voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - San Diego Schools Zig on Reforms While Obama Zags

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - San Diego Schools Zig on Reforms While Obama Zags

San Diego Schools Zig on Reforms While Obama Zags

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  Sam Hodgson

  In the annual State of the District address, school board President Richard Barrera outlined his vision for school reform, which differs from many ideas pushed by President Barack Obama.

Related Links

• Related: 'Vision Without Action is Hallucination' (March 24, 2010)
• Related: Small Changes Made a Big Difference at One School (March 18, 2010)
• Related: State Pushes Turnaround on a School Turned Around and Around (March 14, 2010)

Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 6:03 pm | Updated: 6:26 pm, Sun Mar 28, 2010.

By EMILY ALPERT

As President Barack Obama has unveiled many planned school reforms, San Diego Unified has steadily steered in the opposite direction from many of the controversial changes the feds seek.

San Diego Unified didn't join in when California competed against other states for more school stimulus money -- partly because the federal contest required reforms. Obama wants to beef up teacher evaluations and include student test scores in how teachers are judged; San Diego has made evaluations less frequent for senior teachers and wants to deemphasize tests. Obama has praised experiments that pay teachers more for boosting scores or working in disadvantaged schools; San Diego has avoided them.

The school district wants to put tremendous trust in teachers and principals -- the same people the Obama Administration wants to oust when test scores drag. The district prizes gradual change; Obama wants big shakeups for failing schools.

School board President Richard Barrera called San Diego's example a competing "community

End the blame game for education failures - MontereyHerald.com :

End the blame game for education failures - MontereyHerald.com :

End the blame game for education failures

By HELEN OGDEN
Guest commentary

Posted: 03/29/2010 01:29:04 AM PDT

Updated: 03/29/2010 01:29:04 AM PDT

The schools and what to do about them has been the subject of many recent headlines. In truth, it is not schools that are failing; it is the students who are failing. In many cases it can be said that it is the community, and even loving parents, that are failing the students.

Recent guest commentaries by Paul Karrer and Sharon Michaels provided perceptive summaries of some problems confronting our educational system. Few things are more complex than the reasons behind our failing schools, and it is often said that for every complex problem, there is a very simple and very wrong solution. Firing principals and teachers is simple. It is much simpler, and cheaper, than implementing changes necessary to address the real and complex reasons behind student failure.

It is unfair and counterproductive to place the blame for low achievement and the responsibility for raising test scores solely upon teachers and principals. It is time to stop the blame game and to roll up our collective sleeves.

So what is the not-so-simple solution to the complex problem of pervasive academic failure in our schools? Most teachers are already doing all they can to educate this generation of children. They are using their own money to buy materials their districts can't afford to supply. They are coming in early, working late, and putting in weekend hours. They are being subjected to district micromanagement, prescribed-scripted teaching, endless testing and

State Board Calls Special Session for Alisal Union - KION - Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz - News Weather

State Board Calls Special Session for Alisal Union - KION - Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz - News Weather

State Board Calls Special Session for Alisal Union

Posted: Mar 28, 2010 6:37 PM PDTUpdated: Mar 28, 2010 10:50 PM PDT

Video Gallery

State Board Calls Special Session for Alisal Union 2:42

SALINAS, Calif. - The State Board of Education will hold a special meeting Tuesday to address one of the most troubled school districts in the county.

Alisal's new superintendent John Ramirez Jr. says, he was unaware about the special session and was never notified by state education officials.

This agenda item was posted on the California Department of Education web site Sunday. It notes the state is considering additional actions for the Alisal Union School District for purposes of taking immediate action to protect the public interest.

"I'm going to be on the phone tomorrow," says Ramirez. "So, I know what it's about."

That's the reaction from John Ramirez, after Central Coast News pressed him for details on this special meeting. He says, he's looking for answers just like we are.

"I'm aware of the details," says Ramirez. "We became aware of it as it was posted, so we have not been able to contact anyone at the state department yet, but we are planning to address it on Monday."

Central Coast News made several calls to the State Board, but they could not be reached Sunday. Ramirez thinks the State Board will discuss the state trustee that was assigned to the district

Bigger class sizes seen as a step backward - ContraCostaTimes.com

Bigger class sizes seen as a step backward - ContraCostaTimes.com

Bigger class sizes seen as a step backward

After 14 years and more than $10 billion spent for smaller class sizes, many California classrooms in the fall will move in the opposite direction.

In just a few months, classrooms across the state will increase their student-to-teacher ratios in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms from 20 students to as many as 30, essentially reversing what was advocated more than a decade ago in better economic times.

"My biggest fear is not knowing my students the way I got to know them when I had 20 and not knowing their needs and just being spread too thin," said Renee Chipman, first-grade teacher at Valle Vista Elementary School in Rancho Cucamonga.

It's not that educators haven't advocated for smaller class sizes,

First-grade teacher Renee Chipman teaches her students math this month at Valle Vista Elementary School in Rancho Cucamonga. Chipman's class will increase to 30 students next year. (Jennifer Cappuccio-Maher/Staff Photographer)

but the state's dwindling cash flow and budget crisis has forced many districts to lay off teachers, resulting in some teachers having to take on combination-grade classes, additional students and responsibilities, educators said.

"It's not about what's good for kids or education, it's about economic survival, and that's why you see these decisions to put more students into a classroom," said Ron Leon, Cal Poly Pomona associated professor of graduate studies in education.

Concerns in the mid-1990s about how students performed on a national test coupled with California having some of the largest class sizes in the nation were the primary reasons why the state pushed for class size reduction.

But the idea is no longer a reality for K-3 educators, who

David Ellison: School reform requires community reform - San Jose Mercury News

David Ellison: School reform requires community reform - San Jose Mercury News

David Ellison: School reform requires community reform

By David Ellison
Oakland Tribune columnist

Posted: 03/29/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT

CALIFORNIA HAS published its worst-schools list. The vast majority of the humiliated sites serve students who are predominately poor and/or minority.

This comes as no surprise, of course, because California's and the nation's schools are more segregated by race and class today than ever — and we've long known that concentrating our disadvantaged kids in decrepit schools staffed too often with our least-qualified teachers might make it difficult for those kids and schools to succeed.

Now we're going to "reform" those schools by, for example, giving the boot to their principals and teachers (thus discouraging other educators even more from considering a position in them).

How did our schools end up so segregated more than 50 years after the Supreme Court ruled such an arrangement was, if not immoral, at least unconstitutional?

For an explanation, look no further than hapless Kansas City, Mo., which must now close 28 of its 61 schools.

As William Moran explained in his seminal book, "Race, Law, and the Desegregation of the Public Schools":

"In 1954, Kansas City's segregated schools were more than 80 percent white, enrolled about 60,000 students, and

Student-loan takeover slips through with health care law - Washington Times

Student-loan takeover slips through with health care law - Washington Times

Student-loan takeover slips through with health care law

It passed with little fanfare in the slipstream of health care reform last week, but a looming overhaul of the nation's student-loan market may bring just as large a policy revolution in higher-education finance as Obamacare does for the nation's medical-delivery system.

Private lenders are angry, and many colleges and universities are scrambling to adjust in the next three months, following passage by the Senate and House of a bill of "fixes" to President Obama's signature health care reform. Congressional Democrats used the must-pass bill as a vehicle to push through the long-sought student-loan package as well, making the federal government - not the private sector - the direct provider of federal loans to some 8 million students nationwide annually.

"We were very disappointed," said Elena Lubimtsev, government-relations officer for Tennessee-based Edamerica, one of the nation's largest private providers of student loans. "... We lost our business. Congress took it from us."

But reform backers said the change - revamping a system that dates back to the mid-1960s - will cut out the unnecessary middleman in college lending, the private commercial lenders

Zach Friend: California's Failed Experiment

Zach Friend: California's Failed Experiment

California's Failed Experiment

Zach Friend

Zach Friend is a policy, public affairs and communications expert.

