UPDATE: FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Friday, October 18, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Rocketship schools' growth could be slowed by legal ruling

Education Headlines

Friday, October 18, 2013

Black Oak, Twain Harte merger is discussed

Black Oak Elementary and Twain Harte Middle schools, which operate on the same campus, could soon become one school again. Twain-Harte Long Barn Union School District's Board of Trustees on Tuesday directed Superintendent Jeff Winfield to look into combining the schools.

Newport-Mesa launches program aimed at avoiding special ed lawsuits

Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s special education program has introduced a new process that school officials hope will encourage parents and the district to talk out their differences before resorting to legal action.

County education leader critiques Common Core

A trustee with the Orange County Board of Education has voiced concerns about new state standards being implemented at California schools during a gathering of local Tea Party activists.

Announcing his departure, Sacramento schools chief recalls highs and lows

Superintendent Jonathan Raymond said the toughest moment in his tenure at Sacramento City Unified came when he talked to the parents of a critically injured child in a Sacramento emergency room. Raymond, 53, recalled the tragedy Thursday when he formally announced his decision to leave the district so he and his family could return to their home city of Boston.

U.S. flag ban: Federal appeals court struggles with Morgan Hill school's Cinco de Mayo incident

Stuck between preserving order at public schools and students' free speech rights, a federal appeals court on Thursday struggled over whether a South Bay high school overstepped three years ago when it ordered some students to turn their American-flag adorned shirts inside out during a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Rocketship schools' growth could be slowed by legal ruling

Rocketship Education, which has opened nine public elementary schools in seven years, may find its lightning-speed velocity forced to decelerate.

West Contra Costa school district pledges better communication with bond oversight committee

West Contra Costa school trustees took a step Wednesday evening to improve communication with a district school bond oversight committee, but committee leaders remained skeptical that the effort will be sufficient.

LAUSD board president Vladovic facing censure motion

Los Angeles Unified board member Tamar Galatzan on Thursday released an unprecedented motion asking the board to censure its president, Richard Vladovic, who has been accused of harassment and intimidation by two district employees.

L.A. Unified considers slower iPad rollout

Superintendent John Deasy is on board with a plan that would extend by a year a $1-billon school tablet program, after problems emerged during initial distribution.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Conejo Valley school district studies possible bond measure

The Conejo Valley Unified School District is pressing ahead with a proposal to place a bond measure on the ballot in 2014 and commissioning more research on whether voters are likely to support it.

Shandon school district's superintendent has been fired

Shandon Joint Unified School District lost one leader and gained another in less than 24 hours this week as school leaders remain tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding the termination of district Superintendent Rodney Wallace.

Teacher lauded for shielding kids when intruder burst in

A middle-school teacher has been credited with protecting her students after a man, bleeding and believed to be under the influence of drugs, burst into her classroom and ordered everyone to the floor.

Talbert Middle School pilot program emphasizes science, technology

Teachers and administrators at Samuel E. Talbert Middle School are tapping into new technology this year to prepare students for a new statewide student assessment system that will eventually incorporate Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards.

Cosumnes Oaks students use energy-efficient house as learning laboratory

No one lives in rHouse, which has a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom, laundry closet and a garage. Instead, the house is a living laboratory and classroom for students in the school’s Architectural Design and Engineering Academy. The living room, complete with an interactive smart board and rows of blue student chairs, acts as the classroom.

Ruth Asawa School of the Arts stuck in limbo

It is an immense and stately building in a prime location, occupying an entire city block near San Francisco City Hall. Not surprisingly, its owner - the city school district - has big plans for 135 Van Ness Ave.

Oakley Union superintendent announces retirement

After 10 years as the district's top administrator, 59-year-old Superintendent Rick Rogers announced Tuesday that he's retiring. But the school board tonight is expected to approve an addendum to his contract so Rogers can continue through 2014-15 as interim superintendent during which he will forego his salary.

Orinda school district considers use of Pine Grove funds

The future home of the Orinda school district is starting to take shape, as a task force of parents and district staffers continues to gather community input on how land sale proceeds can best be put to use.

Freedburg: Potential weaknesses in new school funding law demand attention

There are great expectations that the historic – and necessary – reforms of California’s outdated and opaque school financing system signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown this summer will translate into improved student performance. However, there are several potential weaknesses in the law that could threaten its ability to produce the results Gov. Brown has in mind.

