Michael Elden-Rooney wrote in Chalkbeat about the arrest and detention of a public high school student in New York City, which has spurred protests on the student’s behalf. He was attending a school for students learning English. His earnings after school were devoted to helping his mother and two younger siblings move out of a shelter and into an apartment. He entered the country legally. Mayor Eric Adams, who is indebted to Trump for pardoning him, has remained silent.
Attorneys for Dylan, 20, a native of Venezuela, made several moves Thursday they hope will slow, and ultimately stymie, the government’s efforts to fast-track his deportation following his arrest last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents after a routine court date.
Dylan is the first known current New York City public school student to be detained by immigration authorities in President Donald Trump’s second term. In the days following Chalkbeat’s Monday report on Dylan’s arrest, his case has become national news and galvanized local efforts to oppose Trump’s immigration policies, including a rally Thursday on the steps of the city’s Education Department headquarters in lower Manhattan.
Dylan’s attorneys from the New York Legal Assistance Group, or NYLAG, filed a “habeas corpus” petition late Thursday night in federal court in Western Pennsylvania, where Dylan is being held, arguing that immigration officials violated his due process rights by preventing him from making full use of the court system. They assert that Dylan is ineligible for “expedited” deportation because he had legal permission to enter the country under a Biden-era humanitarian program.
Dylan’s arrest was part of a nationwide enforcement blitz where government lawyers move to dismiss migrants’ immigration cases, allowing authorities to arrest them on the spot and thrust them into a fast-tracked deportation process with fewer legal protections.
Officials from the Department of Homeland security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new legal petition. They previously criticized former President Joseph Biden’s policy allowing migrants like Dylan to enter the country and said “ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.”
For the first week of his detention, Dylan’s lawyers could not reach him because he was shuttled so rapidly between four different states, according to a NYLAG spokesperson and his mother, Raiza, whose last name is being withheld at her request to avoid retaliation.
His lawyers finally managed to make contact Wednesday morning — just in time to prepare him for an interview with an asylum officer about whether he has a “credible fear” of returning to Venezuela — a hurdle Dylan must clear to avoid immediate deportation.
The interview took place early Thursday morning, with no advance notice to Dylan’s lawyers. They were only able to get a lawyer patched into the interview after Raiza alerted them shortly before, according to one of the attorneys….
“Dylan’s arrest and ongoing detention cause him enormous and continued harm,” the filing alleges. “He has been ripped away from his high school studies, his work, and his mother and young siblings who rely on him.” The full-time student at ELLIS Prep, which caters to older newly arrived immigrants, has also been working part-time as a delivery worker, helping his mom and two younger siblings move out of a shelter and into their own apartment.
His attorneys argue that Dylan’s arrest and detention have curtailed his ability to access the court system — a violation of the due process rights guaranteed to anyone in the U.S., regardless of immigration status. In addition to his asylum claim, Dylan is applying for Special Immigration Juvenile Status, a type of legal protection for youth under 21 who can’t be reunited with both parents (his father passed away years ago), according to the petition.
Dylan was scheduled to have a hearing in family court for that case Friday morning but was unlikely to be able to attend from detention — endangering his case, according to his attorneys.
The lawyers argue that Dylan was never eligible for “expedited removal” in the first place, since the procedure is not meant for people who were “admitted or paroled” into the country like Dylan was, according to federal immigration law.
Adding to the urgency of the situation is the fact that Dylan is facing severe gastrointestinal issues that doctors were still trying to diagnose when he was detained. “These specialists are currently in the process of assessing whether Dylan’s symptoms are the result of cancer or [Crohn’s] disease,” and recommended an “immediate in-person follow up appointment,” the filing states...
Meanwhile, Dylan’s case has continued to pick up public attention. An online fundraiser that launched Wednesday to help Dylan’s mom with expenses related to his legal case and caring for her two younger children had collected more than $27,000 by Friday morning.
And hundreds of supporters — including elected officials and city schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos — rallied outside of the Education Department’s downtown Manhattan headquarters calling for his release.
Chants of “Free Dylan” echoed through the crowd of teachers union members, immigration advocates, students, and anti-Trump protesters.
“Dylan is a student, a worker, and part of our community. He did everything right, and still, ICE tore him away from his life and family in New York,” U.S. Rep. Nydia Velasquez said in a statement, the second federal elected official to publicly challenge Dylan’s detention.
Tim Ranzetta, sponsor of the personal finance initiative and proponent of legislation that Gov. Newsom says he will sign, presents signatures for the initiative at the Secretary of State’s office in March. With him are state Controller Malia Cohen, center, and personal finance teacher Crystal Rigley Janis.
Credit: Californians for Financial Education
Soon, all California high school students will learn about college grants and loans, how tax rates work, the benefits of insurance and how interest high rates can blow your budget when you miss a payment on a credit card.
This week, legislators rushed to pass legislation that would make California the 26th state to require a course in personal finance as a requirement for high school graduation as of 2030-31. A semester of personal finance must be offered in all high schools starting in 2026-27.
“It’s often the students who need financial literacy the most that receive it the least. Parents of low-income students are far less likely to be financially literate themselves, which means they can’t pass that knowledge down to their children,” Kayvon Banankhah, a high school junior from Modesto, said June 19 during testimony at a Senate Education Committee hearing on the bill. “I truly believe this bill is one of the most impactful and feasible ways we can combat wealth inequality in our state.”
Assembly Bill 2927 “will benefit countless future generations of Californians,” said Tim Ranzetta, a Palo Alto marketing and finance entrepreneur and crusader for personal finance instruction. As co-founder of the nonprofit Next Gen Personal Finance, which provides free curriculum and teacher training in personal finance education, he also financed a successful effort to place a nearly identical personal finance initiative on California’s November ballot.
With a written assurance from Gov. Gavin Newsom that he’d sign the bill, Ranzetta agreed to pull his initiative from the ballot Thursday, the deadline for final changes to initiatives.
The bill includes one significant difference, which was a response to arguments that imposing more graduation requirements, along with ethnic studies, another coming requirement, will further limit students’ course flexibility and schedules.
AB 2927 will allow students to substitute personal finance for economics, a semester-long graduation requirement that seniors usually take together with civics, another requirement. The bill also will permit a district to substitute personal finance for another local graduation requirement. The initiative would have added personal finance and left economics intact.
Economics teachers argued that they, too, support personal finance and often include it in their courses to personalize economic principles, but it should not be added at the expense of economics. They predicted that enrollment would plummet as a result.
“Economics encourages us to think about our systems and address factors too large for any single individual to address, such as poverty, income, inequality, innovation and generational wealth,” said Joshua Mitton, chief programs officer for the California Council for Economic Education, during testimony on the bill. “Economics prepares students with additional skills that improve all decisions, not simply those that pertain to finance. And it is an integral part of social studies helping prepare a literate and civically engaged electorate.”
Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, D-Los Angeles, said she felt conflicted because she supports ensuring students are getting individual knowledge that they need as a necessary life skill while also understanding “economic policies and the impacts on communities on a more macro level.”
Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, compared the dilemma to adding another dish to an already full Thanksgiving table. “Sometimes you have to take something off the plate, right? There’s only so much time during the day, only so many electives. And so that’s one of the trade-offs that we made,” he said, adding that students will be able to take both economics and personal finance.
The economics teachers council indicated a willingness to revise the economics course framework to include more personal finance content to meet a new requirement. However, Ranzetta insisted on a stand-alone personal finance offering as a condition for pulling his initiative.
Under the bill, the Instruction Quality Commission, which reports to the State Board of Education, will create a curriculum guide and resources for a personal finance course by May 31, 2026.
The course will include these topics:
Fundamentals of personal banking, including savings and checking accounts
Budgeting for independent living
Financing college and other career options
Understanding taxes and factors that affect net income
Credit, including credit scores and the relation of debt to credit
Consumer protection skills like identifying scams and preventing identity theft
Charitable giving
Principles of investing and building wealth, including pensions and IRAs, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds
“For many of my peers, investing in stocks might as well be as complicated and convoluted as rocket science or calculus in our case,” said Banankhah. “The reality is they’re not being taught about this in school, and a lot of my peers don’t even know what they’re missing out on.”
The bill will allow several years to train teachers in the new curriculum. Teachers who hold credentials in social science, business, mathematics, or home economics will be authorized to teach personal finance. The Commission on Teacher Credentialing can also establish supplementary authorization to teach the course.
The bill and the initiative had widespread support in the business community, as well as from State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the Association of California School Administrators, and the youth activism group GENup. The Legislature passed AB 2927 without opposition.
At the hearing last week on the bill, Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, said that economic conditions were the driving force behind homelessness annually for 15,000 high school graduates. Those conditions, he said, “can come rather suddenly,” and personal finance education will provide tools for survival.
“It almost seems like a high school student needs to be ready at any time to be fending for themselves these days,” he said.
High school students work together to solve a series of math problems.
Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education
Twice this year, the University of California faculty broadly reaffirmed which high school math courses are required for admissions. However, many school counselors and students, along with the president of the State Board of Education, complain they’re confused by a lack of details.
High schools want to know if their specific course offerings comply with UC requirements. Depending on a student’s interests and intended majors, counselors want to know which courses to recommend. And students want to know if taking less Algebra-intensive math classes like statistics and data science could affect their chances of getting admitted the campus of their choice.
Schools and districts must have “clear, timely and consistent information” so that students and families “understand the impact of their choices,” wrote State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond in a July 15 letter to the UC board of regents.
Prodded by a regents committee, administrators with the University of California Office of the President last week promised to provide more clarity by the end of the summer.
“I feel like we’re not coming at this from a student perspective. I feel we’re coming at this from an academic perspective, and I would really encourage all of us to maybe flip that a little bit, put yourselves in the shoes of a rising sophomore, a rising junior,” regent Alfonso Salazar, who is president of the UC Alumni Associations, said at the meeting. “That would be incredibly helpful because people are very nervous and concerned.”
The confusion centers on the ongoing debate over whether AP Statistics or data science can be substituted for Algebra 2. Over the past decade, the UC faculty committee that determines course requirements approved AP Statistics and, more recently, introductory data science courses as substitutes for Algebra 2, which UC requires for admission. Those decisions will also apply to California State University, whose A-G course requirements for admission are nearly identical for the 23 CSU campuses.
But faced with strong objections from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professors, the faculty committee did a hurried about-face in July 2023, days before the state board adopted a math framework that outlined sequences of high school math courses. The faculty committee voted that AP Stats and introductory data science would no longer “validate” or substitute for Algebra 2, starting in the fall of 2025.
The STEM community argued that the courses lacked sufficient Algebra 2 content to prepare students for precalculus, which is a precursor to calculus. Majoring in data science, computer science, and STEM all require calculus. Students who take introductory data science would be under the illusion they are ready to major in data science. UC and many CSU campuses don’t offer catch-up courses in Algebra 2.
Since 1999, the number of students majoring in STEM more than tripled, from 14,081 to 48,851 in 2022. The proportion of STEM majors at UC increased from 32% to 44% of all majors, according to UC data.
Where does data science fit in?
The immediate impact of the decision is expected to be limited, since more than 99% of applicants to UC have taken Algebra 2 anyway, according to UC data. But interest in data science, in a world of burgeoning AI and uses for big datasets, has been mushrooming, and promoters pointed to introductory data as a way to skip Algebra 2.
The faculty committee, the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools or BOARS, reaffirmed that position in February when it accepted a faculty workgroup’s report. The report examined the content of AP Statistics and the three most popular introductory data science courses and found “that none of these courses labeled as ‘data science’ even come close to meeting the required standard to be a ‘more advanced’ course (Algebra 2). They should be called “data literacy” courses, it said.
But where, Darling-Hammond asked in her letter, does that leave the status of potentially hundreds of other courses in data science, financial math and non-AP statistics that UC previously validated as satisfying Algebra 2?
“Most districts will be starting the new school year in less than a month without sufficient clarity regarding the mathematics courses they will offer moving forward,” she wrote. “But the committee’s criteria and process are not yet fully transparent, and it has only evaluated four courses out of the hundreds that have previously been approved.”
One complication facing BOARS and staff within the UC Office of the President, which annually evaluates courses that school districts submit for approval, is that there are no state standards for data literacy. Each course must be examined independently.
Darling-Hammond’s letter raised a critical, intertwined issue: How will UC categorize introductory data science and other courses as fourth-year high school math courses?
Neither UC nor CSU requires that high school graduates take four years of math, but they highly recommend it. According to UC data, about 80% of UC applicants take at least one course in advanced math beyond Algebra 2, usually precalculus or both precalculus and AP Statistics. The report did not include comparable CSU data.
BOARS created a second, 12-member faculty workgroup of STEM professors to examine what math courses will best prepare students to succeed at UC in whatever field they choose. A report in June agreed that the current three required foundational math courses make sense: Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra 2, or Math 3 in districts that offer an integrated math sequence. It also emphasized that “to be recommended for a fourth year of mathematics study, (a course) must build substantially on the content of the lower-level sequence.”
With that in mind, the report, which BOARS adopted, divided high school math courses into four categories:
Category 1 consists of the foundational math courses
Category 2 courses, which include Precalculus and Calculus, best prepare students interested in STEM fields.
Category 3, which also builds on foundational courses, are courses suited for students interested in quantitative social sciences, such as psychology and history. It singles out AP Stats, but not data science.
Category 4, a catch-all for other courses in quantitative reasoning, would include data literacy. These courses “will continue broadening students’ interest and confidence in math” and may be appropriate for arts and humanities majors.
Tension over fourth year designations
Advocates for introductory data science argue that many of their courses cover the same Common Core statistic standards as AP Statistics yet could be cast into the lowest category. Counselors may discourage students from taking data science, and districts may retreat from offering it. That would stunt the growth of data science at a time when other states are encouraging it, said Aly Martinez, who helped design a two-year high school introductory data science and statistics course for San Diego Unified, using CourseKata, a college course.
“Other states are thinking about a wider range of rigorous math courses. California is not doing that. Many districts have done these innovations and seen success. It’s frustrating; it feels like California is closing the door versus opening it,” said Martinez, who is now the chief program officer for the national nonprofit Student Achievement Partners.
Cole Samson, incoming president of the California Mathematics Council, seconded the call for more clarity. The latest UC faculty report “absolutely causes some confusion; it did not outline enough for the next steps,” he said.
High schools that submit math courses for approval in fall 2025 will need clear guidance and feedback on how to revise courses, said Sampson, who is director of curriculum, instruction and accountability for the Kern County superintendent of schools. Whether courses are approved or how they are categorized will affect student choices and master schedules. “UC should be mindful of local impacts,” he said.
UC Provost Katherine Newman acknowledged the need for more information at the regents meeting. “There’s work to be done to communicate what those recommendations mean, she said, adding “I don’t sense amongst my colleagues any hostility toward data science.” On the contrary, she said that UC will work with “our K through 12 partners” to bolster data science courses so that students are well-prepared when they enter UC.
At the end of their June report, the UC math faculty members acknowledged that many high school students find math courses, especially Algebra 2, “overfull of content” and uninteresting. They suggested the UC form another committee to look deeper into how high school math courses can be improved to help students better understand the mathematical concepts. Members should include faculty with expertise in improving the quality of K-12 math.
Another workgroup examining math content, consisting of faculty from UC, CSU and community colleges, may examine this issue of alternative math courses in a report due later this summer.
Sampson said he would welcome that broader opportunity. Many students view Algebra 2 as irrelevant and dull, he said. “It needs a makeover,” he said. “I would champion designing new courses.”
he article was clarified to note that introductory data science courses contain far less algebra content than Algebra II but are not necessarily less rigorous. It noted that UC’s and CSU’s course requirements for admission are nearly identical, but have minor differences. The misidentification of Provost Katherine Newman was corrected.
Do you (or someone you know) struggle with English? Did you drop out of school? Do you need help passing the citizenship test? Are you looking for a well-paying job that won’t require a bachelor’s degree?
California’s adult school system steps in to help adults who might have slipped through the cracks — or are newcomers to the country.
Many Californians can use the services of adult schools but are not taking advantage of the chance. Nearly 6 million Californians don’t speak English “very well” and over 4 million do not have a high school education, according to U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey data.
Nearly 3 out of 10 Californians struggle with basic English literacy. This can affect their ability to earn a good salary or navigate essential parts of American life, such as shopping, talking to a doctor or helping their children succeed in school.
This guide is aimed at adults in California who need to take classes that will help them improve their English, finish their high school education, become a citizen or get a better job.
Who can attend adult school?
Anyone 18 and over is eligible.
There are classes specifically aimed at adults who didn’t finish high school, immigrants, disabled adults, those who want to improve their parenting skills and adults who want to train for a career that doesn’t require a college education.
Where can I get an adult education?
There are three main places to get adult education in most communities: K-12 schools, community colleges and community libraries.
Most Californians looking for adult education attend classes offered by their K-12 school districts. These classes may be offered right on K-12 campuses and through parent programs — or they may be offered at stand-alone adult school campuses.
Community colleges also offer adult education. Adults who are interested in getting a degree or certificate sometimes find this an especially appealing option. English language and GED courses can help prepare students for college-level coursework. However, it is not a requirement to be on track for college to attend adult education classes at a community college.
Libraries have the added benefit of offering one-on-one tutoring with a trained volunteer for adult learners. This can be a good option for students who need help with a particular task. Adults who struggle with basic skills, such as writing, English or math, might sign up to get help so they can pass a driver’s test or write a business grant application. Libraries can also connect Californians with a virtual program, Career Online High School, that helps adults get their high school diploma. (More on that below.)
Some nonprofit organizations, employers or religious organizations also offer adult education. Organizations catering to adults who are immigrants, homeless or have a disability may offer adult education.
How can I find out what is available in my community?
The main types of classes offered by adult schools are adult basic education, adult secondary education, immigrant education, vocational education, education for adults with disabilities and education to help adults support their children in K-12 schools.
Adult secondary education helps adults get the equivalent of a high school education with courses that include math, science, social studies and language arts. This could be through a high school diploma (for more on that, see the next question) or taking GED or HiSET tests.
Adult basic education is essentially the foundation for high school. Adults who struggle with basic reading, math or digital literacy can take these courses, either on their own or to prepare for high school-level education.
Adult school students have a wide range of backgrounds, but in California, the vast majority are immigrants. Adult schools help immigrants improve their English skills, get their citizenship and learn more about how to navigate American society.
Vocational education at adult schools helps prepare Californians for a new career, typically with an emphasis on offerings that take much less time than a bachelor’s degree. Adult education — both at the K-12 and community college level — helps students by connecting them with apprenticeships or helping them pass industry certification and state licensing exams.
Some popular courses help prepare students for jobs in welding, heating and air conditioning technology, information technology support, court reporting and administrative assistant work. There are many programs for jobs in the health care fields, such as phlebotomy, vocational nursing, certified nursing assistant, pharmacy technician and medical coding.
Some classes offered can also help adults build key life skills, which can be especially important for immigrants and disabled adults. This could include financial literacy, parenting classes and digital literacy.
Can I get my high school diploma?
Yes. Even if it’s been decades since you set foot in a high school classroom and even if that classroom was not in California or the U.S., you can get a high school diploma. You may even be able to count some of your work experience for credit.
This can be a particularly useful option for adults who are just a few credits shy of graduation.
Just as with traditional high schools, the requirements for a diploma may vary. Both K-12 and community colleges offer classes that allow students to finish their high school diploma. Most community libraries also offer the opportunity to complete a high school diploma through a virtual program.
What other options are there to attain the equivalent of a high school credential in California?
The only authorized companies that can issue high school equivalency certificates in California are GED or HiSET.
There are many high school equivalency test preparation programs — including those offered through public adult education programs and libraries. However, the state of California cautions that certificates of completion for these programs are not official California high school equivalency credentials. Getting these types of credentials requires passing tests.
Can I get a GED in my native language?
Californians can get a GED in English or Spanish. There are no other languages available at this time. The certificate of high school equivalency does not specify what language the GED is in.
How much does adult education cost?
The vast majority of adult education classes are tuition-free. Students may face fees for the GED or HiSET tests or practice tests, assessment tests, textbooks and other materials used in the courses. On community college campuses, students may also pay campus fees. These fees vary widely by institution — particularly for vocational tech classes.
