State rates teacher prep programs - St. Petersburg Times

State rates teacher prep programs - St. Petersburg Times:

"Out of the blue, the FCAT has a new job: measuring the programs across the state that produce teachers.
And it is already waving a red flag at the University of South Florida.

For the first time, the state Department of Education has examined the effectiveness of rookie teachers from a wide variety of teacher preparation programs, using their students' scores on the math and reading portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in 2008. It determined what percentage of graduates from each program had 50 percent or more of their students make a year's worth of progress."

Gates to spend $365m on helping teachers

Gates to spend $365m on helping teachers:

"WASHINGTON: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $US335 million ($365 million) investment in teacher effectiveness in three large US school systems and some public charter schools.

The grants, which amount to one of the largest privately sponsored school-improvement initiatives in recent years, will focus on experiments in tenure, evaluation, compensation, training and mentoring.

The foundation aims to reshape how policymakers approach teaching, and its goal is to focus on performance rather than qualifications."

VOVNEWS.VN | Success of “Meet Vietnam” in US beyond expectations - Success of “Meet Vietnam” in US beyond expectations

VOVNEWS.VN Success of “Meet Vietnam” in US beyond expectations - Success of “Meet Vietnam” in US beyond expectations:

"The recent “Meet Vietnam 2009' programme in the US has attracted due attention and won great applause from international friends.

Vietnam recently held an exchange programme entitled “Meet Vietnam in San Francisco, California, the US. The event was raised by the Overseas Vietnamese community in the US and by foreign friends. A VOV correspondent in the US interviewed Le Quoc Hung, Vietnam’s Counsellor General in San Francisco, about the event’s outcomes."

Reporter: What is your assessment of the “Meet Vietnam 2009" programme, which was held in California for the first time?

Le Quoc Hung: The event was more successful than we expected. The programme was of great political significance and received due attention from Overseas Vietnamese people in the US. During the event, we also held two seminars on trade promotion and education, which drew a large number of people. This has demonstrated that many foreigners have an interest in Vietnam’s investment environment and education sector. Many of the participants were also keen to invest in building universities in Vietnam to the standard of developed countries. In addition, we also held a concert and an exhibition to present Vietnam’s traditional culture.

SDUSD Adopts New Guidelines For School Fees - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego

SDUSD Adopts New Guidelines For School Fees - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego:

"SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Unified School District has adopted new guidelines after a 10News story in September questioned the legality of fees for specialized classes and activities."

Teachers now have strict rules to follow when it comes to requiring students to buy supplies, 10News learned.

"It's a matter of the state constitution; if you got a class then, you provide the materials," said school board member John DeBeck.

On Thursday, SD Unified distributed new guidelines regarding student fees after 10News exposed possible violations by the school district.

The California Constitution mandates public education be provided free of charge, which means no parent or student should be required to pay for supplies to join a class or activity like cheerleading, music or a photography class.

Deficit only real issue in guv race | San Francisco Examiner

Deficit only real issue in guv race San Francisco Examiner:

"As much as voters may want to hear candidates for governor wax rhapsodic on the intricacies of prison overcrowding, global warming and pension reform, only one subject will dominate the race — that is, if anybody’s paying attention.

It’s the economy, stupid, and it will be until 2014 and beyond.

A new legislative analyst report released this week paints a picture for California that definitely does the word “grim” justice. Next year, the state faces a $21 billion budget deficit, $23 billion after that, to be followed by fiscal shortfalls of $20 billion and $18.4 billion. For those keeping score at home, that’s nearly $83 billion during the next four years."

State of the Schools event addresses financial woes

State of the Schools event addresses financial woes:

"OCEAN PARK BLVD. — First the bad news about the local public schools.

A financial predicament is about to become even more problematic for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, which is projecting an operating deficit of $10 million this year and is sure to feel a big hit from an estimated $21 billion state budget shortfall.

The good news is despite the fiscal woes of the district, students are continuing to show improvement in academic achievement, scoring high marks on advanced placement and mandatory state tests."

