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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum may no longer be the frontrunner in the GOP presidential contest, but he is still the only one to have made education a major issue in his campaign.
Community colleges should take over all adult school programs from cash-strapped school districts, the Little Hoover Commission, the state watchdog agency, recommended yesterday.
Despite having to endure the worst economic crisis in almost a century, only a small number of school districts in California are officially designated as financially troubled.
