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Foster youth win big in California’s new budget
Among the winners and losers under California’s new budget, one student group stands out as a big winner: the state’s 42,000 school-age foster children. Often neglected by their schools as well as their families, foster youth can no longer be ignored. Schools, districts and county offices will be held accountable for the academic progress of their foster youth as a separate subgroup under the state’s Academic Performance Index. The API measures the performance of a school’s … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Finance, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis, Students, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Education officials seek team approach to fight chronic absenteeism
Backed by the knowledge that the first symptom of academic failure is an empty desk, state education officials are putting a priority on battling chronic absenteeism by enlisting support across state agencies. The California Department of Education convened a first-of-its-kind forum last month of state and local experts from school districts, health and social services agencies, district attorneys’ offices and advocacy groups. The goal: to get them to work cooperatively to keep children in school. “We can … Read entire article »
Filed under: Absence, Truancy, Featured, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Poverty, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis
No agreement yet on how to hold districts accountable for new state money
Gov. Jerry Brown’s new school funding system is based on the idea that school districts, not Sacramento, should be given control over spending and then held accountable for students’ results. But with time running out to work on details of the Local Control Funding Formula, negotiators from the Assembly, Senate and the governor’s office have yet to agree on what, when and how districts should be judged. All agree that districts should be measured by more … Read entire article »
Filed under: A to G Curriculum, Career Technical Education, Common Core standards, Featured, Jerry Brown, Parent Activism, Poverty, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis, Tests, Turning around failing schools, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Q&A: Lessons for California from New Jersey’s ‘Improbable Scholars’
Students in Union City, N.J., get twice the funding of students in California. They attend two years of full-day kindergarten. Recent immigrants to this country are taught initially in their native language. For all their differences, though, there are also some core similarities with California districts like Sanger, Garden Grove and Long Beach, which author David Kirp identifies in his latest book, among the beat-the-odds districts. Chief among them: a focus on the long view, with … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, English learners, Equity issues, Featured, High School Completion, Kindergarten and Preschool, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis, Systemic Change, Teacher Collaboration
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)
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 now, K-12 districts can wait and watch sequestration unroll
K-12 districts have one advantage over meat inspectors, military contractors, national parks staff, air traffic controllers, Head Start operators (see story) and others facing immediate cuts in federal funding as of Friday’s sequester deadline: time. Because of how districts budget their money, the 5.1 percent reductions in federal revenue that would go into effect March 1 under sequestration won’t be felt by districts until the start of their new fiscal year, July 1. That gives … Read entire article »
Filed under: Disabilities education, English learners, Featured, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis, Special Needs, Title I, U.S. Education Policy
LAO would cut money from basic aid districts, other programs Brown would protect
The Legislative Analyst’s Office has added its endorsement of Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal for sweeping school finance reform, praising the simplicity and clarity of Brown’s funding formula and the “reasonable” amounts of extra money he’d direct to high-needs students. At the same time, in an analysis released last week, the LAO is suggesting a half-dozen changes to the plan, including two that would stir up controversies that Brown woud just as soon avoid. Both changes would … Read entire article »
Filed under: English learners, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Two California teachers win “culturally responsive” awards
A kindergarten teacher from San Francisco and a 5th grade teacher from Los Angeles were two of only five winners selected nationally for the 2012 Teaching Tolerance Culturally Responsive Teaching Award. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project each year recognizes educators who have demonstrated excellence in teaching students from diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Teaching Tolerance provided profiles and videos of the California winners: Robert Sautter, a kindergarten teacher at Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School in San Francisco, creates a bond of trust between himself, his students and their families. He opens his classrooms with a “community circle” in which students greet each other using their home languages. He also makes sure that students see themselves and their families in the books, artwork and photography displayed in his classroom. Sautter … Read entire article »
Filed under: English learners, Poverty, Quick Hits, Race, Ethnicity, Students, Teachers, Values and Habits
Video Highlights from
2013 EdSource Symposium
Transforming Public Education: What's Next For
Students, Teachers and Schools
- In Partnership with the California State PTA -
May 4th symposium in San Jose featured a number of prominent speakers on key challenges in education today, including Linda Darling-Hammond, Martha Kanter, and Pedro Noguera.
You can find video of those speakers and more at our new YouTube channel by clicking below.
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