March 2010

Schools in state fired up over Day of Action

03-01-2010

By Nanette Asimov/San Francisco Chronicle

The upcoming Day of Action to Defend Public Education - rallies, marches, teach-ins, even political theater - began as an idea on the UC Berkeley campus last fall and has caught fire up and down California, from elementary school to graduate school, and across two dozen states. On the surface, Thursday's Day of Action seems likely to be an unprecedented show of unity among public education advocates at all levels who are angry that politicians and university officials with fingers on purse strings are letting the system decay. "Everybody's coming together," said Callie Maidhof, a student at UC Berkeley, where students have protested tuition hikes, budget cuts and layoffs since last fall. (more...)

Obama unfurls plan to stem school dropout rate

03-01-2010

NPR

President Obama took aim Monday at the nation's school dropout epidemic, proposing $900 million to states and education districts that agree to drastically change or even shutter their worst performing schools. The move comes as many schools continue to struggle to get children to graduation, a profound problem in a rich, powerful nation. Only about 70 percent of entering high school freshmen go on to graduate. The problem affects blacks and Latinos at particularly high rates. Obama described the crisis as one that hurts individual kids and the nation as a whole, shattering dreams and undermining an already hurting economy. (more...)

Peer reviewers winnow Race to Top hopefuls

03-01-2010

By Michele McNeil/Education Week

In the competition for $4 billion in Race to the Top grants, states have made their best pitches, a secret jury has debated and scored their applications—and now U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan must decide who’s good enough to make it to the final round. Mr. Duncan’s announcement of the Race to the Top Fund finalists, which is expected as early as this week, caps a dash by the Department of Education to recruit, vet, and train peer reviewers who wield tremendous power in determining who will win this high-stakes education reform competition. In this first round of competition, all but 10 states applied for awards financed by the economic-stimulus package that will range from an estimated $350 million to $700 million—badly needed money that would help cash-strapped states. (more...)

Decision to fire all of R.I. school's teachers sad, desperate

03-01-2010

By Valerie Strauss/Washington Post

Finally, a school system has decided to fire all the educators at an ailing school. Why didn't we think of this sooner? Firing some of them hasn't really proven effective in turning around schools, has it? So why not get rid of all of them and start over? The school committee in Central Falls, Rhode Island's smallest and poorest city, voted to fire every educator at Central Falls High School at the end of the school year. The committee did this because about half of the school's students graduate, and only 7 percent of 11th-graders were proficient in math in 2009. At the committee meeting Tuesday night, 93 names were called for firing -- 74 classroom teachers, plus reading specialists, guidance counselors, physical education teachers, the school psychologist, the principal and three assistant principals, according to the Providence Journal. (more...)

'The death and life of the great American school system' by Diane Ravitch

03-01-2010

By Peter Schrag/Los Angeles Times

Diane Ravitch, probably this nation's most respected historian of education and long one of our most thoughtful educational conservatives, has changed her mind -- and changed it big time. Ravitch's critical guns are still firing, but now they're aimed at the forces of testing, accountability and educational markets, forces for which she was once a leading proponent and strategist. As President Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, embrace charter schools and testing, picking up just where, in her opinion, the George W. Bush administration left off, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" may yet inspire a lot of high-level rethinking. (more...)

Diane Ravitch’s conversion

03-01-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

From neocon Irving Kristol to anti-communist crusader Whittaker Chambers, there’s been a history of true believers turned full-throated denouncers. Now, education has a celebrated convert, Diane Ravitch. Before an approving audience of union teachers in San Jose on Saturday, the education historian , respected author and blogger (“Bridging Differences) denounced all of what she once believed in: pay for performance, the school accountability movement, standardized tests, public school choice. The New York University education professor and fellow affiliated with the Hoover and Brookings institutions especially laid into her erstwhile allies: think tanks and foundations that are “demonizing unions, scape-goating teachers and undermining education.” (more...)

Education cuts may lead to U.S. brain drain

03-01-2010

By Tom Abate/San Francisco Chronicle

While California and other states cut higher education budgets, many countries are spending to boost the number and quality of their graduates, setting the stage for brain drains and brain gains as the global economy emerges from the Great Recession, according to a UC Berkeley research paper. China, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, France and Brazil are among the major industrial nations that have continued to boost education spending despite the recession, while the United Kingdom and Ireland have joined the United States in making cuts, said John Aubrey Douglass, who wrote the paper for Berkeley's Center for Studies in Higher Education. (more...)

Protests and promises of improvements at schools

03-01-2010

By Crystal Yednak/New York Times

Josephine Norwood, a Bronzeville mother of three Chicago public school students, has rebounded from two rounds of school closings that displaced her children from their schools. As she watched the Board of Education approve another set of schools for closing or turnaround last week, Mrs. Norwood had a simple question: Can Chicago Public Schools officials promise that the new schools will be better? “If this process could guarantee the child the best and they would benefit from the school closing, then maybe it is a positive thing,” Mrs. Norwood said. But she spoke out last week, along with many others, about the need for more transparency and proof that the disruptions are warranted. (more...)

Schools struggle with new budget reality

03-01-2010

By Bruce Lieberman/San Diego Union Tribune

The numbers are staggering: $22 million in Oceanside, $18.3 million in Vista, $16.1 million in San Marcos. Those are the deficits that those school districts are now struggling with for the coming fiscal year. With a continuing state budget crisis and declining enrollment in two of the three districts, money is tighter than it’s been in years. Top officials at the three districts say the cumulative effect on budgets — this is only the latest of several years of cuts — is steadily degrading the quality of education for more than 61,000 children. “We’ve been whittling away for years at the sidelines,” said Gary Hamels, assistant superintendent of business for San Marcos Unified School District. (more...)

Sacramento area teachers brace for thousands of pink slips

03-01-2010

By Diana Lambert/Sacramento Bee

Sacramento teachers and other school employees are bracing themselves for thousands of pink slips. Unlike previous years when many layoff notices were rescinded, school officials say more of those employees will likely lose their jobs this year. "It's heartbreaking," said Steven Ladd, Elk Grove Unified School District superintendent, whose district is expected to send out more than 1,000 pink slips. Ladd and other administrators say layoffs this year probably can't be avoided. Years of intense budget cutting have left districts so lean that salaries are approaching 90 percent of some districts' budgets. (more...)

Teachers reach tentative deal on furloughs

03-01-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

San Diego Unified and its teachers union have finally struck a tentative agreement over educators' working conditions and pay after more than a year-and-a-half of bargaining. The deal could help the school district make ends meet in the middle of budget cuts. The agreement, which must be approved by the school board and the members of the teachers union, is not yet official. It includes five furlough days for the next two school years -- unpaid days off that equal a roughly 2.7 percent pay cut annually -- and an increase in what educators pay for healthcare. Those concessions are a key part of the school district's current plan to balance its budget. But there were wins for the teachers union too: Stricter rules to control class sizes. (more...)

Minority groups more open to taxation to fix California budget gap

03-02-2010

By Annette Fuentes/New America Media

California’s looming $20-billion budget hole should be fixed by slashing spending, say voters in a new multilingual Field Poll survey on state government. But taxation as part of the solution found more favor among the state’s diverse populations of Asians, Latinos and African Americans. They were more likely to prefer a mix of spending cuts and taxation as a way to shrink the deficit. The aim of the poll, which was co-sponsored by several policy institutes, was to gauge public views on governmental reform at a time when various proposals have been floated. While an effort to put before voters a ballot initiative to call a constitutional convention has faltered, other reform proposals are still active. (more...)

Obama wrong, Weingarten right

03-02-2010

Column by Jay Matthews/Washington Post

It puzzles me why President Obama yesterday chose to endorse the firing of 93 teachers and other staff members at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, as reported by my colleagues Michael A. Fletcher and Nick Anderson. Dismissing every member of the staff was overkill, and unnecessary. The president knows that, but I guess decided that he had to show some of that toughness a lot of people say he needs. I am not one of those people. The president seems quite clear and right to me on nearly all educational issues. But in this case I have to endorse the statement released by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, along with other union leaders, that his statement is scoring "political points by scapegoating teachers" and "does nothing to give our students and teachers the tools they need to succeed." (more...)

