- The Education Newsblitz: A Big Test
Tonight is the night to see the school board candidates face off -- and to ask them some questions of your own! It all goes down in Liberty Station from 7 pm to 9 pm. Details here.Now for the newsblitz!- We blog about the stagnant scores on a national reading exam that helps compare San Diego Unified to other urban school districts. Check back later for more on what the scores mean!
- Del Mar schools have a new superintendent, the Union-Tribune reports.
- Chula Vista teachers were able to keep their jobs, KPBS reports, but others in the county may not be so lucky.
- Poway school employees will get to vote on whether to replace their union with another one, the North County Times writes.
- Also in the U-T: The vision for a new Alpine high school is taking shape.
- In Sacramento, a grand jury report is pressuring teachers to take concessions to balance their school district budget, the Bee reports. Teachers across San Diego County have taken furloughs or pay cuts to do just that. California Watch calls what the grand jury didthrowing the gauntlet.
- Meanwhile in Orange County, more than 1,500 educators are slated to lose their jobs, the Register writes. Compare that to San Diego Unified, a larger district where less than 200 permanent teachers and other educators are on the chopping block.
- Educated Guess blogs that a major lawsuit over the adequacy of California school funding is being filed today. The California School Boards Association, which many local school boards belong to, is part of it.
- Stephen Sawchuk asks on his Education Week blog: Is it OK to ask kids whether their teachers are effective?
- The New York Times writes about the disturbing case of a Harlem charter school accused ofimproperly using force against students. I've never heard of this here, but excessive force in school discipline has been a national issue that Congress has delved into, especially when it comes to children with disabilities.
- And USA Today highlights a school program that starts young to combat dropouts.
-- EMILY ALPERT
- San Diego Scores Stagnant on National Test
- Test scores on a national reading exam for fourth and eighth graders in San Diego Unified schools didn't rise significantly between 2007 and 2009. They rose -- but not enough to make a statistical blip.Nor has the achievement gap between black and Hispanic children and their white classmates narrowed during that time. Poor children haven't closed the gap much either since San Diego students last took the exam.Those are the disappointing results of a test widely seen as one of the few reliable yardsticks to compare the success of different school districts across the country. States have different exams with differing levels of difficulty, so the National Assessment of Educational Progress is the only national test reliably used to compare kids in other big cities to kids in San Diego.MORE FROM RECENT POSTS IN SCHOOLED: