Event - Community Schools Impact on Student Outcomes: Evidence From California

And as you'll see on your agenda, we have an action-packed morning ahead of us. We have um a research presentation, three fabulous panels um and closing remarks from Assembly Member David Alvarez. So, I want to acknowledge upfront this is a packed agenda. It will feel a little bit like you're on a learning bullet train this morning. Um, so, uh, we're probably not going to have time for a lot of Q&A, but we will have box lunches at the end, and we hope folks can stick around for informal conversations, um, with our speakers, who most of whom can stay, um, for some of those conversations. Before we jump into the day, I want to take a moment to thank the Steuart Foundation and the Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund, which has supported both this briefing and the research that will be shared with you today. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> Um, and without further ado, let me introduce Linda Darling Hammond, LPI's founder and chief knowledge officer. Linda wears two hats in California. Uh, in addition to leading our current research portfolio at the Learning Policy Institute and her role as president of the state board of education, she's been an instrumental leader in supporting the implementation of the California Community Schools Partnership Program. So, Linda, PLEASE JOIN US. >> [applause] >> TARA, I APPRECIATE HOW you model uh getting us expeditiously through our agenda. So, we are launched and uh it is wonderful to see everyone here to think together about how we can build on and sustain the momentum we have achieved with California's ambitious agenda to create a whole child education system. uh and much of it leveraged by our ambitious vision for community schools which you'll hear more about from people who are involved in the work, studying the work, supporting the work. Uh today we will consider today how that investment is paying off and one key takeaway is that well-implemented community schools have a multiplier effect and that is really something that uh we'll be you know de diving into. Uh many of you know that we've had uh good news this year in many ways. Uh California students made academic gains in every subject uh in every group and in every grade level. Uh and in addition uh all of our state accountability indicators have improved. Chronic absenteeism rates are down. Suspension rates went down. Graduation rates went up to their highest level ever. And the proportion of students were demonstrating college and career readiness also increased. And this progress was especially strong for black students and Latinx students and districts like Los Angeles, Compton, Sanger, and many others that serve some of the state's most vulnerable children. And behind these numbers are a bunch of strategies that we've been expo um engaged in over these recent years, including universal transitional kindergarten, which is now universal this year. Uh a wide range of investments in literacy. uh expanded learning time both before and after school and summer school grants for learning acceleration including tutoring and many many more. And these investments have contributed to the gains. And what we're learning and you'll hear about today is that community schools proved to add on top of those investments. Uh the research you'll hear about shows that high need schools that also received state grants to launch community schools initiatives made significantly stronger gains than similar schools uh that did make gains but not as large as the ones that were made in community schools. Right? So there's a multiplier effect that allows schools to integrate these other initiatives and make them more powerful uh in really serving students. We have an ambitious vision in California. I just want to note that um many states are doing community schools initiatives, but California's is very unique as you might imagine. And that's partly because of the input of so many of you in the room. $4 billion initiative supporting nearly uh 2500 schools, a quarter of our schools uh in the state. Uh it has the four pillars that you know about uh the integrated student supports for you know health and mental health services and other services. But not just that also the expanded learning opportunities also real uh organization of family and community engagement and collaborative leadership. Uh and those pillars emerged from you know decades of research about how community schools could produce positive outcomes. Uh but beyond that, our framework for community schools also has four key conditions for learning. Uh supportive environments, productive instructional strategies that support motivation and self-directed learning, social and emotional learning, uh systems of support that enable healthy development. Uh we have four cornerstone commitments. A commitment to assets driven and strength-based practices. Getting out of that deficit mindset. Uh, a commitment to racially just and restorative school environments, a commitment to powerful and culturally proficient and relevant instruction, a commitment to shared decision-making and participatory practices. And we have four proven practices. Committee asset community asset mapping and gap analysis, community school coordinators who are key to all this work. uh sitebased and local education agency advisory councils which bring in the voices of the community and then integrating with relevant programs. That ambitious uh vision and agenda uh leads to certain um returns on investment that we're beginning to see. And there are two ways that community schools do that. One is that by integrating all of these resources and they're reaching out to other agencies to pull down the Medicare funding and the mental health resources funding and activate 40 different organizations in the community to be in part of the afterchool program and bring in you know the various ways in which parents can be engaged. Uh they multiply the value of services. Uh and we've seen that in one study we're doing now, uh a community school approach, uh was multiplying the value of services brought into school by about 600%. So that's not unusual. In addition, they foster long-term benefits to society of students who graduate from community schools with stronger abilities at higher rates, paying greater taxes, and reducing the costs of social welfare and incarceration, uh which produces a return on investment. conservatively estimated at at least 3:1. So these are things that invest in our society. It is an it is an expense but it is indeed uh an investment that is paying off. Uh so it's not an idealistic solution to all things but a pragmatic way to enable schools to function as engines of both learning and connection. Uh and that I think is the job that we have before us. Uh we know that when schools are connected to the lives of children, families, and neighborhoods, learning deepens, communities thrive. But be to be sustainable and widespread, we'll need to learn from what's working, fine-tune successful models, uh and create a long-term blueprint for rebuilding trust and connection and opportunity in public education. And that's our work today. Uh so let's get to it. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT, tilt this up just a touch. Let's see here. Here we go. Good morning. Can you guys hear me? Okay. I don't know if that's okay. >> Good morning. Um excited to talk to you guys this morning a little bit about a study. I see some familiar faces in the crowd of folks who uh have been giving feedback and in community uh on this work um along the way we've been u working on it and what what we're going to talk about here. I'll I'll I'll bypass some of the some of the background on the CCS PPP because I think Linda did a great job of laying out the kind of core components of what's going on and talk a little bit specifically about what we were trying to accomplish when we're trying to estimate to what extent is this big investment in these implementation grants driving differential change. Right? So larger larger gains larger benefits uh to students than what we were seeing broadly with the other rich set of investments that the state was making. Right? So as Linda said, this is the largest community schools initiative in the country now serving more than 2500 schools or roughly 2,500 schools. It targets the highest need schools in the state. And it's giving eleas and schools detailed guidance, technical assistance, but also the local flexibility to really try and you know local down to the school level where you're trying to assess the needs of the community and ensure that the programming that's happening uh is things that connect to what the students really want or need in families. Right? So for context, this work builds on prior research, including the LPI's seminal 2017 review of review of literature that covered over 143 studies that were sort of capturing the practices and you know and also um and also some of the comprehensive interventions as well as a recent rigorous rand evaluation of New York City's community schools program uh which has a lot of parallels to uh California's initiative and found that on both of these that we're finding positive impacts on absenteeism, math, test scores, discipline, and school climate measures. Right? So, here we set out we set out to just answer three simple questions with this uh this first uh this first study. To what extent did community schools supported by CCSP implementation grants improve student outcomes? To what extent did that differ by student group? And to look and see to what extent these impacts vary by school size and school types. So first of just again grounding us in how large how large this initiative is. We're talking about uh we're talking about now reaching almost a quarter of California students, right? With an average unduplicated pupil count for grantees of 87% 89% in the first cohort which is the focus of this study. Right. Right. So our strategy here was relatively relatively straightforward. Right. where we're taking the 458 schools of the first cohort and matching those with schools that didn't receive CCSP funding, right, but had similar compositions, similar trajectories and student outcomes um prior to the intervention, right? And then we're comparing those cohort one grantes progress right to those both before and after receiving the grants right we focus the main analysis here on the districts that were newer to the community schools approaches trying to sort of think about are we inducing you know is inducing the kind of commitments practices of the community schools model driving differential outcomes for students Right. And we treat 2023 24 as the first full implementation year. We had good research out of uh UCLA and other uh other groups documenting that there's this period of of startup, you know, once the money goes out where you're hiring and um hiring or onboarding, assessing the needs of the community, etc. Right? And so we're just using the regular statewide administrative data on test scores, chronic absence, suspensions to examine those outcomes. We get to the findings. I've already told you it looked good across across the board. We see reduced chronic absence rates, reduced suspension rates, and improved test scores with the largest gains among historically underserved student groups. Right? So just to walk through this some of this visualized if you look at the chronic absence right in the year prior to the first full implementation year you can see across the board and state was making progress right this is about a 5 percentage point reduction in chronic absenteeism in that uh in the year prior that was true for both community schools and their match comparison schools right following the grant implementation you have about a 30% larger reduction in in the community schools, right? Both still continue to make progress like Linda said, right? On suspensions, similarly, we see a divergence here. Both were and on that front, there was some uptick, right? That was from a low, right? Um but some uptick beforehand, but on a similar trajectory and then a reduction for the community schools. This is just a visualization across the board where we can see some of the some of the variance, right? And the average impacts were significant for chronic absenteeism, suspension rates as well as on academic achievement and particularly in math, right? And here we're just showing that same same front. Chronic absence and suspensions reduced on the top, math and English language arts increased on the bottom. Right? But then we look at this on by student group. We're seeing really large impacts among black students. This is focused on schools that have at least 10% black student populations, right? But these are really significant gains. Large large impacts for Hispanic Latino students, English learners, uh English learners actually the group that had some of the largest most consistently significant impacts on ELA scores, right? and uh larger than average impacts on across the board for socioeconomically disadvantaged students which are of course the majority of these schools by the um by the count right so we talk about the size of these the size of these gains are these meaningful learning gains if you were trying to translate these over into something like a grade level grade level equivalence like how big is the difference between you know what you learn over third grade to fourth grade right we see that average average impact as a whole is roughly about 40 days of additional learning. Uh what you're approximating here for black students close to 2/3 of a grade level equivalence. We look by school size and type. We see here similarly large larger gains in elementary schools particularly striking reductions in chronic absence in elementary schools which is the majority of the CCSP schools also the majority of California schools right but also among small schools with greater uh greater improvements than large schools and chronic absence suspension rates and achievement right finally we'll look here at the sort of if we take the returns to attendance. So how much achievement are you increasing for every reduction in chronic absence? Right? And we see that the community schools approaches are associated with a significantly larger return on improved attendance. So the approaches that they're taking are being associated with the kind of increased engagement that might result in more learning than say maybe rounding kids up and getting them back into schools. Before I hand off to Laura to talk some about our case study work uh that is really digging into why what is happening on the ground what do we what do we see happening there I want to focus in on one of our case study sites and this is one that wasn't new what wasn't new to the approach in LA USD that had a significant um uh kind of prior local prior local commitment where most of this most of these sites already have a community school coordinator in place and are now being resourced and sort of supercharged. And we see there this substantial divergence in year one uh you know in year one of the program and and growing since right and with that I want to hand off to Laura Hernandez to talk to us a little bit about like why we might be seeing these. THANKS. [applause] >> THANKS, WALKER. And thank you all for being here. I've noticed a few folks have trickled in since we started. So, I want to encourage them to sit down since we're just getting started. Um, if folks do have a seat next to them, they mind raising their hands so folks know. If folks want to get comfortable, please do. Um, with that, I'll go ahead and jump in. So, as Walker eloquently described what effects California community schools have had, I now have the opportunity to share out our growing understanding as to how community schools are bringing about those outcomes based on our complimentary qualitative research. And specifically, our most recent study took on this question and really examined how local educational agencies were engaging in community school transformation with support of these funds. And to explore this question, we really sought to identify informationrich cases. So we looked for insights from initiatives that were early state grantees that were planning to use the funds to establish or scale community schools in their settings. We also considered geographic diversity, student outcomes, and the degree to which these initiatives were embracing whole child practices as a way to identify them. And that led us to three cases which you see here um which was Los Angeles Unified, Lynwood Unified and the West Kern Consortium for Fullervice Community Schools which is a consortium of six rural districts outside of Bakersfield. And to understand how officials in these in these eleas were using resources to enable impactful community schooling, we used a case study approach. So really drawing on interviews, observations, and document analysis to really understand how they were supporting implementation