Edvoice - Issues

SBE challenges school accountability measurement, looks for options

May 9 | SI&A Cabinet Report

By Kimberly Beltran

California’s State Board of Education raised some major red flags Wednesday over changes being considered to the state’s K-12 school accountability system, leaving in question the next steps for updating the system.

Mike Kirst, board president, even questioned whether a revised API could continue to serve as a viable measuring tool.

“In baseball, you have a batting average, you have a runs-batted-in average, you have an on-base percentage and other measures and you don’t put them all together and say this is the performance index of the hitter – they’re separate things,” Kirst said. “I think we get in trouble when we start mixing apples and oranges and bananas, throw them into a blender and get a single number.”

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LAUSD board member seeks overhaul of 'teacher jail' system

April 7 | Los Angeles Daily News

Plan would add team of professional investigators

By Barbara Jones

Los Angeles Unified would create a team of professional investigators to handle serious misconduct complaints against teachers as part of a new plan to overhaul the district's disciplinary process, which has been criticized as costly, unwieldy and unfair.

Set for a vote on April 16, the resolution by school board member Tamar Galatzan would take investigations of alleged physical or sexual abuse away from principals and put them into the hands of professionals. The investigations would involve employees cleared of any crime by police but still suspected of violating state or district codes of conduct.

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Civil rights, school groups rally to protect Spanish-language testing

April 2 | SI&A Cabinet Report

By Tom Chorneau

A critical portion of California’s 1.4 million English learners face academic setback under a plan to suspend most of the state’s student assessments next year, civil rights activists and school advocacy groups say.

As part of a sweeping proposal to transition K-12 education to new common core curriculum standards within two years, state schools chief Tom Torlakson wants the Legislature to suspend all testing not required to meet federal mandates or to support the Early Assessment Program beginning with the 2013-14 school year.

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Curious Grade for Teachers: Nearly All Pass

March 30 | New York Times

By JENNY ANDERSON

Across the country, education reformers and their allies in both parties have revamped the way teachers are graded, abandoning methods under which nearly everyone was deemed satisfactory, even when students were falling behind.

More than half the states now require new teacher evaluation systems and, thanks to a deal announced last week in Albany, New York City will soon have one, too.

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State Senate leader presses online education

April 1 | OC Register

College courses expand university experience while saving money, Darrell Steinberg says.

By DANIEL WEINTRAUB

One day soon, a student with a laptop in her bedroom in Mission Viejo will be able to take a full-credit, certified class online from a community college across the county. Or from Cal State Fullerton. Or UCLA. The student will watch the professor's lectures on her computer, ask questions via email or text message, and take exams, probably from home.

At least that's the vision of Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat who wants to use technology to bust the bottlenecks blocking student access in California's cash-strapped and over-subscribed systems of higher education.

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Indiana Supreme Court upholds broadest US school voucher program, clears way for expansion

March 26 | Washington Post

By Pam Engel and Tom Davies

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the law creating the nation’s broadest school voucher program, clearing the way for a possible expansion.

In a 5-0 vote, the justices rejected claims that the law primarily benefited religious institutions that run private schools and accepted arguments that it gave families choice and allowed parents to determine where the money went.

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California Education Department clarifies ban on school fees and on required supplies

March 25 | Mercury News

By Sharon Noguchi

Spelling out a state law that prohibits public schools from charging fees for supplies and activities, the California Department of Education has issued a memo detailing what students and families can and can't be required to pay or provide for school.

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NCLB Waivers: A State-by-State Breakdown

March 22 | EdWeek

The Obama administration announced in 2011 it would award waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act to states that agreed to adopt certain education ideas, such as teacher evaluations tied to student test scores. In exchange, states would get flexibility from some of the core tenets of the law, such as that 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

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Relieving teacher anxiety on test scores

The National Council on Teacher Quality

One of the obstacles to states putting in new evaluation systems which use any test score data is the pushback from teachers.  Teachers worry a lot that their rating will depend more on who they teach, than how well they teach.

We can put that argument aside--if we're all willing to acknowledge the results in Florida, where test scores now comprise 50% of a teacher's rating.  

Florida has found near-zero correlation between teachers' evaluation scores and the percentages of their students who are poor, nonwhite, gifted, disabled or English language learners.  None. 

Read more about the data here.

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State Supreme Court: Special Ed Litigation Costs Are Public

March 11 | Voice of OC

By REX DALTON

The California Supreme Court has cleared the way for public disclosure of governmental legal costs in ongoing lawsuits where school districts, cities or other public agencies refuse to reveal the bills before litigation is complete.

In Orange County and other jurisdictions, governmental agencies have frequently declined to disclose the costs of ongoing litigation, contending such legal bills are exempt under the California Public Records Act.

But in its Feb. 20 ruling on a Los Angeles lawsuit, the court affirmed a published appellate decision in which judges decided that legal fees can be disclosed when a public records request is made during active litigation.

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