3-14-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):

Schwarzenegger benefits LA after school programs with tank ride (VIDEO)

Hollywood star and former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just launched the coolest campaign ever to benefit after-school programs in LAUSD and in other cities. The campaign comes in the form of a contest. For as little as $10 a ticket, you can win a ride with Schwarzenegger in his M47 Patton Tank. How awesome is that? The money raised from the contest will go to After School All-Stars – a program

by Aaron Stella / 34min 

Teachers refute ‘ineffective’ charges by Vergara witnesses

Dawna Watty The defense in Vergara vs. California today put more distance between student-plaintiffs who described their teachers as ineffective and the teachers, by calling them to the stand to defend their effectiveness. Both teachers, Dawna Watty and Anthony Mize, directly challenged the assertions of their former students — Brandon DeBose and Elizabeth Vegara, whose sister Beatriz is the lead

2 by Mark Harris / 23min 

McKenna wins endorsement of LA principals’ union

George McKenna George McKenna, one of the seven candidates running for LA Unified’s open District 1 board seat, picked up a strong endorsement today as the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, the union representing principals and their assistants, said it would support him in the race. The endorsement means that AALA will contribute $1,100, the maximum allowed, to his campaign. “George McKen

2min 

Deasy says principal who ok’d campaign leave was disciplined

Superintendent John Deasy LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy said a principal who gave Alex Caputo-Pearl permission to take unpaid time off to campaign for president of the teachers union, UTLA, has been disciplined. The action came in response to accusations that the leave, a violation of district’s contract with UTLA, provided Caputo-Pearl an unfair advantage over other candidates by allowing

by Michael Janofsky / 0min hide  //  save

Morning Read: CA suspends statewide tests until 2016

State decides no API for schools until 2016 Faced with a complete sea change of its K-12 education system and having been relieved of its duty to meet some federal accountability requirements, the State Board of Education on Thursday temporarily suspended its school performance measurement tool known as the API. As a result of this decision, no Academic Performance Index scores – used to indicate

0min 

3-13-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District): City Terrace giving kids a window — and language — to the worldStudents at City Terrace Elementary in east Los Angeles learn reading, writing and arithmetic, just like any other student in the LA Unified school district. Except for one thing: They are learning these subjects in Mandarin. City Terrace is l

by mike simpson / 21h 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Friday, March 14, 2014

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

K-12 News Network | Is LAUSD Superintendent Deasy the Defendant or the Plaintiff in Vergara v. California?

Education Headlines

Friday, March 14, 2014

FCMAT provides links to California K-12 news stories as a service to the industry. However, some stories may not be accessible because of newspapers' subscription policies.

Ventura school officials prepare for computer testing

Beginning early next month, as many as 1,000 Ventura students each day will sit before computers and take a new standardized test. There will be another test during those six weeks for the Ventura Unified School District: whether the technology works.

Fewer teachers get layoff notices across Sonoma County

For the second year in a row, Sonoma County has seen a dramatic drop in the number of layoff notices issued to teachers whose jobs are vulnerable to being cut for the 2014-15 school year.

Alisal board debates security needs

In a much improved political climate, the Alisal Union School District Board of Trustees took care of business Wednesday night.

Galt Joint Union High School District remains on state's financial watchlist

Galt Joint Union High School District remains on a state Department of Education financial watch list due to its budget.

Extent of high-paid Centinela Valley superintendent Jose Fernandez’s self-imposed pay cut unclear

Two days after a raucous school board meeting where embattled Centinela Valley high school district Superintendent Jose Fernandez offered to cut his hefty compensation, it’s still unclear just what, exactly, he is giving up.

West Contra Costa school board approves harassment policies without reviewing new procedures

The West Contra Costa school board on Wednesday unanimously approved policies intended to help prevent harassment without asking to review or approve the procedures staff must follow to implement and enforce them.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Kern HSD to revamp administrative structure, add job

The Kern High School District school board Wednesday voted to create a new assistant superintendent position that will blend instructional and business responsibilities.

Oxnard Union teachers say time now for pay hike

With increased state funding for schools expected in the next academic year, teachers and other employees in the Oxnard Union High School District think it’s time for a raise.

