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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Tuesday, July 17, 2012

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Education Headlines

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Rancho Mar Monte residents want neighborhood moved into Carmel school district

A group of residents at Rancho Mar Monte near Carmel want to carve out their neighborhood from the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District to join the Carmel Unified School District.

SD Unified to sell old schools, surplus property

The most controversial cost-cutting measure to come from the San Diego school board this year might just be plans to sell off some of its most valuable assets: Southern California real estate.

Grossmont charity ties questioned

Relationships between school officials and contractors are under scrutiny, as District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis is prosecuting several in the South Bay for accepting entertainment and gifts and then handing out multimillion dollar contracts. The officials have pleaded not guilty to bribery.

Charter school operator Steve Barr to partner with L.A. Unified

Steve Barr, the founder of a well-known group of unionized charter schools, announced Tuesday a new project to develop innovative academies within the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Union, school board president question use of low-cost interns

The West Contra Costa school board president and the head of the district's teacher's union are questioning the continued use of low-cost teaching interns from the Teach For America program when credentialed teachers can't get jobs, but others say the district cannot afford to let it go.

Sacramento teachers sue over layoff policy

Educators and advocacy groups across the state are eyeing a class-action lawsuit filed by dozens of laid-off Sacramento teachers who say their school district unlawfully deviated from strictly following seniority-based layoffs.

Sac City Unified students don't get summer lunch program this year

Sacramento County has about 40 fewer sites serving free meals to needy children this summer than it had last year. The local program was greatly reduced after the county's largest sponsor – the city of Sacramento – pulled out of the program, shuttering its 64 summer meal sites.

Feds say state needs greater assurances on charter performance

Prompted by federal regulators, California may be forced to make a fundamental change in how charter schools are evaluated for renewal by putting student achievement for all subgroups as the most important factor.

Fensterwald: Two years plus and counting - teachers prep for Common Core

Replacing the California state standards in math and English language arts with Common Core will require not merely learning new standards but also adopting a new mindset and approach to teaching essential concepts in depth.

CalPERS earnings fall way short

California's big public pension funds are continuing to swim in choppy investment waters, leaving the state and local governments gasping for air. CalPERS reported a 1 percent annual profit on its investments Monday, following CalSTRS in delivering disappointing results for the latest fiscal year.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Database: Agency disciplined 74 local educators over last five years

Seventy-four Kern County educators were stripped of their teaching credentials by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing in the last five years for crimes or misconduct on and off campus.

Bond firm gives Lodi Unified slight downgrade

Fitch Ratings has assigned the Lodi Unified School District with a AA- bond rating, which is a slight downgrade for the district but also notes "strong management practices" and a reliable financial outlook.

Stockton USD's plans for all-male programs dropped

Stockton Unified has scrapped plans to establish all-male programs at several schools in the new academic year, in part because of insufficient interest among students but also due to legal concerns about single-gender learning raised recently by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Big Education Ape - Morning Wink 7-17 AM Posts #soschat #edreform

BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK AM POSTS

Big Education Ape 2nd Banana 7-14-12 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

Big Education Ape 2nd Banana 7-7-12 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

Big Education Ape 2nd Banana 6-30-12 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

Big Education Ape 2nd Banana 6-23-12 Recap of Last Week's Best PostBig Education Ape 2nd Banana 6-16-12 Recap of Last Week's Best PostBig Education Ape 2nd Banana 6-9-12 Recap of Last Week's Best Post Big Education Ape 2nd Banana 6-2-12 Recap of Last Week's Best Post

Big Education Ape Nite Cap 6-24-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

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Schools Matter: Research Does Not Support Claims by Common Core Advocates

Schools Matter: Research Does Not Support Claims by Common Core Advocates:

Research Does Not Support Claims by Common Core Advocates

by Jim Horn

Got tougher standards and higher cut scores, and expecting big jumps in achievement? Keep wishing.

From Ed Week in February:

Will the Common Core State Standards improve student achievement? Not according to a new study out today.

The crux of the argument in the Brookings Institution report is that there is not much of a connection between standards—even rigorous ones—and student achievement. If there was a connection, we would have seen signs of improvement from states' own individual standards—all states have had standards since 2003—but NAEP scores don't bear that out, author Tom Loveless argues.

Loveless also points to a 2009 Brookings study that found no connection between the quality of states' standards and their students' NAEP scores. Loveless examines NAEP scores from 2003 to

Is School Funding Fair? | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Is School Funding Fair? | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Is School Funding Fair?

by obriena

Not in most states, according to a national report carddedicated to answering that question.
Back in 2010, the first edition of a national report card on school funding and fairness was released. Considering “fair” school funding to be “a state finance system that ensures equal educational opportunity by providing a sufficient level of funding distributed to districts within the state to account for additional needs generated by student poverty,” it concluded that most states do not do a good job of ensuring equality of educational opportunity for all children. Last month, the second edition of this report card (which included funding data through 2009) was released – and once again, many states are falling short.
Just six states performed well on all measures of fairness that the report considered. Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Vermont maintained their performance from the 2010 report, with Kansas and New Mexico joining them (Connecticut and Wyoming fell out of this group in 2012). Three states received below average rankings on all indicators – Florida, Missouri, and North Carolina.
These indicators reflect a number of core principles, one of which is that “varying levels of funding are required to provide equal educational opportunities to children with different needs.” Another is that the overall level of education funding matters
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Jersey Jazzman: Holding Charters Accountable For Equity

Jersey Jazzman: Holding Charters Accountable For Equity:

Holding Charters Accountable For Equity

by Duke

Late yesterday, the NJ education world got the decree from ACTING Lord High Executioner Chris Cerf as towhich charters His Lordship deemed worthy of receiving a seal from his signet ring.

Despite Cerf's absurd contention that charters are "the most democratic schools we have," this round of approvals shows just how autocratic the entire system is. With little transparency and no local control - districts have to pay for Cerf's charters, but have no saying in their approval or oversight - districts like Princeton have had to set aside funds for the last two years while ACTING Lord Cerf unilaterally decided whether he would bestow a charter on a school located in the well-performing district.

To deflect from this absurdity, Cerf, good bureaucrat that he is, points to the new procedures and policies that he

School Tech Connect: Thank You, SB7

School Tech Connect: Thank You, SB7:

Thank You, SB7

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

This is how it's done.

Popout

Throughout my time in education, I have always found that the people doing the real work of improving the status of the profession, of fighting for conditions in which learning can occur, of taking the risks that accompany the

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