Students fail to pursue college aid
Posted in UncategorizedThe Legislative Analyst and others make a strong case that fees at the state’s community colleges, currently the lowest in the nation, should be raised to provide more revenue for the system. But this should happen only if the state plowed back some of the money to hire more college financial aid officers and guidance counselors in high school.
A study released this week by the Berkeley-based Institute for College Access and Success underscored that need. As many as a half-million community college students are failing to apply for federal Pell Grants. They’re losing out on as much as a half-billion dollars in aid.
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A study released this week by the Berkeley-based Institute for College Access and Success underscored that need. As many as a half-million community college students are failing to apply for federal Pell Grants. They’re losing out on as much as a half-billion dollars in aid.
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Schools still bad after 20 years
Posted in Turning around failing schoolsThe lowest performing schools in California in 1989 were still the lowest performing schools 20 years later, despite a slew of school reforms, a battery of new standardized tests, punishments for bad schools, incentives for them to become better and experiments in curriculums and programs.
That was the finding (part II of the three-part study) of the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy, which compared state test scores of 1,156 California schools with an eighth grade two decades ago and still operating today. Five out of eight schools (63 percent) in the bottom quartile of schools then were bouncing around the bottom in 2009, while 27 percent – about one in four – moved up to the second quartile. Only 1.4 percent – one in 70 – bounded up to the top quartile.
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That was the finding (part II of the three-part study) of the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy, which compared state test scores of 1,156 California schools with an eighth grade two decades ago and still operating today. Five out of eight schools (63 percent) in the bottom quartile of schools then were bouncing around the bottom in 2009, while 27 percent – about one in four – moved up to the second quartile. Only 1.4 percent – one in 70 – bounded up to the top quartile.
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State: Ed groups misinformed feds
Tags: Education Coalition, Public Advocates, Schultz, stimulusPosted in State Budget
The Schwarzenegger administration has responded, in a letter to federal officials,to education groups’ charges that the state violated rules for qualifying for remaining stimulus money from the feds. Herb Schultz, the governor’s overseer of stimulus dollars, made it clear in an accompanying statement that he was peeved that advocates would have the audacity to “try to stand in the way of securing nearly a half a billion dollars in critical funding for our education system during these difficult economic times.” And, or course, he denied anything improper.
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L.A. task force urges big changes in tenure, pay
Posted in Teacher Development, Tenure, payOne of the state’s most hidebound districts in the past took a step this week toward becoming one of the most progressive. The rest of the state: take notice.
A Los Angeles Unified task force that included teachers, parents and administrators and was chaired by State School Board President Ted Mitchell, has recommended significant changes in the way teachers in the nation’s second largest district are evaluated, paid and granted tenure.
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A Los Angeles Unified task force that included teachers, parents and administrators and was chaired by State School Board President Ted Mitchell, has recommended significant changes in the way teachers in the nation’s second largest district are evaluated, paid and granted tenure.
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