The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
I’m headed out to an elementary school and then on to hear the bigwigs talk about education reform! Check back later for updates from a legislative hearing held here in San Diego on whether we’re ready for the second batch of federal stimulus money that states are competing for. The speakers include a handful of superintendents — Terry Grier included — along with parent leaders, teachers union presidents and business leaders.
If I can, I will Tweet from the event — so check out my Twitter feed between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Now, on to the newsblitz!
- More reasons to miss Chris Moran: The Union-Tribune explains how it is that test scores rose at most San Diego County schools — yet they’re still in trouble under No Child Left Behind.
- We zero in on scores in San Diego Unified and some of its schools. The San Francisco Chronicle does a nice job summing this up statewide with the killer headline, “Schools both improving and failing.”
- We also blog about a new idea in the air for some of the coastal schools in San Diego Unified: Splitting off the Point Loma schools as a system of charter schools.
- KPBS devotes a whole morning to education issues, including a visit to the rebuilt Lincoln High and a chat with one of its teachers, segments on foundation funding for schools, budget cuts, and the legendary Los Angeles teacher Rafe Esquith.
But just when KPBS had you getting all misty about education, this story came up: Gangs along the border are recruiting middle and high school students to smuggle drugs. One teen at Montgomery High School says it happens there.
- Really? The Union-Tribune reports that at least 25 people just up and sent their resumes to San Diego Unified, hoping they might get tapped as the next superintendent. No — really?
- Remember all the suspicions about how one superintendent was spending money in San Jose? It’s starting to look like where there is smoke there is fire. The Mercury News reports that the same school district paid a consultant more than $80,000 to start a foundation that didn’t even have a bank account until June and has raised less than $5,000.
- The Los Angeles Times writes about how a math program that teaches kids to “think in pictures” has boosted elementary school math scores in Orange County.
- The New York Times looks at how this wave of technology in schools may be different than the past — and how it may actually harken back to the past, not the future.
- Blogger Claus von Zastrow takes education reporters to task for being too quick to accept the idea that debates over education reform are split between change agents and the evil status quo.
- I really try to refrain from posting isn’t-that-cute videos, but this one has educational value! This is the marshmallow test made famous by the New Yorker. The study shows that the longer a kid waits before eating the marshmallow, the better they tend to do in school. And it is precious. Kudos to superblogger Alexander Russo for the link.
- The Boston Globe reports on a teachers union study found that fewer than half of the students entering charter high schools actually make it to graduation at the same school four years later. Charter critics say it shows the schools are pushing kids who don’t meet their standards out. Proponents say it shows that some students opt out of charters where the bar is set high so that they can get a diploma more easily elsewhere.
- You know that we journalists love conflict. Education Week explains why schools are increasingly looking at teaching kids how to argue. This sounds an awful lot like what’s happening with English classes in Sweetwater.