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  • New Cal State Bakersfield president says campus should see Kern County’s education problems ‘as our own’

    New Cal State Bakersfield president says campus should see Kern County’s education problems ‘as our own’


    A portrait of Vernon B. Harper, Jr.

    Vernon B. Harper Jr.

    Courtesy of California State University, Bakersfield

    Vernon B. Harper Jr. is scratching the word “interim” from his nameplate at California State University, Bakersfield. 

    Harper, who has served as the university’s interim president since the end of 2023, was named CSUB’s permanent president on Wednesday, the second day of a Cal State board of trustees meeting dominated by discussions about the financial pressures facing the university system. The system is projecting a $400 million to $800 million budget gap in 2025-26 as state leaders signal their intention to reduce funding for CSU.  

    CSU Bakersfield has been able to prevent students from feeling the effects of a reduced budget, Harper said, buoyed by growing enrollment this school year. His focus is on making what he calls a “pivot towards the community” — expanding programs to boost the number of Kern County high school graduates and community college transfer students who enroll at CSUB. The Central Valley is growing rapidly but has lower college attainment than the rest of the state. 

    Harper envisions the university taking a more active role alongside local K-12 schools to increase the number of students who meet A-G requirements, the coursework that makes students eligible to start college at a Cal State or University of California campus. Only 36% of Kern County high school graduates completed such coursework in the 2022-23 school year, according to state education data, compared with 52% of high school graduates statewide. 

    “That’s the real transition that the institution is making. It is to accept those problems as our own,” Harper said. “We’re partnering with our K-12 providers and making sure that we’re doing absolutely everything we can to raise that statistic. We’re not just going to sit back passively and watch our community go in a direction that we don’t want it to go.”

    One example of the work Harper hopes to get done: CSUB’s teacher education program is forming a task force with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office and the Kern High School District in a bid to increase the number of students who are A-G qualified, he said.

    The campus is also experimenting with ways to get local students thinking about college even before they leave middle school. It recently started a pilot program with four middle schools and four high schools in which students as young as 12 will receive notices that they are guaranteed admission to CSUB so long as they meet A-G requirements. 

    “We’ve seen that with young people, especially in under-resourced populations, their vision is truncated by their circumstance,” Harper said. “Whatever we can do, we have a responsibility to do, to extend that vision as far as it can go.”

    The past decade has seen rising graduation rates at CSUB. Among first-time, full-time freshmen who entered Cal State Bakersfield in 2017, 49% graduated in six years, an almost 10 percentage-point increase from 2007. But the school has not caught up to some of its Cal State peers. Systemwide, the six-year graduation rate for the same group of students in the fall 2017 cohort was roughly 62%. 

    Harper said that the intervention that seems to have the most impact on improving graduation rates is pairing students with an academic adviser who works with them throughout their time at CSUB, guiding them through unforeseen challenges, like switching into a course that fits the student’s work schedule.

    “As much as we can invest in that activity, the more positive outcomes that we (see),” he said.

    The university is also experiencing some of the same longstanding graduation equity gaps that exist across California higher education. The six-year graduation rate among Black students who entered CSUB as freshmen in the fall 2017 cohort was 40%, lagging Asian, Latino and white students. 

    Harper has backed several CSUB initiatives to attract and retain Black students. Harper said that community college students at Bakersfield College who participate in the Umoja program, which includes courses on African American culture as well as mentorship and academic counseling, will find they can continue receiving similar support now that CSUB has its own Umoja program for transfers. The campus plans to open a Black Students Success Center in the spring and has already hired a group of faculty members whose work is focused on minoritized communities, Harper said.

    Harper’s tenure as CSUB’s permanent president begins at a moment when the California State University system is raising financial alarm bells.

    Cal State leaders are anticipating that a $164 million increase in revenue from tuition hikes will not be enough to alleviate other stresses on its budget. The system expects that state general fund revenue will drop nearly $400 million, according to a September budget presentation, and that $250 million in compact funding will be delayed. The university system also faces rising projected costs, including for basics it can’t avoid like increased health care premiums and utilities expenses.

    Speaking at a Sep. 24 meeting, trustee Diego Arambula said the university system has “almost been too effective at making these cuts year over year over year” without explaining to legislators the impact those budget reductions are already having on students.

    “We are doing everything we can to make them as far away from students, but a hiring freeze is a hiring freeze, and that does impact students if we’re not bringing someone into a role that we know is important,” Arambula said. “It’s impacting our staff, who are taking on more to try and still meet the needs of the students who are here.”

    CSUB officials last spring said they planned to cut the school’s 2024-25 net operating budget by about 7%, citing a decline in enrollment and increased salary and benefits costs. The school had less than a month of funding in its rainy day fund in 2022-23, slightly less than the net operating budget across the CSU system at that point.

    But Harper said enrollment this year is up between 4% and 5%, driving tuition growth that is alleviating some budget pressure. The campus also has made temporary cuts to areas that aren’t student-facing, he said, such as professional development. 

    “We’ve been able to really, really shield any negative effects on students,” Harper said.

    Harper succeeds Lynnette Zelezny as president. He was previously Cal State Bakersfield’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. He will receive a salary of $429,981 and a $50,000 housing allowance.

    Harper was first hired at CSUB in 2016. Prior to his arrival at Cal State Bakersfield, he worked at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Wilkes University of Pennsylvania and the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia.

    He holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree in rhetoric from West Chester University and a doctorate in human communication from Howard University. He served eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve.





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  • Upgrading facilities can make schools safer and more sustainable, panel says 

    Upgrading facilities can make schools safer and more sustainable, panel says 


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGqkDmCeweo

    From securing school entrances to making campuses more resilient to climate change, districts throughout the state are looking to voters to upgrade their facilities. 

    An EdSource Roundtable on Tuesday, “Election 2024: How voters can help repair California schools,” discussed what a $10 billion state bond and $50 billion in local construction bonds on the November ballot could make possible. 

    “To make the choice of going to an uncomfortable learning condition in our schools, or to stay at home … .is a choice that students should not have to make,” San Lorenzo Unified Superintendent Daryl Camp said during Tuesday’s discussion. “Students should be able to learn in an environment that’s comfortable for learning.”

    Funding for school facilities 

    This November, California voters will decide whether to support school districts getting money for facilities through two avenues: a $10 billion state bond and, depending on individual location, a local bond measure. 

    State construction bonds require a 50% majority to pass, while local bonds need 55% of the vote. 

    The statewide bond — which would be approved by voters passing Proposition 2 — would give $8.5 billion to K-12 schools and another $1.5 billion to California’s community colleges. Voters haven’t passed a bond of its kind since 2016. 

    Of the funds for K-12 schools, $4 billion will be allocated toward modernizing, retrofitting and rehabilitating buildings, according to Sara Hinkley, the California program manager at UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities and Schools. Meanwhile, $3.3 billion would go toward new construction, and smaller amounts are designated for charter schools and career technical education. 

    But according to Hinkley, the vast majority of funding for school facilities in California comes from local bond measures. 

    Districts can also apply to have the California School Facilities Program match those funds on a project basis, but that money is set to expire in early 2025 unless voters pass Proposition 2 to add funding to it for the first time in eight years. 

    “I know a lot of districts have put measures on the ballot in November in hopes of being able to apply for and secure some of that state funding,” Hinkley said at Tuesday’s discussion. “And for a lot of districts, that is really the only way they’re going to be able to fund some of these projects.” 

    The difference bonds could make

    Del Norte Unified School District has a motto: Keep the wet out. 

    In 1964, the district’s schools were rebuilt following a tsunami and flood. Now, Brie Fraley, a district parent who was on Tuesday’s panel, said some of the schools have leaky roofs and open ceilings. 

    It has been 16 years since the district in the state’s far north had a bond measure on the ballot — and Fraley is concerned about the lack of support so far. 

    “Unfortunately, we did a poll, and the majority of the community members here are not in favor of Measure H that the school board trustees are putting on the ballot,” Fraley said. “So I’m really concerned about access to statewide resources if our community isn’t supportive of it.” 

    Many districts have already benefited from passing local bond measures, the panelists agreed. 

    As a result of poor infrastructure and frequent break-ins, Hallie Lozano, a panelist who is a literacy coach at Dyer-Kelly Elementary in Sacramento County’s San Juan Unified, said their school was completely rebuilt after input from teachers, families and students. 

    They made the school entirely indoors, built it so visitors had to check in at the front office, added spaces for counselors and other interventionists and ensured there were enough bathrooms. 

    “It makes you feel more valued as a professional,” Lozano said during Tuesday’s discussion. “I think it makes students feel more valued as students, and the families recognize that we’re really giving everything we can to our students and the community.”

    She added that the upgrades have also helped with teacher retention. 

    “Every year, somebody was leaving, or a few people were leaving,” she said. “And now we rarely have people leave unless there’s a promotion, or somebody’s moving out of the area. But it’s not something that happens like it did.”

    Sara Noguchi, the superintendent of Modesto City Schools, said the local bond measure would help the district upgrade the 50- to 90-year-old facilities to 21st century standards. 

    At San Lorenzo Unified, Superintendent Camp is hoping voters pass a local bond measure to help bring air conditioning to its schools amid rising temperatures — in addition to safety and technological upgrades. 

    “The climate situation is real. It’s apparent. I feel it every day I visit classes, especially on the heat wave,” he said. “It’s not every day, but the days that it’s hot, I have to say, yeah, it’s a challenge getting students to be there and to stay there.”

    Other considerations

    As voters decide whether to pass their state and local bonds, superintendents have to weigh their schools’ needs with declining enrollments.

    But Camp said a smaller enrollment doesn’t necessarily mean fewer schools. Instead, he said some facilities could be converted to purposes such as “wellness rooms” to meet the social-emotional needs of students. 

    Camp added that many schools will also need to make sure they have the facilities to accommodate 4-year-olds in transitional kindergarten. 

    Making sure the distribution of state funds is equitable is another concern, the panelists agreed, because wealth disparities between districts are vast. 

    “When I think about equity, I think about what is fair,” Fraley said during Tuesday’s discussion. “And then, if California wants to be the best in our academics, we need to be fair to all students, so that we all have a fair chance at meeting our academic goals.” 





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  • ‘Academic probation’ sends message to students that college isn’t for them, research says

    ‘Academic probation’ sends message to students that college isn’t for them, research says


    Students at Fresno City College

    Credit: Ashleigh Panoo/EdSource

    When a college student’s GPA dips below 2.0 — lower than a C average — schools often send a notice meant to serve as a wake-up call: Improve your grades or risk losing financial aid and being kicked out of college.

    But the way that universities and colleges deliver this wake-up call could be backfiring and pushing students to give up on higher education altogether, according to new research. 

    That’s what California Competes, a nonpartisan policy and research organization, concluded in a recent report on “academic probation.” The policy report was born out of a study that relied on interviews with over 50 “comebackers” — students who returned to higher education years after stopping out — from Shasta College and Sacramento State.

    Academic probation wasn’t on the radar of researchers until the comebackers, brought on to co-design the study, raised academic probation as a serious issue that led many students to give up on their studies. 

    Su Jin Gatlin Jez

    “I was very surprised that this came up from the students, but this is why we center students in our work,” said Su Jin Jez, California Competes CEO, in an interview with EdSource.

    Jez said students perceived being put on academic probation as a message that they aren’t cut out for higher education, not as a wake-up call. This was especially true when an automated notice did not offer clear next steps for a student to begin to turn their academic career around.

    This is an issue that affects a lot of students. One national study by the Center for Analysis and Postsecondary Education and Employment found that 1 in 5 first-year students on Pell Grants were at risk of losing their grants due to low GPAs. But there’s no California-specific data about these students — something California Competes would like to see changed.

    Laura Bernhard

    The organization calls on the state to create a task force to examine academic probation policies at California public universities and promote practices that will help students. It also calls on each of the state’s higher education segments — community colleges, the CSUs and the UCs — to address this issue. That is happening already. 

    “There is interest. There’s growing recognition of the need to make these changes,” said California Competes senior researcher Laura Bernhard. “I think that’s exciting.”

    Bernhard acknowledges it can be tough to roll out sweeping policy changes in a higher education system as decentralized as California’s, but there are signs of progress. During the study, the University of California announced that it would be following one of the study’s recommendations: calling it “academic notice” rather than academic probation, a phrase that makes getting D’s or F’s sound like a crime.

    In this Q&A, Jez and Bernhard detail what they have learned in their research and, specifically, what they want to see happen in California. It has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

    What typically happens when a student’s GPA drops below 2.0?

    Bernhard: Most schools use an automated system where a student will receive a form email notifying them of this status. Campus policies vary. California Community Colleges are required to notify students when their GPA falls under this threshold.

    There is not a systemwide process, which is one of the things we wanted to flag. So the student experience varies pretty widely. It’s also going to vary based on if they’re in a targeted program that receives specialized advising, such as student athletes or people who are in an honors college, but in a lot of ways it’s left to the student. I don’t think we do a lot.

    What is the problem with telling a student they are on academic probation?

    Bernhard: The first, perhaps the most obvious one, would be the link to the carceral system. That can be very triggering for many people.

    One of our institutional partners was reviewing their website about academic probation, and she was taken aback by the language. After they are given notice, the first image students see is a cop holding a stop sign saying, “You’re on probation.” She was horrified. Then she remembered 20 years ago, she was one of the people who helped write that policy. It was just a real moment of, “Oh goodness, what have we done?”

    Jez: I think previously there wasn’t a lot of concern about a letter with that kind of language because people assume students were on academic probation because they couldn’t hack it. Because they truly weren’t college material. They couldn’t handle the coursework. 

    Fast-forward to today, there’s a growing understanding that students can be academically capable and excellent — and still not be getting good grades. There are all of these factors in students’ lives that impact their academic performance. Institutions want to figure out how they can help students navigate those sorts of life circumstances, so that they can succeed in the classroom. For that reason, institutions are really wanting to make sure they have the right tone in these letters.

    So are some of these assumptions based on an outdated vision of who a college student is?

    Jez: Traditionally, we’ve had a student who is full-time focused on academic studies. You wouldn’t think of life outside of school being a major factor for them. So if they weren’t performing academically, it was because there was some academic shortcoming. 

    But now most students have heavy workloads, particularly at community colleges and the CSUs. Over 400,000 students in California have children. It’s just a very different student. I think we’re beginning to tackle our policies one by one as we look back and sort of realize they don’t work anymore. 

    Besides that phrase “academic probation,” what are some other problems with those automated notices sent to students when their GPA dips?

    Bernhard: Usually just the length. It’s long, it’s verbose, it’s wordy, it’s complex. There’s jargon. It’s not clear what steps I need to take. It’s not clear who I need to reach out to. It’s not personal. It can tend to use deficit-minded language: “You’ve done something bad; you are on probation; you are in trouble.”

    Instead, things can really be flipped. It can be short; it can be clear. It can be: ‘This is temporary. This is a setback. This happens to a lot of people. We all struggle sometimes.” We can normalize this behavior. ‘These things happen sometimes. It’s out of our control and here are the steps you can take. We care about you as our person. Please talk to us. Reach out.”

    I think a lot of colleges have also realized that, in addition to sending an email, we can text, we can call, we can have tables on campus. We can have an academic event with more personal outreach, which we realize is bandwidth-heavy. But sometimes that makes a huge difference for people. 

    This policy analysis mentions that nationally, 1 out of 5 first-time college students receiving Pell Grants end up with a GPA below a 2.0. Is there any statewide data on that?

    Bernhard: I think that’s one of the biggest issues. It’s not a publicly shared data point in most cases. It’s usually within an institution. It’s hard to get good, comprehensive, systemwide statewide information about students who have a certain GPA. We obviously believe in the power of data, so that is something we would love to be able to collect and analyze.

    Jez: I would love to see that, as the launch of the Cradle-to-Career data system happens, we have students’ GPA information.

    Is there any kind of pushback to these changes you’re suggesting? What’s the attitude among campus leaders?

    Jez: Across the three systems, I will say that there’s a growing recognition that this is a really critical issue that needs improvement. And so we’re seeing attention to this at the systemwide level. 

    At the campus level, there are a number of campuses that are just picking it up and sprinting with it. In many ways, our work has been thinking about how we get a more consistent, comprehensive approach, so we can pick up on campuses leading the way, learn from what they’re doing, and then sort of broaden it across the system. So the systems are all in and then the campuses are in. 

    You’re calling for a statewide task force. Why would that be helpful?

    Jez: Unlike literally every other state in our country, we don’t have a coordinating entity that would be thinking about these issues statewide, centering the student and the students who are attending multiple institutions. It’s critical, then, that we pull it together — in these more ad hoc ways, sadly — to be able to address this. 

    We are hopeful that there will be a proposal in the next 12 months, maybe even the next two or three months, that will tackle this.

    Was there anything that surprised you as you researched this issue?

    Bernhard: I think we could have named 17 other things that we think would have led people to stop out and make returning to complete their degree more difficult. I don’t think academic probation would necessarily have been on that list. 

    The other thing I just really wanted to tout is that this feels, to me, like a relatively easy win. It’s essentially free. It feels small, but it could be incredibly impactful for students. There really hasn’t been pushback, because it just feels very common-sense. Now it’s just like, “Great, how do we get momentum, take action and make this change statewide?” I feel like in a year when we’re sort of feeling financially constrained, I think we should take the win. 

    A lot of what you’re talking about and pushing for is systemic change, but I want to close by asking you what your message would be to students on academic notice or probation right now.

    Jez: When we’ve done previous research and we’ve talked about academic probation, what we hear from faculty and staff is they really saw it as an early warning sign, like “Hey, pay attention.” And then what we heard from students was the opposite. It was more like “You don’t belong, you’re not college material.” 

    So I think that a student should know that this status doesn’t mean you’re not college material and you don’t belong and you can’t do it. I think of it more like a wake-up call. Obviously, there are some students where some sort of crisis happens in their life, and they need to get through that moment and then get back on track. And when they hit that crisis, it’s really important to reach out to their institution because they can take incompletes or withdraw or there are other strategies that make it so that this doesn’t have an impact on their GPA.

    If it’s something that’s sort of like a bigger issue where they’re having to work full time and trying to figure out how they balance their studies, reach out to your institution. There are also a number of community-based organizations that can support students. Also, many struggles aren’t visible, but students are far from alone in grappling with this. In many ways, it is a very normal experience. Students can successfully, absolutely make it out of this temporary status. 

    It’s really like the institution’s obligation to help the student. It is not like, “Go figure it out, student.” The institution needs to help figure out with the student, “How do we support you to success?

    My last recommendation is a general customer service one. If you call customer service and the person’s not helpful, I wouldn’t try to convince that person how they should help you. Sometimes, you just hang up and find someone else. Our institutions are pretty big, so there are lots of people. Find a person that can get to your issue and that’s willing to help.





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  • Community college students far from a four-year university are less likely to transfer, study says

    Community college students far from a four-year university are less likely to transfer, study says


    Madera Community College is in the rural Central Valley. Fresno State, about 22 miles away, is the closest four-year public university.

    Credit: Ashleigh Panoo / EdSource

    Why is it harder for community college students studying far from four-year universities to transfer? 

    The answer to that question — which is at the heart of a new study previewed at a webinar last week — could influence state higher education officials’ thinking on proposals to expand bachelor’s degree offerings at community colleges.

    Most community colleges in California are within a 25-mile drive of the nearest California State University or University of California campus, according to the study by the RP Group, the independent nonprofit that conducts research for California’s system of 116 community colleges. But among the 29 colleges that are not, a research team led by Darla Cooper and Daisy Segovia found lower rates of transfer from two-year to four-year institutions.

