Sacramento Bee – Melody Gutierrez

“A math problem is written on the whiteboard. It reads: Y=2x+3, 2x+2x=12. The classroom goes silent except for the sound of pencils on paper. Students scribble for just a few seconds before hands fly in the air. This scene is not what many people would expect to find in this class at this high-poverty high school.”(more)

San Francisco Chronicle – John Diaz

“Knowledge is power, but it is not always welcome. The Los Angeles Times just completed an extensive study of how individual teachers have fared at raising their students’ math and English test scores in the state’s most populous city. The raw data have been available to the L.A. Unified School District for years, but it never bothered to crunch those numbers, let alone share them with parents. The Times has pledged to publish its ratings of 6,000 elementary school instructors. Reaction of the local teachers union? It has called for a “massive boycott” of the Times.”(more)

The Christian Science Monitor – Amanda Paulson

“A controversy is brewing in Los Angeles over whether a newspaper should publish teachers’ names along with an analysis of how well they do in raising their students’ standardized test scores.”(more)

The Washington Post – Jay Mathews

“Anyone interesting in the raging debate over using tests to rate teacher performance, in the District or anywhere else, should read the L.A. Times Sunday story revealing hitherto secret data on how well L.A. Unified School District teachers’ students do each year.”(more)

The Los Angeles Times – Jason Felch, Jason Song and Doug Smith

“Most districts act as though one teacher is about as good as another. As a result, the most effective teachers often go unrecognized, the keys to their success rarely studied. Ineffective teachers often face no consequences and get no extra help….Though the government spends billions of dollars every year on education, relatively little of the money has gone to figuring out which teachers are effective and why.”(more)

Mercury News – Lisa M. Krieger

“In a stunning example of the power of the Internet to attract and connect the smartest minds on earth around the most difficult problems, scholars at UC Berkeley and Stanford have created a free website, called MathOverflow, which is transforming math research.”(more)

San Francisco Chronicle – Debra J Saunders

“I’ve heard from young adults who aced high school math only to find themselves utterly unprepared for college math. So it was no surprise when Stanford University math Professor James Milgram found that the number of California State University students who needed remedial math had more than doubled, from 23 percent in 1989 to 54 percent in 1997.”(more)

Orange County Register – Scott Martindale

“Latino students who graduate from public high schools in Orange County are enrolling in California’s public colleges at a higher rate than their white counterparts, according to a newly released study from the Orange County Department of Education.”(more)

Inside Higher Ed – Steve Kolowich

“Much of the news surrounding the University of California system has involved whether the network of universities will be able to survive its current budgetary crisis without shrinking in size or quality. In that context, it is no surprise that Christopher Edley Jr.’s plan to use online education to expand the university’s footprint “from Kentucky to Kuala Lumpur” has turned some heads — and churned some stomachs.”(more)

Los Angeles Times – Howard Blume

“California on Monday joined 31 states and the District of Columbia in approving new common learning standards in math and English language arts for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.”(more)