Education Research Report

Education Research Report

Education Research Report

Prevalence and Treatment of Depression, Anxiety, and Conduct Problems in US Children

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 15min

Mental health conditions in childhood have the potential to negatively impact healthy development, interfering with a child’s ability to achieve social, emotional, and cognitive milestones. This has important implications for social determinants of health. As such, there is a continuous need to assess the prevalence and correlates of childhood mental health disorders. In this retrospective cohort

Stricter state gun laws = safer school experience for students

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 28min

Adopting stricter state gun laws is linked to a safer school experience for students, finds research published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health . Strengthening gun laws at state level was associated with teens being less likely to report being threatened or injured with a weapon at school, miss at least one day of school due to feeling unsafe, or to carry a weapon at any location

Teenage solitude isn't a red flag for isolation or depression

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 29min

Teens who choose to spend time alone may know what's best for them, according to new research that suggests solitude isn't a red flag for isolation or depression. The key factor is choice, say researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Wilmington College: When solitude is imposed on adolescents and young adults, whether as punishment or as a result of social anxiety, it can be p

The impact of the Great Recession on public education finance and employment

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h

This study examines the impact of the Great Recession on public education finance and employment. Five major themes emerge: First, nearly 300,000 school employees lost their jobs. Second, schools that were heavily dependent financially on state governments were particularly vulnerable to the recession. Third, local revenues from the property tax actually increased during the recession, primarily

Administrative support is most strongly associated with retention for minority teachers working in schools where minorities are underrepresented

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h

Mentoring, and to a greater extent support from high-level administrators, has been shown to decrease worker turnover in general, but little is known about its differential impact on minority workers. This study finds that administrative support is most strongly associated with retention for minority teachers working in schools where minorities are underrepresented. This effect is pronounced for

Does preschool participation may improve science outcomes and reduce science achievement gaps?

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h

Recent evidence demonstrates that disparities by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status in science achievement are present in the earliest grades of school. Preschool represents one potential policy solution; however, little research has explored the relationship between preschool attendance and science outcomes. This study examines whether preschool participation may improve science outcomes ov

The efficacy of transitional kindergarten on student outcomes

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h

A growing body of research provides evidence that quality early childhood experiences can affect a host of life outcomes. Equally well documented is the variation in the quality of prekindergarten (pre-K) programs offered to children. This study evaluates the efficacy of transitional kindergarten (TK) on student outcomes in the San Francisco Unified School District. TK is a highly regulated, stat

The Effects of Universal Preschool on Grade Retention

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2h

Nationwide, the percentage of four-year-olds enrolled in state-supported preschool programs has more than doubled since the early 2000s as states dramatically increased their investments in early childhood education. Florida's Voluntary Pre-kindergarten Program (VPK), which began in 2005, has been a national leader with respect to preschool access. This paper provides the first evidence of the pr

Common Elements of Developmental Education Policies

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3h

Building off Education Commission of the States' 50-State Comparison: Developmental Education Policies , this Policy Brief identifies common elements of developmental education policies at the system and state levels: college readiness assessments, assessment cut scores, multiple measures for course placement, innovative course models and reporting requirements. The policy examples reviewed demon

YESTERDAY

Parents and children talk and interact less with electronic books compared to print books

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 19h

Picking what book to read isn't the only choice families now make at story time - they must also decide between the print or electronic version. But traditional print books may have an edge over e-books when it comes to quality time shared between parents and their children, a new study suggests. The research, led by University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and involving 37 parent-tod

Improving Educational Pathways to Social Mobility: Evidence from Norway

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

High school vocational education has a controversial history in the United States, largely due to a perceived tradeoff between teaching readily deployable occupational skills versus shunting mostly disadvantaged students away from the educational and career flexibility afforded by general academic courses. This study e xamines the effects of a nationwide high school reform in Norway that aimed to

MAR 21

50-State Comparison: K-12 Special Education Funding

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

S pecial education funding is a large and complex component of states' education budgets, and no two states approach allocating these funds to districts in the same manner. While federal requirements dictate minimum spending levels , states have flexibility over how the money is distributed. This leaves many states discussing ways to improve the way they allocate special education funds. The new

The vital importance of helping students cultivate a sense of happiness and well-being, so they can thrive in school and in life

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Microsoft has releasir4dnew global research on the topic of “Emotion and Cognition in the Age of AI.” Conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and supported by Microsoft, the research explores what educators and school systems can do to help students thrive in our rapidly changing world, and how technology can help. The findings spotlight the vital importance of helping students cultiva

Adopt a student-centered, growth-oriented approach to writing instruction.