and sustainability. And so what are community schools and their supporting districts doing to enable these outcomes? Well, our first report uncovered impactful strategies used in California community schools to reduce chronic absence. So one of the key outcomes that Walker was describing. And so in this report that you see here, we examined the attendance strategies used in four California community schools that dramatically reduced chronic absence anywhere between 16 to 32 percentage points following pandemic peaks. And across those schools, we found that they instituted both proactive measures and interventions that were relationship centered, datadriven, and collaborative in nature. And that of course community school coordinators played a critical role in putting these approaches in motion. really kind of allowing community schools to effectively respond. And so I'll quickly highlight Lucille Royal Allard, an elementary school in LA Unified that decreased chronic absence by 32 percentage points in just two years. And at Royal Allard, staff focused on student and family engagement. The instituting things like afterchool programming, community building activities, and attendance awareness campaigns as proactive measures to increase attendance. But they coupled that uh with a robust data system that allowed their attendance team to implement targeted supports for students with those more acute challenges. And of course, the coordinator was at the center of these activities, helping to facilitate, lead, and support the collective effort. But in addition to this report, LPI has just released a research brief on the full suite of district supports for community schools based on this study. which looks at the way LA Unified, Lynwood Unified, and West Kern built a supportive district infrastructure to enable impactful community schooling at scale. And while each of these studies or each of these sites are very different in size, geography, and in the maturity of their initiatives, we found that each LEA maintained common structures that allowed systems level staff to develop highquality community schools. Each LEA maintained robust professional development structures including professional learning activities or direct coaching which allowed educators and coordinators to refine and improve their practice on an ongoing fashion. They also maintain strategic partnerships which or like those with community organizations or health agencies that extended district capacity, streamline resource provision and enhanced implementation. Um also continuous improvement processes. So things like assets and needs assessments um that allowed staff and leaders to regularly assess data and to act upon that data were also in place. And finally eleas's hire district level personnel. So they put folks in place like district coaches or initiative managers who really facilitated the various supports you see here kind of allowing for this sustained attention over time. So together these district supports created a sort of coherence, collaboration and efficiency across the schools and supported community schooling at scale. Also notable in our research in light of the strong gains Walker highlighted in LA Unified was its emphasis on instruction in as part of its supportive infrastructure. So specifically in LA, district leaders integrated instructional professional development for teachers and coordinators into their initiative with widespread participation uh with things like the defined learning platform which supported project-based learning and provided teachers with access to things like rubrics and performance assessments um and networking opportunities. Another departmental offering was joyful disruption which included workshops on developing a restorative classroom culture as well as resources related to social and emotional learning. And many LA Unified Community Schools also designated a teacher on staff as their projectbased learning champion who kind of lend implementation support on sites. And the initiative itself, also notable, is part of the district's division of instruction, which supports departmental collaboration and signals the centrality of instruction in this effort. So what's next? So while we're very excited about the research we're sharing today, we also wanted to note that our community schools work does not stop here. So from the qualitative work I've just described, LPI is finalizing three case reports that will highlight each of our ELEAs to really show how their distinct transformation effort took hold. We also plan to partner with some partners and technical assistance providers to further examine why we're seeing the results that we're seeing and to continue our complimentary case study research. But there's also many exciting opportunities to continue our impact research as California's investments in community school grants continues to roll out. So tracking outcomes for cohort one in subsequent years or starting to track impact for later cohorts of grantees as data becomes available or things like large district analyses particularly for districts that received prior federal that perceive five pri wow that's tough for me. Prior federal full service community school grants are also a possibility as our student and school level analyses of outcomes which can allow for greater precision. Also future impact work can also explore other outcome areas including those related to teacher retention for example. So with that I thank you for your time and I also have the wonderful opportunity to introduce Robert Vadina the director of policy and advocacy at Sra Philanthropies who will be moderating our first panel. [applause] Thank you, Laura. Um, we just heard about a powerful data story from our LPI colleagues, both the quantitative and the qualitative. And in the panel that I'm about to moderate, we're going to dig into the equity implications even further with a fabulous roster of equity advocates who will lend us their expertise. So, as you heard from Walker and Laura, uh a big headline of this research, right, is the outsized impact of community schools on our students furthest from opportunity. That's our black students, our English learner, multilingual students, our students who are social soio economically disadvantaged. Uh and now our our equity advocates are going to share with us how they think about these findings, the connection to their work and also what they see as potential next steps for the state of California to move forward from here. So I will invite our panelists to come up to the stage with me one by one. I'll start with Angelica Honko, deputy managing attorney at Public Advocates. [applause] Yes, please. >> Yes, please take any seat any of these seats. >> Oh, that's that's that's good. I feel like we need a little dance on the way up. Um >> I knew we need music. >> I knew we need a little bit of music. Um Chris, you're Chris Nellum, executive director of uh the Education Trust West. [applause] Next, we have Martha Ernnandez, uh, executive director of Californians Together. [applause] And finally, last certainly not least, Ted Lumpert, president of Children Now. Well, let's get started with a conversation. Angelica, I would like to start with you so you can help us set the stage for the panel. Public advocates has been involved in so many impactful equity efforts uh in the state of California for quite a long time and you all have been allin on community schools since day one. Tell us about why. >> Yeah, so I think there's two main reasons here. Thanks for the question. Um, so first of all, whether or not that they use the term community schools, community schools are the schools that students and families want and need to learn and thrive. Um, and public advocates is about centering the leadership of those most impacted to advance communitydriven and effective solutions. Um, we understand that lasting transformation can't be imposed top down. It depends on strong organizing, capacity building and implementation from the grassroots and across the system. So that's the first thing. I'll come back to that. The second thing is public advocates is about education equity and as we heard from Walker and Lara, um that community schools is a strategy that is working. Um, you know, I remember sitting with a a black parent in Antioch maybe 10 years ago and when she would come to speak to school district leaders, she said 180 days a year. That's what we have with our students. We have to make every day count. And you saw that research, 150 days of additional learning for black students. That's almost an entire school year. So to come back to the first point, our choice to advocate for the state's historic investment in the community school strategy was rooted in listening to students and families. Let's flash back to five years ago when our world was reeling from the COVID pandemic and many of us as well. And students were home from school. Many schools lost touch with families. Folks were struggling to survive. Public Advocates helps to anchor a statewide network called the California Partnership for the Future of Learning. It's primarily composed of grassroots organizations of students and families. Um, and we use that moment of extreme crisis to go back to what do students and families want and need in this moment? What do they want to see from their schools in the state? And what they asked for will sound very familiar because it created a blueprint for the direction that the state moved in. the need to prioritize mental health, relationships, and belonging. Equitable access to excellent learning opportunities and then resources needed to provide that authentic partnership with students and families in learning and in decision-making and schools that serve as resource hubs that meet the intersectional needs of students and families. They were describing a community schools approach. And we were also hearing that bright spots in the state, schools that did not lose touch with their families, where strong rel relationships were already in place, schools that were already operating as community schools were best positioned to meet that moment to adapt to serve their communities and advance their educational mission during that crisis and beyond. So, fast forward to today. As we just heard, the research confirms this strategy is working to change lives and this way of doing school works. Just yesterday, a bunch of us had the opportunity to visit a wonderful community school redesigned in Oakland, Oakland High School, where across the board, we heard students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community partners talk about their ability because of the community schools approach to bring their unique expertise and feel like they're part of a team making their school better. We heard from teachers about the collaborative prep time that they're able to use to create more community connected learning experience that students were asking for and stronger vertical and horizontal alignment across learning pathways and teachers who stay in their community 10 20 years. relationship building practices where the community partner has built the capacity of staff and students to hold restorative justice circles which staff consistently rate as one of the most significant practices in their PD time and ask for it again and again. [snorts] And more than a dozen community partnerships coordinated out of a one-stop shop wellness center where students have multiple doors and options to receive help, including a newly expanded peer mentoring program. It was a school where joy and love of learning lives. And so public advocates is about making rights real. What systemic changes are going to advance equity and opportunity in the lived experiences of students and families. So supporting a historic investment in community schools was a no-brainer for us and the California Partnership. And in the years since, our network of partners, many of whom are in the room, have been throwing down locally and regionally to support students and families to do the hard work of school and systems transformation with educators, school, district, and system leaders. So many of those people are in this room right now. And and so that's why we're we're on board. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much, uh, Angelica, for Yes, absolutely. [applause] and thank you for grounding us in the perspectives and visions of our of our students, our families, and our teachers. Um, Chris, I want to go to you next. Um, and I I want to cite some of the statistics that uh Walker went through with regard to the impact for black students in particular. We saw 130 extra days of learning in math, 151 extra days of learning in ELA and significant drops in absences and suspensions. So, I'd like for you to kind of tease out the lesson for us all in this room. What does the policy design of community schools tell us about successfully adopting and scaling this kind of policy intervention in California? >> Sure. Good morning and thank you for the question. Thank also thank you to LPI for the invitation this morning. I will get to the question in just a second, but want to say two things that I think are just maybe important for me to say out loud uh in this moment. One, I appreciate the focus on equity obviously and ultimately equity equity-mindedness is really just about student success. uh give you know with all of the noise today it's easy to forget that ultimately it's really about understanding your data your gaps the trends and saying who are we under underdelivering for who are we not serving for and if you're committed to student success your question should lead you to what do we need to be doing differently and so I know there's lots of noise right now but really a commitment to equity is really about student success the other thing that I want to appreciate um before I drop into the question is expertise still matters and so I want to appreciate LPI for doing the study. I am one of the nerds who looked at the appendices and appreciated the model. Um, and we have to appreciate rigorous well-designed research that gives us the sort of legitimacy to make in informed decisions based on evidence, not opinions or [clears throat] feelings about what we think about the moment. So, just want to appreciate the researchers for their good work. And to the question, um, one of the things that I think, um, is on our minds about this work and about the findings, it's just a celebration of of what these findings tell us. Um, our Black Minds Matter report, which we released in February, tracked the the outcomes and experiences that black Californians are experiencing in our schools. And we showed that at the current pace, not all black students in the state will not be at grade level in math until 2089. And that's in60 I think in um in reading. And so California is a state that could be a country. Uh yet too many of our young people, black young people cannot read or do math. So I think this study shows us that we have a clear opportunity to change that trajectory. So that's one thing. The other thing I think the study and model show us is that you have to design for equity with intention, not by accident. um the over 4 billion with a B dollars of investment were made in a way that were targeted um targeted at our most concentrated need and I think that should tell us something about how we move forward uh and think about equity work um in the the years um following from now. I think the other thing it teaches us is structured flexibility is important. the 4x4 model I think um as [clears throat] as was shared earlier gave a framework but also gave folks the opportunity to adapt in ways that works for them. So I think the balance was key here uh without losing um relevance or a ability to have impact and so that's what I think um also uh jumps out at us um here. I think the other of course I think black families have been asking for this for a long time is to care about the whole child and I think this model um tells us that that is working. Uh community schools reject the model that um uh Dr. Linda uh Linda has shared many many times. It rejects the factory model and helps us rethink about integrating academics and mental health um and community and other support. So I think we if we can address those root cause barriers we start to see uh the impacts here. So we are taking that away and the last two things I think um that are really important are that investment was coupled with technical assistance. Um it it it recognized that people want to do better. People want to do good work and people are doing good work every day but maybe just need a helping hand or partner in the work. And so technical assistance I think is a a clear um obvious equity um strategy. And the last thing is the impact is clear here. Um Angelica just reminded us that we saw you know the reduction in absences suspensions um and for black students they're experiencing way more learning than they have uh than they would have as the model suggests. And so those are I