Category Archives: Education

Politics turns Pretty

The 2020 elections are now a thing of the past. But the thousands of political yard signs that dotted Sacramento County lawns are getting a new life.

As most of the signs are not made from recyclable material, a coalition of local environmental and cultural activists is collecting and distributing them to Sacramento area artists who will turn them into art.

“Some artists want to take it and turn it into planters. Another one wants to turn it into a new type of canvas,” said Shira Lane, of The Atrium 916, “Others want to create kind messaging to make America kind again and bring us together again.”

The goal of the initiative according to Lane is to ensure that the signs do not wind up in landfills. Crafters, hobbyists, art teachers, students, and others have all reached out to get some signs.

Sacramento’s Salvation Army Celebrated

The Sacramento Salvation Army received the city’s highest honor, induction to the Centennial Hall of Fame, at the 125th Annual Dinner and Business Awards. Held on February 1, 2020, hundreds of community leaders, business owners and stakeholders, and people of import gathered to recognize the nonprofit’s work to curb homelessness and poverty in the Sacramento area for over 130 years.

Sacramento’s Salvation Army honored by the city

New Innovation Coming to Sacramento

The City of Sacramento announced a partnership with Berkeley SkyDeck, the startup accelerator program from the University of California (“UC”) Berkeley. Through this cooperation, SkyDeck will introduce seven startup companies to Sacramento to pursue investment and advancement opportunities.

SkyDeck accelerator to work with City of Sacramento

SkyDeck will work with the Sacramento Urban Technology Lab (SUTL) to navigate the city’s business landscape, aiming to establish new, local, high-paying jobs.

When SUTL launched in 2018, it focused on developing, piloting, and growing technology in the city environment. According to the agreement, Berkeley SkyDeck will refer program alumni to the city at no cost. All of the founders of SkyDeck are alumni of one of the UC campuses. Startups accepted to the program go through a rigorous screening process.

New Educational Rights

school1.4 million Californian English learner students will soon be getting language education supported by a recent federal settlement.  The Department and Board of Education has consented to put in place additional training and monitoring procedures to ensure language services to the English Learner-students comply with what is required by the federal Equal Educational Opportunities Act.

Meanwhile a new way of judging school performance – moving away from the Academic Performance Index score that has been used until now – was approved by Californian state education leaders. This accountability system instead will look at schools on how English learners are progressing, what the graduation rates look like, how ready graduates are for college and/or careers and the level of suspension rates.

It was also reported at the end of August that those students from Sacramento made “modest progress” in both English and Math.  According to Sacramento County schools superintendent, Dave Gordon, this new is “encouraging…We are making gains across the board and across our student subgroups. … I would say our districts and our teachers are making good progress in delivering a new curriculum and using a new assessment.”