A Model Of Mismanagement In Sacramento Schools (Opinion) | Sacramento, CA Patch

A Model Of Mismanagement In Sacramento Schools (Opinion) | Sacramento, CA Patch

A Model Of Mismanagement In Sacramento Schools (Opinion)
COMMENTARY: Sacramento is by no means the only Californian school district in financial and political meltdown.

California's extra budget cash could soon top $26 billion, analysts say - Los Angeles Times - https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-20/californias-state-budget-excess-cash by @johnmyers on @latimes

By Dan Walters,  (BLAME EVERYTHING ON TEACHERS)
Originally published on Monday, November 18

Two years ago, with teachers in Sacramento's school district on the verge of striking, the city's mayor stepped in to mediate a compromise contract.

"Forty-three thousand students, parents, teachers and our entire community can breathe easy this afternoon," Mayor Darrell Steinberg declared after the Sacramento City Unified School District and the Sacramento City Teachers Association agreed to a new contract giving teachers an 11% raise over three years.

"Let this be the beginning of a new day of partnership that puts old wounds behind," Steinberg added, referring to long-running acrimony between the union and the district's administration.

However, the ink was scarcely dry on the agreement before the district's politics and finances began to go south again.

It was soon revealed that the salary increases would drain a reserve account set aside to pay the district's fast-increasing pension fund payments, leaving its budget even more imbalanced. And the war of words between the union and Superintendent Jorge Aguilar resumed, becoming even bitterer.

In 2018, less than a year after Steinberg hailed the new contract, Sacramento County's school superintendent, David Gordon, began rejecting district budgets that fell short of minimum reserve requirements.

California's Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), a sort of rescue squad for troubled school systems, also became involved in 2018, issuing a very critical report and predicting that the district would run out of cash in 11 months unless it closed a $30 million budget gap. "The fiscal risk is real, imminent, and serious, FCMAT wrote. "Without action, state intervention is certain."

However, the labor-management acrimony escalated even further. The union staged a one-day strike last April and a state takeover of the district's operations was averted only by a last-minute fiscal bandage.

Sacramento City's fundamental problems remained unaddressed and Gordon, the county superintendent, continued to reject its imbalanced budgets, most recently in October, calling again for spending reductions.

The administration wants to reduce employee health care costs, while the union insists that spending cuts be made in the administration, citing "bureaucratic bloat."

Sacramento is by no means the only California school district in financial and political meltdown and if it can't resolve its issues CONTINUE READING: A Model Of Mismanagement In Sacramento Schools (Opinion) | Sacramento, CA Patch

Education Through Friendship: One Man’s Story (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Education Through Friendship: One Man’s Story (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Education Through Friendship: One Man’s Story (Part 4)

Parts 1, 2, and 3 trace the arc of my close friendship with a small group of Pittsburghers beginning in the late-1940s. Far beyond the schooling I have had, my friendship with these “buddies” of mine has educated me and made possible my living a full life.

Turning Points in the Group’s History

Moving from a bunch of teenage boys in high school and college who had learned over years to accept both strengths and flaws in each other to a group of husbands and wives coming together monthly was a huge leap. Most adolescent friendships that survive college, I would guess, founder as couples form and marriages occur.   

In our group, many wives did not know one another well before they married into the group. It was a Pittsburgh Jewish community divided into Oakland, East Liberty, and Squirrel Hill where different B’nai Brith youth groups straddled neighborhoods so some wives had met and knew of one another but not as close friends. Surely, many of us knew the wives when they were dating one of the guys especially as dating evolved into engagements and then marriage. Our annual New Year’s Eve parties brought the women we dated together. For example, I brought Barbara to her first New Year’s Eve party in 1957, a year before we got married.

