Anti-charter school boards and superintendents no doubt are bookmarking a report that found that charter schools nationwide and in California are more racially and ethnically segregated than traditional public schools. They’ll cite the study, by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA,  as a rationale for denying a charter application or creating new demographic obstacles, under the guise of integration, that many urban charter schools cannot overcome.

That would be disastrous for minority families who choose charters as an alternative to their neighborhood failing schools.

(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 8th, 2010

On Saturday, parents, teachers, students, neighbors – truth is, anyone who feels like it – will have another chance to vote on who should take over 30 Los Angeles Unified schools.

If the balloting is anything like Tuesday’s fiasco at the polls, Superintendent Ramon Cortines should take all the votes and shred them. That chaotic exercise in democracy threatened to discredit  the district’s bold experiment in school choice.

In a move that has drawn national attention, last fall the school board agreed to open up 12 failing schools and 18 new schools to bids from charter schools, community organizations and in-district groups of teachers and administrators. It’s the first round of a multi-year process that promises to transform the nation’s second largest district – and one of the nation’s most intransigent. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 5th, 2010

Recognizing schools’ financial plight, the Legislature and Gov. Schwarzenegger have given districts considerable latitude over how they can spend money for 40 programs known as categoricals. They include important programs: summer school, teacher training and textbook purchases

But when it comes to dozens of smaller, mandated programs – many unneeded – the governor and legislators have been devious. They have either allotted a token amount in the budget, creating IOUs now totaling more than $3 billion, or they have suspended the mandates year by year, creating headaches and confusion for local districts.

In a report issued this week, Education Mandates: Overhauling a Broken System, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, says, Enough. Eliminate dozens of the 51 mandated programs that are not critical, start paying back the money owed districts, and clarify the reimbursement system for ones that should be kept, such as  expenditures related to the high school exit exam expenditures. Doing so would save the state more than $350 million yearly, the LAO said.

(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 4th, 2010

For years, charter schools leaders and their supporters in Silicon Valley, and district officials and teachers have been talking at each other at charter hearings and accusingly behind each other’s backs.

Rarely had they talked directly to one another frankly and civilly – at least for any length of time. But that’s what happened for seven hours Saturday during a Charter Summit that the trustees of the Santa Clara County Office of Education organized.

(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 3rd, 2010

If baby boomers need another persuasive reason  why it’s critically important to invest more now in higher education in California, they should consider this: They’ll need more workers with college degrees,  if they want to make  money selling their homes in the next 20 years.

University of Southern California demography professor Dowell Myers made this pitch to self-interest Tuesday during the second hearing of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Master Plan for Higher Education. He and others  have warned about the coming threat to the state’s economy from a shortage of workers with college degrees.  Thirty-five percent of workers 55 to 59 years old have at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 26 percent of workers aged 25 to 39.  Workers with a college degree earn on average 90 percent more than workers with a high school degree in California.

(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 2nd, 2010

Call it remarkable management or, more likely, the lull before the crash. The number of school districts in financial distress actually decreased from a year ago, according to report issued last week by FCMAT, the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team. That’s the agency that intervenes when districts are struggling financially.

For the reporting period ending Oct. 31, only a dozen districts – out of about 1,000  – reported a negative status, compared with 19 in the last reporting period of 2009 and 16 in the comparable period a year ago. The latest total  is preliminary, since county offices of education have yet to certify that the districts’ self-reporting is accurate. (View FCMAT’s latest report for a 15-year comparison of the number of districts in financial trouble.)

(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 1st, 2010

Some stories worth checking out:

• Compare teacher salaries in your district: Five of the top 10 highest paying districts are in high-cost Silicon Valley, starting with Mountain View-Los Altos Union School District, where teachers are paid an average of $95,365, nearly $30,000 above the average in the state of $66,965. Using state data, the Sacramento Bee has made it easy to compare districts across counties and the state.
• The Obama administration’s big plans for No Child Left Behind: Haters of the law may be pleased with some of the changes the president has in mind. He’d abolish the “utopian goal” of  requring that all children  everywhere be proficient in math and reading by 2014, and he’d replace Adequate Yearly Progress, the federal measure of districts’ progress, with a different, broader accountability tool (easier said than done, no doubt). And there would be pats on the back for high achievement, not just lashes for bad scores. New York Times reporter Sam Dillon offers a preview, based on conversations with those privy  to the plan. All of this assumes Congress will act on the proposal this year.
• CSU students squeezed out of classes: Saturday’s The Educated Guess discusses the California State University trustees’ goal of significantly increasing the graduation rate at their 23 campuses. Sacramento Bee reporter Laurel Rosenhall’s reporting on troubles that Sacramento State students are having getting into classes they need illustrates why that goal will be hard to reach. Last fall, CSU schools cut 7 percent of sections, on average. It looks like more of the same this spring. The story explores the impact on students at one campus.

By John Fensterwald on February 1st, 2010

Russlynn Ali, one of  several California  expats in key positions in the U.S. Department of Education, praised and chided charter school reformers in a talk in San Jose.

She said that school districts should be partnering with charters as “labs of innovation we all can learn from.” What distinguishes effective charter schools are commonsense strategies – “more time on task, more parental involvement, strong leadership,” she said Saturday. But Ali,  the assistant secretary of education for civil rights, also called for authorizers of charter school to be more resolute in shutting down schools that aren’t showing academic success. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 1st, 2010