Kids get a chance to stretch their legs and skills during physical exercise in Los Angeles in 2023.
Courtesy LA84 Foundation
Millions of young people across the nation have returned to school, yet students are still struggling to navigate the return to normal. Research shows us that educators and policymakers can bring back joy in schools by prioritizing sport and play to build a supportive learning environment. One where we all win.
The role of sports and play extends far beyond physical fitness. It profoundly impacts student social and emotional health and school connectedness. By instilling valuable life skills, fostering social bonds and promoting emotional well-being, sport and play contribute to a holistic educational experience that nurtures well-rounded individuals capable of transcending life’s challenges and thriving in diverse circumstances.
With parents, educators and administrators now back in school, let’s not forget the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in a new set of challenges for youth, leading to a mental health crisis as declared by the U.S. Surgeon General in late 2021.
While issues concerning the mental health of our kids had arisen long before the pandemic, nearly three years of isolation and increased screen time, death and uncertainty only magnified students’ stress, anxiety and depression. We warned this was a mounting mental health emergency in schools last year, but today it is in clearer focus. Results released in February from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicated startling trends. Nearly 3 in 5 teen girls (57%) said they felt “persistently sad or hopeless.” More than 40% of boys and girls responded they had felt so sad or hopeless within the past year they were unable to perform regular activities.
According to a 2022 State of Youth Mental Health report which surveyed 2,000 parents, 68% have seen their children face significant mental and emotional challenges. Yet, recent studies have also found 60% of youth with major depression do not receive mental health treatment, many of them youth of color.
These findings require us to not rush into school with a singular focus on closing the learning loss. Let’s instead look to accelerate opportunities through sport and play to help our kids reconnect to themselves, to their friends and to their schoolwork.
Sport and play hold a profound significance in fostering social and emotional well-being and enhancing school connectedness for students. Beyond mere physical activity, engagement in sport and play cultivates essential life skills and nurtures interpersonal relationships.
Policymakers across the country have recognized the value of sport and play in schools and are advancing this framework. California state Sen. Josh Newman authored Daily Recess for All, Senate Bill 291, which ensures students have access to a 30-minute recess for unstructured play and that it cannot be withheld as a form of punishment.
The joy and spontaneity inherent in play promote emotional release and stress reduction. Engaging in recreational activities allows students to unwind, alleviate anxiety and recharge their mental faculties. This, in turn, equips them to navigate academic pressures and personal trials more effectively. One study found that 6-to-8-year-olds who exercised frequently had fewer symptoms of major depressive disorders two years later.
This same study found 73% of parents believe that sport benefits their child’s mental health. Participating in sports teaches invaluable lessons in teamwork, communication and perseverance. Through wins and losses, individuals learn to handle success and setbacks, building resilience and boosting self-esteem. These experiences translate into the ability to cope with challenges outside the sports arena, contributing to a balanced social and emotional state.
Sports and play serve as powerful catalysts for building social bonds. Students develop a sense of camaraderie and shared purpose in collaborative activities, breaking down barriers and forming connections that transcend differences. This inclusivity enhances the feeling of belonging, which is vital for a positive school environment.
In a world increasingly driven by digital interactions, the physicality of sports and play offers a refreshing counterbalance. Face-to-face interactions during games and playtime nurture emotional intelligence and empathy, enriching interpersonal skills that are essential for healthy relationships in school — and later in life.
Although it’s never been more needed in the educational environment, many public schools have defunded sports programs and offer physical education far less than they once did. That reinforces the pay-to-play model and leaves out the kids who have the least.
Our data shows that as household income increases in LA County, so does activity levels for the children in the home. Children from homes with income under $35,000 a year play far less than kids from affluent households, and they are unable to access the resources they need to be active.
These children are our future engineers, musicians, teachers, caregivers and leaders. Talent is universal, but opportunity is not. We can mend the kids’ lives who are suffering by providing access to the transformative power of sport and play, and help change a significant number of their destinies.
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Renata Simril is president & CEO of the LA84 Foundation, the legacy of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and a national leader advocating for the role of sport and play in positive youth development.
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.
Students spend time at the turtle pond on the campus of San Diego State University.
Credit: Noah Lyons/EdSource
According to a 2018 study published by Frontiers of Public Health, spending time outdoors can aid people in a variety of categories: “attention and cognition, memory, stress and anxiety, sleep, emotional stability and self-perceived welfare or quality of life.”
Monicka Fosnocht, an associate therapist at San Diego State University with a background in natural public medicine agrees. “For a lot of students that are struggling with mental health, or even students who don’t and are just stressed, it’s really helpful to get a nice, big dose of vitamin D and get outside so that we can get our brains functioning optimally.”
SDSU has its own outdoor resources. One space in particular, the turtle pond, has become a popular destination for students seeking solace from their academic lives.
The origins of the turtle pond date back to 1973. The campus community asked for more green spaces, and the school delivered. Koi fish dominated the scene at first, but red-eared slider turtles eventually became the pond’s informal namesake.
Within this area, there are hammocks, slacklines, trees, ample seating and, of course, the pond itself, all providing students with a mental health boost.
The therapeutic effect of being in outdoor spaces is increasingly being noted by mental health professionals, including SDSU counseling and psychological services faculty member Tri Nguyễn.
“Therapists are moving a lot more outdoors.” Nguyễn said. “There are providers who do therapy outdoors, by hiking or going on a walk. It’s no longer just within the confines of an office space.”
While individuals between 15 and 21 years old are significantly more stressed than older generations, they are more likely to report their struggles and seek help. Fosnocht is optimistic that young people can normalize conversations surrounding mental health and find unique ways to address it.
“I’m really hopeful for Gen Z and the generations to come that are decreasing the stigma around mental health and also connecting it to very accessible things like being in nature, hanging out with the turtles, talking to other people and taking the time to connect with people in person.”
A frequent turtle pond visitor is Natale Canepa, a fifth-year journalism and media studies major. While he isn’t a musician by nature, he’s added to the character of the turtle pond with his music. He said that to express his excitement about returning to classes after the pandemic, he started whistling.
Nicknamed “The Turtle Pond Whistler,” Canepa posts videos on Instagram, which has, in turn, attracted others to the turtle pond.
In addition to being an outlet for his self-expression, he views the pond as a place for truly living in the moment.
“I see the turtle pond as a place of magic; I come here and I’m mesmerized by the sights, sounds and smells,” Canepa said. “I think the best moments in life are the quiet, slow moments when you can hear the rustling of the leaves in the wind, hear the splashing of the water and look at the little turtles swimming around in the pond.”
Canepa is not alone in that sentiment. Lauren DuBose, a fourth-year business administration major, visits the turtle pond on a near-daily basis to unplug from her academic life.
Even if she only has a 15-minute gap between classes, DuBose spends time at the pond connecting with friends, listening to music and practicing mindfulness.
“Being in San Diego, you have so many sunny days,” DuBose said. “If you can get 10 minutes of sunlight a day just sitting there and closing your eyes a little bit, that’s definitely beneficial to your mental health.”