Wives expand group. Why did the group of close pals accept wives as integral members of the group and make it a joint venture in forming the book club in CONTINUE READING: Education Through Friendship: One Man’s Story (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Education Research Report TODAY

Education Research Report

Education Research Report 

TODAY

Most Teachers Access Academic Research, But Few Use It to Inform Practice

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 35min

More than nine in 10 educators access academic research about education, but just 16% use it to inform classroom practice, according to new research by the nonprofit Jefferson Education Exchange. Based on surveys of educators from all 50 states and the District of Columbia , the research also found that a majority of teachers have opinions about what education-related topics should be studied, an

Estimating Individual Guidance Counselors' Effects on Educational Attainment

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 43min

Guidance counselors are a common school resource for students navigating complicated and consequential education choices. I provide the first causal estimates of individual counselors’ effects on high schoolers, using quasi-random counselor assignment policies in Massachusetts. This study find that counselors vary substantially in their effectiveness at increasing students’ high school graduation

K-12 Engineering Education

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2h

State education leaders are making strides in their efforts to incorporate technology and engineering into K-12 science standards and instruction. A new Policy Brief analyzes results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in Technology and Engineering Literacy and the questionnaires that accompany it. The brief also explores state policies and practices that can continue boosting st

YESTERDAY

Student Outcomes in Middle Schools Participating in the Presidential Youth Fitness Program

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 18h

Obesity and lack of physical activity among children and adolescents are public health problems in the United States. This Presidential Youth Fitness Program (PYFP) evaluation measured program implementation in 13 middle schools and its effect on physical education practices, student fitness knowledge, and student physical activity and fitness levels. PYFP, a free program with the potential to po

Student Outcomes in a Sample of Middle Schools Participating in the Presidential Youth Fitness Program

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 18h

Obesity and lack of physical activity among children and adolescents are public health problems in the United States. This Presidential Youth Fitness Program (PYFP) evaluation measured program implementation in 13 middle schools and its effect on physical education practices, student fitness knowledge, and student physical activity and fitness levels. PYFP, a free program with the potential to po

Nutrition Education in US Schools

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 18h

Download the research brief pdf icon [PDF - 1 MB] on Opportunities for Nutrition Education in Schools . Schools play an important role in helping students establish healthy eating behaviors, by providing: Nutritious and appealing foods and beverages. Consistent and accurate messages about good nutrition. Ways to learn about and practice healthy eating. 1 Nutrition education is a vital part of a c

Making Time for School Lunch

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 18h

Download the research brief pdf icon [PDF - 463 KB] on . The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 external icon required changes to the nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program external icon and School Breakfast Program external icon . 1 As a result, schools are serving more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, as well as reducing the sodium content of the meals. 2–4 However,

America's Reading Crisis

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 20h

Strong reading skills propel us to achieve success in school and advance through postsecondary education, get a job and keep it, increase our level of earnings, and more. Conversely, difficulty with basic reading skills and comprehension can throw one obstacle after another in our path. In fact, research shows that a lack of literacy proficiency can have compounding negative impacts on future lif

The value of higher education is tied to its relevance in their work and lives

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 21h

Complete report What do Americans value in their education? We haven’t really known, because too often the consumers of higher education have been absent from the conversation. So the Strada Education Network partnered with Gallup to ask more than 340,000 individuals about their experiences with education and work after high school. The Education Consumer Value Equation gives them a voice in what

Building an education-to-employment system centered on adult learners

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 21h

Complete report As the future of work continues to evolve, more adults will face career transitions that demand the acquisition and demonstration of new skills, creating cycles of learning and earning throughout life. Despite the rapid changes in work, the pathways to employment through education and hiring have not made as significant or important a leap. Traditional pathways to employment were

13 reports an online growth mindset program administered to 9th grade students.

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

The Mindset Scholars Network has announced that initial findings are now available for the 13 studies funded through the National Study of Learning Mindsets Early Career Fellowship. The fellowship is a project of the Mindset Scholars Network and the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center , with funding from the Bezos Family Foundation . While many of these studies are ongoing, e

Give Schools an Honest Grade, Say School Superintendents

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

Give schools an honest grade. That's the message to school critics from school superintendents who recently published an infographic urging the public to take a closer look at the real story about school performance. Giving Schools an 

Education Research Report

Louisiana Educator: John White, Common Core, Education Reform, and the Widening Learning Gap

Louisiana Educator: John White, Common Core, Education Reform, and the Widening Learning Gap

John White, Common Core, Education Reform, and the Widening Learning Gap

Where are we going with Louisiana education for the next 8 years of education reform? How did we get here? The education policy we have been pursuing for the last 10 years was actually created without input from the parents and teachers who are closest to the delivery of education to our children. The present policy of poorly designed, unteachable standards was dreamed up by a bunch of self appointed elites who have never spent a day a the head of a classroom.

Common Core standards that were implemented in Louisiana starting in 2012,  have proved to be a disaster for our students because they were untested in actual classrooms, were not age appropriate for most children, are full of abstract concepts that are dull and boring to most of our students, and that will never be used in a person's lifetime. I am talking about stuff like quadratic equations in math, close reading in English where students are taught no context that connects with real life, and state testing where passing scores have to be secretly set at 12% just to make it look like our students are learning this stuff. We have been experimenting with our kids lives for 10 years and the experiment has failed, but none of the architects of this disaster are willing to admit it.

Here is the most recent fluff piece by the pro-reform education reporter for the Baton Rouge advocate, Will Sentell, fawning over the complete sweep of LABI endorsed candidates in the recent BESE elections. LABI has actually been in full control of Louisiana education since January 2012 when the LABI engineered takeover of BESE first occurred. January 2012 is when their hand picked CONTINUE READING: Louisiana Educator: John White, Common Core, Education Reform, and the Widening Learning Gap

NYC Educator: Al D'Amato, Education Expert

NYC Educator: Al D'Amato, Education Expert

Al D'Amato, Education Expert

Last week I wrote about how the NY Post had yet another article trashing the teachers who've been reassigned. I've read this article a million times. First it was Campbell Brown, on her mission to save the world from the perfidious individuals who teach children. This was covered quite a bit by then-education writer Ben Chapman in the Daily News.  This week former Senator Pothole, Al D'Amato, wrote essentially the same thing.

Here's the recipe--You take a few extreme cases, outliers at best, and paint them as though they're typical. After that, add a few dashes of union and teacher bashing, and then, no matter how little you know, paint yourself as an expert. Now D'Amato's piece has a title that suggests otherwise--We have a lot to learn about education's cost and quality. Unfortunately, Al is pushing the same old anti-union nonsense he did when he was a Senator. That's probably one reason he was voted out.

I'm not sure how many people read the Herald, but I'm glad Al didn't manage to get his story into something like Newsday, with wider circulation. Al's source appears to be the Post article, which I suppose is as good as any when it comes to teacher-bashing. Al, of course, is himself a paragon of virtue, so he can say this stuff. After all, he was cleared in the whole Roosevelt Raceway sale, even though it stunk to high heaven.

Hey, does that remind you of anything? It kind of reminds me of the teachers who were reassigned. They were never convicted of anything. Yet Al says the system sucks and CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Al D'Amato, Education Expert

SADNESS IN SEATTLE: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Yes, I'm Leaving

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Yes, I'm Leaving

Yes, I'm Leaving

Some of you might have seen the Board meeting or even been there but others might have heard through the grapevine.

I am leaving Seattle and thus ends this blog as it currently is focused.  It will likely close after Thanksgiving unless there was some breaking news that I think important for readers to be able to talk about and discuss.

I want to get settled in my home before I decide whether to revamp it into place to discuss, in depth, higher level public education issue.

I had been considering this move for some time and my exit reasons are personal.   I can say that while I do love Seattle, I find today's Seattle frantic and unsettled.  Maybe it is just a reflection of our national disquietude matched with ennui about what to do with ourselves.

It makes me think of Moonstruck when Nicholas Cage's character can't stop professing his love for Cher's character and she slaps him across the face and says, "Snap out of it!"  I wish there were that magic wand that might make us all be Americans rather than factions upon factions.

But I digress.

I have many people I want to thank but that will be another post.

But naturally, I have to thank you, the readers of this little blog that could.  You have challenged me, kept me on my toes, some have been informers (thanks!), with a few pests.

I do appreciate all the kind words of appreciation that you have sent my way as of late.

I cannot offer you more than be in good health, watch over and love your children and please, please, continue to support public education.  It is the backbone of this democracy.


Seattle Schools Community Forum: Yes, I'm Leaving