Big Education Ape: Feb 11, 2010

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Assembly fails to approve Maldonado for lieutenant governor - Latest News - sacbee.com

The state Assembly failed today to approve Sen. Abel Maldonado for the vacant lieutenant governor post, setting the stage for a possible legal fight over his confirmation.

After being confirmed by the Senate this morning, Maldonado ultimately fell four votes short of 41-vote majority needed in theAssembly, where the final tally was 37-35. A rejection leaves Maldonado in his Senate seat, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger perhaps looking for a new nominee. Maldonado has said he will run for the office this year no matter what.

But the governor's office challenged the assertion that the Assembly vote counts as a rejection under the state constitution and said that based on the votes taken today, Maldonado would be sworn in to fill the post vacated by DemocratJohn Garamendi's election last fall to Congress.

Schwarzenegger tapped Maldonado for the post in November, starting a 90-day clock for lawmakers to approve or reject the nomination. The nominee also takes office if he is "neither confirmed nor refused confirmation by both houses" within that period, according to the state constitution.

Sacramento Press / Four city schools among state honorees for rigorous academic achievement Closing achievement gap among recognition criteria

By Maria L. Lopez

Four Sacramento City Unified School District campuses are among 238 California schools announced today as recipients of the 2009-10 Title 1 Academic Achievement Award. The SCUSD sites are David Lubin, Earl Warren, Isador Cohen and Theodore Judah elementary schools. Aspire Capitol Heights Academy and St. HOPE Public School 7, both independent charter schools located in the district, are also among the award winners.

“This recognition is a testament to the great work of students, teachers and parents occurring at these schools,” SCUSD Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond said. “The recognition is especially appreciated because progress towards closing the achievement gap is one of the measures used to single out these campuses,” Raymond stated.

The Title 1 Academic Achievement Award is given only to schools receiving federal Title 1 funds, federal funding that assists schools in meeting the educational needs of students living near or at the poverty level. More than 6,000 of California’s 9,000 campuses participate in the Title I program.

Schools must demonstrate that all students are making significant progress toward proficiency on California’s academic content standards and the schools’ low-income students must have doubled the achievement targets set for them over two consecutive years.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell called principals of each of the schools to convey the good news and express

Right on the Money - News Features & Releases

Right on the Money

1 Comment

Despite repeated efforts to reward teachers based on performance -- both theirs and their students' -- many experts say this incentive doesn't improve education.
By Elaine McArdle

Offering financial incentives to improve education -- providing money rewards to students, teachers, schools, or districts as a way to motivate them to try harder and do better -- is one of the hottest topics in education today.

On the student side, schools in cities like New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., are experimenting with financial rewards, including cash payouts to students who make good grades or show other achievement. The new competitive incentive grants from the federal Department of Education -- the so-called "Race to the Top" money -- hand out financial remuneration to states that comply with certain requirements, including improving academic results.

But the greatest focus has been "pay for performance" initiatives for teachers whose students make the most academic progress, typically measured by results of standardized tests. The concept is simple: A series of influential studies in recent years have shown that teacher quality is one of the most important factors in student achievement, so "good" teachers -- as reflected in growth in student test scores -- should be paid more than their less able colleagues. Financial incentives will encourage teachers to try harder in their jobs, the theory goes, and those who don't should leave the field and seek other careers. Pay for performance will rid schools of mediocre teachers, proponents say, leading to higher student achievement, betters schools, and, in the long-run, a more productive workforce in the United States.

In the ongoing effort to address the complicated issue of improving American education, pay for performance seems to make sense, and so the movement has caught on across the country. In the past decade, at least 20 states and a large number of districts have instituted some form of pay for performance for teachers, including California, Florida, Minnesota, Texas, and the cities of Cincinnati, Denver, New York, and