Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Sacramento City Council votes to keep 4th “R” programs, START intact | The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City Council votes to keep 4th “R” programs, START intact | The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento City Council votes to keep 4th “R” programs, START intact





 The Sacramento City Council, faced with closing 4th “R” after-school programs at four Sacramento City Unified School District campuses and cutting ties to another after-school program, voted Tuesday night to support a plan to keep the programs intact.

The 8-0 vote, with Councilman Rick Jennings recusing himself, came in support of a compromise crafted by the city and representatives of Sacramento City Unified to help reduce an impending $1.5 million deficit in the 4th “R” and the free after-school program, START.
START, which is funded largely by state and federal grants and about 10 percent from the city’s general fund, faced a projected $1 million deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Jennings asked for the recusal because he heads a nonprofit that could contract with the city school district.
The 4th “R” program, supported largely by parent-paid child enrollments, faced closure at Golden Empire Elementary in Rosemont, Caroline Wenzel Elementary School in Greenhaven, Hubert H. Bancroft Elementary in College/Glen and O.W. Erlewine Elementary in Larchmont Rivera due to what city officials said would be a $458,000 deficit after July 1.
The 4th “R” was tied in part to declining participation. The four sites serve fewer than 190 children. Ninety percent of support for the program comes from parents and guardians.
Shortly before the vote, Councilwoman Angelique Ashby told a packed room of supporters of the two programs that the City Council would not let them down.
“I see this as something tried and true,” Ashby said. We have been doing it. We need to stick it out.”
Eric Guerra, who recently won a City Council seat representing one of the affected 4th “R” campuses and was sworn into office earlier in the meeting, made the motion to accept the agreement worked out between the city and the school district.
“Amen,” Mayor Kevin Johnson said after Guerra offered up the motion.
Councilman Steve Hansen called the solution a “work in progress” because the compromise is intended to sustain the programs for the next year while both agencies work out a longer-term fix.
City Parks and Recreation Director Jim Combs told council members the school district would waive the monthly lease payments for both 4th “R” and START at the district’s Serna Center.
The school district has put the savings to the city at approximately $190,000 for the two leases.
The district also would work with the Sacramento Chinese Community Services Center to provide fee-based child care at Caroline Wenzel Elementary starting in the fall, according to a city report. That would save the 4th “R” program about $118,000 in operating expenses.
The district asked the city to keep the other three 4th “R” sites, Golden Empire, Bancroft and Erlewine elementary schools, open through the end of the next fiscal year to allow time for the district to find child care at those sites, according to city officials.
The district also agreed to increase its START contract by 2.5 percent, or about $62,000.
The city would save additional funds by reducing the level of services to the minimum required under the START program. That could reduce programs such as youth sports.
In addition, City Manager John Shirey recommended that the city include $340,000 in next year’s fiscal budget to cover the 4th “R” program through June 2016.
Christina Pritchett, trustee for the Sacramento City Unified School District, told council members she was pleased with the expected passage.
“This is not the end,” Pritchett said. “We still have a lot of work to do. But I really appreciate the collaborative effort with the school district.”
Under the compromise, the START after-school programs are expected to continue at 17 of 18 campuses. Bret Harte Elementary has plans to look for another service provider for the after-school program.
START began in 1996, fostered by then-City Councilman Darrell Steinberg. Within three years, it grew to 42 schools serving 7,000 students, offering homework help, recreation and literacy education.
The program is available only to schools that qualify for at least 50 percent free and reduced-price meals.
The 4th “R” faced shortfall also in part because of higher employee costs and declining enrollments as parents move their children to the free after-school programs at those campuses.
Golden Empire, Bancroft and Erlewine all have free START after-school programs operated by the city. Wenzel has a free program offered by an outside vendor.Sacramento City Council votes to keep 4th “R” programs, START intact | The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee:





Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article19848414.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article19848414.html#storylink=cpy

Chester Finn Worries that “College Ready” Is Damaging “College Educated” | deutsch29

Chester Finn Worries that “College Ready” Is Damaging “College Educated” | deutsch29:

Chester Finn Worries that “College Ready” Is Damaging “College Educated”



Fordham Institute former president Chester Finn is concerned about the “cheapening” of the meaning of “college educated.”
Here is some of Finn’s April 25, 2015, lament:
A vast amount of contemporary education policy attention and education reform energy has been lavished on the task of defining and gauging “college readiness” and then taking steps to align K–12 outcomes more closely with it. …
The entire Common Core edifice—and the assessments, cut scores, and accountability arrangements built atop it—presupposes that “college-ready” has the same definition that it has long enjoyed…
The idea of graduating more “college-ready” kids from high school is intended to lighten the remediation burden…
But what if “college-ready” no longer means that you actually have to be prepared to succeed in credit-bearing college courses? Or if “credit-bearing courses” are diluted such that more people appear “prepared” to succeed in them, even though such success means less than it once did? …
Note that Finn writes of lots of “attention,” “presupposition,” “energy,” “intention,” and “ideas”– but no field testing.
Hold that thought.
Finn closes his post with the following concern for “reform efforts”:
The last thing American education needs—and a potentially mortal wound to other reform efforts—is to further cheapen the meaning of “college-educated.” Which cannot be severed entirely from the meaning of “college-ready.”
The concept, “college educated,” cannot be entirely divorced from a term Finn helped to promote–“college ready”– a term undeniably associated with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
In July 2010, in, the Fordham Institute produced a report in which it graded all state standards and DC; graded the then-month-old CCSS, and shaped the language in the report so that CCSS was always photographed through beauty-enhancing gauze filters when compared to state standards.
In the years that followed, Fordham Institute then-executive-VP/now-president Michael Petrilli traveled the country to rescue CCSS from possible repeal in legislative sessions nationwide– even if Fordham Institute itself rated the former state standards as equal to or better than the CCSS it had been paid to promote.
And now comes Finn with worries about a higher-ed dumb-down.
Ain’t that something.
Not once have I heard or read any inking from Fordham Institute that CCSS, with its “college and career ready” jingle, should have been field tested before it was actively Chester Finn Worries that “College Ready” Is Damaging “College Educated” | deutsch29:

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of the ed reform whistle blower, A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education.

She also has her second book available on pre-order, Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?, due for publication June 12, 2015.

CC book cover

95% of Garfield High School’s 11th graders have opted out of the Common Core SBAC | Seattle Education

95% of Garfield High School’s 11th graders have opted out of the Common Core SBAC | Seattle Education:



95% of Garfield High School’s 11th graders have opted out of the Common Core SBAC

Garfield_HS_2This just in.
95% of the Garfield High School 11th graders in Seattle have opted out of the Common Core SBAC tests.
This is the same class that made history when they opted out of the MAP test en masse. Remember that? See The MAP has been scrapped in Seattle high schools. Those students were in 9th grade at the time and learned to critically consider what was asked of them. They decided taking the MAP test was not a good use of resources or their time.
Now they are back and saying “No!” to the SBAC.
What is of note about Garfield High School is that the school has a minority enrollment of about 60% and approximately 40% would be considered economically “disadvantaged”. Many of these students have resettled recently in this country. This shows that there are schools across the socio-economic stratum opting out of the SBAC test in Seattle.
It has been reported that across town at Ingraham High School there is a large percentage of students opting out but no numbers have been confirmed.
When I found out, you will too readers.
I am sure there is more to come.

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 4/28/15


Special Nite Cap - Catch Up on Today's Post 4/28/15


Special Nite Cap 

CORPORATE ED REFORM



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YESTERDAY

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