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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
School funding will be focus, source of contention, of Brown’s revised budget
Democrats in the Legislature may find themselves at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on two issues that will factor large when Brown reveals his revised state budget Tuesday: how to spend billions in unanticipated revenue and how to reshape Brown’s sweeping plan for funding K-12 education. As of now, the state is on target to collect $4.5 billion more than expected in personal income taxes, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Democratic leaders in the Legislature … Read entire article »
Filed under: Equity issues, Featured, Foster care, Funding and Taxation, Poverty, Poverty, Proposition 98, Reporting & Analysis, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
ACLU sues state over English-language instruction
Civil rights groups sued the state Department of Education and the Board of Education on Wednesday, saying they are failing in their obligation to require school districts to provide 20,318 English learners with the language instruction they are entitled to by law. The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Southern California and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, cites figures provided by 251 districts showing that one out of every 50 English learner students is not receiving any … Read entire article »
Filed under: Data, English learners, Featured, Languages, Reporting & Analysis, State Board of Education, Students
State toughens regs for interns teaching English learners
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing will now require non-credentialed Teach For America teachers and other intern teachers to receive more training in how to teach English learners and to get weekly on-the-job mentoring and supervision. The Commission’s unanimous vote last week followed two hours of public testimony and debate among commissioners over 14 separate recommendations aimed at improving the rigor and preparation of interns to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to teach the state’s 1.4 … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commission on Teacher Credentialing, English learners, Featured, Preparation, Reporting & Analysis, Teachers
Bill restricting ‘willful defiance’ for suspending students moves ahead
With new data showing that more than half of all suspensions and a quarter of expulsions in California schools are for “willful defiance” of school authorities, the Assembly Education Committee voted 6-0 on Wednesday to move forward a bill that would restrict the use of the vague category by school administrators. Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, who introduced Assembly Bill 420, said that current law enumerates 23 other reasons why a student can be suspended or expelled, yet … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, Equity issues, Featured, Governance, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Legislature, Bills, Race, Ethnicity, Reporting & Analysis, Students
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)
Report finds large jump in suspensions after students enter middle school
The likelihood of a student being suspended from school jumps from about 2.4 percent in elementary school to 11 percent in middle school, according to a new analysis by The Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. When broken down by race, the numbers show the risk of suspension increases by 18 points for African American students and 11 points for Latino students, and only about 5 points for white students. “Kids are getting pushed off track to graduation,” said Daniel J. Losen, co-author with Tia Elena Martinez of Out of School & Off Track: The Overuse of Suspensions in American Middle and High Schools. The report relies on 2009-10 data from more than 26,000 U.S. middle and high schools. More than 2 million students were suspended during that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, English learners, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Quick Hits, Race, Ethnicity, Students
U.S. middle-class students beaten on international test
Middle-class students are lagging far behind their peers in other countries, adding a new perspective to beliefs that low-income students are most in need of better educational opportunities, according to a new study. America Achieves, a nonprofit aimed at improving education and career opportunities for students, reviewed the 2009 science and math results on the Program for International Student Assessment, known as the PISA exam. Analysts divided students into four socio-economic levels and found that U.S. students in the second highest quarter were outperformed by students in similar income levels in 15 other countries in science and 24 countries in math. “Many assume that poverty in America is pulling down the overall U.S. scores, but when you divide each nation into socio-economic quarters, you can see that even America’s middle class students are … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, International Comparisons, Poverty, Quick Hits, Standardized tests, Tests, Tests & Assessments, Twenty-first Century Learning, Workforce preparation
Migrant program offers lessons for reaching Latino preschoolers
HUGHSON – Long before President Obama triggered a new national interest in universal preschool earlier this year, a Central Valley-based Head Start program for children of migrant workers has been breaking down barriers that have kept Latino families out of early learning programs. Data suggests that Latino children, who now make up more than half of children under 5 years old in California, have historically enrolled in early education programs at lower rates than their peers … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Early Childhood, Featured, Head Start, Kindergarten and Preschool, Poverty, Race, Ethnicity, Reporting & Analysis
For kids’ sake, let’s not distract attention from Common Core
April 12th, 2013 | 16 Comments | By Arun Ramanathan / commentary
Remember the reading and math wars? Whole language vs. phonics. New math vs. old math. In the context of today’s education wars, it seems quaint to think about people arguing over curriculum and instruction. What seems even quainter is that these battles were based on the premise that all children can learn to read at grade level. As a young teacher, I didn’t fully believe this. I could mouth the words but I doubted it in my … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Common Core standards, English learners