I’ve thought about the relationship between school reform and public perception since 2008, when I watched Gov. Schwarzenegger push – and the California Board of Education approve – a middle school Algebra I requirement (which was halted in court, months later), over the protests of the state superintendent of schools.

The same questions came to mind last week, as I reported on the Obama/Duncan administration’s prescriptions for the country’s lowest-performing schools — remedies that lack research to show that they actually work, according to researchers quoted in Education Week.

Is the government more concerned about public perception than about real change? Is it just trying to look like it’s doing something to improve public schools, with less attention to whether the desired outcomes follow? If so, is this an old phenomenon?

Bruce Fuller, an education and public policy professor at UC Berkeley, is studying some related questions, though he frames them in a more sophisticated way and grounds them in more than just a hunch. His theory is that the American public (since the 1980s) has been so cynical about `big government,’ and so unwilling to pay new taxes, that the government “flailing” around, trying to look “efficacious” with fewer and fewer resources. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Gov. Schwarzenegger promised to protect education funding last week. I guess that all depends on how you define “protect.”

At the board meeting just now, Oakland Superintendent Tony Smith said the district’s budget hole for 2010-11 — once projected at about $28 million — will deepen to nearly $36 million if the governor’s proposal holds.

That’s about $201 per student.

I just received a transcript of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s State of the State Address, which he opened with a story of teamwork — between his family’s miniature pony and pot-bellied pig.

Later in the speech, the governor said he would “protect education funding,” despite the state’s projected $20 billion deficit through the end of 2010-11.

That’s a tall order without raising taxes, since education makes up roughly half of the budget, so I’ll be curious to see the details of his budget plan on Friday. Maybe the state Legislators will take his pony and pig story to heart.

Here’s an excerpt of his speech:

Now, I will address our immediate budget situation more fully in a few days, when I present my budget but let me just give you an overview. Read the rest of this entry »

File photo

During a press conference this morning that veered suddenly into a Q & A about prison reform (and never really went back), the governor announced he was lining up with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama — and that the state planned “to go all out” to make California eligible for competitive federal stimulus funding.

Schwarzenegger said he was calling a special legislative session to do away with laws that might make California ineligible. He has asked state Legislators to present him with a package by early October that would lift the state’s charter school cap and allow teacher evaluations to be linked to student test scores.

“The Obama administration has pointed to California and said we have no way to distinguish good teachers from bad teachers, and I happen to agree with that,” Schwarzenegger said. ”They call it a firewall and I say, `Let’s tear down that wall.”‘ Read the rest of this entry »

It’s about California’s eligibility for Race to the Top Funding. Hmmm… I wonder what the major announcement is. Teacher evaluations, perhaps?

From the governor’s press office:

Gov. Schwarzenegger will hold a press conference to make a major announcement regarding Race to the Top federal funding for education. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember Arnold’s digital textbook initiative that we discussed in June?

Well, a review of 16 of these newfangled `books’ came out yesterday, and the materials – all free — are posted online.

It looks like they’re all for high school math and science: geometry, algebra II, trigonometry, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology/life science and earth science.

Ten of the textbooks reviewed covered at least 90 percent of the state content standards for the subject, and four met all of them. Only three of the 16 really bombed the review. (Step it up, Earth Systems!) Read the rest of this entry »

The 10-member Legislative Budget Conference Committee, which is reviewing Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget proposals, voted yesterday to suspend California’s controversial high school exit exam requirement through 2012-13.

This is not set in stone — the budget still has to make it through the Assembly and Senate — but it’s unlikely that a cut already agreed to by the Dems (six of the 10 budget conference committee members are Democrats) will be restored under these fiscal conditions.

This means, of course, that next year’s juniors and seniors who have yet to pass both portions of the test would be off the hook. Sophomores would still take the test, but if they fail, it wouldn’t count against them, and they wouldn’t have to retake it. Read the rest of this entry »

Capitol Alert, a Sacramento Bee blog, reports that the California Federation of Teachers sued Schwarzenegger and other state officials yesterday for $12 billion. The CFT says that money is owed to schools under Proposition 98, the constitutional amendment that established a mandatory minimum level of education funding.

This is all wrapped up, of course, in the campaign against Proposition 1A, a deficit-closing measure on the May 19 special election ballot that would establish spending caps and a short-term, $16 billion tax hike. (California’s larger teacher union, the California Teachers Association, has taken a different stance than the CFT. It is backing 1A.)

The latest polls show support for these ballot measures is eroding, as my colleague Josh Richman reported in his politics blog.

image from Ingorrr’s photostream at flickr.com/creativecommons

If you’ve been following news about the state education budget, you’ve probably been hearing the term “flexibility” quite a bit. At a press conference yesterday, Oakland’s interim superintendent, Roberta Mayor, asked for more of it — minutes before a state PTA representative spoke out against it. (You know you’ve got a contentious issue on your hands when clashing appeals emerge from a joint publicity event.)

But what is budget flexibility, exactly, and what might it mean for California schools? Read the rest of this entry »

Judge Shelleyanne Chang might have just dashed Gov. Schwarzenegger’s dreams of testing all kids in Algebra I by the eighth grade.

In July, the State Board of Education approved the governor’s 11th-hour algebra proposal over the strong objections of California’s top ranking education official, Jack O’Connell.

But today, the Sacramento County Superior Court judge stopped the implementation of this sweeping policy. You can read her 5-page ruling here.

Among other things, Chang said the State Board of Education didn’t give Joe Public much notice that this was all going down: Read the rest of this entry »