Tuesday, February 16, 2010

PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Their Government (PPIC Publication)

PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Their Government (PPIC Publication)
PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Their Government

Mark Baldassare, Dean Bonner, Sonja Petek, and Nicole Willcoxon

January 2010

Full Report[PDF]

Press Release[HTML]

Read in Spanish

Some findings of the current survey:

Two-thirds of Californians would pay higher taxes to avoid cuts in K–12 funding.
Seventy percent support spending cuts in prisons and corrections.
Tom Campbell is ahead in the Senate primary race among Republican likely voters.
Meg Whitman’s lead grows in the primary race for governor.

Job Approval Ratings:
   President Obama
   Governor Schwarzenegger
   California State Legislature
   U.S. Congress
   Senator Boxer
   Senator Feinstein

Time Trends of Job Approval Ratings:
   President Obama
   Governor Schwarzenegger
   California State Legislature
   U.S. Congress
   Senator Boxer
   Senator Feinstein

Mood of Californians:
General Direction of Things in California
Economic Outlook for California

Time Trends for the Mood of Californians:
General Direction of Things in California
Economic Outlook for California

This survey is supported with funding from The James Irvine Foundation.

Fixing funding for schools -- and colleges, and all the rest California Progress Report

California Progress Report

Fixing funding for schools -- and colleges, and all the rest

CSBA, the California School Boards Association, and other major education groups have been talking for years about suing the state to bring California’s dismally low school funding up to something approaching adequate levels.

And while there are still no details, it now seems increasingly likely that a suit will be filed this spring, possibly as early as April. There are certainly ample grounds for it.

The suits would come at the same time that researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California are working on a plan to thoroughly revamp what they call California’s “overly complex” and “inequitable” school funding system and as the U.S. Department of Education is reportedly readying its own civil rights suit against educational inequities in some Southern California school districts.

Six years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, much to his credit, settled the Williams v. California, a suit demanding that the state provide the materials, decent facilities and competent teachers – or indeed any regular teachers – that tens of thousands of poor and minority California school children weren’t getting.

But the settlement, which promised a book for every student, better facilities and the eventual end of truncated, broken-up school calendars and fractured school years,

Lori Jablonski on her support for Patrick Kennedy, Sacramento City Council District 5

Lori explains how Patrick Kennedy will bring his Sacramento School Board experience to City Council.

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Feb. 16

Submitted by Erika Owens on Tue, 02/16/2010 - 10:07 Posted in Notes from the news | Permalink

Phila. schools ready for first full day in a week The Inquirer
Schools are "at 100%" according to District Chief of Operations John Frangipani.

School reform's alphabet The Inquirer (opinion)
Chalk and Talk blogger and teacher Chris Paslay wrote that A is for accountability and accomodations.

University of Pennsylvania President Supports the DREAM Act and Immigrant Youth Young Philly Politics
The DREAM Act is a "pathway to citizenship" for kids who were not born in the U.S., but were brought up here and then have difficulty paying for college due to their undocumented status.

Art Sanctuary Hosts Haiku Writing Contest For Teens KYW
The contest relates to African American history and is for high school students.

North Philadelphia: The Village Teaches Digital Media Philadelphia Neighborhoods

Please email us if we missed anything today or if you have any suggestions of publications, email lists, or other places for us to check for news.

Click here to get Notes from the news in your inbox every day.

Notes from the news

This Week In Education TV: Duncan Appearance On Home Makeover Show

This Week In Education

TV: Duncan Appearance On Home Makeover Show

Fans of Extreme Home Makeover already know that EdSec Arne Duncan was on the show this past Sunday. Politico has some of the details, including the tidbit that Duncan isn't very good with a hammer (Secretaries appear on ABC's 'Extreme Makeover'). Feel free to add your own jokes here.

Homeless in high school - The Boston Globe

MALDEN - After her sister kicked her out, Barbara Hollis started bouncing from one friend’s house to another’s, sleeping on couches and keeping her possessions in trash bags. Couch surfing was terrible, she thought as she wandered through a neighborhood where many of her high school classmates lived.

