Governor Jerry Brown is certainly the most interesting and thoughtful state leader on education.
In 2009, when he was state attorney general, he wrote a blistering rebuke to Arne Duncan in opposition to Race to the Top.
He has consistently opposed the overemphasis on standardized testing.
In 2011, he vetoed legislation that didn’t go far enough to stop the misuse of test scores.
Earlier this year the state suspended state testing to prepare for Common Core testing, defying Duncan’s specific order to continue state testing.
Several days ago, Brown blasted state and national standards and tests, saying that learning was highly personal and individual. He said that neither Washington nor Sacramento should play a large role in telling teachers what to teach and what students should learn. He is especially critical of standardized testing.
This is all amazing, not only because a governor with a national profile is saying this but because California has committed more than a billion dollars to adopting the Common Core standards.
Which raises the question, Does Governor Brown know that the state is doing what he says he opposes?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Governor “moonbeam” out of touch?
Arne Duncan is out of touch and his insistence on testing students is not what’s in their best interest. Jerry Brown must continue to state his case against all this unnecessary testing!
OY! Education IS a soap opera just like football games and the News stations.
I am so glad that Democrats are pushing back against this testing mania and refocusing our attention on what matters in teaching our children. It is time for educators to make our voices heard in the Democratic Party.
Arne is literally down under! Maybe told to exit left for awhile while Mitchell enters.
Add Mayor DeBlasio to the list of prominent politicians who are speaking out against standardized testing. His appointment of Carmen Farina will be a welcome relief from Bloomberg’s assault on public schools and teachers via former chancellors Klein, Black, and (soon to be former) Walcott.
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
I’m hoping that Jerry is paving the way for an all out boycott of Common Core! Fingers crossed…
I agree that Brown has been exhibiting the engaged vision of a teacher, including his quote in the 2013 State of the State that “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” (I know, I know: vague but inspiring).
California State Superintendent Tom Torlakson has been exhibiting this vision too. See, for example, other posts by Dr. Ravitch:
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=torlakson
Unfortunately, Torlakson is simultaneously exhibiting the repudiated Common Core origin story. The San Jose Mercury News quotes him on December 27:
“This was developed — not from the federal government, it’s not top-down. It came from concerns that California, as one big part of the nation, was falling behind other countries. So, 46 governors — with the common concern that our students were falling behind — wanted more rigorous standards that were more relevant and tied to employment, tied to readiness for college. It came out of that discussion that went on for over a year with a large degree of public participation. There was widespread optimism that this was the right thing to bring California and our country back to a globally competitive position.”
So there’s always another cat to herd.
Torlakson has sold out and he is betraying the very people that elected him (teachers). CA teachers have been systematically indoctrinated, they are walking the plank and they don’t even know it.
Agree…and if he has a good opposing candidate, he will probably NOT get re-elected.
Ellen
Obama also cautioned against over-emphasis on testing, but has done the opposite. Gov Brown seems more sincere and has taken at least some steps in a positive direction. Hopefully, he’ll do more.
The Governor can do what a governor can do. Perhaps if he goes to http://www.wholechildreform.com and reads my blogs, he will have a direction to take common core. I actually like proficiency based learning. However, they do it all wrong. Here’s more as I am tired of typing http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2013/12/is-stumbling-and-bumbling-good-thing.html
Governor Brown’s brother lives in MI and teaches in the Bloomfield Hills Public Schools. If only there was educational osmosis and what is in Governor Brown’s heart, brain and soul could be transferred to MI. Although CA’s 2008 Term Limit fiasco (MI’s was in 1992!) certainly does not help with his efforts.
In my high school district, the preparation for the upcoming tests in California are having a devastating impact on both the more challenged incoming 9th graders and the higher achieving math students. The Superintendent and the Principals of the 8 high schools have decided, against the wishes of almost ALL district math teachers, to narrow the curriculum to fit both the high school standards and the NEW Smarter Balanced Assessment. Thereby, they have eliminated ALL math course offerings below Algebra 1 and therein, forcing ALL students to enroll in an Algebra 1 class even though they may have fallen two or more years behind in their math levels according to where the CCSS would expect them to be when entering high school. Remember, the high school test they take as juniors is measuring math standards which include some of the old Pre-Calculus standards from the old CST exams. These standards were part of the previous CST referred to as the Summative Test and was given only to students who were enrolled in Pre-Calculus or higher level math courses. Now we are expecting ALL students to be able to understand these higher level math standards and answer more complex questions involving these standards. If not, they will be labeled as not College or Career Ready and the teachers and schools will be labeled as low performing again. You may have guessed that ALL of these decision makers have never taught a math course at any level and you would be correct. Their comments indicate a total lack of understanding of the difficulties ahead with implementing their plan and having the desired outcomes where larger numbers of students score high enough to be graded as College and Career Ready. For example, when asked by several math teachers for ideas on how to teach an Algebra 1 class where some students are two or more years behind and still struggle with adding fractions with unlike denominators and some students are being forced to repeat Algebra 1 even though they passed it in 8th grade and may be bored when the teacher tries to use examples to better reach the lower performing students. Their answer was “offer tutoring time after school for those who are behind and if necessary we can offer tutoring during Saturday’s”. The district would pay each teacher about $100 to tutor on Saturday’s if the teacher could get at least 20 students each Saturday to volunteer for the help. You can see that the Administration believes now that since CCSS will test ALL students at the Algebra 2 and above level, then ALL students must “have the opportunity to be taught these standards before they take the test as juniors in March”! This is exactly what most of us feared, the test is driving the curriculum and we are being forced again to teach to the test! There is only one reason we are going forward with this insanity and it is all about power and greed and has nothing to do with foreign competition or improving our schools or getting students College and Career Ready. The only way to come out a winner in this “game” is to not go into teaching, but buy stock in companies like Pearson who will make billions. If you must work with children, then move to another country that values teachers so you will have a rewarding career. The forces behind the reform are too powerful and have infinite resources, so I see no hope for the future of our current system. Even California, with the most outspoken Governor against what is happening, we are moving ahead as if we were dropped from a plane without a parachute and we do not want to fall but gravity is too strong a force and the result is predictable. The only question now is when will we hit bottom. People like Gates remind me of people like Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, or a Roman Emperor. Hopefully, the long term results are better for our children and grandchildren.
Obviously the CA leadership doesn’t have the best interests of the students in mind when making policies. Your school is not the only one grappling with this issue – it’s a story repeated across the country.
Keep Governor Brown informed. He seems sympathetic and perhaps he’ll be able to use his influence towards positive educational reform (meaning stopping the educational deform currently in place),
Thank you Mark for this excellent and full report on the impending implosion in your, and other, California districts which enforce the CC math testing. It is certain that the failure rate will be huge and so many students will decide they too are life failures. In addition, the fallout to the many fine math educators will be devestating. The testing here was to be mandated for grades 3, 8, and 11, but NO ONE was to see the results so that the general public would have no input as to the validity of CC and the testing. What a sham! After the debacle of the testing in NYC, CC and their supporters want to hide the huge failure rates.
Jerry Brown, in his State of the State address for 2013, also said the windfall money from Prop. 30 would be invested mainly in the inner cities, and that tablets were to be purchased for students to study and be tested on CC…..and he then folded to the Perez group in Sacramento (which includes Perez’s cousin and former LA mayor and also House Speaker, Villaraigosa who is a charter school supporter all the way) and let LAUSD spend the $ 1 Billion for the overpriced Apple iPads (funding Deasy filched from the recent 25 year Construction Bond paid for by taxpayers). Brown retreated from the Jan., 2014, testing after he was pressured by so many educators and parents since curriculum was not even in place to prepare for the testing, plus the two Assemblypeople who opened his eyes to the assured failure rate were this testing to be done in early 2014. Since then he seems to have done an about face and hopefully will take a strong stand against the CC imposition by Obama/Duncan.
