It might still feel like summer outside, but for Los Angeles Unified School District kids, this week marked the beginning of the 2023-24 school year. LA Times education reporter Howard Blume wrote about the first week of school and the challenges the district is facing this year. Blume joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today.”
Blume explained that the district needs to help students catch up after years of COVID-19 impacted distance learning.
“We were set back, as of last year, five years. Five years of gains in test scores were pushed back. If you look at some national measurements, it was pushed back even further in some areas. For some groups of kids, we’re looking at scores that we haven’t seen for 10 or 20 years,” Blume said. “There are things that you can’t measure too, like social and emotional development. We’ve heard all sorts of things, kids staying home, not having the kind of social skills, the motivation, all sorts of things that set people back.”
Chronic absences are a major issue facing LAUSD this year.
“In LA Unified last year, absentee numbers were like 40% to 50%, really terrible. That means you miss 10% or more of the school year, which is the equivalent of like a month of education, if you think about it... Actual sickness, fear of being sick, hesitancy. All these things contribute. We don’t have numbers for this year, but it may be ‘only’ 30% this year. But that’s really bad. I mean, we thought it was bad before the pandemic in LA Unified when it was 18, 19%,” Blume explained.
LAUSD welcomed a new class of 4-year old students to transitional kindergarten classrooms this year. Blume talked about the effort to start education earlier, and the hopes that these young students will stay in the district through high school.
“A lot of private preschool programs aren’t very happy with that because they’re worried that they’re going to be put out of business. But it’s still optional for 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds to go to public school. But your local public school wants all your 4-year-olds. And we have new things to figure out. Like, what about kids who don’t have their toileting worked out perfectly?” Blume said.
School lunches and snacks are now free for all students at California public schools under state law. LAUSD is trying to make cafeteria offerings more nutritious and delicious for students.
“They are putting some salad bars, fruit and vegetable bars into schools, which puts my memories of school food to shame. So it is getting better. Whether you’re going to dine out there Saturday night is another question. But I think it’s getting better and perhaps more nutritious,” Blume said.
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