Brown: API plus school inspections
England offers possible model for California
Toward the end of his provocative message last week vetoing a bill creating new quantitative measures for school accountability, Gov. Jerry Brown made what seemed like an off-the-cuff suggestion: “What about a system that relies on locally convened panels to visit schools, observe teachers, interview students and examine student work?”
“Such a system wouldn’t produce an API number,” Brown wrote, “but it could improve the quality of our schools.”
Brown hadn’t talked about this idea before, and he has made bare mention of it since. StateBoard of Education Executive Director Sue Burr told me not to expect the governor to come forth with a statewide proposal for such a system.
And yet Brown’s suggestion for school inspections is credible, and it didn’t spring out of the