EdSource Today » Archive
Charter association’s call for closure of charter schools stirs controversy
In a bold move that is generating controversy within its own ranks, the California Charter School Association is urging that 10 of the 145 charter schools up for renewal this year be denied their charters because they failed to meet academic performance benchmarks set by the association. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
“Success courses” could help community college students reach academic goals
An emerging strategy to promote community college success is to have students enroll in “student success courses” that focus on study and career skills and help guide them through their community college experience. … Read entire article »
Filed under: College and Career Preparation, College Completion, Community Colleges, Reporting & Analysis
Transportation cuts generate fierce response from school officials
Gov. Jerry Brown’s announcement of a $248 million cut in school transportation funds has triggered a fierce response from some of the state’s largest urban school districts as well as smaller rural ones. What is far less clear is how many districts will actually terminate bus routes this year. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Schools face ongoing challenges despite recent budget reprieve
Despite largely escaping the mid-year “trigger” cuts, many school districts are still struggling to cope with the accumulated effect of budget cuts over the past three years. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Shifting state budget puts stress on schools
California schools in recent years have been coping with uncertain revenue projections and shifting state budgets, with each new budget benchmark lasting only a few months. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Facing some inconvenient truths about reforming teacher evaluations
(Brentt Brown, senior writer at Pivot Learning Partners, co-authored this post.) Good teaching matters. Yet most teacher evaluations are compliance-driven checklists that have little or no impact on teaching and learning. The question is not whether teacher evaluation should be improved, but what the goals of the new processes we seek should be. The received wisdom is that better evaluations would provide teachers with useful feedback and also improve decision making about tenure and retention. Critics also note that in a better system, evaluations would be more frequent, more focused on evidence of student learning, more effective at sorting teachers into multiple performance categories, and more valid, in that evaluators would be highly trained. All of these are worthy goals, but hardly inevitable ones. Not only are they expensive, but they … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Evaluations, Teachers, Tenure
Riverside schools point to power of technology in the classroom
As the effectiveness of technology in the classroom comes under increasing scrutiny, one California district encourages extensive use of iPads and other such digital readers, and says the benefits are clear and compelling. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
With boost from California, charter schools enroll 2 million students nationally
Charter schools enrolled 2 million public school students this fall, with California playing a major role in helping them reach that milestone, according to figures released today. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Large increase in California children qualifying for school lunch programs
The number of California students participating in the federal free or reduced-price school meal program increased by 10 percent, or a little more than 300,000 students, in just three years at least in part as a fallout from the Great Recession. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Once more around the track of school reforms in Los Angeles Unified
December 15th, 2011 | 4 Comments
By Charles Taylor Kerchner / commentary ~ EdSource Extra
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) In a new labor agreement that embraces local school autonomy, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy has jumped from one school reform horse to another. He dismounted the Public School Choice horse, thus ending the era when the school district sought to improve schools through robust competition among district-run school management teams, charters, and other complex operating arrangements. Under what has been called “portfolio” logic, the school district would assemble the best collection of schools it could, putting underperforming ones up for competitive bids while encouraging the ones that were doing well. The labor agreement now being voted on virtually ends Public School Choice. For the next three years, no charters or external school management organizations can apply, and the district is forbidden to reconstitute a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Commentary, Program innovation, Teacher Unions