L.A. school board candidates tackle questions on tenure, charter growth, graduation rates - LA Times

L.A. school board candidates tackle questions on tenure, charter growth, graduation rates - LA Times:

L.A. school board candidates tackle questions on tenure, charter growth, graduation rates

n Tuesday, voters in two regions of Los Angeles will go to the polls in a pivotal school board election.

In one contest, school board President Steve Zimmer, 47, is facing challenger Nick Melvoin, a 31-year-old attorney who’s worked recently for groups trying to limit union influence and promote the growth of charter schools. They are vying to represent District 4, which stretches from the Westside to the west San Fernando Valley.

In District 6, in the east Valley, Imelda Padilla, 29, a community activist and labor organizer, is running against Kelly Gonez, 28, who teaches at a charter middle school. The winner will fill the seat of Monica Ratliff, who did not run for reelection.

None of the candidates has children.

Melvoin and Gonez are supported by charter-school advocates, Zimmer and Padilla by school-district employee unions.The campaign spending and messages have been dominated by supporters of charter schools on one side and teachers unions on the other.

Because it’s difficult to get past their overblown and false claims, The Times submitted the same questions to each candidate to clarify where they stand on some key issues.

Portions of their answers, along with some context, are presented below.

Exactly how, if at all, would you change the current tenure and seniority system? Should there be tenure at all? How long should it take to earn tenure? Should it have to be re-earned every few years? How should the layoff system be changed if all? Strictly seniority based? Strictly evaluation based?

Both Melvoin and Gonez favor extending the time required to earn tenure. Under state law, fully credentialed teachers can earn the strong job protections of tenure near the end of their second year in the job.

As far as the “last in, first out” rules for laying off teachers, Gonez supports “the formation of a commission with teachers, principals, parents and academics to look at what works best for the students, teachers and LAUSD as a whole.”

Padilla said she is open to new ideas to improve the tenure process, but hasn’t staked out a position. Regarding seniority, she said, “layoffs should not be strictly seniority based. I look forward to exploring a hybrid idea, but ideally I would look forward to managing the budget in a way that we would never have to deal with the pink-slip era again.”

Before attending law school, Melvoin worked for two years as a low-seniority teacher at L.A. Unified during a period of layoffs. As a result, his job was at risk and he had to work several months classified as a temporary teacher. He said he feels strongly that layoffs should be based on performance evaluations and not time on the job. He has participated in lawsuits to limit teacher seniority rights.

“Both teacher tenure and seniority-based hiring/firing systems need reform,” he said. “As a teacher in Watts, I had firsthand experience with these policies and fought for their revision. I remain concerned about the inherent inequities in how layoffs affect students as well as teachers.”

Zimmer said the district, during his tenure, developed rules that protect teachers with certain skills, and noted that the district subsequently agreed to protect schools that would be disproportionately harmed by layoffs.

Zimmer said he is open to extending the length of time needed to earn tenure but that other steps are more crucial to improving teachers’ skills and keeping high-quality teachers in the field of education.

“We need to make sure that training and support systems from universities are stronger and that we are broadcasting a positive image about the field of education,” he said. “And once a teacher is in the classroom, we need to offer continuing support and opportunities for career advancement without leaving the classroom.”

Melvoin, Gonez and Padilla agree, but Melvoin in particular places a greater emphasis on limiting current teacher job protections as a centerpiece of reform.

(Most tenure and seniority rules are part of the state education code, however, so L.A. L.A. school board candidates tackle questions on tenure, charter growth, graduation rates - LA Times:

Milwaukee's School Voucher Program: Some Black Leaders Are Divided Over Who Benefits : NPR Ed : NPR

Milwaukee's School Voucher Program: Some Black Leaders Are Divided Over Who Benefits : NPR Ed : NPR:

Milwaukee's School Voucher Program: Some Black Leaders Are Divided Over Who Benefits

Howard Fuller (left) is one of the architects of the voucher program in Milwaukee; Wendell Harris led early opposition to vouchers.

LA Johnson/Getty/NPR

The Trump administration has made school choice, vouchers in particular, a cornerstone of its education agenda. This has generated lots of interest in how school voucher programs across the country work and whom they benefit.

The oldest school voucher program was created in Milwaukee in 1990 with a singular focus on African-American students living in poverty. This school year, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program issued nearly 28,000 vouchers for low-income kids to attend dozens of private and religious schools at public expense.

Over the years, though, most voucher recipients have performed no better academically than their public school peers. In some cases they've done worse. So who exactly is benefiting? It's a question that has raised serious misgivings in Milwaukee's African-American community. So much so that some of the city's prominent black leaders today are divided.

Howard Fuller and Wendell J. Harris, in many ways, represent that split.

Harris is currently on the Milwaukee school board. As a member of the NAACP's education committee in Wisconsin, he was one of the original plaintiffs who sued the state in 1990 in a failed effort to block vouchers.

NPR ED

The Promise And Peril Of School Vouchers

Fuller, a professor at Marquette University, is one of the architects of the voucher program. He's also a former superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools and founder of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, a national pro-voucher and school choice group.

Fuller's support for vouchers is pretty straight-forward. He says most of Milwaukee's African-American students are trapped in failing schools. These kids' parents, says Fuller, should have the right to choose a better school for their children because very little else that the African-American community has fought for has helped rescue poor black children in need of good schools.

"After (Brown vs. Board of Education)", says Fuller, "people thought that integration was going to lead to equal education for black kids. It didn't. Since then, there's a long Milwaukee's School Voucher Program: Some Black Leaders Are Divided Over Who Benefits : NPR Ed : NPR:

Sacramento city after-school program shrinks after budget woes | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento city after-school program shrinks after budget woes | The Sacramento Bee:

Two Sacramento districts will hire new after-school providers once city subsidy ends

Sacramento Can't Afford Poor Kids But Has The Best Arena In The NBA 

The free Sacramento after-school program START that Mayor Darrell Steinberg launched 21 years ago will shrink dramatically this fall after two large school districts chose to look for different providers.

Sacramento City Unified and Twin Rivers Unified will rely on other organizations to provide free after-school services at schools that predominantly serve low-income families, according to district officials. Only the Robla School District will continue the city’s START program for 670 students at its five elementary schools under an existing multi-year grant, said Robla Superintendent Ruben Reyes.

This spring, the city asked Sacramento City Unified and Twin Rivers Unified to pay a higher rate for START that would account for the actual costs of the program.

“In the past when it had run over budget, the city … extended the budget, and chose not to do it this time,” Steinberg spokeswoman Kelly Rivas said.

Sacramento City Unified has 61 after-school programs, including 10 that were the focus of this year’s proposal for START, which stands for Students Today Achieving Results for Tomorrow. Providers for those 10 sites are still being chosen, according to the district.

Sara Noguchi, associate superintendent at Twin Rivers, said her district learned that the city needed $123,000 above the available grant funding to operate the program at three school sites. She said that put the city’s proposal out of the running.

Sacramento last week reported that state funding for after-school programs has not increased since 2006. The city also said higher labor costs were a factor.

During the last three years, the city chipped in to ensure the program could operate, the report said.

The change means up to 45 START staff could lose their jobs at sites the city will no longer run, said Sacramento Parks and Recreation Director Chris Conlin.

Conlin said his department wasn’t sure how many employees would be let go because there may be retirements or other attrition over the summer when staff face mandatory layoffs Sacramento city after-school program shrinks after budget woes | The Sacramento Bee:

Brown v. Board is 63 years old. Was the Supreme Court’s school desegregation ruling a failure? - The Washington Post

Brown v. Board is 63 years old. Was the Supreme Court’s school desegregation ruling a failure? - The Washington Post:

Brown v. Board is 63 years old. Was the Supreme Court’s school desegregation ruling a failure?

The historic Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education turns 63 years old on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. The decision famously ordered the desegregation of public schools in the United States, declaring segregated schools “inherently unequal” and unconstitutional, but all these years later, segregation is far from being eliminated.

In fact, 2016 federal data showed that poor, black and Hispanic children are becoming increasingly isolated from white, affluent children in America’s public schools. Given that, how should Brown v. Board be evaluated? Given persistent school segregation, was it a failure? This post addresses that question.

It was written by Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers. He is also a fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and he is the author of books including “Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right, and “Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.” His newest book, published this month, is “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.” He was a national education writer for The New York Times as well.

By Richard Rothstein

Sixty-three years ago on Wednesday, the Supreme Court prohibited school segregation. In the South, Brown v. Board of Education was enforced slowly and fitfully for two decades; then progress ground to a halt. Nationwide, black students are now less likely to attend schools with whites than they were half a century ago. Was Brown a failure?

Not if we consider the boost it gave to a percolating civil rights movement. The progeny of Brown include desegregation of public accommodations and the mostly unhindered right of African Americans to compete for jobs, to vote, and to purchase or rent homes. Brown’s greatest accomplishment was its enduring imprint on the national ethos: the idea of second-class citizenship for African Brown v. Board is 63 years old. Was the Supreme Court’s school desegregation ruling a failure? - The Washington Post:

 

Roosevelt University Study: Rapid Charter Growth Has Cannibalized Chicago Public Schools | janresseger

Roosevelt University Study: Rapid Charter Growth Has Cannibalized Chicago Public Schools | janresseger:

Roosevelt University Study: Rapid Charter Growth Has Cannibalized Chicago Public Schools

A new poll by the Associated Press exposes widespread support for school choice even though most people don’t know much about what it is:

“(M)ost Americans know little about charter schools or private school voucher programs.  Still, more Americans feel positively than negatively about expanding these programs, according to a new poll released Friday… All told, 58 percent of respondents say they know little or nothing at all about charter schools and 66 percent report the same about private school voucher programs… Even though they are unfamiliar to many, Americans have largely positive reactions to charter schools and vouchers.”

The finding that most people have some sort of positive affinity with the idea of school choice doesn’t really surprise me. After all, our new U.S. Secretary of Education advertises the importance of “parents’ right to choose” every time she opens her mouth.  I believe Betsy DeVos’s support for what she calls “the right” of parents to choose a school is ideological.  She has been affiliated for years with libertarian think tanks that privilege individualism over the public good. I think she also believes in the importance of Christian religious schools or the right of parents to insulate their children by homeschooling them. And I don’t think DeVos has an adequately developed sense of opportunity cost—the reality in this case that school budgets are fixed and if you cut more pieces in the budget pie, all the servings get smaller and smaller.

By talking relentlessly about “parents’ right to choose a school,” DeVos is on-message all the time, driving home the idea that school choice is a right, and that right is currently being denied to poor parents. Hence DeVos talks about the need for more charter schools or publicly funded school vouchers or tax credits or education savings accounts—public money to pay for parents’ private choice.

Let’s stop for a moment to remember that parental choice in a privatized education marketplace is not what is protected by the education clauses in the 50 state constitutions, which instead include language about the state’s responsibility to provide a thorough and efficient system of common schools to serve the children of the state and the well-being of the public. The state constitutions allocate tax dollars for what has long been understood as a public purpose.

A new study from Roosevelt University in Chicago explains precisely how school choice—in this case Chicago’s rapid expansion of charter schools—can destroy the public good. The authors summarize the history of school accountability in conjunction with the explosive growth of charter schools in Chicago: “During the Mayor Richard M. Daley Administration of the 1990s, Chicago Public Schools was shaped by educational accountability practices… Once identified as ‘underperforming’ a school would be subject to a litany of school actions including probation, reconstitution… or closure… By 2001, Chicago augmented its accountability practices with a school choice philosophy… In order to give parents school choice, the public schools system was directed to introduce a greater menu of school choices….”Roosevelt University Study: Rapid Charter Growth Has Cannibalized Chicago Public Schools | janresseger:

National and Urban NAEP Results: Neighborhood Public Schools 23, Charters 4 – Cloaking Inequity

National and Urban NAEP Results: Neighborhood Public Schools 23, Charters 4 – Cloaking Inequity:

National and Urban NAEP Results: Neighborhood Public Schools 23, Charters 4

With increased attention and resources given by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betty Devos to charter schools as an alternative to neighborhood public schools, it is crucial to analyze whether or not students who attend charter schools actually exhibit better education performance results compared to non-charter neighborhood public school students. While standardized test measures are not the most complete or ideal to analyze student outcomes, they can play a role in analyzing whether or not charter schools do truly deliver better performance for students.

