ACHIEVEMENT GAP A KEY CONCERN OF SCHOOLS CHIEF.Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD and STEVE GEISSINGER Sacramento Bureau SACRAMENTO -- State schools chief Jack O'Connell
Jack T. O'Connell (born October 8, 1951) is a California politician. today plans to call for a new emphasis on closing the achievement gap in California's schools -- helping those students from minority, low-income and other disadvantaged households who struggle to do well in class. O'Connell also wants to expand professional development for teachers in science subject areas, increase career-technical education programs and support more character education in schools. O'Connell will make the proposals today in his fourth annual State of Education address, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a copy of the speech obtained by MediaNews. ``There is simply no harder job in education than closing this pernicious pernicious /per·ni·cious/ (per-nish´us) tending toward a fatal issue. per·ni·cious adj. Tending to cause death or serious injury; deadly. achievement gap,'' O'Connell states in the prepared text. ``There is also simply nothing more important. In today's global economy, we simply cannot afford to have any student unprepared to compete.'' The state superintendent of public instruction plans to call for a statewide council of teachers, principals, business executives, parents and others to study the challenges and needs of students in various underachieving subgroups and tackle some of the root causes facing those students. Then in November he will convene CONVENE, civil law. This is a technical term, signifying to bring an action. a summit with thousands of educators to share the results. His State of Education proposals also call for asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (German pronunciation (IPA): [ˈaɐ̯nɔlt ˈaloɪ̯s ˈʃvaɐ̯ʦənˌʔɛɡɐ] and the Legislature to include $32 million in the state budget to improve statewide data collection on statistics such as dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human and retention rates. He also wants to expand the number of California Partnership Academies from 290 to 500. The academies are three-year programs, grades 10 through 12, that integrate academic learning with career technical education, business partnerships and internship internship /in·tern·ship/ (in´tern-ship) the position or term of service of an intern in a hospital. internship, n the course work or practicum conducted in a professional dental clinic. programs. O'Connell, now entering his second term, has generally remained well-liked and supported in the education community, and faced no serious opposition in his re-election bid last year. Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, chairman of the Senate Education committee, agreed it is important to address the achievement gap, but said it is a difficult challenge that relates to larger societal problems potentially beyond the scope of the schools. harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com (916) 446-6723 |
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