think a tremendous set of takeaways for us. Uh, I think the last thing I will say is back to where I started, which is there's lots of um um debate about language, whether or not we need to be committed to particular equity language or not. And I think what this study tells us is I think language matters a ton. And I know we try to out liberal ourselves and figure out better language every week, but I don't know if language matters as much as the practices and the investment. And I think what we are seeing here is do the good work and you'll see you'll get the results. And so I hope we continue to push folks on language but also get down to what are we doing and it is actually uh beneficial for students. So that that those are our reactions at this moment. NO, [applause] NO, thanks for laying out some of your takeaways and observations, Chris. And Martha, I want to go to you next to bring in our English learners as well into this conversation. Um, similar to what I did with Chris, I'll cite some of the statistics that we just heard just to kind of remind ourselves of the significant impact on our students. for our English learners, 58 extra days of learning in math, 72 extra learning days in ELA. And I'd like to ask you, Martha, given your role at Californians together, what do you think we should do longer term to ensure that our students and especially our English learner students have access to community schools? >> Well, good morning everyone. Uh, first I just want to congratulate the LPI team for uplifting this important research. I could tell you that we at Californians together are thrilled with the findings. Also, um you know, we know that the gain highlighted in the report um as mentioned previously, those extra learning days and improved outcomes show the power of the community schools um model. And I think that the results um showed that when and we know this that when we center the whole child and the whole community, students will thrive. And so I think that the results also show um that the effective schools model may also be especially effective in closing opportunity gaps. And that is really at the core of California's um education equity work. And so at Californians together um we um really see the community schools model inclusive of the four pillars and all of the extra components as um beautifully aligned with the California English learner roadmap. And um we see that um both share similar values. you know, creating safe, affirming, welcoming schools, addressing mental health and well-being, providing that extra time, that additional learning time that is so critical for English learners, because besides learning the content and learning to read, most likely in English, and learning about the world, most likely in English, they're also learning the language, right? And also I think um the what's also shared is just engaging families as authentic partners um together um in the schooling of um English learners. And so um you ask you know and also I think just by nature right just by nature community schools um is focused on being needs responsive right and so um you know it's just such a great match particularly with principle one of the road map right the assets based and needs responsive schools meeting students where they are and building on their strengths and their assets. sense um to ensure kind of true access. I think um however I think that um the community schools need to go from good intent to intentional design. And um what I mean by that is that um community schools need to be explicitly designed to implement all four principles of the EEL road map. And also they need they need to be explicitly designed not only to address the academic, social, emotional needs of students but also the linguistic and cultural needs of English learners. And this can be accomplished for example by ensuring or incorporating designated and integrated ELD in all expanded learning opportunities. Right? by valuing and leveraging students language and culture as assets and making multilingual and multi-iteracy programs the norm because we know that English learners do better they do better at learning English over time. They do better in terms of their academic outcomes and then they do best at maintaining their home language. And so um by ensuring that these schools um provide these programs we are helping students uh do better in school and in life. And so um I think that um you know we celebrate of course these promising results and I think we need to think about next steps as um the Robert asked the question the next steps and so I think we need to ensure that every community school in California become a multilingual community school uh because that will elevate >> [laughter] >> that will elevate um the outcomes for English learners even more than we see in this just amazing report. And so with that um we just make to make to make sure that um the schools embrace language, culture and identity as a foundation for learning. And when we do, and when we do, English learners will not only just make progress, they will excel, they will thrive, and they will soar. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Martha. And over to you, Ted. Um, I want to reflect back on kind of some of your calls for a children's cabinet. I think you you've been a consistent champion for this idea of bringing leaders together across agencies to really talk about the impact on kids and then what that kind of collaboration and and connection really potentially creates for the state of California. Um and community schools are in a way a localized version of that. uh and we know from the research, especially the qualitative research, how community schools are making great strides in facilitating that kind of connection and collaboration at a very local level. Um so Ted, I'd love for you to share with with folks in the room why is this type of collaboration and connection and alignment important to kids in California? >> Sure. Uh well, thank you, Robert. Well, it's important because the community schools and integrated services are what every kid needs. I mean, every parent knows kids are unique, complex, and my three girls are unique. Um, and at Children Now, we talk about how every child needs a full set of supports to meet their unique needs to reach their full potential. And those supports are a lot, especially if you're a kid facing racism, facing immigration threats, these horrendous raids. If you're in deep poverty, if you're in the child welfare system, you need a whole additional set of unique tailored supports. And so that's why the community schools are so critical. Thanks to Linda, LPI, all of you who have really led California in this direction. And in terms of the state role, agree it can't be top down, but we have a lot of work to do um in terms of really reimagining our systems um better coordination to facilitate and support so we can get every school to be a full uh community school. And I'll highlight that with an anecdote. In a past administration, I had to introduce the state superintendent to the secretary of health and human services. I introduced them. They didn't know each other and it had been over a year into their tenures. Now, we've made progress. Tony and Kim know each other. They work well together. Okay. But we but we still have a ways to go. And really the idea of a a children's cabinet is not a new agency. Uh but kids have to be the top priority. And so the state superintendent, secretary of health and human services, the head of first five, our higher ed uh leaders, uh workforce leaders, all our state agencies need to be working together um to how does the state change funding streams and and really make it easier on the local level to bring all these supports there. I I have talked to far too many county mental health directors and I say, "Why isn't your staff at the schools? That's what I mean, why aren't you there? And a few counties have done it with herculean leadership, but every county needs to be there. And I won't tell you what some of them say, but among their excuses are, well, the state and funding screams and roadblocks and and and so we need to remove those and really make this work. And the last thing I'll just say and and just to push this a little bit is is is the beauty of community schools is breaking down these silos which hurt kids. Um, and I'll I won't name the name, but our we did a children's movement letter. We that's our network of over 6,000 organizations. Let's prioritize kids. We did a budget letter a couple years ago that had a lot of budget asks across the spectrum. Prenatal age 26, health education, and one of our asks was to increase funding for education, do more than Prop 98. and a an anti-poverty group, I pro I will not name it, said, "We can't sign on to the letter because we agree with everything in the letter except more money for education because education has enough with Prop 98." That's and I'm pushing this because that's the kind of uh siloization we all need to break o away from. This is about the whole child and we need to do support all the areas that support kids. And that's why the pillars of community schools are key. And you say we can't do this. Of course, we can do it, but California has a lot to do. We rank right now 33rd in child well-being. A lot of other states do better than us. I think this community schools data will move us up a little on those rankings. Um, but as a lifelong Californian, come on. Let's let's be number one. So, community schools are a real path to us getting there. >> Thank you, TED. [applause] ANGELICA, I want to return to you and I think you're ready for the with the report to talk to talk a bit about that because you had mentioned in your first response about the California Partnership for the Future of Learning and I know uh the report that you're holding in your hands right now is just brand new, newly released and it captures findings from a listening campaign that you all had conducted with families and young people throughout the state. So tell us what you learned. Tell us what our families and young people are telling us they need particularly in this moment. >> Uh thanks Robert. So as you heard um we did listening in 2020 in that time of crisis and so um in this moment in February you know when as everybody is reeling from the impacts that Ted was talking about. Um, we heard from more than 1,840 students, families, educators across 12 counties, nearly two dozen organizations supported uh this listening um to produce California Youth and Families Speak: The School Students Need to Learn and Thrive. And um this was just released last week, so I hope folks will download it. Um and what we heard um will come as no surprise. Students and families want safe, welcome and well-resourced schools that provide highquality and community connected, culturally affirming learning opportunities. Um, and where they are trusted partners in that. So, in a nutshell, community schools, right? Uh, so it's no surprise to folks here. We launched this listening right after immigration raids took off. students and families are feeling under siege up and down the state with the attacks on immigrants, rising discrimination and the uh hardship around being able to afford the basics. Folks are struggling to survive, let alone thrive. As one Spanish-sp speakaking parent shared in Pomona, "My daughter's biggest concern is what if my mom is taken? How will I be able to pay rent with it being so high? The other option is to stop going to school and work full-time to survive." So there are profound impacts happening on um people's educational choices. Um we heard from both students and families they want schools that acknowledge the pain and trauma of this moment um and partner with them to provide the tools and solutions and accesses to spaces of cultural affirmation, healing, joy, and connection. One student in San Jose shared, "Community schools build stronger connections between schools, families, and neighborhoods, making students like me feel safer, supported, and more connected. This is what we want more of." Um, I'm hearing this rain and I'm thinking, I was at this, it was on the last time we had the atmospheric river. I got to see some live music and um the the performer played Somewhere Over the Rainbow and there was something so powerful about us having a sing along. Um in this moment of siege it's really hard for people to dream to get into that dream space and but we did ask students and families about their hopes and dreams like what is over the rainbow for them. Um, we heard especially from youth and high school students like um this one high school student said,"I hope they have programs that put people on the path to their dream career." From a parent in Anaheim, I hope education gives my children the tools to explore their passions and the confidence to chase their dreams. This is our mission, right? That means powerful teaching and learning experiences, classes that provide relevant and community connected learning opportunities, critical thinking, and we heard a lot about real world skills. the preparation for real life. Um, we also heard about the need for a deep sense of belonging and the supports to get there. And at the same time, I really want to emphasize that students and families are ready to lead. They're not just passive recipients of others support, waiting for change to happen or for someone to save them. We heard many inspiring stories of how students and families are organizing with their communities and creating that change every day in classrooms that reflect their cultures and languages and schools that honor their values, expand opportunities and prepare them to face now and the future. Um they want schools not only where they are supported but where they are helping to lead. So spanning urban, suburban, and rural schools across California's diverse communities, participants identified six uh communitydriven solutions. And again, download the report when you get a chance. Sorry about my messy peepers. Um so that they can build on the progress that's already been made and that we've heard about. And chief among them is to continue to invest in this transformative community school strategy. They're calling on California leaders from local educators and school board members to state legislators and the governor to protect and strengthen public education and our public schools as irreplaceable hubs of belonging, support, and opportunity so that students can reach over the rainbow so that they can reach their full potential. And they want our state to continue to invest in what's working. With the community school strategy, we have unlocked a powerful model for the nation, one that has a multiplier effect. We can't afford to not lean into this strength. Um the report, it provides a roadmap for what comes next. Um but I just want to leave you the with these words from a student in San Jose. If we want schools to prepare students for real life and help them reach their potential, then we have to invest in them. >> Thanks. >> Thank you, Angelica. And I think it's a fitting way for us to wrap our panel with the voices, perspectives, dreams of our students and our families. And I hope from this conversation up here on the stage, you've taken away some nuggets of wisdom from our advocacy leaders around the ingredients for success, the motivation, the visions driving the advocacy in the state as well as a potential path forward and how to align and collaborate across different sectors in order to make this vision re a reality for all of our kids. Um, so with that, I would love for us to give our panelists a big ROUND OF APPLAUSE. AND NOW I WOULD LIKE TO TRANSITION to our next panel and introduce my colleague Peter Ross, a managing director of the Youth Thriving for Learning Fund at the Steuart Foundation. Peter. [applause] Hi everyone. Uh so the thing I'm supposed to tell you uh which is actually very important is that um I'm representing 11 major national, global and state foundations that are all deeply interested in community schools and advancing high school transformation um throughout California. But I think what's maybe more important right now as we sit in a rainy day is that I'm an old elementary school teacher. You can see it even in the way I dress still. Um, and I know on a rainy day when you've been sitting for an hour, the last thing you want to do is sit for another hour. I want you to pay attention to this very important panel. So, while the panel comes up, everybody's just going to stand up and stretch. Don't start moving away. Don't start talking to one another. Stand up, stretch. Panelists, you can please join me up here. >> Wait. Yeah. Thanks. And now, sit back down. It's not recess. >> There's always a little bit of risk with doing this. >> Yeah. Come on up, panelists. All right. So, you've heard a lot about the research. It's fantastic, high quality research. You've heard from our equity advocates. But now I want to give you a sense for what this is actually feeling like in our schools and communities