March 2010

States weigh four-day school week to cut costs

• 03-10-2010
• 

NPR

Legislation being proposed in many states would change the school week from five days to four. As states fight to balance their budgets amid the recession, they are looking for ways to save money. Mike Griffith, the senior school finance analyst for Education Commission of the States, offers his insight. (more...)

LAUSD to lay off 6,300

• 03-10-2010
• 

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily Breeze

Los Angeles Unified officials said Tuesday they expect to lay off at least 6,300 workers this summer if employee unions cannot agree to deep concessions, including a 10 percent pay cut and 12 furlough days over the next two years. The massive layoffs are needed to close LAUSD's budget gap estimated at $640 million for the 2010-11 school year. "We need help or the draconian cuts I've recommended will have to take place," said LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines. Last week, the Board of Education approved sending out some 5,200 layoff notices to teachers, administrators, nurses, counselors and librarians. However, the number of slips tends to be larger than the actual number of workers laid off. (more...)

LAUSD: Pay cuts a must to avoid layoffs

• 03-10-2010
• 

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles Unified officials said Tuesday that if the district's unions want to avoid up to 6,300 layoffs this summer, they will have to agree to concessions that include pay cuts of 10 percent and taking 12 furlough days over the next two years. The district is struggling to close a budget gap estimated at $640 million for the 2010-11 school year. "We need help ... or the draconian cuts I've recommended will have to take place," said LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines. Last week the Board of Education approved sending out about 5,200 layoff notices to teachers, administrators, nurses, counselors and librarians. (more...)

Cutting California from 'Race to the Top' is bad for the country

• 03-10-2010
• 

By Stacy Brown/Los Angeles Times

As I started reading The Times' March 4 article, "California disqualified from receiving federal school funds," I hoped the story would examine the devastating impact the Obama administration's decision to disqualify our state from a round of "Race to the Top" grants would have on our schools and children. Instead, The Times devoted much of its story to finding explanations for why California was cut off from the first round of grants; the idea that reform-wary teachers unions deserve blame underlies many of the comments in the article. (more...)

Tougher national education standards drafted, posted

• 03-11-2010
• 

By Greg Toppo/USA TODAY

A year-long effort to lay out the first national standards for schoolchildren in the USA got a full-scale airing Wednesday, as groups developing the measures posted detailed drafts of math and English standards online. The move comes as education reformers and lawmakers complain that many states have watered-down expectations in the face of a decade-long federal push to get greater percentages of students scoring higher on state skills tests. No Child Left Behind, the school reform law passed by Congress in 2001, requires 100% of students master state standards by 2014. (more...)

U.S. public education needs a bailout

• 03-11-2010
• 

By Kai Ryssdal/Marketplace

KAI RYSSDAL: Amy Scott was telling us a couple of minutes ago about those new proposals for some kind of unified nationwide education policy. Commentator Robert Reich says deciding who studies what and in what grade is well worth a conversation but first, he says, we've got to fix a bigger problem. ROBERT REICH: The recession has ravaged state and local budgets, most of which aren't allowed to run deficits. That's meant major cuts in public schools and universities, and an unfathomable future deficit in the education of our people. Across America, schools are laying off thousands of teachers. Classrooms that had contained 20 to 25 students are now crammed with 30 or more. School years have been shortened. Some school districts are moving to four-day school weeks. (more...)

State replaces 3 dozen schools on ‘worst’ list

• 03-11-2010
• 

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess1`

The State Board of Education will be asked today to approve a list of 188 failing schools that is significantly different from those that the State Department of Education proposed on Monday. Education officials have replaced 37 middle and high schools from the original list (see end of this post or this link for the revised list). Because of faulty methodology, many of those schools were higher performing that the schools that have taken their place. Whether the state has finally got it right is another matter. The federal government has ordered the state to select 5 percent of the “persistently lowest-performing” schools that will be eligible for substantial school improvement money in return for swallowing strong medicine. (more...)

Texas conservatives seek deeper stamp on texts

• 03-11-2010
• 

By James C. McKinley Jr. /New York Times

Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its social studies curriculum that would portray conservatives in a more positive light, emphasize the role of Christianity in American history and include Republican political philosophies in textbooks. The hearings are the latest round in a long-running cultural battle on the 15-member State Board of Education, a battle that could have profound consequences for the rest of the country, since Texas is one of the largest buyers of textbooks. (more...)

Scholar Diane Ravitch: 'We've lost sight' of schools' goal

• 03-11-2010
• 

By Greg Toppo/USA TODAY

Education historian Diane Ravitch can pinpoint the day when she realized public schools in the USA were racing down a perilous road, one that promised long-sought reforms but would never deliver — and probably make things worse. It was Nov. 30, 2006. That's the day, nearly five years after Congress passed the No Child Left Behind education reform law, when Ravitch found herself in the downtown Washington, D.C., conference room of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, listening to a series of presenters weigh in on the measure's "remedies" for low-performing schools. Many of the presenters that Thursday were ideological allies of President George W. Bush, who had pushed for more standardized testing and free-market competition among public schools. (more...)

Sacramento schools added to low-performing list; others removed

• 03-11-2010
• 

By Diana Lambert/Sacramento Bee

Encina Preparatory High School in Sacramento and Highlands Academy of Arts and and Design in North Highlands were added to the state's list of persistently lowest-performing schools Wednesday. And Natomas High School and Woodland High School were dropped off. The changes came as California Department of Education officials tweaked the list using new criteria they plan to recommend the state school board approve today. The changes allow the state to add more low-performing low-income schools that didn't make it into the bottom 5 percent and to remove some higher performers from the list of secondary schools that don't get extra money for teaching low-income students. (more...)

Five San Jose schools could escape 'lowest-performing' label

• 03-11-2010
• 

By Sharon Noguchi/San Jose Mercury News

It's been a roller coaster at seven San Jose schools suddenly thrust into the limelight Monday after state officials publicly branded them among the worst schools in the state. On Wednesday, the same officials changed their minds and drew up an alternative bad-schools list — granting five local schools a reprieve. Peter Burnett, Herbert Hoover, Ocala, Joseph George and August Boeger middle schools were crossed off a new listing of the bottom 5 percent of the state's schools; if the State Board of Education agrees, they avoid drastic requirements for reform, such as closing, firing the principal and staff or converting to a charter. The state board is scheduled to sort it out today. (more...)

Poor performance of LAUSD prompts feds' probe

• 03-11-2010
• 

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

Federal officials who plan to launch a probe of Los Angeles Unified's English-language learner program next week said Wednesday they targeted the district because of its size and low performance, but not because of any complaints or violations. The investigation of Los Angeles Unified will look at whether the district is honoring the civil rights of English-language learners and providing them equal access to educational opportunities. The compliance review, focusing initially on schools in the west San Fernando Valley and southeast Los Angeles, is the first of 38 planned nationwide by the federal Office for Civil Rights. (more...)

Kansas City to close nearly half its schools

• 03-11-2010
• 

By Susan Saulny/New York Times

The Kansas City Board of Education voted Wednesday night to close almost half of the city’s public schools, accepting a sweeping and contentious plan to shrink the system in the face of dwindling enrollment, budget cuts and a $50 million deficit. In a 5-to-4 vote, the members endorsed the Right-Size plan, proposed by the schools superintendent, John Covington, to close 28 of the city’s 61 schools and cut 700 of 3,000 jobs, including those of 285 teachers. The closings are expected to save $50 million, erasing the deficit from the $300 million budget. (more...)

Run harder or quit Race to the Top?

• 03-15-2010
• 

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

Within a few weeks, the governor and state education officials must decide whether to gear up for or give up on the next round of Race to the Top funding. Should California’s next application, if the state takes up the challenge, be broader –reaching out for a larger consensus among districts and unions – or bolder? Eight leaders and respected observers of California education have taken up the invitation to share their views. They include executives with state school boards association, the largest teachers union, education reform non-profits and the state charter schools association, an outspoken teacher and a critic of the proposed K-12 common-core standards. (more...)

Meaningless loss

• 03-15-2010
• 

Letter by Jack Loveridge/Oakland Tribune

It's official - California's a loser. ("California misses out on Race to the Top funding for schools," March 4) But before we lament missing out on the first round of Race to the Top funds, we should remember the kind of race we were running in the first place. This $4.35 billion federal initiative to turn around the nation's lowest-performing schools springs from the notion that competition invariably fosters improved school performance. From staging a battle between states for scarce dollars to lowering barriers to charter schools, the program's only innovation seems to be its prideful insertion of an oversimplified market model into the failed public education equation. (more...)

California's public schools send out 22,000 pink slips

• 03-15-2010
• 

Blog by Anthony York/Los Angeles Times

Faced with another year of potentially deep budget cuts, California's public schools have sent out 22,000 pink slips to teachers and school employees, according to the state's superintendent. "Our state budget crisis has forced districts to lay off thousands of teachers over the past few years," said Jack O'Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction. "The governor has proposed cutting another $2.4 billion from public education. While the education community opposes these cuts, our schools are forced to prepare for this potential outcome by issuing a massive wave of potential layoff notices." According to figures provided by O'Connell's office, more than 16,000 teachers lost their jobs in 2009. The latest round of pink slips do not guarantee that these 22,000 school employees will be laid off. (more...)

Obama calls for major change in education law

• 03-15-2010
• 

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

The Obama administration on Saturday called for a broad overhaul of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, proposing to reshape divisive provisions that encouraged instructors to teach to tests narrowed the curriculum, and labeled one in three American schools as failing. By announcing that he would send his education blueprint to Congress on Monday, President Obama returned to a campaign promise to repair the sprawling federal law, which affects each of the nation’s nearly 100,000 public schools. His plan strikes a careful balance, retaining some key features of the Bush-era law, including its requirement for annual reading and math tests, while proposing far-reaching changes. (more...)

States should adopt common education standards

• 03-15-2010
• 

Editorial/San Francisco Chronicle

As the world shrinks, few things have become more important than a flexible, portable education. Elementary school students in California may find themselves one day working in Rhode Island or Russia - and they'll need to start learning the skills that will take them anywhere right now. That's the thinking behind the Common Core Standards for English and math, which were released in draft form last week. The standards, which were created by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association with encouragement from the Obama administration, may become national benchmarks for all K-12 students. (more...)

Why Obama, Duncan should read Linda Darling-Hammond’s new education book

• 03-15-2010
• 

Blog by Valerie Strauss/Washington Post

Educator Linda Darling-Hammond told me that her publisher gave her one hardback copy of her new paperback book, “The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future.” She gave it to President Obama. After all, the Stanford University education professor had headed his education policy team during the transition, and she wrote the book during that period. How I hope he reads it, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan should too. Anybody who does read the Darling-Hammond book--and Diane Ravitch's new book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System”--will get a full picture of how Obama and Duncan are off track with education reform and in danger of wasting billions of dollars on schemes that had already wasted billions in the George Bush era of No Child Left Behind. (more...)

LAUSD plans to stop transfers

• 03-15-2010
• 

By Melissa Pamer and Douglas Morino/Los Angeles Daily Breeze

Thousands of children attending South Bay schools on special permits face the prospect of returning to their neighborhood campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District under a policy change quietly approved by board members. The financially beleaguered Los Angeles district says it plans to stop offering about 80 percent of its inter-district transfers next year, a move expected to affect nearly 10,000 students, more than a third of whom attend South Bay schools. The Board of Education approved the policy change at a meeting last month, but the action drew no public comment and generated only a brief discussion among members, who were largely enthusiastic about welcoming students back to LAUSD. (more...)

State pushes turnaround on a school turned around and around

• 03-15-2010
• 

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

A tiny elementary school in the Stockton neighborhood has done nearly everything the government says failing schools should do. It converted into a charter school, free from school district rules. It swept out most of its teachers and replaced them. It hired a new principal. It lengthened its school day. Yet California officials dubbed King-Chavez Arts Academy a persistently failing school this week based on its test scores. Their remedy: Do the things that it has already done. It is one of just six schools in San Diego County that have been targeted for turnarounds, a menu of dramatic and controversial changes meant to kickstart school reform. (more...)

A.J. Duffy: Teachers' choice

• 03-15-2010
• 

Column by Patt Morrison/Los Angeles Times

It tells you a lot about what A.J. Duffy brings to the game that he got his job as president of United Teachers Los Angeles by trouncing the incumbent, which had never before happened at the union. Just Call Me Duffy could have been cast for the movie version of his job. A former Brooklyn kid with a "you and whose army?" attitude, the man who once taught in L.A.'s inner city wearing T-shirts and chinos now wears two-tone Miami mobster shoes and snazzy suits to lead a teachers union of 40,000 members, more than some school districts have students. (more...)

Reform divides a Valley campus

• 03-15-2010
• 

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

Critics of Los Angeles Unified's school reform effort say it simply isn't bold enough, pointing to a recent move to keep most poor-performing schools under district control rather than hand them over to innovative charter operators. Don't tell that to teachers, administrators and parents at San Fernando Middle School. It's true that this chronically underperforming school - one of 12 targeted in the first wave of the district's School Choice plan - will remain in district hands. But no one expects it to maintain the status quo when the school opens this fall. For one, the campus will be divided into two schools, with two principals, two teaching staffs and two student bodies. (more...)

Valley schools face deepest budget cuts in years

• 03-15-2010
• 

By Tracy Correa/The Fresno Bee

School officials say they're dealing with the worst financial situation they've seen in years -- possibly decades -- as they prepare to chop millions from their budgets, lay off teachers, increase class sizes and cut salaries. And unlike last year, when federal stimulus money helped buffer the blow, there is no financial cushion on the horizon. "It's about as bad as I've seen in 40 years," says Larry Powell, Fresno County schools superintendent. Marcus Johnson, Sanger Unified's superintendent, says he can sum up the budget situation in two words his students might utter: "It sucks." (more...)

The big idea -- it's bad education policy

• 03-15-2010
• 

Opinion by Diane Ravitch/Los Angeles Times

There have been two features that regularly mark the history of U.S. public schools. Over the last century, our education system has been regularly captivated by a Big Idea -- a savant or an organization that promised a simple solution to the problems of our schools. The second is that there are no simple solutions, no miracle cures to those problems. Education is a slow, arduous process that requires the work of willing students, dedicated teachers and supportive families, as well as a coherent curriculum. As an education historian, I have often warned against the seductive lure of grand ideas to reform education. (more...)

Layoffs tend to shaft low-income students

• 03-15-2010
• 

Editorial/The Bakersfield Californian

The Los Angeles Unified School District is facing a lawsuit that alleges its teacher layoffs constitute a violation of inner-city students' constitutional rights to an education. Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union say layoffs have disproportionately affected schools that serve poorer students, because the most vulnerable teachers -- those with the least experience -- are also the teachers most likely to work at such schools. As a result, poorer, inner-city students experience less of the vital classroom continuity that students at schools serving more prosperous neighborhoods routinely enjoy. An analysis of the Bakersfield City School District's recently announced layoffs suggests that much the same thing is going on here, in California's largest K-8 district. (more...)