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

We know writing proficiency remains an elusive goal for most students. According to NCES, only 27% score Proficient, with just over 50% writing at a Basic level. How can you help your students buck that trend? Achieving Writing Proficiency: The Research on Practice, Feedback, & Revision , a white paper by Dr. Troy Hicks describes how scaffolded writing practice connects instruction to feedback. T

MAR 20

Meditation enhances social-emotional learning in middle school students C

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

IMAGE: Students in the Quiet Time program had a significant increase in social-emotional competencies, as compared to the control school. view more Credit: Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education Middle school students practicing meditation as part of a school Quiet Time program had significant improvements in social-emotional competencies and psychological distress, according to a new s

Participation in high school career and technical education (CTE) as of 2013

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

As of 2013, 10 percent of all the credits earned by public high school graduates were earned in career and technical education (CTE). The National Center for Education Statistics released a new set of web tables today (March 19) on the CTE Statistics website. Focusing on public high school graduates, the tables document student coursetaking in CTE as of 2013, and trends in CTE coursetaking from 1

Commuting difficulty plays a part in school absence

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 6d

Transportation is one of many potential obstacles that students might face as they attempt to attend school, but there are few opportunities to identify the unique contribution of transportation to school attendance. This study applies models of commuting stress developed for adult commuters to students in an open enrollment school district to examine whether commuting difficulty plays a part in

MAR 19

The Science of Early Learning x

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 6d

How do young children develop their sense of self? How do they learn to understand what they read, and express their ideas in writing? How do they develop abstract knowledge of mathematical concepts? These questions and others are explored in Deans for Impact’s publication, The Science of Early Learning . This report summarizes current cognitive-science research related to how young children — fr

Developer - Commissioned Educational Evaluations Inflate Effectiveness

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

An analysis of 30 years of educational research by scholars at Johns Hopkins University found that when a maker of an educational intervention conducted its own research or paid someone to do the research, the results commonly showed greater benefits for students than when the research was independent. On average, the developer research showed benefits — usually improvements in test scores — that

Cumulative heat exposure inhibits cognitive skill development

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

This study provides the first evidence that cumulative heat exposure inhibits cognitive skill development and that school air conditioning can mitigate this effect. Student fixed effects models using 10 million PSAT-takers show that hotter school days in the year prior to the test reduce learning, with extreme heat being particularly damaging and larger effects for low income and minority student

Governors' Top Education Priorities

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

Each year, Education Commission of the States' policy team tracks and analyzes governors' State of the State addresses and, to date, every governor who has given their 2019 address has mentioned an accomplishment or a proposal related to education. A signature report, Governors' Top Education Priorities in 2019 State of the State Addresses identifies the top six education priorities and includes

Researchers Reprise Earlier Erroneous Crime-Cutting Voucher Verdict

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

Faced with recent research linking voucher receipt to decreased test scores, voucher advocates have been busily moving the goalposts . The most creative of these attempts is a new “ working paper ” from researchers from the University of Arkansas and the Cato Institute, which first notes that “[s]tandardized test scores…do not fully capture society’s goals for education” (p. 3) and then concludes

What Kids Are Reading

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

Renaissance ® has released its 2019 edition of its annual What Kids Are Reading report. For the first time, the study includes book difficulty data from MetaMetrics ®️ . This year’s report finds that literacy advocates have their work cut out for them: Nearly half of students read less than 15 minutes per day, while research shows that double that—30 minutes or more—is linked with accelerated rea

Friend-Related Stress Across Early Adolescence

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

The current study investigated early adolescents’ experiences of friend-related stress across middle school and its developmental consequences following the transition to high school. Using a sample of approximately 1,000 middle school students, four unique friend-related stress trajectories were observed across middle school: consistently low friend-related stress (57% of the sample), consistent

MAR 18

'Pay-to-play' put sports, extracurricular activities out of reach for some students

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

IMAGE: The more likely parents were to perceive activities as too expensive for the return, the less likely their kids were to participate. view more Credit: C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at the University of Michigan From choir and cheerleading to soccer and student council, extracurricular school activities keep students engaged - but cost may be among barrier

Impact of a a statewide college-preparatory policy

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC) is a statewide college-preparatory policy that applies to the high school graduating class of 2011 and later. Using detailed Michigan high school transcript data, this article examines the effect of the MMC on various students’ course-taking and achievement outcomes. The analyses suggest that (a) post-MMC cohorts took and passed approximately 0.2 additional years’

The Unwavering SES Achievement Gap

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 8d

Concerns about the breadth of the U.S. income distribution and limited intergenerational mobility have led to a focus on educational achievement gaps by socio-economic status (SES). Using intertemporally linked assessments from NAEP, TIMSS, and PISA, this study traces the achievement of U.S. student cohorts born between 1954 and 2001. Achievement gaps between the top and bottom deciles and the to

MAR 16

Friendship Characteristics and Susceptibility to Substance Use

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10d

Dyad (sociology) - as an adjective, describes the interaction between a pair of individuals. Peer relations researchers have suggested that dyadic and peer group relationship characteristics may interact with each other to affect behavior. Building on prior work that has pitted the relative effects of dyadic and peer group relationship characteristics on susceptibility to peer influence, the pres

Sexualized Gender Stereotypes Predict Academic Attitudes for Gender-Typical Early Adolescent Girls

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10d

Sexualized gender stereotypes (SGS) are commonly endorsed by adolescent girls. These stereotypes include the notion that girls can enhance their social status by prioritizing their sexualized attractiveness, which necessitates downplaying other traits such as intelligence. According to the stereotype emulation hypothesis, a girl will be more likely to “emulate” SGS if she also identifies as a typ

Friendship selection is central to sustained success throughout the middle school years

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10d

This study examined the mediating effect of friends’ characteristics (problem behavior and academic achievement) in the association between students’ background (family and individual factors) and later academic adjustment, as operationalized by problem behavior and academic achievement. The authors recruited 998 participants in three public middle schools and used three annual waves of data coll

MAR 15

Educational trials aimed at boosting academic achievement in schools are often uninformative,

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10d

Educational trials aimed at boosting academic achievement in schools are often uninformative, new research suggests. The new study, published in the journal Educational Researcher , found that 40% of large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in the UK and the US failed to produce any evidence as to whether an educational intervention helped to boost academic attainment or not. The researche

50-State Comparison: High School Graduation Requirements

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10d

This resource provides an overview of state high school graduation requirements. Nearly all states require students to complete a certain number of units per course to earn a standard diploma in the state; but courses, units and assessments outside of exit exams and diploma options vary. Education Commission of the States researched a range of policies — including state statute, state regulations

Education Research Report

Network For Public Education uncovers how U.S. DOE wastes a billion on defunct charter schools | Cloaking Inequity

Network For Public Education uncovers how U.S. DOE wastes a billion on defunct charter schools | Cloaking Inequity

NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION UNCOVERS HOW U.S. DOE WASTES A BILLION ON DEFUNCT CHARTER SCHOOLS

In @BetsyDeVosED’s budget, there are major cuts to programs like the Special Olympics. Sec. DeVos didn’t know the number of kids who would be hurt by that cut, so I made sure she now knows that 272,000 kids are seeing their support taken away. pic.twitter.com/6ZiOfDU4Ou

— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 26, 2019

A blistering new report from the Network for Public Education (NPE) documents how the federal government, through the U.S. Department of Education, wastes hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on grants awarded to charter schools that never open or quickly close. The Department of Education is also funding charter schools that blatantly discriminate in their discipline, curricular, and enrollment practices.

The Washington Post broke the news here this morning

Now do your part.

Tell Congress: Stop funding the broken U.S. DOE Charter Schools Program.

