CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2023, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“A CALIFORNIA POSITIVE: KIDS SWARM
EXTRA CLASSES”
It’s
become a cliché, the shibboleth that California has lousy public schools and
most of the kids don’t care.
Now those
students are providing strong evidence that this is a very false narrative. The
kids care, as do most of their parents. So do the teachers assigned to them.
That’s
one takeaway from the record number of schoolchildren who turned out over the
just-concluded winter break for extra classes designed to help start making up
for learning missed or lost during the online-only era caused by the
coronavirus pandemic.
No one
doubts that plenty was lost – some say stolen – from the children during those
almost two years when most public schools did not operate in person.
Standardized
tests have proven this, with drops in student performance at almost all levels
in reading and math.
But under
the state’s Expanded Learning Opportunities program, school districts can now
add three hours to their school days and extend the school year 30 days to help
students improve their academics. Since every study shows the poorer a child’s
family, the more learning was lost, most districts are prioritizing low-income
pupils, English learners or kids in foster care.
On what
was the first day of the program in many places – Dec. 19, 2022, the first
additional full day of instruction – hundreds of thousands of students turned
out for extra classes, most teachers reporting the kids were enthused, even as
they were losing free time.
All the
numbers are not yet in, but the Los Angeles Unified district alone reportedly
drew 72,000 kids at about 300 campuses. That amounted to almost 20 percent of
all the district’s students, almost five times the population of the city of El
Segundo, which abuts the LA district, second largest in the nation and
California’s largest by far.
Los
Angeles schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho touted the “lower class sizes, with
individualized, personalized attention, looking at what each student is lacking
and providing them with what they need.” He also said the extra days and the
additional work students got in over the winter break and will do again over
the upcoming spring break, should allow many to make up enough lost time and
assignments to graduate on time, rather being delayed six months to a year.
Yes,
there were places where turnout was low. At some schools, only about one-tenth
of those who signed up actually came to class. But officials at several
districts said the majority of students who showed up were those who missed the
most and therefore need the most help.
That,
said Los Angeles officials, demonstrated there’s a real need for the extra
school days. San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen told a reporter that “More
kids were failing than succeeding in public school even before the pandemic;
the situation is much worse now. So it’s about time we did something.”
Most
funding for teachers and other staff on these extra school days and others
created by extending the school year to June 15 in most places will come from
the state budget’s $37 billion in added education spending for this academic
year. But local districts running special programs during school breaks will
also pay. The Los Angeles program alone will cost the district $122 million.
This all
puts the lie to the myth that no one in power and no one directly involved with
the schools cares much about them or their students.
With
teachers putting in extra time, administrators and staff opening schools on
what normally would be vacation days and thus extending the school year, any
student who wants to succeed now has more opportunity.
So far,
it appears that a healthy number will take advantage of this unique chance (no
one expects this year’s program and extra budget to be repeated soon).
The
bottom line: Any program that can improve the academic standing – and most
likely the futures – of the large percentage of California public school
students detrimentally affected by the pandemic must be considered a myth-busting
plus.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at
tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising
Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now
available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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