K-12 Education

After the number of homeless students dropped during the early part of the pandemic, experts say the lack of affordable housing is fueling an increase that may continue to escalate.

Throughout the state, schools with the highest rates of low-income students have fewer experienced teachers. Increasing teacher pay is one way to lure more experienced applicants, but teachers unions keep fighting that idea.

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.

The California Teachers Association has consistently opposed legislation that would require dyslexia screening for all students in early grades. Yet many teachers say early intervention is key to heading off later academic struggles.

California is one of only 10 states in the country that does not require schools to screen children for dyslexia. Experts agree early diagnosis is key to helping dyslexic students learn to read, yet the statewide teachers union and others have blocked those efforts.

Last year, a bill would have directed more funding to the student group with the lowest standardized test scores, which would have been Black students. Instead, the governor is proposing extra money for high-poverty schools, not Black students specifically.

Teachers across the state are trying to help students who fell behind in their reading skills during remote learning. At the same time, they must meet state grade-level standards for instruction, leaving many wondering if some students will ever recover from learning loss.

This school year the California transitional kindergarten program began expanding to eventually include all 4-year-olds. But amidst a teacher shortage, some school districts had to move teachers already on staff or lure staff away from preschool programs.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control decided to list COVID-19 among the vaccines it recommends for children, but each state decides whether to adopt those guidelines. It's unclear what California will do, given the past controversies over children's vaccines and the COVID vaccine in particular.

The results — the most thorough look yet at the pandemic's toll on learning — left education officials and experts neither surprised nor hopeless.