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Nine months ago, we were totally stumped. We needed to decide what to do about the new edition of our Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools. But most schools were closed and we had no idea when they would open. Kids were learning online or had flocked to the few private or public schools that had managed to reopen.
Standardized test data wasn’t coming. News of a vaccine was just coming out but the pandemic was in its worst stage yet.
We knew, though, that the demand for a guide to San Diego schools would be the highest it has ever been. We knew parents would have more questions than ever before. We knew education had changed, forever, and some version of online and independent options for learning would survive long past the pandemic restrictions.
So we got to work on a guide. It is out and it is our best ever.
This year, we have added a new measurement: With help from the Center for Research and Evaluation at UC San Diego Extension we were able to develop an index of how well schools performed above or below what they would be expected given the level of poverty of their students. It provides a remarkable window into schools overperforming their circumstances and those that are underperforming.
Our Will Huntsberry writes about it and some of the extraordinary schools it exposed in this week’s Learning Curve newsletter.
Where to find it: It’s an actual paper magazine — the original mobile technology! And it’s at most San Diego libraries. You can also get one from one of our many partners helping distribute it.
Our online version is here. Soon we’ll have the interactive map where you can pull up the data online as well.
We also, for the first time, surveyed private schools about how much space they have open and how many of their students get financial assistance.
And more:
- Students and teachers both got better at online learning. Now it’s here to stay.
- Once niche, independent study programs are now expanding.
- Charter schools will offer a variety of learning options in the new school year.
Family of San Diegans Gunned Down by Police Scold Legislature
It seems our heads are swirling in statistics lately — be it the speed of the climate crisis, COVID-19 resurgence or, one of the country’s oldest problems, abuse of power by law enforcement.
Family members of San Diegans gunned down by local officers of the peace scolded California, a state with some of the thickest police ranks in the U.S., in a new op-ed for failing to pass a bill that would revoke an officer’s license in cases of serious misconduct.
“Far too many of us live in fear that we, or members of our families, will not make it home safely because Black and Brown people are constantly being targeted by police violence,” the authors write. “The first step to ending this and actually making our communities safer is holding police officers accountable for abuse of power and harm caused to communities.”
Alfred Olango was killed by El Cajon police officer Richard Gonsalves in 2016. And Jonathon Coronel was killed by sheriff’s deputy Christopher Villanueva in 2017.
The bill would have created a statewide process for investigating and then decertifying officers that use excessive force, commit sexual assault or proved dishonest. An amended version of the bill as of Sept. 1 shows the bill would have also created new disqualifications for joining a police force if that applicant had committed a felony, even if it was later reduced to a misdemeanor, or if they were discharged from the military for committing an offense.
Photo of the Week
From Adriana Heldiz: Hundreds of residents who oppose COVID-19 restrictions and vaccinations spoke out during Tuesday’s County Board of Supervisors meeting, when the board declared misinformation a public health crisis, a decision opponents say violates their constitutional right to freedom of speech.
It’s still unclear how the county will tackle misinformation, or how anti-vaxxers’ freedom of speech will be limited by the declaration since Facebook, unfortunately, is still a thing.
I attended the first portion of Tuesday’s meeting, which ended up running for a whopping 13 hours. If you have 13 hours to kill, you can watch the entire meeting here.
Attendees packed the meeting room at the county administrative building and those who weren’t able to sit inside lingered in the halls where they could hear the meeting in progress. Tensions were high from the beginning.
One woman was angry that she had to give up a seat reserved for county staffers. She blamed Supervisor Nathan Fletcher for it and made sure everyone in the room knew how upset she was. Moments later, she found an open seat nearby.
- U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, meanwhile, praised Fletcher Tuesday evening for leading the charge to declare misinformation a public health crisis, as City News Service reported.
In Other News
- Lenders behind the city’s Civic Center Plaza lease are now seeking to end their effort to evict the city from the high rise.
- Some of you thought, as you watched the Padres spiral of late, that San Diego’s hockey team wasn’t coming back — just like (insert team that must not be named). Well, Gulls tickets at the Pechanga Arena are back on sale. (NBC7) #GullsAreNotDucks
- In other animalian news, stop feeding bears. San Diego Humane Society just took in a pair of orphaned cubs who were “getting too close to people, some of whom fed them.” (Union Tribune)
This Morning Report was written by Scott Lewis, MacKenzie Elmer and Adriana Heldiz, and edited by Andrew Keatts and Megan Wood.