El Dorado County Education Digest

California is removing degree requirements from jobs, but state leaders differ about the right approach.

Districts are trying to create or expand vocational training programs that “integrate” students with disabilities into careers and into society.

The proposal aims to help working artists become arts teachers in elementary schools.

Families have a lot of questions right now about how much help they’ll get paying for college—questions that financial aid offices can’t yet answer.

After UC Irvine-affiliated groups on the platform Discord were targeted by trolls spreading gory images, students banded together to block the attack.

Community college students who have taken two years off can apply to have a limited number of units cleared from their GPA.

The Golden State earned a moderate rating from the National Council on Teacher Quality, showing strength in some areas and weakness in others. Only 12 states earned a strong rating.

We need to have a serious discussion about supporting our education investments with stable revenue.

After months of negotiations, university officials offer a 5% pay raise. The union is seeking 12 percent and plans to strike at the end of January.

The 2024 California Children’s Report Card from an organization called Children Now noted that the state has failed to improve economic disparities for students. The report also dings the state for things like STEM offerings, early intervention and special education.

San Diego Unified School District has received more than $700 million in federal and state relief funds since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with these funds ending, some schools could be facing serious deficits.

Two-thirds of community college students in California admit to struggling to meet basic needs. The California Community Colleges’ Student Ambassador Program has empowered more than 50 students to act as resource guides to help them.

“Progress remains slow,” according to a recent report on faculty diversity at California’s community colleges. For Nikia Chaney, the sole full-time Black faculty member at Cabrillo College, the experience is personal.

Emery Unified took a targeted approach, including paying teachers extra to stay after school and tutor students.

In a report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, researchers instead lay out a plan for what society might do to improve adolescents’ interactions with social media.

The financial aid application for undocumented students is cumbersome and confusing, and many students aren’t completing the forms. A new law streamlines the process.

The Black Oak Mine Unified School District Board of Trustees unanimously appointed Dr. Gabe Simon as the new superintendent.

The California Faculty Association has announced it will strike in January at the state’s 23 CSU campuses. It’s part of an ongoing effort by the group to obtain a 12% raise for the 29,000 professors and lecturers it represents.

A team of astronomers from the University of Geneva has achieved a world’s first by simulating the entirety of the runaway greenhouse process.

The number of nursing students enrolling in high-priced private programs has nearly doubled over the past 10 years as the state’s public universities have stagnated in growth. Private universities charge up to seven times the tuition of public schools for a bachelor’s degree, but nurses say their starting salaries are worth the cost.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has formally backed an August motion by two law groups to keep the Temecula Valley Unified School District from being able to notify parents about transgender children or censor instruction about race. A hearing for the motion is scheduled for Jan. 24.

Dr. Rachel Rosenthal is the new Area 6 trustee, representing the west border of the district shared by Nevada and Placer counties. Dr. Rosenthal will serve until the next regularly scheduled election in November 2024.

Salaries for school superintendents in California have risen as much as 60 percent in the past decade. This comes as good superintendents have become more difficult to hire and retain.

Camino Union Elementary School District parents, teachers and staff packed into the small portable classroom used for school board meetings to demand the resignation of Brett Nelson, the school's new superintendent/principal.

A Cal Poly Humboldt professor is partnering with USDA researchers to study biochar, which results from heating dry plant-based materials at high temperatures without oxygen. The CO2 in the charcoal then stays in the soil for hundreds of years, rather than in the atmosphere.

Homeschool students in San Diego County are up by 88 percent since the 2017-18 school year, based on Washington Post data analysis. This tops an overall increase in the United States of 50 percent for this same timeframe.

Oakland School District teachers planned lessons for students related to the history of Gaza. District superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell emailed parents and staff to say the teaching isn’t approved or sanctioned by the district.

The California Faculty Association is seeking a 12 percent pay increase, while university officials counter with 5 percent in each of the next three years.

Faculty at four California State University campuses are striking this week for higher pay as part of contract negotiations. Walkouts at the first campus, Cal Poly Pomona, began Dec. 4.

In 2020, the state agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit that claimed too many students were not learning to read. As part of that agreement, the state spent over $50 million on 75 schools with the lowest reading scores.

Students and teachers alike are decrying the actions of the Temecula Valley Unified School District board, which became conservative in majority following the recent elections of three members. The board’s actions include banning critical race theory and mandating parental notification if their child is transgender.

A graduate student workers union and the University of Southern California have agreed to a three-year labor contract that averts a looming strike. The deal calls for pay increases each of the three years.