Search

Author Archives: Susan Kagehiro

1. In Support of Teacher Training

   May 27, 2016 1:30 pm Leave a Comment

   As districts across the state gear up for the next school year, a major question on their minds is will we have enough teachers?

   There are numerous drivers of our current, troubling teacher shortage. We’ve seen sharp declines in enrollment in teacher credentialing programs, high rates of new teacher attrition, and skyrocketing costs of living in comparison to teacher pay. There are ways we can and will combat these factors, however. We wanted to share one leader’s plea to pass SB933 so California can invest in programs where clinical experience is an integral part of teacher preparation.

   This editorial, authored by San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Richard Carranza and published in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 25th.

   W&EHF grantee San Francisco Teacher Residency is an example of a great program that trains new teachers; these kinds of quality programs result in teachers staying longer in their jobs – so important given the role experience plays in developing education leaders for our public school classrooms. We believe there is no more effective way to increase the quality of our children’s public education than by attracting talent to the teaching profession and then helping them become and remain great teachers.

   California Teacher Corps would attract new talent to public schools – San Francisco Chronicle

2. CWAE’s Quiet Time Program in the News

   January 28, 2014 1:19 pm Leave a Comment

   In 2007, a school meditation initiative was quietly launched in the San Francisco Unified School District.  The district knew that it would be controversial but they needed to find a way to address student stress and trauma when broadly accepted approaches were not effective or scalable enough to transform schools. The Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education (CWAE) piloted their Quiet Time program in Visitacion Valley Middle School.  The pilot was an immediate success.  Within the first year, student suspensions dropped by 45 percent and the attendance of both students and teachers increased.  Based on this initial success, efforts were made to study and expand the initiative.

   An early supporter, we made our first grant to support this initiative in 2011 and renewed the grant in 2013 to expand the program to Burton High School. Initially dismissed as an “only in San Francisco” program, Quiet Time is gaining recognition as evaluation and outcome data not only show decreased student stress levels but increased resiliency, better student-teacher interactions, and better academic outcomes.  On January 12, 2014, San Francisco Chronicle published an article by Professor David P. Kirp, a professor of public policy at U.C. Berkeley and the author of “Improbable Scholars:  The Rebirth of a Great American School District and a Strategy for America’s Schools,” that called for making mediation a “school staple.” Read more here.