Statewide Student Test Results Released - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

Statewide Student Test Results Released - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

Schools Chief Torlakson Reports Across-the-Board Progress Toward Career and College Readiness in CAASPP Results

 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today that California students made significant progress in the second year of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) online tests, with the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards increasing at every grade and in every student group.

Nearly half the students tested met or exceeded standards in English language arts, and nearly four in ten met or exceeded standards in mathematics (see Table 1). These online tests, based on California’s challenging academic standards, ask students to write clearly, think critically, and solve complex problems, just as they will need to do in college and on the job.

“The higher test scores show that the dedication, hard work, and patience of California’s teachers, parents, school employees, and administrators are paying off. Together we are making progress towards upgrading our education system to prepare all students for careers and college in the 21st century,” Torlakson said.

“Of course there’s more work to do, but our system has momentum. I am confident that business, political and community leaders will join parents and educators to help continue supporting increased standards and resources for schools.”

More than 3.2 million students took part in CAASPP, which includes a number of different assessments. The most widely tested are the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments in mathematics and English language arts/literacy, which are given in grades three through eight and grade 11.

Preliminary figures indicate that less than 1 percent of eligible California students did not take part in the assessment due to a parental exemption, a figure far lower than in many other states (see Table 2).

“This low rate of parental exemption indicates that our parents and students see the value of measuring the skills of all students against the same standards the same way, using one common yardstick, and one shared goal: learning,” Torlakson said.

In addition, he said, it shows a strong commitment to the state’s comprehensive program of transforming our schools with higher academic standards, more local control over spending, more funding for those with the greatest needs, and a new system of evaluating schools and districts.

“These positive results are based on a new college and career readiness assessment that is online, and expects students to demonstrate critical thinking and problem solving skills unlike the old, multiple choice tests they replace,” said State Board of Education President Mike Kirst.

Smarter Balanced tests consist of two parts. First, students take a computer adaptive assessment, which bases follow-up questions on a student’s answers in real time and gives a more accurate picture of a student’s progress than the paper and pencil test.

Here’s how it works: If a student answers a question correctly, she gets a more difficult question. If she answers it incorrectly, she gets an easier question.

Students also complete a performance task that challenges their ability to apply their knowledge and skills to problems in a real-world setting. The two parts measure depth of understanding, writing, research and problem-solving skills more thoroughly than the multiple-choice, paper-based tests they replaced.

Scores on the assessments fall into one of four achievement levels: standard exceeded, standard met, standard nearly met, and standard not met. The state also computes the average scores of all tested students, called mean scale scores, which reflects the progress of all students rather than only those who changed achievement levels from one year to the next.

This year average scale scores rose statewide. Statewide in all tested grades, 49 percent of students met or exceeded the English language arts/literacy standard, an increase of 5 percentage points from last year. In mathematics, 37 percent of students met or exceeded standards, also an increase of 4 percentage points from last year.

In English language arts/literacy, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards increased by at least 4 percentage points in all grades except grades eight and eleven, which increased by 3 points (see Table 3).

In mathematics, the largest gains were seen among third-graders, with 46 percent meeting or exceeding standards, an increase of 6 points from last year. Other grades posted gains of 2 or 3 percentage points (see Table 4).

California State Universities and many community colleges consider high marks on these tests among 11th-grade students a reliable sign of readiness for college-level work. This year’s results indicate 59 percent of grade eleven students are ready or conditionally ready for college work in English language arts, with 33 percent ready or conditionally ready for college work in mathematics.

Torlakson said a number of factors may have helped scores rise this year, including an extra year of teaching the California state standards in English and math, more familiarity with taking an online test, continued improvements in technology, and the use of interim tests, he said.

Torlakson noted that schools are still working to make the transition to new standards and assessments, and said patience and persistence will contribute to the ongoing effort to improve California’s schools.

One concern remains with the continuing achievement gap, with significantly lower scores among students from low-income families, English learners and some ethnic groups compared to other students.

Statewide scores for all student groups rose in both subjects tested (see Table 5 and Table 6). For example, average scores for Latino students in English language arts increased 5 percent, while scores for African Americans and Whites rose 3 percent.

But the achievement gap continues with just 37 percent of Latinos and 31 percent of African American students meeting or exceeding standards in English language arts compared with 64 percent of White students.

“The achievement gap is pernicious and persistent and we all need to work together to find solutions that help all groups rise, while narrowing the gap,” said Torlakson, who has proposed an office within the California Department of Education devoted to coordinating and promoting efforts to address the achievement gap.

Individual student scores are reported to parents by mail. In addition, California provides a dedicated CAASPP Results Web site, where parents and the public can view and compare aggregated results among schools, districts, and counties along with statewide results.

The California Department of Education provides a wide range of tools to help parents, teachers and schools understand and use CAASPP results.

These resources include a new understanding student CAASPP scores Web site  that provides parents with grade-by-grade, subject-by-subject information at all levels of achievement; detailed online guides for parents and teachers to use in analyzing results; and practice tests at every grade level in English.

California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress—2016 Annual Release Summary Results Tables of the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics

Table 1: 2014–15 and 2015–16 Smarter Balanced Number and Percentage Point Change of All California Students Who Exceeded or Met Standards for English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics1

Content Area	Number of Students Tested with Scores 20152	Number of Students Tested with Scores 20162	Percent Students who Met or Exceeded Standards 2015	Percent Students who Met or Exceeded Standards 2016	Percentage Point Change of Students who Met or Exceeded Standards 2015–2016
English Language Arts/Literacy3	3,173,079	3,188,014	44	49	+5
Mathematics	3,179,246	3,196,382	33	37	+4

1 Results for other achievement levels including 2015 are located on the CDE CAASPP Results Web site.
2 The number of valid scores includes count of students statewide who were enrolled and responded to enough questions on both the Performance Task and the Computer Adaptive portions of the test to generate a score.
3  Recently arrived English Learners who are in his or her first 12 months of attending a school in the United States are exempted from taking the assessment in English language arts.

Table 2: 2015–16 Number and Percentage of Students Receiving Statewide Student Test Results Released - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

Op-ed: Why privatizing education must be stopped

Op-ed: Why privatizing education must be stopped:

Op-ed: Why privatizing education must be stopped

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest” — Elie Wiesel.

Three recent news worthy items deserve our attention. The first is a recent study in the American Educational Research Journal. The study concluded that rising income inequality in the U.S. is a primary cause of the growing economic segregation of schools. As the gap grows between rich and poor, affluent families are more likely to segregate themselves into enclaves where there are few poor children in the public schools.

The second is a report issued by the Indiana Department of Education that calculated the net increased cost for the state’s education voucher program to be $53.2 million. Some 52 percent of voucher students now have no record of attending a public school.

The final report is one completed by the National Conference of State Legislatures addressing educational reform. The report acknowledges there are no silver bullets and the present efforts at reform have failed. The report recognizes the importance of having all stakeholders be a part of the process of improving our schools.

Why does any of this matter? All of these reports can be tied to the effort to privatize education.

In his book, “Justice,” Michael Sandell makes the observation that during the past 30 years we have moved from being a market economy to a market society where increasingly everything is being turned into a commodity and is for sale to the highest bidder. Sandell contends that when dealing with material goods, a market economy is a valuable and productive tool, but we should not trust markets with our civic lives. He observes that economists assume markets are inert and do not touch or taint the goods they exchange. This assumption may be true of material goods, but may not be true for non-material goods and social practices related to education, health care, politics, law and civic life.

Should educational opportunities be made available based upon the ability to pay? Should we pay children to read books or get good grades? Should people receive health care on the basis of their ability to pay? Should access to politicians and the political system be governed by those who have more money? Should legal representation be impacted by one’s financial circumstances? Should you be able to pay someone else to take your place in serving your country? Should citizenship be for sale?

Sandell asserts markets may in fact undermine or crowd out non-market attitudes and values worth caring about and change the character of some goods and social practices. He writes that the most corrosive effect of markets is the loss of our commonality – “we’re all in it together.”

The American public school system has been where students of different economic classes, religious backgrounds and ethnic communities come together to develop a sense of community and a commitment to the common good.

Because of income inequality, we are increasingly leading separate lives. Sandell asserts, “Democracy doesn’t demand absolute equality, but does require people to share a common life.”

Sandell concludes that ultimately this is “… not an economic question. The question is how do we want to live together? Do we want a society where everything is up for sale or are there certain moral and civic goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy?”

