9-19-14 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):

Deasy, Garcetti help kick off City Year in 25 LAUSD schools

Deasy, Garcetti help kick off City Year in 25 LAUSD schools Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, helping kick off City Year in LA Unified schools. LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti were on hand today to help 288 City Year Los Angeles members kick off a year of service in LA schools during a high-energy ceremony on the south lawn of City Hall. The ceremony began a

2 by Craig Clough / 9min 

LAUSD 10th graders hold steady on state high school exit exams

LAUSD 10th graders hold steady on state high school exit exams The state today released the latest California High School Exit Examination results, and the news for LA Unified is either encouraging or disappointing, depending on your point of view. The percentage of district 10th-grade students who passed the on their first attempt, remained at near-historical highs, according to state figures sho

4 27min 

LA teachers group offers solutions for a post-Vergara world

LA teachers group offers solutions for a post-Vergara world Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with Teach Plus Fellows Bootsie Battle-Hold and Kat Czujko. (Photo: Nick Toren for Teach Plus) While state teacher unions are spending time, energy and money fighting the landmark Vergara v. California ruling through appeal, one group of teachers in Los Angeles is helping shape what a post-Vergara world could lo

2 by Craig Clough / 4

The debate — Torlakson vs. Tuck — that only a few people noticed

The debate — Torlakson vs. Tuck — that only a few people noticed Tom Torlakson (right), Marshall Tuck (left) Guess what: The two candidates for State Superintendent for Instruction — incumbent Tom Torlakson and challenger Marshall Tuck — debated Wednesday night, and almost no news outlets covered it, including LA School Report. No matter, here’s the video. It starts at the 11 minute, 43 second mar

2 by Aaron Stella / 1min 

Lots of strike talk expected as teachers union opens conference

Lots of strike talk expected as teachers union opens conference Alex Caputo-Pearl, President of UTLA United Teachers Los Angeles opens its annual Leadership Conference today, and strike talk will be a prominent theme. As part of the three-day gathering at the Concourse Hotel at LAX, local union leaders will hear from union chiefs from other cities who used the threat of a strike to get a new labor

2 by Michael Janofsky / 3min 

Morning Read: LAUSD pays out to settle software vendor lawsuit

Morning Read: LAUSD pays out to settle software vendor lawsuit L.A. Unified settles suit with student data software vendor The Los Angeles Unified School District paid $3.75 million Thursday to settle a lawsuit with the vendor of a software system designed to track attendance, grades, schedules and other student data, officials said. LA Times L.A. school district will double staff helping with iP

3 46min 

9-18-14 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): Morning Read: New report says iPad curriculum rarely usedMorning Read: New report says iPad curriculum rarely used New report on L.A. Unified’s iPads reflects problems with curriculum An evaluation of the iPads-for-all project in Los Angeles schools found that only 1 of 245 classrooms surveyed even used t

1 by mike simpson / 22h 

How to Own a Yacht: Collect Student Data and Sell It. | Missouri Education Watchdog

How to Own a Yacht: Collect Student Data and Sell It. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

How to Own a Yacht: Collect Student Data and Sell It.

inShare

Selling personal student information from data mining can buy you a yacht. So what’s the problem?

Here’s a nifty way to make a small fortune: Set up a service selling personal student information to colleges to use in their admission procedures or to establish a college’s ranking.  Do you still believe education reform is really ‘for the kids’?  From Inside Higher Ed and Predicting Where Students Go:

A trio of senior college enrollment officials gave a peek into how they decide which students to recruit. The process now involves number-crunching students’ demographic and economic information — not just sending chipper ambassadors to every nearby high school, mailing glossy books to students’ homes and relying on gut instincts.

The discussion, during a session at the annual meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, was one of many to take place here about how to hunt for students. The search for students involves a web of data points, formulas and consulting firms that perhaps few parents and students are aware of.

Don Munce, the president of the National Research Center for College and University Admissions, or NRCCUA, offers a modeling service meant to predict which high school students are most likely to enroll at a particular institution. The center sells data on students to college admissions officials.

Munce moderated the panel of three college admissions officials who use his predictive modeling service. One of the college officials joked he bought so many student names from NRCCUA that he probably paid for Munce’s yacht.

What does the above link detailing the web of data points reveal?

Now, it’s easier for recruiters to use millions of high school students’ personal information to target them for certain traits, including family income or ethnicity, or even to predict which students will apply, enroll and stay in college.

These tactics, which are beginning to resemble the data-driven efforts used by political campaigns, have already prompted internal discussions at the College Board. Advisers to the College Board — which has data on seven million students it sells to about 1,100 institutions each year – met early this summer and talked about doing more to police how colleges can use the board’s student data, but a committee decided not to change the current policies.

The new tools to micro-target students could help some colleges attract tuition-paying students amid a shrinking pool of high school graduates.  A scramble — first for students to enroll and second for students who don’t need institutional financial aid – has forced college officials to rethink how they fish for students and put more pressure on them to find students of a certain kind.

“Everybody wants to go to the magic island of full-pay students, but it’s rapidly shrinking real estate,” said Bill Berg, an enrollment management consultant at Scannell & Kurz.

Did you catch the reference to The College Board, now headed by the architect of the Common Core How to Own a Yacht: Collect Student Data and Sell It. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Strong Mayor? Why? Part 3 — The California Fix

Strong Mayor? Why? Part 3 — The California Fix:

Strong Mayor? Why? Part 3

September 19, 2014

Like every reform, the push in Sacramento to crown Kevin Johnson a “strong mayor” is an effort to change the rules of a political game. And like all such reforms, it comes wrapped in rhetoric about good government. But as we’ve seen in the lasttwo posts, reality doesn’t confirm the rhetoric. Council-manager or strong-mayor system: the choice doesn’t matter to how well a city is run or responds to its residents.

So voters are left to judge Measure L, a change in the rules of the game, by how it will affect who wins. When the clerics in Iran fiddle with the election rules or Vladimir Putin and his oligarch buddies change the constitution in Russia, we understand immediately: Reform is about making it easier for one team to win. It’s no less true when it happens closer to home. If you want to understand the push by Sacramento’s wealthy and powerful for Measure L, think of it as Putin envy.

The backers of the push for “strong mayor”—developers, downtown property owners, public safety unions, the consultants and fixers who hang around city hall—have been power players in city politics for decades. Often they’ve won policy fights and elections. But not always.

There have been checks on their power: independent politicians like Mayors Anne Rudin and Heather Fargo, who had support from women’s, neighborhood, and Strong Mayor? Why? Part 3 — The California Fix:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Name dropping

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Name dropping:

Name dropping

The throat-slash sign? Really?  It's a 15-yard penalty in the NFL.

“It’s one more desperate attempt at trying to be relevant in places where he’s not relevant. You can’t look at a list of insults to certain parts of town — closing police stations, closing mental health clinics, closing schools — and make it seem like this one act is gonna change something right before an election. People are not so easily fooled.” --Karen Lewis

 “The concern was that a school [is being built] on that part of town and our kids aren’t gonna be able to get in." -- Ald. Will Burns (4th)

 “I’m not gonna put words in his mouth. But, he [Pres. Obama] knows about it and he’s excited about it. That’s all I can say.” -- Rahm Emanuel

No matter what they call it or don't call it, one thing is clear. We don't need another selective-enrollment high school on the north side.



Now we read, first in the N.Y. Daily News of all places, that Rahm has dropped plans to name his expensive new Lincoln Park school — bankrolled by $60 million in tax-increment financing (TIF) money — after his former boss. Rahm had hoped that calling the new school, Obama College Prep, would help mend his fences, Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Name dropping:

Deasy didn't start L.A.'s school militarization, but he didn't end it either.

