week 8 response 1 436

Hi professor and class,

While policy makers have strived to pursue suitable strategies for education in the state of California, there have been significant weaknesses in the mechanism over the last half century. California is characterized with economic and ethnic heterogeneity which means the diversity exposes the education system to the need for equal opportunities and accessibility for every child. According to Darling-Hammond et al. (2018), poor communities are not able to receive adequate funding for public schools which means students lack enough trained English teachers, enough learning equipment and many other vital learning resources. Compared to other states, in California students with disabilities receive a considerably lower share of educational services. The number of immigrant workers with formal education is low compared to US-born Californians because for a long time, the state’s educational policies have not provided opportunities for this population.

Reference

Darling-Hammond, L., Sutcher, L., & Carver-Thomas, D. (2018). Teacher Shortages in California: Status, Sources, and Potential Solutions. Research Brief. Learning Policy Institute.

~Traneisha

Good afternoon,

Many students in California are children of low income families, a large portion are children of agricultural workers who face unequal educational opportunities here in California. For instance, my community is mostly made up of agricultural workers and we have apartments that are specifically for those families. My county is considered low income and is considered a frontier county meaning we do not have many resources available. With the low income communities, the schools in these areas receive less funding thus keeping those schools with limited availability of programs and supports due to the lack of funding available. Students who English is not their first language often have disparities due to programs and such not available in their language. I recently participated in a meeting with one of the kiddos I serve along with the school district and the representative from the school asked me if our translator could translate her documents for this family as she would otherwise not be able to provide the family the needed documents. When I questioned her on the policy that they are required to provide in the family's language of origin, her response was "I know but I am trying to figure everything out. I do not like the way things were ran last year." This response surprised me as to how she was getting away with this. The problem is, most families who do not speak English are often scared or unaware they too have rights and should speak up when things like this happen. The importance of these documents were providing her steps on how to contact the special education department of the school to begin the enrollment process for this kiddo we met on. This is just one example of the inequality that happens within the school districts in my state. The regulations and procedures in place do not fully support all children across the board.

Krisy

Kelleher, K. (2015). Unequal schools, generations of poverty. UCLA Blueprint. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://blueprint.ucla.edu/feature/unequal-schools-generations-of-poverty/.