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The article reports that unconventional textbooks and other curriculum materials are being used by the schools in the U.S. to introduce the students to basic algebraic principles and language. In 2007, for the first time, California state officials approved an entire set of math programs devoted specifically to 'algebra readiness,' or raising the skills of students likely to struggle in that subject. INSET: A View From Abroad: Algebra Comes Early.

The article discusses a legal dispute involving testing companies Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Pearson over the right to administer high-stakes tests in California aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Topics discussed include the bidding between the companies for the contract for the testing, allegations that the procurement process was invalid, and the size of the market for summative assessments in the U.S.

The article looks at the plans of several academically successful U.S. charter school networks to expand across the country. These organizations include Aspire Public Schools and Rocketship Education of California and BASIS Schools Inc. of Arizona. According to the article, the rate of expansion for these organizations will be slow as to ensure success, favorable financial conditions, and the ability to maintain independence.

This article reports that the two city districts in the U.S. that made the greatest strides in math on the latest national assessment relied on similar strategies: building students' conceptual math skills and investing in professional development in that subject for elementary and middle school teachers. While administrators in Boston, Massachusetts and San Diego, California, say that many factors were at work in their gains on the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, they believe their approach is giving students greater ability to solve a broad variety of math problems and preparing them for more complex mathematics later in school. San Diego and Boston officials, as well as many math and curriculum experts, believe that approach is helping students learn to solve problems in a variety of ways, as well as preparing them for higher-level math.

When her classmates at John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento, California, were sending off applications to state universities across California, graduating senior Dzoara B. Ceron wondered whether that was the right option for her. She worried about rising tuition at those four-year institutions. She thought about whether changing majors at some point would cost her time and money. And she was sure that going away to college would mean she would miss her family. The 18-year-old's concerns led her to enroll at Sacramento City College, a community college a short drive from home.

The article discusses school-turnaround proposal submissions received by parents of students attending the Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, California. The author looks at parent-trigger laws which allowed parents to instigate a restructuring program to turn the failing school into a charter school under a parent-led petition. Also discussed are finalists LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy and the Lewis Center for Educational Research, both charter organizations.

The articles discuss the 2012 waivers granted to 26 states and Washington, D.C., in the U.S. that release them from some of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) educational law. The author looks at the need for states to adopt college- and career-readiness educational standards and devise updated educational accountability standards. Topics include California's intention to devise its own waiver system, and comments by Chris Minnich of the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The article discusses efforts in several U.S. states to pass parent-trigger laws, wherein parents can vote to reform failing schools by converting them to charter schools. Particular focus is given to a proposed parent-trigger law in Florida supported by state Representative Michael Bileca and concerns from critics regarding the role of educational organizations in influencing school district reform policies. An overview of the parent-trigger law in California is also presented.

The article reports on the progress of legislation in several U.S. states concerning parent-trigger proposals, which would allow parents to restructure or close struggling schools or turn them into charter schools. Various explanations for the slow progress of these bills are presented, including opposition by teachers' unions, lack of political support, and uncertainty following the passage of a parent-trigger law in California.

The article reports on the status of California's state budget for education in 2011. It discusses the plan of California Governor Jerry Brown for addressing the state's budget imbalance, which includes large budget cuts to non-education government programs and a tax increase to supplement the state budget cuts. The author suggests that state funding for schools will remain uncertain until it wins the support of the state's Republican lawmakers.

The article focuses on the California educational law requiring all eighth grade students to be tested in algebra. It explains the concerns of educators and school officials on how to meet this requirement and comments from Tom Loveless, a National Mathematics Advisory Panel member, are included. Information about California's education system is provided and the U.S. No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is mentioned.

The article reports that El Tejon Unified School District in California will ends its Philosophy of Design Course as part of legal settlement with 11 parents and an advocacy group. The agreement also bars the district from attempting to promote or endorse intelligent design, or creationism, in any future course. On January 1, 2005, El Tejon's school board had voted to offer the course as part of a regular, monthlong class staged between the first and second semesters. Parents in the 1,400-student district, joined by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington advocacy group, filed suit to halt the course shortly after the district announced the offering.

This article reports that the Association of Christian Schools International has filed a federal lawsuit against the University of California (UC) system, charging that the institution's high school course requirements for applicants violate the constitutional rights of students from religious schools. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, charges that the UC unfairly rejects science courses that use textbooks casting doubt on evolution and espousing creationist beliefs. It also challenges the university system's guidelines for course content in English, history, and social studies, in which the plaintiffs also claim anti-Christian bias.

Focuses on the plan of University of California (UC) in California to check applicants' claims regarding honors, extracurricular activities and other personal achievements on the spot. Significance of the process for UC; Objectives of the plan; Arguments against implementing the plan.

The article discusses the education advocacy organization California Charter Schools Association, focusing on its attempts to hold ten low performing charter schools within the state to accountability standards and noting resistance to potential school closures due to poor student test scores.

The article discusses the parental involvement in school reforms in California. A July 2012 judge ruling gave parents in Adelanto, California permission to begin the process of covering Desert Trails Elementary School into a charter school, referred to as a "parent trigger" law. The article also discusses how the move would affect teachers' unions, reaction from the school board, and information on similar parent-trigger laws in the United States.

The article reports that students attending a collection of schools in Los Angeles, California monitored by charter school operator Green Dot increased their test scores while taking more challenging courses.

A blog is presented which discusses the report "Portrait of the Movement," a study released by the California Charter Schools Association regarding the academic performance of students enrolled in the states' charter schools in comparison to those attending traditional public schools.

The article reports that an attempt to use a parent petition to convert Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, California into a charter school under a "parent trigger" law has failed due to a lack of valid signatures.

