In case you missed it, Bill Gates talked about education (oh, and robots that can love) on the Daily Show last night. That’s all from the airwaves — now your newsblitz!
- We blog that Sweetwater Superintendent Jesus Gandara is adjusting his contract to clip out a section that requires him to tell the school board when he hunts for a job, share some results from polling on a school parcel tax, and post your feedback on getting higher grades for test scores and measuring creativity.
- The Union-Tribune reports on a no-bid contract for the Children’s Initiative and San Diego County that has raised concerns with some government watchdogs.
- Whoops — I missed this weekend Q and A with school board President Richard Barrera in the UT. My apologies. I’ve been having some trouble finding their editorial content online.
- At San Diego News Network, school board member John de Beck floats the question: What do you think about a parcel tax to raise money for schools? And columnist Arthur Salm weighs in on hostility against teachers.
- The North County Times reports that the Vista schools superintendent has pledged to take the same pay cut that teachers do.
- KPBS explains the debate over Race to the Top in San Diego and statewide. It also gives education reporter Ana Tintocalis some serious time to talk about schools on the air.
- The Los Angeles Times reports that girls may be getting their math anxiety from a surprising source: Female teachers. Debra Viadero at Education Week wonders if boys might be picking up similar stereotypes about whether they can read and write well.
- The Associated Press writes that a bill ensuring that charter school students have the same free speech rights as students at other public schools is making its way through the state legislature.
- And now for something completely different: In Ventura County, kids are learning Mayan math, the Star reports.
- Salon.com calls the Menifee school district doofuses for pulling a dictionary out of elementary school classrooms because it included a definition for “oral sex.”
- Education Next writes that so far, the results of the school stimulus money have been “soberingly quotidian.” This nuts-and-bolts piece takes a very, very large view of the stimulus and schools.
- Personal finance classes are becoming more common in U.S. high schools, the Associated Press reports.
- Blogs gone wild! EdPolicyThoughts thinks Bill Gates should spend his money on replicating the Harlem Children’s Zone? The Heritage Foundation complains that the mainstream media is ignoring a critical study on Head Start. And Early Stories writes about preschool savings in Michigan.
- And finally, Jay Mathews at the Washington Post argues that to squeeze more time into the school day, why not make lunchtime into lunch-and-reading time?
— EMILY ALPERT