Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1533049
SJTA President Renata Sanchez at the We Can't Wait press conference in San Jose. CTA Secretary-Treasurer Erika Jones speaks at the OEA/UTR/BFT rally. COMBO CLASSES AND SHORT-CHANGED STUDENTS Cecilia Carrasco teaches a 3/4 combo class and 3rd grade at Empire Gar- dens Elementary in San Jose. A San Jose Teachers Association member, she is a site rep and works on SJTA's equity team. "Empire Gardens has about 200 kids — other schools in our district have 600–800+ students, with PTAs. A strong PTA can raise up to $20,000 a year to pay for extra things. We don't have a PTA, so for example with Proposition 28 we got funds for music instruction but we have been without a teacher for six months. " This year, we have an attendance coun- selor, no academic counselors. The attendance counselor has helped improve our atten- dance, which was really low. Schools with lower enrollment like ours have more combo classes. We don't receive a lot of training to teach combo classes. Combo class teachers lack time — I have 60 minutes to teach third- and fourth-grade math. For social studies we pull out the more important stuff such as government , since there's no specific curriculum for a ¾ combo. I have 13 third-grade kids with 13 third-grade textbooks, and nine fourth-grade kids with fourth-grade textbooks. If I'm teaching my third graders, I want my fourth graders to be quiet with collaborative tasks. Students don't have me for the full hours I should be teaching them. "It is stressful trying to teach everything in the time you have. The dis- trict wants you to teach one lesson a day. If students are not mastering it, there's little leeway to spend time on it, you have to push forward. Our principal created small-group "math opportunity " time to work on concepts that students are struggling with. "We have a lot of teacher turnover. I've been doing combo classes since 2016, and I'm too attached to my Title 1 kids to leave. But we try not to give new teachers a combo class." Local Power T O G E T H E R , 80,000 educators, in 32 California school districts serving 1 million students, are joining parents, students and communities to fight for our shared demands. These districts must prioritize the resources our students need and deserve. Albany City USD Anaheim Union High School District Berkeley USD Dos Palos Oro Loma Jt. USD Fairfield-Suisun USD Farmersville USD Hayward USD Lincoln USD Live Oak Elementary Livingston Union Elementary Los Angeles USD Los Banos USD Lynwood USD Madera USD National School District Natomas USD Nevada Joint Union High School District Oakland USD Riverside USD Sacramento City USD San Diego USD San Francisco USD San Jacinto USD San Jose USD Stockton USD Soquel Union Elementary Twin Rivers USD Ventura USD Washington USD West Contra Costa USD Whittier City Elementary Woodland Joint USD 20 cta.org Feature Cecilia Carrasco