Good Schools For All

It's almost Election Day, and thousands of students are counting on voters to make good decisions.

On this week’s podcast, co-hosts Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn discuss state and local ballot measures connected to education. Locally, Measure I, for instance, allows voters to help choose the fate of San Diego High School, which is located on dedicated parkland.

"If you don't care that San Diego High School is there, and you don't care about this broader principal about whether we should be able to change the charter to hand over parkland, then just vote for it," Lewis said. If Measure I is voted down, however, the school will have to move by 2024 and the land where the school sits now will return to Balboa Park.

Meanwhile, Proposition 58, a statewide measure, focuses on bilingual education. If it passes, it'll restore flexibility to school districts so they can choose the most effective approach to teaching English-learners.

Lewis and Kohn also discuss San Diego Unified trustee candidates for District E, LaShae Collins and incumbent Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, as they campaign to win over voters citywide.

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When it comes to giving students with disabilities the best education possible, early intervention and early detection are crucial – but not all families are equipped to access the resources they need.

On this week’s podcast, Shana Cohen, assistant professor of education studies at UC San Diego, joined co-hosts Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn to talk about how children from different cultures sometimes receive varied levels of services for developmental disabilities.

"A lot of times, it's an issue of advocacy," Cohen said. "So a lot of white middle-class families, they know where to go to get the services that their child needs. A lot of Latino families or African-Americans families might not know where to go."

There's also an information gap when it comes to looking out for symptoms of developmental disability, Cohen said.

Seth Schwartz, an attorney who works with families of children with disabilities, also joined the podcast, and Lewis and Kohn discuss a study by the National Center on Education Outcomes that found special education students can perform at grade level with adequate accommodations.

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12 percent: The percentage of K-12 students in San Diego County receiving special education services, an increase from 10 percent over the past five years.

Healthy Development Services, through the American Academy of Pediatrics, sends providers to engage with San Diego County families and identify and treat children with mild to moderate disabilities.

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A couple years ago, the state got rid of the California Standards Tests and opted for a new way to check in on student progress.

On this week’s podcast, Steve Green, senior director for assessment, accountability and evaluation at the San Diego County Office of Education, joined co-hosts Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn to talk about the Smarter Balanced Assessment System, the state's new standardized testing system. The test aligns with Common Core Standards and is more rigorous than the older California Standards Tests, Green said.

"The standards we had before and the way we were assessing was through multiple choice," he said. "The new assessment really does get at critical thinking and application. There are open-ended items where students have to write a response in. There's the performance task, which is very sophisticated. That's where students are truly demonstrating what they know and are able to do."

Since implementing the new assessment standards, San Diego County increased student performance in math and English language arts and literacy at a rate matching the rise seen across the state. The county is ahead of the state in overall performance, Green said.

Lewis and Kohn also discuss achievement gaps between high- and low-income students and between different racial groups.

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62 percent and 49 percent: The percentages of Chula Vista Elementary School District students who met or exceeded English and math standards, respectively, on recent standardized tests. The district outscored San Diego County and the state.

EdSource is a California news and research organization focused on education. Their online source provides snapshots of academic performance data for schools and districts across the state.

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High school graduation rates are up – but students' access to quality courses still varies from school to school.

Last school year, the San Diego Unified School District touted a 92 percent high school graduation rate – an increase despite the district's new, tougher graduation requirements. The new standards mean students must successfully complete the same high school courses required for admission into California State University and University of California schools.

But it seems not all students in the district receive equal support to succeed within and beyond the new standards.

On this week’s podcast, Andrea Guerrero, executive director at Alliance San Diego, a social justice organization, joined co-hosts Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn to talk about education inequity across San Diego Unified and how her organization pushes the district to raise expectations for more students.

"Your ZIP code is not your destiny and we needed the school district to understand that," she said. "There's still a disparity in AP and IB course offerings ... these are the courses that go beyond making you eligible for the UC and CSU [colleges], these are the courses that make you competitive. You can have a high-performing school ... look inside and understand that not all of the students are getting the same kind of access to programs."

English-learners and refugee students are most at risk, Guerrero said.

Lewis and Kohn also discuss the pros and cons of measuring school success by graduation rates.

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952: That's the number of students last school year who passed San Diego Unified School District's multilingual test as an alternative to the requirement of passing two years of language courses –four times more students than the previous year.

California State University San Marcos signed an Alliance to Accelerate Excellence in Education, which guarantees admission to students from 10 school districts who meet admissions requirements. San Diego State University offers a similar admissions guarantee to local students.

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We need a lot more teachers.

Fewer folks want to be teachers, even as the demand increases. In San Diego County, about 32 percent of teachers are 50 years old or older. As more teachers retire, we have to replace them.

On this week’s podcast, Heather Lattimer, associate professor at the University of San Diego's School of Leadership and Education Sciences, joined host Laura Kohn to talk about ways to recruit students into the teaching profession.

Lattimer said the education field is in a battle to attract students – despite financial concerns and stigma surrounding the career choice.

"The larger issue that I hear over and over is, 'Why do you want to become a teacher?' I hear that from students," she said. "I also hear it from students' parents. Often the students that we encounter who are interested in teacher education and becoming teachers have to combat their parents who are concerned that, 'Hey, this isn't going to be something where you'll be able to A, earn the money, but B, have the respect that we think you deserve.'"

Only about 5 percent of nationally surveyed college-bound high seniors say they're interested in entering the education field, the lowest percentage in decades, Lattimer said.

Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn also discuss the 30 percent decline in teacher credentials by San Diego County's higher education institutions between 2010-2011 and 2014-2015 fiscal years.

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22,000: The total statewide teacher shortage California school districts anticipate for the upcoming 2016-2017 school year.

The San Diego Unified School District created a teacher pipeline task force a few years ago to improve teacher recruitment, retention and evaluation methods. The pipeline is designed to encourage and support students in the district to enter the education field and return as teachers.

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Superintendents don't stick around for long.

A 2014 analysis by EdSource, a nonprofit advocating for public school improvement, found that two-thirds of superintendents at California's largest public school districts served three years or less.

Increasingly, though, it's up to these newbie superintendents to persuade more students and their families to stick around at traditional schools, and resist the urge to transfer to one of the growing number of charter schools in the state.

On this week’s podcast, Luis Ibarra, superintendent of Escondido Union School District, joined host Scott Lewis to talk about competition between traditional and charter schools. The Escondido Union School District serves about 17,000 students, down from previous years. Ibarra is in his second year as superintendent.

"We're starting to look at, 'What are we doing systemically throughout our district to make [traditional schools] more appealing, reach our students more and make education innovative and creative for our students?'" Ibarra said.

The district recently created a task force to find out why parents are taking students from traditional schools and enrolling them in charter schools.

Lewis and co-host Laura Kohn also discuss an interview with Louis Freedberg, executive director at EdSource, about the huge turnover rate of superintendents and whether those changes impact students' quality of education.

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11: The number of San Diego County school districts that will have new superintendents in the 2016-2017 school year.

Superintendents Kevin Holt of the San Marcos Unified School District and Francisco Escobedo of the Chula Vista Elementary School District are long-serving superintendents in the county. Holt began in 2008, Escobedo in 2010.

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Thanks to a funding surge, more California schools are launching career academies, or programs that combine academic and technical skills.

On this week’s podcast, Rob Atterby of ConnectEd joined co-hosts Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn to talk about “linked learning,” a strategy to prepare students for both college and career.

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There's a link between school discipline policies and students who enter the justice system. Folks call it the school-to-prison pipeline.

Mid-City Community Advocacy Network, or Mid-City CAN, is a City Heights-based organization that advocates for restorative justice, a new approach to school discipline that hopes to disrupt that flow.

On this week’s podcast, Diana Ross, executive director of Mid-City CAN, joined co-hosts Laura Kohn and Mario Koran, who sat in for Scott Lewis, to talk about the organization's efforts to keep more students in school.

"The kids who continue to get expelled and suspended are still majority kids of color. ... There's a huge disparity," Ross said.

She said San Diego Unified School District recently announced its plan for a districtwide rollout of a restorative justice program.

Kohn and Koran also discuss a speech about school discipline that Nancy Hanks, chief of elementary schools in Madison, Wis., gave to Teach for America alumni.

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34 percent: That's how much suspensions in San Diego County dropped in three years, between the 2011-2012 school year and the 2014-2015 school year.

The National Conflict Resolution Center and the Old Globe Theatre partnered to bring Anna Deavere Smith to San Diego for a preview performance of her stage show about the school-to-prison pipeline. Also, a quick correction, Kohn says Deavere visited Lincoln and Crawford high schools. The visits actually happened at Lincoln and Hoover.

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Fewer young Americans are working summer jobs than in decades past, and fewer of those jobs are going to the teens who need them most.

San Diego Workforce Partnership is a nonprofit organization that funds and operates youth employment programs.

On this week’s podcast, Andy Hall, vice president and chief program officer at San Diego Workforce Partnership, joined co-hosts Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn to talk about the nonprofit's approach to assisting youth seeking employment skills and experience.

Hall said San Diego has "53,000 16- to 24-year-olds who are not connected to either education or employment."

Lewis and Kohn also talk about schools' role to prepare youth for careers.

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21.6 percent: That was San Diego’s youth employment rate in 2014.

McKinley Elementary School is a model for parent-led fundraising efforts. The money they helped raise saved the school's prestigious International Baccalaureate Program.

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Teacher evaluations are crucial, but also controversial.

The Poway Unified School District, though, has a new approach to its teacher evaluations.

On this week's podcast, Candy Smiley, president of Poway Federation of Teachers, and Michele Manos, a teacher and leader of the district's teacher evaluation system, joined co-hosts Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn to explain Poway's evaluation programs.

One part of the program, for example, pairs teachers with their peers.

"We wanted our focus on professional learning for teachers. How do we make teachers get the best opportunities for their students by improving their practice? That's really what our whole program is based on. It's a growth model, it's a strength-based approach, taking a look at multiple measures," Manos said.

Lewis and Kohn talked about the latest in teacher evaluations and what could change on the state level as well.

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1 out of 5 and 1 out of 17: A national survey out of Brown University and Vanderbilt University demonstrates how principals rate teachers. Principals said about one fifth of teachers were not proficient and needed assistance and support. But the same principals only gave one out of 17 teachers less than satisfactory proficiency ratings.

UC San Diego's CREATE center houses researchers, youth mentors and professional development experts who work with local teachers to help them get better at their craft.

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