EdSource Today » Archive
Test scores rise, but achievement gaps persist
Student performance on California’s achievement tests in almost every subject at almost every grade level by every ethnicity has risen — despite recent cutbacks to education funding, according to 2012 STAR (Standardized Testings and Reporting) results released by the California Department of Education today. But a substantial achievement gap persists between low-income and higher-income students, and between African American and Latino students and their white and Asian peers. Overall, 57 percent of the 4.7 million students tested … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Reporting & Analysis
Fuentes withdraws teacher evaluation bill
(Updated Friday afternoon to include CTA President Dean Vogel’s comment on the decision to withdraw AB 5) AB 5 is dead. Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes withdrew the controversial rewrite of the teacher evaluation law Thursday evening, one day before the end of the legislative session, saying there wasn’t enough time for him and others to review a final set of amendments. “I believe this issue is too important to be decided at the last minute and in the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Reporting & Analysis
Landmark community college bill heads to governor
One day after the release of a survey of California community colleges showing unprecedented drops in enrollment, the state Legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill that could bring the first significant reforms in more than a decade to community colleges. The Student Success Act of 2012, by Democratic Senators Alan Lowenthal of Long Beach and Carol Liu of La Cañada Flintridge, received nearly unanimous bipartisan support. It would give new students more support early on, including orientation … Read entire article »
Filed under: College Completion, College Enrollment, Community Colleges, Jerry Brown, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis
More amendments coming to AB 5, including sunset clause
With the list of opponents mounting, the author of a bill to rewrite the state’s 40-year-old teacher evaluation law rushed Wednesday to amend the bill for the third time to try to get it through Senate committees and on to the floor of the Legislature by the end of the session tomorrow. Meeting hastily Wednesday evening, ambivalent members of the Senate Education Committee approved AB 5 on the condition that Democratic Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes commit to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Evaluations, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Unions
Pension reform: top-paid administrators to take biggest hit
The retirement age for new teachers will be pushed back two years; they’ll have to fork over about another 1 percent of their pay into the retirement system. And their bosses – principals and administrators – will see a ceiling of $132,120 as the portion of their pay used to calculate retirement pay. Those in the highest-paid jobs, earning $200,000 plus, may see pensions reduced by tens of thousands of dollars. These are the primary changes … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Pensions, Teacher Unions
Report: Truancy is taking its toll
Having trouble getting your teenager up in time for school? Ask Whoopi Goldberg to help. The celebrity wake-up call is one of many successful strategies employed by New York City to try to get kids to school on time. A report based on a nationwide survey of truants — Skipping to Nowhere — released Tuesday by Get Schooled, a nonprofit that focuses on truancy issues, emphasizes the importance of developing new strategies to convince both parents and students that being in school on time each day is important. “Absenteeism issues plague almost every community in America,” the report states. “It is not a problem facing only urban low-income students.” Up to 15 percent or 7 million K–12 students miss 18 or more days of school each year, reports the Everyone Graduates Center at … Read entire article »
Filed under: Absence, Truancy, Discipline, Featured, Quick Hits
Continuing to collectively bargain over teacher evaluation makes sense
As professionals, educators practice their vocation with seriousness and dedication with the single purpose of helping students. The California Teachers Association believes it is a primary part of our mission to improve the conditions of teaching and learning and to advance the cause of free, universal, and quality public education. CTA supports pending legislation, AB 5 by Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes, that has refocused attention on teacher evaluation. Some have expressed criticism that requiring school districts to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Evaluations, Featured, Teacher Unions
Bills influencing school disciplinary policies head to governor
Seven bills that collectively will shift thinking on how California schools discipline students will likely land on the governor’s desk at the end of the current legislative session on Friday. Although the bills no longer mandate changes that their authors originally envisioned, “they start to lay out alternatives to suspensions and expulsions,” said Erika Hoffman, a lobbyist for the California School Boards Association (CSBA). “These bills set out a process for how teachers, administrators, and school … Read entire article »
Filed under: Absence, Truancy, Discipline, Featured, Reporting & Analysis
Zoning exemption for Rocketship charter riles local districts
Superintendents and school board members were angry last year when the Santa Clara County Board of Education approved plans for 20 Rocketship Education elementary charter schools over the next six years, in addition to the five county-approved Rocketship schools in the works or already open. Now, many are furious that the county board may assert its power to exempt a Rocketship school from San Jose zoning ordinances. This wouldn’t be the first time a charter authorizer … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Charter Schools, Featured, Reporting & Analysis
AB 5 locks in approaches to evaluation that have failed families
August 30th, 2012 | 3 Comments
By Oscar E. Cruz ~ EdSource Extra
Blogs have been written, editorials published, and dozens of action alerts sent to hundreds of individuals related to AB 5, the bill introduced by Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes that aims to revamp teacher evaluations. Lost in all this commotion is the voice of families. Although they are the ultimate users of the public school system, their voices are typically lost in a political process that values compromise more than outcomes. Families In Schools works annually with thousands … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary