New law dumbs down Calif. math performance

By Bill Evers and Ze’ev Wurman, Originally posted at CalWatchdog.com, republished with permission

Gov. Jerry Brown recently sent California several decades back into the 20th century by signing Senate Bill 1200, by state Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Oakland. This law now mandates a shocking rollback of how much math we expect children in California’s public schools to learn and  — furthermore — this law constitutes a setback for good government.

Back in the late 1990s, faced with evidence that the state ranked near the bottom of the nation and industrialized countries in math achievement,California policymakers set the goal of teaching Algebra 1 by grade eight to all students who were ready for it — in line with most high-achieving countries.

From the beginning, policymakers knew it was an ambitious goal. Educators stepped up to the challenge. Policymakers at the state level, working together with teachers and principals in local school districts, put a system in place to enhance learning of key building blocks of mathematics in the elementary grades, strengthened teachers’ math competency, increased training on math teaching techniques, and provided textbooks aligned to the more challenging standards.

And students stepped up, too. The results are a rarely-told story of stunning success in public education. In 1998, only 17 percent, just 70,000 of our students, took Algebra by grade eight. But this year, 68 percent, or more than 324,000 did.

This translates to almost quarter of a million more students taking Algebra by grade eight. Not only had we successfully quadrupled the fraction of Algebra-taking by grade eight, which is a major accomplishment for those students and their teachers — but an ever larger percentage of students have over time scored “proficient” and above.

The success of minorities and students in poverty increasing their Algebra 1 proficiency was the most significant achievement. In 2003, fewer than 1,700 African-Americans successfully took Algebra by grade 8. By 2012, more than 6,900 did; that was more than a four-fold increase

In 2003, slightly more than 10,000 Latino students successfully took Algebra by grade 8. By 2011, more than 63,000 did; that was more than six-fold increase. In fact, more Latino students scored proficient and advanced on Algebra in 2012 than the total number of Latino students who took Algebra in 2003.

Dooming the children

SB 1200 will doom all children, whether in poverty or affluent, to a one-size-fits-all, lowered-expectations elementary curriculum that will only prepare them for pre-algebra in middle school. Rather than strengthening preparation for all students in earlier grades for Algebra in grade eight, in line with international benchmarks, we will return to an era when only privileged families can afford the extra tutoring to prepare their children for high expectations and international competition.

We have come to the point in this country where foreign students now make up almost half of those getting master’s degrees and over half of doctorates in mathematics and computer science in our universities. This is shameful.

Poorly drafted

Furthermore, SB1200 is so poorly drafted that it doesn’t just roll back the expectation of Algebra 1 in grade eight. It does more than that by requiring “one set” of standards “at each grade level,” and precluding typical mathematics course options for students in high school.

California high schools have always offered different math classes to students in the same grade who have different levels of preparation. Accordingly,California historically has adopted course-level math standards for high school — preserving local control at the district and school level to decide when it would be best to offer rigorous courses to each student based on the student’s ability. But SB 1200 would outlaw that practice by mandating only one set of mathematics curriculum- content standards, textbooks and training and teacher materials for all students in each K-12 grade.

Officials of Brown’s administration have offered rhetoric about how they will not have to implement the plain language of the law. But they do not have the statutory authority or capacity to violate the law’s provisions. Efforts to get around the wording of the law will lead to confusion about policy on curriculum, textbooks, and testing — and hence invite lawsuits and re-ignite the math wars.

Standards development

Finally, SB 1200 radically changes the balance of power in government over the development of curriculum-content standards. Historically, standards have been drafted by a panel appointed by different branches of California’s state government, with a majority of appointees made by the governor. This bill permanently transfers authority over standards development to the state superintendent of public instruction, currently Tom Torlakson, a former Democratic state legislator.

Such a move is unwise. The state superintendent and bureaucrats at the state Department of Education often are likely to represent the narrow interests of education providers. Whereas the governor (of whatever party) is more likely to represent the larger interests of all the people of California who primarily want to see students succeeding academically – especially students’ parents and employers who hire graduates of public schools.

When California agreed to consider adopting the Common Core national curriculum-content standards, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, concerned about maintaining California’s rigorous standards, conditioned their adoption “until we have determined that they meet or exceed our own” standards

In that spirit, the California State Academic Content Standards Commission determined in 2010 that retaining Algebra I in eighth grade was essential. It suggested dual options — both authentic Algebra I and the Common Core’s pre-algebra. The state Board of Education approved the suggestions in August 2010. In signing SB 1200 Governor Brown has just thrown overboard the rigor that three past governors — of both parties — had fought hard to establish and maintain.

Undoing California’s high academic expectations is a disastrous step backward for all children. SB 1200 will leave the children and  future workers of California woefully unprepared for the challenges and demands they will face in today’s ever more fiercely competitive economy at home and in an increasingly global marketplace.

Bill Evers is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a member of the institution’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. He was U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Program, Evaluation and Policy Development from 2007 to 2009. Ze’ev Wurman is an executive at a Silicon Valley semiconductor company and a former senior adviser to the U.S. Department of Education. Both Evers and Wurman served on the California State Academic Content Standards Commission in 2010.  

NEW: Studies flunk class-size reduction

Originally published in CalWatchDog and Union Watch - republished with permission

Oct. 17, 2012

By Larry Sand

It’s time to “just say no” to the small class-size pushers and eliminate seniority as a staffing mechanism.

Small class size means less work for teachers. Parents seem to think that their child will be better educated in a room with fewer classmates. Unions love fewer kids in a class because it equates to a larger workforce, which means more money and power for them. Only problem is that small class size does not lead to greater student achievement. It just means more hiring, then laying off the same teachers and punishing taxpayers who needlessly pay for a bloated workforce.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published “The Imaginary Teacher Shortage,” an op-ed by professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas Jay Greene, in which he exposes the small-is-better canard:

“For decades we have tried to boost academic outcomes by hiring more teachers, and we have essentially nothing to show for it. In 1970, public schools employed 2.06 million teachers, or one for every 22.3 students, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Digest of Education Statistics. In 2012, we have 3.27 million teachers, one for every 15.2 students.”

Greene also addresses the fact that, as hiring increases, there is less likelihood of a student getting a good teacher. And a having a good teacher is the most important factor in student achievement.

“Parents like the idea of smaller class sizes in the same way that people like the idea of having a personal chef. Parents imagine that their kids will have one of the Iron Chefs. But when you have to hire almost 3.3 million chefs, you’re liable to end up with something closer to the fry-guy from the local burger joint.”

Too many teachers

Just three months ago, director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom Andrew Coulson wrote a similar op-ed in the same newspaper. The subhead in “America Has Too Many Teachers” sets the tone:

“Public-school employees have doubled in 40 years while student enrollment has increased by only 8.5%—and academic results have stagnated.”

In the body of the piece, he gives us some numbers to chew on. Whereas Greene talks specifically about teachers, Coulson refers to the entire “public school workforce”:

“Since 1970, the public school workforce has roughly doubled—to 6.4 million from 3.3 million—and two-thirds of those new hires are teachers or teachers’ aides. Over the same period, enrollment rose by a tepid 8.5%. Employment has thus grown 11 times faster than enrollment. (Emphasis added.) If we returned to the student-to-staff ratio of 1970, American taxpayers would save about $210 billion annually in personnel costs.”

I contributed my own two cents on the subject in City Journal in July of 2011:

“In 1998, Hoover Institution senior fellow and economist Eric Hanushek released the results of his impressive review of class-size studies. Examining 277 separate studies on the effect of teacher-pupil ratios and class-size averages on student achievement, he found that 15 percent of the studies found an improvement in achievement, while 72 percent found no effect at all—and 13 percent found that reducing class size had a negative effect on achievement. While Hanushek admits that in some cases, children might benefit from a small-class environment, there is no way ‘to describe a priori situations where reduced class size will be beneficial.’”

So, basically, almost three-quarters of all the studies showed no benefit to small class size, and of the rest, almost the same number revealed negative effects as positive ones.

Layoffs

While it is a personal hardship for a teacher to be laid off, no one should be surprised when it happens. When economic times are good, it’s easy to buy into more hiring. But good economic times don’t last forever; and when, suddenly, we can’t afford all the teachers we have hired and some need to be let go, it is brazen of the self-righteous, small class-size true believers to mislead the public with their hand-wringing and political posturing.

And we can’t say we weren’t warned that there were going to be problems. Back in April of 2004, teacher union watchdog Mike Antonucci wrote:

“Enrollment Figures Spell Big Trouble for Education Labor.

“The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) regularly reviews enrollment figures, comparing past years with expectations for the future. Its most recent report shows clearly that the fat years of teacher employment are over, and the lean years may last much longer than anyone has previously predicted.

“NCES compared the period 1988-2001 with its projections for 2001-2013. The differences are stark. While public school enrollment increased 19 percent between 1988 and 2001, it is expected to grow only 4 percent between 2001 and 2013. During the period 1988-2001, the number of public school teachers grew by an astonishing 29 percent. The forecast for 2001-2013 is growth of only 5 percent–or less than 0.4 percent annually.”

Then in June 2004, referring to Rankings and Estimates, a National Education Association report, Antonucci wrote:

“In 2003-04, American public elementary schools taught 1,649,027 more pupils than they did in 1993-94. But there were 247,620 more elementary school classroom teachers in 2003-04 than there were in 1993-94. Simply put, for every 20 additional students enrolled in America’s K-8 schools in the last 10 years, we hired three additional elementary school classroom teachers.”

So clearly, having fewer teachers is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is tragic when we lose the good ones. Throughout much of the country, the decisions as to which teachers get laid off are determined by archaic seniority policies.

Teachers-of-the-year are laid off before their mediocre or incompetent counterparts simply because the latter may have been hired a few days before the former. This is no way to run an education system. The sooner we get away from the smaller-is-better myth and turn our attention to scrapping the industrial style “last in, first out” method, the better.

About the author: Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues.

Q

OC Deputy District Attorney Patti Sanchez honored with the Outstanding Contributions to Education

Posted by CotoBlogzz

  
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA  -  Orange County Deputy District Attorney Patti Sanchez was recognized yesterday by the Orange County Board of Education for her influential work in the Truancy Reduction Program and honored with the "Outstanding Contributions to Education" award.

Sanchez received the award from the Orange County Department of Education and Al Mijares, County Superintendent of Schools, at their first awards ceremony of the 2012-2013 school year.

The Outstanding Contributions to Education Awards Program was established in the early 1980's to recognize the efforts and achievements of those positively impacting and contributing significantly to the education of Orange County students. Sanchez was nominated by the community liaisons in the Alternative, Community, and Correctional Schools and services (ACCESS) program. Wendy Rogan, supervisor of the group, stated that "Ms. Sanchez is an ideal candidate for the Outstanding Contribution to Education Award due to her long standing commitment to at-risk students, collaborative approach to reducing truancy, and message of empowerment for parents."

After receiving the award, Sanchez recognized the contributions of her colleagues and talked about the work and all their achievements being a collaborative effort. Sanchez appreciates the recognition that the program itself is receiving, saying, "If I can get two parents from our program to tell two more parents just how they were able to help their kids to become successful, then I can reach dozens of families." In response to receiving her award, Sanchez says, "I am so excited to get paid to do what I love to do. Helping to get one more kid over the fence, back on track to a successful life, makes all the hard work worth it."

The Truancy Reduction Program (TRP), implemented in 2001, was established in the Orange County school system to reduce school truancies and absences in an effort to discourage the type of behavior shown to increase the risk of delinquency. The program works in conjunction with the Juvenile Court in partnership with the Probation Department, Department of Education, OCDA, and Public Defenders offices, Social Services and Health Care agencies, as well as the community-based Parent Empowerment Program

Paycheck Protection Redux

By Larry Sand

Unions line up against an initiative that would end payroll deductions for politics.

