EdSource Today » Archive
Class size reduction program continues to unravel
In just three years, California’s class size reduction program in kindergarten through the 3rd grade has unraveled at a rapid rate, and continues to do so. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
More changes at the top at CSU
The announcement that California State University chancellor Charles Reed will be stepping down after 14 years at the helm comes against the backdrop of extraordinary changes in the top leadership of the 417,000 student system. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Persuade, not threaten, me to vote for your initiative, Governor
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) A few Saturdays ago, my kids and I walked through a crowd of signature gatherers for ballot initiatives outside Trader Joe’s. Some of them all but tackled me as they pitched their proposals. All of them promised more money for education and a better future for my children. Unfortunately for the signature gatherers’ bottom line, I didn’t have time to stop. My children and their school had more immediate needs. We were on our way to a Dance-A-Thon, one of many “-thons” that California parents have organized to raise money for their schools. It’s hard not to smile when you see a hundred kids dancing the Electric Slide. They’re so happy and innocent, they make you happy, too. But after an afternoon of dancing, they started … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Finance, Jerry Brown, State Budget, Student spending, Taxes
Schools’ reprieve from further cuts may only be temporary
It is a sign of just how thoroughly the budget crisis has shaken the education landscape that good news can sometimes seem like bad news for California schools. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Schools, the May Revision, and the budget deficit explained
Governor Jerry Brown yesterday rolled out the May Revision to his 2012-13 State Budget proposal to address the now $15.7 billion deficit. He proposed to close the budget gap through a $4.1 billion increase in cuts to state employee compensation, welfare, health care, higher education, courts, and other government programs, for a total of $8.3 billion in cuts. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary
Report: Continuation schools failing to ensure student success
California’s continuation schools are failing to provide the academic and critical support services that students need to succeed, a new report from researchers at UC Berkeley and Stanford has concluded. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Imagine schools without good-for-nothing moms
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) This weekend, America will observe Mother’s Day for the 98th time since it was officially added to the calendar in 1914. Of the 85 million mothers in America, about 5 million are stay-at-home moms, society’s great good-for-nothings. Officially, motherhood is worthless. Unpaid work does not count in economic statistics, so moms officially contribute nothing to the economy – unless they also take a paying job. We all know this is nonsense, but there it is. The numbers don’t lie, right? Every year at this time, a small flurry of articles, not all of them silly, discuss the dollar-equivalent value of motherhood. Mothers aren’t paid for being moms – but if they were, what would be their base pay? Should we believe the insure.com estimate that Mom could be … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary
Education leaders call for overhaul of state’s school accountability system
UPDATE: The State Board of Education approved seeking an NCLB waiver under Section 9401 of the law on May 10, 2012. As state education leaders consider whether to seek a waiver from the most onerous provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law, they are also proposing a “comprehensive review” of the state’s accountability system put in place in 1999. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
California may seek a waiver from No Child Left Behind law — on its own terms
UPDATE: The State Board of Education approved seeking an NCLB waiver under Section 9401 of the law on May 10, 2012. The California Department of Education is recommending that California apply for a waiver from the most onerous conditions of the No Child Left Behind law — but not under the conditions set by the Obama administration under a waiver program it announced last fall. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reporting & Analysis
Schools must repair their other damaged infrastructure: relationships
May 22nd, 2012 | Add a Comment
By Merrill Vargo / commentary ~ EdSource Extra
Infrastructure is not sexy. It sounds like pipes, highways, and wiring. In education, it is both people and organizations, and it takes both kinds of infrastructure to deliver – but also to improve – education. The problem is that budget cuts seek to preserve the service delivery infrastructure at the expense of the improvement infrastructure. We cut professional developers and coaches and keep classroom teachers. This isn’t necessarily wrong: Teaching children is our first priority. But as California enters the “awareness” stage of work on Common Core State Standards, one of the things we are becoming aware of is that we have decimated the improvement infrastructure that we will desperately need if California is to do anything useful about the Common Core. What do I mean by improvement infrastructure? Inside schools and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Common Core standards, Teachers