Asleep at the Wheel: How the Federal Charter Schools Program Recklessly Takes Taxpayers and Students for a Ride,estimates that the federal Charter Schools Program, over its history, has awarded over $4 billion in seed money to charter schools.  In California alone, the state with the most charter schools, the failure rate for federally grant-awarded charters is 39%.

Here is a quick summary of what NPE found.

Hundreds of millions of federal taxpayer dollars have been awarded to charter schools that never opened or opened and then shut down. In some cases, schools have received federal funding even before securing their charter.

• Our investigations barely skimmed the surface of the thousands of charter school grant recipients that never opened or opened but then closed. Of the schools awarded grants directly from the department between 2009 and 2016, nearly one in four either never opened or shut its doors. The CSP’s own analysis from 2006-2014 of its direct and state pass-through funded programs found that nearly one out of three awardees were not currently in operation by the end of 2015.

The CSP’s grant approval process appears to be based on the application alone, with no attempt to verify the information presented. Schools have been approved for grants despite serious concerns noted by reviewers.

• The CSP’s review process to award grants does not allow the verification of applicants’ claims, thus leading to what award-winning, New York Times journalist Mike Winerip referred to as an “invitation for fiction writing.” This process resulted in numerous examples of awardees that claim they seek to enroll high percentages of minority and disadvantaged students, even while their programs and policies are designed to draw from advantaged populations. Finally, we found instances where achievement and/or demographic data on applications were cherry-picked or massaged, with reviewers instructed to accept what was written as fact.

Grants have been awarded to charter schools that establish barriers to enrollment, discouraging or denying access to certain students.

• Multiple schools we examined enroll smaller percentages of students with disabilities and students who are English language learners than the surrounding schools. Some appear to be designed to encourage “white flight” from public schools. Thirty-four California charter schools that received CSP grants appear on the ACLU of Southern California’s list of charters that discriminate—in some cases illegally—in admissions, and 20 CSP funded Arizona charters appear on a similar list created by the Arizona ACLU. One Pennsylvania charter receiving multiple grants totaling over one million dollars from CSP states on its website that its programs as limited to students “with mild disabilities.”

Recommendations by the Office of the Inspector General have been largely ignored or not sufficiently addressed.

• We reviewed numerous OIG audits that found significant concerns over how CSP money is spent and that described the lack of monitoring the Department carries out to ensure those funds contribute to the intended goals of the grants. Each audit includes specific recommendations. But not only is there little evidence the department has adopted any of these recommendations; the current Secretary has denied responsibility for oversight, believing that it falls outside the federal government’s purview—even though this is a federal grants program.

The department does not conduct sufficient oversight of grants to State Entities or State Education Agencies, despite repeated indications that the states are failing to monitor outcomes or offer full transparency on their subgrants.    

• Although the vast majority of public charter school grants are awarded to state education agencies (SEAs), our report reveals that the Department has shown no oversight when SEAs pass funding along to individual charters or charter organizations as subgrants. We found a continuing record of subgrantee schools that never opened or closed quickly, schools that blatantly discriminate in their discipline, curricular, and enrollment practices, and schools that engage in outright fraud as well as in related-party transactions.

The CSP’s grants to charter management organizations are beset with problems including conflicts of interest and profiteering.

• The Office of the Inspector General’s 2016 audit of CSP funded CMO’s and their related schools found that of the 33 schools they reviewed, 22 had one or more of the following: conflicts of interest between the CMO or the charter, related-party transactions and insufficient segregation of duties.  We found troubling examples of CMOs that received massive grants that engaged in practices that push-out low-performing students, violate the rights of their students with disabilities and cull their student bodies through policies, programs and requests for parental donations.

Under the current administration, while Congressional funding for the CSP rises, the quality of the applications and awardees has further declined.

• Based on our review of grant awards to SEAs and non-SEAs in 2017 and 2018, we provide evidence that the quality of the applications and the receiving grantees are likely getting worse, which may result in increased fraud, mismanagement and charter failure.

Send your letter to Congress today and say, “No more!”

Then share the report: http://networkforpubliceducation.org/asleepatthewheel/

And this action: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/cut-the-us-doe-charter-schools-program/

At a time when Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump propose slashing funding for public education, it is outrageous that this wasteful giveaway to schools that may not ever exist is increased to half a billion dollars a year.

