Thanks to everyone who came to the forum on science education last night! It was an interesting discussion and as moderator, I managed to keep chaos from erupting. Now for your newsblitz:
- We report that summer school doesn’t reach many of the kids who need it and leaves some students unchanged. But if San Diego Unified trims the program, that could just worsen those problems.
- The Del Mar superintendent is out and it could get ugly. The Union-Tribune reports that a lawsuit from the ousted chief could cost the school district and gives the details on the new, temporary leader.
- KPBS reports that some Del Mar parents are blaming their school board for micromanaging the superintendent. Sounds eerily familiar.
- San Diego Unified school board member John de Beck has an interesting new column on SDNN. With the feds pushing schools to show results, he asks: What if we held Congress accountable for providing healthcare, housing and a minimum income for the families those kids come from?
- We blog that a private group is polling the public about whether to add four appointed members to the school board. Who would appoint them? That’s part of the poll.
- Also on KPBS: Could a parcel tax help save San Diego schools from budget cuts?
- A Los Angeles Unified manager was indicted on charges of having a conflict of interest in allegedly steering school building business to his company, the Los Angeles Times reports.
- The Sacramento Bee takes us inside a Madera County high school that has gone digital, giving a laptop to every student.
- Market researchers are studying how Oakland families choose their schools, the Oakland Tribune blogs.
- Educated Guess argues that the problem isn’t with gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner’s book on teaching, which is catching some heat from the high school he used to teach at. The problem is his education policies, John Fensterwald writes.
- Hawaii teachers voted to reinstate a full school year, the Associated Press reports. The state was earlier poised to cut the year by 17 days.
- Does it help to put more Advanced Placement classes in disadvantaged schools? Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews dukes it out with a Texas economist who thinks not.
- The Economist looks at California as a cautionary tale of a state that let its students down.
- Also in the Washington Post: Historian Diane Ravitch says we can’t waste another eight years on “measure and punish” strategies for schools.
- And on the other side of the world, Voice of America reports that in India, a new law has made education a fundamental right for all children between the ages of 6 and 14.
— EMILY ALPERT