برچسب: matter

  • California Subject Matter Projects are rare gift for teachers seeking inspiration

    California Subject Matter Projects are rare gift for teachers seeking inspiration


    Credit: Courtesy of Tom Courtney

    As a guide teacher and induction mentor, I am worried about the future of our profession.

    Nearly half of all California teachers quit before their fifth year. Teachers like me know that it isn’t just about throwing in more troops alongside our new recruits. Teacher morale, teacher self-efficacy, and teacher autonomy have never been more worrisome.

    The more you listen to new teachers, like I often do, the more you realize: It’s not about what these teachers think of teaching. It’s about the way they feel.

    I believe that what teachers need, but seldom get, are opportunities to celebrate victories for ourselves, to feel empowered. As an induction candidate recently told me, “I want to watch my kids leave at the end of the day and think, ‘Wow, I really taught something special today.’”

    This is what every teacher I know, the veteran and the new, needs to feel.

    So, whenever a new teacher candidate calls me looking for that feeling, I send them to the same place that I go for a recharge: The California Subject Matter Project. The response is always the same: “What’s that, Tom?”

    And that worries me a little because at times it seems this amazing resource on teaching is the best-kept secret in education.

    I think it’s the perfect time to make it the worst-kept secret.

    The California Subject Matter Project is a collection nine initiatives operating out of UC and Cal State campuses up and down the state. Essentially, picture in your mind an organization of experts in all content areas you can think of: art, history, science, math, reading, writing, all housed on a UC or Cal State campus. And the best part is, these offices are found on campuses throughout California.

    The purpose of the projects is to create seeds of strong teaching around many disciplines. The reason why it’s such an essential organization is that its impartial, filled with very smart academics, and has no other agenda but to connect with willing participating districts, schools and teachers. 

    Each location, led by a regional director, creates and connects empowering research-based, content-focused outreach programs that teachers, frankly, don’t see enough of at their school sites. If ever.

    Removed from the politics surrounding so many education issues, the California Subject Matter Project is focused on the actual learning and teaching. Under its umbrella, smaller content-specific projects (like art, math, global education) offer rich and engaging programs directed to exactly the teachers who need them most. And they do it in a way that is pro-equity and pro-access for marginalized student populations, like many of my students. They also have a lot of fun.

    For example, I am a proud teacher leader with one of the Subject Matter’s projects, the California Reading and Literacy Project. I now join my colleagues to learn, grow, reflect, and share research-driven approaches to reading. Our project hosts virtual book studies, conferences and invitationals, and runs professional development that always exceeds my expectations.

    When I attend any of these events, I feel empowered, and I know I am in the company of teachers who feel the same way. Through just this initiative, I have learned things I feel I should have gotten a long time ago — like how to incorporate phonics in small dynamic groups at middle school, collect a lifetime supply of great literature for small groups, and the value of having my students write authentically.

    But the California Reading and Literacy Project is just one of many projects you can connect with. For instance, I am also a member of California Science Project, California History Project, and the California Global Education Project. Each one of these spaces is, as my induction candidate Kelly Gonzales calls them, “a breath of fresh air,” and each is a place where I can be exposed to dozens of things that I wouldn’t be privy to at my school site.

    I also have gained many friends from many different work environments. I can now see, on those tough days, that I am not alone, and know where to go to get real, authentic help as a teacher and a person of conscience. These friendships have helped me better understand what I need to advocate for in regard to my own students, and that empowers me too. It gives me a sense of autonomy. It gives me a sense of authentic purpose. 

    In the California Subject Matter Project spaces, I know I am around academics and professionals seeking to better education, not better their results on a math or reading test alone. And in many ways, it’s what I had always been needing, but didn’t have, until I found them.

    How to join and tell them Tom sent you

    If you can use a little recharge in your teaching, or if you need a massive one, I’d like to strongly encourage you to reach out to one of the subject matter projects too. Choose an area in which you teach and are passionate about. To find contact information for the region nearest you, look here.

    Teach in a rural area? Not to worry. Many subject matter programs are also available virtually, so you may be surprised how much amazing professional development, sometimes with a stipend, is available over Zoom.

    And you may just be surprised at how much you, like I still do, love teaching again.

    •••

    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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  • When will Black minds matter in California’s actions, not just words?

    When will Black minds matter in California’s actions, not just words?


    restorative justice

    Alison Yin for EdSource

    During a recent work trip to another state, I ran into an acquaintance I’d met a few times at education conferences. After our initial chit-chat about jet lag, they brought up a sentiment I’ve increasingly heard lately: Surely I must be glad to do education work in California, where equity isn’t a bad word; where diversity is championed, and state leaders are quick to defend the programs, practices and policies that support students of color.

    It’s becoming harder to fix my face when I hear these words. Rhetoric is one thing, actions and data are another. And in a state where the current trajectory won’t have all Black students at grade level in math until at least 2089, I worry that our focus on saying the right words is taking the place of doing the right thing. 

    Before I get written off as too angry, let me be clear that there are absolutely things to celebrate in California’s approach to education. But here is where the conundrum lies for me. Why is it that California pursues so many positive steps forward in education, but continually sidesteps significant action that would lead to tangible results for Black students? 

    EdTrust—West’s report “Black Minds Matter 2025: Building Bright Black Futures,” comes a decade after we originally issued a call to action for California leaders by launching the Black Minds Matter campaign in 2015. We found a big disconnect between the dreams and aspirations of Black students and the opportunities our education systems give them to succeed. Black students are more likely to attend schools with novice teachers. Black students have the lowest high school graduation rate in California. Fewer Black students are going to college after high school than 10 years ago, and Black students are still underrepresented at California State University and the University of California. On nearly every indicator we analyzed, the education systems charged with caring for our students fail to support Black students. Wouldn’t you be angry if these were your kids or family members? 

    Our reports, policy work, and that of other researchers and advocacy organizations show how many efforts proclaimed as supportive to Black students are performative and piecemeal, or watered down or abandoned altogether, like the changes made to the Black Student Achievement Program in Los Angeles and the quashing of 2023’s Assembly Bill 2774

    This work, and some of our previous statements about the pace of progress in the state, have pissed people off. It confounds me that some folks in power are more upset about the ways we describe the data on how schools and colleges are doing for Black students than they are about how schools and colleges are doing for Black students. We have to remember that there are real people behind these data points.

    Some folks told us not to share this data and advocate strongly for Black students right now. The political climate is too tenuous to speak up for Black students, they said. We need to fly under the radar rather than speak loudly and boldly, they said. It is not lost on me that the individuals suggesting this quieter path are well-intentioned. However, as professor Shaun Harper points out, now is precisely the time for organizations and educational institutions “to showcase DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) activities to confirm that they are not the racist, divisive, discriminatory and anti-American activities that obstructionists erroneously claim”. 

    California may be in the crosshairs, but we are also at a crossroads.

    The dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education is being framed as returning education to the states. So, let’s take them up on that in ways that not only reaffirm our values verbally, but also through new, bolder actions.

    Many of our recommendations are not new, except one: We need a California Commission on Black Education Transformation. Our current education infrastructure is failing far too many Black students. As we outline in our report and will continue to share in upcoming materials, we are not proposing that this commission act as another task force, but rather that it serves as an entity with power and authority around resources and accountability measures. We need an overhaul, and now —when states are being told they are empowered to lead on education — is the time to do it. 

    What I reminded the colleague I saw at the recent conference is this: The fight for racial justice has always been an uphill battle, even in California. Yet what we have in California — or at least what I am hoping we have — are leaders who will not only not back down, but will embrace the call to be bold.

    I’ve advised college students and been an adjunct professor. I would never tell a student to temper their expectations for themselves. I would never say to a student not to fight for what is right because it is hard. I hope California doesn’t, either. 

    •••

    Christopher J. Nellum, Ph.D., is executive director of EdTrust—West, a nonprofit organization advancing policies and practices to dismantle the racial and economic barriers embedded in the California education system. 

    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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