Top Stories and Commentary for Monday, August 11, 2008

By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC

For three weeks, twenty-six L.A. Unified high schoolers studied full time at UCLA and conducted interviews with student and civic leaders. They presented their findings at Los Angeles City Hall today. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has the story. Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: It’s the ninth year UCLA’s organized this summer research seminar for high school students. Sixteen-year-old Haemin Jee attends Cleveland High School in the San Fernando Valley. Her research group studied how caring adults help to motivate students. Conducting the research, she said, dissolved some of her cynicism.

By Eric Larsen/Capitol Weekly

The state Department of Education’s recent announcement that one in four students drops out of school was grim news for Californians but a promising step forward in understanding the scope of a crisis. Instead of making an educated guess as they had been forced to do in the past, education officials were able to calculate the dropout rate by using a new system that tracks students as they move from district to district. When fully implemented, the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System can do much more than tell us the bad news after students drop out. It can help educators identify strategies likely to help children before they fail.

By Susan J. Hobart/La Prensa San Diego
Susan J. Hobart, M.S. Ed., is a National Board Certified Teacher.

I’m a teacher. I’ve taught elementary school for eleven years. I’ve always told people, “I have the best job in the world.” I crafted curriculum that made students think, and they had fun while learning. At the end of the day, I felt energized. Today, more often than not, I feel demoralized. While I still connect my lesson plans to students’ lives and work to make it real, this no longer is my sole focus. Today I have a new nickname: testbuster. Singing to the tune of “Ghostbusters,” I teach test-taking strategies similar to those taught in Stanley Kaplan prep courses for the SAT. I spend an inordinate amount of time showing students how to “bubble up,” the term for darkening those little circles that accompany multiple choice questions on standardized tests.

USA Today

Canoeing trips on the Chesapeake Bay. Endangered butterfly camps for teachers in Rhode Island. A new corral and barn for a nature center in Texas that wants to show kids live bison. Outdoor and environmental educators across the nation are ramping up pressure on Congress and their state lawmakers to add funding for nature learning. The effort dubbed "No Child Left Inside" could mean millions more for environmental education — and a major windfall for nonprofits hoping for more federal help getting kids outside. The resolution, which awaits a vote in the House, would send money to nonprofits and state departments of education for outdoor education aimed at kids who now spend more time in front of computer screens, video games and televisions than playing outside.

By Maggie Creamer/Bakersfield Californian

Evelia Rodriguez waited four stressful months after receiving a pink slip. She did not know if she would be able to buy a house, plan her dream wedding or go on a trip to Mexico. Evelia Rodriguez spent Saturday re-decorating her classroom at Arvin High School. She was originally laid off, but an unexpected opening led to her getting her job back. “For a while there, a lot of things were not certain,” she said. About three weeks ago, her wait was over when the Kern High School District let her know she would have a job at Arvin High School. Rodriguez can’t wait to make the most of what she considers a second chance.

Gov. Schwarzenegger praises the reversal by the 2nd District Court of Appeal as a victory for students and parental rights.
By Seema Mehta/Los Angeles Times

Parents may legally home-school their children in California even if they lack a teaching credential, a state appellate court ruled Friday. The decision is a reversal of the court’s earlier position, which effectively prohibited most home schooling and sparked fear throughout the state’s estimated 166,000 home-schoolers. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had vowed to allow home schooling through legislation if the court did not act, praised the ruling. "This is a victory for California’s students, parents and education community.

By Imran Vittachi/Riverside Press-Enterprise

Amanda Parker grasps what a shoulder shrug looks like. And, for the second-grade teacher at Lake Mathews Elementary School in Riverside, getting her students to jump rope in the school yard at recess is no longer merely about jumping rope. It’s about understanding how the steps of this seemingly simple exercise come together for 7-year-olds. Through a smorgasbord of information at her fingertips, Parker now knows how to teach her pupils to execute the various maneuvers within the exercise correctly so they can get the physical benefit, she said.

Blog by John Fensterwald/San Jose Mercury News

A blogger from Ukiah has started an online petition to demand that the state Board of Education join the Legislature in broadcasting its meetings on the Internet. Petition organizer Dave Johnston, a telecom consultant who does the blog on education issues and whatever else comes to mind, says that 15 states broadcast or teleconference similar meetings. The governor appoints members of the state board, which approves curriculums and textbooks and instructional materials, hears appeals and sets regulations over charter schools, and administers federal sanctions under No Child Left Behind — among its charges. It also grants waivers from the Ed Code — a sleeper power that, if I had to bet, it may use in the coming year to give districts more freedom to try reforms.

Also Noted for Monday, August 11, 2008:

After a long haul, the costly campus rebuilt atop an old oil field is finally set to open.
By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Veteran school administrator Scott Braxton could not help but wonder about his new assignment, principal of the school formerly known as the Belmont Learning Complex. Was this most infamous of schools safe? "That was the first question I had when I came in for the job interview," said Braxton, speaking in his office at the soon-to-open Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, the school’s new name. The more than $400-million school atop an oil field, just west of the 110 Freeway downtown, became notorious not only as an allegedly toxic site but as the nation’s most expensive high school construction project. The furor over Belmont drove out incumbent school board members, a superintendent and a regiment of career administrators.

By Rowena Coetsee/East County Times

Nearly one-third of Antioch teens are failing to graduate, according to recently published data from a new state tracking system. Based on dropout information from 2006-07 the state Department of Education released last month, an estimated 31 percent of high school students in Antioch Unified School District don’t make it to graduation. That figure is higher than the dropout rate among ninth- through 12th-graders in the Pittsburg Unified and Liberty Union High School districts, where nearly 29 percent and 10 percent of those students, respectively, are dropping out over a four-year period.

Blog by John Fensterwald/San Jose Mercury News

After fighting tooth and nail against including charter schools in November’s multi-billion dollar school construction bond, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the United Teachers Los Angeles are now actively supporting a bill that could bring charter schools more than $100 million in building aid over the next five years. Gotta love the irony. Of course, there’s self-interest that unites the district and charters in support of SB 658. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, also continues money for Los Angeles and a few other districts that run multi-track, year-round schools.

Districts expand ‘walking distance’, charge more for passes, hunt for better price deals.
By Dana Hull/San Jose Mercury News

Fremont may double its bus fees, to $700 a kid. In Gilroy, elementary students must now live a mile away from school before they can board a school bus. And transportation directors everywhere are working the phones to find the best price on diesel fuel. With classes just a few weeks from resuming, the fuel crisis is heading to school. And while businesses and families have been struggling to handle the costs, schools have a few special issues. Most of those big yellow buses are fueled by diesel. With diesel at $4.56 a gallon, those 96-gallon tanks cost $438 a fill-up.

By Deb Kollars/Sacramento Bee

In an uncommon move, the new Twin Rivers Unified School District is adding 25 to 30 minutes of daily instruction time in all of its elementary schools. In some schools, the closing bell will ring later. In others, recess and lunch will be shorter. In all, boys and girls in kindergarten through sixth grade will be spending more time every day with their teachers engaged in learning. Tallied up, the minutes represent the equivalent of 10 to 12 additional days of instruction in a year, depending on the school. The change takes effect Wednesday when summer vacation ends for Twin Rivers families. It is aimed squarely at one goal: increasing student achievement.

By Christina A. Samuels/Ed Week

A high turnover among top state school officers nationwide is posing a challenge for recruiters seeking people with the right mix of educational acumen and political savvy to fill the vacant or soon-to-be-vacant spots. This year, nine state schools chiefs have left their posts or have announced their intent to step down, whether because of retirement, political pressures, or simply a desire to move on. ("Chiefs’ Turnover Poses a Leadership Challenge," June 18, 2008.) In one state, Virginia, the vacancy was filled quickly. Two states, Montana and Nebraska, elect their state superintendents, and in Delaware, schools chief Valerie A. Woodruff, a member of Gov. Ruth Ann Minner’s Cabinet, will leave at the end of Ms. Minner’s term in January 2009.