Another outdoor amenity that SDSU’s counseling and psychological services provides involves a pair of four-legged friends. Baxter and Luna, the school’s therapy dogs, make frequent appearances at school events, including “Lunch with Luna,” which takes place at the turtle pond.
College campuses across California are embracing the outdoors, too.
Students, staff and faculty at University of California, Irvine are encouraged to participate in “Wednesday Wellness Walks” across parks and marshes across the city, while Chico State University has its own guided forest therapy program, based on “forest bathing,” a popular Japanese practice.
And in the spring of 2022, the University of California, Davis created an initiative called Healthy Outside.” This was part of a campuswide effort to get students outdoors and spend more time in natural settings. The program also rewarded students with prizes for participating.
Fosnocht said that practicing mindfulness should go beyond the school, and into the local community.
“We don’t have to limit it to campus alone. When I work with students, I encourage them to use all the outdoor spaces throughout San Diego,” Fosnocht said. “We’re very close to Mission Trails as well as Cowles Mountain and the beaches.”
ChatGPT is all over the news these days, but when it was first released to the public in November 2022, one of us (Linda) was completely unaware of its existence, while the other (Candice) was already exploring the ways it could be used to creatively brainstorm solutions to complex policy problems in her graduate studies.
It wasn’t until after listening to a podcast on a road trip with her two teenage sons that Linda learned about ChatGPT’s incredible ability to generate creative content, write lines of code and summarize dense literature, and that one of her sons — like 33% of 12- to 17-year-olds nationwide — had already used ChatGPT to help with school assignments.
A recent meeting of the California Collaborative on District Reform focused on the future of K-12 education further pushed our awareness of artificial intelligence in education and the efforts schools are making to prepare students for a new world. Meeting participants walked away with a better understanding of the power and limitations of AI but expressed emerging and persistent concerns around bias and equity, asking questions about how to ensure that such a powerful tool can be accessed by all students. As history tells us, new technologies often widen the gaps between the rich and the poor. More recently, research shows us that 31% of students from low-income households lacked access to technologies needed for remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
So, we asked ourselves how AI can be accessed equitably —and what does that even mean?
As the academic year launches, it’s imperative that school system leaders think about how to make access to AI more equitable and empower both students and educators to navigate these tools with more critical awareness.
A haphazard approach to integrating AI into schools poses potential threats to equity. Failure to ensure access to AI in resource-limited schools potentially widens the digital divide and perpetuates unequal learning opportunities and outcomes for historically underserved students and their communities. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 features can only be acquired through a paid premium account, meaning the most advanced AI tools, such as analyzing images and generating graphs, might be restricted to students and communities with greater financial resources. Therefore, implementing a thoughtful, realistic approach to ensuring all students, regardless of resources, can access AI tools that are changing how we learn and work, is necessary to furthering an equity agenda.
Additionally, prioritizing equity goes beyond merely ensuring access; it requires critical awareness to integrate AI into school systems. Redefining access will require comprehensive teacher training to effectively engage with AI and integrate its many capabilities into the school and classroom. A nationwide survey revealed that 72% of K-12 teachers had not received guidance and training on integrating AI into their curriculum. But training teachers to recognize the bias inherent in the tool, learning to fact-check the results AI produces, and incorporating nuanced, human details into its output is a necessity. And more essential is ensuring that teachers in both resource-rich and resource-restricted schools have access to this training.
Understanding how AI tools are built can help shine a light on the bias and systemic issues of equity associated with AI. The 2020 documentary “Coded Bias,” for example, reveals how the quality of AI output depends entirely on the data used to train it. A recent Boston Globe story shared the experience of an Asian MIT student who asked AI to make her headshot more professional, and it gave her lighter skin and blue eyes. Demographics show that 67% of AI specialists are white and 91% are men. If AI tools learn from sources primarily produced by white males, the output generated is likely to reflect the same homogenized knowledge, insights and resulting bias.
With the rapid growth of AI technology, it is likely that AI will become increasingly integrated into schools. Students are already using AI to take notes in lectures, assist with language translation, and help solve math problems. Therefore, focused attention on redefining access is necessary to ensure that students from resource-rich schools are not the only ones with the opportunity to master AI tools that will increasingly be part of their daily lives.
We are at the beginning of a long journey of understanding and navigating the role of AI in all schools, but the conversation must begin with a thoughtful and proactive approach by system leaders to center equity and empower teachers to guide students on a pathway to more powerful learning experiences.
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.
The graduation stage at all California State University (CSU) campuses are vibrant tableaus of dreams achieved. Each cap and gown tell a unique tale of persistence, ambition, and hope. But beneath the prestige and pride lies a sobering reality. For many students, obtaining a diploma also means accumulating debt.
The CSU’s recent decision to increase tuition by 34% over five years, at an annual rate of 6%, might intensify these disparities, potentially impacting the trajectory of many students’ dreams and futures.
While the CSU cites fiscal imperatives for the increase, it’s crucial to consider its effects on students, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds. Higher education, once the beacon of hope and socio-economic mobility, is slowly being priced out of reach for many. Making this path more expensive threatens to sideline those who are meant to benefit from it the most.
The data doesn’t lie, so let’s dive into it. Our recent collaborative report with The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) on the CSU system illuminates disturbing trends. While the CSU’s efforts to boost graduation rates are commendable, the cost of these achievements disproportionately impacts students from racially marginalized communities. We found that from the academic year 2021-22 a disconcerting 63% of Black bachelor’s degree recipients are grappling with student debt. In contrast, only about a third of their white and Asian peers face similar financial burdens. Moreover, only 48% of Black students secure their degree within six years. As these stats indicate, the increase in tuition could threaten the very essence of CSU, known for its diversity and inclusivity.
The data tells a story that reaches far beyond mere statistics. Picture the path of a first-generation college student from a marginalized background. They step onto campus, buoyed by dreams and shouldering the weight of their family’s expectations. As they navigate the academic world, they confront both systemic obstacles and personal challenges.
Yet, as graduation draws near, a looming debt casts a shadow over their achievements. Each loan statement they receive isn’t merely an invoice; it’s a stark reminder of the price of ambition, of wanting to change your life for the better. These are dreams recalibrated or paused, not because of a lack of drive, capability, passion, or talent but for the sake of survival. Thus, the narrative shifts from higher education being a bridge to dreams to a poignant query: Is the investment truly worth its promise?
Add to this the ramifications of the CSU’s recent decision. Annual tuition increases totaling 34% can lead to longer work hours, fewer academic credits, or even postponed semesters. Each subsequent loan statement, irrespective of graduation status, serves as a somber reminder of the tangible costs of dreams and the yearning for a brighter future. Such decisions don’t just delay dreams; they risk derailing them.
