The California Legislature passed a bill to reduce the importance of test scores in calculating school quality, and Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law. Until now, the Academic Performance Index was based 100% on test scores. Now it will count for 60%.
Hope, hope, hope that future legislation will reduce it to 25%.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The news is even better than that.
The new law also includes an added emphasis for charter schools to improve achievement for all sub-groups. The law actually outlines how failure to do so could be grounds for the charter’s revocation. This is a very important new tool previously unavailable to elected officials here.
A widely publicized letter was sent by one of our citizens to our county school board calling for the revocation of a boutique charter school here in Los Altos (see link below). The County Board responded that there was nothing they could legally do since there was nothing in the law to allow a county board to revoke a charter for almost any reason short of criminal acts.
If that same letter was sent today the county school board would have to actually justify the existence of their charter and actually respond to the electorate (wouldn’t that be nice?).
This charter (see link below) is run by super-rich families and is extremely unpopular in our area. They are suing our school district for millions of dollars even though they are rich (it’s not about the money for them, they hate our elected officials). They clearly don’t feel beholden to the local community AT ALL. This new law may change that.
This is really, really great news for California.
* Read about Bullis Charter School: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/05/1117114/-How-to-Destroy-a-Top-Notch-School-District-Open-a-Charter-School
Jerry Brown is a real hero when it comes to education. He is sponsoring Proposition 30, which will raise taxes to prevent devastating cuts to public schools. He also vetoed an earlier version of the bill he signed yesterday, explaining in a wonderful veto message that the very idea of attempting to quantify educational quality is incoherent. Check it out, if you haven’t seen it.
Click to access SB_547_Veto_Message.pdf
Dr. Ravitch,
Keep the good news a coming!!! Thank you so much as this stuff makes my day!!!
Good steps here. Hopefully more to come.
But think how sad the neoliberal education reformers will be. Just joking. Take that Davis Guggenheim and Daniel Barnz Paul Vallas, Arne Duncun, Stand on Children et al.
Note the following quote from the linked article mentioned by Diane: the CA Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg states that “For years, ‘teaching to the test’ has become more than a worn cliche because 100% of the API relied on bubble tests scores in limited subject areas[.]” […] “But life is not a bubble test and that system has failed our kids.” [brackets mine]
Indeed! Good to see you’ve come around to what many have saying for years and years. Too bad such huge amounts of time and energy and resources have been spent on a “system that has failed our kids.”
Want to avoid future costly failures like that? You could start by assigning one of your staffers to read this blog, or better yet, do it yourself. You might learn something! 🙂
If 100% is wrong, so is 60%.
Jerry Brown is amazing.
I forget, did Governor Brown speak at the Democratic Convention? 🙂 Was he even invited. And yes, Dr. Ravitch. . . 60% is wrong too, but moving in the right direction!!
no sign of Gov Brown in Charlotte