LAUSD,Oakland may not get turnaround grants
Posted in State Board of Education, Turning around failing schools
The state Department of Education posted its recommendations late Friday (question that timing) – for the State Board of Education, which has final say over the funding, to consider on Monday. Big money is at stake – between $150,000 to $6 million per school over three years so, expect the losers to complain loudly at the meeting (if officials are not on vacation and are alerted to show up) about the method that the state and the federal Department of Education chose.
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Common core – a commissioner’s dissent
Posted in Common Core standardsYesterday, I recommended that the State Board of Education on Monday approve the recommendation of the majority of the California State Academic Standards Commission to approve the common-core standards. Ze’ev Wurman was one of two commissioners to vote against the standards. He has asked for one last chance to explain why.
By Ze’ev WurmanCommissioner, California State Academic Standards Commission
A journalist has the same right to misinterpret motives as anyone else, so I will not enter into argument with John on that (smile). But I will describe the dilemma that the Academic Content Standards Commission (ACSC) faced in a different way. This being a Silicon Valley forum, I will use a few simple engineering terms.
The legislature asked the ACSC to examine if using 100% of Common Core plus limited (up to 15%) supplementation will be able to “Ensure that the rigor of the state’s reading, writing, and mathematics academic content standards, curricula, and assessments is maintained” (SB5X 1). The Governor, State Board of Education president, and Superintendent of Public Instruction, also charged us to verify that they “meet or exceed our own” (May 2009 letter).
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By Ze’ev WurmanCommissioner, California State Academic Standards Commission
A journalist has the same right to misinterpret motives as anyone else, so I will not enter into argument with John on that (smile). But I will describe the dilemma that the Academic Content Standards Commission (ACSC) faced in a different way. This being a Silicon Valley forum, I will use a few simple engineering terms.
The legislature asked the ACSC to examine if using 100% of Common Core plus limited (up to 15%) supplementation will be able to “Ensure that the rigor of the state’s reading, writing, and mathematics academic content standards, curricula, and assessments is maintained” (SB5X 1). The Governor, State Board of Education president, and Superintendent of Public Instruction, also charged us to verify that they “meet or exceed our own” (May 2009 letter).
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Better or worse off with common core?
Posted in Common Core standardsThe announcement that California is a finalist for Race to the Top all but guarantees that the State Board of Education will adopt common core standards, as amended, in English language arts and math when it meets Monday. The state would sacrifice 40 out of 500 points on its application if it didn’t – and any chance of winning up to $700 million.
California is hardly alone among states adopting national standards to meet the feds’ artificial Aug. 2 deadline to stay in the running – even though the $700 million that the state could get from common core will be dwarfed by the long-term cost of new textbooks, teacher training, testing and curriculum creation. But never mind; the rush is on, and the State Board is boxed in: It only can vote the intact standards up or down.
Still, before they adopt the national standards, as augmented and recommendedby the State Academic Content Standards Commission, state board members should pause and answer this critical question:
Five years after the adoption of common core math, what will be the impact on eighth graders?
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California is hardly alone among states adopting national standards to meet the feds’ artificial Aug. 2 deadline to stay in the running – even though the $700 million that the state could get from common core will be dwarfed by the long-term cost of new textbooks, teacher training, testing and curriculum creation. But never mind; the rush is on, and the State Board is boxed in: It only can vote the intact standards up or down.
Still, before they adopt the national standards, as augmented and recommendedby the State Academic Content Standards Commission, state board members should pause and answer this critical question:
Five years after the adoption of common core math, what will be the impact on eighth graders?
(Read more and comment on this post)