The Transfer and Reentry Center in Dutton Hall at UC Davis helps transfers get acclimated to their new environment.
Credit: Karin Higgins/UC Davis
In an attempt to make it easier for students seeking to transfer to the University of California, the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom are in agreement on the framework for a new pilot transfer program between the community college system and UC, a top lawmaker told EdSource on Monday.
“This is monumental,” Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, said in an interview Monday. “This is the biggest transfer bill in over a decade and the first time we’re able to get pretty darn close to having a universal transfer process for all community college students.”
McCarty, the author of the bill, said the legislation was a negotiated compromise between the Senate, Assembly, Newsom’s office and UC. McCarty participated in the talks as chair of the Assembly’s budget subcommittee on education finance.
Rather than immediately creating a systemwide transfer guarantee, the newly proposed pathway would start as a pilot at UCLA in a limited number of majors and then expand to more campuses in limited majors. The bill states that UC must “prioritize admission” to students who complete an associate degree for transfer in the selected majors but does not state they need to guarantee admission to them at their chosen campus. If a student is not admitted to their chosen campus, the student would be redirected and admitted to another campus.
A UC spokesperson confirmed Monday that UC has been in negotiations with lawmakers and Newsom on “compromise legislation” but that UC has not yet taken an official position on the bill.
The bill is expected to get floor votes this week in both the Assembly and the Senate, according to McCarty.
Assembly Bill 1291 would first require that UCLA, beginning in 2026-27, prioritize admission for community college transfer applicants who complete an associate degree for transfer in certain majors. The specific majors have yet to be determined, but UCLA would need to designate at least eight of them. By 2028-29, it would expand to at least 12 majors, with at least four of them in a science, technology, engineering or math field.
By 2028-29, the new transfer pathway would also expand to four additional UC undergraduate campuses that have also yet to be determined. UC would choose those campuses and, like at UCLA, designate at least 12 majors at each campus and prioritize admission for students who complete an associate degree for transfer in those majors. The Legislature then intends to expand the program by 2031 to UC’s remaining four undergraduate campuses.
Earlier this year, McCarty introduced another bill, AB 1749, that would have required UC, beginning in 2025, to admit all eligible students who complete any associate degree for transfer, something the California State University system already does.
But UC opposed that bill, with officials for the system arguing that it would have disadvantaged students in certain majors — especially in STEM fields — because they would have entered UC underprepared for their coursework.
UC has yet to take a position on the latest bill because the university wants to be able to “review final legislative language” and evaluate “any potential last-minute amendments,” said Ryan King, a spokesperson for the system, in a statement to EdSource.
Currently, UC does not have a systemwide transfer guarantee for community college students. There are separate transfer admission guarantees at six of the system’s nine undergraduate campuses — all except UCLA, Berkeley and San Diego. But those separate guarantees each have different requirements for admission. And students who consider transferring to Cal State have to also deal with separate and different requirements for that system.
McCarty said he’s hopeful his bill will be “a game changer” for community college transfers.
“Too often you have to have a doctoral degree to understand how to transfer,” he said. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We have this system that’s been working for the community colleges and CSU, and I’m excited that we’re going to be able to expand this to the UC.”
Students at UCLA Community School pass by one of several outdoor campus murals on their way to class.
Credit: Allison Shelley/EDUimages
EdSource asked Martin Blank for his perspective on California’s massive investment in community schools in the context of the community schools movement that he was instrumental in creating.
For 20 years after he co-founded it in 1997, Blank directed the Coalition for Community Schools, a national organization that advocates for policies that support the implementation of quality community schools. He also served as president of the Institute for Educational Leadership, the coalition’s home.
Marty Blank
After serving as a VISTA volunteer in the Missouri Bootheel region, Blank, an attorney, was a senior staff member at A.L. Nellum and Associates, the nation’s first African American-owned consulting firm.
Through two-year planning and five-year implementation grants, more than 2,000 schools could become community schools to broaden services to meet children’s multiple needs and schools’ connections with the community. More than a place, the book says, a community school “is a set of partnerships built on a foundation of mutually beneficial relationships between schools and communities.”
With growing gaps in wealth and an increase in poverty, is it important that schools take a larger role than traditionally people have thought schools should take?
Yes, the school should have a larger role, but that role should be as an ally with an array of partners with expertise and people who want to help kids thrive.
The idea that schools could take on a larger role and do everything is mistaken. You open up the school to the community, you open up the potential for greater family engagement, and you get people to think about kids in different ways. Health people, youth people, school people, organizers all have a slightly different view of the world and how it should change. When you put them together, you can really create a synergy that leads to a better strategy and better results. It’s the wisdom of the group, rather than a single entity being in charge of everything.
The title of your book is “The Community Schools’ Revolution: Building Partnerships, Transforming Lives, Advancing Democracy.” What’s revolutionary, and how would parents and teachers know that they’re in the middle of a revolution?
