Karen D'Souza
Karen covers arts education, literacy, and early education. She is an award-winning writer who comes to EdSource after covering lifestyle, parenting, health, housing, education and the arts for the San Jose Mercury News. She is a four-time Pulitzer juror and her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and Seattle Times. She has an MA in journalism and a BA in political science and dramatic art from UC Berkeley.
All articles by Karen D'Souza
Can arts education help children heal from trauma?
Arts and music can nurture a visceral feeling of belonging that can help combat the isolation that often follows a tragic event, experts say.
Karen D'Souza
March 12, 2024
Does California need teacher residencies for arts educators?
Arts education advocates hope to create more alternate pathways for teachers at the TK-12 level.
Karen D'Souza
March 4, 2024
Turning around a high-needs Los Angeles school with the arts
Principal Marcos Hernandez sees the arts as a path to healing children from the scars left by grinding poverty in his LAUSD school.
Karen D'Souza
March 1, 2024
Arts education takes flight outdoors in Mariposa County
Teachers and students tap into a native tradition in which art and nature have always been inextricably linked.
Karen D'Souza
February 15, 2024
Gov. Newsom’s budget proposal calls for expanding arts ed pathway
The proposal aims to help working artists become arts teachers in elementary schools.
Karen D'Souza
January 29, 2024
Career Technical Education: A pathway for arts educators
For many artists, teaching is a dream gig, a way to enrich lives as well as stimulate higher levels of critical thinking in a generation hard hit by pandemic learning loss.
Karen D'Souza
January 8, 2024
California's missing kids: Much of the loss explained
Experts say they know what happened to about 65,000 children missing from California public schools, but what happened to 87,000 others remains a mystery.
Karen D'Souza
December 18, 2023
Lawsuit intensifies spotlight on free speech controversies at UC Berkeley
The social strife rampant on campuses across the country, experts say, may be indicative of a deeply divided nation coping with myriad crises, foreign and domestic.
Karen D'Souza
December 6, 2023
What is arts integration? Q&A with Mike Stone
Engagement is rarely a problem for students of music and arts, teachers say, because they love to go to school.
Karen D'Souza
November 22, 2023
Teacher uses jazz to explore California history, race and culture
Making music is a uniquely social experience that invites children to collaborate with their peers on projects that both require and reward focus and discipline, experts say, qualities that also fuel academic success.
Karen D'Souza
November 20, 2023
Meet School Gig: A new app to connect schools and artists
The app is part of an ongoing effort to bang the drum for Proposition 28 to help recruit thousands of arts educators.
Karen D'Souza
November 2, 2023
Merryl Goldberg, a music professor on a mission to spread arts education
Access to the arts is an issue of equity, Goldberg says, particularly for the first-generation college students she teaches.
Karen D'Souza
October 20, 2023
On the heels of Proposition 28, California colleges pave new pathways for arts teachers
Many colleges are hustling to create new teacher pipelines to feed the growing need for the next generation of arts educators in California schools.
Karen D'Souza
October 13, 2023
Allison Gamlen’s journey from actor to arts educator
The lessons that arts educators hope to impart go far beyond acting. Many also hope to help create a nurturing environment for a generation of students living through tumultuous times.
Karen D'Souza
September 14, 2023
The power of arts education: A conversation with Letty Kraus
The director of the California County Superintendents Statewide Arts Initiative the potential impacts and likely challenges in implementing Prop. 28.