O.C. schools feel pain of 2,219 teacher pink slips

• 03-15-2010
• 

By Scott Martindale/Orange County Register

The economic downturn that has decimated funding for public education will be acutely felt in Orange County schools Monday as the last of 2,219 teachers and other educators are notified they could be out of jobs this June. The warnings are required to be issued by the end of the day Monday to thousands of certificated school employees statewide who face possible layoffs. Orange County schools face a combined $365.3 million budget deficit in the 2010-11 school year, and school officials say the only way to even begin bridging that gap is by planning for the mass layoffs. “Some of the kids think we’re just fired,” said Debbie Bird, a kindergarten teacher at Fullerton’s Valencia Park Elementary School and a 28-year educator. “It’s really sad because these teachers are really experienced. (more...)

Teachers OK contract with San Diego Unified

• 03-15-2010
• 

San Diego Union Tribune

Teachers have ratified a new labor contract with the San Diego Unified School District. With more than 45 percent of union members casting ballots, 3,062 members voted for the contract and 108 voted against the agreement, according to the San Diego Education Association’s Web site. The results were posted this weekend. Among the notable changes in the new contract: • Teachers will take five furlough days in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years. • Teachers will receive three separate pay increases over the 2012-2013 school year. The first will be 2 percent, followed by another 2 percent and a final 3 percent raise. • Health care costs to the district will be reduced by increasing teachers’ co-pays, along with other minor changes to their health care benefits. (more...)

The fallout from teacher firings

• 03-15-2010
• 

By Joan Vennochi/Boston Globe

Are mass teacher firings good for kids or headlines? The shocking decision to fire the entire staff of Central Falls High School is largely cast as a courageous stand against bad teachers and an obstructionist union determined to protect them. No one who cares about educating young people wants to defend either. The superintendent of Central Falls said she ordered the mass terminations “for the children.’’ The real question is whether children will actually benefit from the purge. President Obama praised the decision to blow up the staff at this poorly-performing Rhode Island school as a cry for accountability. If only Washington held the bad bankers and insurance executives who bankrupted this economy equally accountable. Instead, taxpayers bailed out the private sector, which in turn rewarded itself with bonuses. (more...)

Teachers’ pink slips painful but familiar

• 03-15-2010
• 

By Bruce Lieberman/San Diego Union-Tribune

Teacher Linda Herschmiller, who got a layoff notice this month, led her kindergartners through Friday’s reading lesson at Johnson Elementary in El Cajon. In her four years as a teacher, Linda Herschmiller has come to rely on the predictability of her profession. October means literacy assessments. December is marked by winter vacation. And March is synonymous with layoff notices. Herschmiller, a kindergarten teacher at Johnson Elementary School in El Cajon, is among hundreds of teachers in the county — and nearly 22,000 teachers in California — to receive pink slips this month as school districts struggle with budget deficits brought on by the state’s fiscal mess. (more...)

Pink slips sent to thousands of Calif. teachers

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Robin Hindery/Business Week

California's budget crisis could cost nearly 22,000 teachers their jobs this year. State school districts had issued 21,905 pink slips to teachers and other school employees by Monday, the legal deadline for districts to send preliminary layoff notices. Not all the threatened layoffs will be carried out. The final tally depends on the state budget to be adopted for the coming fiscal year. Last year, 60 percent of the 26,000 teachers who received pink slips ended up losing their jobs. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell expected this year's actual job losses to be high, given the state's persistent budget problems and the smaller pool of education stimulus money available from the federal government. (more...)

More than 23,000 layoff notices issued to teachers statewide

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Theresa Harrington/Contra Costa Times

Education budget cuts have prompted school districts across the state to send out more than 23,000 pink slips, notifying teachers and other certificated employees they may not have jobs next year. In a morning news conference, state Superintendent for Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said 21,905 pink slips had gone out from districts, which had to meet a state-mandated Monday deadline to notify staff they may not have jobs next year. "While I understand the governor and the Legislature have tough decisions to make, these budget cuts are devastating our schools and impacting our ability to do the most important job in our society, that is, to teach our children," O'Connell said in a statement. (more...)

Overhauling No Child Left Behind

• 03-16-2010
• 

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

If the No Child Left Behind Act is to be overhauled -- and it should be -- the new version should strip away the law's overly prescriptive notions of what constitutes improvement and impose fairer ways of holding schools accountable. Though some of the fixes outlined Monday by the Obama administration would improve the law, others could prove as rigid, and therefore as unrealistic, as the original, which naively promised to make every student academically proficient. The new target is for 100% of high schoolers to be graduating by 2020, and for all of those graduates to be "college ready." We're glad to see the Obama administration target dropout rates; reducing them is a necessary and achievable goal. (more...)

Interest turns to ESEA plan's chances of passing

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Alyson Klein/Education Week

Now that the Obama administration has unveiled its blueprint for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, attention is shifting to whether the proposal will win sufficient support from lawmakers, policymakers, and education advocates to assure passage. Initial reaction from groups including the American Association of School Administrators, the National School Boards Association, and the Council of Chief State School Officers, has been generally positive, even as policy watchers and advocates are still digesting the blueprint. But the proposal rolled out March 13 already has two key detractors: The National Education Association, a 3.2 million-member union, and the American Federation of Teachers, a 1.4 million-member union. (more...)

Civil rights in education

• 03-16-2010
• 

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

In a little more than a year in office, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has used his bully pulpit and a burgeoning discretionary budget to focus state governments on school reform as never before. Mr. Duncan has now promised to energize the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which has done a poor job in recent years of enforcing federal laws that protect poor, minority and disabled students from discrimination. If the secretary follows through, states and localities that have historically shortchanged these children — by saddling them, say, with watered-down curriculums and unqualified teachers — will be required to do better or risk losing federal education dollars. (more...)

Array of hurdles awaits new education agenda

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

In the blueprint for overhauling federal education policy that President Obama sent to Congress on Monday, his administration seeks to confront some of the major educational challenges that have developed during the eight years that President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law has been a powerful influence on the nation’s public schools. The administration’s proposal, if enacted into law, would encourage states to raise academic standards after a period of dumbing-down, end the identification of tens of thousands of reasonably managed schools as failing, refocus energies on turning around the few thousand schools that are in the worst shape and help states develop more effective ways of evaluating the work of teachers and principals. (more...)

Cabrillo Unified School District faces steep cuts without tax measure

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Julia Scott/San Mateo County Times

The Cabrillo Unified School District is throwing itself on the mercy of Coastsiders to pass a parcel tax and save the district from having to bridge a $2.5 million budget shortfall with the heaviest cuts in recent memory. If it achieves the two-thirds majority needed, the June tax measure would generate $1.5 million per year for the school district over five years — not enough to take the district's six schools out of the red, but enough to avoid the sweeping layoffs the board of trustees has proposed for September. "I think people are finally starting to realize the impacts for next year," said district Superintendent Rob Gaskill. "That $2.5 million represents a significant reduction in programs, if not the most significant reduction that this district has faced. I can tell you that next year will not be business as usual." (more...)

Steinberg calls for Legislature to ensure state meets school-spending pledge

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Corey G. Johnson/California Watch

State Senate leader Darrell Steinberg on Friday urged legislators to ensure the state fulfills its spending commitment to education, in light of a federal decision to delay stimulus funds over accounting questions. The U.S. Department of Education informed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office earlier this month that no decision will be made on the state's application for an upcoming round of stimulus funding until the concerns raised by school districts and education advocates are addressed. A coalition of community groups, including Public Advocates and Californians for Justice, complained to federal authorities that the state's financial commitment to public schools didn't comply with the minimum levels required to qualify for the stimulus. (more...)

