برچسب: students

Breaking News! Trump Revokes Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International students

The Trump administration upped the stakes in its vindictive campaign against Harvard University. It has canceled Harvard’s enrollment of international students.

Harvard refused to cave to the Trump administration’s demands to monitor its curriculum and its admissions and hiring policies. In response, the administration has suspended billions of federal dollars for medical and scientific research.

The New York Times reported:

The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, taking aim at a crucial funding source for the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college in a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the elite school to fall in line with the president’s agenda.

The administration notified Harvard about the decision after a back-and-forth in recent days over the legality of a sprawling records request as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The latest move is likely to prompt a second legal challenge from Harvard, according to one person familiar with the school’s thinking who insisted on anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The university sued the administration last month over the government’s attempt to impose changes to its curriculum, admissions policies and hiring practices.

“I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked,” according to a letter sent to the university by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.

About 6,800 international students attended Harvard this year, or roughly 27 percent of the student body, according to university enrollment data. That is up from 19.7 percent in 2010.

The move is likely to have a significant effect on the university’s bottom line…

In a news release confirming the administration’s action, the Department of Homeland Security sent a stark message to Harvard’s international students: “This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students, and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status.”

This message came from a Cabinet member who was asked in a hearing to define “habeas corpus,” and she said it meant that the President can deport anyone he wants to.

This action is a demonstration of Presidential tyranny. It should be swiftly reversed by the courts.

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23/05/2025
Why is media arts so vital for students today?

Media arts classes can help children learn how to mix digital skills with the creative impulse.

Credit: Mountain View Whisman Elementary School District

Media arts has long been a part of arts education in California, right alongside more traditional disciplines such as dance and theater, but Senate Bill 1341 codifies the idea that the study of visual and performing arts also includes digital art forms such as animation, video and web design. Sponsored by Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, the proposed legislation, which unanimously passed in the Senate, would shine a spotlight on electronic media as a key part of a comprehensive arts and music education.

Dain Olsen, president and CEO of the National Association for Media Arts Education, recently took a few moments to explain the allure of media arts, how it bridges the world of high tech and old-school art, and why mastery of electronic media is such an important part of arts education amid the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) as a force in society. Olsen is a veteran media arts educator, having taught at Los Angeles Unified, UCLA and Vermont College of Fine Arts.

How significant would it be for this new media arts legislation to pass in California? How would it impact children?

It would be historic and set national precedent, legitimizing it as a separate arts subject and making it available for 5.8 million K-12 students. This culminates a decades-long effort across various state and district initiatives, and is an inflection point for its continued progress.

Is media arts the same as digital art?

A: Essentially media arts is digital arts. It goes a little bit further because it does include things that are not purely digital. It’s basically machine-based and multimodal in that it’s multisensory and multimedia. One can access the other arts disciplines and all aesthetics. That’s what makes it different from the other arts education disciplines. For example, I can merge audio and visual in the creation of a video.

Is it more high-tech oriented or more arts-focused?

It is tech-centric, but is absolutely very artistic and creative. Tends to be focused on popular commercial media — photo, graphics, video. Our organization will push for other forms, and more “art” orientation, original, experimental and interdisciplinary.

Why do students today need to master media arts?

It is imperative that these vital forms of production and design become standard, high-quality offerings in schools and other educational settings. These offerings are important for students to skillfully wield these forms for their own creative expression, academic development and career preparation, as well as to gain critical literacies in analyzing and negotiating multimedia experiences.

We recognize it as vital for 21st century students and particularly in California, given our creative economy and the growth of these media arts areas, in industry and in our economy and their key role in our evolving society.

Why should media arts be recognized as its own genre?

Media arts reflects our current digital society, and prepares students with the multiliteracies necessary to function and succeed in this rapidly changing world. Students need to be able to read, analyze, interpret and evaluate a deluge of multimedia information in their everyday lives. They need to be able to construct their own messages, products and experiences, so that they become responsible contributors to and empowered participants in this society. Students need to be able to determine fact from fiction, and verify information vs. misinformation. They need to be able to address the potentially harmful impacts of new forms of artificial intelligence, technology and media. Media arts provides safe and balanced environments that systemically prepare students for these evolving societal conditions.

How might the emergence of AI shape the media arts landscape?

AI is a media arts form because it is machine-based and multimodal. It (media arts education) will have a tremendous impact on the media arts industry and will become a core aspect of media arts. Media arts education provides a safe and rigorous environment, whereby students gain critical thinking skills in managing and skillfully wielding the power of AI. This connects it to the embodied practices of the arts and provides grounding, aesthetics and culture, which AI inherently does not reflect. This becomes a major component of the multiliteracies across media tech and digital culture.

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22/05/2025
As we expand universal preschool access, let’s ensure teachers mirror their students’ ethnicity

Preschool students build a structure from plastic interlocking tubes.

Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

Author’s original hed: As Universal Preschool Access Expands to Reach More Families of Color, So Do Inequitable Practices Such as Racial Bias, Exclusionary Discipline and Lack of Cultural Representation, Leading to a Crisis for Black Boys

As California progresses toward universal preschool access, the need increases for training, hiring and retaining early childhood male educators who are racially and ethnically representative of the children in their classrooms. A study examining preschool teachers’ implicit biases and expulsion rates found that teachers spent significantly more time watching Black children, especially boys, than other-race children when anticipating problematic behaviors. Further, researchers found that public preschool teachers’ systemic use of exclusionary discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions, disproportionately impacts Black children, with Black boys being expelled more than anyone else.

