In their own heart-breaking words, public school students who struggle to read tell the story of the educational suffering inflicted by bureaucratic indifference and administrative fecklessness
By Cheri Rae
On Aug. 5, I prepared and presented public comment at a school board meeting — but the words I spoke were not my own. Instead, I gave voice to insights shared with me by Santa Barbara Unified School District students.
Children ranging from second-grade to high school who want to read, but have not been taught the necessary skills to become proficient readers, despite their hard work, good intentions, and support at home.
Our highly-educated community has somehow normalized the longstanding issue that only 50 percent of our students learn to read proficiently in our schools. This despite voluminous research showing that with appropriate instruction and targeted intervention, 95 percent of students can achieve grade-level reading proficiency— an almost undreamed-of huge leap forward in literacy locally and across the country.
The community may be virtually silent on the subject of the universal right to read, but struggling students, certainly are not. They are quite articulate in describing their classroom experiences if anyone wants to listen.
“I know I’m smart, but I just can’t read,” one told me. “So then I think I am really dumb.”
An emergency in plain sight
I’m well into my second decade as an advocate for these kids on the wrong side of the reading proficiency statistics.
They have many reflections to share about their plight, if only it mattered. It’s unbelievable that this crucial aspect of a decent education isn’t treated like the emergency it is in individual lives.
Here is a sampling of comments from students who had every right to believe they would learn to read in our local classrooms in a timely matter. Now that they haven’t, they personally bear the consequences of decisions, timelines and excuses made in the board room and carried out by administrators and educators on our campuses and classrooms:
- “When it’s hard to read, every school year feels like three.”
- “The teachers call it ‘SSR—Silent Sustained Reading. I call it ‘Sit down, Shut up, and pretend to read.’ But mostly I look out the window and wish I was somewhere else.”
- “Reading makes me feel like a piece of meat that they’re trying to tenderize, but I’m already burning up on the barbecue.”
- “I want to be a scientist but I can’t be if I don’t know how to read.”
- “Sometimes when I do math problems, with lots of words I can’t understand, I just want to cry.”
- “I have felt so stupid for so long because I can’t read. The shame of leaving my classmates to go to the special class is a lot.”
- “I’m just so tired of being the dumbest kid in the class.”
- “When the teacher asked me to read what’s on the board, I told her I have some trouble with my eyes, and couldn’t see the words too well. I didn’t want to sound stupid and say that I actually can’t read the words.”
- “When you’re taking a test, you’re telling yourself ‘Catch up, catch up,’ and then someone is done and they get up and leave. I don’t want to be the last person taking the test so I hurry up and I don’t want to check my work.”
- “I just kind of figured out that school really isn’t for kids like me who struggle to read.”
- “All I could ever think of when the class is supposed to read out loud is ‘Please don’t call on me. Please, just don’t call on me.’ Sometimes I just say I have a stomachache and need to go to the nurse’s office to get out of it.”
- “I hate high school. I feel so stupid. I’m never going to be able to get through.”
The third grade imperative
Reading is fundamental for academic success in every subject, including math, history, and science.
After I read as many of those comments that fit into the three minutes allotted at the recent board meeting, another mother took her turn at the lectern and addressed the board, stressing the imperative for children to learn to read by third grade so they can then read to learn.
She described her third-grade child’s increasingly worrisome reading difficulties, and her many unsuccessful attempts to have them addressed by educators on his school campus—all the way up to the principal.
And then she began to cry.
It’s a most human reaction to bureaucratic inaction. I’ve witnessed it many times in that boardroom, as mothers and fathers are overcome by expressing their fears in public, speaking truth to power and hoping that bringing critical unsolved issues to the attention of the people we elect to represent the public’s interest in the district will somehow help.
But, as so often has happened in the past, the urgency of this child’s situation appeared to have little effect on administrators or board members.
It was a heartbreaking moment met with studied neutrality by officials seated in the bureaucratic setting with the incongruous mission statement emblazoned on the wall:
“We prepare students for a world that has yet to be created.”
For those of us well-acquainted with the reality of endless struggles, the district’s platitudes — “Every Child. Every Chance. Every Day,” they promise – ring hollow.
Empty promises of reform
Santa Barbara Unified is entering the third year of its three-year-plan for adoption of new English Language Arts curricula based on the Science of Reading, intended to address the issues raised so eloquently by it students.
But effective implementation is profoundly slow going, for many reasons.
For starters, the teachers’ union contract makes the intensive professional development known as “Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling” — LETRS — voluntary rather than mandatory; no surprise, the number of educators choosing to sign up for it has been lower than expected.
Also, the district depends on philanthropic support to fund the materials, training and $4,000 stipends for teachers who complete of the course of study.
District officials now estimate it will take another three years before the training is completed by classroom teachers and their support staff. In response to questions, administrators could not say how long it will take to reach one hundred percent participation in the critical training.
