STANDARDIZED SCHOOLS: LEARNING LEFT BEHIND

By Clarke L. Rubel | OpEd in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA)

January 7, 2008 - In "Education: bottom five," a letter to the editor, Dec. 23, the writer poses a list of rhetorical questions attempting to assign blame for California's abysmal school ranking, correctly implying that teachers, administrators, unions and parents share the blame.

The writer ends by stating that those of us associated with the education system should be embarrassed, but he doubts we are.

I take issue with this final comment. As a teacher, I have no time to be embarrassed, and I'm too busy being overwhelmed.

The letter's fundamental issue about school performance, however, is a crucial one. We all share the blame to varying degrees, but the writer leaves out major factors, such as the No Child Left Behind Act and what it has done to hamstring education.

As with most ills, the actual disorder is simply the outward sign of a fundamental problem. The philosophy behind NCLB is the deeper problem - a philosophy that espouses that knowledge can or should be accurately and definitively measured, that narrowly and rigidly redefines what knowledge is, that incorrectly assumes learning is a destination rather than a journey, and that assumes in its very name that all students must have the same goals.

In the present environment, in which testing is the be-all and end-all of education, we have instilled a dangerous mentality into both children and parents. We have, to a degree, succeeded under NCLB's mandates. It has taken a few years, but we have successfully trained students and parents to buy into several destructive "facts" that have combined to help redefine and degrade education.

FIRST, through a misplaced emphasis on testing we have taught there is always a clear, distinctly correct answer.

SECOND, we have taught that if one does not have the correct answer, one is the victim of some genetic defect, owner of a character flaw that will hinder one's progress in a society of successfully "right" people, who will always be able to lord their success over the weak.

Added into the mix is the punitive nature of modern education.

Students and schools are penalized if too few correct answers are provided. What happens when we spend a lifetime teaching children that there is always a right answer and consistently reinforce that they seldom have it? Where should a young mind go from there?

We have ignored the fact that the big issues in life seldom have clear answers, and that many of the decisions we make only lead to more questions and challenges.

We have begun breeding out reason and logic, replacing practical knowledge and wisdom with facts and trivia.

We have begun to value technology over intellectual solutions and in doing so have shifted the burden of discovery to machines rather than intellect.

The encouraging aspect is that we know students can learn.

I see it in my classroom daily as students increasingly view their failures as character flaws, become easily stumped when faced with reasoning problems, look to others for the right answers rather than guidance, find little moral resistance when copying work, and give up easily when the answers cannot be readily found.

Why shouldn't they? We have successfully taught them these skills. They can and do learn - the curriculum is flawed.

This is more than simply an argument over semantics; it is a fundamental, philosophical land mine we have buried and tripped. In the explosion, we can expect the casualties to include an eagerness to learn, an optimistic view of the future, a healthy respect for the value of learning as a process of moving from failure to success, and a focused, united effort that effectively and practically prepares students for their futures.

Ironically, the effect of NCLB has been to leave all children behind to an equal extent.

As a teacher, I can tell infinitely more about student understanding by the questions they ask rather than the answers they give. Of course, this type of understanding cannot be quickly measured in a standardized test, and the subjective nature of this type of assessment makes it impractical as a state's measure of accountability.

No reasonable educator would argue against some measure of accountability to the state. The problem, as the original letter writer correctly illustrates, is that there are so many conflicting agendas being addressed simultaneously, each believing they have the sole right answer, that the system has become fragmented, divisive, confrontational and self-serving.

The result is that our true clientele, the only real victims of the adult world - the students - have been shortchanged.

Parents look to find blame just as teachers do, but we cannot become so mired in blame that we stagnate. We are all emotionally invested in the success of our students.

It seems the answer may be found in the old adage, "everything in moderation." Assessment of success would be better served if it replicated real life. This would require a meeting somewhere in the middle, where few of us in this field have the good fortune to dwell.

Place greater emphasis on the process of education and utilize assessment for what it is - one limited measure of knowledge.

Include both aspects in the system.

Sometimes there are clear and present answers; other times there are simply challenges that require reasoning and negotiating.

As educators, we as parents and teachers will have to find the aspect of moderation our system of education lacks.

We must change what we can and learn to work productively, sometimes despite the system. When we cease looking at our failures as an agent of positive change, we will indeed have cause to be embarrassed.

Clarke L. Rubel, of Rancho Cucamonga, teaches freshman and senior English at Alta Loma High School.

SACRAMENTO CAN'T CLEAN UP LAUSD PAYROLL MESS

LA Daily News Editorial

January 8, 2008 - One of the greatest problems with ineffective governance is that it tends to produce more of the same. A case in point is Assembly Bill 730.

The legislation is Assemblyman Kevin de Leon's noble but futile effort to deal with the LAUSD payroll fiasco - a classic case of ineffective government begetting more ineffective government.

To his credit, de Leon has been a persistent critic of the Los Angeles Unified School District's $95 million payroll system, which has not only failed to pay teachers correctly or on time, but has also racked up as much as $115 million in consulting fees to try to repair it.

But as a member of the state Assembly, de Leon, D-Los Angeles, is limited in what he can actually do about it. That much is made clear with AB 730.

Under the bill, any contractor that a court finds liable for breaching an information-technology contract worth more than $1 million - resulting in a judgment of more than $250,000 - would be barred from bidding on any new business with the state or local governments for five years.

Get past that clunky legal formulation, and it's clear that de Leon has one specific contractor in mind - Deloitte Consulting, which billed the LAUSD $95 million to roll out the payroll system, then sought a $9.4 million contract to fix it. De Leon is rightly fed up that after months and untold millions, the district still hasn't sued Deloitte for its pricey incompetence.

But even if AB 730 became California law immediately, it would do nothing to correct this problem.

That's because under the terms of the legislation, the penalty against failed contractors kicks in only after a lawsuit has been filed and a stiff judgment rendered. Yet in the LAUSD case, one of the key problems is that the LAUSD hasn't filed suit in the first place.

And absent litigation and judgment, AB 770 would have little effect over the LAUSD or Deloitte Consulting. De Leon is right to want to hold district and Deloitte officials accountable for this debacle, but you can't legislate competent leadership.

Nonetheless, De Leon's suggestion that firms that grievously violate public contracts shouldn't get new public contracts is on target. Instead of trying to retroactively target Deloitte, AB 730 might be more useful if it were broadened to cover all kinds of public contracting, in which repeat abuses of the public trust are far from uncommon.

Meanwhile, there seems to be no easy fix for the LAUSD's payroll mess or the leadership that made it possible - unfortunately.

Around California - SCHOOL DISTRICTS BRACE FOR BUDGET WOES: Officials already taking cost-saving measures

By Jennifer Kabbany - for The Californian (SW Riverside County)

January 7, 2008 - In light of an estimated $14 billion statewide deficit and talk in Sacramento of midyear budget cuts to education, Southwest County school district officials said they are bracing for tight and troubling fiscal times ahead.

Local officials said they have already taken a variety of cost-saving measures because of the looming budget woes, including unofficial hiring freezes and spending slow downs, among other efforts.

At least one local agency, the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, is already predicting the possibility that it might have to cut millions of dollars to balance its budget for the year beginning July 1, 2008.

And financial officials with each district said that in times such as these, employee layoffs are never completely off the table. District administrators said that later this month, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger releases his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, they should know more about where they stand.

In the meantime, they said, they are taking the advice of the California Association of School Business Officials to "plan, not panic."

"There is a lot of uncertainty," said Jeff Okun, assistant superintendent of business support services for the Temecula Valley Unified School District, which has stopped hiring except for so-called essential positions.

District officials there have also asked principals to be frugal with their campus supply budgets so that they can possibly roll over any balances to next year.

"They have been put on notice that next year could be a tough year," Okun said.

School districts typically operate on very thin margins, with expenses meeting or exceeding revenues. Other than cash reserves, there usually is not a lot of leftover money to soften the blow of state budget cuts. Because of that, spending reductions at the district level can mean pink slips, as about 85 percent of a district's money is tied up in salaries and benefits.

Darrin Watters, Lake Elsinore's assistant superintendent of business and support services, recently painted a grim budget picture for trustees that included a warning that layoffs could be in the offing.

Watters said that if the state's financial woes turn out to be as bad as they sound, the district could be looking at as much as $6.2 million in budget cuts.

Making matters worse for local districts, new student enrollment has come to a standstill, officials said. Because each new student represents thousands of new dollars to a district, seeing that growth basically come to a trickle or stop altogether has hurt their bottom lines, they said.

The Murrieta Valley Unified School District, for example, has had zero growth so far this year, said Superintendent Stan Scheer. To compensate for that, as well as to plan for tough times ahead, the district has enacted a number of measures, he said.

For one, the district only offered its teachers a 2 percent raise this year, he said.

"We have already been slowing things down, slowing down our spending," Scheer said. "The biggest ticket item is salaries and benefits, and we have slowed that down in terms of the offer on the table."

The teachers union accepted the offer last month.

Scheer said officials also are evaluating each open position to determine whether to hire a new employee or find a way to consolidate some duties. Also, for the first time, the district is investigating the possibility of an early retirement incentive program, he said.

Moreover, the district decided to hold off on opening a middle school in French Valley next year, in part to save money on administrative salaries, he said.

In the Menifee Union School District, officials are taking similar measures. The district is only hiring essential positions and eyeing its spending very carefully, said Dan Wood, assistant superintendent for business services.

He said budget cuts could be on the table, but he doesn't know for sure yet.

"There is always a chance, but at this point we don't have any official information," Wood said. "We have a lot of speculation, and it's always best to plan for the worst."

CALIFORNIA'S GRIM BUDGET PICTURE STALLS 'YEAR OF EDUCATION'

by Juliet Williams Associated Press Writer | from the San Jose Mercury News

January 6, 2008—SACRAMENTO—The mood was buoyant just a few months ago as some of the state's best minds in education gathered to debate what school reforms to make in 2008, a year Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had anointed California's "Year of Education."

Since then, much of the enthusiasm has fizzled as the state's fiscal outlook has deteriorated.

Many of those same education advocates now fear reforms will be delayed—or worse.

Schwarzenegger will release his proposed budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year this week, providing the first detailed look at how he plans to close a deficit estimated at $14 billion over the next year-and-a-half.

Educators are concerned that the state's deepening fiscal crisis will force cuts to public schools.

Even before the deficit emerged, some education leaders were playing down expectations for the "Year of Education." They cautioned that it would be impossible to overhaul a system that governs nearly 10,000 schools and 6.3 million students in just one year.

At the October education forum, Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero said she was inclined to hang another tag on 2008: The "Year of Magical Thinking" or perhaps the "Year of Living Dangerously."

"We should not be so naive or really, so grandiose, as to think this will be the year we accomplish education reform," Romero, D-Los Angeles, told a crowd of educators at the forum hosted by Palo Alto-based EdSource, a nonpartisan group that studies public education.

Now, she appears to be right.

Schwarzenegger told education advocates in November that his "Year of Education" is essentially off.

The governor's backtracking was good news for some, said Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association.

He said school officials have been inundated with reforms and program changes in the last decade and many feared further tinkering.

"The one consistent complaint I hear from educators all the time is that they're never given enough time or resources to focus efforts and sustain those programs without the next gubernatorial administration coming in with another bright idea of how to fix the schools," Plotkin said.

Even so, he and others said it would be a lost opportunity if Schwarzenegger's administration and Democrats don't use the year to start talking about how to improve California schools.

Its students score below the national average on nearly every measure—reading, writing, math and science—on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation's report card. More than half of California students attend schools that receive federal poverty funding.

"The tragedy of our cyclical fiscal condition in our state is that every time people start to get serious about wanting to make real improvements in public education, the circumstances of any given year prevent it from happening," said Kevin Gordon, president of School Innovations and Advocacy, a Sacramento education lobbying firm.

The National Center for Education Statistics and other groups consistently rank California below the national average in per-pupil spending on education. In 2004-05, the last year for which national figures were available, California spent about $8,000 per pupil, 33rd among the states. It has an average of 1 teacher per 20 students, compared with a national average of 1 to 15, according to the center.

A report commissioned by the state's legislative leaders last year concluded that California needs to invest up to $25 billion more a year in education. A panel appointed by Schwarzenegger said it would cost the state $6 billion to $8 billion more just to fix its convoluted financing structure, which includes a complex system of mandates and doesn't always send funding to the most needy students.

Gordon said the state needs a long-term plan that would dramatically rewrite its programs and financing structure, which is based on volatile state revenues.

A philosophical disagreement remains over whether more money is the answer to the problems that have plagued California's public schools.

Business leaders who advise Schwarzenegger say failing schools need to be held accountable first. They want Schwarzenegger, through his education secretary, David Long, to use the tools of the federal No Child Left Behind Act to punish schools with large numbers of failing students.

Many of those schools are in high-poverty neighborhoods and have a high proportion of black and Hispanic students.

Schwarzenegger, however, will need at least some support from the education lobby, which is already threatening a major fight if he proposes cuts to the current $67 billion in education spending when he releases his 2008-09 budget this week.

The California Teachers Association spent more than $50 million to defeat Schwarzenegger's slate of ballot measures in 2005, including a proposal to reduce teacher tenure.

The first test of his ability to broker a deal is expected to come within days, with the state's plan to deal with 98 school districts that are facing sanctions for the first time under federal law.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, a Democrat, wants the Department of Education to take control of the worst-performing districts. Administration officials want Long's office to be in charge.

Ultimately, the Schwarzenegger-appointed state Board of Education will decide.

Chris Bertelli, a spokesman for Long, said Schwarzenegger still considers improving student achievement a priority, despite the state's budget problems. The governor will include some recommendations in his State of the State address Tuesday, Bertelli said.

With expectations dramatically reduced for 2008, some education leaders are rethinking their strategy to keep the education debate on the negotiating table.

"Just because we are in a fiscal crisis doesn't mean that we don't need to have that conversation," said Plotkin, of the school boards association. "We can't keep living in this feast-or-famine approach to schools."

The news that didn't fit from Jan 6th!

►STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF JACK O'CONNELL ANNOUNCES GUIDE TO MRSA IS TRANSLATED INTO 23 LANGUAGES TO REACH MORE PARENTS

Friday, January 4, 2008 - BURBANK — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell held a news conference at Burbank High School to announce that A Parent's Guide to MRSA (antibiotic resistant staph) in California: What You Need to Know, an informative brochure produced by the California Department of Public Health, is now available in 23 languages – from Arabic to Vietnamese.

►IVY CHARTER FUNDS AT RISK, LAUSD STALLS APPROVAL

In September, Woodland Hills charter school Ivy Academia expanded to include high school students, creating an increased urgency in the school’s search for a local facility that can accommodate both its smallest and biggest students.

Representatives of Ivy, a high-performing school with an entrepreneurial focus, say they qualify for state funds that would allow them to move into one of a handful of closed Los Angeles Unified School District buildings in the area. There’s just one problem. LAUSD has become a stumbling block as the school attempts to transition into one of these buildings, say Ivy officials.

►CALIFORNIA KIDS FALLING BEHIND IN HEALTH, EDUCATION

An Oakland-based youth advocacy group gave low marks to the state of children's health and education in California today and urged leaders to boost funding and take other measures to dramatically improve those areas.

In its 2008 California Report Card released today, Children Now concluded that the well-being of youth statewide is generally poor and needs top priority even in the face of the current budget crisis.

►LA EDUCACIÓN TIENE LEYES PARA ESTRENAR/EDUCATION HAS LAWS TO BUILD ►NEW LAWS EFFECTING EDUCATION IN 2008

Sindicato Escéptico Porque las Leyes No Destinan Recursos Financieros/Union Skeptical Because Laws Have No Earmarked Funding

Technical changes to existing laws on Special Education and continued assistance to students who do not pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) are two of the 49 laws that come into force this year in the California public education system.

►ONLINE GATE PD: UC Irvine Offers Online GATE Courses for United States K-12 Teachers

Courses Prepare Nation’s Teachers to Recognize and Teach Gifted and Talented Students

In an effort to help K-12 teachers around the country better understand and motivate gifted and talented students, the University of California, Irvine Extension is offering a host of Gifted and Talented Teacher Education (GATE) online courses. UC Irvine Extension is known for its exceptional GATE programming. Its programs provide options for K-12 teachers with focused professional development sessions; individual courses; and entire certificate programs, aligned with the California Association for the Gifted (CAG), the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), and state standards for excellence.

IVY CHARTER FUNDS AT RISK, LAUSD STALLS APPROVAL

By Nadra Kareem - San Fernando Valley Business Journal Staff

Monday, January 7, 2008 — In September, Woodland Hills charter school Ivy Academia expanded to include high school students, creating an increased urgency in the school’s search for a local facility that can accommodate both its smallest and biggest students.

Representatives of Ivy, a high-performing school with an entrepreneurial focus, say they qualify for state funds that would allow them to move into one of a handful of closed Los Angeles Unified School District buildings in the area. There’s just one problem. LAUSD has become a stumbling block as the school attempts to transition into one of these buildings, say Ivy officials.

While the Ivy community staged a protest in November about its quest for a new facility, the struggle the school has undergone around this issue isn’t new.

“For the last three years, we’ve been Gypsies. We’ve been in temples. We’ve been in churches,” Ivy Academia President and Founder Tatyana Berkovich said. “Schools should be used for schools.”

While Ivy’s flagship facility is on De Soto Avenue in Woodland Hills, the school also shares a site with Sunny Brae Avenue Elementary School in Canoga Park. There, Ivy houses its first through third grade students in six classrooms that are half the size of typical LAUSD classrooms, said Ivy’s Executive Director Eugene Selivanov. Moreover, students at the Sunny Brae site have no area designated for sports and recreation and have to use portable bathroom facilities, Selivanov and Berkovich say.

Also, “We can’t have a normal library. We can’t have a normal computer lab,” Berkovich continued. “Taxpayers are paying for the best, and they should have the best. They [students] need basketball [courts] and football fields and baseball fields, and they deserve to have big classrooms.”

School officials say they approached LAUSD representatives for help but were rebuffed.

According to Berkovich and Selivanov, one district official told them that they could not use the facilities they had in mind because the buildings were needed for broom storage as well for purposes of professional development and adult education.

“They don’t believe there’s a need for new schools in this community.” Selivanov said.

The facility Ivy has in mind has been closed for 23 years and sits on a site of roughly seven to eight acres, representatives say. It is around the corner from Ivy’s De Soto site, which houses their fourth through ninth grade students. If Ivy were to acquire the building, parents with children in both age groups would no longer have to make multiple trips to take children to and from school.

“What’s frustrating is the State can give us $40 million to rehabilitate” the site in question,” Selivanov said. “LAUSD is not required to put in any money.”

Proposition 39 and Proposition 1D funds would allow charter schools such as Ivy to access the funds needed to revamp facilities. To revamp a closed LAUSD facility, however, Ivy would need to enter into an agreement with the district. But Ivy officials feel that there is no government agency to hold LAUSD accountable for its role in the process. Complicating matters is that the school faces a state deadline later this month to begin the process of reserving the funds necessary to revamp one of the closed schools.

“If our kids weren’t going to charter school, the district would have to open those facilities to them. What makes them different because they’re in charter schools?” Berkovich asked. “John Creer should make sure these facilities are utilized.”

But Creer, director of planning and development for LAUSD’s Facilities Services Division, said that Ivy is simplifying matters. “The situation is not as simple as Mr. [Selivanov] would like to make it,” Creer said. “We’re a district that has abided by every principle of law there is. What we’re trying to do is exercise fairness with everybody out there in the charter community who’s made claims on or requested our space. Any claim that we have been unfair to them has no basis in fact or in law.”

LAUSD Deputy General Counsel Jess Womack agreed. “The short of it is, we have a process that we have to go through in order to make schools available. That’s No. 1,” he said. “The second thing, the specific statute, Prop. 1D, starts with the premise a charter school actually has reached an agreement with the school district to rehabilitate a specific property.”

However, no such agreement exists at this time, Womack said. He acknowledged that Ivy did approach the district “in an effort to reserve funding for at least one school here.” But the board, on the advice of counsel, decided not to enter into such an agreement due to the issues surrounding use of the facilities. While LAUSD has yet to enter into an agreement that would result in Ivy being allowed to rehabilitate one of its facilities, Womack said that the district will continue to work with the charter school to enable it to get the necessary funding set aside.

