The Governor released his revised budget (the “May Revise”) on Friday. It was horrible; but pretty much status quo for K-12 education in California (the California School Boards Association’s take is here).
API reports were also released on Friday; SFUSD schools’ results generally ticked up slightly. (The district’s API rose from 771 to 775).
Audio tidbit: A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on Deputy Superintendent Richard Carranza’s presentation to the Board on version 2.0 of the district’s strategic plan. I promised to upload some audio from the speech; after hitting a few technological roadblocks, here is a key 7-1/2 minute section where Mr. Carranza speaks candidly about some of the district’s biggest challenges.
Rachel Norton 
Recent, apt news concerning Arlene Ackerman & the Philadelphia school district (from the Philadelphia Inquirer website):
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20100523_Ackerman_s_brief_tenure_does_not_merit_bonus.html#axzz0orasj3WJ
Rachel
I hope you’re convinced by Mr. Carranza that a performance management department which would create mid-term (or even quarterly) assessments which would inform instruction is a good thing. SF, as a smaller urban district, has lacked the scale and resources to do this. In these economic times, often times, performance management and other “bureaucratic” departments are often the first to face the firing squad of budget cuts in other urban districts. Now might be the time to be a trendsetter and show that the Board cares about improving all student performance above all other priorities.