Weak Blueprint
A new report from the National Education Policy Center looks at the research base of the Obama administration's Blueprint for Reform, the proposed revisions to the ESEA. Scholars were asked to examine the Blueprint's six research summaries -- College- and Career-Ready Students; Great Teachers and Great Leaders; Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners and Other Diverse Learners; A Complete Education; Successful, Safe, and Healthy Schools; and Fostering Innovation and Excellence. Each reviewer concluded that the overall quality of the summaries is far below that required for a national policy discussion of critical issues. Overly simplified, biased, and too-brief explanations of complex issues are provided, with many critical omissions. The Blueprint has no mention of an accountability system to determine how schools will be evaluated. So-called intervention models for low-scoring schools are not developed or supported with research. No data are given to demonstrate how competitive grants can leverage improvement for both winners and losers of competitions, and proposed policy solutions in general do not logically or effectively match or resolve stated problems. Reviewers found an overall neglect of peer-reviewed research, and an over-reliance on information from special interest groups, think tanks, government documents, and the media, as well as an over-reliance on the reliability of test scores.
See the report: http://www.greatlakescenter.org/
Thanks to the weekly PEN newsblast.
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Waiting for School Reform
Grading 'Waiting for Superman'
September 23, 2010 | This article appeared in the October 11, 2010 edition of The Nation.
Published on The Nation (http://www.thenation.com)
Here's what you see in Waiting for Superman, the new documentary that celebrates the charter school movement while blaming teachers unions for much of what ails American education: working- and middle-class parents desperate to get their charming, healthy, well-behaved children into successful public charter schools.
Here's what you don't see: the four out of five charters that are no better, on average, than traditional neighborhood public schools (and are sometimes much worse); charter school teachers, like those at the Green Dot schools in Los Angeles, who are unionized and like it that way; and noncharter neighborhood public schools, like PS 83 in East Harlem and the George Hall Elementary School in Mobile, Alabama, that are nationally recognized for successfully educating poor children.
You don't see teen moms, households without an adult English speaker or headed by a drug addict, or any of the millions of children who never have a chance to enter a charter school lottery (or get help with their homework or a nice breakfast) because adults simply aren't engaged in their education. These children, of course, are often the ones who are most difficult to educate, and the ones neighborhood public schools can't turn away.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Review: Waiting for Superman
I haven't seen the film yet. Here is a critical review.
by Rick Ayers.
An Inconvenient Superman: Davis Guggenheim's New Film Hijacks School Reform
Davis Guggenheim's 2010 film Waiting for Superman is a slick marketing piece full of half-truths and distortions. The film suggests the problems in education are the fault of teachers and teacher unions alone, and it asserts that the solution to those problems is a greater focus on top-down instruction driven by test scores. It rejects the inconvenient truth that our schools are being starved of funds and other necessary resources, and instead opts for an era of privatization and market-driven school change. Its focus effectively suppresses a more complex and nuanced discussion of what it might actually take to leave no child behind, such as a living wage, a full-employment economy, the de-militarization of our schools, and an education based on the democratic ideal that the fullest development of each is the condition for the full development of all. The film is positioned to become a leading voice in framing the debate on school reform, much like Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth did for the discussion of global warming, and that's heartbreaking.
I'm not categorically opposed to charter schools; they can and often do allow a group of creative and innovative teachers, parents, and communities to build schools that work for their kids and are free of the deadening bureaucracy of most districts. These schools can be catalysts for even larger changes. But there are really two main opposing positions in the "charter movement" -- it's not really a movement, by the way, but rather a diverse range of different projects. On one side are those who hope to use the charter option to operate effective small schools that are autonomous from districts. On the other side are the corporate powerhouses and the ideological opponents of all things public who see this as a chance to break the teacher's unions and to privatize education. Superman is a shill for the latter. Caring, thoughtful teachers are working hard in both types of schools. But their efforts are being framed and defined, even undermined, by powerful forces that have seized the mantle of "reform."
The film dismisses with a side comment the inconvenient truth that our schools are criminally underfunded. Money's not the answer, it glibly declares. Nor does it suggest that students would have better outcomes if their communities had jobs, health care, decent housing, and a living wage. Particularly dishonest is the fact that Guggenheim never mentions the tens of millions of dollars of private money that has poured into the Harlem Children's Zone, the model and superman we are relentlessly instructed to aspire to. Those funds create full family services and a state of the art school. In a sleight of hand, the film magically shifts focus, turning to "bad teaching" as the problem in the poor schools while ignoring these millions of dollars that make people clamor to get into the Promise Academy. As a friend of mine said, "Well, at least now we know what it costs."
