I’m back from the weekend. Who wants some education news?
- The Union-Tribune explains how San Diego Unified is overhauling its administrative offices.
- We blog that the San Diego Unified board will weigh whether students should stop being required to take an Advanced Placement exam in order to get a higher grade in an AP class.
- Also in the U-T: Crawford High is going to give a diploma to the first female Somali Bantu student to graduate from the school. Online lockers are helping students get their work on the web.
- And the U-T also reports that San Diego Unified’s resigned finance chief is still on the payroll — but hasn’t done any work yet.
- The Orange County Register has a wonderful big picture look at why school districts across the state are eyeing the teachers’ strike in San Juan Capistrano.
- Furlough days for school employees are leaving parents in the lurch, the San Jose Mercury News reports. San Diego and Poway have agreed to furloughs, so this is a trend to watch here, too.
- The San Francisco Chronicle writes that California is still deciding whether to make a long-shot bid for the second round of Race to the Top, a competition for school stimulus money.
- A new stimulus bill for schools could face an uphill battle, Educated Guess blogs.
- Preschool rating systems could go into effect statewide, the Daily Breeze writes.
- The New York Times writes about why school districts in New York, Arizona and California are seeking to stop using seniority as the basis for teacher layoffs.
- The second round of Race to the Top is causing clashes between states and teachers unions, the Wall Street Journal writes. Education Week provides a longer, more detailed take on this issue.
- Also in The New York Times: A chain of charter schools is stirring up accusations that it spends public money with too little oversight. They don’t have a school here, but the controversy is an important one for charters, which have a big presence in San Diego.
- Rick Hess blogs in Education Week about why some reformers could run into unintended consequences in the quest to make sure that all students have access to good teachers.
- A Minnesota television station reports that a family sued their school district after discovering that their son, a fifth grader, couldn’t read.
- And Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews argues that “a storm is brewing in teacher training in America,” with younger teachers seeking more practical advice for the classroom.
— EMILY ALPERT