Most concerning: in this first two years, only 16 percent of teachers have been trained in LETRS, at a cost of $199,000 funded by the Santa Barbara Education Foundation. Here’s the breakdown, according to district documents:
No word yet about how this will affect which students, in which grades, or what efforts will be made to speed up the process so more teachers will be properly trained to teach the lessons of the new curriculum.
Also unsaid is the critical need to address the students in grades 5 and 6 — who have had no teachers trained in LETRS — or in secondary school grades 7 to 12 where students have missed the Science of Reading instruction altogether.
Failure seeps into their souls
Students will continue to do their best, as they keep waiting for the adults to learn what they need to know in order to teach them to read.
Their standardized test scores won’t likely improve much, and neither will their self-esteem, as their repeated failure seeps into their souls and defines their spirits. School year after school year.
Parents, too, will do everything they can think of to express the urgency of the situation; like the mother who cried in despair, they most likely will be met by stone-faced officials unmoved by her reality.
My own son had his spirit broken when he was repeatedly required to stay in the classroom during recess to read out loud and write spelling words on the board while his friends got to play. This was at a well-regarded local elementary school he attended briefly; years later he still refers to that campus as “that jail for kids you sent me to.”
And this is all just business as usual as district officials simply explain away all the reasons why only half the students entrusted to them learn to read proficiently—and never even hear the voices of those who were never taught at all.
It’s the difference between the district apparently having all the time in the world, and the kids who have no time to waste. And the effects last a lifetime.
Had enough? So have I.
Learn More
Cheri Rae, director of The Dyslexia Project, is a founding member of the Santa Barbara Reading Coalition (www.SBReads.org).
On October 18, 2-4 at the Faulkner Gallery at the Central Library, the group will host Todd Collins, highly regarded for his leadership as a former school board trustee at Palo Alto Unified and the founder of the California Reading Coalition.
His presentation will be the first in a series of community events featuring speakers who will share their experiences implementing the science of reading by adopting proven strategies and best practices in districts with demographics similar to those of Santa Barbara Unified.
[This article was originally published on Santa Barbara Newsmakers]
Op-Ed’s are written by community members, not representatives of edhat. The views and opinions expressed in Op-Ed articles are those of the author’s.
[Do you have an opinion on something local? Share it with us at info@edhat.com.]
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Cheri — Thank you for taking on this important matter.
A 50% score is failing by any measure, and in this case, anything less than 95% should also be viewed as failing. Standards this important should leave no room for mediocrity.
What I cannot understand is the notion that teachers should be paid extra to engage in professional learning. In virtually every other field, ongoing education is a core responsibility — not an optional add-on. Professionals who fail to stay current quickly risk losing their credibility, and often their jobs. Imagine a doctor saying, “I haven’t been trained yet on COVID because I’m waiting for donations before I can study it” or a CPA admitting, “I don’t know anything about the new tax laws, I am waiting for the partners to offer me extra pay to study them” Such statements would be unthinkable — and unacceptable. vWe should hold education to the same high standards.
I would be interested in hearing if you think LETRS is the answer, and if not what is?
I have a 2 year old granddaughter and it is scary to think about her starting school in a couple years. While we would like her to go to public school, for her sake we are looking at private schools. Education is too important to roll the dice and have her be in the wrong 50%.
1. Teachers work to a particular contract, with specific hours. 2. A certain amount of professional learning hours are already required. 3. This particular training is apparently VERY SUBSTANTIAL in time and effort, and we should not expect teachers to work those hours for free.
Accountants have regular jobs – they aren’t working nor contracted for a certain number of hours. Additionally, MANY companies will pay for your additional learning and classes – my workplaces have paid for my EIT exam, PE exam, graduate school classes, books for graduate school, etc. Additionally, an accountant studying for a CPA exam would expect to get a raise after passing, much like I get paid more for having an advanced degree. The two are not at all comparable, at least not at an elementary school.
It seems you may have identified the problem: teachers are often “contracted for a certain number of hours.” Perhaps the focus should be on hiring teachers to fulfill the responsibility of educating students, not just logging hours. Anyone can put in time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the job is being done well.
In most professions, people aren’t hired by the hour—they’re hired to deliver results. In my experience, professionals are generally expected to work a minimum of 40 hours, plus whatever additional time is required to get the job done. On top of that, they must stay current with industry developments, innovations, and regulations. Sometimes employers even pay for further education, and I’ve seen schools do this as well.
Here in California, we pay the second-highest per capita taxes in the nation (after New York). Yet, our per-pupil school spending ranks 21st, and our educational outcomes are 44th. Meanwhile, California is 7th in per capita welfare spending.
Altogether, this seems like a recipe for failure: under educate students on the front end, then provide welfare and Medi-Cal checks on the back end.