There are times in California where it is easy to ask yourself why you even bother voting for state elected officials. After all, over 40 percent of the state's discretionary funding is already allocated due to ballot measures and if you don't like something the electeds do, well, you can start an initiative to change it.

In fact, over the last decade, California voters allowed over 100 propositions (initiatives) on the ballot to do just that. These propositions, or props as they are commonly known, cover such important topics as creating a "none of the above" option on ballots (failed) to ensuring the fair treatment of farm animals (passed). Some have relatively no bearing on the state budget, such as certain insurance reforms or school voucher proposals, while others are remarkable for their blatant attempt to hamstring the budget.

In 1978, Proposition 13 was enacted, triggering an explosion in the number of ballot initiatives in California. Prop 13 imposed strict limits on local property taxes - much to the detriment of local government budgets and school districts. It also requires a two-thirds

Texas, Education And Textbooks | Gov Monitor

Texas, Education And Textbooks | Gov Monitor

Texas, Education And Textbooks

Like the poor, we seem always to have with us those who insist upon their own views. They are never less than certain. And, knowing, they feel entitled—obligated—to compel the rest of us to know what they know.

For decades now, the state of Texas has exercised enormous influence on the textbooks used in elementary and high schools throughout the nation. It has done so through the state Board of Education, which must approve all textbooks used in the state. The size of the Texas market (and that of California, which carries a similar weight) has made it an irresistibly powerful tail, wagging the editorial process that has traditionally produced the materials from which children learn (or don’t) in schools. If Texas wants it, it goes in, and everybody gets it; if Texas doesn’t want it, nobody gets it. That is the logic of the market and of the economics of printed books.

The scramble to get books approved in Texas has not necessarily brought forth publishers’ best efforts. Some 30 years ago, I recall, the board was considering dictionaries for use in high schools. There were two candidates, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate and one whose name has happily escaped me. Both were found, upon examination, to contain the dreaded f-word. The board demanded that it be removed, perhaps fearing that if there should, by any chance, be a high school student somewhere in the state who had not before encountered that word, he or (I suppose more likely) she might suffer some sort of psychological deflowering upon seeing it there on the page, in seven-point type, between fuchsin, a kind of dye, and fucoid, a type of seaweed.

The nameless publisher evidently calculated that he could have the page reset, filling the space freed up by the deletion, and deliver a new press run at a bearable cost. He agreed to the board’s demand. Merriam’s president refused. As it happened, the board then had a rule that two alternatives must be approved (so that schools would have a choice of dictionary) or none. (Readers may recognize the situation as a variation on the Prisoner’s Dilemma.) The one publisher’s pusillanimity availed him naught, while the other was able to stymie his competitor and walk away with something that looked rather like honor.

In those days the Texas board’s public hearings were often dominated by a pair of dedicated amateur critics, Mel and Norma Gabler. Their reviews of textbooks were a good

Texas Board of Education curriculum changes could affect Pennsylvania and New Jersey public school textbooks - lehighvalleylive.com

Texas Board of Education curriculum changes could affect Pennsylvania and New Jersey public school textbooks - lehighvalleylive.com

Texas Board of Education curriculum changes could affect Pennsylvania and New Jersey public school textbooks

Monday, March 29, 2010

By SARA K. SATULLO

The Express-Times

In Texas, it soon might be hard to find the word capitalism in public school textbooks.

Instead, try free enterprise system.

This is just one of the preliminary social studies curriculum changes the elected conservative bloc of the Texas Board of Education passed earlier this month. The board's vote could influence textbook materials beyond the borders of the Lone Star State because it is one of the country's biggest textbook purchasers. More than 48 million textbooks are given to students each year, according to the state education agency.

Texas' influence in the school publishing world has sparked fears that students in other parts of the country could soon be learning from textbooks that don't list Thomas Jefferson as an Enlightenment thinker who influenced 18th and 19th century revolutions, another one of the changes.

But with the rise of technology and state learning standards, reviews are mixed on the true power Texas wields over textbooks in Lehigh Valley classrooms.

