The sun will come out — today. Not tomorrow. But take a minute to read the newsblitz anyway:
- We blog that a largely Somali charter school is being pushed — again — to diversify if it wants to continue.
- Also in Schooled: Schools in the central and southern areas of San Diego Unified, which tend to be less affluent, were likely to get laptops later than other schools. We explain why.
- Poway teachers agreed to shave five days of school over the next two years, the Union-Tribune reports.
- KPBS reports that a new study says the UC and CSU colleges must admit more students or California will face a shortage of college graduates. California Watch has more details.
- A Carlsbad educational foundation is charging more fees for services to raise money for schools, the North County Times writes. Expect to see more and more of this as school budgets are crunched.
- Capistrano teachers went on strike yesterday — and could keep striking today if no agreement is reached with their school district, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Orange County Register delves into how the strike impacted classrooms.
- More labor unrest in Oakland: The school board there imposed a contract on its teachers union that kept things the same. Teachers aren’t happy about it, the Tribune writes.
- The Sacramento Bee writes that California public universities are limiting the number of courses students can take because of budget issues.
- Educated Guess dissects the pros and cons of giving school districts more flexibility to spend state money without strings attached and a new attempt at flexibility that would track its results.
- The Associated Press reports on a Florida study that found that genetics play a big role in how quickly a kid learns to read — but their teacher can help or hurt as well.
- If you’re hungry for more, Education Week goes into more depth about the findings from that study, which used identical and fraternal twins.
- Education Week reports that the push for digital textbooks could lessen the hold of Texas on the textbook market.
- Hechinger Ed blogs: Did J.D. Salinger believe in “unschooling”? Or was he making fun of it?
- Field trips have gotten cut back, The New York Times writes, so some museums are taking their exhibits into the classroom.
— EMILY ALPERT