GIVE COLLEGES MORE CREDIT v. A MORE CORPORATE COLLEGE MODEL
THE DOOMSAYERS ARE WRONG: America's higher-education model isn't broken. Op-Ed By Barry Glassner and Morton Schapiro, LA Times | http://lat.ms/LEDjZM Graduating students attend New York University's commencement ceremony at Yankee Stadium. (Mario Tama / Getty Images / May 16, 2012) July 3, 2012 :: Higher education as we know it is about to come to an end. After all, there are no jobs for
26 get out, 24 left behind: WASHINGTON AND WISCONSIN APPROVED FOR NCLB WAIVERS + CALIFORNIA SEEKS WAIVER FROM “NO CHILD…
By Alyson Klein | Politics K-12/Education Week | http://bit.ly/RwZHaS July 6, 2012 6:00 AM :: Two more states—Washington and Wisconsin—have been approved today for waivers that will allow them to get out from under mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act. The two approvals mark an important milestone in the NCLB waiver process. Washington and Wisconsin's approval brings the total of
GREEN DOT CHARTER SCHOOLS MOVE TOWARD MERIT PAY INSTEAD OF SENIORITY FOR TEACHERS
By Rob Kuznia Staff Writer, Daily Breeze | http://bit.ly/L784d6 07/06/2012 08:14:09 PM PDT :: Teachers unions in California tend not to be big fans of tying teacher evaluations to test scores or linking pay increases to performance ratings - a concept often referred to as "merit pay." One exception is the teachers union at Green Dot Public Schools, a cluster of 18 charter schools throughout
Goorge McKenna: TOUGH EDUCATOR WHO ALWAYS RELISHED A CHALLENGE RETIRES AFTER A LONG CAREER THAT INCLUDED TRYING TO STIR THINGS UP IN INNER CITY L.A. SCHOOLS
His high standards and blunt talk riled some, but he got results. By Sandy Banks, LA Tomes | http://lat.ms/PtimH3 July 6, 2012, 7:49 p.m. :: George McKenna has been called many things in his long career as an educator: dictator, egomaniac, tyrant, insufferably old-school. He can be blunt, impatient and unyielding. But one thing he's never been called is a quitter. He has always
LEG UPDATE: Three school discipline reform bills thought dead – revived
SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/OgkNGX Friday, July 06, 2012 :: Last-minute reconsideration saved three key bills reforming school discipline practices in advance of the Legislature’s summer recess deadline today. AB 1729 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, which will create a new pathway for the use of alternatives to suspension and expulsion, passed out of the state Senate’s
AWAKENING CIVIC POTENTIAL IN THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION + Participatory Politics: New Media and Youth Political Action,
THEMES IN THE NEWS: A weekly commentary written by UCLA IDEA on the important issues in education as covered by the news media. Week of July 2-6, 2012 | http://bit.ly/MbxzYm 7-06-2012 :: This week, as we celebrate the fourth of July, a research report from Mills College and the University of Chicago is asking educators to take a new look at their role in teaching students how to practice
THE MYTH THAT ONLY FURLOUGHS CAN BALANCE SCHOOL BUDGETS
By Seth Rosenblatt | EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/MaZuHU July 4th, 2012 :: With the continued uncertainty around public school financing in California once again (and the possibility of “trigger cuts” to education if the governor’s tax measure fails in November), California school children face the possibility of a school year that is shorter by as much as four weeks. An article in the
LAUSD REJECTS ALL INSPECTOR GENERAL CANDIDATES
By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News http://bit.ly/N1Tvai 07/02/2012 07:01:47 PM PDT :: The Los Angeles Unified board has rejected all of the finalists to succeed the district's retiring inspector general and will launch another nationwide recruiting drive for candidates, officials said Monday. Last Thursday, as Inspector General Jess Womack prepared to retire after a decade with
MOVING FORWARD: Securing a full school year in 2012-13
By Warren Fletcher UTLA President. President’s Perspective, United Teacher Newspaper June 22, 2012 :: Last week, the UTLA membership voted to ratify the 2012-13 Jobs and Services Restoration Agreement between UTLA and LAUSD. By ratifying that agreement, we were able to save the jobs of about 4,700 of our fellow teachers and health and human services professionals. We were also able to avoid
OVER 10,000 CALIFORNIA STUDENTS AWARDED “SEAL OF BILITERACY”
By Louis Freedberg| EdSource Today http://bit.ly/PmDPAg July 6th, 2012 :: For the first time, graduating seniors from around California – more than 10,000 – have been awarded a state “seal” indicating their proficiency in two languages. The award, which consists of a gold seal affixed to a student’s high school diploma, is the result of legislation (AB 815) authored by Assemblymember Julia
OUTSOURCING LIFESAVERS + TOLD YOU SO: Two items from the LA Times editorial page …with a slightly different spin
A Heath Educator from LAUSD writes: I read the Times editorial today about the lifeguard kid back east. Then I started thinking. Take the word “lifeguard” (which is what health teachers are in a sense) and find+ replace it with “health teachers” With a little help from MSWord the editorial rewrites itself! letters to the editor of
Maggie’s Meow: FOREVER ADULT EDUCATION
Op-Ed By MAGGIE ISHINO in the Rafu Shimpo, Los Angeles Japanese Daily News | http://bit.ly/N0peJ8 Thu, Jul 5 2012 :: Several months ago a press release was sent to the Rafu Shimpo office indicating that the Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy’s proposal was to eliminate adult education in Los Angeles beginning in the 2012-13 school year. There was also a massive
RISKY ASSUMPTIONS IN THE EDUCATION BUDGET
By smf for 4LAKidsNews “CALIFORNIA'S BUDGET PLAN BALANCED WITH RISKY ASSUMPTIONS” by Chris Megerian/Los Angeles Times (July 2, 2012) pretty well predicts that that light at the end of the California public education funding tunnel is an incoming runaway train – highballing to hell: “Gov. Jerry Brown has bet a portion of California's financial health on the expectation that a hyperpartisan
FIRING THE BAD TEACHERS: Ted Olson and LAUSD Parents Sue
By Hillel Aron LA Weekly | http://bit.ly/NmRm6W ILLUSTRATION BY NOAH PATRICK PFARR published: July 05, 2012 :: Superintendent John Deasy sat in an aisle seat in a Los Angeles courtroom, his left leg crossed over his right, his foot bobbing up and down like a bottle on a stormy sea. The case was Doe v. Deasy. If the stone-faced chief of L.A.'s troubled school system was nervous, he
WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF EVIDENT
●●By smf for 4LAKidsNews “We carried you in our arms on Independence Day And now you'd throw us all aside and put us all away.” - Tears of Rage - Bob Dylan + Richard Manuel Wednesday, July 4, 2012 :: Last night, sleepless, I was doing my old guy insomniac catching-up-on-the-reading-– finishing Robert Reich’s long-form essay and indictment of the right: Beyond Outrage,
MONICA GARCIA WINS SIXTH ONE-YEAR TERM AS L.A. UNIFIED PRESIDENT + smf’s 2¢
-- Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/NZWPzn July 2, 2012 | 12:39 pm :: Members of the Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday reelected Monica Garcia to her sixth consecutive one-year term as school board president. The seven-member body voted 4 to 3, but board members seemed to know in advance what was going to happen. That impression was remarked on openly by board member
A DRAFT RESOLUTION REQUESTING A COST ANALYSIS OF TESTING AND TEST PREP
forwarded in an email directed to the American Federation of Teachers convention 2012 (7/27) - Thank you Melody Inspired by New Mexico State Audit of Testing WHEREAS, the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 increased accountability requirements necessitating an increase in assessments and requirements for disaggregated data; and WHEREAS, for nearly a decade, implementation of
DID JERRY BROWN PULL RANK TO IMPROVE HIS POSITION ON THE BALLOT?
smf: making no pretense at neutrality, please connect your own dots! Did Jerry Brown pull rank to get petition signatures processed? July 1, 2012 ...office four days before Brown's, according to reports...Los Angeles County, Munger handed in her signatures nine days before Brown, the records show...state the same day as Brown's. Alameda County...seeking comment about Munger's claims. But a
Prop 39 Co-Locations: STATEMENT FROM SUPERINTENDENT DEASY & THE BOARD OF ED RE: CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOL ASSOCIATION V. LAUSD + Court order
LAUSD News Statement For Immediate Release June 28, 2012 Contact: Tom Waldman 11/12-239 STATEMENT FROM LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY AND THE LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION REGARDING A LAWSUIT: CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOL ASSOCIATION V. LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT This week’s decision by Los Angeles
NEW SES REGS EXPAND PROVIDERS’ ABILITY TO DIRECTLY MARKET SERVICES TO PARENTS
By SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/N4bkFe Thursday, June 28, 2012 :: Among the many things competing for attention this time of year are the federally required parental notifications for students eligible for Supplemental Education Services at Title I schools – especially where it pertains to the new state rules governing the program. Under federal law, schools that have been in Program
JUDGE ORDERS ASPIRE BACK FOR LOCAL PERMISSION OF ‘STATEWIDE BENEFIT’ CHARTER SCHOOLS + smf’s 2¢
By Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report. | http://bit.ly/LWGhba Friday, June 29, 2012 :: A superior court judge has issued orders requiring Aspire Public Schools to return to three local district boards in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Stockton for permission to continue operation of six charter schools. The order, made public Thursday, would appear to close the books on a legal dispute