Several nights last summer, the 18-year-old Malden High School student slept in area parks. At Suffolk Park, she curled up on an elevated rubber platform at the playground, wary that a classmate might see her. She attempted to fall asleep by counting sheep. She got to 180. “I wouldn’t say I was really asleep - my eyes were just resting,’’ said Hollis. “I could never get to a deep sleep there.’’

The number of high school students who become homeless after turning 18 has increased dramatically in recent years, far outpacing the few housing assistance programs available to them, say advocates for the homeless. Some youths leave home voluntarily to escape abusive situations, and others are forced out by parents or relatives. Youth advocates say economic hardship, family disputes, and, in some cases, the belief that children should support themselves at 18 lead

Counselors have reservations about university waiting lists - latimes.com

Counselors have reservations about university waiting lists - latimes.com:

"CSU, UC may only be raising anxiety for students who have a slim chance of being accepted, advisors say."

As California's public universities prepare to break with tradition and make broad use of waiting lists in their admissions decisions this spring, high school counselors and even some university officials worry about the emotional toll on students.

For an applicant, getting onto a favorite school's waiting list offers a glimmer of hope that a spot on campus might eventually open up. But because relatively few students ever make the jump from waiting list to enrollment, some experts say the lists merely increase anxiety and extend an already stressful time for college-bound high school seniors.

Concern about the lists has been rippling through California high schools since the University of California announced in January that for the first time, it will employ waiting lists extensively this spring for fall freshman applicants. Last week, officials specified that at least six of UC's nine undergraduate campuses will use the lists. UCLA and UC Merced will not and UC Berkeley has yet to decide.

The state's other public university, the Cal State system, said it too will expand its use of freshman waiting lists this year to include many of its 23 campuses and will place transfer students on some lists.

UC and Cal State admissions officials say that they need the lists as a tool to help them hit enrollment targets at a time when state budget reductions are forcing them to cut the number of new freshmen. As a result, thousands of students and their counselors will soon have to deal with a practice more commonly associated with selective private colleges. Many are not happy.

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education- Everything you need to know about the world of education.

College ratings to trust

If you are, as the law school applicant in my family has begun to call them, a prestige whore, then I guess the U.S. News & World Report America's Best Colleges rankings are for you. Those lists are based heavily on what colleges think of each other---what is called the reputational score. The higher the rank, the wider the smile on your grandmother's face when you get in.

But if you want an introduction to a lesser known, but to my mind more useful, rating of undergraduate institutions, take a close look at my colleague Daniel de Vise's examination of the National Survey of Student Engagement, part of washingtonpost.com's new higher education page.

The NSSE, or "Nessie" to its friends, tells you not how much esteem the masses hold for a college, but how much value it has added to its students' lives. It does not ask college presidents at other schools to rate the campus. It asks students who actually studied there. The questions are based on the most extensive research of what makes a valuable college experience: How many short papers did you write? How often did you talk to professors out of class about what you were learning? How much contact did you have with students of different backgrounds?

Continue reading this post »

Fairfax doublespeak on school openings and MoCo’s gamble

The adults who work in Fairfax County government are allowed to take unscheduled leave today because, presumably, the streets are not plowed well enough for business as usual. Yet kids (and adults) are supposed to get to Fairfax County public schools. How nice: They get two extra hours to get there.

Something is wrong with this picture.

If the roads aren’t clear enough to order all county government employees to go to work, (as emergency service personnel were told to do), how can county officials be confident that the roads are clear enough for school buses to pick up tens of thousands of students?

Continue reading this post »

Cursive is, like, so last century - San Jose Mercury News

Cursive is, like, so last century - San Jose Mercury News:

"They can type 60 words per minute, text on cell phones in seconds and instant-message endlessly. What teens can't do well, it turns out, is write in old-fashioned cursive.

Ask about 40 high school students to write three sentences, and without exception the assignments come back in printing — neat or scrawled, but not in script.

'I've forgotten how to write cursive,' said Alexis Miller, a sophomore at Los Altos High School.