Sac City Unified chief Raymond to leave district in December

Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jonathan Raymond will resign his post and leave at the end of December, the school district said Wednesday.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Simi Valley enrollment a fuzzy issue in school board recall effort

In the Simi Valley Unified School District, which faces the possible recall of two of its five board members, interdistrict transfers have become a key issue for recall proponents. But because of the way transfers are tracked, the magnitude of the problem is unclear.

Two Lodi Unified campuses could become magnet sites

Lodi Unified officials unveiled plans Tuesday to convert Parklane and Sutherland elementary schools into K-6 campuses, proposing two magnet schools that will focus on science and organizational skills.

Holman to leave interim Stockton USD post

Eric Holman will step down as interim chief of Stockton Unified's police department Oct. 30, less than two months after he replaced retired Chief Jim West.

Alisal students rank high in algebra

When it comes to math, Alisal High students seem to have solved a complicated equation. Despite the "demographic challenges" administrators talk about - a high percentage of low-income, English-learner students - math students at the east Salinas school are outperforming almost all of the high schools in Monterey County.

Enrollment on the rise in Marin schools

The county Office of Education released enrollment numbers for the 2013-14 school year Tuesday, showing that all but one of Marin's school districts have more students this year than they did to start last school year, continuing a trend that is causing classrooms to overflow

Desert Sands Unified shifts from at-large voting to avoid lawsuit

To avoid an expensive lawsuit that claims racial inequality, the Desert Sands Unified School District board plans to change the way its members are elected, forcing one current member off the five-member board.

10-18-13 LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Disgrace in Indiana

One of the few certainties to emerge from the intense effort to privatize public education is that giving A-F letter grades to schools is incoherent, punitive, and does nothing to help schools. Former superintendent Tony Bennett, a hard-right ideologue out to destroy public education in Indiana, imported the A-F grading system from his mentor Jeb Bush. No matter where it came from, it is useless.

21 by dianerav / 1h

Cody: Common Core Is Failing Because Developers Ignored Democratic Process

Anthony Codybexplains here why the Common Core standards lack legitimacy. The developers were in a hurry. They ignored the democratic process. They took shortcuts. Consequently, they lack buy-in and legitimacy. The democratic process is slow and messy but it works better in the long run than authoritarianism. It gains the consent of the governed. Without the consent of the governed, there is coe

2 by dianerav / 25min 

EduShyster Academy Offers Degrees in Excellence

Here is your chance to get a graduate degree from an outstanding faculty that contains no scholars at all. That is the very best sort of university these days. Read the qualifications and see if your belong at EduShyster Academy. If Massachusetts and New York can allow new universities to be accredited without any faculty members who hold a Ph.D., without any faculty members with a record of schol

by dianerav / 42min 

See You in Cambridge on October 24

You might even meet the brilliant, beautiful, elusive EduShyster! CPS Presents Diane Ravitch in Cambridge, Oct. 24 Citizens for Public Schools is proud to present Diane Ravitch, speaking on her new book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. Reign of Error picks up where Diane left off with her ground-breaking book, The Death and Life of

by dianerav / 11min 

Can You Advise This Parent?

I received the following comment this morning. I don’t have the answer to everything, and I am not sure what I would do in her place, but this is my advice. Organize the other parents of kindergarten children. Go as a group to the superintendent and tell him this is wrong. Get parents of children in first grade and second grade to join you. Others may as well. Speak on behalf of your child and oth

8 by dianerav / 1h 

TFA Scores Big Win in Federal Debt Deal

One of the provisions of No Child Left Behind was a requirement that the neediest children would have “highly qualified teachers.” Most people would interpret that language to mean that poor kids would get teachers who are well-prepared and experienced. But through its political connections on Capitol Hill, Teach for America managed to get a special exemption carved out for their corps members wh

4 by dianerav / 1h 

Who Raised Over A Quarter Million Dollars for Local School Board Races?

Jersey Jazzman has been digging and discovering a small number of people who are dropping large sums of money into local school board races. The catch is that these are not races where the donors reside. Somehow, they are finding relatively obscure races where a gift of $10,000 or $25,000 makes a huge difference. Why are out-of-towners and out-of-staters so eager to affect school board races dista

6 by dianerav / 2h mark as read  //  save

A Broadie Wreaks Havoc in Montclair, New Jersey

Starting in 2002, the unaccredited Broad Superintendents “Academy” has produced graduates who supposedly learned the management techniques to turn the nation’s schools around. The Academy consists of six weekends over a ten-month session, where aspiring leaders are immersed in Billionaire Eli Broad’s management philosophy, which apparently means top-down mandates, high-stakes testing, close school

10 by dianerav / 3h 

TO LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-17-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: A Teacher in Hawaii Reviews “Reign of Error”Diane Aoki felt that something was wrong, terribly wrong, as No Child Left Behind changed the schools. It felt even worse when Race to the Top came in. Everyone told her, “don’t worry, this too will pass,” but it only got worse every year. When she read “Reign of Error,” it all made sense

by mike simpson / 10h 

New Community-Based Approach to Accountability Featured on PBS-TV EdTalk | Cloaking Inequity

New Community-Based Approach to Accountability Featured on PBS-TV EdTalk | Cloaking Inequity:

New Community-Based Approach to Accountability Featured on PBS-TV EdTalk

How can we banish No Child Left Behind’s top-down and narrow paradigm? Local control has been a bedrock principle of public schooling in America since its inception. NCLB sent us in the opposite direction of this traditional notion. A return to a traditional locally-based educational policy can be again realized via a multiple measures approach to accountability that is democratically decided on the community level.  On Sunday October 20 at 1:30 CST, a 12 minute EdTalk will air live on KLRU PBS-TV Austin. I will provide an introduction to a new approach to NCLB, testing, and accountability that we have dubbed Community-Based Accountability. This EdTalk is part of a new show on PBS called Blackademics Television.

Call your local PBS station and ask them to syndicate the Blackademics on PBS-TV in your area. To see the 12-minute Blackademics Television EdTalk on Community-Based Accountability now and for free— click on the video link below. The Community-Based Accountability talk begins at about 13:58.

Here are the Community-Based Accountability Executive Summary and Key Features. Please forward and circulate widely. These are living documents and will be

10-18-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

"Self-Driven Learning: Teaching Strategies for Student Motivation" is

 a sequel to "Helping Students Motivate Themselves"

Wow! What A Treasure Trove Of Infographics

Information Is Beautiful, the world’s premiere resource for infographics, has just announced their 2013 Longlist for infographic and interactive awards. It’s an amazing collection. You might also be interested in last year’s nominees, too.

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 22min 

Infographic: Halloween Spending

I’m adding this infographic to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween:

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 41min 

“Dream School” Reality Show Is Awful In So Many Ways….

Today, Alexander Russo posted about what has to be one of the worst ideas of the year — a new series on the Sundance Channel called “Dream School.” Here’s the awful trailer: I’m not even going to say anything more because Rachel Nobel has already said all that needs to be said over at a post on Ed Wize. You really need to go over and read the entire post, but here’s an excerpt: this show seems t

11 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

Creating Vine Videos With English Language Learners

I’ve previously posted a number of resources about using the video apps Vine and Instagram in the classroom (see The Best Resources For Learning To Use The Video App “Vine”). Today, I had my Beginning English Language Learners try it out, and it went great! We used the videos as a formative assessment to determine their understanding of new vocabulary, and they loved creating them. And it was so

9 by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h 

Infographic: “Are You Ready for a Natural Disaster?”

I’m adding this infographic to The Best Websites For Learning About Natural Disasters: Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

7 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

YESTERDAY

Research Studies Of The Week

I often write about research studies from various fields and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature: A recent study wa

7 by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

This Week In Web 2.0

In yet another attempt to get at the enormous backlog I have of sites worth sharing, I’ve recently begin a regular feature called “The Week In Web 2.0.” It’ll be a short compilation of new decent sites that are worth noting, but maybe not necessarily worth a separate post and generally — though not always — not worthy of being on a “The Best…” list (let me know if you think I’m wrong in my assess

7 by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Education Policy

Here are some relatively recent good posts and articles on education policy issues: The Value Added & Growth Score Train Wreck is Here is from School Finance 101. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation. John Merrow has some interesting thoughts on NBC’s “Education Nation.” The Glossary of Education Reform is: a comprehensiv

11 by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

I’ve started a somewhat regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention: Writing bingo is a very creative lesson plan from Sandy Millin. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For K-12 Writing Instruction/Reinforcement. Ana Maria Menezes blogs about the mini “sister class” project my students are

6 by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h mark as read  //  save

This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t” – October

I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful

6 by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h 

10-17-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: "Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching" is an edited compilation from my Ed Week teacher advice column, along with new materials.Resources From All My BlogsIn addition to this blog, I regularly post at several other sites: Engaging Parents In School: Weekly Posts At Classroom Q & A With

by mike simpson / 8h