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ACLU sues state over English-language instruction
Civil rights groups sued the state Department of Education and the Board of Education on Wednesday, saying they are failing in their obligation to require school districts to provide 20,318 English learners with the language instruction they are entitled to by law. The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Southern California and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, cites figures provided by 251 districts showing that one out of every 50 English learner students is not receiving any … Read entire article »
Filed under: Data, English learners, Featured, Languages, Reporting & Analysis, State Board of Education, Students
Aspire and State Board give up fight over controversial charters
After a six-year legal battle, Aspire Public Schools and the State Board of Education have agreed to give up the permit that enabled Aspire to open a half-dozen charter schools without local district approval. The much-watched settlement, reached last month, will likely discourage the State Board from granting similar “statewide benefit charters” and marks a clear victory for the California School Boards Association, the California Teachers Association and other education groups that had filed suit. They … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, School Boards, State Board of Education
Torlakson, Kirst write letter supporting nine-district NCLB waiver
State Board of Education President Michael Kirst and State Superintendent Tom Torlakson expressed support Friday for nine districts’ application for a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law. In letter to the U.S. Department of Education, they also raised questions about how the waiver would be implemented and enforced. While stating that they would have preferred that Congress revise NCLB (or the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as it’s formally known), which they called a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, No Child Left Behind, Reporting & Analysis, State Board of Education
No pay to play or learn at public schools
Public schools must provide the clay used in art class, but they can charge a student for taking home his or her finished sculpture. Playing sports is considered part of the educational mission, so schools have to cover all the costs – including uniforms – but attending a game is just for fun so students can pay admission. And schools can ask – even plead – for donations, but can’t require them in order for students to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Reporting & Analysis, State Board of Education
State Board to discuss districts’ request for NCLB waiver
The State Superintendent of Public Instruction and members of the State Board of Education will speak publicly this week for the first time on the effort by a consortium of California school districts to seek their own waiver from some regulations and consequences of the federal No Child Left Behind law. At its meeting Thursday, the State Board of Education will discuss whether to issue a formal response on the waiver application from the California Office to Reform Education, or CORE, and if so, what to say about it. Nine of the ten CORE districts, which together educate more than a million California students, have signed on to the proposal, which they decided to pursue after the U.S. Department of Education rejected the state’s application last year. The Board is allowed to comment … Read entire article »
Filed under: No Child Left Behind, Quick Hits, State Board of Education, U.S. Education Policy
Brown’s former adviser: Aim for balance behind shift to local control
Sue Burr has seen and done a lot in 40-plus years of playing key roles in California education – advising legislators and governors, administering the finances of a large school district, running the state county superintendents’ organization and, for the past two years, serving as executive director of the State Board of Education. Burr retired at the end of last year, only to be nominated two weeks later by Gov. Jerry Brown to return to the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Categorical Funding, Charter Schools, College Remediation, Featured, Jerry Brown, Q&A, Reporting & Analysis, State Board of Education, State Budget, Student spending, Taxes, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Districts drop at-large elections to comply with voting rights law
Next week, Pasadena Unified voters will elect school board members by trustee areas for the first time, switching from at-large elections in which all candidates compete districtwide. Education Week reports that dozens of California school districts have switched to trustee areas to encourage racial and ethnic diversity on their boards and avoid being sued under the California Voting Rights Act of 2001. The law outlaws at-large elections that thwart minority voters from electing candidates of their choice. The EdWeek piece quotes Peter Fagan, a partner in the Los Angeles-based law firm Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost, who says, “While not all school districts are rushing to shift, in today’s budget climate very few have the desire to fight these lawsuits. The only safe harbor for districts is to shift to trustee-area elections, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Quick Hits, School Boards, State Board of Education
Brown details how to hold districts accountable under funding reform
Responding to criticism that he is offering flexibility without accountability, Gov. Jerry Brown has offered up specifics on how he would hold school districts responsible for extra money he is proposing to give them for high-needs children under his proposed sweeping reforms of how California schools are funded. Under his plan: Districts and charter schools would be required to write or update an annual “local control and accountability plan” spelling out how the additional dollars would be used … Read entire article »
Filed under: Categorical Funding, English learners, Equity issues, Featured, Foster care, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Parents, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis, Site Councils, State Board of Education, State Budget, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Brown names combination adviser and State Board executive director
Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed an advocate for school administrators as his adviser on education policies and as the executive director of the State Board of Education. Karen Stapf Walters, 55, will succeed Sue Burr in that dual role. Burr, who retired last month, was nominated as a member of the State Board this week. Stapf Walters has worked at the Association of California School Administrators as interim executive director since 2012 and as assistant executive director of governmental relations and an advocate for 13 years before that. She started out as a social studies and Englsih teacher for 11 years in California and Ohio. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Jerry Brown, Quick Hits, State Board of Education
Districts preparing their own request for NCLB waiver
The eight districts that have formed the nonprofit organization California Office to Reform Education, or CORE, are preparing their own application for a waiver from the penalties of the No Child Left Behind law, undeterred by the federal government’s rejection last month of a waiver for California. They’re hoping that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will be impressed by their size, serving a million schoolchildren, and their willingness to agree to conditions that Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Board of Education rejected. Two unknowns lurk: Duncan hasn’t yet agreed to consider district waivers in states that either didn’t apply for them or had their applications turned down, and CORE hasn’t yet formally asked Brown for his blessing, which would considerably help their case. Regardless, at some point in the … Read entire article »
Filed under: No Child Left Behind, Quick Hits, State Board of Education
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