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  • Orange County district pioneers new Korean American studies course for high school

    Orange County district pioneers new Korean American studies course for high school


    Jeff Kim, a teacher at Cambridge Virtual Academy in Anaheim Union, is teaching the first-ever Korean American ethnic studies course for high school students.

    Credit: Courtesy of Jeff Kim

    Jeff Kim, a world history teacher in Anaheim Union High School District, had long dreamed about how a Korean American studies course could help his students connect with their heritage. But it was the surge of hatred against Asian Americans during the pandemic that made him realize just how urgently the class was needed.

    Shortly before the pandemic reached the U.S., a seventh grade student came up to him before class and expressed concern that she or her family might face anti-Asian violence because of this new virus in China. Although Kim had experienced discrimination in his own life, he wanted to reassure her and so told her that in California, a relatively liberal state, and Orange County — where 23% of students are Asian — she and her family would not face those problems.

    “I just said, ‘We live here in California, I don’t see that type of violence happening to Asian Americans here,’” Kim said. “I gave her the wrong information.”

    That Kim was wrong became apparent in the early days of the pandemic, during which time a surge of xenophobic rhetoric scapegoated Asian Americans as the cause of the pandemic. It was both a local and national issue. Anti-Asian hate crimes doubled in California in 2020, compared with the prior year. In Orange County, the number of hate incidents against Asian Americans jumped 1,800% in 2020, according to the annual Orange County Hate Crime Report. News of Asian American spa workers in Georgia who were killed in a shooting rampage was a turning point for Kim.

    He asked himself, “What is a way I can respond with love and wisdom?”

    Fast-forward to this year – the Anaheim Union High School District has launched a first-of-its-kind high school ethnic studies course focused on the experiences of Korean Americans.

    For the past three years, Kim worked with district leaders in Anaheim Union High and scholars of Korean American history — many of whom are based in Southern California — to pioneer the first high school course dedicated to Korean American history. It’s a historic moment in the development of Korean American studies, which has been maturing as an academic field in recent decades.

    “It’s huge,” said professor Edward Chang, the founding director of the Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies at University of California Riverside. “It’s a starting point, and I’m hoping it will spread to other school districts.”

    Chang is the co-author of “Korean Americans: A Concise History,” a book that covers leading figures and highlights in Korean American history in a little over 100 pages, a book he said he conceived with future K-12 students in mind, and which now serves as a textbook for Anaheim Union High’s new course.

    The course debuted earlier this month as a virtual course through Anaheim Union High’s Cambridge Virtual Academy and is open to all high school students in the district.

    Building the curriculum

    The Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles sponsored the development of the curriculum; Kim worked with Grace Cho, a professor in Cal State Fullerton’s department of secondary education, to come up with the components of the proposed course, which consists of seven lessons adapted to California state standards, and available online.

    The lessons begin with the earliest wave of 19th-century Korean immigrants and end with K-pop’s global dominance. There are lessons on the struggles and triumphs of key figures, such as war hero and humanitarian Col. Young Oak Kim and Dosan Ahn Chang Ho, the founder of the first American Koreatown.

    It’s a class for everyone, said Kim. Other ethnic groups can connect with Korean stories of resilience, such as how gold medal-winning Olympic diver Sammy Lee was barred from practicing in public pools because of his race or how most Koreans were barred from immigrating to the United States before 1965.

    “This class is not just about Korean Americans. It’s U.S. history, but through the eyes of Korean Americans,” said Cho. “By learning other ethnic groups’ history, you get to expand your perspectives and views.”

    The course will enable students to fulfill the ethnic studies requirement that will go into effect for all California high school students in two years. But many of the first 34 students who signed up for the course simply wanted to learn more about their own cultural background.

    Celine Park, a freshman at Oxford Academy, said this class is a unique opportunity for second-generation Korean Americans like her who haven’t had a way to synthesize Korean and American history in their lives.

    “I wanted to meld these two together, to make these connections between the two histories and bond my own identity, while helping other second-generation Korean Americans like me,” Park said.

    It has also inspired pride in students’ families. Yuri Yamachika, a first-year student at Oxford Academy, said that her mom, a first-generation Korean American, didn’t have many opportunities to learn about her culture beyond what her own parents shared with her.

    “She was excited and proud that we have a course to learn about our own heritage,” said Yamachika. “She’s glad I took it.”

    Parents are a crucial firsthand source of information in the course. Understanding that every student has an ethnic heritage is a key part of the ethnic studies discipline. Kim encouraged his students, no matter their background, to learn and reflect on their families’ stories.

    “Sometimes parents haven’t had a chance to tell these stories, because there’s a language barrier or a cultural barrier,” Kim said. “But if I make it a class assignment, they’re much more inclined to ask — and parents are much more inclined to tell their story.”

    That makes the course a draw to students — including those who aren’t Korean American.

    When Karina Soliman interviewed her father for a class assignment, she learned about the discrimination he faced as an Egyptian in the post-9/11 era, when Arab Americans were widely stereotyped as terrorists. The senior at Savanna High School connected this to the stereotypes that other ethnic groups in the U.S. have faced. She hopes the course will help her model the importance of respecting others’ stories.

    “I’ve grown more cognizant of other cultures and other people, and realizing how important that is,” Soliman said.

    Students in Kim’s class will also participate in a civic project of students’ own choosing. This is a facet that has earned the notice of the California Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus. In a letter of support, Assemblymember Evan Low and state Sen. Dave Min praised the course for “allowing students to foster collaborations and partnership with Asian American organizations.”

    This new course also represents a high-water mark for scholars who have promoted Korean American studies. It was only recently that there was a critical mass of scholars interested in Korean American history, Chang said. There’s a growing interest in the field in higher education, but promoting it at the K-12 level has been a major goal of scholars.

