The Nursing program at CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) has been named as one of the top 25 nursing programs in California.

CSUCI’s Nursing program was ranked No. 11 out of 127 California nursing programs considered. The honors came from RegisteredNursing.Org, an organization that provides information to nurses and nursing students in all 50 states.

“After analyzing nursing programs in California, it became evident that CSUCI not only supports students during their time on campus, but also prepares them for a career beyond CSUCI,” said RegisteredNursing.Org Founder and Managing Editor Brooke Wallace.

CSUCI’s Nursing program was also chosen because of the program’s high student retention rate and the high number of CSUCI nursing graduates who pass the National Council Licensure Examination or NCLEX.

Chair and Professor of Nursing Karen Jensen was thrilled to hear the news. She credits the success of the program to its faculty and the quality of the students, who are carefully selected from a large pool of applicants.

“Out of a pool of 500 applicants we select 44 for the Camarillo campus and out of 150 we select 22 for the Goleta campus,” Jensen said. “We look at their grade point average in all of the pre-requisite courses and their overall GPA. We also look at supplemental criteria, such as if they’ve worked in the healthcare field before or done volunteer hours, or if they’re bilingual.”

Jensen and CSUCI’s Nursing faculty look for a combination of academics and experience because the nursing field has become more challenging in the 21st century.

“The work is so much more complex,” she said. “There’s technology, electronic medical records, medication dispensing systems, and the patients tend to be sicker, You have to be someone secure with technology and you have to be smart enough to realize when there’s a problem and compassionate enough to make the patient feel comfortable.”

The CSUCI Nursing program was awarded an official badge to show their ranking.

For more information visit: http://www.csuci.edu/academics/nursing.htm.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CSUCI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CSUCI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CSUCI’s Social Media.

Samuel Torvend

A theologian will discuss state-sponsored persecution of sexual minorities in Nazi Germany at California Lutheran University on Thursday, Feb. 23.

Professor Samuel Torvend from Pacific Lutheran University will discuss “The Passion of Robert Oelbermann: The Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany” at 7 p.m. in Overton Hall on the Thousand Oaks campus.

Cal Lutheran’s Division of Mission and Identity is sponsoring the free event in recognition of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Robert Oelbermann was a gay German Lutheran whose life and suffering exemplify state-sponsored persecution of persons deemed unfit for life under the rule of Adolf Hitler. In 1919, Oelbermann and his brother founded the Nerother Bund youth group, which aimed to bring young people closer to nature through camping and hiking. Like many German youth groups at the time, the Nerother Bund accepted the homosexual relationships that sometimes developed within the organization. After the Nazis took power in 1933, they dissolved all independent youth groups and encouraged members to join the Hitler Youth movement. Oelbermann refused and secretly continued his association with the group.

In 1936, Oelbermann was convicted under the Nazi-revised criminal code that outlawed homosexuality. He and 13 other members of Nerother Bund were imprisoned. Oelbermann was eventually transferred to Dachau concentration camp, where he was required to wear an identifying pink triangle. He died there in 1941 at the age of 44.

In this presentation, Torvend will show how the tentative emancipation of sexual minorities was undone by an ideology rooted in fear of the other, and how persecuted people struggled to lean into life.

Torvend is the Endowed Chair of Lutheran Studies at PLU in Tacoma, Washington. He is working with an international consortium of scholars whose work on economic, political and social questions is being presented during the 500th anniversary of the Reformation this year. He teaches courses and seminars on Martin Luther, the Lutheran heritage, women reformers, Lutheran higher education, Lutheran art and music, and the Reformation. He also teaches the history of Christianity and historical courses on social welfare reform and Christian responses to hunger. He received the 2006 K.T. Tang Award for Excellence in Research.

Overton Hall is located on the south side of Memorial Parkway near Regent Avenue. Livestream and on-demand video recording will be available at CalLutheran.edu/live. For more information, contact Melissa Maxwell-Doherty at 805-493-3589 or revmmmd@callutheran.edu.

Sierra High School Students were able play all roles for the mock trail.
Enlarge Photo

Written by Kimberly McMullen
On January 24, 2017, Fillmore’s Sierra High School attended a field trip to the Hall of Justice at the Ventura Government Center. The Street Law class, which is an introductory law course, toured several courtrooms. The class witnessed the traffic calendar which included interaction between the Judge, Deputy District Attorney, and the Public Defender. Additionally, the class sat-in on a Felony Criminal Trial and was able to observe testimony from an expert witness on direct and cross-examination before a jury. Further, the class was given the opportunity to conduct their own mock trial in a Superior Court courtroom. The case involved the trial of a defendant who was being prosecuted for burglary. The students played all of the roles in the trial. Class members played the following roles: the judge was Luis Salgado, Sarai Vargas was the district attorney, Brandon Nava was the defense attorney, Aaron Cerda was the defendant, and witnesses were played by Gianfranco Malagon, David Estrella, Shanya Escoto, and Daniel Mynatt. The bailiff was Samuel Cabrera, and Emmanuel Roldan was the judicial assistant. The rest of the class served as jurors. The courtroom served as an interactive classroom as students were able to apply their learned skills in a real setting.

This field trip was made possible by VC Innovates, which is a Ventura County collaborative endeavor that brings educators and community partners together to apply innovative experiences to the education experience and help students prepare for college and careers. Additionally, docents from the Ventura County Bar Association assisted in the success of the field trip by serving as guides to the various courtrooms. Besides providing field trips, VC Innovates, schedules inspirational speakers from law-related careers to give presentations at Sierra.

The Street Law class is part of the Legal Services career pathway of VC Innovates and Sierra High School is one of several schools in the county participating in the Legal Services pathway. The course Street Law is based on a curriculum created by Georgetown University Law Center. Students are studying Criminal Law and Procedure, Torts, Contracts, Constitutional Law, Family Law and Consumer Law. Course instructor William Chavez and school counselor Kimberly McMullen accompanied the class on the field trip.

Daniela Cisneros - Cal State Fullerton
Alicia Olvera - Cal State Channel Islands and Cal
State Sacramento
Bryana Priebe - Cal Lutheran University and Cal
State Channel Islands
Janet Mendez - Cal State Channel Islands.
Derek Flores – Cal State Channel Islands
Alejandra Rodriguez – Cal State Channel Islands
and CSU Humbolt
Fatima Urbina - Cal State Channel Islands
Crystal Pinedo - Cal State Channel Islands
Jessica Cobb - Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State
Fullerton
Virginia Rodriguez - Cal State Channel Islands
Roman Tarango - Cal State Fullerton
Andrea Arredondo – Cal State Channel Islands and
Dominquez Hills
Tristen Riddle – Cal State Channel Islands
Alyssa Ramirez – Northern Arizona & Cal State
Channel Islands
Luke Myers – Westmont
Mireya Cruz – Cal State Channel Islands
Marisol Martinez - Cal State Channel Islands

(l-r) Jordyn Garnica, Spelling Champion and Runner up Isaac Armenta.

Mountain Vista Elementary School’s Spelling Bee went into overtime Thursday, January 19. The auditorium was abuzz with excitement when thirty 3rd, 4th, and 5th grader students competed. After over 20 rounds, Jordyn Garnica emerged victorious when she successfully spelled the champion-round word “FRUSTRATED.” Isaac Armenta is the runner-up. The next phase of competition is the Ventura County Spelling Bee which will be held March 4, 2017 on the Cal State Channel Islands campus. Congratulations Wildcat Spellers!

CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) will receive a grant of almost $250,000 from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to develop four-year teacher preparation programs.

California is experiencing a shortage of K-12 teachers with science, mathematics, special education and bilingual education credentials, so this grant will enable CSUCI to graduate career-ready teachers in four years, rather than the usual five years.

Chair and Professor of Education, Bob Bleicher, Ph.D., who secured the grant, explained that teacher candidates traditionally earn a four-year baccalaureate in Liberal Studies, then apply to become a special education or bilingual education teacher which requires an extra year of post-baccalaureate study. This grant will enable CSUCI to tighten and tailor classes so that teachers can graduate earlier and be ready to teach sooner.

“You can actually apply for a job during the final semester of your senior year,” Bleicher said.

The emphasis of CSUCI’s four-year integrated pathway will be to develop Bilingual and Special Education teachers.

CSUCI is among 17 CSU campuses receiving Integrated Program Grants from the CTC to help expand the number of teacher candidates earning science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), Special Education and bilingual credentials.

These grants should enable the CSU campuses to triple the number of new teachers graduating each year with STEM, Special Education and Bilingual credentials. The CSUs currently graduate about 6,500 credentialed teachers each year.

“The new format not only increases the number of teacher candidates graduating annually but also provides monetary benefits to CSU students,” said Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Teacher Education Program and Public School Programs for the CSU.

