April 2010

Hundreds of teachers gather to contest LBUSD layoffs

04-13-2010

By Kevin Butler/Long Beach Press-Telegram

When teacher Rebecca Roe on Monday heard her name called out at Wilson High School, she experienced pangs of anxiety. She was among more than 400 teachers who were gathered at the school's auditorium to learn whether the Long Beach Unified School District intends to lay them off at the end of the year. "I felt my heart race a little bit and felt a kind of panic feeling," said Roe, an English teacher at Poly High School. For Roe it was bad news. This is her sixth year as a teacher, but she's spent only three in the LBUSD. Because layoffs are largely based on seniority in the district - with the least senior employees targeted first - Roe knew that she was at risk. "But now it's real," she said. (more...)

What happened to civil rights in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act signed by President Johnson on April 11, 1965?

04-13-2010

Opinion by Jack Loveridge/California Progress Report

With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) getting underway on Capitol Hill, a meaningful anniversary will pass unobserved in Washington. Forty-five years ago this Sunday, President Lyndon Johnson signed the act, rebranded by the Bush Administration as No Child Left Behind, into law. With the stroke of a pen, the federal government’s role in public education was revolutionized, placing emphasis on ensuring educational opportunity in low-income communities. The law came as a critical step in the Great Society legislation package designed to fight poverty and racism. For Johnson, who was trained as a schoolteacher and had taught in a poor Latino community in Texas, ESEA held as much potential for fighting racial injustice as the Civil Rights Act passed the previous year. (more...)

State teachers union targets education bill

04-13-2010

By Cristina Silva/Miami Herald

As a Democratic bulwark in a state governed by Republicans, Florida's main teachers' union is used to political attacks. But the current fight over Senate Bill 6 threatens its very survival. A veto from Gov. Charlie Crist on the Republican-led effort to dramatically overhaul how teachers are paid and recertified would be heralded as the union's most significant victory in years. Conversely, Crist's signature on the bill would trigger an immediate power shift that would threaten the union's clout. So the Florida Education Association is leading an urgent battle to defeat the legislation. ``When teachers get kicked, they usually rally together,'' said Andy Ford, president of the FEA, one of Tallahassee's most powerful lobbying groups with more than 140,000 members, including teachers, school janitors and bus drivers. (more...)

Bill would allow layoffs of teachers with seniority

04-13-2010

By Jennifer Medina/New York Times

When the Bloomberg administration raised the prospect of teacher layoffs this year, administration officials complained that they would be forced to get rid of the youngest newest teachers, and called on legislators to rewrite the seniority rules. That wish may be one step closer. Two Democratic state lawmakers have sponsored a bill that would give principals in New York City the power to choose who should lose their jobs if the city needs to lay off teachers because of budget cuts. The bill is certain to raise the ire of teachers’ unions, which remain a powerful force in Albany. It could provoke also a new round of battles between the United Federation of Teachers and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who have had an icy relationship for months and are fighting over a new teachers’ contract. (more...)

Advocates weigh Obama's commitment to early ed.

04-13-2010

By Linda Jacobson/Education Week

A year ago, President Barack Obama’s budget pledge to make early-childhood education one of his top priorities created enormous excitement among advocates who had long pushed for greater federal investment. The president had spoken eloquently on the benefits of high-quality preschool and of preparing all children for success before they enter kindergarten. States planned long-delayed improvements in the quality of early-childhood education, hoping for a windfall in new federal funding. The excitement has cooled a bit. President Obama’s historic remaking of the country’s health-care system and the related measure overhauling student loans last month ultimately failed to include money for his proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund, which would have provided competitive grants to help states both create and improve the quality of services for at-risk children from birth to age 5. (more...)

Obama's plan to reward schools for innovation sparks debate

04-14-2010

By Nick Anderson/Washington Post

At Adelphi Elementary School, students peel away from their classrooms twice a week for tutorials in reading and math. Clusters of five or six children shuffle into a book closet, a hallway, a computer lab or any place teachers can fit a few chairs for 45 minutes of catch-up lessons or enrichment. Such all-out efforts helped this Prince George's County school win a national award this year for gains in test scores. But the federal anti-poverty program that funds the academic drive at Adelphi represents a model of education reform -- spreading aid to states based on population and need -- that is fast going out of fashion. President Obama aims to reinvent the Education Department as a venture capitalist for school reform, investing more in schools with innovative ideas. (more...)

Simitian introduces kindergarten readiness bill

04-14-2010

California Chronicle

State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) announced legislation to change the minimum age for children entering kindergarten. The proposal, supported by policy experts and education advocates, would boost kindergarten readiness and save an estimated $700 million annually, totaling $9.1 billion over a 13 year period. Under current law, children entering kindergarten must be five years old by December 2nd of that school year. Simitian´s Senate Bill 1381 would require that students starting kindergarten must turn five by September 1st of the school year. The new age requirement would be phased in over three years beginning in 2012. (more...)

Charter schools: Are they always a salvation?

04-14-2010

Opinion by Timm Herdt/Ventura County Star

It’s popular in political circles these days to speak of charter schools as the most important educational development since the advent of compulsory education. Everybody loves charter schools. The Obama administration insists that if states want a piece of its Race to the Top education grants, they can place no limits on the number of charters they allow. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has become a national cheerleader for the movement. In California, every candidate for governor advocates expansion of charter schools; as mayor of Oakland, Jerry Brown was instrumental in creating a couple, of which he is fiercely proud. (more...)

Funding California's future

04-14-2010

Opinion by Jim Miller/Huffington Post

As our March for California's Future makes its way closer to Sacramento the bottom line is this: we need to get serious and decide what kind of future we want for our children and our children's children. Do we want to spend more money on prisons than on schools? Do we want to sacrifice opportunity for the majority of Californians so those at the top of the economic ladder and some of the most powerful corporations do not have to make any sacrifices at all? Consider the fact that the top one percent of earners in California has nearly doubled its share of income over the past twenty years from 13 percent to 25 percent. Ponder the reality that, despite the mantra of the anti-tax zealots, taxes are not higher now in California than they have ever been. (more...)

Thousands of Miami-Dade teachers take part in sickout

04-14-2010

By Patricia Mazzei, Hannah Sampson and KathleenMcGrory/Miami Herald

In the most dramatic show of opposition in the state, more than 6,300 of Miami-Dade's 21,260 public-school teachers took a personal or sick day Monday to protest controversial legislation that would overhaul their pay. Though schools remained open and were staffed by substitute teachers, the ``sickout'' -- though most teachers said they took personal days -- was large enough to disrupt the day for thousands of schoolchildren. Later, more than 1,000 teachers gathered at Tropical Park in Westchester to drive the point home. That Monday's protest took place in the diverse, largely low-income Miami-Dade school district -- the state's largest -- was enough to catch the attention of Gov. Charlie Crist, who has until Friday to sign or veto the bill. (more...)

Analysis: Pension funds for teachers are short billions

04-14-2010

By Greg Toppo/USA TODAY

The multibillion-dollar pension funds that promise to pay lifetime benefits to millions of the USA's retired teachers are more than $900 billion in the red, a new analysis shows. The shortfall could put taxpayers on the hook for nearly three times as much as the funds say they need to balance the books. The analysis, released Tuesday from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the Foundation for Educational Choice, finds that all 59 funds that cover most teachers face shortfalls. Collectively, the researchers say, the funding gap equals more than $932.5 billion, or about $600 billion more than the funds themselves claim in financial statements. The researchers attribute only $116 billion of the discrepancy to turmoil in the stock market. (more...)

3,880 Capo students take part in sickout

04-14-2010

By Scott Martindale/Orange County Register

An estimated 3,880 students across the Capistrano Unified School District, mostly at the elementary level, stayed home Tuesday as families staged a one-day “student strike” to protest a 10.1 percent pay cut imposed on teachers by the school board. Attendance at the district’s 35 elementary campuses was down 16 percent, hovering at an 80 percent attendance rate versus the average 96 percent. Attendance at the district’s nine middle schools and six high schools, meanwhile, was only down about 1 percent below the annual average. (more...)

LAUSD board rescinds 1,400 layoff notices, OKs plan to shorten school year

04-14-2010

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

The Los Angeles Unified school board Tuesday unanimously approved rescinding layoff notices for more than 1,400 teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians, sealing a tentative deal reached between local educators and the district earlier this month. The board's vote finalizes the agreement that was approved this weekend by more than 80 percent of United Teachers Los Angeles members who voted in favor of taking 12 furlough days over the next two years to save the jobs of pink-slipped colleagues. The agreement also calls for shortening the school year by a week this year and next. (more...)