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Michele Rhee as the voice of school reform ?
Bryan Williams described Michele Rhee as a leading voice of school reform. In fact she is a major voice for one particular view of school reform- the corporate-test driven model.
Here is the transcript. The oral statement was even stronger. I encourage you to contact NBC and to protest. Please request a balanced report. The e mail is at the end of the transcript.
;Bryan Williams NBC . Tonight.
washington, d.c., voters fired their mayor. while it was just a city mayor's race, that washington election result last night was heard across the country by those who follow education reform. that's because the defeat of mayor fenty means the departure of a big reformer. michelle ree is the chancellor of schools in d.c. this comes just as her profile is about to explode even bigger because of a new film called "waiting for superman." that premieres tonight in washington. our own tom costello is there for us.
middle school experiences crucial to success in High School?
and here's the New York Times version of the story.
At Kathleen Cecil's memorial service on August 30th, several of her students testified to Kathleen's stubborn believe in their abilities in spite of their negative attitudes about themselves upon entering 9th grade. (e.g., "I was determined not to do what she wanted me to do."). Invariably, these students of color implicitly attributed their negative attitude towards teachers and school to their middle school experiences. When I asked a parent of a former middle school student about this, she said, by the time black students get to high school, "they are fed up." I think the suspension rate is only the tip of the iceberg....we must look deeper.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Comcast pulled this ad about Meg Whitman. Sponsored by CTA
Comcast pulled this ad from its cable channels. It decided.
Now, you get to decide.
Now, you get to decide.
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Thursday, September 02, 2010
Testing more while failing at school reform
There are schools that work well, and schools that work poorly. The schools that work well almost always are in middle class neighborhoods, and the schools that work poorly are in poor neighborhoods. When these students are brought together in comprehensive high schools- the lower class kids do poorly and the middle class kids do well.
There are skilled teachers, unskilled teachers, and poor teachers. The most recent evidence on Teach for America shows no particular merit in their approaches. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/teach-for-america
Research does not support the use of test scores, including value added testing as a reliable source of evaluation http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/6276/. (See prior blog on this.) The New York Times has an article today by Sam Dillon that describes the controversy well http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/education/01teacher.html?_r=1&hpw
The essence of the argument around value added testing as promoted in the Los Angeles Times series is that poor teachers should be eliminated. One assumption is that individual teachers can change the school trajectory of kids. While good teachers are important, the Broader, Bolder Approach work demonstrates that communities need to improve the educational environment, not just hire and fire new teachers. http://www.boldapproach.org/
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
California loses on Race to the Top
SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today issued the following statement after learning California was not selected as a winner for Phase 2 funding of the federal Race to the Top (RTT) competition.
"I am deeply disappointed that our application was not chosen as a winner in the Race to the Top competition. However, the loss of the funding may slow, but not defeat, our efforts to improve student achievement in California," O'Connell said. "We remain fully committed to continue seeking the strategies and resources demanded to accelerate our efforts to close the achievement gap among different groups of students by creating fundamental and far-reaching reforms.
"Our application focused on the necessary elements to help us meet the needs of our lowest-performing students and help us raise the ceiling for students who are already performing at high levels. These elements included rigorous, internationally benchmarked standards, effective use of data, more emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and the most important ingredient of all—effective and accountable teachers and principals. These are the fundamentals that will improve achievement in the short run and for the long term so that we can create a statewide system of excellence in our public schools.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
U.S. Senate breaks Republican filibuster; 100,000 teachers jobs funded
The U.S. Senate defeated another Republican filibuster- finally. Ten Billion $ to keep teachers at work.
The U.S. Senate approved a vote that would provide $10 billion for teachers jobs, and $16 billion for state aid, much of which will go to hire firemen, police, and medical workers. This measure has been blocked by a Republican threat of a filibuster since May. The vote to end the talking was 61 to 38, Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, joined with the Democrats to end the talking.
Update: Thursday: Legislation long sought by Democrats to prevent layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers, police and other public workers passed the Senate today.
The bill would help states and local school boards deal with severe budget problems. It would preserve the jobs of perhaps 300,000 public employees across the country by extending programs in last year's stimulus law. It passed 61-39 Thursday, after months of blocking tactics by Republicans.
