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"content": "\u003cp>Santa Rosa students, parents and teachers remain torn on solutions for making their schools safer. It has now been more than a month since the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosa-student-16-fatally-stabbed-in-montgomery-high-school-classroom/\">fatal stabbing in an art classroom at Santa Rosa’s Montgomery High School\u003c/a>, and differing approaches to police presence and overall supervision are being heard in school board meetings, student organizing groups and a new school safety advisory group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many parents and teachers look toward reinstating safety resource officers (SROs), students are emphasizing a need for expanded mental health resources, deescalation training and increased funding for restorative justice programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SROs — armed officers with the Santa Rosa Police Department who patrolled high school campuses and had the power to make arrests — were removed from all campuses by the Santa Rosa City Schools District in 2020, in the wake of nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think that [SROs] are the best method of creating a safer campus,” Montgomery junior Vianna Laham told KQED. “I would rather there be more therapists and campus supervisors because there already isn’t enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On March 1, Montgomery freshman Daniel Pulido, 15, stabbed 16-year-old junior Jayden Pienta during a classroom fight. Pulido, who has been in juvenile detention since the killing, was expected to be arraigned on charges of voluntary manslaughter on March 30, but that hearing has been postponed until May 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of the school week after the incident was canceled, and the following week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942769/school-safety-talks-planned-day-after-santa-rosa-student-walkout-over-fatal-campus-stabbing\">hundreds of students participated in walkouts, marches and demands for action\u003c/a> at every major high school within the district. Hundreds of students, parents and staff \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosa-students-parents-school-staff-plead-for-stronger-response-to-s/\">also came together at an evening listening session\u003c/a>, where they pleaded with district officials to do more to safeguard schools against violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11942769 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63500__DSC4814-qut-1020x766.jpg']North Bay Organizing Project organizer Joy Ayodele has been working with students from the start to help them organize walkouts and solidify their demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather than investment in SROs, they were thinking that they need further investment in mental health services on campus,” said Ayodele, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomamag.com/meet-18-year-old-community-organizer-joy-ayodele/\">organized her first demonstration in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, when she was just 18\u003c/a>. “Not just the typical school counselors that they have but actual mental health professionals that are able to offer them that assistance on campus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each high school in the district has what Superintendent Anna Trunnell calls a “multitiered system of support” counselor, a college and career counselor, one school-based therapist and one mental health counselor specifically to help with academic anxieties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laham says to her knowledge there is only one permanent therapist for Montgomery High’s campus of 1,600 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘I am fully in support of police on campus’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DCyxqmDueU\">board meeting March 29\u003c/a>, many parents showed their support for officers on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am fully in support of police on campus and embedded in the school setting starting in kindergarten,” said parent Sarah Jenkins during public comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montgomery High teacher Margret Buhn told the school board about how a student in one of her classes was worried they were going to get jumped by their fellow classmates two weeks after the stabbing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buhn and the student’s family wrote emails to the administration and superintendent Trunnell, yet said they were told little could be done. On March 27, the student was attacked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a teacher, I want to protect my students, and I tried to do just that,” Buhn said at the board meeting. “As teachers collectively, we feel desperation to address this. I asked in my email last night if we had learned anything from the tragedy that had just happened. In light of this incident, I feel we have not learned enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘I’m not hearing students root for SROs’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa students district-wide share a similar sentiment, and in their \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/11VOsXzwV5U-ivt1ebuWXftIXBcg7aWDc1HPs578vTXY/edit?pli=1\">list of demands\u003c/a> say their district has failed them. But Ayodele says the students aren’t asking for quick fixes or police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not hearing students root for SROs or anything along those lines. I’m hearing them present actual, you know, initiatives that they want to support,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Ayodele, students at Montgomery want more funding for their restorative justice programs. She says these programs are underfunded and students are on waitlists district-wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I had the power, I would add trained [administrators] to the campus who have the capability to assess a situation quickly or prevent it,” Montgomery sophomore Lyla Snyder told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946067\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946067\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A group of students who appear to be high school aged stand together outside with trees in the background and one visible sign on white paper with red ink, reading 'we will get jutice'\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut-1536x1153.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students participate in a walkout at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa on March 6, in the wake of the fatal March 1 stabbing of 16-year-old Jayden Pienta in an art classroom. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the weeks following the stabbing, Superintendent Trunnell issued a series of action items, including temporary counseling services and the introduction of a safety advisory group, which held its first meeting on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Safety Advisory Roundtable (SART), a 30-member body made up of students, parents, teachers, school staff and community members and facilitated by Trunnell, will discuss solutions and action related to the four pillars the district lists on its website: safety and security, mental health and counseling, communication and transparency, and facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SROs will be a pressing item on the group’s agenda, and Trunnell said decisions made about their potential return will be up to the committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will not see SROs come back in the way they were previously,” Trunnell told KQED. “I believe that from this work, we will more than likely place a recommendation before the school board on a type of position more focused on safety and security.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trunnell is still unsure about what that will look like, but said SART is working toward making recommendations ahead of school board meetings, with the next one on April 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>North Bay Organizing Project organizer Joy Ayodele has been working with students from the start to help them organize walkouts and solidify their demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather than investment in SROs, they were thinking that they need further investment in mental health services on campus,” said Ayodele, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomamag.com/meet-18-year-old-community-organizer-joy-ayodele/\">organized her first demonstration in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, when she was just 18\u003c/a>. “Not just the typical school counselors that they have but actual mental health professionals that are able to offer them that assistance on campus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each high school in the district has what Superintendent Anna Trunnell calls a “multitiered system of support” counselor, a college and career counselor, one school-based therapist and one mental health counselor specifically to help with academic anxieties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laham says to her knowledge there is only one permanent therapist for Montgomery High’s campus of 1,600 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘I am fully in support of police on campus’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DCyxqmDueU\">board meeting March 29\u003c/a>, many parents showed their support for officers on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am fully in support of police on campus and embedded in the school setting starting in kindergarten,” said parent Sarah Jenkins during public comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montgomery High teacher Margret Buhn told the school board about how a student in one of her classes was worried they were going to get jumped by their fellow classmates two weeks after the stabbing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buhn and the student’s family wrote emails to the administration and superintendent Trunnell, yet said they were told little could be done. On March 27, the student was attacked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a teacher, I want to protect my students, and I tried to do just that,” Buhn said at the board meeting. “As teachers collectively, we feel desperation to address this. I asked in my email last night if we had learned anything from the tragedy that had just happened. In light of this incident, I feel we have not learned enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘I’m not hearing students root for SROs’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa students district-wide share a similar sentiment, and in their \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/11VOsXzwV5U-ivt1ebuWXftIXBcg7aWDc1HPs578vTXY/edit?pli=1\">list of demands\u003c/a> say their district has failed them. But Ayodele says the students aren’t asking for quick fixes or police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not hearing students root for SROs or anything along those lines. I’m hearing them present actual, you know, initiatives that they want to support,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Ayodele, students at Montgomery want more funding for their restorative justice programs. She says these programs are underfunded and students are on waitlists district-wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I had the power, I would add trained [administrators] to the campus who have the capability to assess a situation quickly or prevent it,” Montgomery sophomore Lyla Snyder told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946067\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946067\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A group of students who appear to be high school aged stand together outside with trees in the background and one visible sign on white paper with red ink, reading 'we will get jutice'\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS63508__DSC4787-qut-1536x1153.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students participate in a walkout at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa on March 6, in the wake of the fatal March 1 stabbing of 16-year-old Jayden Pienta in an art classroom. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the weeks following the stabbing, Superintendent Trunnell issued a series of action items, including temporary counseling services and the introduction of a safety advisory group, which held its first meeting on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Safety Advisory Roundtable (SART), a 30-member body made up of students, parents, teachers, school staff and community members and facilitated by Trunnell, will discuss solutions and action related to the four pillars the district lists on its website: safety and security, mental health and counseling, communication and transparency, and facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SROs will be a pressing item on the group’s agenda, and Trunnell said decisions made about their potential return will be up to the committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will not see SROs come back in the way they were previously,” Trunnell told KQED. “I believe that from this work, we will more than likely place a recommendation before the school board on a type of position more focused on safety and security.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trunnell is still unsure about what that will look like, but said SART is working toward making recommendations ahead of school board meetings, with the next one on April 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "End of an Era: Last Remaining Unhoused Residents at Oakland's Wood Street Commons Getting Evicted",
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"content": "\u003cp>Around 60 people living in RVs and trailers at the Wood Street Commons — a settlement of unhoused people in West Oakland — will soon have to leave. The city plans to begin evictions April 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many residents, some of whom have lived there for more than a decade, described it as a profound loss for Oakland’s unhoused community. Residents at the Commons have built the space into a resource hub, complete with a communal kitchen, outdoor meeting areas, a free store and storage facilities, among other amenities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m afraid of what’s going to happen to people if we’re not here to provide this sanctuary,” said Masoud Saberi, one of the Commons’ earliest residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After losing his home to foreclosure a decade ago, he found himself living in his car in North Oakland, and later moved to the vacant, city-owned plot of land across from Raimondi Park at 1707 Wood Street, where the Commons is now. He helped build a community there.[aside postID=news_11940107 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1-1020x765.jpg']“I’m thinking back to when I was lost, and when I was looking for that foundation, that comfort,” he said, choking back tears. “I was lucky enough to experience it. So, I pray it’s not lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commons is the last remaining vestige of the much larger Wood Street settlement, which, until last year, was home to around 300 people. It stretched for more than a mile under Interstate 880 on land owned by Caltrans, BNSF railway, private individuals and the city of Oakland. In September, Caltrans evicted residents from the land it owns, citing safety concerns, after a fire on July 11 sent plumes of black smoke onto the freeway above, stopping traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commons was spared because it sits on city-owned land. But residents knew their days there were limited. City officials have long planned to build 171 affordable for-sale and rental housing units at 1707 Wood Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city purchased the lot in 2007 as part of a larger redevelopment that authorized around 1,500 new homes and apartments in the surrounding area. The 2008 foreclosure crisis slowed the city’s plans to build affordable housing there, and it wasn’t until 2018 that officials entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with a developer for the lot.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Masoud Saberi, Wood Street Commons resident\"]‘I’m thinking back to when I was lost, and when I was looking for that foundation, that comfort. I was lucky enough to experience it. So, I pray it’s not lost.’[/pullquote]Then, last year, the city secured two grants from the state, totaling $8.3 million, to relocate residents of the Commons to a new temporary shelter a few blocks away. The site, which will ultimately consist of 70 “tuff sheds,” opened in February. City officials have also said residents are being offered spots at a safe RV parking site in East Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many residents said they didn’t want to live in East Oakland, so far from the community they’ve built at the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People here have already been pushed out of so many other places,” said Lydia Blumberg, a resident of the Commons. “It’s given us a common kind of passion for community and being part of community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other residents expressed concern about going into the tuff sheds, where typical stays are limited to no more than six months. An audit last year of the city’s homelessness services found \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandauditor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/20220919_Performance-Audit_The-City-of-Oaklands-Homelessness-Services_Final.pdf\">fewer than a third of the people who went into these tuff sheds got into permanent housing\u003c/a>. The majority remained unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, going into the tuff sheds means giving up the one stable home many of the residents have come to rely on — their RVs and trailers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945430\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11945430\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"An African American man with a yellow rain jacket and dreadlocks records an eviction notice with his phone.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street Commons resident John Janosko records a live video to Instagram announcing that the eviction notices had been posted, on March 30, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I could be kicked out, back on the street with a tent,” said Ramona Choyce, who’s lived at Wood Street for around six years. “If I got my trailer, then I’ll be sheltered. I don’t know if they understand that clearly, but it’s important because I hate the cold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choyce said that doesn’t mean she would turn down permanent housing; it’s the uncertainty she fears. And, it’s a big reason people don’t want to leave the Commons — they’ve found stability there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need stability,” said John Janosko, a resident of the Commons and one of its leaders. “Once you get stability, then you get everything else that comes along with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took residents here a decade to build that stability, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re destroying something that took so long [to build],” Janosko said. “All this stuff — these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’m thinking back to when I was lost, and when I was looking for that foundation, that comfort,” he said, choking back tears. “I was lucky enough to experience it. So, I pray it’s not lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commons is the last remaining vestige of the much larger Wood Street settlement, which, until last year, was home to around 300 people. It stretched for more than a mile under Interstate 880 on land owned by Caltrans, BNSF railway, private individuals and the city of Oakland. In September, Caltrans evicted residents from the land it owns, citing safety concerns, after a fire on July 11 sent plumes of black smoke onto the freeway above, stopping traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commons was spared because it sits on city-owned land. But residents knew their days there were limited. City officials have long planned to build 171 affordable for-sale and rental housing units at 1707 Wood Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city purchased the lot in 2007 as part of a larger redevelopment that authorized around 1,500 new homes and apartments in the surrounding area. The 2008 foreclosure crisis slowed the city’s plans to build affordable housing there, and it wasn’t until 2018 that officials entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with a developer for the lot.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Then, last year, the city secured two grants from the state, totaling $8.3 million, to relocate residents of the Commons to a new temporary shelter a few blocks away. The site, which will ultimately consist of 70 “tuff sheds,” opened in February. City officials have also said residents are being offered spots at a safe RV parking site in East Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many residents said they didn’t want to live in East Oakland, so far from the community they’ve built at the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People here have already been pushed out of so many other places,” said Lydia Blumberg, a resident of the Commons. “It’s given us a common kind of passion for community and being part of community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other residents expressed concern about going into the tuff sheds, where typical stays are limited to no more than six months. An audit last year of the city’s homelessness services found \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandauditor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/20220919_Performance-Audit_The-City-of-Oaklands-Homelessness-Services_Final.pdf\">fewer than a third of the people who went into these tuff sheds got into permanent housing\u003c/a>. The majority remained unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, going into the tuff sheds means giving up the one stable home many of the residents have come to rely on — their RVs and trailers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945430\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11945430\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"An African American man with a yellow rain jacket and dreadlocks records an eviction notice with his phone.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/IMG_4577-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street Commons resident John Janosko records a live video to Instagram announcing that the eviction notices had been posted, on March 30, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I could be kicked out, back on the street with a tent,” said Ramona Choyce, who’s lived at Wood Street for around six years. “If I got my trailer, then I’ll be sheltered. I don’t know if they understand that clearly, but it’s important because I hate the cold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choyce said that doesn’t mean she would turn down permanent housing; it’s the uncertainty she fears. And, it’s a big reason people don’t want to leave the Commons — they’ve found stability there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need stability,” said John Janosko, a resident of the Commons and one of its leaders. “Once you get stability, then you get everything else that comes along with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took residents here a decade to build that stability, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re destroying something that took so long [to build],” Janosko said. “All this stuff — these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Is About to Require Ethnic Studies in High School. Should Teachers Get Special Training to Teach It?",
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"content": "\u003cp>On a rainy Friday afternoon at Santa Monica High School, ethnic studies teacher Marisa Silvestri introduced her class to the rap song \"Kenji.\" As singer Mike Shinoda narrated his family’s experiences in the Japanese American incarceration camps of World War II, Silvestri’s class fell silent. After the last bars of music had filled the room, the class set to work analyzing the song’s lyrics, agreeing that Shinoda humanized a historical event some students previously knew little about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now in her second year of teaching ethnic studies, Silvestri said she has gone through several iterations of her curriculum — and she expects more changes to come. She has studied California’s ethnic studies model curriculum, attended workshops at local universities and sought the advice of ethnic studies teachers from other school districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Silvestri has never received a teaching credential in ethnic studies. Whether that’s important or not is a question California officials are weighing, now that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2021/10/ethnic-studies-requirement/\">the state has become the first in the nation to require that high school students take at least one semester of ethnic studies\u003c/a> before graduation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California needs more ethnic studies teachers, quickly. Under the new law, passed in 2021, high schools must begin offering ethnic studies courses in the 2025–26 school year, and students in the class of 2030 will be the first ones subject to the graduation requirement. As many high schools expand their course offerings ahead of schedule, universities are grappling with how best to prepare the next generation of teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some advocates and educators have called for the creation of a specific ethnic studies credential authorizing educators to teach the relatively new and politically fraught subject in middle and high schools. They say that without such a credential, the state risks having low-quality classes that can do more harm than good. But others worry that an additional requirement may make it even harder for the schools to find teachers for the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State regulations allow teachers with a social science credential to teach ethnic studies, said Jonathon Howard, government relations manager for California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing. However, when ethnic studies is combined with other subjects, such as reading or art, teachers from other subject areas are also eligible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have all these teachers who have great hearts, who are really social justice-minded, who really want to do ethnic studies because they’re thinking about themselves as, 'I’m a culturally responsive teacher,'\" said Theresa Montaño, professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California State University, Northridge\u003c/span>. \"But that isn’t enough to give you the knowledge you need.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ideally, Montaño said, teachers should have an undergraduate degree in ethnic studies, plus an ethnic studies credential that would show them how to translate their expertise into classroom curriculum.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" tag=\"ethnic-studies\"]Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo agrees. In February, she \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1255\">introduced legislation requiring the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to begin creating an ethnic studies credential by 2025\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The social science credential program does not cover ethnic studies sufficiently,\" Carrillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said by email. \"We maintain that at the present time there is no existing credential that sufficiently covers the depth and breadth of the multidisciplinary nature of Ethnic Studies.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission would need authorization from the Legislature to begin developing a new credential, Howard said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, some school districts say the current flexibility around teacher requirements has worked to their benefit, allowing them to expand their ethnic studies course offerings ahead of schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa City Schools has been offering ethnic studies courses since 2020 and will require students in the class of 2025 to have taken a full year of the subject before graduation. Because several classes, from English to dance, incorporate ethnic studies into the course material, all teachers are eligible to teach the subject, said Tim Zalunardo, executive director of educational services. He added that this approach makes it easier for the school to recruit teachers who are excited and willing to teach ethnic studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It provides flexibility on both the students and on the school’s course offerings,\" Zalunardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A controversial subject\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Debates around ethnic studies are nothing new.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ethnic studies began at San Francisco State University in the late 1960s as students pushed for the creation of classes dedicated to studying the histories and cultures of people of color. As the subject gained momentum — and criticism — across the nation, advocates began to push for its inclusion in K–12 schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, after two years of drafting and heated debate, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/esmcpreface.pdf\">the State Board of Education adopted an ethnic studies model curriculum (PDF)\u003c/a> that focuses primarily on the untold \"histories, cultures, struggles, and contributions\" of Black, Latino, Native American and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Although districts are not required to use the curriculum, it provides schools with guidance on how to implement the subject and offers sample lessons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later that year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the new graduation requirement into law, even as parents and \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-28/ethnic-studies-slammed-as-anti-white-in-orange-county\">school board members denounced ethnic studies in Orange County\u003c/a> and other areas of the state. Future teachers still remain divided on the necessity of the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christine Soliva, a graduate student in UC Riverside’s teacher education program, said some of her peers critiqued an ethnic studies class they took in the fall, challenging the importance of incorporating an ethnic studies framework into their math or science courses. She added that while she would pursue an ethnic studies credential if it were available, she is unsure whether other teacher candidates would be equally receptive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It really is just like, are educators willing to take that next step to be able to think outside the box and challenge themselves and their ideals to look at curriculum and content through an ethnic studies lens?\" Soliva said.[pullquote size='medium' align='left' citation=\"Christine Soliva, graduate student, UC Riverside\"]'It really is just like, are educators willing to take that next step to be able to think outside the box and challenge themselves and their ideals to look at curriculum and content through an ethnic studies lens?'[/pullquote]Former Assemblymember Jose Medina, who authored the legislation requiring ethnic studies in high schools, said he does not believe the controversy around the subject will prevent state leaders from having necessary conversations about how best to prepare teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think, despite the controversy, the state will be well-prepared to have teachers in place by the time of the requirement,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone shares Medina’s optimism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As hundreds of high schools begin rolling out new courses in the coming years, the state may face a shortage of ethnic studies teachers, said Lange Luntao, director of external relations at The Education Trust–West, a nonprofit that advocates for educational equity. Ethnic studies graduation requirements are already in effect at some of the state’s large school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Diego Unified and Fresno Unified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think one fear is that we’re going to open up enrollment for ethnic studies classes, and not have enough educators who have experience with this content,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Preparing future teachers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the absence of an ethnic studies credential, California’s universities have developed a range of programs preparing students to teach the subject. Some offer classes on ethnic studies teaching methods and curriculum development, while others place students in ethnic studies classrooms to gain firsthand experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At UC Riverside, \u003ca href=\"https://education.ucr.edu/tep/ethnic-studies\">students earning their teaching credential can pursue an ethnic studies pathway\u003c/a> made up of elective courses dedicated to ethnic studies teaching methods and curricula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karl Molina, a UC Riverside master’s student earning his social sciences credential through the program, works as a student teacher of high school economics, sociology and government in the Riverside Unified School District. Earlier in the school year, Molina introduced a sociology lesson named after rapper Tupac Shakur’s poem \"The Rose That Grew from Concrete.\" He instructed his students to analyze Shakur’s poem and reflect on how the concepts of social and familial capital applied to their own lives. In discussions, students decided that capital was more than monetary wealth — it included the languages, cultures and aspirations that shaped their lives, Molina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They were really, really into it,\" Molina said. \"I was really excited to get going and move forward.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945394\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11945394 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123.png\" alt=\"A young Asian man wearing glasses, with thick black hair that comes to the tops of both ears, wears a dark jacket and white polo shirt as he looks at the camera with a steady gaze. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123.png 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123-1536x1024.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Karl Molina, 25, who teaches sociology with an emphasis on ethnic studies, stands near the classroom where he teaches at Ramona High School in Riverside on March 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But as a student teacher, Molina has limited control over the course curriculum and had to cut his lesson short. If he were teaching in an ethnic studies classroom as part of a formal ethnic studies credentialing program, he said, he might have had more freedom to pursue it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We’re not indoctrinating these students,\" Molina said. \"We’re just telling them, 'You have so much wealth. Here’s where your wealth is, and here’s what it does for you.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At San José State University, some students already have the opportunity to see ethnic studies taught in real time through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/teachered/docs/SJSU%20Ethnic%20Studies%20Residency%20Program%20Spring%202022.pdf\">Ethnic Studies Residency Program (PDF)\u003c/a>, which places students into an ethnic studies classroom for a full academic year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his residency at Evergreen Valley High School, Eduardo Zamora instructs his students to partner up, facing one another in concentric circles. He first asks students to answer a silly icebreaker — for example, \"Would you rather be in the history books or gossip magazines?\" — before moving onto questions about recent lessons. In one instance, he asked students to share one-minute reflections on the documentary \u003cem>Immigration Nation\u003c/em> and how it relates to their discussion on Central American migration and racism in the United States. The circles rotate so students talk to a new partner each time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They’re moving, they’re talking and it’s educational,\" said Zamora, a student in SJSU’s teacher education program who is pursuing a social sciences credential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he hopes to bring the same activity into his own ethnic studies classroom one day, adding that his residency has shown him the importance of building community and trust among his students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, while Zamora believes his residency program is preparing him well, he said an ethnic studies credential may be necessary for a widespread rollout of ethnic studies courses. Currently, SJSU’s residency program takes only three to four students a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"One of the students came up to us saying that our class was very diverse, bringing in perspectives of people of color. And then she mentioned that her history teacher … said it’s easier to teach history just through ‘the normal way,’ I guess the Eurocentric way,\" Zamora said. \"So I think a specific ethnic studies credential is probably needed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Training the current workforce\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As universities shape the next generation of ethnic studies teachers, districts are left with the challenge of preparing their current workforce to teach the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Elk Grove Unified School District, high schools have offered ethnic studies courses since 2020. But Robyn Rodriguez, a parent in the district and former Asian American studies professor at UC Davis, said she’s concerned that Sacramento-area schools may be placing social studies teachers in ethnic studies classrooms without adequate preparation for the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You either see very watered-down versions of ethnic studies, or ethnic studies being very nominally implemented,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez’s son is only in second grade, but she said she is already supplementing his language arts curriculum with other reading because the texts assigned were not from diverse authors. As for what ethnic studies might look like by the time her son reaches high school, Rodriguez said, \"I’m absolutely worried.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11945395 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123.png\" alt=\"A white-presenting woman with long, dark curly hair and wearing a green top gestures with both hands as she stands and talks in front of students.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123.png 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123-1536x1024.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marisa Silvestri talks with students during her ethnic studies class at Santa Monica High School in Los Angeles on March 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Lauren Justice/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Silvestri, the Santa Monica High School teacher, said she is torn about the necessity of an ethnic studies credential, adding that she would not want it to prevent interested and passionate teachers from teaching the subject. However, she said, the credential could help streamline the professional development opportunities she has needed to seek out independently over the past few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The University of California’s California History-Social Science Project works to support people like Silvestri who are teaching ethnic studies for the first time. Dominique Williams, the project’s ethnic studies coordinator, offers workshops educating teachers about the history of ethnic studies instruction and shows them how they can teach historical narratives from new perspectives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams draws on her own experience transitioning from teaching English and social studies to ethnic studies in the Sacramento City Unified School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In hindsight, I think that there is more training that I could have had, that I’m now trying to make sure that teachers are getting as they start their own journeys,\" Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the debate surrounding ethnic studies teacher preparation continues, Jayla Johnson-Lake, a sophomore at Santa Monica High School, said a passion for teaching is just as important as any credential. Johnson-Lake said Silvestri’s ethnic studies class has surpassed her expectations, introducing her to new facts, such as the details of Japanese concentration camps and how the Black Codes worked to restrict Black people’s rights in the post-Civil War era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I believe it’s important to have a teacher who wants to teach the class,\" Johnson-Lake said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Megan Tagami is a fellow with the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/projects/college-journalism-network/\">CalMatters College Journalism Network\u003c/a>, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. This story and other higher education coverage are supported by the College Futures Foundation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "California high school students will be required to pass an ethnic studies class to graduate, starting with the class of 2030. That means the state needs lots of new ethnic studies teachers. But do educators need a special credential to teach ethnic studies? Some ethnic studies advocates say allowing any social science teacher to instruct the subject will lead to watered-down and ineffective courses, while school districts argue that flexibility is important if they're going to fill the roles.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On a rainy Friday afternoon at Santa Monica High School, ethnic studies teacher Marisa Silvestri introduced her class to the rap song \"Kenji.\" As singer Mike Shinoda narrated his family’s experiences in the Japanese American incarceration camps of World War II, Silvestri’s class fell silent. After the last bars of music had filled the room, the class set to work analyzing the song’s lyrics, agreeing that Shinoda humanized a historical event some students previously knew little about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now in her second year of teaching ethnic studies, Silvestri said she has gone through several iterations of her curriculum — and she expects more changes to come. She has studied California’s ethnic studies model curriculum, attended workshops at local universities and sought the advice of ethnic studies teachers from other school districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Silvestri has never received a teaching credential in ethnic studies. Whether that’s important or not is a question California officials are weighing, now that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2021/10/ethnic-studies-requirement/\">the state has become the first in the nation to require that high school students take at least one semester of ethnic studies\u003c/a> before graduation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California needs more ethnic studies teachers, quickly. Under the new law, passed in 2021, high schools must begin offering ethnic studies courses in the 2025–26 school year, and students in the class of 2030 will be the first ones subject to the graduation requirement. As many high schools expand their course offerings ahead of schedule, universities are grappling with how best to prepare the next generation of teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some advocates and educators have called for the creation of a specific ethnic studies credential authorizing educators to teach the relatively new and politically fraught subject in middle and high schools. They say that without such a credential, the state risks having low-quality classes that can do more harm than good. But others worry that an additional requirement may make it even harder for the schools to find teachers for the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State regulations allow teachers with a social science credential to teach ethnic studies, said Jonathon Howard, government relations manager for California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing. However, when ethnic studies is combined with other subjects, such as reading or art, teachers from other subject areas are also eligible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have all these teachers who have great hearts, who are really social justice-minded, who really want to do ethnic studies because they’re thinking about themselves as, 'I’m a culturally responsive teacher,'\" said Theresa Montaño, professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California State University, Northridge\u003c/span>. \"But that isn’t enough to give you the knowledge you need.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ideally, Montaño said, teachers should have an undergraduate degree in ethnic studies, plus an ethnic studies credential that would show them how to translate their expertise into classroom curriculum.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo agrees. In February, she \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1255\">introduced legislation requiring the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to begin creating an ethnic studies credential by 2025\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The social science credential program does not cover ethnic studies sufficiently,\" Carrillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said by email. \"We maintain that at the present time there is no existing credential that sufficiently covers the depth and breadth of the multidisciplinary nature of Ethnic Studies.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission would need authorization from the Legislature to begin developing a new credential, Howard said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, some school districts say the current flexibility around teacher requirements has worked to their benefit, allowing them to expand their ethnic studies course offerings ahead of schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa City Schools has been offering ethnic studies courses since 2020 and will require students in the class of 2025 to have taken a full year of the subject before graduation. Because several classes, from English to dance, incorporate ethnic studies into the course material, all teachers are eligible to teach the subject, said Tim Zalunardo, executive director of educational services. He added that this approach makes it easier for the school to recruit teachers who are excited and willing to teach ethnic studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It provides flexibility on both the students and on the school’s course offerings,\" Zalunardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A controversial subject\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Debates around ethnic studies are nothing new.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ethnic studies began at San Francisco State University in the late 1960s as students pushed for the creation of classes dedicated to studying the histories and cultures of people of color. As the subject gained momentum — and criticism — across the nation, advocates began to push for its inclusion in K–12 schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, after two years of drafting and heated debate, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/esmcpreface.pdf\">the State Board of Education adopted an ethnic studies model curriculum (PDF)\u003c/a> that focuses primarily on the untold \"histories, cultures, struggles, and contributions\" of Black, Latino, Native American and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Although districts are not required to use the curriculum, it provides schools with guidance on how to implement the subject and offers sample lessons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later that year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the new graduation requirement into law, even as parents and \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-28/ethnic-studies-slammed-as-anti-white-in-orange-county\">school board members denounced ethnic studies in Orange County\u003c/a> and other areas of the state. Future teachers still remain divided on the necessity of the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christine Soliva, a graduate student in UC Riverside’s teacher education program, said some of her peers critiqued an ethnic studies class they took in the fall, challenging the importance of incorporating an ethnic studies framework into their math or science courses. She added that while she would pursue an ethnic studies credential if it were available, she is unsure whether other teacher candidates would be equally receptive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It really is just like, are educators willing to take that next step to be able to think outside the box and challenge themselves and their ideals to look at curriculum and content through an ethnic studies lens?\" Soliva said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Former Assemblymember Jose Medina, who authored the legislation requiring ethnic studies in high schools, said he does not believe the controversy around the subject will prevent state leaders from having necessary conversations about how best to prepare teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think, despite the controversy, the state will be well-prepared to have teachers in place by the time of the requirement,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone shares Medina’s optimism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As hundreds of high schools begin rolling out new courses in the coming years, the state may face a shortage of ethnic studies teachers, said Lange Luntao, director of external relations at The Education Trust–West, a nonprofit that advocates for educational equity. Ethnic studies graduation requirements are already in effect at some of the state’s large school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Diego Unified and Fresno Unified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think one fear is that we’re going to open up enrollment for ethnic studies classes, and not have enough educators who have experience with this content,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Preparing future teachers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the absence of an ethnic studies credential, California’s universities have developed a range of programs preparing students to teach the subject. Some offer classes on ethnic studies teaching methods and curriculum development, while others place students in ethnic studies classrooms to gain firsthand experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At UC Riverside, \u003ca href=\"https://education.ucr.edu/tep/ethnic-studies\">students earning their teaching credential can pursue an ethnic studies pathway\u003c/a> made up of elective courses dedicated to ethnic studies teaching methods and curricula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karl Molina, a UC Riverside master’s student earning his social sciences credential through the program, works as a student teacher of high school economics, sociology and government in the Riverside Unified School District. Earlier in the school year, Molina introduced a sociology lesson named after rapper Tupac Shakur’s poem \"The Rose That Grew from Concrete.\" He instructed his students to analyze Shakur’s poem and reflect on how the concepts of social and familial capital applied to their own lives. In discussions, students decided that capital was more than monetary wealth — it included the languages, cultures and aspirations that shaped their lives, Molina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They were really, really into it,\" Molina said. \"I was really excited to get going and move forward.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945394\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11945394 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123.png\" alt=\"A young Asian man wearing glasses, with thick black hair that comes to the tops of both ears, wears a dark jacket and white polo shirt as he looks at the camera with a steady gaze. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123.png 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-03-103123-1536x1024.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Karl Molina, 25, who teaches sociology with an emphasis on ethnic studies, stands near the classroom where he teaches at Ramona High School in Riverside on March 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But as a student teacher, Molina has limited control over the course curriculum and had to cut his lesson short. If he were teaching in an ethnic studies classroom as part of a formal ethnic studies credentialing program, he said, he might have had more freedom to pursue it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We’re not indoctrinating these students,\" Molina said. \"We’re just telling them, 'You have so much wealth. Here’s where your wealth is, and here’s what it does for you.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At San José State University, some students already have the opportunity to see ethnic studies taught in real time through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/teachered/docs/SJSU%20Ethnic%20Studies%20Residency%20Program%20Spring%202022.pdf\">Ethnic Studies Residency Program (PDF)\u003c/a>, which places students into an ethnic studies classroom for a full academic year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his residency at Evergreen Valley High School, Eduardo Zamora instructs his students to partner up, facing one another in concentric circles. He first asks students to answer a silly icebreaker — for example, \"Would you rather be in the history books or gossip magazines?\" — before moving onto questions about recent lessons. In one instance, he asked students to share one-minute reflections on the documentary \u003cem>Immigration Nation\u003c/em> and how it relates to their discussion on Central American migration and racism in the United States. The circles rotate so students talk to a new partner each time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They’re moving, they’re talking and it’s educational,\" said Zamora, a student in SJSU’s teacher education program who is pursuing a social sciences credential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he hopes to bring the same activity into his own ethnic studies classroom one day, adding that his residency has shown him the importance of building community and trust among his students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, while Zamora believes his residency program is preparing him well, he said an ethnic studies credential may be necessary for a widespread rollout of ethnic studies courses. Currently, SJSU’s residency program takes only three to four students a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"One of the students came up to us saying that our class was very diverse, bringing in perspectives of people of color. And then she mentioned that her history teacher … said it’s easier to teach history just through ‘the normal way,’ I guess the Eurocentric way,\" Zamora said. \"So I think a specific ethnic studies credential is probably needed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Training the current workforce\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As universities shape the next generation of ethnic studies teachers, districts are left with the challenge of preparing their current workforce to teach the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Elk Grove Unified School District, high schools have offered ethnic studies courses since 2020. But Robyn Rodriguez, a parent in the district and former Asian American studies professor at UC Davis, said she’s concerned that Sacramento-area schools may be placing social studies teachers in ethnic studies classrooms without adequate preparation for the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You either see very watered-down versions of ethnic studies, or ethnic studies being very nominally implemented,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez’s son is only in second grade, but she said she is already supplementing his language arts curriculum with other reading because the texts assigned were not from diverse authors. As for what ethnic studies might look like by the time her son reaches high school, Rodriguez said, \"I’m absolutely worried.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11945395 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123.png\" alt=\"A white-presenting woman with long, dark curly hair and wearing a green top gestures with both hands as she stands and talks in front of students.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123.png 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/ethnic-studies-02-103123-1536x1024.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marisa Silvestri talks with students during her ethnic studies class at Santa Monica High School in Los Angeles on March 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Lauren Justice/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Silvestri, the Santa Monica High School teacher, said she is torn about the necessity of an ethnic studies credential, adding that she would not want it to prevent interested and passionate teachers from teaching the subject. However, she said, the credential could help streamline the professional development opportunities she has needed to seek out independently over the past few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The University of California’s California History-Social Science Project works to support people like Silvestri who are teaching ethnic studies for the first time. Dominique Williams, the project’s ethnic studies coordinator, offers workshops educating teachers about the history of ethnic studies instruction and shows them how they can teach historical narratives from new perspectives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams draws on her own experience transitioning from teaching English and social studies to ethnic studies in the Sacramento City Unified School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In hindsight, I think that there is more training that I could have had, that I’m now trying to make sure that teachers are getting as they start their own journeys,\" Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the debate surrounding ethnic studies teacher preparation continues, Jayla Johnson-Lake, a sophomore at Santa Monica High School, said a passion for teaching is just as important as any credential. Johnson-Lake said Silvestri’s ethnic studies class has surpassed her expectations, introducing her to new facts, such as the details of Japanese concentration camps and how the Black Codes worked to restrict Black people’s rights in the post-Civil War era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I believe it’s important to have a teacher who wants to teach the class,\" Johnson-Lake said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Megan Tagami is a fellow with the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/projects/college-journalism-network/\">CalMatters College Journalism Network\u003c/a>, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. This story and other higher education coverage are supported by the College Futures Foundation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "why-california-teachers-unions-oppose-paying-teachers-higher-wages-to-work-in-underserved-schools",
"title": "Why California Teachers Unions Oppose Paying Teachers Higher Wages to Work in Underserved Schools",
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"headTitle": "Why California Teachers Unions Oppose Paying Teachers Higher Wages to Work in Underserved Schools | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]H[/dropcap]alfway through a chilly school day in February, Theresa Griffin’s sixth grade classroom at Stege Elementary is more chaotic than usual. On the white board, Griffin writes the names of talkative students who will be staying behind after the lunch bell rings. A knock on the door interrupts reading instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six younger students need a classroom to work in while their teachers are attending a conference. Griffin spends 10 minutes rearranging tables to make space for them. Griffin is willing to do anything she can to help her colleagues — if she can offer a little support, maybe they’ll stick around at the school where many teachers leave after a few years. At the start of the current school year, Griffin was the only teacher at Stege with more than five years of experience — she’s been teaching at the school 23 years.[aside label='More on Education' tag='education']Located in Richmond just north of Berkeley, Stege serves the highest percentage of students from lower-income households in the West Contra Costa Unified School District but its teachers on average have less experience than all but one other school. And that experience disparity isn’t unique to Stege and West Contra Costa — it plays out in schools throughout California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1172&context=carsey\">dearth of experienced teachers\u003c/a> at high-poverty schools contributes to one of the defining traits of public education: the achievement gap between students from lower-income families and their higher-income peers. At schools throughout California, standardized test scores plummet when poverty rates rise. Last school year, 47% of students statewide met English language arts standards and 33% met math standards. At Stege, those rates were far lower, just 11% and 9%, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past several decades, solutions to teacher staffing disparities have swirled within California’s state Legislature, local school boards and among academic researchers. Chief among them: paying teachers more to work at high-poverty schools. But again and again, teachers unions have shot down that idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unions’ opposition frustrates some researchers who point to the benefits of what’s called “differentiated pay.” But labor groups point to the complex and fragile ecosystem that can be disrupted by trying to address just one piece of the broader inequality plaguing public education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945199\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945199\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02.jpg\" alt=\"A student with long, brown braids wearing a red sweatshirt and a blue mask stands in front of a whiteboard inside a classroom. She writes on the board using a marker with her left hand looking up. In the background, a teacher's desk with a green basket of colorful books on top and an orange globe just behind it. Posters cover the walls with numbers.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student writes on a board at Stege Elementary School in Richmond on Feb. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Shelby Knowles/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The California Teachers Association codified its opposition to differentiated pay in its policy handbook, which explains that school districts use what is known as a “single salary schedule” to pay all teachers at all schools the same wages based on their experience and education levels. “The model is widely accepted because it is seen as less arbitrary, clearer and more predictable,” the handbook states. “Because of these factors, the single salary schedule will continue to be the foundation of educators’ pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Claudia Briggs, a spokesperson for the association, said public school districts should not be using their limited pool of funds to pay certain teachers more than others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Differentiated pay] can be very divisive and hard to implement fairly and consistently,” Briggs said. “And it doesn’t get to the root of the problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2009, the statewide union assailed legislation authored by former state Sen. Darrell Steinberg that would have barred districts from laying off a larger share of teachers from high-poverty schools. School employees are typically laid off based on seniority, with newer teachers being most vulnerable. Steinberg said the state needed to step in to ensure that high-poverty schools could build strong teams of educators. The California Teachers Association argued for local control over layoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The union] put up billboards saying I wasn’t friendly to education,” Steinberg said. “Some fights are just worth having.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union also rallied against merit pay in federal programs like Race to the Top that would have required districts to use test scores to evaluate teachers. Under pressure from the union, California lawmakers refused to implement a system of teacher evaluations, weakening their chances of winning a chunk of the $4 billion in competitive grants offered by the Obama administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Briggs said differentiated pay is a “Band-Aid.” She added that paying higher salaries for teachers at certain schools is a decision for local districts and their unions, but the California Teachers Association opposes it as a statewide policy. State lawmakers should focus on raising salaries and improving working conditions for all teachers, she said.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Claudia Briggs, spokesperson, California Teachers Association\"]‘[Differentiated pay] can be very divisive and hard to implement fairly and consistently. And it doesn’t get to the root of the problem.’[/pullquote]In any conversation about improving teacher retention, union leaders, including those at the California Teachers Association, are likely to mention community schools as a more holistic solution. Community schools partner with local social service, mental health and other medical providers to link students and their families with the help they need. Union leaders say community schools can remedy the hardships facing students, rather than simply paying teachers more to single-handedly address the impacts of poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Paying higher salaries for hard-to-staff schools is a flawed solution,” Briggs said. “It doesn’t address the reasons they’re hard to staff in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, State Superintendent of Public Instruction \u003ca href=\"https://elections.calmatters.org/2018/statewide-postings/superintendent-of-public-instruction/2495-2/\">Tony Thurmond told CalMatters\u003c/a> during his election campaign that he believes all teachers should be paid more, and that the focus should be on improving working conditions. Thurmond said the studies on differentiated pay showed mixed results, specifically citing research by the Learning Policy Institute. One study by the research organization found that \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/media/174/download?inline&file=Teacher_Turnover_REPORT.pdf#page=17\">teachers at high-poverty schools were more likely to leave because of the pressures of standardized testing and unhappiness about their administrations, not compensation (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thurmond, who won election and reelection with strong backing from the teachers union, wouldn’t comment for this story, but Deputy Superintendent Malia Vella replied on his behalf and made clear that his opposition to paying teachers more in high-poverty schools hasn’t changed. Instead, Vella said, the solution is raising salaries for all teachers along with smaller class sizes, more mentorship and affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A complex problem needs a complex solution,” Vella said. “Yes, raising salaries, but also doing all the things we know will make the system sustainable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Statewide snapshot\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s a \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0162373713500524?journalCode=epaa\">common pattern within the teaching workforce\u003c/a>: young teachers begin their careers in high-poverty schools, put in a few years of service and transfer to a school in a more affluent neighborhood once they acquire a bit of seniority. Schools serving wealthier families tend to have more classroom resources, higher test scores and more involved parents. Teachers feel physically safer and more supported by their principals and administrators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is a constant drain on schools with the neediest kids, which serve as training grounds for novice teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945203\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945203\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Desks in tidy rows inside an elementary school classroom.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A transitional kindergarten classroom at Jesse G. Sanchez Elementary School in Salinas on July 29, 2022. \u003ccite>(Daisy Nguyen/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CalMatters analyzed teacher experience data from 35 California school districts and 1,280 schools, including those from urban, suburban and rural communities. The correlation between student poverty and teacher experience is most obvious in large urban districts. In San Diego Unified, the state’s second-largest district, 17% of teachers at the 20 highest-poverty schools have less than five years of experience. At the more affluent schools, just 6% have less than five years of experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staffing data from other large urban districts, including Long Beach, Oakland and Sacramento, show a similar trend. These trends align with national research showing that \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/crdc-teacher-access-report\">high-poverty communities have the least access to experienced teachers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The West Contra Costa Unified School District has 64 schools. Among them, the percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals ranges from 7% at Kensington Elementary to 77% at Stege. In 2022, Stege Elementary was identified as one of the 474 lowest-performing schools in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The median years of experience among the 13 teachers at Stege, according to district data from 2022, is three years. Griffin is the one teacher in the school with more than six years of experience, and she believes her consistent presence makes a difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have kids that come from families where they have a lot of strife going on, they don’t have anybody that is consistent,” Griffin said. “Children like to have consistency, and when you don’t have consistency they don’t know what to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"At West Contra Costa, average teacher experience at the lowest-poverty school is much higher than the highest-poverty school.\" aria-label=\"Scatter Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-9EHSI\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/9EHSI/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"500\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Districtwide, higher poverty West Contra Costa Unified schools tend to have lower average teacher experience.\" aria-label=\"Scatter Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-BLx6U\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/BLx6U/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"400\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experience is just one of the ways experts measure the quality of an educator. A teacher’s education level and effect on student test scores are also often factored in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However it’s measured, there’s a large body of research showing that \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0013189X15592622\">teacher quality is more influential than every other factor in a student’s education\u003c/a>. That includes a student’s socioeconomic background, language abilities, school size and class size. At high-poverty schools, where students are more likely to be achieving below grade level, a quality teacher can make an even bigger difference. Andrew Johnston, an economist at UC Merced, said the research makes clear that an effective teacher can have a profound impact on all students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s amazing is that when we randomly assign a kid to a high-quality teacher, not only are they doing better in the years after that, but they’re doing significantly better in adulthood,” Johnston said. “A good teacher increases a student’s future earnings and decreases incarceration rates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suggestion of differentiated pay triggers questions about whether money alone can entice the best teachers to work at the highest-needs schools. And that leads to the thornier question of which teachers deserve to be paid more.[aside postID=news_11927544 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/GettyImages-1239458034-1020x658.jpg']John Zabala is president of United Teachers of Richmond, the local union for West Contra Costa Unified. He was previously a school psychologist at another high-poverty school in the district. His experience has led him to support the idea of differentiated pay, but he knows that union opposition makes it untenable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we have to be open to things,” he said. “But I can already hear the teachers in other schools being upset that they’re not getting additional pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Griffin also thinks teachers at Stege Elementary should be paid more, but she’s in it for the mission more than the money. She said teachers’ compensation is less important than their commitment to maintain high standards for all students. It’s a way of showing love to students who might not have anyone else who believes in them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I demand excellence, and I will help you get there if you’re willing to get there with me,” Griffin said. “But I’m very strict and sometimes that can be hard on them because they’re not getting that from anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945239\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945239\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04.jpg\" alt=\"A teacher with long, brown and gray braids helps her students, who sit at desks with open books, with their classwork.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Theresa Griffin helps students with their class work on Feb. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Shelby Knowles/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Challenges at high-poverty schools\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Griffin comes to school dressed in jeans and a blue polo shirt under a gray hoodie. After making copies in the front office, she walks in a steady gait down the long hallway to tidy her classroom before school starts. She declines to share her age, saying her students have been trying to figure out how old she is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She speaks slowly in a soothing voice. As students file into the classroom, Griffin asks them to remove their hats and hoods. She delegates tasks to her students: One oversees the pencil sharpener while another distributes textbooks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As students begin working independently on their iPads, Griffin takes attendance. From the corner of her eye she sees one student chewing gum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My trash can is lonely,” she tells him without looking up from the class roster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teaching students who live in poverty is uniquely challenging. They often come to school without having eaten breakfast or dinner the previous night, making it harder for them to focus and easier for them to be disruptive. Those experiencing homelessness or moving frequently have erratic attendance. Students with emotional traumas can require teachers to serve as both therapists and social workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At some of the schools where I served, the way they treated kids of color was just horrible in my eyes,” said Griffin, who knows that Black and Latino students are more likely to be living in poverty. “They had very little expectations for their academics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Stege, 44% of students are Black compared to 13% districtwide. Among them, 12% met or exceeded standards in English language arts and only 6% met or exceeded standards in math last school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945240\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05.jpg\" alt=\"A young student with long, brown braids flips through the pages of their mathbook. A pile of school supplies sits on their desk with pencils, erasers and other school books.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students complete classwork at Stege Elementary School in Richmond on Feb. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Shelby Knowles/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jeremy, a Black student in Griffin’s sixth grade class, said he likes how Griffin “does it old school.” He admits he’s talkative in class, and so he understands when she scolds him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s more experienced,” Jeremy said. “Other teachers get used. They get played because they don’t know how to control their students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED606427.pdf\">Researchers say the benefits of experience usually plateau after five years in the profession (PDF)\u003c/a>, with the steepest learning curves occurring in the first three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of veteran teachers at a school can provide clues to the work environment as well as the job market in the surrounding community. Under most union contracts seniority must be considered when a teacher applies for a job, so more veteran teachers at a school is often an indicator of a less stressful work environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When teachers at high-poverty schools get a couple years of experience, they tend to transfer,” said Dan Goldhaber, director at the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, which studied \u003ca href=\"https://caldercenter.org/publications/how-did-it-get-way-disentangling-sources-teacher-quality-gaps-through-agent-based\">gaps in teacher quality\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, \u003ca href=\"https://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17810\">high-poverty schools see more turnover\u003c/a>, while schools in more affluent areas see more applicants for teacher vacancies.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Mary Patterson, teacher, Longfellow Middle School\"]‘Our job’s harder. It just is. But we teach every kid we get. We’re not a school that complains about our students.’[/pullquote]Mary Patterson is a teacher at Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley Unified. With 62% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, Longfellow has more than double the poverty rate of the other two middle schools in the district. Patterson uses the term “headwinds” to describe the challenges her students face, such as dealing with biases because they are Black or Latino or being from a lower-income or a divorced family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our job’s harder. It just is,” she said. “But we teach every kid we get. We’re not a school that complains about our students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patterson \u003ca href=\"https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/hazed\">wrote an article almost 20 years ago about reducing turnover among newer teachers\u003c/a>. The piece examines how administrators often require newer teachers to teach more subjects, resulting in longer hours with less pay. Add a high-poverty student body to those working conditions, and you get a work life that’s unsustainable for many educators, Patterson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-the-salary-solution\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The salary solution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Over the years \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/acepaper_03112023.pdf\">economists as well as education and policy experts have studied the benefits (PDF)\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/pol.20200295\">compensating teachers more to work in more challenging environments (PDF)\u003c/a>. Some researchers say differentiated pay alone isn’t a sustainable solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The term ‘combat pay’ has been used in a pejorative way to describe those pay schemes,” said Tara Kini, the director of state policy at the \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/leandro-teaching-and-learning-conditions-brief\">Learning Policy Institute\u003c/a>. “But if it’s not paired with strengthening the working environments in those schools, then it doesn’t hold up in the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But experts agree that it’s one method of increasing retention at hard-to-staff schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The papers that have come out recently say that \u003ca href=\"https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29728/w29728.pdf\">pay flexibility is super useful (PDF)\u003c/a> to schools and students,” said Johnston of UC Merced. “What happens with \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/0002828041302073\">rigid pay schedules (PDF)\u003c/a> is that the person who’s totally checked out is being paid the same as a person who’s being a real hero for students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In public school districts in California, administrators negotiate with local teachers unions to agree on a salary schedule, which determines how much educators get paid based on their education level and years of experience. Most, if not all, school districts post their teacher salary schedules on their websites.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Andrew Johnston, economist, UC Merced\"]‘What happens with rigid pay schedules is that the person who’s totally checked out is being paid the same as a person who’s being a real hero for students.’[/pullquote]Teachers know exactly how much they and their colleagues are earning. Union leaders say this transparency is partly an effort to reduce historical pay gaps for women, people of color and other marginalized groups. The salary schedule also helps cultivate solidarity among a teaching force: Educators know they’re all being paid fairly compared to their peers, union leaders say. This lays the groundwork for collective bargaining and teachers’ loyalty to their unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders contend that differentiated pay would undermine collective bargaining — that instead, all teachers deserve raises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I absolutely believe that if we had a way to get teachers who were more effective and assign them to [schools with poorer students], we’d be better off,” said John Roach, executive director of the School Employers Association of California. “But the collective bargaining process does everything it can to avoid identifying teachers as being better than another.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California public teachers were paid on average $88,508\" aria-label=\"Dot Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-mRDeV\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/mRDeV/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"264\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trying to pay the best teachers more to work in high-poverty schools inches school districts toward an even more fraught conversation about evaluating teacher quality. Experts, teachers unions and policymakers have argued over how to assess teachers for decades. From one perspective, teachers who have a history of raising their students’ test scores are seen as more qualified teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers refer to this measure as the “value-added” score assigned to a teacher. Eric Hanushek, a Stanford University economist, championed this way of assessing educators starting in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On average, standardized test scores have shown to be really important,” he said. “This is not the only thing that measures a good teacher, but it’s an important part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of the value-added model argue that \u003ca href=\"https://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/New%20Logo%20Research%20on%20Teacher%20Evaluation%20AERA-NAE%20Briefing.pdf\">a teacher’s effectiveness can vary widely (PDF)\u003c/a> from year to year depending on the types of students and various other social and economic factors outside the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One policy mechanism has been around for 10 years as part of an effort to close achievement gaps. California’s Local Control Funding Formula, which is the state’s system for funding K–12 schools, sends more money to districts for their foster children, English learners and students from lower-income households. But the intended results of the formula can only be fully realized with differentiated pay, Hanushek said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you aren’t allowed to use the money in the best way possible, the whole system is being undermined,” he said.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Eric Hanushek, economist, Stanford University\"]‘If you take [differentiated pay] off the table, there’s not a lot you can do to get really high-quality teachers into poor schools.’[/pullquote]Hanushek also said districts should be able to use test score data to send their most effective teachers to the highest-poverty schools with more pay. This would allow districts to directly target the extra money they receive via the formula, giving in essence a pay bonus to lure the best teachers to work at those schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But without support from teachers unions, that notion remains a pipe dream. Districts instead rely on the personal passion and commitment of individual teachers to close the achievement gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you take [differentiated pay] off the table, there’s not a lot you can do to get really high-quality teachers into poor schools,” Hanushek said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, school districts avoid value-added measures. District officials assess teachers through classroom observations, but tenure protections prevent disciplinary action based on low test scores alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Policies in other states suggest differentiated pay could make hard-to-hire positions more desirable and more competitive. In Hawaii and Michigan, districts enticed special-education teachers with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/21/1092343446/special-education-teachers-hawaii\">salary increases between $10,000 and $15,000\u003c/a>. One study found that in Georgia, \u003ca href=\"https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.gsu.edu/dist/2/298/files/2014/02/The-Effects-of-Differential-Pay-on-Teacher-Recruitment-9b-plus-abstract-2bjl269.pdf\">higher pay for math and science teachers reduced turnover by up to 28% (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945211\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3.jpg\" alt=\"A child's small hand is raised in full focus while blurred children also raising their hands are pictured in the background.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In California, schools with the highest rates of students from lower-income families have fewer experienced teachers. Increasing teacher pay seems to be one way to attract more experienced applicants, but teachers unions keep fighting the idea. \u003ccite>(Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Griffin, the teacher at Stege Elementary, said the district once offered a $10,000 stipend for teachers who committed to work at a high-poverty school for two years. But she said most teachers left after fulfilling that commitment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the California Teachers Association, local unions are also calling for more community schools. Zabala, union president for West Contra Costa Unified, supports differentiated pay, and believes the community school model is a crucial piece of the needed reform. Since 2021, California lawmakers doled out $4 billion in community schools grants. West Contra Costa Unified is guaranteed a total of $31 million until 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t believe that a stipend or pay differential is sufficient,” Zabala said. “There also needs to be a change in how we conceptualize schooling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, West Contra Costa Unified’s teachers just narrowly averted a strike last month after negotiating a 7% raise this year and a 7.5% raise next year — raises that will apply equally to teachers at schools with the wealthiest and poorest student bodies. Zabala said these raises will be crucial for attracting teachers to all of West Contra Costa Unified’s schools, especially amid a teacher shortage. He said his bargaining team also asked for one-time $2,500 stipends for teachers working in high-poverty schools, but district officials rejected that proposal.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Theresa Griffin, teacher, Stege Elementary School\"]‘I think you just have to have it in your heart to do what you need to do to help the kids. If it’s not in your heart, it makes it harder to do.’[/pullquote]The situation looks dire at the district, as it needs to cut $20 million this year to afford those teacher raises. Zabala expects much of those reductions to come from after-school and mental-health programs at high-poverty schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Griffin said she isn’t overly concerned. If anything, she’s indifferent to the threat of budget cuts. She said she’s going to keep doing what she has always done: focus on her students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After her students leave her class at the end of the day, Griffin begins tidying up her classroom, picking up books and papers her students left behind. She admits she’s tired, but only because she’s a morning person and not because her students were especially rowdy that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think you just have to have it in your heart to do what you need to do to help the kids,” Griffin said. “If it’s not in your heart, it makes it harder to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Throughout California, schools with the highest rates of students from lower-income families have fewer experienced teachers. Increasing teacher pay is one way to lure more knowledgeable applicants, but teachers unions keep fighting that idea.",
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"title": "Why California Teachers Unions Oppose Paying Teachers Higher Wages to Work in Underserved Schools | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/joe-hong/\">Joe Hong\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/ericayee/\">Erica Yee\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">H\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>alfway through a chilly school day in February, Theresa Griffin’s sixth grade classroom at Stege Elementary is more chaotic than usual. On the white board, Griffin writes the names of talkative students who will be staying behind after the lunch bell rings. A knock on the door interrupts reading instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six younger students need a classroom to work in while their teachers are attending a conference. Griffin spends 10 minutes rearranging tables to make space for them. Griffin is willing to do anything she can to help her colleagues — if she can offer a little support, maybe they’ll stick around at the school where many teachers leave after a few years. At the start of the current school year, Griffin was the only teacher at Stege with more than five years of experience — she’s been teaching at the school 23 years.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Located in Richmond just north of Berkeley, Stege serves the highest percentage of students from lower-income households in the West Contra Costa Unified School District but its teachers on average have less experience than all but one other school. And that experience disparity isn’t unique to Stege and West Contra Costa — it plays out in schools throughout California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1172&context=carsey\">dearth of experienced teachers\u003c/a> at high-poverty schools contributes to one of the defining traits of public education: the achievement gap between students from lower-income families and their higher-income peers. At schools throughout California, standardized test scores plummet when poverty rates rise. Last school year, 47% of students statewide met English language arts standards and 33% met math standards. At Stege, those rates were far lower, just 11% and 9%, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past several decades, solutions to teacher staffing disparities have swirled within California’s state Legislature, local school boards and among academic researchers. Chief among them: paying teachers more to work at high-poverty schools. But again and again, teachers unions have shot down that idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unions’ opposition frustrates some researchers who point to the benefits of what’s called “differentiated pay.” But labor groups point to the complex and fragile ecosystem that can be disrupted by trying to address just one piece of the broader inequality plaguing public education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945199\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945199\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02.jpg\" alt=\"A student with long, brown braids wearing a red sweatshirt and a blue mask stands in front of a whiteboard inside a classroom. She writes on the board using a marker with her left hand looking up. In the background, a teacher's desk with a green basket of colorful books on top and an orange globe just behind it. Posters cover the walls with numbers.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers02-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student writes on a board at Stege Elementary School in Richmond on Feb. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Shelby Knowles/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The California Teachers Association codified its opposition to differentiated pay in its policy handbook, which explains that school districts use what is known as a “single salary schedule” to pay all teachers at all schools the same wages based on their experience and education levels. “The model is widely accepted because it is seen as less arbitrary, clearer and more predictable,” the handbook states. “Because of these factors, the single salary schedule will continue to be the foundation of educators’ pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Claudia Briggs, a spokesperson for the association, said public school districts should not be using their limited pool of funds to pay certain teachers more than others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Differentiated pay] can be very divisive and hard to implement fairly and consistently,” Briggs said. “And it doesn’t get to the root of the problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2009, the statewide union assailed legislation authored by former state Sen. Darrell Steinberg that would have barred districts from laying off a larger share of teachers from high-poverty schools. School employees are typically laid off based on seniority, with newer teachers being most vulnerable. Steinberg said the state needed to step in to ensure that high-poverty schools could build strong teams of educators. The California Teachers Association argued for local control over layoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The union] put up billboards saying I wasn’t friendly to education,” Steinberg said. “Some fights are just worth having.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union also rallied against merit pay in federal programs like Race to the Top that would have required districts to use test scores to evaluate teachers. Under pressure from the union, California lawmakers refused to implement a system of teacher evaluations, weakening their chances of winning a chunk of the $4 billion in competitive grants offered by the Obama administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Briggs said differentiated pay is a “Band-Aid.” She added that paying higher salaries for teachers at certain schools is a decision for local districts and their unions, but the California Teachers Association opposes it as a statewide policy. State lawmakers should focus on raising salaries and improving working conditions for all teachers, she said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In any conversation about improving teacher retention, union leaders, including those at the California Teachers Association, are likely to mention community schools as a more holistic solution. Community schools partner with local social service, mental health and other medical providers to link students and their families with the help they need. Union leaders say community schools can remedy the hardships facing students, rather than simply paying teachers more to single-handedly address the impacts of poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Paying higher salaries for hard-to-staff schools is a flawed solution,” Briggs said. “It doesn’t address the reasons they’re hard to staff in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, State Superintendent of Public Instruction \u003ca href=\"https://elections.calmatters.org/2018/statewide-postings/superintendent-of-public-instruction/2495-2/\">Tony Thurmond told CalMatters\u003c/a> during his election campaign that he believes all teachers should be paid more, and that the focus should be on improving working conditions. Thurmond said the studies on differentiated pay showed mixed results, specifically citing research by the Learning Policy Institute. One study by the research organization found that \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/media/174/download?inline&file=Teacher_Turnover_REPORT.pdf#page=17\">teachers at high-poverty schools were more likely to leave because of the pressures of standardized testing and unhappiness about their administrations, not compensation (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thurmond, who won election and reelection with strong backing from the teachers union, wouldn’t comment for this story, but Deputy Superintendent Malia Vella replied on his behalf and made clear that his opposition to paying teachers more in high-poverty schools hasn’t changed. Instead, Vella said, the solution is raising salaries for all teachers along with smaller class sizes, more mentorship and affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A complex problem needs a complex solution,” Vella said. “Yes, raising salaries, but also doing all the things we know will make the system sustainable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Statewide snapshot\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s a \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0162373713500524?journalCode=epaa\">common pattern within the teaching workforce\u003c/a>: young teachers begin their careers in high-poverty schools, put in a few years of service and transfer to a school in a more affluent neighborhood once they acquire a bit of seniority. Schools serving wealthier families tend to have more classroom resources, higher test scores and more involved parents. Teachers feel physically safer and more supported by their principals and administrators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is a constant drain on schools with the neediest kids, which serve as training grounds for novice teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945203\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945203\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Desks in tidy rows inside an elementary school classroom.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A transitional kindergarten classroom at Jesse G. Sanchez Elementary School in Salinas on July 29, 2022. \u003ccite>(Daisy Nguyen/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CalMatters analyzed teacher experience data from 35 California school districts and 1,280 schools, including those from urban, suburban and rural communities. The correlation between student poverty and teacher experience is most obvious in large urban districts. In San Diego Unified, the state’s second-largest district, 17% of teachers at the 20 highest-poverty schools have less than five years of experience. At the more affluent schools, just 6% have less than five years of experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staffing data from other large urban districts, including Long Beach, Oakland and Sacramento, show a similar trend. These trends align with national research showing that \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/crdc-teacher-access-report\">high-poverty communities have the least access to experienced teachers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The West Contra Costa Unified School District has 64 schools. Among them, the percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals ranges from 7% at Kensington Elementary to 77% at Stege. In 2022, Stege Elementary was identified as one of the 474 lowest-performing schools in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The median years of experience among the 13 teachers at Stege, according to district data from 2022, is three years. Griffin is the one teacher in the school with more than six years of experience, and she believes her consistent presence makes a difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have kids that come from families where they have a lot of strife going on, they don’t have anybody that is consistent,” Griffin said. “Children like to have consistency, and when you don’t have consistency they don’t know what to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"At West Contra Costa, average teacher experience at the lowest-poverty school is much higher than the highest-poverty school.\" aria-label=\"Scatter Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-9EHSI\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/9EHSI/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"500\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Districtwide, higher poverty West Contra Costa Unified schools tend to have lower average teacher experience.\" aria-label=\"Scatter Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-BLx6U\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/BLx6U/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"400\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experience is just one of the ways experts measure the quality of an educator. A teacher’s education level and effect on student test scores are also often factored in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However it’s measured, there’s a large body of research showing that \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0013189X15592622\">teacher quality is more influential than every other factor in a student’s education\u003c/a>. That includes a student’s socioeconomic background, language abilities, school size and class size. At high-poverty schools, where students are more likely to be achieving below grade level, a quality teacher can make an even bigger difference. Andrew Johnston, an economist at UC Merced, said the research makes clear that an effective teacher can have a profound impact on all students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s amazing is that when we randomly assign a kid to a high-quality teacher, not only are they doing better in the years after that, but they’re doing significantly better in adulthood,” Johnston said. “A good teacher increases a student’s future earnings and decreases incarceration rates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suggestion of differentiated pay triggers questions about whether money alone can entice the best teachers to work at the highest-needs schools. And that leads to the thornier question of which teachers deserve to be paid more.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>John Zabala is president of United Teachers of Richmond, the local union for West Contra Costa Unified. He was previously a school psychologist at another high-poverty school in the district. His experience has led him to support the idea of differentiated pay, but he knows that union opposition makes it untenable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we have to be open to things,” he said. “But I can already hear the teachers in other schools being upset that they’re not getting additional pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Griffin also thinks teachers at Stege Elementary should be paid more, but she’s in it for the mission more than the money. She said teachers’ compensation is less important than their commitment to maintain high standards for all students. It’s a way of showing love to students who might not have anyone else who believes in them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I demand excellence, and I will help you get there if you’re willing to get there with me,” Griffin said. “But I’m very strict and sometimes that can be hard on them because they’re not getting that from anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945239\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945239\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04.jpg\" alt=\"A teacher with long, brown and gray braids helps her students, who sit at desks with open books, with their classwork.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers04-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Theresa Griffin helps students with their class work on Feb. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Shelby Knowles/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Challenges at high-poverty schools\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Griffin comes to school dressed in jeans and a blue polo shirt under a gray hoodie. After making copies in the front office, she walks in a steady gait down the long hallway to tidy her classroom before school starts. She declines to share her age, saying her students have been trying to figure out how old she is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She speaks slowly in a soothing voice. As students file into the classroom, Griffin asks them to remove their hats and hoods. She delegates tasks to her students: One oversees the pencil sharpener while another distributes textbooks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As students begin working independently on their iPads, Griffin takes attendance. From the corner of her eye she sees one student chewing gum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My trash can is lonely,” she tells him without looking up from the class roster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teaching students who live in poverty is uniquely challenging. They often come to school without having eaten breakfast or dinner the previous night, making it harder for them to focus and easier for them to be disruptive. Those experiencing homelessness or moving frequently have erratic attendance. Students with emotional traumas can require teachers to serve as both therapists and social workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At some of the schools where I served, the way they treated kids of color was just horrible in my eyes,” said Griffin, who knows that Black and Latino students are more likely to be living in poverty. “They had very little expectations for their academics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Stege, 44% of students are Black compared to 13% districtwide. Among them, 12% met or exceeded standards in English language arts and only 6% met or exceeded standards in math last school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945240\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05.jpg\" alt=\"A young student with long, brown braids flips through the pages of their mathbook. A pile of school supplies sits on their desk with pencils, erasers and other school books.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMTeachers05-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students complete classwork at Stege Elementary School in Richmond on Feb. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Shelby Knowles/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jeremy, a Black student in Griffin’s sixth grade class, said he likes how Griffin “does it old school.” He admits he’s talkative in class, and so he understands when she scolds him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s more experienced,” Jeremy said. “Other teachers get used. They get played because they don’t know how to control their students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED606427.pdf\">Researchers say the benefits of experience usually plateau after five years in the profession (PDF)\u003c/a>, with the steepest learning curves occurring in the first three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of veteran teachers at a school can provide clues to the work environment as well as the job market in the surrounding community. Under most union contracts seniority must be considered when a teacher applies for a job, so more veteran teachers at a school is often an indicator of a less stressful work environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When teachers at high-poverty schools get a couple years of experience, they tend to transfer,” said Dan Goldhaber, director at the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, which studied \u003ca href=\"https://caldercenter.org/publications/how-did-it-get-way-disentangling-sources-teacher-quality-gaps-through-agent-based\">gaps in teacher quality\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, \u003ca href=\"https://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17810\">high-poverty schools see more turnover\u003c/a>, while schools in more affluent areas see more applicants for teacher vacancies.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Our job’s harder. It just is. But we teach every kid we get. We’re not a school that complains about our students.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Mary Patterson is a teacher at Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley Unified. With 62% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, Longfellow has more than double the poverty rate of the other two middle schools in the district. Patterson uses the term “headwinds” to describe the challenges her students face, such as dealing with biases because they are Black or Latino or being from a lower-income or a divorced family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our job’s harder. It just is,” she said. “But we teach every kid we get. We’re not a school that complains about our students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patterson \u003ca href=\"https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/hazed\">wrote an article almost 20 years ago about reducing turnover among newer teachers\u003c/a>. The piece examines how administrators often require newer teachers to teach more subjects, resulting in longer hours with less pay. Add a high-poverty student body to those working conditions, and you get a work life that’s unsustainable for many educators, Patterson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-the-salary-solution\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The salary solution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Over the years \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/acepaper_03112023.pdf\">economists as well as education and policy experts have studied the benefits (PDF)\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/pol.20200295\">compensating teachers more to work in more challenging environments (PDF)\u003c/a>. Some researchers say differentiated pay alone isn’t a sustainable solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The term ‘combat pay’ has been used in a pejorative way to describe those pay schemes,” said Tara Kini, the director of state policy at the \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/leandro-teaching-and-learning-conditions-brief\">Learning Policy Institute\u003c/a>. “But if it’s not paired with strengthening the working environments in those schools, then it doesn’t hold up in the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But experts agree that it’s one method of increasing retention at hard-to-staff schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The papers that have come out recently say that \u003ca href=\"https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29728/w29728.pdf\">pay flexibility is super useful (PDF)\u003c/a> to schools and students,” said Johnston of UC Merced. “What happens with \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/0002828041302073\">rigid pay schedules (PDF)\u003c/a> is that the person who’s totally checked out is being paid the same as a person who’s being a real hero for students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In public school districts in California, administrators negotiate with local teachers unions to agree on a salary schedule, which determines how much educators get paid based on their education level and years of experience. Most, if not all, school districts post their teacher salary schedules on their websites.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘What happens with rigid pay schedules is that the person who’s totally checked out is being paid the same as a person who’s being a real hero for students.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Teachers know exactly how much they and their colleagues are earning. Union leaders say this transparency is partly an effort to reduce historical pay gaps for women, people of color and other marginalized groups. The salary schedule also helps cultivate solidarity among a teaching force: Educators know they’re all being paid fairly compared to their peers, union leaders say. This lays the groundwork for collective bargaining and teachers’ loyalty to their unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders contend that differentiated pay would undermine collective bargaining — that instead, all teachers deserve raises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I absolutely believe that if we had a way to get teachers who were more effective and assign them to [schools with poorer students], we’d be better off,” said John Roach, executive director of the School Employers Association of California. “But the collective bargaining process does everything it can to avoid identifying teachers as being better than another.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California public teachers were paid on average $88,508\" aria-label=\"Dot Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-mRDeV\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/mRDeV/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"264\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trying to pay the best teachers more to work in high-poverty schools inches school districts toward an even more fraught conversation about evaluating teacher quality. Experts, teachers unions and policymakers have argued over how to assess teachers for decades. From one perspective, teachers who have a history of raising their students’ test scores are seen as more qualified teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers refer to this measure as the “value-added” score assigned to a teacher. Eric Hanushek, a Stanford University economist, championed this way of assessing educators starting in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On average, standardized test scores have shown to be really important,” he said. “This is not the only thing that measures a good teacher, but it’s an important part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of the value-added model argue that \u003ca href=\"https://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/New%20Logo%20Research%20on%20Teacher%20Evaluation%20AERA-NAE%20Briefing.pdf\">a teacher’s effectiveness can vary widely (PDF)\u003c/a> from year to year depending on the types of students and various other social and economic factors outside the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One policy mechanism has been around for 10 years as part of an effort to close achievement gaps. California’s Local Control Funding Formula, which is the state’s system for funding K–12 schools, sends more money to districts for their foster children, English learners and students from lower-income households. But the intended results of the formula can only be fully realized with differentiated pay, Hanushek said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you aren’t allowed to use the money in the best way possible, the whole system is being undermined,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If you take [differentiated pay] off the table, there’s not a lot you can do to get really high-quality teachers into poor schools.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Hanushek also said districts should be able to use test score data to send their most effective teachers to the highest-poverty schools with more pay. This would allow districts to directly target the extra money they receive via the formula, giving in essence a pay bonus to lure the best teachers to work at those schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But without support from teachers unions, that notion remains a pipe dream. Districts instead rely on the personal passion and commitment of individual teachers to close the achievement gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you take [differentiated pay] off the table, there’s not a lot you can do to get really high-quality teachers into poor schools,” Hanushek said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, school districts avoid value-added measures. District officials assess teachers through classroom observations, but tenure protections prevent disciplinary action based on low test scores alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Policies in other states suggest differentiated pay could make hard-to-hire positions more desirable and more competitive. In Hawaii and Michigan, districts enticed special-education teachers with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/21/1092343446/special-education-teachers-hawaii\">salary increases between $10,000 and $15,000\u003c/a>. One study found that in Georgia, \u003ca href=\"https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.gsu.edu/dist/2/298/files/2014/02/The-Effects-of-Differential-Pay-on-Teacher-Recruitment-9b-plus-abstract-2bjl269.pdf\">higher pay for math and science teachers reduced turnover by up to 28% (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11945211\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3.jpg\" alt=\"A child's small hand is raised in full focus while blurred children also raising their hands are pictured in the background.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS6260_76754171-3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In California, schools with the highest rates of students from lower-income families have fewer experienced teachers. Increasing teacher pay seems to be one way to attract more experienced applicants, but teachers unions keep fighting the idea. \u003ccite>(Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Griffin, the teacher at Stege Elementary, said the district once offered a $10,000 stipend for teachers who committed to work at a high-poverty school for two years. But she said most teachers left after fulfilling that commitment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the California Teachers Association, local unions are also calling for more community schools. Zabala, union president for West Contra Costa Unified, supports differentiated pay, and believes the community school model is a crucial piece of the needed reform. Since 2021, California lawmakers doled out $4 billion in community schools grants. West Contra Costa Unified is guaranteed a total of $31 million until 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t believe that a stipend or pay differential is sufficient,” Zabala said. “There also needs to be a change in how we conceptualize schooling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, West Contra Costa Unified’s teachers just narrowly averted a strike last month after negotiating a 7% raise this year and a 7.5% raise next year — raises that will apply equally to teachers at schools with the wealthiest and poorest student bodies. Zabala said these raises will be crucial for attracting teachers to all of West Contra Costa Unified’s schools, especially amid a teacher shortage. He said his bargaining team also asked for one-time $2,500 stipends for teachers working in high-poverty schools, but district officials rejected that proposal.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Amid California’s mounting literacy crisis, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond named two statewide literacy directors, Nancy Brynelson and Bonnie Garcia, Thursday as part of a push to get more California third graders reading by 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that when students learn to read, they can learn to read anything,” said Thurmond during a press conference, “but yet, this milestone has evaded so many in our country for so long, and California is focused on how we’re going to get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brynelson, one of the primary writers of the English Language Arts framework, and Garcia, a dyslexia specialist with a background in structured literacy, will be the new co-directors for statewide literacy at the California Department of Education, helping guide school districts on the best practices of evidenced-based methods grounded in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf\">science of reading (PDF)\u003c/a>, officials say, but not bound by it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944837\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11944837\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827-800x573.jpg\" alt=\"An African American man in a suit speaks into a microphone as he gestures with his hand.\" width=\"800\" height=\"573\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827-800x573.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827-1020x730.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond speaks during a news conference at Nystrom Elementary School on May 17, 2022, in Richmond. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We are not interested in policing pedagogy or orthodoxy,” said Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Steve Zimmer, a former teacher. “We are interested in accelerating and expanding what has been proven to work on the ground. There’s an abundance of evidence that shows the critical importance of building foundational skills in the early years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a long-standing national debate over reading philosophy, some literacy advocates are pleased that the state is highlighting structured literacy, an approach backed by decades of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/nrp\">exhaustive scientific research\u003c/a> that has recently \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/a-movement-rises-to-change-the-teaching-of-reading/675989\">gained traction\u003c/a> nationally. Structured literacy stresses explicit lessons on reading fundamentals such as phonics, vocabulary and comprehension.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most important thing is that they are making early literacy a top priority,” said Todd Collins, a Palo Alto school board member and an organizer of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.careads.org/\">California Reading Coalition\u003c/a>, a literacy advocacy group. “It’s good they are introducing the literacy directors, and it’s nice they are getting some spotlight. If there is legislation, people like this at the CDE can be really helpful in implementing things. In other states, they play a very important role.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These steps are being taken in the wake of the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/how-badly-did-the-pandemic-deepen-californias-early-reading-crisis/680490\">plummeting test scores\u003c/a> and growing awareness of \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/a-movement-rises-to-change-the-teaching-of-reading/675989\">literacy as a civil right\u003c/a> that too many children are denied. Last year, almost 60% of California’s third graders, the students most deeply affected by distance learning and other COVID disruptions, could not read at grade level. Although it should be noted that reading scores have long been languishing, in the wake of the pandemic, roughly 70% of students from lower-income families fell short of grade level.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Sanam Jorjani, founding co-director, Oakland Literacy Coalition\"]‘I believe our kids are capable learners and that reading is in reach for all California’s children. They are not broken, and they are not at fault, but they do need support.’[/pullquote]“The reality is, yes, we do have a lot of catch-up work to do,” said Thurmond. “When you look at reading overall in California, you will see less than half of students reading on grade level. You will also see that when you look specifically at subgroups — African American students, English learners, students with disabilities — those numbers drop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since reading is a cornerstone skill that lays a foundation for all future learning, including math and science, many regard plunging test scores as cause for alarm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a great tragedy, and I firmly believe a preventable one,” said Sanam Jorjani, founding co-director of the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandliteracycoalition.org/\">Oakland Literacy Coalition\u003c/a>. “I believe our kids are capable learners and that reading is in reach for all California’s children. They are not broken, and they are not at fault, but they do need support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Literacy advocates have long made the connection between rising illiteracy rates and lives on the margins of an information economy where the ability to quickly acquire knowledge is a key survival skill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know, sadly, that when students don’t learn to read by third grade, they’re at greater risk for not graduating,” said Thurmond. “They’re at greater risk for dropping out of school, and they’re at greater risk for ending up in the criminal justice system.”[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"forum_2010101890462,news_11932102,mindshift_60585\"]It should be noted that the new statewide co-directors will be helping school districts build their own literacy plans, and not mandating that they follow any one approach. They plan to offer tools and techniques to meet local demands, officials say, ranging from the needs of English learners to dyslexic students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a great first step, but the rubber hits the road with implementation,” said Jessica Reid Sliwerski, a former teacher and CEO of Ignite Reading, \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/qa-teaching-kids-how-to-read-on-zoom/679789\">a Zoom-based reading tutorial\u003c/a>. “You can have a well-meaning policy, but there have to be guardrails around how that policy turns into meaningful action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some literacy advocates worry that unless the state imposes requirements on districts regarding how to teach reading, as Mississippi and Tennessee have done, little may change. Each of California’s 1,000 districts is allowed to decide how and what to teach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking directly about the science of reading,” said Thurmond. “In California, there’s no state mandate for what districts use. That will require new legislation. Until that should happen, we’ll be working with districts to make sure they get access to all aspects of literacy, including structured literacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many districts espouse \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/a-movement-rises-to-change-the-teaching-of-reading/675989\">balanced literacy\u003c/a>, an approach popularized by Lucy Calkins in her influential \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html\">“Units of Study” curriculum\u003c/a> that often downplays phonics in favor of trying to instill a love of reading, sometimes encouraging children to guess at words using picture clues rather than sound them out.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Jessica Reid Sliwerski, CEO, Ignite Reading\"]‘It’s a great first step, but the rubber hits the road with implementation … You can have a well-meaning policy, but there have to be guardrails around how that policy turns into meaningful action.’[/pullquote]“Unfortunately for students across California, balanced literacy will likely be alive and well for years to come,” said Megan Bacigalupi, co-founder of CA Parent Power, a statewide parent advocacy organization. “Without accountability and mandates, what is going to compel districts to change, when for years we’ve known how kids learn to read, we have seen millions of kids struggle, and few changes have been made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thurmond also announced $1 million in grants to expand literacy programs at Freedom Schools, an Afrocentric program of the Children’s Defense Fund. He also launched a series of webinars geared to highlight best practices to boost literacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We provide these culturally responsive reading opportunities,” said Kristal Moore Clemons, national director of the Freedom Schools. “Children can’t be what they can’t see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The co-directors will also lead webinars, help guide the state’s $250 million reading coach and specialist training program and partner with the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to help implement recently adopted \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/new-literacy-standards-for-teacher-candidates-could-be-pivotal-to-improving-student-reading-scores/680405\">literacy standards in teacher preparation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/amid-californias-mounting-literacy-crisis-state-names-new-literacy-directors/687430\">\u003cem>This story originally appeared in EdSource.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Amid California’s mounting literacy crisis, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond named two statewide literacy directors, Nancy Brynelson and Bonnie Garcia, Thursday as part of a push to get more California third graders reading by 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that when students learn to read, they can learn to read anything,” said Thurmond during a press conference, “but yet, this milestone has evaded so many in our country for so long, and California is focused on how we’re going to get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brynelson, one of the primary writers of the English Language Arts framework, and Garcia, a dyslexia specialist with a background in structured literacy, will be the new co-directors for statewide literacy at the California Department of Education, helping guide school districts on the best practices of evidenced-based methods grounded in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf\">science of reading (PDF)\u003c/a>, officials say, but not bound by it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944837\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11944837\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827-800x573.jpg\" alt=\"An African American man in a suit speaks into a microphone as he gestures with his hand.\" width=\"800\" height=\"573\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827-800x573.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827-1020x730.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1397759827.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond speaks during a news conference at Nystrom Elementary School on May 17, 2022, in Richmond. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We are not interested in policing pedagogy or orthodoxy,” said Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Steve Zimmer, a former teacher. “We are interested in accelerating and expanding what has been proven to work on the ground. There’s an abundance of evidence that shows the critical importance of building foundational skills in the early years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a long-standing national debate over reading philosophy, some literacy advocates are pleased that the state is highlighting structured literacy, an approach backed by decades of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/nrp\">exhaustive scientific research\u003c/a> that has recently \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/a-movement-rises-to-change-the-teaching-of-reading/675989\">gained traction\u003c/a> nationally. Structured literacy stresses explicit lessons on reading fundamentals such as phonics, vocabulary and comprehension.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most important thing is that they are making early literacy a top priority,” said Todd Collins, a Palo Alto school board member and an organizer of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.careads.org/\">California Reading Coalition\u003c/a>, a literacy advocacy group. “It’s good they are introducing the literacy directors, and it’s nice they are getting some spotlight. If there is legislation, people like this at the CDE can be really helpful in implementing things. In other states, they play a very important role.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These steps are being taken in the wake of the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/how-badly-did-the-pandemic-deepen-californias-early-reading-crisis/680490\">plummeting test scores\u003c/a> and growing awareness of \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/a-movement-rises-to-change-the-teaching-of-reading/675989\">literacy as a civil right\u003c/a> that too many children are denied. Last year, almost 60% of California’s third graders, the students most deeply affected by distance learning and other COVID disruptions, could not read at grade level. Although it should be noted that reading scores have long been languishing, in the wake of the pandemic, roughly 70% of students from lower-income families fell short of grade level.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The reality is, yes, we do have a lot of catch-up work to do,” said Thurmond. “When you look at reading overall in California, you will see less than half of students reading on grade level. You will also see that when you look specifically at subgroups — African American students, English learners, students with disabilities — those numbers drop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since reading is a cornerstone skill that lays a foundation for all future learning, including math and science, many regard plunging test scores as cause for alarm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a great tragedy, and I firmly believe a preventable one,” said Sanam Jorjani, founding co-director of the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandliteracycoalition.org/\">Oakland Literacy Coalition\u003c/a>. “I believe our kids are capable learners and that reading is in reach for all California’s children. They are not broken, and they are not at fault, but they do need support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Literacy advocates have long made the connection between rising illiteracy rates and lives on the margins of an information economy where the ability to quickly acquire knowledge is a key survival skill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know, sadly, that when students don’t learn to read by third grade, they’re at greater risk for not graduating,” said Thurmond. “They’re at greater risk for dropping out of school, and they’re at greater risk for ending up in the criminal justice system.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It should be noted that the new statewide co-directors will be helping school districts build their own literacy plans, and not mandating that they follow any one approach. They plan to offer tools and techniques to meet local demands, officials say, ranging from the needs of English learners to dyslexic students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a great first step, but the rubber hits the road with implementation,” said Jessica Reid Sliwerski, a former teacher and CEO of Ignite Reading, \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/qa-teaching-kids-how-to-read-on-zoom/679789\">a Zoom-based reading tutorial\u003c/a>. “You can have a well-meaning policy, but there have to be guardrails around how that policy turns into meaningful action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some literacy advocates worry that unless the state imposes requirements on districts regarding how to teach reading, as Mississippi and Tennessee have done, little may change. Each of California’s 1,000 districts is allowed to decide how and what to teach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking directly about the science of reading,” said Thurmond. “In California, there’s no state mandate for what districts use. That will require new legislation. Until that should happen, we’ll be working with districts to make sure they get access to all aspects of literacy, including structured literacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many districts espouse \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/a-movement-rises-to-change-the-teaching-of-reading/675989\">balanced literacy\u003c/a>, an approach popularized by Lucy Calkins in her influential \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html\">“Units of Study” curriculum\u003c/a> that often downplays phonics in favor of trying to instill a love of reading, sometimes encouraging children to guess at words using picture clues rather than sound them out.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Unfortunately for students across California, balanced literacy will likely be alive and well for years to come,” said Megan Bacigalupi, co-founder of CA Parent Power, a statewide parent advocacy organization. “Without accountability and mandates, what is going to compel districts to change, when for years we’ve known how kids learn to read, we have seen millions of kids struggle, and few changes have been made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thurmond also announced $1 million in grants to expand literacy programs at Freedom Schools, an Afrocentric program of the Children’s Defense Fund. He also launched a series of webinars geared to highlight best practices to boost literacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We provide these culturally responsive reading opportunities,” said Kristal Moore Clemons, national director of the Freedom Schools. “Children can’t be what they can’t see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The co-directors will also lead webinars, help guide the state’s $250 million reading coach and specialist training program and partner with the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to help implement recently adopted \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/new-literacy-standards-for-teacher-candidates-could-be-pivotal-to-improving-student-reading-scores/680405\">literacy standards in teacher preparation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/amid-californias-mounting-literacy-crisis-state-names-new-literacy-directors/687430\">\u003cem>This story originally appeared in EdSource.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California’s protracted teacher shortage isn’t over yet, but it seems to be getting better. There has been a significant increase in the number of credentialed teachers entering the workforce in recent years and a decline in the number of underprepared teachers in classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between the school years ending in 2017 and 2021, there was a 35% increase in the number of teachers who completed a California teacher preparation program and earned a preliminary credential, a reversal of the downward trend of the previous 10 years, according to state data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/educating-teachers-in-california-brief\">In the 2020–21 school year, 16,554 teachers prepared in California earned preliminary credentials\u003c/a>, according to a brief recently released by the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit education research organization. About 3,000 others were prepared out of state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are one of only a few states seeing an increase in entrants to teaching while most states are still seeing declines,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, State Board of Education president and chief executive officer of the Learning Policy Institute. About 3,300 more fully prepared teachers entered teaching in 2021 than in 2019, and 2,500 fewer people were on \u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/commission/reports/data/edu-supl-ipw\">emergency permits\u003c/a>, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, the number of people completing teacher preparation programs fell 22% between 2013 and 2019. California is one of eight states to increase the number of teachers entering the profession during that time, according to the Learning Policy Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California has made big investments in teacher recruitment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Darling-Hammond credits California initiatives to recruit and retain teachers for the increase in teaching credentials. The state has invested $1.2 billion since 2016 to address teacher shortages. Among the largest expenditures is $515 million for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/california-golden-state-teacher-grant-gstg-program-0\">Golden State Teacher Grant Program\u003c/a>, $401 million for the \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/california-sunk-millions-into-teacher-residency-program-but-many-cant-afford-to-enroll/685984\">Teacher Residency Grant Program\u003c/a>, and $170 million for the \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2020/californias-effort-to-turn-school-staff-into-teachers-starts-to-pay-off/621726\">California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program\u003c/a>, all of which offer teacher candidates financial support, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4556\">Legislative Analyst’s Office\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency also recently launched \u003ca href=\"https://www.labor.ca.gov/2023/02/08/california-developing-roadmap-for-teacher-apprenticeship/\">a work group to develop a teacher apprenticeship program in the state\u003c/a>.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"mindshift_61254,news_11925673,mindshift_61179\"]But will these efforts be enough? The estimated \u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/StfTchHires.aspx?cdcode=00&agglevel=State&year=2022-23\">need for teachers this school year was 22,143\u003c/a>, according to the California Department of Education. Nearly 5,800 interns and 6,100 teachers on emergency permits were teaching without preliminary credentials in 2020–21, the most recent school year data is available. And, by 2025, another \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-to-create-teaching-credential-covering-pre-k-through-3rd-grade-that-requires-literacy-training/674316\">15,000 credentialed teachers are expected to be needed\u003c/a> as transitional kindergarten is expanded across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State education experts are cautiously optimistic. Susan Kemper Patrick, an LPI researcher studying the teacher shortage, calls the news encouraging, but acknowledges that there are still teacher vacancies in schools that principals can’t fill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick also is optimistic about a California Commission on Teacher Credentialing survey of 60,000 people who completed teacher preparation programs in the state. Of those surveyed between 2016 and 2020, 90% were satisfied with their preparation. The survey also showed changes in how teachers are prepared, with 10% taking part in teacher residency programs, Patrick said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A report by the National Center for Teacher Residencies found that \u003ca href=\"https://nctresidencies.org/about-nctr/impact-results/annual-report/\">89% of graduates of teacher residency programs remain in the profession for at least three years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Teacher preparation programs try to keep up with demand\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California State University teacher preparation programs, which educate the majority of California students, \u003ca href=\"https://tableau.calstate.edu/views/CredentialsEnrollmentProduction/CredentialsProduction?iframeSizedToWindow=true&%3Aembed=y&%3AshowAppBanner=false&%3Adisplay_count=no&%3AshowVizHome=no&%3Aorigin=viz_share_link\">increased enrollment by 27% between 2019 and 2021\u003c/a>, when it had nearly 12,000 teacher candidates in its program. The University of California had 645 teacher candidates enrolled in 2022. About half of the state’s teachers are prepared at dozens of private colleges and universities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CSU has been an anomaly,” said Shireen Pavri, CSU assistant vice chancellor of educator and leadership programs. “Nationwide enrollment in teacher preparation is definitely down. We have been bucking the trend to a pretty large extent.”[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Linda Darling-Hammond, president, State Board of Education\"]‘We are one of only a few states seeing an increase in entrants to teaching while most states are still seeing declines.’[/pullquote]Pavri expects that enrollment figures in teacher preparation programs will continue to increase, but not at such a rapid rate. Teacher preparation programs are competing with the need for young people to get into the workforce earlier, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s reflective of the times we live in,” Pavri said. “Sometimes there is a need for a salary that will put them at a higher wage right out of school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the recent growth, enrollment in CSU teacher preparation programs is still substantially below the 19,235 students enrolled 20 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CSU officials are making a concerted effort to increase the number of teacher candidates in their programs by working with partners like California Community Colleges to make it easier for students to enter teacher preparation programs, Pavri said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University officials also are trying to get the word out about state grants for teacher candidates. Pavri is hopeful the funds will entice teacher candidates who have left teacher preparation programs to return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has historically been an extremely rewarding career option, impacting families, siblings and communities,” Pavri said. “I can’t think of another career option this rewarding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although some campus teacher preparation programs are full, there are enough seats across the system to accommodate all interested students, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Teachers say higher pay would make them stay\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The teacher shortage has been blamed on many things including the Great Recession, when thousands of teachers were pink-slipped and lost their jobs, discouraging future generations of educators, as well as the \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/covid-challenges-bad-student-behavior-push-teachers-to-the-limit-and-out-the-door/673124\">challenges of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent survey of teachers by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.cta.org/press-release/as-ca-grapples-with-teacher-shortage-statewide-survey-finds-major-barriers-for-building-sustaining-teaching-profession\">40% of teachers have considered leaving the profession\u003c/a>. Most of the 4,600 teachers who took the survey say \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-school-districts-increase-pay-working-conditions-to-ease-teacher-shortage/666523\">increasing pay would be the best way to improve teacher retention\u003c/a>, followed by smaller class sizes, stronger discipline policies for students, better staffing and more manageable workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s time to \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-school-districts-increase-pay-working-conditions-to-ease-teacher-shortage/666523\">focus on teacher retention\u003c/a>, Pavri said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do we enhance salaries and working conditions and prepare the workforce, and honor the skills and science they bring to their work?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/california-is-preparing-more-credentialed-teachers-but-is-it-enough/686837\">This story originally appeared in EdSource.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California's investments in addressing the teacher shortage have been paying off, breaking a 10-year downward trend, as the state becomes just one of eight to see an increase in credentialed teachers. But despite cautious optimism, experts say the teacher shortage is not over yet.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California’s protracted teacher shortage isn’t over yet, but it seems to be getting better. There has been a significant increase in the number of credentialed teachers entering the workforce in recent years and a decline in the number of underprepared teachers in classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between the school years ending in 2017 and 2021, there was a 35% increase in the number of teachers who completed a California teacher preparation program and earned a preliminary credential, a reversal of the downward trend of the previous 10 years, according to state data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/educating-teachers-in-california-brief\">In the 2020–21 school year, 16,554 teachers prepared in California earned preliminary credentials\u003c/a>, according to a brief recently released by the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit education research organization. About 3,000 others were prepared out of state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are one of only a few states seeing an increase in entrants to teaching while most states are still seeing declines,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, State Board of Education president and chief executive officer of the Learning Policy Institute. About 3,300 more fully prepared teachers entered teaching in 2021 than in 2019, and 2,500 fewer people were on \u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/commission/reports/data/edu-supl-ipw\">emergency permits\u003c/a>, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, the number of people completing teacher preparation programs fell 22% between 2013 and 2019. California is one of eight states to increase the number of teachers entering the profession during that time, according to the Learning Policy Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California has made big investments in teacher recruitment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Darling-Hammond credits California initiatives to recruit and retain teachers for the increase in teaching credentials. The state has invested $1.2 billion since 2016 to address teacher shortages. Among the largest expenditures is $515 million for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/california-golden-state-teacher-grant-gstg-program-0\">Golden State Teacher Grant Program\u003c/a>, $401 million for the \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/california-sunk-millions-into-teacher-residency-program-but-many-cant-afford-to-enroll/685984\">Teacher Residency Grant Program\u003c/a>, and $170 million for the \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2020/californias-effort-to-turn-school-staff-into-teachers-starts-to-pay-off/621726\">California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program\u003c/a>, all of which offer teacher candidates financial support, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4556\">Legislative Analyst’s Office\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency also recently launched \u003ca href=\"https://www.labor.ca.gov/2023/02/08/california-developing-roadmap-for-teacher-apprenticeship/\">a work group to develop a teacher apprenticeship program in the state\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But will these efforts be enough? The estimated \u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/StfTchHires.aspx?cdcode=00&agglevel=State&year=2022-23\">need for teachers this school year was 22,143\u003c/a>, according to the California Department of Education. Nearly 5,800 interns and 6,100 teachers on emergency permits were teaching without preliminary credentials in 2020–21, the most recent school year data is available. And, by 2025, another \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-to-create-teaching-credential-covering-pre-k-through-3rd-grade-that-requires-literacy-training/674316\">15,000 credentialed teachers are expected to be needed\u003c/a> as transitional kindergarten is expanded across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State education experts are cautiously optimistic. Susan Kemper Patrick, an LPI researcher studying the teacher shortage, calls the news encouraging, but acknowledges that there are still teacher vacancies in schools that principals can’t fill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick also is optimistic about a California Commission on Teacher Credentialing survey of 60,000 people who completed teacher preparation programs in the state. Of those surveyed between 2016 and 2020, 90% were satisfied with their preparation. The survey also showed changes in how teachers are prepared, with 10% taking part in teacher residency programs, Patrick said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A report by the National Center for Teacher Residencies found that \u003ca href=\"https://nctresidencies.org/about-nctr/impact-results/annual-report/\">89% of graduates of teacher residency programs remain in the profession for at least three years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Teacher preparation programs try to keep up with demand\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California State University teacher preparation programs, which educate the majority of California students, \u003ca href=\"https://tableau.calstate.edu/views/CredentialsEnrollmentProduction/CredentialsProduction?iframeSizedToWindow=true&%3Aembed=y&%3AshowAppBanner=false&%3Adisplay_count=no&%3AshowVizHome=no&%3Aorigin=viz_share_link\">increased enrollment by 27% between 2019 and 2021\u003c/a>, when it had nearly 12,000 teacher candidates in its program. The University of California had 645 teacher candidates enrolled in 2022. About half of the state’s teachers are prepared at dozens of private colleges and universities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CSU has been an anomaly,” said Shireen Pavri, CSU assistant vice chancellor of educator and leadership programs. “Nationwide enrollment in teacher preparation is definitely down. We have been bucking the trend to a pretty large extent.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Pavri expects that enrollment figures in teacher preparation programs will continue to increase, but not at such a rapid rate. Teacher preparation programs are competing with the need for young people to get into the workforce earlier, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s reflective of the times we live in,” Pavri said. “Sometimes there is a need for a salary that will put them at a higher wage right out of school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the recent growth, enrollment in CSU teacher preparation programs is still substantially below the 19,235 students enrolled 20 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CSU officials are making a concerted effort to increase the number of teacher candidates in their programs by working with partners like California Community Colleges to make it easier for students to enter teacher preparation programs, Pavri said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University officials also are trying to get the word out about state grants for teacher candidates. Pavri is hopeful the funds will entice teacher candidates who have left teacher preparation programs to return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has historically been an extremely rewarding career option, impacting families, siblings and communities,” Pavri said. “I can’t think of another career option this rewarding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although some campus teacher preparation programs are full, there are enough seats across the system to accommodate all interested students, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Teachers say higher pay would make them stay\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The teacher shortage has been blamed on many things including the Great Recession, when thousands of teachers were pink-slipped and lost their jobs, discouraging future generations of educators, as well as the \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/covid-challenges-bad-student-behavior-push-teachers-to-the-limit-and-out-the-door/673124\">challenges of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent survey of teachers by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.cta.org/press-release/as-ca-grapples-with-teacher-shortage-statewide-survey-finds-major-barriers-for-building-sustaining-teaching-profession\">40% of teachers have considered leaving the profession\u003c/a>. Most of the 4,600 teachers who took the survey say \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-school-districts-increase-pay-working-conditions-to-ease-teacher-shortage/666523\">increasing pay would be the best way to improve teacher retention\u003c/a>, followed by smaller class sizes, stronger discipline policies for students, better staffing and more manageable workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s time to \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-school-districts-increase-pay-working-conditions-to-ease-teacher-shortage/666523\">focus on teacher retention\u003c/a>, Pavri said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do we enhance salaries and working conditions and prepare the workforce, and honor the skills and science they bring to their work?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/california-is-preparing-more-credentialed-teachers-but-is-it-enough/686837\">This story originally appeared in EdSource.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "its-uplifting-all-of-us-oakland-high-school-students-experience-lessons-in-black-history-beyond-the-classroom",
"title": "'It's Uplifting All of Us': Oakland High School Students Experience Lessons in Black History Beyond the Classroom",
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"headTitle": "‘It’s Uplifting All of Us’: Oakland High School Students Experience Lessons in Black History Beyond the Classroom | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Lois the Pie Queen, considered one of the oldest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/132331/your-guide-to-black-owned-eateries-around-the-bay\">Black-owned restaurants\u003c/a> in Northern California, recently served up a history lesson to Oakland high school students alongside its menu of soul food favorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Buildings have been torn down. New buildings been built. But in terms of here, it’s always been the same. Everybody wants to find Lois the Pie Queen and see what it’s all about,” said restaurant owner Corey Jackson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944744\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944744\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lois the Pie Queen restaurant in Oakland on March 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lois the Pie Queen’s decades-long staying power in the community made it the ideal first stop during a high school field trip tour of historic Black sites in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, Tony Green, a teacher at Bishop O’Dowd High School, led the field trip for a group of juniors and seniors enrolled in his Advanced Placement African American Studies class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944785\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"A close up of a diner counter with hot sauce bottles, glass sugar containers, salt and pepper shakers, packets of jelly and plastic bottles of ketchup neatly arranged. In the background, a large collage of individually framed photos decorate the wall leaving no room between each frame. In the center, coffee pots warm on the coffee station.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photos fill the wall behind the lunch counter at Lois the Pie Queen restaurant in Oakland on March 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Throughout the year, Green said he’s taught his students about the wealth gap, redlining and gentrification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s meaningful because it’s an attempt at telling the actual truth about African Americans and their relationship with the rest of the world,” said Green, who’s been teaching a version of the class for 32 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944745\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944745\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Tony Green speaks to his African American studies class at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland on March 22, 2023, following a field trip to historic Black sites in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Christian Colbert, a junior, said Green’s teaching style — which aims not only to explain historical facts, but to also show how they’re interconnected across time — resonated with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just feel like a lot of history classes are just like bits and pieces of history,” he said. “Classes like these, kind of give you the whole thing, from like, ancient in Mali, to like, all the way to the Black Panthers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944737\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944737\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Students sit at desks inside a classroom. A projector displays a presentation. Three high school boys stand at the podium in front of the classroom ready to speak.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Colbert (right), a junior, speaks about urban development and redlining during a presentation in Tony Green’s African American studies class at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland on March 22, 2023, following a field trip to historic Black sites in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bishop O’Dowd, a Catholic school, is among 60 schools in the U.S. currently piloting the \u003ca href=\"https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-african-american-studies-course-framework.pdf\">College Board AP African American Studies curriculum (PDF)\u003c/a> — which covers early African societies, the slave trade and the history of resistance and resilience in the U.S.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Catherine Gholamipour, student\"]‘History is mainly white history. You don’t get a ton of exposure to stuff like this in other classes.’[/pullquote]Recently, the curriculum became part of a national political debate around teaching history in schools. The focus on topics such as Black feminism, among others, is one of the reasons why \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1153434464/college-boards-revised-ap-african-american-studies-course-draws-new-criticism\">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u003c/a> initially refused to offer the course in schools in that state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has also had its share of discussions around social studies requirements. Starting with the class of 2030, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891396/new-california-law-will-require-ethnic-studies-class-for-high-schoolers\">a new law\u003c/a> mandates all high school students in the Golden State complete a semester of ethnic studies — in part to help students of color see themselves reflected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“History is mainly white history,” said Catherine Gholamipour, a student in Green’s class. “You don’t get a ton of exposure to stuff like this in other classes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her peer Nartan Farucht, a senior, echoed the importance of a class that fills in the gaps of other social studies classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944740\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944740\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt='A sign hangs outside of a brick building reads \"Marcus Books.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign for Marcus Book Store hangs above the business in Oakland on March 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You can’t actually talk about the way we built our government, where we built our cities, we built our schools, without talking about the slave trade and the people who actually built these locations on their backs,” Farucht said.[aside postID=news_11942006 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/Mother-and-Son-1020x765.jpeg']Green and his students all live in Oakland, a city lush with history and the birthplace of the revolutionary Black Panther Party. During the field trip, the class made additional stops at Marcus Books, the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the country, and the West Oakland Mural Project, whose blue facade recognizes the women of the Black Panther Party and houses the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to the organization’s legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jilchristina Vest, the museum’s founder and curator, explained to Green’s class how the party was instrumental in community service efforts, offering free breakfast programs, health care and food co-ops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s uplifting all of us, and if I’m not allowed to learn my history as an American, then why do we have schools at all,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tobias Aisien, a junior at Bishop O’Dowd, said the museum visit helped him make connections to the history he’s been studying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944750\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944750\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tobias Aisien, a Bishop O’Dowd High School junior, listens to speakers during Tony Green’s African American studies class in Oakland on March 22, 2023, following a field trip to historic Black sites in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Women’s involvement in the Black Panthers, you don’t really learn about that in the history books. So it’s just really cool to see,” Aisien said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland’s contributions to Black history are highlighted in the AP course’s national curriculum, which includes a unit about the origins and contributions of the Black Panther Party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944792\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944792\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Inside a bookstore, a wall is covered in colorful imagery and black and white posters of historic figures such as James Baldwin, Paul Robeson, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black history posters line a wall at Marcus Book Store in Oakland on March 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Green said AP African American Studies is expected to expand to hundreds of schools nationwide next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are a very diverse country and everybody here has made contributions,” he said. “So that’s what history is supposed to be, right? It gives us, the citizens of society, a sense of who they are and what their values should be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Bishop O'Dowd, a Catholic high school in Oakland, is among 60 schools in the U.S. currently piloting the College Board AP African American Studies curriculum. Students recently took a field trip to learn more about important Black historical sites in their hometown.",
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"title": "'It's Uplifting All of Us': Oakland High School Students Experience Lessons in Black History Beyond the Classroom | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Lois the Pie Queen, considered one of the oldest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/132331/your-guide-to-black-owned-eateries-around-the-bay\">Black-owned restaurants\u003c/a> in Northern California, recently served up a history lesson to Oakland high school students alongside its menu of soul food favorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Buildings have been torn down. New buildings been built. But in terms of here, it’s always been the same. Everybody wants to find Lois the Pie Queen and see what it’s all about,” said restaurant owner Corey Jackson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944744\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944744\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63804_007_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lois the Pie Queen restaurant in Oakland on March 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lois the Pie Queen’s decades-long staying power in the community made it the ideal first stop during a high school field trip tour of historic Black sites in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, Tony Green, a teacher at Bishop O’Dowd High School, led the field trip for a group of juniors and seniors enrolled in his Advanced Placement African American Studies class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944785\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"A close up of a diner counter with hot sauce bottles, glass sugar containers, salt and pepper shakers, packets of jelly and plastic bottles of ketchup neatly arranged. In the background, a large collage of individually framed photos decorate the wall leaving no room between each frame. In the center, coffee pots warm on the coffee station.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63800_001_KQED_LoisthePieQueenOakland_03222023-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photos fill the wall behind the lunch counter at Lois the Pie Queen restaurant in Oakland on March 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Throughout the year, Green said he’s taught his students about the wealth gap, redlining and gentrification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s meaningful because it’s an attempt at telling the actual truth about African Americans and their relationship with the rest of the world,” said Green, who’s been teaching a version of the class for 32 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944745\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944745\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63818_001_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Tony Green speaks to his African American studies class at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland on March 22, 2023, following a field trip to historic Black sites in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Christian Colbert, a junior, said Green’s teaching style — which aims not only to explain historical facts, but to also show how they’re interconnected across time — resonated with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just feel like a lot of history classes are just like bits and pieces of history,” he said. “Classes like these, kind of give you the whole thing, from like, ancient in Mali, to like, all the way to the Black Panthers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944737\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944737\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Students sit at desks inside a classroom. A projector displays a presentation. Three high school boys stand at the podium in front of the classroom ready to speak.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63824_008_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Colbert (right), a junior, speaks about urban development and redlining during a presentation in Tony Green’s African American studies class at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland on March 22, 2023, following a field trip to historic Black sites in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bishop O’Dowd, a Catholic school, is among 60 schools in the U.S. currently piloting the \u003ca href=\"https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-african-american-studies-course-framework.pdf\">College Board AP African American Studies curriculum (PDF)\u003c/a> — which covers early African societies, the slave trade and the history of resistance and resilience in the U.S.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘History is mainly white history. You don’t get a ton of exposure to stuff like this in other classes.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Recently, the curriculum became part of a national political debate around teaching history in schools. The focus on topics such as Black feminism, among others, is one of the reasons why \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1153434464/college-boards-revised-ap-african-american-studies-course-draws-new-criticism\">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u003c/a> initially refused to offer the course in schools in that state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has also had its share of discussions around social studies requirements. Starting with the class of 2030, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891396/new-california-law-will-require-ethnic-studies-class-for-high-schoolers\">a new law\u003c/a> mandates all high school students in the Golden State complete a semester of ethnic studies — in part to help students of color see themselves reflected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“History is mainly white history,” said Catherine Gholamipour, a student in Green’s class. “You don’t get a ton of exposure to stuff like this in other classes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her peer Nartan Farucht, a senior, echoed the importance of a class that fills in the gaps of other social studies classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944740\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944740\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt='A sign hangs outside of a brick building reads \"Marcus Books.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63815_009_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign for Marcus Book Store hangs above the business in Oakland on March 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You can’t actually talk about the way we built our government, where we built our cities, we built our schools, without talking about the slave trade and the people who actually built these locations on their backs,” Farucht said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Green and his students all live in Oakland, a city lush with history and the birthplace of the revolutionary Black Panther Party. During the field trip, the class made additional stops at Marcus Books, the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the country, and the West Oakland Mural Project, whose blue facade recognizes the women of the Black Panther Party and houses the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to the organization’s legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jilchristina Vest, the museum’s founder and curator, explained to Green’s class how the party was instrumental in community service efforts, offering free breakfast programs, health care and food co-ops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s uplifting all of us, and if I’m not allowed to learn my history as an American, then why do we have schools at all,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tobias Aisien, a junior at Bishop O’Dowd, said the museum visit helped him make connections to the history he’s been studying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944750\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944750\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63826_011_KQED_TonyGreenClassBishopODowd_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tobias Aisien, a Bishop O’Dowd High School junior, listens to speakers during Tony Green’s African American studies class in Oakland on March 22, 2023, following a field trip to historic Black sites in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Women’s involvement in the Black Panthers, you don’t really learn about that in the history books. So it’s just really cool to see,” Aisien said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland’s contributions to Black history are highlighted in the AP course’s national curriculum, which includes a unit about the origins and contributions of the Black Panther Party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944792\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944792\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Inside a bookstore, a wall is covered in colorful imagery and black and white posters of historic figures such as James Baldwin, Paul Robeson, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63808_003_KQED_MarcusBooksOakland_03222023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black history posters line a wall at Marcus Book Store in Oakland on March 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Green said AP African American Studies is expected to expand to hundreds of schools nationwide next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are a very diverse country and everybody here has made contributions,” he said. “So that’s what history is supposed to be, right? It gives us, the citizens of society, a sense of who they are and what their values should be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "a-life-and-death-difference-essential-workers-push-for-cantonese-language-access-in-san-francisco",
"title": "'A Life-and-Death Difference': Essential Workers Push for Cantonese Language Access in San Francisco",
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"headTitle": "‘A Life-and-Death Difference’: Essential Workers Push for Cantonese Language Access in San Francisco | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Wednesday evenings, about 35 students crowd into Grace Yu’s classroom at City College of San Francisco to study Cantonese late into the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These aren’t your average 20-something college kids. Many of the students in Yu’s oversubscribed classes — both of her two Cantonese courses this semester have full waitlists — are essential workers hoping to apply their newfound skills to their careers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, a city where about one-tenth of the population speaks Cantonese, essential workers are beginning to realize that their ability to communicate in Cantonese can have life-or-death consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city employs some of the workers in Yu’s class as first responders, but there also are medical professionals, social service providers and community volunteers who are learning the language to better serve Cantonese-speaking residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see being able to speak Cantonese as not only about cultural preservation, but also making sure that people can receive essential services in a language they understand,” said Julia Quon, a doula and nursing student who took Yu’s class, referencing concerns that the language’s future is threatened by the Chinese government’s campaign to promote Mandarin and by younger generations losing the language.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When her Cantonese-speaking patients at San Francisco General Hospital see her walk in, Quon said, they breathe a “huge sigh of relief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cantonese, a regional Chinese language spoken by over 80 million people across the world, is the most-spoken Chinese language in the Bay Area, and it is spoken at even higher rates in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco is the Cantonese capital of America,” said Alan Wong, president of City College’s Board of Trustees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are limited opportunities to learn the language later in life in San Francisco, which in turn diminishes the hiring pool of essential workers who can speak Cantonese. High school students in the public school district hoping to earn world language credits in Chinese only have the option of taking Mandarin. And City College, the only higher education institution in the city that offers Cantonese, has reduced the numbers of teachers in its program over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943629\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11943629\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Middle-aged Asian woman wearing a blue and red zip-up top smiles as she stands behind a desk in a classroom with a white board behind her\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Grace Yu poses for a portrait during a break from teaching a Cantonese class at City College of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Puppy Valentine, a student in Yu’s class, said learning Cantonese creates a better rapport with many of the people she sees in her capacity as a community health supervisor at St. Anthony’s Medical Clinic, which provides a broad range of safety-net services to San Franciscans in need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even when you’re not doing the best job with the language, people can tell you’re trying,” Valentine said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jonathan Sit, co-founder of the Chinatown Volunteer Coalition, said he regularly steps in to serve as an interpreter, both in person and over the phone, for Chinatown residents seeking the help of first responders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He keeps an eye out when he’s outside for people who may be in need of assistance: “I’ll walk by, show them the card that we’re volunteering for the CVC and say, ‘Hey, I’m just checking in to see if everything’s OK. I can translate in Cantonese. Do you need any help?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raymond Wong, who works with Sit, said his experience has made clear the importance of Cantonese, and he’s signed up for one of Yu’s classes to deepen his vocabulary as a result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hire, educate and provide resources,” he said, ticking off steps the city could take to ensure better language access. “We need to ensure our community feels safe and protected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A life-and-death community need\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Yu first began teaching at City College, there was a team of Cantonese instructors. Now, she is the only one remaining. In 2021, administrators threatened to cut the program, but community members, led by Save Cantonese, an advocacy group that Quon co-founded, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872330/my-heart-dropped-ccsf-students-rally-to-protest-cuts-that-threaten-to-transform-college\">rallied to preserve it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943624\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11943624\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Asian woman wearing a colorful red shirt and a red-and-gold facemask holds a microphone with hand-made signs in the background reading Save Cantonese at CCSF\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julia Quon, a former student in Grace Yu’s Cantonese class who organized Save Cantonese at CCSF with her fellow classmates, speaks at a Fight for City College rally outside Mission High School in San Francisco on May 6, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shawn Lee, policy director for Save Cantonese, said there is a clear community need for these classes, especially specialized courses, such as one focusing on medical terms. “Even knowing how to talk about preexisting conditions and allergies are the things that can make a life-and-death difference,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent high-profile incidents in the city — including hateful attacks against members of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities — have also intensified calls to ensure that essential workers can provide services in Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Russell Jeung, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, SFSU Asian American studies professor\"]‘These are dramatic cases … But I also know lots of cases where people don’t call 911 because they don’t know how to speak to dispatchers, or they don’t seek out health care because they don’t understand the doctors.’[/pullquote]Some \u003ca href=\"https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3161691/learning-cantonese-shouldnt-just-be-about-cultural\">commentators have pointed out that first responders’ inability to speak Cantonese may have impacted their capacity to help Xiao Zhen Xie\u003c/a>, an older woman who \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/03/24/980760622/asian-grandmother-who-smacked-her-attacker-with-a-board-donates-nearly-1-million\">fought off an attacker with a wooden board\u003c/a> in March 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another incident in May 2021, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/district-attorney-chesa-boudin-joins-effort-to-find-missing-84-year-old-woman/\">84-year-old Jean Chang Kan Fung was reported missing\u003c/a> after she didn’t return home from a walk. Nearly two weeks later, her body was discovered on a beach in Pacifica, though it wasn’t confirmed as hers for months. It turned out that \u003ca href=\"https://48hills.org/2021/09/the-mystery-of-jean-chang-kan-fung-84-dead-after-an-encounter-with-chp/\">California Highway Patrol officers had encountered Fung the day she went missing\u003c/a> — they picked her up after responding to 911 calls about a person walking on a highway, then gave her a ride to a Safeway miles from her home. Chesa Boudin, who was then the district attorney, suggested that a “communication breakdown” had taken place, as Fung spoke only Taishanese and Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know where the communication went wrong,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/district-attorney-chesa-boudin-joins-effort-to-find-missing-84-year-old-woman/\">Boudin said at a press conference about the incident\u003c/a>. “But we know she didn’t get a ride home. She didn’t get a ride close to her home … I think all of us feel that, had there been more language access, perhaps this devastating situation could have been avoided.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department said he was not aware of an issue of translation in the department’s response to the first woman, and he wrote that a certified Cantonese-speaking officer assisted the victim in the initial investigation. The California Highway Patrol, which responded to the latter incident, did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are dramatic cases,” said Russell Jeung, an Asian American studies professor at San Francisco State University. “But I also know lots of cases where people don’t call 911 because they don’t know how to speak to dispatchers, or they don’t seek out health care because they don’t understand the doctors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeung, who co-founded \u003ca href=\"https://stopaapihate.org/about/\">Stop AAPI Hate\u003c/a>, a coalition that tracks and responds to hate incidents, added that the March and May 2021 incidents came at an “inflection point” where there was a heightened awareness among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders of attacks. (Jeung is no longer with the coalition.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said institutions’ failure to provide access to services in an appropriate language constitutes a form of hate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This type of cultural insensitivity is a problem,” he said. “Addressing racism involves both addressing the hate incidents but also the broader, institutionalized forms of hate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We can be a source of comfort’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Stop AAPI Hate has received 942 reports of hate incidents in the last year in San Francisco, with 63% of those incidents being reported by Chinese respondents, according to data provided by the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some essential workers pointed to such incidents as the motivation for their efforts to learn or use Cantonese on their jobs, as well as first-hand experiences with language access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christine Chow, a student in Yu’s class who works as a medical assistant at a Daly City dermatology clinic, said she thinks of a Cantonese-speaking patient who visits the clinic after picking up his prescriptions to have his medications explained to him, even though pharmacies in California are required to provide services in languages other than English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can be a source of comfort for patients when we can provide that help,” Chow said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943652\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11943652\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Wide shot of numerous students who appear to be of varying race and age sitting at desks in a classroom with books open, speaking to each other\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work on an assignment during a Cantonese language class taught by Professor Grace Yu at City College of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wong, the City College trustee, cited an incident at a San Francisco hospital where he stepped in to interpret for an older Chinese woman as the motivation for his advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recalled walking down a hallway when the woman flagged him down. She had a “big purple eye,” Wong said, and she told him that she had been punched on a bus. According to Wong, she told him that when police officers arrived, they were unable to communicate with her, and she was further unable to communicate with staff at the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whenever I think about the importance of having a Cantonese education, I think about her,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We still have a long way to go’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jeung, the San Francisco State University professor, added that in some regards, San Francisco is ahead of other cities in providing language access as a result of its Language Access Ordinance, one of the strongest local language laws in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law requires that all city departments that serve the public provide “fair language access” and establishes a reporting process for departments and residents to determine whether the city is following the law. But Jeung said there is still a question of how well the law is implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that the community continues to cry out for these types of services shows that we still have a long way to go in implementing these types of policies,” Jeung said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question of language access is important to city officials, added Mason Lee, spokesperson for Mayor London Breed, citing the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The system is not perfect, but everyone who works for the city knows how much we value being multilingual,” Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943635\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11943635\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Two men wearing facemasks, one who appears to be Asian and one who appears to be white, face each other and hold school books while seated in a classroom setting\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work together to complete an assignment during Grace Yu’s Cantonese language class at City College of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some first responders employed by the city are also working to improve language access. According to spokespeople for the fire and police departments, about 4% of fire department employees and 6% of police department employees speak Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stan Lee, a San Francisco firefighter who leads the Asian Firefighters Association, said Cantonese language skills are already underrepresented in the department, and new Chinese hires are often born in the U.S. or come to the department from outside the city, making them less likely to speak Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee added that not having appropriate language skills can be dangerous when responding to calls. He gave the example of a firefighter being unable to understand what medications a victim is taking: “That could be a life-or-death situation,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Police Department Sergeant Culbert Chu, who leads the department’s Asian Peace Officers Association, added that in emergency situations, dispatchers prioritize sending first responders who can speak the appropriate language, and when that is not possible, responders are able to use the LanguageLine app, an on-demand interpreting service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chu noted that all four Chinatown beat officers can speak some amount of Cantonese, and he has worked on community outreach in Chinatown, such as by providing residents with the phone numbers of Cantonese-speaking officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they hear us speaking [Cantonese], it puts them at ease,” he said. “It makes people more comfortable talking to us about what happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curran Gong, a police officer who works with Chu, added, “The more Cantonese speakers, the better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced with support from the Bay Area chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and Comcast California’s Rising With the Tides fellowship, a storytelling project aimed at amplifying Asian American Pacific Islander stories and voices.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "San Francisco may be the Cantonese capital of the US, but there are limited opportunities to learn the language, which in turn diminishes the hiring pool of essential workers who can speak it.",
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"title": "'A Life-and-Death Difference': Essential Workers Push for Cantonese Language Access in San Francisco | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">O\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n Wednesday evenings, about 35 students crowd into Grace Yu’s classroom at City College of San Francisco to study Cantonese late into the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These aren’t your average 20-something college kids. Many of the students in Yu’s oversubscribed classes — both of her two Cantonese courses this semester have full waitlists — are essential workers hoping to apply their newfound skills to their careers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, a city where about one-tenth of the population speaks Cantonese, essential workers are beginning to realize that their ability to communicate in Cantonese can have life-or-death consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city employs some of the workers in Yu’s class as first responders, but there also are medical professionals, social service providers and community volunteers who are learning the language to better serve Cantonese-speaking residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see being able to speak Cantonese as not only about cultural preservation, but also making sure that people can receive essential services in a language they understand,” said Julia Quon, a doula and nursing student who took Yu’s class, referencing concerns that the language’s future is threatened by the Chinese government’s campaign to promote Mandarin and by younger generations losing the language.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When her Cantonese-speaking patients at San Francisco General Hospital see her walk in, Quon said, they breathe a “huge sigh of relief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cantonese, a regional Chinese language spoken by over 80 million people across the world, is the most-spoken Chinese language in the Bay Area, and it is spoken at even higher rates in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco is the Cantonese capital of America,” said Alan Wong, president of City College’s Board of Trustees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are limited opportunities to learn the language later in life in San Francisco, which in turn diminishes the hiring pool of essential workers who can speak Cantonese. High school students in the public school district hoping to earn world language credits in Chinese only have the option of taking Mandarin. And City College, the only higher education institution in the city that offers Cantonese, has reduced the numbers of teachers in its program over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943629\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11943629\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Middle-aged Asian woman wearing a blue and red zip-up top smiles as she stands behind a desk in a classroom with a white board behind her\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62791_016_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Grace Yu poses for a portrait during a break from teaching a Cantonese class at City College of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Puppy Valentine, a student in Yu’s class, said learning Cantonese creates a better rapport with many of the people she sees in her capacity as a community health supervisor at St. Anthony’s Medical Clinic, which provides a broad range of safety-net services to San Franciscans in need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even when you’re not doing the best job with the language, people can tell you’re trying,” Valentine said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jonathan Sit, co-founder of the Chinatown Volunteer Coalition, said he regularly steps in to serve as an interpreter, both in person and over the phone, for Chinatown residents seeking the help of first responders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He keeps an eye out when he’s outside for people who may be in need of assistance: “I’ll walk by, show them the card that we’re volunteering for the CVC and say, ‘Hey, I’m just checking in to see if everything’s OK. I can translate in Cantonese. Do you need any help?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raymond Wong, who works with Sit, said his experience has made clear the importance of Cantonese, and he’s signed up for one of Yu’s classes to deepen his vocabulary as a result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hire, educate and provide resources,” he said, ticking off steps the city could take to ensure better language access. “We need to ensure our community feels safe and protected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A life-and-death community need\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Yu first began teaching at City College, there was a team of Cantonese instructors. Now, she is the only one remaining. In 2021, administrators threatened to cut the program, but community members, led by Save Cantonese, an advocacy group that Quon co-founded, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872330/my-heart-dropped-ccsf-students-rally-to-protest-cuts-that-threaten-to-transform-college\">rallied to preserve it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943624\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11943624\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Asian woman wearing a colorful red shirt and a red-and-gold facemask holds a microphone with hand-made signs in the background reading Save Cantonese at CCSF\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS48914_015_SanFrancisco_CCSFRally_05062021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julia Quon, a former student in Grace Yu’s Cantonese class who organized Save Cantonese at CCSF with her fellow classmates, speaks at a Fight for City College rally outside Mission High School in San Francisco on May 6, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shawn Lee, policy director for Save Cantonese, said there is a clear community need for these classes, especially specialized courses, such as one focusing on medical terms. “Even knowing how to talk about preexisting conditions and allergies are the things that can make a life-and-death difference,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent high-profile incidents in the city — including hateful attacks against members of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities — have also intensified calls to ensure that essential workers can provide services in Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘These are dramatic cases … But I also know lots of cases where people don’t call 911 because they don’t know how to speak to dispatchers, or they don’t seek out health care because they don’t understand the doctors.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Some \u003ca href=\"https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3161691/learning-cantonese-shouldnt-just-be-about-cultural\">commentators have pointed out that first responders’ inability to speak Cantonese may have impacted their capacity to help Xiao Zhen Xie\u003c/a>, an older woman who \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/03/24/980760622/asian-grandmother-who-smacked-her-attacker-with-a-board-donates-nearly-1-million\">fought off an attacker with a wooden board\u003c/a> in March 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another incident in May 2021, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/district-attorney-chesa-boudin-joins-effort-to-find-missing-84-year-old-woman/\">84-year-old Jean Chang Kan Fung was reported missing\u003c/a> after she didn’t return home from a walk. Nearly two weeks later, her body was discovered on a beach in Pacifica, though it wasn’t confirmed as hers for months. It turned out that \u003ca href=\"https://48hills.org/2021/09/the-mystery-of-jean-chang-kan-fung-84-dead-after-an-encounter-with-chp/\">California Highway Patrol officers had encountered Fung the day she went missing\u003c/a> — they picked her up after responding to 911 calls about a person walking on a highway, then gave her a ride to a Safeway miles from her home. Chesa Boudin, who was then the district attorney, suggested that a “communication breakdown” had taken place, as Fung spoke only Taishanese and Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know where the communication went wrong,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/district-attorney-chesa-boudin-joins-effort-to-find-missing-84-year-old-woman/\">Boudin said at a press conference about the incident\u003c/a>. “But we know she didn’t get a ride home. She didn’t get a ride close to her home … I think all of us feel that, had there been more language access, perhaps this devastating situation could have been avoided.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department said he was not aware of an issue of translation in the department’s response to the first woman, and he wrote that a certified Cantonese-speaking officer assisted the victim in the initial investigation. The California Highway Patrol, which responded to the latter incident, did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are dramatic cases,” said Russell Jeung, an Asian American studies professor at San Francisco State University. “But I also know lots of cases where people don’t call 911 because they don’t know how to speak to dispatchers, or they don’t seek out health care because they don’t understand the doctors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeung, who co-founded \u003ca href=\"https://stopaapihate.org/about/\">Stop AAPI Hate\u003c/a>, a coalition that tracks and responds to hate incidents, added that the March and May 2021 incidents came at an “inflection point” where there was a heightened awareness among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders of attacks. (Jeung is no longer with the coalition.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said institutions’ failure to provide access to services in an appropriate language constitutes a form of hate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This type of cultural insensitivity is a problem,” he said. “Addressing racism involves both addressing the hate incidents but also the broader, institutionalized forms of hate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We can be a source of comfort’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Stop AAPI Hate has received 942 reports of hate incidents in the last year in San Francisco, with 63% of those incidents being reported by Chinese respondents, according to data provided by the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some essential workers pointed to such incidents as the motivation for their efforts to learn or use Cantonese on their jobs, as well as first-hand experiences with language access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christine Chow, a student in Yu’s class who works as a medical assistant at a Daly City dermatology clinic, said she thinks of a Cantonese-speaking patient who visits the clinic after picking up his prescriptions to have his medications explained to him, even though pharmacies in California are required to provide services in languages other than English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can be a source of comfort for patients when we can provide that help,” Chow said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943652\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11943652\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Wide shot of numerous students who appear to be of varying race and age sitting at desks in a classroom with books open, speaking to each other\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62786_009_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work on an assignment during a Cantonese language class taught by Professor Grace Yu at City College of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wong, the City College trustee, cited an incident at a San Francisco hospital where he stepped in to interpret for an older Chinese woman as the motivation for his advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recalled walking down a hallway when the woman flagged him down. She had a “big purple eye,” Wong said, and she told him that she had been punched on a bus. According to Wong, she told him that when police officers arrived, they were unable to communicate with her, and she was further unable to communicate with staff at the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whenever I think about the importance of having a Cantonese education, I think about her,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We still have a long way to go’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jeung, the San Francisco State University professor, added that in some regards, San Francisco is ahead of other cities in providing language access as a result of its Language Access Ordinance, one of the strongest local language laws in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law requires that all city departments that serve the public provide “fair language access” and establishes a reporting process for departments and residents to determine whether the city is following the law. But Jeung said there is still a question of how well the law is implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that the community continues to cry out for these types of services shows that we still have a long way to go in implementing these types of policies,” Jeung said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question of language access is important to city officials, added Mason Lee, spokesperson for Mayor London Breed, citing the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The system is not perfect, but everyone who works for the city knows how much we value being multilingual,” Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943635\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11943635\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Two men wearing facemasks, one who appears to be Asian and one who appears to be white, face each other and hold school books while seated in a classroom setting\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS62790_015_KQED_CCSFCantoneseClass_02082023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work together to complete an assignment during Grace Yu’s Cantonese language class at City College of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some first responders employed by the city are also working to improve language access. According to spokespeople for the fire and police departments, about 4% of fire department employees and 6% of police department employees speak Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stan Lee, a San Francisco firefighter who leads the Asian Firefighters Association, said Cantonese language skills are already underrepresented in the department, and new Chinese hires are often born in the U.S. or come to the department from outside the city, making them less likely to speak Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee added that not having appropriate language skills can be dangerous when responding to calls. He gave the example of a firefighter being unable to understand what medications a victim is taking: “That could be a life-or-death situation,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Police Department Sergeant Culbert Chu, who leads the department’s Asian Peace Officers Association, added that in emergency situations, dispatchers prioritize sending first responders who can speak the appropriate language, and when that is not possible, responders are able to use the LanguageLine app, an on-demand interpreting service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chu noted that all four Chinatown beat officers can speak some amount of Cantonese, and he has worked on community outreach in Chinatown, such as by providing residents with the phone numbers of Cantonese-speaking officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they hear us speaking [Cantonese], it puts them at ease,” he said. “It makes people more comfortable talking to us about what happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curran Gong, a police officer who works with Chu, added, “The more Cantonese speakers, the better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced with support from the Bay Area chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and Comcast California’s Rising With the Tides fellowship, a storytelling project aimed at amplifying Asian American Pacific Islander stories and voices.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "San Francisco Unified Faces $5.4 Million Legal Battle Over Bus Bills During School Closures",
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"content": "\u003cp>The San Francisco Unified School District’s former school bus provider is suing the district for $5.4 million for payments it claims the district failed to make during the 2020–21 school year when students were participating in distance learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest dispute, which is not the first between the private transportation company First Student Inc. and SFUSD, comes as both businesses and school districts across the country are scrambling to recover from losses during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This case is a corporate shakedown of our public school district by the largest bus company in the United States,” said Nancy Harris, attorney representing SFUSD, during opening statements for the jury trial. “The terms of the contract provide that the school district agreed to pay First Student only when drivers employed by First Student drove students in buses owned by First Student to and from schools and other points.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ohio-based First Student is the country’s largest school bus transportation service provider and worked with San Francisco Unified for 40 years before the two organizations cut ties during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there’s no disagreement that buses weren’t running their usual routes during the 2020–21 school year, representatives for First Student allege that the district owes them money for non-transportation services, such as bus maintenance and vehicle insurance. The company invoiced SFUSD for $5.4 million for those additional costs in the fall of 2021.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Nancy Harris, attorney representing SFUSD\"]'This case is a corporate shakedown of our public school district by the largest bus company in the United States.'[/pullquote]In response to First Student's lawsuit, SFUSD filed a cross-complaint for breach of contract, bad faith and violations of the California False Claims Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school district maintains that under the 2020–21 school year contract, they were not obligated to pay for services because buses were not transporting students during the city’s shelter-in-place order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email sent to KQED, the district also alleged that the company “submitted false invoices claiming that hundreds of buses and drivers were deployed on the road in August and September 2020, at a time when students were learning remotely,” according to Laura Dudnick, spokesperson for SFUSD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When that did not work, [First Student] demanded that the school district cover its overhead costs. This strategy was part of its nationwide pressure campaign against school districts to increase its revenue, when school districts like SFUSD struggled with budget deficits and were focused on students,” Dudnick wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In court testimony Thursday, Paul Osland, who was president of First Student during the pandemic, denied pressuring any district into payments during the pandemic, and suggested his company was simply upholding its end of a contract that started in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Osland asserts that First Student charges for a full program, meaning not only transportation services, but also the operating expenses such as vehicle insurance, bus technology and regular maintenance that is required by California Highway Patrol to keep the buses in operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID “impacted all of us, but it sure as heck impacted our business,” said Osland in court on Thursday. Osland, who is now retired, previously ran transportation services for Chicago Public Schools. “Of course this is not a shakedown. It was an initiative in everyone’s interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Paul Osland, former president, First Student\"]'Of course this is not a shakedown. It was an initiative in everyone's interest.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris, the attorney for SFUSD, underscored a section of the contract that anticipated school closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district shall not be obligated to accept or pay for services, herein to be furnished by the contractor, on those days when by the direction of the Superintendent, the district schools are closed to ensure the health and safety of the pupils or for any other lawful reason. The district agrees to notify the contractor, not later than 5:30 a.m., on days of such school closures,” the contract reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Osland, however, said he thinks that portion of the contract would only apply to short-term closures like snow days or fire days, not months-long disruptions. No such distinction is made either way in the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First Student works with around 1,000 districts across the U.S. and Canada. The company provides yellow school bus transportation to and from schools for general education, students with disabilities and individualized education plans, field trip services and charter bus services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to KQED, the company said it filed the lawsuit “because of bad faith and broken promises by SFUSD.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“SFUSD made a choice to stop paying for the many services that SFUSD required under the bus contract, including the more than 230 yellow school buses dedicated to SFUSD that First Student kept in position throughout the pandemic,” the statement read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First Student stood by its business partner, fulfilling its obligations to maintain operational readiness to ensure it was ready to transport students as soon as schools reopened. And when they did, First Student was ready when SFUSD called. Over an eight-month period, First Student submitted discounted invoices, but SFUSD paid nothing. SFUSD had encumbered funds available, and even issued a purchase order, but it made a choice not to pay. That is not just or fair, and for that reason, we expect to prevail in court.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 40 years of service, SFUSD cut ties with First Student during the pandemic, and the district in July 2021 awarded school transportation to app-based start-up Zūm in a $150 million five-year contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time of the deal, the district estimated the new provider would save the district about $3 million annually, according to \u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/29/zum-wins-150m-from-san-francisco-schools-to-modernize-and-electrify-student-transport/\">a report from TechCrunch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, First Student sued Zūm, whose consultant had recently left a high position with First Student. First Student alleged the employee downloaded the competing bid from its company while joining Zūm. That case is set to begin trial August 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First Student also filed an appeal against SFUSD’s process and decision to contract with Zūm. The court denied that appeal from First Student in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement from First Student. This story also has been corrected, to accurately reflect the status of First Student's lawsuit against Zūm, which is scheduled to begin trial Aug. 14. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The San Francisco Unified School District’s former school bus provider is suing the district for $5.4 million for payments it claims the district failed to make during the 2020–21 school year when students were participating in distance learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest dispute, which is not the first between the private transportation company First Student Inc. and SFUSD, comes as both businesses and school districts across the country are scrambling to recover from losses during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This case is a corporate shakedown of our public school district by the largest bus company in the United States,” said Nancy Harris, attorney representing SFUSD, during opening statements for the jury trial. “The terms of the contract provide that the school district agreed to pay First Student only when drivers employed by First Student drove students in buses owned by First Student to and from schools and other points.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ohio-based First Student is the country’s largest school bus transportation service provider and worked with San Francisco Unified for 40 years before the two organizations cut ties during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there’s no disagreement that buses weren’t running their usual routes during the 2020–21 school year, representatives for First Student allege that the district owes them money for non-transportation services, such as bus maintenance and vehicle insurance. The company invoiced SFUSD for $5.4 million for those additional costs in the fall of 2021.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In response to First Student's lawsuit, SFUSD filed a cross-complaint for breach of contract, bad faith and violations of the California False Claims Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school district maintains that under the 2020–21 school year contract, they were not obligated to pay for services because buses were not transporting students during the city’s shelter-in-place order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email sent to KQED, the district also alleged that the company “submitted false invoices claiming that hundreds of buses and drivers were deployed on the road in August and September 2020, at a time when students were learning remotely,” according to Laura Dudnick, spokesperson for SFUSD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When that did not work, [First Student] demanded that the school district cover its overhead costs. This strategy was part of its nationwide pressure campaign against school districts to increase its revenue, when school districts like SFUSD struggled with budget deficits and were focused on students,” Dudnick wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In court testimony Thursday, Paul Osland, who was president of First Student during the pandemic, denied pressuring any district into payments during the pandemic, and suggested his company was simply upholding its end of a contract that started in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Osland asserts that First Student charges for a full program, meaning not only transportation services, but also the operating expenses such as vehicle insurance, bus technology and regular maintenance that is required by California Highway Patrol to keep the buses in operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID “impacted all of us, but it sure as heck impacted our business,” said Osland in court on Thursday. Osland, who is now retired, previously ran transportation services for Chicago Public Schools. “Of course this is not a shakedown. It was an initiative in everyone’s interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris, the attorney for SFUSD, underscored a section of the contract that anticipated school closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district shall not be obligated to accept or pay for services, herein to be furnished by the contractor, on those days when by the direction of the Superintendent, the district schools are closed to ensure the health and safety of the pupils or for any other lawful reason. The district agrees to notify the contractor, not later than 5:30 a.m., on days of such school closures,” the contract reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Osland, however, said he thinks that portion of the contract would only apply to short-term closures like snow days or fire days, not months-long disruptions. No such distinction is made either way in the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First Student works with around 1,000 districts across the U.S. and Canada. The company provides yellow school bus transportation to and from schools for general education, students with disabilities and individualized education plans, field trip services and charter bus services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to KQED, the company said it filed the lawsuit “because of bad faith and broken promises by SFUSD.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“SFUSD made a choice to stop paying for the many services that SFUSD required under the bus contract, including the more than 230 yellow school buses dedicated to SFUSD that First Student kept in position throughout the pandemic,” the statement read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First Student stood by its business partner, fulfilling its obligations to maintain operational readiness to ensure it was ready to transport students as soon as schools reopened. And when they did, First Student was ready when SFUSD called. Over an eight-month period, First Student submitted discounted invoices, but SFUSD paid nothing. SFUSD had encumbered funds available, and even issued a purchase order, but it made a choice not to pay. That is not just or fair, and for that reason, we expect to prevail in court.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 40 years of service, SFUSD cut ties with First Student during the pandemic, and the district in July 2021 awarded school transportation to app-based start-up Zūm in a $150 million five-year contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time of the deal, the district estimated the new provider would save the district about $3 million annually, according to \u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/29/zum-wins-150m-from-san-francisco-schools-to-modernize-and-electrify-student-transport/\">a report from TechCrunch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, First Student sued Zūm, whose consultant had recently left a high position with First Student. First Student alleged the employee downloaded the competing bid from its company while joining Zūm. That case is set to begin trial August 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First Student also filed an appeal against SFUSD’s process and decision to contract with Zūm. The court denied that appeal from First Student in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement from First Student. This story also has been corrected, to accurately reflect the status of First Student's lawsuit against Zūm, which is scheduled to begin trial Aug. 14. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "reversal-of-oakland-school-closures-renews-hope-of-reparations-for-black-students",
"title": "Reversal of Oakland School Closures Renews Hope of Reparations for Black Students",
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"headTitle": "Reversal of Oakland School Closures Renews Hope of Reparations for Black Students | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The decision by Oakland’s new school board to rescind a school closure plan has renewed hope in the reparations movement to improve the outcomes of Oakland Unified School District’s Black students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the movement remains in limbo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2021, the school board passed the \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1knTRaGliW06LnPCATRmaILnwrgViLgsC/view\">Reparations for Black Students\u003c/a> resolution, an initiative to provide more resources for almost 8,000 Black students. For some observers, the resolution acknowledged the inequitable education students have received for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resolution created a task force to monitor academic performance and, among other things, provide anti-racism training to district teachers and staff. Early versions of the resolution included a ban on school closures where more than 30% of the students are Black, a line item that was opposed by the school district and Chris Learned, the state trustee who oversaw the district’s finances. It was ultimately removed from the final resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For two decades, the school district has been under state receivership because of a $100 million bailout in 2003. To address budget shortfalls, the school board voted in January 2022 to close what it deemed were underperforming schools with low enrollment. The vote sparked protests, which included a hunger strike, a 125-day occupation of Parker Elementary School after the district closed it, and a State Department of Justice inquiry into claims that the plan continued a trend of discrimination against the district’s Black students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11942027\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11942027 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-800x599.jpg\" alt=\"A group of protesters hold signs against school closures as they march on a city street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-1020x763.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-1536x1150.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Educators, parents, youth and supporters protest during a citywide rally at Oakland City Hall on Feb. 4, 2022. The rally was one of several events last year in support of the Reparations for Black Students campaign. \u003ccite>(Amaya Edwards/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The closures derailed the reparations effort to hold the school district accountable for improving the education of Black students. But the reversal, which was approved during a special meeting in January, has activists and community members cautiously optimistic about OUSD’s future. The action was made possible by newly elected board members who opposed the previous board’s decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">California Reparations Task Force\u003c/a> continues to study and develop proposals for the entire state, a look into Oakland’s effort reveals just how difficult reparations can be to implement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are now finally positioned to start doing things differently,” said Mike Hutchinson, the school board’s new president. “We have to embed this work in the district so it becomes a core part of what we do, and I think we are starting to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luz Cázares, the current trustee, will have to sign off for the reversal to be permanent. The Alameda County Office of Education must also approve. \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/01/19/ousd-oakland-school-closures-hutchinson-alameda-county-castro/\">As \u003cem>The Oaklandside\u003c/em>’s Ashley McBride reported\u003c/a>, “the board’s decision could also threaten a separate influx of state cash the district was expecting as a result of closing schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, if the decision is confirmed by the state, it will save five elementary schools that serve predominantly students of color — Brookfield, Grass Valley, Horace Mann, Carl B. Munck, Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy and Hillcrest Elementary School, which would also continue to serve kindergarten through eighth grade. The majority of students at Grass Valley and Carl B. Munck are Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having the board make that decision as soon as it did has really given the system a breath of fresh air,” said Pecolia Manigo, chair of the Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force, the body created to implement the reparations resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Ongoing fight against systemic racism\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jordan Rancifer was captivated by the stories of anti-Black racism in Oakland’s public schools that he heard in the Oakland High School auditorium in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It piqued my interest because it’s like, damn, I’m not the only one having these racial experiences in OUSD,” he recalled in an interview with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was one of a series of community listening sessions held by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandkidsfirst.org/programs/j4os/\">Justice for Oakland Students coalition\u003c/a>. Students described being called racist slurs by peers. They said they felt ignored when they brought concerns to school administrators, and alienated by curricula that neglected Black experiences. Parents described years of limited enrollment in programs meant to support Black students and funding that always seemed to quickly run out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11942014\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11942014 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A young Black man with a black hoodie and shoulder-length black twists looks at the camera while standing on a sidewalk in an urban street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jordan Rancifer poses for a photo on Grand Avenue in Oakland on April 15, 2022. Rancifer spoke at the listening sessions that led to the Reparations for Black Students resolution when he was a senior at Oakland Technical High School. Now he’s studying political science at Cal State East Bay. \u003ccite>(Annelise Finney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rancifer was then a senior struggling in math at Oakland Technical High School. He shared his experience in a room full of teachers, students and parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just didn’t feel like, as a Black man, I was being helped or noticed,” said Rancifer, now 23 and studying political science at Cal State East Bay. “They just kind of let me fail.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black students accounted for \u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Snapshot?:embed=y&:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link\">20.5% of district enrollment\u003c/a> — roughly 10,000 out of 50,000 students — in the 2021–2022 academic year, according to OUSD’s dashboard. Two decades ago, Black students accounted for nearly half. Since then, the district has shuttered 16 majority Black schools, fracturing school communities and separating students from friends and familiar teachers. At the listening sessions, speakers said the closures contributed to the exodus of Black families from district schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The listening sessions laid the foundation for the reparations resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resolution promised to address the declining enrollment and poor outcomes of Black students, and set its sights on ending the achievement gap, also called the opportunity gap, by 2026.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Pecolia Manigo, chair, Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force\"]‘Having the board make that decision as soon as it did has really given the system a breath of fresh air.’[/pullquote]In September 2021, the district created the \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PlZalR3MLPd6M4XK5_ORtdu8oK0d26Ox/view\">Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force\u003c/a>, a 25-member volunteer body to carry out the resolution. By that time, Rancifer was in college. His mother, Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, an Oakland teacher and vice president of the Oakland teachers union, became the task force secretary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The thing that makes me so excited about our work is being able to bring Black folks into a safe space, and for them to know that they’re not alone in their experiences and that other folks are experiencing the same thing, but that they can also come up with the solutions,” said Manigo, who is also executive director of the Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network, an Oakland-based nonprofit that empowers parents to advocate for their children in public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Manigo and Hutchinson, things were going smoothly for months after the task force began its work. The volunteer group of Black parents, educators, district employees and community activists met regularly on Zoom, gathering virtually to view colorful slide decks put together by Manigo, mother of two OUSD students and one OUSD graduate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OUSD receives special state funding for students from lower-income families and foster youth, many of whom are Black. The task force aims to track how OUSD invests that money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland has been trying to improve the outcomes for Black students for decades. OUSD founded the African American Male Achievement program in 2010 and what is now known as the African American Female Excellence program in 2015. Data shows the programs improved graduation rates and lowered rates of suspensions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the impact of other, more diffuse efforts like curriculum changes and diversifying staff is harder to trace. The task force set out to build a system to quantify the impact of district interventions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being able to say whether something is effective or not effective, and whether it’s helping to close opportunity gaps or not … we knew that that was a big challenge,” said Manigo, who was unsuccessful in her bid for a school board seat in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Manigo, the school closure plan, announced four months after the task force began its work, revealed that the district was unwilling “to understand the implications of the lived experience and wisdom that so many of us had been putting before them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closure plan felt like a betrayal. “By saying reparations, there is an immediate demand to stop the harm,” Manigo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11942012\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11942012 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-800x596.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman with a purple top and short cropped hair smiles at the camera as she stands in a park.\" width=\"800\" height=\"596\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-800x596.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-1020x760.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-1536x1145.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pecolia Manigo poses in Maxwell Park in Oakland on Aug. 25, 2022. Manigo is the chair of the Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force. \u003ccite>(Annelise Finney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead of focusing on improving outcomes for Black students, conflict grew among members of the task force who found themselves on opposing sides of the closure debate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are in a highly polarized political context and I think our minds are pretty trained to put a stake in the ground and not move from that,” said Dr. Dexter Moore Jr., the superintendent’s representative on the task force. “It put a wedge in the work. No question about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last March, a report presented by Moore to the school board on behalf of the district superintendent showed that a year after the reparations resolution was passed, many of the worrying trends affecting Black students continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black students were being suspended at more than twice the district average, and more than half of Black students were chronically absent, which Moore attributed in part to the impact of a surge in COVID-19 cases at the time. Between the 2020–21 and 2021–22 school years, \u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Historic?%3Aembed=y&%3AshowShareOptions=true&%3Adisplay_count=no&%3AshowVizHome=no&%3Arender=false#7\">Black student enrollment dropped by more than 400 students\u003c/a>, continuing the decades-long pattern of Black students leaving the district, according to OUSD data. Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell, district superintendent, instructed the task force to pause indefinitely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force initially refused to stop holding meetings, but momentum waned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We went from 25 folks being able to meet in the very early days and having really great conversations looking over different indicators and putting metrics to those things, to then eventually 15, 16, 17, to slowly but surely many individuals just stepping back,” Manigo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force stopped holding public meetings in April. Not enough members were regularly attending to have a quorum. Ten months later, meetings have yet to resume. But developments since the new year might signal a change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hutchinson has nominated board members Clifford Thompson and VanCedric Williams, co-author of the reparations resolution, to new positions as board liaisons to the task force. He hopes Thompson and Williams will help the task force rebuild its membership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11942017\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11942017\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-800x589.jpg\" alt='A Black man with clean shaven head and wearing a blue hoodie that reads \"Protect West Oakland Mural\" smiles at the camera with people in the background.' width=\"800\" height=\"589\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-800x589.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-1020x751.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-1536x1130.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Hutchinson, an outspoken opponent of school closures in Oakland, became the president of Oakland’s school board in January. \u003ccite>(Annelise Finney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Manigo feels frustrated that so much time was lost fighting the district, especially in a year with a massive state budget surplus. Instead of galvanizing energy around petitioning the state for more funding for Oakland schools, Manigo said community organizers like her spent the year fighting with the district to keep schools open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What was lost was the opportunity to really tell the Oakland story, to give lawmakers and the larger community hope that we really can create a district where all students are valued, where racially just schools are real,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That model could be important, because what Black students are up against in Oakland is similar to what Black students face throughout the state. \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/ab3121-interim-report-preliminary-recommendations-2022.pdf\">California remains the sixth most segregated state in the country for Black students (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to the interim report published by the state reparations task force in June. “In California’s highly segregated schools, schools attended by white and Asian children receive more funding and resources than schools with predominantly Black and Latino children,” the report says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a reality with deep roots. \u003ca href=\"https://clerk.assembly.ca.gov/sites/clerk.assembly.ca.gov/files/archive/Statutes/1855/1855.PDF\">In 1855, California passed a law that withheld state funds from schools that taught Black and Chinese children (PDF).\u003c/a> Although California taxed Black residents to pay for public schools, the money was only used for the education of white children.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11941976,news_11941469\"]Systemic racism continues to affect Black students. According to statewide data, in 2021–2022 \u003ca href=\"http://www.ed-data.org/state/CA/ps_NTI5Mjg%5E?_gl=1*1dpu79i*_ga*MTI4MDk1MjYxOS4xNjc1NzEyMjg0*_ga_475QR6J62K*MTY3NTcxMjI4NC4xLjEuMTY3NTcxMzM5NC42MC4wLjA.\">only 30% of Black students met English language arts standards and less than 16% met the standard in math\u003c/a>, placing Black students behind all other racial groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2023–2024 budget attempted to address some of this inequity, but \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/critics-say-newsoms-proposal-for-low-performing-students-fails-black-students/684148\">the budget proposal drew criticism\u003c/a> from advocates who say they want to see more funding and support specifically for Black students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What has played out in Oakland’s school district is not an anomaly when it comes to reparations, said Dr. Cheryl Grills, a state task force member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sometimes harder to implement things in the spirit in which they were intended than it is to get the win on the books,” said Grills, professor at Loyola Marymount University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state task force, which \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/meetings\">meets Friday and Saturday in Sacramento\u003c/a>, is expected to publish its plan for repairing almost 200 years of anti-Black racism in the state in June. To address racial disparities in public education, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/task-force-agenda-consolidated-prelim-props.pdf\">preliminary policy proposals (PDF)\u003c/a> being considered include an increase in funding to schools through the local control funding formula, which determines how much money schools receive from the state. The preliminary proposals include repealing or amending Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot measure that prohibits state and local government affirmative action programs in the areas of public employment, public education and public contracting. “Proposition 209 is widely viewed as an impediment to the adoption of remedial measures,” the task force stated in the proposal document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No part of a reparations plan will become law without the support of the governor and the state Legislature. Like the reparations push in Oakland, it will require consistent public pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a historic moment that could happen in California,” Manigo said. “And I believe that the time is now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The group redesigning how OUSD supports its Black students was stalled by the district's school closure plan. But that plan was rescinded — and now the group's leadership is hopeful for a renewed commitment to the district's Black families.",
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"title": "Reversal of Oakland School Closures Renews Hope of Reparations for Black Students | KQED",
"description": "The group redesigning how OUSD supports its Black students was stalled by the district's school closure plan. But that plan was rescinded — and now the group's leadership is hopeful for a renewed commitment to the district's Black families.",
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"headline": "Reversal of Oakland School Closures Renews Hope of Reparations for Black Students",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The decision by Oakland’s new school board to rescind a school closure plan has renewed hope in the reparations movement to improve the outcomes of Oakland Unified School District’s Black students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the movement remains in limbo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2021, the school board passed the \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1knTRaGliW06LnPCATRmaILnwrgViLgsC/view\">Reparations for Black Students\u003c/a> resolution, an initiative to provide more resources for almost 8,000 Black students. For some observers, the resolution acknowledged the inequitable education students have received for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resolution created a task force to monitor academic performance and, among other things, provide anti-racism training to district teachers and staff. Early versions of the resolution included a ban on school closures where more than 30% of the students are Black, a line item that was opposed by the school district and Chris Learned, the state trustee who oversaw the district’s finances. It was ultimately removed from the final resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For two decades, the school district has been under state receivership because of a $100 million bailout in 2003. To address budget shortfalls, the school board voted in January 2022 to close what it deemed were underperforming schools with low enrollment. The vote sparked protests, which included a hunger strike, a 125-day occupation of Parker Elementary School after the district closed it, and a State Department of Justice inquiry into claims that the plan continued a trend of discrimination against the district’s Black students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11942027\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11942027 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-800x599.jpg\" alt=\"A group of protesters hold signs against school closures as they march on a city street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-1020x763.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut-1536x1150.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS53519_20220204-IMG_2625-2-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Educators, parents, youth and supporters protest during a citywide rally at Oakland City Hall on Feb. 4, 2022. The rally was one of several events last year in support of the Reparations for Black Students campaign. \u003ccite>(Amaya Edwards/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The closures derailed the reparations effort to hold the school district accountable for improving the education of Black students. But the reversal, which was approved during a special meeting in January, has activists and community members cautiously optimistic about OUSD’s future. The action was made possible by newly elected board members who opposed the previous board’s decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">California Reparations Task Force\u003c/a> continues to study and develop proposals for the entire state, a look into Oakland’s effort reveals just how difficult reparations can be to implement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are now finally positioned to start doing things differently,” said Mike Hutchinson, the school board’s new president. “We have to embed this work in the district so it becomes a core part of what we do, and I think we are starting to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luz Cázares, the current trustee, will have to sign off for the reversal to be permanent. The Alameda County Office of Education must also approve. \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/01/19/ousd-oakland-school-closures-hutchinson-alameda-county-castro/\">As \u003cem>The Oaklandside\u003c/em>’s Ashley McBride reported\u003c/a>, “the board’s decision could also threaten a separate influx of state cash the district was expecting as a result of closing schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, if the decision is confirmed by the state, it will save five elementary schools that serve predominantly students of color — Brookfield, Grass Valley, Horace Mann, Carl B. Munck, Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy and Hillcrest Elementary School, which would also continue to serve kindergarten through eighth grade. The majority of students at Grass Valley and Carl B. Munck are Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having the board make that decision as soon as it did has really given the system a breath of fresh air,” said Pecolia Manigo, chair of the Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force, the body created to implement the reparations resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Ongoing fight against systemic racism\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jordan Rancifer was captivated by the stories of anti-Black racism in Oakland’s public schools that he heard in the Oakland High School auditorium in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It piqued my interest because it’s like, damn, I’m not the only one having these racial experiences in OUSD,” he recalled in an interview with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was one of a series of community listening sessions held by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandkidsfirst.org/programs/j4os/\">Justice for Oakland Students coalition\u003c/a>. Students described being called racist slurs by peers. They said they felt ignored when they brought concerns to school administrators, and alienated by curricula that neglected Black experiences. Parents described years of limited enrollment in programs meant to support Black students and funding that always seemed to quickly run out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11942014\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11942014 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A young Black man with a black hoodie and shoulder-length black twists looks at the camera while standing on a sidewalk in an urban street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62640_Jordan-Photo-2-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jordan Rancifer poses for a photo on Grand Avenue in Oakland on April 15, 2022. Rancifer spoke at the listening sessions that led to the Reparations for Black Students resolution when he was a senior at Oakland Technical High School. Now he’s studying political science at Cal State East Bay. \u003ccite>(Annelise Finney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rancifer was then a senior struggling in math at Oakland Technical High School. He shared his experience in a room full of teachers, students and parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just didn’t feel like, as a Black man, I was being helped or noticed,” said Rancifer, now 23 and studying political science at Cal State East Bay. “They just kind of let me fail.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black students accounted for \u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Snapshot?:embed=y&:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link\">20.5% of district enrollment\u003c/a> — roughly 10,000 out of 50,000 students — in the 2021–2022 academic year, according to OUSD’s dashboard. Two decades ago, Black students accounted for nearly half. Since then, the district has shuttered 16 majority Black schools, fracturing school communities and separating students from friends and familiar teachers. At the listening sessions, speakers said the closures contributed to the exodus of Black families from district schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The listening sessions laid the foundation for the reparations resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resolution promised to address the declining enrollment and poor outcomes of Black students, and set its sights on ending the achievement gap, also called the opportunity gap, by 2026.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Having the board make that decision as soon as it did has really given the system a breath of fresh air.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In September 2021, the district created the \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PlZalR3MLPd6M4XK5_ORtdu8oK0d26Ox/view\">Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force\u003c/a>, a 25-member volunteer body to carry out the resolution. By that time, Rancifer was in college. His mother, Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, an Oakland teacher and vice president of the Oakland teachers union, became the task force secretary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The thing that makes me so excited about our work is being able to bring Black folks into a safe space, and for them to know that they’re not alone in their experiences and that other folks are experiencing the same thing, but that they can also come up with the solutions,” said Manigo, who is also executive director of the Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network, an Oakland-based nonprofit that empowers parents to advocate for their children in public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Manigo and Hutchinson, things were going smoothly for months after the task force began its work. The volunteer group of Black parents, educators, district employees and community activists met regularly on Zoom, gathering virtually to view colorful slide decks put together by Manigo, mother of two OUSD students and one OUSD graduate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OUSD receives special state funding for students from lower-income families and foster youth, many of whom are Black. The task force aims to track how OUSD invests that money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland has been trying to improve the outcomes for Black students for decades. OUSD founded the African American Male Achievement program in 2010 and what is now known as the African American Female Excellence program in 2015. Data shows the programs improved graduation rates and lowered rates of suspensions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the impact of other, more diffuse efforts like curriculum changes and diversifying staff is harder to trace. The task force set out to build a system to quantify the impact of district interventions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being able to say whether something is effective or not effective, and whether it’s helping to close opportunity gaps or not … we knew that that was a big challenge,” said Manigo, who was unsuccessful in her bid for a school board seat in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Manigo, the school closure plan, announced four months after the task force began its work, revealed that the district was unwilling “to understand the implications of the lived experience and wisdom that so many of us had been putting before them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closure plan felt like a betrayal. “By saying reparations, there is an immediate demand to stop the harm,” Manigo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11942012\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11942012 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-800x596.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman with a purple top and short cropped hair smiles at the camera as she stands in a park.\" width=\"800\" height=\"596\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-800x596.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-1020x760.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut-1536x1145.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62641_Manigo-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pecolia Manigo poses in Maxwell Park in Oakland on Aug. 25, 2022. Manigo is the chair of the Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force. \u003ccite>(Annelise Finney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead of focusing on improving outcomes for Black students, conflict grew among members of the task force who found themselves on opposing sides of the closure debate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are in a highly polarized political context and I think our minds are pretty trained to put a stake in the ground and not move from that,” said Dr. Dexter Moore Jr., the superintendent’s representative on the task force. “It put a wedge in the work. No question about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last March, a report presented by Moore to the school board on behalf of the district superintendent showed that a year after the reparations resolution was passed, many of the worrying trends affecting Black students continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black students were being suspended at more than twice the district average, and more than half of Black students were chronically absent, which Moore attributed in part to the impact of a surge in COVID-19 cases at the time. Between the 2020–21 and 2021–22 school years, \u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Historic?%3Aembed=y&%3AshowShareOptions=true&%3Adisplay_count=no&%3AshowVizHome=no&%3Arender=false#7\">Black student enrollment dropped by more than 400 students\u003c/a>, continuing the decades-long pattern of Black students leaving the district, according to OUSD data. Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell, district superintendent, instructed the task force to pause indefinitely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force initially refused to stop holding meetings, but momentum waned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We went from 25 folks being able to meet in the very early days and having really great conversations looking over different indicators and putting metrics to those things, to then eventually 15, 16, 17, to slowly but surely many individuals just stepping back,” Manigo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force stopped holding public meetings in April. Not enough members were regularly attending to have a quorum. Ten months later, meetings have yet to resume. But developments since the new year might signal a change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hutchinson has nominated board members Clifford Thompson and VanCedric Williams, co-author of the reparations resolution, to new positions as board liaisons to the task force. He hopes Thompson and Williams will help the task force rebuild its membership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11942017\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11942017\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-800x589.jpg\" alt='A Black man with clean shaven head and wearing a blue hoodie that reads \"Protect West Oakland Mural\" smiles at the camera with people in the background.' width=\"800\" height=\"589\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-800x589.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-1020x751.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut-1536x1130.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62639_Hutchinson-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Hutchinson, an outspoken opponent of school closures in Oakland, became the president of Oakland’s school board in January. \u003ccite>(Annelise Finney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Manigo feels frustrated that so much time was lost fighting the district, especially in a year with a massive state budget surplus. Instead of galvanizing energy around petitioning the state for more funding for Oakland schools, Manigo said community organizers like her spent the year fighting with the district to keep schools open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What was lost was the opportunity to really tell the Oakland story, to give lawmakers and the larger community hope that we really can create a district where all students are valued, where racially just schools are real,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That model could be important, because what Black students are up against in Oakland is similar to what Black students face throughout the state. \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/ab3121-interim-report-preliminary-recommendations-2022.pdf\">California remains the sixth most segregated state in the country for Black students (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to the interim report published by the state reparations task force in June. “In California’s highly segregated schools, schools attended by white and Asian children receive more funding and resources than schools with predominantly Black and Latino children,” the report says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a reality with deep roots. \u003ca href=\"https://clerk.assembly.ca.gov/sites/clerk.assembly.ca.gov/files/archive/Statutes/1855/1855.PDF\">In 1855, California passed a law that withheld state funds from schools that taught Black and Chinese children (PDF).\u003c/a> Although California taxed Black residents to pay for public schools, the money was only used for the education of white children.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Systemic racism continues to affect Black students. According to statewide data, in 2021–2022 \u003ca href=\"http://www.ed-data.org/state/CA/ps_NTI5Mjg%5E?_gl=1*1dpu79i*_ga*MTI4MDk1MjYxOS4xNjc1NzEyMjg0*_ga_475QR6J62K*MTY3NTcxMjI4NC4xLjEuMTY3NTcxMzM5NC42MC4wLjA.\">only 30% of Black students met English language arts standards and less than 16% met the standard in math\u003c/a>, placing Black students behind all other racial groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2023–2024 budget attempted to address some of this inequity, but \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/critics-say-newsoms-proposal-for-low-performing-students-fails-black-students/684148\">the budget proposal drew criticism\u003c/a> from advocates who say they want to see more funding and support specifically for Black students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What has played out in Oakland’s school district is not an anomaly when it comes to reparations, said Dr. Cheryl Grills, a state task force member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sometimes harder to implement things in the spirit in which they were intended than it is to get the win on the books,” said Grills, professor at Loyola Marymount University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state task force, which \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/meetings\">meets Friday and Saturday in Sacramento\u003c/a>, is expected to publish its plan for repairing almost 200 years of anti-Black racism in the state in June. To address racial disparities in public education, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/task-force-agenda-consolidated-prelim-props.pdf\">preliminary policy proposals (PDF)\u003c/a> being considered include an increase in funding to schools through the local control funding formula, which determines how much money schools receive from the state. The preliminary proposals include repealing or amending Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot measure that prohibits state and local government affirmative action programs in the areas of public employment, public education and public contracting. “Proposition 209 is widely viewed as an impediment to the adoption of remedial measures,” the task force stated in the proposal document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No part of a reparations plan will become law without the support of the governor and the state Legislature. Like the reparations push in Oakland, it will require consistent public pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a historic moment that could happen in California,” Manigo said. “And I believe that the time is now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "universal-preschools-off-to-a-bumpy-start-but-east-san-jose-is-seeing-success-by-investing-in-future-students-earlier",
"title": "Universal Preschool's Off to a Bumpy Start, but East San José Is Seeing Success. Here's Why",
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"headTitle": "Universal Preschool’s Off to a Bumpy Start, but East San José Is Seeing Success. Here’s Why | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Jaime Pacheco, 5, has spent half of his life in a pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was still learning to talk when the lockdown began. That was also when his mom gave birth to his sister. COVID-19 hit his working-class and immigrant community in East San José hard, and his family stayed at home to protect the baby and everyone else from getting sick. When they did go on an outing, his mom, Itzia Morfin, said she kept her kids far away from people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when he stepped into a classroom for the first time last fall, Jaime had a hard time pronouncing words and expressing his feelings, and threw a tantrum unlike any Morfin had seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941884\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941884\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A Latina woman in a pink sweater poses with her two young children outside of a school gate.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Itzia Morfin poses with her daughter and son in front of the Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Daisy Nguyen/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was all new to him. He didn’t know how to act around other kids, around the teacher,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime is among tens of thousands of children who began their schooling this year when California made transitional kindergarten, or TK, more available as part of an ambitious plan to create the nation’s largest universal preschool program in the next three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transitional kindergarten is intended to better prepare 4- to 5-year-olds for kindergarten. The new grade is not mandatory, but gives parents the option of getting their children into schools sooner, which can help reduce child care costs that have become increasingly unaffordable and unavailable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this first year of implementing the expansion \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/early-childhood-education/2022/11/california-transitional-kindergarten/\">has been bumpy\u003c/a>. Some school districts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922708/californias-2-7-billion-plan-to-expand-transitional-kindergarten-is-off-to-an-uneven-start\">didn’t meet enrollment expectations\u003c/a>, and some saw a jump in enrollment, although that meant taking away kids that were in preschools and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2022/12/14/childcare-providers-are-a-casualty-of-californias-transitional-kindergarten\">destabilizing child care businesses\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941930\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941930\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A school sign by a neighborhood street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest challenges has been staffing. The majority of districts reported they didn’t have enough qualified teachers or child care staff to cover beyond the half day of classroom time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed to \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4682\">increase spending on the $3 billion initiative\u003c/a>, despite a projected $24 billion deficit for the 2023–24 budget year, so that the state can continue ramping up the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not by any stretch of the imagination where we need to be, but we’re not backing off in terms of accelerating these priorities in terms of our efforts to transform our public education system,” Newsom said when he unveiled his budget plan in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is giving school districts time to fully implement the program by phasing in younger students each year. Currently, students who turn 5 between September and February 2 are eligible for transitional kindergarten. Next fall, tens of thousands of children who turn 5 between September and April 2 will be qualified to attend class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941928\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941928\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"Two girls play with blocks on a carpet in a classroom.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camila Rico laughs as she grabs an armful of blocks during playtime in a transitional kindergarten class at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the 2025–26 school year, all children who turn 4 by September 1 can sign up for TK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the California Department of Education hasn’t released this school year’s attendance data for TK, it appears enrollment didn’t grow as much as the state anticipated. Newsom’s budget proposal lowered spending estimates for the first year of the expansion, and the governor \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm2qTbMen4M\">taped a video\u003c/a> last month to encourage families to enroll age-eligible kids and “start their schooling on the right track.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom also postponed plans to reduce class size from 12 students for every teacher to 10 students per teacher, and held back funding to renovate or build the appropriate facilities for TK-age children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one Bay Area school district is having more success. Over the last two years, TK enrollment in East San José went up from 262 to 324.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the Alum Rock Union School District has been gradually growing its TK program since 2015. It skipped ahead of the state’s expansion schedule by phasing in 4-year-olds earlier; it’s keeping classroom size small, at just 20 kids per two adults in the room so the students get the attention they need; and it’s offering after-school care to meet the needs of working parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district also partnered with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kidango.org/\">Kidango\u003c/a>, a nonprofit child care provider, to convert an elementary school into an early learning center where babies up to kindergarten-age kids will receive a full day of care — all on one campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941885\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941885\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"An older Latina woman stands in a school hallway looking off camera.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dianna J. Ballesteros, director of early learning for Alum Rock Union School District, stands for a portrait at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José, on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The idea of repurposing this facility came from listening to people in the community who said ‘we need something that is local, something where we don’t have to go driving far away,’” said Dianna Ballesteros, director of early learning for Alum Rock Union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Declining elementary school enrollment prompted district officials to move older students to other campuses while the TK and kindergarten students stayed put, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now those empty classrooms are turning into a day care: Desks, chairs and whiteboards are being replaced with short sinks, tables and cubbies for smaller kids and cribs and diaper-changing tables to welcome infants and toddlers by the next school year.[aside postID=news_11922708 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57716_IMG_0008-qut-1020x765.jpg']The center also includes an office where children can get assessed for developmental delays. \u003ca href=\"https://www.somosmayfair.org/\">SOMOS Mayfair\u003c/a>, a community organization that offers referrals for public assistance programs, also has an office on-site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a great model and we should see how it works and maybe learn from it,” said Patricia Lozano, executive director of the advocacy group Early Edge California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/press/achievement-gaps-exist-as-early-as-when-children-begin-kindergarten/\">children from lower-income families tend to fall behind their better-off peers starting in kindergarten\u003c/a>, Lozano argues it’s crucial to provide a consistent learning environment early on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During these early years, all these connections are happening in the brain, and the more opportunities we give kids to socialize, to play with other kids … you know, we’re kind of building the infrastructure for future learning,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alum Rock Union’s learning center is named after Cesar Chavez, who once lived close by while laboring in the fruit orchards. East San José, which is home to immigrants from Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam and India, among others, had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11862305/in-the-heart-of-the-pandemic-covid-19-deaths-loom-large-in-east-san-jose\">some of the highest rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths\u003c/a> in Santa Clara County, and the lingering effects of the pandemic are still felt in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime’s teacher at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center, Sandra Rivera, said she’s noticed a change over the last two school years. Transitional kindergarten students show up not knowing how to share or take turns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941926\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941926\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A Latina woman sits around a tables with kids, helping one hold a pencil.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transitional kindergarten teacher Sandra Rivera helps one of her students trace numbers inside a heart at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When they’re playing, their conflict resolution isn’t like it used to be because kids aren’t going to the park, kids aren’t seeing other kids in social settings, and so it takes time at the beginning of the year to get those routines and procedures into place so they can feel safe and confident in the classroom environment,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivera sees the education system setting higher academic expectations for kindergarten, and transitional kindergarten as giving children an extra year to get ready. In her classroom, Rivera introduces the letters of the alphabet and math concepts through singing and rhyming, and building with magnetic tiles and blocks, to foster a love of learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivera says she also combines activities, such as cooking projects, with the kindergarten class next door so her students can get a preview of what to expect when they move up to kindergarten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of that exploration and play is prevalent here,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program is already making a difference for Jaime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941929\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941929\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A young boy with a face mask looks at the camera in a classroom with other kids playing behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jaime Pacheco stands in his transitional kindergarten class at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One recent morning, he sat on a rug with a group of classmates, playing a counting game that involved taking turns to guess the missing number in a sequence of 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two kids had stuck heart-shaped cards, each with a number on it — 10, 20, 30 — in numerical order on the board. When it was Jaime’s turn, he chose the number 40 from a pile of cards and placed it on the board. Next, he randomly picked a popsicle stick with the name of the next classmate to go to the board. He was able to recognize the letters of her name and called out “Kenya.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through the center, Jaime was matched with a speech therapist to help him catch up to his peers. Now, his mom said he’s making friends and picking up new skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He knows what a routine is, he knows to put away his stuff … he makes me so proud of him when I see him doing the alphabet and signing,” Morfin said. “I just feel so happy, his teacher has been helping him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing the benefits of TK with Jaime, Morfin said she’s now eager for her daughter to start preschool earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Jaime Pacheco, 5, has spent half of his life in a pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was still learning to talk when the lockdown began. That was also when his mom gave birth to his sister. COVID-19 hit his working-class and immigrant community in East San José hard, and his family stayed at home to protect the baby and everyone else from getting sick. When they did go on an outing, his mom, Itzia Morfin, said she kept her kids far away from people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when he stepped into a classroom for the first time last fall, Jaime had a hard time pronouncing words and expressing his feelings, and threw a tantrum unlike any Morfin had seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941884\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941884\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A Latina woman in a pink sweater poses with her two young children outside of a school gate.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63157_IMG_3023-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Itzia Morfin poses with her daughter and son in front of the Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Daisy Nguyen/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was all new to him. He didn’t know how to act around other kids, around the teacher,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime is among tens of thousands of children who began their schooling this year when California made transitional kindergarten, or TK, more available as part of an ambitious plan to create the nation’s largest universal preschool program in the next three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transitional kindergarten is intended to better prepare 4- to 5-year-olds for kindergarten. The new grade is not mandatory, but gives parents the option of getting their children into schools sooner, which can help reduce child care costs that have become increasingly unaffordable and unavailable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this first year of implementing the expansion \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/early-childhood-education/2022/11/california-transitional-kindergarten/\">has been bumpy\u003c/a>. Some school districts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922708/californias-2-7-billion-plan-to-expand-transitional-kindergarten-is-off-to-an-uneven-start\">didn’t meet enrollment expectations\u003c/a>, and some saw a jump in enrollment, although that meant taking away kids that were in preschools and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2022/12/14/childcare-providers-are-a-casualty-of-californias-transitional-kindergarten\">destabilizing child care businesses\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941930\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941930\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A school sign by a neighborhood street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63097_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-457-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest challenges has been staffing. The majority of districts reported they didn’t have enough qualified teachers or child care staff to cover beyond the half day of classroom time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed to \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4682\">increase spending on the $3 billion initiative\u003c/a>, despite a projected $24 billion deficit for the 2023–24 budget year, so that the state can continue ramping up the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not by any stretch of the imagination where we need to be, but we’re not backing off in terms of accelerating these priorities in terms of our efforts to transform our public education system,” Newsom said when he unveiled his budget plan in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is giving school districts time to fully implement the program by phasing in younger students each year. Currently, students who turn 5 between September and February 2 are eligible for transitional kindergarten. Next fall, tens of thousands of children who turn 5 between September and April 2 will be qualified to attend class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941928\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941928\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"Two girls play with blocks on a carpet in a classroom.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63081_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-143-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camila Rico laughs as she grabs an armful of blocks during playtime in a transitional kindergarten class at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the 2025–26 school year, all children who turn 4 by September 1 can sign up for TK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the California Department of Education hasn’t released this school year’s attendance data for TK, it appears enrollment didn’t grow as much as the state anticipated. Newsom’s budget proposal lowered spending estimates for the first year of the expansion, and the governor \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm2qTbMen4M\">taped a video\u003c/a> last month to encourage families to enroll age-eligible kids and “start their schooling on the right track.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom also postponed plans to reduce class size from 12 students for every teacher to 10 students per teacher, and held back funding to renovate or build the appropriate facilities for TK-age children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one Bay Area school district is having more success. Over the last two years, TK enrollment in East San José went up from 262 to 324.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the Alum Rock Union School District has been gradually growing its TK program since 2015. It skipped ahead of the state’s expansion schedule by phasing in 4-year-olds earlier; it’s keeping classroom size small, at just 20 kids per two adults in the room so the students get the attention they need; and it’s offering after-school care to meet the needs of working parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district also partnered with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kidango.org/\">Kidango\u003c/a>, a nonprofit child care provider, to convert an elementary school into an early learning center where babies up to kindergarten-age kids will receive a full day of care — all on one campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941885\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941885\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"An older Latina woman stands in a school hallway looking off camera.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63096_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-512-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dianna J. Ballesteros, director of early learning for Alum Rock Union School District, stands for a portrait at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José, on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The idea of repurposing this facility came from listening to people in the community who said ‘we need something that is local, something where we don’t have to go driving far away,’” said Dianna Ballesteros, director of early learning for Alum Rock Union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Declining elementary school enrollment prompted district officials to move older students to other campuses while the TK and kindergarten students stayed put, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now those empty classrooms are turning into a day care: Desks, chairs and whiteboards are being replaced with short sinks, tables and cubbies for smaller kids and cribs and diaper-changing tables to welcome infants and toddlers by the next school year.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The center also includes an office where children can get assessed for developmental delays. \u003ca href=\"https://www.somosmayfair.org/\">SOMOS Mayfair\u003c/a>, a community organization that offers referrals for public assistance programs, also has an office on-site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a great model and we should see how it works and maybe learn from it,” said Patricia Lozano, executive director of the advocacy group Early Edge California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/press/achievement-gaps-exist-as-early-as-when-children-begin-kindergarten/\">children from lower-income families tend to fall behind their better-off peers starting in kindergarten\u003c/a>, Lozano argues it’s crucial to provide a consistent learning environment early on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During these early years, all these connections are happening in the brain, and the more opportunities we give kids to socialize, to play with other kids … you know, we’re kind of building the infrastructure for future learning,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alum Rock Union’s learning center is named after Cesar Chavez, who once lived close by while laboring in the fruit orchards. East San José, which is home to immigrants from Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam and India, among others, had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11862305/in-the-heart-of-the-pandemic-covid-19-deaths-loom-large-in-east-san-jose\">some of the highest rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths\u003c/a> in Santa Clara County, and the lingering effects of the pandemic are still felt in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime’s teacher at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center, Sandra Rivera, said she’s noticed a change over the last two school years. Transitional kindergarten students show up not knowing how to share or take turns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941926\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941926\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A Latina woman sits around a tables with kids, helping one hold a pencil.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63085_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-220-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transitional kindergarten teacher Sandra Rivera helps one of her students trace numbers inside a heart at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When they’re playing, their conflict resolution isn’t like it used to be because kids aren’t going to the park, kids aren’t seeing other kids in social settings, and so it takes time at the beginning of the year to get those routines and procedures into place so they can feel safe and confident in the classroom environment,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivera sees the education system setting higher academic expectations for kindergarten, and transitional kindergarten as giving children an extra year to get ready. In her classroom, Rivera introduces the letters of the alphabet and math concepts through singing and rhyming, and building with magnetic tiles and blocks, to foster a love of learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivera says she also combines activities, such as cooking projects, with the kindergarten class next door so her students can get a preview of what to expect when they move up to kindergarten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of that exploration and play is prevalent here,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program is already making a difference for Jaime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941929\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941929\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A young boy with a face mask looks at the camera in a classroom with other kids playing behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS63089_02172023_ksuzuki_tkprogress-199-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jaime Pacheco stands in his transitional kindergarten class at Cesar Chavez Early Learning Center in East San José on Feb. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One recent morning, he sat on a rug with a group of classmates, playing a counting game that involved taking turns to guess the missing number in a sequence of 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two kids had stuck heart-shaped cards, each with a number on it — 10, 20, 30 — in numerical order on the board. When it was Jaime’s turn, he chose the number 40 from a pile of cards and placed it on the board. Next, he randomly picked a popsicle stick with the name of the next classmate to go to the board. He was able to recognize the letters of her name and called out “Kenya.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through the center, Jaime was matched with a speech therapist to help him catch up to his peers. Now, his mom said he’s making friends and picking up new skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He knows what a routine is, he knows to put away his stuff … he makes me so proud of him when I see him doing the alphabet and signing,” Morfin said. “I just feel so happy, his teacher has been helping him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing the benefits of TK with Jaime, Morfin said she’s now eager for her daughter to start preschool earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "All-Gender Bathrooms in Every K–12 School, Proposes California Bill — but Some Bay Area Districts Are Way Ahead",
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"content": "\u003cp>California public schools could soon all be equipped with an all-gender restroom for students during the school day, if \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB760\">a state bill introduced this month\u003c/a> passes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal marks a stark contrast to the 16 anti-transgender bathroom bills that are currently in the legislative process in states such as Idaho and Arkansas, where lawmakers are looking to restrict students to using only the bathroom consistent with their assigned sex at birth.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton)\"]'To me, this is less about education than just fair treatment and decency.'[/pullquote]Supporters of California’s bathroom bill, SB 760, say the all-student restroom option will help provide a safe and private bathroom to any kid, regardless of their gender identity. And several California school districts are already ahead of the curve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was necessary that we find a legislative fix to standardize access to bathrooms across California and solve this problem not just for current students having these challenges, but future students as well,” said Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), who authored the bill. “To me, this is less about education than just fair treatment and decency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in January 2025, the bill would require each California school district to provide at least one all-gender restroom for students to use at every school campus. The restroom would have to meet the same requirements that school bathrooms already must follow, such as regular maintenance, cleaning, stocked toilet paper and soap, and it must be unlocked and accessible during school hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They would also need signage indicating that the restroom is open to all students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many schools, it could be a matter of simply repurposing an existing single-stall restroom to fulfill the requirement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941782\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941782\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1244280434-e1677270108470-800x613.jpg\" alt=\"A white man in a dark suit and green tie with round glasses and Gov. Gavin Newsom behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"613\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1244280434-e1677270108470-800x613.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1244280434-e1677270108470-160x123.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1244280434-e1677270108470.jpg 832w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Senator Josh Newman on Oct. 27, 2022, in Fullerton. \u003ccite>(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That’s the approach Oakland Unified School District took in 2017 when administrators there decided to open all-student bathrooms at every school site, after the passage of the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1732\">California Equal Restroom Act\u003c/a>. Under that law, all California businesses must make single-occupancy restrooms open to all genders and identifiable with signage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We converted at all K–12 school sites an existing single-stall staff bathroom to a single-stall all-gender student bathroom. It was a process of a few months. It didn't take that long once it started,” said Ilsa Bertolini, coordinator for health education at OUSD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prior to the bathroom update, nonbinary students would have to visit the office or ask for a key to a staff bathroom, a common story at many schools that lack inclusive bathroom access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many LGBTQ advocates say it’s an unnecessary hurdle that can turn an everyday need — going to the bathroom — into a traumatizing experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn't want to have that barrier, and it's a privacy issue,” Bertolini said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About \u003ca href=\"https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/YouthReport-California-Final.pdf\">43% of transgender and nonbinary students said they are never allowed to use a bathroom, or locker room, that matches their gender identity (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to a 2018 study from the Human Rights Campaign. Of that group, more than half of students said they don’t feel safe using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity, and 12% were told by teachers or administrators not to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We unfortunately have heard really terrible reports from students who do not feel comfortable using the restroom at school. They will deny themselves food or water, skip school to use the bathroom at home or leave the school campus. And those are not the outcomes we want,” said Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel with the Human Rights Campaign. “We want young folks to be able to focus on their education without being hungry, thirsty or riddled with anxiety about what will happen when they use the restroom.”[aside postID=news_11936552 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/122622-Eli-Erlick-TH-01-CM-1020x680.jpg']Nearly 50% of LGBTQ youth in California reported they have been teased or bullied because of their actual or perceived gender identity or sexuality, according to the 2018 HRC report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Avoiding the restroom can lead to a variety of issues, such as physical pain or infection, accidents, or kids choosing to stay home from school or leave campus to go to the bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kena Hazelwood remembers being a queer student in San Francisco Unified School District before there was an effort to provide more inclusive restrooms and other support programs for LGBTQ students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I was a queer student in SFUSD, having a space to go to and explore questions would have been crucial. But those didn’t exist when I was in school,” said Hazelwood, who now leads LGBTQ student services for the district. “We are now creating spaces that resonate for more students. We aren’t telling kids to choose an identity, we are telling them these are spaces where you can feel safe and seen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, 1 in 5 students in the district identifies as LGBTQ, according to Hazelwood, including about 2% who identify as nonbinary or transgender at the high school level. Nearly 77% of all LGBTQ students in the district also identify as people of color.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel, Human Rights Campaign\"]'We want young folks to be able to focus on their education without being hungry, thirsty or riddled with anxiety about what will happen when they use the restroom.'[/pullquote]In SFUSD, district leaders began a similar effort to open at least one single-stall all-gender bathroom at each school site back in 2016. But it’s taken some time, and money, to implement the change across the entire district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill, which is subject to change as it moves through the lawmaking process, states that reimbursement for any construction costs necessary to meet the mandate would be provided by the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For our older schools, it might mean changing the locking mechanism so students don’t have to ask for keys. Or the height of the stall to make sure it’s private for anybody,” said Hazelwood. “This legislation has potential to provide funding. That’s been a barrier to enacting this across all our schools as quickly as we like. If the funding is attached, we can live up to this promise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Addressing students’ toilet needs is not just about changing locks and signs, Hazelwood said, but making sure students and staff alike understand why different options exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s easy to focus on the physical nature of these restrooms, but that’s only part of it. We have to change our community and culture so people know why it’s important,” Hazelwood said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland Unified, leaders of school sites determined which restrooms would be repurposed for students. 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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California public schools could soon all be equipped with an all-gender restroom for students during the school day, if \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB760\">a state bill introduced this month\u003c/a> passes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal marks a stark contrast to the 16 anti-transgender bathroom bills that are currently in the legislative process in states such as Idaho and Arkansas, where lawmakers are looking to restrict students to using only the bathroom consistent with their assigned sex at birth.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Supporters of California’s bathroom bill, SB 760, say the all-student restroom option will help provide a safe and private bathroom to any kid, regardless of their gender identity. And several California school districts are already ahead of the curve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was necessary that we find a legislative fix to standardize access to bathrooms across California and solve this problem not just for current students having these challenges, but future students as well,” said Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), who authored the bill. “To me, this is less about education than just fair treatment and decency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in January 2025, the bill would require each California school district to provide at least one all-gender restroom for students to use at every school campus. The restroom would have to meet the same requirements that school bathrooms already must follow, such as regular maintenance, cleaning, stocked toilet paper and soap, and it must be unlocked and accessible during school hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They would also need signage indicating that the restroom is open to all students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many schools, it could be a matter of simply repurposing an existing single-stall restroom to fulfill the requirement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941782\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941782\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1244280434-e1677270108470-800x613.jpg\" alt=\"A white man in a dark suit and green tie with round glasses and Gov. Gavin Newsom behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"613\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1244280434-e1677270108470-800x613.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1244280434-e1677270108470-160x123.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1244280434-e1677270108470.jpg 832w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Senator Josh Newman on Oct. 27, 2022, in Fullerton. \u003ccite>(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That’s the approach Oakland Unified School District took in 2017 when administrators there decided to open all-student bathrooms at every school site, after the passage of the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1732\">California Equal Restroom Act\u003c/a>. Under that law, all California businesses must make single-occupancy restrooms open to all genders and identifiable with signage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We converted at all K–12 school sites an existing single-stall staff bathroom to a single-stall all-gender student bathroom. It was a process of a few months. It didn't take that long once it started,” said Ilsa Bertolini, coordinator for health education at OUSD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prior to the bathroom update, nonbinary students would have to visit the office or ask for a key to a staff bathroom, a common story at many schools that lack inclusive bathroom access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many LGBTQ advocates say it’s an unnecessary hurdle that can turn an everyday need — going to the bathroom — into a traumatizing experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn't want to have that barrier, and it's a privacy issue,” Bertolini said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About \u003ca href=\"https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/YouthReport-California-Final.pdf\">43% of transgender and nonbinary students said they are never allowed to use a bathroom, or locker room, that matches their gender identity (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to a 2018 study from the Human Rights Campaign. Of that group, more than half of students said they don’t feel safe using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity, and 12% were told by teachers or administrators not to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We unfortunately have heard really terrible reports from students who do not feel comfortable using the restroom at school. They will deny themselves food or water, skip school to use the bathroom at home or leave the school campus. And those are not the outcomes we want,” said Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel with the Human Rights Campaign. “We want young folks to be able to focus on their education without being hungry, thirsty or riddled with anxiety about what will happen when they use the restroom.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"order": 1
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
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"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
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