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  • Solving California’s early literacy crisis is a social justice imperative

    Solving California’s early literacy crisis is a social justice imperative


    Kindergarten teacher Jana Herrera at Booksin Elementary in San Jose discusses a story written by Casandra Lopez Monsivais.

    Liv Ames / EdSource

    Believing in the future of California’s most vulnerable students demands an urgent focus on early literacy. Nearly 178,000 economically disadvantaged third graders are not meeting state standards for English language arts, and the vast majority of those falling behind are disproportionately Black and Latino children. Early learning gaps all too often turn into lifelong opportunity gaps. If we as a state are failing to teach a significant number of students from low-income communities to read, then we are failing to be the progressive leaders we profess to be.

    According to the latest data from California’s standardized tests, only 3 in 10 third grade students from low-income communities are at grade level in English, compared with 6 in 10 of their higher-income peers. These educational inequities follow a child through to their adult life. Research shows that adults with limited literacy, which includes 28% of Californians, are more likely to be unemployed or earn an income that falls below the poverty level. According to the World Literacy Foundation, illiteracy can also lead to poor health, disenfranchisement and even crime. Among youth involved in the juvenile justice system, up to 85% are functionally illiterate.

    This is not just an education issue, it’s a social justice issue.

    There are a number of factors, both in and outside the classroom, that have contributed to this achievement gap. We are calling on the state Legislature to address those within their control, which include a combination of the public school system not prioritizing academic outcomes for low-income students enough, no requirements for school districts to teach reading based on evidence-backed practices, a lack of accountability to ensure statewide reading efforts are being implemented with fidelity, and an outdated state-approved instructional materials list.

    We now know so much more about how to effectively teach children to read than we have in the past. A large body of interdisciplinary research known as the science of reading informs us of the methods proven most effective in ensuring elementary students develop strong literacy skills. A focus on language development and building background knowledge along with direct and systematic teaching of phonics, word recognition, fluency, and other critical foundational skills benefits students, including English learners.

    In recent years, one-third of states have committed to implementing comprehensive literacy policies grounded in the science of reading with encouraging signs of success. Mississippi, one of the leaders in comprehensive research-based literacy reform, went from being ranked 49th in the country in 2013 for fourth grade reading to 21st in 2022, and has made steady progress in reading scores for Black and Latino students and students from low-income communities.

    The science of reading is not a panacea for all student reading challenges. But, based on historical research and positive implementation outcomes, it can dramatically improve the lives of California students, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

    Given the urgency of this educational crisis, we implore our elected leaders to pass a comprehensive literacy policy agenda based on the science of reading in 2024 so that all children will have the best chance to become proficient readers by the end of third grade.

    Anchor components of the agenda should include:

    1. All English language arts, English language development and reading instructional materials used in California public schools must adhere to methods supported by research.
    2. Investments in statewide educator training programs for both the science of reading and implementing evidence-based literacy instruction.
    3. Additional accountability measures and professional development that will help ensure newly certified teachers are prepared to effectively teach reading based on the principles and practices of the science of reading.

    Details of these policy recommendations may be found in the California Early Literacy Coalition’s early literacy policy brief.

    If there is one primary responsibility of public elementary schools, it is to teach children how to read so they are set up for future success. It is time that we prioritize unlocking reading potential and future opportunities for all of California’s children.

    •••

    Megan Potente is co-state director for Decoding Dyslexia CA, a grassroots movement dedicated to improving literacy outcomes for those with dyslexia and all struggling readers.

    Marshall Tuck is CEO of EdVoice, a nonprofit organization seeking to change state policy so that children from low-income communities receive high-quality educations.

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





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  • Social capital is the best-kept secret to career success  

    Social capital is the best-kept secret to career success  


    Participants in a Climb Together networking event that provides an opportunity for students to build connections and make contacts.

    Credit: Courtesy of Climb Together

    A recent study found a whopping 85% of jobs are filled through relationships. Imagine a network of successful professionals eager to hear about your career goals and guide you through the professional maze. As new grads begin looking for jobs, it’s important they understand the power of social capital — the connections you make that become your golden ticket past the crowded applicant pool. 

    Unfortunately, access to networks isn’t evenly distributed. Elite universities often help students cultivate social capital simply by having students engage in so many activities — a cappella clubs, dance, secret societies, dorm life, parties, group projects; these are all ways peers build meaningful relationships that open doors for life. 

    Those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are at a severe disadvantage because these kinds of activities are not always available or accessible. Time is our most precious commodity, and students who need to work to make ends meet have far fewer opportunities to build relationships. 

    Here’s the encouraging news: Research shows that “weak ties,” or casual acquaintances, can be just as valuable as close friends in securing job referrals. This means students don’t need years of deep connections — they can build a powerful network by honing their relationship-building skills. 

    Community colleges, vocational programs and even high schools can become social capital incubators, leading the way to unlocking social capital by teaching their students to build professional relationships and then broker access to alumni from their institutions. Imagine students learning the art of conversation: asking insightful questions, actively listening and crafting compelling requests. They can then practice these skills by connecting with industry professionals and/or alumni. This targeted approach, less time-intensive than building deep friendships, equips students to navigate the professional landscape with confidence.

    Educational institutions can help students build social capital and improve their job prospects through several strategies:

    1. Assemble a dedicated team: Engage stakeholders across leadership, faculty, staff and career services to develop and implement a social capital building strategy. This team can reach out to alumni and associated professionals, inviting them to participate in a program that helps graduating students with their job search. As the program grows, it can expand to multiple educational and professional tracks.
    2. Offer targeted classes: Institutions should provide courses that teach students how to build and leverage social capital effectively. The curriculum can cover topics such as developing personal narratives, self-advocacy, discovering connections, LinkedIn engagement, crafting effective emails, follow-up techniques, and the art of conversation. Hands-on practice is crucial for students to gain confidence in engaging professionals and making asks for introductions or referrals.
    3. Facilitate connections: After assessing learner readiness, institutions can match job seekers with alumni and other connectors. This facilitates the formation of new relationships and broadens job referral opportunities. Recognizing that relationship-building and job-searching are skills that need to be learned, institutions should provide guidance and support throughout the process.

    By helping students broker access to professionals, higher education will also be able to address a growing concern: student disillusionment about attending college. Students invest in education expecting career opportunities, but recent graduates (especially those of color or from low-income backgrounds) face higher unemployment rates than before the pandemic. New grads have consistently fared worse than other job seekers since January 2021, and that gap has only widened. The latest unemployment rate for recent graduates, at 4.4%, is higher than the overall joblessness rate and nearly double the rate for all workers with a college degree. 

    These numbers are even lower for students of color and students from low income backgrounds. This disconnect highlights a need to bridge the gap between academic preparation and real-world employment. 

    This paradigm shift in how institutions prepare students for the workforce creates a win-win: Students gain valuable connections, alumni stay engaged with their alma mater, and institutions see higher graduation rates and lower loan defaults. 

    Our education system needs a refresh. It’s time to recognize that preparing students for the future workforce goes beyond just technical skills. By prioritizing social capital development, schools and workforce programs can level the playing field, creating a more diverse and skilled talent pool for businesses. 

    Let’s empower all students to navigate their career paths, not get lost in the application maze. They hold the key — the social capital key — to unlocking their full potential.

    •••

    Nitzan Pelman is the CEO of Climb Together, a nonprofit working with schools and workforce programs to teach students the art of building social capital and developing relationships and the founder of Climb Hire, a national nonprofit that blends relationships and social capital with in-demand skills to help overlooked working adults break into new careers. 

    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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  • California acts to protect children from ‘addictive’ social media

    California acts to protect children from ‘addictive’ social media


    Credit: Pexels

    Ratcheting up efforts in California to protect children from the negative effects of social media, Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed landmark legislation to combat the powerful “addictive” strategies tech companies use to keep children online, often for hours on end. 

    The legislation is the second of its kind in the nation, and is similar to a New York law signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this year. 

    The bill will prohibit online platforms, which are not named in the legislation, from knowingly providing minors with what are called in the industry “addictive feeds” without parental consent. 

    The bill also prohibits social media platforms from sending notifications to minors during school hours and late at night.

    “Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night,” Newsom said in a statement issued over the weekend. “With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits.”

    Still on Newsom’s desk for his signature is a bill that would require school districts to limit student access to cellphones during school hours. Because Newsom called for school districts to do just that earlier this year, there is a strong possibility that he will sign that legislation as well. 

    Authored by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, the legislation Newsom signed marks a growing effort to rein in the impact of all-encompassing technology that has revolutionized ways of communicating and brought significant benefits — but whose harmful effects on children are only now becoming clearer. 

    It is almost certainly the case that few parents, and even fewer children, are aware of the complex, and hugely effective, systems tech companies employ to keep users on their platforms, often for hours on end. 

    Addictive feeds are generated by automated systems known as algorithms and are intended to keep users engaged by suggesting content based on groups, friends, topics or headlines they may have clicked on in the past. 

    Instead, the law would make “chronological feeds” the default setting on social media platforms accessed by children. These feeds are generated only by posts from people they follow, in the order they were uploaded. 

    “Social media companies will no longer have the right to addict our kids to their platforms, sending them harmful and sensational content that our kids don’t want and haven’t searched for,” Skinner said.

    The legislation follows Newsom’s signing of the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act two years ago. Authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, it requires online platforms to consider the best interest of child users and to establish default privacy and safety settings in order to safeguard children’s mental and physical health and well-being.

    The law expands on previous legislation approved by Congress in 1998, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and California’s Parent Accountability and Child Protection Act (AB 2511), approved by the Legislature in 2018.  

    The 2022 bill requires businesses with an online presence to complete a Data Protection Impact Assessment before offering new online services, products, or features likely to be accessed by children.

    It also prohibits companies that provide online services from using a child’s personal information, collecting, selling or retaining a child’s physical location, profiling a child by default, and leading or encouraging children to provide personal information.

    But its passage underscored the headwinds that efforts to regulate social media can run into. Immediately on passage of the 2022 law, NetChoice, a national trade association of online businesses, including giants like Amazon, Google, Meta and TikTok, filed a lawsuit to prevent its implementation. It argued that the law violated the First Amendment by restricting free speech and that companies would be limited in their editorial decisions over what content they could put out on their sites.   A district court issued a preliminary injunction against the entire law. The state appealed its decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which upheld parts of the lower court’s ruling, but allowed other parts of the law to go into effect.

    It is not known whether tech companies will similarly challenge Skinner’s legislation. 





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  • Cellphone bans don’t solve the real problem — addictive social media

    Cellphone bans don’t solve the real problem — addictive social media


    Courtesy: Ednovate Charter School

    Recently, Instagram unveiled new policies designed to address what we all see: teenagers suffering the adverse effects of addictive social media apps. The new policies include making teen accounts private by default, stopping notifications at night, and including more adult supervision tools for parents. 

    While this is a first step, as school leaders and parents, we know the addiction is bigger than just Instagram. This is a larger reflective moment for us as educators, parents and caretakers of tomorrow’s leaders. We must go beyond platform-by-platform fixes.

    I’ve been an educator for more than 20 years. Now, as a school leader of seven high schools in Southern California, reaching nearly 3,000 students from historically underserved communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties, I see the impact that technology has had on our teenagers, and how captivating social media and gaming apps have become. It has taken a long time to teach myself the self-regulation skills to manage social media and more, and I am in my 40s. Now imagine trying to learn it at 13, unaware of all the tools working to hook us.

    Jonathan Haidt, author of the book “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” argues that girls who “spend five or more hours each weekday on social media are three times as likely to be depressed as those who report no social media time.”

    It is overwhelming for parents, teachers or anyone who cares about the future leaders of our communities.

    Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like every week another school district or state was announcing a sweeping cellphone ban, but no one was asking a critical question: Are America’s youth hooked on phones, or are they addicted to the social media and gaming apps that have become central to their social lives and to staying informed? How do we break the spell that these companies have cast over teenage minds?

    Cellphones themselves aren’t the problem. Notice that we don’t need to ban the Calculator, Camera app, Google search, or many other tools, because those tools don’t have the intentional captivating pull of direct messaging, new posts or endless scrolling.

    It seems to me that social media apps and games that are optimized for long-term addiction should be banned or significantly altered before banning cellphones, which are ultimately a great learning and communication tool. Cellphones can promote the development of a student’s necessary sense of independence. 

    This calls for collective action. We must work together and continue listening to our teachers, acknowledging the challenges and burden that cellphones present in the classroom for them. But the first step should be to tackle what is distracting students on their cellphones before banning the phone outright. Maybe our time as educators is better spent pushing for balanced policies that protect our kids rather than working tirelessly to police our kids and their phones. Instead of focusing on cellphone use or hoping for each platform to announce their individual fixes, school leaders from across the nation need to come together and demand answers from social media and addictive gaming companies. Instagram is the first company to make a move, but the rest of these companies are actively recruiting users as young as 13 years old with minimal verification, and watching these cellphone bans from a comfortable distance. Surely, educators and social media apps can partner to create an innovative solution to the real problem.

    As school leaders, we should call on social media companies and gaming companies to meet with us, to come up with practical solutions to the addictive technologies they have created.

    •••

    Oliver Sicat is the CEO of Ednovate, a network of free, public charter high schools in Los Angeles and Orange County. Ednovate primarily serves first-generation college-bound students from underrepresented and underserved communities.

