CHARTER SCHOOL BATTLE IN L.A.: growing demand for charter space is again drawing community resistance.
Los Angeles Unified officials are considering opening as many as five long-closed school sites in the San Fernando Valley to house hundreds of charter school students.
The sites have been closed since the early 1980s because of declining enrollment, but But with the LAUSD required to accommodate charters under state law, despite continuing strains on classroom space, district officials said they are eyeing all options.
But members of the West Hills Neighborhood Council said they want an activity center for senior citizens at Highlander Road Elementary. And the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization is opposed to charter schools as neighbors.
"Technically, none of us have a problem with charters if they were decent neighbors, but they tend not to be," said Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization.
CALIFORNIA TO REQUIRE EVERY 8th GRADER TO TALE ALGEBRA I CLASS
California education officials set a high bar Wednesday: All eighth-grade students will be tested in algebra.
While the 8-1 vote from the state Board of Education was immediately applauded by several business groups, some educators warned it set unrealistic expectations since half the state's students are still struggling to master basic math skills.
COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS: New Data on What Works to Reduce Dropout Rates (Web Conference July 30)
A five-year longitudinal evaluation of the Communities In Schools program conducted by ICF International finds good news about the effectiveness of integrated student supports on graduation rates and student and school outcomes. Learn more by joining this free webinar from 2:30-3:30 eastern time. Registration is required and spaces are limited.
EDUCATION WANES AS CAMPAIGN ISSUE. POLL FINDS
With the general election less than five months away, voters’ concerns about rising gas prices and the sagging economy trump education as a campaign issue, even as more Americans believe the nation’s schools are getting worse, according to a new national poll released today by the Public Education Network.
Ed Budget Fiasco: MISSED OPPORTUNITIES IN PROPOSED BUDGET + SCHOOL DISTRICT MAKES SUMMER SCHOOL CUTS
Missed opportunities in proposed budget - Thousands of kids around the county are going to have some unexpected time on their hands while getting a lesson in economics due to cuts in summer school programs.
Students need to be held accountable and to learn what it means to be reliable and to follow through on meeting expectations and requirements. Our state legislators and the governor need to learn this lesson, as well.
CALIFORNIA MANDATES TESTING EVERY EIGHTH-GRADER IN ALGEBRA -- READY OR NOT
Critics say the expected three-year time frame for implementing the rule is unrealistic. School districts will need help to prepare students, they add.
EDUCATION COALITION LAUNCHES STATEWIDE RADIO AD CAMPAIGN
Sacramento – Today the Education Coalition released a statewide radio ad campaign to urge the Governor and lawmakers to invest in education and to find common-sense budget solutions that increase revenues. Transcripts of the ads are below, and audio versions can be found on the web site at www.protectourstudents.org.
FRACASO EN ESCUELA ES PREOCUPACIÓN MUNDIAL: Culpan a profesores pocos capacitados y a padres sobreprotectores
smf: My Spanish is somewhere between bad and nonexistent - I tried to use it and the online translation applications to do justice to this and fell so far short I'm not even going to try! The thinking is beautiful and elegant ...we really need to let kids be kids.
"PHYSICAL EDUCATION IS A PRIORITY" MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY BY BOARD OF EDUCATION
Marlene Canter's office press summary plus text of the resolution
AALA/DISTRICT REPORT CARD 2007-2008
AT THE END OF EACH SCHOOL YEAR it is traditional to issue a report card to determine satisfactory progress towards the goal of grade-level achievement. It is therefore time for AALA to issue its report card regarding the success or failures of LAUSD.
…but 4LAKids wonders about the grades for Work Habits and Cooperation.
TESTING FOR ALGEBRA: As California debates college-prep math testing, educators must remember to put learning first.
LA Times Editorial
FAILURE NOT AN OPTION FOR FLORIDA MIDDLE SCHOOLERS
Failing English, math, science or social studies classes in middle school never kept Florida students from moving on to high school in the past.
That's not the case anymore. Beginning this fall, a Florida law enacted two years ago will require all students to pass their core subjects in middle school in order to be promoted to the ninth grade.
CAREER ACADEMIES FOUND TO YIELD EARNINGS PAYOFF
Even though career academy students are no more likely than peers coming out of traditional high school programs to graduate and go on to college, they make more money eight years out of high school than students who do not attend academies.
DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION: Changing the way we learn
Schools have done what virtually every organization does when implementing an innovation: The natural instinct is to cram the innovation into its existing operating model to sustain what it already does. This is perfectly predictable, perfectly logical ...and perfectly wrong.
The way to implement an innovation so that it will transform an organization is to implement it disruptively—not by using it to compete against the existing paradigm and serve existing customers, but to target those not being served or not buying what’s served. That way, all the new approach has to do is be better than the alternative—which is nothing at all.
SCHOOL HEALTH CLINICS BRING SERVICES TO STUDENTS
The exam room at Seattle's Cleveland High School's Teen Health Center has the basics: a blood pressure monitor and various scopes hang on the wall. Paper covers the exam table. But it's equipment also reflects the realities of adolescent health problems. One cupboard holds pap smear kits, another has a birth control teaching kit. In the lab room there's acne medication, a centrifuge and a tank of liquid nitrogen for freezing warts.
The clinic is one of hundreds that have opened in schools around the country in the last 20 years to treat teenagers, the age group least likely to get preventive health care. That neglect can let small problems grow into big problems, leading to missed classes and other problems.
Last year, California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed 500 new school clinics. The plan, however, was killed by budget problems.
SAVE D.C.'s VOUCHERS: by Margaret Spellings in the Washington Post
in which the U.S. Secretary of Education - who holds no teaching credential and whose husband was once a pro-voucher lobbyist - appeals to save a program that only serves 1900 of 7000 applicants - using public money to fund private and parochial education.
VILLARAIGOSA PREVENTS EVENT FROM BACK-FIRING ...or firing at all! + LAUSD, CITY AGREE TO OPEN POOLS DURING SUMMER
Even as summer brings calm to many local schools, the two sides of a contentious battle at Dolores Street Elementary School are amping up their efforts to determine the future of leadership at the Carson campus.
DOLORES PRINCIPAL AND AALA DEFENDS RECORD
UPSIDE/DOWNSIDE: California's fiscal woes largely of its own making + Rebuilding voters' trust is Job 1 in Sacramento
The state faces a crisis, but many others are doing well. Much of the fault lies with . . . well, us.
Here's Sacramento's problem: It desperately needs more tax money to provide the services the public wants. But the public doesn't trust Sacramento to spend any new money wisely.
ZONING BREAKS PROPOSED FOR CHARTERS
Amid growing demand for space on Los Angeles Unified campuses, the district is prepared to offer regulatory help to as many as 10 charter schools - already exempted from the Earthquake Safety Field Act by exempting them from city and county zoning ordinances next year.
Books of Summer: SUMMER READING PROGRAM FOR LA UNIFIED STUDENTS
It's summertime and the reading is easy. The Los Angeles Unified School District is beginning a summer reading program for students at all grade levels. If students read four books on this year's grade-approved reading list and write book reports for each, they can enter the Books of Summer contest.
NEWSMAKERS: Former Labor Secretary William Brock leads the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, created to report on the state of U.S. education.
A TEN STEP PLAN FOR REINVENTING US EDUCATION
Education 2.0: In WASHINGTON STATE NEEDS A NEW MODEL FOR K-12 FUNDING TOO
Business as usual is simply not working when it comes to education funding. Our paramount duty as a state is to educate our kids. It's time we fulfill that duty and put our money where our mouth is, literally.
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