Demonstrating their dedication to children and passion for public education, members of school district and county office of education governance teams throughout California gathered at the home offices of their state representatives to advocate for local governance and other issues vital to public schools as part of CSBA’s Board Member Action Day May 10.
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.
Next week, on Tuesday, May 14, the governor will unveil the May Budget Revision for fiscal year 2013-14. Details about his revision are beginning to surface, as are additional proposals. On May 8, Assembly Democrats announced their plans for the state budget, naming it the “Blueprint for a Responsible Budget.” In addition to calling for a ballot measure in 2014 to establish guidelines for a richer state reserve, a strong focus of the Blueprint is children and education. For K-12, they call for all school districts to get their share of previous funding cuts repaid as Proposition 98 grows.
Representatives from the Legislature, the California School Boards Association, the California Department of Education, a host of public and private children’s interest groups, county offices of education and school districts gathered at CSBA’s offices in West Sacramento this week to tackle a tough problem: How to standardize the rules for awarding partial credit to students forced by difficult life circumstances to change schools frequently.
Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge) presented SB 69, her bill on school finance and a new funding formula, to the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, May 1. In presenting the bill, Sen. Liu noted it is a work in progress. It’s intended to move the discussion of a new education funding method forward by providing a venue and vehicle for policy discussion and debate. The bill was voted out of the Senate Education Committee, with the Republican committee members not voting. The bill will now progress to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Legislators need to understand the local perspective on the state budget and other proposed legislative changes that affect schools, and there’s no better way to spread the Governance First message than by participating in Board Member Action Day on May 10, says CSBA President Cindy Marks in this video.
How are school districts and county offices of education preparing to implement the Common Core State Standards? It’s a daunting task, reveals the spring 2013 issue of California Schools magazine. To be ready for new common national academic standards, local educational agencies will have to dramatically change instructional methods and prepare students—and technological systems—to handle revolutionary computerized tests. This would be a tall order in the best of budgetary times. Yet despite years of harsh cuts in state support for public education, LEAs throughout the state are finding creative and innovative ways to meet the CCSS challenge.
CSBA’s Policy Platform Review Committee is hard at work reorganizing the organization’s key policy framework for consideration by the Delegate Assembly in May. For years, the process of updating the eight primary policy areas, with its dozens of supporting statements, during the Delegate Assembly meeting every two years had proved cumbersome and time-consuming. While the Platform’s purpose in guiding the association’s policy and political leadership activities is essential, the process needed revision.
At their meeting in May, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing attempted to wrap up a number of issues that have been in the works for many months. First up was the issue of adopting updated California Administrator Performance Expectations and draft standards for administrator credential programs. This work has been the subject of stakeholder meetings for more than a year. CSBA has been actively involved in ensuring that the standards provide training in working with boards, community and other elected officials as an important part in the success of a principal in his/her duties.
By Christopher Maricle, Policy and Programs Officer It’s that time of year, when boards and superintendents give some thought and energy into fulfilling one of the board’s most critical functions – the superintendent evaluation. It’s through this process that boards practice an important part of […]