That partnerships are essential in today’s public school and policy environment is a revolutionary concept. The power of partnership between schools and community is the essence of our work. We’ve begun to demonstrate how powerful that is.
Listen: How parents, teachers, and the community can tell if the community schools “revolution” is in their midst
We also have leaders in community schools who are thinking and acting differently. Principals are not only focused on their school, on their academic responsibilities, but they also recognize their ability to build a community of parents, teachers and now partners that support their students.
The community schools revolution is also demonstrated by their growth. There are thousands of schools across the country. We have evidence of success, and we have a growing investment. California’s is significant and we’ve got substantial federal money. Maryland has embedded community schools across all school districts, by including them in the school funding formula, and a growing number of states are funding community schools development.
California’s is the biggest bet yet on community schools. In part, it was driven by money. California had a huge surplus, and so the Legislature and the Newsom administration, at the encouragement of State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond, put down $4.4 billion over seven years. It made this commitment without really anything in place as a state system. Does it concern you that it might fall short of its potential?
If I could control the way policy functions, one might do very careful planning, then implement, then evaluate. But in the United States, we don’t do policy that way. It’s all a bit chaotic, and that makes it really hard for school people.
We were worried when New York expanded from 40 community schools to 150, because we thought that was going to be challenging. And it was. But in time, because the school system and the city government and the community-based organizations and the school leaders stayed together, there are now 420 plus community schools in New York, and they’re working toward a set of common goals. Are there challenges? Do we worry that money is going to be taken away? Of course, but sustainable partnerships emerging.
Listen: Whether California’s approach to community schools, through planning grants, followed by implementation grants on a mass scale, makes sense
We saw measurable progress in New York. A report by Rand demonstrated there was some improvement in math achievement, that students were more connected to adults and to the school, that there were improvements in attendance. We saw progress in California, where there are community schools that people could draw on — in San Francisco, West Contra Costa, Oakland, Los Angeles and other places.
We’re hoping that school and community organization leaders will realize that if they go beyond vendor and contract relationships, to really become partners, there will be a foundation on which to continue. Grants may come, but if the relationship between the school and their partners remains, then the essence of the community school will remain.
California is investing many billions of dollars in other services, too, such as mental health, transitional kindergarten, and an extended day and year, particularly for low-income schools. What difference will this make in a community school?
California represents a real opportunity. If it works the way we hope, the person in charge of new mental health money, the person running the after-school program, and other partners will be talking to each other and educators about what they want to accomplish. I remember a principal telling me he was responsible for all partners. They would ask for space and for equipment. He held a meeting and said, “Who are you and why the hell are you here?” What we want is for those potential allies to sit and talk regularly, to listen to students and their families and figure out how to make progress together.
Oakland and UCLA are prominent in your book. Any school would be fortunate to be associated with a university like UCLA. And Oakland has more nonprofits than coffee shops. But there are lots of communities that don’t have those opportunities. If you are in rural San Bernardino County or Humboldt County, what do you do?
The first thing is to go out in the community and talk to the business community, to the religious community. In every community, there are some nonprofit organizations. Every community has resources. We’ve had community schools where the emphasis was on bringing in elders from Appalachian communities to teach about the local history. We’ve had community schools where the kids have learned about the fishing industry. 4H is a significant player in many rural communities.
It’s a mindset issue. People have assets and expertise. If you assume there’s nothing, it puts the school and the teachers in a very negative mindset about what they’re trying to accomplish.
A crucial person will be the community schools coordinator, which all community schools in California must hire to receive state funding. Whom should districts be looking for, and why is that person important?
A community school coordinator is a bridge builder. We’ve had innumerable principals say, “I don’t know how I managed before I had a community school coordinator.” A community school coordinator is vital to connecting the work of partners and school staff. They should be collaborative and like to work with other people; they should be someone who knows how to listen to families and young people, who can bring ideas from partners to the principal and teachers and be part of the school leadership team.
The California Teachers Association has taken a position and some local unions in negotiations that the community schools coordinator should be a certificated teacher. A number of districts have said that first and foremost, the person should come from the community and know the community. What’s your view?
Sometimes you’ll find a social worker with community organizing training. Or a teacher who was a Peace Corps volunteer, a parent or community resident with strong relational skills. We need someone who can build bridges to the community whether they work for a school system, a nonprofit organization or a higher education institution. We should not limit ourselves when we think about where we look for people.
What might be early wins that might set the right tone and culture for community schools?
Attendance is a big issue and really a critical place to start. People are worried about it all across the country. When you have partnerships, whether it’s around health and mental health or just outreach with the ability to talk to parents and meet in their homes or workplaces, you can encourage improvement in attendance. In Baltimore, grassroots groups of Black men, some of whom are formerly incarcerated, have become involved with schools to try to make connections.
I can imagine some principals and teachers might say, “We welcome the partnerships, we welcome the additional resources, but leave instruction and learning to us.” How can what goes on in the school day be integrated into the community school?
We’ve seen teachers do walk-arounds in neighborhoods, so they understand their students’ lives and communities and use that knowledge in the classroom. At the UCLA Community School, the kids have worked on immigration and housing issues. We’ve seen young people get involved in dealing with hunger and nutrition issues in their neighborhoods. Partners can help facilitate that.
Listen to kids. You can build a standards-based curriculum that involves kids dealing with science and math, and everything else around problems that matter to them and to their neighborhood.
Listen: How principals must open up schools and themselves for community schools to succeed
The community can be a resource for learning apprenticeships and internships. The University of Pennsylvania has students going into labs and doing summer work. All of that is part of what can happen in a community school.
For this $4 billion public investment, what metrics should the public use to gauge whether community schools are making a difference in the lives of students including, academic achievement?
They would see better attendance. They might see reductions in disciplinary incidents because they’ve applied restorative justice practices. They might see indications of improvement in mental health, not only because young people have had access to mental health professionals, but also because they’ve just had more opportunities to be on a team, whether it’s a robotics team or a football team, They should be looking for parents to stand up and say, “This school works for our kids” and for kids to be saying the same kinds of things.
I was told by a high school principal who was a community schools manager that building trust can be difficult and that the initial efforts can be frustrating. Parents are busy, and perhaps their own experiences may have turned them off to school.
It’s a never-ending process. Each of us, in our personal lives, in our professional lives, has had situations where we built some trust, we lost the trust, we had to rebuild it. Parents are busy, but if you knock on doors and listen to them, you can capture the essence of what they want. Educators and partners build trust when they look at data together to solve problems.
You mentioned timing may be both right and difficult now, with so much scrutiny on schools for various reasons and tensions brought into schools from the outside. Your book ends with this quote: “Now more than ever, with a deeply divided electorate and an often toxic political environment, community schools may represent a strategy that can bring people together, build community, and even bridge ideological divides.” Why are you confident that a community school can achieve such ambitions?
If you’re not a dreamer or ambitious, then you’re not going to be able to overcome the historic inequities that have existed in our public school system and society. I’ve been at this work for 60 years, and it’s been urgent for all 60 years. When we first opened the migrant education program in a formerly segregated school in southeast Missouri, it was urgent. Now, with our politics so divided, the fact that there can be community schools in Florida and Idaho, in New York and California, in Wisconsin and Texas, indicates there’s a power in the idea of public school being the vehicle around which we build community.
School leaders have to realize that they gain power by being more open. And that’s a challenge, given the politics of the moment. But our schools are a place that everyone knows, where we can all come together and act democratically. It’s not the only solution, but it offers the possibility of creating the kind of trust, the kind of relationships and the kind of places where people can come and see that we all care about each other’s kids.
Community schools show how people and organizations can come together to solve problems.
Michael Olenick has spent his life pondering the preschool years. His mother, a childhood development professor, was one of the first Head Start teachers back in the 1960s, so he started preschool at age 3.
credit: CCRC
In some ways, he has never left that space. Olenick, a lifelong advocate for children and families and president of the Child Care Resource Center, a California-based advocacy organization, has long been a champion of early childhood education, having seen its power to uplift lives firsthand. But he worries that the educational system often pits the needs of one age group of children against another.
For instance, he worries that the rollout of transitional kindergarten, or TK, not only has undermined the preschool sector by stealing away some of its 4-year-olds. He also notes that TK is poised to run into a number of speed bumps ahead, including a lack of facilities and the need for more child developmental training, as it reaches full implementation in the fall.
Olenick, who received his Ph.D. from UCLA in educational psychology and has shaped the field with influential research on the importance of quality child care, recently made time to chat about his passion for early education and what he sees as the key challenges facing TK.
What fascinates you most about early ed?
My mother said that I always liked kids because I always had to be there in her classrooms. To me, it’s the most hopeful period of time, the opportunity to change kids’ trajectories the most. It’s the most hopeful time in life.
What are the biggest challenges in the expansion of TK? Do you worry about too much academic rigor, potty training incidents, the need for nap time?
All of those issues. In the ’80s I evaluated hundreds of preschool programs and kept running into large numbers that were drilling children on colors, numbers and letters for inordinate amounts of time. Boys had a harder time with this than girls. In looking at teacher qualifications, I saw lots of certificated teachers who were doing the drilling. I realize that’s a long time ago, but I keep hearing from colleagues seeing the same thing now. That’s why we pushed for early childhood education units for TK teachers. The other issue that comes up is many schools are designed for children to go to the bathroom unescorted. Four-year-olds can get lost there.
What do you think is the root source of the problem? A lack of understanding of child development, like the realities of potty training?
I don’t think most current teachers understand early development. Over time, this may right itself if they get the education they need. But principals have to have the expectation that TK is not first grade. Also, teachers do not generally handle toileting issues, and schools are not designed for 4-year-olds.
Is the academic pressure too high today?
I recently got an email from my first adviser at UCLA saying she went to half a dozen TK classrooms, and it looked like first grade. I wrote her back and I said, I told you so. We don’t have enough people yet that understand that kids learn differently. People learn at different rates, and we try to put them all into the same box and have them all learn stuff at the same time. Some of them are just not ready yet. You have to individualize instruction.
Why do you think the TK take-up rate has been more sluggish than expected?
Some of the biggest challenges are in rural districts, where they can’t get a very large number to attend, and the lack of child-sized facilities, especially easily accessible bathrooms. Also, I don’t buy the part about this helping all lower-income children because their parents need a full-day, full-year solution, not just three hours. For families who have a predictable schedule, a 9-to-5 job, TK with aftercare probably works pretty well, but some families need more flexibility.
Why are small ratios so important?
There has always been the rationale for safety. But more recent literature focuses on individual interactions between adults and children, and the fewer children per adult increases interactions, learning and attachment.
Why is play so key in TK?
Play is so important. I’ve heard from several TK program directors who said it took their administrators five years to recognize that play was learning. It’s not just the teachers that need to be trained on what’s developmentally appropriate; it’s important for principals, too. You know, a principal comes into a classroom and expects to see that teacher up in front of that class teaching. So if you go in and you see all these kids are playing, you may not realize they are being taught. It’s all about how you structure things in the classroom because you can get the same results in a play environment. You don’t have to drill kids.
Do you think we focus on setting a solid preschool foundation too much when financial stability may be more important for families?
It’s at least as important. We do a lot of work with families that are below the federal poverty line, the poorest of the poor. There are classrooms where there are kids who seem to be defiant. There was one kid who, it turns out, was deaf, and it took a long time to get him checked. He wasn’t being defiant; he just couldn’t read our lips. We have to work to give families what they need.
Students in a science class at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
Credit: Arabel Meyer / EdSource
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo recently announced that it will become the first public university in the state to shift to year-round operations starting summer 2025. The change would give students the option of starting in the summer and taking their academic break during a different term, and it would allow the university to admit more students per year.
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said other universities have had success with this model.
“Secondary to growth (in enrollment), I think we’re going to see student success,” Armstrong said.
Taking inspiration from schools that have had year-round operations for years, like Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and the University of Waterloo in Canada, Armstrong said he hopes to put a “Cal Poly twist” on the idea to benefit all students.
Beginning next year, students will be able to choose to start either in summer or fall during the application process. Faculty and staff will also be able to choose which terms they will work.
Armstrong said students and faculty will have enough information to make an informed decision about what their schedule will look like and “they will know what they’re getting into.”
If a student opts to start in summer, they might have a greater chance of being admitted to Cal Poly, which currently has an admit rate of 28% and is highly impacted with more applications than available spaces, Armstrong said.
“We’re not changing our standards,” Armstrong said. “What we’re doing is using year-round to open up more spaces so more students can get in.”
Starting the year in the summer would be different from simply taking summer classes or taking a couple of classes in the last few weeks of summer through summer start programs to help students adjust to college.
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo President Jeffrey D. Armstrong Credit: Cal Poly SLO
Students who start their year in the summer would have full course offerings equivalent to what is offered during the other terms, and classes would be for a full term, according to Armstrong.
When asked about the expected cost of the change to year-round operations, Armstrong said, “Overall, we believe the investments required will not be significantly out of line as what would be required for enrollment growth through traditional non-year-round operations means.”
Following the year-round model, students, including freshmen, would have more opportunities to participate in “high-impact practices” such as internships, study abroad and undergraduate research, according to Armstrong.
“We know when students participate in high-impact practices, it enhances their retention, it enhances their chance to graduate,” he said.
A student who chooses to start in summer could then study abroad or do an internship during the fall term and come back for spring term, for example.
Armstrong said students could also decide to take classes every term and graduate earlier, though this would not be required.
It’s about “flexibility for all students, really,” he said. “I think it’ll be very positive, and it’ll expand access to high-impact activities. We want it to be more equitable.”
Financial aid would still cover a full academic year (three quarters or two semesters) no matter when a student starts, Armstrong added.
In an ideal world, Armstrong said about a third of students would start in summer, though starting out, the numbers might be more like 15-20%.
“It’s allowing us to grow, [and] it’s taking the number of students in the regular academic year down, so it’s relieving some of the pressure,” Armstrong said.
Cal Poly began discussing this shift in 2019, but it was delayed because of the to the pandemic. The change was then set to begin summer 2024 but delayed again after Cal Poly met its enrollment goals for the year by increasing course availability, allowing more students to enroll full time.
As college enrollment rates increase, universities have been trying to find ways to do so without increasing costs too much. In 1999, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office issued a report recommending universities switch to year-round operations.
Cal Poly is the only public university in California to make this switch, though other schools are making different efforts to increase their enrollment and expand summer instruction.
According to Hazel Kelly, CSU spokesperson, other CSU campuses are also considering ways to offer more flexible academic calendars.
“The Chancellor’s Office is working with those universities as they consider a range of implications of alternative calendars including student enrollment, campus budgets, financial aid, accreditation, labor agreements and facilities, among others,” Kelly said.
California State University, Long Beach is working on expanding enrollment during the fall and spring semesters, focusing on “underserved majors with available space,” according to CSULB spokesperson Gregory Woods.
“To bolster enrollment, our strategy is to enhance retention rates and average-units load for current students, and to expand the class size of the incoming first-time, first-year student level,” Woods said.
San Diego State University, which has the second-lowest acceptance rate of all the CSUs and is also highly impacted, does not have a plan to move to year-round operations like Cal Poly but is exploring other ways of increasing enrollment, SDSU spokesperson La Monica Everett-Haynes said.
“We have, however, implemented efforts toward summer enrollment and, overall, continue to see high levels of enrollment growth during both the academic and summer session periods,” Everett-Haynes said.
The University of California has similarly been working to expand summer enrollment without moving to the year-round model.
“Every UC campus is committed to expanding capacity and enhancing educational equity for California students through overall enrollment growth as well as more nontraditional approaches, including efforts to improve timely graduation and to expand online, summer and off-campus opportunities,” said Ryan King, UC spokesperson.
According to the “Building 2030 Capacity Report” issued in 2022, UC has turned to increasing online course offerings and financial aid for summer to help meet their enrollment goals. King noted that the report shows a spike in summer enrollment in 2020, and “UC campuses recognized this surge as an opportunity to increase summer enrollment and capacity over the long term by growing the number and mix of online and impacted fall-winter-spring course offerings.”
Cal Poly decided that switching to the year-round model, and not just expanding their regular summer offerings, would be the most beneficial.
Armstrong said this shift to year-round operations will benefit all students, not just the ones who choose to start in the summer, because classes will be offered more often throughout the year, there will be more opportunities to participate in high-impact activities and the campus community will grow.
As part of the effort to increase enrollment, Cal Poly is working on building more on-campus housing so that all first- and second-year students can live on campus, a project that “will result in several thousand beds added between now and 2030,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong also expects the switch to year-round operations, along with increased financial aid, to help Cal Poly’s efforts to increase diversity.
As Cal Poly begins this shift, students will only be able to choose between summer or fall starts, and only incoming students will get this option. Armstrong said he hopes everyone will have this option in the future, and that a spring start will also be available.
“We think it’s going to be very significant,” Armstrong said. “Our evidence from polling and asking questions of prospective parents and students shows that the interest is very high in the year-round concept.”
Ashley Bolter is a fourth-year journalism major and French and ethnic studies minor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.
Fresno Unified’s interim superintendent, Misty Her
Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr
Since assuming the role of interim superintendent of California’s third-largest school district, Misty Her has been doing two things that she hopes will shape her tenure: listening and learning.
Despite being in the school district for over three decades, she’s conducting what she calls “listening” sessions with those in the Fresno Unified school community. In the two months since taking over, she’s held 16 sessions with students, district leaders, principals, retired teachers, graduates, parents, city officials and other community members, with more scheduled for next week and in the new school year.
Interim superintendency
On May 3, the school board appointed Misty Her, previously the district’s deputy superintendent, to lead the district on an interim basis during a national search to fill the permanent position. She started the interim superintendency on May 8 with outgoing superintendent Bob Nelson moving into an advisory role until his last day.
Misty Her has met with Fresno Unified district leaders to set expectations for her tenure as interim superintendent.Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr
“People have been asking me ‘Why are you doing that?’” she said. “They were like, ‘You’ve been in the district for 30 years. Why would you still need to go listen and learn? Shouldn’t you already know a lot about the district?’”
“My role, now, is different,” she said, “so I’m really intentionally listening and learning.”
She’ll continue the sessions throughout her tenure and expects to make changes as progress is made, she told EdSource in a sit-down interview.
What she believes, even now, is that knowing and identifying each student “by name” and “by need,” much like she did as a classroom teacher, will define her time in the role.
“Sometimes when you step away from the classroom, people don’t see you as a teacher anymore … because they start to see the title,” Her said as she talked about her journey, her interim superintendency, the “teacher within” and her focus on students – first and foremost.
“At the heart of who I am, before anything else, I’m always going to be a teacher.”
First woman to lead district
When the Fresno Unified school board named Her as the interim superintendent, she became the first woman to lead the district since its 1873 inception.
“I’ve walked this hallway a thousand times,” she said about seeing her picture on the wall of the district office. “It took 151 years in this district, as diverse as this district (is), before a woman’s face got on that wall.”
Lasherica Thornton/ EdSource Lasherica Thornton/EdSourceMisty Her, Fresno Unified’s interim superintendent, is the first woman to ever lead the 70,000-plus-student school system.
A Hmong leader
According to Her and the Hmong American Center in Wisconsin, Hmong people, an indigenous group originally from parts of China and other Asian countries, have continually migrated, first to Laos, Thailand and Vietnam with many eventually coming to the United States, settling in states such as California and Minnesota, so “we don’t have a country.”
“The reason why Hmong people came here to the U.S. was because of the Vietnam War,” she said.
The CIA recruited Hmong soldiers for the “secret war” in Laos to prevent communism from spreading further into Southeast Asia. Congressional investigation and other events eventually brought the war to light.
“It was secret because no one knew that we existed, and no one knew that we were used to help the Americans fight,” Her said. “When the war ended, all the Hmong people were just left to die because (following their victory), the communists started coming after anybody who was helping the U.S. That’s actually how my family ended up here.”
Her face on that wall – and as the face of the district – embodies the fact that she is the first woman at the helm of the district as well as its first Hmong leader.
Born in a prisoner-of-war camp in Laos, Her’s family escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand after the end of the Vietnam War before coming to the United States and moving to Fresno when she was a young child, according to a district statement announcing her appointment. That firsthand experience and her understanding of the challenges faced by students from diverse backgrounds have shaped her into a passionate and effective leader, the district’s statement said.
Of the more than 92% of Fresno Unified students who are from ethnic minority groups, around 6,500 are Hmong. Behind Spanish, the Hmong language, which was only developed in written form less than 75 years ago, is the second most common home language of Fresno Unified’s English learners with over 10% speaking Hmong.
“Having someone that knows our kids, looks like our kids — that representation matters,” Her said.
Still, she wants to be in classrooms, constantly gaining a better understanding of the district’s students.
Classroom-centered, kids-first approach
With a mindset that keeps classrooms and kids first, Her started the listening and learning tour by seeking out student perspectives from elementary, middle and high school students.
“Our students … can teach us a lot about our system,” she said, “the things that we’re designing for them — what’s working, what’s not working.”
And she has gained insight from those conversations.
Among the students’ comments and questions that have stuck with Her: “We want to be engaged in classrooms” and third graders asking, “What are you and our teachers preparing us for?”
“I started with kids first because I wanted to put their voice in the middle of designing my 100-day plan,” she said.
Her drafted the plan for the district in May and June, following the initial listening sessions.
For third grade — the school year believed to be pivotal in determining reading proficiency and predicting future success — just 29% of third-graders are at grade level, a GO Public Schools 2023 student outcome report for Fresno Unified showed.
Her plans to implement, measure the effectiveness and monitor the progress of the district’s recently launched literacy initiative to achieve first-grade reading proficiency for students, two years before third-grade, when future success is predicted.
The Every Child Is a Reader initiative includes literacy plans to address students’ unique needs. The plans embrace high-quality instruction, interventions and parent and community partnerships, according to the initiative description.
“Every Child Is A Reader is a groundbreaking initiative that will lead our district to better instruction of reading for our youngest learners and ensure far better academic outcomes for our students,” she said.
Based on the 2023 GO Public Schools report, only 20% of seventh graders are at grade level in math, an indicator that most students are not prepared for algebra.
Her said the kids she has talked to reaffirmed the need to focus on those student outcomes, but also challenged her to reshape how student comprehension and application are taught.
“I was talking to (a) group of students and they said, ‘Don’t just teach us how to read and write and do math, but teach us how to apply that,’” she said.
An eighth grader told her his test scores indicate that he’s on a sixth-grade proficiency level.
“He said, ‘I’m so much smarter than that. I can do this, this, and this, but it’s just that, in my home, I never got books. I don’t have a tutor that comes in to help me. I rarely see my mom … because she works two jobs. My test shows that I should only be in sixth grade, but there are things that I can do. Can you guys use what I know to help me get me there?’” Her said.
“It really shifted what I thought would be goals for us to what are goals that can resonate with our students.”
Improving student outcomes
Her said she wouldn’t be leading Fresno Unified, based on what her test scores showed, if not for the support of teachers and mentors.
“If I was just measured by my proficiency level when I was a kid, then I probably wouldn’t even be here,” she said. “A lot of people poured into me because I had counselors who said, ‘You can go to college.’ Coming from a home where no one knew how to fill out a college application, my counselor filled out the application for me.
“But why do we reach some students and not others? That’s my question. (My brother) and I had some of the very same teachers, but there was an investment in me and not in him.”
That lingering question guides her.
To improve student outcomes across the entire district, she said, “We have to get everybody across the finish line” of proficiency.
“The goal is to get them there in whichever way works for them,” she said. “That’s really going deep to understand every single child by name, by need.”
Fresno Unified’s interim superintendent, Misty Her, adopted a 100-day plan for the school district.Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr
As part of Her’s 100-day plan, Fresno Unified gathered state, district, school and student data to identify and prioritize ways to enhance learning for each child while also focusing on historically underserved student groups, such as English learners and students with disabilities, who have significant achievement gaps compared with other groups.
This upcoming school year, educators will be able to adapt teaching and leadership strategies based on real-time data via a district dashboard, according to Her’s plans.
“And, then, how do we provide the appropriate scaffolds and interventions so that we do get them there,” Her said, “but that we never take away their grade-level rigor that is needed for them to excel.”
Identifying student needs: ‘It’s ‘personal’
Her knows all too well the importance of providing such intervention while still offering challenging, grade-level content.
“This is very personal for me,” she said. “I remember when I was in first grade … I was put in a remedial class, pulled out for like three hours a day, missing core instruction,” she recalled. “There was no way I was ever going to get caught up.”
At the time, the young Her was learning English as a second language as she primarily spoke Hmong.
“And so if we keep doing that with our students, we’re actually doing them a disservice,” she said.
Challenges in leading Fresno Unified
Fresno Unified interim Superintendent Misty Her and district leaders talk about about her goals and set expectations for her interim role.Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr
There is no “silver bullet… to fix this,” Her said, so “I think people have to be open to new ideas that may be unconventional.”
This week, she and the district leadership team were at Harvard University for the Public Education Leadership Project meant to foster greater educational outcomes.
While employing new ideas and methods may be key to reaching her goals, there will be times when she must say “no.”
Fresno’s teachers union leadership has criticized the district for initiating programs just for the sake of expanding, rather than implementing the programs well.
“We are a district that says we want to do a lot of things,” Her said. “I am going to say no.”
But not without noting ideas that can work — at some point.
“Everybody knows I have a for-later folder, and it’s pretty thick right now,” she said, laughing. “So, as people bring really great, wonderful ideas, I just have to say, ‘Let me put it in my for-later folder.’”
Quality over quantity: Top priorities first
To Her, the district has had so many objectives that it impacts the quality of the goals. She spent weeks narrowing down those goals to what will be the most important for the entire district: improving student outcomes and achieving operational excellence.
“When a kid enters our system, we have to be able to say to our parents, ‘These are the … goals we’re working on. These are the guarantees that we can give you.’”
Student outcomes
Identify and focus on the needs of each child
Implement and measure the district’s first-grade literacy initiative
Empower educator autonomy, but with accountability measures
Adapt teaching and leadership strategies based on real-time data
Visit schools to observe the goals in action
Operational excellence
Her characterized operational excellence as each part of the Fresno Unified school system working together instead of in isolation.
“I think that sometimes we’ve created this very complicated system for our parents to figure out, and we need to simplify … for people to understand,” she said. “I took a call from a parent. By the time the parent got to me, the parent had gone through four different calls” because her English wasn’t strong, and people didn’t know what to do with her.
“I finally got on the phone; she’s like, ‘I just need my child’s homework, but I need it modified.’ And it was as simple as that.”
Holding interim position impacts chances for permanent role
The interim superintendency is an opportunity for Her, board members, students, staff and the community to see if she’s the best person to lead the district.
“It could go either way,” she admitted. “If I can’t get results, then, I shouldn’t be the superintendent.
“I just want it to be a win for our students.”
A change in perspective because of the search
So far, the search process has been engulfed in community angst over an alleged lack of transparency and accusations that the process had been tainted by politics, EdSource reported.
The school board in April said it would broaden its search — a shift from its initial decision to interview district employees first. Community outrage spurred the changes.
“Having gone through the challenges of the search, it really has strengthened me. It’s given me resilience that I didn’t think I had,” she said. “I describe it as (being) in a tornado, and you don’t quite know what you’re going to get hit with. Then, you start to get centered.”
That centering moment was in April when the search stalled.
“I just got up and said, ‘Cancel everything on my calendar for this week. I want to be at schools,’” she said. “I spent every moment with kids. I read. I did recess duty. I did lunch duty. (I told teachers), ‘I’ll teach your class for a little bit.’ I had to go find myself again. I went back to being a teacher and that got me centered (and) saved me in every way.
“I started to … dig deep to really understand why I want this job.”
‘More than a test score’
“I want to be superintendent because … I’m tired of people defining them by a test score at the end of the year,” Her said. “I want to find a holistic way in which we can still get our students there, but that our students feel valued and they feel important and they feel like they’re a part of something greater than just that proficiency level that is given to them.”
Amy Lemley, right, at an April reception for John Burton Advocates for Youth.
Photo Credit: John Burton Advocates for Youth
Amy Lemley was still a graduate student at UC Berkeley in the late ’90s when she founded First Place for Youth, the first housing program for former foster youth in California.
The daughter of a large-animal veterinarian and a hospice nurse, Lemley has long been a force in policy advocacy for system-impacted youth. After First Place, she joined John Burton Advocates for Youth, or JBAY, an influential nonprofit that advocates for California’s homeless and foster youth.
Amy Lemley
Lemley joined as JBAY’s policy director at its inception in 2006 and went on to become its executive director, a role she has held for the past eight years.
A handful of the policy actions led by Lemley during her tenure as executive director include establishing the nation’s first tax credit for foster youth, the extension of foster care from age 18 to age 21, and increasing state funding for housing for former foster youth.
