January 2010

Assembly should pass bill to name, repair 10 worst California schools

01-04-2010

Editorial/San Jose Mercury News

Of the many education reforms proposed recently in the Legislature, Senate Bill 742 is not the most sweeping. But it's one of the smartest. The bill, which would require the state to identify and fix the 10 worst public schools, sailed through the Senate in June but is stuck in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. It should be passed. It may seem surprising that this law would be necessary. Why doesn't the state already have to name and repair all its badly performing schools? In the face of opposition to broader reform from teachers unions and administrators, the bill's authors say, they had to start somewhere. The beauty of this approach is that while it seems like a small step, it's likely to have a tremendous impact beyond just these 10 schools. Year after year, nearly 1,000 schools have failed to improve on a range of key measures despite billions of extra taxpayer dollars. (more...)

New year, new priorities?

01-04-2010

National Journal

During 2009, the various educational programs and grant competitions fueled by economic stimulus funds dominated the national education agenda. The Obama administration's $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition garnered significant attention and is thought to provide a blueprint for the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Going forward into 2010, what should the No. 1 education priority be for Congress and the administration? What do you predict will define education policy this year? How much attention will Washington pay to education issues in an election year in which many other high-profile issues are already crowding the agenda? (more...)

Behind-the-scenes maneuvers on parental reforms

01-04-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

There likely will be action today in the Assembly on compromise Race to the Top legislation, as scheduled. But instead of one big bill, two reforms opposed by the school boards association and the state teachers union will be shoved into a separate bill, which the lobbies hope to kill. At least that’s the word I got late last night, after a day of intense negotiations. Both reforms would give more power to families in chronically failing schools. So Democrats in the Assembly will find themselves having to choose between the interests of the union and that of parents. When last we left it, before Christmas, SBX5-4 has passed the Senate and was awaiting action in the Assembly. It still is. The bill would put California on firmer ground in competing for a piece of the Obama administration’s $4.3 billion school reform grant program. (more...)

Massive budget cuts to education

01-04-2010

By Gloria Penner, Ana Tintocalis/KPBS San Diego

GLORIA PENNER (Host): The state’s budget also hit close to home this year on the education front, where massive cuts were made to both K-12 and higher education. So with me now to look at the impact of these cuts is KPBS education reporter Ana Tintocalis. Welcome, Ana. ANA TINTOCALIS (KPBS Education Reporter): Thank you. PENNER: Give us a sense of how much education actually was cut locally in K-12 school districts. TINTOCALIS: Well, I would say hundreds of millions of dollars in San Diego County. And it’s difficult because it varies among public school districts. So take San Diego Unified for example. Over the past year they saw about $200 million cut, a state funding shortfall of that amount of money. And so what they were able to do this past year, which bailed them out basically, was that they put out an early retirement plan for veteran teachers. So veteran teachers took this deal and they left. And that was one way for the district to avoid teacher layoffs. (more...)

Teachers seek control at up-for-bid L.A. Unified schools

01-04-2010

By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

A plan to let outside groups bid for control of dozens of long-struggling and new local campuses has unleashed a formidable competitor: Groups of teachers from inside the Los Angeles Unified School District are vying to take charge of their schools. At every location up for bid -- 12 existing schools and 18 new campuses -- teams of teachers and the L.A. teachers union are working nights and weekends to decide what to offer students and parents and what they would require of them and of themselves. They are trying to take advantage of a reform strategy, approved in August, that envisioned bringing in privately operated charter schools to set the standard for a school system widely seen as dysfunctional. The union, United Teachers Los Angeles, also is trying to block charter takeovers through litigation. (more...)

Are students languishing in English learner programs?

01-04-2010

By Shirin Parsavand/Intersections L.A.

Students who enter school knowing little English often remain in English learner programs for their entire school careers. That students remain in these programs for years without becoming fluent in English has long been known, but there is little agreement on what to do about it. A recent report looked at the problem in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Nearly 30 percent of students who start first grade as English learners in Los Angeles Unified are not reclassified by eighth grade, according to the report from USC’s Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. Those who remain in English learner programs when they enter high school do worse in school and are more likely to drop out than students who are reclassified, even after controlling for past academic performance, according to the study released in October, “Qué Pasa?: Are English Language Learning Students Remaining in English Learning Classes Too Long?” (more...)

More students homeless in Contra Costa County, Bay Area, state

01-04-2010

By Theresa Harrington/Contra Costa Times

Tina Anglin's son Bubba remembers clearly the day his mother told him she planned to go into drug rehab. "I was 9," said the boy, now 11. "I was happy and kind of sad at the same time. I was happy she'd get off drugs so we could have a good Christmas, a good life and she would not hang out with the people she used to hang out with." But his family broke up when his mom entered the treatment center. "The day I turned 10 was the day I moved in with my grandpa," he said. Bubba has moved so often with his mother and two sisters that he has trouble remembering which schools he attended. His 13-year-old sister, R'ryanna, estimates she has gone to 12 different schools as she moved between Antioch, Concord and Martinez, living with relatives and friends. The family now lives together in transitional housing for the homeless in Antioch operated by the nonprofit Shelter Inc. (more...)

Cuts choking area school libraries

01-04-2010

By Michelle Hatfield/Modesto Bee

The heart of most schools is the library. It's a place to check out the latest vampire book, print an English essay, learn about the differences between fact and opinion, unearth that last source for a history paper, or find refuge and quiet time to read. But as the recession squeezes funding from schools, officials have cut back on nonacademic support programs, including libraries. Take Davis High School, where librarian Stephen Walker's annual supplies budget has been stripped from $76,000 to $4,000 to cover the cost of copy paper, printer ink, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, college guides and Advanced Placement test preparation books. "When they do these cuts, they always say 'students come first,' " said Walker, noting that the library records 80,000 to 100,000 contacts with students each year. "But if you go down to the district office, you're going to see flat screens, the newest software and the newest computers." (more...)

'Race to Top' viewed as template for a new ESEA

01-04-2010

By Alyson Klein/Education Week (subscription required)

Educators hoping for a glimpse at the next rendition of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act may want to take a close look at the rules for the Race to the Top program, which pushes states to adopt education redesign principles that federal officials say are likely to be the cornerstone of the Obama administration’s plans for a new ESEA. The $4 billion Race to the Top competition, created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aims to reward states for making progress on a series of redesign “assurances,” including turning around low-performing schools, improving teacher quality and distribution, bolstering state data systems, and improving the use of data and assessments. Those themes are likely to inform the U.S. Department of Education’s plans for reauthorization of the ESEA, of which the 8-year-old No Child Left Behind Act is the most recent iteration, said Carmel Martin, the department’s assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development, in an interview with Education Week reporters late last year. (more...)

A good move for South L.A. neighborhood

01-04-2010

By Scott Gold/Los Angeles Times

As part of a plan to bring affordable housing to a gritty part of town, city officials want to relocate a metal finishing firm charged with illegal dumping. She suspected that the source of their troubles was the little plant across from the school. She began poring over government documents. She knew little English at the time, but some words jumped out, such as "emissions." And yet, at every turn, officials kept telling her the area was safe. "I just thought: 'But how do you know that?' " she said. She joined forces with the nonprofit Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known by its acronym ACORN, becoming president of her neighborhood chapter. That gave her a bigger platform. City Hall began taking notice. Government regulators came next. (more...)

Natomas budget cuts hit classrooms; parents worried

01-04-2010

By Diana Lambert/Sacramento Bee

Natomas Unified School District officials have reached deep into classrooms to balance their budget. They have cut days from the school year, reduced class periods for most juniors and seniors, relaxed graduation requirements and eliminated summer school. And parents are worried. "They need to start putting the kids first," said Elena Quintero, president of the Inderkum High School Parent Teacher Student Association. She is concerned about the district's decision to reduce the number of units required for graduation and to cut counselors. "Counselors now don't even have the time to go over a schedule with kids, let alone go over graduation requirements and college applications," said Quintero, whose son is a freshman at the school. (more...)

Beverly Hills schools want to boot out-of-district 'opportunity' students

01-04-2010

By Christina Hoag/San Jose Mercury News

Threats on Facebook, name-calling, security guard escorts — tempers are running high around schools these days in this normally sedate enclave of ostentatious wealth. The reason: The Beverly Hills school board is preparing to boot out 10 percent of its students as it ends a decades-old practice of allowing out-of-district pupils to attend city schools on "opportunity permits." The move has upset many so-called permit parents — mostly middle-class families living in the tonier areas of Los Angeles who are loath to send their children to the beleaguered Los Angeles Unified School District, where more than a quarter of high-schoolers drop out. "Every family on permit is outraged," said Simy Levy, a Los Angeles resident whose two daughters attend school in Beverly Hills. "It's incredibly unfair." The plan, which is expected to get final board approval next month, comes as Beverly Hills Unified School District switches to a budget plan financed directly by the city's well-to-do tax base instead of with state money based on enrollment. (more...)

Living the education gap as a San Jose teacher

01-04-2010

Commentary by Iliana Perez/New America Media

In Washington, D.C., as politicians discussed health care and the economy, a group of students, educators and organizers convened at the Opportunity to Learn Conference to talk about what was most urgent to us – education. We gathered at the Marriot Hotel in Arlington to talk specifically about the education opportunity gap - the gap that divides students based on their access to education. Rather than focusing on comparing school achievement, the conference focused on schools’ accessibility to resources, quality teachers and effective curriculum. We stepped away from measuring achievement and asked the more fundamental question: “How can all students be assessed at the same standard of achievement if they are not receiving the same level of education?” As causes and solutions were discussed, we collectively surfaced ideas that ranged from national legislation to changing neighborhood bus schedules. (more...)

Districts ready to Race, but will they really sign?

01-05-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

California will have some impressive numbers to show the feds, if most of the districts that have expressed interest in the federal Race to the Top competition follow through this week and sign the dotted line to participate in the state’s as yet unfinished application. Nine of the state’s 10 largest school districts – every one but San Diego Unified — and 23 of the top 30 districts sent in letters of intent to join the program. In total, 798 of the approximately 1,800 school districts, county offices of education and charter schools showed interest. They educate 3.8 million of the state’s 6.25 million public school students – 61 percent.Not bad numbers, especially considering that the state provided the wording of the memorandum of understanding to commit to the program only a few weeks ago. (more...)

Class size reduction: California drops the ball

01-05-2010

Opinion by Delaine Eastin/San Francisco Chronicle

I am heartsick that some California school districts are backing away from class size reduction, a reform that is being whittled away in this terrible budget climate. I believe today as I did when I was elected in 1994, that the budget of a state is like the budget of a family: it is a statement of values. I believe that class size reduction is even more important today than it was in the mid-1990's when we implemented it. The decision to undermine class size reduction, to lower the number of days in the school year, to lay off teachers, counselors, nurses, crossing guards, to close schools, to reduce preschool, to reduce honors classes and even to raise fees at our colleges and universities is a shame and a disgrace. It is being done in a state that was suckered into recklessly passing a high-speed rail so the rich could ride in style while our poor children are being starved educationally. I will come back to this, but first let me say a few words about how we got here. (more...)

Rules of (child) engagement

01-05-2010

By Jennifer Torres/San Joaquin Record

More American children are engaged in school - they are interested in their assignments, they work hard, they enjoy attending - and more are involved in the kinds of extracurricular activities that help keep them engaged than were about a decade ago, according to a recently published report from the Census Bureau. But the census also found that student engagement is related to parent education, family income and other factors with which San Joaquin County has tended to struggle. In "A Child's Day," Census Bureau analysts surveyed parents - mothers, for the most part - on their children's attitudes toward and performance at school, as well as on details about their home lives: Are there rules established for watching television? Do the children eat dinner with their parents most nights? Do parents praise their children regularly? Do the children take part in sports and other out-of-school activities? (more...)

Race to the Top coming down to the wire

01-05-2010

By Mina Kim/California Report (audio file)

As the state legislature reconvenes this week, one of the most pressing items on the agenda is passing the so-called Race to the Top bill. That's California's bid for a share of billions of dollars the federal government is offering to push change in public education. The deadline is in two weeks. (more...)

California set to pass education overhaul plan

01-05-2010

By Marisa Lagos/San Francisco Chronicle

The California Legislature is poised to pass an education plan today that makes far-reaching changes to how public schools are governed, giving parents the power to transfer their kids out of failing schools and to force districts to overhaul bad schools. The dramatic changes to California's education policies have been debated for months. They are intended to make the state competitive for up to $700 million in federal dollars under President Obama's $4.3 billion Race to the Top program, which promises funding to states that embrace education policies outlined by the president by a Jan. 19 application deadline. Millions more dollars may also be at stake for the financially struggling state, as the Obama administration is expected to tie future education funding to some of his Race to the Top provisions. (more...)

Where's the 2009 love?

01-05-2010

Blog by Patrick Riccards/Eduflak

Yes, I recognize that we have started a new year. But Eduflack is also mindful of the words of Winston Churchill that "those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." So I can't start the new year without looking over those lovely Year in Review editions put out by Time and Newsweek last week. Those of us who have been hip deep in the education improvement movement often operate with blinders on, believing that the topics and issues that we are focused on are what the entire world are most concerned with. About a month ago, Brookings came out with a study calculating that only 1.4 percent of the national news coverage in 2009 was education-related. (Personally, as painful as the statistic was, I'd hate to see that number if we excluded coverage of Teach for America and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). (more...)

Schools are facing new round of cuts

01-05-2010

By Cheri Carlson/Ventura County Star

Months after losing hundreds of teachers, raising class sizes and cutting school days, public school officials likely will again be faced with budget deficits heading into 2010-11. Even without further state funding cuts, school districts will have to find ways to fill holes left by short-term fixes to deal with this year’s steep state cuts, including one-time federal stimulus cash handed out in 2009. “The quality of education in California is going to be affected because of the financial problems at the state level,” said county Associate Superintendent Ken Prosser.This month, California school districts had to hand in their first revised budgets of the fiscal year, a multi-year financial plan. Local districts turn in reports to the Ventura County Office of Education, which provides an independent review before certifying results for the state. (more...)

District needs a leader / Dropping superintendent post would be calamitous

01-05-2010

Editorial/Sign On San Diego

Continuing its radical consolidation of power, the San Diego Unified school board majority has scheduled a special meeting today at which members are expected to take the first step toward eliminating the position of superintendent. This would be a calamitous mistake, one that would make city schools a national laughingstock. Parents of students in San Diego Unified aren’t the only ones who should be up in arms. Everyone who cares about San Diego’s future should be alarmed. Board members Shelia Jackson, Richard Barrera and John Lee Evans will pretend the decision to adopt an “alternative school district leadership model” is about efficiency or reform or even saving money, but no one should have any illusion about what’s going on. This is a power grab, plain and simple. (more...)

Students in need get bus fare help

01-05-2010

By Leonel Sanchez/San Diego Union-Tribune

When Consuelo Manriquez arrived as a new principal at San Diego High School this fall, she noticed a problem with attendance and tardiness and quickly learned a sad truth. Many students who live in the low-income neighborhoods that the downtown school draws live far from the campus and can’t afford public transportation. “There’s no money,” she said. “Parents are unemployed, got laid off and the rent is so high.” The San Diego Unified School District provides transportation to the school only for special education students and students attending magnet programs. And many students who aren’t within walking distance can’t afford the $36 monthly bus and trolley passes from the Metropolitan Transit System. Manriquez believes her school’s low-academic standing would improve with better attendance and appealed to friends to help raise money for passes for students who applied for transportation scholarships. (more...)

Charter school focusing on Hmong children proposed in Sacramento

01-05-2010

By Diana Lambert/Sacramento Bee

A group of Sacramento parents, educators and business professionals wants to open a charter school that will focus on teaching Hmong children, who have largely fallen through the cracks at regular public schools. Hmong students in the Sacramento City Unified School District had the lowest scores – collectively – of all the district's ethnic groups on the English language arts section of standardized tests last year and the year before. Studies show Hmong struggle in school districts throughout the nation. The result: A large number of Hmong youths are relegated to a life of gangs, crime or low-paying jobs, said Dennis Mah, president of the Urban Charter School Collective, formed to start the school. This can be a perplexing problem in a region that is home to 30,000 Hmong. (more...)

Error could cost CVUSD millions

01-05-2010

By Neil Nisperos/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

The Chino Valley school district is hoping for the best but preparing for a possible state decision to penalize the district $8 million for missing instructional minutes last year at two elementary schools. An accounting error led to the amount of instructional time at Rolling Ridge and Dickson elementary schools last year falling short of state requirements. The estimated penalty by the state Department of Education is a potential loss of about $1 million in state funding for each of the next eight years, said Geri Partida, Chino Valley Unified School District assistant superintendent of business services. District officials plan to appeal to the state to minimize the penalties, though there is also the potential for affected students to be required to attend additional extended school days, officials said. (more...)

Assembly OKs bills to get federal schools funds

01-06-2010

By Marisa Lagos, Nanette Asimov/San Francisco Chronicle

Education experts said Tuesday that legislation to qualify California for federal Race to the Top funds fails to solve the underlying structural problems faced by the state's public school system. The two bills, which won Assembly approval Tuesday and are expected to pass the state Senate today, are designed to secure California schools up to $700 million of the $4.3 billion in one-time federal grants that President Obama has promised to states that make sweeping changes to their education policies. Supporters also hailed them as a key step toward overhauling the state's struggling school system. But even if California wins a grant, experts said the new laws won't solve the chronic underfunding of schools and the problem of retaining good teachers. (more...)

City ignoring law on class sizes, suit says

01-06-2010

By Sharon Otterman/New York Times

Despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce class sizes, the city’s Department of Education has ignored state law and allowed classrooms to grow in the last couple of years, the city teachers’ union and other groups said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The dispute stems from a lengthy legal battle that ended in 2006, when the state’s highest court ruled that the state was failing to ensure that New York City and other high-needs districts were providing all children with the opportunity for a sound basic education. The ruling led the state to send the city about $1.5 billion in the last three years, about $750 million of which was earmarked for class-size reductions. But despite the new money, and a decline in student enrollment citywide, class sizes have increased, according to the lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx. (more...)

Education reform: California to join Race to the Top rush

01-06-2010

By Amanda Paulson/Christian Science Monitor

On Tuesday, California legislators were set to pass a major education reform package that a few months ago would have been unthinkable. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has called a special session of the legislature to consider education reforms, including a controversial measure to link teacher evaluations to student test scores. And in December, Michigan lawmakers passed a slew of major education laws that will affect charter schools, teacher accountability and evaluations, and merit pay. The reason for the flurry of activity in these and other states: the $4.35 billion in competitive federal Race to the Top grants. States are scrambling to position themselves before the Jan. 19 application deadline. (more...) On Tuesday, California legislators were set to pass a major education reform package that a few months ago would have been unthinkable. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has called a special session of the legislature to consider education reforms, including a controversial measure to link teacher evaluations to student test scores. And in December, Michigan lawmakers passed a slew of major education laws that will affect charter schools, teacher accountability and evaluations, and merit pay. The reason for the flurry of activity in these and other states: the $4.35 billion in competitive federal Race to the Top grants. States are scrambling to position themselves before the Jan. 19 application deadline. (more...)

Assembly passes monumental reforms

01-06-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Talk of Race to the Top will soon be superceded by all-encompassing anxiety over the state budget. But make no mistake: The two bills the Assembly passed Tuesday were historic; they will have long-lasting and far-reaching effects, whether or not California wins a dime of the $4.3 billion Race to the Top competition. Despite full-bore opposition of the heavies in Sacramento – the school boards’, teachers union’s and school administrators’ lobbies – by this afternoon, the Legislature will have finally adopted measures thought implausible months ago. As a result, the state will be poised to: Take decisive action to fix the worst performing schools – an action it has resisted, flying in the face of federal law, for years. (more...)

'Race to the Top' a brief skirmish in state's long education war

01-06-2010

By Dan Walters/Sacramento Bee

Two dynastic families jousted bloodily for 30 years during the 15th century for control of the English throne, a struggle that historians call the War of the Roses. California's version is the three-decade-long (and counting) struggle between rival factions over public education, the state's most expensive and arguably most important program. Proposition 13, passed in 1978, shifted financial responsibility for schools to the state while a wave of immigration and massive changes in the economy immensely complicated what occurred in the classroom. As educational achievement – indicated by such measures as academic test scores and high school dropout rates – declined, political war erupted over whether more money or structural reform was the antidote. (more...)

250 million initiative for science, math teachers planned

01-06-2010

By Nick Anderson/Washington Post

President Obama will announce a $250 million public-private effort Wednesday to improve science and mathematics instruction, aiming to help the nation compete in key fields with global economic rivals. With funding from high-tech businesses, universities and foundations, the initiative seeks to prepare more than 10,000 new math and science schoolteachers over five years and provide on-the-job training for an additional 100,000 in science, technology, engineering and math. It effectively doubles, to more than $500 million, a philanthropic campaign for STEM education that Obama launched in November. Separately, the government spends about $700 million a year on elementary and secondary education in the STEM fields through agencies such as NASA, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Education Department. (more...)

Immigrant presses for English programs

01-06-2010

La Opinión

Miriam Flores is a 42 year old Mexican immigrant who worried, as any Hispanic mother would, about her children's education, and has taken the issue of English as a Second Language to the highest courts of the land. Flores, mother of three girls and living in the border town of Nogales for more than 20 years, is the woman behind the case Flores vs. Arizona which demands additional funds for English as Second Language programs. In 1992, several Hispanic families, among them Flores' filed a lawsuit against the Nogales Unified School District stating that it was violating the rights of ESL students, limiting their oportunity to succeed in school. (more...)

Queries abound on RTT process

01-06-2010

Education Week

As states consider whether to apply for the first or second round of Race to the Top Fund grants under the economic-stimulus program, the U.S. Department of Education is emphasizing that they shouldn’t worry about being first in line to win a piece of the $4 billion being awarded. “We promise there will be plenty of money left in phase two,” Joanne Weiss, the department’s Race to the Top director, told states gathered in the Baltimore area for a department-sponsored technical seminar on the competitive-grant program. With the Jan. 19 deadline for the first round of applications looming, the Dec. 10 event was part of an effort by the department to make sure states understand what is being asked of them. A South Dakota official asked if American Indian-chartered schools count as charter schools even though the state doesn’t have a law authorizing such schools. (more...)

Schools won't race to the top

01-06-2010

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

While more than half of the school districts, county education offices and charter schools in California have sent letters that could help the state in its bid for more school stimulus dollars, San Diego Unified has decided against signing on so far, with only a few days left before its deadline to join. That means that unless San Diego Unified changes its mind, it will not get a slice of extra stimulus money if California wins more under the first round of Race to the Top, a stiff competition for federal money for schools. The school district could, however, have a shot at the dollars if California wins in the second round after losing out in the first -- but it would still have to sign on to the favored reforms. (more...)

The new era of greed

01-06-2010

Blogs by Diane Ravitch/Education Week

Dear Deborah, I want to wish you and our readers—and most especially our editors at Education Week!—a happy, healthy New Year. The times are challenging indeed, and all of us should try to be as kind as possible to others and do whatever we can to bring about a world where kindness and civility are the norm. As I see it, our mission this year will be to keep a close watch on the "reforms" that are now in vogue. In light of the nearly $5 billion that the federal government is using to promote its version of "reform," there will be quite a lot for us to talk about. None of these "reforms" have been validated by experience or experiments, but we'll talk more about that later. They just happen to be the ideas that Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, Joanne Weiss (previously COO of the NewSchools Venture Fund, now director of the Race to the Top fund), the Gates Foundation, and the Broad Foundation want to impose. Someday we will find out if they make a difference. (more...)

Saving class sizes among budget priorities for School Board

01-06-2010

By James R. Riffel/San Diego News Network

The San Diego Unified School District Board of Education Tuesday night developed a list of 14 priorities upon which to base its budget for the next academic year. The district is trying a new budgeting process in reaction to another expected reduction in state funding. “This is not a way out of making devastating cuts but it’s making choices in a clear way,” board President Richard Barrera said. Board members are scheduled to prioritize their list at a meeting next week, then the financial staff will present the costs to the board in February. The process is part of a move from the more traditional baseline budgeting to something closer to a zero-based budgeting system. (more...)

Berkeley High's extra science labs may be cut

01-06-2010

By Jill Tucker/San Francisco Chronicle

Berkeley High School sophomore Razan Qatami glanced at the wall clock in her advanced biology lab class and frowned. At 4:15 p.m., she still had about 10 more minutes before she was done for the day. While most high school science classes incorporate labs into regular class time, Berkeley High requires most of its students to attend labs before or after school in the so-called zero or seventh periods. That means showing up at 7:30 a.m. to, say, dissect frogs, or staying until 4:30 p.m. - additional class time that not surprisingly costs additional money. School administrators would like to see that money spread around, specifically to help struggling students, and have proposed cutting out the supplementary lab classes. Qatami would love to see those early and late labs discontinued. (more...)

Special-ed funds redirected

01-06-2010

By Anne Marie Chaker/Wall Street Journal

Florida's Broward County Public Schools saved as many as 900 jobs this school year. Nevada's Clark County School District just added more math and tutoring programs. And in Connecticut's Bloomfield Public Schools, eight elementary- and middle-school teachers were spared from layoffs. These cash-strapped districts covered the costs using a boost in funding intended for special education, drawing an outcry from parents and advocates of special-needs children. A provision in federal law allows some school districts to spend millions of dollars of special-education money elsewhere, and a government report indicates many more districts plan to take advantage of the provision. School administrators say shifting the money allows them to save jobs and valuable programs that benefit a wide range of students. (more...)

Davis school district scrutinizes homework loads

01-06-2010

By Melody Gutierrez/Sacramento Bee

The Davis Joint Unified School District has conducted a survey to see if parents think teachers are overloading kids with take-home work. An estimated 2,000 parents responded, and the results will be out next week. Davis administrators plan to use the findings to reshape the district's homework policy. "We have a lot of responses of grave concern that kids don't have access to balance in their life," said Heidy Kellison, a parent who co-chairs the district's homework advisory committee. "(Homework) limits family time and regular hang-out time for the students." The district allows teachers to assign 10 minutes of homework beginning in kindergarten and increase it by 10 minutes for each grade level. (more...)

Schwarzenegger vows no K-12 budget cuts

01-07-2010

By Lesli A. Maxwell/Education Week

After carving deeply into California’s K-12 budget over the past two years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed Wednesday to spare schools from further cuts in the budget he will propose for fiscal 2011. In his final State of the State address, the term-limited governor said that the state’s still-ailing budget will require more painful spending cuts in the coming months, but that he would draw the line on further cuts to both K-12 and higher education. Spending on the state’s public schools has been slashed by nearly $18 billion since 2008, as the governor and lawmakers struggled to close what was a $62 billion deficit. K-12 spending this year still makes up about 37 percent of California’s $91.4 billion overall budget. The state’s total public school enrollment is about 6 million students. (more...)

Educators urge no more school cuts in letters to governor

01-07-2010

By Tracy Garcia/Whittier Daily News

Hundreds of letters sent on behalf of cash-strapped school districts statewide - including several in the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier areas - were delivered Wednesday to the governor's office in Sacramento, urging him not to make any more cuts to education. The action was planned by the California School Boards Association just hours after Gov. Schwarzenegger's 10 a.m. State of the State address, with the intent of giving the governor an "eye-opening message" about the severe budget cuts taking place at schools. But even before the first letter was delivered, Schwarzenegger pledged in his speech to protect school funding in the proposed 2010-11 budget he's set to release Friday. "Because our future economic well-being is so dependent upon education," Schwarzenegger said, "I will protect education funding in this budget." (more...)

California Race to the Top bills give parents more say in schools

01-07-2010

By Laurel Rosenhall and Diana Lambert/Sacramento Bee

California lawmakers have given parents of children in the state's lowest-performing schools sweeping new authority to improve their kids' education. But whether the new laws will lead to substantive reforms in many struggling schools depends on how many parents take advantage of their new powers. The Senate approved the Race to the Top package of bills Wednesday, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger began his State of the State speech promising to sign them into law. "In the past, parents had no power to bring about change in their children's schools, but that will now change," Schwarzenegger said. "Parents will now have the means to get rid of incompetent principals and take other necessary steps to improve their children's education." (more...)

Southern schools mark two majorities

01-07-2010

By Shaila Dewan/New York Times

The South has become the first region in the country where more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are members of minorities, according to a new report. The shift was fueled not by white flight from public schools, which spiked during desegregation but has not had much effect on school demographics since the early 1980s. Rather, an influx of Latinos and other ethnic groups, the return of blacks to the South and higher birth rates among black and Latino families have contributed to the change. The new numbers, from the 2008-9 school year, are a milestone for the South, “the only section of the United States where racial slavery, white supremacy and racial segregation of schools were enforced through law and social custom,” said the report, to be released on Thursday by the Southern Education Foundation, a nonprofit group based here that supports education improvement in the region. (more...)

How valuable are the race fire drills?

01-07-2010

Blog by Patrick Riccards/Eduflack

In recent months, we have seen state departments of education and state legislatures scurry to make themselves eligible and better positioned to win a federal Race to the Top grant. From knocking down the firewalls between student performance data and teachers to smoothing the path for charter school expansion to adopting common core standards to just demonstrating a hospitable environment for education reform and change, states have been doing anything and everything to gain a better position for the Race. Earlier this week, Michigan announced sweeping reforms to put them in line with the federal requirements. California is currently debating similar positions (with what seems like growing concerns). And we seem genuine changes in reform culture in states like Indiana, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and many others along the way. (more...)

S.D. Unified won’t go after federal grants

01-07-2010

By Ana Tintocalis/KPBS San Diego

The San Diego Unified School District is the only big city school district in California that will not go after the first batch of special federal stimulus grants. The grants are tied to the federal government's $4 billion Race To The Top program. States compete for the money by adopting reforms outlined by the Obama administration. California lawmakers finally approved landmark education reforms yesterday so the state can become eligible to compete. They include linking teacher evaluations to student test scores, giving parents the power to turn around a failing school, and granting parents more leeway to enroll their kids in a school of their choice. All of California's large urban school districts have agreed to take on the reforms except for San Diego Unified. (more...)

An aha moment on higher ed

01-07-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed constitutional amendment to protect higher education budgets and slash prison spending is the fiscal equivalent of a death-row conversion. Better late than never to see the light – but look at the mess he created. “Spending 45 percent more on prisons than universities is no way to proceed into the future,” he said in the State of the State address. “What does it say about a state that focuses more on prison uniforms than caps and gowns? It simply is not healthy.” University of California President Mark Yudof couldn’t have said it better. But this from a governor who pushed through a massive bond for prison expansion, who vetoed a bill to establish a sentencing commission and who saw prison spending about double on his watch. Even now, he has resisted a federal court order to cut the prison population by 40,000 inmates, saving billions. (more...)

School board: Something needs to change in superintendent search

01-07-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

Even though San Diego Unified is likely to look for a single chief -- not two, or four, or none as critics had feared -- its search for a new superintendent is bound to be unconventional. The school board has already waited more than four months to start the search. It hasn't even talked much about it. Its president has touted the relatively unusual strategy of an open search, which would allow parents, teachers and community members to vet a possible chief in public. That, in turn, could push less traditional candidates to the fore and move the district away from the polished career superintendents normally turned up by headhunters. Talk of blowing up the whole superintendent system seems to have fizzled. Even board member John de Beck, who initially floated the idea of having four leaders instead of one, has dropped the idea for now. (more...)

Recession fuels shift from private to public schools

01-07-2010

By Greg Toppo/USA TODAY

When the family budget started feeling the recession's pinch last year, Angela Allyn and her photographer husband, Matt Dinnerstein, pulled their three kids out of Chicago-area private schools and enrolled them in Evanston, Ill., public schools. It has been a challenging transition: Maya, 16, now a high school sophomore, "doesn't like crowds — and her high school is as big as a small college," her mother says. Though Maya is learning a lot in the "amazing" science program, she's also hoping to leave the crowds behind by doubling up on coursework, graduating by the end of junior year "and then going and doing interesting things," Allyn says. Her younger children face their own challenges, from bullying to sheer boredom. (more...)

Making teaching a profession

01-07-2010

Inside Higher Ed

After spending much of the fall calling for major reforms to the nation’s teacher preparation programs, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s pleas appear to have begun to encourage action, as a major accreditor begins an effort this week aimed at bringing major changes to colleges of education and school districts alike. More than two dozen teacher educators and education policy leaders will converge here Wednesday and Thursday for the first meeting of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education’s (NCATE) Panel on Clinical Preparation, Partnerships and Improved Student Learning, charged with recommending scalable ways to improve in-the-classroom training and strengthen relationships between school districts and the colleges and universities that prepare their teachers. (more...)

Familiar struggles in education this year

01-07-2010

By Lisa Schiff/San Francisco Beyond Chron

It’s the start of a new year, but optimism is already running low. Federal stimulus and recovery monies from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) momentarily staved off cataclysmic disasters, but were not sufficient to make up for the epic budget gaps facing states, local governments and school districts. California has been among the hardest states hit and all of our social services, including education, bear the marks. The grim reality of 2009 continues into 2010. It says a lot that one of the bright spots this year will be the much awaited appearance of a new student assignment policy for the San Francisco Unified School District, which has been undergoing an intensive redesign process. (more...)

A free school breakfast, but Oakland kids aren't biting

01-07-2010

By Carolyn Goosen/New America Media

Just after 8:30 on a Tuesday morning, kindergarten students at Melrose Academy in Oakland are sitting at tables of four in their classroom, munching on bananas and drinking orange juice or eating crunchy cereal with milk. Then they clean up and go to the carpeted area where they choose a book off the bookshelf. In a 7th grade English classroom down the hall, students eat the same breakfast while engrossed in their novels. The room is completely quiet except for the two designated breakfast helpers who hand out the food. Most students barely look up from their books until they start to eat. This is the daily routine at Melrose Leadership Academy, but it is unique within the Oakland Unified School District, where no other school offers in-class, free breakfasts. (more...)

The happiest people

01-07-2010

By Nicholas D. Kristof/New York Times

Hmmm. You think it’s a coincidence? Costa Rica is one of the very few countries to have abolished its army, and it’s also arguably the happiest nation on earth. There are several ways of measuring happiness in countries, all inexact, but this pearl of Central America does stunningly well by whatever system is used. For example, the World Database of Happiness, compiled by a Dutch sociologist on the basis of answers to surveys by Gallup and others, lists Costa Rica in the top spot out of 148 nations. That’s because Costa Ricans, asked to rate their own happiness on a 10-point scale, average 8.5. Denmark is next at 8.3, the United States ranks 20th at 7.4 and Togo and Tanzania bring up the caboose at 2.6. Scholars also calculate happiness by determining “happy life years.” (more...)

State education plan makes parents responsible

01-08-2010

By Nanette Asimov/San Francisco Chronicle

All are tackled in the huge school reform package signed into law Thursday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and approved with lightning speed by state lawmakers this week, to give California a shot at winning $700 million in the national education competition called Race to the Top. The application deadline is Jan. 19. But to anyone who has spent time in a school over the past decade, such reforms will sound familiar: They have been part of the federal No Child Left Behind Education Act that has strictly governed school accountability since 2001. California's new Race to the Top plan "sounds very similar to No Child Left Behind," said Mike Kirst, education professor emeritus of Stanford University. "What's different is that NCLB relies on top-down enforcement from the state and federal governments," while the new plan requires parent participation to fix low-scoring schools. (more...)

Schwarzenegger signs school legislation

01-08-2010

By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited a Los Angeles middle school Thursday to celebrate legislation that sets the course for future school reforms and improves the state's chances at qualifying for federal money to carry them out. The signing ceremony occurred at Bethune Middle School in Florence, which officials cited as successfully serving the low-income minority students who stand to benefit most from the new laws. The legislation was approved in the state Assembly and Senate earlier this week despite vigorous opposition from statewide teachers unions and other groups. The bills are intended to increase California's eligibility for as much as $700 million in federal Race to the Top grants, which the Obama administration is using to advance favored reforms. (more...)

Educators give governor 'A' for effort but are skeptical of funding proposal

01-08-2010

By Timm Herdt/Ventura County Star

Higher education leaders say they are delighted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided that restoring funding to colleges and universities should be a top priority in California but expressed skepticism Thursday about the governor’s proposed constitutional amendment that would tie increased higher education funding to privatizing prisons. “The issue has finally come to the fore,” said CSU Channel Islands President Richard Rush. “This is the first time in my memory that a governor has said higher education should be a priority.” In his State of the State address Wednesday, Schwarzenegger said his proposed 2010-11 budget, to be released today, will call for substantial cuts to a variety of state programs but said, “We can no longer afford to cut higher education.” (more...)

District participation in Race to the Top: Binding, or not?

01-08-2010

By Michele McNeil/Education Week

Earlier this week, Alyson blogged about the tension between states and districts over Race to the Top participation. The more school districts that sign an MOU agreeing to participate in a state's reform plan, the more points a state gets in the competition. And participating school districts, in return, would enjoy a slice of their state's award. But many districts aren't sure exactly what they're committing to do, and even wonder if it's a binding agreement. Well, the U.S. Department of Education weighed in on this during two technical planning seminars last month, when state teams asked whether local districts can drop out from participating after a state wins a grant. (more...)

CTA advises local unions not to sign MOU

01-08-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

One day before the deadline for commitments to Race to the Top, state education officials were again encouraging ambivalent school districts to sign on. The California Teachers Association, for the first time, was explicitly encouraging union locals not to. And that could spell trouble for the state’s application. State officials said they needed signed memorandums of understanding by Friday, so that they could finish the budget for the Race to the Top proposal by Jan. 19, when it’s due in Washington. Nearly 800 superintendents and charter school leaders, in charge of more than 60 percent of state’s students, had indicated they would participate in the program, if California wins a piece of the $4.3 billion competition. But fewer school boards will likely end up voting to participate. (more...)

Race to Top jitters

01-08-2010

Editorial/Ventura County Star

Change is coming to Ventura County schools, regardless of whether school districts sign a Memorandum of Understanding for the state of California’s Race to the Top application to the federal government for a one-time infusion of $700 million. In bills passed by the Legislature this week, among the changes, districts with failing schools will be required to take aggressive steps to turn their schools around and students enrolled in the state’s worst 1,000 schools would be allowed to transfer to higher-performing schools. But millions of federal dollars to assist with reforms will not be coming to school districts that pass up the opportunity to sign the MOU due to the state today. The state wants to have all the MOUs in today to meet its Jan. 19 deadline to have its application in to the federal government. (more...)

Better teachers, the union way

01-08-2010

By A.J. Duffy, Julie Washington and Gregg Solkovits/Los Angeles Times

Great teachers aren't born -- they evolve. They must have certain things starting out, of course: a passion for knowledge and a love of working with children, to cite two. But it then takes years of study and practice to master the art of teaching. The recent focus on evaluations as the overriding problem with teacher quality ignores the arc of an educator's career. Yes, honest feedback and assessment is crucial. But if we truly want to have an impact on teaching and learning, more effective evaluations alone aren't enough. Teachers need better training programs, better professional development and additional peer support. As teachers, we want to see our profession strengthened. But that won't happen simply through punitive measures. Here is our framework for positive change. (more...)

Beverly Hills' unwanted out-of-towners

01-08-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

California's formulas for funding schools are labyrinthine, outdated and just plain weird. They have needed a radical makeover for decades, though this year Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unwisely vetoed legislation to begin the process. The most recent victims of this messy situation are students who attend schools in Beverly Hills without living there. The prestigious public school district was glad to have nearly 500 nonresidents attend under its "opportunity" permits when each student brought in annual state funding of more than $6,000. But under California's convoluted formulas, Beverly Hills is likely to become one of the state's 90 or so "basic aid" districts, meaning it will be funded by local property taxes instead of per-pupil dollars. (more...)

Santa Clara parents camp out overnight to enroll kids at elementary school

01-08-2010

By Lisa Fernandez/San Jose Mercury News

Dozens of anxious parents lined up Thursday morning in the hope of enrolling their kindergartners-to-be at a high-performing Santa Clara elementary school. As if they were winning a golden ticket from the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, lucky parents were handed orange registration cards, giving them hope that their children will be among the 120 kindergartners at Don Callejon School this fall. About 80 parents got the cards Thursday, which allow them to receive a registration packet for Don Callejon, set amidst the exclusive Rivermark neighborhood identified by narrow streets, small cul-de-sacs and upscale town homes. Some parents lined up as early as Wednesday afternoon and slept there. At least one dad was wearing a full-body snow parka; others lugged tents and camping chairs. The registration process began at 8:45 a.m. Thursday. (more...)

'They're looking at impending doom'

01-08-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

School district staffers have offered up a long list of possible cuts to fill a budget gap that could range from $147 million to $203 million. Their ideas include cutbacks that must be negotiated with reluctant labor unions as well as politically toxic ideas such as completely eliminating librarians and vice principals, jettisoning the arts and magnet programs and closing five schools. But if California makes the deepest cuts possible, in the worst way possible, the school district could take every one of those dreaded steps and still wouldn't be able to close the gap. "I don't have any answers right now," said school board member Richard Barrera, who voiced concern about the situation last week. "But we've got to stay patient. These numbers can change." (more...)

Governor seeks to ease rules on firing weak teachers

01-11-2010

By Jason Song and Jason Felch/Los Angeles Times

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed on Friday to make it easier for school districts to fire weak teachers by changing a law that mandates instructors be laid off only according to seniority. He also recommended reducing the role of a state commission that has the power to overturn teachers' dismissals. The move to take away final say over teachers' dismissals from the Commission on Professional Competence was spurred by a Times investigation last spring, according to the governor's staff. The investigation found that the commission overturned nearly a third of teachers' dismissals statewide over the last 15 years. The Times also found that the process of firing a tenured teacher is so difficult that districts typically try to remove only instructors accused of egregious acts and that poor teaching is rarely a factor in dismissals. (more...)

Governor targets seniority protections

01-11-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Four years ago, Gov. Schwarzenegger failed to persuade voters to change the tenure laws for teachers. But that hasn’t deterred him from pushing again in his final year in office. In his budget message, the governor said he’d propose eliminating the law requiring that teacher layoffs and reassignments be done strictly on the basis of seniority. He also wants school boards, not the Commission on Professional Competence, to have the final say on teacher firings. In a study last year, the Los Angeles Times determined that the commission overturns school boards’ decisions about a third of the time – one more factor discouraging administrators from seeking to get rid of incompetent teachers. You can bet the California Teachers Assn. will fight both bills. (more...)

California literacy rate tumbles, symptom of state's education ills?

01-11-2010

By Dan Aiello/California Progress Report

On the same day a coalition of more than a half dozen organizations representing California teachers from elementary to university faculty held a press conference to address the financial crisis now gripping "California’s crumbling education system," the results of a national report on literacy - conducted annually by Central Connecticut State University - were announced, offering some disturbing news to Californians about the state's declining literacy levels last year, while presenting a measurable symptom of more than eight years of cuts to the state's education budgets. Even California's total number of cities included in the literacy study, more than any other state, failed to garner even a single spot among the nation's "Top Ten Most Literate Cities." (more...)

California Teachers Union in rare legislative loss

01-11-2010

By Laurel Rosenhall/Sacramento Bee

The California Teachers Association is used to getting its way. The union that represents 340,000 public school teachers has traditionally been one of the most powerful forces in the Capitol. In the past decade, it spent $38 million on lobbying – more than anyone else in the state. So it was an unusual loss for the CTA when the Legislature last week approved the Race to the Top education bills that the union and its allies opposed. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a veiled reference to the union's influence when he signed the bills Thursday at a Los Angeles middle school. "I know it was very tough for the Legislature, because you can imagine all those special interest groups up there pulling and pushing and … more interested in what's good for the grownups rather than what's good for the children," he said. (more...)

Board's revisionist history on supe change

01-11-2010

By Chris Reed/San Diego Union Tribune

San Diego Unified's school board leaders say the panel is considering whether the district needs a school superintendent in the future. Former School Superintendent Terry Grier left San Diego in October after serving only a year as the district's leader. That's left a void in academic leadership, but trustees are in no rush to find a new leader. In fact, the district's school board is wondering whether a strong-superintendent form of governance has been a source of their problems. Trustee John Evans says board members are considering different models of leadership, including a team of leaders with equal power that report to the school board. He said the board wants to engage the public about these ideas before it moves forward. (more...)