This is not true for public sector employees. In fact, even many (most?) government contractor employees are not allowed to work longer than 40 hours a week. Federal, state, local government employees are often unionized.
That is an entirely clueless spew-response to mm’s comment. So wrong in so many places. You should sit quietly and listen while the adults talk.
The program is about 144 hours of work spread out over two years that takes place on Saturdays and afterschool. Especially for elementary school teachers most of their contracted time is working with students and they get very little time to grade, plan, and prepare materials. The stipend is to help compensate them for working weekends and longer days.
this is interesting given the article with Susan Salcedo last week. The lack of proficiency scores were not addressed, but she was quick to address missing out on federal funding
I took a look at the different schools in the district.
Peabody Charter School has demonstrated remarkable success in reading outcomes. While Peabody is a charter, it cannot select which students it serves. Its student body is diverse and broadly reflective of the district as a whole—approximately 46.6% White, 44.1% Hispanic, 2.2% Asian, 0.4% Black, 6.7% Multiracial, with 44% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Despite this, nearly 70% of Peabody students are proficient in reading.
A key factor appears to be the school’s commitment to fidelity in implementation. Teachers, administrators, and even speech-language pathologists completed a two-year intensive LETRS professional development program, ensuring consistent application of the Science of Reading.
The gains are striking, for example in 3rd grade; In 2022–23, prior to the LETRS rollout, just 46.7% of students were proficient in reading. By 2023–24, that number had risen to 63.9%—a substantial improvement in a single year.
This raises a broader question: why hasn’t the rest of the district been able to replicate Peabody’s success in the same 2 year timeframe?
And that’s why charter schools are gaining steam against money-wasting, bloated public schools. Way too heavy on bloat. The public schools need a GLP-1.
Sure Katie, sure.
Charter schools are about profit and stealing funds from public schools in an attempt to extinct them. Kinda like how medicare-advantage(private insurance) is trying to kill real medicare. Everything is about money, and I mean a few believing that most of it belongs in their pockets. You know little about quite a lot. You have big opinions on things you can’t comprehend with even an average IQ.
Because there is no incentive to do so. SB School district, like most, funding is based on enrollment, not proficiency.
This is no longer true. SB school district is “basic aid”, meaning they are no longer funded by the state per student.
No district is funded on proficiency. And no, they shouldn’t be, if that’s what you were going to retort.
SBUSD’s funding has switched back and forth from property tax base (“basic aid”) to attendance based a few times over the years. We’ve always been kinda on the border.
While it may be true that charter schools cannot select their students (and I don’t think that is absolutely so) the children who do attend are those of families that do select, pay attention, have resources above the average and use these schools to their advantage (OK). The separation occurs when uninformed and even intimidated families simply go ahead with the usual practice. Until there is better outreach from public charter schools to the general population they will always get the “better” students and the more supportive families. That does not mean they are better schools per se.
Peabody has a student:teacher ratio of 18:1, lower than most other schools, FYI. They also have enough wealthy families that parents COMPETE for the PTA positions. And their fundraising is far higher than most other schools in the district (Washington not withstanding).
Their recent jog-a-thon raised $231,000 – you can hire a lot of reading specialists for that. As a former PTA fundraiser, and a former school site council member, I can tell you that PTA fundraising goes directly to specialists that the district does not cover. When you look at other schools that have made great strides year over year (previous example: Franklin) – it all comes down to MONEY.
What’s all this? Facts? Relevant context? Things you know from personal on-the-ground experience? Pfff, they have no place here. This is a rage session, madam/sir. We shall take a number, such as an old published reading score, correlate it with an outdated state statistic, and make ominous generalizations about our local officials, shake our damn heads, and speak of impending doom! C’mon, get with the program!
Great points Cheri. The quotations from kids really mean something to those who read them, at least to us parents. I think the School Board, Superintendent, and Principals may not care, which is very, very sad. Like the previous posters have stated, low scores have been the accepted standard around here for quite some time, and Salcido-Maldonado only want to play things up to keep their jobs, despite running a sinking ship. Facts don’t lie.
There should be more funding and more support considering the large number of non English speakers , ESL.
Per the Census there are 3,000 undocumented children in SB. SBUSD is 12,000 students.
Classrooms have 33-35 children per classroom.
Other states have 25 English speaking children per class.
Honestly CA & SB has never done well with education despite all we pay in taxes. Ranked 44 out of all 50 states?
The money goes to the administrators and special programs instead of the classroom:and providing help.
Vote out the school board trim the administrators put the money to work in the classrooms, ditch the extracurricular specials that are agenda driven and have nothing g to do with teaching reading and math.
Or suck it up and be happy we aren’t at the bottom, we are 6 up from the bottom, woo hoo. We’re doing great! Everyone gets a trophy!
