With the passage of Proposition 30 and implementation of a new funding system channeling more money to most districts this fall, the 2012-13 school year will be the base for measuring how well schools recover from the Great Recession. Yet as EdSource documents in a report issued Thursday, there will be a steep climb out of the trough.In “Recovering from the Recession: Pressures Ease on California’s Largest Districts, but Pressures Remain,” EdSource found signs that budgets were stabilizing and districts were regaining some ground after five years of damaging budget cuts. But there were also areas of further concern, such as a decline in the number of counselors in schools and a rise in rates of childhood poverty – evidence that districts continued to struggle, as measured by some key indices.
The survey polled the state’s 30 largest districts, which together enroll some 2 million children, about a third of the state’s K-12 students. As it did in its initial report last year, EdSource examined stress factors on schools, including class size, teacher layoffs and the number of instructional days. The current report added additional factors – housing foreclosures, responses to security threats and access to health care – that have a direct impact on student wellness and performance in the classroom.
Last year was a pivotal, but also, in some respects, difficult year for budgeting. Many districts had
The former chief executive of the nonprofit that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa created to run alternative schools within Los Angeles Unified is challenging Tom Torlakson’s run for a second term as state superintendent of public instruction next year. Marshall Tuck, 40, was also president of Green Dot Public Schools when it grew from one Los Angeles charter school to 10, before becoming CEO of... [[
Whenever I say that “neither top-down nor bottom-up approaches to change work in public education,” educators nod in agreement. But when it comes to acting on this insight, agreement is nowhere in sight. Private sector leaders tend to think that top-down strategies fail because public education leaders do something wrong. This is understandable: top-down approaches to change actually do work... [