Saturday, March 13, 2010

Education foundation hosts forum on teacher pay - San Jose Mercury News

Education foundation hosts forum on teacher pay

by Shannon Barry

Posted: 03/12/2010 10:37:02 AM PST

Updated: 03/12/2010 10:37:02 AM PST

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Silicon Valley professionals were evaluating the issue of alternative pay concepts in relation to Race to the Top funding just hours before Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, found out California was no longer in the running for phase one of the $4.35 billion in funds, which is the single largest pool of discretionary funding for education reform in U.S. history.

Silicon Valley Education Foundation held an education forum last Wednesday at Synopsys Inc. in Sunnyvale to discuss whether changing the current pay system for educators would play a factor in helping accelerate student achievement and improve public education. Former journalist John Fensterwald moderated the two-hour discussion that drew in widely different viewpoints from administrative, business, teaching, local and statewide angles.

"Our goal today is to explore alternative pay concepts and see what are the disadvantages, advantages and obstacles," Fensterwald said. "We have an excellent panel to do that."

Panelists included Thomas Ezrin, vice president of global compensation, benefits and mobility of Flextronics; Marc Liebman, superintendent of the Berryessa Union School District; Jim Russell, principal of Del Mar High School; Dean Vogel, vice president of the California Teachers Association; and Jeff Camp, chairman of the Full Circle Fund's Education Impact Circle.

Camp opened the educational forum with a 12-minute presentation summarizing the importance of teaching and the

weight of compensation.

"I wanted to start this whole conversation with a picture of an important indicator of success. The completion of a huge important milestone for students graduating from high school," he began. "The way they get there is with the support of effective teachers."

He continued, asking those in the audience: "Why would teachers say this is a rewarding profession?"

Answers varied but circled around a similar theme of helping students grow. He then asked what pay is for, getting

FT.com / US & Canada - Funding squeeze spurs student backlash

Funding squeeze spurs student backlash

By Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles

Published: March 12 2010 22:17 | Last updated: March 12 2010 22:17

After a 40-year absence, revolution is again in the air in California, with university students taking to the streets to mount noisy and increasingly angry protests directed against steep rises in tuition fees.

The campuses of UCLA and Berkeley were once the setting for passionate demonstrations against the draft and the Vietnam war. The anger this time is directed at state legislators and university administrators who have imposed swingeing fee increases of as much as 30 per cent to plug a funding gap of $1.2bn (£790m, €872m).

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California’s fiscal woes and a projected deficit of $20bn are threatening one of the state’s jewels, the University of California system, which was given a public mandate in 1960 to provide world-class education to deserving students regardless of their ability to pay.

But the annual cost of tuition at some of the universities within the network has jumped to more than $10,000, and that is higher than some of America’s private universities. At the same time and in a bid to cut costs teaching staff have had their hours reduced and the number of classes and study modules available to students is shrinking, sparking a furious reaction.

“We’re paying much more and not getting the classes we want,” said Judy Lee, a 20-year-old psychology student, at a noisy UCLA demonstration where protesters shouted “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power!” and “The future belongs to

Education symposium takes pragmatic look at state schools crisis - San Jose Mercury News

Education symposium takes pragmatic look at state schools crisis

By Katy Murphy
Oakland Tribune

Posted: 03/12/2010 07:41:47 PM PST

Updated: 03/13/2010 05:23:14 AM PST

OAKLAND — As of Friday morning, 21,397 pink slips had been issued to teachers throughout California, by the state Education Department's count — just one more symptom of the state's ever mounting, multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

But researchers who spoke at an all-day symposium Friday at UC Berkeley went beyond the startling figures as they assessed the state of California's public schools. They discussed whether taxpayers are willing to pay more for public education. They reviewed state laws that allow Californians to shape complex, far-reaching laws in the ballot box and explored the diminishing authority of government institutions after decades of public cynicism and scarce resources.

Graduate students from the Berkeley Review of Education organized the event in response to the funding cuts and political activism on campus. While some of the speakers bemoaned the crisis facing public schools, community colleges and universities, the tone of the event was more pragmatic than rhetorical.

"If you're going to come up during the question-and-answer session and make strident statements about how California needs to fund its higher education system," UC Berkeley professor Norton Grubb admonished the audience, "you also have to say where we're going to get that money from, because there's no loose pots of money out there anywhere."

Earlier in the day, state Superintendent Jack O'Connell had given an optimistic view of public

opinion on education funding. "When you look at polls, people want to invest," he said, pointing to the support of local tax measures in November 2008.

But Grubb and his colleague Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy, presented a different picture. "We have a population that's deeply skeptical of new taxes to even return to the level of public finance we had just a

Coastal Voices Guest Opinion: Don’t punish students, teachers | Crescent City California News, Sports, & Weather | The Triplicate

Don’t punish students, teachers

Written by Mike Mealue March 12, 2010 02:01 pm

Funding for education has been decimated by the current state leadership. At a time when lawmakers mouth the importance of improved test scores and quality education, they are firing young teachers and increasing class sizes!

Locally, school district leaders are choosing to “balance the budget” on the backs of students, teachers, and support staff by laying off school site employees. In our county, 10 percent of the Del Norte Unified School District teaching positions have been eliminated in the past three years. At the same time, administrative costs have increased with only a few reductions in days and no reductions in administrative positions.

The district will contend that many of the decreases in teaching positions are due to reduced enrollment, yet teacher cuts go far beyond the loss of revenue caused by changes in enrollment. Furthermore, if declining enrollment has caused teacher layoffs, why haven’t we seen a reduction in administration? Shouldn’t enrollment numbers be used to determine administrative staffing also?

We can think statewide, but we must act locally. It is time for our local educational leaders to demonstrate true leadership by cutting administrative costs and eliminating medical benefits for school board members.

Teacher layoffs mean larger classes. This should be evident in the increases already seen. Imagine teaching a class of 35 or more sixth-graders! What really happens? It’s simple. More time is spent disciplining students, administering tests, planning and grading; less time is devoted to individual instruction, enrichment activities, or important interpersonal interactions.

The future will be measured by today. It is time our School Board members, school superintendent, deputy superintendent, assistant superintendent, director of human resources

What State’s 188 Low-Performing Schools Can Expect: Challenges, $$s and Longer School Days – Mission Loc@l -- San Francisco Mission District's News, Food, Art and Events

What State’s 188 Low-Performing Schools Can Expect: Challenges, $$s and Longer School Days

By: Lydia ChávezMarch 13, 2010 – 5:43 am

In what appears to be the most dramatic set of challenges in decades, five of the 10 San Francisco schools eligible for millions of dollars in new funding must close, replace half their staffs or convert to charter schools by late August, according to U.S. Department of Education guidelines.

California officials this week announced the three options and an initial list of 188 state schools eligible for the intervention grants. A fourth and less disruptive option is the so-called transformation model. It requires reforming instruction and replacing a principal that has been on the job for more than two years.

While a school’s fate will be determined at the district level, Washington’s rules prevent districts from taking the easiest route.

Districts such as San Francisco with nine or more Tier I or Tier II schools may opt for the milder transformation model in no more “than 50 percent of those schools. “ (Tier I, II and III are designations that refer to poverty, funding and performance levels. If you want tier details, click here. )

“We’re trying to respond to the new information and the new requirements in the most meaningful way,” said Dee Dee Desmond, the executive director for Reform & Accountability for the San Francisco Unified School District.

Desmond said that in the past, San Francisco has developed a reform strategy that encouraged stability. “In helping these schools to be the best that they can be” the changes needed “are not the things that are most draconian,” she said. A shift in principals, and teacher turnover already happens frequently at struggling schools and creates instability that is part of the problem, she

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Saturday, March 13, 2010