L.A. school officials approve job-saving pact that shortens school year

04-14-2010

Blog by Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Local schools officials Tuesday ratified a deal with the teachers union that will shorten the academic year by five days both this year and next. The pact, approved 7-0 by the Los Angeles Board of Education, saves the jobs of 1,280 permanent elementary teachers. As a result, class sizes are expected to remain at the current 24 students per teacher in the early elementary grades. (Prior to this year, the maximum class size was 20 at that level.) Also spared are 85 counselors at middle schools and high schools and 56 school nurses. “I realize that pay cuts are especially hard at this time,” said board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, who, like other top officials, commented in a district statement. “Our teachers and principals are heroes for agreeing to this necessary, but unwelcomed, change. (more...)

School board: Let's not chase money

04-14-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

San Diego Unified is under pressure from California and the federal government to make dramatic changes at its lowest performing schools. The carrot is up to $4 million for each of its three eligible schools. The stick is -- well, there is no stick. But the school district has decided that it won't bite at that carrot. Instead, it will set forth its own plans for the schools, whether or not they meet the government guidelines. Doing so could make the school district unlikely to get the funding, but the school board says figuring out what schools need to improve -- not what they need to get the money -- is their goal. "Let's apply for the money," school board President Richard Barrera said. "But let's not throw our schools into chaos because we're chasing money." (more...)

Summer school to go on despite budget woes

04-14-2010

San Diego News Network

The San Diego Unified School District Board of Education tonight unanimously agreed to continue operating summer school despite a perilous financial situation. The school board rejected a companion proposal to stop requiring summer school for students in danger of being retained at a grade level. District officials allocated $4.6 million for summer school for nearly 1,700 students who might be kept behind in first, third and eighth grades; about 10,600 who need to make up a D or F grade in a core subject; and others who will start taking algebra. Summer sessions will be held at elementary and middle school campuses that will already be open for special education programs, and most high schools. (more...)

Special ed option for laid off teachers

04-14-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

A one-year-old nonprofit is serving as a matchmaker between an abundant supply of soon to be laid-off teachers and a critical shortage of special ed instructors. As a result, at least several thousand vacant special ed positions likely will be filled this fall by teachers who would otherwise be looking at unemployment or substitute teaching. The California Teacher Corps announced this week that it is expediting efforts at retraining teachers who are interested in becoming certified to teach special education. The Corps represents alternative certification programs, which are particularly suited for individuals seeking second careers as teachers and, in this case, for teachers interested in changing their specialty. (more...)

A sprig of verbena and the gifts of a great teacher

04-14-2010

By Kathleen Parker/Washington Post

One of President Obama's consistent education themes has been the wish that every child cross paths with that one teacher who hits the light switch and changes one's life. Each time he expresses some iteration of that thought, I suspect thousands or millions think briefly of the person who held that distinction in their life. The light master. Or, in my case, the one who extended an imaginary sprig of verbena and, holding it to his nose, inhaled deeply in a gesture of solidarity with William Faulkner. That scene took place in my 11th-grade English class, oh, a few years ago. The teacher was mine for only three months, but he changed my life in a flicker of light. I thought of him Monday when -- if you'll grant me this small indulgence -- I was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. (more...)

Teacher merit pay captures attention across U.S.

04-15-2010

By Hannah Sampson/Miami Herald

As a nation tentatively moves in the direction of judging teachers by the test scores of their students, Florida lawmakers have positioned the state at the forefront with polarizing legislation that awaits action by Gov. Charlie Crist. He has until Friday to decide whether to sign or veto a bill that abolishes tenure and ties teacher evaluations to student performance. `SB 6 would be the most sweeping statewide approach,'' said Rob Weil, deputy director of educational issues for the American Federation of Teachers, which opposes the bill. ``SB 6 says all in.'' Even some fans of performance pay predict the state's approach will send the bill to the landfill rather than the state's law books. (more...)

Sen. Harkin proposes $23 billion bailout for schools

04-15-2010

a By Nick Anderson/Washington Post

As public schools nationwide face larger class sizes and cuts in programs, the Senate's leading Democrat on education issues proposed a $23 billion bailout Wednesday to help avert layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers and other school personnel in the coming academic year. The bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa), a potential sequel to the economic stimulus law enacted last year, joins the mix of spending initiatives the Democratic-led Congress will consider this spring on issues such as aid to small business and appropriations for the war in Afghanistan. Educators nationwide are warning that their finances have been stretched to the breaking point. (more...)

Gov. vetoes ambitious Fla. teacher pay-tenure bill

04-15-2010

By Bill Kaczor/Miami Herald

Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a bill Thursday that would have made it easier to fire Florida teachers and link their pay to student test scores, a move that will anger Republican legislative leaders and former Gov. Jeb Bush. Some say Crist's rejection of the measure (SB 6) signals that he is about to drop out of the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, where he badly trails in the polls, and run as an independent. The bill, the most far-reaching legislation of its kind in the nation, had strong backing from Republican conservatives, including Bush, who had worked for its passage. It generated protests by teachers and parents across the state and had scant public support. The bill, which conservative academics and politicians called transformative, would have eliminated tenure for newly hired teachers and required school districts to establish merit pay plans for teachers and administrators. (more...)

Duncan urges new aid to save education jobs

04-15-2010

By Alyson Klein/Education Week

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today urged Congress to pass new aid to preserve education jobs. He testified before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that deals with education spending on the same day the panel’s chairman introduced a bill that would provide $23 billion for that purpose. The legislation offered by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, would be modeled on the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. That fund was included in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic-stimulus measure approved by Congress last year. The money could be used for compensation and benefits to help districts hold on to existing employees and to hire new staff members to provide early-childhood, K-12, or postsecondary services. (more...)

California's bad news budget threatens education reform

04-15-2010

By Ramon Cortines/Huffington Post

Chairman Harkin and subcommittee members, thank you for this invitation to testify on behalf of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation's second largest. I am Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines. Our enrollment of 618,000 students is larger than the total number of students who attend public school in 25 states. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank Chairman Harkin for his strong leadership and advocacy for education issues in the Congress. We stand together in the march toward an educated America, where all students are prepared and encouraged to read, write, think and speak as 21st Century learners who will become the next generation of leaders, teachers, doctors, engineers, writers, electricians, contractors, and business owners. (more...)

U.S. falls short in measure of future math teachers

04-15-2010

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

The researchers who led the math study in this country, to be released in Washington on Thursday, judged the results acceptable if not encouraging for America’s future elementary teachers. But they called them disturbing for American students heading to careers in middle schools, who were outscored by students in Germany, Poland, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan. On average, 80 percent to 100 percent of the future middle school teachers from the highest-achieving countries took advanced courses like linear algebra and calculus, while only 50 percent to 60 percent of their counterparts in the United States took those courses, the study said. (more...)

Mississippi school district ordered to end racial segregation

04-15-2010

By Warren Richey/Christian Science Monitor

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a Mississippi school district to halt local policies that had allowed some of the district’s schools and classes to become racially segregated. US District Judge Tom Lee gave the Walthall County School District 30 days to amend its student transfer policy and ordered an immediate halt to the alleged “clustering” of white students into certain classes in Tylertown, Miss., elementary schools. “The district shall cease using race in the assignment of students to classrooms in a manner that results in the racial segregation of students,” Judge Lee said in his eight-page order. “The district shall randomly assign students to classrooms at the Tylertown Elementary Schools through the use of a student management software program,” the judge said. (more...)

Odd priorities: LAUSD furloughs teachers, shortens school year - and buys solar panels!

04-15-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Daily News

This week the Los Angeles Unified School District made some hard choices in the face of budget deficits. All things considered, cutting the school year by one week, or five school days, this year and the next is vastly better than laying off 1,400 people and increasing class size. It will cost teachers, who agreed to take 12 furlough days to save jobs, and working parents, who will have to arrange care for their kids those days. But when times are tough, these are the kinds of hard choices that everyone - from individuals to public organizations - must make to get by. But it undercuts the district's cries of poverty when on the very same day that the Board of Education approved a drastic cost-saving measure it also gave a nod to borrow millions to pay for capital improvements, some of highly questionable need. (more...)

