Yuba City’s Tutoring Program by Fullmind Drives Sustained Student Growth
Yuba City Unified School District announced end-of-year results from its tutoring partnership with Fullmind, showing students identified as needing additional support consistently outperformed their non-tutored peers across nearly 200 participants.
The program expanded from 24 to 194 students while maintaining effectiveness. English Language Arts participants achieved 16 points of growth compared to 10.63 points among non-participants, a 50% advantage. Mathematics participants gained 8 points versus 7.93 points for non-participants.
“When students identified as at-risk of underperformance outperform the general population, we know we’ve found an approach that truly accelerates learning,” said Dr. Nicholas Richter, the program lead.
Exceptional Individual Results
Twelve ELA students gained 50 or more points between mid-year and end-of-year assessments, with one student achieving over 100 points of growth in a single semester. Students completed 93,349 minutes of tutoring with a 71% attendance rate.
Scale Without Compromise
The eightfold expansion maintained program quality and student engagement. ELA participants averaged 9 hours each while math students averaged 7 hours, aligning with research on effective tutoring dosage.
2025 Expansion Plans
Based on strong results, the district plans to expand ELA participation to 250-plus students and expand math tutoring to over 100 students. The program will extend beyond lowest-performing students to include those just below grade level.
“We’ve proven this model works at scale,” said Richter. “Now we’re expanding access to reach even more students who can benefit from this intensive support.”
The partnership represents a commitment to evidence-based interventions that address achievement gaps through high-quality tutoring services, using continuous monitoring to maintain effectiveness as it scales.
San Juan Unified in Sacramento County implemented the Safe Routes to School initiative and other measures to address pedestrian safety, including the Charles Peck Elementary School “May the 4th be with you!” Walk to School Day.
Credit: Courtesy of Civic Thread
This story was updated to reflect Clovis Unified’s 2022-23 accident data that was provided after the story’s publication.
As students waited for a bus in front of Roosevelt High School last September, a vehicle crashed into the bus stop, injuring 11 of them. The next day, a mom was walking her four children to school when a driver ran a traffic light, hitting the mom and dragging one of her children. They were using the crosswalk.
These incidents represent a few of the many accidents involving students or pedestrians being hit by vehicles on or near Fresno Unified campuses between August and December.
“Those are the ones that made the news,” said Amy Idsvoog, executive officer for health services, safety and emergency response for Fresno Unified School District.
Many more incidents never made the news but can still be traumatizing for students and families, causing them to live in fear over their safety when getting to or leaving school.
“We saw a need even last year to try and do something,” Idsvoog said.
Fresno Unified district leaders, Idsvoog said, first noticed an uptick in the number of students being hit by cars in the 2022-23 school year when there were 17 incidents, including a death in October 2022. In the aftermath of the student’s death, board member Andy Levine acknowledged “the reality that our students are not safe when they step right off of campus,” and that the district needed to “make sure that never happens ever again.”
Despite the district’s efforts to improve pedestrian safety, Fresno Unified is recording double-digit numbers of incidents for the second consecutive school year — nearing 20 incidents this school year with about six months of school remaining.
Fresno Unified, the state’s third-largest school district, with about 70,000 students, is trying to curb the frequency of accidents involving students being hit by vehicles by teaching students about pedestrian safety, displaying banners and materials on campuses and educating the wider community on the importance of the topic.
“It just seems to be something that is not stopping,” Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson said in late September after a student on her way to school was hit by a vehicle. “It just can’t continue to happen to our kids. Our kids deserve to be safe as they travel to and from school.”
Now the school district is working to implement the Safe Routes to School initiative to address pedestrian safety.
Fresno-area districts, organizations launched a campaign last school year
Fresno Unified’s 17 vehicles vs. student/pedestrian incidents in the 2022-23 school year was up from seven in 2018-19, nine in 2019-20 and four in 2020-21. The district had zero reported incidents in 2021-22, when all students returned to in-person learning following the pandemic.
But there’s not a sole explanation for the increased number of incidents, Idsvoog said.
She explained that among many factors, possible causes include pedestrians not using crosswalks or doing so incorrectly, drivers not paying attention to a stop sign or traffic light in a school zone, as well as parents dropping students off in the middle of the street, rather than in a drop-off zone. The district has also seen a rising number of cases involving student drivers, including four this school year.
“No one can exactly come up with why yet,” she said.
Idsvoog said she learned from the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of 78 of the nation’s largest urban public school systems, that school districts across the nation have not found the answer either.
Nationally, some school districts have tried different methods to address pedestrian safety, including buying $20,000 speed monitoring displays, Idsvoog said. (Fresno Unified has at least two dozen schools with speed monitors requiring a battery replacement.) As of Jan. 1, thanks to new legislation across the state, six California cities will install automated speed cameras in school zones.
“I think everyone is trying to address the same problem,” Idsvoog said. “I don’t think there’s this magic ticket yet that says, ‘This is what you do.’”
In April 2023, Fresno Unified, the Fresno County superintendent of schools, Central Unified, Clovis Unified, Sanger Unified, the Fresno Police Department and the city of Fresno launched Street Smart, a joint pedestrian safety campaign.
“They all wanted to get the message out and, hopefully, have a stronger impact on the community,” Idsvoog said. “But we know there’s more that has to be done.”
‘It’s not enough’
Despite the multi-agency campaign and other efforts, the number of incidents involving students or pedestrians being hit by vehicles on or near campus has remained stagnant in some districts.
Central Unified, a district in Fresno that participated in the Street Smart campaign, reported one incident this school year of someone being hit while crossing the street near a school — a number that has not changed from the previous school year.
The district has continually invested in crossing guards, monitored signage and crosswalk painting needs and advocated for infrastructure improvements, including a High-intensity Activated crossWalK (HAWK) grant near Herndon-Barstow Elementary, a four-way stop near Teague Elementary and additional sidewalks, according to a district spokesperson.
So far this school year, between August and Jan. 9, Clovis Unified has recorded 18 incidents of a vehicle striking a pedestrian or bicyclist in contrast to eight incidents last school year. No injuries were reported either year, said district spokesperson Kelly Avants.
Still, the district continues to focus on pedestrian safety, Avants said, citing crossing guards at busy intersections, reminders to families to follow traffic laws and education of students and the community.
Fresno Unified also “isn’t there yet,” Idsvoog said about numbers continuing to rise year after year. As of Friday, the number of students hit as they traveled to or from school stood at 17 — already matching the total at the end of the last school year.
In the spring 2023 semester, Fresno Unified launched an age-appropriate pedestrian safety curriculum, which is available again this school year. The school district even sought additional volunteer crossing guards and conducted community outreach about pedestrian safety.
Idsvoog said that Fresno Unified’s education and outreach efforts to address pedestrian safety are not “enough to resolve the problem.”
“Everything we’re intending to do is still not enough,” she said. “It’s not enough because we’re not seeing a decrease in incidents.”
Safe Routes to School initiative
The Safe Routes to School initiative pilot is assessing 15 schools in Fresno Unified, representing the seven high school regions:
Bullard High
Hoover High
McLane High
Roosevelt High
Duncan High
Cooper Middle
Computech Middle
Kings Canyon Middle
Scandinavian Middle
Tioga Middle
Wawona K-8
Herrera Elementary
Lincoln Elementary
Roeding Elementary
Vang Pao Elementary
Also a part of the Safe Routes to School initiative are community meetings.
The next meetings will be at the Roosevelt High School cafeteria on Jan. 18 and at the Bullard High cafeteria on Jan. 22. The meetings run from 5:30 to 6:30 pm.
That’s why the district started the Safe Routes to School initiative this school year.
Through a pilot at some of the district’s schools, Toole Design — a company that assesses city infrastructure, develops pedestrian safety programs and improves school arrival and dismissal — is assessing students’ routes to school.
The assessments will help Fresno Unified find school and district practices to create safe routes to school for all students, whether they are using a scooter, walking, biking or being dropped off, Idsvoog said.
Identifying the routes that students use to travel to and from school each day will allow the district to evaluate whether changes should be made.
In choosing the piloted campuses, the district considered whether students had been hit there, whether bus accidents had occurred and the proximity to another school. Idsvoog said the district hopes to assess 15 more schools next year through grant funding.
The assessments will also determine how the city might be able to help the district.
For example, Herrera Elementary, Fresno Unified’s newest school, between Storey Elementary and Terronez Middle, has no curbs or sidewalks on one side of the school.
Besides creating safe routes for students, the assessments can lead to district events continuing the community’s education on the importance of pedestrian safety.
Such events, Idsvoog said, could help reduce incidents and extend dialogue and awareness.
What FUSD can learn from other districts that implemented initiative
San Juan Unified, a 40,000-student district with 64 K-12 schools, implemented the Safe Routes to School initiative to address pedestrian safety. Located in Sacramento County, San Juan Unified comprises incorporated cities as well as communities such as Citrus Heights and Orangevale.
In partnership with the nonprofit organization Civic Thread, the district developed classroom presentations, demonstrations and other activities on pedestrian safety, according to Natalee Dyudyuk, community safety specialist and Safe Routes to School coordinator in San Juan Unified.
The demonstrations encompass a pretend intersection with stop signs, traffic lights and crosswalks; student volunteers act out what happens when “safe crossing skills” learned in the presentation are used or not, Dyudyuk said.
Following the demonstration, groups visit a crosswalk near the school to practice their skills, she said.
“As I always like to mention to the students, the drivers on the street are not paid actors,” Dyudyuk said about the effectiveness of the real-world scenario. “They are folks who are driving throughout the community, trying to get from point A to point B. It’s a great way to practice because you don’t ever quite know how those drivers are going to react to our presence there.”
Pictured are San Juan Unified students participating in the district’s Mission Avenue Elementary Bike Safety Education. Credit: Courtesy of Civic Thread
San Juan Unified students participate in the Charles Peck Elementary School Bike to School Day. Credit: Courtesy of Civic Thread
Mission Avenue Elementary Pedestrian Education in San Juan UnifiedCredit: Courtesy of Civic Thread
Students learn about crossing the street safely during a Mission Avenue Elementary pedestrian education event in San Juan Unified. Credit: Courtesy of Civic Thread
For its educational activities, the school district hosts bicycle rodeos, helmet giveaways and walk- or bike-to-school days, with students forming a “walking bus” or a “bike train,” Dyudyuk said.
“Parents get really excited about that,” she said.
According to Raj Rai, San Juan Unified district communication director, pedestrian safety efforts date back to at least 2010. District investments have grown from one liaison working with law enforcement to a safe schools department with eight community safety specialists.
In her role since 2021, Dyudyuk works with schools to evaluate student pickup and dropoff and to create checklists and visuals for families to use — education and outreach that continues beyond the initial Safe Routes to School assessments.
Universities implement education, enforcement
Just as K-12 school districts locally and nationally have worked to address pedestrian safety, so have higher education institutions.
Each semester, Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata displays signs “warning and reminding” pedestrians and bicyclists to stop at intersections and others to obey traffic laws, said Peter Cress, a lieutenant with the university’s police department.
When education and warnings don’t work, the university’s police can turn to enforcement: ticketing drivers. Crediting the college’s approach of using education and enforcement, Cress said that the 5,700-student Cal Poly Humboldt averages one vehicle-pedestrian incident causing significant injury annually. In September, a student was hit while crossing the street.
Enforcement — or the threat of enforcement — is the only proven way to change motorists’ behavior, Cress said. So, even though education is imperative to what schools do to address pedestrian safety, Cress encourages K-12 districts to implement enforcement through citations, possibly by partnering with local law enforcement.
That kind of enforcement isn’t an easy feat for K-12 school systems.
Idsvoog said that while the Fresno Police Department has worked to place more patrol officers at schools during student arrival and dismissal, police cannot be at Fresno Unified’s 107 schools every day at the same time while patrolling other parts of the city.
One way to fill the void and help with enforcement, Idsvoog said, is using volunteer crossing guards. With more crossing guards, Fresno Unified can strengthen pedestrian safety, she said.
But there’s never enough crossing guards, Idsvoog said, and the district usually relies on teachers for that role at schools’ multiple crosswalks used by students.
Kimberly Armstrong, second grade teacher at Kirk Elementary, became a volunteer crossing guard out of concern for her students. As a crossing guard, she said she still witnesses people disregarding traffic laws.
“There’s really no consequences for them to do any better,” Armstrong said during the Dec. 12 Safe Routes to School community meeting at Computech Middle School. She implored district leaders to find a way to add police at school arrival and dismissal, even if they have to rotate between schools or regions.
Fresno Unified school officials can report areas where high numbers of pedestrian safety concerns are occurring to police, Idsvoog said, but problems exist at each of the district’s more than 100 campuses.
“Having a police officer there is not just the answer,” Idsvoog said. “There is no quick resolution. There’s got to be a bigger plan: more education, more messaging to parents, yes, consequences.”
‘Everyone’s responsibility’
While law enforcement can define social expectations and attitudes toward pedestrian safety on a higher ed campus, the school community of parents, school staff and community members can set the standard in a K-12 environment, Lt. Cress said.
When parents and community members witness or learn about pedestrian safety concerns, Cress said, they must have difficult conversations with each other, which will lead to “conversation after conversation after conversation.”
“Those types of informal conversations generate a community attitude,” he said.
Ensuring pedestrian safety
“There’s so many things that we all can do,” Idsvoog said, including:
Adhering to speed limits, crosswalks and traffics signs, including the stop signs that are deployed from school buses
Being aware of one’s surroundings
Having conversations with students
District leaders and school staff in the Fresno, Clovis, Central and San Juan districts agreed that student and pedestrian safety is a community effort that requires everyone’s effort — not just parents and students.
“Pedestrian safety is everyone’s responsibility,” Idsvoog said. “And it’s going to take parents, community members and even students to really make a difference.”
Armstrong, the teacher and volunteer crossing guard, said she is optimistic about the district’s efforts, but “time is of the essence” to improve pedestrian safety. The importance of students arriving at and leaving campus safely is often overlooked and missing from the conversation about school safety, she said.
“We can’t just worry about kids and their safety once they’re inside of our school buildings,” Armstrong said. “We have to ensure their safety getting to and from. It’s just as important.”
After hours of test taking last May, Karen Ramirez perked up when she saw a district leader and a camera crew walking onto her high school campus.
She had a hunch good news awaited.
Her instincts were right — then-17-year-old Ramirez was about to learn she had been elected as LAUSD’s student board member.
“I turned around, and I was like, ‘Wait, I think this means something happened,’” Ramirez, a senior at the Girls Academic Leadership Academy, said. “Eventually, I walked into my classroom because they brought cameras to film my reaction, and that’s when it hit. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I think I got it!’”
Since launching her campaign last February, Ramirez has made it her mission to promote student leadership across the district and to support the district’s Latino community.
“I know this is a position that not every student has in the district,” she said. “And to be able to be the one to experience all this, I feel very privileged.”
A path to the board
Ramirez’s path to LAUSD’s school board began when she was in the eighth grade and on LAUSD’s Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, a group that meets with the superintendent several times each year to provide student input on the district’s efforts.
“I thought it would be a really nice idea to get an insider’s perspective into what’s going on,” Ramirez said. “Being able to see how (the committee has) evolved has definitely been an amazing thing.”
Ramirez has remained on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council since, tallying up nearly five years of district leadership. Being part of the board, she said, has been a “constant” in her educational journey.
One day during her junior year, an older mentor on the advisory council told her about the student position on the Los Angeles Unified School District board, and Ramirez’s campaign began.
“I started off just kind of thinking ‘Oh, OK, I just want to see what happens next,’ but then, as I got involved in the campaign process and started seeing how many students I would actually be representing in the district, that’s when it really became such a big passion for me,” she said.
“I know that my representation on the school board is something that is pretty big, especially for the Latino community.”
Last April, following an application and interview process, the district posted introductions to each of the position’s 10 finalists on its Instagram account, along with a brief speech made by each. Students then had two weeks to vote through an online portal.
“Everyone would start reposting on their Instagram stories, and they would all start campaigning for me on their own, and I didn’t even know that it was happening until after the fact, when I would talk to some friends who told me, ‘Oh, I voted for you!’” Ramirez said.
Elevating student voices on LAUSD’s school board
A critical forum for Ramirez to amplify student voices is through LAUSD’s school board meetings, where she speaks on behalf of students and co-sponsors resolutions, including one honoring Latino heritage.
Each month — and after a week of reviewing roughly 600 pages worth of materials and a summary in preparation for the board meeting — Ramirez is pulled out of school around 11:00 a.m., after her second period class, and is driven to downtown Los Angeles for the board meeting.
“Once I get there, I have lunch. I prepare, I look over all the board resolutions we might be discussing in the boardroom, and I take notes. I circle any things that might be relevant to students and that I might want to comment on,” Ramirez said. “And I also look for any board resolutions that I might want to co-sponsor.”
LAUSD’s student board members’ votes don’t technically count in board decisions, but they can introduce resolutions and can cast advisory votes, which school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said is “powerful” when making major decisions for the district.
Ramirez said it is vital that students’ voices are heard by school board members and the community at large, noting that district leadership often has to prioritize other challenges and communities.
“Sometimes the responsibilities that we (students) hold are big, but it’s not as big as what board members are doing. They have so much more on their plate,” Ramirez said, stressing the importance of providing students one-on-one attention.
“We are accessible, and (students) can reach out with any worries or comments, or just things that they want to see in the district. … I will always be attentive to the needs. … That’s the biggest thing.”
Ramirez also emphasized the importance of individual, one-on-one interactions, where she meets with students and encourages them to attend board meetings and join the various student councils at the district level, including an Asian American Pacific Islander council, individual board members’ councils and the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council.
“Oftentimes, we feel a gap or lack of connectivity with our school board members, especially because our school board members are always on their platform … and so as students, a lot of times, we feel like we can’t really reach out to them,” Ramirez said. “My biggest thing is to really bridge that gap that we might feel.”
Bridging gaps
Beyond attending regular school board meetings, Ramirez has attended leadership conferences, appeared on television for Latino heritage month, reached out for collaboration with the Mexican Consulate and is working to launch a podcast later this year.
The podcast, she said, is in Spanish and will specifically cover topics pertinent to English learners. “That’s a community that’s really close to my heart and I always want to support,” she added.
Ramirez’s commitment to her heritage makes her stand out, Ortiz Franklin said.
“What’s so clear from Karen is how proud she is to be Latina, how privileged she feels to be a representative on the board in a district that is almost three-quarters Latino, and just what that means for immigrant families in particular, given how much of Los Angeles has been influenced by immigrant communities over the past generations,” Ortiz Franklin added.
Moving forward with confidence
Ramirez’s motivation to enter public service goes back to her parents, who encouraged her to take advantage of every opportunity.
“Some of the things that we … don’t have access to are things that you do have access to,” she remembers her parents telling her. “So if you have that opportunity, then you definitely have to take it.”
Ramirez said, “When I was told about the student board member position, and I knew that I had the opportunity to do something for my community as a whole, I thought that that was something that I couldn’t give up.”
Ramirez said her education at the Girls Academic Leadership Academy — LAUSD’s only all-girls school — has been especially formative in developing her confidence, not only as a board member, but as a leader in her high school’s student body and various clubs.
“Being in that environment around so many women, I felt like my confidence grew. In school, we always like to support each other,” Ramirez said. “I bring that confidence and that energy anywhere I go.”
Ramirez has accepted a scholarship to Yale University, and this fall she will become the first in her family to attend college.
“It’s an honor. I’m so excited to see how I experience that,” Ramirez said. “And anything that I learn there, I’ll bring that to my family and bring back to my community.”
Editors’ note: This story has been updated based on information made available after publication.
Briana Munoz felt forced to take seven courses last semester to graduate on time and protect her financial aid status.
Courtesy, Briana Munoz
California State University trustees voted Wednesday to expand grants to fund the full cost of tuition and living expenses for students who show they need it to attend college.
The decision is the first step in a commitment the trustees made to students last fall that at least a third of revenue from a 6% annual tuition hike would go to financial aid.A more detailed plan will be presented to the board in May.
Over the five-year period of the tuition increase, more than $280 million will go toward financial aid, increasing total funding to the State University Grant to $981 million by the 2028-29 school year.
About 87% of Cal State students have their tuition fully or partially covered by grants and aid. Yet, some students still struggle with the cost of attending college due to living expenses such as food, housing and transportation.
Although there is regional variation of housing and food costs, total attendance costs statewide range from $22,000 to $32,000 annually. Nearly 40% of CSU students rely on loans to make up the difference between financial aid and actual costs.
“The fact is tuition as the price of admission is not what keeps students away from CSU,” trustee Julia Lopez said. “Almost nine out of 10 students get some sort of tuition grant, but it’s other costs.”
The trustees favored giving students stipends, once their tuition costs are met, to cover their expenses, with the expectation that students would work less and graduate sooner. The State University Grant has traditionally been used to cover tuition. The stipends would be up to $5,000 and prioritize students with the greatest needs.
The trustees also voted to create consistent financial aid measurements and communications for students and their families after learning of significant differences across the 23 campuses, making it difficult for families to compare financial aid offers.
But there is one immediate challenge CSU is facing in its financial aid improvement goals – the current national rollout of FAFSA simplification. The new, simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid application was delayed from Oct.1 to Dec. 31. Colleges and universities received notification on Tuesday that they wouldn’t receive students’ financial aid information until March, squeezing students who generally have until May 1 to select a college.
Nathan Evans, CSU’s vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, said the problems with the new FAFSA may be even worse for California.
Students who are permanent residents or U.S. citizens, but who have an undocumented parent, are unable to complete the new application because the system requires a Social Security number for each parent or guardian. Parents without Social Security numbers are also locked out of contributing to existing FAFSA forms.
Evans said leaders from CSU, the University of California, the community colleges, and the state’s independent colleges met earlier this week with the California Student Aid Commission to plan potential workarounds.
Another complication for CSU’s financial aid plans – the scheduled expansion of the Cal Grant, which aids the state’s low-income students – was expected to also begin in 2024-25. But the Legislature must first approve funding. CSU’s institutional aid numbers to students would depend on the amounts students receive in other federal and state aid.
“This is a year like none other,” Evans said. “There are some additional complexities this year, given that not only has the application been revamped, but calculations are changing … so there is a lot of unpredictability in the process.”
Sacramento State student assistants and employees celebrate the official vote for the undergraduate student assistants to unionize.
Ashley A. Smith/EdSource
This story was updated at 1:10 p.m. Friday to include more comments from student workers and CSU chancellor’s office..
Student assistants and workers in the California State University system announced Friday that they had voted in favor of unionizing.
The students across the 23 campuses voted in favor of organizing one of the largest student worker organizations in the country so they could fight for better pay, working conditions, sick and paid leave, and more work hours.
The students overwhelmingly voted 7,050 to 202 in favor of joining the CSU Employees Union (CSUEU).
“This is for all of us and for all of our futures,” said Cameron Macedonio, a student assistant at CSU Fullerton. “Student assistants were increasingly fed up with the CSU administration’s treatment of us. They undervalue us. On one hand, they act as if we’re dispensable, but on the other hand, they expect us to do the work of full-time staff but for minimum wages and no benefits.”
Student assistants often work for minimum wage, are limited to 20 hours or less a week, and don’t receive sick or paid leave.
Danny Avitia, a senior majoring in sociology and leadership development at San Diego State, said he’s found it difficult to survive on $16.50 an hour while working in the campus Office of Employee Engagement. He assists the director of that office with organizing events, newsletters, graphics, media and communications.
Avitia said he’s had to take on two more jobs and whenever he’s gotten sick, he “shows up to work and gets everyone sick” because he doesn’t receive any leave or paid time off.
Unionizing “means better access to discounts like parking and transit,” he said. “It means that I can fight for a better living wage because, again, meeting the basic needs of people is simply not enough here in California anymore.”
Now, they will need to decide what they want to bargain for, assemble a negotiating team and leadership, and present their demands to the Cal State administration. As part of the CSUEU, they’ll have assistance from that organization and the Service Employees International Union or SEIU.
“With 20,000 student assistants joining CSUEU’s 16,000 CSU staff members, university management will no longer be able to divide students and staff or exploit student labor to degrade staff jobs,” said Catherine Hutchinson, president of CSUEU. “Joining together is a win for students, for staff, and for all Californians who have a stake in the CSU’s mission.”
Many of the student assistants feel unionizing was just one step in a long process to better pay and working conditions. They all recently watched the California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 professors and, lecturers go on strike twice for a better contact.
“There will be some struggles that will come with it,” said Alejandro Carrillo, an international business junior at San Diego State. “We just had the CFA strike and saw how hard it was for them to fight and the struggles that came with it. I’m not expecting anything less than that for student workers.”
In the meantime, the chancellor’s office said it would maintain the current standards and requirements for student assistants.
“The CSU has a long history of providing on-campus jobs to students through student assistant positions, which give our students the opportunity to gain valuable work experience while they pursue their degrees,” said Leora Freedman, CSU’s vice chancellor for human resources. “The CSU respects the decision of student assistants to form a union and looks forward to bargaining in good faith with the newly formed CSUEU student assistant unit.”
California Student Journalism Corps member Jazlyn Dieguez, a fourth-year journalism student at San Diego State University, contributed to this story.
From our smartwatches giving us metrics on our last workout, to utility dashboards helping us meet our environmental conservation goals, we are living in an increasingly data-driven world. But when it comes to figuring out an education or career path, it can be hard to find useful information to make sound decisions.
Where do young people from my city go after high school? What education or training programs can help me earn livable wages? How do I figure out college applications and get financial aid? These are all questions that have been difficult for Californians to answer as they decide what jobs to pursue and whether to attend college.
But California recently took a big step toward making data available in tangible, easy-to-access ways. The new California Cradle-to-Career Data System (C2C) connects the dots from early and K-12 education, to higher education and the workforce. It’s a new, longitudinal data system that can enable people to make more informed decisions about their lives. As early as 2024, Californians will have access to C2C’s first planned dashboard.
The longitudinal data system will illuminate the journey from cradle to career. A guidance counselor wonders whether her former students stayed in college. Universities working to help students succeed can’t see what K-12 supports students did — or didn’t — receive.
The C2C system can stitch together data that can tell those stories across time. Those connections and transitions become visible only when the data from multiple education systems is linked together.
How will people be able to use that data that stretches over time? Before the data system launched, the system’s data providers worked together with members of the public to map out priority topics for specific data dashboards. Each one will create a “data story” focused on topics like:
student pathways from high school to college and career.
the experiences of community college students aiming to transfer to a four-year university.
employment outcomes illuminating paths to jobs with livable wages.
We’re prioritizing the needs that communities have voiced before developing useful tools. The California Legislature took bold action in passing the Cradle-to-Career Data System Act. It wrote into state law that the data system must prioritize the needs of students and families. This means listening to communities first, and then working to build data tools people will actually use.
What have Californians shared? Right now, the most requested feature is the ability to break down the data by geography and demographics. People want to know, “What story does the data tell in my community?”
What challenges are Californians in rural areas facing in their education and workforce sectors? What needs are not being met to ensure educational success and individual prosperity? People with lived experiences in these communities can best answer these questions.
To get input from across the state, C2C hosts community conversations where people can voice their priorities, both online and in-person. Recent events were held in Sacramento and Oakland, and the Central Valley and Southern California are up next. Building the country’s most inclusive data system requires collaboration, and that is top of mind for the Cradle-to-Career data system.
Launching an intentionally inclusive data system has taken a historic, governmentwide effort. Those of us in the Legislature are working with the Newsom administration to break down the silos that can make it hard to share data with the public. Champions of the data system understand that data works for individuals when it empowers them to make decisions about their futures. Informed decisionmaking is key to ensuring every Californian has the freedom to succeed, and that starts with a reliable and actionable statewide longitudinal data system.
•••
Mary Ann Bates is the executive director of the Office of Cradle-to-Career Data. Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin represents California’s 42nd District. Sen. John Laird represents California’s 17th District.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
West Contra Costa Unified’s Stege Elementary School in Richmond.
Photo: Andrew Reed/EdSource
Cheryl Cotton was appointed the next superintendent of West Contra Costa Unified.West Contra Costa Unified
West Contra Costa Unified School District’s incoming superintendent already knows the district well.
On Wednesday night, the district’s board unanimously approved a contract with Cheryl Cotton, a Richmond native, a former district administrator and a former student who attended district schools in San Pablo and El Cerrito.
Cotton currently serves as the deputy superintendent of public instruction at the California Department of Education, overseeing the instruction, measurement and administration branch, according to a press release from the school district. She also served as CDE’s deputy superintendent of human resources and labor relations.
“This is my life’s work. This is my home. This is my community,” Cotton told Richmondside after the announcement.
The board approved a three-year $325,000 contract with Cotton. She begins on June 20, presiding over the East Bay district that has 54 schools.
Board President Leslie Reckler said that the board was thrilled to find someone with Cotton’s “excellent skill set” who knows the district well enough to hit the ground running.
“She was born here; she went to school here; she worked as a principal here,” Reckler told EdSource. “She’s familiar with our community. That is super helpful, no question.”
Cotton is the first African American woman to hold the permanent role of superintendent. She served as a school principal and later a human resources director in the district for 14 years. She also worked in human resources in the Albany Unified School District and the Contra Costa County Office of Education.
Reckler said she is hopeful that Cotton’s experience and connections at CDE will help “drive student success.”
United Teachers of Richmond President Francisco Ortiz said he appreciates that the incoming superintendent is a product of the district, which he considers a “really big asset in working towards school stability.” He’s also hoping that Cotton’s experience at CDE working with districts all over the state will enable her to bring fresh insights into tackling the district’s thorniest issues.
“We’ve had a tough couple of years with the constant threat of layoffs,” Ortiz said. That makes it hard to find qualified teachers, he said.
Reckler said Cotton will have a solid team of support to ensure that she’s able to help the district navigate these challenges. Cotton’s contract also provides up to $20,000 for a mentor to support her during her first two years.
“We have good people watching over us, and we have a good safety net — not that the decisions will be easy,” Reckler said.
Ortiz, who had experience with Cotton while she served as district human resources director, said he appreciated her site visits and work to find solutions by seeking common ground. He added they’re ready to work with Cotton to fully staff district schools and stabilize the district. He also hopes that Cotton will improve transparency at the district level and aim to work more collaboratively with teachers, families and others in the school community.
The district’s previous superintendent, Chris Hurst, retired in December. Kim Moses, associate superintendent for business services, has been serving as an interim superintendent. Moses said, in a statement, that she is eager to return to her prior role to “support the fiscal operations of our district.”
Students work on homework during an after-school program in Chico, the largest city in Butte County. (File photo)
Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource
For nearly a decade, the Orange County Department of Education and the Butte County Office of Education have had the privilege of co-leading the implementation of the California Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) — a statewide framework that’s transforming how schools serve students academically, socially, emotionally and behaviorally.
