CA Education Spending Down Almost 14 Percent Since 2008 - LA School Report

CA Education Spending Down Almost 14 Percent Since 2008 - LA School Report:



CA Education Spending Down Almost 14 Percent Since 2008

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Chase Niesner

California is among the top 10 states with the sharpest declines in spending for K-12 education since the last recession, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.The study found that California’s per-student spending was down 13.8 percent since the 2008 school year.

In all, 34 states are spending less on K-12 education than before the recession hit, including 13 that have cut per-student spending by more than 10 percent.

Apart from requiring school districts to roll back education services and look elsewhere for funding, the state spending cuts deepened the recession and slowed the pace of economic recovery by reducing the overall number of teachers and other employees, the study said. Further, it said, through last month local school districts had cut a total of 324,000 jobs since 2008, which in turn reduced family purchasing power and overall spending.

The inability of states to undertake critical school reform initiatives, like recruiting better teachers and trimming class sizes, was also cited as having long-term 

Teaching to the (New) Tests: The Benefits of Discussion — Whole Child Education

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Teaching to the (New) Tests: The Benefits of Discussion

September 12, 2013 by Philip Yenawine

It's no secret that many teachers are wondering how to ensure all students "read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently" by the end of high school. Similarly they are unsure of how to help all "read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text." Ditto to "integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words." And they have similar concerns for how to promote acceptance of diverse viewpoints, broadly useful oral communication skills, or the ability to listen and interact with others productively. At this point, many teachers cope with students unable to solve rote math problems and articulate how they did it, let alone find more than one solution. Yet all of these abilities (and more) are required to achieve Common Core anchor standards.

Read more »

Supporting College and Career Readiness

September 11, 2013 by Steven Weber

As we begin a new school year, it is an exciting time for educators. We understand that our influence will have a positive or negative impact on students. The main goal of education is student achievement. However, some educators place such a heavy emphasis on student achievement that they end up forgetting their purpose. In today's K–12 setting, the purpose of K–12 schools has been defined as preparing each student to graduate high school ready for college and a career.

Read more »

A Commitment to Educating the Whole Child: Inservice Roundup

September 11, 2013 by Tina Byland

Here at ASCD, the Whole Child Initiative drives our daily work—regardless of what our job descriptions entail. As a former teacher, I am particularly devoted to supporting the whole child and ensuring the safety and health of every student I encounter. Keeping the whole child in mind, I post content for ASCD's Inservice blog that consistently reflects our commitment to fostering a healthy, safe, engaging, supportive, and challenging environment for students.

Read more »)

Approaching Student Achievement Like a Forest Fire

September 10, 2013 by Kevin Parr

It has been another active fire season here out West and once again firefighters have been attacking the fires systematically and efficiently. As a teacher it is interesting to look at the way these fires are attacked. The contrast to the way problems are attacked in education is staggering.

In wildland firefighting when the problem (the fire) becomes big enough, a two-pronged attack is launched. Firefighters coordinate their efforts to fight the fire from both the ground and air. In contrast, when the problem in education (student achievement, mainly) gets big, the most common response is to narrow the range of approaches. By and large this usually means demanding more time strictly devoted to teaching the critical academic subjects (math and reading) at the expense of everything else.

Read more »)

Resilience, Addressing Problems, and Promoting Healthy Development

September 9, 2013 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Post written by Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor, codirectors of the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA, a whole child partner organization.

Anyone working with children and youth these days is familiar with words like strengths, assets, and resilience. This reflects the progress made in moving beyond a deficit or problem-focused bias to incorporate approaches that build on motivation and promote resilience.

Read more »)

September Is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

September 9, 2013 by Kristen Pekarek

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity now affects 17 percent of all children and adolescents in the United States. Research shows that childhood obesity puts kids at greater risk for health problems—including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease—and, once a child enters school, can undermine classroom and overall lifetime success. Encouraging new research indicates we are making some progress to reverse this epidemic: a new report on childhood obesity shows obesity among low-income preschoolers has declined slightly in 19 states and territories, and a new report on school health shows there have been improvements in the way we teach nutrition and physical activity in schools. But there is still a lot of work to be done.

Read more »

School named after KKK leader asked to change its name:

School named after KKK leader asked to change its name

By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 12 at 1:32 pmE-mail the writer

Nathan Bedford Forrest (nps.gov)

In the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category: A petition on change.org with some 75,000 signatures is asking a Florida school district to change the name of a high school that is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate  general and the first  “grand wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan.