across California. So we have a lovely distinguished panel. We're going to have to share one of the mics. Um but I believe in you all. Um get a feel for what this actually uh is is feeling like in our different communities um across California. And one thing referencing again that I was a elementary school teacher, Linda and I over the years have talked about how the best high schools look like elementary schools. Why when we get to high school do we not do fun projects where the teacher at the end of the day is covered in paint? Why do we not do performance-based assessments where you um genuinely show what you've demonstrated, not just on a bubble test? Why do we not engage families when we get to high school anymore? That's the factory model that Lyn and others talked about earlier. Community schools are the antithesis of that. They allow us to get paint on ourselves. They allow us to do rich projects collaboratively with our peers and critically they allow our families to be known and respected in our communities. So, I'm going to introduce you one by one because I mostly want you to talk. So, as I get to your question, um, but thank you all for coming. So, I'm going to start with Yadira Moreno, who's the assistant soup for educational services in Anaheim Elementary School District. Um, so Yadira, um, so we heard about the four pillars of of community schools, um, and those really matter, but what truly matters is local context. So, what is it looking like? What is the the the local context of how community schools been implemented in Anaheim? How's it been playing out in your district? >> Good morning. Good morning. It's an honor to be here and I think it just starts even with your intro. It's the reimagining of public education that the community schools grant has actually uh supported our vision to transform our schools. So Anaheim Elementary School District is the largest elementary school district in California. We serve 14,000 PK to sixth grade scholars. And something we all know where Anaheim is, right? We have a very famous mouse that lives there. But uh really is um the quality of our students, our diverse student population that we serve. Um our unduplicated count is 85%. So the needs are great as you know and our kids deserve this um I think this funding source that we've been given as a blessing. So when we began, we were part of the first cohort, but we only started because we were scared with two schools, right? Again, kind of what Angelica was saying, community schools exist, right? I think I was a product of one and why I'm sitting here today and I'm able to advocate for my students. Uh my elementary school career uh gave me the four pillars because I had I had access to family engagement. I had access to expanded learning but we didn't call it that. Great schools are great schools. So they are in the making but now when we started it was just two schools. Three years later we submitted our application for all 23 schools. 21 of them are funded and with that was great responsibility. So we started slow but the big pillar of why where we are right now is truly that uh reimagining piece are of our um family and engagement and how we could do that and we truly needed our community partners. So organically uh we sought out to start educating our schools, hiring our community schools co coordinator starting small to go big as we know and eventually we landed on a strategic partner, right? We noticed the the um findings of the study talked about strategic partnerships and that has truly been transformational at our school sites because through the community school steering committee at the district level, we invited our community partner um Okal who then connected us um to LPI. So it all kind of intertwines on finding those strategic partners to help change and refine our practices at the school sites because again we have things going on but how do we quantify it and how do we change it and refine it to allow true advocacy for parents and that's how our uh strate strategic partnership with our um with OK uh landed us to do amazing work. So, um, when I share the mic, uh, with Marissa, she'll talk about in depth the little tweaks that we were able to do because we were always, I'm going to say, um, looked at and recognized. We have been recognized by CAB as a, uh, parent engagement um, award-winning school district. But there's a huge difference between truly engaging parents and that is what the community schools grant has truly done for us to really check us and really what are our practices and how are we truly connecting with our parents and being reminded because the more we empower our parents, they keep us on our toes and they're like, "Uhuh, you're not doing this." And that's truly where we are. But it was all that beautiful partnership of um family engagement. So with that um I know that this is a goal for all our schools. We know this and it's it's difficult work. Uh when I started the work I w I uh was the director of school family and community engagement and for the past year I've been in the assistant soup role. But uh those directors of school family engagement, it's a difficult job because you're reimagining what has always been there and transformation is very difficult, but the power and the outcomes are what keeps us going. So, >> thank you. And perfect. Let's go to you next. So, this is Marissa Bermudez, who's a parent leader and community organizer with the Orange County Congregation uh community organization. So, we just heard your colleague gave sort of the district perspective, but what has it been like to build uh trusting relationships between the school, the district, and families and parent leaders like yourself? And how has that resulted in uh different outcomes in your schools and community? >> Yeah, thank you. I'm very honored to be here with all you this morning. And um I'm looking at the beautiful view and I I I can't help get a little emotional. So my apologies if I shed a little tears here, especially being here with um my colleague um Yadita who we went to junior high in high school together and sitting here, you know, two girls from Anaheim um now, you know, leading this work in our in our school district, you know, where we where we come from. So, um there's a lot that I can say about um the work that we've been doing, but everything really ground is grounded in the relationships, right? And it takes a lot. It takes time. It takes intentionality. Um and it takes being uncomfortable, right? And that's what we have found with um specifically with Anaheim Elementary. I started as a parent leader 10 years ago with their parent leadership institute. Um, never did I think 10 years fast forward, you know, I'd be sitting here and in other spaces advocating on how important family engagement is into the outcomes of um, our student success. And so with our PLI at our school sites um, and at our districts um, there's different parents that participate at a district level which get professional development, right? And so like Adita said, you know, they've been recognized for their parent engagement and, you know, doing a great job. But fast forward with community schools, I think it really opened that opportunity for that more authentic and more deep connection where we can have those conversations about how things might not be necessarily working or can be improved or up. Also uplifting what is working, right? and just empowering our parents because there's you know involvement engagement and empowerment and I always say there's a very fine line between engagement and empowerment because it feels very comfortable when they tell you oh Miss Benmudes you're so great you're always helping you know can you be on this committee and sometimes it's just a checkbox it's not you're not really authentically being engaged because you don't even know what you are doing there but to have the opportunity to really be able to connect and understand and have people like Yadira, like Miss Roman um who was my principal for seven years, invest time in you to guide you and to give you the opportunity to really um engage and be that voice for parents who cannot be there, right? Because what started off as you being there for your child, for your children has transformed and you know into being that voice for your community, for the families that work two to three jobs that don't know the language. One thing that we truly emphasize and I truly appreciate from Anaheim Elementary is that it's always interpretation. There's always child care. I was able to participate in a lot of the district spaces because I did have child care for my three little boys who were like a year apart, right? And so that connection and that understanding of not just having the presence of parents in these committees, but really being engaged and understanding and being able to be those co-eth partners, co-creators. It's a really amazing feeling to now being having our parents preset workshops for staff, right? Doing dual capacity trainings, not just for our parents, because if we're just doing these things for our parents, we're saying that the parents are the problem, right? And so when we give them to both staff and our parents, it means that we're working together to be able to have the tools and resources to be at the same table to be able to have those um conversations that might not be easy, right? And so it comes down to the investment of time, the intentionality. One thing with Anaheim Elementary that, you know, we've pitched ideas and how about this? Let's put it on the calendar. We'll figure out the details later, but that's great. that's really aligned having anou with them on community schools which we've never had anou with any school district but because all of our values our vision and missions are aligned we did go move forward with that and they really do see our parents as experts and I can truly say that because I am a parent in the district with three kids um in the district one of my son is autistic great school where he's going and getting supports two of my kids are in Korean dual immersion and just really in investing in the language right, and feeling supported. And when we see things that are not really working, we tap into those conversations and we're not pushed away and we're not seen as that other parent, but we're seen as a partner who really wants to collaborate. >> Thank you. [applause] All right, we're going to start to move a little bit around the state. We were in Anaheim and Orange County. We're going to go a little to the north and west um into Lynwood, which is in LA County. Um and we're start with you, Don. Don Green um who's the district community schools coordinator at Lynwood Unified. So Don um what's great about Lynwood is that uh as powerful as this state initiative is you actually got started earlier uh with LEO with Los Angeles County Office of Education with community schools but then you quickly latched on to the opportunity of this state level grant. Can you talk about the evolution of community schools within Lynwood? >> Absolutely. Good morning everyone. Um, so in Lynwood, we started off with one community school that we had for several years before the CCSP funding and availability to apply for that grant. And so when we applied for the grant, we then expanded the community schools work in our district to cover all of our schools. So under CCSP, we now have 16 elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools, and one continuation school. And so we have incredibly seen the evolution of CCP CCSP in our district over the three years. So we're in three year three of implementation. So we've been doing the work for about two and a half years now. And so as you know, well I'm going to tell you, we started with implementation. We didn't go the the planning grant way. So it was just feet on the ground ready set go. So there's a lot of learning, doing growing as well as you know that road to transforming presenting challenges and barriers and so we have been working very hard to work through that all because our ultimate goal is to reach that transformation right and so I would like to share with you some of the things that we did to ensure that our journey on this road would be very would lead to the impact and the success uccess that we want with community schools. Um so I will start by saying that our district was already grounded in a lot of the work as it related to um making sure that we were looking at the whole child and making sure that our approaches were developed to ensure that our students and our families had access to seal well-being um to the needs and that they needed in order to thrive in our community. But now that we have the community schools funding, we were able to expand on that. And so in year one, it was especially important that we took a look at the sustaining staff um and resources and we were very intentional about how we brought on people to do the work for community schools. And so with that being said, we wanted to make sure that we had um people on board with us that embodied our principles of equity, access, and justice, which we stand for in our district, as well as being able to um have the strengths, the assets, as well as just being servant leaders. You know, we need people who are going to be at our school sites that are going to be able to develop that relationship trust. You know, build those positive relationships with the students, with the teachers, with the staff and the community. And so, we also wanted them to be able to empower others. We wanted them to be aware of the shared power that exists within the community schools model and making sure that we have that shared decision-making approach as well. And so we were fortunate to create the position what we call in Lynwood Unified School District our community schools case managers which would be equivalent to the community schools coordinators but my position is called coordinators. So that's kind of why we had that change there. But um you know we have amazing people doing the work and so past that we had to really look at developing a system for success as it related to the skills, the talents and the strengths of the people doing the work. And so we developed a um a robust onboarding uh support system for our case managers as well as a continuous development and learning model for our case managers so that we offered the appropriate professional development weekly check-ins. I was able to do one-on-one coaching with our case managers depending on, you know, the unique needs that and and challenges that exist at the various school sites. So, we were very mindful of that because as you know and as it's been stated, transformation is a journey and it is very challenging at times. And so, my job as the coordinator was to make sure that I'm equipping the case managers with those tools that they need in their toolkit in order to carry out the work successfully at the school sites. And so I am very happy that we've been able to establish, you know, our community schools advisory councils at all of our sites as well as at the district level where we have our voices of the community, our students, our parents, community members lifted and heard um and we're able to make those decisions using data and um just seeing that evolve has been exceptional as well as you know I talked about collaborative collaborative leadership but where trul really starting to see in year three the transformational leadership of our case managers and we are so grateful for that. They are really being looked at as leaders on their campus, a part of the leadership team, working handinhand with the admin. And what we have known is that those principles that have really um embraced the community schools work as well as the work of the case managers. That's where we're seeing amazing outcomes. And so my job is also to make sure that I am equipping the principles with the necessary knowledge so that we can have this um support team at our school sites. Um and with that being said, we are so thankful for our partnerships also with our RTAC um um LEO because they provide continuous professional development opportunities for us as well. And those it it's just very important that that is also a part of any district's community schools model. And with that, we are seeing, you know, outcomes already in year three that um that we are very proud of and we know are going to continue to grow and we're especially looking, you know, with an equity lens at those most vulnerable populations to make sure that we are doing what's right and just for them. Thank you. >> Thank you, Don. [applause] So, staying in Lynwood, um we're going to come to you, Alma. This is Alma Castro who's the director of California initiatives for English and the English learner success forum and a schoolboard member in Lynwood Unified. So we've already heard English learners mentioned a couple times which is critical. Uh one in five of our children here in California are English learners. Um so it's an incredibly important part of our multilingual diverse society. uh and community schools, we've heard, can can leverage the assets um and bring an assetbased approach to the way that we work with English learners and their families. Can you talk about how community schools are supporting English learners in Lynwood? >> Yes, absolutely. >> Oh, can we swap with someone else? >> Okay. Buenos Diaz and thank you um for the invitation and sharing this space with amazing uh voices from the field. We've heard um about the foundational uh work that occurred with the implementation of the funding for community schools in Lynwood. And um truly it's been an investment that has impacted and reversed um trajectories for the 10,000 students that we serve, 25% of which are multilingual students or English language learners and a high needs community. Um I'm an alum of the community and just seeing the transformation just in these three years from uh mindsets and also in practices has really um you know been been amazing to see. And of course some of these um some of these are are data points that we can point to with respect to English learners or multilingual students um having outcomes. Some of these include um attendance. We have seen from year one some of our attendance uh that has grown from 86% uh to 91%. And chronic absenteeism similar to some of the data that was shared today we know that chronic absenteeism in Lynwood has also reduced from 36% to 24%. We know that our students are attending school more regularly and that is the connection, the feeling seen, the feeling heard and valued at our school sites. Um, graduation data also overall for Lynwood Unified, we have seen the most current data at 89% but specifically for multilingual students, English learners, we've seen uh these rates increase from 72% to 79%. And um we're really proud of the work that we continue to do with intentionality, with a focus um and building the awareness of our multilingual students. having over 25% of our student population eel um means an immense responsibility and it also means leaning in to the assets of our students of our communities and I know um uh Mikga Martandez spoke about how important it is to um lean in also to current policies such as the English learner roadmap policy and principle one as the assets of our community as as well as the principle to the quality of instruction. So we have seen reclassification um double uh nearly double in these three years from 8% in the first year to currently 15%. We're continuing to see and build. [applause] Thank you. We're continuing to see and build on the linguistic and the cultural assets of our students of our familias. And you know I um I wanted to share other outcomes. Of course we have tangible data and outcomes via data but other outcomes are the um opportunities to uh build those relationships of trust with our familas. We serve uh primarily immigrant family um and community and we know that the uh the current um landscape there is a lot of fear in our communities and a lot of families broken apart. We know that through our community schools investment, through our case managers, uh social emotional learning supports, through our uh different programs and resources that we have for building knowledge with families. We know that families are um much more engaged. We also have seen um a rise in student agency and student advocacy and learning about how do I take this course dual enrollment. I'm looking at the time here, so I'm going to I'm going to bring this to a close in just a second. But I do want to say that in Lynwood, the community schools grant has transferred outcomes for English learners or multilingual students. Attendance is up, chronic absenteeism is down, increased graduation rates overall, including our MLL students, and reclassification rates have nearly doubled. We acknowledge we have work ahead to improve academic outcomes, but we also are grateful of these investment that have allowed us to be a responsive district to meet our community where our community is and also to build those partnerships with community partners and bring those to support and close some of those achievement and other gaps in our communities. We're grateful for this uh contribution and investment and we hope to continue to build on the success of all of our Lynwood Unified School District students. >> Thank you, Elma. [applause] Okay, time is getting tight. So, what we're going to do is I'm going to introduce both of you and I'm going to get out of the way. Um so, this is uh Rhonda Evans, who's the director of community schools at Eureka City Schools, growing farther north here, folks. Um and we have Arian uh Nova. It's good to see you. Um community organizer from True North organizing network. So we'll start with you Rhonda and then you can just hand it right over to Arian. So tell us about Eureka is not an urban place the way Lynwood and Anaheim are. So tell us about, you know, in that unique part of our state, how community schools are working and then we'll come to you to talk about um how you how you see it really impacting the young people and families that you're engaging with. >> Thank you. Well, how far north we um Humble County is the size of Massachusetts, about 4 um,000 square miles. We have about 136,000 residents. Eureka City Schools where I serve um is the largest school district in our county. Um and our high school Eureka High is the largest school in a tri county area in Northern California. So that's some good context to think about. Um so we have our geography and rural isolation really um are our two biggest um barriers. Um we struggle with getting our students to school. transportation is a huge issue. Um and then you just align that with opportunities to genuinely connect. So um there are three key strategies that we really have implemented in community schools. The first is um our community schools mile um our community schools model. We hired a um chronic absenteeism social worker. So that chronic absenteeism social worker put together um student um attendance review teams that were culturally responsive at we ran a pilot at our elementary school. We reduced chronic absenteeism at that particular school from 24% down to 12% chronic absenteeism. And I [applause] Yeah. So that that's where we stand this year. Our other four elementary schools are at 24% chronic absenteeism. So cutting that in half is huge. We hired a student transporter. Last year we transported more than 1,200 student transports, got students to school who um were in between um hotels, campsites, um other people's homes. um that genuine engagement through a service transformed our um connections with our families. Finally, um I'm sitting here with True North representation. We looked at family engagement um as a need. Um we did a deep equity um data looked at data and asset mapping and needs assessment. Our high school at Eureka High did not have an ELAC, an English language advisory council, statemandated, didn't exist. Um it showed a lot of um there are a lot of reasons why in addressing that we brought True North on. Um we um engaged with um many equity issues but really partnering with True North. We um implemented belonging circles that was very impactful. That trust allowed us to sign anouou with True North. They have um reached out and developed an ELAC at our high school. Uh last month we had more than 30 parents and students attending and we're growing that model um districtwide. >> Thank you. Sorry, we left use a little time. >> I'll try. Okay. Good morning. Um, so what really defines the partnership between True North and Eureka City Schools is relationships. Not just programs or events, but deep listening and shared leadership. [snorts] In 2024, True North took on the challenge of helping to build an English learner advisory committee, ELAC, at Eureka High. And we approached it with a model of community organizing, bringing people together to build their leadership and collective power. My supervisor, Evan, started by conducting close to 100 one-to- ones with high school staff, families, and students. And by joining, I continued that work, holding over 50 myself. This intentional listening started a cultural shift where trust could grow between True North, Eureka High families, and district partners. In this process, families learned organizing skills like one-on-one listening, conducting research meetings with school and district leaders, and then moving from just conversation to action. Today, families themselves are building agendas and running the ELAC, then supporting agenda development for school site council meetings. A visible impact of the community schools partnership is that students are now bringing their families to these ELAC meetings, and there are as many students as parents in the room. And this signals a cultural shift where the shared space is welcoming and relevant to them. The partnership is expanding through the parent leadership academy launching in January which builds on three years of collaboration between True North and Eureka city schools. The academy directly responds to data from the English district English language advisory committee DAC parent surveys, empathy interviews, and our own one-on-one organizing conversations. The planning team illustrates the community school's approach with parents, teachers, principals, and district staff, community partners, and the county office of education. And this academy provides meaningful leadership and skilluing opportunities for Eureka City families. It includes honorariums, free meals, child care, and fully bilingual sessions in English and Spanish to ensure full access and participation. topics were co-designed with families, students, educators, and community partners, which reflects a model of shared leadership. Um, since I'm out of time, I'm going to skip that. I'm sorry. Um, so together, uh, or actually, no, the impact that we're already seeing and what we hope to deepen through this program is more comfort and connection between students, families, and educators. Because for us, partnership with Eureka City Schools looks like shared power, shared purpose, and a shared belief that families are not just participants in the system. They are leaders shaping it alongside us. [applause] All right, please join me in thanking the panel, especially Arian here at the end. It did an incredible job. [applause] Okay, thank you all. Uh and then let me welcome to the stage uh the truly talented and wonderful Anna Mayor, senior policy adviser at the Learning Policy Institute. [applause] >> All right, good morning. I know Tara said we were on a high-speed journey. the journey continues. But I do want to just take a moment again to appreciate the panelists we just heard from because I know that each of you is out there every day doing the hard work that it takes to transform outcomes for students and families. So, let's just give another hand to the panel. And um what I'm going to share and I really will keep it brief because we have even more leaders to hear from is that California is leading the nation with our investment in community schools. But we are not alone. We are not the only state. And so I want to just share some very brief context about what we're seeing in terms of the national landscape and picture. And we'll see if I can use a clicker. Okay. Um, so I just want to start out by briefly sharing that there are two states that have included community schools in their funding formulas. Maryland uh has an entitlement grant program uh that sends funding to all high poverty schools in the state and the current threshold is set to 55% or more students uh at a school site come from low-income households. And so these school sites get an annual lump sum that primarily goes to staffing for coordination and health care. And there's also a per student formula uh that provides an additional sum for programs, services, and partnerships. And New York has a set aside in its school funding formula at the district level for highnee districts that are implementing community schools as an improvement strategy. And New York has also funded regional technical assistance centers for a few years. I know we heard earlier from Chris, I think, that the the investment in technical assistance has been very important. Um, and I totally agree with that. Another area where we're seeing a lot of state action is competitive grants. So, in addition to again our state's historic investment in community school grants and technical assistance, uh Illinois has had a competitive grant program for community schools using a combination of federal funding sources, ESSER, and the full service community school state scaling grant that you'll hear more about in a moment. New Mexico has funded community school grants for a number of years now with its general fund and they also use title one school improvement dollars. Vermont started a grant program with ESSER funding and actually continued it with their state general fund. And I need to update the map. It's changing literally all the time. Um because Minnesota has also restarted funding community schools through their state general fund. All right. Then we have capacity building. Florida has a certification process for community schools run by the University of Central Florida. They provide state funding for participating sites and they also have federal grant funding. And Kentucky has invested in family and resource youth services centers co-located at school sites and now they're working to scale and implement full service community schools across the state. And then you see there's also several states that have state ceiling grants that are starting uh new initiatives. So overall uh we see that there's a variety of states investing in community schools different in size and geography taking different approaches but we do see there's a commonality in terms of the per site annual funding amount which tends to coales around $150,000 to $250,000 per school on an annual basis. And really really quick in terms of outcomes, what the evidence we're seeing in California, we're also starting to see evidence coming from other states as well, which is very aligned. And I think we're starting to hear, you know, over and over again, we're seeing community schools are reducing chronic absence, increasing overall attendance rates. We're seeing that achievement is going up in other states as well in terms of high school graduation rates, test scores. We're seeing uh that there are improvements in school climate, reductions in exclusionary disciplinary practices, improvements in engagement, and we're also seeing that there are reductions in those opportunity and achievement gaps as well. Um and we see that in data coming out of Cincinnati specifically around um black students and families, which is aligned with our findings in California. Uh, so you know me, I would love to nerd out with anyone who wants to about any of this research, but for now I am going to pass it to my colleague Efron Marcato for our last panel. [applause] >> Thank you, Anna. All right, so we're trying to make sure that we're back on time. I appreciate everyone being here and engaged and all the all the fun things. So, I get to to moderate the state leaders panel. So, I'm going to say their name and invite them on up. So, we're going to start off with uh Daryl Camp. Daryl Camp, come on down. All right. Uh Daryl is uh the superintendent for San Lorenzo Unifi and also the president of AXA, which is Association of California School Administrators. Thank you, Daryl. Uh next up, we have Todd Finel. Todd Fenel is the county superintendent uh for Imperial County, also the president for the California County Soup Association. Todd, come on up. And then David Goldberg is an elementary bilingual teacher from Los Angeles Unified, also the president of CTA, California Teach Association. And then uh Betty Lusk is a school board member for the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, also the president of the California School Board Association. >> [applause] >> And last but not least, we have Ingred Robersonson, who's a chief deputy uh public construction for CDE, the president of something, right? No. All right. Just life. So, come on up, Ingred. Thank you. All right. So, just everyone a similar structure to the earlier panels. We're kind of go through and and talk to folks and have answer some questions and then hopefully the the the crowd enjoys it. Uh I'm going to start off first uh with David. Um, in your home district of LA Unified, you saw earlier the results that that Walker talked about in terms of how those schools are doing. Um, LA started their community school effort uh before the CCSP. Can you tell us a little bit about what led to that and how the engagement was to help kind of push it forward as we had the funding from the state? >> Um, and just to be clear, I'm the president of a thousand locals. Uh, but I but LA is my local and I'm a third generation UTLA member. my grandmother, my mother, my wife who's here. So, I just want to be clear that I'm not just an LA person because sometimes I get flack for that from my other locals. Uh, but just um I wanted to first of all acknowledge also just what a beautiful event this is that we really need we don't we don't always get a lot of time to celebrate nowadays and we really need to lean into these moments and that's an important thing. So, I want to really appreciate LPI for bringing us together. [snorts] Um, also want to I think the rain has got the most mentions today which reminds us of mother nature and I just want to tell you my connection to rain and I'm actually connected to the story. When I feel see rain I think of chilled to my bones being on strike for six days in the pouring rain in Los Angeles uh in 2019 with Juan Ramirez who was one of our presidents at UTLA then. Um and that is what this what community schools we're celebrating here didn't happen by accident. We need to remember oursel that it came out of struggle decades of struggle. In fact the Black Panthers had their own model of community schools decades ago. That's where we got the free lunch program. But for us most recently it came out of strikes. We preceded the community in LA and Oakland that we preceded the the state funding. The state funding came out of the models of people putting pressure on the state and it came in a particular moment for our union. First of all, for decades, we had really tried to figure out how do we deal we were put in a box because we decades of disinvestment in schools and communities and our and what that meant for educators and our students. And yet we had outside privatizers trying to say they were the solution and we somehow were the status quo. People would dedicate our lives to this. So we were trying to fight back. But community schools gave us the ability to actually fight forward to say that we were committed to building a real model of real change for what our schools needed and deserves. So we struck in six days. We had already settled around healthcare and salary. We struck for six days around community schools, around counselors and nurses, around a fund for undocumented students, a legal fund in our school districts. We had 35,000 members. We had 70,000 people in the pouring rain every day. And you couldn't tell who was a parent and who was an educator because we had spent a they had spent we had spent a year and a half having these discussions. And so the community schools model was democratic at its structure. A whole council was set up at our district from day one with parent voices and community voices having this decision-making with deep investment from our schools and community school coordinators from our district that actually became a thing where we worked together around this in a really exciting way with community school coaches who supported those community school coordinators. It led to other organizing by like students deserve that model fighting for what we deserve. We get the BAP, targeted funds focused on black students because students deserve other students put their own demands on the school district. And so I bring this all up because this community schools did not fall from this beautiful sky where this rain is coming from. I bring it up because we're going to so many times we have these programs and then they go away. What happened? That wasn't that great in the early in mid 2000s 20 2020 we had community. What happened to those? I don't know. If we're going to keep community schools, we're all going to have to struggle for this. This this tool that we got, this is an organizing tool, this report that FPI gave us to show that it works. But it's only going to be a tool that we don't we have to lean into it and use it and build these same kind of struggles, the same kind of power to demand in the fourth largest economy in the world that this should be the base of what every student gets. And so that's what I want to bring today is that analysis of power and what it's going to really take to win this. So [applause] >> all right, Todd, you got to follow that up. >> I I know that's what I'm thinking. Wow. I must say amen. All right. >> All right. Uh so so like David mentioned, um the folks on the stage wear the two hats. They have their local hat, then they have their association hat. So just keep that piece in mind. Um Todd for you uh the the county office has evolved dramatically over the past you know 10 15 years in terms of what they're doing and that was even more apparent during co in terms of all the different county office kind of coordination pieces that had to happen. Um how have you all worked to break down the silos and also if you can add on a stinger of uh how the county has stepped up in terms of technical assistance. >> Absolutely. Well thank you. I'm honored to be here with you all and again I know it's been said many times but thank you to LPI for elevating and shining a light on this work. Um this work is why I got into education 35 years ago. Right. So um it's been our goal to get here someday now having um a framework a structure and some resources to get there and and this is tough work. I think everybody in this room would agree it's tough work. Um but uh we're here we're getting closer and so you know when we talk about um well I'm going to share I'm speaking on behalf of all county offices with 58 in the state but and they're slightly different you know approaches to things but uh so when I'm talking about Imperial just know that it's very similar to other county offices well as well. Um you know co [laughter] thanks for bringing that up. Sorry. Um, you know, that that forced us into and here's a lesson we learned from CO and that was it forced us into meaningful collaboration at an institutional level and that was primarily with our uh local county public health but to a lesser degree the state public health and you know some some other agencies and [snorts] I I say that because you know Imperial County first of all Imperial County if you don't know where Imperial County is don't don't don't feel bad. uh borders Mexico, borders Arizona, east of San Diego, south of Palm Springs, uh out in the desert and Yeah. All right. Woohoo. All right. Um so, uh you know, for us, you know, we're relatively small, relatively rural community. You know, all of us leaders, we we know the other leaders in department heads from different agencies. Our kids play soccer together, our kids dance together, and all of those kinds of things. So, we have those relationships. And and to me that's what a lot of this work is about. It's about relationships. And but what we learned from co was those relationships aren't enough to do this work. It it has to permeate the entire instit organization or department or agency. Uh everyone has to feel like we have to collaborate in order to get where we need to go. And so we can't do it without each other. And I think that's that kind of lesson learned from COVID coming out of COVID um was really important as we began this work because whether it was the you know T2 the you know community schools the CYBHI you know all of this stuff we can't do alone education can't do it alone we need to rely on other people and we need to make sure that they feel that same level of commitment to engage in the collaboration with us and so in order for us to do that we had to first look at ourselves We had to say, how are we organized? How are we structured as a county office of education to be able to engage with these others and support our local ELEAs and our kids and families? And so, um, a a lot of this work kind of happened to feed into each other, which made it to where we we could see the the need to do that. I have department heads that are brilliant. They're passionate about what they do, but even they it's hard to get them to step out of their role sometimes and and you know get out of a silo, right? So I mean everyone talks about breaking down silos. Um that's often hard to do. Collaboration is hard work. You know it it's never easier than just going alone, right? What do they say? You know, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to, you know, go go slow to go far, right? Um, and so getting people on board with this idea that this is our work to engage in together. And so what we have done is uh because I know I got the look from Ephra. Okay. All right. All right. >> I was admiring. >> Okay. [laughter] >> My handwriting. >> Um, so I I think that what I want to emphasize is these relationships are still forming. The the districts are, you know, it's one thing to hire a coordinator to say, "Oh, you're the community schools coordinator." many of whom in my county didn't come from education, they come from other walks of life, right? And so getting them to understand and giving them the support and the resources they need. I have principles, I have superintendent, I have board members that still don't quite understand what we're trying to do here. And so there's a lot of work to be done. And I and I I kind of transitioned there to say why the system of support for this effort is so important because really when we look at you know the state TAC the technical assistance uh the regional tax uh we we rely on that work in order so they are our thought partners because a lot of the ARTAC work so the regional technical assistance work um I'll just rattle off I scanned across most of the counties to say okay what what are the things the RTAC is doing to support the community schools and his communities of practice, professional learning and training, community site visits, technical assistance, uh data evaluation and and that's pretty consistent. There are other things that are localized, but but the main thing they are is they're a thought partner. They're someone to help us sit down and figure out how do we support our LEAs to to get where they want to go. Um, and so I think I'll just close with, you know, eleas's, you know, as they get a better understanding of the potential of what we're doing here. Um, they're they continue to need a lot of support, but they also are going to realize some tremendous opportunities. And so, I'll just close with one example in my community of of where we're already seeing an impact. And it's and it may be similar in other areas, I don't know, but in my county, a lot of our small CBOS or nonprofits that want to do good for kids and families have a hard time navigating how to engage with schools. And so, um, you know, they and as a county official, they come to me a lot and say, "I'm trying to work with this school. How can can you help me?" Right? Well, it is so wonderful to see that all of these small relatively small CBOS and nonprofits, you know, then this is vision screening and glasses. This is food insecurity and backpacks and other kinds of work that they want to do with the school. It's literacy initiatives. these these small folks now that were out there struggling to engage with schools are now being welcome welcomed into the environment and they now have a structure with which to get in talk about what they would like to see accomplished and then engage with the schools in a meaningful way. So we're really excited about this work. I think uh my my only ask of all of us uh collectively would be to to keep our foot on the pedal. Uh we need to keep this work going. it. This kind of transformational change takes time and we need to be patient and we need to stay the course. Thank you. >> Thank you, Todd. [applause] All right. Uh my good friend Daryl. Daryl, um collaborative leadership is a core pillar of the California Community Schools framework. How is that taking shape in your district? And also as the president of AXA, what are you hearing from your colleagues across the state on on how that's playing out? >> Yes. emergency. >> Yes. So, uh, just thanks again for the opportunity to be here today representing the San Lorenzo Unified School District in the Bay Area as well as the Association of California School Administrators, a umbrella organization for over 18,000 administrators around the state. And uh when I when I'm reflecting on our experience being a recipient of cohort one of the the uh partnership grant, the school's community partnership grant here, I I think about the the positives and there there are several and uh I think one that frequently comes up in my district and what I hear from other administrators is the flexibility associated with the grant. Uh California is such a diverse state. uh so many diverse communities you heard is different than Imperial County and then Eureka from Anaheim and the Bay Area. So allowing the flexibility to define what community schools looks like for that particular area is is very important and something that needs to continue with that. There are some challenges though because uh with the flexibility of defining what it looks like that means you have to have a pretty robust conversation around what will it mean for you and your community and that takes time. It takes relationships. It takes time. It takes developing trust and it's a continual uh uh opportunity I say that schools and districts have. Uh another challenge that's associated with this uh this is also the coordination. You you think about it and uh if if for like example in San Lorenzo one of our nine elementary schools have the grant. So what that means is uh in terms of having a systemic approach from a district level it's it's very difficult to do when that's the outlier right now. Truthfully though, when I really look at some of our investments utilizing the dollars, the dollars are there and I would say the process is kind of established through your LCAP process. It's it's the same. There's a lot of commonalities between the two. Uh but the challenge is with this one school out of the nine getting a more influx of money than the other schools, what does that look like since systemically? The other challenge that I hear is that uh you know relying on a a relatively stable when we talk about one-time dollars, but really five years is a it's a it's not a long period of time, but it's longer than most of the one-time dollars that we get. So, how do you plan for a relatively stable, but is it a reliable source of income when you think about building out programs? And then the last thing I just just want to mention is uh from the administrative standpoint while it is good work and a lot of right things to do uh there's you know once again this is something that's been added to the plate. Now I know someone will say wait a minute we're giving you resources uh to and you have a school community coordinator to help coordinate it. The reality is if you're going to do something systemic across the district and particularly systemic across the school site, then that does have extreme implications on the principal unless you have uh disconnected programs that aren't fully aligned, which at at best minimizes the impact for students, I'll say at best. Um, and we probably won't get to my last uh thing, so I'm just going to wrap it up and and just say this. As it relates to African-American students uh around the state, I I'm I'm thrilled because there was conversations and, you know, legal opinions about how you could direct money to African-American students around the state. And this is a a way of getting students uh or communities direct dollar allocations uh to those communities. uh especially, you know, it's a proxy through free and reduced lunch and and uh poverty schools. I do think there's another level of analysis that can take place. And if you look at the where African-American students are located in our segregated state and segregated nation, the question is, do the dollars actually get to those schools that have the African-American students? And then if so, what might be the impact? So, I think there's a number of analysis that needs to happen in that particular regard. Thank you. >> Thank you, Darl. [applause] All right, we're going to tag on to that and I really appreciate Darl you're bringing up the idea of the policy design and it kind of piggybacks on what Chris mentioned in the first panel about how this is actually reaching where we want it to go. So that's awesome. Um Betty, uh another of the pillars for community schools is the integrated student supports which can support student success by meeting their academic, physical, social, emotional and mental health needs. How have you seen this work out in Monterey Peninsula School District? And then what are you hearing from your colleagues across the state in your role as president of CSBA >> testing? >> Good to go. >> First and foremost, I am so emotional right now. This has been one of the best short conferences that I've been in. [laughter] short. I say short, limited. I mean, in two and a half hours, I feel that we have just been given so much to go back to our schools and to our agencies and continue the great work that's needed for our students. I really thank you for your analogy. The rain coming from a rural community years ago. Um the community school concept really was in play in that little small community very a long time ago. But to have it being intentionally and boldly move forward is something I can't wait to just get behind and push even harder. You have heard from some of our members over 5,000 school districts. Uh you've heard from Lynwood, you've heard from Anaheim. You've heard from Eureka this morning and you know the great work that's going on there. And I want to just say that CSBA is really proud to place emphasis on stewardship, transparency, ethics and continuous learning for our membership. This is something that we we are focusing now on opportunity closing the achievement gap. This is a campaign that we're moving forward on and the community school concept is a model that is going to well is already addressing that. So, with that being said, I want to just talk now about my own district that um I I I think he's he's left uh but I was an elementary school and uh teacher in Mterrey and then I completed my career as a high school principal. So, we brought all the paint and everything from third grade, second grade to the high school. Okay? So, I want I want him to to know that because this is how we have to truly address the needs of our students. MPUSD has done a phenomenal job in really creating and I I'm just going to be real specific now in creating a coherent plan to truly address the seven plus schools, the eight schools in our district. We have actually fully implemented a the a statewide coherent system that allows us to integrate students wellness centers, restorative circles, affinity clubs, and proactive academic and behavioral support programs into a plan that has connected our parents, our students. And parent engagement is something that is hard to do. You know that. And when you have parents feeling welcome in your schools, you know you're doing a good job. And that's what's happening. We have parents volunteering to do the work that staff needed instructional aids to assist with. We have parents volunteering to fund raise. We have our mayor and other community members. We have our Mterrey County wellness uh directors saying we're here to provide this service the that service for the students. So there is so much evidence in in MPUSD. One of the things that uh I really I'm very proud of now is the community school learning walks. We do those learning walks with all of our uh leaders from the city council to doctors from community hospital, the entire community communities that represent MPUSD is focused on providing the support that our students need. And so I'm going to just really be because I know our time is short, but our students are now leaving their high schools, their elementary schools, their continuation schools feeling connected, feeling that they can truly really see them belong to their programs that they've involved in they're involved in and really feeling that they are cared about. That doesn't happen often, but we have a coherent plan that has ensured the success of every child. And when you say every child, you're talking the special needs students that I have a great grandson that is um artistic and the programs that are being provided for him in Monterey Peninsula really has connected his mom, his grandmother, and all of the resource uh managers that support bringing him to a level of success before entering kindergarten that be first grade that will ensure his success as a senior his success in whatever career he chooses. So I'm proud of the fact that I'm going to be a part of moving the community school concept forward in a very bold and intentional manner. >> Thank you. [applause] Yeah, I saw the the CSBA release from Vernon and it was right on. And now how do we then get community schools to be a part of that as well? So that's awesome. Yes, you're >> and I think everyone heard her say this is the best short conference she's ever been to. So [laughter] and a great price point, too. So the best under threeh hour event ever. >> Awesome. Um I'm gonna pivot over to my friend uh Ingred here from from the CDE. Also there's a ton of uh CD folks and folks that have been pivotal to the to this work in the room too. So on behalf of all them as well um the the CD has played a crucial role in the impation of the CCSP. At the same time o over the past number of years at the same time this past what has it been 11 months the the number of attacks from the federal government um has been overwhelming for our communities. Also in your role at CDE has been um a daily a daily affair. So we just wanted to kind of check in to see how is your work with the with community schools fit into that context and what are you kind of seeing and looking forward to in the future. >> Thank you for that Ephine. Uh so again Ingred Robersonson, California Department of Education and I really want to speak to the power of community schools in practice in meeting this moment and what it means looking forward uh at the state level. And so I think right now today is a real testament. We are a community school state and I do think language matters. We shouldn't be talking about this as a program anymore or as a tool. This is who we are and it matters critically at this moment with what we're seeing at the federal level. We have been responding this past year. I invite you to take a look at our website uh that has the federal response. uh you will see month by month that started in January 20 21st when we had an executive order uh that was attacking our immigrant students and families and just so you know in the state of California we're 5.8 8 million students. Half are coming from immigrant families. One in five are coming from mixed status families. 93% of the children in those families are US citizens. And so again, community schools is a mindset for who we are in the state of California. Uh so I'll talk about what we need to do, I think, at the state level, a couple of things that I've been thinking about. Um but I want to really talk about what community schools looks like beyond kind of what we're seeing even in this report. So there have been a number of ICE raids and one of the practices we have at CDE so that we're issuing just in time guidance is every time there is one we call the district we talk to the superintendent we talk to the principal that has been affected and so recently I had an opportunity to speak to a superintendent where an ICE raid was conducted right across from a secondary school. But the beauty of community schools, and this is what he referenced, was that being proactive. And so much of what we've seen across the field working with community- based organizations in getting ready for these horrible raids is to have a family plan. And so the CBOS, when you have a community school, you have a coordinator that you already have a relationship with, where you already have trust. And so what are the CBOs saying in this particular district? What he shared is they said, "You know what? Family plan. They gave to the district. They gave to the school birth certificates, passports, cuz why? When the raid happened, we had a 16-year-old citizen that was swept up in the raid. And all of his family was gone. That included his parents and guardians. So, what happened in this community school?" They were able to activate immediately within that evening. they were able to go where that student was being held to bring the relevant papers to then have that student quickly activated and getting their temporary guardian. This is part of the planning that our families are having to do. And then that that student was in a new safe space. What they also heard across the board in their community was that they wanted to activate uh online learning. That's what the district thought. What happened was, and I loved what people said about student agency. Our students, particularly at the secondary level, they know what they need. They said, "We don't want the online school. We want to come to this school because we feel safe. There is a sense of belonging." And so, yes, I really applaud all the things that we need around academic achievement, chronic absenteeism. That's where students are going to go to school, right? they're going to get their 180 days more because they see this as a place that cares, as a place that's safe. And so we have got to do the dual pieces of accelerating achievement, but also doing this sense of safety and this sense of belonging. And so I really push us. I mean, this is the power of community schools. And as someone who was born in Guatemala and I immigrated here when I was young, I really feel that deeply. And so let us be a community school state. Let's not talk about as a program or just a tool. So at the state level, what does that mean? I think we need to talk about not just more one-time funding. Does this become an integral part of LCFF on an ongoing basis? Does this become a part of our identity? Because what we hear from our 10,000 LEAs, we got another 2,000 with charters. They are looking for that state guidance because the effect of executive orders and dear colleagues letter is confusion, is chaos, is fear. when we hear an executive order that says let's no longer look at dis disproportionality around data which are our different student groups. So yes, we're down at to 2.9% on suspension, but the minute I talk about African-American students, we're over 7%. And the minute we talk about African-American boys, >> which my son is biracial and is one, we're at double digits. So we've got to be thinking about that. So, you know, we need to really stand firm in our values and name our values at the state level. So, there are no non-negotiables for who we are as a state and our LEAs, our students, our families are hungry for that. And I really believe that is the role we need to play together and most definitely at the California Department of Education. [applause] >> Thank Thank you, Ingred. um just to kind of be you know based on time I want to kind of just move on to the the the next piece but the idea of I was talking to folks about community schools and it throughout my career which is now spanned 20 years I know I look way younger than that but it's been a while um I was able to dive in both feet you know my whole everything at at CTA working on community schools and then in my time at LPI even going further with it and to have the evidence of the outcomes is something that historically we haven't really had in our state where we say, "Hey, this felt good. This was really cool. People liked it, but where was the actual impact in the evidence?" And I think having that now is going to be vital. Um, I'm going to ask a question of David uh to to then close us out to the next piece. Um, and just kind of go from there. Uh, David, in in your time, you've been president for CTA since I want to say the summer 20 n I should know this. I was there. Yeah, >> it it's been a bit. All right, good. Um, >> three three years. >> Three years. Perfect. All right, we'll edit that piece out later on. Um, CTA has been all in on community schools from the very beginning. Um, what about this work has appealed to your members and what do you feel are necessary steps for the state? Um, and just following up on the powerful words, um, just it's also for us it's been a a moment of really redefining what it means to be a union, what it means to be a worker. Like in LA, it's not a accident, by the way, like in LA where we we had this huge struggle that you asked me the first question. Our teachers are overwhelmingly teachers of color in Los Angeles. It's a like more than any other district in the entire nation. [snorts] many of their and so for them fighting for community fighting for themselves is fighting for community. Many of our educator, we have DACA educators as well, right? We have do many of our educators have mixed status families. And so I think what this also allows us to do like yesterday we saw in Oakland where ICE was menacing at two or three schools. The entire community came out, including the teachers union, and made sure those students were sa safe at that school until it was time to release them. And they surrounded that school with love and solidarity and real putting their bodies on the line. And we're going to have red line moments around us. We know we are, but getting to that point of really being able to do that for us as a union has meant to really respect the power of what community schools is. It's really been changing our organization how we see things and it's actually taken we have what's we call the CTA five-step where we've really invested staff in every one of we have a thousand locals so we've had to break this up region by region who have monthly meetings and we focused first of all on winning over our presidents I think we have a thousand presidents winning me and across this half of them are from schools with less than 100 members so this is not just about big urban districts about rural and suburban districts and winning them over first to the power of community schools, what it means to them and what it means to community school to the community. Well, then we teach them around how to organize their members. And this is about power. These programs, there's reasons we haven't had community schools. Many of our educators in our communities feel disempowered. It takes actual action to make that happen. So, we go through strategies on how you build power, how you connect with your members, how you win your members over to this idea of community schools, including taking on some of our own assumptions about the community if they're not from the community. Many of our members live hours and hours from where they work because they can't afford to live where they work. So, it's about learning different communities. It's about really investing in that. And then the third step is about really building powerful and meaningful and building uh education justice coalitions. When we know that we have a union and we're lucky to have that, we know that we alone cannot build transformative schools. It has to be in partnership with community, with organizations, with members, taking some of these all these parents who get sucked in sometimes to a a a vortex of all these committees and actually really bringing them in around building power around community schools. And from then we then we then start to make demands on the districts for for a lot of reason. Sometimes the districts are overwhelmed by their own disinvestment and decade. overwhelmed as you were saying, putting this on their plate and sometimes frankly districts are not into hearing the voice of workers and parents and those are different struggles. But then we put demands and we so we've actually got a whole a whole menu of of that we share with each one of our presence locals about what we got and used around community schools that call out how you have real meaningful parent and educator voice in the decision-m because many times the district school just spend the money right away without any of that until it takes a struggle to really make that happen and then we get to the real implementation of community schools only after that and we've And we have a whole Anaheim lab and Anaheim secondary. If you haven't been there, that's been supported by the ESAC and others and MEA with a grant. I invite you to go see it. It's a real model. It's like a two-day training about the real model of what community schools can look like. And the last thing and this is I guess we'll end with this. We've now added the CTA step six and that's about how we start to build a movement to really keep this community schools this investment going beyond right now because it will not happen. This is a gift as I started out with that LPI has given us and studying this that CD and LPI our our language that we have and our state framework is revolutionary. There's no other state that has this, but it means nothing if we don't fight to maintain it after this. We got we got to build this power to really make it happen in some of the hardest of times, but that is the gift that community schools gives us. It brings people together. Education can do that and real power can do that. And so, CTA, we're all in on working with all of you on really taking that sixth step together and building a sustainable community schools throughout California. It should be the base that every student has in the fourth largest economy in the world. It should not be something that's an extra frill. Everyone should have this. We're going to have to struggle to make that happen. [applause] >> All right. Well, that was perfect timing and I really appreciate that. So, thank you. Can we give one more big thank you to our state leader panel? Thank you to Todd, Daryl, David, Betty, and Ingred. Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> You can go that way. You can go that way. No, no, but Todd. Todd first. Thank you. >> Thanks everyone. Really appreciate it. All right. Um I would like to now invite up Assembly Member David Alvarez from from District 80 down in San Diego to provide our closing remarks. And looking forward to it, Mr. Alvarez. Oh, we already did it. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. And uh good afternoon. Now started with a good morning, now good afternoon. Uh I have a very difficult task of trying to wrap us up uh from an incredible I would agree a very short but very uh good couple of hours that we have spent. And I have literally been sitting at that seat. I didn't even get up for the break for the two hours. Um, and I came up just for this and I'm going back home right afterwards just for this. Uh, because it's so so important. And, uh, so I want to thank all of the speakers. Uh, you have truly given so much and now I've been tasked with spending the last 10 minutes of trying to give back a little bit of what you've given to all of us and certainly to me. And I think it's important that I start by sharing uh my personal experience because a lot of my reflections and and you know, we all have wonderful staff and they wrote up some great points, but I I marked it all up uh with my my thoughts on what I heard from our presenters. And so I want to share what those thoughts are. But I think it's important that you understand where I come from. My parents were immigrants to this country. They came here undocumented with um the family and I am the youngest of six and uh I grew up in a community it's bario Logan in San Diego. It is uh one of the poorest communities in San Diego County primarily an immigrant community. I was an English learner. We were called English language learners back then. An English learner. Uh, my parents did not have even a first grade education. They never went to school. They never spoke English. They never owned any assets in this country. My dad was a farm worker and then he was a janitor when he moved into the city in San Diego. My mom was a fast food worker. She worked at the local uh Burger King and McDonald's down the street from our house. I had a couple of siblings who spent time in the criminal justice system in prison and uh none of my siblings graduated uh went on to college. One eventually graduated from high school but none of them actually went on to college. Um, so I was one of the 1enters in uh, Bario Logan where only 1% of people in that community ever go to college. And my experience as a 1enter of college student was that I was frequently asked the question of what do you think happened to you that you had a different story than the other 99%. than the many friends who ended up in prison, many friends who actually ended up dead as a result of um the uh activities happening in my neighborhood. And it's a question I've struggled to answer and I've been asked this many many many times when I share my personal story and it's been very difficult to answer. And like many things in life, uh this job has really one it's it's an amazing opportunity that I that I have uh to learn about what's happening in our state and how we can do it better, but also to learn a little bit about myself and in reflection. And this particular research really got me thinking about what that question that I've been asked so many times about what was different about me. And so as I was sitting here and on the plane ride up here, I actually started to think about that and I started to remember a few things. I started to remember that my struggle as a young person was in finding my identity as to why I was succeeding or should I even succeed. Should I be a 1% or should I follow a different path? It was a struggle that I often had. and that identity uh and identifying that identity really I was reflecting in all that and I started to remember a few things that I wanted to share with you. I wrote some of them down on I kept hearing about the research on the risk factors of someone who's an English learner, someone who was in poverty, someone who um had uh family members in the criminal justice system, someone that did not have steady uh housing. I was uh homeless uh one year in my high school um my senior year in high school. Um so all of those social determinants of failure that uh apparently were supposed to define who I was and why that was not the outcome for me. And I remembered first and foremost teachers. First and foremost were the teachers. The many teachers every single grade in school who who who did what they did because they believed in a future for every child. and they believed it for me just like everybody else and I felt that and it was real and they cared about who I was in the classroom. I remembered a principal this memory came back as I was sitting here and we were talking about restorative circles. I had my first restorative circle in probably 1991, 1990, 1991. They probably weren't called restorative circles back then, but I remember going to the principal, myself and a couple of friends, and we had one particular teacher who we felt was treating us a little bit differently. And uh we we we felt that uh we were being treated differently because of who we were, the color of our skin, our cultural background. And we shared that with the principal and the principal took that uh as a serious uh conversation and held a circle with the teacher with all of the classroom. And I remember that being a really impactful moment because I felt that I was being listened by a leader at my school and I felt that if I had a voice, I felt that I had a voice and if I ever needed to say anything, I could go to someone to say it. I also remembered that we had Price Charities. So, you all remember Price Club? They're now called Costos. Um, Mr. Soul Price is from San Diego. And his first uh story I've read in his book ever since uh only a few years ago I read this was actually in my community, Bario Logan. That's where he started and then it became what it is today. Uh but as one of the giving back that he gave is and it's so uh incredible that we're having this one week before Thanksgiving, but right before we went on a Thanksgiving break, we got a basket full of all the things you need to have a full Thanksgiving meal. And in fact, we learned what a Thanksgiving meal was really like, not from what we learned from in the classroom, but from what he shared with us in that meal that he gave us. And so we had a real meal for Thanksgiving starting when I was in elementary school because of that. Um I have other notes but because of time you know our local bario station which was the local youth and rec center because the city had no school had no rec centers. Uh we had no real parks in my community because the school the city never built them there. Uh but we had a nonprofit that had after school programs and activities where I can go and feel safe and they participated. I say all those things because they remind me of the fact that we are not really re-imagining in my opinion schools. I lived a community school when I was a kid. That is what was happening at Perkins Elementary when I was growing up. And so it's not really a new model. It's and and Aaron who uh Gable who a lot of you know consultant to our budget committee uh finance committee on education we were walking through a couple community schools this earlier this week down in San Diego and she used uh the analogy we're using some great analogies today so it reminded me of the analogy she used which was on the different ingredients of building a cake or building let's think of your favorite dessert cookies cake brownies whatever it is right and the different things that happen that come together in order to build that take. So, I'm trying to make sense of all the notes I took and I one of the things that sort of stands out is is community schools, we have a lot of the ingredients already. Community schools brings them together. Maybe community schools, if we're using an analogy, is we've realized we can use an electric mixer to bring the things together. But the things that are part of the cake must also be sufficient. So, if you are in an English language or English learner community, you've got to make sure you're funding dual immersion programs because we know and the data also shows just like community schools that when we invest in dual language, students outperform, they perform better than their non dual language uh counterparts. We know when you invest in CTE, students can see meaning and some sort of future for themselves and they outperform. We know that when you uh invest in uh school leadership and the right school leadership, you have principles like the one I had or the ones we saw this week at the schools we visited, the community schools we visited to and the schools that you all represent. If you got the right leadership and you invest, those schools also succeed. That's the flour, that's the eggs, that's the milk, the vanilla, the sugar. It's composed of also making sure that parent involvement. I was a I was a PTA president at my elementary school where my kids went to school, 95% plus free and reduced lunch. I decided to keep my kids in my local school because I wanted to make sure that our uh our local schools um had our all of our talents from our community. and I was a PTA president and I know what PT I know what parental involvement can do. I read all that research before that is another ingredient and so we need to identify are we bringing enough ingredients to the batter and then giving it the tool whether it's you know in this case it's community schools to mix it together to make what we're trying to make. That is really the fundamental question. Are we doing enough of that? [snorts] And if you look at the data, which I wrote some notes on as well, is it sufficient that and the I got a print out so it's very very small and I'm now 45 years old so I can't entirely read these. But is it sufficient I see the numbers for black students because that one stands out that from uh deviation from the mean is at four. That's good. But is it sufficient if it's going to take I thought I think I heard Chris earlier say that it's going to take until 2060 something even at I don't know if it was at that rate or what but if it's going to take that long then it's not sufficient or if it's going to take less because of the deviation is that 5 years less and is that sufficient not in my opinion is it 10 years less or what trajectory are we on or then you look at middle schools That is very close basically to the standard the results of community schools. So what are we not doing in the middle school communities where we need to really ensure that we bring the ingredients we've got to bring? Those are the questions that I walk away from today. What is what is it that we still need to do and where are we going to go with those investments? I still have questions is my point. This research is good. It's indicative that we've got something that is working and we certainly shouldn't walk away from it. But is it sufficient? And where it isn't, what do we need to do more of? parental engagement, English language learners, dual uh immersion programs, leadership and professional development, making sure we have an actual talent pool, uh that we have teachers who want to stay in the profession because it's become so hard and so expensive to live in California. All those things I think are part of what we need to further analyze. And then I asked myself the question, and I'm sorry I'm going long, but these are things that I hope that you understand that policy makers and decision makers, I think, need to know what the answers are before we decide how to significantly invest more in these important programs. But I wrote this down. Does the passion of the ready to go schools, I think there was a few schools that talked about they were ready to go. It was it the passion behind the leadership of those schools that made a difference. We'll see when the data comes for the next cohort that receive funding for actual planning. So what is it behind the success that exists there? And then we talked about engaging people and talking to people. We should be doing that all the time in education. And isn't that I asked myself what the LCAP's supposed to be doing? We already have that requirement. Why do we have that requirement if we're not doing that? Should we even have that or how should it be uh how should it be structured? So, I'll end with this because I have a lot more notes. But as you can see, I also have a lot more questions. Targeted funding and targeted policy decisions need to come with expectations of outcomes. That is my biggest takeaway. We can increase the funding all we want and say we are funding schools a lot more today but if we are not seeing and demonstrating the outcomes then what are we doing? >> Yes. >> And if we have policy proposals and you have a lot of them in California from people who think they can uh tell you how to uh better educate kids. If you have policy proposals, are they also based on data research and outcomes? I know that I personally, as someone who is passionate about this issue, want to see the change in communities like the one I still live in, by the way, the same community that I grew up in. I still live in that community, which means the people around me and the kids that my kids go to school with are still facing those struggles, unfortunately, that I faced. So, I'm I am in a hurry. I am in a rush. I cannot wait till 2068 for black kids to be on par with the rest of the kids. >> That is not going to work. And so, to quote probably the best organizer in the room, David, what I I'm an organizer as well, by the way. And if you don't organize, you don't get outcomes either in what you wi wish to to change and and how you wish to accomplish. So you have to remind you, you have 120 people who think their own way. That's the 120 legislators. And you have a governor who has maybe a different opinion and people around him who have different opinions about what to do in schools. And then you've got all the folks who came up here have some organization that they belong to. and we get visits into our offices from all of them and they all have something different that they think should be prioritized. So, if this is going to be the priority, then you've got to do what David says and you got to organize because otherwise you're going to have everybody thinking about different things, bringing different proposals to us, asking for different budget augmentations, and we're not going to have the cohesion that I think at the end of the day I've come away with from this conversation, from the report that I've read, and from others, the cohesion that's needed in order to get us to where we want to go, to where this is the norm and not just another program as was already stated. Um that is what I think is needed and I certainly have my own ideas. I believe that multilingualism should also be the norm. That also means investing that means resources. And so again um middle schools now I'm a I have a high schooler now parent of a middle schooler now uh my second child. I'm concerned about what's happening in Emerald schools and how even in the community schools data we're seeing very very small of an impact there. There's something there that we've got to probably do and we need to look at that. Those are just two ideas as we have Assembly Bill 1204 sitting there waiting for all of you to come and talk to us about what we should do with local control funding formula. I heard somebody mention that maybe we should be doing something different with local control funding formula. Yeah, I think so. That's why we put out the bill and we're still waiting for feedback. What should we do? I put that as a task to all of you. We all have work to do. The research is encouraging. The report is encouraging. I don't want to end uh without saying that the work that you're doing is encouraging. It's impactful and it's meaningful. And now you just got to make sure that you organize and you can find the right leadership at the state whether it's the governor, legislative leadership, a combination of us all to make sure that we implement that vision in that future so that we can get ultimately we want which is the kids that need the help the help that they need. Thank you very much. It's been an honor to be here with you today. I look forward to seeing you. [applause] [applause] Thank you so much, Mr. Alvarez. Um, my job at this point is to say thank you. You're going to see some things on the screen, QR codes of the research, an event survey. If you have questions about anything, go ahead and email me and I'll forward it to the right person. Also, we have uh the best priced lunch in the whole city behind you. Uh free a tuna, vegetarian turkey club. Um a big shout out to everyone that participated today. Not only um in the crowd, but also the panelists and the LPI staff that are here to support. Thank you all so very much. And I think Betty, we officially accomplished our goal of being the best short conference ever. So, um thank you. [applause] All right. And and uh folks feel free to stay in here. Um some of the panelists and folks will be able to stay and and answer questions, engage, all those things. So, thank you very much and feel free to stick around for a bit with your lunch and let's have some fun. Thank you.