At this defining moment, the CSU must introspectively reassess its foundational principles. The recent tuition hike decision has resonated like an unsettling alarm throughout the CSU community. While certain factions might view this as a necessary step to counteract fiscal deficits, for many students, it’s an added layer to an already challenging academic climb. To paint a clearer picture, on most campuses, our most economically disadvantaged students would need to clock in twenty or even upwards of thirty hours of paid work a week, in certain regions, just to afford the cost of attendance.
Beyond individual concerns, society must recognize wider ramifications. Those students we’re most committed to elevating may increasingly feel academia’s gates slowly creaking shut. If financial burdens eclipse the dream of higher education, the entire society loses out. We risk sidelining tomorrow’s innovators, thinkers, leaders, and agents of societal change. The budding poet, poised to inspire an era, might remain silent; the aspiring scientist, on the brink of groundbreaking discoveries might opt for more immediate financial gains by taking a job instead. The community advocates, starting their journey in student leadership and deeply attuned to their community’s historical narratives, might never fully realize their potential to uplift and lead.
This is a rallying cry for unity. As the CSU system charts its course, it is vital that policymakers, educators, students, and the wider community actively participate in this critical dialogue. We must also confront the sobering truth that members of our community will disproportionately bear the inequitable burden of a college degree. It’s crucial that we safeguard against making the pursuit of dreams financially untenable. After all, dreams cultivated within the halls of academia should ignite, illuminate, and elevate – not ensnare.
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Dominic Quan Treseler is president of the Cal State Student Association and a political science major at San Jose State University.
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.
Justice Spears is a senior at Sacramento Charter High School, who is enrolled in the Panther Pipeline Program.
Credit: Arrows Digital / St. HOPE Public Schools
College enrollment was declining even before the pandemic. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “the overall college enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds decreased from 41% in 2010 to 38% in 2021.” In 2021, the college enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds was highest for Asian students (60%) compared to 37% for Black students and 33% for Hispanic students.
One important way to increase college attendance is through dual enrollment programs in which high school students take college classes and receive college credit. According to a recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California, participation in dual enrollment programs is associated with higher high school completion, college readiness and higher academic achievement.
While the benefits of dual enrollment are clear, not all students have the bandwidth to take college classes on top of their high school coursework. In order to reduce barriers and increase access to college-level courses, we have taken dual enrollment one step further at St. HOPE Public Schools. Our Panther Pipeline program brings the college experience to our high school campus. Through our partnership with the Los Rios Community College District, college professors come to Sacramento Charter High School and teach our juniors and seniors in person. Scholars enrolled in the Panther Pipeline program take rigorous college courses and receive both high school and college credit.
This program is unique because our scholars do not have to leave our high school campus to take college courses. Two days a week, college professors come to Sac High to teach in person, and the other three days, scholars complete their college work in class with their Sac High instructional aide. By bringing college to our scholars and allowing them to receive both high and college credit we are making dual enrollment more accessible and an option for scholars who may not otherwise be able to take high school and college classes at the same time.
The benefits of bringing college courses to our scholars are far-reaching. Our student population is predominantly low-income minority students, and many of our scholars are the first in their families to go to college. By exposing them to college before they need to apply in fall of their senior year, we hope to spark their interest in pursuing higher education and expand their worldview of what opportunities are available in college. Providing our upperclassmen with multiple college course offerings while they are in high school helps them home in on what major they may want to pursue in college as well as think about what career might be the best fit for them.
Dual enrollment programs provide students with an opportunity to graduate from high school with college credits, which helps them save money on college tuition by reducing the number of college classes they need to graduate. High school juniors enrolled in our dual enrollment program could potentially take four college courses before they graduate from high school, saving them time and money while in college.
Bringing college classes to our high school campus also helps reduce transportation barriers for students who may not be able to travel to a college campus. Many of our scholars have after-school commitments — jobs, sports, and responsibilities at home — that might prevent them from taking courses at a college campus, but when they are part of their high school day, those barriers are removed.
An important part of our dual enrollment program is that it provides students with a multitiered system of support. We have high school teachers who help students navigate and manage their college coursework, and students have access to the Los Rios College campuses, facilities and tutoring resources. This is critical for preparing students for university-level expectations and ensuring they have the study skills to succeed in college.
As we collectively work on increasing access to college and career pathways, I encourage high schools around the state to offer dual enrollment programs that provide students with both high school and college credit. Taking college courses in addition to high school classes can be daunting, but combining college and high school credit is much more doable for many students, especially those we are trying to get into the college pipeline.
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Lisa Ruda is superintendent of St. HOPE Public Schools, a tuition-free, college prep public charter school network in Sacramento.
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.
In the 2021-2022 academic year alone, California students lost more than 500,000 days to out-of-school suspensions, where students are sent home as a form of discipline, the study said.
Across the state, foster youth were disproportionately at the receiving end of the punishment, and they lost more time than “all students” across the board to suspensions — about 77 days of instruction for every 100 students.
Specifically, for every 100 African American foster youth enrolled, 121 days were lost while, African American homeless youth lost 69 days of instruction, according to the report which was released Oct. 30. Meanwhile, homeless students overall missed 26 days per 100 students.
Regardless of whether they are in foster care, students with disabilities lost 23.8 school days per 100, a rate higher than the general population. Dan Losen, senior director for the National Center for Youth Law and co-author of the report, said that missing a day of instruction could result in loss of these students’ access to disability-specific supports, such as counseling.
“A regular day might be one of the most important days of the week for the students with disabilities,” Losen said. “So, in some sense, they’re getting a harsher punishment and being denied more.”
Challenges for foster youth and homeless students
K-12 students across the state have already lost a lot of ground academically since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; Losen said that missing even more days to suspensions is detrimental.
Losing instructional time “is harming their educational outcomes, not just in the immediate, but it makes it less likely they’re ever going to graduate,” Losen said. “It puts their academic and personal futures at greater risk.”
According to the report, suspending a student — even once — is associated with diminished chances of graduating from high school and attending college, as well as an increased probability of being arrested later in life.
Losen added that suspensions are more likely to cause delinquent behavior than curb it.
“Suspending a student out of school is really a non-intervention. It’s no guarantee that anything will happen. They’re just going to come back to school three days or two days later,” Losen said.
“Not that you should put up with misconduct, but there’s got to be a way to support these kids, especially those from these unstable home environments.”
To make matters worse, these students who are being disproportionately suspended are already likely to have experienced trauma outside of school, Losen said.
“The more (adverse experiences) you have, the more likely it is you’ll have a form of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and that definitely affects behavior. … Some of them might withdraw into a shell, but others might act out in ways that they might normally not act out,” Losen said.
Discrepancies across districts
The report shows records varied from district to district — from Kern High School District where 23.3 days of instruction have been lost per 100 students to Los Angeles Unified School District, where only 0.7 days of instruction per 100 students were lost.
“Racial biases (in student discipline) are prevalent, and they don’t have to be intentional,” said Losen, noting that homeless and foster youth are disproportionately Black and brown.
That implicit bias “means you’re not aware of how you may be biased in not just how you punish, but who you’re looking at, who you’re expecting to exhibit problem behavior, whether shouting in the hallway is interpreted as a bullying event, or just kids roughhousing,” he said.
