“This is a one-size-fits-all approach that is opposed by teachers and school boards,” the Governor said in his veto message. “Several schools have already moved to later start times. Others prefer beginning the school day earlier. These are the types of decisions best handled in the local community.”

Needless to say, we agree — as do the hundreds of school and county board members and superintendents who sent messages and letters to Gov. Brown urging his veto throughout September. Hundreds more kicked in veto messages of their own in mid-September when CSBA began running radio ads throughout the state urging members of local communities to also contact the Governor to request a veto.

CSBA’s “What’s New for 2019” report is available at www.csba.org/legislativenews, detailing each bill signed into law by Gov. Brown, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2019.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Those are the words of Peter Drucker, one of the world’s most renowned thinkers on organizational management. I read his work often as I worked toward my college degrees in organizational management. I reflected on that quote as I was reviewing, with mixed feelings, the results from the most recent state standardized tests. Students demonstrated modest progress in both English and math — a welcome change from 2017 when scores were flat — but that encouraging note was undercut by the stubborn achievement gap, which shrank only slightly for Latino students and not at all for their African-American peers.

Now, I’m quick to acknowledge that students are not widgets and that scholastic experience is more than what can be measured in a spreadsheet or a bar graph. At the same time, I’m mindful of our mission as governing board members: to provide all students with a high-quality education that prepares them for success in college, career and civic life. Test scores are not the sum of this work, but they are critical indicators that demonstrate our effectiveness (or lack thereof) in important areas.

The numbers make it abundantly clear that we need to focus our efforts on closing the achievement gap. The recent test scores in English language arts reveal a 26.9 percentage-point achievement gap between Latino and white students, slightly down from 2017. Even more alarming is the 33.8 percentage-point divide between African-American and white students, which didn’t move a bit from 2017. Gaps of this size were evident across all tested grade levels and while we’ve made some strides since the current testing system was implemented in 2015, the progress isn’t coming fast enough. One observer noted that, at the current pace, it would take generations to see equitable outcomes for African-American and Latino students when compared to their white and Asian peers. I wish that were hyperbole, but it’s sadly true.

That was the case with the 2017–18 Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium exams which revealed the same modest overall improvement and persistent achievement gaps that have characterized results in recent years. The new and unwelcome twist this season was a regression at the high school level that offset progress among elementary and middle school students.

The SBAC is the foundation of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, California’s standardized testing system. The assessments in English language arts/literacy and math are administered to students in grades three through eight and grade 11. This year, 3.2 million students took the test with 49.9 percent meeting or exceeding grade-level standards in ELA, while just 38.7 percent of students met or exceeded grade-level standards in math. Overall, the performance represented an increase of 1.3 percentage points in ELA and 1.1 percentage points in math from 2017, a year when scores remained largely even with the 2016 results. In total, California students have gained 6 percentage points in both ELA and math since 2015, although the greatest growth came during the second year of the current system when standardized test results usually spike as students adapt to the new exams.

In the news release announcing the latest test results, State Board of Education President Michael W. Kirst pointed to the progress demonstrated by students in the elementary grades as a hopeful sign. Overall, reading scores for third-grade students rose by 4.3 percentage points and by 3.6 percentage points for fourth graders, while math scores in those grades increased by a smaller amount, but still made the largest leap at any grade level.

CSBA’s Nominating Committee met on September 15 to interview the following candidates for President-elect and Vice President of CSBA. For President-elect: Xilonin Cruz Gonzalez, Azusa USD. For Vice President: Suzanne Kitchens, Pleasant Valley SD; Gregory Krikorian, Glendale USD; Alisa MacAvoy, Redwood City ESD; Tamara Otero, Cajon Valley Union SD.

Following deliberations, the Committee nominated Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez as a candidate for President-elect. As candidates for Vice President, the committee nominated Suzanne Kitchens, Gregory Krikorian, Alisa MacAvoy, and Tamara Otero.

As provided in CSBA’s Standing Rules, qualified individuals interested in being nominated from the floor of the Delegate Assembly must submit a complete Declaration of Candidacy packet along with their written intention to run, on or before Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018. Intentions to run from the floor for President-elect and Vice President must be submitted to CSBA’s President, Mike Walsh at mwalsh@csba.org, and the Chair of the Nominating Committee, Lisa Kaplan at kaplan4kids@gmail.com.

For more information on the nomination process and to review the 2018 candidate criteria used by the Nominating Committee, please visit the CSBA website at www.csba.org/election.

— Lisa Kaplan, Chair 2018 Nominating Committee, Delegate Region 6, Natomas USD, On behalf of the Delegates serving on the Nominating Committee.

The state’s current accountability system highlights this issue: two-thirds of the 228 districts receiving differentiated assistance based on their 2017 Dashboard reports were identified based on their outcomes for students participating in special education.

California’s ongoing efforts to improve services for students with disabilities now include major changes to special education teacher preparation. All of California’s teacher education programs must now conform to new program standards aligned with new teaching performance expectations by the fall of 2020.

The changes are the result of years of research as part of the state’s commitment to meeting the needs of students with disabilities. In 2013, the California Department of Education convened a task force to address persistently low educational, social, health and economic outcomes for the state’s nearly 775,000 students with disabilities. In its 2015 report, the California Statewide Task Force on Special Education described an educational system that essentially functions as two separate systems: general and special education. The task force found this separation reflects teacher education programs that prepare the state’s educators and recommended a comprehensive series of reforms.

Dyslexia is the most common learning disability in California, affecting up to 20 percent of the population. This means that, statistically, every classroom in California has several students with dyslexia who struggle to acquire literacy skills. October is National Dyslexia Awareness month in the United States and provides a timely reminder to revisit California’s Dyslexia Guidelines.

In 2015, the California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 1369, which required that the California Department of Education create state Dyslexia Guidelines to assist teachers and parents in identifying, assessing and supporting these students. The guidelines were developed with input from an expert working group and published in August 2017.

“California’s Dyslexia Guidelines offer ways to improve the educational experience for students with dyslexia. They provide evidence-based information on how to identify and work with children who struggle with literacy skills,” said Cawley Carr, president of the International Dyslexia Association of Northern California.