School might have been out this weekend, but there wasn’t any break for education news! Catch up with it all with the newsblitz:
- Just before the weekend, we blogged about the back-and-forth on opinion pages and blogs over how serious the San Diego Unified board was about scrapping the superintendency — and who was behind it. The most recent salvo comes from Chris Reed at the Union-Tribune.
- We also blogged about a federal jobs bill that could bring $24 million to San Diego Unified. But it’s still a long way from becoming a reality.
- The Union-Tribune writes about why fewer than half of the school districts in the county have signaled that they’ll take part in Race to the Top, a competition between states for school stimulus money. Educated Guess blogs that far fewer districts followed through to join Race to the Top than California was touting.
- Also in the U-T: State Assemblyman Marty Block is proposing that community colleges be allowed to award bachelors’ degrees, instead of just leaving that to the CSUs and UCs.
- City News Service (via KPBS) reports that San Diego Unified is optimistic after Gov. Schwarzenegger pledged to minimize cuts to education. But the Sacramento Bee writes that some observers are unsure how safe education really is from cuts in Schwarzenegger’s budget.
- That same Sacramento Bee story also shares a potentially explosive bit from the budget: Schwarzenegger would allow school districts to transfer, assign, lay off or rehire teachers without regard to seniority. The Los Angeles Times explains how that change — and others — fit into Schwarzenegger’s push to make it easier to fire weak teachers.
- The Carmel Valley News looks at how different superintendents in North County spend their days off — and how many days they take. Reprinted in SDNN.
- The Los Angeles Times takes a sweeping look at the expansion of charter schools and how it has impacted Los Angeles. Its analysis of test scores shows that charter schools there generally perform better than traditional public schools, but not as well as magnets.
- Along similar lines, the New York Times editorializes that charter schools can be part of education reform, as long as they are closely monitored and held to high standards.
- The Sacramento Bee looks at “a rare legislative loss” for the California Teachers Association: the Race to the Top bill that California passed over union opposition.
- Interactive whiteboards have shown mixed results in the classroom, Education Week writes. This technology is a big part of what San Diego Unified is adding with its school facilities bond money.
- Wondering what Terry Grier is up to after leaving San Diego Unified? In Houston, he’s proposing a controversial plan that would allow schools to fire teachers for failing to improve students’ test scores, the Chronicle reports.
- Obama has yet to rewrite No Child Left Behind, and educators are waiting to see what he does with it, the Washington Post explains.
— EMILY ALPERT