This post utilizes data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The NAEP is conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Department of Education. The NAEP was “first administered in 1969 and is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our nation’s students know and can do in subjects such as mathematics, reading, science, and writing.” Standard administration practices are implemented to provide a common measure of student achievement and is consider “the nation’s report card.”

For this blog post, the NAEP Data Explorer tool was used to compare student performance results at the national and large city level. Composite scale scores were compared for charter schools vs. non-charter neighborhood public schools at the “large cities” level due to the fact that the majority of charters are located in urban areas. We consider the Data Explorer’s publicly available composite reading, mathematics, and science scores for 4th, 8th, and 12th graders over the course of six years (2009-2015). This post includes a school-level analysis due to the fact that the student-level data is not publicly available online (For student-level NAEP data comparisons see for example School Sector and Academic Achievement: A Multilevel Analysis of NAEP Mathematics Data).

Results

One would most likely suspect from the current positive public discourse about charter schools that they would display higher national and large city NAEP performance when compared non-charter neighborhood schools, however, this is not actually the case when examining achievement data at the school level. Out of the 28 total comparison tests run, only 4 times did charters produce higher composite score averages than non-charter neighborhood public schools— 8th grade reading and math in the years 2013 and 2015. There was a tie in the large city comparison for 4th grade reading in the year 2013 as charter schools and non-charter neighborhood public schools displayed the same average composite scale scores. In the other 23 cases charter schools produced lower average composite scores on the NAEP (math, reading, science) than non-charter neighborhood public schools.

What were the average differences between charters and non-charter neighborhood public schools? Overall, the 18 comparisons utilizing national samples of non-charter neighborhood public schools displayed composite scores 9.3 points higher on average than charter schools. For the ten available comparisons using samples from large cities, non-charter neighborhood public schools displayed composite scores 0.3 points higher on average than charter schools. Thus, the predominant finding is that non-charter neighborhood public schools outperform charters in the NAEP results on average.

The stark difference in student achievement between charters and non-charters is extraordinarily large in the final year of high school. The national comparisons in the 12th grade show about ~20 point differences favoring non-charter neighborhood public schools in reading, math and science over charters. Of note, the 12th grade comparisons are only at the national level because data for comparisons were not available at time of writing for large cities in the NAEP Data Explorer.

In conclusion, the school-level national and large city NAEP results drawn from the Data Explorer are informative for the public discourse as charter schools are presently being presented as a superior alternative to the public school system. These descriptive school-level results from the NAEP Data Explorer suggest that the relationship between charter schools and improved student performance is not being realized nationally and in large cities. As a result, the present conversations promoting outstanding overall success of charter schools clearly need to be reconsidered and reframed.

4^th Grade Composite Score Comparisons (National and Large City)

Mathematics

Reading

Science

8^th Grade Composite Score Comparisons (National and Large City)

Mathematics

Reading

continue reading National and Urban NAEP Results: Neighborhood Public Schools 23, Charters 4 – Cloaking Inequity:

Russ on Reading: An Onset-Rime Approach to Decoding for Struggling Readers

Russ on Reading: An Onset-Rime Approach to Decoding for Struggling Readers:

An Onset-Rime Approach to Decoding for Struggling Readers

I had the pleasure of spending some time with a group of dedicated elementary teachers in New Jersey this past week. The focus was on using Running Records as a diagnostic tool. At the end of the presentation, I asked the teachers to each describe a student they were working with who was having a great struggle in learning to read. One teacher described a struggling first grader whose issues revolved mostly around decoding and particularly around vowel sounds. The teacher described her efforts to teach the vowel sounds to this student, but that the proper vowel pronunciations did not seem to stick when transferred to real reading situations no matter how much instruction or how much reinforcement was provided.

I have had many similar discussions with teachers over the years, as well as having worked with many children who struggled with vowel sounds. There is a very good reason that some children have difficulty with vowel sounds. When compared to consonants, vowels are abstract, impermanent. They do not track naturally to speech patterns and are heavily influenced by the letters around them.

The go to instruction when kids struggle with vowels is to double down on instruction of vowel sounds in the hopes the child will improve. This approach is typical of what is generally called a traditional or synthetic phonics approach. Traditional phonics is based on the flat-structure model of language utterances which views the spoken syllable as consisting of phonemes in sequence with no intermediate structures of importance (Cunningham, et al., 1999).

The vast majority of linguists today, however, view the spoken syllable as having a hierarchical structure (Cunningham, et al., 1999). That is that a spoken syllable is not just a string of sounds, but also can be broken down to an onset (aRuss on Reading: An Onset-Rime Approach to Decoding for Struggling Readers:

Donald Trump’s Liberty University Commencement Speech | deutsch29

Donald Trump’s Liberty University Commencement Speech | deutsch29:

Donald Trump’s Liberty University Commencement Speech

On May 13, 2017, Donald Trump gave his first commencement speech as president, at the 2017 Liberty University ceremony.

At the ceremony, Liberty University President, Jerry Falwell, Jr., presented Trump with an honorary law doctorate.

Falwell was Trump’s first choice for US secretary of education. Falwell was not willing to make a four-year commitment to the position. However, in February 2017, Falwell agreed to lead an education task force assembled by Trump.

An advanced copy of Trump’s remarks was purportedly made public on Friday, May 12, 2017, on Mashable.com. However, given Trump’s penchant for veering from preplanned remarks, I have transcribed Trump’s actual remarks based upon the 32-minute White House video of the event, included below.

Below is approximately half of Trump’s speech. Trump vacillated between reading his prepared remarks and offering impromptu commentary. At the end of the 17-minute transcription below, I have included a link to the entire 32-minute transcription.

In many cases, Trump’s own life decisions conflict with his advice to graduates. In some cases, he even contradicts himself within the speech, and he seems to believe that Liberty University graduates are his forever supporters.

I am reading the biography, Trump Revealed. One statement that stands out to me from my reading earlier today concerns Trump’s business practices. Commercial broker, Stephen Ifshin noted that Trump “burned through people.”

I could go on, but I will refrain.

My chief purpose in transcribing Trump’s speech is to make it easily accessible to the public.

Here we go:

Congratulations to the Class of 2017. That’s some achievement. This is your day, and you’ve earned every minute of it, and I’m thrilled to be back at Liberty University. I’ve been here, this is now my third time, and we love 

Donald Trump’s Liberty University Commencement Speech | deutsch29:

Advocates Release Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Advocates Release Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy:

ADVOCATES RELEASE PARENT TOOLKIT FOR STUDENT PRIVACY

Learn how to protect your child's sensitive data.

Download a copy of the toolkit HERE

For more information:
Rachael Stickland, (303) 204-1272 rachael@studentprivacymatters.org
Josh Golin, (617) 896-9369, josh@commercialfreechildhood.org

Tuesday, May 16, 2017 – Amid growing concerns about data privacy and surveillance, the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy (PCSP) and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) have created an important resource for parents to understand and safeguard students’ personal information.

The Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy: A Practical Guide for Protecting Your Child’s Sensitive School Data from Snoops, Hackers, and Marketers is a vital resource in an age where nearly all school records are stored digitally, and where learning, homework, and administrative tasks are increasingly conducted online. Available free to parents on CCFC and PCSP’s websites, the Toolkit offers clear guidance about federal laws that do—and don’t—protect students’ privacy, helps parents ask the right questions about their schools’ data policies, and offers simple steps parents can take to advocate for better privacy policies and practices in their children’s schools.

Rachael Stickland, Co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, explained that many parents are under the false impression that sensitive student records are stored securely in a paper file under lock and key in the principal’s office. “As a parent of two school-aged children, I know first-hand how difficult it is to comprehend the sheer amount of digital data students generate during the course of a normal school day and what that means for our children’s future. With districts outsourcing operations like bus, cafeteria, and instructional services to vendors who store student personal data in the ‘cloud’ and share it with third parties, including state and federal agencies, it’s more important than ever for parents to take some control over their children’s information. It’s not too late to take action when it comes to protecting our children’s privacy.”

A new report issued by the Electronic Frontier Foundation found that students’ activities and information are being monitored by tech companies through devices and software used in classrooms. The data collected by schools and technology vendors often include kids’ names, birth dates, browsing histories, grades, test scores, disabilities, disciplinary records, and more, without adequate privacy and security protections or the consent of parents. Yet few guides exist to help parents navigate the confusing patchwork of laws and regulations that govern student privacy, or help them promote stronger protections.

Other currently available resources are overly technical, filled with jargon, or skewed to the interests of educational technology companies rather than parents and students. CCFC and PCSCP’s new Toolkit, designed with input from experts in education, data privacy, and federal law, is designed to put the needs of families first.

“You shouldn’t need a PhD or law degree to ensure that your child’s sensitive student data isn’t shared with commercial entities,” said Josh Golin, Executive Director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “Our Toolkit demystifies student privacy and empowers parents to set limits on who accesses the information collected by schools and other third parties about their children.”

Stefanie Fuhr, a Minnesota mother of three, said, “I will be sharing the Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy with parents, teachers, and school administrators, because I don’t think many are aware of the Advocates Release Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy:

The Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy can be downloaded at www.studentprivacymatters.org/toolkit. PCSP and CCFC will co-sponsor a webinar on May 23, 2017, to help parents effectively use the toolkit’s resources.

The Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy was made possible by a grant from the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment.

Badass Teachers Association: NY Education Commissioner Criticizes Religious School Funding–Then TRIPLES It by Jake Jacobs

Badass Teachers Association: NY Education Commissioner Criticizes Religious School Funding–Then TRIPLES It by Jake Jacobs:

NY Education Commissioner Criticizes Religious School Funding–Then TRIPLES It 

by Jake Jacobs

Originally posted at: https://truthagainstthemachine.com/index.php/2017/05/15/ny-education-commissioner-criticizes-religious-school-funding-triples/

New York Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia rescinded approval of the East Ramapo school district’s budget after she discovered it included five days worth of funding for busing students to private religious schools. She then traveled to the district to discuss the budget behind closed doors, where she ultimately approved funding for fourteen days of the busing, at a cost of about $1.4 million dollars.

This is only the latest dust-up in the continuing saga of the embattled East Ramapo school district, where affiliates of a large Hasidic community have controlled the school board for years. For the uninitiated, NPR unpacked the fascinating story in a 2014 episode of This American Life, but the short version is that about 24,000 East Ramapo students attend private yeshivas while public schools hold only about 8,500 students. The Hasidic community is so densely populated in the district they have dominated school board elections and slashed funding for public schools, shifting tax dollars to cover private school expenses and even closed public schools, only to sell the properties to the yeshivas at deep discounts.

The actions of the school board, usually carried out in secret, have been considered detrimental to public education, so the NY state legislature and education department stepped in, appointing outside monitors and oversight of school board activities. But now local parents say the monitors and the education commissioner are part of the problem.

Parent groups and school board candidates are circulating a petition calling for Commissioner Elia to step down after her flip-flop-flip on the latest proposed budget.

Because of East Ramapo’s unique monitor law, Elia has to approve the school budget proposal. She did so last month, apparently without reading it. Two days Badass Teachers Association: NY Education Commissioner Criticizes Religious School Funding–Then TRIPLES It by Jake Jacobs: