State Board
At its Sept. 28 meeting, the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC), an advisory body to the State Board of Education that makes recommendations about curriculum and instruction, approved 10 of 12 K-8 social studies textbook series containing material about the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and […]
By Gayle Romasanta Staff writer for CSBA Why did you think it was important to create the Charter Schools Task Force? Chris Ungar: Several years ago the CSBA Delegate Assembly Region 1 Director Bob Berkowitz and had a conversation about charter schools. He owned radio […]
For keen observers of education policy and political junkies, last week’s State Board of Education Meeting was everything we hoped for. While there were only about half the number of speakers signed up to testify as there were for last January’s dynamic meeting, board members, superintendents, community advocates, parents, and busses full of students all came together in Sacramento to have their say on the Local Control Funding Formula.
One hundred and sixty governance teams from across the state converged in Sacramento Jan. 16 to tell their stories and comment on the Local Control and Accountability Plan template and Local Control Funding Formula regulations.
After what Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg called the most intensive Rules Committee hearing during his tenure, the full Senate confirmed Gov. Jerry Brown’s nomination of Sue Burr, Ilene Straus and Nicolosa Sandoval to California’s State Board of Education on Jan. 13.
Several dozen students traveled to Sacramento with the California Association of Student Councils (CASC) to spend a few days researching and debating education policy and eventually designing policy recommendations to be presented to the SBE. Not only did the presenters have an impressive grasp of the latest academic research, they skillfully spun the research into actionable proposals that could work in the real world.
A final two days of sessions to gather input about implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula drew capacity crowds Aug. 12-13. The sessions were facilitated by WestEd on behalf of the State Board of Education and California Department of Education. They provided local governing board members and other education advocates an opportunity to weigh in as the State Board and CDE develop regulations, templates and guidance for local educational agencies to implement LCFF.
Capacity crowds at the first of three public input sessions on implementation of the state’s new school funding formula revealed a thirst for more information and details about the law, as well as concern about its accountability requirements. Local community, district and county education leaders, teachers and classified staff have lots of enthusiasm and interest for successfully implementation of LCFF. There is a strong desire for clarity around the requirements on use of supplemental and concentration funds; for more information and data on the state priorities to be included in the Local Accountability Plan Templates and for authentic engagement of parents and especially parents of English learners and African-American students.
The State Board of Education (SBE) met in Sacramento on July 10 and 11 with much of the agenda appropriately consumed with issues relating to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) implementation, changes to the state assessment system and the newly adopted Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). For a quick overview, tune into our This Just In feature to learn more.
An update on assessments being developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium showed progress on test development including the conducting of cognitive labs, small-scale trials and the almost completed assessment pilot to ensure validity of the tests for 2014-15. The process is also validating methods of special presentation styles for special needs students. Next to come is the one-year public field test of the system to develop customer familiarity.