Kern High School District — based in Bakersfield with more than 42,000 students — had the highest rate of instructional time lost among African American students, totaling 80 days per 100 students.
EdSource reached out to the Kern High School District regarding the study’s findings, but district spokespeople did not respond by EdSource’s deadline.
Kern’s number is disappointing, said Ashley De La Rosa, the education policy director for the Central Valley-based Dolores Huerta Foundation, which previously sued the Kern High School District over its disciplinary methods. But she said she’s “not surprised either.”
“The current board of education seems more focused on monitoring and policing students than actually seeing what the teachers or the administrators are doing,” De La Rosa said. “… When students are not in class, they’re not learning, and our educational attainment in Kern County is one of the lowest.”
According to an announcement released by the Dolores Huerta Foundation, a 2017 settlement had required Kern High School district to “implement positive discipline practices to address disparate discipline outcomes and provide discipline-related training to all staff and personnel operating within the school environment.”
But after the terms of the settlement expired and the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the district took a major step back and out-of-school suspensions began to increase once again, De La Rosa said.
But following the 2017 settlement, the district said in that “certainly, KHSD has not engaged in intentional systemic racist student discipline practices against African-American and Latino students.”
“Rather (Kern High School District), like most public school districts nationwide, has been reviewing its student discipline data as it impacts minority students, and reframing its student discipline practices in order to address the statistically disproportionate suspension and expulsion of students of color,” the district’s statement noted.
By comparison, LAUSD’s rate of lost instructional days for African American students was 40 times lower than Kern’s, and no single demographic group lost more than three days per 100 students, according to the report.
A district spokesperson and community activists have attributed LAUSD’s reduction in out-of-school suspensions to the elimination of “willful defiance” suspensions 10 years ago, which was achieved through a School Climate Bill of Rights.
Willful defiance suspensions, advocates argued, were used as punitive disciplinary practices for small, subjective infractions such as talking back to a teacher or refusing to spit out gum.
Since the bill of rights passed, the district’s suspension rate has dropped from 2.3% in the 2011-12 academic year to 0.3% in 2021-2022, according to a district spokesperson. Meanwhile, LAUSD has worked to incorporate alternative disciplinary methods rooted in restorative justice.
“I’m proud of the progress LAUSD has made and the recognition in this report, and I also know that our progress resulted from years of community pressure and advocacy to treat students like the learners they are. As they learn literacy and mathematics, they also learn behavior expectations, conflict resolution skills and restorative practices,” LAUSD board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said.
“If we can shift the hearts, minds and skills of nearly 70,000 employees in LAUSD, then surely other districts can too,” she said.
Still, LAUSD remains “far from perfect” and has reported students to the police at higher rates than average, according to the report.
“We’re often punishing those that need the most support. So this is a (really) important opportunity … to do more radical listening, making sure that we have the right wraparound support necessary for students to thrive, particularly those students who are often in the shadows, often neglected and nothing more,” said Ryan J. Smith, the chief strategy officer at Community Coalition.
He also stressed that the district should prioritize support services, including psychiatric social workers and counselors, to uplift more vulnerable students who often make transitions from one home and community to another.
Looking ahead
According to the California Compilation of School Discipline Laws And Regulations, suspensions, regardless of whether they are out-of-school suspensions, should only be used as a last resort — and can only be used if a student exhibits certain behaviors, including causing physical injury to others or possessing illegal drugs.
Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 27, which aims to halt all suspensions for one of those categories, willful defiance, for middle and high school students across the state.
Losen said that despite statewide attempts to end willful defiance suspensions, he is still concerned that “violence with no injury” suspensions could take its place as another subjective, umbrella category that could disproportionately harm marginalized students.
“California has made some progress, but there’s a great amount of work to be done, and much more that could be done. I don’t want to lose sight,” Losen said. “Modest progress shouldn’t kill the initiative to really make more lasting, substantial changes.”
Next month, a panel of University of California professors in the sciences and math will give their recommendations on the contentious issue of how much math high school students should know before taking a college-qualifying course in data science. Its answer could influence future course offerings and admissions requirements in math for UC and CSU.
“There’s a tension between the interest in adhering to math standards and ensuring students learn math and also recognizing the changes that are happening in the uses of math in industry and the world in general,” said Pamela Burdman, executive director of Just Equations, a nonprofit that promotes policies that prepare students with quantitative skills to succeed in college.
“How UC resolves this issue will have a bearing on that, and the signals that UC sends to high schools about what is and isn’t approved will have a big impact on what this next generation of students learns.”
The issue has embroiled California’s higher education decision-makers, and it mired proponents and opponents of California’s new TK-12 math framework in an acrimonious debate earlier this year.
Advocates have cited the appeal of introductory data science as a way to broaden the boundaries of math to students who were turned off by it. Traditionalists – STEM professors and professionals – countered that courses like introductory data science that include little advanced math content create the illusion that students are prepared for college-level quantitative work while discouraging them from pursuing STEM majors.
Separate from this immediate question, a second group of UC, CSU and community college math professors is revisiting a more fundamental question: How much math knowledge is essential for any high school graduate with college aspirations, and separately for those interested in pursuing STEM, the social sciences or majors needing few quantitative skills?
For the past two decades, the answer was cut-and-dried — and uniform. The CSU and UC defined foundational high school math as the topics and concepts covered by the three math courses – Algebra I, Geometry, and Advanced Algebra, which is Algebra II — that both systems require students to pass for admission.
With the state’s adoption of the Common Core math standards for K-12 in 2010, the options expanded to include Integrated I, II and III, which cover the same Common Core topics in a different order. Both UC and CSU encourage students to take a fourth year of math, and most do.
The debate has centered on Algebra II. For future science, engineering and math majors, Algebra II is the gateway to the path from trigonometry and Pre-calculus to Calculus, which they must eventually take. But for the majority of non-STEM-bound students, Algebra II can be a slog: difficult, abstract and irrelevant to the college plans.
Despite a general agreement that high school math should be more relatable and relevant, there is intense disagreement on the fix.
New course offerings in the burgeoning fields of data science and statistics “present new ways to engage students. At the same time, they can foster the quantitative literacy — or competency with numerical data — that math courses are intended to provide,” Burdman wrote in a commentary in EdSource. “They have the potential to improve equity and ensure that quantitative literacy is a right, not a privilege.”
But with 17% of Black children, 23% of Hispanic children and 23% of low-income children scoring proficient in the latest Smarter Balanced tests, the need for effective and engaging math instruction must begin long before high school. The new TK-12 math framework, approved in July after multiple revisions and four years of debate, forcefully calls for fundamental changes in math instruction.
“Arguments about what content should be included in high school mathematics fail to acknowledge the elephant in the room: We haven’t yet figured out how to teach the concepts of algebra well to most students,” wrote psychology professors Ji Song of CSU Los Angeles and James Stigler of UCLA in an Edsource commentary.
