اینترنت

برچسب: Lets

  • California students need more diverse teachers; let’s close the gap with tutors

    California students need more diverse teachers; let’s close the gap with tutors


    Courtesy: Teach for America

    School is back in session. In California, we ended the prior school year with promising data that student attendance rates throughout the state are rising from historic lows during the pandemic. While having students in seats is cause for celebration, we must ensure that we have enough teachers in classrooms. 

    California has a long way to go. We rank 47th in the country for student-teacher ratio. Our elected officials are making investments in school staffing, yet there are further measures we should be taking to make sure students receive the quality education they deserve. And there’s no time to waste. 

    The initiative we should be champing at the bit to implement is high-impact tutoring: tutoring in one-on-one situations or very small groups meeting at least 30 minutes, three or more times a week. Here’s why this is an effective, scalable way to provide students with high-quality educators: 

    You can’t argue with data. Research shows that high-dosage tutoring is one of the most effective ways to help students make academic progress. Yet few students actually receive it. A recent study from Stanford University demonstrated the many positive effects of tutoring, including increased reading and math scores, attendance and a feeling of belonging. Teach For America’s (TFA) tutoring program, the Ignite Fellowship, finds and develops tutors who connect virtually with students during the school day. Fellows, who are paid for their work, are supported by a school-based veteran educator to customize instruction. Seventy-one percent of the 3,500 students across the country being tutored by Ignite fellows meet their semester-long reading and math goals.

    Tutoring is a pipeline to teaching. Teacher morale is an ongoing issue. Because teaching is so unique, it can be hard to fully prepare aspiring educators for what it’s like to lead a classroom. Tutoring serves as a way for college students to step behind the wheel, with a professional providing roadside assistance before they are given full control. This can be key to teacher recruitment and retention — before people fully enlist in becoming a teacher, they have the opportunity to see if this profession is right for them. AmeriCorps, which also invests in employing young people as tutors to help them jump-start service-oriented careers, has found that more than half of its tutors hope to pursue a career in education after their service. When teachers are more confident stepping into their classrooms, students are the ones who reap the rewards. 

    Tutors ease the burden for teachers. Tutors can focus on small groups or individual sessions with students — something that lead teachers don’t always have the capacity to do. This way, tutors can address specific learning gaps for individual students, meeting more individual and diverse needs, and allowing students to build authentic relationships with multiple educators/mentors. I have had teachers tell me they wish they could clone themselves so they could work with more students to meet different needs and speeds. In our reality, tutors may be the closest thing we have to clones.  

    Prioritizing diversity. To provide a diverse experience for our nation’s students, we must have their educators — their role models — reflect them. This means we should prioritize recruiting and retaining teachers of color. Throughout California’s public schools, 77% of the K-12 population is composed of students of color, whereas only 37% of educators identify as people of color. This kind of ratio is true for Los Angeles, where I am based. That’s why I’m excited to be welcoming the Ignite Fellowship to schools throughout Los Angeles (and expanding even further throughout California) this year, helping bring more diverse and locally rooted teachers into classrooms. People of color face historically more hurdles than white people in the workforce, and this is even more extreme in the teaching profession. Tutoring is a way to expand the diversity of the teacher pipeline and can increase students’ access to educators from diverse backgrounds. Virtual programs like Ignite also allow for more flexibility and accessibility, meaning fewer hurdles for aspiring teachers to become tutors, and more opportunities for students to connect with tutors and mentors.  

    The school year may already be underway, but the reality is that schools will be fighting to staff their classrooms all year. Anything we can do to mitigate the detrimental effects that understaffed schools have on students should be a priority. Investing in tutors is an actionable way to help staff schools with diverse educators, with an added benefit of creating a pipeline of tomorrow’s teachers.

    We have the proof that it will help our students, so what are we waiting for?  

    •••

    Lida Jennings is the executive director of Teach For America Los Angeles and San Diego. 

