By Dan Walters
State schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson tried to put a positive spin on it, but the harsh reality is that academic test scores in California’s public school system of 6 million students declined this year after years of apparent gains.
Moreover, scores are likely to get worse when new Common Core standards are applied.
via Dan Walters: California schools’ test scores may drop again – Education – The Sacramento Bee.
By Peter Schrag / commentary
The waivers that eight large California school districts got this week from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan are yet another measure of the power of the federal law they tried to escape from.
The law has been cumbersome and stupid enough to prompt them — and many states — to seek better ways to pursue the same, or better, goals. But the waivers are not the end of this odyssey; they’re barely the beginning.
via Those federal school waivers: It ain’t over yet | EdSource Today.
By Susan Frey
A federal class action lawsuit filed by juvenile justice advocates alleges that Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall officials have kept teenagers with disabilities in solitary confinement for up to 100 days and have denied them special education services that the county is legally required to provide. About a third of all students in the county’s Juvenile Hall are estimated to have disabilities.
“Despite knowing that many students have a learning disability, mental illness or other disabilities, Contra Costa County puts students in solitary confinement for behavior that is related to their disabilities, denies them general and special education services and holds them in conditions that can make their disabilities worse,” according to a news release issued by Disability Rights Advocates, Public Counsel and Paul Hastings LLP, the groups that filed the lawsuit.
via Lawsuit: Disabled teens kept in solitary confinement, denied educational services | EdSource Today.
By Kathryn Baron
TestResults of the last California standards tests that most students will ever take were also the most disappointing.
The percentage of students scoring proficient or better on the 2013 Standardized Testing and Reporting assessment fell for the first time in more than a decade in results released Thursday.
via STAR test scores decline for first time in a decade | EdSource Today.
SACRAMENTO—Scores on the annual Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) assessments slipped by a fraction of a percentage point this year as schools dealt with ongoing budget reductions and the transition to the Common Core State Standards, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today.
Students managed to hold on to the vast majority of gains posted over the last 11 years, with a majority of students statewide continuing to achieve at the proficient or advanced level in mathematics and English-language arts. Only one student in three achieved proficiency in 2003, the year that the STAR tests became fully aligned to the former state content standards.
via STAR Results for 2013 – Year 2013 (CA Dept of Education).
By Lanz Christian Bañes / Times-Herald staff writer
The Vallejo school board voted unanimously Wednesday to file a final response to a county report criticizing safety issues at the district’s namesake high school.
“This is an opportunity for us to take a look at Vallejo High School, and it’s also an opportunity to address concerns, to clarify any statements that were made or maybe misinterpreted, or maybe things we need to work on,” board President Hazel Wilson said, initiating the discussion on the response.
Released in May, the report by the Solano Grand Jury listed numerous safety concerns at Vallejo High School, ranging from staff lacking access to two-way radios during emergencies to existing rules and polices not being enforced by staff, including having students wear I.D. cards.
via Vallejo school district answers Grand Jury report – Vallejo Times Herald.
By Holly Valentine
Founded on the philosophy of “people helping people,” Travis Credit Union is helping a group of local youth financially, by awarding college scholarships.
Chosen from a pool of 125 applicants, 20 recent high school graduates were awarded the Mary Keith Duff Memorial Scholarship, 13 of whom are from Solano and surrounding counties.
via Holly Valentine: TCU awards local students with scholarships – The Reporter.
Brianna Boyd, Editor
There were likely mixed emotions in Dixon Thursday following the release of the 2013 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test results.
In Dixon Unified School District, 47.7 percent of the 2,690 second to eleventh graders who participated in the 2013 STAR program scored proficient or advanced in English-language arts and 43.7 percent scored proficient or advanced in mathematics. As a district, Dixon Unified’s results were significantly below the state average of 51.2 percent of students at proficient or advanced in mathematics and 56.4 in English-language arts.
via STAR results show some area schools… – The Dixon Tribune | Facebook.
By Ian Thompson
FAIRFIELD — Their goal was to stuff 100 backpacks with everything a child needs to start the school year, from pencils to notebooks.
Armijo High School athlete Trevor Finley was there because, he said, “I just like helping my community.”
Fellow student Corey Stewart was another who took up his coach’s call for volunteers, “because I like to help and this shows we care about the community.”
via Students help fill backpacks for needy children Daily Republic.
By Richard Bammer
Perhaps a sign that years of budget cuts have taken a toll in classrooms, statewide standardized test scores made public this morning show a slight dip for the first time in nine years.The results of the Standardized Testing and Reporting STAR’s annual statewide exams in English, math, science and history were reported during a press conference in Sacramento and come just as California public schools begin their historic change to Common Core State Standards, said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.
“As you would expect for a school system in transition, results varied from grade to grade, subject to subject, and school to school, but the big picture is one of remarkable resilience despite the challenges,” he said.
via Statewide STAR test results down; Solano County scores mixed – The Reporter.
By Loretta Kalb
Fed up with episodes of cyberbullying, Lodi Unified School District officials are requiring high school athletes and club members to sign a contract vowing not to post inappropriate language or photos online.
The contract, which took effect when the new academic year started July 26, prohibits online posts, Facebook “likes” or retweets of profane or sexual material. It also prohibits demeaning statements about other people.
Does setting lower achievement levels for minorities help or hurt students? Host Michel Martin talks with Jerri Katzerman of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The organization recently filed a civil rights complaint against the Florida Department of Education.
via Are Lower School Achievement Levels A Civil Rights Issue? : NPR.
FAIRFIELD — The Yippie Foundation is accepting student applications for its fifth Yippie Job Training Academy.
The nine-month program begins Sept. 10 and provides job readiness training, vocational mentoring, financial education, career development classes and paid work experience in the Yippie Yogurt Training Center to qualified applicants ages 16-24 who live in Fairfield or Suisun City.
via Yippie Foundation accepts training academy applications Daily Republic.
Like other school district leaders statewide, with classes set to begin next week, Fairfield-Suisun Unified trustees seek clarification on just what Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2013-14 budget holds in store.
The governing board meets in open session tonight and will hear a budget update from Kelly Morgan, the district’s chief business official.
via Budget questions top Fairfield-Suisun school board agenda – The Reporter.
An update on the state budget, information about a Spanish-English dual immersion language program, and employee and staff reports are on the agenda when Dixon Unified leaders meet tonight in Dixon.
Cecile Nunley, the district’s chief business official, will update the five-member governing board on Gov. Jerry Brown’s $96 billion 2013-14 budget, well more than half of which is earmarked for K-12 schools, community colleges and the state’s two university systems.
via Dixon school trustees to look at finances, language program – The Reporter.
“Is it good to tell a first-grader, ‘You might be a dropout?’”
The obvious answer would seem to be: Uh, no. But when Thomas C. West posed this question recently to Education Week reporter Sarah D. Sparks, he had a genuine dilemma in mind. West, who is an evaluation specialist at Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, has devised a tracking formula that can predict, with startling accuracy, which students will drop out of high school—as early as their second semester of first grade.
via What Are the Risks in Using Data to Predict Student Outcome? | MindShift.
My dog and I have become paper trained. Call me old fashioned, but I still get the print version of the daily newspaper. Each day I engage in a trivial, but memorable tribal dance with the delivery person. Timing is everything in this archaic ritual, and simple nuances in the unseen interchange between us nag at me all morning like a food particle stuck between my molars. His/her job is to precisely toss the daily rag into a ten foot diameter invisible circle on my driveway at approximately the same time each morning. My job is to retrieve it in a sweeping motion that consumes exactly the amount of time it takes a Golden Retriever to relieve herself on the front lawn. If he fails to hit the mark I notice. If I fail to awaken at the appointed hour my dog notices and becomes an insistent telepathic alarm clock at my bedside.
via Tom DeLapp’s PR Perceptions: Are Newspapers Becoming VCRs?.
By guest blogger Christina A. Samuels
After decades of increases, the obesity rate among young, low-income children showed a decline in 19 states, according to information released today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The findings came from weight and height data collected in 2008-2011 from about 11.6 million low-income children ages 2 to 4 who live in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. territories. The states and territories participated in a monitoring system called the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System.
via Obesity Rate Drops Among Low-Income Preschoolers – Rules for Engagement – Education Week.
Details about the voter-approved Measure Q bond measure are on the agenda when the Solano Community College District governing board meets tonight.
Trustees will consider the “recommended structure” for the measure, formally called the SCC District Student/Veterans Affordable Education Job Training, Classroom Repair Measure. It is a $348 million bond measure, approved by county voters in November. Trustees will consider whether to hire a consultant to oversee the spending of the bond money, keep the job in-house or use some combination of those arrangements.
via Solano College board to discuss bond measure management – The Reporter.
By Michele McNeil
UPDATED
The U.S. Department of Education granted an unprecedented waiver Tuesday under the No Child Left Behind Act to eight California districts that together educate 1 million students, upending a long tradition of state-based school accountability.
The first-of-its-kind waiver, good for one year, essentially allows the eight districts to set up their own accountability system outside of the state of California’s—and largely police themselves through their own board of directors. The districts known as CORE, for California Office to Reform Education, will operate under a new “school quality improvement index” that will be based 60 percent on academic factors such as test scores and graduation rates, 20 percent on social-emotional factors such as the absentee rate, and 20 percent on culture and climate factors such as student and parent surveys. The CORE districts are Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sanger and Santa Ana.