Santa Ana schools will undergo drastic reform for federal funds

04-15-2010

Blog by Corey G. Johnson/California Watch

Since March, Santa Ana Unified School District, the third largest district in California, has been faced with this dilemma: Do we apply for the federal School Improvement Grants and undergo drastic reform, or do we forgo the program and pass up much-needed federal dollars? Last week, based upon the fine reporting by the Contra Costa Times, we wrote about a loophole that would allow districts like Santa Ana Unified to further avoid the reform measures, if they so desired. Wednesday, Santa Ana announced they would take the money and the reform. According to the Orange County Register, six schools – Century High, Santa Ana High, Saddleback High, Valley High, Willard Intermediate and Sierra Intermediate – will apply for SIG money and begin restructuring plans. (more...)

How a strict earthquake safety law doesn't apply to all schools

04-15-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

San Diegans have earthquakes on the mind after a series of Baja temblors rattled homes and nerves here two weeks ago. They have less to worry about their children's schools: California public schools are seen nationally as the gold standard for seismic safety under an exacting law called the Field Act. But not all schools are subject to the rules. Preschools aren't covered by them. Private schools are covered by a separate, slightly less demanding law, which doesn't apply at all to older private schools. And charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run, don't fall under the Field Act unless they accept state facilities money -- something that is rare here -- or use district buildings. (more...)

An impasse in union-district negotiations

04-15-2010

By Lisa Schiff/San Francisco Beyond Chron

The current protracted economic crisis may feel old and far too familiar, but it never seems to stop bringing bad news, especially for public education. With a looming projected budget gap of at least $113 billion over the next two years, the Board of Education (BOE) of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) voted back in late February to deliver about 900 pink slips to teachers in order to meet the legally required deadline for notification of potential layoffs. While it is typical that not all those receiving that first notification will be laid off, the number is higher than it’s been in a long time. Because of the magnitude of the number of positions potentially affected and the impact on students and schools, the teachers’ union (United Editors of San Francisco, or UESF) and the SFUSD began negotiations recently to see what kinds of accommodations and strategies could bring that unbelievably high number down. (more...)

Report: Poor pay higher state tax share

04-15-2010

By Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

California's poorest residents cough up a higher share of their income to fund the state services than those in the highest income bracket. And as tardy taxpayers face today's deadline for submitting state and federal income tax forms, the poor have also run headlong into California's economic problems. "It's a good-news, bad-news situation," said Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, whose report released this week outlined the inequities of taxation in California. "In the name of helping the economy, the federal government has lowered taxes to targeted groups, such as families with children. State had to balance its budget so it increased the taxes. It can't `deficit-spend' like the feds." (more...)

Increasing number of students will face shortened school year

04-16-2010

Blog by Louis Freedberg/California Watch

The state's budget crisis is putting so much pressure on public school districts that some are being forced to trim the school year before school gets out this year. Last month, I wrote about proposals in the majority of California's largest school districts to shorten the coming school year by granting teachers unpaid furlough days. But on Tuesday, the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the state's largest school district by far, voted to shorten the current school year by a week before summer vacation begins in June. That means teachers must now figure out how to finish up their lesson plans with one less week to teach. Parents will have to arrange activities for kids who will be out of school for an unplanned week. (more...)

Florida Governor splits with G.O.P. on teacher pay

04-16-2010

By Trip Gabriel and Damien Cave/New York Times

Gov. Charlie Crist has been jawboned and buttonholed as he has traveled around the state in recent days, and his office was deluged with 120,000 messages. Passions have not run so high in Florida, the governor said, since the controversy over ending the life of Terri Schiavo in 2005. This time, the point of contention was eliminating tenure for Florida public school teachers and tying their pay and job security to how well their students were learning. On Thursday, Mr. Crist picked a side, vetoing a bill passed last week by the Florida Legislature that would have introduced the most sweeping teacher pay changes in the nation. The veto puts Mr. Crist, a moderate Republican, at odds with his party base in the Republican-controlled Legislature. (more...)

Teacher training no boon for student math scores

04-16-2010

By Debra Viadero/Education Week

First-year findings from a federal study of 77 middle schools suggest that even intensive, state-of-the-art efforts to boost teachers’ skills on the job may not lead to significant gains in student achievement right away. The "Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study," which was released April 6, is the second major experimental study by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to find that a high-quality professional-development program failed to translate into any dramatic improvements in student learning. A two-year study of efforts to improve teachers’ instructional skills in early reading reached a similar conclusion in 2008. (more...)

Advocates push new definition of career readiness

04-16-2010

By Catherine Gewertz/Education Week

As educators push schools to produce high school graduates who are ready to succeed in college or good jobs, an association of professionals in career and technical education is trying to influence policy by defining what it considers to be “career readiness.” The definition, issued this week by the Association for Career and Technical Education, arrives as policymakers try to delineate the skills and knowledge students need to thrive as they move into higher education or a rapidly changing work world. A rough consensus is emerging on a definition of college readiness as the ability to pass entry-level, credit-bearing courses without remediation. But the definition of “career ready” generally gets less attention and is often rolled into the definition of college-readiness. (more...)

When school reform made teachers sick -- literally

04-16-2010

Blog by Valerie Strauss/Washington Post

There is a small story in education historian Diane Ravitch’s new book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” that policymakers should be forced to read whenever they are imposing yet another school reform plan on a school district. It is about school reform implemented so forcefully that teachers got sick. Not sick and tired of being told what to do by people who had never been in front of a classroom, but actually, physically, sick. In the chapter called “Lessons From San Diego,” Ravitch, a New York University professor, tells the story of reform in that urban district from 1998 to 2005, when the school system was under the control of Superintendent Alan Bersin. Bersin had been a federal prosecutor and was President Clinton's border czar-- and now holds essentially the same job under President Obama-- but he was never an educator. (more...)

Documentary shows no 'Superman' salvation for schools

04-16-2010

By Dakarai Aarons/Education Week

Documentaries have made the same point over and over: America's public school system is failing many students and doing a pitiful job at preparing those we do graduate to compete in a global economy. But in a new documentary film, an Academy Award-winning director is hoping to tell that story in a way that makes it more personal and inspires action. "The challenge of the movie for us is how to tell the story in a different way," said Davis Guggenheim, the director of "Waiting for Superman," as he introduced the film to members of the national press and tastemakers at a screening in downtown Washington, D.C., last night. "We want the film to reach people and affect people." (more...)

Push for new kindergarten cutoff

04-16-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

A Senate bill to move up the cutoff date for enrolling in kindergarten and to fund preschool with half of the savings has sailed through its first committee. But similar attempts have faltered, even though child advocates and developmental psychologists universally agree that it’s an educationally sound and fiscally smart idea. California is one of only four states that allow some 4-year-olds to attend kindergarten. The cutoff date for turning five in California is Dec. 2. Sen. Joe Simitian’s SB 1381 would gradually shift the date so that starting in 2014, a child would have to be 5 years old by Sept. 1 to be admitted to kindergarten. Doing so would reduce enrollment by an estimated 100,000 children over the phase-in period and reduce the state’s kindergarten costs by $700 million. (more...)

Oakland schools fact-finding report released

04-16-2010

By Jill Tucker/San Francisco Chronicle

With a one-day teacher strike looming in Oakland, a fact-finding report released Thursday gave both the district and the teachers union some ammunition in the bitter battle over a new labor contract. The report, a required step following failed contract negotiations, validated the district's claims of financial desperation, but it also gave a nod to the Oakland Education Association's claims of relatively low teacher pay and need for small class sizes. It urged both sides to get over the past - a history mired in fiscal mismanagement and bitterness. Negotiators have been trying to reach a contract agreement for two years. Union officials said the major sticking points include pay, class size increases and proposed staff reductions in the adult education programs. (more...)

Capo teachers: District offer to talk a 'sham'

04-16-2010

By Scott Martindale/Orange County Register

Capistrano Unified trustees said Wednesday they are willing to talk over some final terms of the 10.1 percent pay cut imposed on teachers, including the possibility that the cut would not become permanent, but union leaders swiftly condemned the gesture as an attempt at “sham bargaining” just two days before teachers may authorize a strike. School board President Anna Bryson said in a letter to union leaders Wednesday that the district is willing to “begin discussions to conclude any remaining 2009-10 contract items,” although she confirmed that trustees are not reopening contract negotiations. (more...)

Long Beach teachers gather for another layoff hearing

04-16-2010

By Kevin Butler/Long Beach Press-Telegram

Elementary school teacher Sandra Irwin on Thursday had one number on her mind: 1,163. That was her place on the 845-page teacher "seniority" list that will largely determine which teachers in the Long Beach Unified School District will lose their jobs at the end of the year. The district has warned 849 employees, mostly teachers, that their jobs are at risk. Under state law, layoffs generally are done by seniority, with the most junior teachers losing their jobs first. On Thursday, Irwin and more than 400 other teachers gathered at Wilson High School for the the second day of hearings in which they can contest their layoff warning notices before an administrative law judge. (more...)