For the third time since 1998, California voters face a ballot initiative that would rein in special-interest political spending in the state. Proposition 32, which will appear on the November general-election ballot, would ban unions and most corporations from making direct contributions to state and local candidates. The measure would also bar government contractors from contributing to political campaigns. The most significant provision, though—the one giving public-employee unions, especially the California Teachers Association, fits—would prohibit corporations, unions, and government employers from deducting money from workers’ paychecks to use for political purposes.

Corporations, which have other means of acquiring political money, don’t deduct nearly as much money for politics as unions do. Only about 800 companies in the United States use voluntary deductions to fund corporate PACs; most political donations come from company executives. By contrast, payroll deductions are the unions’ bread and butter. Every public-employee union in the state deducts money from members’ paychecks alongside the withholding for federal and state income taxes. Right now, the only way an employee can recoup the political portion of these dues is to “resign” from the union and ask for a rebate—an onerous process. Prop. 32 would turn the tables on union political fundraising, and so the unions have invested heavily in defeating it.

So far, Prop. 32 opponents have outraised supporters by roughly five-to-one. As of September 24, the Prop. 32 campaign had raised about $9 million, while the opposition collected $41.3 million. Nearly $17 million of that total came directly from the CTA.

Earlier ballot measures similar to Prop. 32 have failed. In 1998, Prop. 226, the first “paycheck-protection” initiative, would have required all employers and labor organizations to obtain a member’s permission on a yearly basis before withholding wages or using union dues or fees for political activities. Correctly perceiving the initiative as a threat to their hegemony, the unions spent more than $24.8 million opposing it. The “Yes on 226” side could only muster $6.4 million, and the measure lost, 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent. Paycheck protection made a comeback in 2005 with Prop. 75, which sought to ban “the use by public employee labor organizations of public employee dues or fees for political contributions except with the prior consent of individual public employees each year on a specified written form.” Once again, opposition forces overwhelmed proponents, with the CTA contributing $12.1 million to the “No on Prop. 75” campaign’s $54.1 million war chest, while the “Yes” campaign barely raised $5.8 million. The initiative lost by the nearly identical margin of 53.5 percent to 46.5 percent.

Seven years later, we’re at it again. Prop. 32 goes further than its predecessors in simply banning paycheck deductions for political purposes, period—no fuss over employees’ consent this time. Of course, employees could give to a candidate or political-action committee via a direct deduction from their own bank accounts if they so choose. But public-employee unions know well what happens when employees are given a choice. In 2001, Utah’s state legislature passed the Voluntary Contributions Act, which “banned public agencies from diverting employee wages to political entities” and requiring “public sector unions to collect funds through voluntary member contributions.” Within a year, the Utah Education Association saw the rate of contributing members to the union’s PAC plunge from 68 percent to 6.8 percent. In 1997, Idaho passed legislation requiring public-employee union PACs to get written consent from members every year before making automatic payroll deductions. The proportion of contributing members dropped 75 percent soon after the law took effect.

How do teachers’ unions justify automatic deductions? Bob Chanin, then-general counsel of the National Education Association, explained it in 1978: “It is well-recognized that if you take away the mechanism of payroll deduction you won’t collect a penny from these people, and it has nothing to do with voluntary or involuntary. I think it has a lot to do with the nature of the beast, and the beasts who are our teachers. . . [They] simply don’t come up with the money regardless of the purpose.” What Chanin seemed to be saying is that teachers are too greedy, lazy, or unenlightened to know what’s good for them, so the union leadership should take members’ money and spend it as they see fit.

And how do the unions spend their members’ dues? According to the California Fair Practices Commission, from 2000 through 2009 the CTA doled out $211.8 million on candidates, ballot measures, and a fearsome lobbying operation in Sacramento. Another public-employee union, the California State Council of Service Employees, laid out $107.5 million in political expenditures during the same period. Of the $286.6 million lobbying groups spent in 2011 trying to influence legislation, the CTA spent the most ($6.5 million). And it’s no secret which direction teachers’ union money flows. According to Follow the Money, between 2003 and 2012, the CTA contributed more than $15 million to Democrats and just $92,700 to Republicans. That works out to 99.4 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. No polling data exists on how California’s teachers break down politically, but it’s safe to assume that it’s nowhere near as one-sided as their union’s spending suggests. (Nationally, the political breakdown for teachers is 40 percent Democrat, 30 percent Republican, and 30 percent unaffiliated.)

How is a system fair in which union members’ dues flow, without their consent, to candidates and campaigns whose views they and other taxpayers may not share? And why should a worker have to take the initiative to avoid contributing to political causes deemed worthy by his union bosses? “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves,” Thomas Jefferson once declared, “is sinful and tyrannical.” Public-employee unions are the living embodiment of this practice.

Larry Sand, a retired teacher, is president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network.

Challenges associated with implementing gay history mandates

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - On July 14, 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown signed the first-of-its-kind bill to include gay history in the California social studies curriculum.  California Sen. Mark Leno (D) sponsored a bill requiring public schools to teach the historical contributions of gay Americans. The bill passed the Assembly on a 49-25, party-line vote on July 5, and was signed into law July 14, 2011

Now California schools are trying to figure out how to implement these new gay history mandates.

Critics of the new law, SB 48, including  the Pacific Justice Institute, are concerned that October, which has been designated as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month, is already being used to distort and politicize history.  Attorneys at the Pacific Justice Institute argue that most of the 31 selections for this year’s list of gay “icons” are inappropriate for K-12 audiences.

This year’s list, which can be found at www.lgbthistorymonth.com, includes a drag queen, the first person believed to have had a sex-change surgery, several political and same-sex marriage activists, and a baseball player with 2 career home runs. One of the better-known individuals on the list is Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote “America the Beautiful.” Bates never claimed to be lesbian, but she is deemed an LGBT icon because she never married and had a close relationship with a female colleague who she lived with for many years.

Last year’s LGBT History Month drew fire for highlighting controversial entertainer Lady Gaga. The event also ignited controversy in New Jersey, where officials called for the firing of a teacher who dared to criticize it on her personal Facebook page.

Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, commented, “What we are already seeing in advance of LGBT History Month underscores why we fought SB 48 and why we continue to fight for sanity in social studies. Young children learning patriotic songs like ‘America the Beautiful’ don’t need to hear about the author’s alleged sexuality. Nor should our kids be learning that drag queens, activists and politicians are important because of their behavior in the bedroom.”

PJI is encouraging parents to talk to their kids’ teachers and principals to find out whether they will be promoting LGBT History Month in October.

PJI is also offering to represent teachers who conscientiously object to requirements that they teach revisionist or politicized

California Department of Education's Spin on 2012 Test Results

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - The California Department of Education headlines for the 2012 Standardized Testing and Reporting test results read “State Superintendent Tom Torlakson Notes Progress Despite School Budget Cuts “ and “2012 STAR Results Mark Ninth Straight Year of Rising English and Math Scores” supported with statements like:

"In less than a decade, California has gone from having only one student in three score proficient to better than one student in two,..... That's nearly 900,000 more students reaching proficiency now than in 2003—a remarkable achievement that represents real, sustained improvements in learning. ...Even more remarkable is the fact that our students continue to make gains even as our schools—and the teachers, administrators and school employees working in them—are getting by with so much less," 

according to Torlakson and goes on to blame budgets.

"As pleased as I am by the great progress many students are making, the deep school budget cuts of recent years make it ever less likely these gains will continue. Preventing further cuts and beginning to restore what's been lost are essential to helping every student learn and prepare for the future."

The reality is that on the 2012 STAR tests, the percentage of students at or above the proficient level increased by a mere 3 percentage points in English–language arts and 1 percentage point in mathematics over last year. In other words, no real improvement!

And while the percentage of students scoring at the proficient or advanced level increased by 22 percentage points since 2003 in English-language arts, or from 35 percent to 57 percent and 16 percentage points in mathematics, from 35 percent to 51 percent , ONLY 54 percent of students taking the Summative High School Mathematics exam, scored proficient or above, nd 52 percent of students taking the biology exam scored proficient or above. I other words, close to half of the students in California are not proficient in English and or Mathematics – this has nothing to do with budget cuts and more to do with what we call, the culture.

The State Board of Education has established the "proficient" level as the desired achievement goal for all students. That level represents a point at which students demonstrate a competent and adequate understanding of the knowledge and skills measured by the assessment at a particular grade, in a particular content area. This achievement goal is consistent with school growth targets for state accountability and

RELATED STORIES

Department of education to release test scores

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - The California Department of Education announced that it is to release its annual standardized test scores for school districts today, a couple of weeks late, due to security breaches, including some students posting questions online.

Answer to LAUSD Sex Abuse Debacle? It is the Culture, Stupid!

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – Yesterday, Freshman California Assemblyman Mansoor from the 68^th district, responding to the recent teacher misconduct scandal in Los Angeles, joined other Republicans in proposing legislation sought by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Unified officials to empower local school districts to swiftly remove predators from the classroom and seek their dismissal.

Education Central

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - this page is a central repository for education-related articles.

An Argument for Privatizing Public Education:  K-12 & Beyond.Rancho Santa Margarita, CA -Franklin Roosevelt thought public-sector unions were a lousy idea, President Reagan thought public sector unions are an anachronism in the 21st Century - What are you going to do about it?  Consider that the California Teachers Association, (CTA)the most power union in California and ar

Royal Student Awards Announced

Posted By CotoBlogzz

London, UK  -  The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) on July 26, 2012 announced the 2013 Student Design Award Winners, including a redesign of the standard issue National Rail train ticket and a scheme to keep pubs at the heart of local communities by maximizing their existing spatial and social assets.

The  RSA describes itself ad an enlightenment organization committed to finding innovative practical solutions to today’s social challenges. Through its ideas, research and 27,000-strong Fellowship it seeks to understand and enhance human capability to close the gap between today’s reality and people’s hopes for a better world.

The RSA Student Design Awards continues to be the paramount design competition for young designers looking to apply their skills to enduring social issues and real-world problems. In 2011-12, approximately 600 students submitted entries from over 65 colleges and universities around the UK as well as a few from international students studying in Europe and Asia. Worth over $80,000.00  in prize money and work placements, the RSA Student Design Awards provides financial and practical assistance to student designers starting out in their careers.

ADVERTISEMENT

Expert judging panels selected 15 winners, with students competing across ten different categories.   Winning entries covered  wide range of topics, including a project aimed at improving the sexual well-being and relationships of servicemen who have suffered the effects of improvised explosive devices. 

Commenting on the winners, the RSA's co-director of Design, Nat Hunter said:  "We were overwhelmed by the high standard of entries this year, and extremely impressed to see how students responded to the social challenges that we set. One of the unique features of the Student Design Awards is that we meet shortlisted students in person, which gives us a very rounded view of each individual, and it is very heartening to meet so many engaged clever and inventive young people who are now ready to go out into the world and use their design skills for positive benefit to society."

Richard Watters, a final year Design for Industry student at Northumbria University won a placement at the internationally renowned design consultancy Priestmangoode for his simplified National Rail ticket design. Instead of the commuters receiving their seat reservation, journey ticket and ticket receipt as three separate, but similar looking tickets,  Richard’s ticket design features all necessary travel information on just one simple ticket, with a separate paper receipt as proof of purchase.

22-year-old Watters was inspired by his own experiences on train journeys where he and other passengers had received large fines for accidentally producing the wrong ticket for their journey. 

The 2011-12 RSA Student Design Awards brought renewed focus to the importance of ingenuity and social benefit in design. The 10 briefs covered a range of important social issues, including urban and rural regeneration, patient compliance, intergenerational relationships, the future of education and the workplace in the digital age. The most popular briefs were 'The Good Journey' which asked students to use design to improve commuting and 'Tomorrow's Workplace' which asked students to design the workplace of the future for greater flexibility and better environmental performance. 

Past winners of the RSA Student Design Awards include Jonathan Ive, senior vice-president of Industrial Design at Apple;  fashion designer Betty Jackson; Andy Clark, who designed the Heathrow Express train; and Hot Springs radiator designer and founder of Priestmangoode, Paul Priestman

CBS Reports CA graduation rate up, drop out rate down. Hold on to your wallet!

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - I keep making the argument that a fundamental transformation of America is as easy as eating an elephant:  You do it one bite at a time.  In this case, one school district at a time, or as the new far left’s ad might say, it’s a simple math problem, Stupid!

To fundamentally transform America is a simple math problem, Stupid!

Yesterday’s slobbering media coverage of the California state Department of Education’s report indicating that more California high school students graduated in 2011 and fewer dropped rivaled that of  the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  Either it was a slow news day, or the teachers union PR campaign was in full swing setting you up for yet another tax increase in November.

For example, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said he was encouraged by the results, which put California's graduation rate at 76.3 percent, up 1.5 percent from 2010, and dropout rate at 14.4 percent, down by 2.2 percent, from 2010, although he added the obligatory  “ but  there is still much room for improvement,” note

Apparently Torlakson does not speak six-sigma.  Instead of a drop-out rate goal in parts-per-million (PPM) he prefers to speak in terms of percentages:  "It's going in the right direction, but it's not where we want it to be," Torlakson said. "We want to be at 85-90 percent."  When you consider that the teachers’ union combined with the SEIU have invested over $500,000,000 buying lawmakers in Sacramento, it is no wonder that mediocrity abounds, as opposed to the aforementioned PPM benchmark.

Symbiotic relationship between politicians, unions, lobbyists and bureaucracies

It should be noted that the report shows that graduation rates for  Hispanic, black, English learner and poor students were higher statewide than the overall average, indicating  that progress was being made in closing the achievement gap and that the largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, posted a 4.2 percent drop in its dropout rate, to 20.6 percent, and less than 1 percent decline in its graduation rate, to 61.6 percent.

Now, while all eyes were on Wisconsin, local voters approved 63% or 55 of the 87 local tax, bond or fee measures on the June 5, 2012 California primary ballot. Given California’s Triple Threat and the symbiotic relationship between politicians, unions, lobbyists and bureaucracies, you can bet that the they will be making a case for additional taxes, based on the glowing reports by the main stream media afforded the California state Department of Education’s report

To view local and or statewide report, click here t

RELATED STORIES

While all eyes were on Wisconsin, The Union Wreaks Havoc in SOCAL

California Voters Approve 63% of tax Measure

Local voters approved 63% or 55 of the 87 local tax, bond or fee measures on the June 5, 2012 California primary ballot according to Michael Coleman, the creator of CaliforniaCityFinance.com. Majority vote measures fared much better than super-majority votes requiring 2/3 approval to pass special taxes and bonds. Fifteen or 79% of the 19 majority vote measures passed, but only eighteen or 53%% of the 34 supermajority vote taxes passed. Voters favored approval of school tax and bond measures by 66%, compared to 45% for non-schools.

How to fundamentally transform America:  Just like you eat an elephant - One school district at a time.

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – We all know that President Obama, Pelosi, Boxer, Reid, Van Jones et all want to in the President’s own words, fundamentally transform America.  This past week during a Gay Lesbian Transgender  (GBLT) fund-raising event in California, the President boasted about his accomplishments promoting the GBLT’s agenda saying something to the effect: “I could not be prouder of my accomplishments, as these contribute to a more perfect union”