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$Advanced algebra, data science and more: UC rethinks contested issues of high school math$

Advanced algebra, data science and more: UC rethinks contested issues of high school math

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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 consideration that 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.

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06/07/2025
More kids skipping kindergarten post-pandemic

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’s who 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-person learning 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.

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04/07/2025
Substitute teachers can serve as mentors; we need more of them

Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

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.

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04/07/2025
California schools need more precise mandated-reporter training

Credit: iStock_grady reese

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.

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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.

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03/07/2025
Special education teachers need more mental health initiatives

The federal government has not fully funded special education in decades, leaving the bulk of the costs to school districts and the state.

Alison Yin/EdSource

When Erica Mazariegos heard that a shocking number of special education teaching positions remain vacant, she was not surprised. With over 27 years as a special educator, Mazariegos is dedicated and passionate, yet says “the stress of recent years has led me to question my ability to carry on. There will come a point when I must prioritize my health over my career.”

Like Erica, special education teachers throughout U.S. public schools have been vocal about their concerns regarding working conditions after the pandemic, particularly the shortage of resources and staff support. The attrition rates among special education teachers soared following Covid-19, and educators have endured heightened levels of job-related stress, prompting an increasing number of them to exit the profession.

This exodus has left schools grappling with severe teacher shortages. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 45% of schools reported unfilled positions in special education roles, with 78% citing difficulties in hiring special education staff for the current school year. The situation in California closely mirrors the national shortages, with the Learning Policy Institute describing the teacher shortage in California as a “five-alarm fire.”

The stress experienced by special educators is not only deeply ingrained in the inherent nature of their roles but also in the perceptions surrounding them. A key contributing factor is the idealization of special education teachers by schools, often portraying them as extraordinary individuals who are characterized as nurturing and self-sacrificing, willing to prioritize their students’ well-being over their own. It’s commonplace to hear general education teachers express sentiments like, “I could never do what you do.” This portrayal creates unrealistic expectations for special educators, adding to the systemic sources of stress, which include unequal resource allocation and a shortage of adequately trained support staff.

Padma Vajhala, an early-career special education teacher with two years of experience, highlights many stressors in her job, such as individualized education program meetings, conducting paperwork checks, navigating uncertainties about parental consent, encountering subtle racism in schools, and adhering to the core mission of special education — differentiated teaching for each student. But, she underscores that these stressors are overshadowed by the primary source of stress: daily management of challenging behavior exhibited by her students in class without enough staff support. She points out that her stress affects students by hindering effective instruction, classroom management and the modeling of social-emotional skills. Stressed teachers are more likely to react unpredictably and employ ineffective behavior management strategies.

While it remains crucial to address such systemic causes of stress as lack of staff support in the classroom, schools must simultaneously implement programs dedicated to teaching self-care strategies and allocate resources to support these educators’ mental health and overall well-being. These initiatives should involve professional development programs that prioritize physical wellness, encompassing exercise, dietary choices, and sleep, to sustain energy levels and enhance emotional resilience.

Additionally, it is imperative to equip special educators with training in social-emotional learning skills. This training should cover the establishment of clear boundaries between their professional and personal lives, mindfulness practices, participation in yoga, and learning relaxation techniques. Acquiring these skills can significantly reduce stress levels among special educators while providing positive role models for students concurrently learning these skills in their classes.

Most importantly, special education teachers can create communities of practice informally with their colleagues based on shared interests, facilitating connections with colleagues, mentors, and therapists to seek guidance and share their experiences. Moreover, these communities of practice can leverage self-reflection practices to recognize and manage stressors effectively.

A notable approach is reflexive visual journaling, a creative process that intertwines written reflection with images, drawings, and other visual elements. This practice has demonstrated considerable effectiveness in early detection of burnout indicators, pinpointing triggers, and aiding individuals in navigating and coping with stress. Zachary McNiece, assistant professor of counselor education at San Jose State University, emphasizes the importance of visual journaling, stating, “In today’s post-Covid world, while teachers act as front-line mental health advocates, they can experience the after-effects of trauma their students have faced over the last few years; visual journaling creates a means for teachers to slow down, allow space for their feelings and reactions, and let go of the emotional residue of secondary trauma exposure, so they can improve their wellness and support their students.” These self-reflective practices can also be embedded into teacher preparation programs to support new special education teachers.