    Korean American history didn’t make it into the early drafts of the state’s ethnic studies model curriculum, but scholars pushed back, said Cho. The state’s model curriculum now includes a lesson on the L.A. civil uprising of 1992, known as Saigu or 4/29 among Korean Americans, which marked a turning point in the community’s identity.

    Chang said that he looks forward to students like Kim arriving at college. He has seen students’ eyes widen as they learn about their own history. He believes college is too late for that experience.

    Kim said in the early days of deciding to push forward with the curriculum, he felt like he was taking a big risk. He worried about how the course might be misunderstood, but he feels like it has paid off. Now he reminds his students of their own role in blazing a trail for the next generation of students. His students are already eager to see that continue.

    Soliman has advice for teachers or administrators considering a course like this: “Don’t be afraid to put it out there, or to start a conversation for that kind of course to be created because it can greatly impact and inform a lot of students on topics that they’re not traditionally going to learn about until college.”





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  • How English learners can benefit from college classes in high school

    How English learners can benefit from college classes in high school


    Students at Rudsdale Continuation High School in Oakland, California.

    Credit: Anne Wernikoff for Edsource

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    High school senior Martha Hernandez was born in Baja California, Mexico, and came to the U.S. when she was 10 years old, in fifth grade. She was still considered an English learner when she entered high school, based on California’s test of English proficiency.

    When students are classified as English learners, they must take English language development classes to improve their language skills, in addition to English language arts and all other academic classes.

    But at Hernandez’s high school, Mountain Empire High School in the mountains of rural San Diego County, English learners enroll in English as a second language classes through the local community college. They earn college credit while learning English.

    Researchers and advocates say that dual enrollment — taking college courses during high school — can increase rates of graduation, college enrollment and college success. Yet students who are still learning English in high school often face barriers to dual enrollment courses.

    According to one study by Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research at UC Davis, 10% of English learners had taken at least one community college class while in high school, compared with 18% of all students.

    English learners are less likely than many other groups to finish the required courses for entering UC and CSU — known as A-G requirements — and to attend college in the first year after graduating from high school. Only 16.8% of students not proficient in English were marked as “prepared” for college and career on the California School Dashboard in 2019, compared with 44.1% of all students.

    Hernandez was surprised to get college credit for her English language classes and she says it inspired her to do well in the courses.

    “It benefits me more, because if I’m going to learn something, I should gain something, too,” Hernandez said. “I guess that’s a good strategy to make people motivated.”

    She says the class helped her learn how to compose a paragraph, structure an essay and give a presentation in English.

    After sophomore year, Hernandez tested out of the program. No longer considered an English learner, she enrolled in both AP English and AP U.S. history her junior year. She’s now a senior, and she plans to go to a four-year college after graduation to study to become a doctor.





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

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


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

    Credit: Gregory Urquiaga / UC Davis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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  • Teachers can advance educational equity through clear, high expectations

    Teachers can advance educational equity through clear, high expectations


    Lauren Brown teaches seventh grade science at Madison Park Business and Arts Academy in Oakland.

    Credit: Carolyn Jones/EdSource

    More often than not, people perform up to what’s expected of them. It’s why goal setting is such an effective way to self-motivate as well as motivate others. It’s widely called the Pygmalion effect, and it’s been proven in education repeatedly. A Center for American Progress study run from 2002-2012, following students throughout their learning journeys, found that 10th grade students faced with higher goals and expectations from their teachers were three times more likely to graduate from college than peers who had not been challenged with the same expectations.

    In order to set students and classrooms up for success, teachers must empower students by not only showing them what’s possible, but even more important, showing them the steps needed to get there. This second part is essential when creating positive, inclusive learning environments and advancing educational equity.

    GoGuardian’s 2022-2023 State of Engagement Report, which was conducted in collaboration with the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education Center EDGE, found that 94.2% of teachers reported using high expectation setting as an engagement strategy often or very often, laying out stretch goals and holding students to a high classroom standard. Setting high expectations can improve educational equity by showing students what is possible.

    Unfortunately, in the same Center for American Progress study, researchers found that secondary school teachers often had lower expectations of students of disadvantaged backgrounds. In fact, teachers predicted high-poverty students to be 53% less likely to graduate from college, which, when combined with the data proving students’ success is closely tied to the expectations teachers set for them, likely contributes to a cyclical problem.

    Education can be a great equalizer. But it’s common for students who have experienced poverty or who have faced other institutional academic (or non-academic) challenges to have never been told they can achieve great things. Setting clear and high expectations for students can change that. If students haven’t been introduced to the idea of a growth mindset, it can be challenging to suddenly place goals in front of them, But doing so is fundamental to helping students learn to set their own academic goals. If we zoom out, it’s also the first step in building an equitable and inclusive classroom environment.

    Research has shown personalized goal setting — where students track their own goals and determine their own progress — is a huge step in “self-regulated learning.” Setting personalized goals results in students having significant investment in their own learning and personalized goals. A recent study of 5 million K-eight students across the country found students who entered a school year “behind” grade level were more likely to catch up when set up with “aggressive” or “stretch” goals.

    The challenge lies in ensuring students see their goals as growth-oriented rather than unreachable or even punitive. Especially when working with students who come from lower socio-economic environments, it’s essential that educators proactively articulate (and remind) students that what they’re asking is possible. Students also need to understand the why and the how behind the goals. Setting a goal and walking away without providing a road map is not a strong strategy, and will prove especially confusing for students who aren’t used to facing high expectations.

