In late 2020, a group of Black and Latino students from Oakland and Los Angeles sued the state alleging not enough support was provided to lower-income students during COVID, citing a wide range of issues involving Internet access, learning equipment, teacher availability and lesson plans .
The state proactively blocked Reardon, a national expert in pandemic learning, from testifying. But Dee had already filed a brief on behalf of the students citing data on enrollment declines and chronic absenteeism, and has since been threatened to back down and “mitigate further damage,” according to EdSource.
The plaintiffs aren’t even seeking monetary damages – they’re simply asking for access to better education. Part of the state’s defense is that its response to COVID was so great it won an award from the Education Commission of the State for having “one of the nation’s most equitable formulas,” the Chronicle adds.If only that award could somehow improve California’s Smarter Balanced test scores, which last year showed that 53 percent of the state’s students can’t read at an adequate level and 67 percent are not up to standards in math.