Good morning! Time for a nutritious newsblitz of education reporting and commentary. Eat up:
We update you on the back-and-forth over the Sweetwater teachers’ contract and blog about the San Diego Unified school board approving the expansion of Iftin, a largely Somali charter school that had faced questions about a lack of diversity among its students. KPBS reports that the biliteracy policy we delved into last week is now official.
Look for more blog posts here later as I sort through all the details from last night’s board meeting.
The San Francisco Examiner reports on talk from the superintendent of San Francisco schools about suing California for denying adequate funding to schools. An opinion piece in the Los Angeles Daily News decries cuts to the California State University system and touts a bill that would tax oil and natural gas revenue to pay for higher education. And the Oakland Tribune education blog features an Oakland teacher talking not about why so many teachers leave the profession, but why she stays.
Education Week writes that while federal education czar Arne Duncan is talking about turning around perpetually failing schools through the stimulus, officials have little research to guide them on how to turn around a school. NPR explores allegations that there is not a level playing field when it comes to getting into the elite magnets of the Chicago Public Schools system. (Speaking of Chicago schools: Seriously?)
And out in the blogosphere, the Education Intelligence Agency has publicized a document put together by a national teachers union on “alternative compensation” systems that can range from linking pay to test scores to getting bonuses for positive evaluations. The document hints that the National Education Association is grappling with the growing popularity of those ideas: “The Association needs to carefully craft a message that recognizes this strong support, while continuing to promote salary structures that are consistent with sound compensation theory and NEA policy,” it concludes.