Creer said that, by February, he would like to present the board with a master plan as to the long-term use of its closed facilities in the West Valley. “We’re constantly working with charters to help find space,” he said. “We’ve been doing everything we can do in our power to give them the space that we can.”

But even if LAUSD allows Ivy to use one of the closed facilities, the charter will by no means be moving in straightaway. “There has to be quite an amount of rehab going on,” Creer explained. “That’s not an overnight process. It’s not as if they could occupy it tomorrow.”

CALIFORNIA'S GRIM BUDGET PICTURE STALLS 'YEAR OF EDUCATION'

by Juliet Williams Associated Press Writer | from the San Jose Mercury News

January 6, 2008—SACRAMENTO—The mood was buoyant just a few months ago as some of the state's best minds in education gathered to debate what school reforms to make in 2008, a year Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had anointed California's "Year of Education."

Since then, much of the enthusiasm has fizzled as the state's fiscal outlook has deteriorated.

Many of those same education advocates now fear reforms will be delayed—or worse.

Schwarzenegger will release his proposed budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year this week, providing the first detailed look at how he plans to close a deficit estimated at $14 billion over the next year-and-a-half.

Educators are concerned that the state's deepening fiscal crisis will force cuts to public schools.

Even before the deficit emerged, some education leaders were playing down expectations for the "Year of Education." They cautioned that it would be impossible to overhaul a system that governs nearly 10,000 schools and 6.3 million students in just one year.

At the October education forum, Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero said she was inclined to hang another tag on 2008: The "Year of Magical Thinking" or perhaps the "Year of Living Dangerously."

"We should not be so naive or really, so grandiose, as to think this will be the year we accomplish education reform," Romero, D-Los Angeles, told a crowd of educators at the forum hosted by Palo Alto-based EdSource, a nonpartisan group that studies public education.

Now, she appears to be right.

Schwarzenegger told education advocates in November that his "Year of Education" is essentially off.

The governor's backtracking was good news for some, said Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association.

He said school officials have been inundated with reforms and program changes in the last decade and many feared further tinkering.

"The one consistent complaint I hear from educators all the time is that they're never given enough time or resources to focus efforts and sustain those programs without the next gubernatorial administration coming in with another bright idea of how to fix the schools," Plotkin said.

Even so, he and others said it would be a lost opportunity if Schwarzenegger's administration and Democrats don't use the year to start talking about how to improve California schools.

Its students score below the national average on nearly every measure—reading, writing, math and science—on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation's report card. More than half of California students attend schools that receive federal poverty funding.

"The tragedy of our cyclical fiscal condition in our state is that every time people start to get serious about wanting to make real improvements in public education, the circumstances of any given year prevent it from happening," said Kevin Gordon, president of School Innovations and Advocacy, a Sacramento education lobbying firm.

The National Center for Education Statistics and other groups consistently rank California below the national average in per-pupil spending on education. In 2004-05, the last year for which national figures were available, California spent about $8,000 per pupil, 33rd among the states. It has an average of 1 teacher per 20 students, compared with a national average of 1 to 15, according to the center.

A report commissioned by the state's legislative leaders last year concluded that California needs to invest up to $25 billion more a year in education. A panel appointed by Schwarzenegger said it would cost the state $6 billion to $8 billion more just to fix its convoluted financing structure, which includes a complex system of mandates and doesn't always send funding to the most needy students.

Gordon said the state needs a long-term plan that would dramatically rewrite its programs and financing structure, which is based on volatile state revenues.

A philosophical disagreement remains over whether more money is the answer to the problems that have plagued California's public schools.

Business leaders who advise Schwarzenegger say failing schools need to be held accountable first. They want Schwarzenegger, through his education secretary, David Long, to use the tools of the federal No Child Left Behind Act to punish schools with large numbers of failing students.

Many of those schools are in high-poverty neighborhoods and have a high proportion of black and Hispanic students.

Schwarzenegger, however, will need at least some support from the education lobby, which is already threatening a major fight if he proposes cuts to the current $67 billion in education spending when he releases his 2008-09 budget this week.

The California Teachers Association spent more than $50 million to defeat Schwarzenegger's slate of ballot measures in 2005, including a proposal to reduce teacher tenure.

The first test of his ability to broker a deal is expected to come within days, with the state's plan to deal with 98 school districts that are facing sanctions for the first time under federal law.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, a Democrat, wants the Department of Education to take control of the worst-performing districts. Administration officials want Long's office to be in charge.

Ultimately, the Schwarzenegger-appointed state Board of Education will decide.

Chris Bertelli, a spokesman for Long, said Schwarzenegger still considers improving student achievement a priority, despite the state's budget problems. The governor will include some recommendations in his State of the State address Tuesday, Bertelli said.

With expectations dramatically reduced for 2008, some education leaders are rethinking their strategy to keep the education debate on the negotiating table.

"Just because we are in a fiscal crisis doesn't mean that we don't need to have that conversation," said Plotkin, of the school boards association. "We can't keep living in this feast-or-famine approach to schools."

TEACHERS CLEAN UP VANDALIZED CLASSROOMS + Sandy Banks: L.A. CRIME IS RISING WHERE IT HURTS

TEACHERS CLEAN UP VANDALIZED CLASSROOMS

A BREAK-IN AT MCKINLEY AVENUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WAS ONE OF NEARLY 60 SUCH ACTS AT L.A. UNIFIED CAMPUSES DURING THE WINTER BREAK.

by Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 3, 2008 - McKinley Avenue Elementary School in South Los Angeles is wrapped with a spiked iron fence. Its windows are shuttered with wire frames and its offices are equipped with motion sensors linked to an alarm.

None of those measures, however, was enough to stop vandals who broke into the school during the holiday vacation.

Whoever it was -- officials suspect a group of adolescents -- used metal cutters to bypass wire-shuttered windows, broke into the school's boiler room, made his or her way into 13 classrooms, the library and several offices, urinated on floors, drew on walls, tossed ketchup and mayonnaise on computers, took a few electronics and generally torpedoed the school.

"Every time we have a long weekend or a long break, schools are hit," said Tony Gonzalez, local district director of school services. Gonzalez, who was on campus Wednesday as cleanup got underway, said the chaos left behind was the worst he had ever seen.

The break-in was one of nearly 60 reported incidents of vandalism in the last two weeks at L.A. Unified School District campuses, said school Police Lt. Timothy Anderson. Break-ins ranged from seemingly professional operations, in which thieves targeted computers and electronics, to childish pranks, where an empty school became a playground for mischief-makers, he said.

L.A. Unified police say about 400 burglaries occur at campuses each year, resulting in millions of dollars in property damage and stolen equipment. During the 2006-07 winter break, authorities reported break-ins at 19 campuses; during the 2005-06 break, 63 were reported.

At McKinley, the damage was so extensive that school officials believe whoever broke into the campus during the break came back again and again until Friday, when school police noticed the vandalism, officials said.

The school has been vandalized several times, including a major break-in during the fall, said administrator Raymond Boutney, adding that he is frustrated by the "inability of the community to assist us in capturing the culprits who continue to do this to our school."

Officials still can't say why the school's motion sensors didn't trigger the alarm, Principal Gwendolyn Williams said. Some sensors were torn down and the main control system -- which should have set off the alarm before anyone got to it -- was tampered with, she said.

Empty schools and understaffed school police can add to the break-in problem, police said. Holiday staffing, with many officers on vacation, is "kind of thin to say the least," Anderson said. Last year, school police officials said about half of all break-ins took place during long weekends or the winter, spring and summer vacations.

Police are making moves to fight the problem, Anderson said. They've put up posters asking students to alert authorities to vandalism, and a recent grant will help them distribute magnets with the same message, he said.

Whether those programs will make a dent in the problem is unclear, officials said.

On Wednesday, rather than spend the day learning teaching techniques alongside UCLA writing experts, as was planned, teachers spent the day cleaning classrooms in preparation for Monday, when students are set to return.

They made quick progress in the morning hours -- painting over rows and rows of spray-painted pornographic images and derogatory terms in just minutes. The school became infused with the scent of ammonia as the teachers washed away signs of disruption.

"I have to get set up here quick. I don't want the kids to see it like this," said fourth-grade teacher Celest Danley.

Earlier in the day, she found papers tossed wantonly around her classroom, ketchup splattered on walls and broken bits of Christmas ornaments on the floor.

Although some laptops, VCRs, cameras and boomboxes were taken, it seemed that the vandals appeared mostly intent on making a mess, not taking valuable property, said Williams, who has headed the school for 12 years. Several new computers and other valuable equipment went untouched while a pile of notebooks filled with students' stories was destroyed with ketchup.

"It seems adolescent," Williams said.

For Danley, the incident underscores the important role teachers have in shaping the lives of young people -- and deterring them from mischief.

"We need to reach as many kids as possible when they are young so that this type of thing will not happen," she said.

But it can be difficult to know what motivates someone to break into a school, Williams said.

"Sometimes it's young people who are disenfranchised," she said. "Sometimes it's just young people who are looking for a thrill."

____________________________________________________________

Sandy Banks: L.A. CRIME IS RISING WHERE IT HURTS

Column by Sandy Banks from the Los Angeles Times

January 5, 2008 — On the same day that a smiling mayor and police chief stood side by side at a news conference hailing a citywide drop in crime, grim-faced teachers at a South Los Angeles elementary school painted over obscenities on classroom walls, swept up broken Christmas ornaments and tried to salvage students' art projects.

Crime may be dropping on the streets outside, but inside Los Angeles Unified campuses, holiday breaks are criminals' party time.

According to an article this week by my colleague, Times reporter Paloma Esquivel, 60 campuses were hit by thieves and vandals during the Christmas break that's about to end.

At McKinley Avenue Elementary the burglars didn't steal much -- a few laptops, cameras, VCRs and boom-boxes. But they went on a rampage on the vacant campus, urinating on floors, dumping ketchup on computers and drawing pornographic images on classroom walls.

The 80-year-old building has motion sensors that should have tripped a silent alarm but didn't. Once the vandals made it over a spiked iron fence and snipped the wire blocking windows, they were free to roam the campus.

Now, school police are trying to find the culprits. In most school break-in cases, they turn out to be neighborhood teens. Police have put up posters, asking students to alert authorities to vandalism. And they're using grant money to distribute refrigerator magnets imprinted with that same plea.

TOO FEW POLICE

During vacations, deserted schools are sitting ducks. Los Angeles Unified campuses are burglarized about 400 times each year, and almost half of those break-ins occur during the summer vacation, holiday breaks and long weekends all across the sprawling district.

Part of the problem is the district's puny police force. It hasn't been expanded in 20 years, even though the district has grown by more than 100,000 students and 70 campuses during that period.

L.A. Unified Police Chief Larry Manion has 362 officers and responsibility for more than 800 schools scattered over 710 square miles. His priority is keeping kids safe as they travel to and from school and while they're on campus, he said. "The vast majority of our officers work during the school day. That's what the community demands."

On nights and weekends, he's too short-handed to give campuses much patrol attention. "We don't have the troops," he said. Taking a page from Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton -- who credits the city's crime drop to more officers on the streets -- Manion wants to double the size of his force within five years. But even then, he wouldn't have enough officers to watch district schools 24/7.

Holiday break-ins have become a criminal tradition, he said. "And 95% of the time, when a burglary is committed, it's accompanied by vandalism or some distasteful comments written on the wall."

School social worker Petra Galindo is often called on to counsel children -- and teachers -- who return from vacation to find their classrooms defaced. "You try to protect the kids from seeing it. It's so disruptive to the psyche of a school," she said.

I told her I was stunned by the viciousness of the damage at McKinley Elementary. Smearing ketchup on children's writing projects? Urinating on classroom floors? But Galindo said she has seen worse: "Feces smeared on walls. Incredibly racist and obscene scrawls."

The vandals are typically teens "with an ax to grind," she said. "If they don't feel respected, in terms of how they're interacted with at school; if they're not doing well, truant a lot, disconnected at home . . . any little thing can set them off.

"Holidays bring on a lot of depression and sadness for people who don't have that sense of connectedness," Galindo said. "The schools are empty, no one's protecting them. The kids go in there as a group, it escalates, things get out of hand. . . . It's violent anti-social behavior. Schools are an easy target."

SOME ARRESTS

School police sometimes collar the culprits. Officers nabbed four burglars inside Budlong Elementary in South Los Angeles on New Year's Day and recovered $26,000 in stolen property. On Christmas Day, a silent alarm at Pio Pico Elementary drew officers "who caught the suspects in the commission of the crime," Manion said.

They could prevent more burglaries if all schools had security cameras and alarm systems that actually worked. "We'd like a monitor in every school, up and operable," he said.

District officials told me that most of the district's 700-plus schools do have "intrusion detection systems," though they couldn't tell me how many actually function. They're maintained by the district's information technology division, the same group that saddled school employees with a perpetually malfunctioning payroll system.

I guess it's too much to expect a district with a computer system that can't accurately pay teachers to provide campus security systems that are able to protect millions of dollars of equipment and students' priceless psyches.

If this kind of destruction were happening at churches or synagogues instead of schools, it would be considered a hate crime. City officials, civic leaders and law officers would be up in arms. But when vicious burglars rip through children's classrooms, we quietly hand teachers mops and ammonia and shrug it off as teenage vandalism.

I'm relieved that citywide crime is going down. But I wish politicians would stop patting themselves on the back long enough to figure out if there's a way to spread the good fortune to beleaguered schools and neglected students.

Last month, when he was stumping for endorsements for his reform plan, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa bragged that he "raised 50 million bucks like that" to spend at schools that sign on. Two years ago, alarmed by housing project crime, the mayor persuaded Motorola to donate $1.2 million worth of surveillance equipment to monitor Jordan Downs.

Spring break is not that far down the line. We know the thieves have wire cutters. Let's give more than refrigerator magnets to school police to fight crime this time.

State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Announces Guide to MRSA is Translated Into 23 Languages to Reach More Parents

Friday, January 4, 2008 - BURBANK — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell held a news conference at Burbank High School to announce that A Parent's Guide to MRSA in California: What You Need to Know, an informative brochure produced by the California Department of Public Health, is now available in 23 languages – from Arabic to Vietnamese.

"It is important to provide information, dispel fears, answer questions, and most importantly, let students, parents, and school personnel know that there are simple precautions they can take to prevent incidents of MRSA," O'Connell said. "Part of this task is to ensure that this vital information is widely available to all Californians by providing it in as many languages as possible. I'd also like to express my appreciation to Claudia J. Erickson and the Department of Public Health for their permission to post and translate the text of this publication."

The document includes information regarding staph, especially Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and answers commonly asked questions posed by concerned parents and education officials about what could result in a serious illness if not promptly caught and treated. All the translated documents are available at the link below.

► I was proud to represent California State PTA at this press conference. The translation into 21 of the languages beyond English and Spanish was prompted the request by a Jackie Amaya-Garcia, a parent activist at Burbank High School. That the state was able to create and make available all the translations within 6 weeks of the request - with the holidays in the middle - shows how powerful parent with a good idea can be!

My remarks:

Good morning, my name is Scott Folsom and I'm a member of the California State PTA Board of Managers and the former President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTA. My most important job, the most important job any of us will ever have, is that I'm a Parent.

M-R-S-A — "Mursa" — Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - antibiotic resistant staph - the "Superbug" – it goes by lots of different names and is subject of lots of scary reporting in the media — from 60 minutes to Oprah. It's a germ, it's a bad germ …and the two best tools to fight it are soap and water! The third best tool is Information… and the good news here is that the information everyone needs to defeat the Superbug is now available in twenty-six different languages!

California is America's most cosmopolitan state; Greater LA is a cosmopolitan city - our kids and our parents speak those twenty-six languages and more - and they will get the word. California State PTA and the PTA Districts of LA County are glad to be a part and partner in this effort.

Mursa is a scary germ, but we don't need to be afraid …only to be aware. To be careful. To wash our hands and cough like Dracula (demonstrating the cough to the inside of the elbow) treat and put a bandage on scrapes and cuts. To take all the pills the doctor gives us. And wash our hands….again and again and again.

It's the stuff we were supposed to learn in kindergarten!

Link to A Parent's Guide to MRSA in California in all 23 languages.

LA EDUCACIÓN TIENE LEYES PARA ESTRENAR/EDUCATION HAS LAWS TO BUILD

Sindicato Escéptico Porque las Leyes No Destinan Recursos Financieros

Union Skeptical Because Laws Have No Earmarked Funding

by Ivan Mejia | La Opinion [Translated from the Spanish by Google & 4 LAKids]

Thursday, 3 January 2008 - Technical changes to existing laws on Special Education and continued assistance to students who do not pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) are two of the 49 laws that come into force this year in the California public education system.

State schools chief Jack O'Connell spoke four days ago about the measures, but the teachers union (United Teachers of Los Angeles - UTLA) there is skepticism about whether the rules will help improve the education of students.

"I believe that such legislation will have a minimal effect on the education, because there are so many tests, both educational and curricucular that are not designed for the education of children… that is the real problem," David Goldberg, treasurer of UTLA told La Opinion

"I am not against these laws, but those laws are not accompanied by a budget," added the teachers representative, who explained that in order to implement many of the measures schools incur expenses and/or overburdened staff.

O'Connell said, via press release, that some of the laws will - among other things - help improve the standards of students and to add more rigorous educational curriculum.

"Another of the new measures will help streamline existing laws to provide safe transportation of students to schools, on-time accreditation of teachers and helping organic educational centers," said the head of state schools.

Goldberg replied that the lack of funding to schools not only is there a gap in the performance of African-American and Hispanic students, but that the same non-Hispanic whites lag behind in progress compared to students of the same ethnicity other States.

For her part, Monica Garcia, president of the Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) dismissed some of the laws, arguing that what is needed is an aggressive investment in education - because if neglected that area will prove more expensive to the state having to invest in social assistance programs.

Garcia indicated that on January 10 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will present his budget proposal and she hoped that after negotiations with legislators, the education sector will be "in the game".

NEW LAWS AFFECTING EDUCATION IN 2008 - California

GROUP: CALIFORNIA KIDS FALLING BEHIND IN HEALTH, EDUCATION

By Neil Gonzales | San Jose Mercury News

Bay Area News Group

Thursday, January 3, 2008 - An Oakland-based youth advocacy group gave low marks to the state of children's health and education in California today and urged leaders to boost funding and take other measures to dramatically improve those areas.

In its 2008 California Report Card released today, Children Now concluded that the well-being of youth statewide is generally poor and needs top priority even in the face of the current budget crisis.

"Far too many kids are falling behind and don't have access to the support necessary to have a chance to succeed," said Ted Lempert, the organization's president.

However, earlier reports by Children Now and others indicated that San Mateo County children are doing better than their peers statewide.

"We seem to be faring better on many of the indicators," said Peter Burchyns, spokesman for the county Office of Education. "But we're not saying we're at the place we want to be."

In a previous report, Children Now ranked San Mateo second out of 58 counties in the percentage of children with health insurance and second in the percentage of children ages 3 and 4 enrolled in preschool.

The county also came in sixth in elementary students meeting state targets in English-language arts and sixth in those reaching goals in math.

Burchyns partly attributed the county's better standings to its relative wealth.

"One particular factor is that we tend to be a relatively high-economy county," he said. "If people are better off financially, they can purchase better health care, and educational achievement is linked to family economy and socioeconomic factors."

But the county has also championed state-funded universal preschool. The county office offers various preschool programs, including the Preschool For All initiative.

That program offers free preschool education to families, regardless of income, within targeted areas of the Redwood City and Ravenswood school districts.

Although California has made some strides to boost children's health and raise student achievement, the latest report by Children Now showed that the state is a long way from where it should be.

The Report Card assigned letter grades to certain health and educational factors affecting California's children.

For example, health insurance notched a C, kindergarten-to-12th-grade education earned a C-, and obesity received a D+, according to the report.

The report found that fewer than half of the state's families can afford the basics of housing, child care, food, health insurance and transportation.

It also pointed out that just 65 percent of students graduate from high school on time, and one in three children is overweight or obese.

"There has been a lot more focus" on tackling childhood obesity, Lempert said. "But the crisis is so severe."

He said a concerted effort is needed to reduce junk food, improve children's access to exercise and further raise awareness "to make a significant dent" on obesity.

The report gave better marks in infant health (B-), adolescent health (B-) and after-school services (B+).

Initiatives targeting drunken driving and suicide, for instance, have helped improve the mortality rate of those ages 15 to 19, the report said.

Lempert added that California has funneled additional funding to after-school programs and has become a national leader in this area.

But the report urged the state "to invest more resources in the K-12 education system to ensure sufficient and stable funding."

That would help close achievement gaps among different groups of students, particularly between African-American or Latino children and their Asian or Caucasian peers, the report said.

But the state's budget deficit, currently estimated at between $10 billion and $14 billion, could damper long-term improvements.

"No question that the budget shortfall will delay comprehensive changes that are needed," Lempert said. "But 2008 can still be a year for significant progress."

He said a proposed statewide ballot initiative seeks to ensure all California children have access to health insurance.

Children Now also supports a proposed $9 billion bond measure in November to fund construction projects at school districts, community colleges and other institutions, Lempert said.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell has pitched that bond proposal to legislators.

In response to the youth advocacy's findings, O'Connell said in a statement: "I have long advocated for the very things called for in Children Now's report - quality preschool, building an information system that will help our schools better serve students, investing in adequate facilities, and teacher preparation and recruitment. The report correctly points out the urgency of closing the achievement gap, which is my top priority as state superintendent."

To read Children Now's 2008 California Report Card, visit the group's Web site at http://www.childrennow.org.

NEW LAWS AFFECTING EDUCATION IN 2008 - California

Written by Education Scope | Imperial Valley News

Thursday, 03 January 2008 — Sacramento, California - State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell released a list of new laws scheduled to take effect in 2008 or were signed into law as urgency measures that will impact public education in California.

"Some of the new laws will help us progress toward closing the achievement gap, add more rigor to the curriculum, provide more assistance to students to pass the exit exam, or protect special education and related services to students with exceptional needs," said O’Connell. “Other new measures serve to streamline existing laws to provide students with safe transportation to school, credential teachers in a timely basis, and help school facilities go green."

Here’s a short list of new laws that are expected to have statewide implications for kindergarten through grade twelve education in California:

Measures Sponsored by O’Connell:

• Assembly Bill (AB) 347: The measure would ensure students who fail to pass the California High School Exit Exam may receive an additional two years of academic assistance from their school districts.
• AB 485: Prohibits a nonpublic, nonsectarian school, or agency whose certification has been revoked from being eligible to apply for recertification for two years from the revocation date.
• AB 647: Changes the method of allocating Tobacco Use and Prevention Education funds to a single competitive grant.
• AB 685: The bill would make technical changes to existing law regarding special education and make them conform to new federal regulations.
• AB 1663: This measure would make various revisions conforming state law to federal requirements relating to pupil identification, assessment, and eligibility; individualized education program development, and pupil information confidentiality.
• Senate Bill (SB) 132: The Education Code assigns various duties to state and local educational agencies and governs the operation of public schools, community colleges, and universities in the state. This bill would make various clarifying and technical changes to the Education Code and also delete obsolete provisions from the code.
• SB 733: Reauthorizes the Instructional Materials Funding Realignment Program for six years.
• SB 734: Reauthorizes the follow-up adoption review by the California Department of Education and fee charged to publishers, as well as places in statute the review for social content compliance and fees charged to publishers.

Other Education-Related Measures:

• AB 57 (Introduced by Assemblymember Soto): Eliminates the sunset date for the “Safe Routes to School" program for the construction of sidewalks, bike lanes, trails, and traffic calming projects designed to keep children safe and more healthy.
• AB 139 (Bass): Would allow school bus drivers to submit a medical exam conducted by a licensed advanced practice registered nurse or a physician assistant, instead of only a physician, when applying for or renewing a certificate to drive the bus.
• AB 216 (Bass): Would require educational materials, services and programs provided by a nonpublic, nonsectarian schools for a special education student to be consistent with the student’s individualized education plan.
• AB 321: (Nava): Allows cities or counties to lower the traffic speed limit from 25 to 15 miles per hour in a safety zone near a school.
• AB 373 (Wolk): Helps finance the construction of schools, parks, police and fire service, streets, and other basic infrastructure and services needed to accommodate new housing.
• AB 394 (Levine): This measure would require the California Department of Education to monitor education agencies for adherence to the antidiscrimination and antiharassment laws as part of its regular monitoring and review of schools.
• AB 428 (Carter): Would require high schools to notify parents whether their children’s studies satisfied the requirements for admittance into California State University or University of California, and provide information on career technical education.
• AB 532 (Wolk): Requires solar heating to be evaluated as an option for all state-operated swimming pools.
• AB 609 (Eng): Would remove unnecessary obstacles to the state's ability to purchase energy efficient and environmentally sustainable equipment for public facilities that may include school facilities.
• AB 622 (Mullin): Would allow an incarcerated student to work toward passing a general educational development test and earning a high school equivalency certificate.
• AB 629 (Brownley): Requires sex education programs run by the state to be medically accurate, effective, bias-free, and age appropriate.
• AB 673 (Hayashi): Clarifies laws on reporting child abuse to include a definition of the crime as death inflicted by other than accidental means. Also, if people know about cases of child abuse, they may report it anonymously even if they are on personal time and not when merely acting in a professional capacity.
• AB 766 (Walters): Adds charter schools to the list of educational agencies that may conduct school-related field trips and excursions and may have all claims against them waived for injury, accident, illness, or death occurring during the trip.
• AB 774 (Houston): Existing law requires people to undergo background check for each school where they want to volunteer to teach physical education during or after school hours. This measure creates a central registry so volunteers and schools do not have to go through the added expense of duplicative background checks.
• AB 905 (Arambula): Authorizes the State Superintendent to extend the eligibility period from 60 to 120 days for children and their families to receive child care and development services if the parent is having trouble getting a job.
• AB 1014 (Bass): Authorizes a school district to use other enrollment calculations that may increase funding for new construction and modernization of school facilities.
• AB 1061 (Mullin): Simplifies information on the School Accountability Report Card to make it more understandable for parents.
• AB 1080 (Mullin): Requires the State Superintendent to administer state preschool programs that include part-day and preschool appropriate programs for prekindergarten children aged 3 to 5 years.
• AB 1291 (Mendoza): Requires the Department of Justice to establish an anti-gang violence curriculum for juveniles in custody, and requires the parents or guardians to pay for those classes if they can afford it.
• AB 1368 (Mullin): Saves school districts administrative costs in the process of securing funds for the construction and modernization of school facilities.
• AB 1571 (DeSaulnier): Allows child care programs for low-income families to seek up to 3 percent instead of 2 percent of a contract amount reimbursement from the California of Education, if funds are available.
• AB 1685 (Garrick): Requires teachers and after school staff – instead of only teachers -- to report the effectiveness of the 21st Century High School After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens Program.
• AB 1698 (Eng): Ensures schools are appropriately reimbursed after they notify parents when their child accrues three unexcused absences.
• SB 13 (Wyland): Requires school districts to answer questions about career technical education and how to meet that need in their applications for new school construction funding.
• SB 20 (Torlakson): Prohibits the State Board of Education from authorizing a petition to operate a state charter school unless it provides instructional services of a statewide benefit that cannot be provided by a local charter school.
• SB 52 (Scott): Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish standards for the issuance of credentials for teachers in career technical education.
• SB 166 (Negrete/McLeod): Requires the state and federal government to develop emergency preparedness standards and guidelines to help community college districts and campuses in the event of a natural disaster, hazardous condition, or terrorist activity.
• SB 170 (Denham): Extends existing law through 2012 that allows a pupil to attend the school district where the student’s parent or guardian is employed within the boundaries of the school district.
• SB 219 (Steinberg): Requires the Academic Performance Index to include information on test scores, drop-out rates, and other accountability data of pupils who were referred by the school or school district to an alternative education program.
• SB 273 (Ackerman): Requires the State Superintendent to request input from a committee regarding changes to guidelines for American Indian education programs, rather than the committee providing input and getting approval of changes before it submits them to the State Board of Education for approval.
• SB 278 (Lowenthal): Includes another justifiable reason for student absence for attending an education conference on the legislative or judicial process offered by a nonprofit organization. Currently, students may be excused for court appearances, funeral services, religious holidays or ceremonies, religious retreats, or employment conferences.
• SB 280 (Scott): Makes a number of technical and clarifying changes in the law relating to teacher preparation legislation from last year, including provisions relating to career technical education and out of state teachers.
• SB 345 (Aanestad): Allows a charter school to be more like a school district for such things as making salary payments and submitting applications to the State Board of Education to waive statutes, and allows the chief executive officer to be the equivalent of a superintendent for purposes of issuing work permits to minors.
• SB 405 (Steinberg): Ensures that public middle and high school students will be informed by counselors of their graduation requirements, individualized review of their career goals, the availability of career technical education and community and workplace learning experiences, and eligibility requirements of admission to the University of California and the California State University systems.
• SB 418 (Migden): Directs county auditors to use excess Educational Revenue Augmentation Funds to cover up to 50 percent of the costs of funding out-of-home care in licensed children's institutions within the county.
• SB 473 (Cox): Allows a state agency to accept a noncompetitive bid from a vendor that provides electronic fingerprinting services that is certified by the Department of Justice. The state agency may also post on its Web site, all approved vendors providing that service. This may affect the hiring of workers in child care facilities.
• SB 490 (Alquist): Prescribes nutrition standards for snacks sold to pupils in middle, junior, or high school.
• SB 537 (Simitian): Requires the California Research Bureau of the California State Library to prepare and submit to the Legislature by 2009 a report on the key elements and actual costs of charter school oversight.
• SB 601 (Torlakson): Requires California Department of Education to ensure that data collected from local educational agencies comply with minimum minutes of instruction and conducting physical fitness testing, and then reporting the information to the Governor and Legislature.
• SB 614 (Simitian): Extends existing law until 2014 that authorizes a school district to enter into a design-build contract, in which factors in addition to price and cost may be considered in awarding a contract for the design and construction of a school facility that exceeds $2.5 million.
• SB 777 (Kuehl): Simplifies and clarifies existing civil rights protections for California students, updates more specific prohibitions against discrimination throughout the Education Code, and replaces outdated references to "handicapped students" with "students with disabilities."

ONLINE GATE PD: UC Irvine Offers Online GATE Courses for United States K-12 Teachers

Courses Prepare Nation’s Teachers to Recognize and Teach Gifted and Talented Students

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In an effort to help k-12 teachers around the country better understand and motivate gifted and talented students, the University of California, Irvine Extension is offering a host of Gifted and Talented Teacher Education (GATE) online courses. UC Irvine Extension is known for its exceptional GATE programming. Its programs provide options for k-12 teachers with focused professional development sessions; individual courses; and entire certificate programs, aligned with the California Association for the Gifted (CAG), the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), and state standards for excellence. Taught by some of the nation’s most talented GATE instructors, researchers and scholars, UC Irvine Extension’s instructor-led, online courses are designed to provide greater context, theory and practical strategies for teaching today’s GATE students.

The first of the three new courses, “Identification, Diagnosis and Evaluation of the Gifted,” will help educators more readily identify gifted students and help them to use evaluative models to better understand students’ capacity for learning. The second course, titled “Meeting the Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted,” walks teachers through the processes of understanding the needs of gifted students so that they can better design classes, coursework and incentives. The final course, “The Arts in GATE Education,” helps teachers understand the developmental role the arts can play in the lives of GATE students and also helps them determine the different approaches in arts education versus more fundamental education.

“Parents clamor for more GATE programs at their students’ schools, but very little is ever said about the challenges of teaching GATE students,” said Darlene Boyd, director of UC Irvine’s Gifted Students Academy, advisory committee member and master instructor for UC Irvine Extension’s GATE Certificate Program. “The University is committed to the development of gifted and talented students, and most importantly funds research and educational programs to train the most valuable asset in our school systems – our teachers. Our online courses are designed specifically for k-12 teachers to help build competency, develop best practices, stay apprised of the latest research and develop more fully the potential of their GATE students.”

“The University has made the decision to offer these courses online, because we understand the current demands being put on today’s teachers,” said Angela Jeantet, director of UC Irvine Extension’s Education Programs Department. “We’re fielding more and more requests to offer courses in more flexible formats to complement teacher’s busy schedules – and online is the ideal solution to meet the demand of the nation’s teachers.”

These online courses are part of UC Irvine Extension’s comprehensive GATE Certificate Program. Each course is offered on a quarterly basis, four times per year. During UC Irvine Extension’s winter quarter, “Identification, Diagnosis and Evaluation of the Gifted” is offered from Jan. 14-Feb. 8. “Meeting the Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted,” is offered from Jan. 21-Feb. 29. “The Arts in GATE Education” is offered from Jan. 28-Mar. 14. For more information about UC Irvine Extension’s GATE Certificate Program or to enroll in these three online courses, please contact the Education Programs Department at 949-824-9304.

About the University of California, Irvine Extension: As the continuing education arm of UCI, UC Irvine Extension is dedicated to providing a university-level learning experience for students, offering thousands of exciting courses and programs to local, regional, and global constituencies. UC Irvine Extension offers a rich array of academic and community programs to support a diverse audience, from a wide selection of academic programs to numerous campus activities. For more information, please visit www.extension.uci.edu.

About the University of California, Irvine Gifted Students Academy: The Gifted Students Academy, GSA, is an intensive summer program for gifted middle school students, grades five through eight. Participants select courses in each of the major subject areas of math, science, language arts, social studies and the arts and may attend as a commuter student or reside on campus in the UCI residence halls. Courses are offered in one-week modules and span over a six-week period. GSA offers a strong foundation of disciplinary studies while providing students a sampling of campus life. For more information, please visit http://www.cfep.uci.edu/gsa/ or email giftedstudents@uci.edu.

About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,400 faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.3 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.

Contacts

for UC Irvine Extension

Taylor King, 714-573-0899 ext. 29

taylor@echomediapr.com