Preventing burnout in special education cannot be solely an individual responsibility; it requires collaboration from schools, districts and policymakers. Special educators are pivotal in fostering an inclusive and equitable education system.

It is essential that schools prioritize special educators’ well-being by supporting and implementing targeted self-care strategies to sustain their passion and dedication. This approach not only safeguards the mental and emotional health of educators but also enriches the educational experience for students with disabilities, ultimately contributing to the development of a stronger and more compassionate society.

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Sudha Krishnan is an assistant professor at San Jose State University’s special education department, Lurie College of Education, and a Public Voice Fellow with the OpEd Project.

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03/07/2025
Districts need more options to ensure stability, continuity for students

A teacher kicks off a lesson during an AP research class.

Credit: Allison Shelley / EDUimages

As a former teacher and principal, and a current school board member, I am intimately familiar with the impact of the teacher shortage and consider it one of California’s most pressing and intractable problems. To address this multifaceted issue, schools need a wide array of options, including Assembly Bill 1224, pending state legislation that would increase continuity of instruction when teachers are out on leave and when a school struggles to fill a teacher vacancy.

Authored by Assemblymember Avelino Valencia and co-sponsored by the California Schools Boards Association, the Association of California School Administrators, the California County Superintendents, and the California Association of School Business Officials, AB 1224 would allow substitute teachers to serve in a single classroom for up to 60 days, provided the school district or county office of education can demonstrate it made reasonable efforts to recruit a full-time teacher before retaining the substitute. Until every classroom has a qualified full-time teacher, let’s at least make sure every classroom has a consistent one.

When the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated already dire teacher shortages, the state temporarily expanded the 30-day limit on substitute teaching to 60 days, a measure that was effective in responding to vacancies and extended absences. That statute expired in July 2024, but with upcoming Senate Education Committee amendments, AB 1224 would revive its provisions for another three years. Using the lessons learned from the successful trial run, the bill would extend the time a substitute can stay in a single assignment from 30 to 60 days in general education and from 20 to 60 days in special education.

In a perfect world, every classroom would have a fully certificated teacher on the first day of class, the last day of class and every day between. As a lifelong educator, I know the value of having a full-time teacher share their learning and wisdom with students on a consistent basis. But there simply aren’t enough full-time teachers to go around. So, we must make policy and governance decisions that reflect the current reality while simultaneously working to build a better system that sets substitutes and students up for success.

Local educational agencies rely on substitutes, but current law forbids a substitute teacher from serving in the same classroom for more than 30 consecutive days. In cases where a school district or county office of education cannot identify a full-time teacher, such as a mid-year departure or one that occurs before the start of the school year, this can lead to a revolving door of substitute teachers that disrupts instruction and destabilizes the classroom environment. These impacts are felt most acutely in low-income and rural schools, and the burden falls disproportionately on English learners, minority students and students from families of modest means. Without AB 1224, students already cycle through different substitutes every few weeks, so the real debate isn’t about lowering standards, it’s about increasing stability.

An insufficient pipeline of newly credentialed teachers and attrition from the profession means that the teacher shortage will persist. Thus, staffing schools — particularly in hard-to-fill areas like special education, math and science — will remain a daunting task. AB 1224 responds to that challenge by adding another tool to the toolbox that schools can use to fill gaps in their instructional workforce.

Critics of AB 1224 claim it would diminish the push to recruit credentialed educators. Real world evidence shows the opposite. Examples abound of LEAs raising salaries, implementing incentive pay, offering signing bonuses, expanding mentorship programs, deploying advertising campaigns, hosting virtual and in-person job fairs, building staff housing for educators, and developing internal pipelines through teacher academies or programs for classified staff who want to transition to the teaching profession. Additional guardrails to preserve the primacy of full-time teachers include collective bargaining agreements governing the hiring process and a bill provision requiring that schools document their efforts to recruit full-time teachers.

It’s disingenuous to suggest extending substitute assignments would undermine the search for long-term solutions to the teacher crisis. It’s also poor logic based on a false binary and an idealized labor market that doesn’t actually exist. This is not a choice between AB 1224 or full-time teacher recruitment; we can and must pursue both remedies. New federal and state programs targeting the teacher shortage are promising but take years, if not generations, to bear fruit when immediate relief is essential. Waiting for long-term pipelines to mature does nothing for students in classrooms today — AB 1224 provides the immediate help schools need to increase stability in the classroom.

•••

Bettye Lusk is president of the California School Boards Association. Lusk is a former teacher and principal in the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, where she currently serves on the Board 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.

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01/07/2025
California needs to do more to ensure teachers can teach kids to read, national study says

Melissa Ramirez, a first grade teacher at Lockeford Elementary in Lodi, holds up a flashcard while students say and spell the word ‘water.’

Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource

Despite a newfound national focus on the science of reading, states, including California, aren’t doing enough to support and train teachers to effectively teach literacy, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Thirty-two states have passed laws or implemented policies related to evidence-based reading instruction in the last decade. Despite that, nearly every state could do more to support literacy instruction, according to the report, “Five Policy Actions to Strengthen Implementation of the Science of Reading.“

“While states are rightly prioritizing literacy, they are not focusing enough attention on teacher effectiveness and teacher capacity to teach reading aligned to the science,” council President Heather Peske told EdSource. “If these efforts are to succeed … the state needs to ensure that teachers are prepared and supported from the time that they are in teacher preparation programs to the time that they enter classrooms.”

The report rated states as strong, moderate, weak or unacceptable, based on whether they have policies to ensure students receive science-based reading instruction that includes teaching them to sound out words, a process known as phonics. Only 12 states, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia, were rated as strong.

California received a moderate rating.

The state gets high marks for setting reading standards for teacher preparation programs, adopting a strong reading licensure test for teachers, and requiring districts to select high-quality reading curricula. California scored lower on whether it requires ongoing literacy training for teachers and on its oversight of teacher preparation programs to ensure they are teaching the science of reading.

Not all teachers are trained in the science of reading

While California provides funds to school districts to offer literacy training to teachers, it does not require all elementary school teachers to be trained in the science of reading, as other states do, Peske said, adding that without proper training, teachers often flounder when teaching literacy, despite having access to high-quality instructional materials.

Effective teaching is critical to improving students’ reading skills. More than 90% of students would learn to read with effective reading instruction, according to the report.

About 40% of students entering fourth grade in the United States can read at a basic level, according to the research. The latest California test scores show fewer than half of the students who were tested were proficient in reading. These results have not changed much in the past decade.

“Why do we see staggering numbers of children, especially children of color and from low-income backgrounds, without fundamental literacy skills? said Denise Forte, president and CEO of The Education Trust. “Because in many districts and schools nationwide, outdated teaching methods and curricula that have been proven ineffective, and even harmful, are still being used.”

The report comes as California and other states are renewing their focus on the science of reading, which is based on over 50 years of research that provides a clear picture of how effective literacy instruction can produce a skilled reader, Peske said.

Only two of the 41 teacher preparation programs reviewed in California adequately cover all five components of the science of reading, according to the report. The five components include phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

California puts renewed emphasis on reading

But that could change soon. By July 1, California will require teacher preparation programs to provide literacy training based on the science of reading and the state’s new literacy standards. The new standards include support for struggling readers, English learners and pupils with exceptional needs, incorporating dyslexia guidelines for the first time.

The state is also eliminating the unpopular Reading Instruction Competence Assessment in 2025. It will be replaced with a performance assessment based on literacy standards and a new set of Teaching Performance Expectations.

“This latest set of standards and TPEs are probably the strongest statements we’ve had about reading and literacy in teacher preparation,” said Mary Vixie Sandy, executive director of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. “We are going gangbusters to get them in the field.”

More than half of the states use outside accreditors to review teacher preparation programs, which researchers say is not ideal. The report includes California as one of those states, but Sandy says that is not the case. Teacher preparation programs in California must be reviewed every seven years by a commission-approved institutional review board made up of university faculty and practitioners across all credential areas, Sandy said. Members are trained on the standards, or have a background or credential in the subject being reviewed, she said.

Teacher preparation programs that want a national accreditation can choose to use an outside accreditor, but it is not required for state accreditation, Sandy said.

California should also include data it collects on teacher pass rates on the state reading licensure test as part of the review of teacher preparation programs, Peske said.

California’s changes to teacher preparation and emphasis on the science of reading were taken into consideration by National Council on Teacher Quality’s researchers when evaluating the state, Peske said. The research was also sent to the California Department of Education at least twice for review. No one at the department said the research was in error, according to the council.

The council has provided a guide to help states implement and sustain strong reading instruction.

“Helping all children learn to read is possible when you have teachers who’ve been prepared in the science of reading,” Peske said. “Much like an orchestra needs each section of instruments to come together to successfully create music, states need to implement multiple teacher-focused reading policies that work together to improve student outcomes.”

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17/06/2025
More adults in California earning degrees, data show

Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages

More adults in the United States are obtaining degrees or other credentials after high school but not quickly enough to meet the goals set 16 years ago by an independent, private foundation focused on access to higher education.

The Lumina Foundation set a goal in 2008 as part of the Stronger Nation project to have 60% of adults in the country obtain a degree or other credentials beyond high school by 2025. Although officials predict the goal won’t be reached in time, progress has been made.

“We hear so often that higher education is in decline. We hear so often that students don’t need to go to college,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, during a live webinar Wednesday. “You could expect the data to show some of that, but it didn’t. It showed just the opposite. It shows college matters.”

The foundation released 2022 data, the most recent available, that shows 54% of 25- to 64-year-olds hold college degrees, certificates or industry-recognized certifications, nearly a 16 percentage point increase since 2009.

“Some of that is attributed to finding a way to measure and then add short-term credentials, but a substantial portion, about 8 and a half percentage points, is the rise in the attainment of bachelor and associate degrees,” said Courtney Brown, Lumina’s vice president of strategic impact and planning and director of the A Stronger Nation project.

The No. 1 action the nation can take to reach the goal of 60% is to increase graduation rates, Mitchell said. One strategy is to do a better job of reaching out to people who have some college but no degree.

Brown said there are about 40 million people in the country with some college and no degree.

“We have to ensure those people don’t have a broken promise,” Brown said.

California is slightly above the national average at 55%, ranking near the middle compared with other states. Nevada has the lowest percentage of adults with degrees or certificates, nearly 43%, according to 2022 data, and Washington, D.C. has the highest at about 75%.

The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 42 states all saw an increase in adults having degrees, data show. In 2009, less than 38% of adults ages 25 to 34 had degrees, and in 2022 that’s increased to about 56%. A big part of the increase is because of the Latino population, Brown said. The number of Latino Americans holding degrees went from about 19% in 2009 to about 34%, according to the most recent data.

But there are still wide gaps between white people earning degrees after high school compared to people of color.

“We’re getting closer and closer, but we’re still seeing stubborn equity gaps with Black and Hispanic Americans sitting on one side of the spectrum to white and Asian Americans on the other,” Brown said during a media call.

The national percentage of adults ages 25-64 with either an associate, bachelor’s, graduate or professional degree is 46.5% and all racial groups except white (52%) and Asian Americans (67%) fall below that percentage, data show. Nearly 30% of Hispanic Americans have a degree, while about 36% of Black Americans and about 27% of American Indian or Alaska Natives do.

In California, according to the data, the percentage of Latino Americans who obtained a degree is even lower, nearly 24%. About 40% of Black Americans obtained a degree, compared with 30% of American Indians or Alaska Natives, 67% of Asian Americans, and about 59% of white Americans, according to data.

To look at data by county in California, go here.

NOTE: EdSource receives funding from several foundations, including the Lumina Foundation. EdSource maintains sole editorial control over the content of its coverage.

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15/06/2025
Trump Will Cut More Federal Workers Next Year

Since his second inauguration, Trump has fired tens of thousands of federal workers, based on snap recommendations by Elon Musk’s team of whippersnappers. They have gone into government departments and agencies and decided in a day or so which workers to fire and which contracts to terminate. They don’t have enough information or time to make considered judgments, so they treat every federal worker as dispensable. The numbers fired are hard to determine, because federal judges have repeatedly reversed their actions. Some have been approved by the courts. The outcome is still in flux, though we do know that little is left of USAID or the U.S. Departnent of Education.

