Currently browsing Program innovation
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)
Social and emotional learning gaining new focus under Common Core
SACRAMENTO – School is nothing if not an intensely social experience, which is why teacher Michelle Flores posed this question to 24 third graders at Aspire Capitol Heights Academy: “When someone makes a mistake, what do we say?” “That’s cool,” the third graders responded in unison. “We are experts at making mistakes,” said Flores, who incorporates social and emotional instruction, including the idea that making a mistake is not cause for embarrassment, into academics at the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, K-12 Programs, Program innovation, Reporting & Analysis
California looks to Ontario schools’ reformer for guidance
Michael Fullan may be coming soon to a school district near you. The man credited with transforming the Canadian province of Ontario into one of the world’s most effective school systems is ready to help California do the same. Fullan, though, would lead the state in a sharply different direction from the forced march that federal officials … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Featured, International Comparisons, No Child Left Behind, Program innovation, Race to the Top, Reporting & Analysis, Research, Standardized tests, Systemic Change, Teacher Collaboration, Teacher Unions, Teachers, Turning around failing schools
Another trophy in the case for Long Beach Unified
Long Beach Unified has grabbed another award for excellence. The state’s third-largest school district and winner of the Broad Prize for Urban Education was named Thursday one of the five top school districts in the world by Battelle for Kids, a Columbus, Ohio-based nonprofit organization that counsels school districts on school improvement and innovation. Long Beach was the only American district cited in Battelle’s report, The Global Education Study; the other four winners – diverse and quite different … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Program innovation, Reporting & Analysis
Linked learning comes of age in California with new pilot programs
The California Department of Education has selected 63 districts and county offices of education – many of them working together in consortia – to pilot “linked learning” programs in their high schools beginning next fall. These programs integrate academics with real-world work experiences in an effort to engage students. High schools with linked learning programs typically offer several courses in one or more career paths, such as healthcare, business or the arts. The career theme permeates … Read entire article »
Filed under: Career Technical Education, College and Career Preparation, Dropout prevention, Featured, High School Completion, Internships, Service Learning, Legislature, Bills, Multiple pathways, Multiple Pathways, Partnership Academies, Program innovation, Reporting & Analysis, Twenty-first Century Learning, Workforce preparation
California wins millions in school innovation grants
It was a clean sweep as all seven finalists seeking federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grants for California schools received word that they won. Together, they’ll get nearly $31 million, plus an additional $5.2 million in matching funds to develop or expand innovative programs designed to improve student achievement, reduce the dropout rate, increase high school graduation rates or boost college enrollment and success, especially for English learners and low-income students. … Read entire article »
Filed under: English learners, Equity issues, Featured, High School Completion, Parents, Program innovation, Reporting & Analysis, Research, Students
$25 million gift to make Bay Area center for blending online instruction into school day
The scion of the Gap, Inc. fortune has jumpstarted a $25 million fund with the goal of turning the Bay Area into a national hub for blended learning, the promising school model that combines individualized online learning and face-to-face classroom instruction. With a sizable gift from John Fisher, the Silicon Schools Fund can move ahead with plans to underwrite 25 schools’ experiments in blended learning, within five years. The grants will be up to $700,000 – … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Charter Schools, Featured, Program innovation, Reporting & Analysis, Technology
Learning 2.0: Writing gets serious when schools become publishers
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Ben Heckman, an 8th grader from Framington, Minnesota, is a twice-published novelist whose story was told in a New York Times piece about the growing number of young writers who break into print, usually with a little bankrolling from their parents. Hundreds of teenage and younger authors are publishing every year. The Times story by Elissa Gootman also illustrates what I call Learning 2.0, the next full-scale upgrade of public education. The authors in her story all wrote fiction, but publishing non-fiction student work also is an important pedagogy, a departure from the century-old acquisition-and-storage model of learning. Publishing student work is an act of exhibition, an invitation for people to view and comment on it, and a validation of self worth of the writer. Publication says … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Program innovation
Once more around the track of school reforms in Los Angeles Unified
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) In a new labor agreement that embraces local school autonomy, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy has jumped from one school reform horse to another. He dismounted the Public School Choice horse, thus ending the era when the school district sought to improve schools through robust competition among district-run school management teams, charters, and other complex operating arrangements. Under what has been called “portfolio” logic, the school district would assemble the best collection of schools it could, putting underperforming ones up for competitive bids while encouraging the ones that were doing well. The labor agreement now being voted on virtually ends Public School Choice. For the next three years, no charters or external school management organizations can apply, and the district is forbidden to reconstitute a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Commentary, Program innovation, Teacher Unions
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.
It’s still true: The future tends to happen first in California
July 22nd, 2012 | 3 Comments | By Merrill Vargo / commentary
It often seems as if the rest of the nation – and certainly education policymakers in Washington – wants to avert its eyes from California. Many of the large national foundations have stopped or curtailed their investments here, and the federal government seems to have followed suit: California has yet to receive Race to the Top money, there is no word on California’s request for a waiver on NCLB, and when researchers cite “cutting-edge” work, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Commentary, Featured, No Child Left Behind, Online Learning, Program innovation, Race to the Top