Interim Superintendent Interviews, Conference Takeaways, & UC Admissions Policy Harms PV Students
What a gorgeous weekend we’ve had in Palos Verdes. It’s nice to see summer starting to peek through after months of living inside a rain cloud. There’s a lot to discuss so I’ll get right to it:
Interim Superintendent Interviews
The Board is meeting Tuesday at noon to interview candidates for interim superintendent. We will imminently begin our long-term superintendent search with the assistance of a professional firm to ensure we are diligent in our process and bring the best possible candidates to our community.
Conference for K12 Education Leaders
Four members of the Board and three members of our cabinet (deputy and assistant superintendents) attended a very informative conference in Shell Beach last week. It was the best educational experience I’ve had so far as a board member, with in-depth and detailed guidance on the thorniest of school board issues. I really enjoyed bonding with fellow board members and cabinet.
We heard from attorneys and consultants who’ve been in the trenches with unions for decades. We were presented with excerpts from the National Education Association’s literal playbook, showing strategies used by unions throughout the country to curry favor, craft a narrative, and intimidate board members.
It was a relief to hear stories from districts throughout the state that are quite similar to my own experience. It was refreshing to hear people speak honestly about issues in public education, albeit sad and frustrating that these issues have existed for a long time and have yet to be resolved. One of our speakers shared his thoughts on the current political landscape, noting the importance of meeting with your state assemblyman and senator to educate them the impacts of their legislation on day-to-day operations, because they don’t know much about what’s going on.
Most legislators took office after Prop 98 and LCFF took effect, and they’re not very knowledgable about how things work. This is obvious to me after reading the analysis of Asm. Muratsuchi’s facilities financing bill (AB 247). Legislators still believe districts like ours are “rich” and don’t need state funding, meanwhile we get some of the lowest per pupil funding and cannot afford to fix our facilities. By the way, our speaker’s prediction on AB 247 is that it will not pass unless CTA and Newsom get behind it (they’re currently not supportive). It requires 2/3 approval of the legislature to pass (which is the same number of votes required to override a veto), and that does not look likely at this point.
UC Admissions Policies Harm PVPUSD Students
Twitter user Steve Miller (@SteveMillerOC) recently compiled and analyzed UC admissions data to reveal that there is no longer a correlation between test scores and admissions offers from top UC schools to California high school students. He found that from 2016 to 2022, the acceptance rates at UCSD for students from PVPUSD dropped from 34% to 14%. In that same time period, acceptance rates increased significantly for students from school districts like Lawndale.
One of the speakers at the Shell Beach conference was a Vice Chancellor from UC Berkeley. He spoke about his work with Berkeley’s DEI program and disparate impacts on historically disadvantaged populations. He spoke about the difficulties of working in education and industry-wide burnout.
During a Q&A, I asked, “[i]s the UC system’s admissions policy having disparate impacts on White and Asian students in high-achieving districts like PVPUSD?”
He answered (and I am paraphrasing), “I don’t know. With respect to ‘high achieving districts,’ yes. Test scores and GPAs are not indicative of ability. We want the UCs to be for everyone.” (This is not a direct quote, but I am using quotation marks to make clear this is not my statement - I am paraphrasing).
The UCs are telling us, and showing us with policy, that good grades and test scores are meaningless. UC schools no longer consider SAT or ACT test scores when making admissions decisions or awarding scholarships. I don’t know what benchmarks they are now using in lieu of measurable objective markers, but it sounds like zip code is the most important factor in determining whether you will be admitted to the UC of your choice. I find it troubling that the message from one of our top public universities is that if you want to get into a strong UC school, your zip code matters much more than your academic ability. And if your zip code is 90275 or 90274, you’re probably not getting into Berkeley or UCSD.
This is a very serious problem that negatively impacts our district. We need to put our heads together to figure out how to best advocate for our brilliant students and ensure they are able to fairly compete for the top schools, regardless of zip code.
As always, this is just one lady’s opinion - I don’t speak for the Board, and no one else speaks for me. Stay tuned for more updates. Share with a friend, and subscribe here.
