February 2010

School Matters: Students' 'core needs' not being met

02-01-2010

By Carolyn Goossen/New America Media

John Rogers, associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and director of UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA), spoke to NAM editor Carolyn Goossen about the impact of the recession and continuing budget cuts on low-income students. According to your recent report titled, “Educational Opportunities in Hard Times: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Public Schools and Working Families,” the recession and budget cuts have disproportionately affected educational opportunities for the poorest kids in the state. Why are they hit the hardest? Because of budget cuts, schools across the state have had many of their programs eroded or depleted, and many of these were geared towards low-income kids. (more...)

Obama to seek sweeping change in ‘No Child’ law

02-01-2010

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency. President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, shown last month, will seek to eliminate parts of the main education law that teachers and school boards find most objectionable. "This law must be completely overhauled. Enough is enough. Children are indeed humiliated and labeled failures through no fault of their own or their teachers." Educators who have been briefed by administration officials said the proposals for changes in the main law governing the federal role in public schools would eliminate or rework many of the provisions that teachers’ unions, associations of principals, school boards and other groups have found most objectionable. (more...)

Administration retooling key part of 'No Child' law

02-01-2010

By Nick AndersonWashington Post

The Obama administration will seek to scrap a key metric in the eight-year-old No Child Left Behind law -- the standard of "adequate yearly progress" for public schools -- as it develops a new formula to hold schools accountable for student performance, according to a budget document made public Monday. Under the law, schools are rated on how many of their students pass state reading and math tests. Target pass rates rise each year toward a standard of universal proficiency by 2014 for all groups -- a goal experts have long called utopian. The twin concepts of adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, and the 2014 target for eliminating achievement gaps by race, ethnicity and family income are the bedrock of the public school accountability system. (more...)

States to government: hands off education

02-01-2010

By Lisa Lambert/Washington Post

As the U.S. government discusses reauthorizing a sweeping education law and prepares to distribute billions of stimulus dollars for school reform, state legislatures are sending it a strong message: hands off. Education policy has always been the territory of state and local governments, but in the last decade the U.S. government has interjected itself into curriculum and school reforms, the National Conference of State Legislatures said on Monday. The group, which represents state legislatures, suggested using a federal model to fund education akin to that used to build the interstate highway system, whereby money is given to states, which then pass it on to local governments. It would also like federal funds concentrated in areas where students are the most disadvantaged and not handed out equally to every congressional district. (more...)

ESEA In 2010?

02-01-2010

National Journal

Although congressional action this year had seemed unlikely, the Obama administration has pushed hard in recent days for lawmakers to move forward on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The president mentioned the issue in his State of the Union address and, he is proposing a significant funding increase for the reauthorization in his fiscal 2011 budget request. Duncan has been hammering the message that there's no time like the present to move forward. Behind the scenes, the secretary has been working with key members of Congress to cement bipartisan support. Can the administration generate the momentum for Congress to pass a reauthorization, even in an election year in which many other issues are crowding the agenda? (more...)

States struggle to keep top teachers

02-01-2010

By Dorie Turner/USA Today

Most states are holding tight to policies that protect incompetent teachers and poor training programs, shortchanging educators and their students before new teachers even step into the classroom, according to a new national report card. The study from the National Council on Teacher Quality— being released Friday — paints a grim picture of how states handle everything from pay to discipline for public school teachers. States are using "broken, outdated and inflexible" policies that ultimately hurt how children learn, according to the report. In fact, even the top scoring state, Florida, received a C, with most states getting Ds or Fs. A handful of states — including Georgia, Texas and Louisiana — got a C-minus. "We think it's really a blueprint for reform," council vice president Sandi Jacobs said about the report, called the State Policy Teacher Yearbook. (more...)

Teacher pay can vary greatly by district, California report says

02-01-2010

By Diana Lambert and Phillip Reese/Sacramento Bee

The amount of money a California teacher makes these days depends greatly on the school district that cuts the paycheck, according to a state report released this month. And the gap between the high and low salaries is wide. Teachers in the Mountain View-Los Altos Union School District are the state's best paid, making an average of $95,365. That's nearly double the amount paid to the state's lowest paid educators – $49,753 – in the Konocti Unified School District in Lake County, according to a Bee analysis of districts with more than 100 teachers. In the Sacramento region, however, teachers salaries aren't so disparate. Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District teachers are the highest paid locally, averaging $69,817 a year, while the lowest paid work in the River Delta Joint Unified School District, making $52,105. (more...)

Ball now in the other court

02-01-2010

Opinion by Richard Rothstein/National Journal

Randi Weingarten has announced that she will press her union's locals to agree to contracts that include systems for fair and balanced evaluation of teacher performance (including, but not limited to measures of student achievement); and for the speedy removal of ineffective teachers, with simplified due process rules, when appropriate support fails to correct inadequacy. Indeed, the AFT president may encourage local unions to proactively propose such procedures, even where school administrators fail to do so. The speech has the potential to shift our debate about responsibility for raising student achievement, calling the bluff of those who claim that union protection of poor teachers is mostly what retards student learning. (more...)

Bidding to run L.A.'s schools

02-01-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

The initiative that will allow outside operators to run some of the Los Angeles Unified School District's schools moves forward this week as parents at each school (as well as teachers and high school students) vote for their favorite applicants. We opposed these advisory votes from the start, and recent events have only confirmed our belief that they would transform what should be an educational process into a political one. They also put pressure on the school district to pick the "winning" applicants rather than the best ones. The district opened 18 new and 12 existing schools to applicants in this first year of the multiyear Public School Choice initiative. (more...)

New teachers facing tough times

02-01-2010

By Linda Lou/Riverside Press-Enterprise

Jeri Bravo, 34, expects to receive her special education teaching credential in June. She isn't expecting a job offer by then. "I am pretty nervous about trying to find a job for the fall," Bravo said. "I am nervous and hopeful at the same time. I am going to keep trying until a door opens." Prospective teachers can attend a job fair at Cal State San Bernardino on Saturday. The university's Career Development Center is helping people such as Teryn Andersen, left, Carol Dixon, Angela Gallegos and Jeri Bravo. Just two years ago, 86 employers showed up at Cal State San Bernardino's annual education job fair. Carol Dixon, interim director of the university's Career Development Center, said the number was down to 40 last year. This year, only about 30 employers are attending the fair Saturday, and three large school districts that usually visit -- Los Angeles Unified, Riverside Unified and Colton Joint Unified -- will be absent, Dixon said. (more...)

Berkeley schools look to shift funds to help close achievement gap

02-01-2010

By Doug Oakley/Contra Costa Times

After talking about the problem for years, Berkeley school officials are on the verge of shifting millions of dollars to underperforming black and Latino students, adding to an old debate about how to reduce the disparities between the top and the bottom. One proposal that will go before the school board in the next few months is a charter school that after three years would serve 700 students. If approved, about $3 million in state funds would shift from the district to the charter school, which would draw underperformers to a hands-on, technology-rich learning environment. A second proposal would shift about $350,000 in local property tax money at Berkeley High School used for four science teacher positions to classes for struggling students. (more...)

Model by example: close failing charter schools

02-01-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Russlynn Ali, one of several California expats in key positions in the U.S. Department of Education, praised and chided charter school reformers in a talk in San Jose. She said that school districts should be partnering with charters as “labs of innovation we all can learn from.” What distinguishes effective charter schools are commonsense strategies – “more time on task, more parental involvement, strong leadership,” she said Saturday. But Ali, the assistant secretary of education for civil rights, also called for authorizers of charter school to be more resolute in shutting down schools that aren’t showing academic success. (more...)

Ailing schools turn to voters for help

02-01-2010

By Joe Barrett/Wall Street Journal

The housing boom has left the sprawling school district based in this former rail town on the Little Miami River with gleaming new buildings and a dilemma over how to keep them funded. Three times in the past 15 months, voters have rejected levies that would have kept the Little Miami School District in the black. Each time, the district fell further behind and had to ask for more. On Tuesday, voters will face the biggest request yet—a new real-estate tax that amounts to $519 per $100,000 of assessed value, nearly twice the rate rejected in November. Backers say the levy, combined with already deep cuts, is the only way to prevent a fiscal emergency that would force a state takeover of the schools. "It's the downturn of an entire community. People are going to start looking at moving and your property value is going to go through the floor," said Julie Salmons Perelman, a 44-year-old part-time veterinary technician with three children in the schools, who sat stuffing bags filled with campaign literature one morning last week. (more...)

Kids' dental decay takes a bite out of school attendance

02-02-2010

By Viji Sundaram/New America Media

The 5-year-old Asian American boy sat in the dentist’s chair in Dr. David Perry’s Alameda, Calif. clinic for over 90 minutes, his teeth drilled without general anesthesia. His extensive tooth decay had also taken a toll on his physical health. The dentist determined that eight of his baby molars needed to be crowned, and six other teeth had to be extracted. His dismal oral health is not unique among kids his age or even younger, notes Dr. Perry. After looking into the mouths of more than 21,000 California children in kindergarten and third grade during the 2004-2005 school year, Perry, then the board chairman of the Oakland-based Dental Health Foundation, and his cohort of dental hygienists, dental assistants and school nurses concluded that almost three out of four children in elementary school have a cavity, compared to about half who are not low income. (more...)

Recession takes toll on California schools

02-02-2010

By Corey G. Johnson/California Watch

Broken families. Increased hunger. Homelessness. This isn't a blog about post-earthquake life in Haiti. This is the impact of the recession on scores of children attending California schools, according to a recent report from UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access. California currently leads the nation in unemployment and mortgage foreclosures. The loss of tax revenue has forced schools to cut back on spending, programs and personnel. The study, called "Educational Opportunities in Hard Times," surveyed 87 school principals to assess how funding issues are impacting schools on a daily basis. The responses weren't pretty. (more...)

Education reform: Obama budget reboots No Child Left Behind

02-02-2010

By Amanda Paulson/Christian Science Monitor

The Obama administration envisions big changes for No Child Left Behind. Included in Monday’s 2011 budget proposal were some significant – and controversial – shifts in federal education policy, even though a formal plan for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (better known as No Child Left Behind) has yet to be submitted. Among the changes Obama wants is a scrapping of the yearly benchmarks that are the cornerstone of NCLB. This would also mean a nullification of the 2014 deadline for all students to be declared proficient. The administration would like to replace the annual yearly progress (AYP) benchmarks with new standards based on college and career readiness. But those have yet to be developed. (more...)

Playing to learn

02-02-2010

Opinion by Susan Engel/New York Times

The Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike. In order to design a curriculum that teaches what truly matters, educators should remember a basic precept of modern developmental science: developmental precursors don’t always resemble the skill to which they are leading. (more...)

Study finds 'No Child' has low teacher support

02-02-2010

By Canan Tasci/San Bernardino Sun

Many teachers oppose the testing and instructional requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, a new study has found. The legislation, which became law in 2001, fundamentally changed teaching and education in U.S. schools by requiring annual testing of school children and "adequate yearly progress" for every subgroup of students. The act also requires schools to provide after-school tutoring and other services for poor- performing students and mandates that schools hire only "highly qualified" teachers. Authors of a study published last week by UC Riverside surveyed 740 board-certified teachers in California to assess the effectiveness and unintended consequences of No Child Left Behind. The study found that 84 percent reported overall unfavorable attitudes about the act. (more...)

Obama plan calls for education-funding increase

02-02-2010

By Neil King Jr./Wall Street Journal

President Barack Obama's 2011 budget proposes to boost education spending 9% to advance its overhaul of federal school-funding policy that has emerged as a rare patch of common ground for the administration and some Republicans. At the same time, Mr. Obama is using his 2011 Education Department budget proposal to signal plans to revamp the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind policies, which have stirred opposition from some teachers and school administrators. Mr. Obama states his intention to scrap the Bush-era accountability standards for a new system to be negotiated with Congress. Administration officials say that talks with Congress on how to revamp the No Child law remain preliminary. (more...)

State lawmakers unhappy with Obama priorities

02-02-2010

By Lesli A. Maxwell/Education Week

State lawmakers want Washington policymakers to back off when it comes to public schools. Five years after the National Conference of State Legislatures assailed the federal No Child Left Behind Act as a major encroachment on the states’ authority over K-12 education, members of the Denver-based group say that new policies unveiled by the Obama administration are shaping up to be just as prescriptive and intrusive. The requirements of the No Child Left Behind law on states—such as expanding standardized testing and meting out rewards and penalties for schools based on student performance—have simply been replaced by other, mostly unproven approaches in the programs put forth so far by President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the lawmakers argue in a new, 35-page report released here Monday. (more....)

New state law aimed at helping failing schools

02-02-2010

By James Rufus Koren/Inland Daily Bulletin

The state teachers union calls it the "lynch-mob provision." School districts say it's unnecessary. But supporters say a new state law that allows a majority of parents to demand an overhaul of struggling public schools is long overdue. "I think parents need an option - they need a choice," said Marita Isidore of Chino, whose son, Jackson, will be attending a charter school next year. The new law, dubbed the "parent trigger," would require school districts to make one of four sweeping changes to a school site if half the parents at that site sign a petition calling for change. Parents could call for the school to be shut down or turned into a charter. They could also ask that the principal and half the staff be fired or that the principal be fired and other significant changes be made. (more...)

Good report, for the moment, on districts’ finances

02-02-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Call it remarkable management or, more likely, the lull before the crash. The number of school districts in financial distress actually decreased from a year ago, according to report issued last week by FCMAT, the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team. That’s the agency that intervenes when districts are struggling financially. For the reporting period ending Oct. 31, only a dozen districts – out of about 1,000 – reported a negative status, compared with 19 in the last reporting period of 2009 and 16 in the comparable period a year ago. The latest total is preliminary, since county offices of education have yet to certify that the districts’ self-reporting is accurate. (more...)

LAUSD reform is a bitter battle

02-02-2010

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles Unified parents, teachers and community members will get to vote on their favorite school proposals this week as the district inches closer to launching a landmark reform plan handing over control of some schools to the best bidders. But what was supposed to be a healthy competition has turned into a heated battle between district employee unions, charter school operators and other nonprofits that are vying for control of 36 district schools. Applicants accuse each other of foul play and the only thing all can agree on is that the voting process leaves too much room for voter violations. LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines has had to play referee, reminding district employees that they must act with "integrity." (more...)

Key vote today at LAUSD

02-02-2010

By Yolanda Arenales/La Opinión (text in Spanish)

The polls open at 7 a.m. but the work of hundreds of volunteers started much earlier when they left flyers in people's homes reminding them of the importance of voting. "There is great community interest," says Raquel Beltrán, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters in Los Anglees . The LAUSD has charged this non partisan organization with administering the elections over 36 schools that are affected by the Public Schools Choice resolution, Las urnas habrán abierto a las 7 de la mañana pero el trabajo de cientos de los voluntarios comenzó mucho antes antes dejando avisos en las puertas de los hogares sobre la importancia de votar. "Hay un gran interés comunitario", indica Raquel Beltrán directora ejecutiva de la Liga de Mujeres Votantes (LWV) en Los Ángeles. El Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles (LAUSD) ha encomendado a esta organización no partidista la gestión de las elecciones sobre las 36 escuelas contempladas dentro de la resolución de Elección de Escuela Pública, popularmente conocida como "Free Choice". Unos 275 mil residentes de Los Angeles podrían votar en la misma, tomando en cuenta que la consulta se hace no sólo a empleados, padres y alumnos de secundaria, sino a miembros de la comunidad. (more...)

Obama budget calls for major shifts on ESEA

02-02-2010

By Alyson Klein/Education Week

The Obama administration is seeking to revamp the signature yardstick used to measure schools’ progress under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed budget for fiscal 2011. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Monday that the administration is still working out details on just how the new accountability system would work under a revamped ESEA, whose current version is the 8-year-old No Child Left Behind Act. He said that the Education Department has not yet determined whether it would keep in place the current law’s 2014 deadline for bringing all students to proficiency, or just how it wants to rework the current requirement that schools and districts make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, toward that proficiency target for all subgroups of students. (more...)

Berkeley High School should not cheat top students to lessen achievement gap

02-02-2010

Editorial/Oakland Tribune

As is true in too many school districts throughout the state, Berkeley High School has a wide achievement gap between black and white students. Only 30.8 percent of black students are proficient in English and 31.3 percent in math. Just over 90 percent of white students are proficient in English and 87.1 percent in math. This disparity has existed for decades, which is why Berkeley voters approved a parcel tax in the 1980s to raise money for schools and reduce the achievement gap. About two-thirds of the funds go toward reduced class sizes. Most of the remaining money is used for science and arts programs and tutoring. Unfortunately, the additional spending has done little to reduce the achievement disparity. (more...)

L.A. could learn a lot about charter schools from the Big Apple

02-02-2010

Opinion by Margaret E. Raymond/Los Angeles Times

Many charter school supporters believe their hour has come. Locally, charters play an increasingly integral part in the school reform agenda of the Los Angeles Unified School District. At the state level, California charters recently received a boost from legislation that permits them access to new bond funding for school construction. And nationally, the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top program includes high-quality charter schools among its priorities. But an improved outlook for charter schools is not a guaranteed cure-all for bad schools. A number of studies over the last year have shown that charter schools in California and elsewhere have had mixed results. (more...)

Virginia Islamic School's Expansion Met Protests

02-02-2010

By Jamie Tarabay/NPR

In Northern Virginia, a private school needed the local county's approval to expand to serve more students. This would have hardly raised an eyebrow had it not been for one particular detail: The school is Islamic, funded by the government of Saudi Arabia. The Islamic Saudi Academy, located in Fairfax County, has long been under the microscope of its opponents. But for residents along the two-lane country road where the school sits, the debate was transformed from a local land-use issue into a heated discussion about the school, its teachings and the relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States. I submit no Catholic textbook has anything near the venom and demonstrated incitement to murder as these Saudi textbooks. (more...)

Trying to be there, but unsure if he will

02-03-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

Rafael Ocampo looked at the long list of names and sighed. He had been planning to meet with them all that week, the dozens of kids with Fs and spotty attendance who raise red flags. But it was already Friday and the guidance counselor was swamped, barely able to carve out time to wolf down Mexican takeout for lunch. It was early afternoon, and the day had been a blur of therapy-on-the-go at Roosevelt Middle School. First Ocampo met with the vice principal to deal with the boy who yanked chairs from under his classmates, then squelched a spat between two girls. He talked to a parent whose child had been bullied, tried to cheer up a girl who was downcast and stopped to talk to a boy caught harassing girls. And lunchtime was like a "telenovela" -- a soap opera -- a swirl of preteen drama to sort through. (more...)

Report: Ending gym tests, other school requirements could save state $350 million

02-03-2010

By Corey G. Johnson/California Watch

Every year, educators groan about the unfairness of being required by lawmakers to carry out some task, without getting the proper amount of money to get the job done correctly. Usually the outcries are outright ignored, or dismissed as whining. But maybe not anymore. California's Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) on Monday called for an overhaul of the state's education mandates after finding a plethora of inefficient state-ordered programs costing school districts $400 million annually. The LAO is a non-partisan organization that analyzes budgetary and policy decisions for the state Legislature. According to the LAO's report, called "Education Mandates: A Broken System," the state faces a staggering debt burden because of a failure to reimburse school districts for carrying out the programs. This year alone, the unpaid reimbursements have ballooned to more than $3.6 billion, the LAO determined. (more...)

Six states sign on to school turnaround project

02-03-2010

By Lesli A. Maxwell/Education Week

Dozens of schools are slated for aggressive interventions over the next three years under a new, multistate effort that aims to clear hurdles that have hindered previous attempts to improve underperforming schools. Education officials in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and New York have agreed to partner with Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, a Boston-based nonprofit group that has developed a set of strategies it says will reverse years of low achievement in schools. The effort will be fueled in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is channeling billions of extra dollars in federal aid into school improvement, a top priority of the Obama administration. (more...)

Voters advise L.A. Unified on preferred campus takeovers

02-03-2010

By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Elections in Los Angeles schools Tuesday had no age restrictions, no citizenship requirements. Voters could cast ballots more than once if they had more than one child or if they dashed to another polling place. Welcome to democracy and school reform -- L.A. Unified-style. A new school board policy, approved in August, allowed groups from inside and outside the Los Angeles Unified School District to bid for control of 12 persistently low-performing campuses and 18 new ones. Parents, teachers, students -- and anyone else who desired -- voted for their favored plans to run the 30 campuses with close to 40,000 students. The Board of Education will make the final decision for every school, but board members will review the results. (more...)

LAUSD begins reform process of low performing schools

02-03-2010

By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC

A first-of-its-kind experiment began today at dozens of Los Angeles Unified School District campuses. Teacher-led groups are competing with non-profit organizations to run 36 new and low-performing campuses in the district. Teachers, parents, and students voted for the organizations they’d like to see run their schools. Those groups have campaigned a lot in and around the three dozen campuses. It didn’t stop on election day. About a hundred feet from the polling booth at East L.A.’s Belvedere Middle School, a charter school supporter made her case to a Spanish-speaking parent. The advisory vote here will determine which groups should run five schools in the newly-built Esteban Torres High School nearby. Mary Najera said those campuses should be charter schools. "The kids don’t fall through the cracks, the bad teachers can’t hide." (more...)

LAUSD voting guidelines ripe for corruption

02-03-2010

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

In a voting process that appeared riddled with flaws, parents, teachers and community members cast ballots Tuesday to help Los Angeles Unified School District pick operators for 36 schools under a new reform program. But the district's guidelines for voting were so loose that it appeared many voters, especially teachers, were allowed to cast more than one ballot. And at San Fernando Middle School, even the local mailman was drafted by some teachers into voting when he showed up to deliver the school's letters. The vote was advisory only, meant to help LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines and the school board understand public opinion as they choose bidders to run 36 new and underperforming schools under the School Choice reform plan. (more...)

Audit blames East Side board, not former Superintendent Bob Nuñez, for lapses

02-03-2010

By Sharon Noguchi/San Jose Mercury News

A long-awaited state audit has cleared the East Side Union High School District and its former superintendent, Bob Nuñez, of fraud and illegal practices. But the 29-page report noted that the district suffers from a climate of mistrust and intimidation, has gaps in fiscal and administrative policy and lacks documentation. It placed responsibility on the five-member board of trustees. The audit by the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team — the latest in a series of investigations into spending, accounting and contracting in the sprawling East Side district — dryly noted that "it repeats the theme established in FCMAT studies beginning in 2001, that the district lacks internal control systems." The East Side board ousted Nuñez on Oct. 31, after allegations of misspending, conflicts of interest and irregularities in contracting and vacation pay. (more...)

A frank and civil dialogue on charters

02-03-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

For years, charter schools leaders and their supporters in Silicon Valley, and district officials and teachers have been talking at each other at charter hearings and accusingly behind each other’s backs. Rarely had they talked directly to one another frankly and civilly – at least for any length of time. But that’s what happened for seven hours Saturday during a Charter Summit that the trustees of the Santa Clara County Office of Education organized. County trustees were the natural conveners, because they have felt caught in between districts’ antagonisms and charters’ ambitions. They have taken seriously their obligation to hear charter appeals, and granted charters that districts had rejected, based on an objective reading of the state charter law. (more...)

At a Haiti school's reopening, a lesson in sharing

02-03-2010

By Mitchell Landsberg/Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - David Saill is 10 years old, and he came to school Monday in a freshly ironed shirt and baggy black slacks to reclaim a piece of his lost life. He couldn't have it all back. Not his home, which collapsed in the Jan. 12 earthquake. Not his very best friend, Laguer, who died when his own house fell on him. Not the sense of security he felt before he knew that the earth could shake apart his known universe. But school -- that he could have back. Or so he was told. Monday was the first day that schools in Haiti could reopen after the earthquake, which was centered near the capital, Port-au-Prince. The entire national school system -- already among the poorest in the world -- had been shut down, although schools in much of the country were not directly affected. (more...)

Education Secretary Duncan, Rahm Emanuel both apologize

02-03-2010

Washington Post

Education Secretary Arne Duncan apologized Tuesday for asserting that Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans," calling the remark "a dumb thing to say." Duncan's apology on the MSNBC show "Morning Joe" came nearly four days after his Katrina comment began circulating in the blogosphere and two days after it aired on another cable television channel. Duncan had said on "Washington Watch With Roland Martin," "This is a tough thing to say, but let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster, and it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that 'we have to do better.' " (more...)

Teachable Moments: New study reports bleak conditions for public schools

02-04-2010

By Marsha Sutton/SDNN

“It’s the bleakest I’ve ever seen,” said a southern California high school principal, commenting on the impact of the recession on her school. This is the opening sentence of the executive summary of the “Educational Opportunities in Hard Times” report, released Jan. 22 by the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access at the University of California Los Angeles. Subtitled “The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Public Schools and Working Families,” the IDEA report states that times were tough for public schools even before the current recession and statewide budget crisis. Eighteen months ago, researchers found the following: More than half of California’s students lived in families with earnings that qualified them for the federal Free and Reduced Price Lunch program. (more...)

