Ensuring Transparency at Our Public Institutions | California Progress Report

Ensuring Transparency at Our Public Institutions | California Progress Report

Ensuring Transparency at Our Public Institutions

by kaldveer

By State Senator Leland Yee
There is an unfortunate growing trend among our public higher education institutions of doing public business behind closed doors without any accountability to the taxpayer. Over the past several years, I have authored new laws to bring greater transparency to executive compensation decisions and provide protections to students and workers who report waste, fraud, and abuse.
However, another such abuse has remained unresolved for nearly ten years despite court challenges and two legislative attempts at a fix: public university auxiliary organizations.

NorthJersey.com: New Jersey Supreme Court declines to hear case on teachers' pensions

NorthJersey.com: New Jersey Supreme Court declines to hear case on teachers' pensions

New Jersey Supreme Court declines to hear case on teachers' pensions

Wednesday, June 23, 2010
LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY JUNE 23, 2010, 4:36 PM

BY PEGGY ACKERMANN AND LISA FLEISHER

STATE HOUSE BUREAU

STATE HOUSE BUREAU

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to hear a case in which the state’s largest teachers union sought full funding for its pension fund.

STAR-LEDGER FILE PHOTO

NJEA President Barbara Keshishian is led into in the Governor's Office at the State House In April for a meeting with Christie.

In rejecting the case Tuesday, the court let stand a ruling by a three-judge appellate panel that said New Jersey is not constitutionally required to pay the millions it owes every year into the fund for teachers' pensions.
That ruling in March came amid contentious discussion over how to fix the state’s underfunded pension plan — including a proposal that could make full funding a constitutional requirement.
The New Jersey Education Association, which represents more than

City Brights: Rachel Norton : A heartbreaker in Alameda

City Brights: Rachel Norton : A heartbreaker in Alameda

A heartbreaker in Alameda

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The subject line on an email from Alameda USD trustee Mike McMahon says it all -- "Crushing Defeat." Though there are a few votes left to be counted, it looks like Alameda's Measure E, a parcel tax to fund its highly-regarded public schools, is going down in defeat.

The irony? More than 65 percent of Alameda's voters voted to approve the tax -- juuuust shy of the 66 and 2/3 plus one required to pass. Only in California!

I can only begin to imagine the frustration and fear for the future that Alameda's parents, teachers and school administrators are experiencing right now. The measure would have added $659 annually to the property taxes for each residential parcel and 15 cents per square foot for commercial parcels, and would admittedly have been one of the highest school taxes in the Bay Area. Still, it was replacing two existing parcel taxes that are expiring in 2012, so there was a precedent for local funding of Alameda schools.

To add insult to injury, Alameda's school board last night passed a 2010-11 budget that eliminates gifted education programs, middle and high school counselors, and other programs -- in all, $7 million in cuts to Alameda USD's $80 million annual budget. Over three years, the district is expecting to cut $17 million, or more than 20 percent of its total budget.

Here in San Francisco, we passed a $198 per parcel tax back in 2008, and successfully renewed a $6 million facilities parcel tax earlier this month. Despite this funding, and additional funding from the City of San Francisco's Rainy Day Fund and Public Education Enrichment Fund, the district has faced its own budget travails - a $113 million deficit through 2011-12. Last night, we adopted a

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rnorton/detail??blogid=184&entry_id=66403#ixzz0risvTKfK

Washington, Oregon seek to develop standardized tests for many states to use | OregonLive.com

Washington, Oregon seek to develop standardized tests for many states to use | OregonLive.com

Washington, Oregon seek to develop standardized tests for many states to use

Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 11:46 AM Updated: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 2:00 PM

Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
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Washington and Oregon are among the 31 states that applied today for $160 million in federal funding to develop rigorous new reading and math tests that would be used to evaluate students and schools in many states.

The joint application, submitted by Washington on behalf of the so-called Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, is one of at least two applications seeking to win $320 million of federal funds set aside to develop such a test.

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The tests the group says it would develop would be similar in some ways to the exams Oregon already gives. Students would take the tests on computers and would have more than one chance a year to prove they meet grade-level standards.

But, unlike Oregon's current exams, the new tests wouldn't be limited to multiple-choice questions. And they would be pegged to the recently released nationwide English and math standards that are reputed to be harder than Oregon's current standards, the Common Core Standards.

The U.S. Department of Education will announce in September which team or teams of states have won the money. Competing with the 31-state consortium is another group of 21 states, headed by

Alameda voters rejecting tax to save schools

Alameda voters rejecting tax to save schools

Alameda voters rejecting tax to save schools

Alameda voters were narrowly defeating a school tax Tuesday that both sides said would profoundly change...

San Francisco school board OKs layoffs, cuts

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Education Research Report: Common Core State Standards: Tackling the Long-Term Questions

Education Research Report: Common Core State Standards: Tackling the Long-Term Questions

Common Core State Standards: Tackling the Long-Term Questions

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

The "common core" state standards for grades K-12 have been released. Some states have already adopted them. Others are considering this step. Much will need to happen if these standards and related assessments are to get traction in American education over the next few years. But the Fordham Institute is looking even further ahead: they are considering the issues that will determine the long-term viability of this endeavor. Simply stated: in 2020, who will be in charge of the common standards-and-testing effort? How will this work? Who will pay for it?

To spur discussion and smart thinking about these crucial issues, the Fordham Institute commissioned a set of

City is hiring more “superprincipals” for struggling schools | GothamSchools

City is hiring more “superprincipals” for struggling schools | GothamSchools

Remainders: Yes, the Harlem space wars are still raging on - Video of a walkout during a Harlem charter space hearing. (Norm Scott) - The city will investigate the death of Nicole Suriel of Columbia Secondary. (Post) - The DOE is looking for someone to oversee its quality reviews. (Simply ...

City is hiring more “superprincipals” for struggling schools [image: june-10-pep-mtg] Last night, Murry Bergtraum High School chapter leader John Elfrank-Dana criticzed the city's decision to hire an executive principal without teachers' input. After dodging layoffs by eliminating raises for teachers and city ...

They might have 99 problems, but Regents prep ain’t one [image: New Design High School social studies teacher Tad Donozo, right, helps coach 11th grade U.S. history students for next week's Regents exam.] New Design High School social studies teacher Tad Donozo, right, helps coach 11th grade U.S. history ...

Teacher Quality Quantity � The Quick and the Ed

Teacher Quality Quantity � The Quick and the Ed

Teacher Quality Quantity Chicago Public Schools is not known for being a hard grader on teacher quality. In a city with 20,000 teachers, it dismissed only about 1 percent of its teaching workforce, cumulatively, over an 11 year period ending in 2005. From 2003 to 2005, 80% ...

QUICK Hits [image: Quick Hits] *Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day.* - Going to college on a fishing scholarship? (New York ...

Race to the Test Due Today — What’s Needed Going Forward Today is the deadline for the $350 million “Race to the Test” competition. Proposals for a $320 million fund for comprehensive assessment systems (two proposals to be funded) and a $30 million fund for high school end-of-course tests are due today. ...

HechingerEd Blog | Small schools mean big progress, says MDRC report

HechingerEd Blog | Small schools mean big progress, says MDRC report

Small schools mean big progress, says MDRC report

In the latest look at New York City’s small school strategy, which some argue is the special ingredient in the city’s efforts to improve its graduation rate over the past eight years, MDRC confirms past findings that kids in small schools do better than their counterparts in the rest of the school system.

The small schools had an effect on student achievement as early as ninth grade, and significantly higher graduation rates four years later. The report argues that the small schools are “more than justsmall.” They were able to find ways to help the neediest students, the researchers say. It also helped that the schools were a product of a “bottom-up, not a top-down process.”

New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein (courtesy of Rubenstein)

Some New Yorkers will vehemently disagree with this last assertion. Other research has raised concerns about disadvantaged students left high and dry when larger schools closed. And not all small schools have worked out.

This latest report, one in a series by MDRC on New York’s high school reforms, is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has provided millions of dollars to New York City to carry out these reforms. (Disclosure: the Gates Foundation also provides financial support to The Hechinger Report.) The study’s researchers say they avoided the pitfall of comparing kids who were motivated enough to apply for a small school to kids who weren’t as motivated (which could bias the results). They compared students who applied for and got in to small schools, which are often oversubscribed, to students who applied but

HechingerEd: Small schools mean big progress, says MDRC report In the latest look at New York City’s small school strategy, which some argue is the special ingredient in the city’s efforts to improve its graduation rate over the past eight years, MDRC confirms past findings that kids in small schools do better ...

HechingerEd: Improve your writing “quickly and easily,” Pearson promises The grammatically challenged of this world have new hope: Pearson Education announced today that it’s releasing a series of applications for the iPhone and iPod touch called “GrammarPrep” that will apparently help “college students, professionals and ...

Education | Teachers on vacation spend time in Supreme Court | Seattle Times Newspaper

Education | Teachers on vacation spend time in Supreme Court | Seattle Times Newspaper

Teachers on vacation spend time in Supreme Court

Adele Dalesandro stepped inside the U.S. Supreme Court wide-eyed. She spoke in whispers, trying to absorb everything about the room she had read so much about but had never seen.

By LAUREN SAUSSER

Associated Press Writer

JACQUELYN MARTIN / AP

Teachers Adele Dalesandro, left, of St. Charles, Il., Julie Hershenberg, of Carrolton, Texas, and Jilly Harry, of Knoxville, Tenn., sit on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court after attending a program last week with the Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers, in Washington.

WASHINGTON —

Adele Dalesandro stepped inside the U.S. Supreme Court wide-eyed. She spoke in whispers, trying to absorb everything about the room she had read so much about but had never seen.

Her first impression was that it was much smaller than she expected.

"This is not something you can replicate in the classroom," said Dalesandro, who has taught high school government and politics classes in St. Charles, Ill., for 14 years.

The teacher had become a student again.

Dalesandro was part of a group of 30 social studies teachers from around the country who got a behind-the scenes look this week at the Supreme Court as part of the Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers. The six-day program that ended Tuesday covered subjects ranging from choosing the court's docket to nominating a justice, an especially relevant topic this

This Week In Education: Dropouts: One School Tries "Chasers"

This Week In Education: Dropouts: One School Tries "Chasers"

Video: Life Without Teacher Unions A teacher falls asleep complaining about union dues and wakes up to discover that the union has disappeared at his school. He has entered.... The School Zone. Via Randy at the Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation.

Dropouts: One School Tries "Chasers" [image: chasers_cover_art] Someone sent me this link about "chasers" hired by one school to help make sure at risk kids graduate. These seem like more than truant officers -- though they perform a similar function (as well as social workers, ...

Video Break: "Toy Wire" The new Toy Story 3 is supposed to be great, and we all know The Wire was great, so why not mash them up into .... Toy Wire: Toy Wire.

Another parcel tax may be coming for Lafayette School District - ContraCostaTimes.com

Another parcel tax may be coming for Lafayette School District - ContraCostaTimes.com

Free meals available to low-income children this summerLow-income children can receive free meals during the summer through a partnership with Mt. Diablo CARES and Mt. Diablo school district's food services department. Another parcel tax may be coming for Lafayette School District HP to sell $300 netbook for heavy-duty classroom use Mt. Diablo school board approves staffing cuts, warns of more layoffs West Contra Costa school district projects tight budgets for years to come West Contra Costa schools to gauge support for November parcel tax