% introduced the election in a 12th grade Government course, while 42% taught it in 11th grade American History; 27% taught it in 9th grade Ethnic Studies and 25% introduced it in 10th grade World History. A quarter of respondents were middle school social studies teachers. Individual teachers taught it in AP Psychology, ninth grade Geography, and an English course in persuasive essays.
Catherine Rampell is an opinion writer for The Washington Post who writes often about economics. She focuses here on the expansion of data collection by the Trump administration, even as it ceases to collect anonymous data about health trends. What worries me is the invasion of privacy by the DOGE team, who scooped up personally identifiable data from the IRS and Social Security about everyone, including you and me. Why did they want it? What will they do to it?
She writes:
It’s rarely comforting to appear on a government “list,” even (or perhaps especially) when compiled in the name of public safety.
It was alarming in the 1940s, when the U.S. government collected the names of Japanese Americans for internment. Likewise in the 1950s, when the House Un-American Activities Committee catalogued communists. And it’s just as troubling now, as the Trump administration assembles registries of Jewish academics and Americans with developmental disabilities.
Yes, these are real things that happened this past week, the latest examples of the White House’s abuse of confidential data.
Last week, faculty and staff at Barnard College received unsolicited texts asking them whether they were Jewish. Employees were stunned by the messages, which many initially dismissed as spam.
Turns out the messages came from the Trump administration. Barnard, which is affiliated with Columbia University, had agreed to share faculty members’ private contact info to aid in President Donald Trump’s pseudo-crusade against antisemitism.
Ah, yes, a far-right president asking Jews to register as Jewish, in the name of protecting the Jews, after he has repeatedly accused Jews of being “disloyal.” What could go wrong?
The same day, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya announced a “disease registry” of people with autism, to be compiled from confidential private and government health records, apparently without its subjects’ awareness or consent. This is part of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vendetta against vaccines, which he has said cause autism despite abundant research concluding otherwise.
This, too, is disturbing given authoritarian governments’ history of compiling lists of citizens branded mentally or physically deficient. If that historical analogue seems excessive, note that Bhattacharya’s announcement came just a week after Kennedy delivered inflammatory remarks lamenting that kids with autism will never lead productive lives. They “will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job,” he said, adding they’ll never play baseball or go on a date, either.
This all happened during Autism Acceptance Month, established to counter exactly these kinds of stigmatizing stereotypes. Kennedy’s comments and the subsequent “registry” set off a wave of fear in the autism advocacy community and earned condemnation from scientists.
Obviously, advocates want more research and support for those with autism. They have been asking for more help at least since 1965 (when what is now called the Autism Society of America was founded in my grandparents’ living room). But few in this community trust political appointees hostile to scientific research — or a president who has publicly mocked people with disabilities — to use an autism “registry” responsibly.
(An unnamed HHS official later walked back Bhattacharya’s comments, saying the department was not creating a “registry,” per se, just a “real-world data platform” that “will link existing datasets to support research into causes of autism and insights into improved treatment strategies.” Okay.)
These are hardly the administration’s only abuses of federal data. It has been deleting reams of statistical records, including demographic data on transgender Americans. It has also been exploiting other private administrative records for political purposes.
For example, the Internal Revenue Service — in an effort to persuade people to pay their taxes — spent decades assuring people that their records are confidential, regardless of immigration status. The agency is in fact legally prohibited from sharing tax records, even with other government agencies, except under very limited circumstances specified by Congress. Lawmakers set these limits in response to Richard M. Nixon’s abuse of private tax data to target personal enemies.
Trump torched these precedents and promises. After a series of top IRS officials resigned, the agency has now agreed to turn over confidential records to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement locate and deport some 7 million undocumented immigrants.
The move, which also has troubling historical echoes, is being challenged in court. But, in the meantime, tax collections will likely fall. Undocumented immigrant workers had been paying an estimated $66 billion in federal taxes annually, but they now have even more reason to stay off the books.
This and other DOGE infiltrations of confidential records are likely to discourage public cooperation on other sensitive government data collection efforts. Think research on mental health issues or public safety assessments on domestic violence.
But that might be a feature, not a bug, for this administration. Chilling federal survey participation and degrading data quality were arguably deliberate objectives in Trump’s first term, when he tried to cram a question about citizenship into the 2020 Census. The question was expected to depress response rates and help Republicans game the congressional redistricting process.
Courts ultimately blocked Trump’s plans. That’s what it will take to stop ongoing White House abuses, too: not scrapping critical government records, but championing the rule of law.
Ultimately, the government must be able to collect and integrate high-quality data — to administer social programs efficiently, help the economy function and understand the reality we live in so voters can hold public officials accountable. None of this is possible if Americans fear ending up on some vindictive commissar’s “list.”
College athletes are often in the news because of their achievements on fields or in arenas, or because of the fame resulting from the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision to allow amateur athletes to profit from their names, images and likenesses, or NIL. But what is sometimes overlooked is that these athletes are also trying to get through college.
