Top Stories and Commentary for Monday, June 16, 2008

By Kim Minugh/Sacramento Bee

A San Francisco law firm that alleges Hiram Johnson High School violated state and federal standards for education equality is reviewing a response from the Sacramento City Unified School District denying the violations. Lawyers with Public Advocates say Hiram Johnson administrators violated federal law when they transferred about 25 English-language learners out of a specialized English class and into classes such as landscaping and French. The firm also complained that 21 Hiram Johnson teachers taught courses last year without proper credentials or certification. "As superintendent of the district, and as an educator, it is my responsibility to the board of trustees and the community we serve to insure that all students are appropriately placed to realize their educational potential," district Superintendent Maggie Mejia wrote in her response to the firm’s complaint.

Column by Dan Walters/Sacramento Bee

What we call "public education" in California is an amorphous collection of countless specific programs, pots of money, governmental entities, political stakeholders, laws and regulations – not to mention, of course, about 6 million kids who are supposed to be educated to take their places in the adult world. The conflicts of interest and ideology are equally numerous, not the least of which is how deeply the state should intervene when schools fail to meet a prescribed standard of educational performance, usually as defined by academic tests. While the state has a long-established and, unfortunately, oft-used mechanism for intervention when local school systems find themselves in financial difficulty, academic intervention is a new concept, one given official sanction by the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Blog by John Fensterwald

Watch the State Board of Education closely on Monday to how it handles a dilemma over the math test for eighth graders. Its decision will determine whether the state remains true to its commitment that all eighth graders take Algebra I to put them on a path of readiness for college. What’s forcing the board’s hand is that the federal Department of Education under Secretary Margaret Spellings has finally noticed that the state is out of compliance with No Child Left Behind. The law requires that states adopt content-specific standards in math and test students’ knowledge of them. California does that for grades three through seven.

Column by Dan Walters/Sacramento Bee

Eleven years ago, after much political and pedagogic angst, California adopted a historically rigorous set of academic standards for the state’s K-12 students, one of which – and one of the most contentious – was that eighth-graders should learn the rudiments of algebra. Adoption of the math standards by the state Board of Education was a victory for advocates of traditional academics and a setback for those, including Delaine Eastin, then the state superintendent of schools, who preferred what many called "new math" that emphasized fuzzy concepts over precise calculation.

A Memphis entrepreneur’s documentary compares high-achieving students from India, China and America. It has drawn mixed reactions from academics.
By Mitchell Landsberg/Los Angeles Times

It was over dinner in Bangalore that Bob Compton began to suspect something was deeply amiss in the way America educates its young. Compton, a successful venture capitalist, was meeting with some of the Indian software engineers he employed. He soon found himself engaged in "the most interesting conversations I’ve ever had." He had expected math and science nerds. But they also knew more about history, geography and literature than most Americans he knew. "I said to them, ‘How’d you get this way?’ " he recalled. "They said, ‘Well, at school.’ "

By Maria Danilova/Associated Press

For the first time in more than 100 years, the national Parent Teachers Association will have a man as its chief executive officer. The appointment of Byron Garrett, 35, comes at a time when the country’s leading parent advocacy group is struggling to retain its members. The selection of Garrett, a black former school principal, also underscores the PTA’s efforts to get more men engaged in their kids’ studies and reach out to ethnic and urban communities. Garrett, who signed a five-year contract with the PTA, will be working in tandem with 47-year-old Chuck Saylors, the organization’s first male president-elect, who was picked last year.

Column by Daniel Borenstein/Contra Costa Times

Early in the morning of July 3, 1996, Gov. Pete Wilson and the leaders of the Legislature announced a deal to spend $771 million to reduce the size of kindergarten through third-grade classrooms across California. Hailed as the start of a renaissance for public education in the state, the plan would provide financial incentives for school districts to cut K-3 class size from an average of 30 to no more than 20. Education leaders praised the goal but questioned whether they would be able to find enough teachers and buildings to meet the new standard. A hiring scramble ensued, and a year later nearly one-fourth of the teachers in California had one year of experience or less.

Also Noted for Monday, June 16, 2008:

Route from Mountain View to Sacramento
By Lisa Fernandez/San Jose Mercury News

At least three Silicon Valley dads won’t unwrap a new tie or hang out with the family around the barbecue today. Instead, on this Father’s Day weekend, Maurice Ghysels, Bruce Barsi and Nelson Iwai - all 52-year-old Mountain View dads - hauled their Spandex-covered bottoms 137 miles to Sacramento on their bicycles. They left their homes at 6 a.m. Saturday and finished the trip in 13 hours - a half-day earlier than they planned. Today at 3 p.m., the trio hope to deliver a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger requesting more funding for California schools. They expect a few dozen friends and family members - including their two children apiece - to gather with them for support.

Dud teachers, administrators keep turning up in L.A. schools
LA Daily News

It seems as if no one at Dolores Street Elementary likes Principal Anna Barraza. In recent weeks, teachers and parents at the Los Angeles Unified School District campus in Carson have been staging protests, filing petitions and asking district officials to remove Barraza and give the school a new principal for the next academic year. United Teachers Los Angeles reports that about two-thirds of the teachers at Dolores are so unhappy they won’t return next year if Barraza’s still in charge. The complaints are many against the veteran LAUSD administrator.