March 25, 2019
SURVEY
Continued from page 1
with principals, the most commonly
reported instances of racial hostility echo
President Trump’s rhetoric on immigration,
with several principals recounting stories of
white students chanting “Build the wall!” to
demean and threaten students of color.
These tensions are intensified and
accelerated by the flow of untrustworthy
or disputed information across schools.
The omnipresent use of social media is
also fueling and furthering division among
students and between schools and their
communities. Students struggle to discern
fact from opinion, identify quality sources,
or participate in inclusive and diverse delib-
erations on social issues.
School climate suffers as students use
social media to call one another names
or spread rumors. Almost six in 10 teens
report having experienced some form of
cyber-bullying. “Social media,” one prin-
cipal said, “is destroying school safety and
climate.”
“These findings make clear that schools
are not immune from what is happening
across the nation,” said John Rogers, a
professor of Education at UCLA and the
director of IDEA. “The flow of the nation’s
harsh political rhetoric does not stop at the
school house gate, but instead, propelled by
misinformation and social media, is fueling
anger, fear and division that is negatively
impacting students, schools and learning.”
Amid this tense and divided environ-
ment, principals report their schools are
impacted by and challenged to address
critical issues confronting our nation, in-
cluding opioid abuse, immigration and gun
violence.
Sixty-two percent of schools have been
impacted by opioid abuse. Two-thirds of
the principals surveyed say federal im-
migration enforcement policies and the
political rhetoric around the issue have
harmed student well-being and learning.
Ninety-two percent of principals say their
school has faced problems related to the
threat of gun violence.
GUIDANCE
Continued from page 2
criminating against students according to
“personal characteristics,” as well as guide-
lines for designing school discipline-related
policies and practices which emphasize
alternatives to suspension and expulsion.
Guidance withdrawn
In 2018, U.S. Department of Education
Secretary Betsy DeVos led a new Federal
Commission on School Safety, established
after the deadly school shooting at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School in Park-
“In an environment propelled by fear,
distrust and social isolation, schools are
feeling the heat of many of the same issues
tearing at the fabric of our nation,” Rogers
said. “Principals tell us these issues are rais-
ing student stress and anxiety and causing
students to lose focus in the classroom or
miss classes altogether.”
School principals are also affected.
The average principal in the study reports
spending six and a half hours a week ad-
dressing the five societal challenges, taking
time away from efforts to meet students’
academic needs and enhance the quality of
teaching and learning.
“School principals in the age of Trump
encounter substantial obstacles,” Rogers
said. “But the response of some school lead-
ers to these challenges has been nothing
less than heroic.”
Across the challenges, many principals
report spending extra time talking and
meeting with students and parents, con-
necting students and families with commu-
nity and social services, and planning and
providing professional development to help
teachers address the challenges. Principals
have intervened with immigration author-
ities on behalf of students, and in dealing
with the opioid crisis, some principals have
sent backpacks full of food home for the
weekend with students or dug into their
own pockets for money to help pay utility
bills or help with rent.
Virtually every school, regardless of re-
gion, community type or racial makeup was
impacted by these societal challenges. More
than nine in 10 principals in the survey
report experiencing at least three challenges
and more than three in 10 experience all
five challenges.
Certain types of schools are more likely
to be impacted by particular challenges.
Racially mixed schools are most impacted
by untrustworthy information and political
division. Schools that enroll predominantly
students of color are most impacted by the
threats of immigration enforcement and
gun violence. Predominantly white schools
are most impacted by the opioid crisis. The
opioid crisis is experienced most severely in
the Northeast, and the impact of immigra- tion enforcement is greatest in the West.
The researchers also note that when mul-
tiple challenges occur within a school site,
they interact with one another in complex
and mutually reinforcing ways.
“It is likely that political division makes
schools more vulnerable to the spread of
untrustworthy information, just as the
spread of untrustworthy information often
contributes to division and hostility,” Rog-
ers said. “And the fear and distress associat-
ed with threats to immigrant communities,
gun violence and opioid misuse, increases
the possibilities for division and distrust
amongst students and between educators
and the broader community.”
The report includes a set of recom-
mendations for changing conditions and
practices in high schools and offers an
educational policy framework that responds
to the demands of the age of Trump.
“Our hope is that by sharing this data
and stories from America’s high schools,
as well as our recommendations, we can
help educators and policymakers ease these
tensions and further their efforts to address
the societal challenges that threaten to
undermine student learning in a period of
political and social turmoil.”
“School and Society in the Age of
Trump,” is based on an online survey con-
ducted in the summer of 2018 of 505 high
school principals whose schools provide a
representative sample of all U.S. public high
schools. The survey examined how students
and schools were affected by five different
societal challenges during the 2017-18
school year, as well as how principals and
their colleagues responded to these chal-
lenges.
The survey was conducted by the UCLA
Institute for Democracy Education and
Access at the UCLA Graduate School
of Education and Information Studies.
UCLA IDEA also conducted 40 follow-up
interviews with principals who participated
in the survey selected to be representative
of the larger pool of schools. The full report
is available at https://idea.gseis.ucla.edu/
publications/school-and-society-in-age-of-
trump/.
land, Florida. The new commission’s task
was to study and make recommendations
regarding several issues, including violence
prevention strategies. On December 18,
2018, the commission recommended the
rescission of the 2014 DCL, along with
other associated documents.
The commission reasoned that states and
local school districts should play the pri-
mary role in establishing educational policy,
including how to handle specific instances
of student misconduct and discipline, and
ensuring that classroom teachers have the
support they need to implement such local
policies. OCR and the DOJ adopted the
commission’s recommendations. Takeaways
The rescission of the non-binding 2014
DCL and related federal guidance does
not change any federal civil rights laws.
It also does not change states’ or school
districts’ obligation to administer school
discipline in a non-discriminatory way,
whether as a matter of federal or state law.
School districts that continue to find value
in the now-withdrawn guidance documents
may continue to refer to and utilize that
guidance and recommended policies and
practices as they see fit.
For more information on this topic, go to
www.lozanosmith.com.
EDCAL 3
FROM THE
Executive
Director
While the five charter
school bills introduced
this session may not
seem like a lot, they represent potential
sweeping change in charter school law.
It is also worth noting that Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first bill signing was for SB
126, which requires all charter school
governing boards to comply with the
same accountability and transparency
laws that traditional public school dis-
trict governing boards already follow.
Knowing that a new governor would
bring heightened attention to charter
legislation, ACSA convened the Charter
Task Force in 2017 to develop charter
school priorities for our board’s consid-
eration. The task force was comprised
of 20 educators from diverse back-
grounds and job-alikes: charter school
executive directors, traditional district
superintendents, charter authorizers
and legislative advocates. The task
force was neither pro- nor anti-charter;
instead, it was pro-student, pro-public
education. In their own words:
“In order to meet the diverse needs
of California students, ACSA supports
a comprehensive and coherent public
education system that includes quality
options for all students. We believe
that state, county, and district charter
leaders need to work together to im-
prove student learning through Equity
and Diversity, Innovation, and Public
accountability and Transparency.”
Many of this session’s charter bills
address the same concerns:
• AB 1505 (O’Donnell) proposes to
ensure charters can adequately meet
the needs of English Language Learn-
ers and special needs students, keep
charter school authorizing at the local
level by providing school district “may”
authorize rather than “shall” authorize,
limits the current charter appeal pro-
cess, and revokes the authority of the
State Board of Education to approve a
charter school. We are working closely
with the author.
• AB 1506 (McCarty) would limit the
number of charter schools authorized
to operate in California.
• AB 1507 (Smith) would delete the
authority of a charter school to locate
outside the geographic boundaries
of the chartering school district either
temporarily or by stating that a lack of
facilities exists.
• AB 1508 (Bonta) would permit
chartering authorities to consider, in
determining whether to approve a new
charter school petition, the financial, ac-
ademic, and facilities impacts the new
charter school would have on neighbor-
hood public schools.
“ACSA has changed my life by helping me grow as an education
leader and student advocate. During an ACSA Leadership Summit
many years ago, I had the opportunity to sit in on a workshop led
by author Paula Rutherford. Listening to her inspired me to think
about how leadership impacts our everyday work. I immediately
went back to my district and implemented a standards-based
change that was key to our teachers and district.
I have been a huge fan of ACSA ever since that conference. ACSA has led me
to success inside and outside of the classroom.”
Alyssa Lynch
Superintendent
Metropolitan Education District
We need your input to effectively ad-
vocate for a coherent public education
system that includes quality options for
all students. Please contact Legislative
Advocate Cathy McBride at cmcbride@
acsa.org and share your input on the
following questions:
1. Does changing the law from “shall”
to “may” benefit the diverse needs of
your students? Why or why not?
2. What is the appropriate role of
county offices of education in charter
authorizing and appeals?
3. Should there be a cap on the num-
ber of charter schools? Should it be a
statewide, regional or district cap?
We look forward to hearing your feed-
back and working on your behalf.
– Wesley Smith