In efforts to reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions, last year the California Department of Education released a bulletin announcing new requirements for the California State Preschool Program (CSPP) that no longer allowed contractors to suspend, expel, or coerce parents and guardians to pick children up early from school due to their behavior. This is a step in the right direction. However, not all California preschool programs are funded by the state program and, therefore, many do not have to abide by those guidelines.

The good news is that the positive effects of ensuring that students have teachers of the same race as them can happen across all programs, despite their funding sources. I propose that schools and agencies recruit and train male educators who match the racial and ethnic background of the communities they represent.

As a Black woman and a credentialed early childhood educator for more than 15 years in San Joaquin and Sacramento counties, I’ve witnessed Black children aged 3 to 5 years old be sentenced to in-school or out-of-school suspension because a teacher lacked the necessary skills or cultural competencies to work with them. I would often be the one who other teachers would send their children to when they were struggling. Though I did not have any extra or special training, I was often able to successfully help children reset and return to their classrooms at peace. Once, I worked with a Black male teacher who was more effective than I in this aspect, especially when dealing with boys.

Overall, our success was evidence of the mutual understanding and respect that the same-race teacher-child dynamic has. Perhaps from the child’s perspective, there’s a familiarity in our looks or mannerisms. Whatever the reason, such experiences speak to why Black children need educators who they can identify with.

As it stands, in many places the public preschool curriculum, like that of the public K-12, has long ignored Black history and culture. The state preschool curriculum framework developed by the California Department of Education in alignment with the K-12 Common Core State Standards attest to this. Writers of the California Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 3, History-Social Science admit that “the developmental research on which these foundations are based is full of studies of English-speaking, middle-class European American children” and that “fewer studies focused on children who speak other languages or come from other family, racial, or cultural backgrounds.”

Training and hiring teachers and staff who represent the racial and cultural communities they serve is beneficial because they connect better with the students through incorporating culturally relevant pedagogy, which is generally not offered in typical school curriculum. This was my approach upon opening a child care facility specifically for Black families. I found that children engaged more with the learning content when they could relate to it. For example, children expressed an increased interest in reading materials and spent more time in the classroom library browsing through books when they saw characters they could identify with. And the boys in my program took a special liking to my teenage son.

Findings from a 2023 early childhood longitudinal study observing more than 18,000 students in the U.S. suggest that children in the classroom with a teacher of the same race performed better academically, in math and reading, and on working memory tasks. Besides the increased positive benefits of race-matching teachers and students, a decrease in negative outcomes has also been observed. According to scientists from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University who analyzed 10 years of data, Black students were less likely to be suspended when they had a teacher of the same race.

We cannot ignore the fact that Black children are disproportionately suspended and expelled from preschools. It’s also true their communities are underrepresented in the curricula and with regard to same-race educators. For better social and academic outcomes for this vulnerable group, early childhood educational spaces need more Black male teachers.

This is a call for state agencies and schools to put resources into the community by training and hiring educators who reflect the student population they serve. This is a call for families and community members to volunteer their time at local preschools and early childhood centers.

With universal preschool access becoming a reality in California, the rest of the country is sure to follow. To support all preschool children, diversifying the teaching workforce is of the utmost importance right now.

•••

Sajdah Asmau is owner of an African-centered child care facility. She is in her first year as doctoral student in education student at UC Davis and serves as a Public Voices fellow on Racial Justice in Early Childhood with the OpEd Project in partnership with the National Black Child Development Institute.

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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22/05/2025
California college students find creative solutions to manage graduation costs

Students from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Green Campus team promote the university’s graduation gown reuse program. Students who borrow regalia from the program can return it in bins after the ceremony or return it by mail.

. Cal Poly/Courtesy

As college students across the state prepare to graduate, they are sometimes surprised by the costs associated with this rite of passage.

Besides the cost of regalia, graduating at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo also requires a $120 commencement fee, charged for each Cal Poly degree or credential program. Students at California State University, Dominguez Hills, will pay a $90 graduation application fee.

The cost to apply to graduate at San Diego State University is $112, while students at California State University, Fullerton, pay $115.

CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith explained that each Cal State campus “sets its graduation fee. The fee covers the evaluation process to determine if the student has fulfilled the course requirements to earn a degree and graduate, as well as costs associated with the printing and mailing of the diploma.”

Added Bentley-Smith, “Portions of the fees can go to support putting on commencement, but it’s not the primary purpose of the fee.”

Beyond the fees, every student who wants to participate in the ceremony itself — commonly referred to as “walking” — is required to wear the campus’ approved regalia.

For example, at San Jose State University, where there is no graduation application fee, the SJSU university store sells its most basic regalia packs — cap, gown, degree-colored tassel, stole (also called a sash) and souvenir tassel — for $131.50.

The cost and one-time use for most students of this graduation attire — those with careers in academia often use regalia again — has spurred grassroots solutions to pop up across Cal State campuses.

With its simple all-black gown and cap requirement, CSU Dominguez Hills makes it easy for undergraduate students to opt out of purchasing their regalia from the student bookstore, with Amazon.com and third-party sellers a more popular option. It’s easy to find black caps and gowns online for $20.

Students also turn to Reddit and other social media platforms to find alumni and peers offering used caps and gowns at discounted prices or even for free.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” said Kenneth Lopez, a graduating senior majoring in business administration. “How is it that Amazon (is) selling it for cheaper and we’re getting maybe double or triple that (cost)?”

Lopez said that one way to defray these costs comes from the Latino Student Business Association, or LSBA, which is among several CSU Dominguez Hills organizations working to help students save money by partnering with local businesses such as Chick-fil-A, Panda Express and Shakey’s Pizza.

Lopez explained that the Latino Student Business Association, where he is the vice president of finance, reached out to local businesses all over Carson to set up fundraisers. The money, raised from a percentage of product sales, was put toward graduation stoles — a sash typically in the school’s colors with embroidery of the school’s name and year of graduation, costing about $50 — to give seniors a personal memento of their achievements.

Sonoma State University does not charge students a fee to graduate. The commencement gear, required for the ceremony, is sold through outside vendors, with a basic bachelor’s degree cap and gown set costing $95.

Aurelio Aguilar, a graduating senior at Sonoma State majoring in communications, found a more affordable alternative through the campus store: renting regalia. While it’s not well-advertised, he explained, he was able to rent the gear. “It came out to about $80 for the cap and gown, and the (tassel) they gave us for the top of the cap.”

At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, one grassroots program aims to fight the problem head-on. The university’s Grad Gown Reuse program has gained in popularity, offering students a sustainable solution to the one-time-purchase model.

Started in 2022, the program allows students to donate their graduation gowns instead of having them hang in their closets collecting dust.

Carina Ballek is a senior environmental earth and soil science major at Cal Poly and is also an intern with the Green Campus team at Cal Poly. Ballek and her team worked with Cal Poly’s Educational Opportunity Program to kick-start the program, receiving a donation of 90 gowns.

“Our gowns are so popular that they are signed out in two days,” Ballek said, highlighting the need for more donations.

“There has been more demand than there is supply,” said Amy Unruh, a sustainability and waste specialist within Cal Poly’s energy utilities and sustainability department. She believes that getting the word out could help draw in more donations.

Since the program’s start, hundreds of students have benefited from reusing regalia. Logistically speaking, the Gown Reuse program sets up a table outside of commencement so graduates can easily drop off their gowns directly after the ceremony. Recent graduates can also drop off their gowns at the office of sustainability, or mail them in.

“It’s important because, on a sustainability level, we’re saving lots of gowns from going to landfills,” Ballek said. She also noted that “graduates don’t have their full-time jobs yet and would rather not spend $90-$100 on a gown.”

San Diego State University student Maren Hawkins, a journalism media studies major, estimated that regalia cost was “$135 or $145, and buying it (meant) not buy(ing) food for two weeks.”

Added Hawkins, “I’ve talked to other students about how … it’s unreasonable, the amount of money we have to put in to graduate.”

Instead, Hawkins turned to people whom she could rely on: alumni friends.

“I was embarrassed to ask my friends to borrow their (cap and gown),” Hawkins said. “We’d never talked about not being able to afford graduation. Now, I’m grateful that I’m not spending this money on it, because I know they’d sit in my closet for the rest of my life.”

The only item Hawkins purchased was her stole for $35.

Another San Diego State student, interdisciplinary studies major Lizeth Garcia, felt similarly. She and her housemate, Abigail Polack, found ways to avoid the costs.

Garcia and Polack worked at San Diego State’s Aztec Market since junior year, and both continued working there because students who work for Aztec Shops can apply to receive free regalia.

“Might as well keep working there so they can pay for my (regalia),” Garcia said. She said that free regalia was her primary reason for working, adding, “We already knew that we had to pay for graduation.”

At Cal State Fullerton, a program to help students with regalia costs comes from a partnership between Basic Needs Services and Titan Shops.

Created in 2022, Cal State Fullerton’s Academic Regalia Support provides regalia to students experiencing “recent unanticipated hardship,” according to Victoria Ajemian, director of Basic Needs Services..

The program offers 100 bachelor’s degree regalia sets that students register to reserve starting in April. Not all of the requests are filled due to high volume and limited supplies.

Business administration major Tiffany Lo’s friend, Azurine Chang, applied. “She barely got it last month,” Lo said.

Lo didn’t need the program herself — she’d gotten regalia from alumni. “There was no question when I asked,” Lo said. “They’re like, ‘Hey, you can have it — it’s collecting dust in my closet.’” Lo, who is saving money to study abroad, only purchased the CSUF stole.

Lo also directed friends to Facebook Marketplace, where she saw offers for regalia from past years for $35 — tassel and all.

“My friend didn’t buy the tassel for 2025,” Lo said. “She was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna just use the 2024 tassel. No one’s gonna notice when we’re all gonna go walk.’”

Layla Bakhshandeh is a graduating senior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, majoring in journalism and graphic communication; Marc Duran is a graduating senior at Sonoma State University, majoring in communications; Stephinie Phan is a graduating senior at California State University, Dominguez Hills, majoring in journalism; and Joshua Silla is a graduating senior at San Diego State University, majoring in journalism and media studies. All are members of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

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22/05/2025
California TK-12 enrollment ticks down, while number of homeless and poor students rises
Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
Top Takeaways

The 0.54% decline was steeper than last year but not as dramatic as the plunge at the peak of the pandemic.

The drop in enrollment was somewhat offset by the expansion of transitional kindergarten.

The number of students identified as homeless jumped 9.3% from last year.
New state data released Wednesday shows that California’s TK-12 enrollment has continued its steady post-pandemic decline. At the same time, the number of poor and homeless students has been increasing.

