EdSource Today
EdSource Today is an independent online forum that responds in a timely way to key education challenges and innovations in California and nationally. Written by EdSource staff and guest commentators, its mission is to promote critical thinking through informed, in-depth discussion and reporting, in addition to clarifying key education issues for policy makers, educators, the media and the general public.
Critical report on teacher preparation programs sparks debate
California’s teacher training programs were excoriated as among the worst in a nation of poor-quality programs in a report released Tuesday, immediately sparking a debate about the validity of the report’s methodology and findings. Nearly every teacher preparation program in California, at both public and private colleges and universities, received poor ratings in the report, which was issued by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit. The report was published as a new … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Teachers
Business, military signal strong support for public preschool, but Republican lawmakers unswayed
Early childhood education advocates are working to make it clear that not everyone supporting President Barack Obama’s proposal to vastly expand federal funding for preschool and infant and toddler care is a tax-and-spend liberal. “This has become a bipartisan issue in the real world,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said recently in a sound bite that has become standard language in his stump speech for the president’s proposal to invest $75 billion over the next … Read entire article »
Filed under: Early Childhood, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Obama Preschool, Reporting & Analysis
Interactive graphic of state budget highlights for education
Click here to see EdSource Today’s interactive graphic of the budget the Legislature passed Friday. The Legislature on Friday passed a $96.3 billion budget plan for the state that includes a shift in how California funds schools and contains significant funding for education. Schools and community colleges will receive $55.3 billion under the voter-approved school funding guarantee. The total is $1.2 billion less than schools received last fiscal year. However, the state has been paying … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Reporting & Analysis, State Budget
State budget puts community colleges on (slow) path to recovery
Celebrate might be too strong a word, but, in the current fiscal context, community colleges have reason to at least raise a small glass as they head into summer. The budget bill passed Friday by the Legislature brings the budget for the 112 community colleges up to $6 billion for the 2013-14 fiscal year. That’s up by more than $200 million over this year, and begins the process of restoring the $809 million hit community college have … Read entire article »
Filed under: Community Colleges, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Reporting & Analysis
State Board handed job of defining rules of new funding system
The Legislature will vote today on a bill establishing Gov. Brown’s historic school funding system that punts to the State Board of Education some key decisions on how dollars for disadvantaged students must be spent and accounted for. Senate Bill 91, the 178-page “trailer” bill containing statutory changes for Gov. Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula, was released Thursday, one day before lawmakers must vote on the $96 billion state budget that includes funding for the new … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Advocates for Education, Featured, Program innovation, Reporting & Analysis, School Boards, Site Councils, State Board of Education, Systemic Change, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
After historic win, much collective work lies ahead
California is about to embark on the most comprehensive reform to its school finance system in 40 years, putting local communities in the driver’s seat and making a historic investment of more than $10 billion in high-needs students. The compromise Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) to be voted on by the state Legislature by the June 15 deadline also fairly addresses the earlier “winners-losers” concern by increasing the base grant and ensuring that all districts … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
LCFF lemmings poised to leap?
The current Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) legislation pending before the Legislature utterly fails to reach any of the key reform goals that Gov. Jerry Brown and his advisers articulated. The bill presents the Legislature and governor with a stark choice. The key goals of LCFF, as articulated by the governor’s astute adviser Mike Kirst and his colleagues in a seminal paper, were as follows: Allocate Revenue Based on Needs. Though the bill would direct substantial funding … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Adult ed, regional occupational center advocates satisfied with budget deal – for now
Advocates for adult education and regional occupational centers, which provide hands-on learning in specific careers, say they are satisfied that the language in the budget bills expected to be voted on Friday is strong enough to protect their programs for another two years. The legislators and governor did not mince words, they say, in requiring districts that currently have programs to fund them for two more years. Dawn Koepke, a lobbyist for the state’s two adult … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adult education, Career Technical Education, College and Career Preparation, Featured, Multiple pathways, Reporting & Analysis, Workforce preparation
Early childhood advocates cheered by $55M in restored funding
Child care and early education advocates were pleased to see $55 million restored for state preschool and child care programs in the budget compromise working its way to the governor’s desk. “It’s a start,” said Assemblymember Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, who has pushed for several measures aimed at expanding and improving early childhood programs in the state. “We’re not doing as much as we hoped, but we are beginning to see dollars directed back into preschool and early … Read entire article »
Filed under: Child Care, Early Childhood, Featured, Kindergarten and Preschool, Reporting & Analysis
Video Highlights from
2013 EdSource Symposium
Transforming Public Education: What's Next For
Students, Teachers and Schools
- In Partnership with the California State PTA -
May 4th symposium in San Jose featured a number of prominent speakers on key challenges in education today, including Linda Darling-Hammond, Martha Kanter, and Pedro Noguera.
You can find video of those speakers and more at our new YouTube channel by clicking below.
National Council on Teacher Quality report is deeply flawed
June 18th, 2013 | 5 Comments | By Linda Darling-Hammond / commentary
This week, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) issued a report, NCTQ Teacher Prep Review. Billed as a consumer’s guide, the report rates teacher preparation programs on a list of criteria ranging from selection and content preparation to coursework and student teaching aimed at the development of teaching skills. While the report appropriately focuses on these aspects of teacher education, it does not, unfortunately, accurately reflect the work of teacher education programs in California … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Preparation, Teachers