    Humanizing expectations is extremely impactful. Students won’t achieve a goal if they don’t understand why they’re doing something. We must push students to do things that they may not even know they’re capable of, even as we keep in mind the ultimate goal of equipping them to go into the world, enabling them to compete and make the world a better place. That comes by expanding your world, being curious, and being in an environment where intellectual curiosity is supported. That originates with teachers showing each of their students that they are capable, and building equitable environments where all students can thrive.

    Ultimately, teachers, educators and other education professionals need to walk the walk when it comes to goal setting and improving equity. Implicit bias is real and cannot be ignored. Teachers and administrators need to be actively aware of their own biases and actively work to mitigate them on an ongoing basis.

    Setting high expectations also requires that teachers really understand their students, have established and nurtured relationships with them, and have demonstrated they care about all students and the unique challenges they face. Knowing what is going on with students outside of school is a key ingredient to effective goal setting. What do they have going on that may impact their ability to be all-in academically? This is perhaps the most essential step in building an inclusive learning environment.

    Education technology, especially tools built with participation or collaboration at the heart, can aid in this process by helping teachers not only personalize learning, but also help streamline data analysis that can assist in setting goals that make sense, that are achievable, but that also stretch students outside their comfort zones and move learning outcomes forward. Meeting every student’s needs is required for building educational equity. Educational technologies are often developed to do just that, supporting teachers as they work to individualize learning in a time when they are underpaid, overworked and still motivated to meet students where they are.

    Telling students you believe in them is wonderful. But showing them you believe in them — through high expectations and accountability — means you are preparing them for greatness.

    •••

    Dionna Smith is the chief diversity and public affairs officer at GoGuardian, an educational technology company that aims to help all learners feel ready and inspired to solve the world’s greatest challenges by combining the best in learning and science technology across every part of the learning journey.

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





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  • How my twin helped me excel in high school and college

    How my twin helped me excel in high school and college


    San Diego State University, Hilltop Way.

    Credit: Jazlyn Dieguez / EdSource

    In my junior year of high school, I walked up to the batter’s box at Oracle Park — the same field where I’d watched the San Francisco Giants play countless times. It was the high school city championship game, and we were playing our rivals, George Washington High School. Taking a deep breath and whispering a quick prayer, I stepped in and looked at the pitcher on the mound — my twin sister.

    This was our second time facing off in the San Francisco City Championship. After losing to her the year before, I wanted nothing more than to win.

    Twins Ramon and Isabella Fong of San Francisco.

    My twin sister, Isabella, and I have been competitive for as long as I can remember. As twins, we were always grouped together, which fueled our rivalry. If we were wearing similar clothes, one of us would have to change.

    As we entered elementary school, that competitiveness followed us. Although Isabella and I went to the same school, we always had different teachers, assignments and friends. We would compare test scores and how many books we had read in a month.

    However, something changed when Isabella started playing on my Little League baseball team. Besides being the older twin, if there was one thing I was comparatively better at, it was baseball. I could hit the ball further than Isabella could, and throw the ball faster, too.

    Under normal circumstances, I’d have flaunted that.

    But this time, we were more than simply grouped together. We were on the same team. If Isabella got a hit, I was the loudest in the dugout. I’d permit banter from our teammates, but if they talked about her skills because she was a girl, I was the first one to defend her. I loved knowing that after school, we would go through the same things as teammates and share the same stories about teammates and games at dinner.

    Our competitive rivalry was put to the test when we started applying to high schools.

    In seventh and eighth grade, getting into Lowell High School in San Francisco was our primary goal. We were awed by its reputation as the only merit-based public high school in the city, which to us was the golden ticket of prestige. 

    I thought that getting into Lowell would give me gratification, but when I was accepted and Isabella wasn’t, all pride drained out of me as I realized I wasn’t going to be at the same high school as my twin sister. 

    When I walked in the front doors at Lowell, realizing how big it was and how alone I felt, I cared nothing about winning at that moment. I just wanted to be on the same team as my sister again. 

    I knew how much Isabella wanted to go to Lowell, and with Lowell’s merit-based admissions, I knew she viewed herself as less capable than I was. 

    But from what I observed, Isabella never let that stop her. 

    When she joined the baseball team at Washington as the only girl, all I wanted was to see her succeed. Because of our competitiveness throughout our childhood, I knew how hard she worked, and it was something I wanted to emulate every single day. If she was going to excel, I wanted to do the same. 

    I realized that the pride from our childhood had been replaced by an instinct to help each other when we were down.

    One night, I broke down from the stress of my work and college applications at Lowell. I remember walking down the stairs to go on a walk, crying out of frustration when Isabella walked out of her door and asked me if I was OK.

    So, when I stepped into the batter’s box against Isabella, the first girl to be the starting pitcher in a San Francisco Section championship on May 18, 2023, I couldn’t help but be proud of her. And when we talked about the game the next day, it didn’t matter that my team had won. I couldn’t get over the fact that my sister was the coolest person I knew.

    Today, Isabella and I go to college on opposite sides of the country.

    And every day, I think about how she never gave up when she was rejected, and if she can do it, then why can’t I?

    In high school, I thought that going to different schools would mean I would lose my sister, but I know that no matter what we talk about and how different our lives become, it will always feel like we are in the same uniform, watching each other in the batter’s box with smiles on our faces.

    •••

    Roman Fong is a first-year journalism and sociology major at San Diego State University and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

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





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  • To make dual enrollment more equitable, bring the college experience to high school

    To make dual enrollment more equitable, bring the college experience to high school


    Justice Spears is a senior at Sacramento Charter High School, who is enrolled in the Panther Pipeline Program.

    Credit: Arrows Digital / St. HOPE Public Schools

    College enrollment was declining even before the pandemic. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “the overall college enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds decreased from 41% in 2010 to 38% in 2021.” In 2021, the college enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds was highest for Asian students (60%) compared to 37% for Black students and 33% for Hispanic students.

    One important way to increase college attendance is through dual enrollment programs in which high school students take college classes and receive college credit. According to a recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California, participation in dual enrollment programs is associated with higher high school completion, college readiness and higher academic achievement.

    While the benefits of dual enrollment are clear, not all students have the bandwidth to take college classes on top of their high school coursework. In order to reduce barriers and increase access to college-level courses, we have taken dual enrollment one step further at St. HOPE Public Schools. Our Panther Pipeline program brings the college experience to our high school campus. Through our partnership with the Los Rios Community College District, college professors come to Sacramento Charter High School and teach our juniors and seniors in person. Scholars enrolled in the Panther Pipeline program take rigorous college courses and receive both high school and college credit.

    This program is unique because our scholars do not have to leave our high school campus to take college courses. Two days a week, college professors come to Sac High to teach in person, and the other three days, scholars complete their college work in class with their Sac High instructional aide. By bringing college to our scholars and allowing them to receive both high and college credit we are making dual enrollment more accessible and an option for scholars who may not otherwise be able to take high school and college classes at the same time.

    The benefits of bringing college courses to our scholars are far-reaching. Our student population is predominantly low-income minority students, and many of our scholars are the first in their families to go to college. By exposing them to college before they need to apply in fall of their senior year, we hope to spark their interest in pursuing higher education and expand their worldview of what opportunities are available in college. Providing our upperclassmen with multiple college course offerings while they are in high school helps them home in on what major they may want to pursue in college as well as think about what career might be the best fit for them.

    Dual enrollment programs provide students with an opportunity to graduate from high school with college credits, which helps them save money on college tuition by reducing the number of college classes they need to graduate. High school juniors enrolled in our dual enrollment program could potentially take four college courses before they graduate from high school, saving them time and money while in college.

    Bringing college classes to our high school campus also helps reduce transportation barriers for students who may not be able to travel to a college campus. Many of our scholars have after-school commitments — jobs, sports, and responsibilities at home — that might prevent them from taking courses at a college campus, but when they are part of their high school day, those barriers are removed.

    An important part of our dual enrollment program is that it provides students with a multitiered system of support. We have high school teachers who help students navigate and manage their college coursework, and students have access to the Los Rios College campuses, facilities and tutoring resources. This is critical for preparing students for university-level expectations and ensuring they have the study skills to succeed in college.

    As we collectively work on increasing access to college and career pathways, I encourage high schools around the state to offer dual enrollment programs that provide students with both high school and college credit. Taking college courses in addition to high school classes can be daunting, but combining college and high school credit is much more doable for many students, especially those we are trying to get into the college pipeline.

    •••

    Lisa Ruda is superintendent of St. HOPE Public Schools, a tuition-free, college prep public charter school network in Sacramento.

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





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  • Erratic results, high costs doomed this districtwide student improvement program

    Erratic results, high costs doomed this districtwide student improvement program


    Students in a Fresno Unified classroom.

    Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr

    Top Takeaways
    • Fresno Unified and its teachers union reached an agreement in mid-June to attempt to mitigate the impacts of a long-standing program ending. 
    • The multimillion-dollar program was touted by the district as a way to close gaps between student groups less than three years ago. 
    • Finances, inconsistent program implementation and varied results are some of the reasons the district says the program was eliminated. 

    The Fresno Unified School District and its teachers union have reached an agreement to terminate a decade-old, once-promising student improvement program that expanded from a pilot in a handful of low-performing schools to 40 of the district’s 67 elementary schools and one middle school. 

    Faced with rising program costs, declining enrollment and cuts in revenue, the district decided that inconsistent results could not justify the program’s high expense of almost $30 million.

    “When you have finances crash with programmatic inconsistencies … just kind of created the perfect storm for us to go a different direction,” said David Chavez, district chief of human resources, who also worked for two former superintendents. 

    The Designated Schools program, which operated under three superintendents, was a district initiative to improve achievement through additional daily instruction by targeting the specific needs of students. The effort was extensive: 30 additional instructional minutes per day for students, 10 extra paid days of professional development for teachers, and either a math or reading coach in each school.

    Under the agreement with the Fresno Teachers Association, the coaches will return to the classroom as regular teachers, and teachers will see a phaseout of their 10-day training over the next few years. For students, aside from losing 30 minutes of instruction, there will be no transition. They can participate in the after-school program they are already entitled to attend, where they may receive intervention or instruction from teachers who choose to participate.    

    Dismantling the previously praised program raises questions about how and why it went awry. 

    The district blames inconsistent program implementation across schools, but it failed to set standards or hold schools accountable to the program’s tenets. 

    Going Deeper: Who Designated Schools served 

    Designated Schools, affecting 24,000 students and over 1,250 educators across 41 campuses, were intended to close academic gaps among students and were typically located in neighborhoods with large numbers of socioeconomically disadvantaged students. In the extra 30 minutes, all students received additional instruction or intervention in some way.

    Reading specialists at Wilson Elementary, a Designated School, used those extra minutes on remedial instruction for struggling fifth graders who were unable to read even at a third or fourth grade level, said Drew Colburn, a fifth grade teacher. 

    During intervention time, Colburn and other teachers divided their classes into small groups by proficiency level and targeted students’ weak points, allowing all students to get additional support, without missing core instruction. 

    At Wilson, following slight improvements, 18.6% and 12.1% of students achieved reading and math proficiency in the 2023-24 school year, according to Ed-Data. 

    Teachers say they saw improvements, which may not have been as apparent on summative state tests that the district evaluated to determine program effectiveness. 

    “If you take that 30 minutes away from them, they’re going to come to fifth grade with even more of a deficit,” Colburn said. 

