School board pressures Supt. Beutner for details of reform plans #UTLAStrong #WeAreLA #REDFORED

School board pressures Supt. Beutner for details of reform plans
School board pressures Supt. Beutner for details of reform plans

L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner works for the Board of Education, but some board members say they need to know more about where he intends to take the nation’s second-largest school system.

Board member Scott Schmerelson put his concerns on the table at Tuesday’s meeting in a resolution that ultimately led the board to informally rebuke the schools chief for his lack of transparency.

Beutner took his medicine, pledging “100%” cooperation in providing the board with information in the future. He said Schmerelson could expect to see reports from district consultants paid to work on a reform effort within days.

In other action Tuesday, the board rejected a proposal to give schools full control over which teachers they hire. And a board majority chose to name a school after a veteran administrator whose long, meritorious service was marred by his role in allowing an employee accused of sexual misconduct to return to an L.A. Unified campus.

Schmerelson took Beutner to task for not providing the contracts and the work done by consultants who have been advising him on the plan he is developing to restructure the district.

Beutner has said that his overarching goal is to bring decision-making and resources closer to schools to better serve students and cut costs. But so far he has shied away publicly from specifics.

The Times in November obtained information that Beutner was considering a plan to dividethe school system into about 32 networks of schools that would have substantial independence but that also would be held accountable for improving student achievement.

Beutner has been getting advice on his plan from an assortment of outside consultants paid by private donations managed by the California Community Foundation. Because of that arrangement, his staff initially did not provide The Times either the consultants’ contracts or the work they’ve produced.

Schmerelson first asked for that information in early October — and Beutner pledged at a Nov. 13 board meeting that he would provide the materials. But he did not follow through.

Ultimately, Schmerelson put a resolution on Tuesday’s agenda to require Beutner to supply CONTINUE READING: School board pressures Supt. Beutner for details of reform plans

This time, it wasn’t about pay: West Virginia teachers go on strike over the privatization of public education (and they won’t be the last) - The Washington Post

This time, it wasn’t about pay: West Virginia teachers go on strike over the privatization of public education (and they won’t be the last) - The Washington Post

This time, it wasn’t about pay: West Virginia teachers go on strike over the privatization of public education (and they won’t be the last)

This time, it wasn’t about pay.

West Virginia teachers walked off the job across the state Tuesday to protest the privatization of public education and to fight for resources for their own struggling schools.

It was the second time in a year that West Virginia teachers left their classrooms in protest. In 2018, they went on strike for nine days to demand a pay increase, help with high health-care costs and more school funding — and they won a 5 percent pay hike. On Tuesday, union leaders said that, if necessary, they would give up the pay hike as part of their protest. They are fighting legislation that would take public money from resource-starved traditional districts and use it for charter schools and for private and religious school tuition.

“Teachers are willing to forsake their raises for the proposition that public education must be protected and that their voices must be protected,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who went to Charleston, W.Va., for the strike Tuesday. “This was absolutely an effort to defund public education, and teachers fought it.”

Barely four hours into the strike, with hundreds of teachers packed into the statehouse, the Republican-led House of Delegates voted down the state Senate’s version of the omnibus education bill — despite pressure to pass it from conservative and libertarian groups, including some connected to the billionaire Koch brothers.

It was not clear whether the House vote would put the bill to rest for good, but the episode underscored a growing determination among teachers around the country to fight for their public schools.

“I am DONE being disrespected,” Jessica Maunz Salfia, who teaches at Spring Mills High School in Berkeley County, W.Va., wrote in an open letter (see below) on Monday about why she was going to protest Tuesday.

West Virginia teachers remain at the forefront of a rebellion by educators throughout the country who began striking last year over meat-and-potatoes issues such as pay and health-care costs. But that movement has morphed into something broader: a fight in support of the U.S. public education system that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos once called “a dead end.” CONTINUE READING: This time, it wasn’t about pay: West Virginia teachers go on strike over the privatization of public education (and they won’t be the last) - The Washington Post

Sacramento parents say school trip crosses church-state line | San Luis Obispo Tribune

Sacramento parents say school trip crosses church-state line | San Luis Obispo Tribune

Does this school trip cross line between church and state? Some Sacramento parents say yes

Parents at a Sacramento school have complained to their district about a field trip they say crosses the line between church and state.

