Can Teacher Power Save Schools?

By Alain Jehlen
In a sunny courtyard at Los Angeles’ sprawling Jefferson High School, three freshmen girls are writing a radio script about a tornado.
Teacher Nicolle Fefferman has asked her class to write scripts about being caught in a natural disaster. The girls’ plot line: They’re having a party to celebrate wonderful news when a tornado [...]

Teachers Lead the Way To Better Schools In Los Angeles

By Alain Jehlen

Test scores are often very low at schools that have mostly low-income, minority students. What to do?
That question got two very different answers last month from opposite ends of the country.
In Rhode Island, on Feb. 23, the superintendent and school board of Central Falls, the poorest city in the state, fired the entire [...]

California: Bringing Hope, Resources, Results to Lower-Performing Schools

A landmark, teacher-sponsored law in California providing extra funding for proven reforms at hundreds of the state’s schools of greatest need is bringing academic gains after its first full year of funding, an early analysis of school performance data shows.
“These targeted schools are making classroom gains because of proven reforms like smaller class sizes, extra [...]

QEIA Success Stories Roll In

By the California Teachers Association
The first statewide evaluation of the Quality Education Investment Act shows the program’s success with student learning improving and test scores increasing. With schools having recently completed their first full year of implementation, the preliminary data show why investing in challenged schools instead of punishing them, and involving teachers, parents and [...]

Looking For Some Background on the Quality Education Investment Act?

The Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA), supported by the California Teachers Association, an NEA affiliate, was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. The legislation aims to close achievement gaps by targeting $3 billion at lower-performing schools to help them reduce class sizes, improve teacher and principal training, hire more school counselors, and give [...]