However, we must take into account that he is running for a second term as Gov and he is wooing the billionaires like Eli Broad and Bill Gates for campaign financing and support. So it might be wise to wait and see how he acts as this pivotal year for both education and political decisions emerges.
Ellen Lubic
Brown or Deblasio for President!
Why this premature shout out for President?
Rapid statements in support of unproven politicians re actual education issues creates easy prey for Rheeformers.
I am a progressive California voter who supported Brown from the 1970s on, but Brown is in the money chain of the billionaires whom he courts for their donations. Is that who we want for Prez…more Obama and Clinton deception? Can we not find valid and experienced progressives to run for Prez who will stand up to the pollution of ALEC? If not, why not? Why do we not have a clear stream of good candidates to run against Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul? Perhaps they are there, but the rahrah attitudes for ‘imagined liberals’ steer us in the wrong course…remember most of us bought in to Hope and Change, and we got RttT and Arne Duncan (plus a greatly strengthened Patriot Act, NSA, and Military Commissions Act).
Let’s be more cautious and more educated about public policy.
Perhaps reformers like Bernie Sanders and/or Elizabeth Warren (or Al Franken, or Sherrod Brown) would be far more astute in solving the problems of our devolving nation of which the education situation is a part (read Mercedes articles). ‘Hip Hip Hooray’ for de Blasio is yet to be earned. And Brown, the old time pol, has long favored charters and vouchers and parochial schools harking back to his Jesuit days.
I may be a killer of a momentary high, but as an educator for over 40 years in the discipline of public policy, and a lifetime Californian, I prefer to wait and see, while urging never giving up the hard work of informing the public of the facts, and concurrently leaning on all our local pols to do what is right and not only what is expedient.
Read ‘redqueenia’ today…this parent/writer makes lots of sense and has a multitude of links to real facts about all this.
Ellen Lubic
Quoth Hamlet: “words, words, words”. California is broke so it needs the federal dollars, no matter what the sensible governor may say.
Not if it allows drilling for oil. It will be the richest country in the world and won’t need race to the top funds!
Sadly, Belle, California is the only state in the union that does not charge the oil companies for drilling. Now why is that?
Ellen
To be in favor of the Common Core (or a Common Core) is not inconsistent with opposition to this testing program. Testing is a necessary component of education. That being said the way this testing is designed and implemented is wrong.
Tests and Measurements 101
A Common Core (minimum expectations) isn’t necessarily bad, but the current designs (and designers) are questionable.
Standardized testing is not a necessary part of education.
I agree. Finland doesn’t use standardized testing. Matriculation testing is what they rely on and it seems to work. Teacher made tests are much more effective.
ffare.. you state that “to be in favor of the common core is not inconsistent with opposition to this testing program…that testing is a necessary component in education” High stakes testing is totally destructive. I disagree vehemently because the “ed reformers” have linked high stakes testing directly to common core such that common core is basically a how to test prep manual for passing PARCC and Smart Balance tests. There is NO FREEDOM as common core currently stands.. none at all…. just a dumbed down, non-sensical (developmentally) series of “standards” treated mistakenly like a “how to curriculum” for the benefit and profit of publishing companies and the likes but certainly not for the benefit of students. Teacher created tests are one thing… mass-produced, cookie-cutter, top-secret Pearson tests are a crime against humanity. Our nation’s children deserve better.
artseagel–regarding what ffare wrote– the stated goals of Common Core sound good (more emphasis on critical thinking, less on “getting the right answer”, etc.) so some who don’t know all the details yet about the outrageous CC testing program (which have not been administered yet in most states AFAIK) might say they support Common Core, due to being in agreement with its stated goals, without being aware yet of all the ramifications.
The real way to get to the stated goals of the CC as stated above would be to eliminate or greatly reduce standardized testing. How can any kind of “teaching to the test” enhance critical and creative thinking? Impossible? Can a computerized test judge critical and creative thinking? I don’t see how it possibly could, despite technological advances. Only a human being, a teacher can do that.
In any case, the reason we may see some otherwise good on education people say they support Common Core, is that they support some stated goals of CC they have heard, without yet being aware of the hideous testing program involved.
My reading of today’s dr post (https://dianeravitch.net/2013/12/31/a-joke-about-the-common-core-its-not-funny/) is that Common Core Standards architect David Coleman is all about “teach to the test”– as Paul Thomas interprets Coleman’s 2011 remarks, “testing is central from the beginning (thus, claims that CC can be separated from the high-stakes tests is, again, without credibility; testing is part of the CC plan).”
I am unqualified to comment on CCSS math, but have studied ccssELA in some detail. This insight– that ccss were apparently written wholly with assessment in mind, elucidates for me many ELA standards which seem nonsensical, backward/awkward, counterintuitive, anachronistic. When re-examined from the POV of accommodating complex ideas to online standardized testing– they fill the bill.
My hope is that Brown succeeds and testing comes to a screeching halt in that state. Then the common core fiasco can be addressed – one step at a time. Personally, I think Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, The Walton Corp and Eli Broad should pay back every single bit of money to each and every school in the nation (and that is a lot of schools) forced to follow their idiotic reforms… yes “their reforms” because without their deep pockets, this “ed reform” movement could never have gained traction.
Another thing Jerry Brown *knows* is that schools need more funding, but he doesn’t advocate for it enough. However, he continually provides what is needed for his OWN two charter schools here in Oakland by pulling in massive donations from special interest groups who seek his favors, as well as businesses and celebrities.
E.g.:
1. “Sean Penn raises money for Oakland arts school.” 4/23/2009, http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/2009/04/23/sean-penn-raises-money-for-oakland-arts-school/
2. “Jerry Brown’s ‘kids’ get ka-ching from Bing.’ 10/16/2009, http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2009/10/ag-jerry-browns.html
3. In 2010 it was Robert Downey, Jr.’s turn to raise dough for Brown’s charters. The May event was held at the San Francisco mansion of Ann and Gordon Getty.
4. “Jerry Brown’s charter schools in Oakland reap big donations.” 8/8/2011, http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/08/local/la-me-brown-charities-20110808
This type of money collecting is undoubtedly still going on it’s kept quiet so outsiders don’t know.
He did a lot to get schools more funding, with Prop 30. He is certainly doing far better for schools than previous governors.
No, Jerry Brown is not out of touch. He’s smart enough to know that if he gets the support of parents and teachers, he will have a chance at the presidency, regardless of his age.
Governor Brown is a brilliant and well-educated man who knows that the present “reform” movement is a lot of nonsense.
He is certainly one of the best governors on school issues. I think it very unlikely that he will run for president, although that would be nice.
I think that it is about 99% certain that the next Democratic nominee for President will be Hillary Clinton, who would stand a very good chance of being elected President.
I don’t yet know where Hillary will stand on school issues. I remember she said some good things in the 2008 primary debates, promising to dismantle NCLB, criticized its heavy emphasis on standardized testing, etc. (While on the other hand, in that debate, Obama didn’t really answer the question, and said next to nothing about education policy.) (For that and other reasons, I supported Hillary in that primary.)
But that was five years ago, and in the meantime the rheeform lobby has become much more powerful and richer, and looking at HC as a likely next president, they have likely been trying hard to win her over. Her husband’s philanthropic endeavors puts him in contact with other philanthropists like Gates, etc., and they are probably trying to get to her through him in that way too. Chris Christie just won re-election as Governor in New Jersey by a landslide, in a heavily democratic state, touting the rheeform agenda, and politicians nationwide are likely to take note of that fact. (And Christie is a likely candidate himself for the Repub nomination, amd he or Jeb Bush will most likely make that a major issue in the natinally televises repub debates, etc.)
So I don’t know which way Hillary might go on education. I think it is important that we try to get to her now, before she gets taken in by the rheeformers, who as said, are already likely trying to do so.
I don’t know how we can get through to HC? Anyone have at least an address to write letters to?