Charter extension denied to low-scoring Stanford school

04-16-2010

By Carol Pogash/New York Times

A charter school created and overseen by Stanford University’s School of Education was denied an extension of its charter on Wednesday night after several members of the school board labeled it a failure. Last month the state placed the charter school, Stanford New School, on its list of persistently lowest-achieving schools. After the Ravenswood City School Board voted 3 to 2 to deny a five-year extension to Stanford New School, it asked its superintendent to work on a plan with the charter school for major revisions and a possible provisional two-year charter extension. If board members do not approve such a plan — and it was not clear that members would be amenable — and if there is no other reprieve, Stanford New School will close in June. (more...)

Bill would end layoffs by seniority

04-19-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Proposals that Gov. Schwarzenegger made during his budget speech in January to weaken teacher tenure and seniority rights have finally taken bill form. Republican Sen. Bob Huff introduced SB 955 on the governor’s behalf last week. Its chief provisions would be to give local school boards, instead of the Commission on Professional Competence, final say over firing teachers, and to enable districts to lay off teachers based on a district’s subject needs and teacher effectiveness, instead of by seniority. The California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers will likely fight every piece of the bill. (more...)

High school students from the Los Angeles Unified School District visit UCLA for Exploring Computer Science Day

04-19-2010

By Andra Lim/UCLA Daily Bruin

Until this semester, high school junior Sharon Friedman used her computer to do homework and socialize with friends. But when she started taking Exploring Computer Science, a class created by UCLA in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District, she began to see that computers are more than just a portal to the Internet. “I never realized you could make games using a computer,” the Hollywood High School student said, adding that she created her own version of Pacman during one unit of the course. From 2000 to 2004, a UCLA research team investigated why so few females, blacks and Latinos were learning computer science at the high school level. Out of this research, a team of UCLA-based experts in education and computer science worked with LAUSD, one of the most diverse districts in the country, to build the course Exploring Computer Science. (more...)

Teacher training no boon for student math scores

04-19-2010

By Debra Viadero/Education Week

First-year findings from a federal study of 77 middle schools suggest that even intensive, state-of-the-art efforts to boost teachers’ skills on the job may not lead to significant gains in student achievement right away. The "Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study," which was released April 6, is the second major experimental study by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to find that a high-quality professional-development program failed to translate into any dramatic improvements in student learning. A two-year study of efforts to improve teachers’ instructional skills in early reading reached a similar conclusion in 2008. (more...)

The examined life, age 8

04-19-2010

By Abby Goodnough/New York Times

A few times each month, second graders at a charter school in Springfield, Mass., take time from math and reading to engage in philosophical debate. There is no mention of Hegel or Descartes, no study of syllogism or solipsism. Instead, Prof. Thomas E. Wartenberg and his undergraduate students from nearby Mount Holyoke College use classic children’s books to raise philosophical questions, which the young students then dissect with the vigor of the ancient Greeks. Mount Holyoke College students guide the philosophical process. (more...)

$3.5 billion in turnaround aid flowing to states

04-19-2010

By Lesli A. Maxwell/Education Week

The largest-ever federal investment in fixing low-achieving schools is now flowing to states, raising the pressure on district leaders to make tough—and quick—decisions about firing principals, replacing teachers, or shutting down schools entirely. Since last month, the U.S. Department of Education has been sending states their shares of $3.5 billion in Title I School Improvement Grants, money provided mostly by last year’s economic-stimulus package, as well as from $546 million in regular fiscal 2009 appropriations. Less than six months from now, selected schools that rank among the bottom 5 percent in their states—the priority under the grant program—will be required to launch one of four “turnaround” strategies outlined by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. (more...)

Teacher layoff threat brews uncertainty at new Rancho Cordova school

04-19-2010

By Diana Lambert/Sacramento Bee

Next school year, students returning to Sunrise Elementary School in Rancho Cordova may recognize only half their teachers. The other half are targeted for layoffs and likely will be replaced by district teachers with more seniority. Teachers at Elk Grove Unified's newest campus are trying to be upbeat for students, but there is an undeniable undercurrent of stress. "It's very discouraging and disheartening to put this type of effort into this job and to have this kind of expectation for the future," said sixth-grade teacher Tim Martin. "It can make it difficult to keep up good morale." (more...)

Merit-pay bill deserved Crist’s veto

04-19-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Following up on the veto by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist of a merit-pay plan: The Educated Guess doesn’t know much about the politics of Florida’s U.S. Senate race, in which Crist, a Republican, is apparently trailing. Some, like the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, speculate that Crist vetoed the merit-pay bill that Republicans jammed through the legislature, because he plans to run as an Independent and wants to cater to teachers. I know only that Crist showed good judgment. The two elements of the Florida bill – pay for performance and tenure reform – are critical to pursue in California as in Florida. But they must be adopted thoughtfully, in collaboration with teachers. In Florida, they were imposed hastily in calculated pursuit of additional points for the state’s Race to the Top application. (more...)

Capistrano Unified teachers authorize strike

04-19-2010

By Scott Martindale/Orange County Register

Capistrano Unified School District teachers, frustrated and angry over a 10.1 percent pay cut imposed on them by the school board, have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, union leaders announced Friday. Nearly 87 percent of the 1,848 teachers who cast ballots over a two-day period ending Friday voted to give their union governing board the power to decide when, or if, they will walk off the job. Hundreds of students, teachers and parents gather outside Capistrano Unified School District headquarters in San Juan Capistrano on Tuesday night to protest the 10.1 pay cut imposed on teachers by the school board. “The teachers really get what this is all about,” said Vicki Soderberg, president of the Aliso Viejo-based Capistrano Unified Education Association union. “We are standing up to the bullies (the school board), and we are standing up for our rights to bargain our contract and not be bullied.” (more...)

Alternate path for teachers gains ground

04-19-2010

By Lisa W. Foderaro/New York Times

Not long ago education schools had a virtual monopoly on the teaching profession. They dictated how and when people became teachers by offering coursework, arranging apprenticeships and granting master’s degrees. But now those schools are feeling under siege. Officials in Washington, D.C., and New York State, where some of the best-known education schools are located, have stepped up criticisms that the schools are still too focused on theory and not enough on the craft of effective teaching. In an ever-tightening job market, their graduates are competing with the products of alternative programs like Teach for America, which puts recent college graduates into teaching jobs without previous teaching experience or education coursework. (more...)

School districts warn of even deeper teacher cuts

04-20-2010

By Tamar Lewin and Sam Dillon/New York Times

School districts around the country, forced to resort to drastic money-saving measures, are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June. The districts have no choice, they say, because their usual sources of revenue — state money and local property taxes — have been hit hard by the recession. In addition, federal stimulus money earmarked for education has been mostly used up this year. As a result, the 2010-11 school term is shaping up as one of the most austere in the last half century. In addition to teacher layoffs, districts are planning to close schools, cut programs, enlarge class sizes and shorten the school day, week or year to save money. (more...)

Teacher power: The new force in American politics

04-20-2010

By Anthony Cody/Teacher Magazine

Last Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle had a front page article about Democratic Party candidates attempting to whip up enthusiasm among their followers, to rival the energy seen in the Tea Party across the country. Politicians need look no further than Florida to see where the grassroots activity will come from. Energized by a terrible law that would have diverted 5% of education money into tests, which would be used to evaluate and pay teachers, that state's educators, parents and students came out en masse. They protested along roadways, they challenged their politicians on the facts, they clogged their mailboxes and fax machines, they filled Facebook with groups posting the latest news, and made themselves a force to be reckoned with. Governor Charlie Crist, who hopes to soon be Senator Crist, heard the siren call of the "voice of the people" and vetoed that bill last week. (more...)

L.A. study affirms benefits of preschool

04-20-2010

By Carla Rivera/Los Angeles Times

Children enrolled in Los Angeles Universal Preschool programs made significant improvements in the social and emotional skills needed to do well in kindergarten, according to a study released Monday. The gains were especially pronounced for English language learners, the study showed. The findings confirmed observations of preschool teachers that children attending high-quality programs are better prepared for kindergarten. For the first time, the study provided data to back up those observations, officials with the nonprofit preschool organization said. "This is unique because there's very little research in terms of cognitive progression in the preschool years," said Celia C. Ayala, chief operating officer for Los Angeles Universal Preschool. (more...)

U.S. tapping S.F. school's recipe for success

04-20-2010

By Jill Tucker/San Francisco Chronicle

A top education official in the Obama administration sat in San Francisco's Marshall Elementary School cafeteria taking notes Monday as parents, teachers and administrators recited a recipe for what it takes to turn around a struggling school. The main ingredients included quality teachers, involved parents and a supportive principal mixed perhaps with a new dual-immersion language program. Time must be allowed to let it all take hold. It is the kind of formula federal officials would love to see in place at schools across the country. Too many schools are failing year after year with no end in sight, said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller. (more...)

Education supporters near finish of 365-mile march

04-20-2010

By Melody Gutierrez/Sacramento Bee

Education advocates are nearing the end of their 48-day, 365-mile march from Bakersfield to Sacramento to protest cuts to public education. March for California's Future has made stops in dozens of cities along the way, including a layover Monday at Cosumnes River College. More than 250 people, including students, rallied at CRC after a one-mile march. The march will move to Granite Park at 10 a.m. today, where supporters will continue their journey. The event will conclude with Wednesday's march at 3 p.m. from Southside Park to the west lawn of the Capitol, where a rally is planned at 4 p.m. The California Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and other labor unions organized the statewide march. (more...)

The Florida teacher bill

04-20-2010

Expert blog by National Journal

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist last Thursday vetoed legislation approved by the Republican-controlled legislature that would have overhauled the state's education system by eliminating the traditional teacher tenure system and linking teacher pay to student performance. The backlash from teachers, students and other concerned citizens was unprecedented: Crist's office received thousands of e-mails and phone calls in opposition to the bill and protests sprung up across the state. Politics, some have speculated, influenced the governor's decision. Crist, a moderate Republican, is facing a tough Senate primary, and the veto could help him position himself for a possible run as an independent in November. (more...)

Teacher tenure and performance pay in Florida

04-20-2010

Blog by Walt Gardner/Education Week

Gov. Charlie Crist's veto on Apr. 15 of a bill that would have eliminated tenure for public school teachers in Florida and linked their pay to student performance on standardized tests was seen as a bellwether. But the issues raised are far from dead. As a result, this is a propitious time to take a closer look at three lessons that emerge from the state's experience. First, tenure is a two-edged sword. Although it is given too soon in a teacher's career and has been abused, it provides teachers with due-process rights. Brooklyn Technical High School, one of four elite high schools in the New York City school district, serves as a case in point. Beginning in 2003, the New York Times reported how principal Lee McCaskill poisoned the atmosphere by "intimidating and punishing teachers." It went on to document specific acts of personal vindictiveness toward teachers that led to a teacher exodus. (more...)

Capo teachers union offers compromise to avert strike

04-20-2010

By Scott Martindale/Orange County Register

Seeking to avert a strike with an 11th-hour offer to the school board, Capistrano Unified's teachers union has offered to stop fighting a 10.1 percent pay cut imposed on teachers in exchange for a written agreement stating salaries will be restored if the district receives additional "unforeseen" funding. The compromise, which comes just three days after teachers resoundingly authorized going on strike, represents a significant reversal of the union's position. Union leaders previously said teachers would walk off the job unless trustees were willing to renegotiate all elements of the 10.1 percent pay cut imposed in March. "We've moved a whole bunch to avert a strike," Capistrano Unified Education Association President Vicki Soderberg said Monday from the union's offices in Aliso Viejo. "That should say volumes to the public and to the school board." (more...)

Los Angeles Unified School District is set to spend $200M on construction

04-20-2010

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles Unified school board members will spend $200 million in reserves from the district's $20 billion construction bond program to pay for pet projects in each of their districts. The allocation comes as the district borrows money to complete its construction projects and as other voter-approved building plans have been put on hold for lack of funding. District officials said the plan - approved 6-0 on April13 with board member Yolie Flores abstaining - secures funding for "critical" projects in every local district. They include two small adult and middle school campuses in Sun Valley; a school for the Skid Row area; and a long-awaited athletic facility at Dorsey High School in South Los Angeles. (more...)

Another step forward for schoobrary: City signs off on lease

04-20-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

The San Diego City Council gave the green light Monday to an unusual agreement with the San Diego Unified School District that would set aside two floors of the planned downtown library for a middle or high school. Doing so would infuse millions into the downtown project: Including a school is a lifeline for the long beleaguered downtown library, a project in peril until San Diego Unified School District offered to chip in more than $20 million in exchange for the space. Getting the school lease is also crucial if San Diego hopes to keep another $20 million state grant for the project, a key chunk of its financing. If the school board also approves the same lease before May, San Diego will have met the first of two major requirements to keep its state grant. (more...)

Going high-tech in Lawndale

04-20-2010

By Douglas Morino/Torrance Daily Breeze

The future is now in the Lawndale School District. With the help of federal and private grants, the 6,200-student district has implemented computers and online learning technology in middle school classrooms. The aim, district officials said, is to make learning more accessible to students. Teacher lectures are supplemented with digital presentations on interactive whiteboards, students complete work on laptop computers, and they turn in assignments online. All the while, work can be monitored by teachers and parents. "This is 21st century learning," said Tina Nielsen, principal at Rogers Middle School, as students worked on laptop computers in a classroom. "It is a way that gives all kids access to academic content. It makes learning and feedback immediate." (more...)

Race to Top winners chosen arbitrarily -- new report

04-21-2010

Blog by Valerie Strauss/Washington Post

Tennessee and Delaware, the first two states to win education funding through President Obama's $3 billion Race To the Top competition, were chosen through “arbitrary criteria” rather than through a scientific process, according to a new report by a non-partisan research institute. The report called, “Let’s Do the Numbers,” by William Peterson and Richard of the nonprofit, independent Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, says that the 500-point system created to decide the “best” proposals for education reform is based on false precision. In the first round Education Secretary Arne Duncan chose two winners from 16 finalists. Delaware won $100 million, or about $800 per student, and Tennessee was awarded $500 million, or about $500 per student. (more...)

Schwarzenegger backs bill that would change teachers dismissal standards

04-21-2010

By Jason Song/Los Angeles Times

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threw his weight behind state legislation on Tuesday that proposes to give school administrators the ability to assign or fire teachers based on their effectiveness and to streamline the dismissal process. Schwarzenegger made similar suggestions during a speech in January, and state Sen. Bob Huff, (R-Diamond Bar) wrote the bill, which is to be heard in the Legislature on Wednesday. At a press conference Tuesday at Markham Middle School in Watts, Schwarzenegger cited Times stories about the difficulties in evaluating teachers and said California's schools need to operate more like private companies that can make personnel decisions based on merit rather than seniority. Currently the only criterion public school administrators can consider for layoffs is teacher seniority. (more...)

Duncan prescribes drastic measures for schools

04-21-2010

Interview by Neil Conan/NPR

The Obama administration plans drastic measures for underperforming schools. But school systems are being asked to implement these changes just as cash-strapped states nationwide are considering major teacher layoffs. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan feels that the old standard, No Child Left Behind "was, frankly, broken." He explains, "it was far too punitive -- everybody was going to be labeled a failure, eventually." He hopes, with Race For The Top, to raise the bar, to "reward excellence in growth, how much schools are improving each year," and how much graduation rates increase. No Child Left Behind was criticized heavily for over-reliance on test scores as a measure of success. Race For The Top won't abandon testing entirely." (more...)

School budget cuts across the US projected for next academic year

04-21-2010

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo and Amanda Paulson/Christian Science Monitor

The economy may be on the mend, but signs of decline still dominate in America's public schools as they plan their budgets for next year: Thousands of teachers once again brace for pink-slip season; more students will sit elbow-to-elbow in crowded rooms; computers that break down will sit unused; and kids will bring home longer lists of supplies – from crayons to sanitary wipes – that parents are supposed to buy for their classrooms. "It's going to be the most difficult year we've had in probably 30 years," says Michael Griffith, a senior policy analyst with the Education Commission of the States in Denver. Even wealthier districts that have so far been insulated are starting to feel the pinch, he says. (more...)

Neediest schools should be able to keep their best teachers

04-21-2010

Opinion by Arun Ramanathan/San Jose Mercury News

Last month, school districts around California issued layoff notices to 30,000 teachers because of the state budget crisis. It is deplorable that our state has forced the education system to take a disproportionate share of our state's budget cuts over the past three years, forcing this annual layoff process. But what's just as unfortunate is the way that these layoffs are implemented. Instead of keeping the best teachers and laying off those who are least effective, districts were forced to let the newer teachers go first, regardless of how well they did their jobs. In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed to change the outdated state law that prevents schools from considering anything other than how long a teacher has worked in the school system in the layoff process. (more...)

Still no common-core appointments

04-21-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

The decision of whether California should join other states in adopting common-core standards in math and English will have a monumental impact on K-12 education. And yet neither the governor nor the Legislature has made any appointments to the 21-member commission that’s supposed to make the recommendation on common core to the State Board of Education by July 15. That’s less than three months away. The delay in activating the commission is not for lack of interest or understanding its importance. I assume it reflects the intense debate and lobbying behind the scenes over common core and its ramifications. (more...)

China quake awakens new fears for school safety

04-21-2010

Education Week

Last week's earthquake in western China destroyed or left in critical condition more than two-thirds of the schools at the center of the disaster, bringing fresh fears two years after an even larger quake left thousands of students dead. The government last year launched a vast project to inspect and strengthen schools across the country, and about 70,000 of them need work to be made quake-proof, a top education official indicated last month. But some people, including students who survived last week's quake in Yushu county, have angrily asked why schools in the remote Tibetan community hadn't been fixed already. The quake's overall death toll rose to 2,064 Tuesday. (more...)

Ruling on racial isolation in Miss. schools reflects troubling broader trend

04-21-2010

By Stephanie McCrummen/Washington Post

During her elementary school years in this rural Mississippi town, Addreal Harness, a competitive teenager with plans to be a doctor, said her classes had about the same numbers of white and black students. It was a fact she took little note of until the white kids began leaving. Some left in seventh grade, even more in eighth, and by the time Harness, who is African American, reached Tylertown High School, she became aware of talk that has slowly seeped into her 16-year-old psyche -- that some white parents call Tylertown "the black school," while Salem Attendance Center, where many of her white classmates transferred, is known as "the white school." (more...)

L.A. Unified OKs deal to shorten school year

04-21-2010

By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Administrators have overwhelmingly approved a deal that would shorten the school year this year and next, officials announced Tuesday. The pact will reduce the number of employee layoffs in the Los Angeles Unified School District and, with other measures, forestall some class-size increases. Administrators will forego two days of pay next year when students are not in school. The agreement will shorten the school year from 180 to 175 days. Negotiations with L.A. Unified also resulted in the preservation of eight small elementary schools that would have been closed, said Judith Perez, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles. (more...)

Montgomery County to weigh student performance as a third of teachers' reviews

04-21-2010

By Daniel de Vise/Washington Post

Montgomery County teachers and school system leaders signed an agreement Tuesday that calls for test scores and other student performance data to "factor strongly" in one-third of every teacher's evaluation, saying theirs is the first school system in Maryland to specify how much that data will count as a factor in teacher ratings. The teachers and administrators acted in response to a new state law that allows student test scores to be used as a "significant" component of teacher evaluations. The law is part of Maryland's proposal for federal education aid under President Obama's $4 billion "Race to the Top" competition. Maryland is seeking as much as $250 million in the contest, which awards money to states whose applications show the strongest commitment to the president's education reform agenda. (more...)

Long Beach school district to eliminate 90 non-teaching positions

04-21-2010

By Kevin Butler/Long Beach Press-Telegram

The Long Beach Board of Education on Tuesday voted to eliminate 90 non-teaching jobs at the end of this academic year, including custodians, maintenance employees, office workers and other support staff. Another 78 employees will see their hours reduced next academic year - 14 by half or more. The hours reductions and job eliminations, unanimously approved by the five-member board, are in response to state funding cuts to education, according to officials with the Long Beach Unified School District. The amount those cuts would save wasn't immediately available. The district plans to cut $90 million over the next two fiscal years. (more...)

Schwarzenegger backs law to halt layoffs of junior teachers

04-22-2010

Education Week

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he supported a proposed state law that would prevent teacher layoffs based on seniority, a stance that quickly drew the ire of teachers unions while being lauded by civil rights activists. Schwarzenegger appeared at Edwin Markham Middle School in the Watts area of Los Angeles, which lost more than half its teachers in layoffs last year because they were largely new hires. "Several teachers of the year have gotten pink slips. How can that happen if they are award-winning teachers?" the governor told an auditorium full of cheering children. "It is very important we change the system." (more...)

An open letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger from those parents who made a funny video about you

04-22-2010

By Wonderland Avenue PTA/Huffington Post

Two weeks ago, a group of us parents from the Wonderland Avenue PTA unveiled a satirical viral video about the crisis in California schools which will be exacerbated by further cuts proposed in your education budget. The stars of the video are Megan Fox, Brian Austin Green and 90 fifth grade students from our school. Since that time, the video has received approximately a million views on the website Funny or Die, has been featured on over 400 news and entertainment sites, and was the subject of hundreds of national, international and local print and broadcast news stories. It's rare that a local school story universally piques the interest of The Washington Post, Perez Hilton, The O'Reilly Factor, Education Week, as well as virtually every news outlet in the state. (more...)

Local school districts dismiss class-size reductions

04-22-2010

By Diana Lambert/Sacramento Bee

Remember class-size reduction – the push for classes of no more than 20 students per teacher that swept California public schools in the 1990s? The last two years of state budget cuts have sent the pendulum careening back in the other direction. Classes of 30-plus students are once again commonplace in Sacramento-area schools, as districts lay off teachers to balance deflated budgets. Natomas Unified School District has increased class sizes in primary grades by 50 percent in three years, going from 20 students in 2008-09 to 30 students next school year. Sacramento City Unified and Folsom Cordova Unified also are proposing going to 30 students in K-3 classrooms next year; San Juan Unified allows 31. "Right now education is in survivor mode," said Ken Whittemore, assistant superintendent in Natomas Unified. "I'm not saying all the changes are good for children."(more...)

Schools in New Jersey plan heavy cuts after voters reject most budgets

04-22-2010

By Winnie Hu/New York Times

School officials across New Jersey said on Wednesday that they would most likely have to lay off hundreds of teachers, increase class sizes, eliminate sports teams and Advanced Placement classes, cut kindergarten hours and take other radical steps to reduce spending after 58 percent of districts’ budgets were rejected by voters on Tuesday, the most in at least 35 years. Residents went to the polls in record numbers for the normally low-profile school-budget elections, and rejected 316 of the 541 budgets on the ballot. They were angered by higher property taxes that were sought to make up for unusually large state aid reductions proposed by Gov. Christopher J. Christie, along with resentment toward teachers’ unions for not agreeing to wage freezes or concessions. (more...)

Diane Ravitch: Charter schools won't save the school system

04-22-2010

U.S. News & World Report

Charter schools won't save the American school system, says Diane Ravitch, a historian of education at New York University who worked in the first Bush administration as assistant secretary of education. In her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, Ravitch argues that charter schools do little more than skim off the most motivated students, while giving crooks a chance to squander tax dollars on big salaries for administrators. What schools need now, Ravitch says, is a return to a curriculum that includes American history, civics, art, and music rather than the current obsession with skills testing. (more...)

Study: Better teachers help children read faster

04-22-2010

By Donna Gordon Blankinship/San Francisco Chronicle

Genetics play the biggest role in determining how fast a child learns to read, but a good teacher can make a measurable difference as well, according to a study released Thursday. Florida State University used twins assigned to different classrooms to develop the conclusions. Researchers studied more than 550 first- and second-grade classrooms with at least one identical twin and more than 1,000 classes with at least one fraternal twin. Among the identical twins, 42 pairs out of 280 pairs showed significant differences in reading improvement during the year studied, said lead researcher Jeanette Taylor, an associate professor of psychology at Florida State. (more...)

Teachers strike: A closer look

04-22-2010

By Scott Martindale, Niyaz Pirani, Peter Schelden and Fermin Leal/Orange County Register

During morning drop-off at Carl Hankey K-8 School in Mission Viejo, security guards stood at the parking lot entrance of the school directing traffic as teachers walked across the sidewalk over the entrance to the lot. Up to five cars at a time spilled out onto the street, waiting to get in. Teachers said they didn’t want to be picketing, but that they felt they had to. “We all feel almost victimized by what’s been going on,” said Hankey third-grade teacher Terry Chambers. “We don’t want to be out here. We tried everything to avoid being out here; we even gave in to an unreasonable pay cut well beyond any other district in Orange County. … They just drew a line with temporary versus permanent and forced our hand.” At least some teachers at Hankey are believed to have crossed the picket line, although demonstrators said they respected that decision. (more...)

The race to unseat a veteran -- and very loud -- voice

04-22-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

John de Beck has the longest memory and the loosest lips on the San Diego Unified school board. He called a new way of budgeting "cockamamie." He dubbed virtual gym classes "ridiculous." Fans who have helped elect him over and over say they love his straight talk, even when it stings. The retired teacher has spent almost two decades -- nearly one out of every four days of his life -- representing the coastal stretches of the district from La Jolla to Point Loma to downtown. Elections are old hat to him. He has a stack of campaign signs in the trunk of his Prius, a rolling election headquarters. (more...)

Environmental firm accused of 'egregious' overcharging of L.A. Unified School District

04-22-2010

Blog by Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Officials have abruptly halted work with the firm that managed environmental work in the $19.5-billion school construction program of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The move arises from a critical district audit alleging that Palm Desert-based Questa Environmental Consulting repeatedly overcharged and that L.A. Unified managers looked the other way, resulting in more than $2.5 million in questionable billing. The negative report comes in the wake of an unrelated indictment of a regional construction director on conflict-of-interest charges, tarring the nation’s largest school construction and modernization effort. Officials continue to characterize the overall construction program as clean and successful. (more...)

School plans raise fears; drastic changes coming to 11 campuses

04-22-2010

By Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell/San Bernardino Sun

Tension was high among employees of the San Bernardino City Unified School District on Wednesday, a day after trustees voted to overhaul 11 struggling schools and increase scrutiny of teachers. By dramatically overhauling the schools in time for the coming school year, the San Bernardino City Unified School District becomes eligible for up to $22million in state money to improve the campuses. But while many local educators supported the plan to turn six of the campuses into district-sponsored charter schools and replace half the teaching staffs at the other five, many expressed fear and misgivings about the future. (more...)

Crist inks increased Fla. graduation requirements

04-22-2010

Education Week

Graduating from high school just got tougher in Florida because of legislation Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law Tuesday. The far-reaching education bill (SB 4) that adds more required math and science courses and revises testing requirements received nearly unanimous support in the Legislature. It's been overshadowed, though, during the 2010 legislative session by the passage, and then Crist's veto, of a hotly debated measure (SB 6) that would have made it easier to fire teachers and linked their pay to student test scores. "Unlike the misguided ... anti-teacher bill that Republican legislative leaders rammed through the Legislature earlier this month, Senate Bill 4 includes bipartisan solutions for education reform and, as a result, enjoyed broad support," said House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands of Weston. (more...)

LAUSD school in jeopardy of not being accredited

04-22-2010

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles Unified's most expensive campus, touted as the district's crown jewel for the visual and performing arts, might not be accredited unless it addresses "serious concerns" raised by a leading accrediting agency. Central Los Angeles High School No. 9, sometimes nicknamed Roller Coaster High because of its quirky architecture, must significantly improve its professional development and internal teacher culture, district officials said Tuesday. The issues were discovered by accreditors for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges who made a preliminary visit to the downtown campus late last month. (more...)

Spending flexibility, yes, but at whose expense?

04-23-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

In slashing education spending over the past two years, Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have given school districts more authority to choose how to spend their dwindling dollars. Sacramento has untied the strings on many “categorical programs” – those funded for specific purposes, such as buying textbooks and teaching civics education. But, to an extent, equity has been sacrificed for flexibility: In many districts, programs primarily benefiting low-income, minority students – summer school, high school exit exam tutoring, community day schools – have been sacrificed to prevent further layoffs and keep the lights on for everyone. Now there’s an opportunity to really get it right. (more...)

Staff, students in state capital lobby against education cuts

04-23-2010

By Soumya Karlamangla/Berkeley Daily Californian

About 300 Berkeley teachers and students gathered in Sacramento Wednesday along with thousands of others from school districts across California to rally against state budget cuts to public education. Union leaders, teachers and students spoke out against proposed state cuts to public education-totaling $1.5 billion-before the crowd of approximately 7,500 people who gathered in front of the Capitol building. The Berkeley Unified School District faces an estimated $2.7 million cut to its budget, which could force administrators to lay off staff members, curtail summer school funding and increase the number of district furlough days. (more...)

Programs train teachers using medical school model

04-23-2010

By Claudio Sanchez/NPR

What if we prepared teachers the same way we prepare doctors? As school reformers lurch toward more innovative ways for training classroom teachers, this idea is getting a lot of attention. A handful of teacher "residency programs" based on the medical residency model already exist. Boston was one of the first to create one in 2003. Tom Payzant had been Boston Public Schools superintendent when he founded the Boston Teacher Residency program. Payzant, who now teaches at Harvard University, says the city desperately needed to attract more talented teachers, especially for hard-to-fill positions like math, science and special education. But it wasn't just about the numbers, Payzant says. It was about the quality of teachers coming out of colleges of education. (more...)

Kids at work: Schools urge skipping of annual event

04-23-2010

By Don Babwin/Los Angeles Daily News

Many U.S. school districts urged parents to keep their kids in class and not take them to work Thursday for an annual event they say disrupts learning at an increasingly critical time of year. From Arizona to Illinois to Texas, educators alerted parents that between high-stakes standardized testing in some areas and the H1N1 virus that kept thousands of children home earlier in the school year, the timing of "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day" doesn't make sense. "This year, of all years, to have a student miss a day for something like this that could be done anytime — it just seems the focus should be on students and their learning here," said Guy Schumacher, the superintendent of Libertyville Elementary School District 70 in suburban Chicago. (more...)

'One long struggle for justice'

04-23-2010

Interview with historian Howard Zinn/ Rethinking Schools

In early January, the Zinn Education Project joined with HarperCollins, publisher of Howard Zinn’s classic A People’s History of the United States, to sponsor an “Ask Howard” online radio interview, and invited teachers from around the country to participate. Sixty teachers and students submitted written questions to Professor Zinn. The Jan. 19 interview was conducted by Rethinking Schools Curriculum Editor Bill Bigelow. This turned out to be Howard Zinn’s last broadcast interview. He died in California just eight days later. We are honored to present these excerpts from that interview, edited for length and clarity. (more...)

Teachers strike in Capistrano school district

04-23-2010

By Carla Rivera/Los Angeles Times

Schools in the Capistrano Unified School District opened Thursday with fewer students in classrooms, scores of unfamiliar substitutes and disordered schedules, as hundreds of striking teachers took to picket lines in a labor dispute. Attendance in the 51,000-pupil district was down substantially, with about 39% of students in class, according to preliminary estimates. About 220 regular classroom teachers — 12% of the teaching force —- crossed picket lines and 600 substitutes were hired to provide additional classroom supervision, said Julie Hatchel, a district spokeswoman. Some students who arrived on campus decided to leave and were released to their parents. (more...)

Oakland teachers furious about imposed contract

04-23-2010

By Nanette Asimov/San Francisco Chronicle

In a rare move that has infuriated teachers, the Oakland Board of Education has quit labor negotiations and imposed a no-raise contract that will free the district to increase class size and save up to $3 million. On Thursday, a day after hundreds of teachers stormed out of a meeting in which the school board unanimously approved the one-sided contract, Superintendent Tony Smith tried to soothe the fury and explain the district's unusual decision. "It is an unfortunate and sad time," Smith said. Oakland teachers "are among the lowest paid in the East Bay. It's absolutely inadequate." He said the district has to cut $85 million - about a quarter of its budget - but will not cut salaries or health benefits. Instead, dozens of teachers will be laid off, elementary class sizes will grow, and schools and programs will close, he said. (more...)

Student performance to be linked to teacher pay in San Bernardino

04-23-2010

By Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell/San Bernardino Sun

At the beginning of the next school year, teachers at five San Bernardino City Unified schools will face even greater pressure to boost student performance. Among the rewards for their efforts will be financial incentives, opportunities for advancement and flexible work conditions. It's part of the intervention model known as transformation. It may be less dramatic than other models the district could have put in place, but officials know it will still have an impact - and opponents. "Teachers are happy the district did not choose a more disruptive option," said Rebecca Harper, president of the San Bernardino Teachers Association. "But the financial aspect does sounds like merit-based pay. (more...)

School districts seeking changes for school board elections

04-23-2010

By Jorge Barrientos/Bakersfield Californian

Two local school districts are trying to change the way their school board elections are held to avoid potential lawsuits, give minorities better representation and to cut down on election costs, among other reasons. Panama-Buena Vista Union School District approved a resolution Tuesday to start the change process, while Kern High School District will consider a resolution Friday morning during a special meeting. Currently, all voters living in those districts choose among all the candidates in an "at-large" election system. The change calls for a "by-trustee area" system in which the district is divvied up into pieces and voters choose among people living in their area. (more...)

Laptops came later in central, southern areas of school district

04-23-2010

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

Schools in the central and southern areas of San Diego Unified -- which tend to be less affluent -- are more likely to have gotten student laptops later than other schools, district data show. All schools in San Diego Unified will eventually get laptops this school year as part of a sweeping plan to install digital whiteboards and other technology in classrooms, said Darryl LaGace, who oversees technology in the schools. It's paid for by a school renovation bond that voters passed two years ago. But some schools got the laptops sooner than others. As of the beginning of April, 38 out of the nearly 200 schools in the district were still waiting for laptops. They were disproportionately likely to fall in the southern and central areas of the school district represented by Richard Barrera and Shelia Jackson -- something Jackson wasn't happy about when the school board saw the data. Check out this map to see it for yourself. (more...)

A largely Somali school is pushed -- again -- to diversify

04-23-2010

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

For the second time in as many years, a largely Somali charter school is being pushed to diversify. School leaders have tried to draw new students in with advertisements and brochures. Despite those efforts, San Diego Unified staffers say Iftin Charter School is still 96 percent African American -- a much higher share than the population in its City Heights neighborhood and San Diego Unified at large. It was formed by parents, many of them Somali refugees who were unhappy with local schools. Charter schools, which are independently run and publicly funded, must get approval from school districts to start up and continue to operate. California law requires charters to meet a long list of conditions, including having a racial makeup that reflects their neighborhoods. (more...)

California will need one million more college grads

04-23-2010

Blog by Louis Freedberg/California Watch

The challenge for California is how to do more with less. That's the fundamental issue that underlies a Public Policy Institute of California report released today, which projects that in 15 years California will have 1 million fewer college-educated workers than our state's economy will need. To remedy the situation, the report, "Higher Education in California: New Goals for the Master Plan," by PPIC senior fellow Hans Johnson, calls for the UC and CSU to take a significantly higher proportion of California's high school graduates than they are currently admitting. That will mean a major revision of California's famed but now outdated Master Plan for Higher Education. (more...)

Learning to read: Genes play biggest role but teachers matter, study says

04-23-2010

By Donna Gordon Blankinship/San Jose Mercury News

Genetics play the biggest role in determining how fast a child learns to read, but a good teacher can make a measurable difference as well, according to a study released Thursday. Florida State University used twins assigned to different classrooms to develop the conclusions. Researchers studied more than 550 first- and second-grade classrooms with at least one identical twin and more than 1,000 classes with at least one fraternal twin. Among the identical twins, 42 pairs out of 280 pairs showed significant differences in reading improvement during the year studied, said lead researcher Jeanette Taylor, an associate professor of psychology at Florida State. In each case, the teachers also had significantly different quality scores. Twins with similarly good teachers got similar scores. (more...)

California weighs longshot bid for school funds

04-26-2010

By Jill Tucker/San Francisco Chronicle

After coming in 27th out of 40 states the first time, California would have an uphill climb to win up to $700 million in the next round for federal Race to the Top education funds - an effort state officials could decide this week is a losing battle. Or California could ignore the odds and decide to go for it. The governor and education leaders are expected to announce as early as Tuesday whether they'll apply for the second round of federal school reform funding - a $4 billion pot to be spread among states that make the cut. California failed to make it as a finalist in the first round, falling well shy of the points needed to get funding. (more...)

Tensions flare in Race to Top's second round

04-26-2010

By Michele McNeil/Education Week

With the second-round deadline for federal Race to the Top Fund grants less than six weeks away, states are rushing to raise the stakes on their education reform plans as they fight over the remaining $3.4 billion in prize money. But in doing so, states from Massachusetts to Colorado are tangling with their teachers’ unions as they test how far they can go to meet federal officials’ demands that they be aggressive, yet inclusive, in devising a road map to dramatically improve student achievement. “On one hand, the federal government is saying, ‘Be bold,’ which implies significant challenge to the status quo, which then tends to be disruptive and generate resistance,” said S. Paul Reville, the education secretary in Massachusetts, where the American Federation of Teachers affiliate has revoked its support of the state’s second-round application over teacher issues. (more...)

For school company, issues of money and control

04-26-2010

By Stephanie Strom/New York Times

When the energy executive Dennis Bakke retired with a fortune from the AES Corporation, the company he co-founded, he and his wife, Eileen, decided to direct their attention and money to education. Mrs. Bakke, a former teacher, said she had been interested in education since the summer she was a 12-year-old and, together with a friend, opened the Humpty Dumpty Day School, charging $2 a week in “tuition” to parents of the children attending. Mr. Bakke was eager to experiment with applying business strategies and discipline to public schools. The Bakkes became part of the nation’s new crop of education entrepreneurs, founding a commercial charter school company called Imagine Schools. Beginning with one failed charter school company they acquired in 2004, they have built an organization that has contracts with 71 schools in 11 states and the District of Columbia. (more...)

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Sections

Hundreds of teachers gather to contest LBUSD layoffs

What happened to civil rights in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act signed by President Johnson on April 11, 1965?

State teachers union targets education bill

Bill would allow layoffs of teachers with seniority

Advocates weigh Obama's commitment to early ed.

Obama's plan to reward schools for innovation sparks debate

Simitian introduces kindergarten readiness bill

Charter schools: Are they always a salvation?

Funding California's future

Thousands of Miami-Dade teachers take part in sickout

Analysis: Pension funds for teachers are short billions

3,880 Capo students take part in sickout

LAUSD board rescinds 1,400 layoff notices, OKs plan to shorten school year

L.A. school officials approve job-saving pact that shortens school year

School board: Let's not chase money

Summer school to go on despite budget woes

Special ed option for laid off teachers

A sprig of verbena and the gifts of a great teacher

Teacher merit pay captures attention across U.S.

Sen. Harkin proposes $23 billion bailout for schools

Gov. vetoes ambitious Fla. teacher pay-tenure bill

Duncan urges new aid to save education jobs

California's bad news budget threatens education reform

U.S. falls short in measure of future math teachers

Mississippi school district ordered to end racial segregation

Odd priorities: LAUSD furloughs teachers, shortens school year - and buys solar panels!

Santa Ana schools will undergo drastic reform for federal funds

How a strict earthquake safety law doesn't apply to all schools

An impasse in union-district negotiations

Report: Poor pay higher state tax share

Increasing number of students will face shortened school year

Florida Governor splits with G.O.P. on teacher pay

Teacher training no boon for student math scores

Advocates push new definition of career readiness

When school reform made teachers sick -- literally

Documentary shows no 'Superman' salvation for schools

Push for new kindergarten cutoff

Oakland schools fact-finding report released

Capo teachers: District offer to talk a 'sham'

Long Beach teachers gather for another layoff hearing

Charter extension denied to low-scoring Stanford school

Bill would end layoffs by seniority

High school students from the Los Angeles Unified School District visit UCLA for Exploring Computer Science Day

Teacher training no boon for student math scores

The examined life, age 8

$3.5 billion in turnaround aid flowing to states

Teacher layoff threat brews uncertainty at new Rancho Cordova school

Merit-pay bill deserved Crist’s veto

Capistrano Unified teachers authorize strike

Alternate path for teachers gains ground

School districts warn of even deeper teacher cuts

Teacher power: The new force in American politics

L.A. study affirms benefits of preschool

U.S. tapping S.F. school's recipe for success

Education supporters near finish of 365-mile march

The Florida teacher bill

Teacher tenure and performance pay in Florida

Capo teachers union offers compromise to avert strike

Los Angeles Unified School District is set to spend $200M on construction

Another step forward for schoobrary: City signs off on lease

Going high-tech in Lawndale

Race to Top winners chosen arbitrarily -- new report

Schwarzenegger backs bill that would change teachers dismissal standards

Duncan prescribes drastic measures for schools

School budget cuts across the US projected for next academic year

Neediest schools should be able to keep their best teachers

Still no common-core appointments

China quake awakens new fears for school safety

Ruling on racial isolation in Miss. schools reflects troubling broader trend

L.A. Unified OKs deal to shorten school year

Montgomery County to weigh student performance as a third of teachers' reviews

Long Beach school district to eliminate 90 non-teaching positions

Schwarzenegger backs law to halt layoffs of junior teachers

An open letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger from those parents who made a funny video about you

Local school districts dismiss class-size reductions

Schools in New Jersey plan heavy cuts after voters reject most budgets

Diane Ravitch: Charter schools won't save the school system