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California looks to Ontario schools’ reformer for guidance
Michael Fullan may be coming soon to a school district near you. The man credited with transforming the Canadian province of Ontario into one of the world’s most effective school systems is ready to help California do the same. Fullan, though, would lead the state in a sharply different direction from the forced march that federal officials … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Featured, International Comparisons, No Child Left Behind, Program innovation, Race to the Top, Reporting & Analysis, Research, Standardized tests, Systemic Change, Teacher Collaboration, Teacher Unions, Teachers, Turning around failing schools
‘I would prefer to trust our teachers …’
California’s back! Gov. Jerry Brown did himself proud in Thursday’s State of the State address, and he did California proud, too. In the details of the speech, there are prospects for boldness, greatness and innovation, not the tire patching and gridlock we’ve experienced as government. Others will comment at great length on the wisdom of the San Joaquin delta tunnel project and whether high-speed rail is prescient or folly. And educational interests are putting the pencil … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Jerry Brown, Systemic Change, Teacher Collaboration, Teachers
EdWatch 2013: Teacher evaluation law will be taken on again
Breakthrough agreements in two California school districts and a much anticipated report on improving teacher effectiveness have raised expectations that it might actually be possible to amend or rewrite the state’s outdated and ineffective state law on teacher evaluations in a way that can work for both unions and school districts. Prospects looked bleak four months ago. A frenetic effort to rewrite California’s 40-year-old Stull Act died when Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes, a San Fernando Democrat, withdrew … Read entire article »
Filed under: Evaluation, Evaluations, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Collaboration, Teacher Unions
Corona-Norco a first-time finalist for the Broad Prize
Corona-Norco Unified School District in Riverside County will be receiving $150,000 in college scholarships as a runner-up in the 2012 Broad Prize for Urban Education. The Southern California district was one of four national finalists for the award, which was created by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to recognize large urban school districts that have made the most progress in boosting student achievement and closing the achievement gap. The top prize of $550,000 in college scholarships went to five-time finalist Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The other two finalists this year are Houston and Palm Beach school districts. The $150,000 in scholarships is for this year’s high school seniors “who demonstrate significant financial need and who have improved their grades during high school.” During a ceremony Tuesday at the Museum of Modern Art … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Quick Hits, Systemic Change, Teacher Collaboration
A missed opportunity to reform teacher evaluations
The Chicago teachers’ strike is the most recent example of how bloody the ideological debate over teacher evaluation has become in this country. Though not the only issue in Chicago, how to evaluate teachers and the role of standardized tests in that process has been at the core of the contentiousness in the Windy City. In California, we recently saw our own version of the teacher evaluation debate turn toxic with the demise of AB 5. Assemblymember … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Evaluations, Featured, Teacher Collaboration, Teacher Unions
Credentialing Commission receptive to Torlakson’s Task Force reforms
If “Greatness by Design,” the hot-off-the-press report by State Superintendent Tom Torlakson’s Task Force on Educator Excellence is going to have any legs, the state Commission on Teaching Credentialing may provide the first, important steps. The Commission oversees the preparation and initial on-the-job training of teachers and administrators, and, to a lesser extent, the equitable placement of teachers in the classroom. Many of the dozens of recommendations in the Task Force’s report, released last month (see coverage … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Equity issues, Preparation, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Collaboration, Teachers, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
The crisis that we don’t discuss
The unacknowledged crisis in public education is not teacher quality but teacher motivation. The engine of any major change process in any human system is people. We cannot change education without the enthusiastic and heartfelt participation of teachers, administrators, and, ultimately, students. As longtime reformer Michael Fullan puts it in a recent paper, “The key to system-wide success is to situate the energy of educators and students as the central driving force. This means aligning … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Common Core standards, Teacher Collaboration
Far-reaching plan to strengthen teaching in California
To reinvigorate its force of teachers and principals, California doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. It could start by fixing the one that’s bent and broken because of years of neglect. That’s one of the messages from Greatness by Design, an extensive report from Superintendent Tom Torlakson’s 48-member Task Force on Educator Excellence, cochaired by Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond and Long Beach Unified superintendent Christopher Steinhauser. On Monday, the task force released its 90-page … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Featured, Preparation, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Collaboration, Teacher Pay, Teachers, Tenure
Do-or-die time for teacher evaluation bill
After lying dormant for a year, a bill to overhaul the state’s teacher evaluation law will resurface Monday, subject to continuing negotiations over its cost and some disagreements over its content. AB 5’s prospects have improved with the support of the California Teachers Association. CTA expressed reservations a year ago, but the bill’s author, Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes, a Democrat from the San Fernando Valley, agreed last summer to a few key changes, so now the union … Read entire article »
Filed under: Evaluations, Featured, Preparation, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Collaboration, Teachers
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