Professor Emeritus Rick Arellano: March 2012

Thursday, March 29, 2012

IPad: The PC Killer

IPad: The PC Killer
Bloomberg Newsweek
By Peter Burrows and Jim Aley on March 21, 2012

After he unveiled the iPad at a San Francisco conference center in early 2010, the late Steve Jobs spent a few minutes asking people holding the device for the first time what they thought of it. A reporter suggested it might make consumers forget why they needed a laptop computer. Jobs shrugged his shoulders and said, coyly, “We’ll see.” Jobs was a master not just at anticipating paradigm shifts but creating them. If tablets eventually did eclipse the laptop and desktop businesses, Jobs was determined that Apple (AAPL) would reap the windfall. Read more >>

Friday, March 23, 2012

Report gives C's, D's to schools in educating poor, minority students

Bay Area school districts barely get passing grades for how well they teach minority and low-income students, according to a report released by an education advocacy group Thursday.

Of the 147 unified school districts statewide that were ranked, Palo Alto Unified scored next to last, earning a grade-point average of 1.0 -- a D. The report did not award any A's.

Palo Alto's low grade was one of many startling findings in the 2011 California District Report Cards put out by the Oakland-based Education Trust-West. The second-annual report evaluated seven criteria for how well districts are educating poor, African-American and Latino students. For the sake of making accurate comparisons, the report focused only on about 15 percent of school districts in the state, those that serve kindergarten through 12th grades.

There has been no significant improvement since the first report was issued in April 2011 in the Bay Area. The biggest gain was West Contra Costa, which moved from an F to a D. While the state made closing the achievement gap a top priority, budget cuts have derailed many strategies -- from summer and Saturday school to tutoring to small class sizes -- to help accomplish that.

Among the latest report's findings:

In the Bay Area, San Ramon Valley scored the highest, a C-plus.

Besides San Ramon, only Castro Valley, Gilroy and South San Francisco scored at least a C, all slightly better than Los Angeles Unfied.

More Bay Area districts scored a D than any other grade. Seven earned a D-plus.

Only one in four Latino and black students graduates eligible to enter the University of California or California State University.

Lake Elsinore in Riverside County earned the highest score in the state, a B-plus; San Juan in Sacramento County earned the lowest, a D-minus.

"The report confirms what we know to be true: Too many kids aren't being served by our current system," said Erica Wood, vice-president of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which invests in trying to narrow the achievement gap.

Ed Trust's grades equally weigh black and Latino students' achievement, score improvement over five years, the achievement gap with white students; and the percentage graduating "college ready," meaning passing all the prerequisites for the University of California with a C or better.

Overall, Southern California schools outscored Bay Area districts, a reversal for Northern Californians accustomed to scoring at the top in school tests and competitions. The report points out an embarrassing weakness.

"We got the highest grade of any district in the county, but it's still a C-plus, and there are gaps," said San Ramon schools Superintendent Steven Enoch. "We are aware of the achievement gap and take it very seriously."

Oakland has the widest achievement gap between white and Latino students, district spokesman Troy Flint noted. "There's no excuse. We just have to get better." The district did significantly improve in one area over the previous year: 52 percent of Latino graduates were eligible for a state university, up 10 percentage points.

In general, Flint said, "We have some of the highest-scoring white students in the state, so our numbers are going to look different than in districts that have a large working-class white population."

But Carrie Hahnel, Ed Trust-West's director of policy and research, wasn't buying it. "If you're able to achieve high scores for some students, why are you not able to achieve high scores for all students?" she asked.

Fremont Unified, whose schools often top state tests, moved from a D in the previous year to a D-plus in Ed Trust's recent report. Superintendent Jim Morris said he wasn't sure what accounted for the gain.

The district is taking various measures to boost achievement among minorities, he said. "We need to be doing a better job educating parents about standards and communicating with schools."

Palo Alto's low ranking came as disappointing but not surprising news to groups that have been pressuring the district to improve teaching for all students.

"No, I'm not happy about my district's rating," said Lucas Brooks, vice president of the Student Equity Action Network. "This gives us something to take as evidence that we really need to make a change."

