California Education Issues To Watch In 2022 And Predictions Of What Will Happen

California Education Issues To Watch In 2022 And Predictions Of What Will Happen

With Covid in the rearview mirror, the 2021-22 school year was meant to be a return to routine. Instead, as former State Board of Education president Mike Kirst described it, the year has been "shock and overload," with teachers and administrators "working more and losing momentum." Although not for everyone at every school, the general picture is bleak. Students are having difficulty, instructors are exhausted, and many parents are dissatisfied.

Next year's school budget will be at an all-time high, making staff shortages even more painful. "I've been wealthy and poor, and rich is better," as quotable movie actress Mae West would remark.

Onward towards the bleak future. Here are my predictions for the next year, as well as some history on major K-12 topics.
The scale goes from one to five "Fensters," with one indicating no likelihood and five indicating a high probability. Make your own scorecard and compare it to who fared better a year later. (Vegas is betting against you.)

Covid's influence is being measured.
After a two-year hiatus due to the epidemic, California's third through eighth students and 11th graders will resume taking a reduced version of the Smarter Balanced standardized examinations in language arts and arithmetic this spring. The Smarter Balanced scores will be terrible, based on data from interim examinations taken by most districts over the previous two years, expanding the existing large disparities in scores between white children and their Black and Latino counterparts.
On the Smarter Balanced exams in 2018-19, 51% of California students met or exceeded criteria in English language arts, and 40% met or exceeded levels in math.