This work began with a simple but urgent goal: to ensure that every student in California — no matter their ZIP code, background or circumstance — has access to a responsive and coordinated system of supports that meets their individual needs.
Today, that vision is being realized in thousands of schools across the state, where educators are reporting measurable gains in academic performance, reductions in suspensions and absenteeism, and stronger alignment with initiatives like Universal Pre-kindergarten, the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program and Community Schools.
In short, California MTSS is working. And now is the time to sustain and expand its impact.
For those unfamiliar with the framework, the California Multi-Tiered System of Support is based on three levels of support:
Universal instruction and strategies for all students.
Targeted help for those who need more.
Intensive interventions for students with the greatest needs.
What makes it so powerful isn’t just its flexibility or scalability — though those are important — but its ability to help schools work together more effectively and break down silos across California’s education system.
Our state has made historic investments in mental health, early learning, expanded instructional time and more. The multitiered system doesn’t replace those efforts — it ensures they work together. In other words, it’s the delivery system for every promise we’ve made to our students.
Consider these scenarios, drawn from real-life practices, to see how the framework can support students across different educational settings:
At an elementary school, a student who is reading below grade level benefits from universal supports built into the classroom for all learners. The teacher uses strategies like visual scaffolds — including maps, illustrations and diagrams to aid comprehension — along with flexible grouping based on reading levels and multiple ways for students to demonstrate understanding. These tools, part of a schoolwide commitment to Universal Design for Learning, help the student stay engaged and make steady progress without needing to be pulled out or referred for separate services.
In a middle school, a student who begins to withdraw socially and fall behind in assignments is connected with supplemental support. A school counselor checks in weekly, and the student joins a small group focused on building organization and self-regulation skills. With these added layers of support, the student regains confidence and starts participating more actively in class.
At an alternative high school, a student returning from an extended absence receives more intensive support. A personalized plan is created that includes one-on-one counseling, a flexible academic schedule, and regular collaboration between school staff and the student’s family. Over time, the student re-engages with learning and builds toward graduation.
As county leaders, we’ve seen firsthand how California MTSS helps schools weave together fragmented programs and services into a single, integrated system that responds to the whole child.
In some schools, that has meant fewer students being referred to special education thanks to earlier, research-based interventions. In others, it has led to improved school climates, stronger teacher-student relationships and higher graduation rates.
Crucially, this work has taken hold in settings as diverse as the state itself. California MTSS is driving progress in large urban districts, small rural schools and alternative education programs that serve some of our most vulnerable youth.
In Butte County, where educators often juggle multiple roles and resources are limited, the framework has provided structure and tools to meet local needs while maintaining alignment with statewide goals. These strategies have become a blueprint for many rural communities across California.
Meanwhile, in Orange County, the multitiered framework is helping schools tackle chronic absenteeism, expand mental health supports and ensure students are not just seen, but supported and successful.
California has emerged as a national leader in this work. Our state was the first to embed social-emotional learning and mental health into the multitiered system of support framework, and we’ve launched online certification modules to build capacity for administrators, teachers, counselors and even higher education faculty. The annual California MTSS Professional Learning Institute, which draws thousands of educators each summer, has become a hub for sharing evidence-based practices and building cross-county collaboration.
Yet like any systemic improvement effort, the long-term impact depends on sustained commitment. The current phase of statewide funding is set to conclude in 2026. Without additional investment, we risk stalling momentum — or worse, losing the progress we’ve made.
That’s why we’re jointly requesting a new round of funding — approximately $18 million annually over four years — to ensure that the framework continues to evolve and expand. Two-thirds of every dollar would go directly to schools, districts, county offices and fire-impacted regions to support coaching, trauma-informed practices and professional development. It would also fund large-scale research efforts and deepen implementation in classrooms, where it matters most.
The data speaks for itself. Recent studies show statistically significant improvements in reading and math scores in schools implementing the framework. Educators in rural communities report stronger collaboration and better outcomes. And thousands of students — including those with disabilities, those in foster care and those experiencing homelessness — are getting the supports they need, when they need them.
We believe the foundation is strong. Now is the time to build on it.
•••
Stefan Bean, Ed.D., is Orange County’s superintendent of schools. Mary Sakuma, Ed.D., is Butte County’s superintendent of schools.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Californians remain anxious about the mental health of public school students four years after the Covid virus closed down schools, according to a new survey released Wednesday. They also indicated they’re lukewarm toward passing a statewide school construction bond.
In the Public Policy Institute of California’s survey of 1,605 California adult residents, 81% of all adults and public school parents said they were strongly or somewhat concerned about students’ mental health and well-being – a view that, for most part, cut across race, political party affiliation and family income. The number reflects a continuing worry about the persistent impact of the pandemic two years after students returned to the classroom following school closures of more than a year.
SOURCE: PPIC Statewide Survey, April 2024. Survey was fielded from March 19-25, 2024 (n=1,605 adults, n=1,089 likely voters, and n=252 public school parents).PPIC
Advocates for a statewide bond to build and repair TK-12 school facilities may face an uphill battle to pass it – assuming Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators put the issue before voters in November.
Only 53% of likely voters said they would vote for a state bond, while 44% said they’d vote no, with only 3% undecided, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, which on Wednesday released its annual survey of voters’ view on TK-12 education issues. The number is well below 60%, the standard level of favorability that comforts backers of an initiative heading into a campaign.
The mid-March survey also found mixed views on how Newsom and the Legislature are handling the state education system; 51% of all Californians and 60% of public school parents said they liked how he had managed education. That’s the lowest number since his election in 2018, and consistent with PPIC’s most recent survey on his overall job performance. The survey had a margin of error of 3.3% plus or minus.
Newsom’s highest rating was in April 2020, when 73% of likely voters approved and 26% disapproved of his performance on TK-12 education. That coincided with the emergence of the coronavirus, and his decision to close schools. “Newsom got a bump in the early days of the crisis for responding decisively amid the shock of the pandemic,” said Mark Baldassare, survey director and chair of public policy for PPIC.
The Legislature and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond also received roughly 50% approval in the latest survey; however, the poll also showed that most Californians agreed with their positions on social and political issues that captured headlines in the past year.
69% of all adults said they strongly (43%) or somewhat (26%) oppose individual school boards passing laws to ban and remove certain books from classrooms and school libraries; a smaller majority of public school parents (30% strongly, 25% somewhat) agreed. Last year, Newsom threatened to fine Temecula Valley Unified and replace a social studies textbook that the board rejected because it included a reference to the late gay activist Harvey Milk; the board reversed its position.