Brooks, a senior at Palo Alto High, said he hopes the school board in May will raise graduation standards by requiring all students to meet UC-entrance requirements.

The district has been reluctant to address how to educate students not in accelerated tracks, said Ken Dauber, a Palo Alto parent and member of the group We Can Do Better Palo Alto. But it's useful to have a respected outside organization calling attention to the achievement gap in the district, he said.

"Embarrassment is often a good impetus for change," said Dauber, a Google software engineer and former sociologist.

School board President Melissa Baten-Caswell acknowledged the need for change. "We need to teach differently. Just doing the same thing over and over isn't going to change things."

Staff writers Theresa Harrington, Katy Murphy and Jason Sweeney contributed to this report. Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775 .

Ed Trust West's 2011 District Report Cards*

C-plus: San Ramon Valley

C: Castro Valley, Gilroy, South San Francisco

C-minus: Pleasanton, Livermore Valley, San Lorenzo, San Leandro

D-plus: Milpitas, San Jose, Santa Clara, Pajaro Valley, Berkeley, Fremont Unified, New Haven

D: Hayward, Oakland, West Contra Costa, Alameda, Antioch, Morgan Hill, Mount Diablo, Palo Alto

* Includes only K-12 districts of 5,000 students or more

http://www.mercurynews.com/central-coast/ci_20234203/report-gives-cs-ds-schools-educating-poor-minority

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Annual report cards for California’s 147 largest unified school districts

Publication date: March 22 2012

(OAKLAND, CA) Today, The Education Trust—West releases its latest annual report cards for California’s 147 largest unified school districts revealing how well they are serving their Latino, African-American, and low-income students. The grades and ranks for each of these districts for the 2010-2011 school year are posted on The Education Trust—West’s “District Report Cards” website at http://reportcards.edtrustwest.org/.

“Last year, thousands of parents and community groups across California used our district report cards to learn how their districts stacked up against the state’s top performers for underserved students,” said Dr. Arun Ramanathan, Executive Director of The Education Trust—West, a statewide education advocacy organization that works to close gaps in achievement and opportunity for students of color and students in poverty. “Once again, the report cards reveal the important role that districts play in focusing attention on their highest need students and improving results.”

Please read more at the Edtrust site

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Los Altos Rotary Club Child AIDS Prevention Project

Newark Memorial HS Graduates To Be More College Ready

NMHS Graduates To Be More College Ready by 2018

The Newark Unified Board of Education approves a resolution that aligns graduation requirements with college admission criteria.

By Nika Megino

By 2017-18, Newark Memorial High School seniors who graduate will have completed three years of math, three years of social studies and two years of world language.

Their graduation milestones within those subject areas will be different than that of current high school students.

With a unanimous vote, the Newark Unified Board of Education approved a resolution Tuesday night that changes the high school’s graduation requirements.

The goals are to align the graduation requirements and offer more courses students must pass in order to be considered for admittance to a four-year college.

Known as the A-G requirements, the college admittance criteria asks prospective college students take specific core academic classes for the majority of their time at a high school.

For example, to be considered for admission to a University of California campus, students must take the following courses:

History/Social Studies: Two years required.
English: Four years required.
Math: Three years required, four recommended.
Laboratory Science: Two years required, three recommended (Two years of lab science pertains to biology, chemistry and anatomy etc.).
Language: Two years required, three recommended (Must be two years of the same language),
Visual/Performing Arts: One year required.
College Preparatory Elective: One year required.

As the requirements are now, students are only required to take math and social studies for two years, and world language or fine arts for one year.

"What we are doing is not so revolutionary but more of a tweak to ensure we offer the course selection that is recognized by the UC/CSU system," Trustee Charlie Mensinger said in an email Wednesday morning.

The plan, as outlined by Superintendent Dave Marken and district staff, calls for the implementation of the graduation requirements over the next five years and examining the development of students’ performance each year.

Marken noted that currently 31 percent of students are graduating with A-G requirements completed.

“We’re looking at modest growth over the years,” Marken said.

The five trustees said they were appreciative of the changes but that the district must also work on improving how to address the needs of students who choose not to go to a four-year university.

Mensinger noted that the graduation requirements are also guided by state mandated graduation requirements established by the state Department of Education (See attached PDF).

He said the district must follow those state mandated graduation requirements and "modify to ensure that we are addressing UC/CSU Admission Requirements - A-G."

Mensinger added, "Moreover, we need to ensure that we are addressing all students through our College and Career bound approach. Thus, those students who choose to go into a career or the military after high school are as well prepared as those who choose college."

Board Vice President Jan Crocker noted she'd like students to know more about ROP classes available to them.

She also said she was pleased that district staff will "judge this as we go along and analyze changes ... I’m really concerned we’ll have some kids who’ll really get lost.”

The resolution also calls for the removal of a state requirement course from graduation requirements – a move trustee Janice Schaeffer said she was fond of.

“I just want to say I generally appreciate this program right now. But more specifically, I appreciate the emphasis on the language and not imposing half year [state requirement course] on freshmen. [They] can take something else like music… It’s a huge, huge change.”

Marken noted in a memo attached to the board agenda that the changes call for the district’s necessity to remain fiscally sound while the plan is developed, which is the reason why the graduation requirement changes won’t be fully implemented until 2018.

The changes to the graduation requirements are as follows:

2018 Graduation Requirements	Current Graduation Requirements
English/Language Arts, 40 credits, 4 years	English Language Arts, 40 credits, 4 years
Mathematics, 30 credits, 3 years (4 years recommended)	Mathematics, 20 credits, 2 years
Science, 20 credits, 2 years (3 years recommended)	Science, 20 credits, 2 years
Social Studies, 30 years, 3 years	Social Studies, 20 credits, 2 years
Physical Education, 20 credits, 2 years	Physical Education, 20 credits, 2 years
Fine Arts, 10 credits, 1 year	Fine Arts/Modern Language, 10 credits, 1 year
World Language, 20 credits, 2 years (3 years recommended)	Fine Arts/Applied/Modern Language, 10 credits, 1 year
	State Requirements, 5 years, ½ a year
Electives, 60 credits	Electives, 75 credits

Total 230	Total 230

http://newark.patch.com/articles/board-votes-to-align-graduation-requirements-with-college-admission-requirements

Education linked to security, economy

Schools' failures risk U.S. future, report says

Associated Press

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Washington --

The nation's security and economic prosperity are at risk if America's schools don't improve, warns a task force led by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Joel Klein, the former chancellor of New York City's school system.

The report cautions that far too many schools fail to adequately prepare students. "The dominant power of the 21st century will depend on human capital," it said. "The failure to produce that capital will undermine American security."

The task force said the State Department and U.S. intelligence agencies face critical shortfalls in the number of foreign-language speakers, and that fields such as science, defense and aerospace are at particular risk because a shortage of skilled workers is expected to worsen as Baby Boomers retire.

The panel said 75 percent of young adults don't qualify to serve in the military because they are physically unfit, have criminal records or inadequate levels of education. That's in part because 1 in 4 students fails to graduate from high school in four years, and a high school diploma or the equivalent is needed to join the military. But another 30 percent of high school graduates don't do well enough in math, science and English on an aptitude test to serve in the military, the report said.

The task force, consisting of 30 members with backgrounds in areas such as education and foreign affairs, was organized by the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York research and policy organization focused on international issues. The report was scheduled to be released today.

Too many Americans are deficient in both global awareness and knowledge that is "essential for understanding America's allies and its adversaries," the report concludes.

"Leaving large swaths of the population unprepared also threatens to divide Americans and undermines the country's cohesion, confidence, and ability to serve as a global leader," the report said.

Rice and Klein said in interviews that they are encouraged by efforts to improve schools such as the adoption of "common core" standards set in reading and math in a vast majority of states and the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" competition, in which states compete for federal money in exchange for more meaningful teacher evaluations.

But, they added, the pace to improve America's schools must accelerate.

"The rest of the world is not sitting by while we, in a rather deliberate fashion, reform the education system," Rice said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/20/BU2N1NN4VK.DTL

This article appeared on page D - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/20/BU2N1NN4VK.DTL&type=business