4LAKIDS - SOME OF THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT
AB 215: DEAL ANNOUNCED ON ‘SEVERE MISCONDUCT’ TEACHER DISMISSAL BILL THAT GOVERNOR WOULD SUPPORT + smf’s 2¢
By John Fensterwald | EdSource Today http://bit.ly/1jPIbxK April 4th, 2014 | Signaling the resolution of an acrimonious issue, Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, introduced a bill Friday to make dismissing teachers charged with severe misconduct quicker, easier and cheaper. Buchanan praised the compromise that was reached, and said that Gov. Jerry Brown, who vetoed
STAKES RUN HIGH IN TRIAL RUN FOR EXAMS: Field-Testing Set to Begin on Common-Core Exams
By Catherine Gewertz | Education Week | http://bit.ly/1dZKiiT Sydney Matai and other 7th graders at Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, Mass., look at a PARCC practice test to give them some familiarity with the format before next week's field-testing of the computer-based assessments aligned with the common core. —Gretchen Ertl for Education Week Published in Print: March 26,
OKLAHOMA MOVES TO DUMP COMMON CORE: A landslide vote in the Sooner State follows Indiana withdrawal.
By Alec Torres, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE | http://bit.ly/1h1miLw Bucking the Trend: Range Riders statue at the Oklahoma state capitol APRIL 2, 2014 5:31 PM :: The Oklahoma state senate passed a bill Tuesday to withdraw the state from the Common Core standards. If the bill is signed by Governor Mary Fallin, Oklahoma will become the second state to withdraw from the Common Core. Indiana
Deasy Releases Draft Of Lausd’S Next Budget, With New Money
by Vanessa Romo, LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1skr4bw [THE SUPERINTENDENT’S PROPOSED BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS 2014-2015 – are posted here: http://t.co/4WX9QQxA0D] April 4, 2014 6:50 pm :: LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy made public today the first draft of a $6.8 billion budget for the 2014-15 school year, a presentation that offered the first glimpse of how the new Local Control
First Look: SUPERINTENDENT’S DRAFT PROPOSED BUDGET RECOMENDATIONS & FORMAL PRELIMINARY DRAFT OF THE LOCAL CONTROL ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN (LCAP)
from LAUSD | http://bit.ly/1gwNw7T Board Presentation/Public Information Deck Board Presentation LCAP Draft 4-4-14 FINAL from: http://lausd.schoolwires.net/Page/5124 Proposed Budget/LCAP Recommendations 2014-15 The budget recommendation by LAUSD Superintendent John E. Deasy and his administration represents the fiscal prudence and beliefs in the just investments necessary to support
YESTERDAY
Battle Lines Forming In La Unified For ‘Local Control’ Spending
by Vanessa Romo, L.A. School Report | http://bit.ly/PxO8UT April 3, 2014 4:55 pm :: The battle over the new money coming into LA Unified from the state’s new Local Control Funding Formulastarts in earnest tomorrow when Superintendent John Deasy lays out his plan for the 2014-15 budget. Deasy is meeting with reporters to unveil his spending priorities plan for an estimated $390 million the
APR 03
Report: FOUNDATION FUNDING WIDENS THE GAP BETWEEN CALIFORNIA’S ‘RICH’ AND ‘POOR’ SCHOOLS + smf’s 2¢
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/QIkpd5 Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC April 3rd, 2014, 5:30am :: The Irvine Public Schools Foundation raises money to pay for all K-3 music classes, and covers some of the costs of music classes for 4tn, 5th, and 6th graders in Irvine Unified schools. Southern California researchers are finding that foundations, set up to raise money
APR 02
‘High Quality Teachers Act of 2014’: VERGARA-LIKE BALLOT INITIATIVE PULLED UNTIL 2016, REPORT SAYS
Projected annual cost of teacher assessments exceeds $1 billion. by Yana Gracile | LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1ec1igc April 1, 2014 2:39 pm :: A state ballot initiative aimed at regulations governing teachers that was headed for the November ballot has been pushed to 2016, according to a report by ABC affiliate KXTV in Sacramento. The measure was seeking to change the way
Deasy ay USC: VERGARA IS THE NEXT BIG CIVIL RIGHTS CASE
Posted on by Vanessa Romo | LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1hA9BHh April 1, 2014 10:03 am :: More than two months ago LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy took the stand as the first witness for the plaintiffs in Vergara v California, a lawsuit challenging teacher protections. He testified for three days, laying the foundation of their overall case. Now that the trial has ended, the head
Pencils down, iPads up! - LA SCHOOLS’ NEW EXAM STRATEGY PUT TO THE TEST + smf’s 2¢
Annie Gilbertson | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/1opXim0 by Lexie Flickinger via Flickr March 31st, 2014, 4:56pm :: L.A. Unified students will be taking the new test on iPads. Gone are the No. 2 pencils and eye-crossing bubble sheets — Los Angeles Unified schools will begin piloting a new state exam on Tuesday, [April 1st] administered entirely by computer. Students in grades 3-8
Nutritious but uneaten: SOLUTIONS SOUGHT TO REDUCE FOOD WASTE IN SCHOOLS
Federal rules require students to take at least three items each day, but an L.A. Unified manager wants to change the policy to reduce the $100,000 in food thrown away daily. By Teresa Watanabe | LA Times | http://lat.ms/PirlMW ●●smf: With the line that long, why is the service window to the left closed? And why are Cheetos, juice and Pop-tarts available in the student store? ::
APR 01
The “other” CORE: TEACHERS UNION FIGHTS NEW PLAN BY SACRAMENTO, LAUSD AND OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO ADDRESS LOW-PERFORMING SCHOOLS + smf’s 2¢
By Loretta Kalb The Sacramento Bee | http://bit.ly/1dKwbh5 Sunday, Mar. 30, 2014 - 12:00 am/Modified: Sunday, Mar. 30, 2014 - 10:40 am :: In the seven months since Sacramento City Unified School District won unprecedented federal permission to use new methods at low-performing schools, the urban district has begun ranking campuses and sending educators to other schools to coach their
MAR 31
A Teacher in L.A: WHO IS JOHN DEASY??
by “Geronimo” from Diane Ravitch’s blog | http://bit.ly/Pa0Sko March 15, 2014 dianeravitch writes: A teacher in Los Angeles has a gripe about his superintendent, John Deasy: he says Deasy is an uninspiring technocrat, not an educator. He has no educational vision. The LAUSD board recently extended Deasy’s contract to 2016, despite the fiasco in which Deasy committed to spend $1 billion on
MAR 30
Common Core Fact Sheet
smf: Phil Daro, named above as a staffer of NCEE (National Center for Education and the Economy – Gates, Broad, Apple, Walton – complete list of funders HERE) currently works for Pearson Learning, LLC – and with no apparent conflict of interest whatsoever - is advertised by Pearson as a developer of the Common Core Standards AND the Pearson Common Core System of Courses. The Pioneer
CENTRAL BASIN WATER DISTRICT DIRECTOR IN LAUSD’s ‘TEACHER JAIL’
By Mike Sprague, Whittier Daily News | http://www.whittierdailynews.com/government-and-politics/20140326/central-basin-water-district-director-in-lausds-teacher-jail Central Basin Municipal Water District director James Roybal during a board meeting at the district’s headquarters in Commerce on March 13. Leo Jarzomb — Staff Photographer 3/26/14, 7:40 PM PDT | COMMERCE :: Los Angeles
Los Angeles Says Goodbye To Celes King Iv
30 March 2014 :: The community, the Greater Community, The City of Angels we aspire to be, bid farewell to Celes King IV at his funeral yesterday morning and afternoon. We celebrated a life well and completely lived – even if cut short. We prayed and wept and laughed and sang – and learned things we probably should’ve known all along. See: CELES KING IV, Civil Rights Leader, Community
MAR 29
SCHOOLS INCREASINGLY CHECK STUDENTS FOR OBESITY, LAUSD issues ‘fat letters’
By JULIE WATSON Associated Press / ABC News | http://abcn.ws/1gBZ5iH CHULA VISTA, Calif. March 29, 2014 (AP) :: The Chula Vista school district not only measures the academic progress of Marina Beltran's second-grader, it also measures her son's body fat. Every two years, Antonio Beltran, like his classmates, steps on a scale. Trained district personnel also measure his height and then use
INDIANA DROPS COMMON CORE, ED SECRETARY ARNE DUNCAN (and ®eform in general) UNDER FIRE FROM LEFT, RIGHT & CENTER
from the PBS NewsHour for March 28, 2014 | http://to.pbs.org/1hJtVlN TRANSCRIPT | JUDY WOODRUFF: This week, Indiana became the first state to drop the so-called Common Core public education standards adopted across much of the country. State officials there will now create their own plan. Indiana may be the first to do so, but likely won’t be the last. There’s growing anger about the
HOW A DYSLEXIC NEUROSCIENTIST’S iPAD APP WILL BOOST YOUR KID’S MATH SCORES: A nonprofit demonstrates an effective program for bringing technology into the classroom.
By Claire Martin / | TakePart http://bit.ly/O7bIqo (Photography by Larry Hirshowitz) March 28, 2014 :: On a recent weekday morning, a six-year-old girl with brown pigtails stared at an iPad perched on the desk in front of her. As she studied the screen, she squinted her eyes, and her brow furrowed into a pair of delicate question marks. A minute ticked by. She was still perplexed. Then