Education Programs
Initiative aims to boost college-bound grads
September 22, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
The Orange County United
Way launched a program this week aimed at increasing the number of
at-risk students who graduate from local high schools and head to
college. The initiative, Destination Graduation, will work directly
with 10 schools in the Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Capistrano and
Santa Ana reaching a minimum of 1,600 students, officials
said…
Student immigration bill goes to U.S. Senate today
September 21, 2010
Cindy Carcamo, The Orange County Register
Activists ratcheted up
their lobbying Monday, generating thousands of calls and faxes to
members of Congress in a last-minute push over an immigration
reform act due to hit the Senate floor Tuesday. Democratic Senate
leaders plan to introduce the DREAM Act – Development, Relief and
Education for Minor Aliens – to be included as an amendment to the
Defense Authorization bill. The act would give students and
military hopefuls who are in the country illegally a pathway to
U.S. citizenship…
Help on way for parents of problem kids
September 15, 2010
Fred Swegels, The Orange County Register
The Parent Project is a
10-week course focusing on topics such as defiant behavior,
negative peer associations, drugs, alcohol and
violence...
Illegal immigrant students' act on way to Senate
September 14, 2010
Cindy Carcamo, The Orange County Register
Activists on both sides of
the immigration debate in Orange County are abuzz, planning their
next move after learning that a slice of immigration reform is
expected to get a Senate vote next week. In a last-ditch effort to
pass some sort of immigration overhaul before the November
elections, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he would
introduce a proposal to grant students who are in the country
illegally a pathway to residency. The DREAM Act – for Development,
Relief and Education for Minor Aliens – will be included as an
amendment to the Defense Authorization bill…
Bilingual program 'skyrockets' at San Clemente school
September 08, 2010
Brittany Levine, The Orange County Register
2010-11 school year opens
at Las Palmas Elementary with enrollment boosted by demand for a
growing Spanish/English program.
Sanchez co-sponsors immigrant-education bill
May 26, 2010
Cindy Carcamo and Dena Burns, The Orange County
Register After
years of lobbying Rep. Loretta
Sanchez to
co-sponsor the Dream Act, proponents of the bill said Wednesday
that they are ecstatic that the Congresswoman has signed on.
Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, co-sponsored the bill Tuesday, according
congressional records. Sanchez declined to comment on her
co-sponsorship of the bill, which proposes allowing students who
are in the country illegally the chance to apply for legal
permanent residency, protect them from deportation and make them
eligible for student loans and federal work-study programs.
Opponents of the DREAM Act say it would reward illegal behavior.
Most local Congress
members are against the
bill, stating that it would encourage others to enter the country
illegally in an effort to get the same benefits for their
children…
44% of O.C. English learners pass test
May 21, 2010
May 21, 2010, Fermin Leal, The Orange County
Register About
44 percent of Orange County's public school students still learning
English passed a state test measuring fluency, figures released
Friday reveal. More than 122,000 English learners took the
California English Language Development Test, administered this
spring. Statewide, 40 percent of the state's 1.3 million students
still learning English passed … English learners make up about a
quarter of the 500,000 students enrolled in county public
schools...
Why doesn't federal government fully fund special ed?
May 19, 2010
Column: Carol Veravanich, The Orange County
Register It
really stuck out that the federal government only funds special
education 19 percent when they should fund it at least 40 percent.
Seems to me that they should fund it 100 percent and then we would
be out of the woods, so to speak. Is this an Obama administration
cut from funding it down to 19 percent from 40 percent?
Capo and Saddleback both offer Spanish immersion programs
April 12, 2010
Column: Carol Varavanich, The Orange County
Register Q. Last
week there was a question about second-language learning. I didn't
know if you were aware that both Capistrano Unified and Saddleback
Valley Unified have two-way Spanish language immersion programs.
They are much cheaper than private lessons, they are free! My own
children, now in 11th and 12th grades, have been in this program
since kinder, I can't tell you how beneficial it has been
academically, socially, emotionally.... I could go on and
on...
Online high school expands into O.C.
July 20, 2009
Silver Lin, The Orange County Register
Imagine earning a high
school diploma without ever stepping into a classroom. About 50
Orange County students are doing just that, through the Insight
School of California-Los Angeles , an online charter school with
about 600 students from the Kern, Los Angeles , San Bernardino and
Ventura counties … And Capistrano Connections Academy, similar to
Insight, serves K-12 students in Orange, Los Angeles, San
Bernardino and Riverside counties with an online-based experience
that also includes mentoring and field trips, according to the
school...
Why charter schools work
October 30, 2005
Book Review: John Seiler, The Orange County
Register Interested in charter schools, as a
parent, teacher or someone just curious? Then you need to read
"Free to Learn: Lessons from Model Charter Schools," by Lance T.
Izumi and Xiaochin Claire Yan. Charter schools operate within the
public school system, but without most of the red tape. They are
free to experiment and - most important - free to fail and be
dissolved, replaced by something better. They have grown fast
across the nation the past 15 years…
The Scandal of Special-Ed
June 01, 1999
Robert Worth, The Washington Monthly Online
It wastes money and hurts
the poor: Reforming IDEA is no easy task. Any politician who
touches it runs the risk of being branded a cold-hearted enemy of
kids in wheelchairs. But before we start pouring billions more into
the program, Congress should ask whether it's really serving the
goal of equal opportunity for all. And if special ed has become a
kind of band-aid for schools that lack money to teach their kids
adequately, or for kids whose parents never prepared them in the
first place, then perhaps it's time to address those problems
head-on. Kids like Garret Frey deserve a shot at success--but not
at the expense of kids like Saundra Lemons…