Obama backs rewarding districts that police failing schools

03-02-2010

By Jefff Zeleny/New York Times

President Obama said Monday that he favored federal rewards for local school districts that fire underperforming teachers and close failing schools, saying educators needed to be held accountable when they failed to fix chronically troubled classrooms and curb the student dropout rate. The president outlined his proposal to offer $900 million in federal grants, which would be made available to states and school districts willing to take aggressive steps to turn around struggling institutions or close them. The president’s proposal, which was included in his 2011 budget request to Congress, is his latest criticism of America’s failing public schools. In a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Obama said federal aid would be available for the districts that are home to the 2,000 schools that produce more than half of the nation’s dropouts. (more...)

K-12 cuts loom again as states' fiscal woes continue

03-02-2010

By Lesli A. Maxwell/Education Week

Budget pressures still have a tight grip on most of the states and are already leaving governors and lawmakers little choice but to cut as they prepare, debate, and settle on new funding for public schools. About half the states are poised to slash spending on K-12 education in fiscal 2011, while another handful are expected to keep funding level for public schools, said Daniel G. Thatcher, a fiscal and education policy associate at the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures. Only a small number of states—Massachusetts and Pennsylvania among them—are proposing any kinds of increases, and those are modest, he said. (more...)

Starting the dialogue about social justice in education

03-02-2010

By Jose Lara/Intersections L.A. (video)

This is the first in a series of videos that I will be producing bi-monthly. I hope to engage people in a dialogue surrounding social justice in education & community organizing. Although I live and work in one of the most oppressed parts of Los Angeles, every day I am inspired by the resiliency of my community. Once we unite and become organized I know that there is nothing that can stop our demand for justice! This is our struggle. I hope this can begin the dialogue. (more...)

Tying Title I to college- and career-ready standards

03-02-2010

National Journal

The principal vehicle through which the federal government distributes money to low-income students nationwide, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, could be facing a major overhaul. During the National Governors Association conference last week, President Obama unveiled a proposal to make Title I funding contingent on a state's adoption of reading and math standards that prepare students for college or a career. Under current law, Title I money goes to schools with high numbers of poor children through statutory formulas that are based primarily on census poverty estimates and the cost of education in each state. (more...)

State on no one’s Race to the Top short list

03-02-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Word in the education blogosphere is that the Department of Education will announce the finalists for Race to the Top competition on Thursday, and none of the handicappers – surprise! – has listed California among them. The finalists –likely a dozen or fewer states – will be invited to make their pitch in person in Washington on March 15, with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announcing the winners of the first round in April. The losers – the large majority of the 40 states and District of Columbia that applied for a piece of the $4.35 billion prize – will each get an eight-to-10 page critique of their applications and an invitation to apply for the second round for whatever money is left over. (more...)

At a Watts school, layoffs take a heavy toll

03-02-2010

By Nicholas Melvoin/Los Angeles Times

When the Los Angeles Unified School District laid off thousands of teachers last spring, the school where I teach, Markham Middle School in Watts, was decimated. Already one of the lowest performing in the state, Markham lost more than half its teachers. The number was so high because inner-city schools like ours tend to have a disproportionate share of teachers just starting their careers, and in last year's layoffs, the most recently hired were the first to receive pink slips. But at Markham, many of those teachers were extremely dedicated and hoped to build a career at the school. Because experienced teachers from throughout the district weren't lining up to transfer here, the school was left scrambling to staff classes. Today, months into the school year, many students are still without permanent teachers. Nicholas Melvoin teaches English as a second language at Markham Middle School. (more...)

LAUSD expected to approve 4,700 layoff notices

03-02-2010

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles Unified officials are expected to approve a mass mailing of nearly 4,700 layoff notices for teachers, administrators, counselors and nurses Tuesday as they work to close a crippling $640 million budget deficit. Recommended by the district's finance staff in a report to be reviewed today by the school board, the move would virtually eliminate school nurses and librarians, increase all class sizes - including a high of up to 44 students in middle school - and boost counselor loads to 1,000 students each. Layoff notices would also go out to nearly 1,000 janitors and maintenance workers and 520 school office workers if the board approves the recommendations. (more...)

Getting more back from giving

03-02-2010

By Alexandra Zavis/Los Angeles Times

Most charitable giving goes to programs that provide a service rather than try to fix the system. But a study of Los Angeles County nonprofits found that spending on advocacy and organizing can yield major benefits for the communities that donors want to help. The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy estimated that for every dollar invested in the work of a selection of advocacy groups, there was $91 in benefits to local residents. "It is far . . . above the kind of bang for the buck that you get when you invest in funding direct services," said Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the Washington-based philanthropy watchdog. (more...)

Former teachers union prez to run for Oakland school board

03-02-2010

Blog by Katy Murphy/Oakland Tribune

Ben Visnick led the Oakland teachers union for six years before Betty Olson-Jones succeeded him in 2006, after the near-strike of that year. I began covering the schools beat in the Olson-Jones era, so I haven’t interacted much with Visnick, who is reputed to have a more confrontational style. But now he’s back — and ready to take a seat at the other side of the table. He spoke several times at Wednesday’s school board meeting, which happened to be located in his district (4), at Laurel Elementary. He is challenging two-term incumbent Gary Yee. He has some bold ideas, too, from taxing individual Oakland residents who make more than $106,800 to consolidating the Emery and Piedmont school districts into Oakland Unified. (more...)

LAUSD board's so-called reform

03-02-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Unified school board looked transformation in the eye -- and blinked. By overriding several recommendations of its top experts and cutting three of the region's most respected charter organizations out of the picture, the board sadly demonstrated once again that it is devoted more to the politics of running schools than to the education of students. Charter school organizations submitted relatively few applications to run 30 new or underperforming schools -- part of a multiyear initiative to give outside operators a chance to manage perhaps 250 -- and in many cases they were passed over in favor of teacher groups by Supt. Ramon C. Cortines and his panel in charge of vetting the applications. (more...)

S.D. school board approves union contract

03-02-2010

By Maureen Magee/San Diego Union Tribune

The San Diego Board of Education approved a contract with the teachers union Tuesday, authorizing a pact that will cut five days from each of the next two school years, raise the cost of health insurance and cap class sizes. The labor agreement comes after nearly two years of sometimes heated bargaining and replaces a contract that expired in 2008. “Nobody can celebrate this contract when it calls for furlough days and raises the cost of health care,” said board President Richard Barrera. “But we are making a commitment that when times get better, we are going to do some really good things for students and teachers.” The school board voted 4 to 0 to approve contract, with trustee Katherine Nakamura absent. (more...)

Sacramento's Hmong community divided over charter school

03-02-2010

By Stephen Magagnini/Sacramento Bee

The idea of a charter school tailored to Hmong students has generated excitement among local Hmong educators and parents, whose children are some of the lowest achievers in the Sacramento City Unified School District. Proponents of the school say the struggles of Hmong students have been obscured by the academic successes of Asian students in general. Specialized teaching methods and lessons at the Yav Pem Suab Academy, they say, would help those children flourish. But the pastor of a small Hmong church on 47th Avenue says the proposed school lumps together culturally different ethnic Hmong groups. (more...)

Some question new power held by school site councils

03-02-2010

By Jorge Barrientos/Bakersfield Californian

As a library media specialist at Sierra Middle School, Cynthia Rendel catalogues books, teaches middle-schoolers how to do research and Spanish speakers how to speak English, among other things. Earlier this month a council -- composed of a principal, teachers, other staff, parents and students -- made the decision to cut her job next year in favor of keeping the vice principal. The council's decision was part of the Bakersfield City School District's newest effort to close a $5.5 million budget gap. In short, the district will stop spending general fund money on counselors, librarians, vice principals and other positions and instead let site councils make those staffing decisions using their own money. (more...)

In ruined Haiti schools, educators see opportunity

03-02-2010

By Jonathan M. Katz/Associated Press

After seven weeks with seven kids huddled under a shelter of tarps and bed sheets on the median strip of a busy road, Lissithe Delomme says the Haitian government can't reopen schools fast enough. "If they would open right now I'd be pretty happy," she said, trying to ignore the tumult of two of her boys wrestling as she fried up a batch of plantains for sale. "They're just sitting around doing nothing." The Jan. 12 quake dealt a devastating blow to Haiti's already struggling schools: More than 80 percent in the earthquake zone were damaged or destroyed. All in Port-au-Prince and the other affected towns remain closed, and with tens of thousands of bored and restless children living in increasingly squalid encampments, patience is growing short. (more...)

Legendary East L.A. teacher Jaime Escalante battles cancer

03-02-2010

By Robert J. Lopez/Los Angeles Times

Jaime Escalante, the legendary Garfield High School math teacher immortalized in the film "Stand and Deliver," is battling cancer. The news about Escalante, 79, was posted on the Web page of actor Edward James Olmos, who portrayed the educator in the critically acclaimed 1988 movie. Olmos said Escalante was in serious condition and that his family had run out of money to pay the medical bills. "The treatment he needs has depleted all the funds his family can raise," Olmos said in the announcement on his website. The family "did not want to ask for help, but we took it upon ourselves to get the word out to all the country and around the world, to make his final days as comfortable as possible -- and maybe even give him a chance to beat the cancer that has afflicted him." (more...)

Bipartisanship in education policy is a process, not a prize

03-03-2010

Letter by Amina Luqman-Dawson, Petersburg, Va./Washington Post

Bipartisanship in education reform? Not so fast. Given languishing health-care reform, jobs-bill wrangling and the filibuster shadow cast on Congress, it's easy to mistakenly consider bipartisanship the prize instead of the process. Public education has been susceptible to this kind of thinking. No Child Left Behind (NCLB), with its testing mandates and punitive policies bemoaned today, was passed with healthy bipartisan support in 2002. Public education is tricky and deceptively hard. Many policy ideas sound good: more pay for good teachers, more school choice, more money. With Republicans not wanting to be labeled "obstructionists" and Democrats wanting to get something done, it's easy to imagine public education becoming a political olive branch. (more...)

U.S. teachers more interested in reform than money

03-03-2010

By Donna Gordon Blankinship/San Francisco Chronicle

U.S. teachers are more interested in school reform and student achievement than their paychecks, according to a massive new survey. The survey of 40,090 K-12 teachers — including 15,038 by telephone — was likely the largest national survey of teachers ever completed and includes the opinions of teachers in every grade, in every state and across the demographic spectrum. Called "Primary Sources: America's Teachers on America's School," the survey was conducted by Harris Interactive between March 10 and June 18, 2009, and was to be released Wednesday. It was paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Scholastic Inc. The purpose of the survey was to keep teachers' voices in the debate over education reform, said Vicki L. Phillips, director of Gates Foundation's K-12 education program. (more...)

Few states to qualify for grants

03-03-2010

By Neil King Jr./Wall Street Journal

The Obama administration will inform most states on Thursday that they didn't make the grade to receive billions of dollars in education funding. Forty states, plus the District of Columbia, submitted applications in January to compete in the $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, which President Barack Obama describes as central to his push to improve local education standards. The idea is to reward states that show the greatest willingness to push innovation through tough testing standards, data collection, teacher training and plans to overhaul failing schools. (more...)

First, let's fire all the teachers!

03-03-2010

By Diane Ravitch/Huffington Post

Imagine that you are a teacher in a high school in a high-poverty district. Many of your students don't speak English. Some don't attend school regularly because they have to earn money or babysit with their siblings while their parents are looking for work. Some come to school unprepared because they didn't do their homework. But you are idealistic and dedicated, you work with each of the students, you do your best to teach them reading, writing, science, math, history, whatever your subject. But despite your best efforts, many of your students can't read very well (they are struggling to learn English), and many of them don't graduate. If your school eliminated all its standards, you could easily push up the graduation rate. (more...)

Scholar’s school reform u-turn shakes up debate

03-03-2010

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

Diane Ravitch, the education historian who built her intellectual reputation battling progressive educators and served in the first Bush administration’s Education Department, is in the final stages of an astonishing, slow-motion about-face on almost every stand she once took on American schooling. Once outspoken about the power of standardized testing, charter schools and free markets to improve schools, Dr. Ravitch is now caustically critical. She underwent an intellectual crisis, she says, discovering that these strategies, which she now calls faddish trends, were undermining public education. She resigned last year from the boards of two conservative research groups. “School reform today is like a freight train, and I’m out on the tracks saying, ‘You’re going the wrong way!’ ” Dr. Ravitch said in an interview. (more...)

Furious times at Central Falls

03-03-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Central Falls High School offers a cautionary tale for California as districts await notification of which 187 failing schools must be restructured. Late last month, the superintendent of the small Rhode Island district fired all of Central Falls’ 93 staff members – 74 teachers, the principal, counselors and other employees – as the first step toward turning around the low-income, largely Hispanic school. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan praised Superintendent Frances Gallo’s courage, and President Obama on Monday condoned the mass firings as a necessary last resort. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called it another example of scapegoating teachers. Author Diane Ravitch called the tactic “mean and punitive” – more evidence of No Child Left Behind gone wild. (more...)

Union files state complaint over RI school firings

03-03-2010

By Eric Tucker/Boston Globe

A teachers' union has filed a labor complaint over a school board's plan to turn around one of the state's worst-performing high schools by firing the entire faculty. The Central Falls Teachers' Union filed the complaint Monday with the state Labor Relations Board, saying the firings are unfair. The union accuses the school district of refusing to bargain over work conditions and not providing the teachers with information they requested. "We need to preserve the rights of the teachers at the high school," said Marcia Reback, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, whose members include the Central Falls union. "We're very concerned about the jobs of the teachers." (more...)

Charter schools to discuss segregation

03-03-2010

KRCA Sacramento

Charter school leaders from across California are gathering in Sacramento Tuesday, and one of the hot topics for discussion is a new study that criticizes those schools on allegations of being racially segregated. When classes let out at Sacramento Charter High School, more than half of the students who leave are all one race. Before Sac High became a charter school in 2003, four ethnic groups made up roughly equal parts of the student body. Now, African-Americans account for nearly 56 percent of students at Sac High, while Asians and whites are each less than 6 percent. The recent study by researchers at UCLA said across the country, charter schools show "high levels of minority segregation." (more...)

A lesson for charter school operators

03-03-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

At their statewide convention in Sacramento this week, charter school leaders are discussing whether to participate in Los Angeles Unified's Public School Choice initiative in coming years. It's not a conversation they were expecting to have. They lobbied for the reform, which at least on paper opens management of about 250 new or failing schools to outside operators. But that's not the way it worked in its first year. Only four -- actually, 3.5 -- of the more than 30 schools up for grabs went to charter groups. The school board knocked three of L.A.'s most respected charter operators out of the running after their applications had been given top ratings by the district administration. The vast majority of schools went to teacher groups. What the board doesn't seem to realize is that it might need the charter schools more than they need the district. (more...)

LAUSD approves pink slip notices

03-03-2010

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved sending nearly 5,200 layoff notices to teachers, administrators, counselors and nurses, as the district looks to close a $640million budget deficit for the next school year. The latest layoff figures include pink slips for 2,252 teachers, 574 counselors, librarians, school nurses and psychologists and 2,370 administrators. That would virtually eliminate school nurses and librarians, increase class sizes in fourth through eighth grade to a potential high of 44 students in middle school, and boost counselor loads to 1,000 students each. In coming weeks the district will also study whether to order layoffs for nearly 1,000 custodians and janitors and more than 500 office workers. (more...)

Student absenteeism threatens to dent budgets

03-03-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

San Diego Unified celebrated when student attendance rates soared last year. The increase brought in badly needed state funding. But as the school district braces for another year of budget cuts, it's now facing the opposite -- a dip in attendance that could cost schools roughly $3.3 million next year. Many forces kept students from school. Swine flu and drizzly days pulled some kids home. But the school district has also cut back on clerical workers who call home to check on truants. And it didn't follow through on its own recommendations to boost attendance and keep the funds flowing. Attendance rates are vital for San Diego Unified. Schools across the state get more funding if more students show up. Attending school is also vital for students: Kids who miss lots of days are far more likely to fall behind in class, the first step in a slippery slope to dropping out completely. (more...)