In addition to saving teachers jobs, the appropriation will assist the many cash strapped states by funding Medicaid allowing these funds to be used for other urgent needs.
California Senator Barbara Boxer voted for the bill. Her opponent, Carly Fiorina said she would have voted against the bill.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Changing NCLB and Race to the Top
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Sunday, August 01, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Obama: I support teachers
"I am 110 % in support of teachers. " Watch the video.
Now, I know some argue that during a recession, we should focus solely on economic issues. But education is an economic issue - if not the economic issue of our time. It's an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who've never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have. It's an economic issue when eight in ten new jobs will require workforce training or a higher education by the end of this decade. It's an economic issue when we know countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow.---
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Three decades of underfunding public schools
A new report by the California Budget Project – “Race to the Bottom? California’s Support for Schools Lags the Nation” – underscores what’s at stake in the coming battle between Gov. Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders on state education spending, a key difference in the stalemate over the state budget.
The report tracks 30 years of underfunding K-12 schools. Its conclusion: “The spending gap (between California and other states) widened after the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, narrowed from the late 1990s through 2001-02, and has grown substantially since 2006-07.”
Many of the data points on expenditures are familiar:
- California ranked 44th among the 50 states in K-12 spending in 2009-10, according to the National Education Association’s calculations. (Education Week, which factors in cost of living, ranks California lower.)
- California spent $2,546 less per student than the rest of the nation in 2009-10. It would have to spend $15,4 billion more to reach the national average.
- The state ranked anywhere between 46th and 50th in terms of the number of K-12 students per teacher, guidance counselor, librarian and administrator.
Sunday, July 04, 2010
School budget cuts, Joel Klein,
Note: Joel Klein thinks that RTTT is so important that school funds for low income schools should be cut to preserve money for the RTTT competition.
Joel I. Klein, the chancellor of the New York City school system, which is competing for Race to the Top money, said Congress should save the $800 million elsewhere, even if it meant cutting federal aid for schools with high-poverty students. “Here’s a chance with Race to the Top to really change the game,” he said. “Why would you take the money out of that?”
Mr. Obey, however, said the cut approved by the House would leave $3.2 billion for the favored programs. “To suggest we are being unduly harsh is a joke,” he said.
Remember, Joel Klein was considered for Secretary of Education
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Politicians and candidates fail the schools
The U.S, and the school systems in most of our cities, including Sacramento, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and others, are currently at a crisis point. The current economic crisis has ended almost all school reform efforts. Politicians and candidates like Meg Whitman continue to pontificate, but lack of funding and the demoralizing cuts in school budgets and staff have ended almost all real reform. Whitman proposes to cut the state budget $15 billion, at least 40% of that would come from k-12 education.
If anti tax radicals win the elections, Schools will continue their decline. A segment of society will be well-educated, another segment will continue to fail.
The economic crisis for working people and people of color will continue to grow (Mishel, Bernstein, Allegretto, 2007, Paul Krugman, The return of depression economics and the crisis of 2008. (2009) Dean Baker, Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy, (2009) Nomi Prins. It Takes a Pillage: Behind the bailouts, bonuses and backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street. (2009), and the numerous other others cited on this blog in posts on the economic crisis. )
Alternatively, schools could be transformed, into places where education is a rich, compelling, and affirming process that prepares all young people to make thoughtful contributions to their community in economic and civic terms.
The possibility for change exists and gives those of us dedicated to democratic schools hope. Current proposals promoted by conservative institutes such as school choice and using public monies to fund private education will not lead to democratic reform. Rather than continue these privileges, a reform movement must build on democratic ideals of progress and equality of opportunity. These traditional values can triumph over the hostility and violence produced by racism, sexism, and class bias presently accepted as “normal” and natural in our schools.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Teach for America: what the evidence says
Professor Su Jin Jez, of Sacramento State’s Public Policy and Administration Graduate Program, has coauthored an education policy brief titled, “Teach For America: A Review of the Evidence.”
The brief looks at the impact of Teach For America, which aims to address teacher shortages by sending graduates from elite colleges, most of whom do not have a background in education, to teach in low-income rural and urban schools for a two-year commitment. The brief is available at www.epicpolicy.org/publication/teach-for-america.