The program to become a vocational nurse at Bakersfield Adult School, for example, costs $7,000, while Downey Adult School estimates its whole program costs $16,999.
Can I attend school while I have a job?
One of the biggest hurdles for Californians who are interested in enrolling in adult school is simply finding the time to attend and study. There are classes held during the day, but many are offered in the evening and weekends as well, so classes are available to people who hold day jobs. There are also virtual classes.
What kind of virtual options are there?
Many institutions that offer adult education, such as local K-12 schools or community colleges, offer virtual options, which may include live teaching or asynchronous content.
Most public libraries in California also offer the opportunity to earn a high school diploma through the Career Online High School program. It is available to anyone 19 or older. Last year, the program was offered at 797 of the state’s 1,127 public libraries. The program offers not just a high school diploma, but career training, plus help with a resume and cover letter. Some of the career training offered includes child care, commercial driving, manufacturing, office management, customer service, hospitality and security professionals. Students are assigned an academic coach. You can either ask a librarian or take this survey online to see if this option is right for you.
Is child care or transportation offered?
This is not a common part of the offerings for adult schools, and it can be a big barrier to many potential adult school students. However, it is worth checking with your local schools. Some adult schools, colleges or nonprofits may offer child care, and some may offer transportation discounts or passes.
Bullard High School senior Isabell Coronado works with Gibson Elementary first grader Mayson Lydon on March 15, 2024, as part of Fresno Unified’s Teacher Academy Program.
Credit: Lasherica Thornton / EdSource
In mid-March, Bullard High School students Merrick Crowley and Craig Coleman taught an interactive science lesson for a fifth-grade class at Gibson Elementary in Fresno.
At the front of the classroom, Coleman held an egg above one of three containers filled with liquids, such as saltwater. He and Crowley asked students to predict what would happen to each egg: Will it sink or float? The fifth graders, wide-eyed and smiling, raised their hands to share their predictions.
“You said if we took a field trip (to the Red Sea), we would float,” said one fifth grader to explain why she thought the egg would float in the saltwater.
Once Coleman dropped the egg in the water, the students expressed joy or disappointment, depending on whether their predictions were accurate or not. “Can anyone tell me why it’s floating?” Crowley asked as Coleman hinted that the answer was related to density.
The high schoolers were in Fresno Unified’s Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathway course, one of the district’s three Teacher Academy programs that has the potential to increase the number of educators entering the K-12 system.
According to educators and leaders in the school district and across the state, introducing and preparing students for the teaching field, starting at the high-school level, will be key to addressing the teacher shortage — a problem affecting schools across the nation.
Teachers are retiring in greater numbers than in years past, and many, burned out or stressed by student behavior, have quit. Fewer teacher candidates are enrolling in preparation programs, worsening the shortage.
Since 2016, California has invested $1.2 billion to address the state’s enduring teacher shortage.
Despite the efforts, school districts continue to struggle to recruit teachers, especially for hard-to-fill jobs in special education, science, math and bilingual education.
As a result, districts and county education offices have been creating and expanding high school educator pathway programs under “grow-our-own” models intended to strengthen and diversify the teacher pipeline and workforce. High school educator programs expose students to the career early on by “tapping into (students’) love of helping others” and “keeping them engaged,” creating a more diverse teacher workforce and putting well-trained teachers in the classroom, said Girlie Hale, president of the Teachers College of San Joaquin, which partners with a grade 9-12 educator pathway program.
“The high school educator pipeline is one of the long-term solutions that we can incorporate,” Hale said. “Through the early exposure and interest of these (high school) educator pathways, it’s going to have a positive effect on increasing enrollment into teaching preparation programs.”
Growing their own
Fueled by the expansion of programs, increased participation and positive outcomes, “education-based CTE programs over the past decade have increased in high schools,” said James F. Lane, a former assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education and CEO of PDK International, a professional nonprofit that supports aspiring educators through programs such as Educators Rising.
Educators Rising, a community-based organization with chapters in high schools in each state, teaches students the skills needed to become educators. Lane said the organization has seen 20% growth in the last two years, including the creation of a California chapter.
“District leaders are seeing the benefits of supporting future teachers in their own community due to the fact that 60% of teachers end up teaching within 20 miles of where they went to high school,” he said.
That isn’t the only benefit districts see.
Fresno Unified, the state’s third-largest school district, enrolls higher percentages of Hispanic, African American, Asian, Pacific Islander and American Indian students than other districts across Fresno County and California, according to California Department of Education data from 2022-23. The district’s current high schoolers resemble the demographics of the elementary students and the next generation of learners.
Fresno Unified’s Teacher Academy Program can feed those high schoolers into one of the district’s teacher pipeline programs and back into schools, said Maiv Thao, manager of the district’s teacher development department.
“We know how important that is, to have someone that understands them, someone that looks like them and is able to be that model of, ‘If they can do it, then I can do it as well,’” Thao said. “We know that teachers of color make a huge impact on our students; they’re the ones who can make that connection with our students.”
In San Joaquin County, there are at least a dozen teacher preparation academies across five school districts, including a program launched in 2021 through a partnership with the county education office, a charter school, higher education institutions and nonprofit grant funding.
Students interested in pursuing a career in education can enter Teacher Education and Early College High (TEACH), an educator pathway program offered at the charter school Venture Academy to support students from freshman year of high school to the classroom as a teacher.
Through the early college high school model, students simultaneously take their high school classes and college courses and will graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate degree in elementary education from San Joaquin Delta College. Further, a relationship with Humphreys University allows students, who’d be entering as college juniors, to graduate debt free with their bachelor’s degrees. Then, students can complete the teacher credential program at the Teachers College of San Joaquin.
“The idea was to grow students within our community to become teachers and, then, have them return and serve as teachers in the communities that grew them,” said Joni Hellstrom, division director of Venture Academy.
But first, schools must get students enthusiastic about teaching.
Split model of learning: Time in the class as students
Students in TEACH in Stockton and the Teacher Academy in Fresno experience a cohort learning model and fieldwork opportunities. The teacher preparation is done over four years of high school in TEACH.
Because the entire program is meant to prepare them to be classroom teachers, core subject areas are taught so that students can evaluate the effectiveness of teaching styles on their own learning, Hellstrom said. For example, as students learn math, the teacher points out the strategies he or she is using in the lessons, preparing those students to “become teachers of math, not just learners of math,” she said.
Students also take classes each year to learn different teaching approaches, and they’re encouraged to incorporate the methods into class projects and lessons they’ll develop for elementary classes.
As freshmen, students visit elementary classes as a group to be reading buddies to the kids. Sophomores partner with the elementary teachers to design activities, such as a science experiment.
Three Teacher Academy options in Fresno Unified
Fresno Unified has expanded its program to offer various opportunities at its high schools, including the Teacher Academy Saturday Program, Summer Program and CTE course.
The Saturday program, requiring a commitment of four Saturdays in a semester,is a paid opportunity for high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to develop and teach STEM lessons.
The Summer Program, a paid internship also for grades 10-12, allows participants to work with students in summer school.
As juniors, students do field work in a class or subject area they’re interested in. For example, a student who enjoyed sports worked with a PE teacher this past year and taught lessons she designed, then reflected on what she learned from the experience and how the elementary school kids responded.
“It’s a really powerful learning opportunity for them,” Hellstrom said.
This upcoming school year, the first cohort of students, now seniors, will participate in internships in school districts across the county.
Under the umbrella of Fresno Unified’s Teacher Academy Program, students learn, then apply skills at an elementary school through embedded workplace learning.
The CTE course is designed for juniors and seniors to develop their communication, professionalism and leadership skills as well as learn teaching styles, lesson planning, class instruction, cultural proficiency and engagement techniques while gaining hands-on experience in elementary classes.
In Marisol Sevel’s mid-March CTE class, Edison High students answered “How would you define classroom management to a friend?” as Sevel went one-by-one to each high schooler, performing a handshake and patting them on their backs — modeling for them how to engage students.
Key components of the lesson were: building relationships and trust; providing positive reinforcement; exhibiting fair, consistent discipline; and other strategies to create a welcoming classroom environment.
“These are things that should not be new to you,” Sevel said about concepts the students have seen in the classroom and experienced, “but what is going to be new to you is how do you handle it as a teacher?”
Time as teachers
Fresno Unified’s literacy team trained high school students in the district’s Teacher Academy Program on the science of reading teaching method, which the high schoolers use to help elementary students during small group or individual sessions. Pictured is Bullard High School student Alondra Pineda Martinez with Gibson Elementary first graders Sara Her and Rowan Bettencourt. Credit: Lasherica Thornton/ EdSource
With schools within walking distance, Fresno high schoolers walk to the neighboring elementary school, where they apply the lessons they’ve learned in class.
At Gibson Elementary, first-grade teacher Hayley Caeton helped a group of her students with an assignment as others worked independently. In one corner of the room, two first graders created a small circle around Bullard High student Alondra Pineda Martinez while another first grader sat next to Bullard High student Marianna Fernandez. “What sound does it make?” the high schoolers asked as they pointed to ABC graphics.
Each week, Pineda Martinez and Fernandez covered specific concepts with the first graders in their groups based on the lesson plans that Caeton prepared.
The first graders, guided by the high schooler in front or beside them, moved from one activity to the next — from identifying words with oo vowel sounds to reading a book with many of those words.
“Good job,” Fernandez told first grader Tabias Abell.
More of Caeton’s students get academic support, as do other Gibson Elementary students across campus, because the high school students can pull them into small groups or individual sessions.
For instance, in Renae Pendola’s second-grade classroom, high schoolers provided math support as the teacher went around the class answering questions about an assignment.
Isabell Coronado and a second grader used fake coins to explore different ways to come up with 80 cents while Rebecca Lima helped three students with an imaginary transaction.
“Wouldn’t you make it just $1.24?” a student asked Lima, who reminded the group that they only had one dollar to spare at the ice cream shop, per the assignment.
Learning the reality of teaching
From the professional development to the hands-on involvement with elementary students, high schoolers in Fresno are experiencing the “daily struggle” and “joyous moments” of being a teacher, students attending Bullard, Edison and Hoover high schools told EdSource.
“It’s preparing you for what’s coming,” Edison High student Alyssa Ortiz Ramirez said. “We’re not romanticizing teachers in here; we’re being real.”
A Gibson Elementary first grader drew a picture of Bullard High School student Marianna Fernandez. Photo courtesy of Marianna Fernandez
The high school students spoke about how difficult it is to engage and educate a class full of diverse learners.
“I was confused,” Edison’s Issac Garcia Diaz said about the first time he saw different learning styles among King Elementary students. “I thought everyone learned the same.”
The high schoolers aren’t the only ones learning from the experience; elementary students are more often engaged and supported.
“It’s not just academics. They’re connecting,” Gibson Elementary’s first-grade teacher Caeton said about the teacher academy. “With an older kid, (the elementary students) just come out of their shell a little bit more.”
Hoover High junior Saraih Reyes Baltazar was able to help the diverse learners at Wolters Elementary. Baltazar, who spoke only Spanish when she emigrated from Mexico, explained science concepts to Spanish-speaking students. She narrated parts in English and parts in Spanish, hoping to make the students more comfortable to open up and use more English.
Hoover High graduating seniors Vanessa Melendrez and Johnathon Jones also provided individualized support for Wolters Elementary first graders. Melendrez usually slowed down a lesson to help kids struggling to read at grade level, and Jones most often helped students with comprehending the material.
“There’s only one teacher in the room, and there’s over 20 students,” Melendrez said. “A teacher can’t answer every question while they’re up, teaching.”
Gaining skills
Crowley, the graduating senior who worked in the Gibson Elementary fifth-grade class, said leading whole-class presentations and small-group lessons taught him public speaking and effective communication skills.
“It got me ready for the real world,” he said.
Teachers and students said the Teacher Academy Program in Fresno develops and builds skills that can be used in the teaching profession or any career, including life skills of communication, soft skills such as punctuality and personal skills of confidence.
“It’s broken me out of my shy shell,” said Bullard High’s Fernandez. “It’s taught me how to connect with people — classmates, teachers, students, everyone. It’s made me communicate in ways that I haven’t been comfortable with.”
Fernandez, a graduating senior, was able to talk with substitute teachers about what students were struggling with.
Her mom is a day care provider, and she has always enjoyed working with kids. She joined the Teacher Academy Program to test whether she’d consider majoring in education once in college.
She decided to pursue teaching as a backup plan, she said.
Hoover High School junior Kyrie Green wants to be a math teacher for high school freshmen.
Green, who is shy, viewed stepping out of her comfort zone and leading a classroom as her greatest challenge in becoming an educator.
But her time in the program has helped her speak up, she said. Now she’s looking forward to the next steps in becoming a teacher: graduating and earning a teaching certification.
Making an impact
There isn’t yet a system to track the students who go from a high school pathway into a teacher credentialing program after college, then into the education career, partly because of the number of years between high school graduation and teacher certification.
Students who’ve participated in high school educator pathway programs, such as those in Fresno, have gone on to become teachers, including Thao, the department manager. She worked at an elementary school while in high school, obtained a teaching credential and started teaching at the same elementary school.
“I did what these kids did; I know it works,” she said. “Little by little … we are making an impact.”
Still, only 18% of Americans would encourage young people to become a K-12 teacher, according to a 2022 survey by NORC, previously the National Opinion Research Center, at the University of Chicago.
With the programs in Fresno and San Joaquin County, “We have a whole group of students that are excited to go into a profession that is waning right now,” Hellstrom, Venture Academy’s division director, said.
Whether reaffirming a plan to pursue education or weighing it as an option, students told EdSource that the program has changed their perspective about teaching and has empowered them even more to become educators or to make an impact in another way.
“If I can be a teacher who gives students what they need, like attention, love or anything,” Ortiz Ramirez said, “then that’s why I want to be a teacher.”
Maya Pettiford posing in front of a San José State University sign.
Credit: Courtesy of Maya Pettiford
Going to college has always been my goal. From a very young age, there was no question in my mind that I would end up attending a four-year university. Throughout my years of schooling, high school specifically, I made sure to work hard. I turned in homework on time, studied late and, most importantly, tried my best to soak up the advice given to me to prepare for college.
I relied heavily on the words of teachers and advisers to learn what I should expect from college, because after all, why would they lie?
Now going into my third year at San Jose State University, it is clear that some of the advice I received did help me. For example, some teachers warned me against taking a gap year because it is extremely easy to lose the academic mindset even with just one year off.
However, I can confidently say that in the long run, a lot of the advice was misguided.
Myth: Cellphones will not be tolerated in college.
Many of my high school teachers treated cellphones like they were worse than the devil. The fear of sending a text to my mom during class or having a reminder notification for my doctor’s appointment go off at the wrong time was torture. Teachers would even take your phone as you entered class to ensure no one was sneaking a text under the tables or behind a laptop.
In high school, teachers are allowed to take your phone. They often told us this was to prepare us for college.
In reality, I have used my cellphone more in the past two years of college than during my entire high school experience. I have yet to meet a professor who has an aversion to cellphones. In most of my classes, my phone is required. Having a cellphone is interchangeable with having a laptop. I have on many occasions taken quizzes on my phone and used it to communicate on group student projects. You go from hiding a phone in your lap during a high school class to being told it is mandatory in college.
Myth: Professors are cold and heartless creatures
In high school, some teachers made it seem as though asking for a deadline extension or understanding of a family situation would be as pointless as pleading with a brick wall. From what I was told, I fully prepared myself to meet professors who couldn’t care less about me or the role they played in my academic future.
This could not be further from the truth. Almost all of my professors thus far have been kind and understanding of the fact that life happens. I have professors from my first semester of college that I still talk to even now. I often drop by during office hours simply to catch up. Plus, I have gotten quite a few extensions with no hassle.
Myth: College will be harder than high school.
I prepared myself for having to study for endless hours, taking tests that would surely be anxiety-inducing and following a schedule that would make a hamster wheel look relaxing. I was terrified that I would crumble under the pressure.
The truth is, the freedom you get in college could not be more different than high school. In high school, you go from waking up at the crack of dawn to be in classes for at least six hours a day, five days a week, to having maybe two or three classes a day in college that are barely more than an hour long. Yes, there are exceptions, and some classes are longer or harder than others, but with a well-thought-out schedule, college can be way less stressful than high school. I have learned that it is all about your perspective and how you choose to spend your time.
High school felt like a never-ending loop, the same thing day in and day out. Going to college is like being handed the control board of your life. Whether you choose to take a part-time job or hang out with friends at football games, it’s up to you because you are in control.
I am happy to report that not everything I was told in high school was bad. Some of it was great.
After two years in college, the best advice I would pass on to any incoming freshman is that a 7 a.m. class at college is NOT the same as a 7 a.m. class in high school. Waking up that early gets harder, especially for classes without mandatory attendance.
Avoid early morning college classes at all costs. Thank me later.
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Maya Pettiford is a third-year journalism student at San Jose State University and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.
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As many readers probably know, we have written and published a middle school reading curriculum built around the science of reading.
And now we’re writing a high school curriculum as well!
We think this is a hugely important project. There’s very little high-quality curriculum out there for high school English teachers that supports them with knowledge-rich and adaptable lessons to ensure deep study of important books.
Having been working on this project for a year or so, we’re excited to share some of the work we’ve done.
Let us start by telling you about two foundations of the high school curriculum—both of which will be familiar to those who know our middle school work.
First, our HS curriculum is book based. Statistics show that the amount of time kids spend reading at home doesn’t amount to the time they should be reading to develop and maintain their reading comprehension, according to research. To address this, we seek to build students’ love of books by centering units on full texts, not excerpts or selections, so students have time to engage deeply with the protagonist’s plight and with an author’s writing style. Additionally, we build students’ fluency by ensuring that class time (even in high school!) includes shared reading, so students read aloud and hear text pages come to life.
Second, the curriculum is knowledge-driven. As research shows, reading comprehension is directly tied to knowledge, so knowledge is infused throughout the unit where it most supports comprehension. Thinking well requires facts, and nonfiction readings and explicitly-taught vocabulary words help students unlock the deeper meanings in the anchor text. As in our middle school curriculum, dedicated retrieval practice helps students encode vocabulary, text details, and unit knowledge to strengthen their analysis of the text.
emphasis on books and knowledge is crucial for students across all grades, we recognize that there are some specific needs of high school students as they develop maturity and independence. And so a few aspects of our high school curriculum are new and different.
One hallmark of maturity is the ability to grapple with “big ideas,” those questions and issues that have reverberated through time, so in addition to daily discussion questions, the high school curriculum also includes opportunities for more extended and student-driven discussions. We’ve designed specific lesson plan formats that help teachers confidently run extended Discussion Seminars over the course of the unit, and developed and included supporting documents for teachers and students that outline the purpose and some best practices for leading and participating in discussions.
All that rich thinking and learning from discussion needs to be captured–so our curriculum supports teachers and students in intentional note taking, using the Cornell notes method. Lesson plans include spaces throughout the lesson where students can pause to recap class discussion or reflect on their learning in ways that intentionally support note taking and using notes more effectively.
Our first unit, John Steinbeck’s Mice and Men, is ready for purchase, and we’ll keep you informed as additional units are planned. In the meantime email us at ReadingCurriculum@teachlikeachampion.org if you’d like to know more or see a sample.
California’s 1.6 million high school students are starting another year, but without a critical school supply that I would argue is necessary for teens: condoms.
Why should California public high schools be required to provide condoms to students? Because condom availability programs are an effective public health strategy supported by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help keep sexually active high school students safe. According to the CDC:
This year, the Golden State has a golden opportunity to protect high school students in California from alarming statistics like these in the form of the YHES Act.
The Youth Health Equity + Safety (YHES) Act (SB 954) would expand access to condoms by requiring public and charter high schools to make free condoms readily available to students, giving them the opportunity to protect themselves from STIs that negatively impact their well-being, shorten their lifespan and easily spread to the wider community.
The organization I lead, the California School-Based Health Alliance (CSHA), helps improve health access and equity by supporting schools and health care partners to bring health services to where the kids are — at school. The alliance is a proud co-sponsor of this bill because providing condoms in California’s high schools equips young people to make healthier decisions if they choose to be sexually active.
Although some districts, such as Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified and Oakland Unified, already offer condom access programs, the majority of schools in California do not.
An online survey by TeenSource, an initiative of Essential Access Health, found that 68% of California teens lack access to condoms at their high school, and 98% agreed that easier access would increase condom use among sexually active teens.
SB 954 would require all public and charter high schools to make internal and external condoms readily available to students for free beginning at the start of the 2025-26 school year. Condoms would need to be placed in a minimum of two locations on school grounds where they are easily accessible to students during school hours without requiring assistance or permission from school staff.
California’s high school students have a right to consent to and access medically accurate, confidential, culturally relevant, and age-appropriate health services in schools. Our state has made great strides in reducing unintended pregnancy among adolescents in the past 20 years. Unfortunately, half of all reported cases of STIs in 2022 were among young people aged 15-24. The scope of the epidemic requires bold action.
This year marks the second time state Sen. Caroline Menjivar, D-Van Nuys, has moved this sensible bill through the state’s Legislature. Menjivar has secured $5 million to cover the costs of distributing free condoms in public high schools for three years. The bill also specifies that if funds are not designated for this purpose, schools have no obligation to provide free condoms — addressing any concern as to an unfunded mandate.
To reduce public health disparities, we must ensure that California youth have equitable access to condoms in high schools. Advocates for youth health and education equity urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign the YHES Act into law.
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Sergio J. Morales, MPA, is the executive director of the California School-Based Health Alliance (CSHA), a nonprofit organization that aims to improve the health and academic success of children and youth by advancing health services in schools.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. We welcome guest commentaries with diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Falling enrollments and gloomy economics point to the inevitable: Many school districts in California will close schools over the next decade. So far, they have been mainly elementary and middle schools, but high schools, spared until now, won’t escape, a newly released study by a national research and consulting organization concluded.
Rather than view closures solely as retrenchment and loss, the authors view “this period of fiscal transition” as an opportunity for districts to redesign high schools that are more engaging for students.
“This is sorely needed,” wrote researchers Paul Beach and Carrie Hahnel of Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit research and consulting firm. “Educators, policymakers, and researchers increasingly agree: The structure of high school must change.”
High school students won’t dispute that. Significant proportions of high school students have signaled they feel disconnected from school, the report notes. One-quarter were chronically absent, and only half said they had a caring relationship with a teacher or another adult at school, according to the state’s latest Healthy Kids Survey.
The paradox is that redesigning schools “often requires more money, not less,” they wrote, but the transformation is doable through strategies that could include redoing traditional seven-period schedules, expanding dual-enrollment courses with community colleges and apprenticeship opportunities, and creating hubs within a district where multiple high schools can share facilities and courses. Partnerships with government agencies, businesses and nonprofits can help shift expenses, and money from the sale of properties can help pay for new initiatives, like staff housing, they wrote.
The report, “Navigating Change: Strategies to Strengthen California High Schools Amid Declining Enrollment,” cites examples of districts that are adopting new models, like San Francisco Unified’s health and life sciences learning hub. It offers half-day programs at the University of California San Francisco Mission Bay campus for students in five district high schools with the outside funding that will survive as the district faces a massive deficit and school closings.
One way or another, consolidations will happen. After peaking at 6.3 million students in 2005, California’s enrollment has gradually been falling, and hastened by the pandemic, was 5.8 million in 2023-24. The California Department of Finance projects an additional 11% drop of 647,000 students; by 2032, there will be 5.2 million students overall.
California’s declining student enrollment
California student enrollment, 2000-’01 to 2023-’24, with projections through 2044-’45
Credit: California Dept. of Finance, Bellwether Education PartnersCredit: California Dept. of Finance, Bellwether Education Partners
As a declining birth rate and fewer immigrants work their way through the system, high schools will feel the impact last, the report said. And those closings will be the hardest to pull off, with the most community resistance.
More so than with elementary and middle schools, people have stronger emotional attachments to high schools because that’s where they come of age. They’re their alma maters; their auditoriums, stadiums, gymnasiums and classrooms are after-hours community facilities.
Districts will more likely cram in middle schools to keep high schools going, said Ron Carruth, who retired as superintendent of El Dorado Union High School District this year and is now the executive director of the California High School Coalition, a new organization that is looking at best practices and new ideas for high schools.
At some point, resistance will face reality, and districts will have to ask, “Is this a doom cycle?” Carruth said. “There will be a point where a good AP program and challenging academic and career pathways will require a certain size,” Carruth said. “Smaller than that, a school cannot be everything for everybody, particularly in rural areas.”
Beach and Hahnel, who previously held leadership roles in two California education policy nonprofits — the Opportunity Institute and Education Trust-West — urge districts to get busy on how to consolidate programs and redeploy staff.
The Legislature can help by revising state laws that “collectively stifle innovation and create a rigid high school structure,” the report said. At its meeting this month, the State Board of Education discussed potentially granting districts waivers from minimum instructional minutes to accommodate learning opportunities outside the traditional school. It plans to explore the idea further.
The report recommends re-adopting the expired pandemic-era relaxation of state laws to simplify selling surplus property so that districts can develop or lease school properties for staff housing, child care centers, or centers operated by local health agencies and nonprofits without red tape.
Addedimportance of partnerships
New partnerships will be critical to expanding student opportunities and reducing costs. The study points to some groundbreaking examples:
The city of Inglewood is spending $40 million to redesign its main library as an education and innovation center for two high schools in Inglewood Unified, which has experienced a massive, decadelong enrollment drop. The project will include a bridge linking the library to a nearby high school to ensure safe passage.
High schools and community colleges can both qualify for funding for dual enrollment courses through the College and Career Access Pathways program, especially when college professors teach courses on high school campuses.
Napa Unified is among the districts whose community schools have tapped into the state’s $4.7 billion Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative to create onsite wellness centers and expand mental health services at their high schools — facilities and programs the district could not afford on its own.
“It would be a huge benefit if you can put outside health-care and academic providers on high school campuses as they shrink,” said Carruth. “Look for synergies.”
Carruth pointed to the passage of Senate Bill 1244, authored by Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, which the coalition encouragedas a big step in the right direction. Signed into law this month, it removes a restriction that had limited dual-enrollment partnerships to a community college district closest to a school district. The new law will allow districts to enter agreements with other community colleges for courses that the local district cannot or chooses not to offer. “SB 1244 will change the lives of hundreds of thousands of students,” especially in urban areas, where students have lacked a range of dual-enrollment options, said Carruth, who added it may take a few years to reach its potential.
But beyond the issue of school closing, what’s urgently needed is to step back for a big-picture look at high schools, he said.
The Newsom administration has done “amazing things for younger kids,” Carruth said, by expanding child care and adding a new grade of transitional kindergarten. “But there has been no similar vision and investments for high schools.”
Roxann Nazario, a parent advocate and organizer from Los Angeles, said she is disappointed that schools didn’t become more innovative after the pandemic revealed structural weaknesses.
