Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff
A SFUSD statement said atht district-wide, San Francisco’s test scores continue to improve in both English Language Arts (ELA) and Math tests. Proficiency rates in ELA improved by 2.3 percent (Grades 2-11) and by 3 percent in Math (Grades 2- 7). Over half (56.3 percent) of the district’s students are ‘proficient or above’ in ELA and approximately two-thirds (65.2 percent) of students are ‘proficient or above’ in Math (Grades 2-7).
Over 90 percent of SFUSD schools showed increases in either English Language Arts or Math scores. Approximately two-thirds of the schools improved in both content areas.
For the second year in a row, San Francisco public school’s African- American and Latino students have narrowed the achievement gap in their California Standards Test (CST) scores.
In 2010 testing, the growth in Math profi ciency rates for African-Americans was 4.8 percent and Latinos was 3.6 percent (for the entire district, the 2010 growth was 3 percent). In English Language Arts (ELA), African- Americans matched the district performance at 2.3 percent while Latinos exceeded the rate at 3.2 percent.
USCIS reminds eligible Salvadorans to re re-apply for the TPS
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS, for its initials in English) reminds Salvadorans (and persons without nationality, whose last residence was in El Salvador) who are in the country under the Temporary Protection Status (TPS), to submit their re-inscription before the deadline of September 7, 2010.
The 18-month extension of TPS for El Salvador will remain in force until March 9, 2012. The persons who have received the TPS previously have to re-apply for the extension during the period of re-inscription. If you do not present a request of re-inscription during the period stipulated without a justifi ed excuse, you might lose the benefi ts of the TPS, such as the employment authorization and protection from deportation from the United States.
Additional details on the extension of the TPS for El Salvador, including requisites of petition, tariffs and procedures, are available in www.uscis.gov/espanol, on the TPS page and in the Notifi cation of the Federal Record. To obtain more in formation, the petitioners can communicate to the USCIS calling 1-800-375- 5283, or their Consulate General.
Applicants who do not have access to the Internet can call the Line of Forms at the USCIS, 1-800-870-3676.
Nurses protes t management plans to slash their healthcare benefi ts
Registered nurses from Children’s Hospital Oakland, joined by other hospital employees, rallie outside the facility Aug. 18 to protest management efforts to sharply reduce current healthcare coverage for nurses and their families. Children’s has signaled that they also intend to demand cuts in health benefits for other hospital workers as well.
The nurses charge that hospital administrators are trying to penalize the RNs and other employees for extremely poor management decisions with sharp and unwarranted reductions in health coverage.
Such cuts would push Children’s well below community standards for healthcare coverage offered by other Bay Area hospitals, driving RNs away from the hospital and reducing patient access to the hospital’s most experienced nurses, warns the California Nurses Association.