Research on the impact of TFA teachers produces a mixed picture, with results af- fected by the experience level of the TFA teachers and the group of teachers with whom they are compared. Studies have found that, when the comparison group is other teachers in the same schools who are less likely to be certified or traditional- ly prepared, novice TFA teachers perform equivalently, and experienced TFA teachers perform comparably in raising reading scores and a bit better in raising math scores.
The question for most districts, however, is whether TFA teachers do as well as or better than credentialed non-TFA teachers with whom school districts aim to staff their schools. On this question, studies indicate that the students of novice TFA teachers perform significantly less well in reading and mathematics than those of credentialed beginning teachers.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Endless Teacher Layoffs
An endless summer awaits many of Detroit's teachers and school buildings this Thursday. Detroit, one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in America, is about to add thousands of teachers to its unemployment rolls and dozens of buildings to its vacancy problem. A third of this cash-strapped city is reported to be vacant already. The closing of more schools could be the death knell for many of the remaining neighborhoods in these dire economic times.
Although the city has a five-year plan to renovate or replace school buildings, funded in part by federal stimulus, 32 buildings will be closed permanently by the end of the year, with a dozen more to follow over the next two years.
Detroit is not the only urban school district facing massive staff layoffs, and tasked with shuttering schools. Kansas City will close 26 of its 66 schools. Cleveland will lose 14 schools. And the state of California is braced for massive teacher reductions.
With the edu-jobs bill still stalled in Congress -- and likely to remain their over the summer break despite the recent personal appeal by the White House to pass it -- Detroit is unlikely to be financially able to hire back many, or any teachers, making the 2010/11 school year a challenging one for school officials, parents, remaining teachers and their students.Regardless, the schools are gone and no amount of last minute funding will bring them back. by Ann Bibby
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Testing teachers, ignoring education
See the excellent article, "Coming Soon to Your Favorite Credential Program; National Exit Exams," by Ann Berlak in the current issue of Rethinking Schools.
Ann is a faculty member at San Francisco State. I have recently heard from students at San Francisco State about their experiences with PACT.
PACT ( called Performance Assessment) was imposed on many CSU campuses in the last three years. It forces teaches in training to divert as much as 1/3 of their time toward test preparation rather than teaching. Student teachers are pushed away from originality and creativity in teaching.
In one of my own semesters, some 3 students out of 24 did not pass PACT. But, they were not the weakest students in the cohort. They were the most creative, the most divergent. The students who pass PACT easily are the least creative. They modify their instruction the least to encourage critical thinking. A group of faculty have tried to stop PACT, but we have been unable to change it. Our unions helped a little.
Ann is a faculty member at San Francisco State. I have recently heard from students at San Francisco State about their experiences with PACT.
PACT ( called Performance Assessment) was imposed on many CSU campuses in the last three years. It forces teaches in training to divert as much as 1/3 of their time toward test preparation rather than teaching. Student teachers are pushed away from originality and creativity in teaching.
In one of my own semesters, some 3 students out of 24 did not pass PACT. But, they were not the weakest students in the cohort. They were the most creative, the most divergent. The students who pass PACT easily are the least creative. They modify their instruction the least to encourage critical thinking. A group of faculty have tried to stop PACT, but we have been unable to change it. Our unions helped a little.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
School update
School Beat: 2009-2010 School Year in Review
by Lisa Schiff, 2010-06-03Note: Starting next week School Beat will be on summer vacation until school starts again in mid-August.
The 2009-2010 school year is finally at an end. This has felt like a long one, mostly due, as it usually is, to the external pressures and challenges facing our schools. In the midst of the worst financial crisis in years and a political climate that is almost equally as turbulent, students, educators, families and other public education supporters have struggled with some success to keep our schools going and to push them higher on the list of priorities of things to be maintained, if not strengthened. With leaders like Governor Schwarzenegger, who continues his efforts to strip public schools of resources, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who enthusiastically promotes standardized testing and competitive grant-based learning models, California’s K-12 system has been hit hard from all sides.
The recession and related budget crisis have been felt strongly throughout this year. After tense negotiations, our district ended up having only four furlough days for teachers and just under two hundred pink slips ultimately issued. Hopefully this will be reduced even more if the emergency funding for education jobs finally comes through Congress. Even with that, it’s a clear measure of just how bad things are that the loss of that many teachers and the reduction of even a few educational days can feel like an aversion of disaster.
Discussion of where to cut took up much of the year and can be tracked through various documents and timelines on the San Francisco Unified School District’s (SFUSD) budget page. The deficit action plan laid out a set of proposed cuts that were presented and discussed atcommunity meetings and were ultimately accepted by the Board of Education (BOE) as options Superintendent Carlos Garcia could put into place as needed.
Two positive outcomes around the budget also occurred this year. The first was a fantastic Town Hall meeting organized by some SFUSD parents in an effort to galvanize action around the perpetual underfunding of California’s schools in both boom and bust times. The Funding our Future event, attending by elected officials, and hundreds of parents and public school supporters is now evolving into a new effort, called Educate Our State, the specific goals of which will hopefully be unfolding soon, revealing tasks we can all join in on.
Read the entire post at Beyond the Chron
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Torlakson for Superintendent of Public Instruction
There are three candidates for Superintendent who have any reasonable chance to win; Gloria Romero, Tom Torlakson, and Larry Aceves.
Romero and Torlakson have similar advantages and disadvantages. They are both termed out legislators seeking a new position, not leaders in education. A prior post examined Romero’s role and position.
While the eduwonks (who do not work in schools) and Romero continue their efforts and California achievement scores remain stagnant, others blame the economic crisis that California and 42 other states find themselves in.
In Robles-Wong v. California (May 2010) the plaintiffs note: Currently, the state ranks 47th among all states in its per-pupil spending on education, spending $2,856 less per pupil than the national average.
Yet most Californians, according to a recent poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, believe there is not enough state funding going to public schools, and a majority single out K-12 education as the area that they most want to protect from spending cuts.
“We require students to meet high education standards and then deny them the resources they need to meet those standards,” said Jo A.S. Loss, president of the California State PTA. “We must have a system that allows schools to deliver a high-quality education for all children – in good times and in tough times.”
The Governor and elected officials discuss the economic crisis as if the crisis is a neutral act, or as if a natural act- like rain or snow. But, the California school budgets are a disaster not because of some natural phenomena. The sustained crisis was created by the governor and the state legislature.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Lawsuit Challenges California Unconstitutional Education Finance
Historic Lawsuit Challenges California’s Unconstitutional Education Finance System
A historic lawsuit was filed today against the State of California requesting that the current education finance system be declared unconstitutional and that the state be required to establish a school finance system that provides all students an equal opportunity to meet the academic goals set by the State.
The case, Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California, was filed in the Superior Court of California in Alameda County. Specifically, the suit asks the court to compel the State to align its school finance system—its funding policies and mechanisms—with the educational program that the State has put in place. To do this, plaintiffs allege, the State must scrap its existing finance system; do the work to determine how much it actually costs to fund public education to meet the state’s own program requirements and the needs of California’s school children; and develop and implement a new finance system consistent with Constitutional requirements.
The lawsuit was filed by a broad coalition, including more than 60 individual students and their families, nine school districts from throughout the State, the California School Boards Association (CSBA), California State PTA, and the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA).
“Filing this lawsuit was a last resort,” said CSBA President Frank Pugh. “Education funding has been in a deteriorating spiral in California for decades. A failure to act now threatens the future of California’s students and the future of our state. The Governor and lawmakers have known for some time that the current school finance system is harming students and they’ve done nothing to remedy the crisis. The $17 billion in cuts to education have only made a dire situation even worse. California’s unstable, unsound and insufficient school finance system is robbing our students of an education.”
“This lawsuit seeks to ensure that the State, the Legislature and the Governor comply with the Constitution and fund and deliver the promised education program to all students in the state,” said Bill Abrams, a partner at the law firm of Bingham McCutchen and counsel for plaintiff students and families. “The Constitution requires that school funding ‘first be set apart’ to meet program demands, and provides that education is a fundamental right and must be made equally available to every child. Too often, this isn’t the case, and the State balances its budget on the backs of its students by cutting or underfunding education programs, and thus prevents schools from meeting its own education standards.”
California’s broken school finance system has undermined the ability of districts to educate our children by making no connection between what is expected of schools and students and the funding provided in order to meet those expectations.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Are California Schools failing students of color?
Students and Parent Groups Give Report Card on California Schools From 2000 – 2010
WHAT: On the west steps of the California Capitol Building. students, parents, and allies will mount their defense of a public school system that has been under attack for the last decade. Instead of receiving grades, theCampaign for Quality Education will instead grade California’s schools from 2000 – 2010. Based on data, personal experience, and community surveys, the CQE will be grading California’s schools in the following categories: Funding, Graduation Rates, College and Career Readiness, Teacher Quality, Facilities/Materials, and Accountability.
With the May California budget revise underway, students and parents from across California—Long Beach, Los Angeles, Orange County, the Central Valley, San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland—will also speak out against the $17 billion cuts to education over the last two years, back legislation that supports accountability and revenue creation, and make delegation visits with their local legislators. With immigrant students, low-income students, and students of color a majority of California’s schools, the CQE will stress that their needs are California’s needs.
With the May California budget revise underway, students and parents from across California—Long Beach, Los Angeles, Orange County, the Central Valley, San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland—will also speak out against the $17 billion cuts to education over the last two years, back legislation that supports accountability and revenue creation, and make delegation visits with their local legislators. With immigrant students, low-income students, and students of color a majority of California’s schools, the CQE will stress that their needs are California’s needs.
This event is timed to coincide with Brown v. Board. Fifty-six years after the landmark Supreme Court case was supposed to desegregate schools, California graduates less than 60% of its black and brown students from high school.
WHEN: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 10:30am Speakout
1:00pm Legislative Visits
WHEN: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 10:30am Speakout
1:00pm Legislative Visits
WHERE: State Capitol Building (West Steps), Capitol Avenue, L Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
WHY: “We are beyond cuts to the education budget,” said Melia Franklin, Executive Director of Parent Leadership Action Network (PLAN). “This is an amputation and California’s future will pay for this ‘Lost Generation’ for years to come. We come as parents and students of color, the people most affected by this Crisis in Priorities, to defend education and include our voice in solving this crisis."
For more information or to join us, please call Paul Tran, Communications Director at Californians for Justice, at (562) 951-1015 or email him atpaul@caljustice.org
Parents and school reform
By Kido
A funny thing happened on the way to education reform: No one really talked to the parents.
That’s why this May 11, as the anniversary of Brown v. Board approaches, I’m going to Sacramento to speak to my elected officials, the people who are supposed to represent me and my children.
I’m going as part of the Parent Leadership Action Network (PLAN) and the Campaign for Quality Education (CQE). And in a role reversal, we’re going to give California grades on its public school system over the last decade. The theme for our visit is “M.I.A.: California Ditching Schools from 2000 – 2010” and as expected the grades in Funding, Graduation Rates, and College and Career Readiness are failing.
As a parent of two students who went to school in Oakland and Berkeley, I’ve seen firsthand the decline of public schools. In fact, from the implementation of the California High School Exit Exam in 2002 to the $17 billion in education cuts from 2008 – 2010 and a dozen other policies that have disproportionately and adversely affected students of color, you could call the last decade an attack on education.
From 2000 – 2010, as our schools became more diverse, California ditched schools.
At the ground level, I saw my children steered away from the A-G courses that would have allowed them to be eligible for college. I saw counselors turn over often. I saw a lack of janitors and filthy restrooms.
The statistics are staggering. California graduates less than 57% of its black and brown students. This is not a problem, this is a crisis: We are creating a lost generation of black and brown young people. I shudder to think what will happen to them and the communities they live in—incarceration, low-paying jobs, no health care.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
State Superintendent of Public Instruction candidates:
Superintendent of Public Instruction
There are three candidates for Superintendent who have any reasonable chance to win; Gloria Romero, Tom Torlakson, and Larry Aceves.
Romero and Torlakson have similar advantages and disadvantages. They are both termed out legislators seeking a new position, not leaders in education.
In the last two years California’s k-12 schools have received over a $16 Billion cut back in funding. California presently ranks 45th of the states in per pupil spending and last among the states in class size. Currently the Governor proposes to reduce k-12 spending by another $2.4 Billion.
Since funding is a legislative issue, at first consideration it might seem that the two retiring legislators would have the greatest possibility of convincing the legislature and the governor to adequately support public schools. However, the prior to Superintendents Jack O’Connell and Delaine Easton came directly from the legislature and presided over the schools during times of massive funding cut backs. We just do not have evidence that being a Senator – even the Chair of the Senate Education Committee – does much good once you leave that office and become the Superintendent.
To understand the issues in this race you need to understand key issues in k-12 education. This will also prepare you to understand the emerging debate of the re-authorization of ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) currently known as No Child Left Behind.
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