California Insider

The governor has proclaimed a state of emergency in 10 California counties where farmers are suffering big losses from the ongoing freeze. They are:

Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura.

The governor is asking for expedited federal assistance. More counties might be added to the list later if warranted.

Researchers from California Business for Education Excellence and the Pacific Research Institute have taken a look at what the state and its students are getting from more than $1 billion spent so far to help improve low-performing schools. Their conclusion: not much. The schools in the program are not doing any better than similar schools that did not participate and did not get the extra money, they say. And they say the state's accountability program is covering up that failure by using a system to assess schools that most people do not understand. They recommend dropping the complicated Academic Performance Index in favor of an easy-to-understand system that reports the percentage of students who reach grade-level proficiency. Their report's executive summary is here.