"The conventional wisdom is as California and Texas goes, so goes the nation in terms of textbooks," Saucon Valley School District Assistant Superintendent Carl Atkinson said. "I think that is becoming less and less true as the textbook industry has gotten more and more responsive to state standards."

Texas book standards up for final vote in May

Texas' standards are reviewed every decade. Changes on the social studies revisions are up for a 30-day public comment period starting in mid-April with a final vote scheduled for May.

The social studies changes among many things, will likely

Educational innovation is a hit | visaliatimesdelta.com | Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register

Educational innovation is a hit | visaliatimesdelta.com | Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register

Educational innovation is a hit

MARCH 29, 2010

Thumbs up to innovative vocational educational programs at local schools.Say what you want about the deterioration of public education, some exciting things are taking place in local education.In no particular order:Thumbs up to the University Preparatory High School program at College of the Sequoias.The first-year program offers courses for college credit to qualified high school students while they also complete their high school education.

A total of 81 students, freshmen and sophomores, are in the first year of the program.The University Preparatory program will enter juniors next year and expand to about 150 students. When the school is filled, about 500 students will attend.

The concept is exciting: Get students accustomed to college work while they complete their high school courses.

The thinking is they will be that much more ready for college when the time comes.

The charter school is operated by the

Sacramento City teachers disagree over concessions - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City teachers disagree over concessions - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City teachers disagree over concessions

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Buzz up!

By Melody Gutierrez
mgutierrez@sacbee.com

Published: Monday, Mar. 29, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

Amid pink slips and massive budget cuts, infighting has erupted among Sacramento City Unified School District teachers and their union leaders over whether they should make concessions to save jobs.

At odds, some teachers say, are the younger teachers vs. the hard-line tactics of union leadership that has been in place for decades.

At the same time, Sacramento City Teachers Association leadership is dueling with the district in informal talks over whether to give concessions in light of the district's $30 million budget deficit.

Sacramento City Unified was placed on the state's fiscal early warning list last week, meaning the district is on shaky financial ground.

If an accord can't be reached – and the budget gap isn't closed – the district could receive a negative rating and be placed under the financial control of the Sacramento County Board of Education.

Without concessions, Superintendent Jonathan Raymond said Thursday that class sizes will increase and the district will be unable to rescind many of the hundreds of pink slips sent out two

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/29/2639947/sacramento-city-teachers-disagree.html#ixzz0jZ9oBAZW

Teachers union concessions

Teachers unions in the Folsom Cordova, Twin Rivers and San Juan unified school districts made concessions last school year to help save jobs and programs for their districts. The union for Sacramento City Unified School District teachers made no concessions.

• San Juan Unified's seven employee groups, including teachers, restructured their health benefits plan to save $2.6 million this year.

• Twin Rivers Unified's teachers union agreed last year to 3 1/2 furlough days per year for three years, which amounts to a 1.67 percent annual pay cut.

• Folsom Cordova Unified teachers are taking three furlough days this school year for a savings of $1.35 million.

Teachers' compensation

Sacramento City Unified teachers on average make less money than teachers in the Elk Grove and San Juan unified school districts. But their health benefits compare favorably.

• Sacramento City Unified:

Salary: $60,532

Health benefits: District pays entire cost of single, two-party or family coverage for Kaiser or HealthNet. Co-pays for Kaiser are $5 with a $4 reimbursement or $5 for Health Net.

• Elk Grove Unified:

Salary: $65,348

Health benefits: District pays entire cost of single, two-party or family coverage for Kaiser. Employees can buy HealthNet for $48.18 a month for employee or $136.36 for family coverage. Co-pays are $20.

• San Juan Unified:

Salary: $69,380

Health benefits: District pays the entire cost for employee-only coverage for Kaiser and PacifiCare. For families, employee contribution starts at $256 a month. Co-pays are $20 for PacifiCare and $25 for Kaiser.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/29/2639947/sacramento-city-teachers-disagree.html#ixzz0jZA4tGhK