A few noteworthy articles and announcements that have come to my attention:

KQED Forum to explore college issues

Tune in KQED radio’s Forum at 9 a.m. Wednesday for a two-hour exploration of issues faced by first-generation college students and their families. Host Michael Krasny will  broadcast live from Downtown College Prep in San Jose, the first charter school in Santa Clara County and a 10-year successful partnership between the school and San Jose Unified. The largely Hispanic school recruits students who aspire to college but have not done well in middle school and prepares them for a four-year college.

Panelists will include Michael Kirst, Stanford emeritus education professor, writer and an authority on the transition between high school and colllege,  Downtown College Prep founder and executive director Jennifer Andaluz, principal Michael DeSouza, counselors from James Lick High in East San Jose and from Santa Clara University, as well as graduates of the charter school.

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By John Fensterwald on March 9th, 2010

Comments on Worth hearing and reading

Regulations for teacher layoffs are a prime example of how interests of adults are put ahead of those of children, especially minority children. Now, that system, along with state budget cuts that set it in motion, will face a court challenge.

In a case with statewide implications, the ACLU of Southern California and other public interest and pro bono attorneys are suing the state and Los Angeles Unified, charging that teacher layoffs have savaged three low-performing, low-income middle schools. All three have been thrown into turmoil since between half and nearly three quarters of their teachers got layoff notices last year.  Most eventually did lose their jobs because of  rules that dictate that less experienced teachers must be the first to go, regardless of how good they are with students and how well they fit in the school.

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By John Fensterwald on February 25th, 2010

Comments on Lawsuit: Layoffs hurt minority kids

While California schools  have lagged  behind the nation by some performance measures, it has been a leader in one significant area: the percentage of high school students who take Advanced Placement courses and then pass the AP exams.  This has been true in every subject, from AP physics to AP psychology.

During the past decade, the numbers of students taking and succeeding  in AP courses – an indicator of readiness for rigorous college work — have continued to rise, though not as dramatically as in states that have pushed AP, particularly among minority students.

And now the budget crisis facing California schools, compounded perhaps by sanctions of the No Child Left Behind law, could further erode AP participation, to the detriment of students competing for admission to the University of California and other top colleges. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 12th, 2010

Comments on California still an AP leader, for now

In Silicon Valley, where some of the world’s smartest people live, many of the best young minds are wasting. The dichotomy is as stark as the Route 101 divide – a geographical shorthand for class and race (east, poor; west, rich) – separating them.

• A youth unemployment rate that one workforce nonprofit executive estimates at 35 percent;
• A high school dropout rate of about 27 percent;
• A minuscule number of Hispanic students in a six-county area – 182  out of 13,700 – to pass the CSU Early Assessment Program in math.

For seven hours last week, more than 100 school, business and non-profit leaders in the valley heard leaders’ pleas to reach out to disengaged youths, and discussed how to do so at a conference co-sponsored by Cisco Systems, the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, James Irvine Foundation and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on January 26th, 2010

Comments on Silicon Valley’s great divide

Superintendent of Public Instructions Jack O’Connell can legitimately claim some accomplishments during his seven years in office: enacting  and successfully defending the high school exit exam; broadly expanding career academies in high school with  courses approved for UC admission; drawing attention to disparities of achievement among ethnic and racial groups and creating strategies, through his P-16 Council, for narrowing them; and cheerleading a modest growth in test scores.

But even with debilitating  cuts in school funding beyond O’Connell’s control, his last year could be his best –  if the state  wins hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Race to The Top money.

Listening to his final State of Education address, you’d think that it already has. He’s clearly jazzed at the possibility, devoting  the bulk of his speech to Race to the Top – even though there’s no saying California will get a penny. It’s one of 40 states that applied to the competition this week.

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By John Fensterwald on January 22nd, 2010

Comments on O’Connell’s big plans for his last year

No school has escaped damage from the substantial cuts in state education spending during the past two years. But children needing the most help, in low-income neighborhoods wracked by the recession, have been disproportionately hurt.

They’re the ones whose teachers were laid off in greater numbers.

Their summer schools were most likely eliminated.

Their parents couldn’t afford to raise the money privately to keep music and arts classes alive.

Those were some of the findings of  “Educational Opportunities in Hard Times: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Public Schools and Working Families,” a study released today by an institute at UCLA.

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By John Fensterwald on January 21st, 2010

Comments on Poor schools bearing brunt of budget cuts

California has, by far, the largest percentage of eighth graders taking algebra. But that’s about all it can crow about in Education Week’s first Math Progress Index, which was published last week.

By most measures – scores on the “nation’s report card” (National Assessment of Educational Progress), improvement on those scores over the last six years,  closing the achievement gap in math, and hiring experienced math teachers – California is far behind the most successful states, and often behind the national average. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on January 20th, 2010

Comments on State lags in new math index

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass’ office has been mum  about whatever progress there has been in resolving differences over SBX5-4, the compromise Race to the Top bill that the Senate passed last week.

One part of the bill that needs fleshing out through amendments involves a significant expansion of parental choice that Gov. Schwarzenegger  and Sen. Gloria Romero have pushed hard for.

Romero’s original bill, which died in the Assembly, would have given parents in the lowest 30 percent performing schools the right to transfer to a better school in another school district. The current bill scales back that right to the bottom tenth. But it still marks a major shift in state policy and philosophy – and a victory for Los Angeles parent groups that made their voices heard in Sacramento.
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By John Fensterwald on December 23rd, 2009

Comments on Open enrollment provision needs work

You’re a senior in high school,  where there’s one guidance counselor for 2,000 students in your low-income school, and you don’t know who to talk  to about information about financial aid – or whether  to take AP history or what colleges you should shoot for.  Or you’re a freshman at Cal State, the first your Latino family to go to college, and you feel lost. Everyone but you seems to know what to do and how to study;  your self-confidence is ebbing.

Where to turn to? One place is Zoomz.net, a new social network for first-generation high school and college students to meet and interact with each other. A Facebook for the college-hungry minority students, Zoomz offers testimonials from “first generation heroes,”  blogs, advice corners, FAQs on applying to colleges and dealing with family issues, and discussions on college life, like “how to avoid the so-called freshmen 15” (as in pounds, not credits). And, like any good social network, it has member pages with photos and profiles. Zoomz is approaching 300 users.

Launched in August by ALean, a small education nonprofit based in Los Altos, Zoomz is just off the ground and waiting to go viral. Teachers and guidance counselors of minority students: It’s worth checking out and spreading the word.

By jfenster on November 16th, 2009

Comments on New social network for minority students

Mayor Chuck Reed and Santa Clara County Superintendent Chuck Weis are betting that an appeal for collaboration,  a moral imperative and a hint of money will work where the iron fist of No Child Left Behind law hasn’t. Here’s hoping they’re right.

Weis and Reed are the instigators of SJ2020, an initiative to see that all students in San Jose are proficient at grade level by the end of the next decade. Last Thursday, a handful of superintendents, college presidents, charter school leaders and non-profit executives were among the 300 people at City Hall to pledge their efforts.

No Child Left Behind demands that all children be proficient in English language arts and math by 2014. There’s been incremental progress — but, with five years to go, at least 40,000 students — and probably closer to 60,000 or more than 40 percent of San Jose’s children — aren’t at grade level. (Read more and comment on this post)

By jfenster on November 2nd, 2009

Comments on SJ 2020: Will districts work together?