58% of all adults and 55% of public school parents oppose individual school boards creating policies to restrict what subjects teachers and students can discuss in the classroom.
More than 80% of adults and public school parents strongly or somewhat favor teaching about the history of slavery, racism, and segregation in public schools; more than 50% of all respondents strongly held that view.
Local schools got good marks for preparing students for college, but less so the workforce. 60% of all adults and 72% of public school parents said their schools did well preparing students for college, while 51% of all adults and 65% said they did a good job preparing students for jobs and the workforce. Only 45% of African American respondents said the schools did a good job for college, compared with 64% of Asian Americans, 61% of Latinos and 61% of Whites.
As with these and many of the issues surveyed, there was a sharp partisan division, with most Democrats supporting Newsom’s positions and most Republicans opposing them.
California adults were about evenly split (50% support, 49% oppose), however, on whether to allow books with stories about transgender youth in public schools. Three in four Democrats support this, while eight in 10 Republicans oppose it, and independents are divided (51% support, 48% oppose). Only 42% of public school parents support the idea, and 57% said they oppose it; they also opposed including lessons on transgender issues by the same breakdown.
Newsom and the Legislature have committed billions of dollars to phase in voluntary transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-olds. Two-thirds of all adults, including 77% of public school parents, 80% of Democrats, 41% of Republicans, 84% of Blacks, and 57% of Whites, said that’s a good idea.
Uncertainty about bond issue
Newsom said in January that he supports placing a school construction bond on the November statewide ballot; voters last passed a state bond in 2016, and the state has run out of money to contribute to districts’ share of new construction and renovations.
However, Newsom and legislative leaders have not negotiated the specifics. School consultant Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors, said that polling results could affect the size and scope of a bond. Instead of a $15 billion bond that legislative leaders have discussed, it could be much less; instead of including money for the University of California and California State University, which polls less favorably than TK-12, it could include money only for TK-12 and community colleges, he said.
Gordon and Baldassare disagreed on how much to read into the 53% support of the bond eight months before the election.
“All of the not-so-good news about the state budget, with billions of dollars in red ink, has had an impact on voters’ attitude that affects the bond issue now,” Gordon said. “But after this summer, with a balanced budget adopted, and with economists optimistic about the latter part of 2024, voters’ attitude could change.”
Credit: Public Policy Institute of California, April 2024 survey
Four years ago, voters rejected a state bond 46% to 54% in the March 2020 primary election. But, Gordon said, voters have never defeated a state bond initiative in a November election, which attracts more people to the polls.
Baldassare said the bare majority support in the survey shows “there is a lot of economic anxiety among voters over inflation and anxiety over taking on more debt.” That showed in the bare passage last month, with 50.2% of the vote, of Proposition 1. It will determine how to spend money on housing for unhoused people suffering from mental illness.
The survey also produced mixed, and perhaps puzzling results to the same questions asked in previous surveys:
Asked “how concerned are you that California’s K-12 public school students in lower-income areas are less likely than other students to be ready for college,” 39% this year said “very concerned.” That’s the lowest percentage since the question was introduced in 2010, when 59% said they were very concerned.
Asked, “How would you rate the quality of public schools in your neighborhood today,” 49% of likely voters gave their schools an A or B. That’s nine percentage points higher than last year and in pre-pandemic 2019.
Asked whether the quality of education has gotten worse over the past few years, 52% of adults said it was worse, 11% said it had improved, and 34% said about the same. That was an improvement from last year, when 62% said education had gotten worse and only 5% said it had improved – and far better than in 2011. That was during the depths of the Great Recession, when school districts were slashing budgets following cuts in state revenue: that year, 62% said schools had gotten worse.
Hundreds of UCLA students protest in support of Palestinians on May 2, 2024.
Credit: Christine Kao
A critical presence persists across the dozens of university campuses nationwide where students have organized demonstrations in support of Palestinians: student journalists reporting for their school newspapers, at times providing round-the-clock coverage and, increasingly, doing so under threats of arrest and violence.
“They recognize that the eyes of the world are on college campuses and they can be a lens through which people can see what’s happening,” said Christina Bellantoni, director of the Annenberg Media Center at USC.
Student journalists are central to the reporting of historic national protests calling for universities to divest from companies with military ties to Israel and for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“We have a job to do as student journalists. I like to say we’re not student journalists, we’re journalists,” said Matthew Royer, national editor and higher education editor at the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper.
At some schools that have shut down access to nonstudents, like USC, a private institution, student journalists are the only regular source of news on campus grounds. And at schools where journalists from outside news organizations are present, like UCLA, student journalists have remained top producers of the most accurate, up-to-date information.
A post by Matthew Royer from The Daily Bruin at UCLA.
The Daily Bruin had such high readership this week that its site was down for several hours Wednesday, requiring the newsroom to extend the site’s bandwidth.
This week at UCLA, a group of four student reporters were verbally harassed, beaten, kicked and pepper-sprayed by a group of pro-Israel counterprotesters who that night had attacked the on-campus encampment for hours.
A police officer grabs a protester by the back of their jacket to stop him from moving toward the encampment on May 2, 2024. Credit: Brandon Morquecho / Daily Bruin Photo Editor
At least one of the reporters, Catherine Hamilton, went to the hospital with injuries after the violent assault.
“Truly, there’s not much time for us to recover. As the new day starts, we have to be prepared for anything to happen,” Hamilton said in an interview with CNN. She returned to her reporting post shortly after being released from the hospital.
Royer confirmed that UCLA had promised journalists a safe room that night, but “the doors were locked, and they weren’t given access by the hired UCLA security.”
UCLA has not responded to a request for comment.
In a statement Thursday, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said the violence on campus “has fractured our sense of togetherness and frayed our bonds of trust, and will surely leave a scar on the campus.”
His statement made no reference to the assault on journalists.
“I think it’s our jobs to continue to do what we can in the safest manner possible,” said Royer, who said counterprotesters have yanked his press badge, blasted megaphones near his ears, and blocked his camera over multiple days while reporting.
Student journalists nationwide have also been threatened with arrest by police arriving on campus to clear student encampments.