Division I student athletes at California public universities have all the obligations of their fellow students, along with additional responsibilities to their teams that can feel like a full-time job. The student-athlete who competes at the highest level is typically taking a full load of courses while juggling practices, weight training sessions, travel and the games and competitions themselves.
With such a wide range of demands on student-athletes, many university sports programs provide additional resources specifically for student-athletes, with an emphasis on academics. Among the benefits are academic advising, priority class registration, mental health support and tutoring.
“One thing that they tell us is that you’re a student first, an athlete second, and your main priority is doing well in the classroom,” said Ebba Adinew, a UC Riverside track and field athlete. “If practice starts to affect you performing well in the classroom, then maybe we’ll have to tone down the amount of work you’re putting in for your sport and focus on the classroom instead.”
Adinew found that having priority registration for course selection is a major advantage that allows him to align his practice and competition schedule with his class schedule. Because of the required time for travel and practice schedules, priority registration for student athletes was made policy by the UC board of trustees in 2016. Adinew also said there is a specific academic adviser for each sport, who creates quarterly schedules for student-athletes to ensure they are meeting their academic requirements.
The importance of a good academic adviser for student-athletes is stressed particularly at Division I universities with nationally ranked athletics programs like UC Berkeley. The recent appointment of Tarik Glenn as UC Berkeley’s new Athletic Study Center (ASC) interim executive director reflects this; Glenn not only has been working with the ASC for the past 10 years, but is a former Cal football player and Berkeley Hall of Famer himself.
According to a June news release from former Chancellor Carol Christ, his personal perspective on student-athletes and “the partnerships he has built over 10 years as an ASC staff member … will help athletes succeed in academics and in becoming independent, self-reliant adults.” Glenn’s mission will be to focus on the “holistic development” of student athletes and will include character and leadership development, along with career coaching.
Other athletic programs have placed an emphasis on career success, as well. UC Riverside assists student-athletes through career fairs and advising. Monea Jennings, a spring 2024 graduate of the UC Riverside track and field program, said her athletic adviser helped her get an internship for her last quarter.
Beyond advising, some schools have programs that focus on future careers for athletes. UC Davis hosts a program called EVO, allowing student athletes to undergo core clinics to help prepare them for earning their degrees and life post-graduation, according to Danielle Shank, the senior associate athletic director for external relations at UC Davis. These clinics are required for every year of undergraduate education and hold focused sessions on career development, including preparing an elevator pitch, writing a résumé and creating a LinkedIn profile. EVO also focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion training, implementing career fairs and separate networking socials for student-athletes.
“It’s our goal to launch student-athletes into a career or graduate school that requires their undergrad degree,” Shank said. “We are constantly working with them so that once they graduate, they already know what’s happening in the next step.”
At San Diego State, Danielle Kelly, senior associate athletic director for student athlete support services, said the athletics program has developed an initiative called Aztecs Going Pro, which began in 2015. Aztecs Going Pro includes one unit pass or fail courses focusing on civic engagement, personal growth and career development. Student-athletes are required to have excellent time management skills and self-discipline, while also spending as much time on sports as one would working a full-time job, Kelly said.
Beyond career preparation programs, student-athletes face struggles navigating their courses and assignments. When student -athletes have exams or assignments that conflict with a competition time, they can seek accommodations from their professors to take it at an alternative time, request an extension or take the test with a proctor. When UC Davis, San Diego State and UC Riverside athletes travel or have a scheduling conflict with an athletic competition, academic advisers can proctor their exam on the road.
However, some athletes said they have faced professors who won’t make accommodations. Jennings said she missed a quiz because she was away competing, and a professor refused to allow her to make it up. She said her athletic adviser and the athletic director got involved, and talked to the professor, which made her feel supported and like she “wasn’t trying to fight this fight alone.”
Jennings said she appreciated the support system she had at Riverside but wanted to better assist her peers. This led to her position as the president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee, where she strived to make spaces for athletes’ mental health through hosting a variety of events, passing out goodies, running de-stress initiatives and making campus resources more accessible. In addition, she was the student representative for Big West Undivided, a committee that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion among universities that belong to the NCAA Big West Conference.
Jennings said her access to UC Riverside’s academic and athletic resources allow her to feel supported.
“Being a student-athlete is the best experience in the world,” Jennings said. “But also with that, it’s really hard. Being a college student is hard in itself, but being a college student-athlete is a whole different mindset, a whole different ballgame.”
Adinew agreed. “A thing that people don’t know is how tiring it can be, because every day you’re putting your body through much more stress than the average person goes through. Not only do you have to do that, you have to maintain your grades, you have to go to class as well.”
Kelcie Lee is a second-year student majoring in history and sociology at UC Berkeley and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.
Student Corps member Emily Hamill, a third-year student at UC Berkeley double-majoring in comparative literature and media studies and minoring in journalism, contributed to this story.