That is why all of this matters, why we should oppose privatizing our schools and why we should elect people who support our public schools. I may be powerless to prevent it, but the privatization of education is an injustice, and I must protest.

Eiler is former superintendent of Lafayette School Corp.Op-ed: Why privatizing education must be stopped:

Hoosier School Heist TV is Doug Martin's channel featuring videos of his book tour across Indiana speaking on the corporate takeover of public education. Order Hoosier School Heist at http://hoosierschoolheist.com/.

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Parents’ digital learning opt out form to share | Parents Across America

Parents’ digital learning opt out form to share | Parents Across America:

Parents’ digital learning opt out form to share

We reached out to Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, author of the just-released book, “Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction is Hijacking our Kids — and How to Break the Trance,” and received his permission to share the excellent sample digital learning opt out letter that is included in the book (see below).

Dr. .Kardaras says, “Parents and schools have been misled by tech companies into believing that educational technology leads to better school outcomes; but the research just doesn’t bear that out. What we essentially have is a $60 billion dollar scam where digital Trojan horses filled with the potential for clinical disorders have been allowed into our kids’ classrooms under the pretense of being ‘educational’. Unfortunately, we have been conducting a massive experiment using our kids as guinea pigs without vetting any of these developmentally inappropriate marvels of the digital age.”

Please also see PAA’s recommendations for sensible use of technology, and questions to ask at your child’s school, as well as our full list of reports.

School Technology Opt-Out Letter

Dear Teacher and/or School Administrator,

I would like to respectfully request that all of my child’s education and educational content be presented without the use of electronic devices. This includes the use of tablets, chrome books, lap tops or desk top computers.

We wish to help nurture and support our child’s educational, social, psychological and emotional development as much as possible and have become increasingly concerned with the potential detrimental aspects of screen technologies on young children.

We understand that you, as the school, have a responsibility to present our child with state approved educational content and curriculum. We are in full agreement with that. But it is within our right as parents to ensure that the medium by which our children’s education is being presented is safe and not problematic clinically nor developmentally.

There has been a plethora of research indicating the adverse effect of electronic screens on children’s attentional, cognitive and social development if they are exposed at too young of an age. Please feel free to refer to the Website www.Glowkids.com for a full list of that peer-reviewed research.

Sincerely,

___________________________________________

The Parent(s) of: __________________________________________

 Parents’ digital learning opt out form to share | Parents Across America:

Chief Privacy Officer Finally Appointed; Parents and Advocates Await Next Steps to Protect Student Data | Class Size Matters

Chief Privacy Officer Finally Appointed; Parents and Advocates Await Next Steps to Protect Student Data  | Class Size Matters Chief Privacy Officer Finally Appointed; Parents and Advocates Await Next Steps to Protect Student Data  | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes:

Chief Privacy Officer Finally Appointed; Parents and Advocates Await Next Steps to Protect Student Data 

For more information: Leonie Haimson, leonie@classsizematters.org, 917-435-9329

Chief Privacy Officer Finally Appointed; Parents and Advocates Await Next Steps to Protect Student Data 

The long overdue appointment announced today by the NY State Education Department of a Chief Privacy Officer, Temitope Akinyemi, is an important step forward to begin to enforce the New York student privacy law that was originally passed on March 31, 2014 as part of the state budget, along with the banning of the plan to share personal student data with inBloom Inc.

Parents are relieved that more than two years following the July 29, 2014 deadline set by this law, the NY State Education Department has finally appointed a permanent Chief Privacy Officer.  Yet by that date, the CPO was also supposed to have developed an expanded Parent Bill of Privacy Rights, with the input of parents and other stakeholders.  Instead, NYSED hurriedly posted a Bill of Rights two years ago that is incomplete as to existing federal and state privacy laws – as pointed out by a letter to then-Commissioner John King in August 2014.

Said Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters and co-chair of the national organization, the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy: “Now that the CPO is appointed, Ms. Akinyemi should immediately begin to reach out to parents through public hearings to improve and expand upon the Parent Bill of Rights, to gain their input so that their children’s privacy and safety can be secured. Parents have already waited too long for this to occur.”

Parents and advocates also urge Ms. Akinyemi to appoint a Data Stakeholder Advisory Panel to oversee the state’s collection and disclosure of personal student data.  According to a federal grantprovided to NYSED in 2009, this Panel was supposed to “provide active and ongoing review by local constituents,” but still does not yet exist – seven years later.

