Less Testing in Cali—In Your Dreams
John Fensterwald reported today on his blog TopEd that California Gov. Jerry Brown wants to suspend funding for CALPADS, the state student longitudinal data system, and to stop further planning for CALTIDES, the teacher data base associated with CALPADS. In a superficial nod to his benefactors in the California Teachers Association, Brown has expressed disapproval of the overuse of data collection and standardized testing.
However, Brown has not proposed abolishing testing or data collection. Noncompliance with NCLB, alone, would save the state $500 million per year—a pretty smart move at a time when the state is struggling to balance its budget and find enough revenue to keep teachers in the
First Posted: 05/24/11 01:17 PM ET Updated: 05/24/11 01:18 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- The nonprofit group set up by former Washington D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee is facing criticism for hiring a lobbyist to work on controversial legislation in Ohio that partially restricted the collective bargaining rights of teachers.
Between January and April of 2011, StudentsFirstemployed Robert Klaffky, the president of firm Van Meter, Ashbrook & Associates and a close adviser to Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) to help push various aspects of education policy.
In particular, the group, established by Rhee after she left the D.C. school system following then-Mayor Adrian Fenty's defeat, had Klaffky work on SB5, the infamous anti-collective bargaining bill passed into law but already facing the likelihood of referendum.
Klaffky, in a brief phone interview, said that as a lobbyist for StudentsFirst he did not work on some of the bill's toughest provisions, including language that limited collective bargaining rights among public employees (including teachers) for benefits, or language that eliminated blinding arbitration and prohibited those same employees from striking. Rather, he confined his work to the issue of