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Education Trust—West

The Education Trust–West Responds to Governor Brown’s May Budget Revision

OAKLAND, CA (May 14, 2013) – Arun Ramanathan, Executive Director of The Education Trust—West, issued the following statement in response to Governor Brown’s May budget revision:


“The Education Trust—West applauds Governor Brown for his May budget revision. We are pleased that the Governor remains committed to his Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) proposal that would transform California’s antiquated and inequitable education finance system to a system based on student need.  We also applaud the Governor for providing additional funding to school districts to support the immediate implementation of the Common Core State Standards. We believe that this investment is in alignment with the Local Control Funding Formula and has the potential to transform teaching and learning in our schools and classrooms. We are similarly pleased that the Governor has strengthened his LCFF proposal to increase fiscal transparency and help ensure that supplementary and concentration funding benefits low-income students and English Learners. We commend Governor Brown for his commitment to educational equity and encourage the Legislature to support LCFF.”

 

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Ed Trust—West Issues Statement Regarding the Latest 2010-11 California English Language Development Test (CELDT) Results

(OAKLAND, CA) The Education Trust—West, a statewide education advocacy organization that works to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement for students of color and low-income students, issued the following statement regarding the release of the results of the 2010-11 California English Language Development Test (CELDT) by the California Department of Education earlier this week:

The release of data from the California Department of Education (CDE) showing a decline in the performance of English Learner (EL) students on the CELDT is a cause for profound concern. However, the CDE’s statement on this data raises even greater concerns. The release gives Californians the impression that our state is making reasonable progress in serving its English Learner students, while attributing this setback to the ongoing budget crisis. The data tell us a different story.

Ed Trust—West Grades and Ranks California’s Large, Unified School Districts to Reveal How Well They Are Serving their African-American, Latino and Low-income Students

(OAKLAND, CA) Today, The Education Trust—West launches its California District Report Cards website featuring a new online tool and releases an accompanying publication titled, A Report on District Achievement: How Low-income, African-American, and Latino Students Fare in California School Districts.  Both provide grades and rankings for the state’s largest unified districts on four indicators that reveal how well they are serving their Latino, African-American, and low-income students.  Through this unique online tool, the public can look up any one of the 146 largest unified school districts across the state to learn more about the overall performance, improvement over time, size of achievement gaps, and college readiness rates for these students. 

TOP-Ed: Dollars for tamales: poor schools can’t get by on home cooking

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TOP-Ed

For weeks, I haven’t been able to open my refrigerator without getting attacked by a bag of tamales. Our fridge is stuffed with bags of them. Two of the bags are ours. The rest were purchased by family and friends all over the Bay Area. The proceeds go to our daughter’s Spanish immersion elementary school in Oakland Unified.

To read more, click here. 

New York Times: As Sweeping Layoffs Loom, Schools Gird for Turmoil

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New York Times

School authorities across the nation are warning thousands of teachers that they could lose their jobs in June, raising the possibility that America’s public schools may see the most extensive layoffs of their teaching staffs in decades.

Though many of the warnings may not be acted upon — school systems, their budget outlook unclear, routinely overstate their likely layoffs at this time of year — when layoffs do occur, they cause a chaotic annual reshuffling of staff members.

Thousands of teachers are forced to change schools, grade levels or subjects, creating a chronic instability that educators call “teacher churn.”

TOP-Ed: Districts will lay off some of their best and brightest today; that must change

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TOP-Ed

Kaitlin Donovan, Nicholas Melvoin, Emilie Smith, and Tyler Hester didn’t expect to get a layoff notice. They were the kind of teachers typically romanticized in Hollywood movies. Young, energetic, and idealistic, they sought out the challenge of teaching in high-poverty urban schools and set high expectations for their students. Yet, each of them went to their teacher mailbox and found a pink slip.