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Friday, June 11, 2010

'Peer review' sinks state applications for education stimulus- Superintendent candidates face runoff. Now what? | California Watch

Superintendent candidates face runoff. Now what? | California Watch

Superintendent candidates face runoff. Now what?

In November, the race to become California's next Superintendent of Public Instruction will come down to two guys: Larry Aceves and Tom Torkelson.
Many education observers expected Torkelson would land in a runoff for the position. He's an influential Democratic state Assemblyman who rose to be the top candidate for the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers and a slew of other established groups.
But Aceves threw many forecasters a curveball.
He was the top overall vote-getter in Tuesday's primary election with 597,472 votes (18.8 percent of the vote). A retired school district superintendent in San Jose, Aceves' campaign was supported by the Association of California School Administrators, a group he led as president around 2002.

'Peer review' sinks state applications for education stimulus

Facing tough competition from other states, California has been denied education stimulus funds twice in the past three months by the U.S. Department of Education.
The culprit? Not politics, say federal officials. Not a belief that California is too far gone to be saved. Rather, officials say, an objective, "peer review" process is the responsible party.
I decided to look into into how the peer review process works, because its outcome has the potential to directly affect millions of California school children.
The first time California was dinged was in March, when it lost out on potentially hundreds of millions from the