Fewer districts follow through with MOU

01-11-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

A few stragglers may yet come it, but fewer than half of the 800 charter schools and school districts that had expressed interest in Race to the Top have ended up signing a Memorandum of Understanding committing to participate in the state’s competition for a piece of the $4.3 billion federal program. The state Department of Education reported 346 MOUs were in as of 11 a.m. Saturday. Many of these were individual charter schools. However, school boards in 10 of the 30 biggest districts in the state did vote to join, and they alone comprise 19 percent — 1,170,000 — of the state’s 6.2 million students. Los Angeles Unified, the largest with 687,000 students, was joined by Long Beach Unified (2nd with 88,000) and Fresno (fourth with 77,000). (more...)

Schwarzeneggers pledge to protect school funding: Some call claim 'make-believe''

01-11-2010

By Denis C. Theriault/San Jose Mercury News

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed his budget plan would protect funding for education. But does it really? The answer depends on which pot of education money you're looking at. One on hand, the governor restored $610 million that was cut last year from state universities, and he provided an additional $224.5 million. But he also cut CalGrant scholarships for thousands of low-income college students. And although he said his budget "maintains the same level of funding for schools next year as we had this year," he dialed back on cost-of-living increases and tweaked the formula that determines the base amount of money set aside for K-12 schools. Some lawmakers and advocates said that change could cost more than $2 billion. Schwarzenegger is paying less for class-size reduction programs, and he proposes cutting administrative costs. (more...)

Cutting class will be costly in Hayward

01-11-2010

By Eric Kurhi/Oakland Tribune

Hooky soon will be a game of high stakes, as the city has made truancy an offense punishable by a fine of up to $500, levied on the guardians of the class-cutter. But police Sgt. Jeff Snell, who presented a report on the matter to the City Council last week before the board unanimously approved it, stressed that the fines are a tool of last resort. "We're talking about parents who fail to share in the responsibility of their child attending school," he said. "If a parent drops a child off, and the kid says, 'I'm out of here' and hops a fence and gets caught, (the fine) would not apply." Snell said that police prefer to guide families to counseling services that may aid in a chronic truancy problem. But if parents are not receptive to such measures, or deny they have responsibility for what their child does during the school day, they could be fined $100 for the first time their child is caught skipping class, $200 the second and $500 for each additional offense. (more...)

Revolution in U.S. education is in California

01-11-2010

Opinion by Alan Bonsteel/San Francisco Chronicle

The greatest revolution in education in the United States today is taking place in Los Angeles. It is the mandate of the Los Angeles Unified School District School Board to convert almost a third of its schools either to charter schools, the public schools of choice that are the one shining light in an otherwise dysfunctional system, or other alternatives such as magnet schools. The change is not only a mighty one for the state's largest school district, but in time it could double the number of public schools of choice in California. What is remarkable is not just the magnitude of this earth-shaking change, but the complete shift of the paradigm about how we think about public education. The driving force behind this revolution is Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is not only a Democrat but also a former organizer for the United Teachers of Los Angeles, Los Angeles teachers' union. (more...)

Educators await Obama's mark on No Child Left Behind

01-11-2010

By Nick Anderson/Washington Post

Eight years after President George W. Bush signed the bill that branded an era of school reform, the education world is wondering when President Obama will seek to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law. Obama officials, who for months have been on a "listening and learning" tour, are expected to propose a framework for the successor to a law that is two years overdue for reauthorization. Time is growing short if Obama aims for action before midterm elections, which could weaken Democratic majorities in Congress. As the anniversary of the law's enactment passed quietly Friday, an occasion Bush marked throughout his presidency as a domestic policy milestone, the regimen of standardized testing and school accountability remains intact. Every year from grades three to eight, and at least once in high school, students must take reading and math exams. (more...)

Jobs bill could bring $24M to local schools

01-11-2010

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

A federal jobs bill now in the works could provide as much as $24 million to San Diego Unified School District, but the district isn't counting on those funds to get out of its budget crunch. The Jobs for Main Street Act proposes pouring $23 billion into education jobs nationwide as part of a $154 billion package. If the money is divvied up the same way as an earlier dose of stimulus dollars, it would bring $24 million to the school district, spokesman Bernie Rhinerson said. That would be welcome news as San Diego Unified tries to plug a budget gap that could range from $97 million to $222 million. But the bill has a long way to go before it becomes a reality, and it could change. (more...)

L.A. charter schools flex their educational muscles

01-11-2010

By Mitchell Landsberg, Doug Smith and Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Over the last decade, a quiet revolution took root in the nation's second-largest school district. Fueled by money and emboldened by clout from some of the city's most powerful figures, charter schools began a period of explosive growth that has challenged the status quo in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Today, Los Angeles is home to more than 160 charter schools, far more than any other U.S. city. Charter enrollment is up nearly 19% this year from last, while enrollment in traditional L.A. public schools is down. And a once-hostile school board has become increasingly charter-friendly, despite resistance from the teachers union. In September, the board agreed to let charters bid on potentially hundreds of existing campuses and on all 50 of its planned new schools. (more...)

New rules on tap for charter schools

01-11-2010

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Times

With charter school enrollment at an all-time high locally, Los Angeles Unified officials are expected to set tougher standards this week for the publicly funded and independently run campuses. The new rules come as the district is expected to add even more charters under a reform plan that allows outside operators to run new and failing campuses. But charter school advocates and other critics say the district's new rules will drown the innovative schools in paperwork, defeating the purpose of having campuses that are supposed to operate outside of normal red tape restrictions. District officials who see the growth of charter schools as healthy argue that nonetheless much of the accountability and oversight has been lax and inconsistent. (more...)

Promises and facts on charter schools

01-11-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

Over the last decade, a quiet revolution took root in the nation's second-largest school district. Fueled by money and emboldened by clout from some of the city's most powerful figures, charter schools began a period of explosive growth that has challenged the status quo in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Today, Los Angeles is home to more than 160 charter schools, far more than any other U.S. city. Charter enrollment is up nearly 19% this year from last, while enrollment in traditional L.A. public schools is down. And a once-hostile school board has become increasingly charter-friendly, despite resistance from the teachers union. In September, the board agreed to let charters bid on potentially hundreds of existing campuses and on all 50 of its planned new schools. (more...)Charter schools — which are run with public money but subject to fewer state regulations — have a lot of supporters in Washington. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants states to close some chronically failing schools and turn them into charters. Congress is so enthusiastic that it has created a $50 million fund and given Mr. Duncan the authority to directly finance charter school operators who want to replicate or expand successful programs. Proponents initially argued that charter schools could provide a better education because they were allowed to operate independently. But the research has turned up mixed results. To ensure that this new money goes only to operators with proven records of success, Mr. Duncan will need to be guided by well-designed studies like the one being carried out by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes. (more...)

Poor are educated and employed

01-11-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

Want to have enough money to meet your basic needs in California? Then don't be a woman, don't be a parent, and don't be a person of color. All of these groups are disproportionately less likely to have enough income to meet their basic needs, according to a new report from the United Way of the Bay Area. Some of these categories are not surprising: It's expensive to raise children, and gender and racial discrimination still lurk in our job markets. What is surprising about the United Way's findings is that having a job and even an education isn't a ticket to making ends meet in California. The poor, it turns out, are just like the rest of us. They just struggle more. The analysis is based on the Self-Sufficiency Standard, a formula developed by social scientist Diana Pearce to reflect the actual cost of people's real needs in a given area. (The Federal Poverty Level doesn't accurately reflect the growing costs of health care, energy and housing, among other things.) According to the report, about 22 percent of Bay Area households were struggling even before the economic disaster began in 2008. (more...)

AFT chief vows to revise teacher-dismissal process

01-12-2010

By Stephen Sawchuk/Education Week

The president of the American Federation Teachers is putting the sensitive issue of due process on the education reform table, with a pledge to work with districts to streamline the often-cumbersome procedures for dismissing teachers who fail to improve their performance after receiving help and support. She has also commissioned an independent expert to help revise due process for those teachers accused of misconduct. “We recognize that too often due process can become glacial process,” Ms. Weingarten said this morning here at the National Press Club. “We intend to change that.” The pledge—a formal acknowledgment by the AFT that due process, a hard-won labor right, could benefit from some revisions—comes with a caveat: Districts must agree to work with unions to devise fair, meaningful systems to evaluate teacher performance and to help ineffective teachers improve, as part of any plan to reform due-process procedures. (more...)

A serious proposal

01-12-2010

By Bob Herbert/New York Times

The president of the American Federation of Teachers says she will urge her members to accept a form of teacher evaluation that takes student achievement into account and that the union has commissioned an independent effort to streamline disciplinary processes and make it easier to fire teachers who are guilty of misconduct. In a speech to be delivered Tuesday in Washington, Randi Weingarten plans to call for more frequent and more rigorous evaluations of public schoolteachers, and she says she will assert that standardized test scores and other measures of student performance should be an integral part of the evaluation process. The use of student test scores to measure teacher performance has been anathema to many teachers. Ms. Weingarten is not proposing that they be the only — or even the primary — element in determining teacher quality. (more...)

New ideas from Weingarten

01-12-2010

Column by Jay Matthews/Washington Post

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, likes surprises. In a speech scheduled for this morning, she provides several, starting with what was, at least for me, an intriguing question she asked her members last summer: "When your union deals with issues affecting both teaching quality and teachers' rights, which of these should be the higher priority--working for professional teaching standards and good teaching, or defending the job rights of teachers who face disciplinary action?" Weingarten said 69 percent chose good teaching, while 16 percent said job rights. I find that surprising, though not because the teachers endorsed professionalism. Most of the teachers I know think of themselves in that way and those that don't probably knew what was the politic answer. What I didn't expect was a union leader willing to ask such a question in the first place. (more...)

Beverly Hills votes on rejecting outside pupils

01-12-2010

By Christina Hoag/Houston Chronicle

Hundreds of parents whose children enjoyed the opportunities of Beverly Hills' coveted schools are finding out whether they can stay enrolled, as the school board votes on a controversial proposal to boot out almost 500 out-of-district students. A huge crowd is expected to attend the meeting Tuesday night where the Beverly Hills Unified School District board will decide whether to notify 484 so-called "permit students" that they must enroll elsewhere because of the district's new financing formula. "These kids have their lives invested in Beverly Hills schools," said Michelle Kahn, a 19-year-old Beverly Hills High School graduate whose two brothers would be forced out of the district. "It seems like it's not taking the lives of the students into account." (more...)

Less money for class-size reduction under Schwarzenegger budget

01-12-2010

By Louis Freedberg and Hugo Cabrera/California Watch

For the first time since the program began 14 years ago, a California governor is planning on spending significantly less on California’s popular, but expensive, class-size reduction program than in previous years. In his budget released last Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is projecting spending $340 million less than anticipated during the current school year, and $550 million less in the school year beginning in September. Together, the reductions would save the state nearly $900 million. This would mark a huge rollback of the program which now costs the state about $1.8 billion a year. Since 1996, California has spent more than $22 billion on the program, making it the most expensive education reform program in California’s history. Schwarzenegger administration officlals say they are just responding to decisions made by local districts which have already increased K-3 class sizes this year, or plan to next year, and therefore qualify for a reduced subsidy from the state. (more...)

A rush of MOUs in the end

01-12-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

The State Department of Education updated its list of districts participating in the state’s Race to the Top application on Monday. And it turns out, the response was much greater than officials had reported two days before. A total of 745 school districts, county offices of education and charter schools — more than 90 percent of the 798 districts and schools that had said they’d participate — did follow through. And at least 115 union leaders ignored the advice of the leadership of the California Teachers Association and signed on with their superintendents and school board presidents. That’s impressive, considering the CTA’s opposition. (more...)

Should parents dictate school reforms?

01-12-2010

National Journal

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed education reform legislation on Jan. 7 that will give unprecedented power to parents whose children attend the worst-performing public schools. Under a provision known as the "parent trigger," if 50 percent of parents at a given school sign a petition, the school board must choose among several options, including closing the campus, converting to a charter, or replacing the principal and other administrators. Advocates of the controversial measure hope that it will make the state more competitive for Race to the Top money, in addition to improving education; opponents, such as the California Teachers Association, are concerned that the approach is too punitive. (more...)

The meaning of intelligence

01-12-2010

By Krista Trippett/American Public Media

Krista Tippett, host: I'm Krista Tippett. Today, "The Meaning of Intelligence," a conversation on work, education, and civic imagination with Mike Rose. He's animated by the question "What kind of education befits a democracy?" We explore the link between education and human possibility, and what Mike Rose calls "The Mind at Work. Mr. Mike Rose: What emerges that bespeaks of intelligence, what goes on right under our noses that bespeaks of some kinds of smarts? So the plumber who reaches up inside of the wall of an old building, feeling rust, feeling moisture if there's any, feeling the way the thing is structured, he's visualizing and then bringing a knowledge base to bear on trying to figure out what the problem may be. Think of what a complex set of mental operations are involved in that. (more...)

California Assembly committee approves oil tax bill

01-12-2010

By Jim Sanders/Sacramento Bee

Let the war over tax hikes begin. And score the first battle Democrats yes, Republicans no – just like last year. Legislation to impose a new severance tax on oil and natural gas extraction to help bolster higher education funding passed the Assembly's Revenue and Taxation Committee by a party-line vote Monday. The action came just three days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a new state budget plan relying largely on spending cuts and hoped-for federal revenue to bridge a projected $19.9 billion shortfall by July 2011. Democrats, by their committee vote, signaled a willingness to press for targeted tax increases, even though 2010 is an election year and odds are slim of winning the necessary two-thirds legislative super-majority to pass such measure. (more...)

Race to Top czar: Competition works

01-12-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

The woman overseeing Race to the Top for the Obama administration said Monday that federal Department of Education officials have been “stunned” by the impact of the program. Before even a dollar has been handed out, states competing to win a share of the $4.3 billion program have enacted reforms on a level not seen before, Joanne Weiss, director of Race to the Top, told a conference at Stanford on turning failing schools around. To boost the chances of winning money, states have eliminated limits on charter schools, changed methods for evaluating teachers and principals and enacted aggressive rules on intervening in failing schools. By removing the ban on using standardized test data for teacher evaluations, California took care of a prerequisite to applying for the money. (more...)

As school exit tests prove tough, states ease standards

01-12-2010

By Ian Urbina/New York Times

A law adopting statewide high school exams for graduation took effect in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with the goal of ensuring that students leaving high school are prepared for college and the workplace. But critics say the requirement has been so watered down that it is unlikely to have major impact. The situation in Pennsylvania mirrors what has happened in many of the 26 states that have adopted high school exit exams. As deadlines approached for schools to start making passage of the exams a requirement for graduation, and practice tests indicated that large numbers of students would fail, many states softened standards, delayed the requirement or added alternative paths to a diploma. People who have studied the exams, which affect two-thirds of the nation’s public school students, say they often fall short of officials’ ambitious goals. (more...)

Campus takeover applications begin flowing in to L.A. Unified

01-12-2010

By Jason Song/Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles city school district on Monday began receiving applications from inside and outside groups seeking to take over 30 new or struggling campuses. Groups that filed letters of intent to apply for the schools in the fall had to file their requests electronically before midnight tonight. The district is scheduled to announce how many applications they received today. The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education voted in August to allow outside operators, including charter schools, to apply for control of 18 new and 12 low-performing campuses. Groups of teachers have prepared applications for some schools, and United Teachers Los Angeles has filed a from taking over the new campuses. (more...)

Proposed schools policy says two languages better than one

01-12-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

Minerva Espejo remembered her own rocky start in English after moving from Mexico to San Diego as a teenager. English classes were bewildering; a bilingual class taught by a teacher who barely understood Spanish was even worse. She improved her English at home by pulling out a dictionary night after night to pick up the vocabulary that helped get her to college. She didn't want the same troubles for her children. Soured by her own experience, she rejected the idea of a bilingual class and enrolled her kids in a different program until she found out about Sherman Elementary, where kids spend half the day in English and half in Spanish. Her son, who just finished up first grade at Sherman, can explain his homework in English and read to his grandfather in Spanish. "It's no good to lose your Spanish and then have to take Spanish classes in high school," Espejo said. She believes that her children shouldn't have to give up one language to learn another. (more...)

District pursues biliteracy seal idea

01-12-2010

By Michelle Hatfield/Modesto Bee

Learning more than one language is hard and takes years to master. School officials here want to reward that time and effort with a "seal of biliteracy" for high school students who graduate with proficiency in more than one language. At its board meeting Thursday, Ceres Unified School District trustees are set to approve the seal, which would be affixed to diplomas and transcripts. The recognition is for students who learn a language in addition to English — Spanish or German — and for those who learned English as a second language. "It's a feather in a student's cap to have mastered two or more languages," said Mary Jones, assistant superintendent of educational services at Ceres schools. "It opens up options for them in college and the working world." To prove mastery, Ceres students need to take four years of a foreign language and earn a B grade or better each year. They also need to pass the Advanced Placement exam, Jones said. (more...)

Spending by education philanthropies drops in 2009

01-13-2010

By Erik W. Robelen/Education Week

Amid the country's economic downturn, planned giving levels by many education grantmakers declined last year. A new analysis of trends in education philanthropy finds, however, that a sizable minority of those surveyed said they expected the grants paid out to hold steady or even increase compared with 2008. The report by the nonprofit Grantmakers for Education, which is expected to be issued today, also notes a growing interest in collaboration among funders, as well as increased attention to fueling educational innovations and providing dollars to support advocacy and public-policy work. At the same time, it finds “strong current and continued support” for teacher professional development, school and district leadership, early-childhood education, college access and readiness, and high school reform. (more...)

‘At hope’ children better than ‘at risk’?

01-13-2010

MSNBC

Decades ago, poor children became known as "disadvantaged" to soften the stigma of poverty. Then they were "at-risk." Now, a Washington lawmaker wants to replace those euphemisms with a new one, "at hope." Democratic State Sen. Rosa Franklin says negative labels are hurting kids' chances for success and she's not a bit concerned that people will be confused by her proposed rewrite of the 54 places in state law where words like "at risk" and "disadvantaged" are used. The bill has gotten a warm welcome among fellow lawmakers, state officials and advocacy groups. "We really put too many negatives on our kids," says Franklin, who is the state Senate's president pro tem. "We need to come up with positive terms." (more...)

Beverly Hills blocks outside students

01-13-2010

By Jennifer Steinhauer/New York Times

In a contentious meeting ringed by police officers, the Beverly Hills school board voted Tuesday night to dismiss roughly 470 students enrolled in its schools on out-of-district permits. The school system there has long opened its doors to students who live outside the district — currently about one in seven of its roughly 4,800 students — in large part because they brought a financial windfall. But now, because cash-poor California has reduced local support to schools, including the reimbursements for out-of-district students, the so-called permit students are more of a burden to the schools than a boon. Beverly Hills will soon use property tax dollars to finance its schools to replace money lost from the state. So the board voted to notify most of the out-of-district students that they must go. (more...)

State tries to attract math and science teachers

01-13-2010

By Jim Miller/Riverside Press-Enterprise

Some would-be teachers will have a new and potentially faster way to receive credentials under this month's state legislation meant to improve California's chances of getting federal school-improvement money. Inland Assemblyman Brian Nestande said the change should help ease the state's shortage of math, science and vocational instructors by attracting mid-career people who want to teach but are unwilling to spend months in a traditional credentialing program. It's for someone who says, "I don't need to spend a year of my life getting a credential when I probably know the issue better than anyone in the room teaching me," said Nestande, R-Palm Desert, who is vice chairman of the Assembly Education Committee. "Let's try something different and try to get those people into the classroom." (more...)

The crisis threatens the education of millions of poor children

01-13-2010

La Opinión

The economic and financial crisis is threating to affect education around the world and could 'sacrifice an entire generation of children" in some of the poorest countries", warned UNESCO today. Economic difficulties could deny 'several tens of millions of children' their education and keep them from mnay of the opportunities that education could provide them to escape poverty," said the director of a report which will be presented next year before the United Nations in New York. (more...)

'If you've got a trade, you've got it made'

01-13-2010

Opinion by Mike Rustigan/Los Angeles Times

One repeated theme in President Obama's education agenda is that he wants the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. As he put it in an address to a joint session of Congress, "We expect all our children not only to graduate from high school but to graduate from college and get a good-paying job." Although I applaud the president's strong commitment to higher education, he is seriously neglecting the importance of vocational training in school. Not every student needs to go to college. There are plenty of high school kids who find college-prep classes boring and irrelevant. Many drop out because they feel school is not preparing them for anything practical. Most of these kids are not lazy or defiant; they just want to work with their hands, learn a skill and pursue a solid, honorable, blue-collar trade after high school. (more...)

Experts urge earlier start to teaching science

01-13-2010

By Debra Viadero/Education Week

The sand-and-water table in Barry Hoff’s classroom in the Southampton Head Start program on New York’s Long Island, used to be filled with sand on two sides. But water was restored to the table last month as 16 preschoolers stood around it, dipping and pouring water through tubes and funnels, squeezing it through turkey basters, and learning, in the process, something of what it’s like to think like scientists. The change in Mr. Hoff’s room, and in a handful of other classrooms like it around the country, stems from growing interest among academic experts and educators in teaching science to preschoolers. “I think a lot of preschool teachers aren’t aware of the fact that preschoolers can figure out things like they do, or make predictions as they do,” said Mr. Hoff, who’s been teaching preschool for four years. “But some of the things we’re doing now are things that children find a lot of wonder with.” (more...)

San Diego Unified sticks with superintendent model

01-13-2010

By Ana Tintocalis/KPBS

The San Diego Unified school board finally settled the district's leadership question yesterday. The trustees voted 3 to 2 to stick with having a superintendent. San Diego school trustees have been toying with the idea of doing away with having one district leader ever since former superintendent Terry Grier resigned last year. He was the third superintendent to leave the district in four years. The board majority was considering a variety of leadership options. But the panel felt it was more important to deal with the district’s money problems than to change San Diego Unified’s leadership system. (more...)

Fremont’s magnet likely to survive “reconstitution”

01-13-2010

By Katie Evarts/Intersections L.A.

Laura Torres didn’t want her daughter to go to Locke High School, long known for campus violence and high dropout rates than academic achievement. An immigrant from Mexico who values education but was not able to go to school herself, Torres wanted an environment that would help her daughter, also named Laura, focus on her studies and prepare for college. She knew Locke was not that place. “I didn't like it,” Torres said of Locke through a translator, “because I know people who have their kids there and there are lots of problems. Many fights. I went to the school and I didn't like the area, it didn't look good for my kids.” Torres knew she could keep her daughter out of Locke by signing her up for the magnet program at Fremont High School. She had done the same for her older son, Miguel, who graduated from the magnet program and is now attending college. (more...)

Teachers union files lawsuit over charter takeovers

01-13-2010

By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

The union representing Los Angeles teachers filed a lawsuit Monday to block the potential hand-over of new campuses to charter schools under the district's groundbreaking and controversial school-reform strategy. Charter-school advocates defended the plan's legality as did the Los Angeles Unified School District. The Board of Education approved a resolution in August to turn over 12 long-struggling campuses and 18 new ones to bidders from inside or outside the district, including some charter operators. The long-anticipated lawsuit contends that under state law a new school can only become a charter if at least 50% of its permanent teachers petition for it. The union argues a new school must be staffed by district teachers who would then have the option of converting it to a charter. (more...)

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Sections

January 2010

Assembly should pass bill to name, repair 10 worst California schools

New year, new priorities?

Behind-the-scenes maneuvers on parental reforms

Massive budget cuts to education

Teachers seek control at up-for-bid L.A. Unified schools

Are students languishing in English learner programs?

More students homeless in Contra Costa County, Bay Area, state

Cuts choking area school libraries

'Race to Top' viewed as template for a new ESEA

A good move for South L.A. neighborhood

Natomas budget cuts hit classrooms; parents worried

Beverly Hills schools want to boot out-of-district 'opportunity' students

Living the education gap as a San Jose teacher

Districts ready to Race, but will they really sign?

Class size reduction: California drops the ball

Rules of (child) engagement

Race to the Top coming down to the wire

California set to pass education overhaul plan

Where's the 2009 love?

Schools are facing new round of cuts

District needs a leader / Dropping superintendent post would be calamitous

Students in need get bus fare help

Charter school focusing on Hmong children proposed in Sacramento

Error could cost CVUSD millions

Assembly OKs bills to get federal schools funds

City ignoring law on class sizes, suit says

Education reform: California to join Race to the Top rush

Assembly passes monumental reforms

'Race to the Top' a brief skirmish in state's long education war

250 million initiative for science, math teachers planned

Immigrant presses for English programs

Queries abound on RTT process

Schools won't race to the top

The new era of greed

Saving class sizes among budget priorities for School Board

Berkeley High's extra science labs may be cut

Special-ed funds redirected

Davis school district scrutinizes homework loads

Schwarzenegger vows no K-12 budget cuts

Educators urge no more school cuts in letters to governor

California Race to the Top bills give parents more say in schools

Southern schools mark two majorities

How valuable are the race fire drills?

S.D. Unified won’t go after federal grants

An aha moment on higher ed

School board: Something needs to change in superintendent search

Recession fuels shift from private to public schools

Making teaching a profession

Familiar struggles in education this year

A free school breakfast, but Oakland kids aren't biting

The happiest people

State education plan makes parents responsible

Schwarzenegger signs school legislation

Educators give governor 'A' for effort but are skeptical of funding proposal

District participation in Race to the Top: Binding, or not?

CTA advises local unions not to sign MOU

Race to Top jitters

Better teachers, the union way

Beverly Hills' unwanted out-of-towners

Santa Clara parents camp out overnight to enroll kids at elementary school

'They're looking at impending doom'

Governor seeks to ease rules on firing weak teachers

Governor targets seniority protections

California literacy rate tumbles, symptom of state's education ills?

California Teachers Union in rare legislative loss

Board's revisionist history on supe change

Fewer districts follow through with MOU

Schwarzeneggers pledge to protect school funding: Some call claim 'make-believe''

Cutting class will be costly in Hayward

Revolution in U.S. education is in California

Educators await Obama's mark on No Child Left Behind

Jobs bill could bring $24M to local schools

L.A. charter schools flex their educational muscles

New rules on tap for charter schools

Promises and facts on charter schools

Poor are educated and employed

AFT chief vows to revise teacher-dismissal process