August 10, 2012 | Education Week

In a state where one in every four public K-12 students is an English-language learner, there’s a whole lot riding on how well California’s educators are able to support this population of students as they face the greater language demands...

June 25, 2012 | The Educated Guess

Given more control over how they could spend state money, school districts not surprisingly chose survival over experimentation. And if legislators want otherwise—to encourage districts to innovate or target money on low-achieving students—then they should be more explicit about their...

May 12, 2012 | KQED

We continue a special live broadcast from Oakland's Castlemont High School on the dropout crisis in public schools. In this hour, we turn to policymakers and education reformers who have given this issue a lot of thought. Do they think...

May 12, 2001 | The Los Angeles Times

Senioritis. Senior slump. The Year of the Zombies. Forget preparing for the rigors of college. The final year of high school is for sleeping in, flipping burgers, hanging out with pals, surfing, partying, fighting with your girlfriend, making up with...

May 10, 2012 | The Stanford Daily

Five years after a study by Stanford researchers called for reform and increased investment in California’s public education system, progress has been at best underwhelming and inconsistent, according to a new report from the independent Policy Analysis for California Education...

April 1, 2012 | HTH Unboxed

Almost all the politics of education concerns rearranging adult power and privilege. Relatively little political energy is spent consciously designing a contemporary system of public education. That should change.

By focusing political energy on how students learn rather than the...

Commentary author
David Plotnikoff
Summary

The upcoming implementation of Common Core instructional standards in California is described as a significant transformation for the state's education system. Michael Kirst, President of the California State Board of Education, testified that the Common Core brings about substantial changes by emphasizing deeper learning and moving away from traditional multiple-choice testing. He outlined the extensive work required for successful implementation, emphasizing the need for new policies to align various educational aspects with Common Core standards. California, one of 45 states adopting Common Core, anticipates better alignment with post-secondary study demands, emphasizing a deeper understanding of complex material, particularly in math and nonfiction text analysis. Despite a tighter focus, the standards aim to use fewer, more impactful benchmarks. The current assessment system, reliant on standardized multiple-choice tests, is considered inadequate for measuring Common Core skills. New assessments for English and math are in development, with the state adopting the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The Common Core provides more curriculum flexibility, abandoning the traditional seven-year textbook adoption cycle in favor of an expedited endorsement process for local districts. Despite the complexity, Kirst expressed confidence in California's ability to navigate this transformative shift, drawing parallels to past successful educational transformations.

March 5, 2012 | Education Week

Lower transportation costs. Less money spent on facilities and overhead. Increased teacher and student attendance. And higher test scores? New research suggests, perhaps counterintuitively, that the four-day school week not only doesn’t hurt student achievement, but seems to help. The...

January 18, 2012 | The Stanford Daily

California voters will face a stark choice in November when they decide whether to approve Governor Jerry Brown’s new budget proposal, which stipulates either raising income taxes for the wealthy and temporarily increasing sales tax by half a percent, or...