MexEd Brings Hope Across Educational Borders

MexEd Brings Hope Across Educational Borders:

"Five months ago, students Micaela Lara and Silvia Leon traveled from their home at the University of California, Santa Cruz to help New York immigrant students graduate from high school and go on to college.

Lara and Leon, seniors majoring in community studies and education, came to the Big Apple to intern and work at The Mexican Educational Foundation of New York, or MexEd, which is a non-profit organization devoted to providing academic support with their after school programs and personal support through their mentoring program to Mexican and other immigrant students. The program is small and works out of a cramped office at Baruch Collge but in the last nine years their impact has been strong in young immigrant's lives, they said."

Assemblyman seeks support for Bill 656 : The Collegian Online

Assemblyman seeks support for Bill 656 : The Collegian Online:

"The majority leader of the California State Assembly spoke Wednesday in a meeting open to the public at California State University, Fresno.

Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, is the author of the recently debated Assembly Bill 656. He is making the rounds to colleges in California to drum up support for his bill. Fresno State is the 10th college campus he has visited in the past two weeks.

Torrico said he wants to gather 100,000 signatures to take to Sacramento to show support for the bill."

Assembly Bill 656 would tax oil companies that extract oil from the state. Torrico said that the bill would specifically prohibit oil companies from passing that cost onto consumers.

“Not only does it prohibit it in the bill, the bill sets up a commission,” Torrico said. “For the first time in California, we’re going to oversee the ongoing operations of oil companies.”

Torrico said California is an anomaly among oil-producing states. He said that a similar bill in Texas raises $400 million per year that funds higher education. He also said that Alaska has a 25 percent tax on companies that extract oil from the state.

KCBS - Teachers Sound the Alarm Over CA Budget

KCBS - Teachers Sound the Alarm Over CA Budget:

"SAN JOSE, Calif. (KCBS) -- The latest bad budget news out of Sacramento has teachers concerned about even deeper cuts to education. To say that California educators are concerned about next year's budget would be an understatement."

”Once again, we are starting to hear that the budget deficit for the State of California is going to impact our schools,” said Rudy Herrera with the Franklyn McKinley School District in San Jose.

He joined other educators to basically sound the alarm early about the more than $20 billion budget deficit projected for fiscal 2010.

Teacher Scott Schulimson says they are still reeling from earlier cuts to education.

”I don’t know how our district will bridge that gap,” said Schulimson. “I don’t know what’s left that can be cut.”

The legislative analysis has estimated the state will face $20 billion deficits through 2015 unless permanent fixes are made.

Don Dawson, California Teachers Association board member says one solution is to tax the wealthy.

”Everyone needs to pay their fair share, and what has happened is that those who have been paying proportionally less as time has gone by, and that’s not right,” said Dawson.
Governor Schwarzenegger has said he will not support any new tax increases.

Elk Grove Citizen : Archives > News > Sen. Steinberg says water package is good for Nor Cal, pledges support for EGUSD

Elk Grove Citizen : Archives & News Sen. Steinberg says water package is good for Nor Cal, pledges support for EGUSD:

"Although the Elk Grove City Council voted last month to oppose the water legislation package championed by State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), the legislator said he doesn’t have any hard feelings toward Elk Grove or any of the other cities that joined together to oppose the bills.

“Now that the laws are passed, it’s incumbent on us to make (them) work,” he said after a town hall meeting held Nov. 17 at the Valley Hi North Laguna Library in Sacramento.

A few dozen people attended the meeting, and Steinberg led with the topic he thought everyone would want to talk about – the package of five water bills that was passed by the state legislature on Nov. 4."

Glendale News Press > Columns

Glendale News Press > Columns:

"Before launching into this week’s topic, I want to tie up a few loose ends from last week’s. Part of what I wrote got lopped off due to space limitations, so I’ll just tack it on here. I don’t want to belabor the point, but I would like to finish a point only partially made last Friday.

Just to recap, the state of California and our school district are telling me that my 35 years of service will count for nothing and I will be terminated if I do not acquire a supplementary credential for teaching limited English speakers in my class (which last year amounted to three such students)."