This post was directly excerpted from the NPE press release. Full Disclosure: I serve as one of the founding governing board members of NPE.

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Check out and follow my YouTube channel here.

Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

Click here for Vitae.

Network For Public Education uncovers how U.S. DOE wastes a billion on defunct charter schools | Cloaking Inequity

Long Awaited Bipartisan School Funding Plan Proposed for Ohio | janresseger

Long Awaited Bipartisan School Funding Plan Proposed for Ohio | janresseger

Long Awaited Bipartisan School Funding Plan Proposed for Ohio

Yesterday  Ohio Representatives Robert Cupp (R-Lima) and John Patterson (D-Jefferson) released a much needed, bipartisan proposal for a new Ohio school funding formula. The Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan, of course, is preliminary.  It will be proposed as the substance of the Ohio House Education Budget and would have to be enacted by the Legislature. (Quotes in this post come from the preliminary PowerPoint presentation from Monday afternoon’s session.)

Conceptually the plan described yesterday afternoon would raise the level of state support for K-12 public education to a more adequate level and additionally address what is currently inequitable distribution of funding across the state’s 610 school districts.  The Cupp-Patterson Plan considers not only each school district’s capacity to raise funds from its local property tax base but also considers the amount and concentration of family poverty.

The details are not yet available, and of course, the details matter a lot in a school funding formula.  A state can make its formula more equitable, while at the same time underfunding the total allocation of state funds; such a plan merely levels down all districts.  We’ll need to look at the amount of funding the Cupp-Patterson Plan recommends.  Then, of course, because this plan is intended to serve as the basis of the Ohio House Education Budget, we’ll need to look at what the Legislature agrees to fund. A workable school funding formula would need to be fully funded.

In recent years without a fair and adequate formula, Ohio has merely imposed punitive, outcomes-based school accountability—punishing the lowest scoring schools and school districts.  Currently Ohio rates and ranks schools and districts on a state report card largely derived from aggregate standardized test scores—which have for decades been shown to correlate less with school quality and more with family and neighborhood poverty.  The state CONTINUE READING: Long Awaited Bipartisan School Funding Plan Proposed for Ohio | janresseger

The Geology of School Reform: Social Justice Humanitas Academy in Los Angeles (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Geology of School Reform: Social Justice Humanitas Academy in Los Angeles (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Geology of School Reform: Social Justice Humanitas Academy in Los Angeles (Part 1)

 Many readers have visited the majestic Grand Canyon. It is an unforgettable sight.

What is obvious to visitors are the strata, geological layers of different shades of red, beige, and brown, that reveal plant and animal life that lived eons ago.

OK, Larry, I get the strata part giving a glimpse of past life in layers piled atop one another. What’s the connection to school reform?

Every district, every school in the U.S. has historical layers of reform piled atop one another although the time frame is far less than an eon. A case in point is the Social Justice Humanitas Academy located within Los Angeles Unified School District. Consider the following official information about the school.

Our mission is to achieve social justice through the development of the complete individual. In doing so, we increase our students’ social capital and their humanity while creating a school worthy of our own children.

According to the website, that mission is the school’s vision of what it aspires to:

A school’s vision is its inspiration, articulating the dreams and hopes for the school community. At Social Justice Humanitas Academy, our vision is: We will achieve self-actualization [original bold-faced]. The concept of self-actualization comes from Abraham Maslow, a leader in humanistic psychology, who understood a good life to be one in which an individual maximized their potential to become the very best version of who they are.

Directly below the mission statement is the following graphic.

While the above statement is general, the mission for the 9th grade entering class in 2018 is more specific:

Our mission is to provide a loving transition into young adulthood by: CONTINUE READING:  The Geology of School Reform: Social Justice Humanitas Academy in Los Angeles (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Six Fixes for the College Admissions Scandal | The Merrow Report

Six Fixes for the College Admissions Scandal | The Merrow Report

Six Fixes for the College Admissions Scandal

If you Google ‘College Admissions Scandal’, you’ll get 157 MILLION citations.  That’s how it is dominating our conversations.  It is absorbing stuff, the story of rich people getting yet another advantage in gaining access to the top shelf–but this time getting caught in the act.   Some of the pieces I have read include thoughtful suggestions about how to make the admissions process more fair, but most are largely salacious details and hot air/outrage.   I’d like to suggest SIX changes that could make the process a little bit more fair.

My bona fides: I recorded the process at four elite private institutions–Williams in 1986, Amherst in 2004, and Middlebury in 1990 for PBS and Dartmouth for NPR in the late 1970’s.  In every instance, some applicants had been ‘flagged’ by athletic coaches or heads of the music and drama departments.  Some applicants were flagged as ‘legacies,’ meaning a close relative had graduated from the college, and others were noted because their families had the capacity to make a major gift (or had already made one).  That’s standard operating procedure at elite institutions; the central question is, of course, how low would an institution go to accepted a ‘flagged’ applicant?  As a reporter, I could only ask that question.  At the end of the day, it depended upon the integrity of the process and of the individual members of the admissions committee.

Producer Tim Smith and I were the first television journalists to get access to college admissions, at Williams in the spring of 1986. We spent three days videotaping everything that moved, and of course the Committee talked about ‘flagged’ applicants, including athletes, musicians, and children of alumni, but it never CONTINUE READING: Six Fixes for the College Admissions Scandal | The Merrow Report

Choosing Democracy: Community Coalition on SCUSD Budget Crisis

Choosing Democracy: Community Coalition on SCUSD Budget Crisis

Community Priority Coalition 

 March 6, 2019 

Superintendent Jorge Aguilar 

Re: SCUSD financial crisis 

Dear SCUSD Board Members: 

The Community Priority Coalition (CPC) is very concerned about the Sacramento City Unified School District's financial health and deficit spending that will negatively impact students in the District. The Community Priority Coalition members consist of Black Parallel School Board, Building Healthy Communities. Hmong Innovating Politics, La Familia Counseling Center. Making Cents Work, League of United Latin American Citizens (Lorenzo Patiño Council #2862), Sacramento Area Congregations Together, Democracy and Education Institute, and Public Advocates Inc. 

Since 2016, the Community Priority Coalition has submitted to the Sacramento City Unified District Board an alternative budget that reflect the following Coalition priorities: 1) Class Size Reduction (24 to 1); 2) Professional development in cultural proficiency and restorative justice; 3) Additional instructional assistance for English Language Learner and increased efforts to involve their parents in their education programs. including bilingual counselors, teachers, social workers and other staff; and 4) After-school/early intervention programs. Although, CPC clearly understands that the District will make very difficult decisions; we are most alarmed that you are unable to address the key concerns of the Coalition given the District history and current financial crisis. 

On December 12, 2018, the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), released the Sacramento City Unified School District's Fiscal Health Risk Analysis report. The purpose of the report is to evaluate SCUSD fiscal health and risk of insolvency in the current and next two fiscal years. The report indicted the District’s financial health by stating “that the district will be cash insolvent in November 2019 (estimated to be October 2019 at the time of FCMAT’s fieldwork) unless significant action is taken.” 

Historically, the District’s mis-management in the accounting department, poor budget development process, poor board decisions, and failure to address the structural deficit have placed the quality of education for the SCUSDs' students in jeopardy. Moreover, the current financial crisis will undermine the Local Control Accountability Plan process and shut out key stakeholders in the process. 

We understand that the District doesn’t want receivership nor do the Coalition, but the historical practices of the District gives us much pause. Therefore, we are urging the district not to use the 

District's budget shortfalls in a way that will balance the budget on the backs of students, teachers and staff. 

The Community Priority Coalition sincerely wants to work collaboratively with the Superintendent and SCUSD Board for the betterment of our children. 

Sincerely, 

Community Priority Coalition

Community Priority Coalition 

4625 44th Street, Rm 5 Sacramento, CA 95820 

Jessie Ryan, President 

Darrel Woo, First Vice President 

Michael Minnick, Second Vice President 

Christina Pritchett 

Lisa Murawski 

Mai Vang 

Leticia Garcia 

Rachel Halbo 

Choosing Democracy: Community Coalition on SCUSD Budget Crisis