Call it a last-minute clarification or a June surprise, another piece of bad news: A trailer bill that the Legislature will vote on Wednesday permits districts to slash the school year by an additional three weeks for the next two years, if voters reject Gov. Brown’s tax increase in November. That’s twice what Gov. Jerry [...]
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I believe some states give their tests at the beginning of the year so teachers can actually use the information for their teaching (to the extent there is any information to be had). Anyway, it’s an interesting question. I’m still trying to understand how to measure that. Given that many are not at grade level based on current results, even our 180 day year could be argued as shorter than the ’shortest possible year’, if that is defined by the ability of schools to prepare students to succeed at those tests. But I think standardized tests were supposed to be a measure and not the goal. If that were still true, it shouldn’t matter much when they were given (as long as we understood what they were measuring).
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I realized I asked a question other than what I intended. Is there a minimum number of days of school required to prepare for STAR testing? I’m wondering if there is a shortest possible year.
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Hilary: Rick Simpson, deputy chief of staff for Assembly Speaker John Perez, provided us with this explanation:
An ADA is like a full-time equivalent. Specifically, it’s days of actual attendance divided days of possible attendance. So, if a district runs a 170-day year and a student attends 165 days that student generates 165/170 = 0.9706 of an ADA. The amount per ADA is the base revenue limit and is set by the Ed Code or trailer bill. The base revenue limit applies regardless of the length of their instructional year. The trigger cut of $2.7 billion would reduce the amount per ADA districts receive. Districts would then have the option (assuming they negotiate it, etc.) to reduce their COSTS by running a shorter school year which reduces personnel costs, utilities, etc.
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I guess we’ll save a bit of money because we won’t have to print as many diplomas in the future..
Good one Eric.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with capitol’s last sentence. Were it otherwise, the ‘flexibility’ provided by the legs would have included other things as well, like leaving out accountability or budgetary reporting constraints. I read recently that we spend over a half billion a year on CAHSEE. Unfortunately even doing away with that completely wouldn’t get us anywhere near our number. We’ve already talked about getting rid of STAR testing for 2nd graders. Maybe we should do that for all elementary grades. Unfortunately that wont get us our number either. Hmm.
I guess really the only thing left to do is to move all our non special Ed, english only students to charter schools and then flex all the categoricals… Oh wait, maybe that was the plan all along..?
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With a 2/3 legislative vote requirement to raise money for schools and other public programs, the Republican minority controls the show. Or rather, Grover Norquist runs California.
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Depending on the grade, for my kids Star testing has lasted from 1 to 2 weeks. What a big waste of time! Actually, it does more harm than good because it makes my kids hate school, at least the star testing portion of it. So much for cultivating a passion for learning.
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Perhaps they should dial-back the API and AYP targets by 8.6 percent (or more) too?
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“A spokesman for the California Teachers Association said that the union had not read the trailer bill language and could not comment.”
Does anyone really believe that? CTA probably wrote at least half of the bill.
Also, does anyone really believe the Dems won’t come back in November to implement an alternative plan after the tax increase fails? This is just a way to scare people into supporting the tax increase.
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@Hilary, I believe ADA is the amount per child then divided by the number of days for your school. ADA $ will be the same for a minimum day as for a longer day. A school with 160 days would thus have a higher ADA rate than a 180 day school. I would appreciate a correction if this isn’t accurate.
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@Hilary – yes, districts could choose to stay with 180 days or any number larger than 160. They might do this with outside funds, they might elect to increase class size, or they might elect to save money some other way. Teachers may agree to take pay cuts. They might elect a 4-day school week, keeping the school year the same length and loading on homework for that 5th day.
In any case, it’s important to note that this doesn’t “save money.” It is a tax on families who will need to find an additional 20 days of child care. It takes money out of the pockets of teachers, making teaching less desirable as a job when the rent can’t be paid. And in the long run, everyone understands that this will lower academic achievement and hurt the state’s tax base.
Fascinating, @Paul and @Judy, isn’t it, that there’s always time to measure “academic achievement” but the time to create it is expendable. Why not just roll some dice and stipulate that all the kids are “failing” and then spend that week or two or three on supplemental instruction, if we’re talking about cutting four weeks from the required school year? Let’s just use last year’s scores and call it good, eh?
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