Closing the Achievement Gap
With the governor’s announcement in the May Revision about potentially directing $1 billion to support the implementation of Common Core State Standards, the buzz is beginning about Common Core among the general public, parents and those who look for reasons to point to the failure of our public schools. Do you have a communications plan in place to communicate to your parents and constituents about Common Core?
Local Educational Agencies can’t rely on the California Department of Education to figure out how to implement the Common Core State Standards and other key education reforms looming on the horizon. Speaking to members of CSBA’s Delegate Assembly in Sacramento May 18, Rick Miller, former deputy state schools superintendent and executive director of the California Office to Reform Education, said that’s one reason 10 school districts banded together to form the CORE coalition, which is optimistic that federal education officials will approve its waiver plan that releases participating LEAs from some of the harsher requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
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.
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.
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.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson had some good news for the California public education community: more students are earning high school diplomas and fewer are dropping out. According to the latest figures from the state’s new data system, which tracks progress of individual […]
Suspensions and expulsions were out of control in the Fontana Unified School District in 2010-11, and more than 20 percent of students did not graduate. Further complicating matters, the local police department had arrested more than 1,000 students. Clearly, the situation called for decisive action. […]
The State Board of Education last week agreed to draft a formal comment for federal officials to consider when they rule on an unusual request from a consortium of nine California school districts to receive a waiver from No Child Left Behind requirements. The unified […]
In a nationwide conference call hosted by first lady Michelle Obama and the Let’s Move! Active Schools initiative on March 19, CSBA Immediate Past President Jill Wynns and several school superintendents from across the country shared what they’re doing to encourage quality physical activity and […]
By Teri Burns, Senior Director for Policy and Programs This month’s meeting of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) had comparatively light agenda because one item managed to stir up the whole of the education community and absorb a full afternoon of the two-day meeting. […]