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. We welcome guest commentaries with diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Let’s stop tinkering and really change how schools address mental health

    Let’s stop tinkering and really change how schools address mental health


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    What are education leaders doing about transforming the way schools address learning, behavior and emotional problems? The current answer, it seems, is: not much.

    We do see increasing discussions among education leaders about transforming education in general. Naturally, much of the focus is on improving instruction and making major changes in how schools are managed (e.g., financed, administered, held accountable). However, when it comes to improving how schools play their role in providing support when students are not doing well, proposals for transformative changes generally are not forthcoming.

    The result: As the number of learning, behavior and emotional problems increases, schools continue to react in inadequate ways.

    What’s wrong with what schools are doing now?

    All schools devote resources to coping with student problems. Some are able to offer a range of student and learning supports; others can provide only what is mandated. In the majority of schools, what is available usually covers relatively few students. More resources would help. But school budgets always are tight, and adding the number of student support staff that advocates call for is really not in the cards.

    In general, districts plan and implement student and learning supports in a fragmented and piecemeal manner, generating a variety of specialized programs and services. Over many years, increasing concern about fragmented approaches has produced calls for “integrated services” and, recently, for “integrated support systems.”

    However, by focusing primarily on fragmentation, policymakers and school improvement advocates fail to deal with a core underlying problem. What drives the fragmentation is the longstanding marginalization in school improvement policy of the role schools must play in addressing barriers to learning and teaching.

    A fundamental challenge for education leaders and policymakers is ending this marginalization. Meeting the challenge requires escaping old ways of thinking about how schools address learning, behavior and emotional problems.

    What might a transformed approach look like?

    Addressing the pervasive and complex barriers that impede effective teaching and student learning requires a systemwide approach that comprehensively and equitably supports whole-child development and learning. This involves districts and schools rethinking how they frame the practices they use to address learning, behavior and emotional problems.

    In this respect, the current widespread adoption of some form of a multitiered “continuum of interventions” (commonly known as MTSS) is a partial step in the right direction. This framework recognizes that a full range of intervention must include a focus on promoting whole-student healthy development, preventing problems, providing immediate assistance when problems appear, and ensuring assistance for serious and chronic special education concerns. But moving forward, our research has clarified the need to reframe each level of intervention into subsystems designed to weave together school and community resources.

    Moreover, our research indicates that the various programs, services, initiatives and strategies can be grouped into six domains of classroom and schoolwide student and learning support. The six arenas encompass interventions that:

    • Embed student and learning supports into regular classroom strategies to enable learning and teaching
    • Support transitions (e.g., new grade, new school, before/after school, during lunch and other daily transitions)
    • Increase home and school connections and engagement
    • Respond to — and, where feasible, prevent — school and personal crises
    • Increase community involvement and collaborative engagement
    • Facilitate student and family access to special assistance.

    Organizing the activity in this way helps clarify what supports are needed in and out of the classroom and across each level of the continuum to enable effective teaching and motivate student learning.

    We recognize that the changes education leaders are already pursuing represent considerable challenges and that the changes we discuss can be daunting.

    But maintaining the status quo is untenable, and just doing more tinkering will not meet the need.

    Transforming how schools play their role in addressing barriers to learning and teaching into a unified, comprehensive and equitable system that is fully integrated into school improvement policy and practice is essential to enhancing equity of opportunity for students to succeed at school and beyond.

    •••

    Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor are co-directors of the Center for MH in Schools & Student/Learning Supports at UCLA, an initiative to improve outcomes for students by helping districts and their schools enhance how they address barriers to learning and teaching.

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





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  • Let’s redefine student success to measure what really matters

    Let’s redefine student success to measure what really matters


    Anaheim Union High School District students discuss their work with Superintendent Michael Matsuda.

    Courtesy: Anaheim Union High School District

    Traditional measures of academic success, long dominated by elite universities, have often perpetuated systems of exclusivity rather than fostering true opportunity.

    As the superintendent of a high school district in Southern California, I have frequently heard major employers express concern that graduates from top UC and private universities often lack essential skills in project management, basic interpersonal abilities and the capacity for creativity and innovation. This reveals a significant mismatch between K-12 education, higher education and the demands of the modern workforce.

    Elite universities have long depended on rigid criteria — high test scores in math and English, advanced coursework like calculus and AP classes, and curated extracurricular activities — to determine which students gain admission. But these metrics often favor those with access to private tutors, well-funded schools and the insider knowledge of the admissions process provided by college admission coaches. As a result, this system excludes many students who possess extraordinary talents but lack the means to navigate these traditional pathways.

    The narrow definition of success currently used by elite universities creates two major problems. First, it reduces student potential to a set of numbers and polished narratives, ignoring qualities like resilience, emotional intelligence and social impact. Second, it fails to recognize students who may excel in less conventional but equally critical domains, such as interpersonal skills and the ability to creatively solve problems. By relying on these outdated measures, the current system not only limits individual opportunities but also deprives society of the diverse perspectives needed to solve complex challenges.

    In response, districts like Anaheim Union High School District are pioneering new ways to assess and celebrate student success through what we call the 5Cs: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication and compassion. This approach challenges outdated definitions of “college and career readiness” and offers a more holistic vision for the future.

    In collaboration with UC Irvine professor June Ahn and the nonprofit education technology organization eKadence, Anaheim Union is developing and piloting an AI-enhanced learning strategy that redefines how student talent is measured.

    Much as a student driver reflects on what went wrong after failing a driving test or how a coach has a team analyze their mistakes after losing a big game, the district is embedding structured reflection into student learning. After completing a major unit or project, students engage in written or oral reflection, considering what they did well, where they struggled and how they can improve. These reflections are then fed into an artificial intelligence (AI) analysis, designed and tested by Ahn’s team, that immediately generates a summary for both the student and the teacher. The AI not only highlights the main reflection points but also provides actionable advice for growth.

    Going Deeper

    See an example of the student input and AI analysis of one student’s project work here.

    For example, if a student works on a community-based project to address food insecurity and later reflects on how they struggled with organizing team meetings but excelled in presenting their findings, the UC Irvine AI tool will capture these insights. It might suggest strategies for better time management or offer communication techniques to improve team coordination. This iterative process ensures that students are not only gaining subject knowledge but also developing essential life skills.

    One of the most promising aspects of this AI-enhanced learning strategy is its potential to influence college admissions. Universities are increasingly questioning the efficacy of traditional criteria, especially in light of decisions to eliminate SAT/ACT test requirements. The tool we are developing provides a scalable addition to current criteria: a portfolio of AI-summarized reflections that highlight a student’s strengths that cannot be measured by test scores or in an essay.

    Imagine a college admissions officer reviewing an applicant’s portfolio. Instead of a single GPA or test score, they see a dynamic narrative of growth and impact — how a student led a community project addressing food insecurity, demonstrating compassion and collaboration, or how they developed an innovative solution to a STEM challenge, showcasing critical thinking and creativity. Such a system not only makes admissions more equitable but also better aligns with what colleges and employers increasingly value: adaptable, motivated and socially conscious individuals.

    The future of education depends on dismantling systems that reward the old factory model — which benefits some students and sidelines others — and replacing them with models that recognize and nurture diverse forms of excellence. This approach offers a road map for how school districts across California can empower all students to transcend traditional barriers and realize their full potential. If adopted widely, it could transform not only K-12 education but also college admissions, workforce development and society at large.

    The question is no longer whether change is necessary, but how quickly we can scale up innovations like this to ensure that every student has the opportunity to thrive. By embracing this shift, we can create a more just, dynamic and inclusive educational system — one that values every student for who they are and what they contribute to the world.

    •••

    Michael Matsuda is superintendent of the Anaheim Union High School District. June Ahn is a professor of learning sciences and research-practice partnerships at the UC Irvine School of Education.

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





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  • Let’s fully fund restorative justice — because it works

    Let’s fully fund restorative justice — because it works


    Fremont High School students in Oakland Unified use restorative justice circles to welcome newcomers, get to know each other and build bridges between different cliques and ethnic groups.