Added Ms. Haimson, “Only with robust citizen oversight can we be assured that children’s personal information will be safeguarded with appropriate restrictions and protections. We recently learned that the NYSED has decided to reverse their earlier decision to put the personal data of all public school students in the State Archives, potentially forever; but this decision should never have been made in Chief Privacy Officer Finally Appointed; Parents and Advocates Await Next Steps to Protect Student Data  | Class Size Matters Chief Privacy Officer Finally Appointed; Parents and Advocates Await Next Steps to Protect Student Data  | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes:

Florida Teacher to School Board: Why My Daughter Will Not Take the State Tests | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida Teacher to School Board: Why My Daughter Will Not Take the State Tests | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Florida Teacher to School Board: Why My Daughter Will Not Take the State Tests

Andy Goldstein addressed the school board of Palm Beach County, where he teaches, at a recent meeting:

Why My Wife and I Are Opting Out Our Daughter From Third-Grade High-Stakes Testing

Transcript of the original text:

Good evening. My name is Andy Goldstein. I’m a teacher at Omni Middle School and the proud parent of an eight-year-old daughter who attends one of our public elementary schools.

It seems like it was just yesterday when my daughter entered kindergarten. At that time, I talked about her at our August School Board meeting in 2013.

I said that my hopes and dreams for my daughter were that she would develop a lifelong love for learning that would serve her well as she learned to construct a life that would serve her and serve others as well.

I told this board that my wife and I were not particularly interested in having her be seen as a data point for others to make money from.

Now, three short years later, which seem to have gone by in the blink of an eye, she is entering third grade.

Tonight, I’m speaking as a parent, who also is a teacher.

In Florida, third grade is the beginning of high-stakes, standardized testing for our children.

What are the high-stakes?

• Our children, on the basis of one test, will receive a number, a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, which, will serve to define them.

Some students, may do well learning throughout the year, but do not test well and may receive a 1, a one being the lowest possible score.

Some may come from disadvantaged backgrounds and will receive a 1.

Some may be special needs students, who receive a 1.

These numbers work to define our students as to whom they are. “I’m a one. I’m a Failure.”

This high-stakes testing policy, mandated by state law, works to stigmatize our students and they grow up with a limiting self-concept of who they are and what they are capable of doing and becoming.

• On the basis of this one high-stakes test, some schools—those Florida Teacher to School Board: Why My Daughter Will Not Take the State Tests | Diane Ravitch's blog:

CURMUDGUCATION: Voting with Their Feet

CURMUDGUCATION: Voting with Their Feet:

Voting with Their Feet

One feature of "unleashing the power of the free market" in education is supposed to be a sort of regulation by the market's infamous invisible hand. Customers will "vote with their feet," driving the bad actors out of business.



In this country, there will always be an argument to be had about how well this really works. It's one of the dances of freedom and commerce that we have regularly. Is it okay to let Americans vote with their feet for grossly fat and unhealthy processed fast food? And are consumers moving the invisible hand based on their own honest desires, or are these hand-moving consumers themselves being moved by the not-so-invisible hand of marketing? And just how involved should the big fat heavy hand of government be in any of this? These are difficult and complicated questions, and I bring them up only to note that the idea that we just open a free market and the invisible hand sorts out the choices and-- voila!!-- quality!!-- well, that vision is a gross oversimplification and not very much like what actually happens at all.

We can already see the many ways in which the bipedal plebiscite is not working for education.

Exhibit A is the cyber charter industry. Let me first insert the disclaimer that for a small, select group of students, cyber school is an excellent solution. Having said that, the cyber charter industry at large is a huge failure, so huge that even the rest of the charter industry is calling for them to shape up. Cyber charters are a disaster, a waste of student time and taxpayer money. And yet, even though virtually every even-sort-of-responsible-voice in the education field has condemned cybers, the army of foot-voters have not yet put them out of business.

Why not? I can only offer theories based on anecdotal evidence. One is that people are voting with their feet, with cyber students either dropping out or returning to public school, often behind their peers. "I'm always excited to have a former cyber student in my class because I know they will be really on top of the material," said no teacher ever. However, so far, cyber marketing and aggressive recruiting keep new bodies signing up. Schools are made to be a churn and burn market-- you are always losing "customers," so your focus has to be on recruiting.

I think it's also safe to say that a certain amount of the education market is filled with customers CURMUDGUCATION: Voting with Their Feet:

Report from a First Time Union Delegate Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

Report from a First Time Union Delegate

By:  Chris Willems

“We are fighting a battle of immense proportions that threatens to destroy all we and others in the labor movement have worked for.  This battle is ultimately over who holds power in our economy and our democracy.  It is a battle to reclaim the promise of America.”                   -AFT CT Resolution on Member Engagement

I am a science teacher in New Haven, CT and am thrilled to have an active role as a national delegate within our local union #933, the New Haven Federation of Teachers.  Eric Maroney and I are first-time delegates, and our responsibilities include attending state and national conventions as the representative voices of our brothers and sisters in the New Haven Federation of Teachers.  It has been a fascinating and energizing experience.  I am going to share an update on what I learned this summer, and I challenge you to engage in the dialogue.

On Saturday May 21, 2016, AFT CT hosted the annual business convention at the Aqua Turf in Plantsville, CT.  Our business involved recognizing affiliates who represented the approximately 30,000 AFT CT members in attendance, approving the minutes from the last convention, amending our constitution, and passing resolutions.

The theme “Reclaiming our Solidarity” rippled through the presentations and celebrations.  AFL-CIO President Lori Pelletier spoke of how firefighters have aligned with paraprofessionals to strengthen local unions. I was inspired by the stories Lori told and began to think about ways in which our own union can partner with others in the New Haven community to benefit those we serve.

On a more sobering note, we were reminded to prepare for more legal cases targeting labor unions for elimination.  A Supreme Court case from this past spring that many of our members may have heard about in the national press, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, would likely have been decided against unions had Justice Badass Teachers Association:

CA Charter Operator Recruits Foreign Students, Charges Them Tuition, and More… | deutsch29

CA Charter Operator Recruits Foreign Students, Charges Them Tuition, and More… | deutsch29:

CA Charter Operator Recruits Foreign Students, Charges Them Tuition, and More…

California-based Tri-Valley Learning Corporation (TVLC) is the center of a complex investigation that was apparently prompted when in February 2016, two foreign exchange students were apparently moved from one TVLC school to another without parental consent.

According to the July 08, 2016, East Bay Times, CA Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson went to the school campus from which the students went missing, in Livermore, California. Torlakson’s visit led to investigation of TVLC by the district attorney.

As the East Bay Times continues:

Although the District Attorney’s Office can’t discuss exactly what is being investigated, assistant district attorney Annie Esposito said the case is complicated and involves many pieces.

The missing students sparked a domino affect, leading to allegations of fiscal mismanagement, lack of transparency and not following state education code. …

Charters operate independently with their own boards, and are not allowed to charge tuition because they receive state funds.

Yet, TVLC charged $15,300 in tuition and $16,000 in housing per year to the 60 foreign students it recruited. The company argued the charges were legal reimbursements for expenses related to its exchange program. …

Chris Van Schaack, assistant superintendent of the Livermore Unified School District, said he hopes the corporation can clean up its mess, because the charter schools provide an alternative to students who do not want to be in bigger schools.

Apparently several hundred TVLC parents decided that those bigger, district schools are preferable to TVLC chaos and confusion. As the Mercury News reports on August 22, 2016:

LIVERMORE — On the first day of school, more than 500 new students swarmed into Livermore public schools, the vast majority fleeing the city’s two embattled charter schools in light of a litany of accusations ranging from fiscal mismanagement to criminal wrongdoing.

The Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District got nearly double the 

CA Charter Operator Recruits Foreign Students, Charges Them Tuition, and More… | deutsch29:

TBFURMAN: If You Teach In A Concept School

TBFURMAN: If You Teach In A Concept School:

If You Teach In A Concept School

If you are a teacher at a Concept School here in Illinois (CMSA, Horizon Science-Belmont, Horizon Science-McKinley Park, Horizon Science-Southwest), the the following statements are incontrovertibly true for a person in your situation:

The people running your school, and the CMO managing your school, are deeply connected to the upper echelons of the Gulen Movement. Your school exists as a revenue stream for the Gulen Movement, which appears to be permanently resettling here in the States during this post-failed coup period in Turkey. The Gulenists have been here in small numbers since before Fethullah Gulen himself arrived, and their numbers have grown rapidly since then.

Your school is an economic engine for them; the school receives a great deal of tax money, and all of this money is available for the Movement. Unlike a normal public school, it is basically impossible to determine who receives the money a charter school spends, particularly the portion that goes directly to the CMO. The schools generate business for Gulen-linked contractors, and the whole thing snowballs into a walled-off economy that brings in more and more of the Gulenists from Turkey. This, of course, is all in addition to the real estate deals and financing deals that make charter investors wealthy.

It's all for the Movement, minus whatever paltry salary they are paying you to be the American face of it all.

The Turkish men managing your school all know this to be true, and the Turkish men working in your schools on H-1B visas know it to be true. The American teachers are not part of the equation, other than as cover.

It is almost certain that the Turkish men working in your schools are kicking back part of their salary as a tithe to the Gulen Movement; the extent to which they are true believers, or simply people taking advantage of a job opportunity in the States, probably varies. But they are understand very clearly what is going on.

The people running your school will probably tell you that the Gulen Movement is a selfless, peaceful social movement and that they have no connection to it, although some of them may possibly at one time or another, have been vaguely inspired by Gulen. None of these assertions are true. The Gulen Movement is a complex, often malevolent political-religious force, deeply involved in human rights abuses in Turkey. They have an aggressive and massively successful public relations campaign here in the States, and they have fooled or confused a great many lawmakers and policymakers. The people running your school are the true believers.

Your charter school is in almost all respects just like any other charter school, except for all of the above. They need you to do the basic chores of teaching, coaching, and supervising kids, and they don't expect you to be aware of or even concerned about what is really going on. Your school is not a fake school; it's a regular charter school run by people who run TBFURMAN: If You Teach In A Concept School:

 

Big Education Ape: Killing Ed | Charter Schools, Corruption, and the Gülen Movement in America - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/04/killing-ed-charter-schools-corruption.html

LA Unified doesn't often revoke charters – but it's asking tough questions of one now | 89.3 KPCC

LA Unified doesn't often revoke charters – but it's asking tough questions of one now | 89.3 KPCC:

LA Unified doesn't often revoke charters – but it's asking tough questions of one now

Members of the Los Angeles Unified School Board will give El Camino Real Charter High School leaders one month to answer serious questions about its financial management practices, including allegations staff members used school credit cards for personal expenditures.

The "Notice of Violations" board members issued on Tuesday is the first step toward yanking the Woodland Hills school's charter.

But it takes three steps to revoke a charter's founding document, and recent history suggests the process does not often make to that conclusion.

Since August 2013, LAUSD Board of Education agendas show board members have considered taking the second step — issuing a "Notice of Intent to Revoke" — with six schools.

And it's taken the third and final step of revoking a school's charter even more rarely. Of the six schools who have received those notices, five are still open today.

"Everybody breathe," said board member Mónica García during Tuesday's meeting, which featured testimony from frustrated El Camino teachers, board members and officials.

El Camino supporters see the board's action Tuesday as a serious escalation. Janelle Ruley, an attorney representing the charter school's governing board, accused the district's charter schools division with "moving the goalposts" and setting unclear targets for El Camino to remain in compliance.

"The charter school responded timely and fully to all requests that were made," Ruley said. "It made policy changes and it made other changes requested by the charter schools division. El Camino truly believed that it had done what the charter schools division had asked and satisfied those concerns."

But district officials said further digging revealed more problems at El Camino. The Notice of Violations the board passed Tuesday identified numerous uses of school credit cards that district officials found problematic, including charges for airfare, hotel and dinners by principal David Fehte.

In May, the L.A. Daily News reported "Fehte acknowledged charging El Camino for personal travel and, after the Daily News inquired, said he reimbursed the public school."

A review of board actions since 2013 show schools can rebound from district revocation proceedings.

"It all depends on the charter school’s actions," said board president Steve Zimmer. "There is nothing that is even before us that will result in closure of El Camino or taking over El Camino."

In 2013, L.A. Unified moved to revoke the charter of Gifted Academy of Mathematics and Entrepreneurial Studies, or "GAMES."

But the district suspended revocation proceedings after GAMES leaders agreed to "make significant organizational changes, including reconstituting its governing LA Unified doesn't often revoke charters – but it's asking tough questions of one now | 89.3 KPCC:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: State's Response on McCleary Question from Supreme Court

Seattle Schools Community Forum: State's Response on McCleary Question from Supreme Court:

State's Response on McCleary Question from Supreme Court

This is my summary and I use only partial quotes from the State's response.  Its tone is respectful and I think that is because of our Attorney General Bob Ferguson.  I suspect if they had left it to some members of the legislature that I would not have the same tone.

 What the State says.    

- In ESH13 2261 (Laws of 2009, ch. 548), the State established a framework for comprehensive reform of basic education and its funding methodology.SHB 2776 (Laws of 2010, ch. 236) quantified the policy aspects of those reforms by establishing specific formula enhancements and specific deadlines for implementing them, but SHB 2776 did not address compensation. The plan enacted in E2SSB 6195 (Laws of 2016, ch. 3) fills that gap by establishing specific steps and timelines for determining the compensation allocation levels necessary to implement the State's program of basic education and for taking legislative action to end reliance on local tax levies to fund that program. 

Read together, E2SSB 6195 and SHB 2776 constitute a complete plan for implementing the education reforms the State enacted in ESHB 2261. (Editor's note: by my count they say this no less than 3 times in this brief.)

- Because the State has satisfied the requirements in the Court's January 2014 Order, there is no basis for continuing to hold the State in contempt and levying a daily sanction. The Court should dissolve the contempt order and terminate the daily sanction. 

 

Yes, that is the first order of business (at least for the State.) 

 

They go on to answer the Court's questions;

 

What remains to be done to timely achieve constitutional compliance? 

The State says there are three things:

- implementation of 2017-2018 K-3 class size reductions. 

- adjust state expenditures for basic education under the prototypical school funding model to account for inflation, student enrollment and other variables.

- determine its cost to fully fund salaries needed for school districts to recruit and retain staff to implement the State's statutory program of basic education and provide that funding. 

 

How much is it expected to cost? 

The current estimated cost to the state to fully fund the program of basic education identified by ESHB 2261 and the implementation program established by SHB 2776 is approximately $19.7 billion for the 2017-19 biennium.

The estimated cost to the State to fully fund salaries needed for school Seattle Schools Community Forum: State's Response on McCleary Question from Supreme Court:

Detroit's University Yes charter drops high school

Detroit's University Yes charter drops high school:

Detroit's University Yes charter drops high school

Aleka Simmons, 17, was excited about her senior year at University Yes Academy until this week, when she found out that the Detroit charter school is going to close its high school.

Now, two weeks before the start of the school year, she and other students are scrambling to find new places to learn.

"I'm just mad because they really put us in a tough position," she said. "It's our senior year. We're supposed to have fun and stuff, and now we're stressing about where we're going to go. I've been with the same friends since seventh grade."

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Ralph Bland, CEO of New Paradigm for Education, a charter management company that runs University Yes, told parents and senior students at a meeting Monday that efforts to find a new building had been unsuccessful, Aleka's mother, Caprice Simmons, told the Free Press. Simmons said the current building has become increasingly crowded in recent years as University Yes added grades.

"There were some space issues," Bland told the Free Press. "To properly educate students, spacing has to be right." New Paradigm has been managing the school since mid-July.

The closure will impact more than 300 students.

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Bland did not directly answer questions about the timing of the announcement. He stressed that officials will help students find new schools.

University Yes opened in 2010 with only sixth grade, said Bill DiSessa, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Education. By 2015-16, it had grown to be a K-11 school with 911 students. Twelfth grade was supposed to be added this year.

Caprice Simmons said University Yes had so many students last year that some teachers were sharing rooms or holding classes in the gymnasium or auditorium.

"That building was definitely not big enough to hold K-12," she said. "But we should have known long before two weeks before school starting."

Officials at Bay Mills Community College, which authorizes University Yes, said they agreed with the decision. They did not answer specific questions about the closure.

"Our staff has discussed this matter in detail with members of the Board of UYA, as well as representatives of the school's new educational services provider, New Paradigm," Mariah Wanic, the college's special assistant to the president in charge of charter schools, said in a statement. "As a result of those discussions, in addition to its own assessment of the administration and educational programming at UYA, BMCC concurred in the decision."

Bland said school officials will not only help with new school placements but Detroit's University Yes charter drops high school: