Over 8000 educators statewide participated in a webinar conducted by Thurmond to go over guidance the California Department of Education issued to all school districts detailing how they can provide distance learning opportunities for students including those with disabilities and English learners.
When California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced the English language arts and math results of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) test last month, we found out that African American students’ scores lagged behind the much higher marks their White, Asian and Hispanic peers obtained.
African American children are California’s lowest performing group of students, only above students with special needs. Only two percent of Black kids in the state attend schools that are considered “high performing.” And only 10 majority African American schools, located mostly in hard-to-count, high-poverty census tracts around the Bay Area and Los Angeles, score, on average, above the state math and language arts requirements.
Tomorrow, the California Assembly Education Committee will hold its first public hearing on two pieces of legislation California Charter School founder Margaret Fortune says are designed to dismantle taxpayer-funded independent public schools in the state.
Supporters of the bill say it adds more accountability and strengthens the flexibility and autonomy their schools need to innovate for students. For them, it also formalizes transparency and governance practices already followed by a majority of charter schools throughout the state.