(Sorry to have gone somewhat off topic from Jerry Brown. But since you mentioned the presidential race,. and since I think it highly unlikely that Brown would run…………..)
I so agree with you, & have been quite worried that HC is simply– like her dh– a neoliberal, though perhaps in sheep’s clothing. I hope against hope that the timing of that election will allow a groundswell of parents/ teachers/ community leaders to ease her back from that precipice. After all she is the ‘it takes a village’ lady. And villages have little voice under ed reform.
Mike and Freelancer…the old adage that ‘actions speak louder than words’ applies to all, but in particular to Hillary who is pumping her candidacy all over the net, and all over the world. Compared to Madelyn Albright, and to John Kerry, she was a mediocre S of S….and as a heathcare changer she bombed. She and Bill have become multi millionaires (see the Middle East funders of Bill’s non profit) with the Bill Clinton actions to kill Glass Steagal and collude with Phil Gramm to impose the Gramm, Bliley, Leach bill in its place. And NAFTA certainly killed off the rest of the American economy and left homeless to die on Skid Row. Now of course Obama follows up by pushing us into another terrible trade pact with TPP. And the unkindest Clinton cut of all which only served to put whole families on Skid Row was Bill’s Welfare to Work debacle which hurt inner city folks most of all.
So do you still want to support Hillary, anyone?
Good start, Governor Brown. Now, back up what you say with an investigation of LAUSD ipad scam.
Does the governor of California really have no input as to what the state does in educational policy? I read about the push to implement these poisonous tests which he has spoken out against and wonder. I have no idea what influence the government hierarchy gives him, but apparently not much. What’s the story? Is he just making noise to look good?
Here in LA, we have a governor certainly better than most on education policy, with his criticisms of overuse of standardized testing. The same can be said for our State Superintendent of Public Education former teacher Tom Torlakson, who the rheeformers tried hard to defeat.
Yet in LAUSD, by far the largest school district in the state, 2nd largest in the country, we have perhaps the worst superintendent in the country, John Deasy, whom the vast majority of teachers gave an overwhelming no confidence vote earlier this year.. We hoped for a change after the latest school board elections some months ago, but when two board members elected with heavy teacher support (whom the rheeformers also tried unsuccessfully to defeat), Zimmer and Kayser, buckled to the pressures of the Gates-Broad-Walton-Rhee-Bloomberg lobby, and voted to give Deasy a satisfactory evaluation and contract extension through 2016 (giving him a majority vote) , it looks like this district still has to endure misery for years.
Can Brown and Torlakson affect policies in LAUSD? I wish they could. The money that Brown got for the district with Prop 30, for example–we haven’t yet seen any positive benefits of it–not at all. None of the cuts have been rescinded. (Deasy likely wants to spend all that money on his Ipad boondoggle.)
When Jerry Brown ran for President decades ago, I don’t recall if I voted for him in the Democratic primary. If he ran now i certainly would.. At his age though, I think that is extremely unlikely. It is not even clear yet whether he will seek re-election as Governor. I hope he does.
I don’t really understand how the gov of California could NOT have considerable influence over LAUSD. Is CA gov perhaps organized very differently from my state of NJ? Our gov Christie appointed ed-reformer Chris Cerf, who’s worked closely w/outgoing Newark mayor Booker to close ‘failing’ public schools & bring in charters & cheap teachers, even working a privatized deal to house them. I’d like to think that a gov such as Brown would have used his power in an opposite way. Does Brown perhaps just speak for the north end of CA?
You hit the nail on the head, Freelancer…Sacramento politcs is very disfunctional and the outgoing House Speaker, John Perez, is the cousin of former LA mayor Tony Villaraigosa who brags publicly that he only got into UCLA due to affirmative action (and he failed the bar exam so often that he gave up) but he was House Speaker too. Both are big supporters of charter schools, and Tony was the mayor who tried to fix the last two school board elections by putting forth pro charter candidates and also getting mainly out of state billionaires Bloomberg, Broad, Waltons, Murdoch, etc. to finance these unknowns who would support their goals of privatizing LAUSD. He colluded with Eli Broad to impose the appointment of Deasy as Supt.