Teachers, board reach agreement

03-03-2010

By Maureen Magee/San Diego Union Tribune

The school year in San Diego will shrink, health insurance co-payments will double and class sizes will be capped under a new teacher contract approved by the board of education yesterday. The labor agreement comes after nearly two years of sometimes heated negotiations and replaces a pact that expired in 2008. “Nobody can celebrate this contract when it calls for furlough days and raises the cost of health care,” said board President Richard Barrera. “But we are making a commitment that when times get better, we are going to do some really good things for students and teachers.” The school board unanimously approved the contract on a 4-0 vote, with trustee Katherine Nakamura absent. (more...)

Carver Middle students protest impending takeover by L.A.'s mayor

03-03-2010

Blog by Mark Boster and Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

About 100 students staged a peaceful sit-in at Carver Middle School on Tuesday to protest the school falling under the jurisdiction of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The protest came one week after the L.A. Board of Education voted to shift Carver, a persistently low-performing school, to the control of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a nonprofit controlled by Villaraigosa. "We are trying to show the mayor that we are well-educated and we don't need any partnership schools to come here to educate us," said eighth-grader Arturo Macias, 14. Macias said he and fellow organizer Reyes Bravo — also a 14-year-old eighth-grader — didn't rely on Facebook or Twitter to get the word out: "I've been telling my fellow students about this rally for a couple of weeks now. (more...)

Sac City Unified to hold space for kids transferring out of failing schools

03-03-2010

By Melody Gutierrez/Sacramento Bee

More than 23,000 Sacramento City Unified students were eligible this year to transfer out of their failing schools to another campus; only 59 did. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, parents are allowed to move their children if their own school repeatedly falls short academically. The problem in Sacramento City Unified has been that parents don't find out they're eligible until it's too late to transfer and there is no space left at the better schools. Superintendent Jonathan Raymond is expected to announce plans today to hold spots open for students from any of the district's 39 so-called "program improvement" schools. (more...)

Burlingame schools parcel tax leading

03-03-2010

By Neil Gonzales/San Mateo County Times

For a second week in a row, Peninsula voters have given a thumbs-up to a parcel tax measure aimed at keeping money flowing into local schools. The Burlingame School District's Measure B garnered 71 percent support in the all-mail election concluded Tuesday, according to semiofficial results from the San Mateo County elections office. A parcel tax needs a two-thirds majority to win. "We're jazzed," Trustee Michael Barber said. "We're happy Burlingame is supporting its schools again. This prevents some major budget cuts." Measure A continues a $180 annual tax for 10 years. It will extend the existing tax that was set to expire in June 2011 and generates about $1.4 million a year to protect math, science, reading and other programs as well as retain teachers, district leaders said. (more...)

Rallies to focus on cutbacks in education

03-04-2010

By Carla Rivera/Los Angeles Times

Thousands of students, teachers and parents in California and across the country are expected to stage rallies, demonstrations, walkouts and other actions Thursday to decry what they say is an assault on public education at all levels. The so-called Day of Action is in response to education funding cuts that have affected schools nationwide, but have been especially severe in California, where public colleges and universities have canceled classes, ordered furloughs and layoffs and enacted unprecedented student fee increases. Faculty, students and alumni are expected to descend on the state Capitol in Sacramento for a rally and teach-in that will include personal testimonials on the effects of the cutbacks and fee increases. (more...)

The nation: Protesting for education

03-04-2010

NPR

With the economy struggling to recover, funding for public higher education has taken an inevitable hit. To close billion-dollar gaps in statewide funding, governors have asked their university systems to cut their budgets, causing ripple effects detrimental to students' lives. All options are on the table—tuition hikes, furloughs, job cuts, eliminating majors, eliminating student programs—and all options mean less money for education and less investment in students. In the slideshow that follows, The Nation offers a window into some of the states making those calls—and the student response. (more...)

The time to march for California's future is now

03-04-2010

By Marty Hittelman/California Progress Report

It is no longer enough to say that "Sacramento politics is dysfunctional," or that the political and legislative processes in the Capitol are stymied by "partisan gridlock." These first impressions have some basis in reality but don't adequately address California's real problems. These impressions only lead to a feeling of inevitability, cynicism, and despair. What we need in public discussion is a clear picture of the problem and then a plan to fix it. And we all need a sign of hope that change will come. That's why, on March 5, we begin a "March for California's Future." The March will start with a group of public employees who will walk from Bakersfield to Sacramento. By April 21 the March will swell, as it reaches Sacramento, to many thousands. (more...)

Governor supports peaceful student protests

03-04-2010

By Wyatt Buchanan and Nanette Asimov/San Francisco Chronicle

On the eve of massive student protests over education funding in California today, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he is glad students are speaking out and that he believed the rallies on college and high school campuses from Eureka to San Diego would remain civil. "I think I have enough faith in our students ... that they are going to rally and let their voices be heard and do it within the law," the governor told reporters after a meeting with administrators and students from the University of California, California State University and community colleges. (more...)

3 L.A. teachers suspended over Black History Month celebration of Simpson, Rodman, RuPaul

03-04-2010

Blog by Alexandra Zavis/Los Angeles Times

Three teachers at a South Los Angeles elementary school have been suspended for allegedly encouraging students to celebrate O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul for Black History Month, officials said Wednesday. Children at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School were carrying pictures of the men at a parade Friday on the school playground, said Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry. She said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines learned about the incident Tuesday and had the teachers, who are white, pulled from their classrooms pending an investigation. The suspension is without pay for the first three days. “The superintendent believes there are better choices,” she said. (more...)

Rhode Island school nears compromise on mass teacher firings

03-04-2010

By Nick Anderson/Washington Post

A Rhode Island school superintendent and union leaders, who have been at odds over a decision to fire every teacher at a struggling high school, signaled Wednesday that a compromise that would preserve jobs and overhaul the school may be possible. "I am pleased to reassure the union their place in the planning process," Central Falls Superintendent Frances Gallo said in a statement. She said she welcomes union input in developing "a dynamic plan to dramatically improve student achievement" at Central Falls High School. Gallo's statement followed an overture Tuesday from the Central Falls Teachers' Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. The instructors have offered support for a longer school day, as well as more rigorous evaluations and training, among other steps. (more...)

California misses out on federal education funds

03-04-2010

By Jason Song and Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

California was not selected as one of the finalists for a $4.35-billion competitive school-reform grant program, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Officials in the state were notified early Thursday morning. California legislators, like lawmakers in other states, amended and wrote laws to qualify for a portion of the Race to the Top funding. These included several controversial proposals, including linking teachers' performance to their students' test scores. States were judged on a 500-point scale that examined the applicants' commitment to various reforms, including implementing more sophisticated data systems to track student progress and intervening in low-performing schools. (more...)

Proposition 98 fight at core of state budget debate

03-04-2010

By Capitol Weekly

When California voters narrowly approved Proposition 98 nearly 22 years ago, their anger was clear: They wanted to protect education funding from the Legislature’s political infighting and assure a stable source of money from year to year. In good years, the intricate, three-tier, school-funding scheme draws little attention. A description of the Proposition 98 formula can be found here. But in bad years – and right now, we’re in a bad year as the state confronts a $20 billion shortage – the complex formula that rides herd over more than 40 percent of the state budget is drawing a close look. Gov. Schwarzenegger, in his final budget as governor, has treated different areas of education differently. In his public pronouncements, he has said protecting school funding is a top priority. “Our state, our economy, our future is so dependent on education… we must protect education,” the governor said in January. (more...)

Teachers feel ignored in education debate

03-04-2010

eSchoolNews

The survey "Primary Sources: America's Teachers on America's Schools" asked some 40,000 U.S. public school teachers for their opinions on testing, merit pay and other issues. The results show many teachers feel ignored in the debate over how to improve America's schools. (more...)

Union victory in L.A. schools showdown ups ante

03-04-2010

By Lesli A. Maxwell/Education Week

In Los Angeles, where teacher groups and charter schools engaged in a head-to-head competition to operate schools in the sprawling urban district, teachers have emerged—to the surprise of many observers—as the clear winners in the latest showdown. With the management of 12 existing schools, all of them low-performing, and 18 new campuses up for grabs under the city’s “public school choice” policy approved last summer, the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education late last month voted in favor of teacher-led proposals in all but six cases. More than 40,000 students will attend the newly managed schools this fall. Charters, which many had expected to be the dominant players, were largely left out, including three of the city’s most successful operators, whose proposals to run new schools were endorsed by Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines. (more...)

Teachers share their views on how to improve education

03-04-2010

eSchoolNews

In one of the largest national surveys of public school teachers, thousands of educators agreed that today’s students aren’t college-ready when they graduate from high school. Teachers’ suggestions for solving this problem include clear, common standards; multiple measures of student performance; and greater innovation, including differentiated instruction and more use of digital resources. The survey, titled “Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on America’s Schools,” was commissioned by Scholastic Inc. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and conducted by Harris Interactive. More than 40,000 public school teachers in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade participated, and the results were released March 3.arch 3. (more...)

No-Child law is a highlight of hearing on education

03-04-2010

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is presiding over the rollout of the largest competitive grant program in his department’s history, a vast expansion of the government’s direct loan program for college students and sweeping new expenditures on failing schools, teacher quality and other big initiatives. Everyone agrees it is a hugely ambitious agenda. So it was not surprising that the first question Mr. Duncan faced from lawmakers on Wednesday in an appearance before Congress was whether the Obama administration would also would try this year to rewrite, or reauthorize, the main law on federal policy on public schools, No Child Left Behind. (more...)

Protesters face roadblocks to achieve goals

03-05-2010

Blog by Andrew Khouri/Neon Tommy

The thousands of students, teachers, and staff members protesting public education cuts in California and across the nation Thursday, face huge obstacles in forcing the change they seek. Will their calls for action gain momentum and force change the way the civil rights and anti-war movements did in the 1960s? Or will they make a big splash before slowly evaporating into a political morass like the immigration rallies of 2006 -- big on visuals, short on meaningful reform. Does the nascent movement have a leader or can it even find one in the decaying halls of state government? Where will the money needed to resuscitate public schools come from? (more...)

Californians demand: 'Educate the state'

03-05-2010

By Seth Sandronsky/New America Media

In a day of protests against budget cuts to California’s public schools and higher education system, an estimated 2,000 people rallied at the state Capitol yesterday to call for more affordable and accessible public education in an action organizers called “Educate the State.” It was one of the largest actions among dozens that occurred around the state. Education protesters gathering to voice their grievances to elected officials were reminiscent of the recent conservative Tea Party protests against government. But these activists were not demanding smaller government or decreased spending. They were calling on government to spend more money on the public educational system—even if it means more taxes, which is anathema to the Tea Party movement. (more...)

Race to Top enters home stretch with 16 finalists

03-05-2010

By Michele McNeil and Lesli A. Maxwell/Education Week

When 16 finalists come to Washington later this month to make their final pitches in the $4 billion Race to the Top competition, most can expect to go home empty-handed. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in announcing the finalists March 4, said that no more than $2 billion will be divided among “very few winners” when the awards are given out in April—and suggested, in effect, that there would be seven or fewer victors. “These are the 16 best applications we received. Winning will require excellence,” Mr. Duncan said in a conference call with reporters. The finalists from among 41 first-round applicants are: Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee. (more...)

California disqualified from receiving federal school funds

03-05-2010

By Jason Song and Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

California was disqualified Thursday from receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in school reform funds when federal education leaders announced that 15 other states and Washington, D.C., are in the running for billions in federal grants. The money at stake is the first round of $4.35 billion that the Obama administration plans to give states to spur reforms. California officials plan to apply for a second round of funding but were unsure exactly how to improve their chances. To make California a contender for the Race to the Top program, politicians rewrote laws, giving parents the ability to demand aggressive changes at struggling schools and allowing districts to link teacher evaluations to test scores. The competition was set up to encourage states to take on reforms supported by the Obama administration. (more...)

Schwarzenegger seeks bolder action as state loses out on federal schools funds

03-05-2010

By Rob Hotakainen/Sacramento Bee

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that California must be "more aggressive and bolder" in changing its education system after losing out in a highly competitive national contest for federal money. Federal officials rejected California's application for a share of $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funding, part of President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul public schools. The news came in a letter to governors, in which U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that "only the very best proposals" would get money. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia were announced as finalists. It's a setback for Schwarzenegger and the Legislature, which met in special session in January to change state education laws in an attempt to win the money. (more...)

Day of action' highlights education woes

03-05-2010

By Daniel B. Wood/Christian Science Monitor

The national day of action student rallies that began in California and have spread nationwide to protest cuts in education used whatever means possible Thursday – from strikes to sit-ins. But one fact remains: "The real problem is that the state is broke. No amount of demonstrating will change that fact,” says Steven Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota. What the demonstrations can do is raise consciousness and perhaps begin to pressure cash-strapped states into thinking innovatingly about funding higher education. “It’s yet another reality check,” says Jessica Levinson, political reform director for the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies. “I'm not sure if the protests will be effective, but they likely will garner some media attention, and for that reason will accomplish at least some goals.” (more...)

As public education goes, so goes California

03-05-2010

Editorial/San Jose Mercury News

How appropriate that, as one of the biggest education protests in history unfurled across the state, California's application for a Race to the Top school reform grant was rejected by federal officials. Could there possibly be a louder wake-up call? Given the chaos and infighting that muddied the state's halting attempt to qualify for Race to the Top, the rejection is no surprise. But if education funding continues to decline, and if turf battles continue to prevent real reform, it's not just students who will suffer. California's greatness is at risk. For much of the late 20th century, our public schools, colleges and universities were the envy of the nation, driving an economic boom that made the Golden State a global power. It's no coincidence that this happened when taxpayers' commitment to education was at its zenith. (more...)

Gas-tax bill holds schools harmless

03-05-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

With teachers and college students taking to the streets to protest budget cuts on Thursday, Democrats in the Legislature took a step toward restoring $900 million of the more than $2 billion that Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed to cut from K-12 schools and community colleges. They did so, largely along party lines, in passing a variation of the “gas-tax swap” that Schwarzenegger proposed. That’s the sneaky plan to eliminate the 6 percent sales tax on gasoline and replace it with a 17.3 cent excise tax on gasoline. Doing this will free more than $1 billion for the general fund, because there were tighter restrictions on the use of the sales tax revenue. (more...)

Private-school refugees

03-05-2010

Blog by Katharine Mieszkowski/Slate Magazine

Alex, 43, a father of two who lives in San Francisco, is an alum of a private high school in the city that today charges upward of $30,000 a year. But while his eighth-grader and fourth-grader now attend private school, they won't be continuing on to posh high schools like the one he graduated from. "Hope to be a private school refugee family," Alex writes in an e-mail with the subject line, "Many of our friends are doing the same thing." The cachet of private school has taken a hit from the Great Recession, as parents question whether they can afford to pay for it, and whether it's really worth the investment. "Private schools in our area have assumed unlimited demand—the recession has many of us reconsidering the true value of pristine campuses, endless deans and lavish arts programs that train young people to be unemployed," Alex writes. (more...)

Layoffs and reductions approved by Santa Cruz City Schools Board

03-05-2010

By Megha Satyanarayana/San Jose Mercury News

Faced with a deficit of $5.2 million, an incomplete list of retirees and no concessions on a reduced school year by the teachers' union, the Santa Cruz City Schools Board agreed Wednesday to lay off or cut the hours of the equivalent of 57 full-time K-12 educators, 23 temporary K-12 educators, every program in adult education and about 50 temporary adult education teachers. School districts and community colleges have until March 15 to give out preliminary pink slips. As the state budget is changed, then approved, districts learn better what their state funding is, and many of those pink slips are rescinded. It's a process often lambasted for being thrust upon districts in the absence of solid information. (more...)

Big cuts, high anxiety in Cupertino

03-05-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Families in Cupertino Union School District are anguished over their schools. They thought that they had largely solved their district’s financial problems a year ago when they passed their first parcel tax, raising $4 million. But now this K-8 Silicon Valley district, home of Apple Computer and some of the highest performing schools in the state, is facing a $9 million deficit for next year. And that’s putting in jeopardy many of the programs parents consider essential: small classes, summer school, the GATE program for gifted children, librarians. On Thursday evening, when thousands of Bay Area teachers, students and supporters joined a protest in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza, 300 or so Cupertino parents gathered in a middle school gym to hear how the state’s funding crisis has finally hit home and to plot what they can do about it. (more...)

Sacramento school board approves layoffs to help solve budget deficit

03-05-2010

By Maria L. Lopez/Sacramento Press

Elementary class sizes will be larger and about 430 teachers and other school staff would lose their jobs under a plan approved by the Sacramento school board Thursday night for millions of dollars in spending cuts to close a $30.6 million budget deficit. The Sacramento City Unified School District board voted unanimously Thursday night to approve the cuts to take effect in the next school year unless the district’s unions join the administration in agreeing to concessions to stave off some of the cuts. Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond said the school district must close a $30.6 million deficit for the 2010-11 budget. The board approved Raymond’s plan to lay off about 340 teachers, 60 counselors, social workers and psychologists, about 38 school administrators and five school clerical workers. (more...)

In new book, Ravitch recants long-held beliefs

03-05-2010

By Debra Viadero/Education Week

Once a passionate advocate for injecting greater competition and accountability into the U.S. education system, the New York University scholar Diane Ravitch realized three years ago that her views had evolved to a point where she was contradicting herself on a regular basis. Like any good historian, she decided to set the record straight. Her newest book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, which was published this week by Basic Books, is the result of that effort. In 308 pages, it lays out the reasons for Ms. Ravitch’s about-face on charter schools, school choice, and other market-oriented reform strategies in education, and explains why she no longer supports the federal No Child Left Behind Act and other efforts designed to hold schools and teachers accountable for their students’ test results. (more...)

Change the education system

03-09-2010

Blog by Jennifer Imazeki/Voice of San Diego

As a professor in the California State University system, I see the impact of the state budget cuts firsthand, every day. And as a lifelong advocate for California education, I fully endorse the ideals behind the March 4 rallies. But as a researcher, my call to action for Sacramento is a little different than what was heard at those rallies. Rather than simply asking for more money for schools, I would ask for real change to the California education system, at least at the K-12 level. Thanks to Proposition 13 and the legislative response to a 1970s court case that prohibits a school's revenues from being tied to the wealth of the local community, combined with 30 years of politicians adding new regulations and programs, California has a system of school finance and governance that is highly prescriptive and often irrational. (more...)

San Diego professor marches 400 miles for education

03-09-2010

By Ana Tintocalis/KPBS

Thousands of people embark on a 400-mile protest march today. The “March for California's Future” is intended to bring attention to a crisis in public education. One San Diego professor plans to spend seven weeks walking from Bakersfield to Sacramento. Kelly Mayhew is preparing the family dinner. Posters of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead are taped and tacked on the walls. Kelly's husband, Jim Miller is in the living room with his 5-year-old son. Miller is an English and Labor Studies professor at San Diego City College. He's known as much for his long, blonde ponytail as he is for his commitment to the greater good. Miller says he's ready to take his activism on the road. (more...)

Another setback for California schools

03-09-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

California's public schools, which are laying off thousands of teachers and planning for shortened academic years, received the painful news Thursday that they will not get a federal Race to the Top grant in the first round of funding. The decision isn't surprising, though. The legislation that formed the backbone of the state's application lacked coherence and a real commitment to improving conditions at the lowest-performing schools. We don't yet know why U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan turned down California's application. But from our perspective, what the schools needed were rules allowing district administrators, not union contracts, to determine which teachers should work at specific campuses, so that urban schools with mostly poor, minority students would be staffed by excellent educators. (more...)

Teachers surveyed agree: end ‘quality-blind’ layoffs

03-09-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Civil rights attorneys aren’t the only ones opposed to a teacher layoff system based strictly on seniority. Teachers themselves apparently aren’t crazy about it either. “A Smarter Teacher Layoff System” – a report this month by The New Teacher Project – included a survey of 9,000 teachers in two unnamed urban districts. Seventy percent of teachers in one district and 77 percent of teachers in the other, including most of tenured teachers, said that factors other than just seniority should be considered in a layoff. In both districts, teachers rated classroom management, teacher attendance and instructional performance based on evaluations, as more important factors than the number of years that a teacher has taught in the district or total years of teaching. (more...)

California to list 187 chronically low-performing schools

03-09-2010

By Sharon Noguchi/San Jose Mercury News

To align with the Obama administration's push to reform failing schools, California today will release a controversial list of the state's 187 "persistently lowest-achieving schools." The schools will be forced to close or adopt other drastic measures to improve. Release of the list has been delayed, partly because of its sensitivity. Because of the complicated criteria used to develop the list, it omits a host of low-scoring schools and includes some higher-performing ones. While superintendents and the principals of schools on the list have been informed, the list is being kept secret until 10 a.m. today. (more...)

Proposal would ease school parcel tax votes

03-09-2010

By Cheri Carlson/Ventura County Star

A Bay Area group called Californians for Improved School Funding wants to help school districts throughout the state raise money through local parcel taxes. The group has proposed a ballot initiative that would allow school parcel taxes to pass with 55 percent voter approval, with some restrictions. They now require a two-thirds approval to pass. “This is not the end-all to fix the financial crisis that schools are facing,” said Connell Lindh, executive director of the group and president of Connell Lindh Campaigns, also in the Bay Area. The initiative, however, would provide a way for communities to help public schools on the local level, he said. (more...)

Schools' new math: The four-day week

03-09-2010

By Chris Herring/Wall Street Journal

A small but growing number of school districts across the country are moving to a four-day week, in a shift they hope will help close gaping budget holes and stave off teacher layoffs, but that critics fear could hurt students' education. State legislators and local school boards are giving administrators greater flexibility to set their academic calendars, making the four-day slate possible. But education experts say little research exists to show the impact of shortened weeks on learning. The missed hours are typically made up by lengthening remaining school days. (more...)

Officials step up enforcement of rights laws in education

03-09-2010

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

Seeking to step up enforcement of civil rights laws, the federal Department of Education says it will be sending letters in coming weeks to thousands of school districts and colleges, outlining their responsibilities on issues of fairness and equal opportunity. As part of that effort, the department intends to open investigations known as compliance reviews in about 32 school districts nationwide, seeking to verify that students of both sexes and all races are getting equal access to college preparatory curriculums and to advanced placement courses. The department plans to open similar civil rights investigations at half a dozen colleges. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is to announce the initiatives in a speech on Monday in Selma, Ala., where on March 7, 1965, hundreds of civil rights marchers were beaten by Alabama state troopers. (more...)

Poll: School cuts sting students

03-09-2010

By Scott Martindale and Fermin Leal/Orange County Register

It manifests as campus libraries closed multiple days a week, music lessons wiped clean from the school day, the principal treating skinned knees and bloody noses because there's no nurse. Students see it in larger classes, when they lose a beloved teacher in a round of layoffs, when they can't participate in even the most basic of school activities because of spending freezes. Parents are burdened with it as they try to raise thousands of dollars in a down economy, to preserve an educational experience that – no matter how hard they try – still does not equal years past. These are just some of the tangible effects of the loss of $498 million in state revenue last year for Orange County public schools, which followed on losses during previous years. (more...)

As LAUSD tightens belt, 'green' resolution helps trim water, energy costs

03-09-2010

By Susan Carpenter/Los Angeles Times

While the Los Angeles Unified School District grapples with budget slashing, teacher layoffs, program cuts and increasing class sizes, a 3-year-old program has been steadily carving away at future water and electricity costs for the 14,000 buildings in the sprawling system. Since passage in 2007 of the Green LAUSD resolution, the district has been working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and its energy and water use by 10% from 2007 levels by 2013. It also will install 50 megawatts of solar photovoltaic arrays, a move that could save the district more than $20 million annually on an electricity bill that normally costs $85 million. (more...)

Teachers as reformers

03-09-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles schools did not undergo the transformation we had expected from the Public School Choice initiative, which in its first year opened more than 30 new or underperforming public schools to outside management. Top-notch charter operators applied for relatively few schools and then were removed from the running at the last minute. The school board once again mired itself in political maneuvers instead of putting students first. What transformation there was came, more surprisingly, from the teachers. They agreed to allow and create more pilot schools, which are similar to charter schools but employ district personnel. They formed partnerships and, with the help of their union, United Teachers Los Angeles, drew up their own, often strong applications for revamping schools. (more...)

Vote on S.F. school assignment plan Tuesday

03-09-2010

By Jill Tucker/San Francisco Chronicle

After years of debate, delay and endless controversy, the San Francisco school board will vote Tuesday on a new student assignment system - a hybrid plan that offers choice, prioritizes proximity to a school and addresses the needs of struggling students. It's a compromise that gives a nod both to parents who have asked for a choice in where they send their children to school and parents who want a spot in the school down the street. "I think we've tried to meet everybody's needs in some way," said Superintendent Carlos Garcia. "I think it's the best we could do." The proposal on the table, however, would do little in the short term to address de facto segregation in district K-12 schools, a high priority for some school board members, but not necessarily for parents. (more...)

Protecting education is critical even in recession

03-09-2010

Editorial/Oakland Tribune

Students, teachers and school employees in the Bay Area, state and across the nation held demonstrations Thursday protesting reductions in education funding. They demanded lower college tuition charges, higher teacher salaries and an end to cuts in school classes and programs. Their frustration is understandable. Over the past few years California has reduced funding for higher education, forcing huge increases in college fees. Cuts in K-12 spending have resulted in teacher and staff layoffs, fewer and larger classes and a loss of programs such as music, sports and the arts. The nationwide recession, which is particularly severe in California, has diminished tax revenues and has resulted in huge budget deficits that portend even more reductions in government spending on everything, including education. (more...)

Imperfect list of ‘worst’ schools

03-09-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

State education officials are still tinkering with the list of 188 of the “worst” schools two days before the State Board of Education is required to approve it. The continued delays in completing the list and uncertainties about a federal improvement program have frustrated school district officials. They may not know until the state board votes on Thursday whether some schools they’ve already told to expect drastic interventions will actually have to go through with them. Some superintendents are arguing that their schools shouldn’t have been put on the list in the first place. (more...)

As funding for public education drops, class sizes on the rise

03-09-2010

By Maritza Velazquez/San Gabriel Valley Tribune

The era of small class sizes in California may be over. As state funding for public education plummets, area districts are doing away with the 20-student class sizes that have been in place for 14 years. For many kindergarten- through third-grade teachers, next year will be the first time they deal with 30 students. "It's a lot to ask of our teachers, but the state's budget challenge is causing us to take that action," said Walnut Valley Unified Superintendent Cyndy Simms, whose district is raising class sizes to about 30 next year as it copes with a $3.3 million shortfall. "I know that in the end our teachers will give the very best to our kids," Simms said. (more...)

Why I changed my mind about school reform

03-09-2010

Opinion by Diane Ravitch/Wall Street Journal

I have been a historian of American education since 1975, when I received my doctorate from Columbia. I have written histories, and I've also written extensively about the need to improve students' knowledge of history, literature, geography, science, civics and foreign languages. So in 1991, when Lamar Alexander and David Kearns invited me to become assistant secretary of education in the administration of George H.W. Bush, I jumped at the chance with the hope that I might promote voluntary state and national standards in these subjects. (more...)

Health problems fuel achievement gaps, study says

03-09-2010

By Debra Viadero/Education Week

If educators and federal officials are serious about closing academic-achievement gaps, they need to better coordinate efforts to address the health disparities that impede learning for students from disadvantaged groups, according to a study scheduled for release today. “At the national level, we’re on the verge of investing billions in our educational system, and the return on those investments is going to be jeopardized unless these health issues are addressed in a much more cogent way,” said the study’s author, Charles E. Basch, a professor of health and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. For his study, Mr. Basch reviewed more than 300 studies in education, psychology, health, and other areas, looking for health disparities that would provide strategic leverage points for improving student learning. (more...)

Education activists need strategy beyond marches

03-09-2010

By Randy Shaw/Beyond Chron

Mass protests last week against school funding cuts and tuition hikes spoke powerfully about California’s misplaced priorities. As occurred with campus protests last fall, the media gave overwhelmingly sympathetic coverage (other than to the self-indulgent group who blocked an Oakland freeway, diverting television coverage away from legitimate protests). But activists’ strategy for achieving their goals is far from clear. There is no measure on the November 2010 ballot that raises significant new money for education. Activists can use mass action to pressure legislators and the Governor to redirect excessive spending on prisons and other wasteful programs to education, but there is no chance this year of getting enough Republicans to win the necessary 2/3 legislative votes. (more...)

Dept. of Education to boost civil rights efforts

03-09-2010

USA Today

The federal Department of Education wants to intensify its civil rights enforcement efforts in schools around the country, including a deeper look at issues ranging from programs for immigrant students learning English to equal access to college preparatory courses. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was to speak Monday in Alabama to outline the department's goals. Duncan was there to commemorate the 45th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" — the day in 1965 when several hundred civil rights protesters were beaten by state troopers on Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge during a voting rights march." (more...)

Accountability in the Race To The Top program

03-09-2010

By Eliza Krigman/NationalJournal

The Education Department last week announced 16 finalists for a big chunk of the $4.35 billion it's giving out through its Race to the Top grant competition for elementary and secondary schools. Elsewhere around the country, college students were protesting education budget cuts and states were still struggling to fund education at all levels because of the poor economy. And the stimulus funds that states have relied upon run out later this year. The Race to the Top competition requires winners to use the money to implement education reform plans. Is there concern, however, that cash-strapped states will use some of the grant money to backfill their budgets? What can be done to ensure accountability? (more...)

Santa Monica-Malibu schools going mail-in route for parcel tax election

03-09-2010

By Nicole Santa Cruz/Los Angeles Times

Neil Carrey has sometimes been critical of spending in the Santa Monica-Malibu school district. But now, he says, the district has done nothing wrong -- it's just not getting enough money from the state. "This is not like the boy who cried wolf," he said. "This is real." As a result of anticipated budget shortfalls, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District will ask voters -- by mail -- to support a parcel tax that could stave off teacher layoffs and maintain such classes as art and music. The five-year tax on residential and commercial property would be $198 per parcel, bringing the district's per-parcel tax to $544, with a senior citizen exemption. The ballots will go out April 26 and are due May 25. (more...)

Tough choices for 12 S.F. schools in bottom 5%

03-09-2010

By Jill Tucker/San Francisco Chronicle

Across California, 188 schools got the news Monday that they were the lowest of the low-performing schools - a designation that will require them to be closed, converted to a charter school or be subject to a complete overhaul of instruction and staff, starting with the principal. Dozens of Bay Area schools, including 12 in San Francisco, landed on the state's 5 percent lowest-achieving schools list - a ranking required by the federal government. The schools on the list serve predominantly low-income students and, therefore, receive or are eligible for Title I funds. The formula used to rank them was primarily based on standardized test scores. Each school on the list will be eligible for up to $2 million in federal funding annually for the next three years to help the schools improve - but only if they initiate one of four major reform strategies starting in the 2010-11 school year. (more...)

Inland schools among state's worst

03-09-2010

By Dayna Straehley/Riverside Press-Enterprise

Sixteen Inland schools made a list of the lowest performing campuses in the state, but officials said Monday they are working to reverse the trends. The schools are on the preliminary list of the bottom 5 percent in academic performance. The California Department of Education released the first-ever list on Monday. Each campus must choose one of four school improvement models required by state and federal law. Most of the schools are listed because of low test scores, but five were identified for low graduation rates. March Mountain High School, Moreno Valley Unified School District's continuation school for students lacking credits to graduate, is one campus with a low graduation rate, almost 46 percent, according to the department. Part of the problem is a significant number of foster homes in town and placement homes in for juvenile courts from outside Riverside County, Moreno Valley school board member Rick Sayre said by phone. Those students are often years behind in the credits they need to graduate, he said. (more...)

Schoolyard brawl

03-09-2010

By Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert/Newsweek

Last summer we asked Randi Weingarten, the head of the 1.4 million–member American Federation of Teachers, the second--largest teachers' union in America, to put a number on the percentage of incompetent teachers in New York, where approximately 0.01 percent are fired for cause every year. Weingarten wouldn't say. Pressed, she responded "up to 2 percent." When we repeated Weingarten's estimate to Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of the District of Columbia school system, she laughed derisively. Rhee, an outspoken woman who has been trying to watch her words lately, wouldn't offer her own estimate, but it is safe to say that she believes 2 percent is a ridiculously low estimate of the percentage of incompetent teachers in any inner-city school system. (more...)

Controversial school list linked to state's quest for federal funds

03-10-2010

By Corey G. Johnson/California Watch

The public outing of 188 under-performing schools on Monday was more than an exposé of weak educators: It is part of a frantic state push to qualify this week for close to $400 million from a federal alternative to Race to the Top. The much-sought-after funds are called School Improvement Grants. They have been around since the 1960's but have been revamped under the Obama administration. Backed by federal stimulus dollars, the Department of Education is offering up to $4 billion in SIG funding to turnaround schools that are deemed consistently low performers. (more...)

Stimulus money on hold

03-10-2010

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

The Obama administration has put a hold on approving a second round of education stimulus money for California until Gov. Schwarzenegger responds to questions raised by school districts and parent advocates. The groups — the Education Coalition and Parents and Students for Great Schools, led by Public Advocates – have challenged Schwarzenegger’s claim that the state will spend enough on K-12 schools to qualify for additional federal money. As a condition for receiving the money, California has agreed either to spend proportionally as much on education as on other programs, or to keep spending on education at a pre-recession level. (more...)

Panel releases proposal to set U.S. standards for education

03-10-2010

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

Culminating a year’s work, a panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents released a set of proposed common academic standards on Wednesday. The standards, posted on the panel’s web site, lay out the panel’s vision of what American public school students should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation. Forty-eight states cooperated in producing the proposed standards, which amount to a new road map for American public education. If a majority of states were to adopt them over the next few months, which experts said was a growing possibility, the new standards would replace the nation’s motley current checkerboard of locally written standards, which vary greatly in content and sophistication. (more...)

Federal agency to investigate L.A. schools

03-10-2010

By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

The federal government has singled out the Los Angeles Unified School District for its first major investigation under a reinvigorated Office for Civil Rights, officials said Tuesday. The focus of the probe, by an arm of the U.S. Department of Education, will be whether the nation's second-largest district provides adequate services to students learning English. Officials turned their attention to L.A. Unified because so many English learners fare poorly and because they make up about a third of district enrollment, more than 220,000 students. "This is about helping kids receive a good education, the education they deserve," said Russlynn Ali, the department's assistant secretary for civil rights. She plans to announce the inquiry at a news conference Wednesday. (more...)

Many nations passing U.S. in education, expert says

03-10-2010

By Sam Dilon/New York Times

One of the world’s foremost experts on comparing national school systems told lawmakers on Tuesday that many other countries were surpassing the United States in educational attainment, including Canada, where he said 15-year-old students were, on average, more than one school year ahead of American 15-year-olds. America’s education advantage, unrivaled in the years after World War II, is eroding quickly as a greater proportion of students in more and more countries graduate from high school and college and score higher on achievement tests than students in the United States, said Andreas Schleicher, a senior education official at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, which helps coordinate policies for 30 of the world’s richest countries. (more...)

Firing teachers: First step to reform or useless effort?

03-10-2010

By Greg Toppo/USA TODAY

Is the wholesale firing of teachers and administrators at an underperforming Rhode Island high school just the kind of get-tough intervention students need? Or is it an unproven, risky disaster waiting to happen? President Obama angered teachers unions last week by coming out in favor of the firings at Central Falls High School. "If a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn't show any sign of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability," he said. Education reformers say Obama was correct to support Central Falls Superintendent Frances Gallo, as Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, for "doing the right thing for kids." (more...)

Teachers union board recommends Republican candidate

03-10-2010

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

Board members of the San Diego teachers union have recommended endorsing a Republican candidate to unseat long-term incumbent John de Beck, whose relationship with the union has soured over time. While teachers from across the school district have not yet voted on who to endorse in the June primary election, the union's board of directors is recommending they choose Scott Barnett, a conservative political consultant, for de Beck's spot, according to an e-mail the union sent to candidates that was obtained by voiceofsandiego.org. Candidates were vetted at a union forum on Monday and teachers will vote on whom to endorse Tuesday. (more...)

NAEP board curbs Special Ed. and ELL exclusions

03-10-2010

By Stephen Sawchuk/Education Week

Over the objection of officials at the statistical wing of the U.S. Department of Education, the independent body that sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress has approved a policy that will limit school officials’ ability to exclude students with disabilities and English-language learners from the national exams. Beginning with the 2011 releases, the National Assessment Governing Board will also highlight states and districts that don’t meet testing-participation targets for those populations. Adopted March 6, the new policy caps a nearly two-year effort by NAGB to curb disparities among states in the rates of students who are excluded from the federally sponsored assessment. (more...)

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Schools in state fired up over Day of Action

Obama unfurls plan to stem school dropout rate

Peer reviewers winnow Race to Top hopefuls

Decision to fire all of R.I. school's teachers sad, desperate

'The death and life of the great American school system' by Diane Ravitch

Diane Ravitch’s conversion

Education cuts may lead to U.S. brain drain

Protests and promises of improvements at schools

Schools struggle with new budget reality

Sacramento area teachers brace for thousands of pink slips

Teachers reach tentative deal on furloughs

Minority groups more open to taxation to fix California budget gap

Obama wrong, Weingarten right

Obama backs rewarding districts that police failing schools

K-12 cuts loom again as states' fiscal woes continue

Starting the dialogue about social justice in education

Tying Title I to college- and career-ready standards

State on no one’s Race to the Top short list

At a Watts school, layoffs take a heavy toll

LAUSD expected to approve 4,700 layoff notices

Getting more back from giving

Former teachers union prez to run for Oakland school board

LAUSD board's so-called reform

S.D. school board approves union contract

Sacramento's Hmong community divided over charter school

Some question new power held by school site councils

In ruined Haiti schools, educators see opportunity

Legendary East L.A. teacher Jaime Escalante battles cancer

Bipartisanship in education policy is a process, not a prize

U.S. teachers more interested in reform than money

Few states to qualify for grants

First, let's fire all the teachers!

Scholar’s school reform u-turn shakes up debate

Furious times at Central Falls

Union files state complaint over RI school firings

Charter schools to discuss segregation

A lesson for charter school operators

LAUSD approves pink slip notices

Student absenteeism threatens to dent budgets

Teachers, board reach agreement

Carver Middle students protest impending takeover by L.A.'s mayor

Sac City Unified to hold space for kids transferring out of failing schools

Burlingame schools parcel tax leading

Rallies to focus on cutbacks in education

The nation: Protesting for education

The time to march for California's future is now

Governor supports peaceful student protests

3 L.A. teachers suspended over Black History Month celebration of Simpson, Rodman, RuPaul

Rhode Island school nears compromise on mass teacher firings

California misses out on federal education funds

Proposition 98 fight at core of state budget debate

Teachers feel ignored in education debate

Union victory in L.A. schools showdown ups ante

Teachers share their views on how to improve education

No-Child law is a highlight of hearing on education

Protesters face roadblocks to achieve goals

Californians demand: 'Educate the state'

Race to Top enters home stretch with 16 finalists

California disqualified from receiving federal school funds

Schwarzenegger seeks bolder action as state loses out on federal schools funds

Day of action' highlights education woes

As public education goes, so goes California

Gas-tax bill holds schools harmless

Private-school refugees

Layoffs and reductions approved by Santa Cruz City Schools Board

Big cuts, high anxiety in Cupertino

Sacramento school board approves layoffs to help solve budget deficit

In new book, Ravitch recants long-held beliefs

Change the education system

San Diego professor marches 400 miles for education

Another setback for California schools

Teachers surveyed agree: end ‘quality-blind’ layoffs

California to list 187 chronically low-performing schools

Proposal would ease school parcel tax votes

Schools' new math: The four-day week

Officials step up enforcement of rights laws in education

Poll: School cuts sting students