“We train these students to put safety first,” said Bellantoni. “What I cannot guarantee is that they won’t be arrested in this. If they are arrested, I can guarantee you those charges will not stand and we will make sure that we fight that because journalists have a right to be there and a right to witness it.”
A man wearing a jacket that reads “Anti Genocide Social Club” records a livestream of a line of CHP officers between Royce Hall and Haines Hall on May 2, 2024.Credit: Brandon Morquecho / Daily Bruin Photo Editor
Protests in support of Palestine are nothing new on UC Berkeley’s campus, according to Aarya Mukherjee, 19, who has covered campus activism and the encampment as a student life reporter for months at The Daily Californian.
But when he heard Daily Bruin reporters were assaulted, he said he “felt for them.”
“Last night, there was a very good chance of a raid. … So we were kind of preparing for the same thing to happen to us,” Mukherjee said, noting that the campus has been generally peaceful with little hostility toward the press. “It’s honestly scary, but … we accept that risk. We just hope it doesn’t happen.”
Given UC Berkeley’s history of protest and constant stream of student activism, managing editor Matt Brown said Daily Cal reporters are uniquely prepared to cover events that may turn violent. For years, guidelines on staying safe have been passed down through the organization’s editors.
“Everybody’s always in pairs. Everybody’s always taking shifts. Everybody’s always communicating. Nobody goes out there without a press pass,” Brown said.
Free Palestine encampment at UC Berkeley on April 29, 2024. Credit: Kelcie Lee / EdSource
The Daily Cal published an editorial late Wednesday that expressed solidarity with reporters at The Daily Bruin. It also condemned UCLA for failing to protect campus journalists.
“Everybody was on board; and within about an hour, we had a draft,” Brown said.
“We condemn the attackers and any attempt to stifle student coverage,” the editorial read. “It is the community’s duty to safeguard the students who are putting themselves in harm’s way to keep them informed.”
Many have also collaborated across campuses, a sign of their understanding that they hold a powerful position. The Daily Trojan, the Daily Bruin, the Emory Wheel, The Daily Californian, Washington Square News (NYU), the Berkeley Beacon (Emerson College) and the Daily Texan (UT Austin) joined forces to produce a compilation of photos of protests at their respective campuses.
‘That’s our Achilles’ heel’
Mercy Sosa, 22, received a tip that protests were starting at Sacramento State University on Monday at 6 a.m.
As editor-in-chief of The State Hornet, she got to work. By 6:30 a.m., she was on the scene — and continued to report on developments at the encampment for the next two days despite upcoming final exams.
“The amount of walking I did, the amount of not sleeping that I did — it’s exhausting,” Sosa said. “But I felt like it was my duty to be there and to make sure that students knew what was going on. And this isn’t just a Sac State story: This is a national story. … I couldn’t just turn a blind eye.”
The campus announced the encampment could remain intact until May 8. Unlike at other campuses, student reporters at Sacramento State haven’t faced aggression from campus or other stakeholders. The environment, Sosa said, has been mostly peaceful, with some counterprotesters and few police.
It’s similar at Sonoma State University, where Ally Valiente’s team at the Sonoma State Star are covering their growing student encampment.
But the current calm hasn’t made it easier for them to stomach the violence that played out at UCLA.
Daily Bruin homepage on May, 1, 2024.
Daily Bruin homepage on May, 2, 2024.
“It sort of makes me scared this could actually happen to any campus,” said Valiente, news editor.
Being a member of student media, where reporters and protesters can interact student-to-student, has played a key role in developing trust with sources, who are sometimes classmates, according to Chris Woodard, a managing editor at The State Hornet.
It’s a unique level of access that Brad Butterfield leaned into while reporting for Cal Poly Humboldt’s The Lumberjack, along with his knowledge of campus grounds.
Not all reporters covering Humboldt’s protests understood “how complex our campus is,” he said, which impacted police when it came to “gaining control.”
They also often work alongside journalists from other publications, who at times forget they are students.
Woodard recalled being in line for an interview by the encampment alongside a half dozen reporters from other publications.
“I kind of went up to all the other publications like ‘Hey guys, if you can please do me a favor and let me do the next interview? I have to go to class,’” Woodard said.
“I could tell this by the reaction of all the other professional journalists they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a thing for you.’”
They let him go ahead — and he made it to class 20 minutes late.
Mukherjee and his Daily Cal colleagues are taking shifts to cover the protests and encampment, sometimes reporting in the field for 24 hours straight in the days leading up to final exams.
He said a relentless news cycle has made it harder to focus on school and that it is sometimes hard to separate life as a student from life as a reporter.
“Students should obviously be studying, hitting the books,” Mukherjee said. “Because of the constant news, we feel as though … we have a responsibility to report that, kind of, almost supersedes our due diligence as students.”
Others, like The Lumberjack’s Butterfield, did not attend class once protests began.
“Because I am a journalism major, I think that’s important to note: I don’t feel like I’m missing out too much on what’s happening in my classes because I’m out in the field doing what I’m going to school to learn how to do,” said Butterfield, 26. “When there’s a massive and important story on our campus to cover, at least my professors have been pretty lenient in understanding that that does take its priority in a lot of ways — and I’ll catch up on my work at some point in the next week or two.”
With local newsrooms growing sparse, Sosa said student press has become increasingly important in filling that void of local coverage for both the campus and larger community.
But in communities like Humboldt, student coverage is sometimes nonexistent over the summer.
“I think that’s our Achilles’ heel, when the semester ends a lot of folks kind of go their own separate ways, especially here in Humboldt County ’cause there’s so little jobs,” said Butterfield.
Woodard also said that “it’s hard to bear that pressure” for being at the forefront of national reporting as a student.
“You’ve become the No. 1 news source for the biggest story in the country. But at the same time, we have finals next week,” said Woodard, 30. “It’s like, which one do I take more pride in?”
A few days ago, he said he sat on the floor of his apartment and cried.
The toll, he said, can be especially difficult on editors — who are not only going to school and contributing to coverage, but also managing teams of their peers and classmates, often in their late teens or early 20s.
“Being an editor of student media and being an editor in real media are two very, very different things,” Woodard said. “For all the student editors out there that are dealing with this: I hope everyone just gives them a hug.”
Yuba City Unified School District announced end-of-year results from its tutoring partnership with Fullmind, showing students identified as needing additional support consistently outperformed their non-tutored peers across nearly 200 participants.