Fred KlonskyReaders have begun to ask me about LAUSD's acquisition of machine guns, grenade launchers and armored military vehicles and its connection with current embattled Supt. John Deasy. Deasy is already up to his ears, and ought to be, over his discriminatory suspension policies, the district's wild expansion of privately-run charter schools, and the ongoing ipad scandal.  But some have sugg

11 by Mike Klonsky / 21h hide  //  save

SEP 17

New school supplies from the Pentagon. Deasy in L.A. grabs some M16s and grenade launchers.

All San Diego schools got from the Pentagon was this one lousy armored vehicle.But the Wall St. Journal reports that LAUSD did much better. Supt. John Deasy has stocked up 61 M16 assault rifles, three grenade launchers, and a mine-resistant vehicle from the Pentagon.But the district is getting rid of the grenade launchers, which it never intended to use to launch grenades or use in a school settin

60 by Mike Klonsky / 1d 

Rahm Love and the Mess at CPS

GOOD READ...And at home I found a separate culture of intellectual achievement. This is the tradition of Carter G. Woodson, Frederick Douglass, and Malcolm X. It argues for education not simply as credentialism or certification, but as a profound act of auto-liberation. This was the culture of my childhood and it gave me some of the greatest thrills of my youth. -- Ta-Nehisi Coates, "Acting F

16 by Mike Klonsky / 2d 

SEP 16

The rats are having a field day at CPS

Dead rat, one of many at a Southwest Side elementary school having problems with rodents and roaches since janitorial services were privatized.Aren't the 476 custodians being thrown out of their jobs by Rahm and his Aramark subcontractors, represented by SEIU Local 1? Can't help but wonder, where the hell is the union in all this? Why has it taken an all-out principal's and parent's revolt to push

11 by Mike Klonsky / 2d 

9-19-14 Curmudgucation - An Open Letter to My Alma Mater Re: TFA

CURMUDGUCATION:

EdPost Flexes Rapid Response Muscles

Well, it turns out that Education Post will be good for one thing. Its rapid response function (in which apparently a cadre of hired bloggists are ready to grab their keyboards from their mantles and launch like internet minutemen) will allow the rest of us to see when Pro-Public Education folks have scored a palpable hit.By that measure, Carol Burris landed a big hit with her Four Flim-Flams colu

2 by Peter Greene / 33min hide  //  save

An Open Letter to My Alma Mater Re: TFA

Dear Allegheny College:I was reading your latest alumni email with its nice batch of "Hey, you're great" quotes. It was nice in the usual boostery way, but when I saw an endorsement from Teach for America, it brought me up short. I'm sad to see Allegheny link itself to TFA. Let me explain.I came to Allegheny in 1975. I enrolled because the school was not too far from home in NW PA, it wa

3 by Peter Greene / 33min

9-18-14 Curmudgucation - Another Call for a New Conversation

CURMUDGUCATION: Another Call for a New ConversationPatrick Riccards, of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and the Eduflack blog, has made a fairly reasonable addition to the burgeoning sub-genre of "We reformsters need to get a new conversation started, because we are losing the old one" posts. But this one is interesting."Seeking Collaboration Between Reformers, Edu

1 by mike simpson / 22h 

9-19-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

West Seattle Schools Were on Shelter-in-Place

From SPS Communications (tweeted 25 minutes ago):West Seattle schools were in shelter-in-place after dismissal because of shooting in the High Point. Parents can now pick up students.From comments at the West Seattle Blog:4:32 pm - All the fall athletes (soccer, cross country, swimming…) are at school still sheltering in place. 4:52 pm - I just rushed to meet my kids at 29th and High Point. They w

by Melissa Westbrook / 24min 

Seattle Schools Odds and Ends

I plan on writing a thread this weekend that is an overview of how I see the Seattle School Board today.  There are certainly some interesting things being said by directors and frankly, I'm not sure I see them working as a unified body (but not the same people who usually get called out for having special interests).   I listened to the Board comments and more and more, I find them quite telling.

by Melissa Westbrook / 9min 

Friday Open Thread

What's going on this weekend? What happened this week that we missed?Now is the time and place to tell about it - Friday Open Thread.

by Charlie Mas / 27min 

9-18-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Student Data Privacy: Where's Your Line?From Marketplace:Meet the most measured, monitored and data-mined students in the history of education.  Your children.How about this district in California, tracking every kid who uses social media.  From Tech Dirt:The Glendale School District in California is facing some backlash from the recent news that it has retained th

by mike simpson / 23h 

9-19-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Ed Policy

© 2012 Brad Perkins, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Here are some recent useful posts and articles on education policy issues: Actually, public education is getting better, not worse is from The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Articles Pointing Out That Our Schools Are Not Failing. Due Process Should Include Peer Assistance and Review is by Anthony Cody. I’m adding it to The Best Resourc

6 by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

September’s Infographics & Interactives Galore – Part Three

There are just so many good infographics and interactives out there that I’ve begun a new semi-regular feature called “Infographics & Interactives Galore.” You can see others at A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Infographics and by searching “infographics” on this blog. I’ll still be publishing separate posts to individually highlight especially useful infographics and interactives, but you

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 0min 

Researchers See What A Growth Mindset Does To The Brain

Many of us teachers have seen the effect of helping our students develop a growth mindset — that their recognizing that effort trumps intelligence will result in success and better learning. You can read more about this idea, coming out of the work of Carol Dweck, at The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A “Growth Mindset.” Now, researchers have announced results of a study where the

7 by Larry Ferlazzo / 37min 

9-18-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Nice Video Animation: “Scottish independence referendum 2014 explained”The citizens of Scotland are voting on whether to be their own independent country. In fact, the voting is taking place as I’m writing these words. I’ve previously shared a nice, short video explaining what’s going on, and here’s another good explanation

by mike simpson / 7min 

Federal audit dings Ohio over RTTT spending :: SI&A Cabinet Report

Federal audit dings Ohio over RTTT spending :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

Federal audit dings Ohio over RTTT spending

by Tom Chorneau

(Ohio) In what may prove a cautionary tale in an era of federal flexibility, auditors from the U.S. Department of Education have called into question millions of dollars in spending by Ohio schools from a $400 million Race to the Top grant.

Ohio, which had been praised earlier this year as the only recipient state to fully comply with the RTTT conditions, is now sorting out findings that it failed to properly ensure that two districts used the grant funds only on allowable activities.

Specifically, auditors pointed to spending at Lorain City Schools and Toledo Public Schools on tablet computers, salary payments, travel reimbursements, consultant costs as well as promotional expenses such as tee-shirts, gift cards and student prizes.

The report includes a number of recommendations including a requirement that the state order the districts to reassign the questionable expenses to other programs or provide additional documents supporting the original claims – if not, investigators said, Ohio should return the disputed funds.

Ohio officials have not challenged the findings but did commit to implementing a risk-based financial compliance monitoring that will cover the 2012–13 fiscal year. The system, state officials said, would include a review of accounting records, purchase orders, invoices, cancelled checks, budgets, contracts, cash requests, and other items. 

The spending analysis, first to dive deeply into RTTT spending, comes as the Obama administration looks to remove much of the bureaucratic red tape and compliance activities surrounding federal education spending. More than 40 states since 2012 have been given relief from key mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act, with a number of states also receiving one-year extensions.

A report released in May by the department’s Institute of Education Sciences found most states that received a share of more than $5 billion in RTTT funding beginning in 2009 have struggled to adopt and implement all the grant conditions – especially the teacher evaluation component.

While most of the 29 states reviewed used teacher evaluation results to guide decisions on professional development and dismissals, just one, Ohio, also used the evaluations to inform promotional decisions.

In a second finding of the Ohio RTTT audit, reviewers said the state had provided performance data that was not accurate or lacked proper documentation. They noted a lack of support for the number Federal audit dings Ohio over RTTT spending :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: