Weblogg-ed � We Need a Test for That

Weblogg-ed � We Need a Test for That

We Need a Test for That

by Will Richardson

Lately, I’ve been finding myself wondering if maybe the best strategy for changing education is to join ‘em, not fight ‘em. I mean, if the only material that we think is important is the stuff that our kids are going to get tested on, well, then let’s have MORE tests! (Play along!)

How about a test that every student has to pass on how to live a more carbon free, planet-friendly life? (Wonder how many of them even know what “carbon free” means.)

How about a test on “managing, analyzing and synthesizing multiple streams of simultaneous information?” (I love the NCTE.)

Or here’s a good one. Let’s make a test for a child’s ability to talk to strangers online, not as in whether or not they should, but as in how they go about doing it. (I want my kids to talk to strangers online, btw.)

What if we made a test to see if every kid knew “20 Easy Ways to Use a Wiki?” (Um, actually, let’s not do that. Too many grownups are doing that already.)

Here’s one: Let’s put together a test to see if our students can “Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-

The Daily Bruin | California’s crippling crisis

The Daily Bruin | California’s crippling crisis

California’s crippling crisis

As the state’s poor finances continue to hurt public schools, the UC must now depend on other states

By Jordan Manalastas

July 26, 2010 at 1:15 a.m.

The UC Board of Regents has once more confirmed the incompetence of the UC system apropos the Great Californian Fiscal Fiasco. Amid the tourniquets thrown around in this month’s Regents meetings, there are yet no signs of change for the university’s precarious position as it teeters on the brink of financial capsize.

Ours is a conundrum as existential as it is financial (sometimes there is no difference). For if there is one chief function the university serves, it is quality education, for cheap. Sadly, the compatibility of this feeble formula’s two components is being sorely tested as of late.

The state of the University of California is still that of a balancing act – noble aims against ignoble odds – and though the crutches that sustain us may treat symptoms, they are but salt to deeper wounds. Dwindling courses and dilated fees, whilst arguably necessary in these latter days, must give us pause: In a train wreck of priorities, both quality and

LAUSD lost almost $10 million due to inefficient inventory system, audit finds - Los Angeles Times

LAUSD lost almost $10 million due to inefficient inventory system, audit finds - Los Angeles Times

LAUSD lost almost $10 million due to inefficient inventory system, audit finds

The report says thousands of textbooks are not bar-coded or returned by students and poor communication between schools has led to unnecessary purchases.

July 25, 2010|By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

An audit of textbooks at 21 local high schools has found that lost books and excessive purchases at these campuses cost the Los Angeles Unified School District nearly $10 million.

Such problems are pervasive across the system of more than 1,000 schools, auditors concluded, exponentially increasing the potential losses and unnecessary spending.

"The district does not manage or control the textbook inventory process effectively, efficiently or economically," auditors wrote in a June 30 report, which is posted online.

Textbooks represent a huge annual cost for the nation's second-largest school district: $83.3 million last year for texts in required academic courses. Among a sample of reviewed titles, the cost of each book averaged $109.31.

Fremont High's grand experiment begins

The L.A. Unified campus reopens with a mostly new staff as the district attempts to address the campus' historically dismal academic results. But the approach has its critics.

July 07, 2010|By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

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  Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

A revamped Fremont High, which opened its school year Tuesday with a majority of new teachers, has become a local test case for a controversial school makeover approach being tried around the country.

Last December, Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines announced that he would personally oversee sweeping reforms at Fremont. The most striking was his edict that all staff members — including teachers, counselors, custodians and cafeteria workers — had to reapply for their jobs at the persistently low-performing South Los Angeles campus.

Oakland Schools Struggle, but Emeryville May Point a Way Up - NYTimes.com

Oakland Schools Struggle, but Emeryville May Point a Way Up - NYTimes.com

Oakland Schools Struggle, but Emeryville May Point a Way Up

Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

College-student aides and high school students administer a cyanide test to water samples at a science program in Emeryville.

By GERRY SHIH

Published: July 22, 2010

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In his five-year plan to turn around the lowest-performing schools in the Oakland Unified School District, Superintendent Tony Smith does not mention teachers, textbooks or test scores.

A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area for The New York Times. To join the conversation about this article, go tobaycitizen.org.

Instead, Mr. Smith said his students most urgently needed social and health services, engaged parents and activities outside the classroom.

Whether Mr. Smith can overhaul the schools in Oakland is a subject of intense interest among Bay Area educators. Oakland Unified has lost $122 million in financing in the latest cuts to California’s embattled public schools. The city’s endemic problems, particularly poverty and crime, have had a dramatic effect in the classroom.

But Mr. Smith has a record of reform: As a young superintendent in Emeryville in the early 2000s, he enlisted social workers from California State University and nurses from

Study: Effective Principals Embrace Collective Leadership #Education Week American Education News Site of Record #edu

Education Week American Education News Site of Record

Study: Effective Principals Embrace Collective Leadership

The wide-ranging study linked high student achievement to those principals who involved teachers, parents, and others in school decisions. (July 23, 2010) | Comments (8)

Ed. Dept. Tightening Rules on For-Profit Colleges

The regulations would cut off federal aid to for-profit colleges if too many of their students default on loans or don't earn enough after graduation to repay them.(July 23, 2010) | Comments (2)

Texas Board Votes to Tap Public Schools Fund to Help Charters

(July 23, 2010) | Comments (1)

Virginia Plans to Weigh Student Growth in Teacher Evaluations

(July 23, 2010) | Comments (2)

Fewer Latino Students Select Four-Year Colleges

(July 22, 2010) | Comments (4)

FROM THE WIRES

• • Education Commissioner Defends Texas Projection Measure
• • Virginia Plans to Weigh Student Growth in Teacher Evaluations
• • Ed union challenges proposed class size amendment

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Bill O'Leary/Washington Post via Getty Images

Rhee Firing 302 D.C. Teachers and Staff

Most of the teachers are being dismissed for poor performance under the District of Columbia's rigorous new evaluation system, schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee tells Education Week. (July 23, 2010)

India Unveils Prototype of $35 Tablet Computer Aimed at Students

(July 23, 2010) | Comments (1)

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