Finding value in the flat world and education

02-04-2010

Blog by Patrick Riccards/Eduflack

This week's Presidential budget is further raising attention on pressing education issues such as teacher quality, closing the achievement gap, and ensuring our communities have the systems in place to drive the levels of improvement we are so desperately thinking. With all of the rhetoric, both this week and in recent years, we seem to be focusing on promising ideas without necessarily looking for the research, evidence, proof, and data that should be separating the good ideas from the great ideas. While Eduflack seems to spend a great deal of my time talking and opining, every so often I do find the time to actually read and learn from others. And even more infrequently, I actually find what I read to be of the sort of import that I want to make sure others are aware of it, positioning the latest book or article so it is influencing the current policy discussions. (more...)

Study: Charter school growth accompanied by racial imbalance

02-04-2010

By Nick Anderson/Washington Post

Seven out of 10 black charter school students are on campuses with extremely few white students, according to a new study of enrollment trends that shows the independent public schools are less racially diverse than their traditional counterparts. The findings from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, which are being released Thursday, reflect the proliferation of charter schools in the District of Columbia and other major cities with struggling school systems and high minority populations. To the authors of the study, the findings point to a civil rights issue: "As the country continues moving steadily toward greater segregation and inequality of education for students of color in schools with lower achievement and graduation rates," the study concludes, "the rapid growth of charter schools has been expanding a sector that is even more segregated than the public schools." (more...)

Report: rescind most mandated programs

02-04-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Recognizing schools’ financial plight, the Legislature and Gov. Schwarzenegger have given districts considerable latitude over how they can spend money for 40 programs known as categoricals. They include important programs: summer school, teacher training and textbook purchases. But when it comes to dozens of smaller, mandated programs – many unneeded – the governor and legislators have been devious. They have either allotted a token amount in the budget, creating IOUs now totaling more than $3 billion, or they have suspended the mandates year by year, creating headaches and confusion for local districts. In a report issued this week, Education Mandates: Overhauling a Broken System, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, says, Enough. (more...)

Teachers' resistance could keep districts from cashing in on Race to the Top

02-04-2010

By James Rufus Koren/San Bernardino Sun

One battle over a federal education grant program ended last month in Sacramento. Another will begin this spring in hundreds of school districts up and down the state. Lawmakers in January passed legislation to make California eligible for a chunk of the more than $4 billion Race to the Top grant program. But if local districts want to see any of that money, they'll have to reach an agreement with local teachers unions to start judging teachers based, in part, on student test scores. Teachers' unions have historically opposed any move to link teacher evaluations to student performance, and observers are pessimistic that many unions will go along this time. (more...)

Voters weigh in on LAUSD reform plans

02-04-2010

By Catherine Cloutier/Intersections

Parents, teachers, students and community members will have their say in the future of 30 L.A. Unified schools this week, as the district's Public School Choice Motion moves to the polls. Voters will rank their charter school or partnership preferences on Tuesday and Saturday. The tallies, counted by the League of Women Voters, will then be consulted by L.A. Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines when he makes his recommendations to the school board. "This is our opportunity to hear directly from those who will be most affected by this vote," said LAUSD board member Steven Zimmer during a press conference held at the district's headquarters Monday morning. (more...)

State school boards raise questions about standards

02-04-2010

By Catherine Gewertz/Education Week

States that adopt proposed common academic standards must use the entire document word for word, leaders of the initiative said this week. Answering questions from state school board members at a meeting here, representatives of the two groups leading the effort to design common standards said that states may not revise them or select only portions to adopt. “You can’t pick and choose what you want. This is not cafeteria-style standards,” said David Wakelyn, the program director of the education division of the National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices. “Adoption means adoption,” said Scott Montgomery, a deputy executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, which is organizating the common-standards endeavor with the NGA. (more...)

Money well spent

02-04-2010

By Seyward Darby/New Republic

Forget the spending freeze. Obama's Department of Education announced on Monday that it is asking Congress for more money in the 2011 budget. The department wants $49.7 billion in discretionary funds, roughly $3.5 billion more than it got in 2010. (That's on top of the $173 billion that would go to student loans, grants, tax credits, and work-study programs.) And, if Congress finally reauthorizes No Child Left Behind (NCLB)--it's already three years overdue--to include the president's reforms, the administration says it would allot another billion to the discretionary pot. But the really big news about the proposed budget isn't how much is--or could be--in it; it's how the new money would be spent. Instead of channeling new funds to states and school districts based on pre-existing formulas, the department wants to reward progress. (more...)

Stop L.A. Unified's 'charterization'

02-04-2010

By Gloria R. Lothrop and Ralph E. Shaffer/Los Angeles Times

As The Times continues to lead the parade to charterization of the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the most overused and misunderstood phrases on the paper's editorial page is "reform." Change is not necessarily reform. Genuine reform produces lasting, beneficial improvements and isn't concocted by editors or frustrated school boards willing to try just about anything. That was never more evident than during the debate over the current plan to allow outsiders to operate dozens of LAUSD campuses. As The Times notes in its Feb. 1 editorial, "Bidding to run L.A.’s schools," the district's mislabeled Public School Choice initiative has resulted in ugly misinformation campaigns and popularity contests over which organizations should run several L.A. Unified schools. Change, yes; reform, hardly. (more...)

Trading counselors for copy machines

02-04-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

Here are few factoids that got left on the cutting room floor from my story today about counseling: Counseling has fared relatively well in the budget crisis, school officials said. Some schools actually got more counselors than usual because the school district stopped letting schools trade in counselors for other resources. Tracking the exact ratios is difficult because many schools use other funds to beef up their counseling departments, just as Roosevelt does. But here are the basic numbers: There are more than 400 students per full-time guidance counselor in San Diego Unified -- a higher number than in years past but a relief from last year, when the rate reached nearly 500 students. To put that in perspective, California schools have averaged 776 students per counselor -- 40 percent higher than the national average -- according to the most recent data from the American School Counselor Association. (more...)

Race to the Top and reality

02-04-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

In California's effort to qualify for up to $700 million in federal Race to the Top school funding, there's been a lot of talk about open enrollment and linking teacher evaluations to student performance. As they are framed in the state's new school reform law, however, neither of those provisions is likely to bring dramatic improvement to the schools that need it most. Instead, the most promising idea is contained in the state's application for funding: a request to change the way school improvement is measured. For years we've railed against the provision in the No Child Left Behind Act that credits schools solely for how many students test as "proficient," one of five levels of achievement. From the bottom, those are: far below basic, below basic, basic, proficient and advanced. A school might bring the majority of its students from the lowest level to basic and still be categorized as failing. (more...)

Parcel tax poll results questioned

02-04-2010

By Maureen Magee/San Diego Union-Tribune

Critics are questioning the validity of a poll showing strong support for a parcel tax that could raise millions of dollars for cash-strapped San Diego schools. Citing results of a survey that shows some San Diego Unified School District voters were amenable to a parcel tax, the San Diego school board on Jan. 26 decided to further study the concept. Trustees said proceeds from such a tax could help the district preserve jobs and programs that are threatened by state cuts to education. The district faces an estimated $93 million deficit to next year’s $1.2 billion operating budget. The phone survey, which was conducted in October, quizzed 500 voters on a hypothetical parcel tax in an effort gauge their support. Subsets of questions were asked of smaller pools of voters. (more...)

Charter schools' growth promoting segregation, studies say

02-05-2010

By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

The growth of charter schools has promoted segregation both in California and nationwide, increasing the odds that black, Latino and white students will attend class with fewer children who look different from themselves, according to two new studies. Charter school advocates contend that the researchers' presumptions about racial separation are out of date. They said parents -- including low-income minority parents -- are turning to charters for a quality education that traditional schools have not provided. Charters are independently managed public schools that are exempt from some rules that govern traditional schools. About 2.5% of the nation's students attend charters -- a threefold increase over seven years. The Los Angeles Unified School District has more charters -- enrolling about 9% of district students \than any school system in the country. (more...)

Failure rate for AP tests climbing

02-05-2010

By Jack Gillum and Greg Toppo/USA TODAY

The number of students taking Advanced Placement tests hit a record high last year, but the portion who fail the exams — particularly in the South — is rising as well, a USA TODAY analysis finds. Students last year took a record 2.9 million exams through the AP program, which challenges high school students with college-level courses. Passing the exams (a score of 3 or higher on the point scale of 1 to 5) may earn students early college credits, depending on a college's criteria. The findings about the failure rates raise questions about whether schools are pushing millions of students into AP courses without adequate preparation — and whether a race for higher standards means schools are not training enough teachers to deliver the high-level material. (more...)

Making ‘No Child’ better

02-05-2010

Editorial/New York Times

Like most ambitious federal reforms, the No Child Left Behind Education Act of 2002 will need to be revised, perhaps several times, before it reaches maximum effectiveness. Without formally announcing them, the Obama administration has made clear that it wants changes in the law, which could be reauthorized this year. For starters, it would like more effective mechanisms for intervening in failing schools and ways to reward schools that make rapid improvements. But it will be no less important to protect what is good in the law and resist pressure from powerful forces — teachers’ unions, state governments and other groups — that may seek to weaken it. In particular, the administration and Congress need to preserve and strengthen provisions that hold states accountable for placing a qualified teacher in every classroom and closing the achievement gap between poor children and their wealthy contemporaries. (more...)

School districts scramble to help homeless students

02-05-2010

By Mary Ann Zehr/Education Week (subscription required)

As job losses and home foreclosures have pushed families into homelessness, school districts are struggling to cope with an increasing number of students with no permanent home. Reflecting the impact of the recession that officially began in December 2007, half the states collectively reported a 50 percent increase in homeless students by the 2008-09 school year, two Washington-based groups say. The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, a membership organization of educators and others, and First Focus, an advocacy group, released the findings in a policy brief last week. Data were not available for all states, the brief says, but 26 provided information on the numbers of homeless students for the 2006-07 to 2008-09 school years. (more...)

New course for No Child Left Behind

02-05-2010

Blog by Nia-Malika Henderson/Politico

President Barack Obama is seeking a major overhaul of the U.S. education system, with a shift from an emphasis on testing to an emphasis on career preparation — a plan that he is backing up with billions in budget incentives. The administration has already pumped $100 billion into education and is now moving to rewrite legislation that has governed the nation’s schools for nearly a decade. Obama’s proposed $3.8 trillion budget includes $49.7 billion for education, and much of the 7.5 percent increase is focused on programs under No Child Left Behind, which could come up for reauthorization this year. At the heart of the change is a major redesign of NCLB’s accountability measures, which have set the standard for school systems across the country for the past eight years. (more...)

Attention, Gates: Here's what makes a great teacher

02-05-2010

By James D. Starkey/Education Week (subscription required)

Here are the first two paragraphs of a story that appeared in my local paper, The Denver Post, in the fall: “In a quest to find out the best teaching practices, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $45 million to six school districts, including Denver, for a two-year study of teaching. “The Measures of Effective Teaching project will examine the work of 3,700 teachers from across the country, using videotapes, surveys, and student assessments to figure out what works and what doesn’t.” Now, I know I am supposed to applaud the foundation’s philanthropy. And I know I’m supposed to think it is about time somebody stepped in to do something substantive about public education. But I don’t feel that way. I think it stinks. Interestingly enough, further on in the Post article there was a quote from Melinda Gates that said what I really think about this new research windfall. (more...)

L.A. teachers, parents vote early – and often

02-05-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

On Saturday, parents, teachers, students, neighbors – truth is, anyone who feels like it – will have another chance to vote on who should take over 30 Los Angeles Unified schools. If the balloting is anything like Tuesday’s fiasco at the polls, Superintendent Ramon Cortines should take all the votes and shred them. That chaotic exercise in democracy threatened to discredit the district’s bold experiment in school choice. In a move that has drawn national attention, last fall the school board agreed to open up 12 failing schools and 18 new schools to bids from charter schools, community organizations and in-district groups of teachers and administrators. It’s the first round of a multi-year process that promises to transform the nation’s second largest district – and one of the nation’s most intransigent. (more...)

Revamped schools budget could cut $37M

02-05-2010

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

A draft budget proposal for San Diego Unified schools could cut $37 million compared to last year, which falls far short of the $93 million the school district has previously estimated it will have to slash. But finance officials are still checking over the numbers. They're also revising their estimates of how much money the district will get from the state, which could put the budget closer to the mark. The budget was created by internal teams based on priorities that the school board chose. Interim Superintendent Bill Kowba briefed labor leaders on the proposal today, cautioning that the estimates were still being reviewed by San Diego Unified budget analysts and the numbers could change. It includes: Eliminating funding for programs that take children to Balboa Park, Old Town and Camp Palomar to save roughly $6 million. (more...)

California budget crisis cuts close to the bone

02-05-2010

By Aaron Glantz/New America Media

Unless the federal government coughs up $6.9 billion dollars more for California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger says he will completely eliminate a host of social programs, including Healthy Families, the state sponsored health insurance for children; CalWORKS welfare program; and In-Home Support Services for the elderly, blind, and disabled (IHSS). “We have a $20 million budget gap, so difficult, almost draconian, measures have to be put on the table,” explained H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for Governor Schwarzenegger’s Department of Finance. Ironically, those cuts would come at a time when Californians need the programs most. A new report released this week from the non-profit, California Budget Project, Proposed Budget Cuts Come at a Time of Growing Need, argues that California’s economy hasn’t been weaker since the Great Depression. (more...)

No wonder teens are so drowsy they need more zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

02-05-2010

By Marissa Cevallos/San Jose Mercury News

When Glorianna Klyce's radio blasts hip-hop at 5:45 a.m., the 17-year-old rolls over and hits snooze. If it weren't for the second alarm clock that goes off at 6, she might have a much harder time getting to Kennedy High School in Fremont for the 7:35 a.m. first block bell. When she's running late, she skips breakfast and doesn't do her hair. "I wouldn't care what color socks I pick out," said Klyce. "Yesterday, I wore cat stripes on one foot and pink flowers on the other." She's not the only 17-year-old struggling to get to class. Emerging research shows that puberty upends sleep cycles, making snoozing into the late morning hours as natural for teens as hairy armpits and embarrassing voice squeaks. (more...)

Students dread transition out of Beverly Hills Unified

02-08-2010

By Carla Rivera/Los Angeles Times

Taylor Short said the last few weeks have been like walking through a fog, unable to see what's ahead. The Beverly Vista Elementary eighth-grader has no idea where she'll enroll next year. She wonders whether she'll stay in touch with her best friends and feels let down by adults. David Yona, a top athlete at El Rodeo Elementary, said he had been looking forward to the summer, when sports teams condition and train. Sadness sets in when he thinks about the fun he will probably miss before he starts his freshman year in the fall. Although Taylor and David live outside the Beverly Hills Unified School District, they have attended its schools for years on special permits. The district's Board of Education voted last month not to renew permits for the eighth-graders and other elementary students. They allowed high school students to continue through graduation. (more...)

States Rethink Policies on National-Board Teachers

02-09-2010

By Stephen Sawchuk/Education Week

Since the nation plunged into economic turmoil, a handful of states have scaled back pay bonuses and subsidies for teachers who earn certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. But factors other than the economy have also played into the cuts, too. Officials in Georgia, for instance, contend that the state wants to turn its teacher-quality focus toward output-based measures of teacher effectiveness, rather than credentials. Both phenomena are leading some experts to urge districts, teacher associations, and the NBPTS itself to think strategically about how to structure incentives so that board-certified teachers’ expertise is used effectively in school systems, and thus recognized by a wider cross section of stakeholders. (more...)

Recession pushes teens, young adults to the edge

02-08-2010

Education Week

On one of the coldest days of the new year, Antonio Larkin found himself without a place to stay — again. So the 22-year-old called a familiar number and was greeted by a familiar voice: "You wait there. We'll be there to get you." When outreach manager Stephanie Taylor and other staffers from Covenant House Michigan pulled up, Larkin was standing in the gray snow outside his ex-girlfriend's apartment building; his world's possessions in three, beat up travel bags. Larkin is among the untold thousands of Detroit's teens and young adults struggling to get by in a disastrous economy that has left their families without jobs or homes. Making matters worse is the organizations that help them are grappling with tough financial issues of their own. Some are cutting programs, others are scaling back on how many people they serve, but none of them is giving up. (more...)

Data don’t tell full story in charter ’segregation’ study

02-08-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Anti-charter school boards and superintendents no doubt are bookmarking a report that found that charter schools nationwide and in California are more racially and ethnically segregated than traditional public schools. They’ll cite the study, by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, as a rationale for denying a charter application or creating new demographic obstacles, under the guise of integration, that many urban charter schools cannot overcome. That would be disastrous for minority families who choose charters as an alternative to their neighborhood failing schools. "Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards” found that charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in nearly every state and large metropolitan area in the country. Nationally, 70 percent of black charter school students attend schools where at least 90 percent of students are minorities. (more...)

The misguided race to federalize education

02-09-2010

Opinion by David Davenport and Gordon Lloyd/San Francisco Chronicle

President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan call their $4 billion program of education reform grants the Race to the Top. A more accurate title would be the Race to Washington, because their program culminates a stunning decade in which school policy decisions have been wrested from local and state control to become matters of federal oversight. With the possible exception of Texas - where Gov. Rick Perry is resisting federal education grants with all their strings - no state has been left behind in the race to federalize education.It's easy to miss this important power shift because few of us notice, much less worry about, constitutional processes during a crisis. (more...)

11,000 people respond to Sac City schools online surveys

02-09-2010

By Melody Gutierrez/Sacramento Bee

Keeping class sizes small and closing the achievement gap among students seem to be the biggest concerns of parents, students, teachers and community members filling out a pair of surveys about the Sacramento City Unified School District, Superintendent Jonathan Raymond said Monday. More than 11,000 people had taken the surveys as of last week, including more than 4,200 students. (more...)

Results in L.A. school-reform elections could be withheld until Friday

02-08-2010

Blog by Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Ballot counting began Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles for an election over school-reform plans; results will be available by Monday but might not be released until Friday, officials said. A delay in releasing the results is likely to create yet another controversy over this school-reform strategy. The purpose of the unprecedented election was to give parents, students, school employees and others -- each voting group tallied separately -- the chance to express a preference regarding who should run 12 long-struggling schools and 18 new ones. The process is part of a groundbreaking school-control plan approved in August by the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education. The plan will affect nearly 40,000 students. The main competitors are groups of teachers -- often with the backing of union officials and district administrators -- and private charter operators. (more...)

New plan for Garfield High School auditorium

02-09-2010

Blog by Carla Rivera/Los Angeles Times

The fate of the fire-damaged auditorium at Garfield High School may be decided Tuesday as the Los Angeles Board of Education considers a plan to pay for the rebuilding of the historic structure. The auditorium was gutted in a May 2007 arson fire. A 17-year-old Garfield student was convicted of setting the blaze, sentenced to juvenile camp and ordered to pay restitution. The fire caused an estimated $30 million in damage to the East Los Angeles landmark. Since then, the Los Angeles Unified School District has been mired in a dispute with insurers over the scope of reconstruction. The two sides have engaged in mediation without progress, which has frustrated school administrators, students and community members. (more...)

Six principles to teach by

02-09-2010

Opinion by Judith E. Giampaoli/San Francisco Chronicle

It was a principal's worst-case scenario: School was starting in a few days and I still had an open position in seventh-grade math. I didn't want to hire a teacher who was lacking traditional certification, but I agreed to interview Nate Geller, a corps member with Teach for America, a national education organization that recruits college graduates to work in underserved schools. Based on Geller's passion for teaching and palpable commitment to minority children like those at Francisco Middle School, I decided to take a chance and hire him. It didn't take long to recognize Geller's teaching talent and see that his Teach for America training had prepared him well for the challenges of working at Francisco. (more...)

Cortines to take his first furlough day

02-08-2010

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines announced that he will take his first of four unpaid work days this month in an effort to motivate other district employees to do the same to deal with the district's massive deficit. Cortines, who makes $250,000 a year, will take a furlough Monday and expects to take three other unpaid days off in March, April and May, saving the district about $3,800. "How can I ask LAUSD employees to take what amounts to a pay cut if I am not willing to share the sacrifice?" Cortines said in a written statement. Also, 300 senior district employees, who are not protected by a union, will be required to do the same. (more...)

Two types of superintendent

02-09-2010

Column by Diane Ravitch/Education Week

Dear Deborah, As I watch events across the nation, I have concluded that district leadership today falls into one of two varieties. On one hand is the traditional superintendent, who believes that he is responsible for the schools and students in his care. He visits the schools often and consults frequently with mid-level superintendents to make sure that the schools get the resources they need. When a school is in trouble, he sends in a team of experienced educators to assess its needs and devise a plan to help the staff. If the school continues to struggle, he works harder to try to solve the problems. He may decide to remove the principal and shake up the staff. He is relentless in trying to get the school to function well. (more...)

With federal stimulus money gone, many schools face budget gaps

02-08-2010

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

Federal stimulus money has helped avoid drastic cuts at public schools in most parts of the nation, at least so far. But with the federal money running out, many of the nation’s schools are approaching what officials are calling a “funding cliff.” President Obama with students last month in Falls Church, Va. Many schools will deplete their stimulus money in this term. Congress included about $100 billion for education in the stimulus law last year to cushion the recession’s impact on schools and to help fuel an economic recovery. New studies show that many states will spend all or nearly all that is left between now and the end of this school term. With state and local tax revenues still in decline, the end of the federal money will leave big holes in education budgets from Massachusetts and Florida to California and Washington, experts said. (more...)

A federal effort to push junk food out of schools

02-08-2010

By Gardiner Harris/New York Times

The Obama administration will begin a drive this week to expel Pepsi, French fries and Snickers bars from the nation’s schools in hopes of reducing the number of children who get fat during their school years. In legislation, soon to be introduced, candy and sugary beverages would be banned and many schools would be required to offer more nutritious fare. To that end, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will deliver a speech Monday at the National Press Club in which he will insist, according to excerpts provided to The Times, that any vending machines that remain in schools be “filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation’s children.” The first lady, Michelle Obama, said last month that she would lead an initiative to reduce childhood obesity, and her involvement “shows the importance all of us place on this issue,” Mr. Vilsack said. (more...)

Study finds wide achievement gaps for top students

02-08-2010

By Debra Viadero/Education Week

Achievement gaps between students of different genders and racial, economic, and linguistic groups are large and persistent for the nation’s top-performing students, even as they seem to be narrowing for K-12 students as a whole, according to a new report. For the analysis, released Feb. 4 by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University in Bloomington, researchers analyzed data stretching back as far as 1996 from 4th and 8th grade reading and math tests administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and from state assessments in those subjects. They found that achievement gaps between girls and boys, white and disadvantaged minority students, poor students and their better-off peers, and English-language learners and their English-speaking counterparts have either widened, stayed the same, or declined by a hair since the late 1990s. (more...)

Public education in California faces perilous 'funding cliff'

02-10-2010

By Louis Freedberg/California Watch

The billions of federal stimulus dollars helping fund public education in California represent a double-edged sword. There is no question that the funds have helped California's public schools avert fiscal disaster. But it also means that in a very short period of time, the money will run out – in the case of colleges and universities, by next August – and when that happens, the state’s education institutions could find themselves falling into an even deeper financial abyss than they are in now. Educators have worried for a long time about this "funding cliff," which is steeper, and higher in California than almost every other state. That’s because California, with its massive size, has qualified for more stimulus funds than any other state. (more...)

Tying teacher tenure to student scores doesn’t fly

02-10-2010

Column by Justin Snider/Education Week

The day we can accurately measure a teacher’s performance has finally arrived. Or so the likes of District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg would have us believe. In a speech this past fall in Washington, but directed at the New York state legislature, Mayor Bloomberg praised “data-driven systems,” while arguing that student test scores should be linked to teacher-tenure decisions. His preferred analogy was to medicine: To prohibit the use of student test-score data in such decisions, Bloomberg explained, would be as insane and inane as “saying to hospitals, ‘You can evaluate heart surgeons on any criteria you want—just not patient-survival rates.’ ” (more...)

'We're going to have to cut much more'

02-10-2010

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

Remaking the school district budget based on chosen priorities such as diversity and a balanced curriculum helped San Diego Unified officials scrounge up nearly $39 million more in potential savings -- but it won't be enough to close the gap unless California slashes less than expected. That means that San Diego Unified can't fund its highest priorities, said school board President Richard Barrera. "The reality is we're going to have to cut much more," Barrera said. "Much more." The school district is bracing for a roughly $91 million deficit. The $39 million won't cut it, especially because only $21 million of that sum comes from the flexible funds that California is most likely to cut. The school board didn't decide whether or not to make the recommended cuts on Tuesday night, when they were presented to the board. (more...)

Backbenching the prez' ed budget

02-10-2010

Blog by Patrick Riccards/Eduflak

It has been a little over a week since President Obama officially submitted his FY2011 budget. Depending on who you speak to, it was the best of times/worst of times for the education sector. Overall, the Administration is seeking to raise the federal commitment to education spending by more than 7 percent. But that increase comes with a new set of priorities, a new grouping of funding streams, and some eliminations of long time, cherished programs. You can see Eduflack's original thoughts on the budget here. During the original scrum, we heard from many of the groups we expected to hear from — including oldies but goodies like the NEA and AFT and the growing number of education "reform" organizations seem by many to benefit the new "consolidation." (more...)

'Algebra-for-All' push found to yield poor results

02-10-2010

By Debra Viadero/Education Week

Spurred by a succession of reports pointing to the importance of algebra as a gateway to college, educators and policymakers embraced “algebra for all” policies in the 1990s and began working to ensure that students take the subject by 9th grade or earlier. A trickle of studies suggests that in practice, though, getting all students past the algebra hump has proved difficult and has failed, some of the time, to yield the kinds of payoffs educators seek. Among the newer findings: • An analysis using longitudinal statewide data on students in Arkansas and Texas found that, for the lowest-scoring 8th graders, even making it one course past Algebra 2 might not be enough to help them become “college and career ready” by the end of high school. (more...)

Teachers claim victory in school-reform elections but results may have little impact

02-10-2010

Blog by Howard Blume and Jason Song/Los Angeles Times

Teachers won a nearly clean sweep over charter schools and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in elections for school-reform plans that were held last week. The Los Angeles Unified School District released the election results Tuesday, packaging them with separate professional evaluations of each reform plan that sometimes resulted in a different verdict. Neither the election results nor the evaluations are the final word on who will run 12 persistently low-performing schools and 18 new campuses under a school-reform strategy adopted in August. L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines will issue his own recommendations, and the school board is scheduled to make a final decision Feb. 23. (more...)

Proposed education cuts protested

02-10-2010

By Maureen Magee/San Diego Union Tribune

Hundreds of teachers, parents and students rallied in the rain yesterday to protest millions of dollars in proposed cuts to the San Diego Unified School District’s budget and a contract offer that calls for slicing educators’ pay by 8 percent. Some of the most popular programs offered by the state’s second-largest district are once again on the chopping block — including suspending for two years the weeklong student seminars in Old Town, Balboa Park and Camp Palomar. Roughly $39 million in cuts were proposed as part of the school board’s “priority-based budget” process, designed to protect the most essential goals. The school board made no decisions last night and withheld any significant comment on specific cuts that were proposed by its staff. (more...)

L.A. Unified plans to fire more non-tenured teachers than usual

02-10-2010

By Jason Song/Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles school district officials are planning to fire more than 110 non-tenured teachers this year based on their performance, about three times the number of probationary teachers dismissed annually in recent years. The move comes after The Times reported in December that the Los Angeles Unified School District often grants teachers permanent status with little or no evaluation. About a week after the newspaper informed district officials of its findings, Supt. Ramon C. Cortines ordered that teachers, especially probationary ones, be more closely scrutinized. The Times found that nearly all probationary teachers received passing grades on their evaluations and that fewer than 2% were denied tenure. Over the last four years, the school board has denied tenure to an average of 35 teachers annually. (more...)

It’s all about schools

02-10-2010

By Thomas L. Friedman/New York Times

I took part in a “qat chew” the other day at the home of a Yemeni official. Never done that before. Qat is the mildly hallucinogenic leaf drug that Yemeni men stuff in their cheek after work — and sometimes during. My hosts insisted that qat actually makes your senses sharper and that you could chew and chisel the top of a mosque minaret at the same time. I quit after 15 minutes, but the Yemeni officials, lawmakers and businessmen I was with chewed on for three hours — and they made a lot of sense along the way. Most had been educated in America or had kids studying there, and they were all bemoaning how the decline of the Yemeni education system, the proliferation of exclusively religious schools here and the falloff in scholarships for Yemeni kids to study in America were producing a very different Yemeni generation than their own. (more...)

Concerns raised about impact of stimulus on equity

02-11-2010

By Michele McNeil/Education Week

While the nearly $100 billion in federal economic-stimulus aid set aside for education has challenged school districts to turn one-time money into long-term reform, this historic influx of funding has also set the stage for long-term—and not necessarily positive—consequences. That’s the verdict rendered at a two-day conference this week put on by Teachers College, Columbia University, and by the Campaign for Educational Equity, a research and advocacy organization based at the college. Researchers studying implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the 2009 stimulus law, reported to the attendees that stimulus funding is causing states to make structural changes in their education aid and in services they provide to disadvantaged students that will have consequences long after the money runs out. (more...)

California students among the most successful on AP tests

02-11-2010

By Nicole Santa Cruz/Los Angeles Times

California boasts one of the nation's highest percentages of public school students passing AP tests, but educators are concerned about a dramatic slowdown in the rate of students taking those college-level courses, according to an annual report released Wednesday. In 2009, about 21% of California's senior class earned a score of 3 or higher on one or more Advanced Placement exams. The national rate was 16%. The tests are graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with scores of 3 and above accepted for college credit at many colleges and universities. The number of high school students taking AP exams nationally almost doubled from 2001 to 2009, but course enrollments are slowing, particularly in California, said Trevor Packer, vice president of the College Board, which administers the tests and released the report. (more...)

CTA takes on corporate tax breaks

02-11-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

One way or the other, the California Teachers Association and business interests were headed for a mighty battle this November over taxes. Now it’s clear what they’ll be fighting over. Delegates for the 325,000 member union voted to back initiatives to rescind corporate tax breaks (see initiatives #1412 and #1375), passed a year ago under cover of darkness, that eventually will cut state revenues by an estimated $1.7 billion. Backing up its vote with dollars, the CTA this week committed $587,000 to gather 434,000 signatures needed to put it on the ballot. For a while, it looked like the CTA would take another tack and ask voters to increase taxes on commercial property either by raising the tax rate by about 25 percent or by having commercial properties reassessed every three years. (more...)

Expansion of A.P. tests also brings more failures

02-11-2010

By Tamar Lewin/New York Times

The College Board’s Advanced Placement program is expanding in American high schools, but as it moves from being a program primarily for elite students, the number of test-takers who fail A.P. exams is growing — although not as much as the number of those who pass. According to a College Board report, about 800,000 public high school seniors in last May’s graduating class, or 26.5 percent of the class, took an A.P. exam at some point in their high school career, almost twice as many as took A.P. exams in the class of 2001. While the majority of students who take A.P. exams still earn a passing score of 3, 4 or 5, which is enough to earn college credit at many institutions, the share of failing scores has risen with the program’s rapid expansion. (more...)

Tenure not quite automatic in L.A.

02-11-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Embarrassed by a Los Angeles Times story revealing teacher tenure has been all but automatic in Los Angeles Unified, the district is tripling the number of probationary teachers who will be fired this year. The extra scrutiny will help weed out bad teachers before they gain due process rights that make it very difficult to fire teachers for poor performance. But L.A. Unified’s ability to identify effective teachers is still hampered, as in many districts, by a poor evaluation process and a problematic, two-year probationary period. The district is in the process of changing the former, but only the Legislature or voters can fix the latter. The 110 teachers who will be let go will comprise only 6 percent of non-tenured teachers, according to the Times. (more...)

Los Angeles schools will fire 110 teachers for poor work

02-11-2010

San Jose Mercury News

The Los Angeles Unified School District plans to fire more than 110 teachers this year because of poor performance — three times the yearly average. The probationary teachers received negative ratings on job evaluations and won't get tenure. Over the past four years, the school board has denied tenure to about 35 teachers a year. Superintendent Ramon Cortines ordered poorly performing teachers removed last December, saying that could save the jobs of better — but less senior — teachers if the financially struggling district has to order layoffs this summer. (more...)

LBUSD to cut about 400 teaching positions in plan to increase class sizes

02-11-2010

By Kevin Butler/Long Beach Press-Telegram

About 400 teaching positions are slated for elimination next school year as part of a plan to increase class sizes in the Long Beach Unified School District. The Long Beach Board of Education on Tuesday raised to four the number of elementary grades it is targeting for class-size increases in the 2010-2011 academic year. The board on Jan. 27 approved a $32.6 million budget reduction package that called for increasing class sizes in kindergarten and third grades this fall to 30 students per teacher. Currently those grades are at 20 students per teacher. On Tuesday board members unanimously decided to also increase class sizes in first and second grades by the same amount, to 30 students per teacher. The change will result in additional savings of about $5.5 million. (more...)

Schools all across America dealing with severe budget issues

02-12-2010

By Phil Barber/Santa Rosa Press-Democrat

Here in California, Pleasanton eliminated coaching stipends at Foothill and Amador high schools and asked for donations from athletes to compensate; Elk Grove cut all athletic funding for the coming year in November, and while looking for ways to keep its sports, is likely to eliminate all freshman teams in 2010-11; the Paso Robles school district has a 50-percent cut to the athletic budget on the table; and the East Side Union High School district in San Jose initially voted to eliminate sports in Dec. 2008, then said the programs could remain if they were self-funded. Still, if Santa Rosa is part of a larger movement, it may stand out in the crowd. According to national and state athletic officials, eliminating entire programs remains a rarity. (more...)

Children Now gives California health, education low grade

02-12-2010

Blog by Susan Davis/San Francisco Chronicle

If you're not already depressed about a) Governor Schwarzenegger's No-Oops-I-Mean-$1.5-Billion-Cuts-to-K12-Education Plan or b) the possibility that AUSD will be facing a $25 million deficit within three years, Children Now released a report last month that shows just how dismal the situation for children in this state really is. In its California Report Card 2010, the national non-profit (which is based in Oakland), gives the state a D+ in child health categories, including asthma, health coverage, and oral health; a D in K-12 education; and a D+ in child safety. The state received just one B grade -- a B+ in afterschool care. And this is based on data gathered before this year's projected cuts to both K-12 education and children's health services. (more...)

A climate of false crisis

02-12-2010

Column by Deborah Meier/Education Week

Dear Diane, Leisure is an essential ingredient for a successful working democracy. We need time to think and unbundle some of the contradictions by which we live. If "elitism" is wrong for charters, why is it okay for public schools? Why do we presume that poor kids need a more rigid and authoritarian school climate than "ordinary" kids? How can I both believe in the importance of local decision-making where possible, and also support choice in schooling? My list is long. But my time for discussing such issues isn't enough. Then add to it the climate of false crisis that is whipped up by those who are quite sure of their agendas and have learned that giving citizens more time will only cause trouble, for them. (more...)

California still an AP leader, for now

02-12-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

While California schools have lagged behind the nation by some performance measures, it has been a leader in one significant area: the percentage of high school students who take Advanced Placement courses and then pass the AP exams. This has been true in every subject, from AP physics to AP psychology. During the past decade, the numbers of students taking and succeeding in AP courses – an indicator of readiness for rigorous college work — have continued to rise, though not as dramatically as in states that have pushed AP, particularly among minority students. (more...)

Newport-Mesa schools to cut ESL, adult education classes to help close budget gap

02-12-2010

Blog by Jill-Marie Jones/Los Angeles Times

Newport-Mesa Unified School District is expected to drop English as a second language classes and slash adult education offerings under a package of proposed budgetary cuts. According to Tom Ragan in the Daily Pilot, doing away with ESL classes and the bulk of adult education programs would be felt most keenly by the people living in the district’s Costa Mesa side, where these programs are concentrated and where many Latinos live. Hundreds of Spanish-speaking parents take the ESL classes so they can lead by example and talk to their children in English. Kimberly Claytor, president of the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, said that the elimination of the ESL classes could prove detrimental to student achievement because the parents often are “the first line of help.” (more...)

In national first, Kentucky adopts common standards

02-12-2010

By Catherine Gewertz/Education Week

Kentucky yesterday became the first state to adopt common academic standards that were drafted as part of a nationwide initiative to establish a widely shared and ambitious vision of student learning. With a unanimous vote Wednesday morning, the Kentucky board of education approved the substitution of the common standards in mathematics and English/language arts for the state’s own standards in those two subjects. Then, in a rare joint session last night, the panel met in Frankfort with the two boards that oversee teacher licensure and public higher education in the state and adopted a resolution directing the staffs of all three agencies to begin incorporating the standards into their work. (more...)

L.A. Unified schools' chief works for district supplier

02-12-2010

By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines earned more than $150,000 last year for serving on the board of one of the nation's leading educational publishing companies, a firm with more than $16 million in contracts with the school district over the last five years. Scholastic Inc. provides the main reading intervention curriculum for the Los Angeles Unified School District, a program that is part of the company's fast-growing educational technology business. Cortines has disclosed his relationship with the New York-based company, and officials say he has avoided any decisions on Scholastic contracts. Cortines' role, however, has generated criticism among some former senior officials and current employees. They said the corporate tie creates an appearance of impropriety. (more...)

S.D. teachers union refuses pay cut, offers alternative

02-12-2010

By Ana Tintocalis/San Diego KPBS

San Diego's teachers union says its members will not accept an 8 percent pay cut to balance San Diego Unified School District's budget. The district presented the San Diego Education Association with the 8 percent pay cut proposal last week. Union leaders call the pay cut ridiculous and indefensible. In fact, they say the district's proposal has negatively affected the recent good will between the union and the school board. Instead, union leaders say their members will take three furlough days annually if the district agrees to a list of concessions. Those concessions include placing caps on class sizes and preserving nursing and counselor positions. Union president Camille Zombro says the money that funds those positions is being used on other things. (more...)

Pressing labor for cuts triggers 'surreal' shakeup on school board

02-12-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

After another plan failed to dig up enough savings, San Diego Unified is now under even more pressure to squeeze employees to balance its budget. The prolonged budget crisis has put some board members at odds with the same unions that helped to elect them -- and jumbled the usual dynamics of the politicized board. Longtime labor ally Richard Barrera is seeking deeper concessions from the teachers union, along with John Lee Evans, who was elected on a pledge to protect teachers. John de Beck and Shelia Jackson, who have often disagreed on labor issues in recent years, are both pushing the idea of progressive salary cuts that fall harder on employees who earn more. (more...)

The cruelest of cuts

02-12-2010

By Ethan Stewart/Santa Barbara Independent

Though it wasn’t really his fault, Eric Smith sure wasn’t going to win any popularity contests with the crowd of mostly faculty, staff, and parents at the Santa Barbara School Board meeting this week. Thanks to the public education-destroying realities of the latest California state budget proposal, the Santa Barbara School Board needs to slash their general fund budget for the fourth time in the past year, after enduring several million in cuts to their roughly $119 million operating budget. District Deputy Superintendent Smith is the man tasked with figuring out where the next $6 million in necessary reductions can come from. (more...)

Personal tools

Sections

February 2010

School Matters: Students' 'core needs' not being met

Obama to seek sweeping change in ‘No Child’ law

Administration retooling key part of 'No Child' law

States to government: hands off education

ESEA In 2010?

States struggle to keep top teachers

Teacher pay can vary greatly by district, California report says

Ball now in the other court

Bidding to run L.A.'s schools

New teachers facing tough times

Berkeley schools look to shift funds to help close achievement gap

Model by example: close failing charter schools

Ailing schools turn to voters for help

Kids' dental decay takes a bite out of school attendance

Recession takes toll on California schools

Education reform: Obama budget reboots No Child Left Behind

Playing to learn

Study finds 'No Child' has low teacher support

Obama plan calls for education-funding increase

State lawmakers unhappy with Obama priorities

New state law aimed at helping failing schools

Good report, for the moment, on districts’ finances

LAUSD reform is a bitter battle

Key vote today at LAUSD

Obama budget calls for major shifts on ESEA

Berkeley High School should not cheat top students to lessen achievement gap

L.A. could learn a lot about charter schools from the Big Apple

Virginia Islamic School's Expansion Met Protests

Trying to be there, but unsure if he will

Report: Ending gym tests, other school requirements could save state $350 million

Six states sign on to school turnaround project

Voters advise L.A. Unified on preferred campus takeovers

LAUSD begins reform process of low performing schools

LAUSD voting guidelines ripe for corruption

Audit blames East Side board, not former Superintendent Bob Nuñez, for lapses

A frank and civil dialogue on charters

At a Haiti school's reopening, a lesson in sharing

Education Secretary Duncan, Rahm Emanuel both apologize

Teachable Moments: New study reports bleak conditions for public schools

Finding value in the flat world and education

Study: Charter school growth accompanied by racial imbalance

Report: rescind most mandated programs

Teachers' resistance could keep districts from cashing in on Race to the Top

Voters weigh in on LAUSD reform plans

State school boards raise questions about standards

Money well spent

Stop L.A. Unified's 'charterization'

Trading counselors for copy machines

Race to the Top and reality

Parcel tax poll results questioned

Charter schools' growth promoting segregation, studies say

Failure rate for AP tests climbing

Making ‘No Child’ better

School districts scramble to help homeless students

New course for No Child Left Behind

Attention, Gates: Here's what makes a great teacher

L.A. teachers, parents vote early – and often

Revamped schools budget could cut $37M

California budget crisis cuts close to the bone

No wonder teens are so drowsy they need more zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Students dread transition out of Beverly Hills Unified

States Rethink Policies on National-Board Teachers

Recession pushes teens, young adults to the edge

Data don’t tell full story in charter ’segregation’ study

The misguided race to federalize education

11,000 people respond to Sac City schools online surveys

Results in L.A. school-reform elections could be withheld until Friday

New plan for Garfield High School auditorium

Six principles to teach by

Cortines to take his first furlough day

Two types of superintendent

With federal stimulus money gone, many schools face budget gaps

A federal effort to push junk food out of schools

Study finds wide achievement gaps for top students

Public education in California faces perilous 'funding cliff'

Tying teacher tenure to student scores doesn’t fly

'We're going to have to cut much more'