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Brown vetoes teacher dismissal bill, urges one more attempt

Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would change the complex system for dismissing teachers, while encouraging districts and teachers to keep negotiating a way to simplify the process. “I share the authors’ desire to streamline the teacher discipline process, but this bill is an imperfect solution,” Brown wrote in a four-paragraph veto statement released Wednesday. The veto of Assembly Bill 375 is a disappointment for its author, Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, the chairwoman of the Assembly Education Committee, who worked for a year on the bill, and a defeat for the California Teachers Association, which had strongly backed it. But the veto cheered opponents, including organizations representing school districts and administrators. Ed Source

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LAUSD to encourage teachers to wear LGBT ‘ally’ badges

Beginning Friday, thousands of rainbow “ally” badges will be passed out to Los Angeles Unified teachers and staff members that they can wear to identify themselves as allies of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. The “Out for Safe Schools” initiative coincides with National Coming Out Day on Friday and was announced Thursday by leaders of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center and the school district. LA Times

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Most districts equipped, ready for new Common Core tests

A majority of the school districts and charter schools responding to astate survey indicated they’ve got the technology to offer computer-based testing for the new Common Core standards. But the one-third to 40 percent of districts that said they have only some or little confidence they can pull it off could signal trouble complying with a new state law requiring all districts to give the Common Core math or English language arts field test six months from now. Ed Source

New standardized tests boast less risk of cheating  

Despite a long list of rules and security measures, every year California officials investigate dozens of complaints of cheating on standardized tests, but a new test out this spring promises to do away with a lot of the more common problems. For more than a decade, California students haven taken annual standardized tests the same way: they bubbled answers in pencil on Scantron sheets. Those answer sheets stayed on their desks the entire time they took the test. But this year’s computer test gets rid of those answer sheets and booklets. Tests will be given on computer, and officials can monitor when a student is logging in and out of a web site to take the test. KPCC

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Common-Core Rollout Ripe for Studying, Experts Say

The creators of the Common Core State Standards purposely set out what students should know in mathematics and reading without laying out how teachers should meet those requirements. That creates a rare opportunity—but also requires a massive lift—for K-12 education research to fill in the blanks. “Standards are necessary but they aren’t sufficient to improve student learning,” said Pascal D. “Pat” Forgione Jr., the executive director of the K-12 Center at the Educational Testing Service, during a meeting on research in the common core held here by the Center on Education Policy and George Washington University. “We need significant R&D work.” Education Week

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Toddlers and Tablets

Commentary: I believe four-year-olds will shape the future of education technology (edtech), long before they ever set foot in a kindergarten classroom. And when I say four-year-olds, I’m just being politically correct. Two- and three-year-olds will get in on the action, too. Children do incredible things when they are free to explore and learn. Education Next