“CSU teacher candidates will save, on average, about $20,000 by eliminating the cost of an additional year of tuition, college-related expenses and textbooks,” she added. “In addition, to incentivize more students to enter the teaching profession, teacher candidates will also be eligible for $16,000 in state and federal grants. There’s never been a better time to enter the profession given these new flexible credentialing options and financial incentives.”

CSU produces more teacher candidates than any other campus system in the state and leads the nation in preparing teachers.

CSUCI is working closely with the community colleges, especially Oxnard College, where the Dean of Liberal Studies, Art Sandford, Ph.D., is the co-project director with Bleicher.

The grant will allow representatives from CSUCI and Oxnard College to visit high schools and recruit those who may not have considered a career in teaching. It will also help Oxnard College develop new courses to enable transfer students to make a smooth transition to CSUCI’s four-year integrated teaching program.

CSUCI’s new four-year integrated teaching programs will begin admitting students in fall 2018.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CSUCI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CSUCI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CSUCI’s Social Media.

The Fillmore Unified School District would like to announce an additional information night that will be held for perspective families to discuss the State Funded Preschool Program. We will be sharing the benefits of a preschool experience, program locations, qualification criteria, and family fee.

Please join us at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday December 15 at San Cayetano School Cafeteria located at 514 Mountain View St.

Please contact the Child Development Office at 805-524-8312 or 805-524-8311 for more information.

San Cayetano ASB students visited each class on Monday, November 28th to help kick off our Spirit of Giving Canned Food Drive. ASB student leaders spoke to the students about helping the hungry of Ventura County by donating canned foods and other nonperishable food items such as canned soups, canned or dried fruit, canned vegetables, dried beans, rice and cereal, peanut butter, Jelly, pasta and rice.

Dole Packaged Foods is celebrating their 2017 Rose Parade® float, SPIRIT OF HAWAII by partnering with FOOD Share (a Feeding America partner) to sponsor a food drive to promote the SPIRIT OF GIVING.

Over 300 schools throughout Ventura County are invited to participate.

Each participating school will receive a brightly colored, FOOD Share labeled collection bin that will be placed in a designated location so food items* can be dropped off beginning November 28th.

The food drive will conclude on December 14th.

The six elementary schools that collect the most pounds of food during the food drive will each be awarded a Project Learning Garden from Dole Packaged Foods and the Captain Planet Foundation in partnership with FOOD Share.

Families and community members may drop off donations at the San Cayetano Office.

Principal, Tom Ito of Fillmore High School announced today that Luke Myers has been name a Commended Student in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for the exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2017 competition for National Merit Scholarship Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2017 competition by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Tests (PSAT/NMSQT).

“The young men and women being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” commented a spokesperson for NMSC. “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success.

SAN FRANCISCO – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today released Ready for School: Recommendations for the Ed Tech Industry to Protect the Privacy of Student Data, a report which outlines best practices for the education technology industry (“Ed Tech”) to ensure that student privacy is respected, protected, and prioritized as the education technology industry brings innovation into our schools. The recommendations cover the collection and use of student information acquired through educational technology companies’ systems.

In developing the report, the Attorney General’s Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit consulted with Ed Tech providers, educators, privacy advocates, members of the business community, and consumer advocates. Ed Tech includes administrative management systems, such as cloud services that store student data; instructional support, such as testing and assessment; and content, including curriculum and resources such as websites and mobile apps.

“Technology in the classroom can unlock countless new opportunities to educate students for the workforce of tomorrow,” said Attorney General Harris. “At the same time, we must protect our children’s privacy as they learn. The recommendations outlined in this report will help companies whose products enter the physical or virtual classroom protect students’ personal information and ensure that its use is only for educational purposes.”

Many companies provide online services to aid classroom teaching but they require students to create accounts that capture a wide range of students’ data and personal information. In some instances, companies are mining data from schoolchildren beyond what is necessary for their education. The data on students collected and stored by Ed Tech can be very sensitive, including medical histories, social and emotional assessments, child welfare or juvenile justice system involvement, progress reports, and test results. Ed Tech companies also often collect new types of data, like a student’s location and the type of device being used, that generally fall outside the scope of longstanding federal laws protecting the privacy of students and minors.

