Sunday, January 3, 2010

How California produces bad news - Press-Telegram

When it comes to describing the true source of California's current troubles, one of the late, great cartoonist Walt Kelly's swamp-dwelling characters may have said it best: "We have met the enemy and he is us," declared Pogo in 1971.
He could have been lamenting the irresponsible way we Californians have spent this state into a deep hole over the last 30 years.
Each depredation seemed laudable enough in its time - from passing mandatory prison sentencing laws by large margins to okaying virtually all bond issues proposed on statewide ballots.
Here's some of the bleak picture:
California - once the paragon of smooth roads - now has the second worst pavement conditions in America, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Road Information Program. Its latest report says this state spends $11 billion a year less than what's needed to maintain good roads.
State prisons are so overcrowded courts repeatedly find they violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. As many as 40,000 prisoners may have to be released in the next year.
California's public university systems have unprecedented numbers of qualified applicants for admission at the same time they're reducing student slots. They'll turn away about 150,000 qualified people this year. This amounts to all but abandoning the state's 50-year-old master plan for higher education.
California now has about $89 billion in long-term bond

How to help California / Removing conditions attached to federal funds an excellent idea - SignOnSanDiego.com

How to help California / Removing conditions attached to federal funds an excellent idea - SignOnSanDiego.com:

"We’ve confirmed that there’s going to be an intriguing wrinkle in the 2010-11 budget proposal that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will unveil later this month: a request to the federal government that it reduce the strings it attaches to billions of dollars in stimulus aid it has already committed to provide to struggling states.

As first reported by Josh Barro on the RealClearMarkets.com Web site, the governor wants President Barack Obama and Congress to eliminate the requirement that stimulus dollars be used to maintain existing service levels in programs getting federal support. This prevents California from changing its Medicaid eligibility rules, which are generous, and from reducing Medicaid services to core medical care, omitting such relative luxuries as acupuncture and chiropractic. There is no good reason why California should spend twice as much per-capita on Medicaid as Nevada."

The Seminal � What happened to education politics?

The Seminal � What happened to education politics?:

"Introduction: Autonomous political organizations and educational politics

Of recent I’ve put forth a number of diaries discussing the need for autonomous political organizations. An autonomous political organization would be able to be able to create a class coalition, to unite the poor to demand a fair share of the economic pie. An autonomous political organization would not care much about whether President Obama were an accomplished leader or a corporate shill, preferring instead to make up its own mind about policy regardless of what Obama thinks about any particular issue. An autonomous political organization, then, would be independent of the 'Veal Pen' by which political organizations are constrained to avoid controversy.

Here I’m going to recommend that, if we are to have an autonomous political organization, it would best be advised to take a position on educational politics, in opposition to the corporate use of the public schools as a cash cow."

Higher education in California should better reflect the times - latimes.com

Higher education in California should better reflect the times

As the crisis persists, it's time for a new master plan that would streamline curriculum, bring funding in line with students' ability to pay and put UC, Cal State and community colleges in sync.

California's Master Plan for Higher Education is history. State officials and politicians don't want to admit it, but it's true. Blame it on a severe recession, a dysfunctional state government or tax-phobic voters, the result is the same. Contrary to the plan's vaunted goal, every high school graduate does not have the option of receiving an affordable, high-quality education.

This year's budget cuts were the deepest in the higher education system's history, and projections of continuing deficits promise even more. But California still needs a public option for education. The University of California, the Cal State system and community colleges are major creators of economic wealth, and their graduates are the future drivers of growth.

What to do? We need a new Master Plan for Higher Education that acknowledges a withering state role even as the demand for an educated workforce grows.

When the state adopted the original plan in 1960, higher education was commonly thought to occur on leafy campuses that trained individuals in distinctive curricula and academic specialties. Classes were offered at fixed times and places, and learning proceeded at the same pace for one and all.

The plan's four basic assumptions reflected this reality:

* High school education was separate from the higher education

What’s your college major? No more philosophy or classics | Get Schooled

What’s your college major? No more philosophy or classics

9:09 am January 3, 2010, by Maureen Downey

As a parent of two college students pursing liberal arts degrees, I wonder about their job prospects and whether their areas of study will have any relevance to what they end up doing.

There seems to a change under way in the perceived role of colleges. While it used to be that we saw higher ed as providing an education for life, we now seem to want it to provide an education for careers.It was enough that college taught students how to think; now students want to learn how to do something.

A New York Times story says a lot of parents and students are concerned about the relevance question in this bleak job market. But even before the economy tanked, students were becoming more interested in majors that would help them secure jobs.

In response, colleges are dropping long-standing majors that no longer appeal to goal-oriented students, including philosophy and classical studies

According to the Times

2010: More Budget Pain For California

2010: More Budget Pain For California:

"During last summer's fiscal crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger borrowed the title of a film classic to describe California's budget, saying it contained 'the good, the bad and the ugly.'

He was referring to welfare reforms and the streamlining of state boards that he was able to broker, along with deep spending cuts for schools, health care programs for the poor and AIDS-prevention efforts.

All that's left in 2010 is the ugly.

The nation's most populous state faces a nearly $21 billion shortfall over the next 18 months, a deficit that comes after years of making deep cuts in core state programs."

Shutdowns in region leave parents scrambling to find alternatives - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Shutdowns in region leave parents scrambling to find alternatives - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

"After the economy caused her daughter's preschool to contract and close, Amy Peterson-Mar was faced with several tough questions.

Would she be able to find affordable care? Should she look for a center near her home or near her job? And how would she break the news to Elspeth, known to everyone but the folks who printed her birth certificate as 'Beanie'?

In the end, Peterson-Mar said, she found a family care home that would work for a while and 'we told (Beanie) she was going to camp.'"

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Gov. Schwarzenegger Issues Statement on California Charter Schools “A” Rating from Center for Education Reform

Gov. Schwarzenegger Issues Statement on California Charter Schools “A” Rating from Center for Education Reform:

"Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after the Washington-based Center for Education Reform released a report, giving California an “A” rating for the state’s charter school laws:

“This report confirms the incredible successes that charter school organizations have found in California and further emphasizes the importance of passing Race to the Top reforms that will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to our schools at a time when resources are needed most. These reform efforts also seek to lift the cap on charter schools to promote innovation and creativity in teaching so more students throughout the state can receive a grade ‘A’ education.”

Under Governor Schwarzenegger’s leadership, the number of charter schools in California has increased steadily from 382 in 2003-04 to 809 today. The Governor is also fighting to lift the cap on the number of charter schools allowed in the state entirely with his legislative package to make California highly competitive for federal Race to the Top funds – a $4.35 billion federal competitive grant program in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act designed to support education reform and innovation."

The Charter School Paradox

Did you Know? Charter School Fiscal Management

Did you Know? Charter School Fiscal Management

Did you Know?

• Nationwide, California has the largest number of charter schools serving the largest number of students
• There are currently more than 800 charter schools with over 285,000 students enrolled
• 85% of charter schools are start-up; 15% are conversion
• 77% of charter schools are site-based and 23% are nonclassroom based
• Of the 58 counties in California, 50 have charter schools. Los Angeles County has the largest number of charter schools (193), followed by San Diego County (74)
• 71% of California charter schools are direct funded; 29% are funded through their authorizing agency

So What’s the Problem?

• Charter schools, though successful in raising student achievement, are closing their doors due to their lack of knowledge about managing the business and fiscal requirements of their schools.
• As of 2007-08, 949 charter schools had been created in California since 1992-93; only 692 charters, or 72%, were still active in 2007-08.
• CDE data shows nearly two-thirds (65%) of all charter schools that closed since 2004 reported positive trends in API growth and failed for reasons unrelated to successful academic performance.
• Both the authorizers with oversight responsibility and the charter schools they serve need to better understand and meet their respective responsibilities.

http://www.fcmat.org

Rhee vows to shield D.C. teachers, supplies amid budget cuts - washingtonpost.com

Rhee vows to shield D.C. teachers, supplies amid budget cuts - washingtonpost.com:

"D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has vowed to protect funding for teachers and classroom supplies as she prepares to cut the system's overall budget by $22 million because of shrinking tax revenue and the end of one-time federal stimulus spending.

The fiscal 2011 budget, which begins in October, is projected to shrink from $779 million to $757 million. Spending would fall most sharply in the 'school support category,' including security, food service and after-school programs. Rhee's central office would also face cuts.

But Rhee said this week that financial constraints won't limit her efforts to transform historically poor academic performance in the 45,000-student system."

The Answer Sheet - Take The Sheet's 2009 Education Quiz

The Answer Sheet- Take The Sheet's 2009 Education Quiz:

Take The Sheet's 2009 Education Quiz

Happy and healthy new year to all.... and now let’s start off the new decade with, appropriately for an education blog, a quiz.

I thought about doing one of those top 10 education story of the year or decade lists, but realized it would be repetitive: Budget cuts hurt K-12; budget cuts squeeze community colleges big-time; budget cuts and endowment losses bring pain to colleges and universities ... etc.

A quiz sounded more fun. Here are some unusual education stories you may not have read in 2009. Take a look and guess from where they came.

The quiz follows, and the answer sheet will be in a separate posting, complete with links, below this one. You can find it here.

Let me know how you do, and send in other stories that you think would be interesting to share.

Thanks for reading The Sheet, and I hope you stay tuned this year. Please continue sending in comments, questions, story ideas and advice.

I greatly appreciate it all.

Kevin Huffman - The keys to a successful education system - washingtonpost.com

Kevin Huffman - The keys to a successful education system - washingtonpost.com:

"Ten years ago, deep in the Rio Grande Valley, two 23-year-old Teach for America teachers opened an after-school tutoring program. Through sheer force of will, the program became a public charter school, housed on the second floor of a local church. Eventually, that school became a cluster of 12 schools, serving kids from Colonias -- communities so impoverished that some lack potable water.

IDEA College Prep graduated its first high school class in 2007 with 100 percent of the seniors headed to college. Last month, U.S. News and World Report ranked it No. 13 among America's public high schools."

Poverty rise brings another test for Texas public schools | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Poverty rise brings another test for Texas public schools | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"Almost six out of 10 Texas public schoolchildren hail from low-income families, marking a troubling spike in poverty over the last decade, a new state report finds.

The increase coincides with a significant jump in the number of Hispanic students, while fewer Anglo students were enrolled last year than 10 years ago, according to the study by the Texas Education Agency. Schools also are educating many more children whose primary language is not English.

The rapidly changing makeup of the Texas public school classroom poses growing challenges for the state. Impoverished and disadvantaged children are more likely to falter academically and drop out, and educating struggling students can be costly."

Pittsburgh schools criticized over charters

Pittsburgh schools criticized over charters:

"Before giving up his seat on the Pittsburgh school board last month, Randall Taylor pledged to remain active in education issues.

He wasted little time making good on the promise.

Charter school proponents are circulating an e-mail from Mr. Taylor in which he blasts the Pittsburgh Public Schools' handling of a charter school application, claiming the school board rejected it for fear of competition.

'I believe decision-makers have come to the conclusion that the Pittsburgh Public Schools cannot compete with or against public charter schools, and that numerous students in some communities would enroll in a charter, if given that opportunity,' he said."

Teachers seek control at up-for-bid L.A. Unified schools - latimes.com

Teachers seek control at up-for-bid L.A. Unified schools - latimes.com:

"A plan to let outside groups bid for control of dozens of long-struggling and new local campuses has unleashed a formidable competitor: Groups of teachers from inside the Los Angeles Unified School District are vying to take charge of their schools.

At every location up for bid -- 12 existing schools and 18 new campuses -- teams of teachers and the L.A. teachers union are working nights and weekends to decide what to offer students and parents and what they would require of them and of themselves.

They are trying to take advantage of a reform strategy, approved in August, that envisioned bringing in privately operated charter schools to set the standard for a school system widely seen as dysfunctional.

The union, United Teachers Los Angeles, also is trying to block charter takeovers through litigation. But rank-and-file teachers, with backing from the union and, in some cases, from the school district, are planning to compete with the charters, and they plan to win."

