November 14, 2018
CA public employee unions can celebrate a little good news in the months since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling that stripped them of millions of dollars in revenue and threatened their influence in the state: So far, workers are not leaving their unions in high numbers. In fact, some labor organizations are…
November 14, 2018
Potentially half of the local educational agencies in California will be identified as failing to meet chronic absenteeism standards under a performance matrix set for adoption this week by the state board of education. Until now, the state has not yet applied a value to current rates, as in ‘good’ or ‘needs improvement’ or something…
November 14, 2018
Four local educational agencies are looking for state permission to increase how much they can borrow. Under state law, LEAs are prohibited from having a total bonded indebtedness of more than 1.25 percent of taxable assessed valuation of property for elementary and high school districts, and 2.5 percent of taxable property for unified school districts….
November 14, 2018
Los Angeles schools chief Austin Beutner is working on a plan to radically reshape the nation’s second-largest school district by shrinking the central bureaucracy and moving decision-making closer to campuses. The aim is to boost student success and save money at a time when officials insist that grave financial problems threaten the Los Angeles Unified…
November 14, 2018
CA State Senator John Moorlach, a certified public accountant who represents Orange County’s 37th District and serves on the Senate Budget & Fiscal Review Committee and its education subcommittee, says the brewing money problems facing hundreds of school districts across California – including in San Diego County – represents a growing deterioration of their financial…
November 14, 2018
Schools in CA’s wealthier communities have been reaping far more local bond money than poorer districts, a CALmatters analysis shows—a reality that amplifies existing inequities for the state’s public school students. Districts with the lowest concentrations of students on free or reduced lunch, a poverty indicator, have averaged more than twice as many local bond…
Health authorities in CA have more power to insist that a dog is vaccinated against rabies than to ensure that a child enrolled in school is vaccinated against measles. That’s just one of the frustrations faced by health officials in the first year after California did away with “personal belief exemptions” that allowed parents to…
November 14, 2018
An analysis of six different teacher-evaluation systems shows that when the systems are implemented with fidelity and with certain tactics, they can lead to an improvement in the teacher workforce—good teachers are more likely to stay, and low-performing teachers are likely to either leave the district or improve. Click here for the full article…
November 14, 2018
San Juan Unified SD has created a teacher evaluation program that began in 2016 as a joint effort between the school district and its teachers’ union. The System of Professional Growth, utilizes 12 “peer facilitators” who have stepped away from the classroom and are now working full-time evaluating and mentoring other teachers in the district….
November 14, 2018
The League of Women Voters of California along with PICO California cleared a milestone earlier this month in qualifying a measure for the 2020 ballot to split away property taxes for homeowners from those paid by big commercial holdings. The proposal, dubbed the California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act, could raise as much as…