And, according to Marsha Oliver, chief of communications for the Duval County School District, it doesn’t matter how many people sign the petition because the process for changing a school’s name is community-based and the ultimate decision resides with the school board.

The school board was formally asked five years ago to change the name and refused, but the membership has changed since then.

The school was named after Forrest when it opened with white students only in 1959, a name suggestion that came from an organization called the Daughters of the Confederacy. Now, more than half of the school’s students are African American.

(It should be noted that there is another Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in the 

Report: Race to the Top isn’t delivering big results:

Report: Race to the Top isn’t delivering big results

By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 12 at 11:45 amE-mail the writer

President  Obama delivers remarks on Race to the Top with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in 2009. (Lawrence Jackson/White House)

The Obama administration’s signature education initiative, Race to the Top, can’t deliver much educational improvement in America’s public schools because there is a huge mismatch in its mandates and what is actually possible to accomplish with the provided funding and requirements, according to a new report released Thursday.

The title of the report precisely explains what it is about: “Mismatches in Race to the Top Limit Educational Improvement.” Written by Elaine Weiss, the national coordinator for the Broader Bolder Approach to Education, a project of the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, the report looks at how states that won in the early rounds of the Race to the Top competition implemented it in the first three years of their four-year grants.

Special attention is paid to the development and implementation of new teacher and principal evaluation systems, which were mandated by the Education Department to be based in part on student standardized test scores (despite the fact that many testing experts say this is not a reliable way to make such assessments). It says:

Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident Tour Schedule…Come on Out, Please and Thank You! | Bill Ayers

Tour Schedule…Come on Out, Please and Thank You! | Bill Ayers:

Tour Schedule…Come on Out, Please and Thank You!

Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident

Tour Schedule, October/November 2013

Tuesday, October 8^th 
7:00pm – B&N at the University of Michigan
530 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI

Wednesday, October 9^th
6:00pm – 57th Street Books, event at the International House/ University of Chicago
1414 E 59th Street
Chicago, IL

Thursday, October 10^th
7:30pm – Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Avenue (between Hollywood Blvd & Franklin)
Los Angeles, CA

Wednesday, October 16th
7:00 pm – People’s Book Cooperative
804 E. Center Street
Milwaukee, WI

Thursday, October 17^th
5:30pm – 6:30pm: Pre-event Reception
7:00pm – Wisconsin Book Festival
Capitol Theater
Overture Center for the Arts
201 State Street
Madison, WI

Friday, October 18^th
7:30pm – Women and Children First
5233 N Clark Street
Chicago, IL

Tuesday, October 22^nd
7:00pm – Common Good Books
38 S. Snelling Avenue
St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN

Wednesday, October 23^rd
7:00pm – Left Bank Books
399 N. Euclid Avenue
St. Louis, MO

Friday, October 25^th
6:00pm – Octavia Books
513 Octavia Street
New Orleans, LA
Wednesday, October 30^th
7:00pm – Elliot Bay Book Company
1521 10^th Avenue
Seattle, WA

Thursday, October 31^st
7:30pm – Powell’s City of Books
1005 W. Burnside Street
Portland, OR

Friday, November 1^st
7:00 pm – Tsunami Books
2585 Willamette Street
Eugene, Oregon

Wednesday, November 6^th
7:30 pm – KPFA Radio Event
The Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street
Berkeley, CA

Thursday, November 7^th
7:30 pm – The Booksmith
1644 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA

Tuesday, November 19^th
7:30 pm – Book Thug Nation,100 North 3rd Street, Brooklyn
Event venue: indieScreen
289 Kent Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

Wednesday, November 20^th
7:00pm – Barnes & Noble, Upper West Side
2289 Broadway at 82nd Street
New York, NY

Thursday, November 21^st
7:00pm – Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse
30 W. North Avenue
Baltimore, MD

Friday, November 22^nd
7:00pm – Politics & Prose Bookstore
5015 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, D.C.

Saturday, November 23^rd
6:00 – 7:30pm – Busboys & Poets
5th & K location (1025 5th Street NW)
Cullen Room
Washington, D.C.

Sunday, November 24^th
Time TBA – Miami Book Fair
300 N.E. Second Ave. #4102-1
Miami, FL

Monday, November 25^th
7:00 pm – Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA

Tuesday, November 26^th
7:00pm – Broadside Bookshop
247 Main Street
Northampton, MA

Legislature Approves AB 484 - Year 2013 (CA Dept of Education)

Legislature Approves AB 484 - Year 2013 (CA Dept of Education):

Legislature Approves Major Updates to Student Assessments

Someone needed to Clean Up The Standardized Testing Mess

AB 484 Now Goes to Governor's Desk for Signature

SACRAMENTO—Legislation that would move California assessments into an era of critical thinking and deeper learning has now received state Senate and Assembly approval and is headed to Governor Brown's desk, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said.

Torlakson sponsored Assembly Bill 484, which passed the California state Assembly on concurrence vote today after Senate passage Tuesday. Authored by Assemblymember Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, and coauthored by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, it marks a major step forward in the state's transition to the Common Core State Standards. The legislation suspends most Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) assessments and authorizes new Common Core-aligned assessments known as the Measurement of Academic Performance and Progress (MAPP).

"California's shift to the Common Core is about helping students meet the challenges of a changing world, and AB 484 recognizes that updating the way we teach students also means updating the way we test them," Torlakson said. "Lawmakers see that our students must graduate with more than knowledge, but with the ability to apply that knowledge to work collaboratively and solve problems."

The MAPP testing program will be made up of assessments being designed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, one of two multistate organizations formed to create the next generation of assessments aligned to the Common Core. Field tests of the new assessments, set for the spring of 2014, are designed as "tests of the tests." The consortium developing the assessments recently announced that the field tests will be widely available, allowing states to offer them to more than a representative sampling of students.

Brown has already indicated his support for the measure, as have education leaders around the state. Statements of support include:

Vernon M. Billy, California School Boards Association Executive Director: "On behalf of the California School Boards Association, which represents nearly 1,000 school districts and county boards of education statewide, we are pleased to support AB 484. The bill will ensure that California's schools can spend the 2013-14 school year focused on teaching and learning the new core content standards in mathematics and English language arts. Without this focus and without suspending the current assessments for 2013-14, we will end up over-testing students and testing them on old standards. This will cause confusion for students and will not benefit them academically. It's a much better use of our teachers' and students' time and effort to begin learning the Common Core curriculum and preparing for the new Smarter Balanced assessments so that problems can be identified and solved prior to full implementation in the spring of 2015. AB 484 makes this possible."

Dr. Darryl Adams, Coachella Valley Unified School District Superintendent: "The Board of Trustees, students, staff, and parents of the Coachella Valley Unified School District give our overwhelming support to the State Superintendent, the State Board of Education, the Legislature, and the Governor in suspending the STAR test and expanding field testing for the Smarter Balance of Assessment examinations.... The passage of AB 484 will give our students the opportunity to experience the new assessments and allow our teachers to prepare our students for the real Smarter Balanced Assessments in 2014-15."

Wesley Smith, Executive Director of the Association of California School Administrators: "AB 484 is supported by thousands of California superintendents and principals because it helps ensure a smooth transition for students and schools to Common Core State Standards. It just makes sense to give schools and teachers the opportunity to fully implement our recently adopted standards rather than focus on the California Standards Tests, which are not aligned to the instruction we are implementing in our classrooms. We urge lawmakers to approve AB 484 because it allows our students, teachers, and school communities to focus on what matters to them now."

Randolph Ward, San Diego County Superintendent of Schools: "AB 484 will allow us to prepare our students and staff for success rather than set them up for frustration. To do otherwise—to maintain two testing systems each of which requires very different instructional techniques and looks at very different skills—will result in a schizophrenic environment in our schools that isn't in anyone's best interest. Suspending the STAR tests and expanding field testing of new assessments allows time for educational leaders to prepare students for a completely different manner of demonstrating knowledge while ensuring districts have the means to provide accountability to the public."

Christopher Steinhauser, Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent: "The Long Beach Unified School District supports AB 484 because we plan to administer Smarter Balanced assessments in grades three through eight and eleven this school year, giving teachers the opportunity to fine-tune their practice relative to this new assessment environment. This approach also provides students the chance to experience the new tests before the results are used for accountability purposes."

Other supporters of the bill include:

• Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce (Co-Sponsor).
• San Diego Unified School District.
• Torrance Unified School District.
• Whittier Union High School District.
• Franklin-McKinley School District.
• Riverside County Superintendent of Schools.
• Los Angeles County Office of Education.
• California Federation of Teachers.
• California Teachers Association.
• California County Superintendents Educational Services Association.
• Californians Together.
• TechNet.
• TechAmerica.
• Bay Area Council.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

No More Rhee | Taking Note

No More Rhee | Taking Note:

No More Rhee

by JOHN MERROW on 12. SEP, 2013 in 2013 BLOGS, 2013 DC, CHEATING, MICHELLE RHEE

I am done reporting about Michelle Rhee. For one thing, there are many education stories of greater national significance to cover. But I have also been advised by trusted friends to get off the Rhee story because, as one said, “It’s beginning to look like a vendetta, and some people say you are ‘picking on poor Michelle.’”

Another friend believes I’ve become obsessed. That stopped me in my tracks. Was I like Carrie, the heroine of “Homeland”? Think of the opening sequence of the series, where she (Claire Danes) is obsessing over having missed warning signs before 9/11. Her supervisor, Saul (Mandy Patinkin), attempts to reassure her by saying “We all missed something,” and she blurts out, “I’m not everyone.”

I guess I do feel a bit like Carrie. I had unprecedented access to Rhee during her Chancellorship, and I missed some warning signs that all was not legitimate. I was not skeptical enough back then, and my failure then partially explains my desire to get it right this time.

But there’s more to my ‘obsession.’ Once producer Mike Joseloff, researcher Catherine Rentz and I began tugging on threads during our Frontline investigation, the enterprise took on a life of its own. Learning that “the truth is out there” fueled my determination to uncover it. In the Cub Scouts we were taught 

Race To The Top Competition Deemed 'Impossible' In New Report:

Race To The Top Competition Deemed 'Impossible' In New Report

President Barack Obama's signature education initiative, the Race to the Top competition, is "impossible" at best and damaging at worst, argues a new, controversial report.

The 100-page report, released Thursday, argues that policies should tackle the effects of poverty while simultaneously making schools better. By not targeting out-of-school factors like nutrition and parental income, the report says, and by focusing on teacher evaluation systems that often result in harsh consequences without much useful feedback, Race to the Top goals are severely mismatched with its policies.

RTTT had recession-addled states compete for hundreds of millions of dollars each. In exchange, states had to promise to do things like institute higher academic standards; lift the ceiling on the number of charter schools allowed; and -- perhaps most controversially -- evaluate teachers in accordance with students' standardized test scores. States jumped at the opportunity to get more money, and some dramatically changed the way they deliver education.

The Broader Bolder Approach, which co-produced the new report in conjunction with AASA, an association that represents school districts, is a coalition of academics 

9-12-13 SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE:

NEA Says Its Members “strongly Support” Common Core?

Here we go again with the CCSS support propaganda from an organization that has accepted millions from Bill Gates to promote the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The National Education Association (NEA) wants you to want CCSS. It conducted a survey. Surprise, surprise. NEA has decided to fully follow in the American Federation of Teachers’ […]

by deutsch29 / 1h mark as read  //  save

The Weekly Update: Predatory capitalism, privatization, sequestration and our children, Common Core Standards and opting out

Reblogged from Seattle Education: Everyone is back in school, the privatizers are not letting up but parents, students and teachers are fighting back. Diane Ravitch is coming out with her new book on September 18th, a book that is totally awesome by the way. I will have a review posted on September 17th. We've got […]

by Michael Paul Gold... / 1h 

Merrow and Gates Money: Et tu, John?

John Merrow has decided not to report on Michelle Rhee. He helped promote her, and now he has decided to call it quits. Education historian Diane Ravitch says not so fast, John; you owe us some follow-through in unmasking Rhee.  I agree. Merrow owes American education his service in unmasking the monster he helped to […]

by deutsch29 / 1h 

KIPP’s Use of Harriet Ball

In an otherwise solid piece of opinionating at Valerie Strauss’s site at WaPo, Mike Rose leaves the impression that Harriet Ball had in some endorsed the KIPP total compliance reform schools.   She did not, and at the time of her death, Ms. Ball felt just as used by KIPP as the thousands of discarded teachers […]

1 by Jim Horn / 16min 

As More Children Are Left Behind, CorpEd Turns to Gain Scores to Mask Reform Failure and Increasing Gaps