For the 2024-25 school year, enrollment statewide declined by 31,469 students or 0.54%, compared to last year. California now has 5.8 million students in grades TK-12 compared to 6.2 million students in 2004-05. The new data from the state is based on enrollment counts for the first Wednesday in October, known as Census Day.

This year’s decline is a little steeper than last year’s, which was 0.25%, but relatively flat compared to the enrollment plunge at the peak of the pandemic.

“The overall slowing enrollment decline is encouraging and reflects the hard work of our LEAs across the state,” said state schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond in a statement.

The drop in enrollment was somewhat offset by the state’s gradual rollout of transitional kindergarten. More students were eligible for the new grade than last year, and the numbers reflect that. An additional 26,079 students enrolled in transitional kindergarten — a 17.2% increase — while most other grade levels saw dips in enrollment.

The new state data also reflect an increasing number of students who are experiencing economic hardship. An additional 32,179 students now qualify as socioeconomically disadvantaged, a 0.9% increase. This data show that 230,443 students were identified as homeless — a 9.3% increase from the last school year.

The number of students identified as English learners decreased by 6.1%. This is largely in response to Assembly Bill 2268, which exempted transitional kindergarten students from taking the English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC).

Previously, schools tested transitional kindergarten students with a screener meant for kindergarten students, which was not appropriate for younger students and was therefore unreliable, according to Carolyne Crolotte, director of policy at Early Edge California, a nonprofit organization that advocates for early education. The state is in the process of creating a new screener, but in the interim, almost no English learners are being identified in this grade.

State officials attribute much of the enrollment decline to demographic factors, such as a declining birth rate.

Enrollment saw its greatest decline in regions of the state with higher housing prices, notably Los Angeles County and Orange County. There is growth in more affordable areas of the state, such as the San Joaquin Valley and Northern California, including the Sacramento area.

Enrollment in charter schools has steadily increased at the same time enrollment in traditional public school is decreasing. This year an additional 50,000 students attended a charter. Now 12.5% of students in California are enrolled in charter schools, which is up from 8.7% ten years ago.

The California Department of Education characterized transitional kindergarten numbers, which went up 17.2%, as a “boom.” A release from the department stated that 85% of school districts are offering transitional kindergarten at all school sites. It also said that transitional kindergarten is creating more spaces in the state preschool for 3-year-olds.

However, the enrollment numbers for transitional kindergarten are well below early estimates advanced by the Learning Policy Institute in 2022 which had estimated that 60% to 75% of eligible students would enroll in transitional kindergarten. The just released numbers show closer to about 40% of eligible students are opting in for transitional kindergarten, which according to Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley, is “not exactly universal preschool.”

The Governor’s recently released budget revision noted that lower daily attendance prompted him to reduce funds aimed at transitional kindergarten by $300 million. The state plans to lower the student to adult ratio in these classrooms from 12:1 to 10:1 next year, but will need less money to do so because of lower enrollment.

Transitional kindergarten has been gradually expanding over a five-year period to include all 4-year-olds. This school year, all students who turn five years old between Sept. 2 and Jun. 2 were eligible. The expansion to all 4-year-olds will be complete in the 2025-26 school year.

The expansion of transitional kindergarten doesn’t seem to be reaching more eligible four-year-olds than the previous system of private preschools, state preschools and Head Start, Fuller said. He notes that enrollment in those programs has been in decline at the same time that transitional kindergarten has been growing.

Crolotte praised the state for its expansion of transitional kindergarten but said that some families may not know that their children are eligible for the program.

“I think more work needs to be done about communication to families and knowing that this is available to them,” Crolotte said.
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22/05/2025
Proactive campus policies, communication with students critical under ‘antagonistic’ federal actions, panel says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUqMDwwZbO8

How might federal funding to colleges change under the current federal administration? What to tell students who are worried their financial aid packages might be impacted by proposed changes to federal education funding? Is it possible to find common ground with President Donald Trump?

A panel of education experts on Tuesday provided few definitive answers to those questions, leaving several unanswered, reflecting the uncertainty facing many in education today as they examine how the Trump administration’s approach to higher education may impact them.

The panelists on an EdSource roundtable, “The future of California higher education under Trump,” described a barrage of executive actions — banning diversity efforts, withdrawing already budgeted funds, blacklisting colleges, canceling visas of international students and threatening college leaders — actions that Dominique J. Baker, associate professor at the University of Delaware, described as “antagonistic.”

Baker stated that while many of the funding threats and proposed changes to education come from the executive branch of government, it’s important to consider the role of “the entirety of our federal apparatus” when discussing the future of higher education in this country, including Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Panelists agreed that proposed changes to student loan repayment options and to the federal Pell Grants, which are awarded to students with exceptional financial need, would be detrimental to many students.

“If all of these policies went into place the way that they are currently written out, we would expect to see a stark drop in low-income students enrolling in higher education, whether that’s for the first time or students who had previously enrolled leaving higher education before they can earn any sort of credential or degree,” said Baker, in a blunt assessment of what could occur if the proposed changes to those programs are approved.

Panelist Cristian Ulisses Reyes, a master’s candidate in higher education counseling and student affairs at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo who received the Pell Grant, said that threats to such funding are instilling fear in his peers.

“Students aren’t just numbers and policy debates,” Reyes said. “We’re the ones that are being directly impacted.”

Potential scenarios in case of cuts

Gregory A. Smith, chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, said that of around $64 million in annual federal funds, about $43 million goes toward financial aid for students, much in the form of Pell Grants.

The rest of the funds go to programming — about $3.5 million in yearly Title III grants from the federal Department of Education are geared toward the enrollment and retention of Hispanic students in STEM fields; the community college district is a Hispanic-serving institution.

If threats to funding continue, Smith said the San Diego Community College District needs to be prepared for these scenarios:
- The funding could be withheld altogether.
- The funding may remain intact, but the staff who process the payments may have been laid off during recent staff terminations at the federal Department of Education, which could lead to funding delays.
- “The most catastrophic version” of events, he said, would be if Congress amended Title III of the Higher Education Act, which would eliminate the Hispanic-serving institution’s STEM program.
And if any of these scenarios were to occur, “[the program] may need to look different, it may need to be funded differently, but we’re certainly committed to continuing the work in any of those three scenarios,” Smith said.

“Especially for a lot of the populations that we’ve listed — like low-income students, first-generation students — the administration’s attacks on student protections feel personal for many of us,” said Reyes, the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo master’s student.

Reyes urged colleges and universities to be more transparent with their students about discussions and involve them in decisions being made. “Institutions shouldn’t be making decisions about us, without us,” he said.

Relying on long-standing California policies

California has decades of practice in implementing anti-affirmative action policies after approving Proposition 209 in 1996, the panelists noted, as a reminder that the state is protected from some of the changes being made at the federal level.

“Legally, we’ve spent a lot of time figuring out what that looks like to not consider race in hiring, race in admissions, while still being equity-minded,” said Gina Ann Garcia, professor in the School of Education at UC Berkeley.

Affinity graduation ceremonies, for example, have been criticized by the federal administration as part of its attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Garcia, however, not only recently attended a cultural graduation, but said she feels supported by her university to say such graduations will not be canceled.

“We’re talking about a state that’s been anti-affirmative action for 30 years, so we’ve had 30 years to get in compliance,” she said. “We’re not really the state you want to come for, if they’re smart.”

Smith, from San Diego community colleges, echoed Garcia’s sentiments about feeling no fear when the federal Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague” letter in February, threatening cuts in federal funding if schools did not eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

The letter has not changed their DEI programming, Smith said, but it has led to fear in their school community, and they are afraid about the security of these programs.

Smith also shared strategies his district has implemented to keep their students and staff informed, including:
- Discussions on what DEI activities are offered and why.
- Communicating that campus policies on civility, academic freedom, freedom of expression, and freedom of speech remain intact.
- Proactive action by their board in adopting resolutions related to institutional protection from certain government threats.
“It is really important in this moment that we say these are lines around which there is no negotiation, they are fundamental to higher education in America, they’re at the core of a free democratic society, and so there is no negotiation,” Smith said, echoing what Baker and others noted during their discussion. “We can’t give up any margin on it whatsoever at all without crumbling the entire foundation of our institutions.”

While the panelists agreed on this point, they also warned of a future in which the state’s present-day policies on education may change. Upcoming state elections, they said, will determine the direction California heads in regardless of who is in power at the federal level.

“We could swing in a few years … there are many red districts in California,” said Garcia. “It changes what happens as far as funding and commitments to education when we change political leanings.”
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21/05/2025
‘Looking at the whole child’: State leaders discuss ways to improve students’ mental health

Credit: Alison Yin/EdSource

Bringing more mental health professionals onto campuses, training teachers and reducing negative stigmas surrounding mental illness are critical to students’ wellbeing, according to experts at Friday’s Select Committee on School Climate and Student Safety meeting.

From kindergarteners to high school seniors, students across California are still struggling with mental health challenges in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic — and districts across the state have come up with various strategies to provide support.

“We need to shed light on the current state of student mental health, identify key challenges and explore potential solutions,” said State Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), who led the discussion.

Mental health challenges

While most of society has moved on from the Covid-19 pandemic, a large proportion of students have not.

“A lot of us — not only children, but adults as well — we became a lot more isolated,” said Jonathan Wicks, a social worker at YWCA San Gabriel Valley, at Friday’s hearing. “Now that we’re all reintegrating back into social spaces, a lot of times, it’s not as easy to connect, and so that connectedness that belongingness isn’t always there.”

Most mental health conditions start to manifest when someone is in their youth or young adulthood; Jeannine Topalian, former president of California Association of School Psychologists, who also serves on the California’s Advisory Commission on Special Education, cited an ACLU report which found that more than 63% of students reported experiencing an emotional meltdown, while nearly half said they were depressed.

Wicks added that over the past few years, young people have increasingly turned to marijuana and other substances to cope, which has led some to “over indulging and going into psychosis.”

Mental health staff

Schools often don’t have the staffing and resources to support struggling students.

According to Topalian, there are 1,041 students for every school psychologist in California and 7,308 students for every social worker.

“There are six year olds out there who are in crisis today, who are in need of a lot of support from mental health professionals,” she said. “And what better place than a school where that’s the hub of the community to provide these services.”

Mental health professionals at schools are overwhelmed with hefty caseloads which makes it harder to pay attention to students’ individual needs or to take a more preventative approach.

Loretta Whitson, executive director of the California Association of School Counselors, said that some progress has been made in California’s counselor-to-student ratio. In the 2012-13 academic year, the ratio was 826 students to one counselor. Now, it’s roughly half that.

“I think 800 would be more like urgent care. We’re responding to crises,” she said. “….When you have 400, then you are able to do comprehensive strategic work.”

The national suggestion is a 250:1 ratio, she added.

“We’re not where we want to be…., but we’re moving in the right direction,” Whitson said, adding that there are more counseling services in elementary schools now, where students start learning social skills and ways to cope.

Fifty percent of all school counselors nationwide in California, and 33 university programs in the state are turning out new counselors, Whitson added.

A ‘first line of defense’: involving teachers

Involving teachers is a critical support for students in their mental health challenges, the speakers agreed.

Kim Griffin Esperon, a project director of Mental Health & School Counseling at the Los Angeles County Office of Education, emphasized the importance of creating step-by-step protocols that teachers and staff can be trained to implement.

Teachers should also be provided with guidelines to help them spot signs of depression, and their input should always be considered, Topalian said.

“We often tell teachers or staff what to do. It’s very important to think about asking them what they need and where their skill set is before we implement or develop programs,” she said. “They need to be part of the process rather than being the people who are in the frontline trying to do this work for our students.”

Off campus

Reducing the stigma around mental illness is also critical to students accessing support, the speakers agreed.

“Traditionally, schools and communities have understood mental health supports and services to be necessarily only for those students who have been identified as having a mental health disorder, or they have assumed that all students experiencing mental health challenges require intensive mental health interventions,” Esperon said.

“Fortunately, our understanding has evolved to refocus our attention on prevention and earlier identification of students who are struggling as well as referral to the appropriate level of services to meet students’ needs.”

Wicks said there are several intergenerational families in the San Gabriel Valley — which can make it harder for students to access support because of varied attitudes toward mental health support and counseling.

“I could see the challenge, you know, for the youth to hear the information and maybe want to move in that direction [of seeking help],” Wicks said. “But when they would go home and have those discussions, they would kind of come back with a ‘No thank you.’”

He added that youth advisory opportunities, where students can interact with one another, can be particularly helpful. And some districts have explored peer-to-peer counseling, which can also reduce students’ feelings of isolation.

Other ways to expand access

The Los Angeles Unified School District has attempted to expand community outreach to reduce stigmas around mental illness — while using Telehealth options to provide students with mental health supports, according to the district’s Administrator of Student Health and Human Services Joel Cisneros.

He said LAUSD also has its own psychiatric emergency response team, which intervenes in crises where students could harm themselves or someone else.

“[It’s] going beyond the idea that we’re just producing students to an academic process in order to graduate and to be successful,” Whitson said. “It’s also looking at the whole child. And that shift in perspective, I think, is really contributing to some of the changes that we’re trying to do.”

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20/05/2025
Trump proposals for students with disabilities create confusion and fear
Students rely on an array of services in special education classes.

Christopher Futcher/iStock
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A proposal for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to oversee special education draws criticism.

Trump has promised stable levels of funding for special education, but critics worry about his plan to reduce oversight of those funds.

Advocates worry that a “brain drain” from the U.S. Department of Education could weaken the quality of education for students with disabilities nationally.
Javier Arroyo has been impressed with the education his 9-year-old son with a disability receives.

“This country provides so many resources,” said Arroyo, whose son attends Kern County’s Richland School District.

Arroyo’s wife has family in Mexico, but he believes his son, who has Down syndrome, is better served here than he’d be in most other countries because of the services he receives: “We don’t have resources like this in Mexico.”

But because of changes happening at the federal level, he said, it’s hard to tell what education will look like for his son.

Arroyo has heard that federal cuts are already affecting disabled students and that President Donald Trump has proposed moving oversight of special education from the U.S. Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services. Local school leaders have told him that they also don’t have much clarity about how special education is likely to change.

“It’s confusing right now, what’s going on federally,” Arroyo said. “Not even experts really know.”

Arroyo isn’t alone. There are 850,000 students with disabilities in California. These students, their parents and educators in California say they have a lot of questions — and serious concerns — about federal proposals that could transform the way schools deliver education to students with disabilities.

Saran Tugsjargal, 18, is a high school senior and one of the first students to sit on the state’s Advisory Council for Special Education. She said her own initial response to moving special education outside the U.S. Department of Education was confusion: “I was like, ‘What the flip?’”

Tugsjargal attends Alameda Community Learning Center, a charter school in the Bay Area, and she often hears from students like her who have disabilities. Many have told her they are confused and fearful about how the proposed federal changes could affect their education.

“A lot of my peers at my school were very scared. They were terrified,” she said. “They were just like, ‘What’s going to happen to me? What’s going to happen to my parents, who need to fight for those accommodation services? What’s going to happen to a lot of us?’ There’s a lot of fear.”

Education for students with disabilities has historically received broad support across party lines. The federal government provides approximately 8% of special education funding. That’s a critical amount, though it falls well short of the original 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) promise that the federal government would pay 40% of special education funding.

Because of that bipartisan support, most experts believe that federal funding for special education isn’t at serious risk right now. However, they say that other changes proposed by this administration could adversely impact students with disabilities.

Reg Leichty, the founder of Foresight Law + Policy, an education law firm in Washington, is one of those experts.

“I said often the last few weeks, ‘Don’t over or underreact,’” Leichty said. “But we have a job to do making sure that the system continues to work for kids.”

In his budget, Trump proposes keeping federal funding for special education at current levels — $15.5 billion nationally — while consolidating funding streams, which would reduce oversight and give more control to local governance.

His proposal to dismantle the Department of Education requires moving oversight of special education to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which previously oversaw the education of students with disabilities.

“IDEA funding for our children with disabilities and special needs was in place before there was a Department of Education, and it managed to work incredibly well,” U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon told a Fox News host.

In an April 4 letter to the California congressional delegation, California administrators of Special Education Local Plan Areas, or SELPAs, vehemently disagreed, stating that the proposal undermines the rights of students with disabilities and jeopardizes key funding and resources for these students.

Scott Turner, chair of SELPA Administrators of California, wrote that moving oversight of the education of students with disabilities to a health department “reinforces an outdated and ableist, deficit-based model where disabilities are considered as medical conditions to be managed rather than recognizing that students with disabilities are capable learners, each with unique strengths and educational potential.”

Including students with disabilities in the general education classroom to the maximum extent possible is the model that the Department of Education has aimed at over the decades.

Before the passage of the IDEA, students with disabilities were routinely institutionalized or undereducated, if they were offered a public education at all, according to Robyn Linscott, director of education and family policy for The Arc, a national advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Moving special education to a health agency “promotes this medical model and continues the othering of students with a disability,” Linscott said.

Arroyo wants to see his 9-year-old included in more general education classes, such as physical education, and activities like field trips. High staffing ratios make this kind of inclusion possible, ensuring the quality of his son’s education. His son is in a class with nine students, three aides and one teacher. He worries federal cuts could have major consequences for his son and others in his class.

“I couldn’t imagine if (the teacher) even lost one aide,” Arroyo said.

The Coalition for Adequate Funding for Special Education has come out in support of a federal bill that would keep the U.S. Department of Education intact and free from any restructuring, according to the organization’s chair, Anthony Rebelo.

“We want to make sure that folks understand students with disabilities are still students, that they don’t just get lumped with disabled people,” said Rebelo, who is also the director of the Trinity County Special Education Local Plan Area.

Joshua Salas, a special education coordinator at a charter school, Alliance Renee and Meyer Luskin Academy in Los Angeles, worries that the quality of education for students with disabilities will be “put on the back burner” and that there won’t be enough federal oversight to make sure schools are serving students with disabilities.

“What I’m worried about are the long-term implications,” said Salas. “I’m wondering about what will get lost in the transition.”

Education attorney Leichty said it’s hard to know what education for students with disabilities would look like under a new department, but he worries about the “brain drain” of experts from the Department of Education who view education as a civil right.

“Over time, could it be made to work? Certainly,” Leichty said. “But I think there’s a major loss of institutional knowledge and expertise when you try to pursue a change like this.”

He said Trump’s executive order to close the Department of Education acknowledges that the Constitution limits the ability of the executive branch to do so without congressional approval.

The federal Department of Education and other federal offices, including the Department of Health and Human Services, have already experienced wide-scale cuts proposed by the “Department of Government Efficiency.”

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) lost half of its staff, including shuttering the San Francisco-based office dedicated to California complaints, which had over 700 pending cases, more than half involving disability rights. A spokesperson for the administration said that it will use mediation and expedited case processing to address disability-related complaints. Those cuts have been challenged in court.

Advocates are concerned that doubling the caseload for existing staff means there will be a federal backlog of complaints, weakening enforcement.

Student advocate Tugsjargal has been telling students with disabilities and their parents to call their legislators and attend town hall meetings and public rallies to protest Trump’s proposals.

“When we talk with each other about our stories, when we speak out, we learn a lot from each other,” she said. “We drive a lot of change.”
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19/05/2025
Why do college students choose summer school?

“I’m kind of a dork, and I feel like it took me a long time to get my undergraduate degree,” said Romano, who is taking multicultural psychology and sociological theory. “Now that I’ve got some momentum, I just don’t want to stop learning. I just want to keep going.”

Although Romano was able to find her academic mojo, it wasn’t easy. It took her 10 years to get that undergraduate degree.

“It was a really difficult journey for me. Stopping and going and dropping out. Having financial things and self-doubt,” Romano said. “In my late 20s, I was finally able to really want it. It was all intrinsic, you know, for me to better myself and the community.”

Romano is now using that momentum to complete her master’s degree. She also plans to pursue a second master’s degree to become a marriage and family therapist for people of color.

“I think with Latinx and people of color getting mental (health care), it’s so cultural and historical,” Romano said. “There’s so much nuance to (providing appropriate care) that unless you really study it, how can anyone make a difference?”

Romano feels there are pros and cons to taking summer classes. She looks forward to learning and doing the work. On the other hand, the summer heat is something she would rather do without.

“It’s really hot right now,” Romano said. “Both of my classes are online, so it’s easy for me to log in, but I’m on campus right now because I need to get out of my apartment.”

Reported by Xavier Zamora

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18/05/2025
Harmony Project: Harnessing the power of music to boost LAUSD students

The Harmony Projects offer free music education to low-income children in Los Angeles.

credit: the Harmony Project

When Rigoberto Sanchez-Mejia was just 5 years old, he started taking music lessons at the Harmony Project in Los Angeles. He started out on the drums and the piano, but as soon as he picked up the violin, he knew he had found his instrument.

“Once I found the violin, that was it. It’s a big part of me,” said the soft-spoken 17-year-old who’s planning to study biochemistry at UC San Diego in the fall. “It was love at first sight.”

Getting their first instrument is an emotionally stirring experience for many children, but for the low-income students served by the Harmony Project, it’s often a life-changing event as well. Amid the youth mental health crisis in the wake of the pandemic, some find that music can be soothing as well as intellectually enriching.

“I feel like it calms me down,” said Sanchez-Mejia, who plays jazz, classical and mariachi music with his beloved stringed instrument. “The best way I can explain it is sort of when everything is going a bit crazy in my head, there’s a bit too much going on, the violin is just able to calm those down a bit, so I can focus. I’m not worrying about 10 things at once.”

At Harmony, music is an art form and a lifeline that helps pave the way for college. The largest nonprofit music education organization in Los Angeles, serving Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD) as well as Compton and South Central among other areas, boasts a staggering 97% high school graduation rate. Roughly 79% of these young artists also become first-generation college students despite the myriad obstacles caused by poverty and worsened by the pandemic.

Students learn music and more at the Harmony Project in Los Angeles.
credit: the Harmony Project

“It’s rough,” said Executive Director Natalie Jackson. “The last two years we have been seeing kids with so much more anxiety, so much more struggle, so much more loneliness.”

Founded by Margaret Martin in 2001 primarily as a public health intervention, the Harmony Project gives the children of the city’s hardscrabble neighborhoods access to free music education. The core belief here, that music lessons sharpen brain function, setting the stage for academic success, was famously studied by neuroscientist Nina Kraus. Giving children in poverty, who are at a far greater risk of dropping out of school than their higher-income peers, a cognitive boost early on can have a lasting impact on the course of their lives.

“Harmony has changed my life,” said Sanchez-Mejia. “It introduced me to the world of music, and through that I made so many connections and met so many people that really helped set the path I take now, going to college, having the escape of music, and being able to get opportunities others may not.”

Sanchez-Mejia is one of more than 4,000 students enrolled in this research-backed arts education initiative, which taps into the neuroscience of music to spark learning. Playing an instrument strengthens the brain’s ability to capture the depth and richness of language, experts say, boosting the cornerstone skill of literacy. Music is the key that unlocks the brain’s full potential.

“Music education and empowering youth to connect through music is at the core of everything we do at the Harmony Project,” said Jackson. “We envision a world where all youth have equal access to opportunities to make music and the resources needed to thrive in college and beyond.”

Discipline is among the program’s grace notes. Children pursue music for years, from K to 12, helping them develop a dogged sense of persistence and keen commitment to their craft and ambitions in music and beyond. That’s partly because the ability to focus for extended periods of time, a mandatory skill in music class, also buttresses all other academic pursuits.

Wellness is another chord woven throughout the program. In addition to receiving an instrument to take home and free music classes, students also gain access to social services, from food to mental health care. During the pandemic, Harmony tried to provide whatever its families needed.

“Our model is very holistic,” said Jackson. “We’re not just looking at a kid for an hour a day and focusing on whether or not they can play an A major scale. We’re looking to see how we can help the entire family in some way. Once we commit to a community, we really try to stay. Once a child is in our program, we commit for their entire childhood.”

Children study music at the Harmony Project in Los Angeles.
credit: the Harmony Project

Jackson notes that most students now seem a year or two behind where they were before the pandemic. That learning loss hurts their ability to grasp music concepts initially, but she notes the music lessons also help them catch up.

“Our third-graders aren’t really third-graders,” she said, “they are more like second-graders or first-graders.”

She also sees more families now in which older children must find a job to make ends meet. That cuts into time for music, not to mention school.

“It used to take two incomes to put food on the table, now sometimes it takes three,” said Jackson. “If they have to change their schedule to pick up an extra shift at Taco Bell, we try to accommodate them.”

Guillermo Tejeda, a jazz musician and educator, said that Harmony’s immersive approach to music education mixed with community outreach has inspired his own work with LA’s Neighborhood Orchestra.

I “highly respect their work in providing music education to underprivileged children,” said Tejada. “Their holistic approach fosters community, discipline, and personal growth, leading to transformative academic results.”

Others applaud the program’s embrace of rigor and research, the core of the science of learning, as well as empathy.

“I’m impressed with the scope and reach of the Harmony Project,” said Merryl Goldberg, a veteran music and arts professor at Cal State San Marcos. “Building trusting relationships, this to me is fundamental to any success in life, and is often overlooked as a core component of a program. Compassion is crucial to a healthy community.”

Rigoberto Sanchez-Mejia learned to love the violin through the Harmony Project
credit: Harmony Project

In an age of distraction, experts say the power of sustained concentration, honed through musical training, often boosts scholastic achievement.

Sanchez-Mejia has studied at Harmony for 12 years, taking part in the youth orchestra as well as helping mentor younger students while also getting on the honor roll at school. He credits Harmony with setting him on the path to college and helping him find his footing along the way.

As a first-generation college student, practicality is top of mind. That’s why he initially struggled with whether to major in music or science at UCSD.

“It is a little scary being the first one to go to college in my family since I don’t really have anyone that I can rely on in my family,” he said, “and instead I have to go out my way to find my own resources.”

In the end, he decided on a science major, but he says he’ll still play the violin 10-12 hours a week. He’s also hoping to snag a spot with Orange County’s Synesthesia Sinfonietta during college, even though it’s a brutal commute.

“I ended up picking biochemistry mostly because it felt a little safer for my future, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving music behind at all,” he said.”I love the violin.”

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17/05/2025