Top Stories and Commentary for Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Recommends more focused work in high school, statewide standards, flexibility in budgeting
By Matt Krupnick/Contra Costa Times

Community colleges need immediate help to handle their hundreds of thousands of unprepared students, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office reported Monday. High schools should assess the college readiness of students interested in attending two-year schools, the report concluded, and legislators should reform laws to permit colleges to spend more money on counselors and tutors. The report follows increasing recognition that reading, writing and math deficiencies could cripple the state’s economy in the near future. Nearly 700,000 students took remedial math and English courses at California’s 109 community colleges in 2006-07, and thousands more needed remedial work but did not take those courses.

Blog by John Fensterwald/San Jose Mercury News

Three former secretaries of education and four former presidents of the state Board of Education have signed a statement urging the state board not to retreat from the commitment to Algebra I as the standard math curriculum for eighth grade. Their high-visibility letter should give the board pause from adopting as standard a new math test for eighth grade that de-emphasizes algebra. The state board takes up the issue at its board meeting today. “There has been speculation and conjecture that Algebra I is merely adopted as a laudable goal or hope for eighth grade students. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Also Noted for Tuesday, June 17, 2008:

By Marjorie Hernandez/Ventura County Star

As a daughter of migrant workers, Cynthia Cortez Rodriguez was no stranger to a nomadic lifestyle. In her first two years of high school, Rodriguez’s family moved back and forth from Ventura County to Washington state, where her parents picked apples. By the end of her sophomore year, Rodriguez had attended four high schools. The constant moving affected Rodriguez’s grades, and she was behind by at least 75 credits by the time she started her junior year at Rio Mesa High School in the Oxnard Union High School District.

Cost of LAUSD payroll fiasco will linger on
Editorial/LA Daily News

When the Los Angeles Unified School District’s new payroll system launched in January 2007, problems quickly became evident. Thousands of teachers and employees stopped getting their paychecks, and many of those who got paid weren’t paid the right amount. That was just the beginning of a year of payroll glitches that took more than $40 million to (mostly) resolve. But the story of L.A. Unified’s botched implementation of a $95 million computerized payroll system is only a small part of a much larger tale.

By Kristofer Noceda/Daily Review

Results from a study of how receptive voters would be to a possible November parcel tax will be presented to trustees during tonight’s school board meeting. Public school funding — along with other California programs — is being threatened under the governor’s proposed plan to tackle the state deficit, which has prompted San Leandro Unified School District to consider local support. The district estimates it will lose $3.6 million in revenue next school year under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed spending plan.

Education czar says it’s time to ’stop, look and listen’
By Maureen Magee/San Diego Union Tribune

U.S. education chief Margaret Spellings made a whirlwind tour of San Diego yesterday to discuss how technology in schools can raise student achievement and better prepare students for the real world. Spellings hosted the last of four roundtable forums, held nationwide over the past 14 months, at wireless giant Qualcomm – where she engaged leaders in education, technology and investment on topics ranging from computers and cellular phones to electronic textbooks and teacher training. “Before I leave office I think we should stop, look and listen with regard to where we are in terms of technology in our schools,” Spellings said.

By Katy Murphy/Oakland Tribune

The Alternative Learning Community opened last fall as a middle school for students teetering between success and failure. It was built in a hurry. The man who spearheaded the project felt the school was so badly needed in Oakland that he couldn’t let another year go by without it.
"These are kids that, frankly, we have failed as a district," Fred Brill, the district administrator and driving force behind the school, said at the time. As with many education experiments, the ALC looked flawless on paper: an outdoor education school with small class sizes and mental health advisers.