Carl J. Petersen: LAUSD School Board Candidate Silke Bradford: An ‘F’ on Charter School Oversight (VOTE FOR PARENT PATRICIA CASTELLANOS) #UTLA #LAUSD

LAUSD School Board Candidate Silke Bradford: An ‘F’ on Charter School Oversight

LAUSD School Board Candidate Silke Bradford: An ‘F’ on Charter School Oversight

“Sexual abuse allegations are not something that can shut down a charter…under the law.”

- LAUSD Board District 7 candidate Silke Bradford

The North Valley Military Institute (NVMI) is one of the rare cases where a charter school’s renewal was rejected by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s board. The school then appealed this decision to the Los Angeles County Office of Education. The county staff also recommended that the renewal be denied, but they were overruled by the unelected Board of Education. As a result, they continue to operate on the campus of LAUSD’s Sun Valley High School.

Since LACOE overturned the rejection of the charter renewal the following have been revealed:

1. NVMI was illegally charging students to attend summer school. If parents could not afford the fees, the school would allow them or their students to work off the debt. In doing so, the school violated minimum wage and other labor laws.
2. While considering the appeal, the LACOE did not have a copy of the current, verified financial audit. This document is required under the law.
3. During the time that LACOE was considering the appeal, a lawsuit was pending against the school and the LAUSD alleging that an administrator who lived with NVMI’s Executive Director had sexually abused students.

As LAUSD School Board Member Scott Schmerelson notes, all of these should have disqualified NVMI from being renewed. The fact that it was CONTINUE READING: LAUSD School Board Candidate Silke Bradford: An ‘F’ on Charter School Oversight

Patricia Castellanos for School Board 

https://patriciacastellanos.com/ 

@Patricia4LAUSD

Career And Technical Education Deserves A Resurgence. Let’s Not Mess It Up.

Career And Technical Education Deserves A Resurgence. Let’s Not Mess It Up.

Career And Technical Education Deserves A Resurgence. Let’s Not Mess It Up.

Amidst all his slashing of the education budget, Donald Trump has proposed an enormous spending increase for one area—career and technical education.

The Trump budget includes an increase of $900 million in spending on CTE. Of that, $680 million would be directed through the Carl D. Perkins program, the main conduit for moving federal money into high school and post-high school CTE programs, the kinds of programs that produce workers to fill the skilled labor jobs that keep a country functioning. The program is long overdue for a boost; the last twenty years of education reform have emphasized college preparedness over blue-collar work. This may be the rare Trumpian budget item that survives Congress.

CTE has been allowed to languish in some school systems, but the district in which I taught is part of a consortium that has run a seven-district vocational-technical school (the old-fashioned name for CTE) for decades. It has been a vibrant and valuable part of the education system, an important choice within the system that has served many of students well. I taught those students for most of my career; I cannot overstate the value of a good CTE program.

But as with all educational ideas, it is possible to do CTE badly. As folks rush to grab up new CTE money, here are some of the basic CONTINUE READING: Career And Technical Education Deserves A Resurgence. Let’s Not Mess It Up.

Standardized testing problems widespread in these New Orleans-area schools, report finds | Education | nola.com

Standardized testing problems widespread in these New Orleans-area schools, report finds | Education | nola.com

Standardized testing problems widespread in these New Orleans-area schools, report finds

Public schools in Orleans and Jefferson parishes saw widespread irregularities with standardized testing last year, and many schools were forced to void the results of high-stakes exams for reasons ranging from administrative errors to cheating.

An annual Louisiana Department of Education report found that in the 2018-19 school year, 134 tests were voided at 38 of NOLA Public Schools' 78 charter schools, or nearly half of the charters authorized by the district.

In Jefferson Parish, 218 tests were voided at 27 of the district's 84 schools, or nearly a third of all elementary and high schools.

Statewide, 80% of school systems, both small and large, had at least one test voided. In total, 1,497 exams at 299 schools were voided, according to the report. 

The numbers don't surprise David Berliner, a professor of educational leadership at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College of Arizona State University.

Berliner said testing problems are likely to persist as long as states put such great emphasis on standardized test scores. In Louisiana, as elsewhere, the tests dictate a large part of the state's annual performance scores and corresponding letter grades for schools.

In New Orleans, charter schools can be shut down if enough students fail the standardized tests and the institution gets a failing grade.

"If you’re going to live by the sword, you're going to die by the CONTINUE READING: Standardized testing problems widespread in these New Orleans-area schools, report finds | Education | nola.com

Charter school politics still in play in LA Unified school board elections | EdSource

Charter school politics still in play in LA Unified school board elections | EdSource

Charter school politics still in play in LA Unified school board elections

Pivotal races in Districts 3 and 7 likely to shape how board deals with charter schools.

The majority of Los Angeles Unified school board seats are up for grabs next week, a pivotal election that will shape how the state’s largest school district approaches several key challenges. 

The next school board will have to grapple with budget deficits, enrollment declines and achievement gaps for black, Latino, low-income and other underserved students. However, the biggest issue framing the March 3 primary, with four of seven board seats on the ballot, remains charter schools and how to handle efforts to expand school choice. A new state law giving districts a bigger say on whether or not to approve new charter schools takes effect in July.

Candidates must earn more than 50 percent of the vote in the March 3 primary election to win a seat outright. If no candidate secures a majority of votes in any given race, that would trigger a runoff election in November featuring the top two vote-getters in that race. The next school board will be seated in December. 

While school board elections in California historically have been low-key contests, that is not the case in Los Angeles Unified, where in recent years the stakes in the battle CONTINUE READING: Charter school politics still in play in LA Unified school board elections | EdSource

Tell the House: No more funding for charter entrepreneurs. Fund Title I instead. - Network For Public Education

Tell the House: No more funding for charter entrepreneurs. Fund Title I instead. - Network For Public Education

Tell the House: No more funding for charter entrepreneurs. Fund Title I instead.

Tomorrow February 27, Betsy DeVos defends her budget before the House Appropriations sub-committee led by Rosa DeLauro. This year, DeVos took the funding for the Charter Schools Program out of her budget and put it in a block grant.

Our job is to make sure that the nearly half billion dollars to start up new charter schools is not restored. Nearly one billion dollars of waste on charter schools that never open, or open and close, is enough.

Call the following committee members now. The hearing begins tomorrow at 10:00 am.

Lucille Roybal-Allard–(202) 225-1766

Rosa DeLauro–(202) 225-3661

Barbara Lee–(202) 225-2661

Mark Pocan–(202) 225-2906

Katherine Clark–(202) 225-2836

Lois Frankel–(202) 225-9890

Cheri Bustos–(202) 225-5905

Bonnie Watson-Coleman–(202) 225-5801

Keep your message simple:

My name is (your name). I am calling Representative X to ask that the Charter Schools Program funding not be restored. The Charter Schools Program has wasted nearly a billion dollars that could have gone to our neediest students. The Charter Schools Program should not be funded. The federal government should leave the funding for new charter schools to the state.

If the phone is not answered, or you call after hours, leave a message.

Then send an email to your representative. Click here.

Tell the House: No more funding for charter entrepreneurs. Fund Title I instead. - Network For Public Education

Public Education: a Love Story | Teacher in a strange land

Public Education: a Love Story | Teacher in a strange land

Public Education: a Love Story

This is a very personal story.

There are a thousand reasons to admire and support public education—beginning with the idea itself: a free, high-quality public good, offered to all children, a societal building block. There are community schools, with wraparound services and creative magnet schools to nurture special talents and interests. There are new pilot programs and old-faithful heritage programs and Friday night lights. There are special services for kids with a range of disabilities. No one can be turned away. It’s all good.

When the neighborhood is sinking rapidly, businesses leaving and families fleeing, there is good old Oak Avenue Elementary, its playground and parking lot fenced and gated—but still open. Public schools are often the safest places for children, where they can be warm, fed, and cared for, and read a story. Public education may be messed up and threatened these days, in the land of the free, but its noble genesis and its persistence make it one of our best ideas.

This, however, is MY story, the reason why I will defend public schools until my last breath.

My allegiance to public education came first from my dad, who—ironically—received nearly all of his formal education in a Christian school. Not a Catholic school (they’re two different things, where I come from)—a Betsy DeVos-type, all-white Christian school, in western Michigan.

This was a long time ago—in the 1920s and 1930s. My grandparents, who had five CONTINUE READING: Public Education: a Love Story | Teacher in a strange land

It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

It's Larry Ferlazzo's  Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY 

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

A Look Back: Surprise, Surprise: Study Finds That Relationships Promote Perseverance & Cash Bonuses Do Not

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . I wrote this post in 2013. You might also be interested in The Best Resources On The Value & Practice Of Having Older Students Mentoring Younger Ones . That post includes my latest related post, Here Are The Instructions I Give Mentors

How Can We Make Our Lessons More Culturally Responsive?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

The next question-of-the-week at my Ed Week column is: What are specific ways to make lessons more culturally responsive and culturally sustaining? Please leave responses on Twitter or in the comments section.

Smithsonian Releases 2.8 MILLION Images Into Public Domain

97by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Program from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial. The program is a single page folded in half to create a booklet. The top of the front page has the march title and date in large black letters underlined by a black decorative border. It reads “MARCH ON WASHINGTON/ FOR JOBS AND FREEDOM/ AUGUST 28, 1963.” The Smithsonian announced today that they were making 2.8 mil

“Connecting Reading & Writing ‘Is a High-Leverage Move'”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

Connecting Reading & Writing ‘Is a High-Leverage Move’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Five educators recommend strategies for using reading instruction as a tool to improve students’ writing skills, including through the use of informal writing and sections of reading texts students can use as models for their writing. Here are some excerpts:

What Are Your Suggestions For Online Learning If Schools Are Closed In U.S. Because Of The Coronavirus?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

I don’t want to be overly-alarmist, but two things happened today to get me wondering what would happen here in the U.S. if the coronavirus resulted in U.S. schools closing for a period of time. First, the CDC announced today that it 

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience – radical eyes for equity

Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience – radical eyes for equity

Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience

I am deeply indebted to the academic and personal kindness and mentoring afforded me during my undergraduate education by one of my English professors, Dr. Nancy Moore.

Dr. Moore combined an admirable ability to challenge students academically while also being sincerely supportive and encouraging. I probably did not need or even deserve her praise, but Dr. Moore always made me feel like a successful student, budding scholar, and most of all, credible writer.

She was one of the first people to treat me as a poet, inviting me to read and share my work in various settings.

But I also recall that she regularly chided me about my literary affections, warning me that I would grow out of some of my favorite authors. Part of that rested on one of my proclivities for authors who dwelled on innocence, such as J.D. Salinger and e.e. cummings.

While my literary tastes have in fact changed and even matured (in the sense that my critical sensibilities are sharper as I have aged), as I am staring down the barrel of turning 60, I remain deeply drawn still to the poetry of cummings, even as my discomfort with him as a person has grown with each biography I read.

This blog post title refers directly to William Blake’s major poetry collection that remains also a favorite of mine since it captures why these works still resonate with me; the tension between innocence/youth and CONTINUE READING: Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience – radical eyes for equity

AFT Prez Weingarten Signals Support for Sanders over Moderates as Field Narrows – Payday Report

AFT Prez Weingarten Signals Support for Sanders over Moderates as Field Narrows – Payday Report

AFT Prez Weingarten Signals Support for Sanders over Moderates as Field Narrows

Last week, the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten signaled that their union would likely support Senator Sanders if the primary field were to narrow if Warren or Biden dropped out due to poor showing.

On Thursday, last week, the union voted to encourage its members to vote for either Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), or Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT).

“The resolution signals to members and leaders that support for any of those three candidates is welcome at this stage of the process before the union makes a national endorsement,” the union said in a statement last week.

In their broad joint endorsement, the union signaled that they were opposed to the upstart moderate candidacies of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg; all of whom have been criticized for their support of charter schools.

“It was clear that the time to take this action was now before all the delegates are chosen and before all of the primaries are over so that AFT members and leaders can help shape the race and the narrative, ensure our voices are heard, and ensure one of these three candidates emerges as the nominee,” Weingarten said in explaining the union decisions to do a joint endorsement of Biden, Warren, and Sanders.

With Warren’s and Biden’s campaign sagging, the positioning by AFT opens the door for the union endorsing Sanders.

An endorsement from the political popular teachers’ union and its president Randi Weingarten would CONTINUE READING: AFT Prez Weingarten Signals Support for Sanders over Moderates as Field Narrows – Payday Report

Ohio: Who Is Writing Education Policy? Not Educators. | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ohio: Who Is Writing Education Policy? Not Educators. | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ohio: Who Is Writing Education Policy? Not Educators.

Joel Malin and Kathleen Knight-Abowitz of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, write here about the forces determining education policy in Ohio. 

Ohio education policy is a train wreck. It is not benefiting students or teachers or society. So who is it benefiting?

In our view, it pays to start asking larger questions about EdChoice to understand how education policy is made in Ohio. Why, for instance, did this dramatic increase in voucher eligibility occur? Why would lawmakers experiment with such an expensive initiative, when studies of such voucher programs – including a rigorous study of EdChoice – have most often revealed large, negative impacts on student learning? And, in what universe does it make sense that schools would be judged, and voucher eligibility triggered, by students’ scores in 2013 and 2014 (but not 2015-2017)?

The great uproar around EdChoice should have us asking about how policy is made: specifically, whose voices are being elevated, and whose are being diminished, when Ohio education policy is being created?

Taking a step back, we can see that the policies adopted CONTINUE READING: Ohio: Who Is Writing Education Policy? Not Educators. | Diane Ravitch's blog

Is the NYC School System Idling in Neutral? | Ed In The Apple

Is the NYC School System Idling in Neutral? | Ed In The Apple

Is the NYC School System Idling in Neutral?

Have you ever coached a kid sports team? a dance group? a band or orchestra?  Kids vary widely in talent and the effort they put into getting better. As a coach, you try and hone your coaching skills; maybe you use the camera on your phone to show the kids their footwork or instrument fingering.  You may take a coaching course; what are the most effective exercises for the kids to practice?   I coached soccer and took a US Soccer Federation Coaching License course; each session was 1.5 hours in the classroom with film and 1.5 hours in the gym or on a field, it was rigorous; and only for the “D” license.

We played in the Metropolitan Soccer League; we were the only “American” team, the only non-ethnic team. We probably got cursed at in many, many different languages; our kids played hard, they were pretty good. Some kids went on to play in high school and college, for most it was just fun, and, our parents weren’t as passionate as the Gottchee, Greek Americans, Gjoa or the Brooklyn Italian parents.

God, in her wisdom didn’t distribute talent equally, to kids, or, coaches.

Some kids weren’t the most gifted but they made up for it in effort; conversely other kids with “natural” talent never responded to coaching.

On the other hand I didn’t go beyond the “D” license, I’d like to think my CONTINUE READING: Is the NYC School System Idling in Neutral? | Ed In The Apple

Michael Bloomberg’s Disastrous Public Education Legacy | The Indypendent

Michael Bloomberg’s Disastrous Public Education Legacy | The Indypendent

Michael Bloomberg’s Disastrous Public Education Legacy

As of mid-February, Michael Bloomberg has spent over $400 million on his presidential campaign, including blanketing the air waves with ads and is on track to spend more than a billion dollars. As a result, he has risen sharply in the polls, and in turn, begun to receive critical attention regarding his record on certain issues, such as racial profiling and his stop-and-frisk policies.

However, Bloomberg’s record on education has been glossed over. When it is mentioned at all, he has been vaguely praised, as in a recent Thomas Friedman column, for championing  “virtually every progressive cause” including “education reform for predominantly minority schools.”

But the reality is that Bloomberg’s education record is far from progressive. In fact, when I heard that he was running for president, it felt like the return of a bad dream that for many of us had begun to fade away long years ago.

Aggressive Free-Market Ideology

For voters who do not live in New York City or never sent their children to public school here,  you might not be aware that Bloomberg embodied an aggressive free-market ideology with policies that were contrary to research and hugely disruptive — in the worst sense of the word. Far from the benevolent, pragmatic centrist his campaign likes to portray,  Bloomberg and his chancellors reigned over NYC public schools for 12 years with an iron fist, autocratically imposing destructive reforms with little concern for how they upended the lives of communities, students and teachers.

In many respects, his policies contradicted his campaign promises. When he first ran for Mayor in 2002, he didn’t mention the wrecking-ball he later deployed on the school system, but instead pledged to implement a proven reform: to lower class sizes in all schools to 20 students or less in grades K-3. Class-size reduction has been shown to benefit all kids but especially students of color, who make up the majority of kids in New York City schools.

Instead of following through on this promise, subsequent audits from the state and city comptrollers showed, his administration misused hundreds of millions of state dollars meant for class-size reduction. As a result, class sizes stagnated and then rose sharply in his second term.  

 In 2011, at a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bloomberg announced that if he had his way, he would double class sizes by firing half the teachers. He would “weed out all the bad ones” and pay the rest more. It would be “good deal for the students,” he insisted. What he didn’t mention, of course, is that his own daughters attended a private school where class sizes averaged 14-18 student CONTINUE READING: Michael Bloomberg’s Disastrous Public Education Legacy | The Indypendent