'Cursive has a lot of unnecessary loops,' said her classmate David Kay. 'It seems to be really inefficient.'

Still taught in third grade and practiced in fourth, cursive then vanishes from state standards, a victim of the push to prepare students for state tests and make them computer literate.

'I think we're seeing the end of pen-and-paper writing, and that makes me sad,' said Amy Gibson, who teaches English at Fremont High in Sunnyvale. Like other teachers, she laments the loss of a medium that has expressed creativity and inspiration. Some say kids are losing the ability to read original sources of poetry and other writing."

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence.

Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

Thanks for the day off, presidents! I am refreshed and ready to serve up a new newsblitz:

Teachers acquitted of sexual misconduct with students rarely return to the classroom, the Union-Tribune reports. The article explains that teachers are faced with a triple threat -- school district disciplinary hearings, criminal proceedings and having their credentials suspended.
KPBS reports that Latino students are increasingly going to college far from home, defying cultural norms.
Vista teachers held a noisy protest as their school district held mediated talks about their contract, the North County Times reports.
SDNN looks at the findings of a national report on what happens when more students take Advanced Placement tests.
Los Angeles Unified may slash the sc

Why Testing Fails: How Numbers Deceive Us All - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Why Testing Fails: How Numbers Deceive Us All - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.:

"Accountability?

Read This First.

'Tests fail because of an effect I call the 'Numerical Outcome Principle'. . . .
. . .Our leaders need to look beyond the numbers,
and judge the context in which the numbers arose. . . '
- Joe Ganem
-------

Why Testing Fails

By Joseph Ganem Ph.D."

There is broad agreement, that improving education requires assessing student outcomes, and holding those responsible accountable for the results. But, the use of standardized tests, as a tool for assessment and accountability, has resulted in more disillusionment than improvement. The heavy emphasis on testing mandated by the No Child Left Behind Law, has not lead to the sought after gains in educational outcomes.

I believe that the failure of mandated testing is a predictable result. Tests fail because of an effect I call the "Numerical Outcome Principle." Simply put: Once a number is used to judge outcomes, people will adjust their behavior to maximize that particular number.The actual outcome no longer matters. The field of education is rife with examples of the Numerical Outcome Principle in action; instances in which the attainment of lofty goals is undone by the substitution of numbers in place of sound human judgment.

Consider the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which is a widely used instrument for college admission decisions. The original purpose of the SAT was to provide a level playing field for admission to college. The intent of the test was to identify the students most likely to succeed in college, without regard to social and economic background. In theory, a student from a poor inner city school district, and a student from an expensive private prep school, who have

National Journal Online -- Education Experts -- Houston's Teacher Evaluation Policy

National Journal Online -- Education Experts -- Houston's Teacher Evaluation Policy

Despite fierce opposition from the local teachers union, the Houston Independent School District approved a policy last week to use value-added test scores, a statistical method used to measure teachers' and schools' impact on students' academic progress rates from year to year, as one of the criteria for teacher evaluation and teacher dismissal (some details about the policy are available here and here). This means that roughly 400 of the district's 13,000 teachers may be eligible for dismissal as a result of their students' poor performance on tests.

2 Responses

Expand all comments

RESPONDED ON FEBRUARY 16, 2010 9:44 AM

Students Need Evaluation Too

Diane Ravitch

Research Professor Of Education, New York University

If Houston has some really awful, ineffective teachers, they should be removed.
It is not clear that their intention to use value-added scores will necessarily be the right way to do it. As Randi Weingarten said, value-added scores should measure students at the beginning of the school year and the end of the school year to see how much progress they made in the classroom of a specific teacher of a specific subject. If Houston is comparing cohort to cohort, then they don't have accurate information because students are not randomly assigned, and cohorts are not necessarily comparable. The information will also be flawed unless it takes into account progress over three years. There is a solid body of research showing that value-added scores are not stable from year to year. A teacher who is the "best" one year may not be in the top category a year or two later; conversely, a teacher who got very low value-added scores one year may get very good results the next year or the one after. It would be interesting to see if there is a district anywhere in the U.S. that has used value-added scores to evaluate teachers and actually improved student performance. Tennessee has been doing it for some 20 years, and I can't see any big improvement in the state's performance on NAEP. Now, would Terry Grier, the superintendent in Houston, please come up with a plan to hold students accountable for doing their homework, showing up in class everyday, and taking their studies seriously? And while he is at it, how about an accountability plan for parents? Give them grades based on whether their children go to school ready to learn. Did they get breakfast? Do they have a quiet place to study? Are their TV and computer habits monitored? If we are serious about student performance, we must evaluate the teacher, but also the student and his or her family. Teachers are important but they are not the sole source of student performance.

Collapse

RESPONDED ON FEBRUARY 16, 2010 9:31 AM

Groping Our Way to the Future

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Honestly, the big point isn't the relative strengths and weaknesses or technical features of Houston's particularly approach. It's that Houston is now one of the pioneer cities that is helping to blaze a trail into the education future. It seems to me self-evident that twenty years from now we will take for granted in the United States that one key element in teacher evaluations (and sundry HR decisions affecting teachers) will be classroom effectiveness and that one key metric for gauging that effectiveness is going to be student academic achievement. This would be happening with or without Race to the Top but obviously the RTT competition is lending additional oomph. Sure, there will be a hundred different ways of doing this, sundry false starts and myriad technical issues to be worked through. But Randi Weingarten has already "recognized" in her way that this is part of the future of American public education and it's only a matter of time til it becomes ubiquitous. Hurrah for Houston--and its excellent new superintendent and board--for helping to blaze this trail.

Leave a response

Invited participants may sign in to leave a response.

Stimulus law’s futile goal of reform The Educated Guess

The Educated Guess
Stimulus law’s futile goal of reform

Posted in Race to the Top, Teacher Development

In directing $80 billion in stimulus dollars over two years to the nation’s elementary and secondary schools, the Obama administration made a big deal about tying the money to school reform. States were required to make four assurances in accepting the money, including, most importantly, a commitment to make progress in producing more effective teachers and seeing that they are equitably distributed in low-income schools.
But those assurances, it turns out, were vague and unenforceable. California got 90 percent of the money without having to tell the feds what steps it planned to take, and the Obama administration had no way to hold it accountable anyway.
(Read more and comment on this post)

Three charter schools expected to receive millions in city money, Education Dept. plan shows

Three politically connected charter schools are expected to receive millions in city money for new buildings, an Education Department plan shows.

In the city's capital plan, two charter schools with ties to Mayor Bloomberg - Brooklyn's PAVE Academy and Harlem Promise Academy - are slated to receive a total of $72 million for new buildings, about a third of the city money available for charter construction.

Peninsula Preparatory Academy in Queens, which state Senate President Malcolm Smith helped found, will also receive funds, though an exact amount has not been settled on.

Critics say with limited resources for school construction, the city should build public schools where they're most needed - not where elected officials have pet schools.

"It pays to have friends," said Community Education Council 15 Co-President Jim Devor, criticizing the choice to spend public dollars on a new school for Red Hook, Brooklyn, which doesn't have an overcrowding problem.

Less talk, more action from Department of Education on 'rubber room' problem - NYPOST.com

Less talk, more action from Department of Education on 'rubber room' problem - NYPOST.com:

"'Rubber rooms' don't work.

They don't work for schools, students or taxpayers. They especially don't work for teachers, who have no desire to have incompetent or misbehaving colleagues but who also insist that the discipline process be fair and objective.

What's more, the rubber rooms are a problem that can be solved.

The UFT has offered many ways to streamline and expedite the process.

There is no reason most investigations cannot be completed in 30 days, and we have urged the hiring of more investigators to speed this part of the process.

In 2002, we negotiated an expedited process for lesser misconduct. That agreement permitted the Department of Education -- with the teacher's agreement -- to limit the total time for a hearing to three days. In the last eight years since this procedure was agreed upon, the DOE has used it twice.

In 2008, we worked with the DOE to increase the number of arbitration-panel members dedicated to these cases."

Latest News and Comment from Education