A prominent state lawmaker, advocates and a faculty association are calling for changes in how California funds efforts to bring diversity to community college faculties across the state.
“There does need to be a fix to this issue,” Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles, vice chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, said in a statement. She is also a former trustee of the Los Angeles Community College District.
The calls came in response to an EdSource investigation published Monday that revealed how an arcane state law fails to adequately fund efforts to increase the diversity of the community colleges faculty which is largely white while the student body is richly diverse.
Photo by Aarika Washington
First published March 1 in in.chalkbeat.org, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for newsletter here.
Only 39% of Indianapolis Public Schools students met expectations for growth in English last fall, and just 31% met them in math, test results indicate.
Both those figures represent drops from a year earlier. The declines illustrate the heavy toll that the pandemic â and being in and out of classrooms â are taking on student learning. Charts shown to the district board Thursday night indicate the extent of the work facing the district to get students back on track.
The figures, presented by Andrew Strope, chief of strategy and planning for the district, come from tests administered in November and December that show what percentage of students met expectations of growth â that is, improvement â as measured against similar tests the year before. The tests, known as NWEA MAP, reveal student growth over time
Indianapolis Public Schools Swears In New Board Members, Strengthening Support For Charters, Reforms
Aaricka Washington/Chalkbeat
Indianapolis Public Schools swore in two new board members and two incumbents Monday night, strengthening support for the district’s controversial charter-friendly partnerships.
All four of the new and reseated board members have the backing of pro-school choice political action committees.
The addition of Kenneth Allen and Will Pritchard, the return of Diane Arnold and Venita Moore, and the loss of longtime district critic Elizabeth Gore strengthen the pro-charter forces on the board.
The board chose Evan Hawkins, a Marian University administrator and an IPS parent, as its president. Hawkins has been endorsed by Stand for Children, a charter school advocate organization. Moore will serve as the board vice president and Susan Collins will continue as secretary.
December 18, 2020
To increase instructional leadership and help with COVID-19 contact tracing, Indianapolis Public Schools will add an assistant principal at 10 of its smaller schools next fall. To do that, the district will remove an assistant principal at larger campuses and will draw on funds reserved to address high student mobility.
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Currently, the task of leading a school and managing additional work brought on by the pandemic is overwhelming principals, IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said Thursday night. The board subsequently voted unanimously to require every school without an assistant principal to hire one. If you are a principal without an assistant, you are doing both sides of the balance beam, Chief Schools Officer Nathalie Henderson said, referring to shouldering academic leadership and coronavirus tasks.