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OCDE NEWSROOM
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#Kindness1Billion: Newhope Elementary student’s Make-A-Wish request is loud and clear |
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Vivian Nguyen could have asked for virtually anything. But the Newhope Elementary School fifth-grader used her wish to help others.
Through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Vivian, 10, recently requested a new sound system to amplify the voices of student performers in her school’s multi-purpose room. It was an act of altruism that will reverberate throughout Newhope for years to come.
Vivian, who has battled a brain condition that affects some motor functions, had her wish formally granted during a small ceremony in late January at the Garden Grove Unified campus.
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https://newsroom.ocde.us/kindness1billion-newhope-elementary-students-make-a-wish-request-is-loud-and-clear/ |
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OCArts4All now accepting submissions for county-wide virtual showcase |
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The Orange County Department of Education is inviting teachers from public, private, charter and home schools from around the county to submit original artwork for an opportunity to be displayed at the OCArts4All Virtual Art Showcase. Formerly known as the 1,000 Pieces of Art Show, the OCArts4All Virtual Art Showcase is a partnership between Arts Orange County and OCDE designed to showcase and celebrate student art with the goal of presenting — and introducing students to — a wide range of creative expression.
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https://newsroom.ocde.us/ocarts4all/ |
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ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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Santa Ana public schools get green light to resume sports |
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Santa Ana Unified’s high school athletes now can resume sports conditioning programs and competitions, district officials announced Monday, Feb. 8.
On-campus athletics had been suspended in early December by the district as the recent surge of coronavirus cases mounted. The city of Santa Ana has been among the communities hardest hit by COVID-19 in Orange County.
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https://www.ocregister.com/2021/02/08/santa-ana-public-schools-get-green-light-to-resume-sports/ |
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High school sports are up and running again in Orange County |
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Kids competing. Parents cheering. Coaches shouting encouragement.
The sights and sounds of high school sports are back. They are back in a limited form, sure. But they are back. The Dana Hills and Aliso Niguel boys cross country programs ran against each other Saturday, and the Aliso Niguel girls ran against San Juan Hills, on a beautiful, blue-skies day at Aliso Niguel High School, with a trail along Aliso Creek providing most of the 3-mile course. It was the first official competition for the teams in this long-delayed high school sports year.
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https://www.ocregister.com/2021/02/06/high-school-sports-are-up-and-running-again/ |
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Anaheim Union approves ‘tentative calendar’ to reopen classrooms March 31 |
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Leaders of the Anaheim Union High School District, one Orange County’s two largest district to remain largely in distance learning mode amid the pandemic, have agreed on a plan that could welcome students back to campuses starting March 31. School board members on Thursday, Feb. 4, unanimously approved a “tentative calendar” that would introduce a hybrid of some in-person learning with still some online instruction starting in late March, pending a review of health conditions and clearance from the board at its March 4 meeting.
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https://www.ocregister.com/2021/02/05/anaheim-union-approves-tentative-calendar-to-reopen-classrooms-march-31/ |
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LOS ANGELES TIMES
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Possible deal over teacher vaccines could bring elementary students back to class |
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More California elementary school students could begin returning to their classrooms by the spring if Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers settle their differences over when teachers and staff receive COVID-19 vaccinations, an agreement the governor suggested Monday could be reached in the next few days. The moves in Sacramento come as school officials and political leaders face increasing pressure to reopen campuses that have been largely shuttered for 11 months, with political jousting breaking out in recent days in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-09/california-deal-over-teacher-vaccines-could-reopen-elementary-schools |
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Proposal to sue LAUSD to reopen school campuses is a political stunt, Beutner says |
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The L.A. schools superintendent and the head of the teachers union have responded with outrage over an L.A. City Councilman’s proposal to sue the school system to force campuses to reopen — and also are taking on others after a week of intensifying pressure to swiftly restore in-person classes. The litigation gambit was announced late Thursday afternoon by City Councilman Joe Buscaino, who said he hopes to win support from a majority of council members. He is modeling the effort on litigation filed by San Francisco last week against its school district.
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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-06/beutner-lausd-lawsuit-reopening-political-stunt |
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DAILY NEWS LOS ANGELES
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Moorpark High tests out having students on campus during pandemic |
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Moorpark High School is showing the way. Since the start of the spring the semester, Moorpark High has had 600 students on campus every day, all wearing masks, staying socially distant, and more impressively, taking the opportunity to have in-person learning as a social responsibility, according to Principal Carrie Pentis. “The students have been very respectful,” she said. “We haven’t had one disciplinary issue with any students when it comes to reminding them to wear a mask or staying 6 feet apart. I can sense a social responsibility from them.”
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https://www.dailynews.com/2021/02/05/moorpark-high-tests-out-having-students-on-campus-during-pandemic/ |
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SACRAMENTO BEE
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Parents organizing in California to demand school campuses reopen |
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Parents across California are well aware of the calendar. The school year is more than halfway finished and, in many districts, there is dwindling hope that students will return to campuses before summer, let alone in the fall.
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https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article248931209.html |
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Sacramento City Unified makes cuts to preschool program, college visits and bus routes |
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The Sacramento City Unified District school board voted Thursday night to cut professional development, travel, college and career visits, seven school bus routes and the district’s preschool program. However, the board also voted to spare IB and AP exam funding and elementary sports from cuts.
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https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article249028585.html |
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SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
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Learning and loss: Students approach a year sitting in a virtual classroom |
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About 80 percent of students in San Diego County have remained entirely in virtual learning this year, according to figures from the San Diego County Office of Education. Faced with the possibility that their children could spend months, or perhaps the entire school year, on Zoom, some parents organized learning pods where small groups of students meet in homes to do distance learning together. This is one of the ways parents have improvised school social interactions and supervision for younger students.
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https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2021-02-06/learning-and-loss-students-approach-a-year-sitting-in-a-virtual-classroom |
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SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
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Deal to bring S.F. students back to classrooms leaves many questions unanswered |
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It could take more than two months to get the first San Francisco public school students back into classrooms even after the district reached a tentative deal with labor unions to reopen schools, officials said. The deal, announced Sunday, prompted more questions than it answered as families, city officials and educators wondered whether students would actually be back in class this year and, if so, for more than a few hours a week.
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https://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/Deal-to-bring-S-F-students-back-to-classrooms-15934942.php |
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CONTRA COSTA TIMES
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West Contra Costa Unified School District, other schools plan for potential of remote learning into the fall |
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Parents of schoolchildren learning from home shouldn’t necessarily count on reclaiming the dining room table any time soon. After seeing two academic years thrown off course by the pandemic, school leaders around the country are planning for the possibility of more distance learning next fall at the start of yet another school year.
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https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/02/08/schools-plan-for-potential-of-remote-learning-into-the-fall/ |
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INLAND VALLEY DAILY BULLETIN
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Inland schools work to vaccinate teachers against coronavirus |
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The campaign to vaccinate Inland Empire residents against the coronavirus is moving into schools, as some Riverside County districts plan large clinics and San Bernardino County has added teachers to groups eligible for shots. The Jurupa Unified School District held an all-day mass vaccination event for its employees Friday, Feb. 5, after arranging for Albertsons Pharmacy to give 1,600 shots, district Superintendent Elliott Duchon said. Duchon said there was more than enough vaccine to go around, so his district invited Riverside and Alvord unified school district employees to get shots at the event, too.
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https://www.dailybulletin.com/2021/02/05/inland-schools-work-to-vaccinate-teachers-against-coronavirus/ |
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EDSOURCE
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California teachers grapple with grading nearly a year after initial school closures |
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As schools grow more familiar with distance learning, one key element continues to baffle even expert teachers: assigning grades in an online classroom.
Many California school districts altered grading policies when schools abruptly closed last spring so that students’ grades could only improve from where they were at just before the sudden stay-at-home order. In those districts, teachers did not lower students’ grades if they were struggling academically.
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https://edsource.org/2021/california-teachers-grapple-with-grading-nearly-a-year-after-initial-school-closures/648376 |
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Gov. Newsom calls for closing big ‘loophole’ in school funding for high-needs students |
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Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed his solution to a long-running, contentious dispute over the Local Control Funding Formula, the equity-based formula for distributing the bulk of money that school districts get from the state.
At issue is whether school districts can use leftover, year-end funding intended for “high-needs students” however they want. Newsom’s answer is, no, they can’t; the money must be committed to those students — who generally are the farthest behind academically and face the challenges of poverty — and districts must document that.
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https://edsource.org/2021/gov-newsom-calls-for-closing-big-loophole-in-school-funding-for-high-needs-students/648406 |
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New data shines light on student achievement progress — and gaps — in California and US |
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New education data released today by researchers at Stanford University shows a complex, nuanced — and in some places, troubling — picture of student achievement and racial gaps based on standardized test scores across California and the nation.
In California, average math and reading test scores rose for all student groups except Black students over the past decade, while gaps in test scores among most student groups remained steady or narrowed. The exception was the gap between Black and white students, which widened.
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https://edsource.org/2021/new-data-shines-light-on-student-achievement-progress-and-gaps-in-california-and-u-s/648321 |
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KPBS
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Poway Educators: Students Are Safe, Happier In First Week Of In-Person Instruction |
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Several school districts across the county resumed some form of in-person instruction this week. Poway Unified started having their elementary school students on campus for half-day sessions. Teachers say that, so far, they’ve seen a huge improvement in their students. “They are so happy to be back on campus. I’m so happy to have them on campus,” said Naomi Lukaszewski, a transitional kindergarten and kindergarten teacher at Pomerado Elementary School.
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https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/feb/05/poway-educators-students-safe-happier-in-person/ |
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NPR
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Keep Schools Open All Summer, And Other Bold Ideas To Help Kids Catch Up |
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It's been 11 months since schools first shut down across the country and around the world. And most students in the U.S. are still experiencing disruptions to their learning — going into the classroom only a few days a week or not at all. To respond to this disruption, education leaders are calling for a reinvention of public education on the order of the Marshall Plan, the massive U.S. initiative to rebuild Western Europe after the devastations of World War II.
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https://www.npr.org/2021/02/08/964524688/keep-schools-open-all-summer-and-other-bold-ideas-to-help-kids-catch-up |
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OTHER NEWS OUTLETS
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California Teachers Feel 'Disposable' as Gavin Newsom Pushes For Schools to Reopen |
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In the state hardest hit by the pandemic, a heated debate about the reopening of schools is underway—and teachers there are feeling unheard. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been facing growing pressure to resume in-person instruction from parents keen to have children back in classrooms before the entire school year slips away. He's faced pushback from teacher's unions, including the California Teacher's Association, that have called for all teachers to be vaccinated before returning to classrooms.
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https://www.newsweek.com/california-teachers-feel-disposable-gavin-newsom-pushes-schools-reopen-1567621 |
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Will kids soon have to get COVID-19 vaccines to attend California schools? |
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As California looks for ways to get students back in the classrooms quickly, teachers and school employee unions say vaccines for adults will be a major component of safely reopening schools. But what about the students? It could be months before federal health officials approve the vaccine for younger cohorts. If schools are to reopen as quickly as Gov. Gavin Newsom and others want them to, before the end of the spring semester, they’re unlikely to wait to vaccinate children.
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https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/california/article248991400.html |
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