news.ocde.usOCDE Education in the News

Previous Week Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Next Week Tuesday, May 14, 2024 OCDE NEWSROOM WATCH: Orange County youth engage and inspire at OC Civic Learning Celebration Last month, teams of students and educators across Orange County gathered at the OC Holocaust Education Center in Newport Beach for the annual OC Civic Learning Celebration. Organized by the Orange County Department of Education, the event aimed to promote and empower civic engagement among youths, encouraging participation from students, educators and administrators across the K-12 system to foster a culture of active citizenship and responsibility. The evening was hosted by Dr. Marika Manos, OCDE’s history and social science manager, and Shelby Rommelfanger, the department’s coordinator of advancing learning. https://newsroom.ocde.us/watch-orange-county-youth-engage-and-inspire-at-oc-civic-learning-celebration/ ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER What do Newsom’s proposed cuts to California’s budget mean to OC? Adding onto a cut of roughly $500 million from a K-12 program to help districts pay for building projects as well as the delay of $550 million from a similar program for preschool, transitional kindergarten and full-day kindergarten projects, Newsom proposed revising downward the method for calculating educational funding under Proposition 98, which sets aside a minimum amount of funding for schools and community colleges,” according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Lowering the funding requirement will potentially lead to smaller budgets for school districts and charter schools, said Ramon Miramontes, deputy superintendent of the Orange County Department of Education. https://www.ocregister.com/2024/05/14/what-do-newsoms-proposed-cuts-to-californias-budget-mean-to-oc/ Anna Piercy, longtime Anaheim Union High School District trustee, has died Anna Piercy, longtime Anaheim Union High School District trustee and former Cypress mayor, is being remembered for her decades of service to educating local school children. Piercy died on May 6 at age 80. She had been battling cancer. Before joining the school board, Piercy worked in the AUHSD for more than 37 years. She started her career in education in 1968 as a seventh-grade geography, art and reading teacher at Trident Junior High School, then worked as a speech, drama and art teacher at Oxford Junior High School in 1979. https://www.ocregister.com/2024/05/13/anna-piercy-longtime-anaheim-union-high-school-district-trustee-has-died/ LOS ANGELES TIMES LAUSD parents and teachers in uproar over timed academic testing for 4-year-olds This year, for the first time, all TK students at LAUSD will be required to take the Kindergarten Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, or DIBELS for short, a standardized screening test that evaluates a child’s reading fluency using a series of four one-minute tests. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-14/lausd-wants-transitional-kindergarteners-to-test-parents-uproar SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE This room in S.F. school district is on the front lines of influx of migrant families This is Room 100 of the San Francisco Unified School District’s headquarters. For many years, immigrant parents generally flocked to its windowless waiting area for three things: enrollment assistance, a new backpack and bus passes to wherever they were staying. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sfusd-room-migrant-crisis-19447009.php CONTRA COSTA TIMES At one Gilroy middle school, students teach each other. Is this new model the future of education? In Gilroy Prep’s eighth-grade math class, there are no quiet rows of orderly desks facing an instructor. Instead, the room feels less like a classroom and more like the floor of a stock exchange, with the constant buzz of conversation as students sketch slopes and equations on tablets that project their stylus strokes onto nearby screens. All the while, a trio of clipboard-wielding students circulate among their classmates — huddled in groups of three on the periphery of the room — asking questions, gesturing at the screens and explaining algebraic concepts. Gilroy Prep is one of a small cohort of schools in the country experimenting with this method known as the Squads model — students in grades sixth through eighth educating each other under the purview of a teacher. https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/05/13/at-one-gilroy-middle-school-students-teach-each-other-is-this-new-model-the-future-of-education/ PRESS-ENTERPRISE Murrieta schools OK textbook though parents say it’s biased The Murrieta school board has approved new curriculum and books for several high school courses despite parents arguing that two textbooks are politically biased. Two books for Advanced Placement Language and Composition, the third and fourth edition of Literature & Composition, Essential Voices and Essential Skills for the AP Course,” came under fire last week when parents questioned the political leanings of the two texts. The books are a collection of short stories, classic literature and essays meant to prepare students for AP testing at the end of the year. Many of the essays focus on current political issues such as climate change and racial injustice. https://www.pressenterprise.com/2024/05/13/murrieta-schools-ok-textbook-though-parents-say-its-biased/ EDSOURCE Mariachi program teaches history and culture as well as music Zaida Ramos first learned the magic of mariachi from her father when she was a little girl. Now they make music together, running the bilingual music program for San Jose’s Alum Rock Union School District. Her father, Juan, is the maestro, the music director. She’s the program director. The father and daughter duo collaborate to share the culture and heritage of mariachi music with their students. The Ramos clan has been teaching children music for more than two decades. It’s a veritable family business. https://edsource.org/2024/mariachi-program-teaches-history-and-culture-as-well-as-music/711391 California teachers struggle despite having the highest salaries in the nation California educators earn the highest salaries in the country, but they are still struggling amid inflation and high housing costs, Axios reported. Some states have seen record increases in teacher salaries. But, on average and with adjustments for inflation, they make about 5% less than they did a decade ago. During the 2022-23 academic year, California teachers made $95,160 — a 7.5% increase from the previous year. https://edsource.org/updates/california-teachers-struggle-despite-having-the-highest-salaries-in-the-nation KPBS Aspen Challenge: San Diego Unified students celebrate their solutions to community problems Three high school teams from the San Diego Unified School District will advance to this year’s national Aspen Challenge finals in Colorado, next month. The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization that provides education and resources to students so they can research solutions to some of their community’s most critical problems. The institute holds competitions around the world, challenging teams to develop their strategies for issues ranging from immigration to homelessness and the mental health of children. The challenge came to San Diego for the first time this year. https://www.kpbs.org/news/education/2024/05/13/aspen-challenge-san-diego-unified-students-celebrate-their-solutions-to-community-problems CALmatters Disconnected youth: Some young Californians lack work, school options A new analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California finds the state’s economy is leaving a significant share of young people behind. More than 1 in 10 Californians between the ages of 16 and 24 were not in school, working, or looking for a job in 2022, the Institute found. That’s lower than at the height of the 2009 recession, but higher than just before the Covid-19 pandemic. The gender balance among these so-called disconnected youth” has...