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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)
LAUSD to compete with charters to run ‘parent trigger’ school
The parents at 24th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles Unified will have plenty of choices for an operator to take over their school under the “parent trigger” process they initiated this month. One of the contenders will be the district itself. The school’s Parents’ Union announced Monday it had received letters of intent from eight organizations saying they would submit detailed proposals on how they would turn the low-performing school around. They include six outside … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Featured, Parent Trigger, Reporting & Analysis
‘Parent trigger’ organizers find willing partner in Los Angeles Unified
The third time appears to be a charm for organizers marshaling parents to reconstitute low-performing schools under the state’s “parent trigger” law. Compared with the trench warfare with teachers and district officials that parents encountered while seeking to transform low-performing elementary schools in Compton and Adelanto, parents at the 24th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles Unified received encouragement rather than resistance from school officials when they submitted a “parent trigger”petition last week. Los Angeles Unified … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Featured, Parent Trigger, Reporting & Analysis, Turning around failing schools
‘Parent trigger’ backers notch first win with charter in Adelanto
The pitched battle over the “parent trigger” campaign in the Adelanto School District is over. On Tuesday, the school board in the Mojave Desert town unanimously approved the parents-led conversion of Desert Trails Elementary to a charter school, marking the first successful use of the state Parent Empowerment Act of 2010. That law permits a majority of parents who sign a petition at a low-performing school to demand a restructuring option, including bringing in a charter school operator. The 4-0 vote to turn the school over to LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy, a high-scoring charter (911 API) in nearby Hesperia, was a sharp turnabout. The board had twice has rejected the parents’ petition, and opposition parents, backed by teachers, had organized a counter campaign. But a court ordered the petition to move … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Parent Trigger, Quick Hits
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
San Francisco Unified freshens up its school menu
This week San Francisco Unified chose Revolution Foods as its new school meals vendor, moving away from frozen entrées to fresh breakfasts and lunches made with produce purchased locally. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Health, Nutrition, Fitness, Parent Activism, Quick Hits
San Jose Unified, teachers reach breakthrough evaluation, pay plan
The superintendent of San Jose Unified and leaders of the district’s teachers union have agreed on an innovative evaluation and compensation system that, if implemented, would be significantly different from any in California. With education groups in Sacramento and legislators still bruised over a grueling, failed effort to revise the state’s teacher evaluation law last summer, the San Jose plan offers hope that a progressive compromise on divisive issues is possible. Among the significant features in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Evaluations, Featured, Parents, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Pay, Teacher Unions
Desert Trails parents choose charter operator, next step in ‘parent trigger’
With a low voter turnout Thursday, parents exercising a “parent trigger” option at the Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto selected a charter operator in nearby Hesperia to run their school starting next August. The selection of LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy, a small K-8 charter with an API of 911 – more than 200 points above Desert Trails’ score of 699 this year – marked the next stage in parents’ contentious and protracted exercise of California’s parent empowerment law. Teachers at the school, who may lose their jobs in the conversion to a charter school, as well as parents opposing the move, will seize on the vote by only 53 parents. Last spring, 286 parents, representing a majority of the students enrolled in the K-5 school, signed the petition that gave them … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Featured, Parent Activism, Parent Trigger, Parents, Reporting & Analysis
Contrary to common wisdom, nothing is ‘away’ from the classroom
Readers of my posts know that I often challenge the conventional wisdom within public education circles – a public sector “mythbuster” if you will – whether it be the myth of furlough days or the hollow critique of “waste, fraud, and abuse.” Another of my favorite examples is the all too often stated “truism” that if a school district needs to make budget cuts (as we all have had to do recently), it’s best to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Evaluations, Parents, Principals and Administrators, School Boards
A greater role in math education for parents: mathematical reasoning at home
December 9th, 2012 | 4 Comments | By Katie Kormanik / commentary
While policymakers, researchers and educators decide how our children learn math, parents don’t seem to be anywhere in the mix. Yet parents can and should play a greater role in their children’s math education. The problem is that most parents simply don’t know how. This situation is complicated by the fact that many parents struggled with math themselves, making it more difficult for them to help their children and often resulting in their inadvertently passing on … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Parents, STEM