Peabody is an example of success because leadership fully understood the significance of training teachers in the science of reading . I read the comments and honestly you can not blame teachers for not being trained in it . During the Aug. 5th board meetings some doable solutions came up like the one suggested by our current student board member, Carlos Vazquez asked why we were not mandating the training to all principals and teachers. Successful districts mandate the training and do it during the contractual day instead of additional stipend of $4000. substitutes are hired at $190 a day. Currently our training is voluntary and given a stipend and yet only 16% are trained. Successful models like Peabody and Franklin is leadership. Principal Casie Kilgore sleeps on the roof when scores go up. Peabody Principal Damean and Claire Krock have all teachers trained and scores in the 70% expecting 100% next year. Instead of embracing an idea that started with a question from our new student board member. If we mandate training we can pick up the pace and do better than 16%. Maldonado and Alvarez need to give the board and public more than word salad and promises of “robust reports ” that don’t seem to actualize. Maldonado does not even talk about the science of reading. It is not on the website nor is dyslexia. We need fresh leadership to get anywhere.
Agree. It’s starts from the top, and Maldonado is failing in her leadership role for ALL students, of every color, race, and socioeconomic background. Talk about DEI. She’s failing all comers, so that’s pretty equitable!
They are all trying to deflect today. Trump’s health is so bad he can barely make a coherent sentence, and the Epstrin victims will be supplying their own list, since Trump is hiding evidence.
It starts at home. Parents parroting disinformation are not helping their children. Anyone this out of touch may want to hire a tutor at home for their children. MAGA ideals dont help learning at home.
This isn’t a Trump issue, dude. Get over it. You lost.
Sure Katie – keep crying about DEI and CRT while your team hides the evidence of the Epstein files.
Huh, so the Federal government has no role in education. That’s news.
BASIC – this has nothing to do with DEI. Stop making things up.
Disagree completely. It has all to do with the wayward, lost direction that has pervaded our public schools, where fundamental teaching principles in reading, writing, math, etc. have taken a backseat to progressive-driven social philosophies such as DEI that get taught at home. SAT’s? GATE courses? Nah. We need to have everyone at the same level right! That stuff isn’t fair!
See the scores. They are beyond bad, under the current administration that you support. Quit enabling. It’s shameful. They need to change.
BASIC – your kids aren’t doing well in school. Is that the issue here? Because I’m pretty sure you’re not actually worrying about other people’s children.
I’m worried about everyone’s kids dude. It’s the future. We’re failing here badly. You’re missing the point.
unless it conflicts with MAGA talking points
Nah, you’re not worried about children who were born in the US to undocumented immigrants. Stop your nonsense.
Continual virtue signaling to promote your agenda. Par for course.
Here’s a breakdown of the least educated states:
West Virginia: 22.4
Mississippi: 25.64
Louisiana: 27.36
Arkansas: 30.87
Alabama: 34.46
Oklahoma: 35.32
Nevada: 35.7
Kentucky: 35.7
New Mexico: 36.99
Texas: 40.14
Yep, CA has some great universities both public and private. Unfortunately many of the university students are not from CA including 35-40% of students at the UCs. We also have non-CA residents moving here for jobs.
This issue we are addressing is the quality of our grade schools. Perhaps a better ranking for this is the US NEWS K-12 preparedness for college where CA ranks #43 only above 50 New Mexico, 49 Alaska, 48 Mississippi, 47 Ohio 46 Oklahoma, 45 West Virginia, 44 Maine
True. General Tree just isn’t looking at the correct sources. Maybe it’s on purpose. Fake news. This is about K-12, as you said. CA is doing very poorly there. Bottom quartile. Some want to deny and refute that, others ask why can’t we be doing better.
Citizen, you do realize that the rest of us are waiting for you boomers to kick the bucket. Which will solve many of the nations problems. You support he Republican party which is the party of Trump. You and I are not friends.
HARSH!
Not that it matters I am not a Trump supporter nor did I vote for him. Not a fan of Harris either, less of 2 evils. But agree we are not friends.
I understand the perspective that more funding can help, but I believe lasting success comes from strong leadership, the right team, and a healthy culture. Without those, additional money alone won’t solve the problem.
Would I like to see teachers compensated better? Of course. But I don’t think higher pay is the key factor in successfully implementing LETRS or improving test scores. Effective leadership and accountability matter more.
citizen – I’m sorry your children did not do well in school here in Santa Barbara and that you feel the same might happen to your grand children. But now, go away, stranger danger. That’s my purse, I don’t know you. Buh Bye boomer.
Citizen… California also has the lowest infant mortality rate of all the states. Take your grandkids to Mississippi for a better education.
BASICBS – you know you don’t give a flying funk about any kids especially if they aren’t white and US citizens.