    Inconsistent implementation or lack of oversight?

    The first “Designated Schools” were actually three of the district’s lowest-performing schools. Fresno Unified gave teachers more time to plan, additional instruction time with students and extra support as part of the state’s turnaround model to reform persistently low-achieving schools.

    The schools started to see improved student performance, including double-digit gains in some instances, according to district Superintendent Misty Her.  

    “We thought, ‘Can we take what happened there and now replicate it into other schools?’” said Her, who was a school administrator at the time. 

    In 2014-15, under the label of Designated Schools, two schools, along with nine others, implemented the model. Over the last decade and multiple years of implementation, the program expanded with the district being the initiative’s biggest advocate.

    The model, when implemented as intended, supported improved student outcomes on state assessments for English and math, Fresno Unified said in May 2021 in its accountability plan for the 2021-22 school year, when the program cost $19.9 million across the 41 schools.  

    But, according to district leaders, schools implemented the program differently, undermining the effectiveness of the extra staff and extra 30 minutes, and leading to varying results. 

    Timeline of Designated School expansion, elimination

    2014-15: Fresno Unified implemented the Designed Schools initiative at 10 elementary schools and one middle school

    2015-16: 20 schools were added as Designated Schools

    2016-17: 10 more elementary schools became Designated Schools

    From 2017-2019: The model had improved scores on state assessments for low-income, foster youth and English learner student populations, according to district accountability plans.

    2019: Annual funding for the program continued to increase, rising to over $18.6 million.

    2020-21: Hanover Research conducted its analysis, showing mixed results from the program.

    2021: Fresno Unified, in its accountability plan for the 2021-22 school year, said the initiative would “address the needs of students by providing extended time to accelerate learning and close the gap of learning loss resulting from the pandemic.” 

    2022: The district suggested expanding the program to its remaining two dozen elementary schools. 

    2023-24: Fresno Unified proposed phasing out the initiative before abandoning the idea later in the school year. 

    2024-25: The district announced the program’s elimination for the 2025-26 school year. 

    The district added a special assignment teacher to every Designated School, but gave schools the autonomy to use that position as they saw fit. Some schools used the position as an intervention teacher; others used the extra support to assist during class or pull students out for individualized or group instruction. A few schools required the specialists to take on multiple duties, consequently hindering their work in the classroom. 

    Laura Schwalm, chief of staff for California Education Partners, where she works with about 50 school districts on systemic change and improvement, said that before expanding an initiative, districts should have a plan, including how to fund it; set clear expectations; monitor the program and its results throughout the year to make adjustments; and invest in teachers and administrators to deliver the program. 

    An analysis of the program, conducted by Hanover Research in the 2020-21 school year, found that:

    • Academic outcomes were mixed
    • Program implementation varied across campuses, with only some schools aligning resources with data-driven practices 

    District administration had the authority and ability to address the program’s flaws. In fact, the Hanover report recommended that Fresno Unified establish a set of standards on how staff should use its additional time at Designated Schools. 

    The autonomy, alone, wasn’t the problem; a lack of district monitoring was. Schwalm said using different approaches could have led to improved student results and could have been used in other schools.

    “If you’re not monitoring and not adjusting what you’re doing to get better results, then you can’t be surprised when you don’t get good results,” she said.

    Former Superintendent Bob Nelson, who led the district from 2017 until 2024, said he and the district leadership “didn’t pay close enough attention to schools that were doing it well” to be models for other schools. 

    “The issue was we were not learning from the sites we had. That’s what was missing.”

    Bob Nelson, former superintendent of Fresno Unified

    According to a June 2022 accountability plan, the district still hailed the initiative as being “critical” to the achievement of English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and foster youth.

    By November 2022, Fresno Unified wanted to expand the initiative to all elementary schools to improve academic outcomes for students, according to contract negotiation documents with the teachers union. 

    “Less than a year and a half after they proposed every school site become a Designated School, they’re saying, ‘This program doesn’t work,’” said Manuel Bonilla, teachers union president. 

    Chavez, the chief of human resources, said Fresno Unified had evaluated the program’s effectiveness every year since its inception and that its continuation, especially since it was meant to be a pilot, had been a part of conversations for years. 

    But was it effective? 

    Parents, teachers and administrators told EdSource they believe students benefit from more time with their teachers. The extra 30 minutes amounted to 90 additional instructional hours each year.

    “I believe it does give teachers a little bit more time to be able to work with each kid,” said Adriana Ramirez, a Wilson Elementary parent.

    But both the district and teachers union agreed that its effectiveness was not a simple yes or no answer. 

    “Depending on the situation, some components were really good at this site, some weren’t at this (school), and one component that could have been good somewhere wasn’t necessarily really good at another place,” Chavez said. 

    There were “pockets of excellence,” he and other district officials admitted, but students were not seeing the academic gains the district envisioned. 

    Though not school-specific, the district provided data measuring the yearly progress of students at Designated Schools compared to students at non-designated schools. 

    EdSource also evaluated school-specific data from a GO Public Schools 2024 student outcome report based on the 2023-24 school year.

    The district-provided and school-specific data is indicative that many schools were making progress under the initiative, as teachers say, while also depicting the district’s point that it was not across the board.

    Without data from a 10-year longitudinal study, Bonilla, the teachers union president, said he couldn’t say whether the Designated Schools initiative was effective. 

    “Some of our teachers felt that it was effective and some teachers felt that there were components that could make it even more effective because it wasn’t,” Bonilla said.

    Mitigating impact

    The district and teachers union spent six months negotiating how to maintain student support through other programs. 

    The agreement approved on June 18 dedicates an additional $4 million in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years for educators at Designated Schools to offer after-school literacy instruction or intervention. 

