State Board of Education | SCOE News Reader

By Fred Jones

Californians have never seen more systemic reforms of how schools are financed, assessed and held accountable than in the three years since Governor Brown took office. The State Board of Education, the State Department of Education and the Community College Chancellor’s Office officials are scrambling to implement these sweeping statutory and budgetary changes, with anxious districts and stakeholder groups gearing up to meet the new challenges and opportunities.

Despite all of the hoopla surrounding these dramatic changes, one thing remains constant: Sacramento’s schizophrenic love affair with Career Technical Education.

On the one hand, nearly every elected official in Sacramento has publicly declared their deep and abiding love for CTE. Some have even hailed it as a silver bullet for broader concerns of dropouts and social injustices.

via Sacramento’s schizophrenic love affair with Career Technical Education | EdSource Today.

By John Fensterwald

Despite a threatening letter last week from an assistant secretary of the federal Department of Education, the executive director of the State Board of Education is expressing confidence that the state will reach an agreement over standardized testing next spring to avoid tens of millions of dollars in federal penalties.

“I remain optimistic we can resolve this,” Karen Stapf Walters said on Friday. “They feel the same.”

They – specifically Assistant Secretary Deborah Delisle – haven’t appeared equally sanguine, at least publicly. In her letter to state officials, which was released last week, Delisle said California would face substantial sanctions if it follows a new state law and fails to test every student in reading and math in grades 3 though 8 and grade 11 next year. Delisle said the state Department of Education stands to lose federal money used to administer Title I funding for disadvantaged students and to administer federally required tests.

via State Board executive director optimistic conflict with feds over testing can be resolved | EdSource Today.