Government Executive reports that Trump plans a new round of layoffs in his second year. It’s unclear what his end goal is: is he destroying the federal government for some reason? With all the laid-off workers, he hasn’t reduced the budget. It’s grown, due to greater expenses for ICE, border security, and defense.

Some agencies, like FEMA and the National Weather Service, are being stripped to the bone. What will remain of our government at the end of his term?

Government Executive reports:

The Trump administration is looking to slash a net of 107,000 employees at non-defense agencies next fiscal year, which would lead to an overall reduction of more than 7% of those workers.

Agencies laid out their workforce reductions in an expanded version of President Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget released on Friday, which includes both ideas they can implement unilaterally and proposals that will require congressional approval. If agencies follow through on their plans, the cuts will likely be even steeper, as the Defense Department and some other agencies did not include their announced cuts in the new budget documents.

The cuts represent changes projected to take effect next year relative to fiscal 2025 staffing levels. The ongoing cuts that have already occurred were generally not factored into the current workforce counts and the White House noted those figures “may not reflect all of the management and administrative actions underway or planned in federal agencies.”

Agencies are currently operating under a directive from Trump to slash their rolls, though those plans are largely paused under court order and awaiting resolution at the Supreme Court.

Under the budget forecasts, the Education Department will shed the most employees, followed by the Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, Small Business Administration and NASA. Education has already moved to lay off one-third of its workforce, but those reductions in force are currently paused by a separate court order.

The departments of Labor, Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture are also expecting to cut more than 20% of their workforces.

The Trump administration will seek to eliminate more than 107,000 jobs across government, but the net impact is mitigated by targeted hiring at certain agencies and offices. The Transportation Department is the only agency to project an overall staffing increase, driven by hiring at the Federal Aviation Administration and for IT. The Homeland Security Department will seek to significantly staff up at Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the administration ramps up its border crackdown and deportation operations, though DHS will see an overall cut due to planned reductions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency—which is set to shed 13% of its workforce—and the Transportation Security Administration—which will cut around 6%.

Many offices will be cut nearly entirely, such as the research and state forestry offices within USDA’s Forest Service. The department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service would shed nearly 4,000 employees, including two-thirds of employees providing technical assistance on conservation planning and forecasting on snowpack and water supply.

HHS, which has already laid off 10,000 employees, would eliminate 10 offices entirely, though some of the impacted employees are being absorbed into the new Administration for Health America or other reorganized areas. NASA is planning to shutter its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Engagement office and would cut its Science office in half. DHS would eliminate its Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office. Cuts at the Treasury Department would be driven by reductions at the Internal Revenue Service— which would zero out its Business Systems Modernization office—though the Bureau of Fiscal Service is also planning to slash one-quarter of its staff.

At the Interior Department, the National Park Service is planning to cut about 27% of its employees, Fish and Wildlife Service would cut 19% and U.S. Geological Survey would cut 32%.

The full scope of the cuts across government will likely expand over time: The Veterans Affairs Department is set to shed more than 80,000 employees and layoffs—assuming a court injunction is lifted—are expected as soon as this month, though they are not a part of the budget. The Defense Department has said it will cut around 60,000 civilian employees, but it has yet to detail those plans in Trump’s budget.

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10/06/2025
Data Science helps students of color opt in for more math

Credit: Pexels

It was the height of distance learning when 16-year-old Aaron Butler took Compton Unified’s first step into data science education by joining the Young Data Scientists League. The next year, 2021, the young African American varsity basketball captain enrolled in Compton’s first high school data science course, thanks to a 2020 decision by UC’s admissions committee allowing such courses to qualify for students’ third or fourth year of high school math. Now a business economics major at UCLA, Aaron said that “before I was closed off to math, but data science made me way more interested in mathematics.”

Because of UC’s decision to count data science toward the math requirement for college admissions, Compton’s Dominguez High counselors recommended that students like Aaron enroll in data science without fear of them losing their competitive edge on university admissions. Ensuring college access is paramount for our student population, who are predominantly Hispanic, Black and Pacific-Islander and 94% of whom are socio-economically disadvantaged. Data science, with its hands-on, real-world applications, is exactly the right gateway for both math-averse and math-inclined students alike to engage with rich mathematics and take the UC-recommended four years of math coursework.

Now UC has retracted that decision, making it much less likely that counselors will recommend data science to our students. Consequently, we’re likely to see a decline in enrollment and retention during the four years of high school mathematics among students of color.

Data Science at Dominguez High School is the only course in Compton Unified that allows students to receive regular in-classroom instruction in relevant topics such as predictive mathematical modeling, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), sensitivity analysis, and programming, which all rely on math concepts taught and reinforced in the data science classroom. This is in addition to a number of other high-level concepts in quantitative reasoning and analysis, such as linear algebra, 3D vector space, conditional probability and more.

As the teacher of Compton’s Data Science course, in partnership with Stanford’s Youcubed, I (Jason) end up teaching content from a range of advanced math standards because, though my students are passing courses like Integrated Math 3, Precalculus and even Calculus, they are not fully grasping the material there. Students report having the opportunity to finally make sense of their traditional math courses by applying concepts as a part of the data science experience. Once they learn to think about math in context, they possess a skill that enables them to learn subsequent math content better.

Another PERSPECTIVE ON THIS TOPIC

This is a defining moment for mathematics education in California. Neural network models, the driving force behind AI tools such as ChatGPT, are one of the hottest subjects in applied mathematics research. By adopting data science in 2020, UC took a proactive step toward reframing mathematics as a relevant discipline that could equip 21st century learners with scientifically valid tools to engage in the rapidly changing information landscape. At the same time, UC recognized alternate pathways to quantitative reasoning courses in college without precluding students from science, tech, engineering and math (STEM) majors. The reversal of that decision will push math back to a position of irrelevance in the eyes of most students, especially those traditionally marginalized in STEM.

Moreover, not allowing data science courses to count for admission doesn’t only sacrifice a hook for attracting students to STEM fields. It also denies students who are not interested in STEM the opportunity to code, exacerbating the digital divide and, consequently, the wealth gap. As UC’s Office of the President wrote after the Berkeley campus created a college of computing, data science and society, “Every undergraduate in any area of study will increasingly need exposure to data science during their time on campus.”

Why should students wait until college to delve into these rich waters of mathematical study?

Narrowing the scope of acceptable mathematics perpetuates exclusivity rather than fostering inclusivity and belief in all learners’ potential. For many Dominguez High students we’ve spoken with who are either enrolled or have graduated from the UC system, success and persistence in STEM, including data science, correlated to growth mindsets, cultural competence, positive identities and supportive communities and structures.

As technology evolves, so must we reevaluate definitions, policies and support systems that address gaps in math achievement, engagement and retention. This comprehensive reassessment requires input from diverse stakeholders, fostering collective understanding and alignment toward common goals. We must put in place a review process that engages school districts, education leaders, classroom educators, faculty from the California State University, and families who can offer crucial insights on the impact of key decisions affecting our most vulnerable populations. This process must be data-driven. It is argued that allowing data science to validate Algebra 2 adversely impacted preparation for STEM degrees for students of color. Where is the data supporting this assertion? On the contrary, we have decades of data that demonstrate that the traditional Algebra 2 pathway disproportionately fails to get students of color college-ready, and falls short of promises to boost post-secondary STEM engagement.

We have seen the power of data science to increase college readiness and STEM engagement for all, particularly underrepresented students of color. As Aaron told us, “Data science was very hands-on because we were applying the math we learned. It made me like the course even more.” Every student like Aaron should have exposure to data science that opens mathematics to them as a highly relevant 21st century discipline where they know they belong.

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Jason Lee Morgan, an 18-year math teacher at Dominguez High School in Compton, instructs the Stanford YouCubed’s data science course.

Kagba Suaray, Ph.D., is a professor of mathematics and statistics at California State University, Long Beach, and graduate adviser for the applied statistics master of science program.

Kyndall Brown, Ph.D., executive director of the California Math Project at UCLA and Robin Wilson, Ph.D., professor of mathematics at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and Loyola Marymount University, contributed to this commentary.

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

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09/06/2025