    Educators at Designated Schools, under the agreement, will have the right to refuse the work. If given the opportunity, Drew Colburn, a fifth grade Wilson Elementary teacher who was also a former after-school program coordinator, is confident educators are going to want to do that extra 30 minutes, if not more. 

    But if teachers decline the assignment, the after-school intervention won’t be as consistent or effective, he said. 

    And unfortunately, families won’t know the repercussions of the program’s elimination until this school year when it’s no longer in place, Ramirez said. “Parents,” she said, “won’t notice until it’s not there.”





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  • Erratic results, high costs doomed this district’s once-heralded student improvement program

    Erratic results, high costs doomed this district’s once-heralded student improvement program


    Students in a Fresno Unified classroom.

    Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr

    Top Takeaways
    • Fresno Unified and its teachers union reached an agreement in mid-June to attempt to mitigate the impacts of a long-standing program ending. 
    • The multimillion-dollar program was touted by the district as a way to close gaps between student groups less than three years ago. 
    • Finances, inconsistent program implementation and varied results are some of the reasons the district says the program was eliminated. 

    The Fresno Unified School District and its teachers union have reached an agreement to terminate a decade-old, once-promising student improvement program that expanded from a pilot in a handful of low-performing schools to 40 of the district’s 67 elementary schools and one middle school. 

    Faced with rising program costs, declining enrollment and cuts in revenue, the district decided that inconsistent results could not justify the program’s high expense of almost $30 million.

    “When you have finances crash with programmatic inconsistencies … just kind of created the perfect storm for us to go a different direction,” said David Chavez, district chief of human resources, who also worked for two former superintendents. 

    The Designated Schools program, which operated under three superintendents, was a district initiative to improve achievement through additional daily instruction by targeting the specific needs of students. The effort was extensive: 30 additional instructional minutes per day for students, 10 extra paid days of professional development for teachers, and either a math or reading coach in each school.

    Under the agreement with the Fresno Teachers Association, the coaches will return to the classroom as regular teachers, and teachers will see a phaseout of their 10-day training over the next few years. For students, aside from losing 30 minutes of instruction, there will be no transition. They can participate in the after-school program they are already entitled to attend, where they may receive intervention or instruction from teachers who choose to participate.    

    Dismantling the previously praised program raises questions about how and why it went awry. 

    The district blames inconsistent program implementation across schools, but it failed to set standards or hold schools accountable to the program’s tenets. 

    Going Deeper: Who Designated Schools served 

    Designated Schools, affecting 24,000 students and over 1,250 educators across 41 campuses, were intended to close academic gaps among students and were typically located in neighborhoods with large numbers of socioeconomically disadvantaged students. In the extra 30 minutes, all students received additional instruction or intervention in some way.

    Reading specialists at Wilson Elementary, a Designated School, used those extra minutes on remedial instruction for struggling fifth graders who were unable to read even at a third or fourth grade level, said Drew Colburn, a fifth grade teacher. 

    During intervention time, Colburn and other teachers divided their classes into small groups by proficiency level and targeted students’ weak points, allowing all students to get additional support, without missing core instruction. 

    At Wilson, following slight improvements, 18.6% and 12.1% of students achieved reading and math proficiency in the 2023-24 school year, according to Ed-Data. 

    Teachers say they saw improvements, which may not have been as apparent on summative state tests that the district evaluated to determine program effectiveness. 

    “If you take that 30 minutes away from them, they’re going to come to fifth grade with even more of a deficit,” Colburn said. 

    Inconsistent implementation or lack of oversight?

    The first “Designated Schools” were actually three of the district’s lowest-performing schools. Fresno Unified gave teachers more time to plan, additional instruction time with students and extra support as part of the state’s turnaround model to reform persistently low-achieving schools.

    The schools started to see improved student performance, including double-digit gains in some instances, according to district Superintendent Misty Her.  

    “We thought, ‘Can we take what happened there and now replicate it into other schools?’” said Her, who was a school administrator at the time. 

    In 2014-15, under the label of Designated Schools, two schools, along with nine others, implemented the model. Over the last decade and multiple years of implementation, the program expanded with the district being the initiative’s biggest advocate.

    The model, when implemented as intended, supported improved student outcomes on state assessments for English and math, Fresno Unified said in May 2021 in its accountability plan for the 2021-22 school year, when the program cost $19.9 million across the 41 schools.  

    But, according to district leaders, schools implemented the program differently, undermining the effectiveness of the extra staff and extra 30 minutes, and leading to varying results. 

    Timeline of Designated School expansion, elimination

    2014-15: Fresno Unified implemented the Designed Schools initiative at 10 elementary schools and one middle school

    2015-16: 20 schools were added as Designated Schools

    2016-17: 10 more elementary schools became Designated Schools

    From 2017-2019: The model had improved scores on state assessments for low-income, foster youth and English learner student populations, according to district accountability plans.

    2019: Annual funding for the program continued to increase, rising to over $18.6 million.

    2020-21: Hanover Research conducted its analysis, showing mixed results from the program.

    2021: Fresno Unified, in its accountability plan for the 2021-22 school year, said the initiative would “address the needs of students by providing extended time to accelerate learning and close the gap of learning loss resulting from the pandemic.” 

    2022: The district suggested expanding the program to its remaining two dozen elementary schools. 

    2023-24: Fresno Unified proposed phasing out the initiative before abandoning the idea later in the school year. 

    2024-25: The district announced the program’s elimination for the 2025-26 school year. 

    The district added a special assignment teacher to every Designated School, but gave schools the autonomy to use that position as they saw fit. Some schools used the position as an intervention teacher; others used the extra support to assist during class or pull students out for individualized or group instruction. A few schools required the specialists to take on multiple duties, consequently hindering their work in the classroom. 