You support deporting ripping away and deporting non-criminal, tax paying parents who aren’t properly documented.
You support cutting funds to children in war-torn, impoverished countries.
You support cutting healthcare to children in the US.
You support gutting the Dept. of Education.
You support cutting funds for special needs programs in the US.
You support taking away money from public radio that helps educate and benefit children in the US.
You support child rapists getting away with raping children.
Bro, you don’t give AF about children.
Liar.
Please spend some time with your kids are home and help them with their homework. MAGA depends on big government to take care of everything for them.
You have it the opposite way dude, your Dem party is the handout party, and their game’s over for a while.
Sounds like you think CA is doing just fine educating our kids. I disagree. See article above. I think you got lost here today. TDS has you pretty scrambled up.
Basic – you are just not well read if you don’t even realize that your MAGA party is no longer conservative. Maga is doing away with the free market and moved to tarriffs and subsidies. Rather than local control of education, they have moved to federal mandates and ideological bands. The centralization of Executive power is a prime examle. Then there is the federal control over education and culture. The government assault of the media. Using big government to trash political opposition, to usurp voting rights, and to be the feelings police. Taking ownership in NVIDIA – that’s something President Xi or Putin would do. Putting the military on the streets to again being the feelings police at the costs of HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. Extorting law firms and universities Red states are welfare states and have the highest rates of welfare in the country. The white house is readying itself to bail out crypto. Trump is conducting right wing socialism. A willingness to spend and take on debt when it is aligned with Trumps ideals. You are really blind to what is going on and seem to have everything going backwards.
What’s CA’s national ranking in education again?
Cool and actual whatabout there, BASIC.
CA’s ranking has never been disputed, nor was it even close to the topic of the comment you just responded to.
More nothingburgers from the tri tip “sando” expert himself.
“You have it the opposite way dude” you get proven wrong on this statement and now you deflect. Hope you are getting your kiddos the appropriate tutors if reading is the issue at home.
What’s CA’s national ranking for deckhand education?
I see where BI is coming from. Handouts to billionaires are OK for him, but not trying to help other people.
Anon – Heehe you called him Bi, hehee heehe, bi, heehe heehe.
BasicDummy The red states (MAGA) are welfare states and rely on the federal government to simply make it through each and every day. Again, you show your ignorance and avoidance to truthful information readily available to you. You conform the world to your warped imagination instead of using it to understand the real world. You’re not alone automaton.
Basic was here multiple times campaigning for Christy Lozano. How’d that work out Basic? Far right dumpster agenda. She got run out of the Boys and Girls club on Milpas.
What a blatant lie. I don’t campaign for anyone, never have. Probably never will.
FYI it’s not on Milpas either, dude. It’s called the Eastside Boys and Girls Club and it’s on Canon Perdido, next to SBHS. I doubt you’ve ever set foot there. I have, when I was 8.
You sound like an angry old man. Take it easy.
Basic – I mean Katie, go back to your naturopathy. I didn’t need to go to the Boys and Girls club – I wasn’t a latch key kid.
Christy’s adjunct property was on Milpas. But you do you.
“Racist far right? Whatever dude. ”
LOL of course you think they’re not at all. Most racists agree with them. Some think they’re not racist enough. Those guys with the white robes and confederate traitor flags ‘n such.
“We’re near the absolute bottom.”
And of course there’s no other possible reason other than “DEI,” right? Sorry, but you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe someone who thinks AP classes are gone and that Reef Balls aren’t artificial reefs yet proclaims to be an aquatic scientist.
I wish my federal tax dollars weren’t being donated to red states to help their welfare and dead education systems.
You mean like that boat load that of red states that rank higher in education than CA? They’re doing great, we’re not. But wait are you just worried they’re not teaching what YOU want as opposed to teaching a proven, standardized curriculum?
If they are doing great then why do they also get to pick my pocket? So you’re fine with your tax dollars, as paltry as they may be, going to Red States that you think are doing better than Ca.
Pretty weird, dude, if that’s what you want, lots of people would disagree.
Go ahead and promote your crazy vibe to have CA to secede from the Union if ya want. Wannabe, elitist, and absolutely laughable. lol.
You’re injecting a variant of the “State of Jefferson” insanity as a non-sequitur. Typical of your deflection tactics.
BASIC – “SAT’s? GATE courses? Nah”
You said earlier AP classes were also ended by DEI. Guess you corrected yourself.
Again though, SATs are still required by some schools. Standardized tests like this have been criticized for decades due to them not being a good reflection of a prospective student’s abilities. This is nothing new.
And GATE was booted long before “DEI” became the scapegoat du jour for the racist far right.
You people blame “DEI” for everything without really understanding what it means and what is has NOTHING to do with.