Trustees stay the course in pursuing Pacific View auction

Hundreds of emails and the personal pleas of more than a dozen speakers Tuesday night wasn’t enough to sway trustees in the Encinitas Union School District to delay the auction of the Pacific View School site.

Rialto school board appoints interim superintendent

Five days after the announced retirement of Superintendent Harold Cebrun, the school board appointed an interim replacement. Associate Superintendent of Business Services Mohammad Z. Islam has served as the 26,485-student district’s acting superintendent since Cebrun was placed on administrative leave in September.

Salinas schools switch on energy saving plans

In 1954, the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education struck a blow against racial discrimination in public schools. Also that year, the New York Giants swept the Cleveland Indians in four games to win the World Series. And in Salinas, most of the windows at Roosevelt Elementary School were installed.

Woodland schools saw dramatic growth under retiring superintendent

Debra LaVoi read a student essay on the solar system, asked questions about “Cat in the Hat” and watched fifth-graders take a math test at the Science and Technology Academy in Knights Landing last week. It was the third school the Woodland Joint Unified superintendent had visited before lunch.

Schools’ financial health improving

In a coincidence, the state Department of Education mentioned Yucaipa-Calimesa Unified on a list of school districts in financial jeopardy at the same time district trustees signed off on an updated report that suggests its financial health is improving.

3-14-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Smarter Balance (Common Core) Pilot Testing Cancelled at Ballard; Who Else?

It's a busy education news day but this is important news.The testing consortium for Common Core assessments that Washington State belongs to -Smarter Balance - announced today that they need a one-week delay for the field test. The testing window was to start on Tuesday, the 18th.I have not found out yet how many Seattle schools were participating (I only knew of Hale and Ballard) but the distric

by Melissa Westbrook / 22min

New York Times Story on Later Starts for High School

The story even throws in a nod to efforts here in Seattle.  (Update on SPS and this issue to come.)The takeaway?“Even schools with limited resources can make this one policy change with what appears to be benefits for their students,” Dr. Miller said. And who is getting the most traction?  A civic-minded (and tired) Missouri teen named Jilly Dos Santos. Jilly Dos Santos really did try to get to sc

by Melissa Westbrook / 1h 

Legislatively Speaking

Well, that teacher evaluation law change - the one Arne Duncan was using as something of a blackmail stick - went down with a whimper, not a bang.  I attribute this to a couple of things. One, there seemed to be confusion about what the money was for and how much any district actually used (and therefore might lose). Two, Duncan had not given any guarantee for the waiver if the law got changed.  T

by Melissa Westbrook / 1min 

Friday Open Thread

The Florida legislature will be considering a bill to meet grad requirements for high school students by substituting computer science for ...PE.  Yes, that makes sense with childhood obesity.  The rates of childhood obesity have leveled off but this doesn't seem to make sense.  I would think allowing anyone in a sport to not take PE but high school PE is a way to teach kids about the importance o

by Melissa Westbrook / 20min 

3-13-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: "Redshirting" KindergartnersFrom Ed Week:The youngest kindergarteners in any class are about five times more likely to be retained in school compared to their older peers, a new study states.Moreover, educators don't tend to modify their teaching to include a variety of age groups present in kindergartens—but they should make such accommodations, wrote Fr

by mike simpson / 21h 

3-14-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

With A Brooklyn Accent:

When It Comes to Education Policy- It's All About the Benjamins

One question we have to ask ourselves is how many of the policies we are fighting, from Common Core, to test based teacher evaluation, to school closings and charter school preferences, would have gotten any traction were it not from the support they have gotten from a small group of people whose wealth has reached unprecedented proportions because of changes in tax laws, deregulation of the finan

by Mark Naison / 5min 

Why Charters Can't Always Be Trusted to Serve Inner City Communities

Henry Louis Taylor · Buffalo, NY · This is about Betrayal The struggle to regenerate the East Side is a protracted fight, which requires tireless dedication. In the late 1980s, a group of Buffalo residents and concerned citizens saved the St. Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church from being turned down and transformed it into a community center, early learning school, and neighborhood anchor institution

