National GEAR UP Week is an opportunity for you to raise awareness in your community about the positive impact GEAR UP is having locally. It’s a time to engage all your stakeholders – local, state and federal elected officials, funders, partners, as well as local, state and regional media – to share your program’s accomplishments and to get them more involved with your services to students and families.

Resources for schools and GEAR UP Programs:

• Working the Media for National GEAR UP Week webinar – This webinar offers a simple 4-step process to help you with your media outreach efforts to get coverage for your National GEAR UP Week celebrations.
• Get ready for 2013 National GEAR UP Week! webinar – Watch this 30 min. webinar recording for tips and ideas on how to plan and prepare to celebrate GEAR UP Week.
• 5 Ideas for National GEAR UP Week - Looking for inspiration?  Look no further!  Here are five quick ideas (including real, live examples) to get you started!
• National GEAR UP Week Planning Questions - Use these questions to guide your planning efforts with  your team, partners, students, parents and/or volunteers.
• Student letter to Member of Congress - Use this letter template as a guide to encourage your students to share their GEAR UP successes with their Members of Congress!

Karen’s unwavering conviction and vision for the sake of the student’s well-being, safety and learning is what has enabled her and her team to transform entire schools. Her approach has given the students a voice that helps to shape their experience and their education through building stronger relationships, increasing healthy communication, placing an emphasis on accountability for their actions while creating respect for others.

Read and listen to the full interview here.

“It is never too early to teach our students about a decision that can affect the rest of their life.  The college verbiage should be a constant part of any school.  Every teacher should be talking about college.  I don’t believe that every student will go to college, but I do believe that every student should be given the opportunity to choose to go to college.  If we deprive our students of this essential information, I believe we are robbing them of their choice.” 

Read the rest of the interview on the blog. 

“Our teacher evaluation system in California is broken. For far too long, teachers in our state haven’t been able to get the feedback or the supports they deserve,” said Dr. Jeannette LaFors, Director of Equity Initiatives at The Education Trust—West, a statewide education advocacy organization that works to close the opportunity and achievement gaps that separate students of color and low-income students from their more advantaged peers. “What was so interesting in our study was the extent to which teachers credited the measures and supports of their evaluation system as a way to increase their effectiveness in the classroom. They welcomed the opportunity to reflect on and improve their instruction.” The REST>>>

As a result of this decision, no Academic Performance Index scores – used to indicate how a school’s students are performing on standardized tests – will be calculated for the next two years.

The move was deemed necessary by both state education officials and law makers to pave the way for California’s transition to Common Core academic standards and a new assessment system set to be field tested this spring by students in grades 3-8 and 11.

“This is an opportunity for schools and districts to really focus on what they need to be focusing on and they don’t need to worry about this,” Deb Sigman, deputy superintendent at the California Department of Education, told board of education members.

Some 45 states adopted new Common Core standards in English and math more than two years ago and are in varying stages of rolling out new curriculum in schools based on those standards. In addition, many of those states joined one of two groups to design and produce new assessments aligned with the standards; California is a member and lead partner of the Smarter Balanced consortium, which has created a computer adaptive testing model to replace the state’s former Standardized Assessment and Reporting System, or STAR. Read even MORE.

Creators of the SAT exam announced plans Wednesday to toughen the test in the face of stagnant national scores, planning to challenge students to provide more analysis, cite evidence and even turn in their calculators before answering some math questions. The new version will be first administered in 2016.

“It is time for an admissions assessment that makes it clear that the road to success is not last-minute tricks or cramming but the challenging learning students do every day,” said David Coleman, president of the non-profit College Board, which produces the SAT, originally known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Skeptics questioned whether a new format will be any more successful than previous efforts to use the standardized test in a campaign for college access, in part because the test’s scores historically have correlated with family income. They also point out that the 88-year-old SAT in recent years has slipped behind the rival ACT — a shorter exam with an optional essay — in total student customers.

Through the revisions, the College Board aims to strip many of the tricks out of a test now taken by more than 1.5 million students in each year’s graduating high school class. The College Board also pledged to offer new test-preparation tutorials for free online, enabling students to bypass pricey SAT-prep classes previously available mostly to affluent families looking to give their children an edge. Follow the rest on the blog.

The CDE is continuing to develop these resources as the state asks its educators to re-emphasize college and career readiness for their students. A series of Professional Learning Modules (PLMs), for example, is designed to help teachers implement the Common Core State Standards. Each of the 13 modules focuses on a single subject, such as Getting Started with the California English Language Development Standards, which provides guidance to teachers so they can provide a world-class education for English learners. The PLMs were developed in collaboration with county offices of education, the state subject-matter projects, and WestEd and are available on the Brokers of Expertise Web site at no cost.

“We are working to support our teachers with professional learning as they work to support their students with lessons and activities that prepare them for the real world,” Torlakson said. “From the earliest years through graduation, California’s children and teachers deserve to have the tools they need to succeed.”

The modules were intended to be used by educators independently, in collaborative groups, or as a face-to-face presentation. For instance, the online professional learning resource for English Language Development (ELD) Standards offers self-guided or face-to-face training for educators in how to use the ELD standards in tandem with the Common Core State Standards. Other modules include CCSS Mathematics: K-8 Learning Progressions, CCSS: Literacy in Science, and also an Overview of the Common Core State Standards for California Educators. Get the REST.

Under the old system, school districts received approximately two-thirds of their revenues as general-purpose funding based on complex historical formulas (known as “revenue limit” funds), and about one-third through nearly four dozen highly regulated “categorical programs,” such as for summer school, textbooks, staff development, gifted and talented students, and counselors for middle and high schools.

Under the new system, districts will receive a uniform base grant for every district, adjusted by grade level, plus additional funds for students with greater educational needs, defined as low-income, English learner and foster youth students. Districts will get an additional 20 percent of the base grant based on the numbers of these students enrolled in a district, and even more when they make up more than 55 percent of a district’s enrollment.

Welcome to EdSource’s guide to the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), along with news and information about California’s new K-12 finance system.

The EdSource section includes: