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Panel wants community college students to draw up individual education plans
Students would be required to draw up an “individual education plan” when they enter a California community college program, as part of a drive to ensure that more of them attain their education goals. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Digital “badges” proposed as alternative way to assess skills
The concept of measuring talents and accomplishments in the form of online “badges” is gaining steam. And a California university is poised to play a key role in their development. The badge idea, which U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last month called a ”game changing strategy,” gives weight and legitimacy to the notion that learning often takes place outside traditional classroom settings. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
State Senate leader calls on Gov. Brown to present his plan for school accountability
Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, is calling on Governor Jerry Brown to come forward with his own “comprehensive” plan for the state’s testing and accountability system. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
The third chair at the bargaining table in Los Angeles
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Sometimes the most interesting political commentary is found in the comics … or in the ads. Monday’s editions of the Los Angeles Times, Daily News, and La Opinion carried a full-page ad from a coalition of civic and community organizations aimed at influencing the negotiations between the Los Angeles Unified School District and its teachers, represented by United Teachers Los Angeles. The ad itself is pretty bland. “Don’t hold us back” is not exactly a searing catch phrase. But the underlying issues are explosive: teacher evaluation, employment security, and school-site determination of work rules. Essentially, the ad’s sponsors are drawing up a third chair to the bargaining table. They are attempting to influence both labor and management, but clearly they are in line with the positions and issues articulated … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Teacher Unions
With federal help, charter schools evaluate principal effectiveness
As part of a national drive to improve school leadership, four California charter schools are instituting rigorous evaluations of their principals, in contrast to the pro forma review that principals often receive. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Congress must demand effective teachers for all students
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Congress is debating this week whether to turn back the clock on advances for our most vulnerable students that were part of the legacy of No Child Left Behind. At stake is whether our legislators believe teachers should be required to complete a minimum level of training and demonstrate competence before they enter the classroom — and especially whether poor and minority students, English language learners, and students with disabilities deserve equal access to such well-qualified teachers. To provide some history, for years advocates and reformers have been pointing to the large achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white and more affluent peers, which has stayed stubbornly large since the Reagan reforms wiped out the educational investments and anti-poverty programs that had caused the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Advocates for Education, Commentary, No Child Left Behind, Teachers
Chief of state’s charter school division stepping down
The California Department of Education is looking for a replacement for the chief of its charter school division, who is leaving her post after 18 months on the job. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
The seven broken premises of special education in California
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) It’s not a typo. It’s meant to be an “e.” Today’s special education system is built on many broken premises that detract from the law’s purpose: to provide students with disabilities (SWD) a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive (appropriate) environment so that they can learn and make progress. The system should promote services and opportunity, focused on teaching and learning. It’s really not that complicated when you think about it. But it has become so. Special education matters to all of us. It affects all schools and educates 13-14 percent of all students, some 6½ million students nationwide. We spend some $110 billion annually on special education. In California, during the 2008-2009 school year, there were 678,105 students with disabilities, 10.8 percent of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Special Needs, Systemic Change
Brown’s veto of education bill consistent with earlier views
A simple teaching exercise on a green leaf has had an enduring impact on Gov. Jerry Brown’s views on education. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Jerry Brown, Reporting & Analysis, Tests & Assessments
Ignoring science in schools starts with ignorance of science by the electorate
October 25th, 2011 | 10 Comments
By Peter Schrag / commentary ~ EdSource Extra
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Anyone looking for big news in the just released report on the teaching of science in California elementary schools may well file it under “dog bites man.” In a word, elementary school science teaching is lame; it’s taught an average of a little over an hour a week, by teachers most of whom say they’re not well prepared to teach it and have few resources to work with. Some 77 percent of elementary principals say teaching science is essential, but only 44 percent say “that a student would receive high-quality science instruction in his/her school.” Is anyone surprised? More pertinent, perhaps, is what the report, commissioned by the Center on the Future of Teaching and Learning, doesn’t discuss, and that’s the national environment of willful ignorance and proud … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, STEM