In 2014, parents and policymakers in California worked together to enact two student privacy laws in response to growing concerns about privacy risks and the gaps in existing law. One of the new laws (AB 1584, Buchanan) applies to local educational agencies (such as school districts and charter schools). It addresses a lack of appropriate controls over student data in the hands of third parties, particularly cloud storage providers, by requiring specific terms to be included in contracts for services and software that store or collect student data. The other law (SB 1177, Steinberg) is the Student Online Personal Information Privacy Act (SOPIPA), which imposes obligations on the companies that provide Ed Tech services.

To help ensure the efficacy of these laws, this report was developed to chart a high road of best practices aimed at protecting student privacy. The report’s recommendations focus on: 1) minimizing data collection and retention to include only the student information necessary; 2) keeping the use of data strictly educational; 3) contractually requiring service providers who receive student information not to disclose it or sell it; 4) instituting policies that enable parents and legal guardians to fully understand the student data collected and maintained; 5) implementing reasonable security measures to protect data; and 6) ensuring transparency by providing meaningful privacy policies.

Upholding Californians’ right to privacy and data security is a top priority of Attorney General Harris. Earlier this month, Attorney General Harris announced the release of an online form—https://oag.ca.gov/reportprivacy—to help consumers report websites, mobile applications, and other online services that are in violation of the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA). A website or app operator may violate CalOPPA by failing to post privacy policies or posting incomplete or inadequate policies. This new form is one of several initiatives Attorney General Harris is undertaking to protect Californians’ privacy, especially in light of technological advances and the growth of the “internet of things.”

In February of this year, Attorney General Harris released a data breach report detailing the nature of reported breaches in the last four years, accompanied by recommendations for business and lawmakers including pointing to standards regarding “reasonable security” for protecting personally identifiable information. The office recently conducted a set of workshops for small businesses in conjunction with security experts from the Center for Internet Security.

Attorney General Kamala Harris developed the Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit with the mission of protecting the inalienable right to privacy conferred by the California Constitution. The Privacy Unit enforces state and federal privacy laws and develops programs to educate individuals, businesses and organizations on privacy obligations, rights, and best practices.

The publication is available online at https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/cybersecurity/ready-for-sc...?

Principal, Tom Ito of Fillmore High School announced today that Luke Myers has been name a Commended Student in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for the exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2017 competition for National Merit Scholarship Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2017 competition by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Tests (PSAT/NMSQT).

“The young men and women being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” commented a spokesperson for NMSC. “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success.”

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today issued the fourth annual statewide report on elementary school truancy and chronic absenteeism in California, In School + On Track 2016. The report, part of the work of the Department’s Bureau of Children’s Justice, finds that an estimated 210,000 K-5 students in California missed 10% of the school year in 2015-2016, making up 7.3% of elementary students in the state. The report also confirms earlier research on the disproportionately high rates of absenteeism among African American, Native American, and Pacific Islander elementary school students, special education students, and foster and homeless youth. The report does highlight that significant progress is being made, with school districts increasingly taking action to ensure children are in school, on time, every day.

Improving school attendance has long been a centerpiece of Attorney General Harris’ public service. As District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney General Harris first drew the connection between chronic absenteeism, third grade reading levels, dropping out of school, and future involvement in the criminal justice system (as a perpetrator or victim of crime). In the past decade, she has brought this issue to the forefront of state and national conversations about how to keep our communities safe and develop a thriving workforce. Recently, the federal Department of Education launched Every Student, Every Day: A National Initiative to Address and Eliminate Chronic Absenteeism, which is modeled on Attorney General Harris’ longstanding work on this effort.

“To be smart on crime and invest wisely in California’s economic future, we must eliminate elementary school truancy,” said Attorney General Harris. “Chronically absent children are far more likely to drop out of school and enter into the criminal justice system. This is a solvable problem: with better data, monitoring, and communication with parents, we can continue to make significant strides toward ensuring students are in school and on track to meet their full their potential.”

Drawing from four years of longitudinal data—a sample of almost half a million kindergarten to 5th grade students from nearly 200 school districts—In School + on Track 2016 includes the most comprehensive analysis to-date on the high rates of absenteeism among California’s elementary school students. The report finds that California continues to face an attendance crisis, with an estimated 210,000 K-5 students missing 10% of the 2015-16 school year, and that this crisis disproportionately affects African American, low-income, special education, and highly mobile students.

School suspensions also severely exacerbate the attendance crisis and have an inordinate impact on boys, low-income students, and students with special needs. In fact, 55% of students in this study who had more than one suspension were also chronically absent. Low-income students accounted for 82% of all suspensions and 30% of all suspensions involved students receiving special education services. Further, boys were suspended at three times the rate of girls, and foster children were suspended at two and a half times the rate of all other students. The report also finds that African American students, while making up just 5% of the elementary school student population, represent 22% of all suspensions.

Early attendance patterns also have a significant impact on academic achievement. The data from this year’s report revealed that three-quarters of students who were chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade did not meet the California state standards in math and English language arts in the third grade.

Despite persistently high rates of absenteeism and suspensions, however, California school districts have taken significant steps to improve elementary school attendance over the past several years:

• 99% of districts surveyed for this study reported that they have implemented or plan to implement policies and programs to improve elementary school attendance this year.

• In the 2012-13 school year, just over half of school districts surveyed said that they tracked student attendance data longitudinally (over time). This year, 85% of districts reported that they track attendance longitudinally, allowing teachers and administrators to understand individual student attendance patterns, craft targeted interventions, and evaluate the success of those interventions.

• Since the 2013-14 school year, 163 school districts (34% of those surveyed) have changed their discipline policies so students do not miss as much school for suspensions, or have reduced their overall number of suspensions.

In addition, the report highlights the progress being made at the state level in collecting and tracking student attendance. At the end of the 2016-2017 school year, all local education agencies in California will for the first time be required to submit to the California Department of Education data on student absences, excused and unexcused, as well as out-of-school suspensions as required by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Chronic absence rates will also become part of the state’s new accountability system.

Attorney General Harris’ 2013 In School + On Track (https://oag.ca.gov/truancy/2013) report contained the first statewide statistics on California’s elementary school truancy crisis and directly linked public education and public safety.

The 2014 In School + On Track report (https://oag.ca.gov/truancy/2014) released updated data and looked specifically at gaps in state infrastructure for collecting attendance information and disparities in student attendance and discipline by race, income, and other subgroups such as foster youth.

In School + On Track 2015 (https://oag.ca.gov/truancy/2015) allowed for an in-depth look at chronic absence rates by gender and at suspension rates across subgroups, revealing that absence rates tend to vary more by race than by gender, boys have significantly higher suspension rates than girls, and African American boys in particular have the highest elementary school suspension rates.

As District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney General Harris started a citywide elementary school truancy initiative in 2006. In the course of investigating factors contributing to the city’s violent crime rate, she found that 94% of San Francisco homicide victims under age 25 were high school dropouts. Then-District Attorney Harris formed a partnership with the school district to inform parents about their legal duty to ensure that their children attended school, provide parents of chronically truant students with wrap-around services and school-based mediation, and prosecute parents in the most severe cases where other interventions did not work.

The initiative also served as a model for SB 1317 (Leno), which defined "chronic truancy" for the first time under state law and established the initiative's model of combining meaningul services with smart sanctions in the California Penal Code. The bill was sponsored by then-District Attorney Harris and enacted into law in 2010.

The report is available in its entirety online at: https://oag.ca.gov/truancy/2016

Ventura, CA - In honor of Ventura College Veteran students, the Ventura College Veterans Resource Center and Ventura College Foundation invite the campus community as well as Veteran students and their families to its Third Annual Veterans Day Celebration and BBQ from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at the Ventura College Veterans Resource Center, 4667 Telegraph Rd, Ventura, Nov. 10. The event is free. More than 150 people are expected to attend.

“We are holding this event to show our appreciation and commend the perseverance and strength that each Veteran student brings with them to Ventura College and to civilian life in general,” said Norbert Tan, Executive Director. “Our Veterans Resource Center, now in its second year, provides essential tools and access to resources for veterans and their dependents, while helping remove some of the barriers to higher education and creating a path from veteran to student.”

The Veterans Day Celebration, sponsored again this year by California Resources Corporation (CRC), begins with a short program and remarks from the VCCCD Chancellor, the Ventura College Veterans Program Advisor, a Veteran scholarship recipient, CRC and more.

Established in 1983, the Ventura College Foundation provides financial support to the students and the programs of Ventura College to facilitate student success and grow the impact and legacy of Ventura College as a vital community asset. The Foundation also hosts the Ventura College Foundation Marketplace, an outdoor shopping experience held every weekend on the Ventura College campus east parking lot. For more information, contact Norbert Tan at (805) 289-6160 or ntan@vcccd.edu. Also visit www.venturacollege.edu/foundation, and the Foundation on Facebook and Twitter (@VC_Foundation).

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