January 16, 2013, 12:59 PM
LOS ANGELES – The first time Amabilia Villeda tried to fix her children’s school, she joined several dozen fellow parents and teachers in a protest outside 24th Street Elementary. That was three years ago. Villeda and the rest of the loosely organized group believed the struggling...
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October 24, 2012, 12:05 AM
Amy Youngman’s seventh- and eighth-grade humanities students had left for the day. Other than some shouts from the after-school program in the courtyard, all was quiet in her second-floor classroom here. Youngman’s day of teaching at Oakland’s ERES Academy – part of the...
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October 17, 2012, 12:05 AM
About nine months ago, at a small park playground a few hundred feet from their children’s struggling school, a group of parents chanted, cheered and delivered passionate speeches about their growing frustration with Desert Trails Elementary. That Jan. 12 park rally – which drew a...
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October 4, 2012, 12:05 AM
Doreen Diaz left the red carpet movie premiere of “Won’t Back Down” in New York City last week feeling encouraged. But then the 47-year-old mom, a key figure in the education movement that “inspired” the feature film, headed back to the tiny desert city of...
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October 3, 2012, 12:05 AM
Arguing that he did not want to "erode the independence and flexibility" of charter schools, Gov. Jerry Brown last weekend vetoed legislation that would have required charters to provide low-income students free or reduced-price meals. Brown's veto message [PDF] of AB 1594,...
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July 26, 2012, 12:05 AM
The California Board of Education will contest a recent court order that terminated its oversight of six schools owned by one of the largest charter school companies in the state. Sue Burr, executive director for the state education board, said she couldn't comment on the specific...
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July 9, 2012, 12:05 AM
A superior court judge has invalidated the State Board of Education's oversight of one of the state's biggest charter school companies, giving six schools until June 2013 to gain approval from local school districts or be forced to close. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jo-...
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March 28, 2012, 12:05 AM
At the Blue Oak School in Chico, where 60 percent of the charter school's student body comes from low-income households, it’s a source of school pride that the soft tacos and chicken pot pies served at lunch are made from organic and locally sourced ingredients. The meals are...
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July 19, 2011, 12:05 AM
Bright and articulate, Enrique Duarte IV, 11, rode the bus with his parents from Los Angeles to Sacramento with one cause in mind: to tell the state Board of Education that someday, he wants to return to a public school classroom. Enrique told the board that he left his elementary school...
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July 8, 2011, 12:05 AM
Jerry Brown's term as governor promises big returns for the two Oakland charter schools he founded. So far this year, Brown has raised $2.3 million for the Oakland Military Institute and Oakland School for the Arts. American Indian tribes, foundations and companies that lobby state...
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May 24, 2011, 12:05 AM
Three California schools appear in the list of the top 25 schools most successful in preparing students for college, according to the Washington Post's controversial "Challenge Index" published yesterday. They are hardly typical California schools. The highest-ranked...
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March 1, 2011, 12:05 AM
California parents have yet another way to assess how their local schools are doing. The California Charter Schools Association has developed a new metric, called a Similar Student Measure [PDF], to assess how a school's students perform on state tests compared to other schools serving...
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February 14, 2011, 12:05 AM
The state Board of Education ordered new rules last week to clarify how charter schools are granted statewide operating privileges. The action comes in the wake of a July 2010 Court of Appeals ruling that found the board improperly awarded statewide status to Aspire Public Schools, a charter school...
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February 9, 2011, 12:05 AM
The State Board of Education will hold a public hearing today to discuss what has become a thorny question: Under what circumstances should a charter school company be allowed to bypass local district control and operate statewide? The board has granted statewide status to three charter school...
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January 13, 2011, 12:05 AM
Former state Sen. Gloria Romero, the author of a controversial law that allows parents to force major changes in their children's school, said she won't support amending the law to make the process more open, despite a roiling controversy over use of the law in Compton. "If...
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