June 10 | Senior Surpasses Hard Times, Helps Others
Focus on Education
Rosemary Astorga came to Oak View High School in the 11th grade, behind in class credits and fresh out of a drug rehabilitation program. The daughter of divorced parents who used to live with her dad in Los Angeles, Rosemary had moved in with her mom, who was seeking to get her daughter settled in a new school. Oak View, the alternative high school in Oak Park, provided just the right change for Rosemary, now 18. She’s stayed drug-free and is graduating from high school this summer, on schedule.
Rosemary was able to enroll in a high school that met her needs thanks to the state District of Choice Program. Click here and scroll to page five to read more about Rosemary's story.
But the District of Choice program will disappear this year if it’s not renewed by the California Legislature. Click here to send a letter to key lawmakers and ask them to support SB 680 to renew the program so more students can benefit.
May 25 | Choice for public schools
Pasadena Star-News
GROCERY shoppers can choose from rows of toilet tissue. An increasing number of homeowners can pick cable, satellite or broadband for their TV programs. Yet in almost every local city, parents cannot send their child to the public school of their choice...
...That should change. But we're realists and we know that change isn't happening soon, at least not on a broad scale. But there is hope for parents to get their foot in the door of school politics thanks to a brave, bipartisan effort from two local legislators, state Sens. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, and Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar.
They are behind a bill that will showcase the little-known Districts of Choice program, which has been in existence for 17 years but is set to expire July 1. We suspect the Assembly Education Committee, where this bill heads next, will give it trouble. That would be a mistake. Click here to read more...
Click here to send a letter to ask members of the Assembly Education Committee to support this bipartisan effort to protect and improve public school choice.
April 27 | Provocative study doesn't justify abolishing high school exit exam
Mercury News
A study released last week will provide plenty of ammo for opponents of California's high school exit exam. Researchers affiliated with Stanford's School of Education concluded that the exit exam not only doesn't help improve student performance but also prevents disproportionate numbers of low-achieving girls and minorities from graduating.
The major findings are provocative and interesting — but also demand more examination. They don't appear to justify researchers' sweeping claim that the exit exam has done more harm than good and "has been neither money nor time well spent."
To those who will cite the study to argue to abolish the test, we say not so fast. The test's failure rates, especially among African-American and Hispanic students, are alarming. But the solution is not to automatically can the exam, but to continue what the state has been doing, only more so: identifying students needing help and providing it through tutoring and support classes. This must start in middle school — or earlier — not in high school. Click here to read more...
April 24 | High school testing helps university freshman avoid remedial classes, study says
By Laurel Rosenhall
The Sacramento Bee
A 5-year-old program to test high school juniors to determine if they're ready for college is reducing the number of Sacramento State freshmen who need to take remedial math and English.
Freshmen enrollment in remedial math fell 4 percent, and the number taking remedial English dropped 6 percent after California's public high schools started testing juniors with the "Early Assessment Program," researchers from UC Davis, Sacramento State and the University of Minnesota report in a new study. Click here to read more...
March 26 | Education reform is a defining issue
By HAROLD FORD JR.
Politico
President Barack Obama’s recent speech on education reform demonstrates that he is willing to put the full weight of his office behind fixing our failing schools. He called for higher standards, more charter schools, merit pay and eliminating bad teachers. When many of our urban school districts are graduating only 25 percent to 50 percent of their students, he knows that the failed methods and orthodoxies must be jettisoned for what will work.
The brave new world of the 21st century demands much more from our children. Obama’s ambitious and sweeping agenda will help educate and equip them to make the most of the opportunities created by an integrated global economy. Click here to read more...
March 11 | Public education in U.S. falls short, Obama says
By Howard Blume and Seema Mehta
The Los Angeles Times
President Barack Obama strongly condemned the state of public education Tuesday, calling for more charter schools, higher salaries for effective teachers and the faster firing of bad ones, an agenda that could put him at odds with some longtime Democratic stalwarts in teachers unions.
"It's time to start rewarding good teachers, stop making excuses for bad ones," Obama told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington. "From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents, it's the person standing at the front of the classroom." Click here to read more...
Innovation will drive new federal funding for education
By Ted Michell and Reed Hastings
Mercury News
The passage of the stimulus bill last week instantly doubled the federal role in funding schools, with an unprecedented influx of $95 billion. The question is, in education, what will that money buy?
Most of the answer is jobs: fewer pink slips for teachers, and dirt finally moving on long-stalled construction projects. Yet in a welcome and farsighted move, the Recovery Act not only shores up the system, it also invests in fixing it where it's broken. Click here to read more...