    Laura Schwalm, chief of staff for California Education Partners, where she works with about 50 school districts on systemic change and improvement, said that before expanding an initiative, districts should have a plan, including how to fund it; set clear expectations; monitor the program and its results throughout the year to make adjustments; and invest in teachers and administrators to deliver the program. 

    An analysis of the program, conducted by Hanover Research in the 2020-21 school year, found that:

    • Academic outcomes were mixed
    • Program implementation varied across campuses, with only some schools aligning resources with data-driven practices 

    District administration had the authority and ability to address the program’s flaws. In fact, the Hanover report recommended that Fresno Unified establish a set of standards on how staff should use its additional time at Designated Schools. 

    The autonomy, alone, wasn’t the problem; a lack of district monitoring was. Schwalm said using different approaches could have led to improved student results and could have been used in other schools.

    “If you’re not monitoring and not adjusting what you’re doing to get better results, then you can’t be surprised when you don’t get good results,” she said.

    Former Superintendent Bob Nelson, who led the district from 2017 until 2024, said he and the district leadership “didn’t pay close enough attention to schools that were doing it well” to be models for other schools. 

    “The issue was we were not learning from the sites we had. That’s what was missing.”

    Bob Nelson, former superintendent of Fresno Unified

    According to a June 2022 accountability plan, the district still hailed the initiative as being “critical” to the achievement of English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and foster youth.

    By November 2022, Fresno Unified wanted to expand the initiative to all elementary schools to improve academic outcomes for students, according to contract negotiation documents with the teachers union. 

    “Less than a year and a half after they proposed every school site become a Designated School, they’re saying, ‘This program doesn’t work,’” said Manuel Bonilla, teachers union president. 

    Chavez, the chief of human resources, said Fresno Unified had evaluated the program’s effectiveness every year since its inception and that its continuation, especially since it was meant to be a pilot, had been a part of conversations for years. 

    But was it effective? 

    Parents, teachers and administrators told EdSource they believe students benefit from more time with their teachers. The extra 30 minutes amounted to 90 additional instructional hours each year.

    “I believe it does give teachers a little bit more time to be able to work with each kid,” said Adriana Ramirez, a Wilson Elementary parent.

    But both the district and teachers union agreed that its effectiveness was not a simple yes or no answer. 

    “Depending on the situation, some components were really good at this site, some weren’t at this (school), and one component that could have been good somewhere wasn’t necessarily really good at another place,” Chavez said. 

    There were “pockets of excellence,” he and other district officials admitted, but students were not seeing the academic gains the district envisioned. 

    Though not school-specific, the district provided data measuring the yearly progress of students at Designated Schools compared to students at non-designated schools. 

    EdSource also evaluated school-specific data from a GO Public Schools 2024 student outcome report based on the 2023-24 school year.

    chart visualization

    chart visualization

    chart visualization

    The district-provided and school-specific data is indicative that many schools were making progress under the initiative, as teachers say, while also depicting the district’s point that it was not across the board.

    Without data from a 10-year longitudinal study, Bonilla, the teachers union president, said he couldn’t say whether the Designated Schools initiative was effective. 

    “Some of our teachers felt that it was effective and some teachers felt that there were components that could make it even more effective because it wasn’t,” Bonilla said.

    Mitigating impact

    The district and teachers union spent six months negotiating how to maintain student support through other programs. 

    The agreement approved on June 18 dedicates an additional $4 million in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years for educators at Designated Schools to offer after-school literacy instruction or intervention. 

    Educators at Designated Schools, under the agreement, will have the right to refuse the work. If given the opportunity, Drew Colburn, a fifth grade Wilson Elementary teacher who was also a former after-school program coordinator, is confident educators are going to want to do that extra 30 minutes, if not more. 

    But if teachers decline the assignment, the after-school intervention won’t be as consistent or effective, he said. 

    And unfortunately, families won’t know the repercussions of the program’s elimination until this school year when it’s no longer in place, Ramirez said. “Parents,” she said, “won’t notice until it’s not there.”





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  • Nonprofit offers high schoolers in foster care guidance on getting to college

    Nonprofit offers high schoolers in foster care guidance on getting to college


    Students at the First Star Sacramento State Academy attend a lecture.

    Credit: Linda Howe-Ram / First Star Sacramento State Academy

    First Star Academy, a college-preparation program launched at UCLA in 2011, has been working to help foster youth students graduate from high school and reach levels of higher education.

    Foster youth have the worst reported education outcomes in the nation as they lack school stability. According to the California Department of Education, only about 60% of foster youth in California complete high school, compared with 85% less than their non-foster counterparts. In addition, no more than 15% of California’s foster youth are considered college-ready, compared with 44% statewide. 

    First Star Academy is determined to bridge this gap.

    Originally piloted at UCLA, First Star Academy is designed to provide support to high school students who have experienced foster care. This support is offered through tutoring, resources and connections to other foster youth programs to guide them toward higher education. 

    First Star students have access to youth mentors who help them through college applications, academic planning and life skills. Among these youth mentors is Ariana Fernandez, a student at California State University, Sacramento. 

    Fernandez, 21, has been working with First Star Sacramento State Academy for over a year. She hosts weekly office hours for students, provides tutoring and offers knowledge on things like how to apply for a driver’s license, build a resume and develop good study habits. 

    Sacramento’s First Star chapter currently serves 25 students and has five youth mentors. Students are assigned a specific mentor and are expected to meet with them weekly.  

    Fernandez is passionate about her students and wants them to view her as a resource, but she also had doubts about returning for the 2023-24 academic year. 