Lemley, who will be leaving JBAY on Oct. 1, recently sat for an interview with EdSource about her work and what’s ahead. The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Early in your career, you worked at a group home in Massachusetts for pregnant and parenting youth. What led you to work at the group home?
I did what I thought you were supposed to do when you left college, which is to go into management consulting. My parents had paid a lot for that degree, and I felt like I was supposed to go get a big, fancy job. I was miserable, and then I remember breaking down with my mom. She’s like, “Why are you doing this job, honey?” And I said, “Because you guys sacrificed so much for me to have this education.” And she said, “You don’t really get what parenthood is. We want you to be happy.” I just remember the weight of the world coming off my shoulders, and I knew what I wanted to do is what both of my parents had done, which is to try and help people.
I really had to make a hard sell to this nonprofit where I worked because I, clearly on paper, was not qualified. Whether that was responsible to the young people in their care is another question, but it opened my eyes to a whole world of young people who have had this very unfortunate circumstance and kind of set me forth on my career.
What was your role in the group home?
I was a case manager, so I had 14 pregnant and parenting young people on my caseload. I remember thinking at the time, “This shouldn’t be hard. I just have to keep them enrolled in school, and make sure they know how to parent, and help them get a job, and help them navigate public benefits, and how hard could it be?” My eyes were opened very quickly about the complexity of their lives. I had young people who would run away from the group home because their younger siblings were at home and they were trying to protect them. There were so many young people who were victims of intimate partner violence, and their lives were extremely complex. I did my very best to help them make progress in these different domains.
Why did you pursue the path of founding First Place for Youth as a student at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy versus a different path of support for this particular group of young people, foster youth?
I definitely have an entrepreneurial temperament. I also really deeply believe, as many others do, that with safe, stable housing, anything is possible. It’s the foundation on which lives are built, and without it, very little is possible. And so seeing the young people who I worked with in the group home age out of care, become homeless and then tragically lose custody of their children, it was clear to me that it’s completely unreasonable for an 18-year-old to be independent. I certainly wasn’t.
So the creation and opportunity to create something with my very dear friend Deanne Pearn, to do something right, to do it well, to meet the needs of these young people, was very appealing.
At the time, there was this kind of story we told ourselves, that young people don’t want a program; they want to be free; they just want to do their own thing. But in my experience, when you give young people something of value, something that’s actually helping them meet their practical needs, they’re very receptive to it.
I’m curious about the transition from First Place for Youth to John Burton Advocates for Youth. Why transition over to JBAY at the time that you did?
We co-founded First Place and got it to a certain size, and you can really only scale a program so far with private funding. And then I happened to have been introduced to John Burton after he was termed out of office (as a state senator) and really pitched to him taking the First Place program and funding it with public funding. He’d done that a hundred times over. What to me seemed like an impossibility, he had 40 years of experience doing it. So that’s why I left.
Once an organization gets to be a certain size, as the executive director, you’re not running around doing advocacy. Your whole job really is to manage and maintain the existing organization. I felt like First Place needed an executive director that wanted to do that, and that wasn’t me. I had a different mission. I had the good fortune of meeting John Burton and having the opportunity to kind of pursue that mission together.
How do you maintain your policy focus when there is so much need and a constantly changing landscape?
Whether it’s inflation, unemployment during the pandemic or the housing crisis, whatever larger kind of macroeconomic developments occur, these young people feel it the most deeply.
I think a really important part of our success has been to not try to be experts in everything. We have a specific kind of set of policies that we’re deeply informed about, and that we keep revisiting. We try to be very disciplined in terms of really knowing the body of policy, the public agencies that administer it, the details about the implementation, the different actors that implement it, so that we can develop really smart, strategic approaches that are based not just in a conceptual knowledge, but in a deep practical knowledge of how these programs are implemented in communities.
I always say we don’t want to be an inch deep and a mile wide. It really means saying no when it’s appropriate and continuing to dig deep into those issues and figure out what is the most pressing need of young people and then how to marry that very pressing need with what is practically possible in today’s economic and political environment.
What does the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last month in the Johnson v. Grants Pass case, which upheld an Oregon city’s ban on homeless residents sleeping outdoors, mean for youth in California and nationwide?
Unaccompanied homeless youth are less likely to be sheltered than the general population of homeless individuals. And we know that young people who are unsheltered, even for a very short amount of time, are more at risk of violence and exploitation because of the vulnerability of their age. And so every night that they are unsheltered, they’re in danger. The optimist in me hopes that the ruling can be a catalyst for a more coherent, statewide approach, assuming the federal government isn’t going to provide the level of coordination and funding we require.
What comes next for you?
I am going to kind of take a couple months off and then I’m going to raise my head and think about whether I want to try my hand at consulting, potentially working with those high-quality local nonprofits who are doing very high quality service to young people and helping them match that with public funding and public policy, and taking what can be a really wonderful intervention and broadening applicability to all young people.
I’ve promised my husband I will not found another organization. I already had my wheels turning, and he’s just like, “No, Amy, no.” And I was like, “Well, I’ll try my best.”