    Credit: Tatiana Chaterji / Oakland Unified

    A change has come to my classroom, and I didn’t even know it. 

    While I’ve been busy teaching, California passed Senate Bill 274 expanding the prohibition of suspensions for low-level defiance behaviors to higher grades. I had no idea, nor did any of the colleagues I’ve spoken to recently.

    Perhaps that is because my school is in the San Diego Unified School District. Along with other districts like Los Angeles Unified, we’ve been focused on restorative practices, instead of punitive ones (like suspending students) for nearly a decade. At my school, for example, we have an amazing counselor and a part-time restorative justice lead.

    But I’ve learned recently that my experience isn’t normal. Many schools do not have any training or funding for this type of training. And this lack of both training and funding is going to put any California teacher in between the new law and a hard day if we don’t address it statewide soon.

    What is restorative justice?

    Essentially, restorative justice practices are relationship-building. They fundamentally weave in and under everything about a school built on respect and collaboration. These practices include, but are not limited to, affirmations, restorative circles, student check-ins, community circles, social contracts, and activities that enhance relationships.

    We know that when a school puts restorative justice in place with fidelity, suspension rates decrease and student learning outcomes improve. Students themselves report a preference when restorative measures are taken over traditional ones. Importantly, this means that defiance issues are far less common or reported in schools effectively implementing restorative justice.

    Restorative justice is erroneously seen by some as an alternative way of addressing serious school incidents. It is not, nor has it ever been, a solution for things like sexual harassment, physical assault, hate crimes, vandalism or other serious incidents at a school.

    Some believe that restorative justice is mostly concerned with helping the student who causes harm, not the child who is harmed. This, we have found, is often based on a teacher’s experience with improper implementation at the administrative level.

    When this occurs, it rightly causes frustration. It also causes some to express that they do not believe justice has been served for the person who was harmed. When restorative justice practice fails to restore justice, it cannot be called restorative, or justice.

    Another fallacy is that restorative justice is only used to “put out fires,” when students are in trouble. However, when properly implemented at a school, most restorative practices occur before any issues arise.

    Through the work of our council, we’ve found that even though our district leadership actively supports, advocates for and prioritizes restorative justice practices, the lack of state funding has made implementation extraordinarily difficult.

    For example, elementary, middle and high school levels within San Diego Unified have been funded quite differently. While middle schools have been funded for a two-day-a-week position, high schools have only had funding for a position one day a week. Worse, elementary schools were not allocated any funding for a restorative lead. That lead position is essential for restorative justice to work well. Restorative leads schedule positive school events, conduct restorative circles and follow up to ensure resolutions — while teachers teach — just like a doctor might follow up to be sure an illness is cured. 

    If an elementary school wanted to pursue restorative practices, they had to hire a restorative lead out of their limited site funds. This lack of alignment between different grade levels in a district the size of San Diego Unified, we found, mirrors the type of limited training and funding allocation for other districts throughout California. In other words, districts like ours want to implement restorative justice, but they can’t afford to do so properly. Meanwhile, state laws like SB 274 have changed the expectations for how teachers interact with students daily.

    This discrepancy between legislation and funding can put teachers in a difficult situation — unable to suspend students who are disrupting their classrooms, and lacking restorative justice training and support that would enable them to more effectively manage their classrooms. And this leads our council to the following recommendations for all California districts, public and charter, and state educational leaders.

    • State funding should be earmarked for ongoing restorative training and professional development for all staff in K-12 schools.
    • State funding should be allocated for the restorative lead position uniformly in all public schools and public charter schools.
    • Districts must support transformation within their schools, like San Diego Unified’s leadership does. 

    Our council is eager to work with any parent or educational advocacy group, state legislator, or public or charter district leader interested in taking on this important work with us. 

    •••

    Thomas Courtney is a sixth-grade humanities and English language arts teacher at Millennial Tech Middle School in southeast San Diego.

    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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