Author: CAPTA IT

Schools Can Access a Wealth of Free Resources That Support Media Literacy

Posted on by CAPTA IT

By Mary Perry, California State PTA Communications Commissioner

Do you know how well your local school is doing at addressing media literacy? It may be hard to tell if you just look for middle and high school courses with that title. Instead, the consensus among most researchers, educators, and media professionals is that the skills needed for media literacy can and should be incorporated into subjects across the curriculum. 

That means media literacy “lessons” are likely to look different, depending on the subject matter. To support that kind of flexibility and diversity, both public and private organizations have been working to provide high quality resources across all age levels and subject areas that teachers in local schools can access.

One of the most recent and high profile efforts is from the Google News Initiative, which they say is in response to a growing need for students and adults “to be able to spot a fake story when they see it and stop it in its tracks.” The Google News Initiative is providing financial support and building partnerships with three existing initiatives aimed at strengthening media literacy. 

PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs  (SRL) was started in 2009 and today operates in more than 160 classrooms and after-school programs across the United States. Teachers use SRL’s journalism, civic engagement and video production resources “to train students on the ins and outs of producing reliable news, learning journalism ethics, fact checking and engaging with their communities.” 

The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, “provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy.” Their free resources include a wealth of instructional materials for middle and high school teachers, plus professional development opportunities. They also offer a variety of resources, such as a regular newsletter and game-style skill building, that can support the efforts of parents and PTA leaders to improve their own news literacy.

The Google Initiative specifically supports a Poynter MediaWise program that provides resources in Spanish andt geared toward older adults. MediaWise has a huge number of initiatives and resources for teachers, students, and the general public. Among those, MediaWise has worked with The Stanford History Education Group to create a free high school and middle school Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum (COR). The COR curriculum provides free lessons and assessments to teachers so they can help students learn “to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.”

Resources recommended by the California Department of Education

As required by legislation, the California Department of Education (CDE) has built a rich collection of resources devoted to media literacy. The choice of materials and professional development resources were based on the state’s Model School Library Standards. The CDE webpage provides resources teachers can incorporate into their instruction, including a wealth of new items added to support distance learning. The site also provides ready-made curriculum such as the following:

The site also has a wealth of resources, under the “Resources/Lessons” tab that are worth exploring. They offer everything from tools for students undertaking media production to links to professional organizations that support teacher learning.

As explained in a previous blog in this series, California does not require instruction in media literacy. However, with increasing recognition of the importance of these skills (see this blog for more background), individual schools and teachers have many options for incorporating them into their work, thanks to the availability of these resources.

Attendance Issues Could Drive a Change in How School District Funding is Calculated

Posted on by CAPTA IT

By Beth Meyerhoff, Education Legislation Advocate

In California, school districts receive funding based on the number of students who attend school or what is known as Average Daily Attendance (ADA). This funding system has become challenging for school districts today. First, total enrollment in K-12 traditional public schools has decreased by almost three percent or 170,000 students in 2020-21, according to California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office. Enrollment increases and decreases are spread unevenly across the state, however. 

Secondly, attendance rates also vary by the school district and the impact of COVID-19. In a January 2022, article, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) estimates that the majority of districts have attendance levels that equal 90 percent of their enrollment or higher. By contrast, Los Angeles Unified School District’s attendance is about 77.5 percent of the fall enrollment. Data from School Innovations and Achievement showed that chronic absenteeism (missing more than 10 percent of the school year) increased by more than a third from March 2020 to March 2021. 

School Funding in California Depends on Average Daily Attendance (ADA)

Not all states fund their public schools the same way. Each measurement is influenced by focusing on different priorities, as the Education Commission of the States describes in a January 2022 Policy Brief. The Brief summarizes the five different ways schools count student enrollment:

  1. A single count on a single day.
  2. Two counts twice per year.
  3. Multiple counts over a period of time.
  4. An attendance average.
  5. A membership (or enrollment) average.

Below is a brief explanation of the most common ways state measure attendance,  as well as which states use which system: 

Average Daily Attendance (ADA)

California is one of seven states that use Average Daily Attendance (ADA) to determine school district funding, according to the Education Commission of the States. ADA is the average number of students in seats calculated over a state-determined period of time. Absent students are not counted in the daily count. The seven states using this measurement often cite the rationale that time spent in a physical classroom leads to improved student achievement. Along with California, those states include Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, and Texas.