I disagree. This is a trend and it’s a bad one for kids. Racist far right? Whatever dude. Go ahead and keep supporting the new progressive status quo in CA education, and you’ll reap what you sow. We’re near the absolute bottom. That’s a fail, as in F. I’m not cool with that.
BasicInfo (aka Bl) is 100 percent for redistributing wealth to billionaires, but is not ok with funding schools or social programs. But then, Bl complains about schools and the homeless. What is it with you people?
What is with them is they’re either not very smart (true for almost all I’ve ever trued conversing with) of them) or they’re just bad people who care onlynfpr themselves, not even their own kids, or both.
I’ve sat in meetings where elementary teachers who have taken the LTRS training have told other teachers how amazing it is, but had to caution them that it is a huge amount of time and the stipend does not adequately compensate them for the amount of time they will need to invest in the program. The union fought for a higher stipend but the district doesn’t have the money, which is code for: they aren’t making it a priority in their budget and they want teachers to keep volunteering their time to make it happen. Most elementary school teachers are already volunteering their time to keep their classrooms at a high quality because the district only gives them about 75 minutes a week to grade, make copies, plan lessons, set up stations, make their display boards. Completing the training involves Saturdays and homework type assignments all for what amounts to a nice tip at the end, on top of their current job expectations.
Funny, the District had the money to buy and just sit on the Armory property for 11+ million. Yet they can’t compensate teachers to improve their reading curriculum. Isn’t that strange?
Those two things come from different pots of money, for better or worse.
Yep, and some schools make it happen with VERY DEDICATED and large numbers of volunteers (retired teachers, parents, etc.) We should not be relying on that.
Anonymous: As you mention LTRS training takes time and is not easy. You share that the negotiated stipend of 4000. is not enough for all the time . That is why the student board members Carlos Vazquez question about mandating training instead of asking for volunteers with a 4000 stipend. Mandating can happen when district gets substitutes at 190.00 per day which saves the district 3,800. per teacher. This way the training can be done during the contractual day. So far in 3 years only 16% are trained. What about all the students whose needs are not nearly met in that time. Generations of students leave our district without a baseline of skills in reading, and math . Far too much is spent at the top and far too little in the classroom. Let’s stop with the stipends and start using substitutes and mandate training . Our students deserve it. Our community deserves this as well. Literacy is a human right. Maldonado and Alvarez mindset is to obfuscate and come back to the board with more information. We don’t need more information. We can see we are stuck and their mindset is what is making us stuck. Maldonado was a big proponent of the deeply flawed method that some teachers are still using . She does not even talk about the science of reading approach rather she uses euphemisms. That’s not leadership. And leadership is what makes the difference in successful implementation. The board is working hard and asking important questions. But we’re stuck with leadership that is sluggish, apathetic and shows contempt for advocates and others who want to make meaningful progress. Sad and avoidable.
I checked in with an elementary school teacher to make sure I was correct. It’s an amazing program and teachers who can do it really get a lot of out. But it’s great because goes into a lot of depth and practice. It’s a 1.5-2 year program, with about 8 Saturdays of 6 hour classes. Plus about 96 hours of of “homework.” It’s a huge commitment that all happens outside of school hours and for any teacher that would have to pay for childcare it would quickly become financially unfeasible even with the $4000 stipend.
So I’ll give you this – “Far too much is spent at the top and far too little “… [I’ma gonna embellish slightly] … on the things that really matter. But that’s the word many are trying to get out these days. “the top”, as you say, is across the board in all of our lives. Everyone wants to be a millionaire a paycheck from the tax base is total gravy. Look at our City Councils in SB. How much do they make? I challenge you to go look (once you find it you’ll see how much the ‘top’ is making in ‘public’ service, or is that in service to the public). And for doing what? Don’t they have legions of other high paid department heads that manage hoards of other “workforce paid” civic employees. What do they really do? All I see are meetings where they approve things they mulled over last time they had a meeting and ask staff to recommend stuff and direct them to do more stuff. Oh, that’s only after the obligatory “Public Comments.” HAHHAHAHAHA. Public Comments mean nothing to these folks. They vote, but we never actually know why? So many times it’s not at all clear and has the smell of dungworks. It’s enough for one to just turn on, tune in, and drop out. The incompetence is institutional. So is the gold-digging. All those employees know it and just decide to work the system and cash in. Everything they do is for themselves. Their wages are decided – how? If you’re paying attention and like what they do then vote for them next time. If you don’t like them or aren’t paying attention don’t vote for them. We might have a chance.
Unless you can get your student into Peabody or Franklin there seems to be no options except for private school.
For whatever reason most SB schools are failing their students and it doesn’t need to be the case.
Have you looked into the cost of private schools in SB? It’s outrageous. I know of at least three families that moved out of the area recently to fantastic public schools in the San Diego area, in order to avoid private school tuition and to absolutely avoid SBUSD.
