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Schwarzenegger's Big Plans for Calif. Schools

August 25, 2009 RSS Feed Print

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In an effort to qualify the state's public schools for more than $4 billion in competitive federal funding, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling on legislators to adopt sweeping education reforms that would dramatically reshape California's K-12 schools, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Several other states, including Illinois and Indiana, have changed their laws and policies to comply with guidelines set by the federal education department to receive the "Race to the Top" grants, but Schwarzenegger's proposal "goes way above and beyond what other states are doing," Baron Rodriguez of the education research group Data Quality Center told the Times.

Schwarzenegger's reforms include:

Adopting a merit pay system that would reward effective teachers and give them incentives to work at low-performing campuses;
Requiring districts to consider student test data when evaluating teachers;
Evaluating teachers and schools not just by students' achievement of specific goals but by their individual improvement year to year, referred to as "value-added" analysis.

The "value-added" approach, which determines the effect a teacher has on growth by measuring students against each other, is generating some of the most heated criticism of the governor's plans. The state's teachers unions, which have historically opposed merit pay and tying student performance to teacher evaluation, are expected to fight the proposals. Dean Vogel, vice president of the 340,000-member California Teachers Association, the state's largest, told the Times that the proposals weren't well thought out.

"If you're really serious about reform, it demands intense debate among the stakeholders," Vogel said. "The way it's unfolding is rushed."

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says that the state could become a national model for school reform if the proposals end up going through.

The regular legislative session is scheduled to end September 11. Schwarzenegger hopes lawmakers will finish their work on education by early October, in time for the first deadline for Race to the Top funding this winter.

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Tags:: Arnold Schwarzenegger,; public schools,; California,; education reform,; K-12 education,; education

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Fox news had a man on the street asking students about the presidents of the United States and which of whom was the most outstanding. Only ONE student could come up with Jefferson and then didn't know of his achievements. NO ONE else had a clue..didn't know the prez. of the day or the vise prez, and these are the voters of the next election? It would be funny if it weren't so sad. So why put more money into schools to be educated by the uneducated with the obvious agenda of dumbing down our children so they can be the next sheep of the world.

Sally Herbert of CA 12:02PM September 24, 2009

Let me see if I have this straight, the people who ran our state into the ground are now going to fix our education system?

David R. Geisme of CA 12:36PM September 12, 2009

Real Reform and merit pay? Hmmmmm....I get 150 new students every year all at different ability levels and am to be judged on the makeup of my class. There are no new ideas here. The leaders of this state want a quick fix for a quick money grab.
Real Reform should be much more.
1. Stop running education mills. We cram 30, 35, 40, 45 in a classroom, require way too many standards to teach, test students 4-6 weeks before the end of the school year and then cry foul at teachers not being innovative? I would love to teach less and get out of the standard "rat race" so I can add more hands-on activities, web based projects or extended projects to foster more application of what we learn, but there is never enough time. When have any of these politicians stepped into our classrooms and watched and asked us what real reform looks like?
2. Let's talk innovation: How about funding schools properly for teachers to learn and use technology properly. How about supplying enough computer labs so we can all use them regularly with our classes? My school district is doing very well with what they are given but many of us have earned or are working on a Masters in Education with a focus on technology as our school has developed a cohort with a university to do so. Now we are all needing time in the lab; not a bad problem. We need a way to secure more funding to build more space as the needs arise.
3. How about getting away from the idea that students are widgets and making real programs for real students. Shouldn't the math students learn relate to the fields they may be gravitating towards after high school? Why not build schools within our schools; art academies, builders academies, science academies, computer academies, and so on. Make the curriculum relevant towards what these students are gifted in and by what motivates them to learn. I am a math teacher. I cannot fix my car, build my kitchen and bathroom cabinets, entertain myself with a beautiful piece of music or create art to hang on my wall to soothe me. Yet, we expect all of our students to be like me. Know math. We are behind other countries. America is not doing a good job teaching. Sure, we can teach the students algebra, but let us gear it towards the students needs for THEIR future.
4. For the country, not everyone can teach. Just because you know the material doesn't mean you can convey it. Learn to respect teachers. I weary of the argument that if I would be paid by merit I would work harder. I work hard, sometimes at my family's expense.
4. Please study step and column schedules. Do you see it takes 25-30 years for a teacher to make $70,000? This country should be ashamed of themselves. It is a battle to even have a full cost of living handed down on the salary schedule. Yes, no one goes into teaching for the money, but this excuse for paying teachers poorly has gone on long enough.
I agree, it is time for reform. True reform.

Carleen Maselli of CA 12:15PM September 07, 2009

Schwarzenegger's Big Plans for Calif. Schools

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