Journalism won’t die if you donate. Support Voice of San Diego today!
No time to be clever this morning. Too much breaking news. Go forward to your education newsblitz!
- You probably know the big news by now: San Diego Unified Superintendent Terry Grier is in the running to lead schools in Houston. We were the first in San Diego to tell you! Read up on the news from us, the Union-Tribune and KPBS. Now why didn’t anyone listen when the school district spokesman said this wasn’t news?
- Professor emerita of education Jill Kerper Mora will share my blog today. She’s arguing about why she believes using test scores to evaluate or pay teachers is a bad idea, countering points raised by local attorney Tyler Cramer earlier this week. Check back for her posts soon!
- The Union-Tribune also reports that San Ysidro schools are now providing kindergarten for the entire day. Teachers are devoting an extra hour to the classes in exchange for not having to use their preparation time to attend meetings or help other teachers in the classroom.
- Test scores are also on the rise in Fallbrook, the North County Times reports. One of big stumbling blocks is elementary school math, especially for children learning English.
- Mitchell Landsberg at the Los Angeles Times does a beautiful piece about a high school converting into a charter school. Landsberg has been following this school for years and it shows. I also dig that the photographer snapped two kids cuddling in the hallway instead of the ubiquitous kid-with-pencil photos.
- The San Jose-area superintendent under fire for his spending was forced out of a previous job — allegedly over similar concerns about how he used money, the Mercury News reports. A retiree says, “He liked to buy the newest and fanciest gadget that we didn’t need.”
- The Contra Costa Times reports that a Northern California school district is bracing for a possible teachers strike over healthcare benefits.
- The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a new nonprofit that wants to encourage alternative certification: quick ways to get people transferring from other fields into the classroom without waiting to get a credential. They earn their bonafides while working.
- The wonks at the Quick and the Ed blog crunch the test scores for Locke High, the Los Angeles school taken over by the Green Dot charter school system, and conclude the school has a long way to go.
- Bloggers for the American Prospect complain that Bill Gates has too much power over education. That ties into this story from the Palm Beach Post, where educators scrambled to put together an application for a Gates Foundation grant. They lost out — and it sparked a firestorm of controversy along the way.