The CLAD (Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development) program offers some good suggestions, but unfortunately they come in the form of mandates, and that will inevitably engender resentment among some of us who have spent the greater part of our lives teaching.

By all means, some of us would ask in our ongoing quest to become better teachers, give us more arrows for our quivers, but let each of us who call ourselves teachers choose which arrows we will use. Like the students we serve, we are individuals, and there is a tendency for some of us to resist being lumped together with all others, as if we were all common dispensaries of information.

The state should have offered, and school districts throughout the state should have demanded, that there be a grandfather clause in this whole thing for those of us who, for whatever the reason, have not found the need to supplement our teaching with “new methodologies.”

13-year-old Oroville girl presents students' school discipline proposal to California Board of Education - Chico Enterprise Record

13-year-old Oroville girl presents students' school discipline proposal to California Board of Education - Chico Enterprise Record:

"OROVILLE -- Tatum Duckett may or may not realize her dream of becoming an astronaut, but she is carving a niche for herself as a budding leader.

Duckett, 13, is student council president at Central Middle School in Oroville. She was one of five teens selected by peers at a conference to speak Wednesday before the California Board of Education in Sacramento.

Addressing the board was the culmination of a five-day conference hosted by the California Association of Student Councils in Sacramento."

Duckett was chosen to represent Central at the conference after speaking with an adviser, filling out an application and submitting an essay.

Duckett was the only student from north of Sacramento who went to the conference, and only one of 12 from a middle school.

Once at the conference, the students were divided into five groups, each with a proposal topic to make to the board.

Duckett's group's topic was discipline and policy. They researched the problem, came up with a solution and drafted a proposal. The long hours each day -- until midnight -- was exhausting, she said, but well worth it.

Schwarzenegger after-school program ties up budget - San Jose Mercury News

Schwarzenegger after-school program ties up budget - San Jose Mercury News:

"SACRAMENTO, Calif.—With California facing another mammoth budget deficit, the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst says voters should reconsider some of the billions of dollars tied up in ballot measures they have approved in recent years.

Among the suggestions from Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor is an after-school measure that costs $550 million a year and helped launch Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career. It is one of many programs contributing to the 'autopilot spending' that the Republican governor and fiscal watchdogs often complain about because the plans were approved by voters without specific funding sources."

Taylor's office this week said California will face a $21 billion deficit over the next year and a half, and $20 billion budget shortfalls each of the next several years.

The office has repeatedly recommended scaling back or repealing Schwarzenegger's after-school initiative, Proposition 49, as the state's fiscal crisis has deepened.

The governor so far has not supported a repeal. Last year, he vetoed a bill that would have placed a measure on the ballot allowing lawmakers to adjust funding for the program, which provides students in kindergarten through ninth grade with after-school tutoring, music, art and physical education. Instead, Schwarzenegger included in his budget proposal an offer to ask voters to cut it by 10 percent.

La Opinión - noticias locales, nacionales e internacionales desde Los Ángeles - impre.com - A blow to students

La Opinión - noticias locales, nacionales e internacionales desde Los Ángeles - impre.com - A blow to students:

"Higher education is an investment in an individual’s professional and personal development and in the human infrastructure necessary to keep California’s economy competitive. The University of California system’s 30% fee hike is a threat to these goals.

The Board of Regents’ decision is easy to understand given the state’s financial position, but it remains hard to accept due to its impact on students aspiring to a college education.

It can’t be ignored that California has had one of the least expensive public higher education systems in the country. In an effort to close the budget gap, and leading up to this hike, there have been layoffs, furloughs and program and course cancellations to save the system money, but this was not enough. The new analysis of the state deficit, at least $20 billion deeper in the red, is a bad omen for the future"

University of California, Crown Jewel of Education, Struggles With Cuts - NYTimes.com

University of California, Crown Jewel of Education, Struggles With Cuts - NYTimes.com:

"BERKELEY, Calif. — As the University of California struggles to absorb its sharpest drop in state financing since the Great Depression, every professor, administrator and clerical worker has been put on furlough amounting to an average pay cut of 8 percent."