Mayor Robert Duffy plants flag on Rochester schools takeover | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Mayor Robert J. Duffy kicked off his second term on Friday by vowing to take that hill.

The mayor, after being sworn in, said the city would try to take over the City School District, and he cast aside any doubt that he would let potential political skirmishes dissuade him from that 2010 goal.

"There is a saying: 'Pick the hill you want to die on,'" Duffy said. "Well, I have, and education is that hill."

The assembled crowd of more than 200 people at City Hall applauded. The mayor made it clear in an inaugural speech that he has chosen a new major issue to tackle in the new year, and he seemed to revel in knowing his goal.

But it is not the only issue on Duffy's large 2010 plate.

Duffy has set an aggressive agenda for his second term, most notably his goal of full consolidation and oversight of the school district. Other priorities include the redevelopment of Midtown, targeted investment and restructuring of challenged neighborhoods and improved public safety.

Duffy said the homicide rate and violent-crime rate had dropped in 2009, and he credited improved policing. He singled out the city's fire and policedepartments

for their recent public safety efforts.

The mayor pledged to tackle controversial topics directly, and not busy himself with concern about managing relationships and egos.

He has called the city and schools consolidation a "political fireball," but added: "I've stood by for four years on this and, while I've talked behind the scenes, I'm committed now to go in a different direction."

The Near-Myth of Our Failing Schools by Peter Schrag Redux

The Near-Myth of Our Failing Schools by Peter Schrag

Redux

Ideologically inspired lamentations about the parlous state of American education mask the much more complex truth
by Peter Schrag
N the spring of 1991, as warnings accumulated that America's second-rate schools were dooming the nation to permanent failure in the global economy, systems analysts at Sandia National Laboratories, a federal institution of generally impeccable reputation, compiled a lengthy report showing that the picture in American education was far more complex -- and in many respects a great deal less gloomy -- than the rhetoric of alarm allowed. But for two years the report -- a collection of tables and statistics on everything from dropout rates and SAT scores to college degrees awarded in engineering and other technical fields -- was buried by the Department of Energy, which had commissioned it. The document, said James Watkins, George Bush's Secretary of Energy, was "dead wrong," and would be regarded as "a call for complacency at a time when just the opposite is required." It had a small underground circulation, but even after the Clinton Administration finally released it, in 1993, neither the Sandia data nor similar findings from other sources got much attention. Mixed reports don't make for good headlines, and qualified good news undermines the sense of crisis essential both to liberal demands for more money and to conservative arguments that only vouchers and other radical solutions will do. Good news, even qualified good news, runs counter to the conventional wisdom and undermines almost everybody's agenda of reform.
It was always thus: in the late 1950s, after the launching of Sputnik; in the early 1980s, after publication of the federal report A Nation at Risk, which warned that the failures of the nation's schools were about to undermine America's ability to compete economically; in 1989, when President George Bush and the nation's governors initiated what came to be called Goals 2000, pledging to make this country the world leader in education by the year 2000; in 1993, when President Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress followed that up with legislation to develop voluntary national standards in English, history, science, and other fields; and in 1995-1996, when that same effort collapsed in controversy and dispute over the standards that were produced.

Now, as President Clinton is calling yet again for higher school standards, and for a program of national testing in reading and math, the same assumptions of crisis and failure that have fueled every other recent reform debate are being invoked. The debate is driven once again by our favorite myths: that there was once a golden age, an era when schools maintained rigorous academic standards, when all children learned, when few dropped out and most graduated on time; that sometime in the past generation or so (most commonly pegged to the 1960s) the system began to fall apart under a siege of social promotion, grade inflation, and progressive mush that is leaving America helpless against superior foreign education; and that the large amounts of new money that have gone to the schools in the past generation have largely been wasted. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the University of California regent Ward Connerly, who spearheaded California's drive against race-based affirmative action, wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece,

The education bureaucracy won't concede that, despite spending trillions of dollars on education over the past 30 years, American children are further behind today. It doesn't want to admit that the S.A.T. scores of African-American children, which average 100 points less than the scores of white children, are the direct result of the current [Great Society] policies.