Seems as though California breeds some really inept and sleazy pols. And we too often have an ill informed public who vote on a whim and a 30 second sound bite. This is the same US ignorance-virus that gave us all the Tea Party know nothings who continue to destroy our government functioning.
And yet Brown, a highly intelligent educated man, has to work with this group in the State House. Also he raises campaign funds from the billionaires Broad, Gates, et al, and the Catholic community who have their own vested interest in parochial education. It is a mess on the West Coast.
Ellen Lubic
PS…Mike, thanks for all the good info you posted here on this situation.
Recent news – copied the content of the link below
http://edsource.org/today/2013/torlakson-calls-for-giving-school-districts-more-money-for-common-core/54407#.UsNUOajTllY
Gov. Jerry Brown included $1.25 billion in this year’s state budget for implementing the new Common Core standards. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is calling on the governor and the Legislature to match if not raise that amount next year – and throw in additional dollars to help districts cut student absenteeism and suspension rates.
With the Legislative Analyst’s Office projecting a surge in Proposition 98 revenue for K-12 schools next year, Torlakson advocates channeling at least $1.5 billion – about $240 per student – for school districts to choose how best to prepare students for both the Common Core English language arts and math standards and the new Next Generation Science Standards that the State Board of Education adopted in September.
“There is some anxiety as you talk to teachers because tough budgets have not allowed professional development over the past three years. And there’s a technology gap (to administer computer-based Common Core tests). But administrators and school boards are welcoming a chance for more training. The state should step up,” Torlakson said in an end-of-the-year interview.
The state has given districts the choice of spending their share of the $1.25 billion to purchase computers and technology, train teachers and administrators, or purchase instructional materials. A survey by the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association indicated districts are spreading the money around. However, it’s been difficult to gauge how well prepared districts are to teach the new standards as well as to administer the field test in the new standards in spring 2014 and to implement the first actual Common Core test a year later. Less than half of districts responded to an extensive survey by the state last spring on technology readiness. So Torlakson called on all districts to take the survey, called the Technology Readiness Tool.
“We’re emphasizing to superintendents and school boards that they need to identify what their needs are,” he said. “What is the gap (in technology to administer the new tests)?”
Without the results, it will be harder to make a case to the Legislature for more money, he said.
Torlakson said his other priority for one-time state money would be to train teachers in alternative forms of discipline to suspension. Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, has sponsored bills the past two legislative sessions to restrict suspensions based on “willful defiance” of school authorities, a catch-all phrase in state law. Two years ago, Brown vetoed the bill; this year, Dickinson pulled back his bill, pending further work, and expects to reintroduce it in 2014. Torlakson said that regardless of the status of Dickinson’s bill, there is a need to train teachers in strategies to defuse situations that would lead to school suspensions.
School districts will be required to pay more attention to reducing suspension and absentee rates when creating their Local Control and Accountability Plans, an annual requirement under the state’s school financing system, the Local Control Funding Formula. Setting goals to improve school climate and student engagement are among the priorities that districts must address. Torlakson said that through regional symposiums, the state Department of Education can help districts identify early patterns of chronic absenteeism and, through partnerships with social service agencies, intervene with parents through home visits. “It’s important to go knock on doors,” he said.
Torlakson discussed other issues as well.
Conflict with federal officials on testing: Torlakson said that he expects a response from the federal Department of Education early next month on the state’s application for a one-year waiver from federal standardized testing requirements. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has agreed to allow 20 percent of students in a state to take a field test in the Common Core standards in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 in lieu of a state standardized test. However, a new state law, AB 484, which Torlakson sponsored, requires all districts to administer an abbreviated version of the computer-based field test to all students, and discontinues nearly all California state standardized tests.
Torlkason and the State Board of Education argue it makes no sense to continue to give standardized tests on state standards when students need to transition to Common Core standards. There’s no assurance that Duncan will agree to the state’s plan, and federal officials have threatened to withhold tens of millions of federal Title I dollars. Discussions with federal officials have continued, Torlakson said, without hinting at a possible outcome.
However, heads of seven California nonprofit organizations have stepped up pressure on Duncan to set conditions for a possible state waiver. In a Dec. 23 letter, they asked Duncan to require that districts make public the results of the Common Core field or practice test, including by student subgroups.
“It is clear that parents, teachers, principals, superintendents and voters in California believe it is important to test students and provide that data to help schools improve,” they said. Signers include Bill Lucia, president and CEO of the advocacy organization EdVoice; Arun Ramanathan, executive director of Education Trust-West; and Rick Miller, executive director of the California Office to Reform Education, a nonprofit serving 10 school districts.
State officials have argued that the field test will not produce valid and reportable results for districts and student subgroups. Its primary purpose, they said, will be to assist the test developer, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, perfect its assessment for 2015.
Accelerated development of new tests: AB 484 requires the Department of Education to present a master plan for introducing new standardized tests in subjects not covered by Common Core standards by March 2016. However, Torlakson said that he plans to meet with State Board of Education President Michael Kirst and Executive Director Karen Stapf Walters to discuss a faster timeline for tests in some subjects. High school math tests, including Algebra I, and tests in the new science standards would be priorities for quicker test development.
Action on teacher dismissals and evaluations: Faced with potential ballot measures rewriting state laws on teacher dismissals and teacher evaluations, Torlakson said the Legislature should act on those issues. For two straight years, the Legislature deadlocked on a bill that would make it simpler and less expensive to fire teachers accused of sexually abusing students. A proposed initiative sponsored by EdVoice would put the issue to voters in November 2014.
Earlier this month, a consultant affiliated with Sacramento-based StudentsFirst submitted a proposed initiative to the attorney general for approval that would rewrite the state’s teacher evaluation law and eliminate teacher dismissals based on seniority. Torlakson said he has not reviewed the two initiatives, which have yet to qualify for the ballot, but encouraged the Legislature to act this session on its own. The initiative would impose a teacher evaluation structure that Torlakson said should be collectively bargained.
In September 2012, a task force that Torlakson appointed released a report, Greatness by Design, that recommended a more comprehensive approach to teacher evaluations than required by the current law, the Stull Act. Linda Darling-Hammond, an education professor at Stanford and current co-chair of the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, co-chaired Torlakson’s task force.
Have they not learned anything from the debacle in New York State? My condolences.
Thank you for the excellent summary on what’s going on in Sacramento education politics. As a teacher recently retired and a recent graduate of LAUSD’s “teacher jail”, I fear for aha is happening to Los Angeles’ youth. The people working at LAUSD sites are being bullied mercilessly on a daily basis to conform, “go along”, and worker harder and longer uncompensated, not only teachers and other certificated staff, but classified staff as well. There is no end to the cruelty. How can students learn in an environment where almost all the adults are fearful for their jobs and mental and physical well-being? The Common Core are just the tip of this terrorizing iceberg? Meanwhile, Marshall Tuck, who has a resume that includes Harvard Business School, Green Dot charter schools administration, and CEO of The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (PLAS), former mayor Villaraigosa’s dream at running some L.A. schools, will be running against Torlakson using Eli Broad’s, Richard Riordan’s, and probably Michelle Rhee’s, and Bill Gate’s money.
Yes, Charlotte…we are between a rock and a hard place. I could not vote for Tuck of course, so once again will probably hold my nose and vote for Torlakson who took the path of least resistance.
While following the money, you will see that these same billionaires finance both candidates in almost every race. They own us all…or at least are trying to.
Ellen
Trying to make sense of your post. Am I right to conclude that, Jerry Brown’a anti-high-stakes testing verbiage notwithstanding, CA proceeds down this path with a couple of tweaks?
I am not sure what it means, but it sounds bad to me, it seems the teacher evaluations are coming to CA. As well as everything else that comes along with Common Core. I just copied and pasted the whole article.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.