EdSource Today
EdSource Today is an independent online forum that responds in a timely way to key education challenges and innovations in California and nationally. Written by EdSource staff and guest commentators, its mission is to promote critical thinking through informed, in-depth discussion and reporting, in addition to clarifying key education issues for policy makers, educators, the media and the general public.
Lower-income districts would benefit from 55 percent parcel tax threshold, study suggests
Only about one in eight school districts in California have passed a parcel tax, and they predominantly have been wealthier and smaller districts. But if the threshold for passing a parcel tax were dropped from a two-thirds majority to 55 percent, an EdSource analysis suggests more districts with larger enrollments of low-income students would pass them. “Raising Revenues Locally,” an extensive look at three decades of parcel taxes, found that, had the 55 percent threshold been in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Funding and Taxation, Parcel Tax, Reporting & Analysis
On the limits of planning (or, It’s all about the pants)
There is a great, but also deeply challenging, story in Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Mandela had been working to end apartheid. There is a warrant out for his arrest, he goes underground, but eventually is caught, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment at Robben Island. No one has ever escaped from this infamous prison. This is the end. There is no possible plan or blueprint that leads from here forward. But when … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Systemic Change, Teachers
Despite federal ban, tobacco ads continue to lure teen smokers
Despite decades of efforts to keep the tobacco industry away from children, tobacco companies are successfully promoting their products to nine out of 10 middle and high school students in the U.S., according to the study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control. What’s more, the dramatic decline in tobacco use among California high school students appears to have flattened out, a troubling development both because of the health effects and because tobacco use is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Health, Nutrition, Fitness, Reporting & Analysis
Common Core test is on track, State Board told
Four states have encountered serious glitches and system meltdowns over the past several weeks as they have moved their own state assessments online. But the head of the state-led consortium creating the Common Core tests for California and two dozen other states expressed confidence Wednesday that his organization is working closely with states and taking precautions to avoid significant problems. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is one of two state consortiums – the other is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Standardized tests, Technology, Tests & Assessments, Twenty-first Century Learning
Many charter schools to begin offering transitional kindergarten in fall 2013
After a year’s delay, many charter schools will begin offering transitional kindergarten classes in the fall. There had been some disagreement with the California Department of Education over whether charters were required to offer the new program for children who turn five in the first few months of the school year. While school districts rolled out the transitional programs at the beginning of this academic year, many charters did not. The state’s two largest charter advocacy groups said … Read entire article »
Filed under: Early Childhood, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Transitional Kindergarten
Summer enrichment programs prove their value
The organizers of a statewide campaign to encourage school districts to offer quality summer enrichment programs have documented gains in learning and growth in social skills that they anticipated would benefit low-income, minority students in their programs. Through its Summer Matters initiative in a dozen communities, the Partnership for Children and Youth has promoted full-day programs that are more like summer camp than traditional summer schools. Most of the programs are partnerships between city departments of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Dropout prevention, Equity issues, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Summer Programs
Pasadena center at forefront of early math programs for young children
PASADENA — While many preschools struggle to integrate math into their programs, an early education center housed at the California Institute of Technology has long made math a central pillar in a program that uses the scientific method to engage children as young as 6 months old. The Children’s Center at Caltech, which places a significant focus on math and science, may provide a model for other courses to follow. Researchers say a strong grasp of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Early Childhood, Featured, Kindergarten and Preschool, Reporting & Analysis, STEM
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 in Washington, D.C., have led over the past decade. “I want California to become an alternative model to No Child … 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
Bill aims to help expelled and truant students get back on track
The purpose of a complicated bill aimed at preventing students from languishing in alternative schools became much clearer after the testimony of a former student who got stuck in one. Jessie Camargo, now 18, was transferred to a community school two weeks before his eighth grade graduation. That summer he completed all the requirements set by his district, which included drug and alcohol counseling classes, 140 hours of community service, and an anger management class, but … Read entire article »
Filed under: Absence, Truancy, Discipline, Dropout prevention, Equity issues, Featured, Governance, High School Completion, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis
You reach more kids when you use the arts to teach
May 12th, 2013 | 5 Comments | By Jon Schwartz
When I tell people I use the performing arts to teach my second grade students, they often ask, “You’re responsible for teaching kids academics. How do you find the time for that?” Guess what? For the first 13 years of teaching, I too viewed the performing arts as an unaffordable luxury, if not a waste of precious instructional time. My job was to teach academics by filling my students with information. If the school wanted my students to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arts, Commentary, Featured, Teachers