Sunday, October 03, 2010

EDUCATED GUESS: New Kinder start date, Green Jobs Academies vetoed, Ruelas got good district review, ‘Texas texts’ pose no threat, Charters get $, Teach4America teachers not ‘highly-qualified’

John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

John Fensterwald - Educated Guesshttp://bit.ly/co89gG

Governor signs Sept. 1 start for kindergarten, SB 1381 also funds transition kindergarten

October 1, 2010  - California has now joined nearly every state in requiring that children be five years old when starting kindergarten.

Hours before the midnight deadline for deciding on legislation, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will move up the cutoff for kindergarten from Dec. 2 to Sept. 1 and fund an extra year of transition kindergarten for those 4-year-olds who no longer will be eligible for regular kindergarten because of the change.

The passage […]

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Green-tech academies vetoed

October 1, 2010 - “Green jobs”  in conservation and alternative energy will require workers exposed to careers in those fields and trained in emerging technologies. But a  bill  to create  97  green high school career-tech academies was killed last night by Gov. Schwarzenegger.

The academies under SB 675 would have been financed  by diverting $8 million from a small ($.00022 [...]

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LA teacher got good district review, District issues statement on suicide

October 1, 2010 - The Los Angeles Unified School District disclosed that the elementary school teacher who allegedly took his own life in response to the Los Angeles Times’ publication of an analysis critical of his teaching effectiveness, actually received a “great performance” evaluation by the district in July.
In a statement released Thursday, Deputy Superintendent John Deasy said, “In [...]

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Texas tales won’t pollute our texts, Vetoed bill wouldn't have made a difference

September 30, 2010 - Gov. Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that would ensure that the Texas Board of Education’s revisionist view of American history won’t taint California textbooks.

Schwarzenegger called  SB 1451 “duplicative and unnecessary.”  It probably was unneeded though not necessarily for the reasons he cited.  Last year, Schwarzenegger suspended the state Curriculum Commission for four years, making it [...]

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No Superman, but super funding, Rocketship Education, Aspire get grants

September 30, 2010 - An infusion of public and private dollars may improve the odds for families to win the charter school lotteries seen in the new film ” Waiting for Superman” – at least in California.
Grants and gifts totaling $13 million were announced this week to help two Bay Area-based charter management organizations expand [...]

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Interns no longer ‘highly qualified’, Teach for America may turn to Congress

September 28, 2010 - A federal court ruling that narrows the definition of a “highly qualified” teacher has created uncertainty for programs such as Teach for America and second-career fellowships that place aspiring teachers in the classroom in California and other states.
The impact could be far-reaching for low-income schools in districts where intern teachers are clustered; they potentially could [...]

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