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A new report calls for major improvements in the way California teachers are recruited, trained, and evaluated. It’s a result of the state’s 48-member Task Force on Educator Excellence.
Education officials say the 90-page report is the first comprehensive look in a generation at how to recruit the best teachers, develop their work and provide useful feedback.
Linda Darling-Hammond co-chaired the task force. She says despite both local and state budget cuts, there are changes that can be made now.
Todd and Tammy Schaefer walk through a neighbor’s vineyard with their Old English Mastiff, Daisy Ray. Todd was working in a vineyard when he contracted valley fever.
Credit Rebecca Plevin/Vida en el Valle
Todd Schaefer, pictured with his wife Tammy Schaefer, has had disseminated coccidioidomycosis, and fungal spinal meningitis for almost 9 years now.
Credit Laura Dickinson/ Vida en el Valle / Reporting on Health Collaborative
Just the sight of the myriad medications Todd Schaefer must take for his valley fever makes him feel ill. A side-effect of the medications is nausea and vomiting.
Credit Laura Dickinson/ Vida en el Valle
Todd Schaefer walks around a neighbor's vineyard looking at a bunch of Syrah grapes and discussing how he contracted valley fever from the area’s dirt.
By Rebecca Plevin and Reporting On Health Collaborative
Todd and Tammy Schaefer appear the picture of good fortune and good health.
Tall, fit and well dressed, the couple met in Malibu, where they established their wine business. In 2001, they moved to Paso Robles, in San Luis Obispo County, and focused on Pacific Coast Vineyards full-time.
That’s where their long nightmare with valley fever began. Early in October 2003, Todd Schaefer was running a bulldozer that kicked up a thick cloud of dust.
Thomas Mace, senior scientific adviser to NASA, helps Cal State Bakersfield microbiologist Antje Lauer pour a soil sample into a test tube near Bear Valley Springs.
Credit Shelby Mack / The Californian
Cal State Bakersfield microbiologist Antje Lauer wades through mustard plants in Bear Valley Springs to get to collect a soil sample.
Credit Shelby Mack / The Californian
Cal State Bakersfield microbiologist Antje Lauer wades through mustard plants in Bear Valley Springs to collect a soil sample.
Credit Shelby Mack / The Bakersfield Californian
Samples of soil lie in ice in the trunk of Cal State Bakersfield microbiologist Antje Lauer so they can stay preserved on the trip back to Bakersfield.
By Kellie Schmitt and Rebecca Plevin, Reporting On Health Collaborative
Valley fever feeds on heat.
And as the average temperature ticks up with each passing decade, experts are concerned that the fungus’ footprint and impact are expanding, as evidenced by a rise in cases in areas far outside the hot spots of the Central Valley of California.
Valley fever starts with the simple act of breathing.
The fungal spores, lifted from the dry dirt by the wind, pass through your nostrils or down your throat, so tiny they don’t even trigger a cough. They lodge in your lungs. If you’re fortunate – and most people are – they go no further.
A correctional officer watches from a guard tower seen through the razor wire near Kern Valley State Prison in Delano. The extent of valley fever’s under-diagnosis becomes clear when reviewing cases reported by prisons located in the Central Valley.
Credit John Harte/The Californian
Prisons located in the Central Valley – such as Wasco State Prison, pictured here – have provided clinicians with extensive education on valley fever.
By Kellie Schmitt and Rebecca Plevin, Reporting On Health Collaborative
The soaring nationwide figures for valley fever don’t tell the whole story.
Problems with screening for the disease and tracking it over time mean that thousands of cases go undetected and untreated every year, leading experts to believe the second epidemic is likely worse than documented.
Valley fever often goes unrecognized, especially in places where the disease is not widespread. Doctors aren’t familiar with its wide variety of symptoms. Often, the early symptoms of valley fever are similar to those of pneumonia.
Emily Gorospe, showing off her dance wardrobe, was forced to leave dance lessons after she was diagnosed with valley fever.
Credit Daniel Casarez/Vida en el Valle / Reporting on Health Collaborative
Emily Gorospe uses an inhaler to treat her valley fever with antifungal medication.
Credit Daniel Casarez/Vida en el Valle
Emily Gorospe, at the dance studio in Delano, jokes with her mother, Valerie. Emily was forced to leave dance lessons after she was diagnosed with valley fever.
Credit Daniel Casarez/Vida en el Valle
The struggle with valley fever has been tough on Emily Gorospe. “I hate valley fever. Why did it have to pick me?” she said.
Credit Daniel Casarez/Vida en el Valle
Valley fever stole Emily Gorospe’s energy to dance. Sometimes, she was even too tired to make it through the school day.
Credit Daniel Casarez/Vida en el Valle
Valerie Gorospe, Emily’s mom, said it was heart breaking to watch her daughter stop dancing.
By Yesenia Amaro, Reporting On Health Collaborative
What is valley fever?
Valley fever, also known as coccidioidomycosis, is a disease caused by a fungus called coccidioides immitis found in the soil primarily in certain parts of the Southwestern United States, Mexico and Central and South America. A person can become infected by inhaling the spores of the fungus. The infection starts in the lungs, but can spread to other organs in the body and the bones.
California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a package of bills into law today. The Governor signed 59 bills in all.
One will prevent landlords from requiring online-only rental payments. Another will require sports facilities to post written notices with the text and phone numbers of security so fans can report violence. That law stems from a Los Angeles Dodgers fan beating up and causing brain damage to a San Francisco Giants fan on opening day last year.
A West Virginia resident is the third person to die of hantavirus in the last month after visiting Yosemite National Park. The outbreak of the rare disease, which is contracted through contact with the urine or feces of infected deer mice has prompted a worldwide health advisory for individuals who visited the park earlier this summer. A total of eight cases have been reported so far. All of the cases but one involve people who stayed at the "Signature Tent Cabins" at Yosemite's Curry Village. The other case involves a person who visited camps in the High Sierra.
