Ed Source – John Fensterwald
“Busloads of high school students and parents from organizations statewide have trekked to State Board of Education meetings for two years, clamoring for changes they believe will improve school climate. In moving testimony, students described schools where they feel disconnected, misunderstood and often under-challenged. “If you are serious about closing the achievement gap, and bringing equity to our most vulnerable students, don’t continue to neglect school climate,” Armon Matthews, a junior at Oakland High School, testified this month to the board. Matthews is a student leader with Californians for Justice, a statewide nonprofit that has led a school climate campaign under the Twitter hashtag #SchoolClimateIsTheHeart. After a long look at the subject, a study group overseen by Chief Deputy State Superintendent Glen Price released preliminary recommendations that would thrust school climate and conditions to the forefront of the state’s school improvement and accountability system.”(more)