2 by Mark Naison / 1min 

3-13-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

With A Brooklyn Accent: Destroying Public Education: A Fourth Inner City Catastrophe?One of the great ironies in contemporary American History is that top leaders of the Democratic Party are supporting the elimination of public education in Urban America - even though the public schools are the one institution in inner city neighborhoods that survived de-industrialization, the crack epidemic, and

by mike simpson / 25min 

Who Owns America | Deborah Meier on Education

Who Owns America | Deborah Meier on Education:

Who Owns America

Posted on March 14, 2014 by debmeier

I’d feel more sympathetic with the academics’ boycott of Israel if they decided to boycott every nation with a similar history of colonial abuse, etc etc. We might start by boycotting ourselves. We actually are living on land that is not, as in Israel, strictly speaking “ours.” We occupied the land from coast to coast by might of force, and never have had any intention of returning it to its original owners. We claimed it because—we could. Or because we were fleeing from oppression and needed a place where we could be free (and sometimes that meant free to be just as oppressive to others not like us). We murdered off or imprisoned in reservations the previous natives. And unlike the Israelis, Europeans had no ancient claims to the Americas, nor were there any Europeans with long distant and continuous roots in the land.

Would we seriously consider that Whites should go back where they came from? After all, it is not the Native Americans’ fault that they were mistreated elsewhere. Nor is the Native Americans’ fault that African-Americans were brought to the Americas against their will.

While I want us to respond morally to the Palestinian’s just arguments, I’m not willing 

College, College, College, College | Gatsby In L.A.

College, College, College, College | Gatsby In L.A.:

College, College, College, College

 Don’t be fooled by the radiance, confidence and bubbly warmth of Azanni, Symone, Jada and Immani, four seniors at View Park High School in South Los Angeles, an ICEF charter school.  They are stressed.  Imani and Azanni applied to 22 colleges each, Jada to 20, Symone to 11.  “I wanted to have options!” Jada tells me and the girls all laugh, agreeing.  We’re sitting at a picnic table on the quad at View Park, where they’ve taken time from their classes to give me a tour of the school, talking over each other in their enthusiasm as they tell me the various places they’ve applied, ranging from Brown and Penn, their dream schools, through UCLA, Berkeley, USC, Spelman, the Claremont schools, several Cal States and many others.

Though View Park is only a couple of miles from Augustus Hawkins, whose population is primarily Latino/a, View Park’s student body is 95% African-American.  In addition, the student body is classified as 58% socioeconomically disadvantaged, in contrast to the LAUSD in general, where 80% of students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, orAnimo Leadership in nearby Lennox, where 94% of students classify that way (a designation that combines students eligible for free and reduced lunch with students 

Geaux Teacher!: To Hurt or To Be Hurt? That is the Question,

Geaux Teacher!: To Hurt or To Be Hurt? That is the Question,:

To Hurt or To Be Hurt? That is the Question,

FOR THE RECORD -

I have been excoriated for encouraging parents in my school district (and Louisiana) to opt their children out of the PARCC field test and to consider opting them out of our iLEAP standardized tests.

 I want to explain my position publicly because I don't want any parent to feel the intimidation I felt when it was suggested to me that I would be to blame if a school performance score was negatively affected and the school district was "hurt."  

None of these tests are HIGH STAKES.  No child would be "hurt" by opting out.  Rather than explaining my thinking over and over, I copied my last Facebook response and paste it below.  If anyone still has questions about the school performance score and testing system that is the basis for my position, I will be glad to answer.

People talk about their Constitutional rights but too often don't follow through by taking their personal corresponding ethical or moral responsibility when they perceive that a law, a principle or a trust has been broken.  Quite often that isn't a comfortable thing to do.  It's easy to rationalize, especially when intimidated, that one's thinking is wrong or that any action you take will fail and you will look bad.  I don't "blame" a person for not agreeing with me and I also won't won't accept blame from that person.

Lee P. Barrios PA Riggs - I simply suggested to parents that although control of their children's public education has been hijacked by private interests and unqualified schuysters, they have the ultimate power by virtue of their ability to opt out of some of the standardized tests they object to. 

These policymakers and most of our legislators evidently won't respond to reason and parents don't have millions from non-profit organizations as powerful lobbyists so they need to exercise virtually the only power they have. If children don't take the tests

3-14-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Bill Gates Tries to Fashion Teacher Support for His Beloved Common Core

One would think that if teachers supported the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), then teachers would take the initiative to rally around said CCSS. Not so. It seems that we need Bill Gates to tell us that we need CCSS. He did so today (Friday, March 14, 2014), in Washington, DC: Bill Gates is rallying teachers to […]

by deutsch29 / 7min 

Another Blow to the Claim that Successful Charters Serve the “Same” Students

For years, charters have gotten away with the spin that they serve the “same students” as high-poverty charter schools. In almost every case, those brazen claims were transparently false, but they were repeated with such confidence that many seemed to believe them. Rarely was there an effort to explain the seemingly arcane issue of “backfill.” […]

1 by John Thompson / 8min 

3-13-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: Beyond “Doubly Disadvantaged”: Race, Class, and Gender in U.S. Schools and SocietyBeyond “Doubly Disadvantaged”: Race, Class, and Gender in U.S. Schools and Society. via Beyond “Doubly Disadvantaged”: Race, Class, and Gender in U.S. Schools and Society.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical1 by plthomasedd / 25min hide  //  saveSegregation and Charter Schools: A ReaderSegrega

by mike simpson / 23min 

Georgia Attorney Tries to Educate the President about the Promise of Public Education | janresseger

Georgia Attorney Tries to Educate the President about the Promise of Public Education | janresseger:

Georgia Attorney Tries to Educate the President about the Promise of Public Education

Posted on March 14, 2014 by janresseger

Two weeks ago Valerie Strauss printed this very profound letter written to President Barack Obama to protest the education policies of the Obama Administration.  The letter was written by Bertis Downs, a public school parent and an attorney in Athens, Georgia.

The letter is an almost perfectly written plea from a constituent to an elected official.  Downs thanks the President for honoring a guidance counselor from Athens’ Clarke Central High School.  Then Downs enumerates in personal and very moving examples the ways Clarke Central High School represents what a quality public high school ought to be.  Clarke Central is diverse and inclusive,  and it even celebrates its own diversity.  The school provides myriad opportunities to learn; it has won awards for closing the achievement gap; it sends many promising students to college.  “Clarke Central strives to educate any and every student within its community.  By and large, it succeeds.”

But, writes Downs, this school (like the majority of public schools across America) “faces significant challenges in an era of dwindling state budgets.”  Downs then celebrates the teachers and other staff who are, he says, the school’s “main strength.”

And now Downs’ plea to the President:  “The policies currently promoted by your Department of Education are actually hurting — not helping — schools like ours.  He explains how 

solidaridad: Teacher help needed: Hannah Nguyen of Students United for Public Education recruiting students for EmpowerED 2014

solidaridad: Teacher help needed: Hannah Nguyen of Students United for Public Education recruiting students for EmpowerED 2014:

Teacher help needed: Hannah Nguyen of Students United for Public Education recruiting students for EmpowerED 2014

We need help Los Angeles teachers!

Some of you may already be familiar with Hannah Nguyen. She is the USC student who gained national attention when she called Michelle Rhee out at Rhee's own event. Hannah was recently one of the student panelist at Diane Ravitch's Network for Public Education (NPE) event in Austin. She is in integral part of the national leadership of Students United for Public Education (SUPE) http://supe.k12newsnetwork.com , of which I am a member. I can't speak highly enough about her, and SUPE is an authentic student voice against corporate education reform and advocates for the genuine progressive reforms.

Hannah is currently going to schools and personally recruiting students for the EmpowerED 2014 conference here in Los Angeles at the end of this month (Saturday, March 29, 2014). Rather than go into the details about this exciting local conference by students and for students, I'm including the link to the event website which has all the details.

http://empowered2014.com

They are doing a lot of outreach, here is what Hannah sent me recently:

I was wondering if you could connect me with teachers around LA who might be willing to share this event with their students? or allow me to come make a brief 5 minute presentation about the conference to their students?

This is an excellent opportunity to give students real agency in their own education. It is also an opportunity for Los Angeles teachers to help their students become "EmpowerED." Please help by notifying your own students about the conference, or better still, allowing Hannah to come and pitch to your students.

I will be volunteering at the conference. Either contact Hannah directly, or you can also contact me.

http://empowered2014.com