Category: Newsletter (Hidden)
Homeschooling is booming across the U.S. – more than doubling between the spring and fall of 2020, from 5.5 to 11.1 percent[1] and shows signs of continuing to continue to increase. Parents are looking for flexibility and one-one-one instruction – but what about those families who can’t homeschool because both parents need to work? The […]
Written by Learn4Life on August 23, 2021
Staying engaged in school is a challenge for most at-risk students, but particularly for teen parents who have to worry about working and caring for their child(ren). Add a pandemic to the challenges they already face, and you can understand why teen parents don’t often finish high school. “Before the pandemic, we had on average […]
Written by Learn4Life on August 23, 2021
It’s an all too familiar story. Happy teen, honor student and liked school. But in her senior year, she got pregnant and was forced to drop out of high school. The stories vary – but for Shalois C. (“Shay”), her life began to spiral downward. She had family issues, lost her job, was living out […]
Written by Learn4Life on August 23, 2021
At first glance, California’s latest education funding bill is fair and equitable. The requirement for school districts to provide independent study programs that parents want for their children is a good one. But unsurprisingly, the legislature’s proposed implementation is clumsy at best. The trailer bill increases the minimum in-person instruction time that many students and […]
Written by Learn4Life on July 14, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it painfully clear that we need to change how we deliver education to keep students learning. We quickly learned that the traditional factory style education that has been the status quo for decades doesn’t work for every student. Preventing and recovering dropouts, then helping them graduate with life skills and […]
Written by Learn4Life on July 14, 2021
Verbal bullying can be frightening, painful and traumatic – but when it turns physical, the harm can be devastating. Michaela M. was a target of bullies at her previous high school where she was shoved, cornered and threatened. Then one day in PE class, a student threw a basketball hard against her head, leaving her […]
Written by Learn4Life on July 14, 2021
California legislators are constantly being swayed by the teachers’ unions to greatly limit nonclassroom-based (NCB) charter schools – yet it turns out that most politicians and parents don’t understand the NCB model. What is a nonclassroom-based charter school? First, what it is not. Nonclassroom-based does not mean online only. In fact, only about one-third of […]
Written by Learn4Life on June 9, 2021
Learn4Life schools reported a “very low” suspension rate of 0.2% in the 2019-20 school year compared to a “medium” suspension rate of 2.5% reported by all California schools and much lower than other Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) schools serving high-risk students at 4.2%. Suspensions can have a negative impact on student outcomes, both short- […]
Written by Learn4Life on June 9, 2021
Echo Carter was always a bright, happy and outgoing child, but when she got to junior high, she became the target of bullies. “I was always a good student — the problem was the social environment for me. Kids would bully me constantly and it got to the point where I was depressed, didn’t want […]
Written by Learn4Life on June 9, 2021
Just as high schools are struggling to get kids back in school and help them catch up on lost learning over the past 15 months, our out-of-touch legislature is trying to put restrictions on schools that will affect hundreds of thousands of students – most of whom are from low-income households, are students of color […]
Written by Learn4Life on May 14, 2021