What if a college education just isn't for everyone

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

Debbie Crave once assumed that all of her children would go to college. Then she had kids. Son Patrick is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Debbie's alma mater, and plans to one day help manage the family's 1,700-acre, 1,000-cow dairy farm here. Brian, 17, would rather sit atop a tractor than behind a desk. "He's been afraid we might push him" to go to college, his mother says. But her eyes have been opened: "Kids learn differently, and some just aren't college material." Long before President Obama vowed last year that America will "have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world" by 2020, the premium placed on going to college was firmly embedded in the American psyche. (more...)

Not sitting still for cuts

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Connie Llanos/Los Angeles Daily News

Dramatizing the impact of looming layoffs, teachers placed nearly 3,000 empty chairs over an entire city block in front of L.A. Unified headquarters Monday, each seat representing a classroom instructor, nurse or counselor facing job cuts. The elaborate scene was set up to mark the legal deadline for all teachers and school support staff to receive preliminary notification if there job is at risk for the following school year. Statewide some 22,000 pink slips were mailed out to educators by Monday, including nearly 2,300 teachers, and 600 nurses, counselors and librarians at Los Angeles Unified School District. “After 6 years of being dedicated to my job, 180 days a year, rain or shine, with paper and supplies or not, they are going to tell me I cannot teach... why?” asked Trinidad Hernandez, a fifth-grade teacher at Sunny Brae Avenue Elementary School, who received her pink slip notice late last week. (more...)

L.A. Unified panel recommends changes in teacher evaluations

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Jason Song/Los Angeles Times

High-performing teachers should earn more pay, tenure should be more difficult to achieve and teacher reviews should be tied to student test scores, a Los Angeles school district panel is expected to recommend Tuesday. The proposals, aimed squarely at increasing the effectiveness of teachers, would be the most far-reaching change in years in how the Los Angeles Unified School District decides which teachers to promote and retain. If approved by the city's Board of Education, the recommendations would be among the most aggressive in the state, if not the nation. Employee unions are expected to oppose some of the proposals, some of which would have to be collectively bargained. (more...)

N.Y.C. school built around unorthodox use of time

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Stephen Sawchuk/Education Week

Superficially, the Brooklyn Generation School, here in the Flatbush area, looks a lot like the other six small public high schools that share space in this tall building, the former South Shore High School. What’s noticeably different about it, though, is the strength of the relationships among staff members. Teachers can be seen running across the hallways to each other’s rooms. They tease each other good-naturedly in staff meetings. Most importantly, said Principal Terri Grey, the tenor of staff conversations is markedly different. “They aren’t about something egregious a student did,” Ms. Grey said. “Instead, it’s three teachers standing there, talking about how one of their kids really got the lesson today.” (more...)

Advisers say schools need steady repairs funding

• 03-16-2010
• 

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

San Diego Unified is in danger of slipping behind on school repairs if it doesn't find a steady source of funding for fixes, the overseers of the district's $2.1 billion renovation bond told the school board today. The school district was supposed to do that years ago. It hasn't. The problem is a perennial one that has grown even more pressing in a budget crisis. The school district shelled out roughly $377 million under the last bond that voters approved, which improved schools' condition slightly, but still left them in poor shape. It is now relying on state grants to help pay for repairs -- but that money runs out in 2013. It plans to spend $501 million under its new bond to help mop up the overdue repairs, but it also has to find other funding -- at least $23 million a year -- to continue keeping schools in decent shape. (more...)

A blueprint for helping Black students

• 03-16-2010
• 

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

A coalition of black teachers and community leaders are seeking changes to boost the academic achievement of black children in San Diego County schools, from training school staff in race relations to offering more optional classes on African American history. "Our children are beyond a state of emergency," their report reads. "They are experiencing on a daily basis a mental/educational death." African American students, as a group, have higher dropout rates and lagging test scores compared to the county average. This isn't the first time that someone has tried to highlight the problem and possible fixes: Black leaders created a similar "blueprint" for helping students in the 1980s. (more...) 

LA Unified School District to eliminate all certified librarians

• 03-16-2010
• 

By Roco Staino/School Library Journal

All certified school librarians in the Los Angeles Unified School District will lose their positions next school year if efforts to close the district’s $640 million budget shortfall fail. Superintendent Ramon Cortines said pink slips will be sent March 15 to 5,200 district employees. In a statement released March 2, school Superintendent Ramon Cortines said pink slips will be sent March 15 to 5,200 district employees. About half of the layoff notices will go to managers who hold teaching credentials, and most of the rest will go to elementary school teachers, certified middle and high school librarians, nurses, and counselors. “It pains me to see such a large number of our employees receive notices, but with another deadline upon us and without shared solutions finalized, we do not have any other choice. This does not mean we won’t continue to seek alternatives,” Cortines says in his letter. (more...)

The administration keeps the right principles in amending No Child Left Behind

• 03-17-2010
• 

Editorial/Washington Post

Even though the Obama administration is jettisoning the name of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), it is not abandoning the core principles embodied in the 2002 law. The administration has embraced the principles of accountability, disaggregating data and insisting that no student groups -- not minorities, not those with disabilities -- be left behind. The details will be key, but it is heartening that the administration is mapping out a direction true to education reform. Let's hope Congress agrees to go along for the ride. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's plan for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, released Saturday, takes aim at two of the biggest criticisms of NCLB: that it doesn't set a high bar for achievement and that it is so inflexible as to be punitive. (more...)

Administration seeks converts to education plan

• 03-17-2010
• 

By Sam Dillon/New York Times

Facing intense resistance from teachers’ unions, the Obama administration has begun trying to persuade union leaders, teachers and the public that its proposals for overhauling federal education policies are good for teachers and for public schools. In remarks prepared for delivery to Congress on Wednesday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan argued that the proposed policies would elevate the teaching profession by encouraging better tests, by ending the demoralizing practice of mislabeling thousands of schools as failures and by offering teachers opportunities for career growth. (more...)

The shame of Newsweek

• 03-17-2010
• 

Column by Diane Ravitch/Education Week

Dear Deborah, Did you see Newsweek last week? What a stunning and uninformed attack on teachers and teachers' unions. The cover of the magazine told the story: The Key to Saving American Education, by Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert. It was printed on a classroom blackboard. In the background, on the same blackboard, was the handwritten phrase, repeated again and again, "We must fire bad teachers." The story itself is a parody of a right-wing rant. It seems that the nation's classrooms are overrun with "bad teachers," pedophiles, "weak" teachers, ineffective teachers, dumb teachers, and others who remain in the classroom only because they have "lifetime tenure." (more...)

Report: Schools at the bottom stay at the bottom

• 03-17-2010
• 

By Terence Chea/San Francisco Chronicle

As the Obama administration seeks to turn around failing schools, a new report on California schools underscores the difficulty of boosting the academic achievement of low-performing schools. The study by the Brown Center of Education Policy compares the rankings of 1,156 public schools in California in 1989 with their rankings in 2009. The researchers found that 63 percent of the 290 schools that ranked in the bottom quarter in 1989 were still at the bottom 20 years later. Only 1.4 percent of those schools moved to the top quarter. In contrast, the study found that 63 percent of the 289 schools that ranked in the top quarter in 1989 were still at the top in 2009. And only 2.4 percent fell to the bottom quarter. (more...)

More than 40 Detroit schools slated to close in June

• 03-17-2010
• 

NPR

Doors are expected to shut on more than a quarter of Detroit's 172 public schools in June as the district fights through steadily declining enrollment and a budget deficit of more than $219 million, an emergency financial manager said Wednesday. Three aging, traditional and underpopulated high schools would be among the 44 closures. Another six schools are to be closed in June 2011, followed by seven more a year later, emergency financial manager Robert Bobb said. This summer's closings also include a support building. The closures are part of a $1 billion, five-year plan to downsize a struggling district while improving education, test scores and student safety in a city whose population has declined with each passing decade. (more...) 

Education reform: Has Obama found a bipartisan issue?

• 03-17-2010
• 

By Alex Altman/TIME

When the bare-knuckled brawl over health care reform finally wraps up and the Obama Administration pivots to less divisive topics, education reform may be one of the few issues capable of drawing bipartisan support. The Administration's proposed overhaul of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act could resonate with Republicans, many of whom have been disappointed with the results of George W. Bush's signature education initiative. President Obama's blueprint, which was sent to Congress on Monday, sets forth an ambitious national standard — to have all students graduate high school ready for college or a career by 2020 — but leaves the specifics on how to achieve this goal up to state and local authorities. "Yes, we set a high bar," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "But we also provide educators the flexibility to reach it." (more...)

Plan to rework 'No Child' prompts concerns for rural areas

• 03-17-2010
• 

By Nick Anderson/Washington Post

Senate Republicans raised questions Wednesday about whether President Obama's plan to turn around struggling schools would fly in rural America. One Democrat said she worried that many states would be shortchanged of federal funding they need to improve teaching. But for the most part, Education Secretary Arne Duncan drew a positive reception from key lawmakers as he began pitching the administration's blueprint to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law. The central goal, he said, is to replace what is now a pass-fail accountability system with one that rewards academic growth and intervenes aggressively when schools fail. (more...)

State, district leaders press school transformations

• 03-17-2010
• 

By Dakarai I. Aarons/Education Week

Spurred both by fiscal realities and momentum from the U.S. Department of Education’s agenda for school improvement, local and state education leaders are moving forcefully and quickly to make big changes to districts and schools that have long struggled with low test scores and graduation rates. In Kansas City, Mo., the school board voted last week to “right-size” the district by closing 26 of the system’s 61 schools. In addition, the 17,000-student district plans to close its central office and two other buildings.“We can’t continue to have a public school system that has proven to fail children year after year after year,” Superintendent John W. Covington said in an interview. The goal, he said, is to create a system that produces graduates who will be “fierce competitors” in the global arena. (more...)

Education magic bullets are often blanks

• 03-17-2010
• 

Opinion by Joseph Staub/Los Angeles Times

Those who wonder why California was excluded from the first round of federal Race to the Top grants would do well to examine their own commentary for clues. It is typical of editorials and other articles on this topic to speak in general terms -- to throw out noble-sounding phrases that, in the end, don't offer specifics. The Times' March 4 editorial, "Another setback for California schools," reflects this kind of commentary. Take, for example, The Times' assertion that "district administrators, not union contracts," should determine teacher assignments in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Really? (more...)

Should we let students reject college prep?

• 03-17-2010
• 

Column by Jay Matthews/Washington Post

USA Today has a long and interesting story today on, as its headline says, "What if a college education just isn't for everyone?" It is a good question. I don't think college is for everyone. But I also don't think we should let 15 or 16 year olds take themselves out of English and math courses that will prepare them for college--and for good jobs or trade schools, according to some of the research I have seen. After they have walked across the auditorium stage and received their high school diplomas, they can decide what they want to do next, knowing they are equipped for any number of choices. Dumping the college option in sophomore year makes no sense. (more...)

Tiny school's fate roils rural California district

• 03-17-2010
• 

By Louis Sahagun/Los Angeles Times

When Eastern Sierra Unified School District Supt. Don Clark stared down a projected budget deficit, he did what school administrators across the nation have had to do: consider laying off teachers and closing campuses. But that decision, in a rural district sprawled along U.S. 395 between the snowy Sierra and the deserts of Nevada, has exposed deep resentments between parents of students in traditional high schools and those with teenagers in a college-prep academy designed for high achievers. The trouble started a week ago when Clark announced that the district, facing a budget shortfall of $1.8 million, was considering laying off more than a dozen teachers and closing the 15-year-old Eastern Sierra Academy, among other measures. (more...)

Hundreds of Central Valley teachers receive pink slips

• 03-17-2010
• 

By Norma Yuriar/KMPH Fresno

State school leaders say California school districts are facing their worst financial situation in years. Thousands of teachers will soon be out of work. "Nearly 22,000 professional teachers have received pink slips or preliminary layoff notices," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said. "Due to the ongoing state budget crisis it's unfortunate that literally tens of thousands of hard working professional educators will be receiving these pink slips." On Monday, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction announced this year's pink slip tally –the legal deadline for school districts to send preliminary lay–off notices. (more...)

The LA compact: A dollop of hope for our schools

• 03-17-2010
• 

By Charles Kerchner/Huffington Post

Get Los Angeles Unified, the mayor, unions, and universities together to help schools get better? Yeah, we've heard that story before. They've got the attention span of a moth and fly away toward the next political flame. This time it might be different. Last month these worthy parties signed something called the LA Compact: A Collaboration to Transform Education in Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, the school board sent layoff notices to 5,200 teachers, the District got sued, and the feds began to investigate how the schools do or don't teach English language learners. No wonder hardly anyone noticed. But the LA Compact is worthy of notice and a dollop of hope. (more...)

Panel recommends L.A. Unified teacher overhauls

• 03-17-2010
• 

By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC

A 35-member L.A. Unified School District panel meeting tonight expects to forward recommendations to the district’s board of education. If they go into effect, they’d significantly change the way the district evaluates and pays its teachers. Former L.A. Unified school board member Marlene Canter is on the Teacher Effectiveness Task Force. She told KPCC’s AirTalk that the group took on some big questions — "How are teachers going to be evaluated and is that going to be fair." The panel would like teacher evaluations to factor in grades from parents and students, along with student test scores. In a statement, L.A. Unified’s teachers’ union said it was opposed to undermining seniority protections. (more...)

ESEA plan draws bipartisan praise—and questions

• 03-18-2010
• 

By Alyson Klein/Education Week

Less than a week after it was unveiled, the Obama administration’s blueprint for overhauling the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is drawing both bipartisan support and skepticism from the congressional committees tasked with the law’s reauthorization. In a pair of Wednesday appearances, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan assured members of the House Education and Labor Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that the administration wants to extend flexibility to states and districts while boosting student-achievement goals. The reception, particularly in the Senate, was generally positive to the plan unveiled March 13 for revamping the ESEA, whose current version—signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002—is the No Child Left Behind Act. (more...)

State: Ed groups misinformed feds

• 03-18-2010
• 

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

The Schwarzenegger administration has responded, in a letter to federal officials, to education groups’ charges that the state violated rules for qualifying for remaining stimulus money from the feds. Herb Schultz, the governor’s overseer of stimulus dollars, made it clear in an accompanying statement that he was peeved that advocates would have the audacity to “try to stand in the way of securing nearly a half a billion dollars in critical funding for our education system during these difficult economic times.” And, or course, he denied anything improper. The education groups say it’s the Schwarzenegger administration that is standing in the way of hundreds of millions of dollars due schools under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. (more...)

U.S. schools in ‘category 5’ budget crisis

• 03-18-2010
• 

By Alex Johnson/MSNBC

At the center of the country’s school funding crisis are little boys and girls like Kyle Wolfe, a 3-year-old pupil in Rising Stars, a pre-kindergarten program for at-risk children in communities near Rockford, Ill. “I can’t even begin to describe the way Kyle has grown since starting this program,” said his mother, Carolyn. Last week, the Harlem School District Board of Education, which serves the communities of Loves Park, Machesney Park and southern Roscoe, voted to eliminate Rising Stars because the state of Illinois hasn’t made good on the grants that support it. The vote means the nearly 400 youngsters the program serves “will be entering kindergarten delayed academically and socially,” said Lynn Wade, a pre-K teacher at the Donald C. Parker Early Education Center in Machesney Park. (more...)

LA schools panel pushes new teacher review system

• 03-18-2010
• 

Orange County Register

A task force eyeing ways to boost teacher effectiveness in the Los Angeles school district is recommending aggressive changes in the way teachers are evaluated, paid, hired and fired. The panel of about 50 people looked at a number of key issues involving the district's 32,000 teachers after forming last September. Several of its recommendations clashed with positions advocated by the union representing the teachers union. "We had some spirited debate on some days," said Drew Furedi, district policy and program development adviser. A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, did not return phone calls Tuesday seeking comment. (more...)

Failing schools sanctions lack teeth

• 03-18-2010
• 

By Theresa Harrington/Contra Costa Times

When the state identified California's worst performing schools, it promised tough reforms that included getting rid of the principal and shutting down the campus. Schools were told they "must" decide between four "intervention models." But, now, a new, fifth option is emerging: Ignoring the sanctions altogether. The governor and other state officials have insisted schools that made the list because of poor performance on standardized tests are "required" to implement one of the models beginning next school year "to dramatically improve student achievement." But the requirements have no teeth, state education officials concede. (more...)

Mr. Obama and No Child Left Behind

• 03-18-2010
• 

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

President Obama’s blueprint for reworking the No Child Left Behind Education Act of 2002 has good ideas, but it doesn’t have anything close to the rigor that the word “blueprint” would suggest. Whether the president’s plan will strengthen or weaken the program will depend on how the administration fleshes out the missing details — and how Congress rewrites the law. Teachers’ unions, state governments and other interest groups have long wanted to water down or kill off the provision of the law that requires the states to raise student performance — especially for poor and minority children — in exchange for federal money. (more...)

No Child Left Behind: Obama overhaul takes flak from both parties

• 03-18-2010
• 

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo/Christian Science Monitor

National lawmakers quizzed Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Wednesday about the Obama administration’s blueprint for overhauling the No Child Left Behind federal education law. While many members of the House Education and Labor committee praised the bipartisan process under way to rewrite the law, their comments and questions often reflected traditional concerns of their parties. For Republicans, that meant a focus on local control for states and school districts, while Democrats homed in on how the law would support the most disadvantaged students and maintain fairness to teachers. (more...)

Historians speak out against proposed Texas textbook changes

• 03-18-2010
• 

By Michael Birnbaum/Washington Post

Historians on Tuesday criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum, saying that many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state's borders. The changes, which were preliminarily approved last week by the Texas board of education and are expected to be given final approval in May, will reach deeply into Texas history classrooms, defining what textbooks must include and what teachers must cover. The curriculum plays down the role of Thomas Jefferson among the founding fathers, questions the separation of church and state, and claims that the U.S. government was infiltrated by Communists during the Cold War. (more...) 

San Diego schools vary widely in getting kids eligible for college

• 03-18-2010
• 

Blog by Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

Teens are much more likely to get the classes they need to apply to the University of California or California State schools at some San Diego Unified high schools than others, a new analysis shows. And those lucky schools aren't usually the ones with lots of poor students and kids who are learning English. That isn't shocking news. But the new report provides more details on a known problem: Public universities in California require a certain set of classes before high schoolers can even apply, but students often fail to finish them, limiting their options when they graduate. Some schools offer a wider range of the needed classes than others. (more...)

Students as dollar signs

• 03-18-2010
• 

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

In January, Beverly Hills Unified School District voted to expel hundreds of students who attend its schools but live outside its boundaries because, under a change of funding formula, those students no longer would bring in extra money. Now Los Angeles Unified is forcing thousands of students who live within the district but attend schools elsewhere to return. Rich school or poor, it's not pretty to see students treated like walking dollar signs. The L.A. Unified students need annual permission to enroll in such places as Torrance, Santa Monica and Calabasas, and now that the district's budget is sinking into a seemingly bottomless hole, each of those students represents a chance to recapture thousands of dollars in funding. (more...)

Cupertino parents kick off major fundraising campaign to save teachers' jobs

• 03-18-2010
• 

By Matt Wilson/Sunnyvale Sun

A local group of parents hoping to prevent more than 100 teachers in the Cupertino Union School District from losing their jobs to budget cuts this May kicked off a massive fundraising campaign March 16 at Nimitz Elementary School in Sunnyvale that attracted a packed and raucous house, including dozens of students with piggybanks in hand ready to contribute whatever they could toward the cause. Parents organizing the "Their Future is Now" campaign are rallying the community to raise $3 million by May 15 to save up to 107 K-8 teachers from receiving pink slips. The district is in the process of making significant cuts due to unatnicpated state budget takeaways and sent out preliminary layoff notices to staff on March 15. (more...)

Decision makes schools chief loathed and loved

• 03-18-2010
• 

By Wayne Drash/CNN

Superintendent Frances Gallo combed the classrooms of embattled Central Falls High School. Teachers and students were gone for the day. Gallo was hunting for a particular item: an effigy of President Obama. She hoped the rumor of its existence wasn't true. Gallo had fired all the high school teachers just a month earlier, igniting an educational maelstrom in Rhode Island's smallest and poorest community while winning praise from the president. The teachers union lampooned her; hate mail flooded her inbox. For weeks, she'd prayed every morning for the soul of the man who wrote: "I wish cancer on your children and their children and that you live long enough to see them die." (more...)

Ads appear on school websites

• 03-18-2010
• 

By Jeff Martin/USA TODAY

A growing number of school districts facing budget cuts are looking to advertising on their websites as a new revenue source. School districts in Virginia and Arizona already have ads on their official sites, while officials at districts in South Dakota, Wisconsin and California say they are planning to place ads soon. "Because of the economy, districts are just desperately looking for any source of revenue they can get their hands on," says Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. "This is really tricky stuff for school districts, though," says Richard Colvin, director of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Columbia University in New York. " (more...)

Are public schools in crisis or are communities?

• 03-19-2010
• 

Blog by Rev. Romal J. Tune/Huffington Post

When it comes to improving public education there are a lot of ideas and opinions about how it should be done. Some say we should close failing schools, fire teachers, increase funding and address issues related to standardized tests. When asked who is to blame for failing schools, the finger pointing begins. It's the teachers, unions, the parents, school board, chancellor, etc. The reality is that no one person or institution is to blame and since there is more than one cause of the problem it will also require multiple solutions. Solutions that address not just the school and its performance but the role of the entire surrounding community in helping children achieve academic success. (more...)

Could school bus ads save school budgets?

• 03-19-2010
• 

By Donna Gordon Blankinship/USA Today

School districts have imposed all sorts of drastic cuts to save money during the down economy, canceling field trips and making parents pay for everything from tissues to sports transportation. And some have now resorted to placing advertisements on school buses. School districts say it's practically free money, and advertisers love the captive audience that school buses provide. That's the problem, say opponents: Children are being forced to travel to school on moving media kiosks, and the tactic isn't much different than dressing teachers in sponsor-emblazoned uniforms. "Parents who are concerned about commercial messages will have no choice," said Josh Golin, associate director of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. "Parents won't be given the option to send their kids on the ad-free bus." (more...)

'Race' moving too quickly, leaders say

• 03-19-2010
• 

By James Rufus Koren/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Federal officials rejected California's application for funding through the first round of the Race to the Top education grant program, but state leaders won't find out why until sometime next month. But that leaves state lawmakers and education leaders in a bind: To try to qualify for a second round of Race to the Top funding, lawmakers might need to pass legislation making changes to the state's education code. They won't know what changes to make until next month, and the second application is due June 1. "The whole timeline for Race to the Top has been incredibly rushed," said Cali Olsen-Binks, superintendent of Fontana Unified School District. "That's the whole problem we're having." (more...) 

Schools still bad after 20 years

• 03-19-2010
• 

Blog by John Fensterwald/Educated Guess

The lowest performing schools in California in 1989 were still the lowest performing schools 20 years later, despite a slew of so-called school reforms, a battery of new standardized tests, punishments for bad schools, incentives for them to become better and experiments in curriculums and programs. That was the finding (part II of the three-part study) of the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy, which compared state test scores of 1,156 California schools with an eighth grade two decades ago and still operating today. Five out of eight schools (63 percent) in the bottom quartile of schools then were bouncing around the bottom in 2009, while 27 percent – about one in four – moved up to the second quartile. Only 1.4 percent – one in 70 – bounded up to the top quartile. (more...)

The push-back on charter schools

• 03-19-2010
• 

Various opinions/New York Times

Two recent New York Times articles have described opposition to the thriving charter school movement in Harlem. An influential state senator, Bill Perkins, whose district has nearly 20 charter schools, is trying to block their expansion. Some public schools in the neighborhood are also fighting back, marketing themselves to compete with the charters. This is a New York battle, but charter schools — a cornerstone of the Obama administration’s education strategy — are facing resistance across the country, as they become more popular and as traditional public schools compete for money. The education scholar Diane Ravitch, once a booster of the movement, is now an outspoken critic. (more...)

Small changes made a big difference at one school

• 03-19-2010
• 

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

The odds are against Euclid Elementary. It has the third poorest student body in all of San Diego Unified. The vast majority of its students are still learning English, going home to chat in Spanish, Vietnamese or Khmer. It isn't a celebrated magnet or a charter school. Its building in eastern City Heights is plain and functional. Add all that up and you might expect Euclid to be another sad story in public schooling. But it isn't. Euclid racks up some of the highest test scores in the state for schools with high numbers of English learners and poor students, rivaling schools in middle class areas. Teachers rarely leave and suspensions are rare. Children giddily rattle off vocabulary words to Principal Vickie Jacobson on the playground. (more...)

San Jose: East Side community protests proposed school staff cuts

• 03-19-2010
• 

By Brandon Bailey/San Jose Mercury News

Hundreds of upset parents, students, teachers and other school workers crowded into the board room of the East Side Union High School District on Thursday night, raising alarm over a proposed budget that would cut deep into support services for the district's 25,000 students. "It's an Alice in Wonderland vision of how a school district should work," complained Jerry Dyer, who teaches English at Silver Creek High School in San Jose. "Our kids are innocent victims" of the proposed cuts, added Diane Blaylock Walker, a mother of two students at Santa Teresa High School and one of several parents who said they worried about the loss of student advisers, social workers, librarians and other support staff. (more...) 

Sacramento City district board approves charter for Hmong academy

• 03-19-2010
• 

By Melody Gutierrez/Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City Unified School District trustees on Thursday night voted unanimously to approve a charter that would focus on teaching Hmong children. Proponents of the Yav Pem Suab Academy said the school will recruit all students, as required by law, and will focus on Hmong culture and language instead of the typical foreign languages of Spanish and French. Educators pushing the charter say Hmong children have fallen through the cracks at regular public schools for too long. (more...)

California's first Hebrew-language charter school OKed

• 03-19-2010
• 

San Jose Mercury News

California's first Hebrew-language charter school is set to open this fall north of Los Angeles.< The school board governing Santa Clarita's William S. Hart Union High School District this week approved the opening of the school. The vote was unanimous, despite initial concerns that Albert Einstein Academy for Letters, Arts and Sciences would be a religious school. Rabbi Mark Blazer, one of the academy's organizers, says the school will not offer religious courses and will be open to children of all religious and ethnic backgrounds. Students must study a language for four years and can choose among Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish. (more...)

Students question 'Failing' status of their schools

• 03-19-2010
• 

Just how bad are high schools named as California’s lowest performing schools? Students at several of them in San Francisco say their schools are being unfairly judged. Last week, the California Board of Education released a list of the 188 lowest-performing public schools in the state. On that list are 10 San Francisco schools, including John O’Connell High School and Mission High School. The San Francisco school board has four options in dealing with these schools: convert them to charter schools, fire the principal and replace more than half of the staff, “transform the schools,” or shut them down and send the students to a higher-achieving school. (more...)

School super wants permit exemption

• 03-19-2010
• 

By Nick Taborek – Santa Monica Daily Press

The Los Angeles Unified School District wants to boost enrollment — and increase the amount of money it gets from the state — by cutting back on the number of permits it grants to students who live within the district's boundaries but attend classes in other public school systems. Under a plan LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines outlined in February, about 10,000 of the more-than 12,000 students who receive permits to leave the district would have to return to the LAUSD. With more than 1,200 students who go to school in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District but live in LAUSD territory, the plan has caused concern among SMMUSD officials and district parents who say the new permit policy would disrupt students' education and cost SMMUSD money. (more...)

Parents urged to fight for school funding

• 03-19-2010
• 

By Craig Shultz/San Diego Californian

The estimated 200 people attending the Fund Our Schools rally Thursday afternoon at Chaparral High School heard the same message over and over ---- tell your legislators to give more money to education. Speaker after speaker told the crowd that they can make a difference and their voices will be heard by elected officials in Sacramento. "We cannot sit on the sidelines as budget cuts threaten a whole generation of children," said Stacia Saaler, a Temecula PTA official and one of the organizers of the rally. (more...)

Economy puts squeeze on education promises

• 03-22-2010
• 

By Larry Abramson/NPR

Dire finances are forcing states to rethink education ideas that made sense in more prosperous times. In California, nearly 22,000 teachers have received pink slips as the state's budget crisis bears down on the education system. School budgets in the Golden State have been cut by nearly $18 billion in the past two years with more pain on the way. Budget-wise, California's schools are up a creek without a paddle or a life vest. Tom Budde, superintendent of the Central Union High School District in far Southern California, says he has nickled and dimed his budget every which way he can think of. (more...) 

It's the classroom, stupid

• 03-22-2010
• 

By Kaiman R. Hettleman/Education Week

The mismanagement of classroom instruction is the ugly secret and fatal flaw of school reform. Everyone knows that school systems are horrendously mismanaged. The media keep us fully informed and outraged at foul-ups like overspent budgets, computer glitches, bungled paperwork, defective maintenance, and unresponsive bureaucrats. But these failings, as serious as they are, tell only a small part of the story. They only recite the noninstructional mismanagement. There is fallout on teaching and learning, of course, from this type of mismanagement. (more...)

Can a Constitutional amendment save California schools?

• 03-22-2010
• 

By Anuja Seith/New America Media

As California public schools faced a flood of pink slips to some 22,000 teachers and other staff last Monday, one legislative plan to fund public education and save those jobs was drawing support from school officials and education advocates. A constitutional amendment proposed by State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, would allow school districts to approve a local parcel tax – a special flat tax levied on properties -- with a 55 percent majority rather than the two-thirds majority that is currently required. “If the state cannot adequately help the local schools, then they have to help themselves,” said Simitian. “This is a tool that will allow local folks to make local choices about the local needs.” (more...) 

Ravaged by cuts, school libraries fight to stay alive

• 03-22-2010
• 

By Rob Rogers/Contra Costa Times

Almost every afternoon, librarian Linda Kenton helps students from San Rafael's Bahia Vista Elementary School find the books, Web pages and other materials they need to complete their assignments. "They come after school and use the library for homework help," Kenton said. "They use it for doing projects on our computers, and for our reading material." There's just one problem: Kenton, who works at the Pickleweed branch of the San Rafael Public Library, isn't a school librarian. And while she's willing to go to almost any length to help the children who visit her library, Kenton isn't a credentialed teacher, and her library wasn't designed with an elementary school curriculum in mind. (more...)

Teacher's ‘God’ banners at heart of legal dispute

• 03-22-2010
• 

By Blanca Gonzalez/San Diego Union-Tribune

Images of majestic mountains, cascading waterfalls and pastoral fields fill the walls of Brad Johnson’s math class at Westview High School in Rancho Peñasquitos. Inspirational messages accompany some of the posters, including one of a small tree in a big forest that reads “To be different is often a wonderful thing.” The veteran teacher is a longtime skier, hiker and backpacker. “I like going out and enjoying God’s creations,” he said. For Johnson, the most inspiring words he has posted in his room appear on simple red, white and blue banners that refer to God. Phrases include “In God We Trust” and “God Bless America.” (more...)

In Texas curriculum fight, identity politics leans right

• 03-22-2010
• 

By Sam Tanenhaus/New York Times

The social studies curriculum recently approved by the Texas Board of Education, which will put a conservative stamp on textbooks, was received less as a pedagogical document than as the latest provocation in America’s seemingly endless culture wars. “Why Is Texas Afraid of Thomas Jefferson?” the History News Network asked, referring to the board’s recommendation that Jefferson, who coined the expression “separation of church and state,” be struck from the list of world thinkers who inspired 18th- and 19th-century revolutions. Other critics were more direct: “Dear Texas: Please shut up. Sincerely, History,” was the headline of an online column for The San Francisco Chronicle. This reaction wasn’t altogether surprising. (more...)

Third March rally for more California education funding planned for today

• 03-22-2010
• 

San Jose Mercury News

Thousands of students plan another demonstration in Sacramento on Monday against slashed budgets and rising fees at California's public universities and community colleges. The rally, dubbed the "March on March," is the third major demonstration this month demanding more funds for public education. Students plan to march from Raley Field to the state Capitol, where Community College Chancellor Jack Scott will address the crowd. Organizers say that unlike previous protests that blamed administrators, this rally welcomes their participation to call for better funding. (more...) 

Superintendent: More districts face money troubles

• 03-22-2010
• 

San Jose Mercury News

California's schools chief says state budget cuts have led to a sharp rise in the number of school districts in financial trouble. Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell on Monday reported a 17-percent increase in the number of districts that may not be able to meet its financial obligations over the next two years. The number of local educational agencies on the state's fiscal watch list has jumped from 108 in June to 126 now. K-12 schools and community colleges have seen their budgets slashed over the past two years, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed more cuts for the coming school year. (more...) 

Nearly half of California's largest districts eye shorter school year

• 03-22-2010
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By Louis Freedberg/California Watch

In response to California's deepening budget crisis, administrators in nearly half of the state’s 30 largest school districts are considering shortening the school year from its current level of 180 instructional days, according to a survey by California Watch. Teachers in San Jose have already agreed to cut one week from the school year. In Los Angeles, Superintendent Ramon Cortines is pushing to cut the school year by 5 days. The Long Beach Unified School District wants to reduce it by three days, and the San Francisco Unified by two. “This is a major setback,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. (more...)

Teachers' unions slam Obama K-12 budget proposals

• 03-22-2010
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By Stephen Sawchuk/Education Week

Major education groups, including the heads of both national teachers’ unions, urged a House appropriations subcommittee Wednesday to reconsider the Obama administration’s fiscal 2011 budget proposal, which would put all new education funding into competitive grants rather than into aid formulas. They also opposed attaching new requirements, such as mandating that states overhaul their teacher-evaluation systems, as a condition of accepting the formula dollars. “Title I [aid for disadvantaged students] needs to be a formula-driven program,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers. (more...)

Schools are out -- forever

• 03-22-2010
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By Nicholas Riccardi/Los Angeles Times

During the warm months, when students at Westport High School got too hot, they cooled down by moving to one of the many vacant classrooms on campus. It was one of the advantages of having 400 students assigned to a school that could hold 1,200. The downside became apparent last week, though, when the Kansas City school board voted to close Westport and 25 other schools -- nearly half of the district's campuses. Big-city districts shutter schools all the time. Cities such as Denver and Portland, Ore., have seen childless young families repopulate their urban cores and have adjusted accordingly. (more...)

Democratic groups split over California schools chief race

• 03-22-2010
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By Susan Ferriss/Sacramento Bee

It pays $182,000 a year, and comes with responsibility for public schools reeling from budget cuts and an alarming dropout rate among Latino and black children. The state superintendent of public instruction is traditionally not one of the glamorous or bank-breaking political campaigns in California. But heading toward a June primary, three interest groups with a stake in the race have already given substantial donations to three candidates with the most money, all Democrats. It signals a serious internecine fight brewing among traditional Democratic groups. (more...)

State initiative would allow school districts to pass parcel taxes with 55 percent of vote

• 03-23-2010
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By Robert Jordan/Contra Costa Times

Schools districts around the state are taking a stand on an initiative that would amend the state constitution to make it much easier to pass new taxes for education. Started in San Mateo County, and with members from around the Bay Area, Californians for Improved School Funding hopes to get the Local Control of Local Classrooms Funding Act on the state ballot in November. The measure would amend the state constitution by lowering the amount of votes required to pass a school parcel tax from two-thirds to 55 percent. The tax-limiting Prop. 13, passed in 1978, requires two-thirds of the vote to pass a special tax. "This brings back local control," said Connell Lindh, an executive committee member of Californians for Improved School Funding. (more...) 

Careful upgrade of No Child Left Behind needed

• 03-23-2010
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Editorial/Contra Costa Times

No Child Left Behind was one of the few truly bipartisan programs to come out of Washington in the past decade. It combined increased federal support for public K-12 schools, which Democrats supported, along with real accountability, which Republicans backed. The result was legislation in which Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, played a large role in cooperation with the Bush administration. While the program has given some financial support to education, it was underfunded, it set unrealistic goals and has had too narrow a focus. The Obama administration is proposing some major changes to No Child Left Behind that could improve it, but it also raises some concerns. (more...)

Try again, Secretary Duncan, it's not too late

• 03-23-2010
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Column by Diane Ravitch/Education Week

Dear Deborah, The big event of early March was the release of President Obama's plan to revise No Child Left Behind. Although NCLB continues to have its defenders, the Obama administration rightly views it as a "toxic" brand. Perhaps if the Obama team had given more thought to why it became toxic, their own plan would be far better. While the administration has tried to distance itself from NCLB, the assumptions of its proposal continue to be firmly rooted in NCLB's philosophy of "measure and punish." NCLB's overemphasis on basic skills testing was harmful to schools across the nation, its results have been meager, and its utopian goal of 100 percent proficiency unleashed unrealistic expectations. No school district or state could hope to meet the law's utopian goal (except by dumbing down standards and tests). (more...)

Sizing up the new blueprint

• 03-23-2010
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National Journal

The Obama administration received mixed reviews last week when it unveiled the blueprint for its upcoming rewrite of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law. Lawmakers gave Education Secretary Arne Duncan a largely warm reception when he testified before Congress, and many stakeholders were pleased the process is moving forward. But both of the nation's largest teachers unions were disappointed. "What excited educators about President Obama's hopes and vision for education on the campaign trail has not made its way into this blueprint," Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement. Notably, the proposal lacks specifics about college- and- career-ready standards, the linchpin of the new system. (more...)