Layoffs scaring off future teachers The Educated Guess

The Educated Guess

Layoffs scaring off future teachers

Posted in Equity issues, Teacher Development, Tenure

Many of the 26,000 teachers in California who got pink slips in March may have their jobs back by August, if their colleagues agree to furloughs or give-backs and if districts pass parcel taxes next month and come up with other savings. Los Angeles Unified alone has rescinded two-thirds of the 3,100 layoff notices it issued two months ago.
But the damage to the teaching profession will last beyond the disruptions and uncertainty of the next few months. In a paper issued this week, the Santa Cruz-based Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning openly worries about the impact on the future supply of teachers that California will need over the next decade.
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By John Fensterwald on May 28th, 2010

Is CALPADS unfixable? No answer yet

Posted in CALPADS, Data

State education officials expressed deep disappointment last week on learning that California was out of the running for money to expand the statewide student data system.
They haven’t heard yet why the state placed 26^th out of 50^th in a grant competition that funded only the top 20 states. But they shouldn’t be surprised if the feds’ answer is, “Are you kidding? Why would you expect taxpayers to enlarge a data system when you have yet to get it to work right?”
Nearly one year into its operation, CALPADS, the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, is still struggling. Five months after a consultantwarned of an imminent system collapse and urged a top-to-bottom review, the student data system is still being fixed. It will take at least a month before it becomes clear whether the processes work, and the system can perform as designed. Still to be determined is whether management problems – a big factor behind the poor operation – have been straightened out.
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