Committees of faculty senates of both UC and CSU have restated that Algebra II, along with geometry and Algebra I, provide the skills and quantitative reasoning needed for college work, in whatever paths students eventually choose.
“College and career readiness expectations include completion of these sequences or their equivalent that cover all of the Common Core standards,” the CSU Math Council wrote in a January resolution.
But in 2020, the influential UC academic senate, which is authorized to oversee course content for admissions, sent a critical mixed message. In a statement, the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools or BOARS invited proposals for a broader range of math courses for considerationthat would enable students to “complete certain mathematics courses other than Algebra II or Mathematics III in their junior year of high school to fulfill the minimum admissions requirement.” BOARS said it saw the expanded options “as both a college preparation and equity issue.”
Proponents of data science seized the opportunity, launching an end-run around what they perceived to be the inflexibility of math professors to change.
New courses
BOARS oversees policy, but the High School Articulation Unit, a small office in the UC President’s Office, does the evaluating and vetting of the tens of thousands of courses that course developers and high school teachers submit annually for approval. The office began authorizing new data science courses as meeting or “validating” the content requirements of Algebra II and Integrated III. The validation exemption presumed that the new course would build upon concepts and standards that students had covered in previous courses — in this case, Algebra II — or would be covered in the new course.
Subsequently, 368 data science and related courses received approval for 2022-23 and 435 for 2023-24. Nearly all use one of a half-dozen or so data science curricula developed for high schools.
There had been a precedent. As early as 2014, the UC had questionably validated statistics courses as satisfying Algebra II because they cover statistics standards that many Algebra II teachers frequently don’t get to, while not teaching other Algebra II content. However, extending validation to data science is more problematic since California has not established standards for the subject. As a result, there are no guidelines for what standards the courses should be teaching.
A flaw in implementation or policy?
In a detailed Nov. 12 letter to UC regents, Jelani Nelson, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley and a leading critic of weakening math requirements through course substitution, put the blame not on policy changes but on the course-approval process. An Articulation Unit with a small staff, none of whom had a background in STEM, was overwhelmed, he wrote.
Others agree. Rick Ford, professor emeritus and former chair of the department of mathematics at CSU Chico, said that what once was a rigorous process for course approval had become a “horrendous” pro-forma exercise, “primarily reliant on the fidelity of submitters” to follow BOARS guidelines.
The oldest and most popular course, Introduction to Data Science, developed by UCLA statistics professor Robert Gould through funding from the National Science Foundation and used throughout Los Angeles Unified, covered only the statistics standards, not other content in Algebra II. The same was the case with another popular course validated for Algebra II, “Explorations in Data Science,” developed by YouCubed, a Stanford University research center.
Most students who had taken Introduction to Data Science so far had taken Algebra II, so that was not a problem. But those who took it as juniors in lieu of Algebra II might find the course shut doors instead of opening them. Those who might later decide they want to major in biology, computer science, chemistry, neurology or statistics, all of which require passing Calculus, would find themselves struggling for lack of Algebra II; the CSU, meanwhile, no longer offers remediation courses in math.
“You’re asking a 14- or 15-year-old kid to make a lifelong decision in the spring of sophomore year,” said Ford, who chaired the influential Academic Preparation and Education Programs Committee of the CSU academic senate. “Watering down content is creating a multitrack system instead of giving all students the greatest chance of success.”
A backlash followed
News that UC was approving the substitution of data science for third-year Common Core math frustrated the faculty of CSU, which has relied on BOARS and the UC faculty for policy decisions since the two systems agreed to common course requirements, known as A-G, in 2003. Approving coursework that does not meet Common Core standards “brought to light the complete lack of control that the CSU has over the A-G high school requirements that are used for admission to our system,” the CSU senate stated in a January resolution. It called for the academic senates of both systems “to explore establishing joint decision-making” over new courses and changes to the A-G standards.
In July, during the lead-up to the anticipated approval of the final version of the updated California Math Framework by the State Board of Education, tensions came to a head. Thousands of STEM professionals and UC and CSU faculty had signed petitions sharply criticizing earlier drafts of the math guidelines. The proposed framework had discouraged districts from offering Algebra I in eighth grade, compounding the challenge of taking Calculus before high school graduation, while encouraging students to take data science over STEM professions that were described as less interesting and collaborative. One of the five authors of the drafts was Jo Boaler, a prominent professor of mathematics education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and co-founder of YouCubed.
In the framework it adopted in July, the State Board of Education left it to districts to decide who should take Algebra in the eighth grade. The final version revised language conflating courses in data literacy, which all 21st-century students need, with math-intensive data science courses that, together with Calculus, would prepare students for a data science major in college. It also dropped a new third pathway for data science next to the traditional pathway leading to Calculus.
But the final framework hasn’t fully mollified critics, including Elizabeth Statmore, a math teacher at Lowell High in San Francisco and former software executive.
“By encouraging students to abandon algebra before they’ve solidified their understanding, the (framework) makes it even more difficult for them to get back on that track — even more so now that our community colleges and CSUs have done away with remedial courses,” she wrote in an email.
“The only way we’re going to diversify STEM fields is to keep historically excluded young students on the algebraic thinking pathway just a little bit longer. That will give them the mathematical competencies they will need to make their own decisions about whether or not they want to pursue rigorous quantitative majors and careers.”
Feeling the heat, BOARS hastily reversed positions on July 7 — days before the State Board meeting — revoking validation for meeting Algebra II requirements for all data science courses. And, in a letter to the State Board, BOARS Chair Barbara Knowlton requested wording changes to the proposed framework, which the board did, including deleting a diagram that showed data science as an option to sub for Algebra II.
“The data science courses that have to date been approved by UCOP’s high school articulation team appear not to have been designed as third- or fourth-year mathematics courses,” wrote Knowlton, a professor of psychology at UCLA.
Ten days later, BOARS met again and clarified that there might be some exceptions for granting validation to those data science courses with “a prerequisite mastery of Algebra II content.” It also reiterated that the revocation of A-G credit would exempt students who are currently taking data science courses, with credit for Algebra II, or who had taken data science courses in past years.
“It’s been unfortunate that UC’s process of determining the rules has caused far more confusion than was needed,” said Burdman, the executive director of Just Equations.
The minutes of the meeting revealed that BOARS members professed they didn’t know how the articulation unit in the President’s Office determined if courses could be substituted. Nor could they determine how many data science courses were designated as advanced math. The President’s Office said about 400 data science courses were being taught in California high schools.
The minutes said that BOARS would appoint a working group, including professors of computer science, neuroscience, statistics and math, to clarify how to enforce the July 7 revocation vote, incorporate Algebra II as a course prerequisite, and determine the criteria for course validation.
BOARS, whose meetings are not public, hasn’t disclosed who’s in the group, although it includes no CSU faculty. The group has been meeting ahead of a December deadline so that BOARS can review and take action in January; only then will its recommendations be made public, Knowlton said in an interview.
There’s pressure to complete work in time for the next course cycle for the fall of 2024, starting in February, so that applicants know the new rules. “There is a concern among some people that if we don’t send this message quickly, there will be a proliferation of these courses,” she said.
Knowlton hopes the work group will identify elements of algebra that are critical for student success and evaluate courses to see which ones don’t cover them.
“Some validated courses may leave out really very important foundational aspects of math, and we want to reiterate what those are,” she said. Course developers could choose to add concepts to qualify for validation for Algebra II; that’s what the developers of financial math have done. Or instead, they could offer courses like data science as advanced math in the fourth year of high school, with a prerequisite of Algebra II.
Knowlton said BOARS is committed to equity in college admissions. But the challenge is balancing access and preparation, she said. “We want as much access as possible, yet it has to mean that students are prepared.”
But Aly Martinez, the former math coordinator for San Diego Unified, is worried that efforts to create innovative and rigorous courses in data science and statistics will be swept aside if BOARS applies restrictions too broadly.
After surveying students about their math interests, the district worked with the creators of CourseKata to turn its college statistics and data science course into two-year high school courses incorporating Algebra II standards and college and career pathway requirements. The courses can lead to Calculus for STEM majors; others can apply the knowledge to social science and other majors. The first-year course is popular and should be validated as satisfying Algebra II, she said.
“There is momentum and excitement about this work,” said Martinez, who is now the director of math for the nonprofit Student Achievement Partners. “Those who are innovative should not be the ones getting hurt.”
A fresh look at standards
The second committee commissioned will take a broader and longer view of math content. Its members will include math professors from the CSU and community colleges, as well as UC, as a math subcommittee of a joint faculty body, the Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates.
Kate Stevenson, a math professor at CSU Northridge and member of the new workgroup, said, “It’s not our goal to rewrite the standards, but to emphasize what parts of the standards are really critical to all students’ success and which are critical to life sciences as opposed to engineers, physicists and chemists.”
The committee will probably not recommend dropping math standards but could look at reorganizing or de-emphasizing them, she said.
Few Algebra II teachers find time for statistics standards, she said. “So what would a third year look like with a better balance between statistics and algebraic skills? Could we repeat less of Algebra I if we did the integrated pathway?” she asked. “Or what parts of the algebra curriculum could really belong in Pre-calculus rather than in Algebra II?”
Although it is not the role of the committee, Stevenson said she thinks the Common Core standards deserve revisiting. “It’s not that I don’t like the standards. But it’s very unlikely the mathematics that we agreed to in 2013 is the mathematics that we think students should have in 2030.”
Clarification: The article was updated Dec. 15 with the exact number of data science courses that the Articulation Unit of the UC Office of the President approved for 2022 and 2023; they were fewer than the article had implied.
When Sunny Lee’s son was ready for kindergarten in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had just begun. His school in Pleasanton, an eastern suburb of the San Francisco Bay, was holding classes online, like most others.
Lee opted out, after seeing what distance learning via Zoom was like for young children.
“I think the formatting was not ideal for young kids. It was just very disruptive and hard to keep track of, and there was just not that much engagement,” Lee said. “Socialization was a big reason for me to send him to school, and he wasn’t getting that.”
The following year, in 2021, when school was back in person, Lee’s son started first grade and her daughter started kindergarten. But after two weeks of school with Covid restrictions, she pulled both children out and began homeschooling them again. They returned to public school for the 2022-23 school year.
Lee’s children are among thousands that did not enroll in public kindergarten in California in 2020 or 2021, years when the state saw drops in kindergarten enrollment. And even among students who enrolled, many missed a lot of days in school.
NATIONAL disengagement from kindergarten
Kindergarten enrollment is down across the country. EdSource collaborated with The Associated Press on a national story about this. You can read that story here.
The pandemic triggered a different attitude about kindergarten, with a growing number of parents either opting for other programs, waiting a year to start kindergarten, or skipping kindergarten and beginning public school in first grade at the mandatory school attendance age of 6 years old.
Some parents were deterred by virtual learning; others were spooked by Covid risks and restrictions. Three years after the pandemic began, many parents still feel their children aren’t ready for kindergarten, after the pandemic disrupted and delayed their ability to play and socialize with others and learn skills from coloring and counting to potty training.
“The pandemic kids have really been struggling on the social side, with ADHD, anxiety and all that comes with not knowing how to play with other children,” said Deana Lundy, client services manager at Bananas, an agency in Oakland that helps families find child care and state subsidies for child care. “If you get a kid that was with grandma all this time and never even went to a child care center, it’s an even bigger barrier.”
Kindergarten is considered a crucial year for setting children up for academic success. Some experts worry that some of the children missing kindergarten will lag behind their peers in elementary school.
Going Deeper
View kindergarten enrollment changes from 2019 to 2021 in California with EdSource’s interactive map.
Kindergarten enrollment statewide dropped precipitously — 9%— from before the pandemic, 2019-20, to 2020-21, when learning was virtual in most school districts. In 2021-22, the latest year for which data is available, it stayed at relatively the same level as the year before.
Enrollment for 2022-23 was also below projections. The data currently available for 2022-23 lumps together children enrolled in both transitional kindergarten and kindergarten. Transitional kindergarten is a grade before kindergarten, open to some 4-year-olds. Though the overall numbers for both grades together increased by about 5% from 2021-22 to 2022-23, that may be partially due to the expansion of transitional kindergarten to include more 4-year-olds.
The California Department of Education declined to release the 2022-23 enrollment number for transitional kindergarten, adding that the data are set for release in early 2024, on the traditional schedule.
Those numbers are exacerbated by the number of students enrolled but missing a lot of school. According to Hedy Nai-Lin Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works, chronic absenteeism — when children miss more than 10% of days in the school year — surged to 40% among kindergarten students in the 2021-22 school year. Among all grades, the rate is 30%.
Chang said part of the reason absenteeism went up so much in kindergarten is that many children did not attend preschool during the pandemic, and because after the pandemic, parents were not allowed to go inside many schools.
“Parents now just drop them off at the door, and they don’t see what’s happening in the classroom. And now they also haven’t had their kids in preschool experiences where they might have understood the value of what you get from early learning,” Chang said.
“The pandemic kids have really been struggling on the social side, with ADHD, anxiety and all that comes with not knowing how to play with other children.”
Deana Lundy, client services manager at Bananas
All income groups opting out
When Sunny Lee and her husband chose to homeschool their children in both 2020-21 and 2021-22, they were concerned about distance learning and the risk of Covid. At the same time, they didn’t want their daughter to have to wear a mask because she has asthma, and they felt it could make breathing more difficult. To make matters worse, wildfire smoke began filling the air in the fall of 2021 and children weren’t getting much outdoor playtime.
On top of all of that, Lee’s husband is a physician and was working long hours during evenings and nights in the ICU during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Because of school and my husband working in the ICU, the risk was really high, and the schedule was really hard,” Lee said. “They wouldn’t have gotten to spend much time with him.”
Lee contacted a friend in New York who homeschooled her children in New York to get help planning her lessons. Her children returned to school in fall 2022, when her daughter was in first grade and her son was in second grade. She said both her children learned to read at home.
“Looking back, I’m glad I did it,” Lee said. “I think they actually did better. I think they learned more and I was able to focus and hone in on the stuff they needed to learn.”
Some families like Lee’swho are deciding to delay or opt out of kindergarten can afford to pay for another year of child care or preschool or have the time to manage homeschooling.
But the trend to skip kindergarten is also growing among some low-income families who qualify for subsidized child care. Subsidies can be used for many different kinds of settings, including child care centers, home-based family child care programs, and informal care by friends and family.
Christina Engram was all set to send her 5-year-old, Nevaeh, to kindergarten this fall at her neighborhood school in Oakland.
Then she found out the after-school program didn’t have spots for all children and instead, there was a wait list. If Nevaeh didn’t get a spot, she would need to be picked up at 2:30 p.m. most days, and at 1:30 on Wednesdays.
“If I put her in public school, I would have to cut my hours and I basically wouldn’t have a good income for me and my kids,” said Engram, who is the sole parent of two children and works as a preschool teacher in another child care provider’s home day care program. Her younger child is 4 years old.
Christina Engram spends time at home with daughter, Neveah, 6, and 4-year-old son Choncey, right, in Oakland last month.Credit: AP Photo/Loren Elliott
Rather than potentially cut her work hours or quit, Engram decided to keep Nevaeh in a child care center for another year. She could afford it because she receives a state child care subsidy that helps her pay for full-time child care or preschool until her child is 6 years old and must enroll in first grade.
Engram was not worried about Nevaeh’s ability to do well academically in kindergarten, but she did feel that the girl needed some extra support and attention socially. In part, she said that could be because Nevaeh didn’t have as much interaction with other children during the pandemic, and when she started attending preschool in 2021, all the children wore face masks.
“She knows her numbers, she knows her ABCs, she knows how to spell her name,” Engram said. “But when she feels frustrated that she can’t do something, her frustration overtakes her. She needs extra attention and care. She has some shyness about her when she thinks she’s going to give the wrong answer.”
Socialization is not the only thing some children missed during the pandemic. Some families are also waiting to start public school because their children were not potty-trained during the pandemic, Lundy said. Bananas offers free diapers to low-income families, and staff have noticed the sizes requested getting bigger and bigger since Covid began.
Many reasons for opting out
Overall enrollment in California public schools has been steadily dropping for several years, in part due to a decrease in population and birth rate. But the drop in kindergarten enrollment of almost 40,000 children between 2019-20 and 2020-21 reflects other factors, researchers said.
“Kindergarten, and to a lesser extent first grade, are moving differently from other elementary grades,” said Julien Lafortune, research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. “It’s definitely something that’s not just the underlying demographics.”
The drop in 2020 was likely in large part due to kindergarten being online in most school districts.
“Asking a 4-year-old to sit in front of a computer for the whole day, it’s totally not what they need,” said Patricia Lozano, director of Early Edge California, a nonprofit organization that advocates for quality early learning. “If you know about child development, you try to avoid screens as much as possible. They need interactions. They need to play.”
When schools returned to in-person learning in 2021, there were many rules for children to follow to prevent the spread of Covid-19: masking, testing and keeping a safe distance from other students.
In addition, some families were concerned about the risk of their children getting Covid-19 in school or bringing it home to younger siblings, particularly before vaccines were available for young children.
Some families may have also moved out of California during the pandemic, in part because of rising housing costs in California coupled with the parents’ ability to work remotely, Lafortune said.
Districts trying to attract youngest students
Several district spokespersons said districts are trying to recruit more children to enroll in both transitional kindergarten and kindergarten, advertising on television, radio, and social media, and holding community events.
Since transitional kindergarten is gradually expanding to serve all 4-year-olds, districts are trying to leverage that expansion to enroll families early.
Their biggest challenge is continuing drops in kindergarten enrollment, reported by more than half of California’s nearly 1,000 districts between 2019-20 and 2021-22.
Districts contacted by EdSource say the decline continued into the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.
Early learning grades should not be seen as optional in our community. They are essential in the life of young children.
Fresno Unified spokesperson A.J. Kato
Anaheim Elementary School District in Orange County has seen kindergarten enrollment fall year after year since the pandemic. The district’s data for 2023-24 shows a 22.7% drop from pre-pandemic levels, from 2,169 in 2019-20 to 1,676 this year.
The district’s drop in kindergarten enrollment started with Covid-19 and health concerns and expanded, said Mary Grace, assistant superintendent of education services in the district. “Anaheim and most Orange County school districts have experienced ongoing demographic changes and reduced birth rates that play a role in our enrollment numbers over the past few years.”
To stem the drop, Grace said the district is trying to attract more students to both transitional kindergarten and kindergarten with information sessions and an annual “enrollment festival” and advertising that the district offers dual-language immersion classes in Spanish, Korean and Mandarin at all 24 schools in the district, and transitional kindergarten at all schools.
Fresno Unified, which is the third-largest district in the state and also has the third-highest kindergarten enrollment, has seen more than a 16% drop in its kindergarten enrollment from 2019-20 to 2023-24, district data shows.
“The superintendent’s message to our community has been that early learning grades should not be seen as optional in our community. They are essential in the life of young children,” said district spokesperson A.J. Kato. “We are confident that with community outreach efforts and families feeling more comfortable sending their young children to school, we should see and continue increasing enrollment.”
Erica Peterson, the director of education and engagement for School Innovations & Achievement, a national firm that tracks attendance at 356 school districts in California, said school districts need to do more to attract families with young children post-pandemic.
“If we’re trying to stave off declining enrollment, what are we doing to entice people to choose their local home school?” said Peterson. “Because there are a lot of options and the pandemic created a whole wealth of options that didn’t even exist before,” she added, referring to homeschooling and private schools.
Where they went
It’s not completely clear what children did instead of kindergarten in the years since the pandemic. Lafortune said the numbers of students enrolled in private school and registered with the state as being in homeschools are not large enough to account for all of California’s missing kindergartners.
However, since kindergarten is not mandatory in California, parents and guardians are not required to register their children as enrolled in homeschool.
Children enrolled in private preschools or child care centers would not show up in the number of children enrolled in private K-12 schools. Preschools and child care programs are licensed separately by the Department of Social Services and do not have to register with the Department of Education as providing elementary school.
Lafortune said some parents may have chosen to skip kindergarten and then enroll their child in first grade the following year, but first grade has also seen drops in enrollment, so it is difficult to know how many kindergarteners enrolled. He said others may have chosen to wait a year to enroll their children in kindergarten, when they were 6 rather than 5 years old.
Some private preschools opened kindergarten-age classes during the pandemic to cater to families that preferred in-personlearning for their 5-year-olds. Even after public schools returned to in-person learning, these preschools continued to attract some families who wanted to keep their children in a more intimate setting with more play and exploration.
Nancy Lopez chose to keep her daughter Naima at a “forest” preschool, Escuelita del Bosque, which holds classes outside in a redwood forest park in the Oakland hills, in part because of the small class size. Kindergarten classes in Oakland can be up to 28 children with one adult. Escuelita del Bosque had a 10-to-1 ratio, with a kindergarten teacher who Lopez says was beloved by families. Naima is now enrolled in first grade at a public school.
“We just felt like there was nothing to lose from Naima being in this environment that’s more catered to this small group,” Lopez said. “It almost felt like we were gifted another year. It was almost pushing off the inevitable.”
EdSource data journalist Daniel J. Willis contributed to this story.
When most people think of a substitute teacher, they think of a temporary fill-in for a job that is difficult to secure and difficult to do. They might think that a substitute is simply there to monitor a classroom or, worse yet, put on a video for the class and then sit at their desk.
I know substitutes are so much more.
The best substitutes are passionate mentors who play a role in student success. As a substitute teacher with 14 years of experience in public and private schools in Oakland, I believe my commitment to students and my experience outside of teaching enable me to be a valuable guide in the lives of the K-12 students I have the privilege of working with, and I want more school leaders to recognize that role.
Before I started teaching, I served in the Air Force, went to law school, became a paralegal, and launched my own clothing line. I bring every aspect of these experiences — the ups and the downs — with me to the classroom to provide a fresh perspective to students. When I substitute in math classes, I can talk about how interpreting numbers helps entrepreneurs understand their profit margin in the future. In language arts classes, I can talk about how persuasive arguments are the basis of a strong legal case. And, in all my classes, I’m always quick to discuss the importance of critical thinking, adaptability, and a strong work ethic, no matter where a student’s life will take them.
Each time I bring my personal experience into the classroom, I know I’m showing students more about the world around them and helping them connect what they’re learning to their future. It’s something so many mentors did for me. I was fortunate to be surrounded by caring adults when I was growing up. When I needed great life advice, I knew I could turn to them. Their support is part of the reason I started teaching. Sharing knowledge is contagious. When I share knowledge with a student or show them how to do something, then they have the knowledge I have and can share it with someone else.
Even though I know the value of sharing knowledge, students aren’t always ready to accept it. Especially from a substitute teacher. I have to earn their trust first. That means the role of a substitute is more than simply managing a classroom in the absence of a regular teacher. Students have to be able to trust that a substitute is emphatically inclined to believe in them and their purpose. I’ve found that starting with a joke, posing a tough question, or asking students to say one fun thing about themselves during introductions can break the ice and form a strong mentor-mentee relationship.
It is true that it can be difficult to navigate the paperwork needed to become a sub, but for me, it is important to take these steps to be a mentor to students because of the impact it can have on them. A survey found that 95% of teachers say mentorship benefits students, with a majority noting that supportive relationships boost academic outcomes and help students develop critical skills. It’s why great substitutes know teaching class is about more than just following the lesson plan. We actively listen to students, help them access knowledge, and encourage their curiosity — just as great permanent teachers do.
Consider becoming a substitute teacher in California schools despite any preconceptions you may harbor that the job is difficult or unrewarding. The job is sometimes difficult, but it is never unrewarding. Students need caring adults in their lives, especially in a world where young people face new heights of academic and social pressures. Passionate substitute teachers have the opportunity to make a difference. Leading school districts, where I’ve been fortunate to serve, already recognize the value of exceptional substitute teachers, and the process is easing a bit. There are groups out there that help navigate the paperwork or that make it easier to find and sign up for substitute positions.
I hope many more people will soon realize this transformative potential and embrace the positive influence we can bring to the lives of our students.
•••
Thelonious Brooks is a substitute teacher in Oakland.
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.
As a parent or caregiver, imagine having a social worker knock on your door to tell you that someone has reported their suspicion that you are not taking proper care of a child in your care. As mandated reporters, our calls to child protective services about “reasonable suspicion” of child abuse and neglect are informed by our training and experience. Mandated reporting is about ensuring child safety. Unfortunately, the ambiguous and emotionally charged nature of this topic, coupled with tremendous fear of individual and organizational liability, inadequate and inconsistent training, and lack of support for mandated reporters often leave us to make consequential decisions based on limited information and in isolation. We must know that the decision to report a family to a county child welfare agency is not without consequences, and I firmly believe it sometimes does more harm than good. When we prioritize the liability of our organizations over the well-being of families and children, no one is well-served.
Each year, as school and district employees, we dutifully complete our annually required mandated reporter training. In my experience, the main takeaway of these training sessions is that we must report any potential concerns, no questions asked (don’t investigate!) or risk personal and professional consequences, including fines and loss of credentials. This training approach disempowers mandated reporters and has, unfortunately, resulted in educators being the most likely to report concerns that are ultimately determined to not be abuse or neglect once investigated by child protective services.
Besides law enforcement, educators are the second-largest group making referrals to child protective agencies. According to the California Child Welfare Indicators Project data presented at the Knowledge is Power Summit, educators made 20% of the referrals to child protection in 2019, impacting about 23,308 children. However, only 10% of those referrals were substantiated following an investigation. In Los Angeles County in 2022, the substantiation rate was 6% for allegations made by mandated reporters in education.
California law does not require standardized mandated reporter training. The system relies on professionals to report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect. It prioritizes organizational risk over the best interests of children and their families. The lack of concrete guidance leaves mandated reporters feeling ill-equipped to make sound reporting decisions. As humans, our biases, both implicit and explicit, affect our judgment. A recent survey of mandated reporters found that 43% of respondents made reports when they did not suspect maltreatment. Of these, 17% filed reports to connect families to services because they didn’t know how to help those families access services. As a former child abuse investigator, I’ve seen how this over-reporting can cause unnecessary stress, trauma, increased isolation and disruption for children and families, particularly those in underserved communities, and specifically communities of color.
To shift the focus from enforcement to support, Assembly Bill 2085 was signed by the governor in 2022. This law aims to eliminate inaccurate reports of general neglect by narrowing the legal definition of general neglect to apply only when there is substantial risk of serious injury or illness. It clarifies that poverty does not equal neglect.
Los Angeles County is also joining the broader effort to improve training and systems to support families who have needs that should be met outside of the child protection system. In alignment with the “LA County Mandated Supporting Initiative”, multiple agencies and key partners are working together to transform the mandated reporting process in L.A. County to better support historically underserved children, youth and families. They recently launched training aimed at enhancing child safety and reducing harm and systemic inequities driven by unnecessary and inappropriate reports of suspected child neglect to the Department of Children and Family Services. More focused training will be offered in 2024, including sector and discipline-specific content to address distinct mandated reporter groups.
For us as educators, this is a call to action. A call to reconsider when child protection is needed versus when a family may need support — and to meet this moment, we must reexamine our approach, our training and our narratives.
•••
Alicia Garoupa is chief of well-being and support services for the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
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.
Within this area, there are hammocks, slacklines, trees, ample seating and, of course, the pond itself, all providing students with a mental health boost. 
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