Daily Republic: FSUSD events to help determine kindergarten readiness

FAIRFIELD — A Fairfield-Suisun Adult School program will offer workshops on two days in February to help parents determine if their children are ready for kindergarten.

The Kindergarten Readiness Roundup will offer staggered times for several target elementary schools. A representative from each target school will be available during the scheduled time.

While several schools are targeted, children expecting to enter kindergarten at any local school are invited. In addition, if parent and child are unable to attend the session corresponding to their prospective school, they can attend another session, said Cheryl Stumbaugh, a department official at the Adult School.

via Events to help determine kindergarten readiness.

The Reporter Columnist Ernest Kimme: Test backlash spreading

News Item: Seattle teachers are boycotting giving state standardized tests this year.

The protest started at a single high school and has spread. Parents and students are supporting the boycott. Parents complain that the tests do not add anything to their children’s education and that the results are meaningless. How, they ask, can you compare a one-day test to all of the work their children complete during the year?

Teachers point out that the tests, being multiple choice questions, favor good test-takers. Students who have good test-taking strategies will do better than other students with superior knowledge but poor test-taking abilities.

via Ernest Kimme: Test backlash spreading.

Attendance Works: Upcoming Webinar: Data Innovations

As the issue of chronic absence has risen in prominence, school districts and communities across the nation are seeking more powerful and effective tools to identify and help students who miss too many days of school.

Join the Attendance Works Peer Learning Network on Feb. 4 at 1 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT as we examine two exciting new approaches to putting actionable data into the hands of practitioners. This webinar will feature:

  • Fresno Unified School District’s student tracking system that alerts educators to potential problems using a set of early warning indicators. Using new visual displays of data such as the Chronic Absence Heat Map Mosaic, Fresno Unified is creating the next generation of tools to help practitioners in this 74,000-student California school district see patterns of chronic absence at a glance and intervene effectively in raising academic achievement and reducing the dropout rate.
  • OnTrackEDU, which uses chronic absence as one of several early warning indicators to help people proactively identify and support off-track students. Currently being piloted by several districts, OnTrackEDU’s easy-to-read data dashboard shows what is happening at a district, school, and individual student level. OnTrackEDU is also an interactive platform designed to help the many practitioners working with a student communicate and collaborate as they implement and track interventions.

via Upcoming Webinar: Data Innovations.

TIME Ideas Viewpoint: What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About Special-Ed Sports

When I heard last week that the U.S. Department of Education was releasing new guidelines about what schools must do to provide access to school sports for disabled students, I was in Charlottesville, Va., watching the University of Virginia’s women’s basketball team throttle Boston College. And in a nice bit of coincidence, the halftime show for that game was an exhibition match of adult wheelchair basketball. Conservative pundits fearing federal overreach claim that President Obama is inventing a right to wheelchair basketball, that he’s forcing schools to start up such teams. He’s not. But the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is doing something important, and hopefully it will prod more schools to give more students a way to participate in sports.

via Viewpoint: What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About Special-Ed Sports.

SCOE’s Facebook Wall: Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for Professional Development Strategies for English Learners (EL)

Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for Professional Development Strategies for English Learners (EL) on Tuesday, February 12. Topics include student writing, student engagement, language objectives, and language objective writing. This workshop is for grade 7-12 classroom teachers and EL support staff. Registration closes Tuesday, January 29.

via Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for Professional Development Strategies for….

KQED MindShift: Money, Time, and Tactics: Can Games Be Effective in Schools?

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If it’s true that 97 percent of teens in the U.S. are playing digital games, then the focus on how games can fit into the shifting education system becomes that much more important. Schools, districts, and individual educators are trying to figure out how games and learning can fit into the current complicated landscape.

The newly released report Games for a Digital Age: K-12 Market Map and Investment Analysis, released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Games and Learning Publishing Council, describes the many different criteria in play in detail, including obstacles from the policy standpoint, lack of teacher development, as well as how the Bring Your Own Device movement is influencing the push towards games and learning.

via Money, Time, and Tactics: Can Games Be Effective in Schools?.

The Reporter: Project 150 Northern California Area aims to help Solano County’s homeless students, needy families

By Richard Bammer/ RBammer@TheReporter.com

The nonprofit group’s letterhead may not say it all, but it says a lot in an allusion to its purpose, with the words “too many homeless students in Vacaville. The problem isn’t going away on its own.”

With those beliefs in mind, Alvin Zayas of Vacaville, with others, last year started Project 150 Northern California Area after reading a Reporter news story about the rising numbers of homeless students in Vacaville and Solano County.

via Project 150 Northern California Area aims to help Solano County’s homeless ….

FSUSD’s Facebook Wall: All That Jazz! Crystal Middle School presents “We Haz Jazz Through Music and Art.”

All That Jazz!
Crystal Middle School’s Music and Art Departments present “We Haz Jazz Through Music and Art.” Our audience will experience jazz through the ages with musical performances and original artwork displays created by Crystal students. Please join us for this informative and memorable event. Location: Crystal Middle School 400 Whispering Bay Lane, Suisun, CA 94585. Date: January 30, 2013. Time: 7:00-8:00 PM.

via All That Jazz!
Crystal Middle School’s Music and Art Departments present “We Haz…
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EdSource Today: Linked learning comes of age in California with new pilot programs

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The California Department of Education has selected 63 districts and county offices of education – many of them working together in consortia – to pilot “linked learning” programs in their high schools beginning next fall. These programs integrate academics with real-world work experiences in an effort to engage students.

High schools with linked learning programs typically offer several courses in one or more career paths, such as healthcare, business or the arts. The career theme permeates the curriculum. For example, students on the healthcare career path at Dozier-Libbey Medical High School in Antioch Unified School District in Contra Costa County take Human Anatomy & Physiology and Microbiology for their science courses. They take Medical Terminology as an elective and a Regional Occupational Program course in Sports Medicine or Nursing. Guest speakers from the local hospital come to class to talk about what their jobs are like, and students shadow professionals working in the health field. The culmination of the program is an internship at a local hospital, doctor’s office or other health facility.

via Linked learning comes of age in California with new pilot programs – by Susan Frey.

Dixon Patch: $12,000 in Scholarships Will be Given to Students at the Dixon May Fair

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The Friends of the Dixon May Fair will award a total of $12,500 in college scholarships to seven Solano County students enrolled in a California college and majoring in agriculture or an agricultural-related field.

The deadline to apply for the scholarships is 5 p.m., Tuesday, March 1.

via $12,000 in Scholarships Will be Given to Students at the Dixon May Fair.

Daily Republic Letter: Music does matter in FSUSD

Vincent Pitzulo, Fairfield

It was with mixed emotions that I read the Jan.24 article, “Music meets the minds,” on the Music Matters concert at Nelda Mundy Elementary School.

 

While I applaud the efforts to keep music education alive within our community, it’s unfortunate that the responsibility of providing music instruction has fallen on the parents and so many deserving students at other schools have been left out. It’s inexcusable that music is not part of the curriculum for every student in every elementary school in our district.

via Music does matter.

Daily Republic: Scholarship money available for Solano ag students

FAIRFIELD — The Friends of the Dixon May Fair will award $12,500 in college scholarships to seven Solano County students majoring in agriculture or an agricultural-related field.

The deadline to apply for the scholarships is 5 p.m. March 1.

Over the past 11 years, the organization has awarded more than $100,000 in college scholarships to Solano County students pursuing an agricultural-related career.

via Scholarship money available for ag students.

Dan Walters: California pension funds still face huge liabilities

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System has reported – with no small elation – that it has recouped virtually all of the $95 billion in investment losses it sustained during the global financial crisis.

A steadfast investment strategy and a generally rising stock market are responsible for the recovery, CalPERS says.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/28/5144933/dan-walters-california-pension.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: California pension funds still face huge liabilities.

The Reporter: Jammin’ In January gives Vacaville students fun way to learn about music

By Richard Bammer/ RBammer@TheReporter.com

In an especially musical way, it seemed like a reunion of like-minded students Saturday at Vacaville High School, where Jammin’ In January, a daylong event of fun with music and musical instruments, held sway.

Organized by the school’s Music Boosters, the seven-hour series of classes and an open mic segment attracted nearly 130 elementary- and middle-school students, fifth through eighth grades, along with Vaca High students and alumni, college students and some private adult music teachers.

via Jammin’ In January gives Vacaville students fun way to learn about ….

The Reporter: Summer camp offers hope for Solano County children who deal with domestic violence

By Melissa Murphy/ MMurphy@TheReporter.com

A week away camping under the stars will be a safe place for 25 Solano County children who have experienced or been exposed to domestic violence.

Camp Hope, scheduled for the first week of August, offers hikes, fishing, crafts, ropes courses, cooking classes and campfires, but, above all, it offers hope to children that get caught in the web of domestic violence.

via Summer camp offers hope for Solano County children who deal with domestic ….

Vallejo Times-Herald: Solano Community College trustees to hold retreat on building teams

Solano Community College trustees will hold a board retreat with an educational consultant starting 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The retreat will be at the Vacaville Center, 2001 N. Village Parkway. Pamilacq Fisher, consultant with the Association of Community College Trustees, will facilitate the retreat under the theme of “Orientation and Building a New Team.”

via Solano Community College trustees to hold retreat on building teams.

Education Week: Did the Ed. Dept. Really Create a Right to Wheelchair Basketball?

UPDATED

Give Fordham’s Michael Petrilli credit for writing a headline that makes you want to click: “The Obama Administration invents a right to wheelchair basketball.”

But did the U.S. Department of Education really create a “right” to wheelchair basketball with its most recent guidance about how to make sure students with disabilities have equal access to school sports?

via Did the Ed. Dept. Really Create a Right to Wheelchair Basketball?.

EdSource Today Q&A: What do early childhood educators need to know?

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Dr. Marcy Whitebook has been part of the early education world since the early 1970s, when she graduated college and went to work as a preschool teacher. Today she’s the director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley. As part of a new, occasional Question and Answer series with leaders in California education, EdSource Today’s Lillian Mongeau sat down with Whitebook in her office in January.

The conversation delved into several issues, but dwelt on the current debate over how much training and education should be required for preschool teachers. Most early education classrooms have a “classroom teacher” or “lead teacher” as well as one or more “assistant teachers.” Right now, the only requirement for lead teachers is that they have a certificate, called a Child Development Associate, that requires a few semesters of coursework and some experience in the classroom. Head Start has been pushing for more of its lead teachers to earn a bachelor’s degree and, as we reported, that push has gained traction in California. There is not much discussion about requiring bachelor’s degrees for assistant teachers, though many of them pursue the degree in order to move up and become a lead teacher.

via Q&A: What do early childhood educators need to know? – by Lillian Mongeau.

EdSource Today: ‘I would prefer to trust our teachers …’

California’s back! Gov. Jerry Brown did himself proud in Thursday’s State of the State address, and he did California proud, too. In the details of the speech, there are prospects for boldness, greatness and innovation, not the tire patching and gridlock we’ve experienced as government.

Others will comment at great length on the wisdom of the San Joaquin delta tunnel project and whether high-speed rail is prescient or folly. And educational interests are putting the pencil to whether they win or lose under the governor’s plan for simplifying public education funding and regulation. (See David Plank’s Los Angeles Times commentary.)

via ‘I would prefer to trust our teachers …’ – by Charles Taylor Kerchner.