Bright and Early

It may be a short school week, but you still have your daily newsblitz:

I overlooked this story last week from KPBS on the forums that San Diego Unified is holding on its budget crisis. We’ll be following up with more reporting on the financial troubles soon.
Vista schools decided against merging a middle school and an elementary school to save money, the North County Times writes.
The Union-Tribune profiles a 2nd grader with a knack for violin who spends her weekends at Juilliard.
The Beach and Bay Press writes that those interactive whiteboards popping up in San Diego classroom have an equivalent for preschoolers: the Smart Table.
Amid protests of rising tuition, college students seized control of buildings on University of California campuses in Berkeley and Santa Cruz, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The San Francisco Chronicle follows up with reports on what happened Sunday when the last students were removed from the Santa Cruz campus.
The San Bernardino Sun zeroes in on a Center for American Progress report that faults California for making it too difficult to fire bad teachers. School officials and union reps counter that the rules ensure that there is a fair process before teachers are removed.
Educated Guess blogs on how a group of Los Angeles charter schools will spend a sizable grant from the Gates Foundation that focuses on teacher performance and evaluation: a one-year residency for teachers, a data warehouse to track students’ progress and a merit pay system that teachers themselves help create.
A new study finds that No Child Left Behind boosted math scores but had little impact on reading, Education Week reports.
Also in Education Week: There’s a looming showdown over the future of sex education.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34080235/ns/us_news-education/” target=”_blank” title=””>Big disparities exist in gifted education, an advocacy group reports. The Associated Press explains the concerns for parents of gifted and talented kids. Here’s a link to the executive summary.
Jay Mathews at the Washington Post tells how a new evaluation system favored by controversial Chancellor Michelle Rhee is rubbing one teacher the wrong way.
And speaking of Rhee, the New York Times reports on a longstanding worry that she may have intervened with a government watchdog agency on behalf of her now-fiancee, the mayor of Sacramento.
Rhode Island unveiled a school reform plan that dovetails with the goals of the Obama Administration. The Providence Journal writes that it includes goals for higher graduation rates, online classes and merit pay, and would make it harder to become and stay a teacher.