Sixth-graders at Crocker Riverside Elementary are scheduled March 4-7 to visit Alliance Redwoods Outdoor Education, a private, Christian-owned campground in Sonoma County that rents its facilities to groups such as schools, universities and technology companies for camps and conferences.

Nature and science camp is a familiar rite of passage for many sixth-graders in the Sacramento region. For decades, parents have sent their preteens off to Sly Park in El Dorado County, or the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

For the past several years, Alliance Redwoods has also hosted such overnight camps for local school districts including Sacramento City Unified and Elk Grove Unified.

But some parents say there’s a key difference with Alliance Redwoods: They contend its religious affiliation and biblical signage on trail paths cross the boundary between church and state.

Karin Winters, whose older son attended the camp two years ago, said her concerns with the camp are on principle. Her 11-year-old son is set to attend this year.

“I am essentially being forced to support a religious organization,” Winters said. “While it does not teach Christian teachings, their mission is a Christian one and I really have no choice in the matter.”

According to parents, the trip costs each student more than $300.

Alliance Redwoods Executive Director Jim Blake told The Sacramento Bee in a statement: “We respect the non-religious standing of public schools and embrace when they bring their students to the Alliance Redwoods Outdoor Education Program. It would be inappropriate and against our policies to propagate our Christian worldview through the public school system.”

Alliiance Redwoods Camp Grounds is a 120-acre site in the redwoods 20 minutes inland from Sonoma Coast State Park. Purchased by a group of pastors in 1946, and run by the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Colorado-based global organization says it has more than 500,000 members in 2,000 churches, and runs mission trips, international relief efforts and nearly 20 camps in the U.S.

The campground is home to three sites: the campgrounds, Alliance Redwoods Outdoor Education, and the popular zip-lining Sonoma Canopy Tours.

According to its website, the campground has routinely hosted families and conferences for CONTINUE READING:Sacramento parents say school trip crosses church-state line | San Luis Obispo Tribune

International Study Links Higher Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality - NEA Today

International Study Links Higher Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality - NEA Today
Higher Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality

This week, the New York Times invited a few members of the education policy world to answer the question “Are Teachers Overpaid?” Probably quite a few teachers are incredulous that this question is even being asked. They know that too many educators have been denied competitive, professional pay for too long and that low pay comes at a high cost for schools and kids. A recent analysis comparing teacher pay and student outcomes around the world backs them up.

Peter Dolton and Oscar Marcanero-Gutierrez, two economics professors at the University of London and University of Malga respectively, collected data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) annual Education at a Glance reports, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to determine the relationship between pay and student achievement. They concluded that – guess what? – better teacher pay leads to teacher quality and that leads to improved student performance.

In their analysis, Dolton and Gutierrez identify two key factors that determine how professional pay enhances teacher quality, particularly as it pertains to attracting new teachers. One, higher pay promotes competition and therefore more and better teaching applicants. Secondly, improving pay increases the “national status” of the profession, again making it more attractive to potential recruits.

Specifically, Dolton and Gutierrez used recent PISA and TIMMS results to draw a clear statistical correlation between higher pay and student performance across different countries (see chart below).

London School of Economics

From this and other data, they conclude that a 10 percent increase in teachers’ pay would produce a 5-10 percent increase in student performance.

“Most obviously, if a government is concerned with educational outcomes,” Dolton and Gutierrez said, “then it should be aware that the quality of its teachers is of fundamental importance. Increasing teacher salaries will help schools to recruit and retain the higher ability teachers that schools need to offer all pupils a high quality education.

“Governments and administrators need to know that there is no ‘free lunch’ here.”

Read the report summary

Read the full report

Learn more about educator salary issues at www.nea.org/pay.

Hill Democrats say Education Dept. tried to interfere in probe, remove investigator

Hill Democrats say Education Dept. tried to interfere in probe, remove investigator

Hill Democrats say Education Dept. tried to interfere in probe, remove investigator
Democrats say they've seen evidence of "troubling efforts" to influence investigation of Education Secretary DeVos.

WASHINGTON — House and Senate Democrats say they have obtained evidence that a senior official at the Department of Education tried to oust the department’s independent watchdog after she pushed back on an attempt to interfere in an active investigation of Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Lawmakers from four House and Senate committees who oversee the department sent a letter to DeVos on Tuesday, suggesting that the effort to replace the department’s acting inspector general, Sandra Bruce, had been related to her duties in overseeing the probe of DeVos’ decision to reinstate ACICS, an accreditor that had been stripped of its certification by the Obama administration.