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





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  • New law could boost Social Security checks for thousands of retired California teachers

    New law could boost Social Security checks for thousands of retired California teachers


    Kindergarten students at George Washington Elementary in Lodi listen to teacher Kristen McDaniel read “Your Teachers Pet Creature” on the first day of school on July 30, 2024.

    Credit: Diana Lambert / EdSource

    The Social Security Fairness Act, signed by President Joe Biden on Sunday, will increase retirement benefits for many educators and other public sector workers, including nearly 290,000 in California.

    The act repeals both the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset laws, which reduced Social Security benefits for workers who are entitled to public pensions, such as firefighters, police officers and teachers, according to the Social Security Department.

    The change in the laws does not mean that California teachers, who do not pay into Social Security, will all get benefits. Instead, teachers who paid into Social Security while working in non-teaching jobs will be eligible for their full Social Security benefits, as will those eligible for spousal and survivor benefits.

    Teachers who had previous careers, or who worked second jobs or summer jobs, benefit from the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision, said Staci Maiers, spokesperson for the National Education Association.

    California is one of 15 states that does not enroll its teachers in Social Security. Instead, teachers receive pensions from the California Teachers’ Retirement System, or CalSTRS. 

    “This is about fairness. These unjust Social Security penalties have robbed public service workers of their hard-earned benefits for far too long,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association in a media release. “They have hurt educators and their families — and damaged the education profession, making it harder to attract and retain educators. And that means students are impacted, too.” 

    At a press conference Sunday, President Joe Biden said the Social Security Fairness Act would mean an increase on average of $360 a month for workers that have been impacted by the laws. There will also be a lump sum retroactive payment to make up for the benefits that workers should have received in 2024, Biden said. No date has been announced for those payments.

    “The bill I’m signing today is about a simple proposition,” Biden said. “Americans who have worked hard all their lives to earn an honest living should be able to retire with economic security and dignity.”

    “It’s a game-changer for a lot of educators,” said Kathy Wylie, a retired teacher who lives in Mendocino. Wylie, who is a few years away from drawing Social Security, worked for a technology company for 15 years before embarking on a 17-year career in education.

    She expects that the bump in retirement funds could encourage some veteran teachers to retire early.

    Biden signed the legislation following decades of advocacy from the National Education Association, the International Association of Fire Fighters and the California Retired Teachers Association. The bipartisan bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 12 and the U.S. Senate on Dec. 21.

    The amendments to the Social Security Act apply to monthly benefits after December 2023. The Social Security Department is evaluating how to implement the new law, according to its website.





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  • Trump Posts an Angry, Bitter Easter Message on “Truth Social”

    Trump Posts an Angry, Bitter Easter Message on “Truth Social”


    Donald Trump showed his vicious, vengeful character in his Easter message, where his hatred was on full display. He posted it on his social media platform TRUTH SOCIAL. Does he know what Easter is about?

    Donald J. Trump

    @realDonaldTrump

    Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country. Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten! Sleepy Joe Biden purposefully allowed Millions of CRIMINALS to enter our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked, through an Open Borders Policy that will go down in history as the single most calamitous act ever perpetrated upon America. He was, by far, our WORST and most Incompetent President, a man who had absolutely no idea what he was doing — But to him, and to the person that ran and manipulated the Auto Pen (perhaps our REAL President!), and to all of the people who CHEATED in the 2020 Presidential Election in order to get this highly destructive Moron Elected, I wish you, with great love, sincerity, and affection, a very Happy Easter!!!



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  • Immigration Service Will Screen Social Media Accounts for Anti-Semitism: Deport Elon!

    Immigration Service Will Screen Social Media Accounts for Anti-Semitism: Deport Elon!


    NPR reported that the Trump administration would review the social media accounts of immigrants to exclude anyone who is anti-Semitic.

    As a Jew, it makes me sick to see the Trump administration use “anti-Semitism” as a reason to vilify anyone, be it a university or an immigrant.

    Trump’s minions include numerous openly anti-Semitic allies. He’s gotten support from David Duke, Richard Spencer, Nick Fuentes, and Kanye West, all of whom have expressed anti-Semitic views. He should reprimand all the Nazi-loving guys who carry Nazi symbols and chant “The Jews will not replace us.”

    And then there’s Elon Musk, who twice gave the Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration Right hand on heart, then thrust straight out. Elon re-opened Twitter to expressions of anti-Senitism and racism.

    I support the First Amendment and oppose efforts to limit free speech.

    But I hate hypocrisy. If Trump intends to use anti-Semitism as a reason to scour social media accounts, he should deport his anti-Semitic friends.



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