News Analysis: Election fallout will claim many important, less visible projects
By Tom Chorneau
Friday, October 26, 2012
With everything else schools have riding on next month’s election, progress on many less obvious but still critical programs and projects will also be jeopardized if voters turn down tax measures on Nov. 6.
The work of updating California’s teacher performance assessment, for example, could be set back as education programs statewide brace for another round of big cuts.
The testing, designed to measure a new teacher candidate’s ability to carry out state professional standards, is overseen by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing whose budget is largely drawn from fees from credential applications and test administration – both activities that have crashed the past three years.
Officials say an update on the performance assessment is long overdue, with key components more than a decade old. There’s also a need to align the testing with the new common core curriculum standards that California adopted two years ago and is in the process of introducing into classrooms.
Even if the CTC can find the resources to press ahead with the TPA update, officials within the California State