“Why aren’t we capitalizing to make schools more flexible for kids? I am frustrated they have not evolved,” said Nazario, who was interviewed by the Bellwether authors.
She points to her daughter Scarlett, an artistic high school junior, possibly with undiagnosed mild autism, who has struggled to find a school where she can thrive academically and creatively. Ideally, she would be able to take core classes in which she struggles at one school and another school that’s strong in the arts, like Champs Charter High in Los Angeles, where she went last year.
“A flexible model would meet kids where they are,” she said. “We just settle for what is and don’t push for what’s best.”
The cost of transporting students to other districts and current funding laws will be obstacles. There is currently no provision for dividing daily per-student funding among districts. A district that offers a minimum of four classes per day receives full funding. But there are discussions to lower the minimum reimbursement to three classes per day to encourage more dual enrollment programs, and that could open the door to further options, Carruth said.
The state should also re-examine the Local Control Funding Formula, which Carruth said has shortchanged high schools since its adoption a decade ago. The authors of the formula simply added 20% more funding to the base funding amount for seventh and eighth graders to determine high school funding per student. The rationale was that high schools were required to offer 20% more instructional minutes than middle schools.
“That (falsely) assumes high school is just a bigger middle school,” Carruth said. “We made a mistake during the creation of (the funding formula) that we didn’t adjust what it costs to run a high school.”
But with budget forecasters projecting stable, if not lean years ahead, high schools probably won’t get an infusion of funding any time soon. Meanwhile, dropping enrollments, which will lead to declining revenue in many districts, will underscore the study’s call for rethinking how to spend the limited funding high schools will receive.
“There’s a pent-up demand for re-envisioning high school,” Carruth said.
Added Nazario, “Many kids are just getting by, not thriving.”
A student practices graphing in Algebra I at Rudsdale Newcomer High School in Oakland.
Anne Wernikoff for EdSource
Enrolling students in high school math courses is a high-stakes endeavor with an outsize effect on students’ college opportunities and even on their entire careers.
The pressure to reach Calculus by a student’s senior year of high school often translates into pressure to take Algebra I, the first course in a five-course sequence, by eighth grade. Algebra I (or Integrated Math I) is considered a ninth grade course, but taking it on that schedule typically doesn’t allow students to meet the prerequisites for Calculus in their remaining three years of high school. This is important when we consider that advanced math classes on a student’s transcript can boost their chances of admission to certain colleges.
But the benefits of eighth-grade math acceleration are neutralized when students who perform well in Algebra I are nevertheless required to repeat that course in ninth grade.
Students of color and low-income students face that predicament disproportionately under their schools’ placement practices. This glaring inequity was highlighted more than a decade ago by civil rights advocates in California — and confirmed in multiple research studies since then, including this one by our organizations last year.
Legislation targeting this unfair practice was passed in 2015. It requires the use of multiple objective measures to place students. “Successful pupils are achieving a grade of ‘B’ or better, or are testing at proficient or even advanced proficiency on state assessments. Nevertheless, they are held back to repeat 8th-grade mathematics coursework rather than advancing to the next course in the recommended mathematics course sequence,” the legislation noted.
But nine years since the bill’s passage, we still lack a clear picture of its impact — if any — on equitable ninth-grade math placement. In the meantime, numerous states have adopted policies that have demonstrated preliminary success in expanding access to acceleration opportunities in middle and/or high school.
California cannot afford to leave this equity issue to chance — especially because what we know to date about the implementation of California’s policy is not encouraging.
The law, the California Math Placement Act of 2015, requires a “fair, objective, and transparent” math placement policy using multiple objective measures of student performance to determine placement. It discourages the use of subjective measures such as teacher recommendations, because of the risk of bias. In particular, it says that teacher recommendations may be used only to advance students, not to hold them back.
But, according to a recent report from Rand Corp., high schools in California are more likely than schools elsewhere to use teacher recommendations to inform how students are placed into math classes.
In fact, data from the survey of high school principals analyzed in the report suggest that 95% of California high schools that track students into different math courses use teacher recommendations as part of their placement process. That’s more than the national average of 86% and far more than other large states such as Florida (56%), New York (78%) and Texas (70%).
In what appears to be a violation of the law, almost a third (31%) of California schools — more than twice the national average of 14% — use recommendation data exclusively.
Put another way, only 69% of California principals report using some form of assessment data — whether grade-level tests, diagnostic tests, in-class tests, or classroom assignments — to inform placement decisions. Nationally, the proportion was 85%, the researchers found.
Without further research, we won’t know why these teacher recommendation practices prevail. More importantly, we won’t know whether the past decade has brought any improvement in access to accelerated course sequences for students of color and low-income students. The available research on 12th grade course-taking before the Covid-19 pandemic shows continued inequities in access to advanced math for students who are Black, Latino, socioeconomically disadvantaged or English learners.
The issue of teacher recommendations is a nuanced one, as researchers from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) pointed out in 2016. If bias is addressed, teacher input can have benefits — by accounting for factors such as students’ motivation and persistence, which metrics such as test scores may obscure. But no research suggests they should be used to the exclusion of objective measures.
The provision that teacher recommendations can be used only to advance students creates opportunities for students who perform better in class than on standardized assessments. PPIC noted that schools need better guidelines to comply with that provision. Many schools using recommendations may be doing so appropriately. But without further research, it’s hard to imagine how the 31% of schools that are relying solely on teacher recommendations and no assessment data could be doing what the law envisioned.
That is why we need clear measures of how students are being placed into math classes across the state.
While California has been in the dark about students’ math enrollment patterns, numerous other states have adopted automatic enrollment policies. Under such policies, students who meet a certain benchmark in math are automatically enrolled in an advanced math course the following year. Such enrollment policies have shown promise to address the very problem California lawmakers set out to fix nearly a decade ago.
Beginning in 2014, districts in Washington state widened access to more rigorous math for Black and Latino students, whose enrollment in accelerated sequences increased by 3.1 percent more than their peers. As a result, Washington mandated automatic enrollment across the state in 2019.
North Carolina adopted similar legislation in 2018, guaranteeing accelerated math opportunities for students who score at the highest level on an end-of-grade test.
Schools in Dallas have also demonstrated success with this approach. From 2019-20 to 2022-23, the proportion of Black and Latino students who met fifth-grade standards and subsequently enrolled in sixth-grade honors math increased from 58% to 92% and 69% to 94%, respectively. These results led Texas to adopt its own statewide automatic enrollment policy last year.
Given the major role math placement exerts on students’ future opportunities, California leaders similarly should insist on rigorously measuring access to advanced math courses to ensure that it is equitable regardless of race or socioeconomic background.
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Pamela Burdman is executive director at Just Equations, a policy institute that reconceptualizes the role of math in education equity.
Rachel Ruffalo is senior director of strategic advocacy at EdTrust-West, an evidence-driven advocacy organization committed to advancing policies and practices to dismantle racial and economic barriers in California’s education system.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