"We have now received correspondence between the Department and the (Office of Inspector General) that reveals troubling efforts by the Department to influence the ACICS investigation," House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., wrote to DeVos.

Scott was joined by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee; Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who serves on the House Appropriations Committee; Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee; and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Senate committee handling education.

Earlier this month, after the effort to demote Bruce became public, the department backtracked on its decision to replace Bruce with a handpicked official to serve as the agency’s acting watchdog, after criticism that the designation posed a serious conflict of interest.

Inspectors general provide independent oversight at federal departments and agencies, with the intent that they are free from the influence of political appointees in order to act on behalf of taxpayers.

In this case, Scott cites a letter dated Jan. 3 obtained from Education Department deputy secretary Mitchell Zais to Bruce. In the letter Zais wrote that he found it “disturbing” Bruce was proceeding with the probe of ACICS and “asked (her) to reconsider any plan” to review the department’s decision to restore its accreditation.

Bruce, Scott said, then “communicated her plans to continue” the investigation and “underscored the importance of maintaining CONTINUE READING: Hill Democrats say Education Dept. tried to interfere in probe, remove investigator

West Virginia lawmakers reject charter school bill in victory for striking teachers

West Virginia lawmakers reject charter school bill in victory for striking teachers

West Virginia lawmakers reject charter school bill in victory for striking teachers

Striking teachers in West Virginia celebrated on Tuesday as lawmakers rejected a bill that would have opened the first charter schools in the state as unions become more vocal about the public schools run by private groups.

The 53-45 vote by the House of Delegates effectively kills the legislation, which Governor Jim Justice, a Republican, had vowed to veto. The bill had passed the Republican-controlled Senate on Monday, prompting labor unions to call the strike, which closed most of the state’s 700 schools that serve 277,000 students.

Union leaders were due to hold a news conference later on Tuesday on the status of the strike.

Charter schools are publicly funded but run by private groups. West Virginia is one of only six states that has not passed laws to allow for charter schools, according to the non-profit research group the Education Commission of the States.

The American Federation of Teachers called the bill an act of retaliation for the strike last March that secured higher pay for teachers and sparked similar actions in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, Chicago and Los Angeles.

“It would take money away from public schools in favor of strategies like education savings accounts and charter schools that so many other school systems around the country have rejected,” said Randi Weingarten, the national union’s president, and Fred Albert, president of the state chapter, in a joint statement. CONTINUE READING: West Virginia lawmakers reject charter school bill in victory for striking teachers

West Virginia teachers to continue strike, in charter schools fight - https://www.rawstory.com/?p=1450341 via @rawstory

West Virginia House Kills Education Bill After Teachers Strike to Block School Privatization | janresseger

West Virginia House Kills Education Bill After Teachers Strike to Block School Privatization | janresseger

West Virginia House Kills Education Bill After Teachers Strike to Block School Privatization

Yesterday, Tuesday, West Virginia’s teachers walked out to protest an omnibus education bill moving through the state legislature. The bill, known as Senate Bill 451, included another pay raise for teachers, but the Republican dominated West Virginia Senate had also inserted poison pills—authorization for seven charter schools and a statewide education savings account neo-voucher program for 1000 eligible students with special needs.

At noon yesterday, as schools were shut down in 54 of the state’s 55 counties and teachers from across the state had gathered at the statehouse, the West Virginia House of Delegates voted to table Senate Bill 451 indefinitely—killing the bill.

Teachers announced last night, however, that their strike will continue through today, Wednesday, because of fears that some members of the legislature will try to resurrect the bill.  All of the state’s public schools have been closed today.

Yesterday’s statewide walkout was almost exactly a year after the state’s teachers struck for decent pay.  At the end of last year’s strike, teachers won a 5 percent raise.  In October, Governor Jim Justice promised teachers an additional raise this year.

West Virginia is among the states that has, until now, not pursued marketplace school choice through the creation of charter schools or any kind of voucher program. The Network for Public Education and the Schott Foundation for Public Education recently graded West Virginia A+ for its commitment to public education and its avoidance of these schemes to privatize the public schools.

This week’s sudden teachers’ strike broke an impasse in an all-Red state, with a Republican governor, and Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature.  The Senate had, however, shown itself to be more ideological, filling the omnibus Senate Bill 451 with ideas straight out of the playbook of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which offers model CONTINUE READING: West Virginia House Kills Education Bill After Teachers Strike to Block School Privatization | janresseger

TEXT OF SB-126 Charter Schools Transparency BILL + California AG Addresses Charter Schools and Public Integrity Laws - Opinion Confirms Applicability of the Brown Act, Public Records Act, and Conflicts of Interest Laws

California AG Addresses Charter Schools and Public Integrity Laws - Opinion Confirms Applicability of the Brown Act, Public Records Act, and Conflicts of Interest Laws | Best Best & Krieger LLP - JDSupra

California AG Addresses Charter Schools and Public Integrity Laws - Opinion Confirms Applicability of the Brown Act, Public Records Act, and Conflicts of Interest Laws

TEXT OF SB-126 Charter Schools  Transparency BILL

As the year came to a close, the California Attorney General published a lengthy, sweeping opinion on the following questions:

• Are a California charter school and its governing body subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act and the California Public Records Act?
• Is a California charter school’s governing body subject to Government Code section 1090?
• Is a California charter school’s governing body subject to the Political Reform Act of 1974?
• Are the books and records of a California charter schools subject to review and inspection by the grand jury?

These questions have been the subject of much debate since the adoption of the Charter Schools Act in 1992, and the focus of several failed pieces of legislation in recent years. The Attorney General answered each question with a solid “yes” – with one narrow exception: that the records of State-approved charter schools are not subject to grand jury review.

Many charter schools are already complying with these laws because they are specifically addressed in their approved charters. However, other charter schools have not agreed to comply with these laws — in particular Government Code section 1090 — which generally prohibits public officials from participating in the making of contracts in which he or she has a prohibited interest. Violations of section 1090 carry serious penalties, including the possibility of felony charges. In addition, contracts made in violation of section 1090 are generally deemed to be null and void. This can affect charter schools in a number of ways, including calling into question the validity of existing contracts and governing board compositions.

Key to the Attorney General’s analysis is the fact that charter schools are funded by taxpayer dollars and considered “school districts” for funding purposes. The Attorney General expressly rejected arguments that charter schools operated as, or by, nonprofit public benefit corporations are entitled to different treatment under these laws.

It should be noted that opinions of the California Attorney General are advisory only and are not legally binding on courts, agencies or individuals. However, they are afforded great respect and weight by the courts and often indicate how a judge may rule on the issues if presented in court.

In light of this opinion, both charter schools and their chartering authorities should evaluate whether and what changes may be necessary to ensure charter school compliance with the Brown Act, the Public Records Act and conflict of interest laws. This could include, for example, requiring changes to the approved charter, any memorandum of understanding, governing board composition, and possibly the governance structure itself. It may also require new contracts where violations of section 1090 have occurred.

The entire Attorney General opinion can be found here.

[View source.]

TEXT OF SB-126 Charter Schools  Transparency BILL

California AG Addresses Charter Schools and Public Integrity Laws - Opinion Confirms Applicability of the Brown Act, Public Records Act, and Conflicts of Interest Laws | Best Best & Krieger LLP - JDSupra

TEXT OF SB-126 Charter Schools  Transparency BILL

Charter schools haven’t improved in Ohio, Stanford researchers find | cleveland.com

Charter schools haven’t improved in Ohio, Stanford researchers find | cleveland.com

Charter schools haven’t improved in Ohio, Stanford researchers find

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Charter schools in Ohio haven’t improved in recent years, Stanford University researchers have found, despite all the recent debate, public scandals and efforts to make this state’s nationally-scorned charter schools teach kids better.

“There is little to no progress in Ohio charter school performance,” concludes a new report released today by Stanford’s Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO), when comparing Ohio’s charters today to those 10 years ago, as well as those four years ago.

Though charters here made progress in helping students learn to read over time - closing a small gap between them and traditional schools - they did worse in math and fell further behind.

It would be a discouraging finding for charter backers, who have viewed the much-maligned sector as improving the last few years as tougher state laws have kicked in and some of the worst schools have closed. But many of those changes are still too new to have moved the numbers in the Stanford study.

The report also gives charter backers a big win by making a major distinction between typical charter schools and online ones.

Most charter schools - the “brick-and-mortar” schools where students come to a school every day - look great in the new findings, when they are compared to traditional public schools handling similar students. These charters helped students read better than traditional schools did with similar students, and barely did worse in math.

The big problems are with online charter schools, which lag so far behind everyone that they wipe out any gains for charters overall. Online charters did worse in both reading and math - far worse in math - than other schools. It was as if students at online charters in Ohio skipped 47 days of reading classes in a year and 136 days of math classes.

“The poor performance of online charter schools drags down the overall charter impact on student academic growth,” the report reads.

Online charter schools in Ohio have a poor showing in a new report from Stanford researchers, while other charter schools do well. The report compares how charters do with similar students in traditional public schools, with bars above zero showing charters doing better and bars below zero showing charters doing worse. Note that some charters did better in reading and worse in math, while online schools did much worse in both.  Stanford University's Center for Resarch of Educational Outcomes (CREDO)

The Fordham Institute, a national education advocacy group active in Ohio, sponsored the study, as well as a similar one CREDO did for Ohio in late 2014. Fordham, a right-leaning organization, supports charters CONTINUE READING: Charter schools haven’t improved in Ohio, Stanford researchers find | cleveland.com

Big Education Ape: Charter Schools: Competition Makes All Schools Losers | Dissident Voice - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/02/charter-schools-competition-makes-all.html

Striking West Virginia teachers push lawmakers to drop measures expanding charter schools and private school vouchers - The Washington Post

Striking West Virginia teachers push lawmakers to drop measures expanding charter schools and private school vouchers - The Washington Post
Striking West Virginia teachers push lawmakers to drop measures expanding charter schools and private school vouchers
The job action comes a year after teachers walked out to protest low pay.

On a makeshift stage in El Paso, Texas, former Texas Teacher of the Year Leslie Anaya delivered a message to the roughly 15,000 immigrant children who are held captive in federal detention centers, where they are denied an education and separated from their mothers, fathers, and anybody else who loves them.

“Don’t cry,” she said. “Sing. Sing because you have so many people fighting for you, so many teachers who won’t stop fighting to make sure you’re treated humanely and that your families will be together.”

Hundreds of NEA members, including dozens of state Teachers of the Year, were in El Paso on Saturday, Feb. 17, for the “Teach-In for Freedom,” an all-day event organized by Teachers Against Child Detention (TACD) and led by National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning to protest the inhumane detention of children and the criminalization of immigrant families.

“All children deserve to be in school,” Manning said. “All children have endless potential and deserve to reach that potential. All children deserve to be free.”

Educators and others have been outraged by the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of separating immigrant and refugee children as young as 18 months old from their parents. Detained in more than 100 government detention centers across 17 states, these children have been denied access to public education, and likely will suffer irreparable, lifelong psychological damage, CONTINUE READING: Striking West Virginia teachers push lawmakers to drop measures expanding charter schools and private school vouchers - The Washington Post

Dana Goldstein: Why Teacher Strikes Keep Happening (and Why There’s No End in Sight) - The New York Times

Why Teacher Strikes Keep Happening (and Why There’s No End in Sight) - The New York Times

Why Teacher Strikes Keep Happening (and Why There’s No End in Sight)

American teachers in the past year have mounted the most sustained educator protest movement in decades. Their relentless string of mass walkouts continues this week in West Virginia, where education unions abruptly called a statewide strike on Monday evening, and in California, which is bracing for a districtwide strike in Oakland on Thursday.

The movement started with cries for better pay and benefits for educators, and more funding for schools and classrooms. But it has evolved into a protest against the argument that has driven the bipartisan education reform agenda for the past two decades: that traditional public schools and the people who work in them are failing, and that they must be challenged by charter schools, private school vouchers, test-driven accountability and other forms of pressure to improve.

Here’s the latest on the teacher walkouts:

Why do teachers keep going on strike?

The teacher protest movement began in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections. Educators in six conservative and swing states with weak unions — West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina — thronged capitals to demand that politicians raise education budgets, sometimes by instituting new taxes.

Those protests won teachers a series of modest raises, but were less successful in pushing back against fiscal austerity more broadly. And though candidates who supported the walkouts won some state-level elections in November, the movement was not able to flip party control in red bastions like Arizona and West Virginia. That’s the major reason some of the same fights over local school funding, salaries and reform policies are still going on. CONTINUE READING: Why Teacher Strikes Keep Happening (and Why There’s No End in Sight) - The New York Times