4LAKIDS - SOME OF THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT
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By Kevin Modesti, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1kkhOgx Posted: 12/05/13, 9:11 AM PST :: Does the state education department really need L.A. moms and dads to fill out forms to prove there are a lot of poor school kids here who need help? Los Angeles Unified is scrambling to meet a March deadline for parents to submit a form listing their household’s annual income. Our Barbara
Guest Commentary in the LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/195P1Lf 12/04/13, 3:27 PM PST :: The Los Angeles Unified School District has been lauded — and scrutinized — for its trailblazing efforts to reform teacher evaluation and include student achievement in hiring and firing decisions. But the $1 billion push to provide every student and teacher with an iPad may be attracting the most attention
YESTERDAY
(THE NIGHT BEFORE) PISA DAY MEETS JINGLE BELLS…. or the doggerel ate my homework
East Coast Blogger Jersey Jazzman Posted | http://bit.ly/IHRUHq Sunday, December 1, 2013 'Twas the Night Before PISA Day! 'Twas the night before PISA Day, when all through the foundations The wonks were all dreaming about Bill Gates's donations; The rankings were crafted for each nation with care, In hopes that more grants would come from billionaires; The children were tested and
DEC 05
iHave a Dream: THE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS BEHIND LAUSD’S ED TECH FIASCO
By Yasha Levine | PandoDaily http://bit.ly/19kUYQI [Illustration by Brad Jonas] November 29, 2013 :: Remember that crazy billion-dollar scheme cooked up by LA to equip every public school student in the city with their very own iPad? When it was announced earlier this year, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) superintendent John Deasy described the plan in terms of economic
Marguerite Poindexter Lamotte 1933 - 2013
Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, veteran L.A. school trustee, dies By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/18mtT2L Veteran L.A. Unified school board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte has died. She was 80. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Time / July 1, 2011) December 5, 2013, 12:48 p.m. :: Marguerite
Board Report 129-13/14: IN WHICH SUPERINTENDENT DEASY RECOMMENDS IGNORING THE BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS & RESOLUTION ON PHASE TWO OF THE LAUSD iPADS
….committing their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. note that the superintendent’s signature is per procurationem, signed by another on his behalf . smf: the entire Board Report can be found on following pp. 68 from the Full Meeting Material’s page here. (huge file) THE ACTUAL THE BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION
The PISA Scores: MICHELLE RHEE CLUCKS THAT THE SKY IS FALLING
More Mediocrity for American Education: The bad news about those mediocre new rankings of America's educational system is the complacency about fixing them By Michelle Rhee | TIME IDEAS | http://ti.me/IFWZQn Getty Images Dec. 04, 2013 :: America’s education system earned headlines this week when it showed, yet again, that compared to the rest of the world, our schools perform in the
ALEC: ADVOCACY GROUP PROPOSES RESTRICTIONS ON STUDENT DATA + smf’s 2¢
by Tom Chorneau | SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet | http://bit.ly/1bK6JGr December 5, 2013 :: (D.C.) Amid growing concerns over the security of student data as states and school districts transition to common national curriculum standards, one of the country’s leading conservative advocacy groups has proposed legislation that would limit
Parents Know Little About Funding Law But Want To Get Involved, Survey Finds
By Susan Frey | EdSource Today http://bit.ly/1aCK8oQ Parents listen during a Tuesday night forum on the Local Control Funding Formula at the Berkeley Unified School District. A new EdSource survey found that most parents have not heard of the new spending law. Credit: Mark Coplan, Berkeley Unified School District December 5th, 2013 :: A new statewide survey by EdSource [see:LA
LA SCHOOLS CHALLENGE FOR NEW FUNDING: INVOLVING PARENTS IN HOW THE MONEY IS SPENT + Parent Survey
Annie Gilbertson | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/1dShzMg Listen Now/Download Audio [ 3 min 49 sec] Annie Gilbertson/KPCC | At a town hall in Hollywood, parents and school staff gave L.A. Unified a laundry list of spending priorities. December 5th, 2013, 6:01am | A survey out today shows parents 80 percent of parents would be more likely to engage with school districts about policy
DEC 04
SUPERINTENDENT TO ASK BOARD OF ED TO PROCEED WITH $115 MILLION iPADS PHASE2 DESPITE BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE OBJECTIONS
from the agenda/order of business for the Dec. 10, 2013 Board Meeting published 4 Dec 2013 Agenda Item #6. Board of Education Report No. 129 – 13/14 Office of the Deputy Superintendent of Instruction (Amendment to the Information Technology Division Strategic Execution Plan to Update the Common Core Technology Project) Recommends an amendment to the Information Technology
Lcff: Deasy Escalates Dispute With State Over Meal Program Verification
by LA School Report | http://bit.ly/UXHVhZ ALSO SEE: L.A. UNIFIED ACCUSES STATE OF ’SHORTCHANGING’ NEEDY STUDENTS + smf’s 2¢ Posted on December 3, 2013 :: Friction between LA Unified and the state escalated today as Superintendent John Deasy lashed out against a new state rule that requires low-income parents to verify their economic status to insure that their children remain eligible for
La Unified Board Member Bennett Kayser Talks Arts Education
Mary Plummer | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC | http://bit.ly/1cY3Wpu Courtesy of Los Angeles Unified School District. LAUSD school board member Bennett Kayser represents district 5. December 4th, 2013, 6:00am :: In September, Los Angeles Unified School Board members voted 5-2 to order district officials to produce a budget for the new arts education plan published last summer. That budget was
Schools Promoting ‘Trauma-Informed’ Teaching To Reach Troubled Stdents
By Jane Meredith Adams, EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/1cWrYkY Joyce Dorado is director of UCSF’s Healthy Environments and Response to Trauma in Schools program. Credit: Jane Meredith Adams, EdSource Today December 2nd, 2013 :: Backed by brain research, California schools are beginning to address the effect of severe trauma on the health and achievement of their students. In
DEC 03
Secretary Of Ed Arne Duncan Displays Arrogant, Bigoted, Anti-Parent Sentiment
by Laurie Rogers Education News | http://bit.ly/1cX0aNb It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed this Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings or liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people—women as well as men.” – Susan B
SURVEY RESULTS ON iPAD POPULARITY AMONG TEACHERS + ADMINISTRATORS DIFFER
Survey: Most LAUSD teachers would discontinue costly iPad program This Aug. 5, 2013 file photo shows a school district-supplied iPad during LAUSD teacher iPad training at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/Los Angeles Daily News) By City News Service from the LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/1eTf7Ce
THE COLLEGE-FOR-ALL MODEL ISNT WORKING: After years of disfavor, vocational education is being transformed for young people seeking jobs that require more than high school but less than college.
“Voc Ed is dead. Long live the new Voc Ed.” Op-Ed By Tamar Jacoby, L.A. Times | http://lat.ms/1eT9BiQ December 3, 2013 :: Instead of going through Congress and making the initiative bipartisan, President Obama acted alone in mid-November, promising $100 million in grants to specialized high schools — such as New York City's Pathways in Technology Early College High School — that prepare
L.A. UNIFIED ACCUSES STATE OF ’SHORTCHANGING’ NEEDY STUDENTS + smf’s 2¢
By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times / http://lat.ms/1av2yIa L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy disputes the way the state is counting needy students. Above, Deasy at a school board meeting. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times / October 29, 2013) December 2, 2013, 9:10 p.m. :: L.A. Unified accused state education officials Monday of “shortchanging” the school district’s impoverished students,
PISA Scores: The failure of ®eform, testing, or keeping score?” U.S. STUDENTS AVERAGE AROUND AVERAGE …AGAIN
“A decade of top-down, test-based schooling created by No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top — focused on hyper-testing students, sanctioning teachers and closing schools — has failed to improve the quality of American public education.” - Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers U.S. students lag around average on international science, math and reading
DEC 02
NEW YORK’S SECRET EDUCATION POLICY MAKERS + smf’s 2¢
by Alan Singer, Social studies educator, Hofstra University – In the Huffington Post | http://huff.to/1cOQ2pS Posted: 12/02/2013 12:22 pm :: The Albany Times Union calls it a "shadow government" within the New York State Education Department. It is supported by $19 million in donations from wealthy individuals and foundations. The "Regents Research Fund" fellows are a priva
Dozens Of La Unified Schools Lack Staff Needed To Run Libraries
Annie Gilbertson | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/186p9Am LISTEN: http://bit.ly/1bbexy7 Annie Gilbertson/KPCC December 2nd, 2013, 6:00am :: Lots of copies of Charlotte's Web and Harry Potter are collecting dust in school libraries, because the kids can't get to them. As many as 145 schools across L.A. Unified may have closed their libraries, according to staffing numbers provided
Reframing the Refrain: CHOICE AS A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE
“ School ‘Choice’ advocates are a motley alliance between those whose primary focus is greater opportunity for historically underserved students of color and those that want to see the state reduce its role in public education and shift the responsibility to the private sector … a created alliance between privatizers and
DEC 01
MORE CRACKS IN THE CORE: Massachusetts Halts Common Core Implementation
By Brittany Corona On Education,Front Page | Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation http://herit.ag/1c5wH1Y Newscom November 22, 2013 @ 9:00 am :: This week, the Massachusetts Board of Education voted to slow the transition to Common Core. The board decided to delay implementation for two years while it compares the Common Core aligned Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
Gates Foundation Awards Education Grants During Last Quarter Of 2013
By Judith Fenlon | The Chronicle of Social Change http://bit.ly/18fJvll November 23, 2013 :: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Seattle, Washington (206) 709- 3100 www.gatesfoundation.org November, 2013 The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced numerous grants awarded to organizations that improve educational opportunities for the nation’s youth. The Gates foundation has partnered
NOV 29
HOW MUCH ARE iPADS REALLY HELPING KIDS IN CLASSROOMS? + ARE iPADS REALLY HELPING KIDS LEARN? + smf’s 2¢
HOW MUCH ARE iPADS REALLY HELPING KIDS IN CLASSROOMS? - The drive to increase technology use in classrooms has many asking whether the investment is more fizzle than bang, and whether it’s too early to tell how wisely the money is being spent. by R A Johnston, Education News | http://bit.ly/1j0b21P Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 :: The drive to increase technology use in