7 stories: A bunch of other California Education News…

from Rough&Tumble 

21 August 2014

• School superintendent with unusually high compensation fired -- The Centinela school board voted Wednesday to dismiss Supt. Jose Fernandez, who came under the scrutiny of the FBI and Los Angeles County district attorney's office this spring for a compensation package that exceeded $750,000 last year. Sara Hayden in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/21/14
• Cal State University system tackles escalating textbook costs -- Juan Salazar, a 20-year-old zoology major at Cal State San Bernardino, spends about $500 a year on textbooks. To cut costs, he researches professors online before enrolling in classes, then tries to take ones that don’t require pricey learning materials. Josh Dulaney in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 8/21/14
• California graduates surpass those nationwide in college and career readiness -- Less than 30 percent of California's 2014 high school graduates took the ACT test, which assesses students for college and career readiness, according to a report released Wednesday. Theresa Harrington in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/21/14
• More students take ACT, achievement lags -- California high school seniors outperformed their peers nationally in all categories of the ACT exam this year, according to data released Wednesday. Sara Hayden in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/21/14
• Greenhut: Public schools use bill to quash a charter -- When the Legislature isn’t trying to solve outside problems — e.g., reversing climate change or calling for the Washington Redskins to change names — it often meddles in local affairs by passing bills that target specific situations in a legislator’s district. Steven Greenhut UT San Diego$ -- 8/21/14
• NEA’s new president denounces testing -- In the midst of her first swing through California, the incoming president of the National Education Association praised the Common Core State Standards and California’s measured approach in implementing them while warning that the nation’s largest teachers union would fight efforts to use the new tests for the standards in ways that “harm kids” and punish schools and teachers. John Fensterwald EdSource -- 8/21/14
• Summer ends before Labor Day for many kids -- For millions of California schoolchildren, the end of summer depends on where they live and attend school. Louis Freedberg EdSource -- 8/21/14