Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

I would be remiss in giving you your recommended reading without mentioning this terrific series on the gaps in the safety net in San Diego County, by my co-workers Kelly Bennett and Dagny Salas. It may not be about education, but you’d better believe it affects kids. Now for the rest of your newsblitz:

• We blog on a legal settlement over how San Diego Unified schools are choosing which company gets to install interactive whiteboards. KPBS reports on how those and other digital tools are changing San Diego classrooms.
• The Union-Tribune writes about legislation that could help the school district recoup penalties for upping class sizes. SDNN debates whether California is really charging a penalty.
• Escondido middle schools are using a program meant to encourage boys to read, the North County Times writes.
• A California report finds that teacher pay varies dramatically from one place to another, the Sacramento Bee reports. You can look up the stats for your school district here.
• Educated Guess blogs about the push for charters to take a lead in closing bad charters.
• A Fremont teacher writes in the Oakland Tribune about why he isn’t sold on the idea of judging teachers based on test scores.
• Obama could rework how No Child Left Behind judges schools, the New York Times reports. Blogger Alexander Russo argues that the Times is contradicting its own, earlier reporting that said tweaking the law was unlikely this year.
• Reuters writes that a coalition of state governments is telling the feds to keep their hands off of local control over education.
• The controversial chancellor of the D.C. schools is losing popularity, even though parents like the changes she made, the Washington Post reports. This may be far from San Diego, but it shows the tension and controversy around school changes, even when the changes themselves are popular. Jay Mathews thinks the D.C. leader should stay.
• A think tank criticizes how states handle everything about teaching, from pay to discipline, the Associated Press writes. You can search its findings state-by-state here.
• Tom Vander Ark blogs that the federal competition for more school stimulus money, Race to the Top, is trying to change schools by “feeding the rabbits rather than whipping the laggards.”
• Like the parcel taxes that are cropping up across California, an Ohio town is trying to get local voters to ante up more money for schools, the Wall Street Journal reports. The catch is that in this town, they’ve already rejected the idea three times.

— EMILY ALPERT