When my nieces and nephews went through the District, they thrived . How long ago? Well, all of them are in their late 30’s-early 40’s now.
Adios! Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya! Hopefully the dusty remnants like yourself will follow. I wish more dummies would also follow.
Not remnants. I meant old stains.
This is not correct. SB Charter, Washington, Monroe – all these schools are fine.
mm1970 If we only have 16% of teachers trained in 3 years with a 4000. stipend we can see that model does not work. The reasonable thing is to hire substitutes at 190. a day.
The focus should be on the students needs not on trying to get stipends that the district can’t afford or is trying to somehow fund raise. Teachers will have a better experience and less acting out in the classroom if all students can read proficiently. The focus should be on a model, like hiring substitutes that works NOW. This is urgent for thousands of our vulnerable students. Teachers ought to support what works for students . Training during the contractual day makes sense if students needs are your focus.
You have to get Hilda to be willing to do that. I haven’t seen that she even cares.
The stipend model is not working. Much more sense to do what successful districts do is to make training mandatory during the contractual day so it does not cost more in stipends and then pay for substitutes at 190 per day. This allows us to hurry up and get it done. It could have been done already. So mandate it and use subs. Thats what equity and getting things done looks like.
How many of these kids have cell phones? I did a search of the page and there are zero matches for “cell” or “phone”. If you don’t think that cell phones and e-bikes and “the internet” have affected every kid then… this is all moot. Kids don’t have the attention span of a soap bubble or adult leadership and guidance outside of school to help with learning or lesson retention. While in school they’re just thinking about what they’re missing on some stupid social media platform. The brain cannot have two simultaneous thoughts – and I guarantee you that the jonesing for that feed is blocking any education efforts. They can’t wait to be teenagers, young adults, or even adults with the privileges of instant communication with anyone on the planet, no-boundaries, and high-speed transport (used to be you had to be licensed for this one) that are well beyond their maturity levels. Social media is the bane of society. False information is so prevalent that even a huge proportion of “fully-adult” people can’t even discern between fact or fiction. Have all the meetings you want. The problems are a whole lot more fundamental than I read here. The teachers are awesome no matter what anyone says. They are not being paid fairly. Those things are true and separate matters. They have NOTHING to do with the real problems.
As much as I dislike Trump, I would welcome a nationwide school voucher program. With real competition, we stand a chance of creating better schools. I’m well aware of the pros and cons, and I’m sure many will point them out, but in my view the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. The current situation is simply untenable.
Nationwide school voucher programs have significant downsides, including funneling public funds away from public schools to private institutions with less accountability, potential harm to student achievement and increased segregation, increased discrimination against vulnerable students like those with disabilities, and negative budgetary impacts on states, sometimes threatening other public services. These programs often lack quality controls, potentially funding low-quality private schools with uncertified teachers and questionable curricula, and there is limited evidence they expand opportunity for the highest-need students. The CONS are completely in line with Trump’s disdain for public education (to the point of destroying the public education system) and also in his line to continually benefit the wealthy and to weaken the already vulnerable.
People who do not have children in the school system should not be allowed to weigh in on this.
Wow – Harsh. I think everyone has an interest in the education of our next generation.
We had kids going through schools in SB and worried constantly. We finally bit the bullet and moved them to private schools. We are glad we did and had great outcomes.
We now have pre-school grandchildren and are worried about their education. We feel that we have 2 options. 1) Win the random selection lottery and get into Peabody .2) Private school.
Their education is too important to gamble with.
citizenSB Yeah – if you don’t have kids in grade school don’t chime in because you don’t have any current knowledge of what is going on – nobody wants to hear the whining about school choice. It only benefits wealthy Republicans. Peabody hasn’t had a random lottery in years, if you live in the map (again seems like you are not current on your knowledge). Let your kids worry about their kids and don’t helicopter their decisions. Lots of straight A students and many that can read in town that didn’t ever have to set foot in a private school. I know there are many in town that seem to worry about their white children going to school with brown skinned children and the rhetoric is monotonous and tiring.
@GeneralTree – you can run your life and I’ll run mine.
I’m really not interested in your advice.
Citoze. You seem to have zero current knowledge of SB Unified. But I understand if you feel self important and want to virtue signal to push vouchers.
@GT
I think it’s important to be able to discuss schools openly, whether or not someone currently has kids enrolled — after all, the quality of public education affects the entire community.
As for school choice — it isn’t just about politics. Many families of all backgrounds want options when neighborhood schools underperform. Dismissing that as “whining” overlooks real concerns parents and taxpayers have about outcomes.
I would certainly prefer that ALL schools are achieving excellent outcomes, unfortunately that is not the case and options are needed . Doing nothing is not a valid option.
If you want to send your kids to an underperforming school, please feel free to do so.
What I like about Peabody is the diversity of the student body, yet it has great outcomes.
@citizenBS ” you can run your life and I’ll run mine.” But here you are chiming at me. Your input seems, hmmm trivial, outdated, glossed over, amateur, and political. Move on.
That’s my purse. I don’t know you.
” the quality of public education affects the entire community.” If that’s really your truth – then why do you campaign for school vouchers which will run public schools further into the ground. Your agenda is tainted.
Peabody raised $231,000 in their jog-a-thon last year. “Why do some diverse schools do well?” This is why.
I stand by my statement. If you don’t have children in the public school system, you don’t get to promote MAGA nonsense about school choice and school vouchers that will ultimately gut public schools and create a more uneducated populace. If your’e worried about literacy rates now, you’ll be shocked by how worse off we’d all be if this actually happens. But… you probably won’t be alive to see how it affected all the younger generations. So that’s why I think you should all keep quiet about school choice and not have a vote on this.
Surferlife: Respectfully everyone should weigh in and care about all kids being proficient at reading by end of third. Peobody is a good example to show it can be done with training and leadership. It has 43 % students with socio economic hardship. Same true for Franklin where 79% are in socioeconomic hardship and still score in 50-60. Our focus should be on implementing this approach as fast as possible. All of us are affected when the majority of youth are behind. Education is key to equity. Sadly the adults politize reading so much that the students needs often go unment. We have to train our teachers affordably and well. When did it become OK to jiust normalize low literacy rates and not do anything for older students. Our entire community needs to support this and urgently. It may take extra funds but all our students deserve skills so we end the link of the education system to the justice system.
Well said lovesbalot.
They need to put their money where their mouths are. Franklin and Peabody have MONEY (Franklin from the intense efforts of the principal, and Peabody from their jog-a-thon.)
At $4000 a person, to train K, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade teachers at a typical elementary school would be 12 teachers – $50,000. That is more than the amount many PTAs raise in an entire year or two.
While I care deeply about school funding and empathize with the challenges, these are issues that principals, the district, and the state need to address. The taxpayer money is there — California is the second-highest per capita tax state.
Some schools and leaders have shown they can make it work with the funding they receive. For my part, I want to align with a school that has already proven successful. Money matters, but strong leadership is the key ingredient.
mm1970 Why fundraise for 4000. stipends when it is much faster and more cost effective to simply hire substitutes at 190. a day and have teachers do the training then on their contractual day. This way it can be mandated and the students needs will at long last be met. Paying teachers stipends, even 4000 is not enough apparently so why continue to go down that path. Is this fair to the students.? Have we gotten so use to thousands being behind that it is normal. Many of our vulnerable students families can not afford to pay out of pocket for the intensive interventions they need. I would like to see teachers focus and encourage this because it is faster and works . Shouldn’t students needs come first. It seems it comes last if at all.
Idk about how simple it is to hire a bunch of subs all for the same day, -it sure as hell didn’t use to be!- and if the training is good it would take several days, which they’d probably spread out. There just aren’t very many subs that make themselves available for the district because they pay relatively badly, and administrators would most likely have to step in, or move classes into spaces where one admin can babysit multiple classes. You’re talking days of lost or limited learning for many students. Plus many teachers H8 having to write and plan for subs -it’s really like double/triple work sometimes to make plans, unless you just use some mediocre “sponge” plan- and then they often have to “mop up” afterwards. It’s far from simple, and is almost always a downgrade in educational quality for the students. Summer workshops with stipends -or some other contractual arrangement- are more efficient and more attractive for teachers, since they usually aren’t getting paid for those 10 weeks.
KirkTaylor; Thank you for your insights. The reason I bring up substitute teachers and mandating training because it has been effective, not necessarily easy. I understand what you’re saying about teachers hate to do the prep for substitutes coming in. And you think the 10 weeks in summer is good opportunity. I researched what districts are doing around the country and SBUSD is currently offering one of the biggest stipends I could find 4,000. and still hardly any takers. The current situation is 8 Saturdays of 6 hours and then 96 hours of homework total 144 hours @4,000 is 27.50 an hour. Teachers did just get a well deserved raise of 10% then 5% . The Superintendent also quietly took the 15% raise along with her cabin coming to 1.5 million. Advocates and community members who are trying to help students are met consistently with contempt from the Superintendent. To me it is sad how the students are being cheated out of very basic skills. Recently a para educator told me of a 12th grader who can’t read. At the Aug 5 board meeting a parent was in tears that nothing had improved for their third grader since kinder and the admin. is still just stonewalling them. Who is representing the students in all this. Certainly not our Superintendent who is opportunistic and basically took 30K on top of an already generous salaries. To me it is beyond sad that between teachers and admin needs the students needs are the last to be met if in fact they ever are. So it is not easy but we still need to get this done. 16% in 3 years is not moving the needle.