In the last month both the ACT and the SAT testing programs, the college entrance exams taken by almost all college bound high school students, reported their results for the high school class of 2012. Both testing programs included information on what they called “college and career readiness” by providing data on the percentage of [...]

Voters will be asked to vote on two education initiatives this coming November, Proposition 30 (also known as the Brown initiative); and Proposition 38 (also known as the Munger initiative). Both of these initiatives would provide additional funding for education, but they would approach the increase in revenue in different ways. Click the link below [...]

Dear TOP-Ed subscriber,
In the event you’ve been on vacation or wondering what happened to your daily posts from Thoughts on Public Education, let me again invite you to follow and subscribe to Kathy Baron and me at EdSource, where we joined forces with [...]

Advocates of a complaint process for parents and students who believe they’re being charged illegal fees have amended a bill to satisfy all of the main opponents, save the silent one who hasn’t been heard from yet. That’s Gov. Jerry Brown, who vetoed similar legislation last year.
On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee approved AB 1575 [...]

With teachers and organized labor rallying against what they called an unnecessary attack on their rights, a bill that would make it easier to fire teachers and administrators accused of serious sexual and violent offenses against children failed to pass the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday. Sen. Alex Padilla’s controversial SB 1530 will be dead [...]

California’s high school graduation rate is edging upwards for most groups of students. The overall graduation rate for 2010-11 was 76.3 percent, or 1.5 percent above the prior year.
Tom Torlakson, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, acknowledged that while it’s not a surge, it’s still good news.
“It’s heading in the right direction; it’s certainly not [...]

Years of interventions designed to help students pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) have had little impact. A study released last night by the Public Policy Institute of California found that tutoring didn’t help students at all, while CAHSEE prep classes and continued support after twelfth grade had only modest success.
“The glass is [...]

Call it a last-minute clarification or a June surprise, another piece of bad news: A trailer bill that the Legislature will vote on Wednesday permits districts to slash the school year by an additional three weeks for the next two years, if voters reject Gov. Brown’s tax increase in November. That’s twice what  Gov. Jerry [...]