    “Initially, I was hesitant about joining First Star again because I had trouble forming connections with the students. But after the summer program, they really opened up to me, and that really gave me the confidence I needed to continue serving for First Star,” Fernandez said. 

    Her hesitation stemmed from her midterm arrival to the program. Fernandez didn’t want to impose on the existing relationships with students and their mentors.

    “I came late, so most of the students had already bonded with their mentor, and I didn’t want them to feel like I was disrupting that connection,” she said.

    A senior at John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento and a scholar at First Star Sacramento State Academy, she values the friends the program has urged her to make.  

    “First Star gave me the opportunity to make connections with people I never would have met. I always look forward to in-person events to do fun activities with my friends,” said the student.

     “I wish there were more in-person events, more Saturday sessions and more immersion programs.” 

    In the summer and Saturday sessions, students can experience life on a college campus and create bonds through numerous activities such as rock climbing, karaoke, cooking demos and kayaking. This bonding encourages the students to develop close relationships with supportive staff, mentors and peers who understand the challenges of being foster youths.

    This past summer, First Star Sacramento State Academy took students to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Lake Natoma and to see Broadway shows at Music Circus. 

    Sacramento State’s First Star program coordinator is Victoria Garcia. With her background in family studies, Garcia, 25, facilitated workshops based around mental health and wellness this past summer. 

    According to the National Foster Youth Institute, it’s estimated that as many as 80% of children and adolescents entering foster care have mental health issues.

    “This is a great opportunity for the youth to be able to express their feelings and share their experiences in the foster care system with other scholars who have similar stories,” Garcia said. “This session helped bring our group closer together and break down some built-up walls.” 

    First Star Academies continue to expand nationally, with new campuses around the country regularly joining the program.

    Aya Mikbel is a fourth-year student studying political science and journalism at California State University, Sacramento and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.





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  • Soon-to-be retired California reading instruction test gets high marks in national analysis

    Soon-to-be retired California reading instruction test gets high marks in national analysis


    Kindergarten students at

    in Robin Bryant’s class at West Contra Costa Unified’s Stege Elementary School are learning how to add and subtract.

    Photo: Andrew Reed/EdSource

    This story was updated on Nov. 15 to correct information received from a source.

    Most exams to prove teachers are prepared to teach reading are ineffective, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality. Only six of the 25 licensure tests currently used in the U.S. are considered to be strong assessments, including the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment, which California will do away with in 2025.

    Fifteen of the 25 reading licensure tests being used in the U.S. were “weak” and four were “acceptable,” according to the analysis. One state does not require a reading licensure test. 

    Council researchers based their rankings on whether the licensure exam adequately addresses the five core components of the science of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. They also took into consideration whether the tests combined reading with other subjects and tested teachers on methods of reading instruction already debunked by researchers.

    “The science of reading or scientifically-based reading instruction is reading instruction that’s been informed by decades of research on the brain and research on how people and how children learn to read,” said Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonpartisan research and policy organization.

    California will replace the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment, or RICA, with a literacy performance assessment that allows teachers to demonstrate their competence by submitting evidence of their instructional practice through video clips and written reflections on their practice.

    “The state really needs to ensure that this new assessment is aligned to the science of reading and can provide an accurate and reliable signal that teachers have the necessary knowledge and skills to teach reading effectively,” Peske told EdSource.

    The RICA addresses more than 75% of the topics in each of the five components of the science of reading. The state also gained points for not combining reading and other subjects in the examination, according to the analysis.

    In California, the reading instruction assessment is required of teacher candidates seeking a multiple-subject, a prekindergarten to third grade early childhood education or an education specialist credential.

    The RICA has not been popular in California in recent years. Critics have said it does not align with current state English language arts standards, is racially biased and has added to the state’s teacher shortage. 

    Between 2017 and 2021, more than 40% of teachers failed the test the first time they took it, according to state data. Black and Latino teacher candidates overall have lower passing rates on the test than their white and Asian peers.

    “I think that when you have a test that is aligned to the research like the RICA and …  a third of candidates are failing, it signals that they’re not getting the preparation aligned to the assessment, aligned to what’s on the test,” Peske said. 

    Low student test scores nationwide have most states reconsidering how they teach literacy. Fewer than half of students who took the California Smarter Balanced Tests met or exceeded state standards in English language arts in 2023.

    California Senate Bill 488, passed in 2021, called for new literacy standards and a teacher performance assessment that emphasized teaching foundational reading skills that include phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, and fluency. The new standards also included support for struggling readers, English learners and pupils with exceptional needs. The California Dyslexia Guidelines have been incorporated for the first time.

    The California literacy performance assessment that will replace the RICA on July 1, 2025, is based on new literacy standards and teaching performance expectations approved by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing last year. The standards and teaching expectations are derived from state literacy policies and guidance, including the state’s English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework and the California Comprehensive State Literacy Plan.

    The performance assessment was designed by a team of teachers, professors, researchers, nonprofit education advocacy organizations and school district administrators. It will be piloted in next spring, said Nancy Brynelson, statewide literacy co-director at the California Department of Education, who serves as a liaison to the assessment design team.

    “There was a view that a performance assessment would do a better job of showing what a teacher can really do, how a teacher can apply their knowledge about literacy to a classroom situation and to particular students who need support,” Brynelson said. “And there had been a call for changing that test for quite a while.”

    The assessment will be revised in the summer and field-tested with a larger number of teacher preparation programs in the 2024-25 school year, said Mary Vixie Sandy, executive director of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

    “High-stakes standardized tests evaluate whether prospective teachers know enough about a subject, while performance assessments measure whether students can apply the knowledge appropriately in various contexts,” Sandy said. “As such, performance assessments serve to strengthen and deepen a prospective teacher’s knowledge and skill based on authentic practice in real classrooms.”





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