Ahead of Election Day, our partner inewsource reports that Latino parents in San Diego Unified are concerned about issues impacting their children, including an achievement gap and higher disciplinary rates than their peers.
Jessica Huerta sits with her children Julian, left, age 10, and Eliana, age 8, while they do homework at the Clairemont Library in San Diego, Oct. 26, 2022.
Whoever wins will join three other district trustees in representing California’s second-largest school district, where nearly half of the more than 114,000 students are Latino.
“Interventions need to be put into place when that child is seven and not when that child is 17,” said Aston, who wants to see schools offer more opportunities for gifted and special education students. Aston started paying attention to the district’s decisions after Patrick Henry High School canceled some honors classes.
Samantha isn’t alone in struggling with English and math. Overall, about 38% of Hispanic or Latino students in the district met or exceeded the standard for English Language Arts compared to nearly 72% of white students in the 2021-22 school year, according to the state’s Smarter Balanced standardized test scores. In math, only about 24% of the district’s Hispanic or Latino students met or exceeded the standard compared to about 62% of white students.
Hazan believes it’s critical to know where students are academically and the specific skills they need using a data-driven approach – standardized tests and formative reading and math assessments administered by teachers provide some of those insights. But it’s also important to know who a student is, what barriers may be in their way and what supports are available to help, drawing on various data sources for insights, she said.
The achievement gap among Latino students is the result of an underlying inequality gap that’s partially ethnic and racial in nature, Petterson said. But there was already an existing achievement gap before the pandemic – and the pandemic just exacerbated the forces that led to the gap, he said. “I bring a different perspective on classroom order and management, and I think that that goes a long way into providing an environment where learning is possible,” she said.Some Latino parents also are troubled by the disciplinary rates among Latino students in the district, saying they are higher than what other students face. In the 2019-20 school year, 2.6% of Hispanic or Latino students at San Diego Unified were suspended compared to the district-wide suspension rate of 2.2%.
But sometimes schools don’t have the resources to address a child’s social and emotional needs, so the child acts out, and they often get punished rather than rehabilitated, said Jessica Huerta, a San Diego Unified parent who is pursuing a doctorate in sociology at UCLA. Schools suspend children as a last resort when they don’t know what else to do, but it isn’t effective, she said.
Most candidates expressed support for restorative justice interventions, such as those set out in the district’s current discipline policy, as better than more punitive disciplinary actions for students. Two of the four say more serious disciplinary actions are sometimes appropriate. “We have a district policy that in writing says … we don't want to use suspension and expulsion and punitive discipline. So that exists on paper, but it doesn't exist in every single classroom,” she said.
Williams said restorative justice programs offer great insights into how to resolve conflict, but other forms of discipline are necessary in creating environments where children can learn. She said she understands parents’ concerns. “We really need to make everything transparent and to make it clear that there is a certain protocol and procedure that is constantly enforced and that there is no discrimination whatsoever on race, gender or class, and that everyone gets the exact same treatment and that it's manifestly clear for every parent and every person.”In June 2021, San Diego Unified approved adding anti-racism and ethnic studies education into its curriculum.
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