Currently browsing Principals and Administrators
Alternative bill to speed up teacher dismissals introduced
(Update: The story has been updated to include the announcement on Thursday that Sen. Alex Padilla has dropped his teacher dismissal bill and become a principal co-author of AB 375, by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan.) A year ago, Assemblymember Joan Buchanan cast a deciding vote killing a bill that would have pared back the process for firing teachers and administrators alleged to have done egregious acts against children. She said the legislation dealt with a narrow subset … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Principals and Administrators, Reporting & Analysis, Teachers
Survey questions districts’ compliance with child abuse laws
School districts in four San Francisco Bay Area counties demonstrate a “haphazard compliance with child abuse laws,” according to a survey of 94 of those districts by the Bay Area News Group. Fewer than half of the districts in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties that responded to the newspapers’ survey said that they offer their employees annual instruction in how to recognize signs of sexual or other physical abuse. In addition, fewer than half reminded their employees of their responsibility to report any suspicion of mistreatment. The issue of child abuse is not confined to the San Francisco Bay Area. EdSource Today reported that the State Auditor criticized the Los Angeles Unified School District for mishandling years of sex abuse cases involving teachers. Perhaps more importantly, although California teachers can … Read entire article »
Filed under: Principals and Administrators, Quick Hits, Teachers
Credentialing commission imposes tougher test to become school administrator
Alone among states, California has permitted passing a primarily multiple-choice exam as one path to become a school or district administrator. That will change. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) on Friday voted to require aspiring administrators to pass a more challenging “performance-based assessment,” showing how they’d handle complex situations that administrators face on the job, like designing a school improvement plan and evaluating teachers. The new test will replace the current exam, the California … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Featured, Principals and Administrators, Reporting & Analysis
Principal convicted for not reporting suspected sex abuse
A jury in San Jose on Monday convicted a former elementary school principal for failing to report a case of suspected sex abuse by a teacher to authorities, marking a rare instance in which prosecutors brought misdemeanor charges under the state’s mandated-reporting law. Following two days of jury deliberations, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Deborah Ryan immediately sentenced Lyn Vijayendran, 36, to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service, most likely training … Read entire article »
Filed under: Principals and Administrators, Reporting & Analysis, Turning around failing schools
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
Under Common Core, leaders face big challenge of designing change
April 16th, 2013 | 1 Comment | By Merrill Vargo / commentary
Over the past decade, many California teachers, especially in low-performing schools, were expected to teach a scripted curriculum. The advocates of this approach hoped to ensure that all students were exposed to high quality – or at least good enough – teaching. California’s choice of this strategy has left us with a generation of teachers who either never learned the skills involved in designing instruction or had little chance to practice them. This is a huge … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Common Core standards, Featured, Principals and Administrators, Teacher Collaboration