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  • How veteran teachers can support new ones and keep them in the profession

    How veteran teachers can support new ones and keep them in the profession


    Middle school history teachers discuss their lesson plans for teaching about the Great Depression.

    Credit: Allison Shelley / American Education

    My first year of teaching was the worst year of my life. 

    I remember preparing for the new school year, prepping my classroom and making lesson plans. If you know the Central Valley of California, you know the summer heat and heavy lifting in a classroom are not the most desirable combination. However, I had hope in my heart, and I was so excited for my career to finally begin! 

    Then I made the grave mistake of going into the copy room packed with veteran teachers. I was eager to learn from them; they had the experience I lacked. One gave me a tip to “not smile until October” so the kids would know I was a tough teacher. One advised me to stick to worksheets so that I didn’t burn out. 

    While these bits of advice were well-intentioned, they were not what a budding teacher needed. Teaching is an extremely difficult profession, but it is also incredibly rewarding. There is an extreme learning curve for new teachers. Despite the credential program and a mentor teacher’s best efforts, nothing can thoroughly prepare you for your first classroom. 

    It’s no secret that there is a mass exodus of teachers leaving the profession. To keep people in the profession, we need to support them throughout. If the support is consistent and starts when a teacher first enters the school, there can be a shift in the number of people leaving and the school’s overall culture. 

    As I said, the copy room was a hot spot for negative talk. At every school I have worked in, this has reigned true. Instead of continuing to let the negative talk fester, I propose making the copy room a hub for ideas to be shared and support to be given. Dedicating a space on the wall where teachers can “shout out” each other can quickly change the room’s vibe. Having funny memes posted by the printer about how it’s always “jammin’.” A designated space where teachers can drop off or pick up extra supplies. Best yet, make every first Monday a little treat day. Each department takes turns bringing small treats. These little things can help build a culture and safe place for teachers, especially the newer ones, to feel supported. 

     Another method to support new teachers is to create a partnership between them and a veteran teacher. This veteran does not even need to be in the same content area. Instead, an experienced teacher that matches a new teacher in personality or classroom management style can be extremely beneficial. I distinctly remember the veteran teachers who guided me through my first few years, and I’m eternally grateful for them.

    One important aspect, however, is that veteran teachers must volunteer for this. Pushing this vital role on somebody who doesn’t want it would not work. This partnership can look like once a week, 30-minute check-in meetings. It can be regular, short observations. Maybe the two teachers team-teach a lesson while an administrator covers one of their classes. This partnership, however it is laid out, can be rich in growth for the veteran and new teacher. 

    Teachers of all ranks need to continue to grow and update their methods. This can be done by creating a culture of observation without the “gotcha!” feeling. Administrators can simply pop in, offer compliments, support, and notes in general, and then leave. Teachers working on the same content can observe others, offer feedback, and see new methods. The frequency of observations can help spot any areas of growth and strengths. As new teachers learn their individual teaching styles, it’s important that they be observed constructively, and it should be done often. 

    Inundating new teachers with supplemental training, resource books and websites can be overwhelming and exhausting. The goal is to support new teachers so they stay in the profession and feel appreciated. They do not need to hear horror stories constantly, receive unhelpful criticism or feel isolated. This will only increase the number of teachers leaving the profession.

    Teachers, administrators and support staff can all make an effort to openly welcome and support new teachers. Inviting a teacher to the staff outing, getting them the school shirt, helping them staple borders on the walls and supporting them however they need will make a difference in their career.

    •••

    Kati Begen is a high school biology educator and credential coach in Fresno and has earned a multiple-subject credential, a single-subject credential and a master’s degree in teaching.

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





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  • Russ Vought Will Keep the DOGS going Without Elon

    Russ Vought Will Keep the DOGS going Without Elon


    In case you wondered, I now call DOGE something else. I call it DOGS, although truthfully that’s not fair to dogs. Dogs are wonderful creatures; In my experience, dogs give you unconditional loyalty and love. These DOGS are loyal to one man, Elon Musk. They are shredding the federal government, destroying the careers and lives of tens of thousands of professional civil servants. They have gathered our personal data. They are embedded in high-level positions across the government. They should all be fired and sent back to Elon Musk.

    But the bigger risk to our democracy is Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, one of the most powerful positions in the federal government. He is a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist. He is working in opposition to the Founding Fathers, who made clear their intention to keep religion out of government.

    Democracy Docket reports on Vought:

    Though Elon Musk is leaving the White House, DOGE isn’t going anywhere.

    It appears that Russell Vought — Trump’s budget hawk and one of the chief architects of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — is stepping in to become DOGE’s new power broker.

    With Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist, at the helm, the slash-and-burn effort against the federal government may be on the cusp of an even darker turn.

    In many ways, Vought is what Musk is not. After working at public policy organizations for nearly two decades, he has a far better understanding of how the government works — and how its weaknesses can be exploited. Despite advising Trump for almost 10 years, he’s also kept a fairly low profile, rarely giving interviews or speaking in public. 

    And Vought appears to be motivated first and foremost by creating a Christian nation controlled by an overtly Christian government. 

    Last year, Vought told undercover journalists with the Centre for Climate Reporting that he wants “to make sure that we can say we are a Christian nation.”

    “And my viewpoint is mostly that I would probably be Christian nation-ism,” Vought said. “That’s pretty close to Christian nationalism because I also believe in nationalism.”

    To achieve that, Vought said in the interview he seeks to replace the non-partisan and merit-based federal civil service with a bureaucracy in which employment hinges on allegiance to Trump. He said he also seeks to impound congressionally approved funding, help coordinate mass deportations and find ways to let Trump use the military to put down protesters.

    As former Trump adviser Steve Bannon recently told The Atlantic, “Russ has got a vision. He’s not an anarchist. He’s a true believer.”

    Federal agencies, in particular the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), have already implemented numerous policies that Vought drafted to achieve those goals.

    Earlier this year, OPM proposed new regulations that would formally revive Schedule F, a key tool developed by Vought to gut the federal government and replace career public servants with partisan ideologues.

    In another move championed by Vought, the personnel office last week also announced a s0-called “Merit Hiring Plan” that would, if implemented, ask prospective hires for the thousands of DOGE-induced vacancies across the federal government to write short essays explaining their levels of patriotism and support for the president’s policies.

    “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired,” reads one of the essay prompts.

    Vought, too, has recently taken steps to impound funds. 

    This week, the White House sent Congress proposed spending cuts — also called a rescission package — that’s been backed by Vought in order to formalize cuts made by DOGE. The $9.4 billion package targets funding for NPR, PBS, the U.S. Agency for International Development and other foreign aid spending.

    The rescission process allows a president to avoid spending money on discretionary programs, and since rescission bills only require simple majority approval in the House and Senate, there’s a chance some of the proposed cuts will become law. If they do, they will be the first presidentially proposed rescissions accepted by Congress since 1999. 

    If Congress doesn’t pass the package, the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which restricts when and how the president can delay or withhold federal funds, requires Trump to release the funds — that’s assuming that the administration follows the law. 

    The same day the White House sent Congress the package, Vought threatened that if lawmakers don’t pass the rescissions, the executive branch would find ways to override Congress’ constitutional authority to allocate funding.

    “We are dusting off muscle memory that existed for 200 years before President Nixon in the 1970s and Congress acted to try to take away the president’s ability to spend less,” Vought said.

    When asked by CNN whether he was attempting to tee up a legal fight to challenge the Impoundment Control Act as unconstitutional, Vought implied he was.

    “We’re certainly not taking impoundment off of the table. We’re not in love with the law,” Vought said.



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  • Let’s keep our promise to California students

    Let’s keep our promise to California students


    2024 Student Voices Arts Advocacy Day at Cal Arts

    Credit: Las Fotos Photography

    Middle school students eagerly swiping paintbrushes across canvases, a group of fifth graders rehearsing lines from their upcoming play, and a first-time high school cello player thrilled to be part of the orchestra — all beaming with confidence, excited to attend school, and developing critical life and career skills.

    These are scenes that California voters, who overwhelmingly passed Proposition 28 in 2022, expect in every school. Ensuring every student benefits from the power of the arts is why I joined Create CA, the arts education advocacy organization, as executive director six months ago. I firmly believe, and research has shown, that the arts are critical for a well-rounded education and student success.

    Unfortunately, student access to the arts is inequitable and often depends on the unpredictability of local fundraising, community advocacy and school districts prioritizing the arts. Voters passed Proposition 28 to address these challenges. 

    The promise of Proposition 28 is increased access to the arts for all California public school students by providing dedicated, ongoing funding to expand the number of arts education teachers. Regrettably, we’ve heard that some districts are not complying with the law and the voters’ mandate to use the new funds to supplement (i.e., expand), not supplant (i.e., replace), their existing arts education funding.

    Californians voted for more arts education for all students, not the status quo. Create CA has been in touch with school leaders, teachers, parents and students who have shared examples of success, which we celebrate. In contrast, others have disclosed suspected violations in their respective school districts. 

    Districts meeting the promise of Proposition 28 have several things in common: a dedicated district arts education coordinator, an arts education strategic plan developed with community input, and a Proposition 28 report (mandated by the law) that clearly describes how their school district used the new funds to expand arts education. A great example is San Gabriel Unified, which outlines in its Proposition 28 report the hiring of two new art teachers, more dance and theater instruction at its elementary schools, and other investments that further its arts strategic plan. 

    Another exemplary model is the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD). The district formed a committee and implemented a plan that included creating job descriptions, arts curriculum planning, coaching and a Proposition 28 communication strategy. The result is that Long Beach hired itinerant teachers from all arts disciplines across its 35 elementary schools and added nine middle school positions and six high school positions. Because of these measures, every student will have access to the arts from K-12th grades, as the proposition intended. 

    On the other hand, some communities suspect their districts are willfully violating Proposition 28’s intention. Parents, unions and the author of the proposition are suing the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for eliminating existing funding for the arts and replacing it with Proposition 28 funds. We’ve spoken with teachers at Chula Vista Elementary School District who allege that the district intended to fire arts education teachers with the plan of rehiring them with Proposition 28 funds, skirting the law’s intention. In Hayward Unified, one teacher noted that “5.8 positions currently funded from Proposition 28 are being cut.” One of Create CA’s student advocates wrote a story on South Pasadena Unified’s plan to move funding for their elementary visual arts and music teachers from a “temporary funding source to this Prop 28 restricted permanent resource.” These examples demonstrate that school districts statewide may be denying students the right to more arts education as voters demanded. 

    We know schools face multiple challenges, but students deserve better. Arts education can help schools meet many of their challenges and help save money by reducing dropout rates, increasing attendance, attracting more community support and improving academics and mental health. All school districts should follow the law of Proposition 28 to ensure all their students have access to all the arts, all year. It’s every student’s right.

    •••

    Veronica Alvarez, EdD, is Executive director of Create CA, a nonprofit that advocates for high quality arts education for all students.

    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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  • Disrespect, low pay, lack of support keep Black teachers out of the profession

    Disrespect, low pay, lack of support keep Black teachers out of the profession


    Teachers Preston Jackson, right, and Dave Carson confer during a P.E. class at California Middle School in Sacramento.

    Credit: Randall Benton / EdSource

    Petrina Miller remembers, as a young teacher in Los Angeles Unified, helping another teacher during district testing and noticing that the teacher was giving Black students and other students of color the answers. Miller asked her why she was doing that.

    “Let them have a productive struggle,” Miller said. “Let them try, and whatever score they get is what they get. And that’s fine.”

    The teacher said, “Poor little babies, they don’t know any better,” in a way that made Miller uncomfortable. On another day, the same teacher used a racist term to refer to Miller, who is Black.

    Black teachers: how to recruit THEM and make them stay

    This is the first part of a special series on the recruitment and retention of Black teachers in California. The recruitment and hiring of Black educators has lagged, even as a teacher shortage has given the task new urgency.

    Our series looks at the obstacles that keep Black people from becoming teachers, and the bias and lack of support some face when they join the profession.

    The second story in the series features the stories of five Black teachers, who will talk about their experiences in the classroom. The final story will look at what California and school districts are doing to recruit and retain Black teachers, and what still needs to be done.

    The incidents were reported to the principal, but the teacher continued to work at the school. Miller isn’t sure if she was ever disciplined.

    California and other states have been trying to recruit and retain Black teachers for years, but the numbers aren’t improving. Among the factors impeding this goal, along with the cost of teacher preparation, is a lack of support and respect for Black teachers once they are in the classroom, according to teachers.

    “Black teachers leave the profession because they don’t feel supported for what they are able to bring to the table in terms of their unique experiences, and they leave because of the fact that they are not seen as equal to their colleagues,” said Brenda Walker, a Black teacher who is president of Associated Chino Teachers. 

    In the 2020-21 school year, the most recent data available, 3.8% of all teachers in California were Black, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Black students made up 5.2% of the state’s student population that year, according to the California Department of Education. 

    Number of Black teachers declining nationwide

    The state is doing better than the nation as a whole. Just over 6% of U.S. teachers were Black in the 2021-21 school year; 1.3% of U.S. teachers were Black men. Black students made up 15% of the students that year. The number of Black teachers in the U.S. has been declining for years.

    A growing body of research shows that having a teacher of color in the classroom is important to students of color, resulting in higher test scores and a greater likelihood of graduating from college. Research also shows that having Black teachers in the classroom has a positive impact on all students, regardless of their race, said Travis Bristol, an associate professor of education at UC Berkeley, who has done extensive research on the topic.

    “The framing, I think historically, has been that Black teachers are just good for Black students,” Bristol said. “And while that is true, it is also true that Black teachers are lowering the suspension rates of students who are not Black.”

    Roadblocks to teaching begin early 

    The first hurdle for potential Black teachers comes early, while they are still students in K-12 schools, Bristol said. 

    “We suspend and expel a disproportionate number of Black children,” he said. “There is evidence, there’s research that if you are suspended and expelled, it decreases the likelihood that you then move on to pursue a higher education.” 

    The cost of teacher preparation is a major roadblock to a credential. Tuition, the cost of required tests and unpaid student teaching have kept many Black people out of the profession, according to teachers interviewed by EdSource.

    Black teachers owe an average of $43,000 more in college debt than white graduates 12 years after graduation, according to the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit education research organization. The low salary of new teachers and the high amount of college debt associated with five years of college can dissuade Black people from becoming teachers. Many also aren’t financially able to quit their jobs to complete the 600 hours of unpaid student teaching required to complete a credential.

    Brooke Sims, a first-grade teacher in Stockton, who also serves as a mentor teacher, says she’s still struggling to repay student loans after 16 years of teaching. 

    “I definitely believe free classes, free courses or free programs … would help recruit and retain more teachers,” she said.

    Lack of funds pushes Black teachers into internships

    To help pay the bills, many Black teachers take an internship instead of the traditional route to a credential, which includes student teaching with a mentor teacher. Interns work as full-time teachers while undergoing teacher preparation. They are paid, but they are put into classrooms with little preparation during the first few years of teaching.

    “They hire you on Friday, you are in a classroom on Monday,” said Miller, who  started her career with LA Unified as an intern 26 years ago. “You have maybe a week. It felt that quick. Along the way, you went to teach, went to training and learned on the job.”

    A lack of mentors meant Miller met with the one appointed by the program about once every three months. Later, a traveling mentor was hired by the program and visited the school monthly, but primarily to drop off materials, she said.

    “As a teacher of color, it was a struggle,” Miller said. “I had to try to find my own support from someone else.”

    Turnover rates in K–12 schools for teachers of color are higher than their white counterparts. In 2022 the turnover rate for Black teachers was 22%. The turnover rate for white teachers is 15%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Black teachers interviewed for the 2023 State of the American Teacher Survey reported significantly higher rates of burnout than white teachers and were more likely to report low salaries as a source of stress.

    Teachers sometimes feel undervalued, disrespected  

    Teachers interviewed by EdSource said their work has been scrutinized more closely than their peers, and they have felt disrespected or undervalued because they are Black.

    “What we know is that, because Black teachers are positioned, in particular Black men teachers, are positioned as enforcers first and teacher second, that they’re not always viewed by their white colleagues as having expertise as it relates to teaching and learning,” Bristol said.

    Krystle Goff, a targeted student population coordinator at 122nd Street Elementary in Los Angeles, says Black teachers are under pressure to be perfect. They feel they have to continually prove themselves to administrators and other teachers. Black teachers aren’t given the same grace as their counterparts, she said.

    “It feels like we’re coming up short. It feels like we’re not meeting the criteria, and so, we exit the field altogether,” said Goff, who is responsible for the redesignation of English learners at the school.

    The heightened scrutiny and lack of support of Black teachers comes from colleagues of all races, including fellow Black teachers and administrators, Goff said.

    “I think that because we work for a system that sort of perpetuates that cycle of power and just white supremacy, we don’t know how to support (one another), Goff said.  … “You don’t even realize that how you’re interacting with each other is just not productive.”

    Black teachers say they sometimes feel dismissed by people who question whether they are teachers while they are carrying out their duties.

    “I’ve shown up to field trips where I was the teacher that had arranged the field trip, and I’ve got my backpack on,” Sims said. “I’ve got a badge on with keys. I have a T-shirt that matches the children’s T-shirt that says I belong to this school. And I’m like, ‘Hi, I’m Ms. Sims. I called. We’re here for our field trip.’ ‘Well, (they ask). ‘Are you the teacher’?”

    “We’re automatically, a lot of times, dismissed, or it’s assumed that we’re not the teacher,” said Preston Jackson, a physical education teacher at California Middle School in Sacramento.  “(They assume) we’re the campus monitor, or we’re the custodian. So right off the bat, you’re having to fight that type of bias that is still out there because there aren’t that many Black teachers.”

    Being a teacher is hard, but being a Black teacher is harder, Jackson said.

    “Ninety percent you probably are going to be on a site where you’re the only one there,” Jackson said. “And so, you’re not going to have someone there that has gone through a similar process, because being a Black teacher is a completely different situation.” 

    Inadequate support, feelings of isolation

    A recent survey of 128 former and current Black teachers by the Black Educator Advocates Network titled “What Schools must Do to Retain Black Educators,” found that these teachers face challenges in expressing their cultural identity, ranging from discomfort with colleagues’ comments, to a lack of support in addressing racism within their schools. Some teachers mentioned feeling isolated or encountering resistance when discussing anti-Blackness or organizing cultural events. 

    “Just as all students benefit from the experience of having  classroom teachers from diverse backgrounds, school districts benefit from educators who bring their expansive experiences of many cultures to their school communities,” Chino Valley’s Walker told EdSource. “But, showing up as our true and authentic selves is not always understood and appreciated. School districts should make implicit bias training mandatory for all employees, not just once, but on an annual basis.”

    Sims agrees that implicit bias training is important, but she remembers attending a training session that left her feeling uncomfortable and angry. She remembers a discussion about students who couldn’t afford to buy clothes that complied with the school’s dress code. One teacher at the training said: “These kids” can’t come to school prepared, but they come to school with brand-new Jordans, Sims said.

    “Well, I know what that coded language means when you’re talking about children wearing Jordans,” Sims said. “I know you’re talking about Black children. Obviously, everybody wears Jordans. But that was the time that I got really heated. And I said to myself, ‘Brooke, walk out the room, get some air because part of you wants to correct that person.’ And I probably should have.”

    Since that incident, Sims has become part of her union’s executive board and has taken training from the California Teachers Association on how to deal with racist comments and microaggression.

    “I’m just learning to be OK to do that at 41 years old,” she said.

    Cultural brokering often expected

    Black teachers say they are often saddled with extra responsibilities, including serving as liaisons to Black families and disciplining Black students because of their race. 

    More than half of the respondents to the Black Educator Advocates Network survey said that because of their race, they are expected to educate others about racism and are expected to lead professional development sessions, teach classes on Black identity and address racism in various ways at their schools.

    Collectively, the experiences of Black educators, coupled with being tasked with working with Black families disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, have left Black teachers exhausted, Alicia Simba, a transitional kindergarten teacher in Oakland Unified, told EdSource. 

    “It’s difficult when kids are carrying so much and parents are carrying so much, and wanting to be there to help them can be physically exhausting, as well as emotionally exhausting,” Simba said. “I think a lot of conversation around (teacher) burnout comes from that.”

    Black teachers may feel they have to leave the profession to preserve their emotional well-being, even if they love the kids and the community and love to teach, Simba said, adding that teachers who work in schools with a large population of Black students also put in extra work because those schools are usually under-resourced.

    “I’m working longer hours because we don’t have the cleaning staff that other schools might have, or a regular custodian like other schools might have,” Simba said. “So, I’m spending extra time having to clean up, or maybe I’m spending extra money on getting books for the kids because our budget isn’t as big as other schools or, with other schools, they might fundraise.”





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  • Let’s learn how well California’s efforts to attract and keep teachers are working

    Let’s learn how well California’s efforts to attract and keep teachers are working


    Courtesy: Eric Lewis / SFUSD

    An important bill making its way through the Legislature could help California’s schools better recruit and retain teachers.

    Senate Bill 1391 would require the state’s new Cradle to Career (C2C) Data System to provide data that answers critical questions about California’s teacher workforce, including trends in teacher training, credentialing, hiring, retention, and the effectiveness of key programs aimed at addressing the teacher shortage.

    I think about this bill as I prepare to lead a summer science workshop for nearly two dozen new middle and high school science teachers from diverse backgrounds. We will be working through our core science curriculum before the next year starts.

    I know these teachers’ first few years in the classroom will be challenging, and their first year is the most challenging. They are often overwhelmed by time management issues: planning their lessons, grading students’ work, attending many meetings at their school site and in the district, all while trying to build relationships with their students.

    These first-year challenges show up clearly in our data. In my district last year, about 17% of our pre-K-12 teaching staff left their positions. This means that we need many new teachers, and especially teachers from diverse backgrounds, to work with our heterogeneous students. 

    The good news is that California is attempting to stem the loss of teachers through a variety of innovative programs and resources. There has been an effort to bring more people into the profession through the Golden State Teacher Grant, which pays teacher candidates a stipend while they get their credential, and a variety of teacher residency programs run in partnership with our school districts. The National Board Certification grants for teachers will also help keep many teachers in the profession through opportunities for additional professional learning and the possibility of additional funds once teachers become certified.

    In my district, like many others, we have built teacher housing in our city and have had recent wins for pay raises. We have also been using state incentives for teachers working in difficult-to-fill subjects and schools.

    All of these programs are great and are clearly part of the solution, but are they working? How can we know? Is all of this money and support actually getting to the teachers and populations that need it? Is the state doing enough to provide us with the data to help us make the right decisions? Currently, we don’t have the information to answer those questions.

    The Cradle-to-Career dashboard could provide critical data on how effective our teacher grant programs and teacher training pipelines are, but it has not yet lived up to its potential. As the governor and Legislature are debating difficult choices about our state resources, including SB 1391, we cannot back off investing in the future of our workforce — first understanding clearly which programs work and which don’t, and then doing everything we can to maintain the programs that ensure every student has access to a well-supported teacher who reflects the diversity of our state. 

    Once we know what works, we should play the long game and really focus on what our new teachers need to be well-prepared and supported. We need to be targeted in how we recruit diverse populations into the teaching profession. Our teacher education programs need to help link our newest teachers to mentoring programs and affinity groups to help them through the challenges of their first few years. We need to identify and support programs that provide mentors or provide pay for new teachers to have an extra prep period (these programs are few and far between but help keep our newest teachers from burning out quickly). Through all this, we need to remain laser focused on what helps our incredibly diverse student population to be successful. Let’s ensure that the Cradle-to-Career database informs us on how to make this future come to pass.

    So, while I don’t know how many of the teachers I work with at my summer science institute will still be in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) next year, I’m hopeful that they will be. And I hope we’ll have the data to better understand why they’ve stayed, so we can know what to do better next year and into the future.

    •••

    Eric Lewis is a secondary science content specialist in the science department of curriculum and instruction in the San Francisco Unified School District, where he supports middle and high school science teachers. He is a 2023-24 Teach Plus California Policy Fellow. 

    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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  • School year already underway at some California districts as start dates keep creeping earlier

    School year already underway at some California districts as start dates keep creeping earlier


    Parents line up to take photos of their children on the first day of school Tuesday at George Washington Elementary School in Lodi.

    Credit: Diana Lambert / EdSource

    Children wearing colorful new backpacks, parents in tow, hugged and high-fived Principal Gina Lopez and other school staff as they streamed under an arch of multicolored balloons, accompanied by pulsating music, on the first day of school at George Washington Elementary School in Lodi on Tuesday. 

    Lodi Unified in San Joaquin County was among the first California school districts to return to school this year, beginning just after Sweetwater Union High School District in San Diego, which reopened on July 24. Some districts, many with year-round schedules, started even earlier.

    California school districts have moved away from the September return to school that was common in California and other states until the 1990s. School districts sometimes made the change to allow students to complete their semester studies and take their final exams before the winter break. It also gives students more time to prepare for state standardized tests.

    Sweetwater Union decided to complete its first semester by December to maximize instruction days before Advanced Placement testing, according to a statement from the district.

    “Key educational benefits to an earlier start date include reducing summer learning loss, alleviating overcrowding in schools, and aligning the calendar with four feeder districts — Chula Vista Elementary, San Ysidro, National School District, and South Bay — allowing families to coordinate vacations and child care more effectively,” according to the district statement.

    An EdSource survey of California’s 30 largest school districts this year found that all are returning to school before the Labor Day holiday in September and 21 of those are returning by Aug. 15. In 2014, seven of the 30 largest school districts were still starting school after Labor Day, according to an EdSource survey that year. 

    Some districts that instituted earlier start dates have opted to end the school year earlier, but others have shortened the summer break and added days off during the school year.

    California isn’t the only state returning to school early. About 70% of U.S. students had returned to school by Aug. 25 last school year, according to the Pew Research Center. 

    Summer shortened decades ago

    The students at George Washington Elementary and other Lodi Unified schools are used to returning to school in late July or early August — the district has been doing it for about two decades. Sweetwater Union High School District has been returning to school in late July for more than a decade.

    Lodi Unified moved its schools to a year-round schedule in the late 1980s because of overcrowding. It changed course in the early 1990s, after high schools struggled with the schedule, and began to move schools to a modified traditional schedule as they built more schools, said Superintendent Neil Young. Today, all of its schools are on a schedule that divides the year into quarters with a two-week break after each one. 

    Most parents and teachers have been in favor of the calendar and there has been no interest in changing it, Young said. 

    “I know for our teachers to be able to do a reset at the end of each quarter and begin the new quarter refreshed has been a positive,” he said. “And I have heard teachers say they appreciate that.”

    George Washington Elementary teachers Jenny Hampton and Natalie Smalley agree. They both prefer the regular breaks to a longer summer.

    “Those two weeks every nine to 10 weeks, like the kids are ready for a break, we’re ready for a break and so we just, we like that better,” Hampton said.

    Students excited for new year

    Sisters Karina Barron and Maria Barron remember starting school in July when they were students in Lodi Unified schools. On Tuesday they were dropping their children off at school. Their families like the school calendar, they said.

    “They kept asking when school started,” said Karina Barron of the children.

    The kindergarten through sixth-grade students streaming through the doors of George Washington Elementary seemed excited to be back in school. 

    “It’s better to be learning, so in the future I can have more life skills,” said Emmanuel, a sixth-grade student. His favorite subject is math.

    It’s all new to kindergartners

    Kindergartners in Kristen McDaniel’s class have no recollection of a time when school started in September. On Tuesday they each sat on a square on a rug in the middle of the classroom, much like decades of students before them. On a stool in the corner, one little girl wept, reluctant to join the group.

    McDaniel, who has taught kindergarten in the same classroom at George Washington Elementary for 25 years, knows the first day can be tough for her students. Everything takes longer on the first day of school, she said.

    The first day of school can be difficult for kindergartners not accustomed to being away from their parents. Shortly after this picture was taken, this little girl calmed down and had a great day, reported her teacher at George Washington Elementary in Lodi.
    Credit: Diana Lambert / EdSource

    “They don’t know where their cubbies are,” McDaniel said. “They don’t know how to walk in, where to go. So, it took a little bit of extra time today in order to get them to the carpet to circle time.”

    The first day can also be tough for teachers. McDaniel repeatedly told one boy to sit and not to lie on the rug, and twice had to gently remove the hand of a girl who grabbed at the book she was reading to the class.

    “This first day is so hard, and if it stayed this way, no one would ever, ever do it,” McDaniel said. “You couldn’t pay me enough to do this every single day. But the growth that you get at kindergarten versus other grade levels, it’s just incredible. And that’s why I do it, because I remind myself of this day and how they didn’t even know how to sit or just wanted to lay down on the carpet instead.”

    By the end of kindergarten, the students will be reading, adding and subtracting and focusing on literature, she said.

    McDaniel started the day by reading “Your Teacher’s Pet Creature,” which reinforces positive classroom behavior and introduces students to the stuffed class pet. During circle time, each child passed the class pet to the child sitting beside them, after reciting their name and receiving a welcome from the class in return.

    “The point of that first circle time is to build community, to get them to feel like they’re a part of the class and to learn about each other,” McDaniel said.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Yl6qWrfzE

    Kristen McDaniel, who has taught kindergarten in the same classroom for 25 years, started the first day at George Washington Elementary in Lodi Unified with an opening circle to help the student acclimate to being in school, and to develop a sense of community in the classroom. Each child passed around the class pet, a stuffed creature, after reciting their name and receiving a welcome in return.

    With introductions made and cubbies squared away, McDaniel dived into instruction, holding up a flash card with an apple to introduce the letter A. Shortly after, the little girl in the corner wiped away her tears and joined the group.

    “She actually had a great rest of the day, reported McDaniel. 

    The kindergartner wasn’t the only one overcome emotionally at the start of school. Principal Lopez said she became emotional when she visited classrooms the day before school, especially when she saw that the old mismatched desks and chairs had been replaced with new furniture.

    “This is like my 24th year, but you know, every beginning is always special,” said Lopez. “Right? Because this is my heart.”

    EdSource reporters Mallika Sheshadri, Lasherica Thornton, Emma Gallegos, Zaidee Stavely and Betty  Márquez Rosales contributed to this report.





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  • How to keep young Black and Latino teachers from leaving LAUSD

    How to keep young Black and Latino teachers from leaving LAUSD


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    Younger Black and Latino teachers are some of the most passionate educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District — and they are also at the highest risk of leaving the profession, according to a new report. 

    The survey, which involved interviews conducted in early 2024, found that roughly one-third of Gen Z Black and Latino teachers expect to leave their careers in education. Seventy-one percent of those teachers said they expected to do so within two years, either to find a higher paying job or seek a position with a better work-life balance.

    “I thought I would be a teacher forever,” said a Latina high school teacher quoted in the survey report. “I feel very confused and sad that I have to consider leaving something that I’m very passionate about and very good at, and I work so hard at.” 

    LAUSD has made several efforts to boost both pipelines into teaching professions for current students of color and to help teachers already in the district stay where they are, according to Jacob Guthrie, the district’s director of recruitment, selection and retention. 

    “Having a representative workforce means better outcomes for students,” he said in an interview with EdSource. “And the district is committed to providing pathways and support for our Gen Z educators of color so that they can feel supported and they remain with us as district employees.” 

    The survey and report were conducted and written primarily by GPSN, a local nonprofit that seeks to help improve public education in Los Angeles, with a focus on students of color and students living in poverty.

    The work involved a series of focus group discussions conducted in November 2023, and individual surveys with 400 district educators in early 2024. The teachers surveyed were split into two, 200-person groups: Gen Z Black and Latino teachers and a general educator population, which included teachers of all backgrounds. Their responses to a series of questions were analyzed side by side. 

    According to the study, providing affordable health care options and improving work-life balance would make the biggest difference in LAUSD keeping its younger Black and Latino teachers. 

    And advocates say doing so is critical as concerns grow about retention and diversity among the future teacher workforce in Los Angeles Unified. 

    “If we don’t get really serious about the things that they’re raising … in this report, then we have a gap that we are widening, and we might lose some of some really high-quality teachers in the pipeline,” said Jalisa Evans, the founder and CEO of the Black Educator Advocates Network. 

    Why are younger Black and Latino teachers less likely to stay in LAUSD?

    A quarter of the report’s Black and Latino respondents who are Gen Z, defined as under the age of 30, said they would leave education in pursuit of a higher-paying job. Meanwhile, 27% said they wanted more work-life balance. 

    Burnout was also of concern for nearly a third of Gen Z Black and Latino teachers, the report found — and Evans said “for folks to be newer into the field and already experiencing burnout is a huge sign that there’s not sustainability.” 

    “Burnout specifically has been normalized. And so, for more veteran teachers, it is normal for them to take work home. … It is normal to think that you’re actually supposed to lesson plan at home,” Evans said. “And so, I think newer educators, specifically Gen Z, Black and Latino teachers, they’re experiencing this burnout, and it wasn’t their interpretation of what they were getting into.” 

    In addition to a desire for work-life balance, high costs of housing and living play a key role in younger Black and Latino educators’ desire to leave the district, particularly if they live in an area that is rapidly gentrifying and further from the communities they teach in. 

    Gina Gray, an English teacher, said the topic of affordability comes up frequently among her fellow teachers — with some who are younger having to live with several families under the same roof to sustain themselves financially. 

    “With this much education, with this much skill and knowledge, if you go into another field, you will make more money, but we’ve accepted this wage penalty for educators,” Gray said.  

    “And so to be new and starting out and wanting affordable housing and realizing that the career I’ve chosen has made that where it seems impossible? Do I stay in the career, or do I kind of validate things for myself?”

    Does gender have an impact?

    While the report did not specifically focus on gender, Ana Teresa Dahan, GPSN’s managing director who helped author the report, noted that gender is tied to retention. 

    She emphasized that a lot of younger women leave teaching because they no longer feel the job is conducive to having a family; and, because education is still largely female dominated, Dahan said that exodus has a larger impact on the younger workforce as a whole. 

    “We heard in our focus groups, teachers (saying): “I can’t drop off my kid at school before 7:45, but I have to be at my school by 7:30,’ ” Dahan said. “There’s logistical challenges to being a teacher and then also raising children that I think are being voiced more than previous generations.” 

    Many have also stressed the need for more male teachers of color in the district. 

    What positive feedback did Los Angeles Unified receive? 

    Many have applauded LAUSD for its “grow your own” model of hiring former district students. 

    Specifically, one-fifth of the teachers surveyed in the GPSN report had formerly attended LAUSD and said they wanted to give back. 

    “They go off, they go to college … and they see education as a way to transform their community,” Dahan said. “And that’s why they’re becoming teachers, because they want kids in their communities to have the opportunities they did. That, we thought, was really compelling.” 

    Forty-four percent of Gen Z Black and Latino educators said they wanted to share their love of learning, while 40% wanted to pursue teaching because they were passionate about a subject area. 

    According to the report, more than 85% of district educators also said they feel their individual identity is reflected in their fellow staff and student populations. Most also noted the district had been supportive and helped them grow professionally. 

    What are the current supports for younger Black and Latino educators?

    Guthrie said LAUSD provides a number of opportunities to support retention and career development, including creating pathways for high school graduates to get a teaching credential and programs that support teachers in getting administrative services credentials at no cost. 

    This year, the district has also unveiled a program to help increase pathways into careers in education for students at Black Student Achievement Plan campuses. 

    And for teachers already in the district, Guthrie said LAUSD has been providing special training to administrators on supporting educators of color — and so have career ladder specialists, who can mentor teachers wanting to move up. 

    He also mentioned that the district formed affinity groups for both Black male and female teachers, which will meet six times this year. 

    Why is addressing retention important now? 

    Parents, students and teachers have all stressed the importance of having a body of teachers that reflect their student populations. 

    Maira Nieto has four children attending LAUSD schools — spanning from fourth through 10th grades. She said having Latino teachers who can be culturally understanding is critical, for both students and for parents who want to be more involved with their children’s education. 

    “They are young children; they have to feel at home, like they are welcomed,” Nieto said in Spanish. “If a teacher doesn’t provide them with that, the child, I think, loses interest at an academic level.” 

    Many have also emphasized that younger teachers of color are critical, as they represent the future of Los Angeles’ educator workforce. 

    “That’s a little frightening,” Gray said, “to think that some students will go through the whole system and possibly not have … a teacher they can identify with.”

    What other kinds of workplace support would help? 

    Providing affordable health care options and improving work-life balance would make the biggest difference in keeping Gen Z Black and Latino educators in LAUSD, according to the report. Other respondents called for receiving incentive bonuses earlier and having improved family leave.  

    Many teachers in the survey also said they wanted more professional development focused on social-emotional learning strategies, and more than half reported dealing with behavioral issues in the classroom — a burden sometimes disproportionately placed on teachers of color, Evans said. 

    “Are they being overly used in a way that is just based off of their identity? Are they having to carry the burden of being the school’s disciplinarian?” Evans said. 

    “And if so, LAUSD should definitely look at their school leadership to think about how they can support all staff members to be able to build relationships with their students and to be competent in this idea of classroom management.” 

    While LAUSD does provide Black educator networks for both men and women, Gray said affinity spaces provided by the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, have really made all the difference. 

    Meanwhile, Guthrie said he is “not aware” of similar networks for Latino teachers. 

    “The districts, the school sites, they need to be intentional about retaining teachers of color … making sure that sometimes how our students feel othered, that we don’t feel othered on these same campuses,” Gray said. 

    “Be intentional with it. Be focused on it. Understand that we need support in order to sustain the career, and we want to stay.” 





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  • California leaders must keep their promise by funding ethnic studies

    California leaders must keep their promise by funding ethnic studies


    Credit: Alison Yin / EdSource

    Decades of institutionalized racism and inadequate funding have left California with a racial achievement gap in its schools. All of our students deserve the chance to learn and succeed, but all too often, students of color have been failed by an education system that still bears the marks of a long history of racism and inequality.

    To address this persistent structural problem, Gov. Gavin Newsom has allocated funding that will be directed toward the poorest schools, to be used specifically to help all student groups improve academic achievement in this year’s proposed budget.

    The governor did not, however, explicitly allocate funding to support Assembly Bill 101, the mandate that all public high schools offer an ethnic studies course in the 2025-26 school year and require all students to complete a one-semester ethnic studies course for graduation, beginning with the school year 2029-30. The lack of explicit funding has emboldened opponents of ethnic studies education, who now argue that the ethnic studies requirement must be delayed or withdrawn.

    Delaying or abandoning the state’s commitment to ethnic studies would not only break the promise that the governor and the Legislature made to the people of California at a time when this kind of education is more important than ever, but also threaten efforts to close the racial achievement gap. Although ethnic studies isn’t designed with the specific goal of reducing or closing racial achievement gaps, it has a track record of doing exactly that.

    For example, Stanford researchers Thomas S. Dee, Emily K. Penner and Sade Bonilla found San Francisco’s ninth-grade ethnic studies course to improve students’ GPA, school attendance, and graduation rate. University of Arizona researchers Nolan L. Cabrera, Jeffrey F. Milam, Ozan Jaquette and Ronald W. Marx found that participation in Tucson’s Mexican American studies program raised students’ achievement on the state’s reading, writing and math achievement tests and virtually closed racial achievement gaps.

    San Francisco State University researchers found that students who major in ethnic studies graduate within six years at a much higher rate (92%) than students in other majors and students in other majors who take at least one ethnic studies course boost their graduation rates compared with students who do not. At the University of Louisville, researcher Tomarra A. Adams found that Black students who major in Pan-African studies have a higher graduation rate than Black students who major in something else.

    Ethnic studies has consistently positive impacts on the academic achievement of students from racially marginalized backgrounds. By offering a relevant curriculum that speaks to issues of concern to their lives and communities, ethnic studies taps into and engages the knowledge students bring to the classroom, allowing them to draw from and recognize their own expertise.

    Ethnic studies classes offer an environment where important and relevant issues related to race and ethnicity can be addressed openly rather than be belittled or ignored. Further, as students come to see education as relevant to addressing problems and needs in their communities, and themselves as academically capable, they gain confidence to thrive in school more generally.

    Ethnic studies benefits all California students while helping to close the racial achievement gap and preparing the workforce of tomorrow for the multicultural reality of our state. It was in recognition of these benefits that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 101, declaring as part of the signing statement that “these courses boost student achievement over the long run — especially among students of color.”

    Recently, Assembly Bill 1468 was introduced to authorize the development of content standards for high school ethnic studies. This bill is unnecessary and potentially harmful. Ethnic studies is a highly contextual approach to curriculum and teaching because it connects with the local cultures and issues of specific communities in which it is being taught.

    For that reason, there can be no standardized ethnic studies curriculum. Within the current Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, we already have a set of six guiding values and principles that are broad enough to allow for diverse contextualized approaches to ethnic studies, while they are also sufficiently direct as standards.

    I worry that further specification of what should be in an ethnic studies curriculum will authorize one version of ethnic studies to the exclusion of others. This has been my experience with content standards for decades. In addition, ethnic studies is interdisciplinary, which means that the standards for that subject (such as history or English) should be used along with the seven ethnic studies guiding principles. AB 1468 unnecessarily adds layers to the standards we already have.

    Ethnic studies needs to be a part of the curriculum offered to California’s students, and it is incumbent on the governor and the Legislature to make good on that promise by resolving any ambiguities about the funding of AB 101.

    •••

    Christine Sleeter is professor emerita in the College of Education at California State University Monterey Bay, known for pioneering research into multicultural education and anti-racism.

    The opinions in this commentary are 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.

    A version of this commentary originally appeared in the Sacramento Bee.





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