Monthly Archives: November 2012

Education Week: Congress Likely to Stay Divided, Will Gridlock on K-12 Continue?

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by Alyson Klein

The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to stay in GOP hands and the Senate under Democratic control, according to the Associated Press. Over the past two years, that combination has meant a lot of sniping and not much action on big issues, including the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

So does two more years of a divided Congress mean two more years of gridlock on key issues? Lawmakers will get their first test soon. Even before the new Congress takes office, lawmakers must figure out a plan to head off “sequestration,” a series of planned, 8.2 percent trigger cuts to nearly every federal K-12 program, including special education and money for disadvantaged students.

via Congress Likely to Stay Divided, Will Gridlock on K-12 Continue?.

Education Week: Five Issues Facing Arne Duncan in a Second Term

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by Michele McNeil

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has maintained that he would stick around for a second term if President Barack Obama is re-elected and asks him to stay on. Now, Duncan has that chance. During the next four years, Duncan—and any successor—will confront some significant issues.

via Five Issues Facing Arne Duncan in a Second Term.

EdSource Today: Big win for schools as Prop 30 defies polls

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By Kathryn Baron and John Fensterwald

California schools’ rendezvous with rock bottom is over.  A massive grassroots campaign, an eleventh hour surge in advertising and strategic targeting of likely voters pulled Proposition 30 over the halfway mark yesterday, giving both Gov. Jerry Brown and California public schools and community colleges a victory. With all of the vote reported, Prop 30 led 53.9 to 46.1 percent.  The initiative is expected to raise nearly $7 billion for education this year by raising income taxes on the wealthiest Californians and increasing the state sales tax by a quarter-cent for the next four years.

“I know some people had some doubts, had some questions – can you really go to people and ask them to raise their tax?” Brown told supporters celebrating at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento Tuesday night. “We had a lot of obstacles. We overcame them.”

via Big win for schools as Prop 30 defies polls – by Kathryn Baron and John Fensterwald.

Daily Republic: Community shows support for Solano College Measure Q

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by Heather Ah San

FAIRFIELD — Solano Community College president Jowel Laguerre celebrated with hesitation early Tuesday night as Measure Q showed a promising lead.

The measure passed 62 percent yes, 37 percent no in Solano County and 58 percent yes, 42 percent no in Yolo County. Overall, it passed 62 percent to 37 percent.

via Community shows support for Solano College Measure Q.

Daily Republic: Voters return incumbent, send 2 new members to college board

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by Heather Ah San

FAIRFIELD — The Solano Community College governing board will see two new trustees and one incumbent next year.

Michael Martin won 60 percent over incumbent Phil McCaffrey, 39 percent, in trustee Area 7. Monica Brown held with a narrow lead – less than 1 percent and fewer than 100 votes – over Frances McCullough in trustee Area 5. Finally, Rosemary Thurston won 57 percent over Mike Wright, 41 percent, in trustee Area 3.

via Voters return incumbent, send 2 new members to college board.

The Educated Guess: Heavy load awaits new Common Core committee

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by John Fensterwald

The  State Board of Education tomorrow is expected to appoint the 20 educators who will do the heavy lifting over the next 18 months of fleshing out the Common Core English language arts standards. Their document, the curriculum framework, will guide teachers’ instruction by offering examples of best practices, links to useful materials, and suggestions on how to teach critical thinking and good writing. It will also provide tips and techniques for teaching English learners, based on the new English Learner Development Standards, which the State Board also is expected to adopt tomorrow.

More than 100 educators applied for positions on the Curriculum Framework and Evaluation Criteria Committee (item 5 on the agenda), which will complete its work in May 2014.

via Heavy load awaits new Common Core committee – by John Fensterwald.

The Educated Guess: State Board to vote on Common Core for English learners

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by Kathryn Baron

Up to now, California schools have placed a greater emphasis on teaching the state’s 1.5 million English learners the parts of a sentence rather than the meaning of a sentence.  That focus on syntax over significance is in for a massive overhaul if, as expected, the State Board of Education votes tomorrow to approve new English Language Development standards aligned to Common Core state standards in reading and writing.

“The old standards are very much geared toward vocabulary and grammar,” said Kenji Hakuta, a Stanford University Education Professor and head of a $2 million English Language Learner Initiative funded by the Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corporation.  “This doesn’t ignore them [English learners], it takes a different approach.  What you get is a different flavor in terms of how language is used in the classroom to exchange ideas and negotiate meaning.”

via State Board to vote on Common Core for English learners – by Kathryn Baron.

The Educated Guess: School and District Accountability Data on Ed-Data

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By Smita Patel

The Ed-Data website has just been updated with 2011-12 accountability data.

For the first time, a majority of California schools (53%) reached the state’s Academic Performance Index (API) goal of 800 this year. But the number of schools making AYP, the federal measure of K-12 academic progress, continues to decline mainly due to steep annual increases in targets under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.

via School and District Accountability Data on Ed-Data – by Smita Patel.

SCOE’s Facebook Wall: Check out this great article in the Fairfield Daily Republic about the Transition Partnership Program/Workability II

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Check out this great article in the Fairfield Daily Republic – The Transition Partnership Program/Workability II, run by SCOE in cooperation with the state Department of Rehabilitation, has put 124 people with disabilities to work in Solano County during the 2011-12 school year. The program was recently reviewed by the California Department of Education and given top marks!

via Check out this great article in the Fairfield Daily Republic – The Transition Pa….

Dan Walters: Campaign disclosure shouldn’t be this complicated

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Let’s begin with the bedrock principle that voters deserve full disclosure of who’s giving money to whom for what.

In fact, we’d be much better served to make full and immediate disclosure of campaign funds our sole regulation of political money, rather than the complex mélange of federal and state laws, regulations and court decisions that now purport – but fail – to protect the political process.

So from that standpoint, the California Fair Political Practices Commission is correct in demanding, as it has done for the last couple of weeks, more information about the source of $11 million in money that flowed into a committee against Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30 and for Proposition 32.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/06/4963472/dan-walters-campaign-disclosure.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Campaign disclosure shouldn’t be this complicated.

The Reporter Letter: Vacaville High School students make a difference

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Mary Feaster

VHS parent volunteer

Vacaville

On Oct. 27, the Vacaville High School cross-country team and students from the school’s Interact Club repaired the “walking track” at Orchard Elementary School with Coach Kay Nekota and Project Manager Chuck Sewell.

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the track was cleaned out and new decomposed granite was laid out and rolled in.

We’d like to thank the students for the great job, as well as for the 500 food items collected for the Solano Food Bank.

via Letter: Vacaville High School students make a difference.

FSUSD’s Facebook Wall: Please note that the FSUSD Board of Trustees will be reviewing a Facilities Use Plan

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Please note that the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District Board of Trustees will be reviewing a Facilities Use Plan at a special Board meeting study session beginning at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday, November 6). The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Central Office. The focus will be on a short term plan of one to four years, and how to best utilize our facilities while we work our way through the economic crisis.

via Please note that the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District Board of Trustees….

Dan Walters: Prop. 30 and Jerry Brown’s future

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Jerry Brown has amassed a strong record of winning California elections in a career that’s spanned more than four decades, beginning with a seat on the Los Angeles community college board in 1969.

Brown has been elected governor three times, mayor of Oakland twice and attorney general and secretary of state once each. He sponsored a successful political reform initiative in 1974 and associated himself with another successful spending limit campaign five years later.

Brown’s most conspicuous failure came in 1982, when Pete Wilson beat him badly for a U.S. Senate seat.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/03/4959866/dan-walters-prop-30-and-jerry.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Prop. 30 and Jerry Brown’s future.

Vallejo Times-Herald Letter: Q’s good for Solano County

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Angelo Cellini

Suisun City

Voters wanting the best bang for their buck from Measure Q should support the Solano Community College District Governing Board’s policy of seeking the protection of a Project Labor Agreement, or PLA, for the district’s construction projects.

Anti-union radicals who wrongly think slashing workers’ wages and benefits are the key to solving our economic woes, dishonestly attack PLAs, but their arguments fall apart in the face of reality.

via Q’s good for Solano County.

Vallejo Times-Herald: Solano College district voters to fill board seats, decide on Measure Q

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By Sarah Rohrs

Solano Community College district voters will fill three seats and also decide the fate of a $348 million bond measure in Tuesday’s election

With the Measure Q bond measure, the school has its eye on future needs, including Vallejo and Vacaville satellite campus expansions. It comes a decade after voters approved Measure G, a $124 million bond measure.

Measure G funded the two satellite campuses and other improvements but did not go far enough, school President Jowel Laguerre has said.

via Solano College district voters to fill board seats, decide on Measure Q.

Vallejo Times-Herald: Vallejo teachers demonstrate for Proposition 30 on furlough day

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By Lanz Christian Bañes

Motorists honked and cheered Vallejo teachers on Friday as they demonstrated during the district’s second consecutive furlough day.

“It’s encouraging,” said Frances Grasso, a first-grade teacher at Elsa Widenmann Elementary School who joined dozens of other teachers and their allies on Redwood Parkway and Admiral Callaghan Lane.

Vallejo City Unified School District campuses were shut down Thursday and Friday during the first two of five negotiated furlough days this school year. The agreement was part of the district’s effort to plug a $5.7 million deficit caused by ever-decreasing state funding.

via Vallejo teachers demonstrate for Proposition 30 on furlough day.

FSUSD’s Facebook Wall: District Receives Generous Donation from UTC Aerospace Systems

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UTC Aerospace Systems recently donated almost $23,000 worth of tools and equipment to the District. The majority of this donation will support the STEM Academy (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) located at Fairfield High School.

A special thanks to UTC’s Robert Braeman and Darren Galloway for their help and generosity throughout the donation process, and to Fairfield High teacher Elizabeth Veldsman and District administrator Stacy Burke for securing this donation.

via District Receives Generous Donation from UTC Aerospace Systems

UTC Aerospace….

Education Week: After 30 Years of Special Ed. Law, How Far Have We Really Come?

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by Nirvi Shah

It’s been more than 30 years since Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. But when I was describing the basic tenets of the law and its provisions to a group of visitors from Kazakhstan last week, I wondered if they really got the impression the law was the landmark legislation that it is.

Consider that children with disabilities, in the past, were often denied an education altogether. Students with some of the most severe disabilities were institutionalized. Expectations for this group of students were low or nonexistent.

via After 30 Years of Special Ed. Law, How Far Have We Really Come?.

EdSource Today: Fresno coaxes union to sign, enters Race to the Top

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By John Fensterwald

If they awarded points for effort, Fresno Unified would get two Race to the Top grants.

After a marathon meeting that concluded early Friday morning, Superintendent Michael Hanson and leaders of the Fresno Teachers Association agreed on wording of the district’s application for a $37.3 million piece of the $400 million competition open to districts nationwide.

It had looked like Fresno would join Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento City and Long Beach, members of a district collaborative, the California Office to Reform Education (CORE), whose unions had refused to give their required consent for the submission of an application, primarily because teacher evaluations using standardized test scores had to be an element. But Hanson used a three-day deadline extension, which the federal Department of Education granted districts because of disruptions caused by Hurricane Sandy, to keep trying to persuade the Fresno Teachers Association to say yes. Pressure mounted, as community leaders, two city council members, business leaders, and a group of ministers called on Teachers Association president Eva Ruiz to sign on.

via Fresno coaxes union to sign, enters Race to the Top – by John Fensterwald.