In some places, circumstances, and contexts, some of those criticisms are correct. Many schools are academically flabby, mindless, and laced with an anti-intellectualism sometimes bordering on outright sabotage; some are wastelands of crime, drugs, and despair; many are afflicted by multicultural fashion and politically correct clichés. Some are run by arrogant, rigid bureaucracies or crippled by unions that make it impossible to move any teacher with seniority, let alone fire the bad ones, and classrooms are often without a regular teacher for the first month of school while the seniority system slowly determines who may be assigned where. Many schools don't demand nearly as much as they should. But many others suffer from few of those things, and without a more realistic sense of what is going on -- a better understanding of the myths -- the country will never get beyond the horror stories and ideological set pieces that seem endlessly to dominate the education debate.

Misleading Statistics and Comparisons

State tightens the reins on failing schools - STLtoday.com

State tightens the reins on failing schools

BY VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

01/01/2010

A new law that goes into effect today seeks to prevent school districts in Missouri from bouncing back and forth between barely meeting and not meeting state standards, giving the state more power to take over a struggling district.

Under previous law, a district that lost accreditation had two full years to improve and regain accredited status.

If the district failed to make sufficient progress, it could face sanctions as severe as a state takeover. But if districts made enough improvements to regain partial accreditation, but then lost accreditation again, they would be entitled to yet another two-year grace period.

Critics called it the "yo-yo effect," with school districts being able to dodge tough state penalties by making modest but fleeting improvements. That had happened for years with the

EducationNews.org - A Leading Global News Source - Presenattion before The 2007 Senate Enquiry into the Quality of School Education (Australia)

EducationNews.org - A Leading Global News Source - Presenattion before The 2007 Senate Enquiry into the Quality of School Education (Australia)

Jimmy Kilpatrick Editor, EducationNews.org

Presenattion before The 2007 Senate Enquiry into the Quality of School Education (Australia)

Inquiry into the Academic Standards of School Education

I am former teacher and educational psychologist within the Victorian state school system (20 years), who has been, for the past 15 years, training educational psychologists at RMIT University - with a particular emphasis on literacy development, instruction, and remediation. I am committed to promoting educational research as an under-used, but valuable, informant of educational policy, and am attuned to the findings of the literacy research around the world through assiduous reading. I also consult in the RMIT Clinic with individuals with literacy problems, and this work along with my previous experience, has confirmed for me a number of disquieting conclusions about the education system.

We have an unnecessarily high proportion of students who cannot achieve their potential because of their low literacy skills. Literacy is pivotal to every aspect of our life, yet we have made little inroad into providing an effective educational environment that alters the trajectory of the unacceptably high number of students failed by that system. This has occurred despite the well-intentioned attempts to redress educational disadvantage. The failure of the system to draw inspiration from empirical research is puzzling, given its positive impact on other professions such as medicine, psychology, technology, and agriculture.

There are a number of reasons why this has occurred, among them a science-aversive culture endemic among education policymakers and teacher education faculties. Education has a history of regularly adopting new ideas, but it has done so without the wide-scale assessment and scientific research that is necessary to distinguish effective from ineffective reforms. This absence of a scientific perspective has precluded systematic improvement in the education system, and it has impeded growth in the teaching profession for a long time.

As an example, consider these practices

Sacramento Press / Parents, Is Your Child Struggling?

Parents, a chronic struggle with reading, writing or math may indicate a learning challenge or learning style that requires us to go Beyond Tutoring. Resentment, frustration, avoidance and anger may be your child’s attempt to communicate an inability to successfully perform the various tasks being asked of him—possibly struggles that are the result of a specific learning challenge that is beyond the control of the student. Even poor classroom participation or constant battles over homework may be more than a matter of improving attitude or self-motivation.

More and more, many intelligent students simply do not respond to the standard teaching model. Children exhibiting symptoms of Dyslexia, ADHD and other learning challenges often experience significant difficulties with standard teaching methods. Even with one-on-one tutoring, special education (resource) classes, a 504 or IEP, and other remedial measures, too many children fail to thrive in school today.

Our educational system, our culture and our environment have all undergone tremendous change in recent years. Life in the 21st Century seems to be placing more and more demands on adults and children to adapt and change.

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