A new study is out showing increasing inequality based on race, class, and education, and with it comes the non-startling news that poor and minority children are further behind than they were when NCLB became the law of the Land, signaling as it did the full transition from the use of high stakes testing for […]

by Jim Horn / 9min 

9-11-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: 9/11: Essays and Film | the becoming radical9/11: Essays and Film | the becoming radical.by plthomasedd / 6min 9-10-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk FaceSCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: Ilana Horn: Recipe for InequalityRecipe for inequality* 1. Find a metric that correlates to poverty. 2. Use it to measure quality. 3. Find that high poverty schools are bad. 4. Make sc

by mike simpson / 1h 

9-12-13 Wait What?

Wait What?:

Connecticut Post editorial writers continue to pump out powerful pieces

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.” - Edward R. Murrow   I’ve used that quote before here at Wait, What? I believe it to be one of the most important political statements in American history.  It was uttered by the […]The post Connecticut Post editorial writers continue to pump out powerful pieces appeared first o

6 by jonpelto / 18min 

Adamowski Pension Charade continues

On August 29, 2013, “Special Master” Steven Adamowski was completing his second year under a $225,000 no-bid contract that the Malloy Administration had run through the State Education Resource Center. The next day, August 30, 2013, “Special Master” Steven Adamowski was a Connecticut state employee, holding the title of Durational Project Manager. Same duties, different […]The post Adamowski Pensi

3 by jonpelto / 27min 

9-11-13 Wait What?

Wait What?: Education Reform Industry goes down to a stunning defeat in Bridgeport, ConnecticutThe tide continues to turn in Bridgeport’s Board of Education challenge slate wins big The Connecticut Post made the story clear as they began their primary coverage with the news that, “The Democratic machine lost its grip on the city school board Tuesday with the stunning victory of all three challenge

by mike simpson / 12min 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, September 12, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

California Legislature sends school-test bill to Gov. Jerry Brown

Education Headlines

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Newport-Mesa delays vote on stadium funding

Long simmering tensions over high school construction projects sent many attendees home with shaking heads Tuesday night after the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board could not decide how to distribute $15.8 million amongst three high schools.

Drug-sniffing dogs coming to Newport-Mesa schools

Dogs able to sniff out drugs and weapons will pay surprise visits to middle and high school students at Newport-Mesa Unified schools this year now that trustees have approved the contract of a private detection canine company.

Schools bill advances despite threat

Ignoring warnings from the federal government, the Legislature on Wednesday sent to Gov. Jerry Brown a bill that would halt public reporting of school performance for up to two years under an overhaul of the state’s standardized-testing system.

Suit citing risqué school retreats settled

An assistant principal’s lawsuit that took Lake Elsinore school district officials to task for showing raunchy videos and wearing a hat adorned with plastic genitalia has been settled for $175,000, records show.

LAUSD head Deasy looking to hire seven administrators for over $100K eac

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy wants to hire seven experienced “administrative liaisons” for more than $100,000 each per year to be a link between his office and the new advisory committees created by school board President Richard Vladovic.

Hayward police, schools rounds up truant students

Police and school resource officers fanned out across the city Tuesday, tracking down students who were skipping class. They put the 20 students on bright-yellow school buses, which delivered them to the district's high schools, where counselors sat down with them to learn why they weren't in school and figure out what could be done to get them to attend classes.

LAUSD improving its investigations of teacher misconduct

Los Angeles Unified expects to have a team of full-time professional investigators in place by December as it implements a streamlined process for dealing with teachers accused of sexual misconduct, officials say.

California Legislature sends school-test bill to Gov. Jerry Brown

After debating the relative merits and drawbacks of standardized testing, the Assembly on Wednesday sent Gov. Jerry Brown legislation allowing California schools to opt out of current statewide assessments.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Boy, 8, forgotten on school bus

An 8-year-old special needs student was inadvertently left behind on a Kern County Superintendent of Schools bus for more than five hours Monday.

Lakeside school board tables bond vote

In order to have more time to explore other options for paying down its debt, the Lakeside Union School District Tuesday night tabled a vote on a controversial bond issue. The district has more than $10 million in debt coming due in June 2014 and no way to pay it.

Fillmore district fails to score a budget hit with sports donations

Contributions from athletes’ families are failing to make up a budget gap faced by the Fillmore Unified School District’s sports program, school board members were warned Tuesday.