    Gaps were most visible across the seven community colleges located the farthest from public universities. Colleges at least 87 miles from the nearest UC or CSU had a 28% transfer rate, researchers said, lagging colleges within a 25-mile drive by 8 percentage points. 

    The study noted a smaller gap between a middle tier of community colleges located closer to four-year institutions and those within a 25-mile commute. A third of students at community colleges 27 to 78 miles from a California university transferred compared to 36% of those attending a campus where a four-year institution was 25 miles away or less.

    “We need to bring the education to where the students are and not force the students to go to where the education is,” said Cooper, RP Group’s executive director. 

    Proximity to a four-year public university is far from the only factor related to community college transfer rates. RP Group’s own research has identified lots of practices common among students who continue on to four-year institutions, like completing transferable math and English courses in their first year, visiting an academic adviser and getting involved in student programs like Umoja and Puente, said Cooper and Segovia, a senior researcher at RP Group. 

    Money is a consideration, too: California community college students interviewed in 2019 cited the cost of a university education as a top hurdle to continuing their education. 

    The new study examining the role of distance in transfer rates comes at a time when concerns over regional worker shortages in fields like education and nursing have stoked debate about how to make bachelor’s degrees more accessible to students who might fill those labor gaps.  

    California’s overall higher education plan, first released in 1960, left bachelor’s degrees as the purview of four-year universities. But state lawmakers in recent years have relaxed that constraint. In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill allowing community colleges to add up to 30 baccalaureate degree programs annually, leading to dozens of new offerings. The California Community Colleges website now lists 45 approved bachelor’s degree programs.

    Still, state law places significant checks on which baccalaureate degrees community colleges can green-light. Colleges can’t start a four-year degree if CSU or UC already offers it and must consult with university officials before proposed degrees move forward. CSU and UC can object to proposals they believe duplicate existing university degrees — rules that apply even in rural areas not served by a Cal State or UC campus. 

    That framework has at times put the community colleges at odds with colleagues at four-year institutions. The board of governors for the statewide community college system last year approved a program over CSU’s formal objections. 

    A measure that would have further blurred the boundaries between two- and four-year institutions fell short in the 2024 legislative session. Newsom in September vetoed a bill that would have permitted 15 community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing, opening the door for community colleges to create degree programs already offered at CSU.

    Researchers probe ‘university education deserts’

    The RP Group’s work builds on previous studies exploring what researchers call “education deserts,” places that either had no college or university or that only had a community college. A 2016 research brief for the American Council on Education reported that such communities tended to have lower college attainment compared with the rest of the country. 

    The RP Group study — “Exploring Geographic Isolation as a Barrier to Equitable Transfer Outcomes” — followed first-time college students enrolled at a community college between 2012 and 2017 who intended to transfer to a four-year institution. It used data from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to measure those students’ outcomes after six years. Driving distances were measured from campus to campus. 

    Researchers excluded Calbright, an online community college, as well as a newer community college and a college focused on students learning technical trades. That left 113 community colleges covering more than a million students in the study sample.

    The analysis defined three categories of community colleges by their proximity to a public university in California. Researchers dubbed the first two groups – Tier 1 schools, which were at least 87 miles away, and Tier 2 schools, which were 27 to 78 miles away – to be colleges located in “university education deserts.” A third group of community colleges within 25 miles of a university were not considered deserts.

    Comparing the three categories revealed demographic trends. Tier 1 and Tier 2 colleges tended to serve a higher percentage of Latino students, first generation students and low income students than colleges not located in university education deserts.   

    Researchers also observed disparities by comparing the transfer rates of students at Tier 1 institutions to students who were not in a university education desert but who shared the same race and ethnicity. For example, 20% of Black students attending a Tier 1 college — those that were the farthest from a public four-year in California– transferred, compared with 33% of those attending a college in the category closest to a university.

    “It’s an equity issue,” Cooper said. “We wanted to see if there were any particular groups that were being disadvantaged by their location in the state.”

    The RP Group’s study also reported that students at Tier 1 colleges who succeeded in transferring more often left California altogether to do so. Across all three proximity-to-university tiers, a plurality of transfer students landed at a Cal State campus. But 38% of Tier 1 college students transferred out of state for a four-year degree compared to only 16% of students not in a university education desert.

    Future research – and possible solutions

    Segovia said future research could take into account not only community colleges’ proximity to public universities in California, but also their distance to nonprofit universities and out-of-state institutions.

    Looking across state lines could explain some of the variation researchers observed in transfer rates among the community colleges that are the farthest from a public university in California. 

    College of the Siskiyous, which is roughly 200 miles from Cal Poly Humboldt but only 70 miles from Southern Oregon University, had a 32% rate of transfer, Segovia said, beating out some community colleges located closer to in-state four-year schools. 

    The researchers also plan to interview students about how proximity to a four-year college has impacted their education. 

    Webinar panelists discussed several barriers preventing community college students who live far from a four-year university from earning bachelor’s degrees — and some strategies that could ease the transition.

    Panelist Joshua Simon, a student at Lemoore College who serves on the board of the West Hills Community College District, said students struggle to finance their bachelor’s degree education, costs exacerbated by a long commute to a four-year university.

    “One of the hardest things is transportation,” he said. “Some students don’t usually drive, or some students don’t have the means of public transportation … so that’s a little bit of a difficulty when it comes to transferring, at least in-state or locally, around that 40-mile range.” 

    Kevin G. Walthers, the president of Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, said students from his college often don’t get admitted to the nearest Cal State campus, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Those that do, he said, may save money by living at home but find their 70- to 80-mile round trip commute costs $30 a day. 

    Cal State admissions data for fall 2023 shows that 63% of Allan Hancock students who applied to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo were accepted. Of those students, 71% enrolled.

    “If the students are going to finish their degree in two years, and then they can’t afford to leave for Fresno or Northridge or Bakersfield, and they can’t get into Cal Poly, they’re just stuck,” he said. “Given the fact that most of our students are Latino, they’re stuck in a way that is systemically racist. There’s no way around that.”

    Walthers said the lack of bachelor’s degree programs has a simple solution: “Either have the CSU offer services here or allow Allan Hancock College to provide those services.”

    Kate Mahar, the associate vice president of innovation and strategic initiatives at Shasta College, said the school operates several programs with Chico State, about 80 miles south. A dual admission program allows students who apply to Chico State the option to attend Shasta College instead; it also guarantees them a seat at Chico when they’re ready to transfer, so long as they meet eligibility requirements. Students can also receive a Chico State business degree at Shasta College.

    Chico State admitted 87% of Shasta College applicants, according to CSU admissions data for fall 2023. Almost 53% of those students enrolled.

    “They really take it to heart that we are in their service area, even though (some students) are about five hours away from Chico,” she said.





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  • California should continue to invest in teacher recruitment, retention, study says

    California should continue to invest in teacher recruitment, retention, study says


    Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource

    California has spent more than $1 billion since 2018 on programs to aid in the recruitment and retention of TK-12 teachers. It must continue to make those investments if it wants to end the persistent teacher shortage, according to a report, “Tackling Teacher Shortages: Investing in California’s Teacher Workforce,” released last week.

    Major investments include $672 million for the Teacher Residency Grant Program, $521 million for the Golden State Teacher Grant Program and $250 million for the National Board Certified Teacher Incentive Program. 

    The state programs to recruit and retain teachers are gaining traction, but still need more time to show results, according to the national Learning Policy Institute (LPI), a nonprofit education research organization that released the report. But many of the programs are funded with one-time funds nearing expiration.

     The Golden State Teacher Grant Program awards up to $20,000 and the National Board Certified Teacher Incentive Program provides $25,000 to teachers who agree to work at a high-needs school.

    The Teacher Residency Grant Program funds partnerships between school districts and teacher preparation programs that pay teacher candidates a stipend while they learn alongside veteran classroom teachers. 

    Interest in all three of these state programs continues to increase, said Desiree Carver-Thomas, a senior researcher at LPI. But, because participation is still just a fraction of the overall teacher pipeline, it may take years until researchers will be able to tell whether the programs are actually helping to boost enrollment in teacher preparation programs, she said.

    “I think it’s important to mention that the teacher residency grant program and Golden State Teacher Grant program aren’t just subsidizing people who might go into the profession either way,” Carver-Thomas said. “Those individuals are being targeted by the districts where they’re needed, to the schools where they’re needed. It’s important that the kind of supply-demand alignment that the state is supporting can help to address shortages.”

     Linda Darling-Hammond is LPI president as well as the president of the California State Board of Education.

    Enrollment in teacher preparation programs dip

    Despite the investments, enrollment in teacher preparation programs dipped in both 2021-22 and 2022-23, the last two years state data is available. In 2022-23 there were 19,833 teacher candidates enrolled in teacher preparation programs, compared with 26,179 in 2020-21, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Teacher enrollment has been increasing incrementally each year between 2018 and 2021.

    The numbers are far behind enrollment in state teacher preparation 20 years ago, but there has been some progress, Carver-Thomas said. The Covid-19 pandemic could have impacted enrollment in 2021-22 and 2022-23, she said.

     “We don’t know what is on the other side of that 2023 data,” Carver-Thomas said.

    Teacher shortages impact poor communities the most

    The teacher shortage, especially in hard-to- fill areas like math, special education, science and bilingual education, persists despite proposed teacher layoffs and buyouts driven by declining enrollment and budget shortfalls.

    As a result of the teacher shortage, school districts continue to rely on under-prepared teachers on emergency-style permits. A larger number of these under-prepared teachers end up in schools in the poorest communities, according to research.

    In 2022-23, the state’s highest-need schools were nearly three times as likely to fill teaching positions with interns and teachers on emergency-style permits or waivers, compared with the lowest-need schools, according to the LPI report.

    Additional funding could be on the way

    California’s proposed state budget includes funding for recruitment and retention of teachers, including $50 million for the Golden State Teacher Grant and $100 million to extend the timeline for the National Board Certified Teacher Incentive Program. The proposed budget also includes $150 million in financial aid to teacher candidates through the new Teacher Recruitment Incentive Grant Program.

    The Golden State Teacher Grant Program, funded with $500 million in 2021, was meant to support teacher candidates over a five-year period, but the program’s funds are nearly exhausted. The new funding, if approved, would fund applicants in 2025-26.

    State lawmakers will make final decisions on funding by the June 15 budget deadline.





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  • Trump’s nominee says she may break apart, not shut down Education Department

    Trump’s nominee says she may break apart, not shut down Education Department


    Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, answers questions from senators during her confirmation hearing while surrounded by family members in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

    Credit: Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP

    The nominee to become the next and, President Donald Trump vows, last secretary of education assured U.S. senators on Thursday that there are no plans to shut down the Department of Education or to cut spending that Congress has already approved for the department.

    Linda McMahon, however, said she would be open to moving programs to other departments, such as sending the Office of Civil Rights to the Justice Department.

    Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, brought up funding early in the two-hour hearing on the nomination.

    “If the department is downsized, would the states and localities still receive the federal funding that they currently receive?” he asked.

    “Yes, it’s not the president’s goal to defund the programs. It’s only to have it operate more efficiently,” she said.

    Closing the department, a longtime goal of conservative Republicans, was one of Trump’s campaign promises. Calling the department a “con job” this week, he has said repeatedly that McMahon’s goal should be to shrink the department, to “put herself out of a job.”

    But Trump also acknowledged that only Congress can dismantle what it established in 1980 during the Carter administration. At the hearing, McMahon affirmed that she would work with Congress to follow the law.

    With husband Vince, McMahon, 76, founded a successful sports entertainment company that later became World Wrestling Entertainment, and served as its president, then its CEO for 30 years. McMahon served as Trump’s administrator of the Small Business Administration in his first administration. She also served for a year on the Connecticut State Board of Education in 2009 and is a longtime trustee of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, but otherwise has had little involvement in education. 

    Democratic senators did not press her on her lack of education experience, although Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, did push her to name a requirement for schools to show improvement under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the principal law determining accountability for K-12 schools. She could not.

    Instead, they questioned her on Trump’s plan to ship federal funding to states as block grants without federal oversight, his intention to expand parental school choice, and his threats to cut funding for colleges that allow transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports and for schools that continue policies for diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI.

    ‘Invest in teachers, not bureaucrats’

    McMahon made clear in her opening statement she is in sync with the president’s assessment of education.

    Calling the nation’s schools a “system in decline,” she said, “we can do better for elementary and junior high school students by teaching basic reading and mathematics; for the college freshmen facing censorship or antisemitism on campus, and for parents and grandparents who worry that their children and grandchildren are no longer taught American values and true history.”

    “So what’s the remedy?” she asked. “Fund education freedom, not government-run systems. Invest in teachers, not Washington bureaucrats.”

    McMahon expressed support for continuing federal funding for Title I in support of low-income students, and for students with disabilities under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However, she will investigate whether IDEA should remain in the department.

    “When IDEA was originally set up, it was under the Department of Health and Welfare. After the Department of Education was established, it shifted over there,” she said. “I’m not sure that it’s not better served in Health and Human Services, but I don’t know.  If I’m confirmed, it is of high priority to make sure that the students who are receiving disability funding (are) not impacted.”

    Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, called her commitment to continued funding “gaslighting.”

    Even as the hearing was happening, Republicans in the House were working on “reconciliation” bills that called for possibly balancing massive continued personal income tax cuts with hundreds of billions in funding cuts for Medicaid and education. 

    This week, Elon Musk’s budget-cutting SWAT team known as DOGE, cut $881 million in research contracts without notice. Other education grants associated with DEI received termination notices, too.

    McMahon said DOGE’s “audit” of the department was appropriate. “I believe the American people spoke loudly in the election last November, to say that they want to look at waste, fraud and abuse in our government.” Trump recently fired the Department of Education’s independent inspector general, Sandra D. Bruce, whose job was to root out waste, fraud and abuse.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9QfK8zDU0

    Watch: Linda McMahon said DOGE’s “audit” of the department was appropriate.

    “I understand an audit,” Murray said. “But when Congress appropriates money, it is the administration’s responsibility to put that out, as directed by Congress who has the power of the purse. So what will you do if the president or Elon Musk tells you not to spend money Congress has appropriated to you?”

    “We’ll certainly expend those dollars that Congress has passed,” McMahon responded. “But I do think it is worthwhile to take a look at the programs before the money goes out the door. It’s much easier to stop the money before it goes out the door than it is to claw it back.”

    Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said schools across the nation are “scrambling because they have no idea what DEI means” and are worried they will lose funding. He presented two scenarios that pointed to ambiguities in the executive order.

    If a school in Connecticut celebrates Martin Luther King Day events and programming teaching about Black history, does it violate or run afoul of DEI prohibitions? he asked.

    “Not, in my view, that is clearly not the case,” McMahon said. “That celebration of Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month should be celebrated throughout all of our schools.”

    Murphy continued, “What about educational programming centered around specific ethnic and racial experiences? My son is in a public school. He takes African American History. Could you perhaps be in violation of this executive order?”

    “I’m, I’m not quite certain,” McMahon said. “I would like to take a look at these programs and fully understand the breadth of the executive order and get back to you on that.”

    As with all of Trump’s nominees so far, McMahon is expected to win a majority vote in the Senate, possibly along party lines, later this month.  





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  • Academic gaps ‘allowed to linger’ among California’s Black students over past decade, report says

    Academic gaps ‘allowed to linger’ among California’s Black students over past decade, report says


    Aleka Jackson-Jarrell, coordinator of the Heritage Program at Adelanto High in California’s High Desert, regularly meets with Black students to make sure they stay on track to graduate and meet A-G requirements that enable them to apply to a public university.

    Emma Gallegos/EdSource

    In the areas of chronic absenteeism, suspension and reading proficiency, the rates for Black students in California remain largely the same as they were a decade ago. That is the focus of a new report, Black Minds Matter 2025, which provides new insight and recommendations on education for Black students in California a decade after the first iteration of the report was published by Education Trust-West.

    “This report really meets the moment that we’re in when we’re seeing so many cuts to education funding and programs that are inevitably going to impact Black students,” said Melissa Valenzuela-Stookey, director of research at the prominent nonprofit behind the report that advocates for equity in education.

    Ten years ago, Black students were nearly three times more likely than white students to be suspended, and while suspension rates among Black students have since declined from 14% to 9%, the rate is still three times higher than white students, according to data from the California Department of Education included in the report. The chronic absenteeism rates are similar: in 2016-17, Black students had the second-highest rate of chronic absenteeism of any student group, just under Native American students — a statistic that remained the same in 2023-24.

    “None of the opportunity gaps or outcome gaps explored in this report are new — all have been allowed to linger over the past decade,” concluded the report authors.

    Black students represent about 5% of California’s student population from transitional kindergarten to 12th grade. That totals about 287,400 students, with about a third of them living in Los Angeles County, per 2023-24 state data. About 150,000 Black students are enrolled at institutions of higher education, both public and private.

    “We constantly have in the front of our minds that there are students and families and communities behind every single data point,” said Valenzuela-Stookey. “For that reason, it felt really important to not mince words and just bring to bear the information that we have about what conditions students and families are facing and are up against; despite the fact that they enter those systems with really ambitious aspirations, something is pushing against them, and that something is systemic.”

    The “ambitious aspirations” Valenzuela-Stookey mentioned refers to a finding by The United Negro College Fund in which 9 in 10 Black students agreed that earning a college degree is important, plus additional studies that found Black parents “are highly engaged and invested in their children’s educations, particularly in the early years,” per the report.

    The report, published Thursday, highlights multiple key findings, including:

    • The percentage of Black students in California at grade level in math increased from 16% to 18% in the decade since 2015-16 but has remained the lowest of all student groups
    • The gap between California’s Black and white students who have met or exceeded the state’s reading proficiency exams, known as California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, has not changed significantly since 1998
    • Three in 4 Black students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, which is 13 percentage points higher than the statewide average
    • The rate of Black students completing A-G course sequences in high school, which are required to attend the University of California and California State University systems, has increased by just 4 percentage points in the last decade
    • While the number of Black children enrolled in transitional kindergarten more than doubled from 2021 to 2023-24, the rate still makes up less than half of the number of Black 4-year-olds who are eligible to enroll
    • Black elementary school students report feeling sadness more frequently than any other student group
    • The number of Black teachers remained disproportionately lower than the share of Black students statewide; just over a quarter of school districts employ Black teachers at a rate proportionate to their Black student population
    • The rate at which Black students participate in dual enrollment increased by only 6 percentage points in the last seven school years, from about 11% to nearly 17%, while other student groups increased between 8 and 14 percentage points
    • Black college students in California face the highest rates of food and housing insecurity

    “This status quo is not an accident — it is the consequence of systems designed to produce unequal outcomes operating largely unchecked for centuries,” the report’s authors wrote. “It is also the consequence of incremental changes made in place of what’s called for: much more fundamental transformation.”

    A deeper look into some of the data cited in the report reveals alarming trends. For example, dual enrollment rates increased among all student racial groups between 2015-16 and 2021-22, per an analysis of state data by Policy Analysis for California Education, but Black students recorded the lowest rate of growth — at nearly 17% in 2021-22, just under the rate of dual enrollment participation for Asian students in 2015-16.

    Also, according to data from the California Community Colleges, within their first year in community college, Black students were completing and passing transfer-level coursework at a rate lower than their peers, with a difference of 30 percentage points between Asian students at 77% and Black students at 47%.

    While the report’s authors acknowledged the pandemic exacerbated some of the academic gaps, many existed long before Covid lockdowns began, and the data included in the report reflected that longevity. “It was really important for us to make sure that people had a long view of how entrenched these systemic inequities are because the solutions to them should follow from how long they’ve been baked into our systems,” said Valenzuela-Stookey.

    In addition to sharing the stark disparities, the report’s authors highlighted a handful of programs and initiatives they believe are working to close the gaps.

    These include a teacher residency program called The Village Initiative and created in collaboration with the Watts of Power Foundation; Los Angeles Unified School District; and California State University, Dominguez Hills. Fifteen Black male teachers were part of the program in 2023, and the partnership estimates they will place 113 fully credentialed, Black teachers in school over the next decade.

    Farther north, at Berkeley High School, the campus’ African American Studies Department is credited for the high rate of graduating within four years among the Black student population, at nearly 95% in the latest school year, compared to the statewide average of just over 86%.

    One of the overarching recommendations proposed by the authors was the creation of a Commission on Black Education Transformation, made up in part by Black students, parents and educators. This would be a standing state commission with the authority to make actionable decisions, including the allocation of resources to ensure follow-through from state and local agencies on policies related to academic progress for Black students.

    Other recommendations include:

    • Mandating that all high schools incorporate the 15-course A-G curriculum required for eligibility to the UC and CSU systems
    • Increasing award amounts for the existing Cal Grant program to aid students with non-tuition costs
    • Prioritizing the hiring and retention of Black educators in both TK-12 and higher education
    • Expanding pandemic-era supports, such as before- and after-school programming and academic tutoring
    • Requiring that all school staff receive training to end the disproportionate impact on Black students of punitive disciplinary practices
    • Modifying the state’s Local Control Funding Formula to target funds based on an index of metrics such as levels of adult educational attainment and homeownership rates
    • Instructing school districts to report “evidence-based strategies” aimed at supporting Black students in their Local Control and Accountability Plans

    Valenzuela-Stookey noted that her team sees both the progress and persistent gaps over the last decade “as a reminder that policy change is just the first step in closing a lot of these opportunity gaps that are highlighted in the report, and implementation and on-the-ground practice work is really the necessary next step if any of that is to come to fruition.”





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  • Pandemic-era push to ‘build solutions’ must continue, panel says

    Pandemic-era push to ‘build solutions’ must continue, panel says


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nemKlBPWB2E

    The Covid-19 pandemic, which first shuttered schools five years ago, disrupted learning, disengaged students and harmed their mental health, amplifying the long-standing inequalities in their achievement.  

    Recovering from the effects of the pandemic has proven difficult for most California schools, and the challenges that defy easy fixes, such as chronic absenteeism, require partnerships with families, community members and organizations to develop support systems that will focus on student academic success, as well as a willingness to analyze and change those approaches, according to panelists at EdSource’s Thursday roundtable, “Five years after Covid: Innovations that are driving results.”

    “The pandemic showed us that schools are so much more than just places to teach our students in the classroom,” said Lorena Solorio, associate director of the Care Corps Program at Rocketship Public Schools, a group of TK-5 charter schools, mostly in East San Jose, that enlisted care coordinators during the pandemic. “We have to support our students and their families to get them to school, but also that they’re prepared to learn because our students can’t learn if they’re coming to school hungry.”

    While the pandemic is mostly defined by the personal loss and academic setbacks that most experienced, it presented opportunities for some communities to become creative and innovative in igniting change to improve the conditions that the pandemic magnified. 

    The policy and advocacy work of Oakland REACH, for instance, wasn’t improving student outcomes before the pandemic. The pandemic became an opportunity for the parent advocacy group to “build the solution around education that we really know that our families wanted and needed,” co-founder and CEO Lakisha Young, a panelist, said. 

    Oakland REACH created a virtual family hub that trained parents and caregivers to tutor their children in early literacy — “a model that takes parents off the sidelines and to the front lines in an academic way.” 

    “Parents set the tone for how kids decide they want to engage in education,” Young said. 

    After five weeks of remote learning with the virtual hub, long before anyone realized school closures would last for at least a year, students in grades K-2 saw significant gains, as 60% improved by two or more reading levels and 30% increased by three or more reading levels on Oakland Unified’s assessment.

    Since the return to in-person learning, REACH has partnered with the school district to train parents, caregivers, and community members to go into classrooms as tutors teaching reading and math. 

    Rocketship Public Schools was inspired at the height of the pandemic to work directly with families and connect them with resources and services through care coordinators in all of its charter schools, according to Solorio. 

    The care coordinators, for example, connected families struggling with housing with community partners and hosted on-campus resource fairs and health, vision and dental screenings, referring students for additional services, as necessary, and allowing them to “show up and learn in the classroom,” Solorio said. 

    Today, the coordinators’ roles have expanded to help school leaders address chronic absenteeism. 

    “Helping support a culture of learning, a culture of coming to school is important,” Solorio said about coordinators helping families, “whether it’s changing mindsets or it’s driving out core root causes of some of these obstacles.” 

    Finding, providing and sustaining innovation

    Districts have used one-time pandemic relief funding and/or their own resources to address the persistent challenges facing students during and since the pandemic, including the fact that California schools have more staff now than at any time in history. 

    Federal pandemic relief and recovery funds from the state put California’s spending at over $18,000 per student, said panelist Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab, an education finance research center based at Georgetown University. 

    “While the state was seeing some growth in scores earlier in 2014, 2016, there’s some decline during the pandemic,” she said. “But the part that frustrates us, I think, is the continued decline, on average, even after these investments were happening.”

    The high spending and low test scores make the state one of the nation’s worst in its “returns on investments,” the Edunomics Lab found. 

    There are districts, such as Compton and Milpitas Unified, that defy the average and show a rapid recovery for their students, Roza said. 

    Now, billions in pandemic-era funding have expired. California districts still have $6 billion in state funding to replace the federal relief, but as the Edunomics research shows, the spending alone won’t address student success. From now on, schools must know when to change their approach, panelists said. 

    Compton Unified exemplifies the importance of doubling down on a strategy that works. Compton Unified Superintendent Darin Brawley said that consistently assessing student performance to determine the academic strategies that schools use has led to the district being No. 1 in California in terms of growth in English and math test scores.

    “We’re measuring everything,” including graduation rates, core graduation requirements and chronic absenteeism rates that are also improving, Brawley said.  “It’s all about data: reflecting on that data, coming together as teams to reflect on how each individual school is doing, receiving that feedback.” 

    The common characteristic of districts nationwide that beat the odds for their kids, Roza said, is “they really focused on reading and math.” 

    Roza attributed the reading and math focus of Oakland REACH to its success. 

    Although the group will soon end its partnership with the district, Oakland Unified can continue the approach Oakland REACH started, much like 12 Denver schools recently did by replicating the model.

    “REACH exists out of a problem,” Young said about not knowing if the literacy and math it brought into the homes of low-income families would work, at first. Whether we think something is good or not, let’s test it. We cannot be so vulnerable to system disruption. When we’re vulnerable to disruption, our families are vulnerable to disruption.”

    Panelists echoed the importance of finding a method that works — and being unafraid to try things. 

    “If it doesn’t work, you’ve got to try something else, including nontraditional strategies,” especially in addressing attendance, Roza said. “I think we hear from district leaders all the time: ‘I would love to do these great ideas, but we can’t because dot, dot…”

    It’s that fear that leads to the status quo, Brawley said. 

    Cheryl Jordan, superintendent at Milpitas Unified, which developed an Innovation Campus that offers students real-world work and life experiences through internships, apprenticeships and project-based learning, said that it is only through looking at the opportunities that a crisis provides that schools and districts can “develop something that’s better and meets the needs of our learners in a way that is innovative and really excels them to become the leaders and creators of the future.” 





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  • Districts should target funds to foster youth to improve progress, report says

    Districts should target funds to foster youth to improve progress, report says


    As California expands services needed to grow the number of foster youth enrolling in college, more work is needed to help those students graduate.

    Julie Leopo/ EdSource

    California’s foster care students have improved their high school graduation rates since 2013, but have barely improved, or even lost ground, in rates of suspension, attendance and prompt college enrollment, according to a new report.

    And, in the 10 districts with the most foster students, only a fraction of 1% of the targeted money was directly spent on that group. The report, by WestEd, a nonpartisan education research agency, attributed the discrepancy to a disconnect between the administrators who drew up the spending plans and the staff who work directly with students, the report found.

    Published this week and titled “Revisiting Californiaʼs Invisible Achievement Gap: Trends in Education Outcomes of Students in Foster Care in the Context of the Local Control Funding Formula,” the report details how state policies have affected outcomes for foster youth over the past decade, at times positively, but often in ways that limit their ability to succeed.

    The authors conclude that while those changes facilitate school stabilization and other educational supports, challenges remain, including ensuring that planned school expenditures dedicate some funds to foster students’ unique needs.

    “The report suggests that the implementation of foster care supports remains difficult and that funding for tailored interventions to the unique situations and challenges of students in foster care is not yet a common rule even for districts with large numbers of students in foster care,” said Vanessa Ximenes Barrat, WestEd senior research associate and co-author of the report.

    Tailoring support to specific student populations

    The report’s authors noted that tailoring support to each student group is critical given their varying needs.

    For instance, in the school year immediately preceding the pandemic, which erupted in March 2020, foster students’ chronic absenteeism rate was 28% versus 12% for the overall student population across California. The rates sharply rose during the pandemic and have since steadily decreased. But data from 2022-23, the most recent school year included in the report, shows that discrepancies remain: 25% of all students were chronically absent versus 39% of foster students.

    The wide gaps indicate to school staff that foster youth might need stronger interventions than other student groups in addressing why they are missing so much instructional time.

    Similarly, suspension data shows continuing disparities, despite policy changes in recent years. Whereas suspension rates for all students have largely lingered between 3% and 4% since 2014-15 and through the pandemic, the rate for foster youth was between 13% and 15%.

    “All the things that make students in foster care have all the worst outcomes across the board — their instability, their trauma, etc. — means that they need more of the interventions than everyone else, and they need different interventions based on their unique needs,” said a child welfare and education professional who was interviewed for the report.

    Improved graduation rates, but concerns remain

    One area where foster students have slowly made strides is with graduation rates. Rates have steadily increased for high-needs students, including foster youth, since the 2016-17 school year. That year, 51% of foster students graduated from high school in four years. By 2022-23, 61% were graduating.

    A possible reason for the improvement, according to the report’s authors, is the passage in 2013 of Assembly Bill 216 which allowed some foster students to graduate after completing the state’s minimum requirements.

    School staff who were interviewed for the report said that the law prevented some students from dropping out as they were moved from one placement to another, and encouraged them to complete high school even if they had fallen behind in some courses.

    Other staff noted that the extension of foster care services to age 21 occurred during the same period in which graduation rates improved. The extension, they said, probably prevented students from leaving school because they were receiving added support to avert homelessness and other instabilities common among youth leaving foster care.

    But even with that improvement, school staff interviewed for this report saw areas of concern. Of those foster students who graduated, for example, less than one-fifth had completed the A-G coursework required to qualify for admission to one of the state’s public four-year universities.

    Other takeaways from the report include:

    • While dropout rates among foster youth remain higher than their peers’, they have lowered by 5 percentage points since 2016-17.
    • More foster youth are attending only one school each year, rather than moving between schools, which advocates say causes personal and academic instability — 66% in 2022-23, up from 62% in 2017-18.
    • More foster students are attending high-poverty schools — up from 56% in 2014-15 to 59% in 2022-23.

    As California’s general student population has dwindled, so has the state’s foster student population. State data shows that nearly 45,000 foster students were enrolled in the K-12 grades during the 2014-15 school year on census day, the first Wednesday in October. Eight years later, the state enrolled about 31,700 foster students.

    About a quarter of the state’s foster care students attend school across just 10 districts: Los Angeles Unified, Fresno Unified, Lancaster Elementary, Long Beach Unified, Antelope Valley Union High, Palmdale Elementary, San Bernardino City Unified, Moreno Valley Unified, Kern High, and Hesperia Unified.

    Local-control dollars rarely targeted solely to foster students

    The dip in enrollment of foster students in K-12 coincided with the state’s overhaul of the school finance system and the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula, commonly referred to as LCFF. One of the changes under LCFF was that districts receive supplemental grants based on the number of high-needs students, which includes foster youth, English learners and low-income students.

    Each district must also complete a Local Control Accountability Plan, known as an LCAP, and provide details on how it intends to help students succeed, including actions and expenditures related to the three groups of high-needs students.

    Equity across the state’s student population was part of the intent of implementing LCFF.

    But the report showed that of WestEd’s review of the 10 LCAPs, only 10 of 482 anticipated actions to support overall student populations were specific to foster students. Over half of the actions referenced foster students in some way, but mostly lumped all high-needs students together.

    Foster youth, for example, have alarmingly high rates of chronic absences and increased school mobility. If a service offered by a school requires students to be present in class, foster students may not always benefit; they might instead need greater access to transportation to help them travel to school regularly.

    The question of whether to target more funds specifically to each student group, rather than combining them, persists, given changes at the federal Department of Education and how they may impact foster students.

    Ximenes Barrat said, “As a relatively small and highly vulnerable population with distinct needs, there is a real risk that their concerns could be overlooked amid broader policy shifts.”

    WestEd CEO Jannelle Kubinec is president of the EdSource Board of Directors. EdSource’s editorial team maintains sole editorial control over the content of its coverage.





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