Under ADA, districts with higher attendance rates receive more funding while those districts that have lower attendance rates (for whatever reasons), stand to lose funding. Using ADA can result in funding inequities among districts that serve different populations, particularly communities that tend to have higher rates of absenteeism. Reduced funding for school districts with absent students can reduce a district’s capacity to seek out missing kids.

Average Daily Membership (ADM)

Another method for counting students averages student enrollment numbers, rather than attendance. Average Daily Membership (ADM) measurement counts the number of students enrolled throughout all or most of the year which may enable school districts to more readily make hiring and programming decisions based on the number of students enrolled. This measurement includes absent students.
States using ADM: Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia

Enrollment Count 

Another method is counting how many students are enrolled on a single day or multiple periods of days. Also known as a “seat count,” students can be counted in a single count period or during multiple count periods and it is a measurement of how many students are sitting in seats on a given “count day.” Enrollment Count is used by 28 states. States can emphasize attendance on “Count Day” to ensure more accurate census reporting.
Some states include absent students in this count, basically making it an enrollment count, and some do not.

Single Count Day 

This measurement is the number of students enrolled or in attendance on a certain day.
States using Single Count Day: Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Utah and West Virginia.

Multiple Count Dates 

This measurement is the number of students enrolled or in attendance on several dates.
States using Multiple Count Dates: Alaska, Arizona, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Wisconsin.

Two Other Methods

Two other methods measure students over one or more periods, some include absent students, others do not. Alabama, New Mexico, and Wyoming use a Single Count Period.
Illinois and Ohio use Multiple Count Periods.

California’s Approach Has Changed Little in Decades

California has not always used ADA to determine school funding. Prior to 1973, K-12 schools were funded by property taxes imposed by local school districts, leading to disparities in per-pupil funding. Parent John Serrano filed a lawsuit against the State of California and won, with the California Supreme Court finding that “equality of educational opportunity requires that all school districts possess an equal ability in terms of revenue to provide students with substantially equal opportunities for learning.” Until 1999, schools’ count of students was based on attendance but students with excused absences, mostly due to illness, were added to the count. After Senate Bill 727 was enacted in 1998-99, school districts no longer received funding for students who were absent from school for any reason.

Under current law, a school district’s funding is based on the greater of the prior year or current year ADA. In successive state budgets, policymakers have tried to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 absences on some districts by adjusting that rule somewhat: 

  • The 2020-21 Budget included a hold-harmless clause for determining district funding by permitting 2020-21 funding to be based on 2019-20 ADA rather than the 2020-21 ADA. 
  • The 2021-22 Budget Act allows school districts to determine ADA based on the prior year (2020-21) or current year ADA. 
  • The Governor’s Budget proposal for 2022-23 would fund districts based on their average attendance over the three years preceding the current year if that number exceeds their current and prior year attendance.

Legislators are proposing multiple strategies to help districts with volatile enrollment numbers and increased absenteeism due to COVID-19.

California State PTA took positions on three bills to help districts ensure more fiscal stability:

AB 1607 (Muratsuchi) – Watch – for purposes of the local control funding formula, this bill would calculate average daily attendance based on a 3-year average for those local educational agencies starting in the 2022-23 school year.

AB 1609 (Muratsuchi) – Support – for the 2022-23 fiscal year, require the department to use the greater of the 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, or 2022-23 fiscal year average daily attendance for purposes of apportionments under the local control funding formula for these local educational agencies.

SB 579 (Allen) – Support – for the 2021-22 fiscal year, require the department to use the greater of the 2019-20 or 2021-22 fiscal year average daily attendance for purposes of apportionments under the local control funding formula for these local educational agencies. For the 2022-23 fiscal year, require the department to use the greater of the 2019-20, 2021-22 or 2022-23 fiscal year average daily attendance for purposes of apportionments under the local control funding formula for these local educational agencies.

Each of these bills attempts to mitigate the impact of unpredictable and volatile enrollment and average daily attendance in school districts who budget years in advance. By ensuring fiscal predictability, school districts can better allocate resources to benefit all children.

California State PTA Supports SB 878, the Road to Success Act

Posted on by CAPTA IT

By Beth Meyerhoff, Education Legislation Advocate

SB 878 (Skinner)

Yellow Buses for Every TK-12 California Public School

California State PTA supports Road to Success, a bill which will make sure that every TK-12 public school student has bus transportation to school. When kids don’t have a way to get to school, they miss school. 

Senate Bill 878 (Skinner) would create a universal state-funded bus plan. Districts would not be allowed to charge families a fee for transportation to school. Current California law does not require school districts to transport students and only around 9% of California students ride the bus to school (the lowest rate of any state) according to the 2017 National Household Travel Survey administered by the Federal Highway Administration. Federal law does require districts to transport certain students such as students with disabilities, students attending Federally Sanctioned Schools and homeless students.

Studies show a strong relationship between access to transportation and improved school attendance, according to an EdSource article. The California Department of Education also identifies lack of transportation as one of the most common reasons cited for missing school. 

Moreover, guaranteed transportation increases the likelihood of a student graduating high school. 

Other benefits of school bus transportation include potentially eliminating 17 million cars on the road nationally while reducing greenhouse gas emissions if zero-emission vehicles are used. Buses are a safer mode of transportation than cars according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website. The American School Bus Council reports that students are seventy times more likely to get to school safely due to stop arm laws and safety features such as seat belts.

SB 878 would begin funding in 2022-23 in order to give school districts time to purchase buses and leverage resources to better attract and retain bus drivers. Implementation would begin in the 2023-24 school year. 

California State PTA has long supported legislation to fund the cost of transporting pupils as stated in our resolutions, School Transportation and School Transportation – Equitable and Adequate Funding. 

California State PTA believes that school attendance leads to student achievement. Universal bus transportation removes a barrier to school attendance and helps ensure that every child has the chance for success in school.

California State PTA Supports SB 291: Giving Students a Voice Act

Posted on by CAPTA IT

By Melanie Lucas, Education Legislation Advocate

SB 291

California State PTA supports a bill that would give students a seat at the table on a special needs advisory board.

Roughly 800,000 students in California receive special education services which make up about 12.5% of the total student population according to the California Department of Education.

Currently, the 17-member Advisory Commission on Special Education (ASCE) exists to, among other things, study and provide assistance and advice to the State Board of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Legislature, and the Governor in new or continuing areas of research, program development, and evaluation in special education.

SB 291 seeks to give our students a seat at the table by forming a ten-member advisory council made up of students ages 16 to 24, with exceptional needs from across the state to advise the Advisory Commission of Special Education (ASCE) on their experiences in special education. This bill also adds one member of the new student advisory council to the ASCE with full voting rights, bringing  the commission to 18 members.  

California State PTA believes that representation matters. Giving our students, the most impacted stakeholders, a voice will lead to a much stronger understanding of their lived experiences resulting in better experiences for current and future students in special education. 

California State PTA Supports AB1675: Expedited Application Process For Teacher Credentialing of Military Spouses

Posted on by CAPTA IT

By Beth Meyerhoff, Education Legislative Advocate

AB 1675 (Ward)

Expedited Teacher Credentialing for Spouses of Active Duty Armed Forces Members

California State PTA took a support position on a bill that will streamline the barriers to obtaining a license for military spouses who hold out-of-state teaching credentials. Assembly Bill 1675 (Ward). 

Military spouses often have only a short stay in California. Teaching is the most common occupation for military spouses. Lengthy relicensing requirements could discourage spouses from applying for their California teaching credential. With 40,000 military spouses in California and 10% identifying education as their career, Assembly Bill 1675 (Ward) could potentially benefit 4,000 military spouses and our California students and schools.

Under this bill, the California Teaching Credential Commission (CTC) teaching credential application process is streamlined so spouses need to submit: 1) fingerprinting / background check; 2) proof of out-of-state credential; 3) proof of military orders. Once the paperwork is submitted, the CTC would have seven days to process the application with the goal of spouses teaching within 30 days of submitting paperwork. The bill would also require the CTC to post information specific to its policies affecting the military community on its website in order to improve accessibility on these policies.

This bill would address the teacher shortage in California. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that nationwide, there are 567,000 fewer educators in our public schools than before the pandemic. According to a survey conducted by the National Education Association, 55% of educators are looking to leave the teaching profession earlier than they had planned. In 2017-18, 80% of California school districts reported a shortage of qualified teachers. 

California State PTA supports practices to hire highly qualified teachers. Recruiting and hiring fully credentialed military spouses will ensure that all students have access to well prepared and effective teachers.

California State PTA is a Sponsor of AB 1614, Increasing the LCFF Base Grant

Posted on by CAPTA IT

By Anita Avrick, Education Legislation Advocate 

AB 1614 (Muratsuchi)

It’s Time to Raise the Base Grant

California State PTA supports increasing school funding for all students. Our students deserve adequate funding for a full curriculum. AB 1614 (Muratsuchi) would raise the amount of money used as a base grant in California’s public school funding formula. California State PTA has voted to sponsor this bill.

In 2013-14, California enacted the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) which is how schools are allocated money in California.  LCFF is intended to provide school districts with greater discretion in using their funds to educate students while providing an emphasis on additional resources for those with greater needs. 

In the 2018-19 Budget, LCFF was fully funded. However, California was still below average per-pupil funding rates when compared with other states. There is still inadequate funding of the base to cover rising fixed costs.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, greater flexibility is now needed by local school districts to focus on sustaining and expanding a student-centered recovery. All school districts will benefit from base grant increases.

Currently, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) states that there will be an additional $8.4 billion available for ongoing K-12 priorities that can be used to address changes school districts and our students are facing. In addition, in the Governor’s proposed budget for the year 2022-23, $102 billion for Proposition 98 funding includes $3.3 billion in Proposition 98 funding for LCFF, but no additional funding for the base grants. 

AB 1614 takes $4.2 billion (half of the estimated Proposition 98 increase) and adds it into the LCFF above the statutory Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for the 2022-23 budget year. The base rates would increase by about $3.4 billion and would also provide increases of the supplemental and concentration grant by roughly $750 million each. The goal is to bring California into the top ten states in the country for K-12 per-pupil spending.

California State PTA Supports AB558, School Meals: Child Nutrition Act of 2022

Posted on by CAPTA IT

By Vinita Verma, California State PTA Health Advocate

AB 558 (Nazarian)

School meals support education by providing nutrition to children. They improve behavior, ability to focus, and academic performance. For some students, school meals are the only meal that they have all day long. Yet, traditional school lunch meals make it hard for children with dietary restrictions or food allergies to make use of the school lunch program. Families with children who are too young to be enrolled at school can have children who face hunger at an even younger age. 

California State PTA supports AB 558 – School meals: Child Nutrition Act of 2022. This bill would encourage school districts to offer plant-based meals at schools and also encourages school districts to offer meals to non school-age siblings, half-siblings, and step-siblings of students who use the free or reduced-price lunch program, as well as foster children at schools from first to sixth grade. 

California State PTA has a long history of supporting child nutrition in schools and has multiple resolutions which strongly support this bill: 

  • School Nutrition Programs: Improvement and Expansion (2012)
  • Breakfast in Every School (2103)
  • Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis in Schools (2014)
  • Healthy Lifestyles for All Children (2004) 

California State PTA believes that school meals are essential for all children. Ensuring that all children have access to nutritious, healthy meals that meet their dietary needs is essential for their robust development, growth, and education.

California State PTA Supports AB 58:  Pupil health: suicide prevention policies and training

Posted on by CAPTA IT

AB 58 (Salas)

by Vinita Verma, California State PTA Health Advocate

California State PTA has taken a support position on Pupil health: suicide prevention policies and training. 

The California State PTA has a strong advocacy goal of improving pupil mental health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15-29 year-olds.” A WHO report states that “by 2030, depression will be the leading cause of disease burden globally.” We are in a state of emergency for the mental health of our children.  

AB 58 (Salas) will give communities the needed tools to address this mental health crisis. It will also require school districts to review and update their policy on suicide prevention and revise their training materials to incorporate best practices on suicide prevention. 

California State PTA has multiple authorities which strongly support this bill: 

  • Resolutions: 
    • Mental Health Services for Our Children and Youth (2020)Mental Illness: Treatment and Support (1999) 
  •  Legislation Planks: 
    • to support all students with quality counseling and guidance services, school health services both mental and physical, and library services, provided by credentialed personnel 
    • to protect and improve the health of all families through the prevention, treatment, and control of the disease; 
    • to extend and improve physical and mental health services and facilities, including rehabilitation. 
  • Advocacy Goal:
    •  promote physical and mental wellness beginning in early childhood.

California State PTA strongly believes in ensuring that all California children and families receive holistic mental health support services for their robust health, growth, and education.

Social and Emotional Learning and the Arts

Posted on by CAPTA IT

By California State PTA Arts Education Committee and Health & Community Concerns Commission 

There is no question that an emphasis on the importance of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in the educational environment has grown exponentially. SEL has been an emerging educational priority over the past several years, as school leaders confronted the ever-increasing signs of stress and trauma our students are experiencing.

According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.

 SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.

Well documented is the alarming rise in teen suicides (which are now appearing in our middle schools and high schools), social media shaming, ghosting, peer pressure, and school shootings. These have all contributed to what is clearly a mental health crisis in our schools and society. All of this was occurring pre-COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these issues by causing youth to miss milestones (graduations, concerts, proms, trips, sports activities, travel) and has impacted the ability to look ahead regarding career aspirations and finding a successful pathway to their passion in life. 

How can the arts help?

A recent report from the University of Chicago and Ingenuity entitled Arts Education and Social-Emotional Learning Outcomes Among K-12 Students noted that much of this can be understood by considering the framework of how students learn.

  • The way children and youth develop competencies, beliefs, and behaviors is through developmental experiences — opportunities to act in the world and reflect on their experiences; and,
  • Experiences are most influential in shaping the course of development when they take place within the context of strong, supportive, and sustained developmental relationships with important adults and peers.

Developmental relationships and developmental experiences form the bedrock of SEL for students. The key is whether or not these experiences are positive ones!

The researchers identified 10 developmental experiences that were particularly powerful contributors to youth learning and development, including the development of social-emotional competencies. These include five action experiences (encountering, tinkering, choosing, practicing, and contributing) and five reflection experiences (describing, evaluating, connecting, envisioning, and integrating). Evidence from a range of disciplines suggests that the more students have the opportunities to engage in these types of experiences, the more developmentally healthy and successful they will be.

The connection to arts education is clear  because the arts are social. Look at our arts classrooms to see the social interactions between students and the decisions each student makes in the course of being  part of a group. The arts, by their very nature, are also emotional. One cannot look at a work of art or hear a piece of music without feeling something.

 What can we do?

For SEL to be effective, it must be embedded, intentional, and sustained within the curriculum. How do we intentionally embed SEL to the work in our arts classrooms to make meaningful connections? We can begin with The Arts Education & Social and Emotional Learning Framework.

By connecting the new Arts Learning Standards to the SEL Competencies, along with examples of effective strategies —arts educators and administrators will have a road map they may use to aid in the SEL integration process—and our students, schools, and communities will be better for it. Opportunities to develop literacy and fluency in the arts have always been an important dimension of education. Now more than ever, these opportunities are essential to the well-being of our students.  California State PTA has partnered with Create CA, an organization dedicated to advocating for high quality arts education for all students by providing policy expertise and by mobilizing a statewide network of advocates and allied partners. Learn more by downloading  this flier to help you continue or even start your arts advocacy journey.

Parents, guardians, and caregivers partnering with our music and arts educators are the secret weapon to implementing social-emotional learning in our schools, and arts education is the super power to once again connect our students to our schools and provide a pathway to express themselves in this post-COVID world of education.

 This article borrows heavily from:

Robert B. Morrison’s article- Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning: A Secret Weapon for Our Students.  https://www.nsba.org/ASBJ/2021/April/arts-education-and-social-emotional-learning

Additional Resources:

Interview: Ways to Include and Engage the Men in Your PTA

Posted on by CAPTA IT


Byline: LaQuisha Anderson, Family Engagement Commissioner

The California State PTA Family Engagement Commission sat down with PTA dad Murali Vasudevan to discuss his experience serving in the PTA at his daughter’s schools, ABC Council PTA, and Thirty-Third District PTA for many years. Watch the video interview to learn more about Vasudevan’s experience and find ways you can include, create engagement, and involve men in your PTA. 

Do you have a great Family Engagement story, practice, or idea for building parent and caregiver involvement? Please share it with us and you may be featured on our social media.