The article discusses the 2012 tax increase proposal by California governor Jerry Brown to avoid state funding reductions in California's education in the 2013 fiscal year, as well as Brown's comments on the costs of California's educational testing system.

The article discusses public finance in California which is improving as a result of improvements in the economy and revenue that has been generated through taxes. The proposed budget by California Governor Jerry Brown, who is a Democrat, is discussed in terms of its revenue projections. It has been suggested that Brown may ask Californians to vote on proposed tax increases.

The article presents information on the state of the state address given by California Governor Jerry Brown on January 31, 2011 in which the impact of the state budget gap on education is discussed.

Brief information is given from "School Finance Reform," a report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

The article discusses California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to use his line-item veto to cut funding for the state's school data system, the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS).

The article discusses California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to offer free, open-source digital textbooks for high school mathematics and science students. The goals of the program include lower costs and collaboration between school districts. The state will offer a range of digital texts which align with California's academic standards and districts will be able to choose among them.

The article discusses a report on efforts in the Oakland, California school district to create smaller schools. The report, done by the Oakland Community Organizations coalition and analyzed by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, concludes that small schools backed by advocacy groups in the city provide certain advantages. These include higher academic performance, better learning environment and an improvement in teachers' view of their schools' professional climate.

The article reports that a California judge has blocked a state mandate that would have required students to take introductory algebra in 8th grade. The block came after opponents of the mandate argued that the board of education exceeded its authority by approving the policy without adequate public input.

The article focuses on environmental education in the state of California. It explains that a bill sponsored by the senator Joe Simitian calls for an increase in climate change education. The legal process of approving the bill is discussed and the current environmental curriculum is explored. Criticism of the plan is also included.

The article discusses science education in elementary schools in California. The research center from the University of California, Berkeley called the Lawrence Hall of Science conducted a study about the amount of time spent teaching science in elementary schools. The article suggests that the results in California are indicative of a lack of science education at the elementary school level in schools throughout the U.S.

The article focuses a study by researchers at three universities in California that examines test scores in a dozen states and finds that their gains are often exaggerated as a result of overly easy exams. According to the study, student progress in reading has stagnated and in some cases declined since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. The study compares 4th graders' reading and math scores on individual, state-designed assessments with those on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The article reports that district officials, San Diego, California, have retracted from their stand to move physics to the first year of high school following complaints from parents. The San Diego school board voted 3-2 last month to drop a requirement that students take a physics course in 9th grade, followed by chemistry and then biology. That course schedule, first implemented in fall 2002, marked a reversal of the traditional lineup in American schools, in which biology comes first, then chemistry and physics.

This article presents information on a mandatory course on world religions started by the Modesto, California school system. The school system has sought to foster understanding among students of the different faiths through an unusual step. The city of Modesto has the complex religious character of many American communities. The influence of evangelical Christianity is strong but Modesto has also become home to a burgeoning population of people of other faiths including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. The students taking the 9th grade class gained a stronger factual understanding of world religions and a greater respect for the idea of religious tolerance in the American society.

The article reports that the superintendent of California's schools, Jack O'Connell, is advising districts across the state to closely evaluate the merits of an anti-drug initiative with links to the Scientology religion. O'Connell expressed his concern about the Narconon Drug Abuse Prevention Program stemming from the results of a recently released study he commissioned on the presentations it offered to students in schools. That study found that Narconon did not reflect medically and scientifically based practices and offered students misleading information about drug use and abuse.

The demand for higher education in California by 2010 will increase by more than 700,000 students with roughly three-quarters of that growth occurring at community colleges, concludes a report released by a coalition of business, civic, and labor organizations.

School-to-work programs in California have shown ambiguous results at best in increasing the prospects for employment and college attendance among high school students in that state, a report released last week says. The report was commissioned by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research group that studies population trends, economic issues, and public finance. The study found that students who took part in technical-preparation programs in areas such as mechanical and industrial trades had a lower probability of college enrollment by 10 percentage points than students who did not participate in such programs.

Because of state budget constraints, the University of California, UC and California State University systems will for the first time be able to reject some qualified applicants from getting into their campuses, school officials say. The UC system, which has eight undergraduate campuses, is expected to turn away 3,200 students during the 2004-05 academic year, if the budget proposed by Governor. The CSU system, which has 23 undergraduate schools, would have to cut enrollment by at least 3,000 students during the fall, and by an estimated 23,000 undergraduates and graduates during the fall, spring, and summer enrollment periods, under the proposed budget, CSU spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler said.

California Republican Howard P. McKeon said last week that he would remove from a bill he is sponsoring a provision that would have penalized colleges and universities if they imposed steep tuition hikes on students year after year. He said he agreed to withdraw the much-scrutinized language from his overall bill, the proposed Affordability in Higher Education Act, because he had seen several colleges and universities take measures to curb costs since he first proposed the plan.

The Anaheim teenager is one of thousands of California students who have received academic tutoring, guidance counseling and other services through state-financed outreach programs administered through the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems, as of January 28, 2004. UC campus officials decided to modify their outreach programs to comply with the law, soon after the ballot measure passed. The Republican governor has proposed cutting outreach for the UC system, which has eight undergraduate campuses, in the current fiscal year from $31.9 million to $19.7 million.

Reports on decision of Yale and Stanford universities to change the binding early-decision policies which put pressure on teenagers to make a final choice about college.

Focuses on the preparatory graduation schemes of high school seniors in California. Explanation of future career plans; Record of post-secondary plans; Application of mandate to several graduating seniors.

Reports the acceptance by the University of California system of a higher percentage of underrepresented minority students. Number of minority students admitted; Critics of the statistical gains of minority admissions; Views on the gains of minority applicants, from Carol Rowe, counselor for the San Diego Unified School district; How the UC regions tried to broaden diversity in the system in the year 2000.