March 2012
9 posts
Pioneered in California, publishing teacher... →
The release last month of “value-added” rankings of New York City teachers based on student test scores, a practice pioneered by the Los Angeles Times in the summer of 2010, has once again raised pointed questions about whether the rankings of individual teachers should be published by the media.
Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst organization has... →
StudentsFirst, the newest entrant into the California school reform landscape, has 170,000 members in California, according to its founder Michelle Rhee, the former Washington D.C. schools chief and wife of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.
Study finds rise in childhood obesity rates in... →
A UC Davis study has found that the rise in childhood obesity rates in California is slowing, which researchers think may be the outcome of improved nutrition and physical fitness programs in the state’s public schools.
Beyond personal pain, teacher layoffs have... →
Of all the budget-cutting remedies that school districts have to undertake, laying off teachers — or even the threat of being laid off — has a rippling effect on schools and students that goes far beyond the pain being experienced by individual teachers faced with losing their jobs.
Number of tax initiatives on ballot to raise funds... →
Bowing to the mathematical reality that three ballot initiatives on the November ballot to raise money for schools could significantly reduce the chances of any of them passing, Governor Jerry Brown and the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) agreed Wednesday to combine their initiatives.
Flurry of bills on school discipline introduced in... →
Against the backdrop of a recent federal report showing African American students being disproportionately suspended or expelled from California schools, a flurry of bills have been introduced in the state Legislature over the past several weeks to reform California’s extensive set of laws governing school discipline.
State laws leave room for interpretation when it... →
One of the main reasons students are suspended from California schools is for “disrupting school activities” or “willfully defying” school authorities, which are largely undefined terms open to substantial interpretation, or misinterpretation, by school officials.
Opposition to California’s school ranking system... →
Opposition at the highest levels of state government is emerging against the more than decade-old system of ranking California’s schools on a scale of 1 to 10, based on how they score on the state’s Academic Performance Index.
Schools establish “early warning system” to... →
Some school districts in California are working to establish an “early warning system” to identify middle grade students who are at risk of dropping out, and then to vigorously intervene so they don’t.
