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2 children dead in West Point, older brother held

Diana Lambert

California test scores rise despite financial cutbacks

Diana Lambert, Phillip Reese The Sacramento Bee

Last updated Monday, July 11, 2011 - 11:35am

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- It's a trend that would seem to defy conventional wisdom: As public school spending has declined in California in recent years, student achievement test scores have gone up.

Statewide, school districts spent 6 percent less from 2008 to 2010, but the percentage of second- to seventh-grade students scoring proficient on the state's standardized English test rose from 48 percent to 55 percent.

So, are educators finding ways to do more with less? Has student learning been largely unaffected by the spending cuts? The reviews are mixed.

Education, Schools, Budget cuts, Test scores, National Read more Comments

Pot brownies sickening school kids

Diana Lambert, The Sacramento Bee

Last updated Monday, February 28, 2011 - 2:50pm

In recent weeks, students in California and Illinois have become ill from eating marijuana-laced brownies they got at school.

Over an eight-day period in early February, six students in Evanston, Ill., were hospitalized after eating brownies laced with marijuana, according to a school website. Two students in Elm Grove, Calif., were taken by ambulance to a hospital. A junior at Sacramento's Florin High School who complained of sickness after eating a brownie was examined by emergency personnel and sent home. And the principal of Albany Middle School in California's Bay area e-mailed parents that at least three students there had been sickened by pot brownies.

Is it a trend or just a random cluster? Officials aren't certain.

Schools, Marijuana, National Read more Comments