Sacramento County Education Digest

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.

On a fall day taken straight from the pages of a Sacramento State brochure, a bright red table bearing the letters CFA—California Faculty Association—joined the foliage decorating the university’s library quad.

Aside from Sacramento State students sharing their commencement venue with the Sacramento Kings, one defining feature of the ceremonies has been their live music. 
But not this year.

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.

Most undocumented college students in California are not eligible for DACA anymore, creating new dilemmas for students and colleges around employment, financial aid and the threat of deportation.

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.

State officials passed a 1,000-page document in July outlining new guidelines for teaching math in California. Funding has not been allocated, though the state superintendent intends to introduce legislation that could change this.

Updated vote tallies confirm candidate Scott Dosick has won the Trustee Area 4 seat in the Natomas Unified School District special election.

Two members of the Sunol Glen Unified School District board have been served with recall notices. This came after the board approved a resolution that banned schools in the Alameda County district from flying the LGBTQ+ pride flag.

The Black in School Coalition dedicated one year to passing AB 2774, which would target low-performing students in California. After the bill passed the state’s Assembly and Senate, Gov. Newsom vetoed it.

In a statement following the latest vote count update, candidate Moe Sarama conceded in his bid for a seat on the San Juan Unified School District’s governing board.

The three-year social impact project, launched in October 2022, brings together scholars to explore topics such as the impact of social media hate speech on youths, racial bias in health care settings, and even the neurobiology underlying hate.

Lacking power at the state level, conservatives are leaning into local governance to protest California’s progressive politics. The fight in Huntington Beach could be a harbinger of what’s to come.

Assembly Bill 1096, taking effect Jan. 1, will let community colleges in the state provide courses in non-English languages, regardless if a student is also taking ESL. Previously, a student had to sign up for the latter to qualify for the former.

California’s community colleges are seeing enrollment gains for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Older students—those over 50—are some of the first to return.

Citrus Heights resident Manuel Perez declared victory in the race for a vacant seat on the San Juan Unified School District’s governing board.

Preliminary vote tallies from the Natomas Unified School District special election show former board member Scott Dosick holding a narrow lead in the six-way race.

Once a month at the G Street Wunderbar in Davis, a crowd drinks to science. That’s thanks to Davis Science Café, a free event series hosted by UC Davis and open to all.

Young people are stuck earning low wages, working long hours—often while going to school—and often without benefits or work protections. Their hardships may hamper the state’s economy for years to come, researchers say.

Five years ago, the Camp Fire disrupted lives, followed quickly by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving students in Paradise with few options to connect with others outside of the internet.

UC Berkeley, Stanford and UC Davis are among the schools that have had incidents related to the Israel-Hamas war. Schools are working to keep students safe and prevent disputes escalating to violence.

Last month a float on the theme of “cops and robbers” featured a young, Black man behind bars. The school’s Black student union has sent a list of resolutions to the principal asking for changes to school policy.

Tribes like the Muwekma Ohlone have been asking UC Berkeley for decades to give back ancestral remains from burial sites around the Bay Area. The school is in the process of repatriating 4,400 remains and 25,000 tribal items.

Women are nearly twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, but among boys and girls, the likelihood is the same.

Over 95% of California Faculty Association members across the Cal State university system have voted to authorize a strike if necessary, union leaders announced.

State law requires community colleges to spend at least half their general fund on instructors. But administrators say they want more flexibility to pay for the growing need for student services.

Some advocates believe the state should expand the Cal Grant program for low-income students next year, even if that means pulling money from a financial aid program that benefits middle class students.