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LAUSD will no longer suspend students for ‘willful defiance’
Los Angeles Unified is the first district in the state to stop suspending students for “willful defiance” – a subjective category that accounts for 54 percent of suspensions and a quarter of all expulsions across the state. The school board voted 5-2 to ban suspensions for defiance following an impassioned discussion, according to the Los Angeles Times, with one board member saying he considered this change an experiment. The vote is a victory for civil rights groups and other activists who have been working to change the “zero tolerance” approach to discipline in favor of alternatives such as referring students to counseling or contacting parents to determine the root cause of the misbehavior. Supporters of the change point out that disproportionate numbers of African American students are suspended for willful defiance. African … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Quick Hits, Race, Ethnicity, Students
Kindergarten ‘redshirting’ not very common, study finds
Kindergarten “redshirting,” when parents keep a child eligible to start kindergarten out of school for an extra year, is not as prevalent as previously believed, a new study suggests. On average, only 4 percent to 5 percent of children start kindergarten a year late, according to the study by Daphna Bassok of the University of Virginia and Sean Reardon of Stanford University. The term “redshirting” originally comes from the practice of keeping a freshman athlete out of intercollegiate sports for a year to give him or her an extra year of NCAA eligibility. It’s not thought that many parents hold their children out of kindergarten for athletic advantage, but to give him or her more time to “mature.” However, the study found that most children who were held back might not really … Read entire article »
Filed under: Early Childhood, Quick Hits, Transitional Kindergarten
Attorney general calls on schools to fight state’s 30 percent truancy rate
California Attorney General Kamala Harris launched a new focus on truancy as a statewide law enforcement issue with a letter that went to all of the state’s county and district superintendents last week. “California is facing an alarming truancy problem,” Harris wrote in the letter. “Over 1.8 million students, almost 30 percent of the state’s student body, were truant in California in the 2010-11 school year.” Harris, who also focused on reducing truancy in San Francisco when she was the district attorney there, said she is planning to release a public report on the likeliness of truancy, especially at the elementary level, to lead to dropping out of high school and becoming involved in crime. The corresponding cost to the state shows up in the criminal justice and social service systems, Harris … Read entire article »
Filed under: Absence, Truancy, Quick Hits
CTA launches media campaign to mark 150th birthday
The California Teachers Association is celebrating the 28th annual national Teacher Appreciation Week with a bigger milestone – the 150th anniversary of its founding. It was May 1863 when then state superintendent of schools John Swett, a passionate advocate for free public education, held a state teachers’ convention and established the California Educational Society with fewer than 100 members, all men. It became the California Teachers Association in 1875. California itself had just become a teenager, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Quick Hits, Teacher Unions
Voters favor extra funds for poor students but not English learners
A majority of Californians support Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to provide additional funding to districts with more low-income and English learner students, according to a newly released poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. Of 1,705 adults interviewed, the PPIC’s ninth annual survey of Californians and education, released late Wednesday, found that among all adults, 71 percent support the governor’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). However, approval drops to 60 percent among likely voters. Responses also vary by political affiliation, race/ethnicity and income, with 80 percent of Democrats favoring the plan – nearly twice the rate of Republicans; more Latinos support it, as do families earning under $40,000 per year, who would be more likely to benefit from the change. However, when asked about each group separately, only 40 percent of likely … Read entire article »
Filed under: English learners, Featured, Jerry Brown, Poverty, Quick Hits, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
California’s preschool access gap bigger than national average
One out of every four 3- and 4-year-old children in California is not enrolled in preschool of any kind, according to an interactive map created by the left-leaning Center for American Progress. The map, which uses U.S. Census Bureau data to illustrate how the “preschool access gap” varies across the country, puts California in the middle of the pack. California’s state-funded preschool program and Head Start combined only enroll 25 percent of the state’s preschool-age children, according to the interactive map. Another 31 percent are enrolled in private preschool. The rest, 44 percent, are not enrolled in any preschool program. The Center for American Progress has come out strongly in favor of the president’s plan to invest $75 billion over the next decade to help states provide preschool to every child. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Early Childhood, Obama Preschool, Quick Hits
Steady decline in number of newly issued teaching credentials
The number of new teaching credentials issued in California dropped 12 percent last year, marking the eighth straight year the state has seen a decrease in the number of initial credentials, according to figures released Thursday. California issued 16,450 new teaching credentials in 2011-12, down from 18,734 in 2010-11, according to an annual report from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The decrease was seen across all types of preliminary teaching credentials – multiple subject, single subject and education specialist, the commission reported. The state has seen a nearly 30 percent drop in the number of new credentials issued over the past five years, according to the report. Fewer students are also enrolling in teacher preparation programs, the numbers show. Some 34,838 students enrolled in preparation programs in 2010-11, the most recent year for … Read entire article »
Filed under: Quick Hits, Teachers
Brown’s efforts to restrict community college financial aid rejected
State Senate and Assembly committees have rejected several controversial elements of Gov. Jerry Brown’s recommendations on financial aid and financing of the state’s community colleges. The Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance on Wednesday voted down one proposal that would have required all community college students seeking a Board of Governor’s fee waiver to first complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, and another plan that would have required students with more than 90 credits to pay the full cost of community college courses. On Thursday, the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee concurred on two of those actions, holding open a vote on the FAFSA requirement. Nearly 1 million community college students receive a fee waiver at a cost of about $783 million this academic year and, according … Read entire article »
Filed under: College Enrollment, College Loans, Grants, Community Colleges, Jerry Brown, Quick Hits
Voting rights violation filed against Cerritos-based ABC Unified
A civil rights group has sued the Southern California-based ABC Unified School District, alleging its at-large method of electing district trustees violates the California Voting Rights Act by denying Latino candidates a fair chance at winning a seat. ABC, which serves students in the cities of Artesia, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, and sections of Lakewood, Long Beach and Norwalk, hasn’t had a Latino on the school board in more than 15 years, even though 32 percent of residents within the district’s boundaries are Latino, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday by MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. Nearly 44 percent of students in the district are Latino, according to the state Department of Education. All seven current board members live in the city of Cerritos, which has the largest population in the district, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Quick Hits, School Boards
Nearly 8 in 10 graduating from high school in California
California’s high school graduation rate is continuing to rise, especially among African American and Hispanic students, according to figures released Tuesday by the state Department of Education. The overall four-year graduation rate reached 78.5 percent for the class of 2012, up from 77.1 percent the previous year. Hispanic students boosted their graduation rate by 1.8 percentage points to 73.2 percent. African American students had a 65.7 percent graduation rate which, while still the lowest for any ethnic or racial group, represents an increase of 2.9 percent over a year. “While I am glad to announce that we are moving in the right direction, the fact remains that we must keep moving to ensure that every California student graduates ready to succeed in the world they will find outside our classrooms,” said state … Read entire article »
Filed under: CALPADS, Data, Quick Hits
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