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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
StudentsFirst hires former Assembly Speaker Núñez
Fabian Núñez, who once was an organizer for the California Teachers Association and counted on the CTA as an ally when he became state Assembly speaker, has been hired as a strategist by StudentsFirst, the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee reported. The hire is the latest signal that StudentsFirst, the Sacramento-based advocacy organization founded by ex-Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, plans to step up its political work in Sacramento. In pushing an aggressive national agenda that focuses on expanding charter schools, teacher evaluations and an end to teacher seniority and tenure, the organization has been at odds with teachers unions. In this month’s school board election in Los Angeles Unified, it gave $250,000 to candidates backing Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy and opposed by United Teachers Los Angeles. Citing … Read entire article »
Filed under: Quick Hits, School Choice, Teacher Unions
Oakland pulls Americian Indian charters, citing mismanagement
On a split vote, Oakland Unified trustees voted Wednesday to revoke the three charters of the long-controversial American Indian Model Schools, citing the organization’s failure to resolve charges of self-dealing involving its founder and former executive director, the Oakland Tribune reported. The three schools, serving students from elementary through high school, will close after this school year. But the vote won’t end the saga; parents have vowed to appeal the decision to the State Board if necessary. Last year, after a whistleblower’s complaint, an investigation by a state agency found $3.8 million in questionable expenditures of public money by Ben Chavis, the schools’ founder, and his wife, who also served as bookkeeper. Among questionable expenses were $850,000 in yearly rent – five times Oakland Unified’s rate – on property that Chavis … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Quick Hits
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)
Rocketship’s cofounder departing for online learning startup
John Danner is leaving Rocketship Education, the innovative, Palo Alto-based K-5 charter school network he cofounded seven years ago, to become an entrepreneur again. He is starting an as yet unnamed company, he says, “out of my frustration that the online learning space never embraced student-centered learning, so we are going to try to do it right.” … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Charter Schools, Featured, Online Learning, Reporting & Analysis
Report ranks California’s charter school laws 7th strongest in nation
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools ranked California 7th for its charter school laws among the 42 states and the District of Columbia that have passed laws allowing charter schools. For the past four years, the alliance has compared the strength of each state’s charter laws with its own model law, which includes measurements of quality and accountability, equitable access to funding and facilities compared with traditional schools, and no caps on charter school growth. California received high marks for its variety of charters (start-ups, conversions of existing schools, and virtual schools) and for its automatic exemption of charters from collective bargaining agreements with unions. Minnesota, which has revamped its laws to match the alliance’s model, not surprisingly ended up first. In general, more states are enacting or strengthening their charter … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Featured, Quick Hits, School Choice
Community colleges reject charge of excessive faculty power
California Community College Chancellor Brice Harris has rejected a legal complaint challenging the authority of local academic senates. The challenge by California Competes, an Oakland-based nonprofit organization, alleged that two sections of Title 5 of the Education Code violate state law because they allow local trustees to rely on the judgment of the faculty when making decisions about academic issues. California Competes’ complaint also said the regulation has led to “a tangled bureaucracy” and dysfunctional decision making at community colleges, and disenfranchises other members of the college community such as students and staff. In an official response to the attorney for California Competes, Harris wrote that after carefully reviewing the complaint with the community college attorney, “I have concluded that the regulations are not unlawful. Furthermore, California Competes’ positions regarding public policy, although well-meaning, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adult education, California Colleges, Private Schools, Quick Hits
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
Silicon Valley charters get $1.7 million for ‘blended learning’
Two Bay Area charter school organizations that have ventured into “blended learning” will be the first to receive funding from newly created $25 million Silicon Schools Fund. Summit Public Schools, which runs four charter high schools, will receive $1.4 million to help open two more high schools next year in the Bay Area, and two-year-old Alpha Public Schools will get $300,000 to expand its first school, a middle school charter in San Jose. Both Summit and Alpha are doing innovative work with blended learning, which integrates technology in the classroom to foster personalized learning. This year, students in Summit’s two high schools in the San Jose area learning math at their own pace through a fluid combination of individualized computer programs, tutoring, small group lessons and larger project-based experiences. Its two new … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Charter Schools, Featured, Quick Hits
‘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
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