In chemistry laboratories that have produced Nobel Prize-winning research, wastebaskets are stuffed to the brim on the new reduced cleaning schedule. Many students are frozen out of required classes as course sections are trimmed.

And on Thursday, to top it all off, the Board of Regents voted to increase undergraduate fees — the equivalent of tuition — by 32 percent next fall, to more than $10,000. The university will cost about three times as much as it did a decade ago, and what was once an educational bargain will be one of the nation’s higher-priced public universities.

Editorial: Educational exchanges can help Michigan grow | Muskegon Opinion - - MLive.com

Editorial: Educational exchanges can help Michigan grow Muskegon Opinion - - MLive.com:

"A lot of phrases come to mind when you think about Michigan these days, but leader in international education probably isn’t at the top of the list.

A new report, released during International Education Week, says the University of Michigan and Michigan State University are among the national leaders for educational exchange."

The Institute of International Education report, “Open Doors 2009,” listed the University of Michigan as sixth in the nation in the number of international students attending the university in 2008-09. U-M had 5,790 foreign students. The University of Southern California led with 7,482. MSU was 10th with 4,757 foreign students.The state is ranked eighth in the nation with 23,617 foreign students studying at our colleges and universities, an increase of 3.3 percent. Joining U-M and MSU as leading host campuses are Wayne State, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan universities.

The foreign students spent about $592.4 million in Michigan on tuition and living expenses in 2008-09 — a half-billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at.Overall, 671,616 international students attended U.S. colleges, up 8 percent from a year ago. The foreign students mainly chose business and engineering courses and California and New York City were their top destinations.

Students get real-life banking skills at McClatchy High's Golden 1 branch - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Students get real-life banking skills at McClatchy High's Golden 1 branch - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:

"Coming soon to a high school near you: the local bank.

It's still rare, but a number of high schools – from Sacramento to Milwaukee – are opening their doors to financial institutions. Tucked behind the cafeteria or squeezed into former offices and storage rooms, these mini-branches are aimed at instilling real-world job skills in students, as well as promoting financial literacy – and a bank's brand – among teens and their families."

Gov. Schwarzenegger taps new source of funding for education

Gov. Schwarzenegger explores new source of funding for education

shame on us california

UC Regents OK Student Fee Increase - Education News Story - KCRA Sacramento

UC Regents OK Student Fee Increase - Education News Story - KCRA Sacramento:

"LOS ANGELES -- University of California students will get a much larger tuition bill next year.

The Board of Regents on Thursday approved a 32 percent increase in undergraduate student fees, despite protests by hundreds of demonstrators outside the regents' meeting at UCLA.

By next fall, undergraduate fees will be boosted by $2,500, sending the average annual education cost at a UC campus to more than $10,000. That's triple the amount from a decade ago."

Regents said they had to raise fees because the cash-strapped state government can't meet the university's funding needs.

The decision came as hundreds of students chanted and marched outside the meeting hall to protest the measure. Some students also took over another UCLA building and chained the doors shut.

Police in riot gear kept an eye on the protesters.

Davis, UCLA Students Protest UC Fee Hikes, Vote Expected Today | News10.net | Sacramento, California | News

Davis, UCLA Students Protest UC Fee Hikes, Vote Expected Today News10.net Sacramento, California News:

"DAVIS, CA - UC Davis students angry over a UC Regents plan to raise tuition fees by 32 percent staged a loud protest Thursday, railing against university administration.
Nearly 100 protesters chanted and carried signs inside UCD's Olson Hall around 11 a.m. Thursday.

Despite complaints about the noise, the demonstration was mostly peaceful and no arrests were made.

Under the proposed hike, undergraduate student tuition will cost more than $10,000, not including room, board and books. Some students at UC Davis said they won't be able to afford to return next semester if the fees increase.

'I feel like some people will actually go back to community college to get rid of all their general education,' said UC Davis sophomore Alison More."