Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, May 18, 2013

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 5-18-13



4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

4LAKIDS - SOME OF THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT

LA TIMES & ED WEEK ON THE MAY REVISE; Capitol Dems, Sacramento Bee and Center for Oral Health weigh-in …+ John Deasy tweets on the wonderfulness thereof

Read the Governor’s May Revision proposal at www.ebudget.ca.gov. Even with added revenue revised plan for all spending is $1.2 billion less than the one he put forward in January If they can get out the votes, Legislative Democrats theoretically have both a Republican-proof and Governor's-veto-proof supermajority. L.A. TIMES: Gov. Jerry Brown unveils cautious budget for deficit-free

Los Angeles City Elections 2013: A CITY AGENDA FOR L.A. SCHOOLS?

If public officials in the more than two dozen cities served by L.A. Unified want to do something to help kids succeed, there are plenty of things within their purview. OpEd in the LA Times By Bennett Kayser | http://lat.ms/142Ykas Mayoral candidates Wendy Gruel, left, and Eric Garcetti , right, following their candidates forum at Macedonia Baptist Church. (Los Angeles Times / May 13,

L.A. UNIFIED BANS SUSPENSION FOR ‘WILLFUL DEFIANCE’

Zero tolerance policies adopted after Columbine lower achievement and disproportionately affect African Americans, supporters say. By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/18L4sHf Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel, right, gets a high-five from Community Coalition member Jorge Hernandez after voicing her support of the proposal to make L.A. Unified the first

PARENT TRIGGER GROUP GETS ‘THUMBS-UP’ FROM LAUSD

"Someone on our staff is talking to Parent Revolution, and we need to know who it is," Boardmember Lamotte said.  4LAKid’s nominee for ‘someone’; is Superintendent Deasy. By Beau Yarbrough, LA Newspaper Group from the San Bernardino County Sun | http://bit.ly/YJjYPN 5/14/2013 06:36:57 PM PDT  ::  LOS ANGELES -- A group of Watts parents have successfully ousted an

‘Working Hard, Left Behind’: CLOSING CALIFORNIA’S EDUCATION GAP

As the overall education level declines, the state faces not only social ills but also major economic problems. OP-ed By Michele Siqueiros in the LA Times |http://lat.ms/13f6sBR Students wait in a line for financial aid on the Santa Monica College campus. (Los Angeles Times / September 11, 2012) May 13, 2013  ::  California has proved to be a land of opportunity where hard work delivers

BROWN SET TO RELEASE “MAY REVISE” BUDGET PROPOSAL

  Some Democrats and interest groups call for some of the deepest budget cuts in recent years to be restored.  But H.D. Palmer with the governor's Department of Finance says that won't happen. "The governor's budget assumes that the spending reductions that we've made over the last several years are ongoing in nature - that they will continue," he says.

U P D A T E D: LAUSD BOARD COULD BAN SUSPENSIONS FOR ‘WILLFUL DEFIANCE’ + smf’s 2¢

Backers of the resolution say 'zero tolerance' is harming kids. 'Instead of punishing students, we're going to engage them,' says one supporter. By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/ZUKoeQ David Chinchilla, 15, of Augustus Hawkins High School in South L.A., was suspended for interrupting and cursing at a teacher. But he and the teacher also engaged in a "restorative

A MESSAGE FROM DIANE RAVITCH :|: A MESSAGE FROM MONICA RATLIFF

By Diane Ravitch from her blog | http://bit.ly/11wgwMp May 12, 2013  ::  Here we go again. Another local school board race where the a billionaire a boys Club and Michelle Rhee create a massive war chest to beat an underfunded candidate. Monica Ratliff is a fifth-grade teacher. Please help her. Monica Ratliff for Board of Education 2013 –       The first official endorsement by

AN OPEN LETTER FROM ONE UTLA TEACHER TO THE UTLA BOARD OF DIRECTORS: “I am totally befuddled by your school board endorsements”

AN UTLA Teacher/4LAKids reader wrote the UTLA Board – and asked 4LAKids to publish the concerns. The letter included the sender’s  name and return address (they know whom he or she is)  but asked that it be deleted from publication Sat, May 11, 2013 5:32 pm Subject: Your School Board Endorsements Dear UTLA Board of Directors (and other UTLA officers), I have been a teacher (and UTLA member)

CA TAX COLLECTIONS OFFICIALLY UP $4.6 BILLION, MAKING NEXT WEEK’S MAY REVISE MUCH ROSIER

  By Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/13qSMak Friday, May 10, 2013  ::  It’s official. State Controller John Chiang confirmed earlier this week projections that other agencies were making about the significant increase in tax collections so far this spring, reporting gains that outpaced projections by $4.6 billion. Led by a jump in personal income taxes, the state’s revenue

STATE BOARD OF ED CHALLENGES SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY MESAUREMENT, LOOKS FOR OPTIONS

By Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/13baET8 Thursday, May 09, 2013  ::  California’s State Board of Education raised some major red flags Wednesday over changes being considered to the state’s K-12 school accountability system, leaving in question the next steps for updating the system. Mike Kirst, board president, even questioned whether a revised API could continue to

LAUSD FIGHTING FOR ZERO-TOLERANCE ON TEACHER CHEATING

The school district says a decision by a state panel — determining there was test-score cheating but the teacher shouldn't be fired — sends the wrong message. By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times |http://lat.ms/YONCFG "The panel found the person guilty of cheating," L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy says, "and found it appropriate to put the person back in the classroom. It's completely beyond my

SIR KEN ROBINSON FROM TED TALKS EDUCATION

“It’s a short plane ride from Los Angeles to America.” “The real role of (educational) leadership is climate control, creating a climate of possibility. And if you do that, people will rise to it and achieve things that you completely did not anticipate and couldn't have expected.” aired on PBS May 7, 2013 |  http://bit.ly/YOEMHX Transcript: Thank you very much. I moved to

PRINCIPAL TAKES FIFTH, ATTORNEY ACCUSES 11-YEAR-OLD OF TESTIFYING FOR MONEY AT DE LA TORRE MOLESTATION HEARING

Principal takes Fifth in teacher molestation case By Brian Charles, Staff Writer, Daily Breeze/L.A. Newspaper Group | http://bit.ly/12okcet 5/10/2013 08:08:39 PM PDT  ::  A retired Wilmington elementary school principal invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Friday at a court hearing for a former teacher accused of molesting children at the school. Irene Hinojosa, who

Breakfast in the Classroom: HUNGER IS NOT AN OPTION

by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/14crq6G 5-03-2013   ::  The United States has a staggeringly high rate of child poverty. It should come as no surprise, then, that many thousands of children are hungry as they try to focus on lessons. School-based breakfast programs meet some of that food need, but it’s not easy. Consider what’s taking place in Los Angeles Unified School District. Until recently,

U P D A T E D: MATH BY WAY OF ART + PASADENA CENTER AT FOREFRONT OF EARLY MATH PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

MATH BY WAY OF ART: For Pasadena school, arts plus math is really adding up S.T.E.A.M. – Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics by Mary Plummer | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/11qXPcT Slideshow/1 of 5 Mary Plummer/KPCC - Third grade student Eder counts the amount he'll need to purchase art supplies to create a sculpture. The project is

Parent trigger: WHO’S FOR IT AND WHO’S AGAINST IT TELLS THE STORY

By Valerie Strauss, Washington Post Answer Sheet |  http://wapo.st/13nHpQh April 23, 2013 at 5:00 am  ::  You can learn pretty much everything you need to know about the controversial  “parent trigger” legislation now before the Florida Legislature by looking at who is for it and who is against it. Parent trigger legislation is intended to give parents with children at low-performing

HOUSE GOP LAWMAKERS WANT MORE INFORMATION ON NCLB WAIVERS

By Alyson Klein, Politics K-12 - Education Week |  http://bit.ly/10hoENn  April 22, 2013 2:04 PM  ::  So far, 34 states and the District of Columbia have been approved for flexibility from provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, with only a smattering of formal oversight from Congress (mostly in the form of this bipartisan hearing in the Senate education committee and this letter from House

MATH BY WAY OF ART: For Pasadena school, arts plus math is really adding up

S.T.E.A.M. – Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics by Mary Plummer | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/11qXPcT Slideshow/1 of 5 Mary Plummer/KPCC - Third grade student Eder counts the amount he'll need to purchase art supplies to create a sculpture. The project is part of a grant funded endeavor that places teaching artists from the Pasadena

What do Enron, Dot-Com and The Housing Bust have in common with Online Learning, Charter+Choice Schools and The Common Core Standards?: SPECULATIVE BUBBLES IN EDUCATION

by Julian Vasquez Heilig |  Cloaking Inequity Blog - Endeavoring to reform Reformers' reforms since 2012 | http://bit.ly/10gGj7V May 9, 2013  ::  At the recent AERA [American Educational Research Association] conference in San Francisco, I was having a conversation with a local San Franciscan. He we mentioning that he was disappointed that he had not been able to take financial advantage of