John Fensterwald
John Fensterwald, staff writer, joined EdSource in 2012. Before that, he was editor and co-writer for The Educated Guess website, a leading source of California education policy reporting and opinion, which he founded in 2009. For 11 years before then, John wrote editorials for the Mercury News in San Jose, with a focus on education. He worked as a reporter, news editor and opinion editor for three newspapers in New Hampshire before receiving a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University in 1997. His wife is a retired elementary school teacher, and his daughter is a neurology resident at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.
All articles by John Fensterwald
Education funding surges in governor's budget
State money for K-12 schools and community colleges is projected to slow to a trickle, starting in two years, when temporary taxes from Proposition 30 start drying up. But for now, there’ll be buckets of money.
John Fensterwald
January 9, 2015
Digital Library's use, usefulness questioned
Midway through the school year, about half the state’s teachers have access to a new "Digital Library" the state purchased to help them teach the Common Core State Standards, but it’s unclear how many teachers are actually using it and how useful it is.
John Fensterwald
January 8, 2015
Report: State no longer at bottom in spending
Education Week’s annual state rankings on K-12 education had welcome, though outdated, news for California: No longer rock-bottom, California moved from 50th to 46th in per-student state spending in 2011-12, the latest data cited.
John Fensterwald
January 7, 2015
Report on LCAPs finds mixed success
An advocacy organization that analyzed dozens of school districts’ inaugural improvement plans under the state’s new school funding law praised the level of community involvement but criticized the lack of clarity in the finished product.
John Fensterwald
December 16, 2014
Districts want to highlight retirees' costs
A coalition of school districts wants Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature to clarify how much money will be available to schools following the deal that legislators struck earlier this year requiring districts to make higher pension payments.
John Fensterwald
December 11, 2014
Funding to expand schools' high-speed Internet
The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to increase funding that supporters say will expand the Internet capacity for an additional 40 million students in 100,000 schools nationwide.
John Fensterwald And Laurie Udesky
December 11, 2014
State rethinks how to report test scores
California policymakers say they intend to create a different system for reporting results of the upcoming tests on the Common Core standards than parents and schools have become used to in the era of the No Child Left Behind Act.
John Fensterwald
December 3, 2014
Teacher to chair education committee
Patrick O’Donnell, a first-year Democratic legislator from Long Beach who’s been a teacher for 20 years, has been appointed to chair the Assembly Education Committee.
John Fensterwald
December 3, 2014
CTA launches large-scale teacher training
The California Teachers Association is teaming up with two Stanford University-affiliated organizations to provide training in the state's new learning standards that aims to reach tens of thousands of teachers.
John Fensterwald
December 1, 2014
Districts press to repeal cap on reserves
The California School Boards Association wasted no time in reissuing its call for the Legislature to repeal the cap on school districts’ budget reserves, which the association calls fiscally irresponsible.
John Fensterwald
December 1, 2014
Ryan Smith: Organizing for equity
Ryan Smith, the new executive director of Education Trust-West, got an early lesson in the inequities of education in California when, as a 6-year-old, his single mother used her savings to move from low-income South Los Angeles so that her only child could attend better schools.
John Fensterwald
November 24, 2014
Report alleges charter parents forced to volunteer
Dozens and possibly hundreds of the state’s charter schools have adopted policies that illegally require parents to volunteer, the nonprofit law firm Public Advocates charged in its report, “Charging For Access,” issued on Thursday.
John Fensterwald
November 20, 2014
Under half of students projected to test well
Projections released Monday predict that fewer than half of students in California and other states will score at grade level on tests next spring on the Common Core standards.
John Fensterwald
November 17, 2014
School groups ask to delay API scores
The State Board of Education, as expected, voted Thursday to move ahead in the spring with the new Smarter Balanced tests on the Common Core State Standards while leaving open, for now, the decision on what to do with the test results.