Hillary Clinton discusses education with AFT members | American Federation of Teachers

Hillary Clinton discusses education with AFT members | American Federation of Teachers:

Hillary Clinton discusses education with AFT members

Hillary Clinton met with 25 AFT members on Nov. 9 in Nashua, N.H., for an hourlong discussion that covered a range of education and related issues. Teachers, paraprofessionals and higher education faculty participated in the conversation with Clinton—the AFT's endorsed candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination—which was moderated by AFT President Randi Weingarten.

Participating members came from Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and West Virginia as well as New Hampshire. Among the topics covered: testing, the Common Core, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, special education, poverty, equity and much more.

"It means so much to me to have the AFT endorsement because I really want to be your partner," Clinton said in her introductory remarks. "I want to figure out how we can work together to achieve our common goals."

"What I think we have to do is really, starting today and moving through the election into the next administration," she said, "figure out what our priorities are, how I can be working with you, and how we can make the changes that we know will benefit kids and families, and restore respect to educators, and create an atmosphere in which we're all on the same team. We're on the American team. We're on the team that is going to actually get things done, not just talk about it or not just engage in insults."

Here's what Clinton had to say in response to some of the questions from members:

Building on advice from real-world educators. "I'm inviting you, the AFT and constituent members, to put forth your best thinking, your ideas, what you know will work better for our kids. And, in particular, I want us to do a deep dive into the collective experience of educators and the research, so that instead of these back-and-forths that you see now, particularly from the other candidates on the Republican side, it's not rooted in real-world experience. It is not rooted in the advice from people who actually stand in front of a classroom and know the names of their students. And so, I want to know what are the top priorities and how do we go about achieving those."

Overuse of standardized testing. "I've said from the beginning of the campaign, we need fewer, better tests. I believe in diagnostic testing that teachers can use to try to figure out how to help individuals and classes deal with their learning challenges. I do believe that there can be and should be a set of tests that everybody agrees on. So we do need as a first priority to figure out: What are the tests that should be administered? When? And what do we do with them? And I have for a very long time also been against the idea that you tie teacher evaluation and even teacher pay to test outcomes. There's no evidence."

Help for English language learners and special education students. "When we accepted that opportunity to really get all of our kids in school, the federal government said it was going to pay 40 percent of the cost of special ed. The most we've ever paid is like 17 percent. I think that's one of the reasons why you don't have the services and the support that your students need to be able to get the education they deserve. So I have said I'm going to do everything I can to raise the federal contribution. There are two big areas of federal funding that I feel strongly about. One is the special ed funding, and the other is the Title I funding, the equalization of funding for poor schools."

Common Core State Standards. "Some of what's gone on has been well-meaning but misplaced, and one of the well-meaning but misplaced areas that I have seen over the years is this emphasis on standardizing learning, and holding out college as the goal and stripping schools of technical education, of what used to be called vocational education, of job preparation and the like. … Now, I don't want to give anybody any excuses to walk away from or ignore the hard-to-teach kids, the special ed kids, the disciplinary kids, all of that. But I also understand that if you're trying to fit different kids with different interests, different habits, different patterns of learning and all the rest of it, into one channel, it's not going to work. And it creates great frustration for teachers, for students, for families."

Holding charter schools accountable. "There's no doubt in my mind that charters have to be held accountable. There are good charters, and there are bad charters. They have to be held to high standards, and if they are working like the one you work at, why aren't there more using the model that you have pioneered? And so, from my perspective, again, I want to go to the research. What are the good models and where are they found, and how do you do more of what works instead of reinventing the wheel all the time? A lot of people show up and they want to do a charter, and they don't pay attention to the educational research. They have a pet idea. They may be, again, motivated to try to help kids, but they don't have the experience, and they don't necessarily know how to do it."

Community schools. "We've got to figure out what we're going to do about all communities that are poor, whether they're white or communities of color. We've got to figure out what we're going to do to direct more federal help into what will work, not just get siphoned off into useless, unproductive projects. And using the school as a magnet or as an organizing institution makes a lot of sense to me. … I want to know how we recruit and keep teachers like you because I know it can't be easy when you are dealing with life or death issues a lot of days, not math or other learning issues. And so, part of my hope is that we look at what the real problems are and not get diverted all the time to the shiny object in the corner."

Read more excerpts from the transcript.

[Dan Gursky, AFT press release/photos by Michael Campbell]

- See more at: http://www.aft.org/news/hillary-clinton-discusses-education-aft-members#sthash.NWZRnIQ4.dpuf

Union President, Randi Weingarten, Defends Hillary Clinton on Charter Schools - First Draft. Political News, Now. - The New York Times

Union President, Randi Weingarten, Defends Hillary Clinton on Charter Schools - First Draft. Political News, Now. - The New York Times:

Union President, Randi Weingarten, Defends Hillary Clinton on Charter Schools

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, defended Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday over critical remarks she made about charter schools, saying the Democratic presidential candidate had voiced a view many hold about such schools.

Ms. Weingarten’s remarks came in a conference call with reporters, in which she discussed a recent meeting on education policy that Mrs. Clinton held with about 25 members of the teachers union, most of them from New Hampshire. The union, which has been critical of charter schools, is supporting Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy.

“You can be pro-charter and still be critical of things that charters ought not to be doing,” Ms. Weingarten said, pointing to instances of fraud and abuse in the charter school system that have been written about in places like Chicago and in Miami. She argued that charter schools had gotten away from how they were originally conceived of decades ago, and instead had become a competing school system to public schools.

Mrs. Clinton made waves when she sounded a critical note about charter schools at a forum with the journalist Roland Martin in South Carolina on Nov. 7.

“Most charter schools — I don’t want to say every one — but most charter schools, they don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them,” Mrs. Clinton said at the event, which was hosted by the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus. She praised public schools that “thankfully, take everybody, and then they don’t get the resources or the help and support that they need to be able to take care of every child’s education.”

Her statement came after months in which she had avoided wading into the debate over charter schools, which has prompted divisions within the Democratic Party. The largest national teachers unions, which are vocal opponents of charter schools, have endorsed Mrs. Clinton. Ms. Weingarten was an early supporter of Mrs. Clinton, and her union endorsed the candidate in July, becoming her first major labor supporter.

Mrs. Clinton’s comments caused alarm among Democrats who support charter schools, some of whom noted that she has voiced support for such schools in the past. Mrs. Clinton has also championed measures that unions have opposed when she was the first lady of Arkansas.

The unions have often been at odds with President Obama over his education policy, including a reliance on testing standards.

Ms. Weingarten declined to answer a question about whether she hoped Mrs. Union President, Randi Weingarten, Defends Hillary Clinton on Charter Schools - First Draft. Political News, Now. - The New York Times:

Are You Being Served? | EduShyster

Are You Being Served? | EduShyster:

Are You Being Served?

How do Hillary Clinton’s *hard-to-teach* students fare at Boston charter schools?

Reader: Hillary Clinton recently said somethingthat made a lot of adult interests who put kids first really mad. In brief (because what she said was actually very brief), HRC said that most charter schools *don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or if they do they don’t keep them.* Which resulted in a flurry of sternly-worded rejoinders, like this one, this one and this one, none of which responded to HRC’s actual very brief words. Which gave me a wacky idea. What if we looked at some actual data? 

¿Cómo se dice *hard-to-teach*?
In Massachusetts, *hardest-to-teach* often translates into *students-who-don’t-yet-speak-English,* of whom we happen to have a great many. You see, ever since the Mayflower touched down at Plimoth Rock, groaning with Thanksgiving *fixins,* the Bay State and its cities have served as a gateway for wave upon wave of immigrants who come here to enjoy, among other attractions, our friendly driving customs. In fact, at last count there were 84 different languages spoken in the Boston Public Schools. EIGHTY FOUR. Long-time readers of this page know that the underrepresentation of said students in our academies of excellence and innovation has long been a long-time theme on this page, beginning with *¡Pssst: Los Escuelos Charteros Have a Secret!* But a recent study shows that I’ve been substantially underrepresenting this underrepresentation.

Who is Being Served?
The study, conducted by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, digs Are You Being Served? | EduShyster:

Clinton says ‘no evidence’ that teachers can be judged by student test scores - The Washington Post

Clinton says ‘no evidence’ that teachers can be judged by student test scores - The Washington Post:

Clinton says ‘no evidence’ that teachers can be judged by student test scores

Hillary Rodham Clinton told a group of teachers that she is against the idea of tieing teacher evaluation and pay to test outcomes. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Hillary Rodham Clinton said she is opposed to using student test scores as a way to judge a teacher’s performance, dismissing a key feature of education policies promoted by the Obama administration.

Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, made the remarks during a closed-door meeting with 25 teachers and paraprofessionals that was organized by the American Federation of Teachers on Nov. 9 in New Hampshire.

Liz Lynch, a teacher from North Bergen, N.J., told Clinton that she was in favor of teachers being held accountable but that in recent years, overtesting has consumed her school.

“Students have been made to take paper and pencil tests in PE and music just so they can be evaluated,” Lynch said, according to a transcript released by AFT on Monday. “Teachers spend an inordinate amount of time giving benchmark tests to prepare for more tests. And all the testing is crowding out time my students and I used to spend on cooperative learning, critical thinking and project-based learning.”

[Read the transcript here]

“What can we do to move away from all this testing and return the joy of learning and teaching to the classroom?” Lynch asked Clinton. “And how would you ensure that federal money for education is not tied to test results?”

According to the transcript, Clinton responded, “I believe in diagnostic testing that teachers can use to try to figure out how to help individuals and classes deal with their learning challenges. I do believe that there can be and should be a set of tests that everybody agrees on.”

“And I have for a very long time also been against the idea that you tie teacher evaluation and even teacher pay to test outcomes,” she said. “There’s no evidence. There’s no evidence. Now, there is some evidence that it can help with school performance. If everybody is on the same team, and they’re all working together, that’s a different issue, but that’s not the way it’s been presented…”

In the last few years, nearly every state has implemented systems to evaluate teachers based in part on student test scores, largely because the Obama administration made it a condition for states to receive either a grant under Race to the Top or a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law.

But the practice has come under growing scrutiny. Last week, the American Educational Research Association became the latest organization to caution against using value-added models — complex algorithms that try to measure a teacher’s impact on student test scores — to judge the performance of teachers. It joined the National Research Council, the American Statistical Association and the Rand Corporation, which have all said that schools Clinton says ‘no evidence’ that teachers can be judged by student test scores - The Washington Post:

The POWER of Picture Books v. High-Stakes Testing & Common Core

The POWER of Picture Books v. High-Stakes Testing & Common Core:

The POWER of Picture Books v. High-Stakes Testing & Common Core

In 2010, I read an article in The New York Times that both saddened and infuriated me. In “Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children” by Julie Bosman we learned about a bookstore in Brookline, MA, a beautiful community surrounded by Harvard, MIT, Tufts, etc., where parents were rejecting picture books. They skipped buying them for their children in favor of chapter books.

Here’s why:

Parents have begun pressing their kindergartners and first graders to leave the picture book behind and move on to more text-heavy chapter books. Publishers cite pressures from parents who are mindful of increasingly rigorous standardized testing in schools.

Picture books v. high-stakes testing–what an awful switch for children. Pushing them this way meant they would miss out on the beauty and wonder of picture books, and they would lose an important precursor to learning how to read.

What about picture books five years later?

In response to The New York Times report, a group of children’s book authors and illustrators got together to call November Picture Book Month. I decided to write The POWER of Picture Books v. High-Stakes Testing & Common Core:

Real Superheroes Wear Sweaters - Lily's Blackboard

Real Superheroes Wear Sweaters - Lily's Blackboard:

Real Superheroes Wear Sweaters

I wrote a book last year called Rabble Rousers-Agitadores. It tells the story of how ordinary people became extraordinary history-changing heroes. I wrote about Mother Jones and Cesar Chavez. I told the stories of Nelson Mandela and Jose Marti. These are people whose action, inspiration, and willingness to stand up and stand in the way changed the world.

Let me tell you about some other people who change the world every day: amazing rabble rousers in appliqued sweater vests. They drive your child’s school bus. They teach second grade. They are leading the fight for child nutrition and to end childhood hunger. Maybe it’s just hard to see that these folks are heroes because they don’t wear capes.

Someone once said to me, “the thing about education is it attracts the really nice do-gooder sorts.” I’m always struck by the cliché image of the kindly teacher with the sweet smile and the appliqued sweater vest—as though there is a gentle simplicity to these people and the work they do. There is nothing gentle and nothing simple about superheroes. I always think a cape would be more appropriate attire for our educator heroes.

The number one phobia in the U.S. is fear of public speaking. This is true—Chapman University did a survey on it. I do a bit of public speaking and I get it. It can be scary. But when most people say they are afraid of public speaking, they are thinking about adult-world public speaking where the audience is usually polite and at least minimally respectful. So now imagine that there is a job where public speaking is the daily routine—and I’m not talking about speaking into the austere dark void of polite grownups but instead a well-lit room filled with the world’s harshest critics: 40 first graders with the wiggles. And your job is to teach them math and how to sit still.

We don’t think about that first grade teacher as a brave public speaker or a heroic cape-wearing savior. That first grade teacher may wear an appliqued sweater vest with pumpkins or Christmas trees befitting the holiday (I have one or two), but don’t tell me she’s just a nice, unassuming lady. She’s a superhero. She’s a rabble rouser.

Too often and in too many places, a student’s zip code dictates the quality of her public school. We have some of the best –equipped, shiniest, most stunning schools in the world. And a few miles down the road, public school buildings are falling down (some literally), textbooks are so old they were in circulation when my mother was in school. Policy makers may have abandoned the students inside these schools, but these students are still learning because of the fearless, amazing, stunning superheroes who work there. They create opportunity where opportunity had been left for dead.

This summer I heard the story of a school custodian who built handrails for a student who couldn’t walk. He did it on Real Superheroes Wear Sweaters - Lily's Blackboard:

NYC Public School Parents: 2015 NYC Class Size still increasing, says DOE

NYC Public School Parents: 2015 NYC Class Size still increasing, says DOE:

2015 NYC Class Size still increasing, says DOE

November 16, 2015

For more information, contact Leonie Haimson, leoniehaimson@gmail.com; 917-435-9329

NYC Class Size data released; average class sizes still increasing according to DOE

Number of K-3 students in classes of 30 or more risen sharply since 2011

On Friday, DOE released the latest class size data as of Oct. 31, 2015, citywide, by borough, district and by school.  According to the DOE’s summary, “Average class size grew by 0.1 from 26.4 students per class in 2015.” They calculated that elementary and middle school class sizes remained flat, and high school class sizes increased slightly: http://tinyurl.com/ppxy8m8

Most worrisome, according to our analysis, the number of students in classes of 30 or more increased, especially in grades K-3, continuing the trend of the last few years. (In 2011, the DOE stopped complying with a side agreement to cap class sizes at 28 in grades 1-3, leading to sharp increases in these grades to 30 or more.)

According to our calculations, average class size in grades K-3 (GenEd, ICT and G&T) dropped slightly from the year before, but at this rate, it would take 47 years to reach the DOE’s original Contracts for Excellence goal of 19.9 students per class.  (During his campaign, the Mayor promised to reduce class sizes to C4E levels and if necessary, raise revenue to fund this.  See the filled out forms from a Mayoral forum at Murry Bergtraum HS in June 2013 and the NYC KidsPAC candidate survey from July 2013.)

In grades 4-8, average class size remained at 26.7, the same on average as the year before.

In high school core classes, we found that average class size dropped slightly by one tenth of a student per class, from Oct. 31, 2014 to Oct. 31, 2015, but at a rate that it would take 23 years to reach the C4E goal of 24.5 students per class.

By borough, the largest average class sizes for grades K-3 are in Queens (25.7), and in Staten Island for grades 4-8 (28.7) and high school (29.7).

We also took a look at which schools have the largest class sizes.

The largest Kindergarten classes, all averaging 30 students per class or more,  far above the UFT cap of 25, are at PS 308 Clara Cardwell in D16 Brooklyn (ICT at 33);  PS 181 (ICT at 33) and PS 191 Paul Robeson (GenEd at 31) both in D17 Brooklyn; PS 43 in D27 in Queens (ICT at NYC Public School Parents: 2015 NYC Class Size still increasing, says DOE:

For-Profit College Company to Pay $95.5 Million to Settle Claims of Illegal Recruiting, Consumer Fraud and Other Violations | U.S. Department of Education

For-Profit College Company to Pay $95.5 Million to Settle Claims of Illegal Recruiting, Consumer Fraud and Other Violations | U.S. Department of Education:

For-Profit College Company to Pay $95.5 Million to Settle Claims of Illegal Recruiting, Consumer Fraud and Other Violations

Contact:   AG, Justice Department, (202) 514-2007, WWW.JUSTICE.GOV
TTY (866) 544-5309

WASHINGTON – The United States has reached a landmark global settlement with Education Management Corp. (EDMC), the second-largest for-profit education company in the country, the Department of Justice announced today. The $95.5 million settlement resolves allegations that EDMC violated federal and state False Claims Act (FCA) provisions by falsely certifying that it was in compliance with Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) and parallel state statutes.

“This historic resolution exemplifies the Justice Department’s deep commitment to protecting precious public resources; to defending American consumers; and to standing up for those who are vulnerable to mistreatment, abuse, and exploitation,” said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch.  “Operating essentially as a recruitment mill, EDMC’s actions were not only a violation of federal law but also a violation of the trust placed in them by their students - including veterans and working parents - all at taxpayer expense.  In the days ahead, we will continue working with our invaluable partners at the U.S. Department of Education, through initiatives like the inter-agency task force on for-profit education, to ensure that our nation’s aspiring learners are finding and gaining access to educational opportunities that are right for them.”

The primary allegation was that EDMC unlawfully recruited students, in contravention of the HEA’s Incentive Compensation Ban (ICB), by running a high pressure boiler room where admissions personnel were paid based purely on the number of students they enrolled.  In addition to resolving these and other FCA claims, the global settlement also encompasses an investigation by a consortium of state Attorneys General, of consumer-fraud allegations involving deceptive and misleading recruiting practices.

“Now more than ever, a college degree is the best path to the middle class, but that path has to be safe for students,” said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.  “This settlement should be a warning to other career colleges out there: We will not stand by while you profit illegally off of students and taxpayers.  The federal government will continue to work tirelessly with state attorneys general to ensure that all colleges follow the law.”

EDMC, which is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, operates nationwide under four post-secondary school brands: the Art Institutes, South University, Argosy University and Brown-Mackie College.  Student enrollment across EDMC’s school brands exceeds 100,000 students.

“Companies cannot enrich their corporate coffers at the expense of students seeking a quality education, or on the backs of taxpayers who are funding our critical financial aid programs,” said U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton of the Western District of Pennsylvania. “Today’s global settlement sends an unmistakable message to all for-profit education companies: the United States will aggressively ferret out fraud and protect innocent students and taxpayer dollars from this kind of egregious abuse.”

The settlement resolves four separate FCA lawsuits filed in federal court in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Nashville, Tennessee, under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the act, which permit private individuals to sue on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any recovery.

The United States and five states intervened and actively litigated one of those four whistleblower lawsuits, United States ex rel. Washington, in the Western District of Pennsylvania.  The United States’ complaint in intervention alleged systemic violations of Title IV of the HEA’s ICB and parallel state provisions, which prohibit schools from paying recruiters based on their success in securing enrollments.  Specifically, the United States and the plaintiff states claimed that from 2003 to the present, EDMC falsely certified to the U.S. Department of Education and various state offices of higher education that it was complying with the ICB, in order to be eligible to receive the federal grant and loan dollars that compose the majority of EDMC’s revenue.  In reality, according to the United States’ complaint in intervention, EDMC was running a high pressure sales business and paid its recruiters based only on the number of students they enrolled.  As a result of these allegedly false certifications, EDMC improperly enriched itself for more than 10 years with federal and state grant and loan dollars.  More broadly, EDMC’s alleged conduct resulted in exactly the problems that Congress sought to curtail when it enacted the ICB:  the enrollment of students in programs for which they lacked the necessary skills and qualifications, unsustainable student debt and default rates and schools’ pursuit of profits ahead of a legitimate educational mission.

“Improper incentives to admissions recruiters result in harm to students and financial losses to the taxpayers,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.  “This settlement shows that by partnering productively, the federal government and the states’ Attorneys General can put a stop to this type of behavior.”

The global settlement with EDMC also resolves three additional federal FCA lawsuits in which the government did not intervene, all involving various violations of Title IV of the HEA by EDMC.

Finally, the global settlement resolves a consumer fraud investigation by a consortium of 40 state Attorneys General, into EDMC’s deceptive and misleading recruiting practices.  The consumer fraud settlement requires EDMC to undertake various compliance obligations, including detailed disclosure obligations to students; prohibitions on deceptive or misleading recruiting practices and oversight by an administrator to ensure compliance.

“This civil enforcement action holds EDMC accountable for what we allege were unfair and deceptive recruitment and enrollment practices,” said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller.  “EDMC’s practices were unfair to our state’s students, and they were also unfair to our nation’s taxpayers who backed many of these federal student loans that were destined to fail.  This is a rigorous agreement that not only provides some relief to a large number of former students through loan forgiveness, but helps ensure that the company will make substantial changes to its business practices for future students.”

The global settlement amount of $95.5 million reflects EDMC’s financial condition and current ability to pay.  The settlement proceeds will be shared among the United States, the co-plaintiff states and the whistleblowers and their counsel in the four FCA cases, and includes funds allocated for the compliance expenses of the state consumer fraud settlement, including the costs of the administrator and the acquisition and use of a sophisticated voice analytics system to record and analyze recruiters’ calls with students.  The United States will receive $52.62 million from the settlement, and will pay $11.3 million collectively to the relators in the four qui tam cases.

The FCA lawsuits were handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael A. Comber, Christy C. Wiegand, Paul E. Skirtich and Colin J. Callahan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of  the Western District of Pennsylvania, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Sabis of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Tennessee, and Trial Attorney Jay D. Majors of the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of General Counsel and Office of Inspector General.

The cases are captioned United States ex rel. Washington et al. v. Education Management Corp., et al., Civ. No. 07-461 (WDPA);United States ex rel. Sobek v. Education Management Corp., et al., Civ. No. 10-0131 (WDPA); United States ex rel. Laukaitis et al. v. Education Management Corp., et al., Civ. No. 11-601 (WDPA); and United States ex rel. Rainwater v. Education Management Corp., et al., Case No. 3:12-CV-01008 (MDTN).  The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.For-Profit College Company to Pay $95.5 Million to Settle Claims of Illegal Recruiting, Consumer Fraud and Other Violations | U.S. Department of Education:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Data Collection and Your Children: Is Your Kid Just Another Brick in the Wall?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Data Collection and Your Children: Is Your Kid Just Another Brick in the Wall?:

Data Collection and Your Children: Is Your Kid Just Another Brick in the Wall?

Back to one of my major concerns - data collection on children and student data privacy.

There was an important article published last week at The Answer Sheet at the Washington Post by Leonie Haimson and Cheri Kiesecker who are both public ed advocates and in leadership for the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, a national alliance of parents and others, standing up for the rights of parents and their students to protect their data.

Into the fray, via the Times, comes...Rob McKenna?  You remember him, former Washington State Attorney General and failed candidate for governor?  Look where he landed? At the Gates-funded Data Quality Campaign. 

He does not directly address the Haimson/Kiesecker article but his op-ed seems to have been generated from it.  His op-ed is mostly content-free and basically "data good" and "don't worry" (and oddly, he brings Common Core into it.) 

The name of the Post article is "The astonishing amount of data being collected about your children."  From the article:

Remember that ominous threat from your childhood, “This will go down on your permanent record?” Well, your children’s permanent record is a Seattle Schools Community Forum: Data Collection and Your Children: Is Your Kid Just Another Brick in the Wall?:

How to solve the LAUSD puzzle - LA Times

How to solve the LAUSD puzzle - LA Times:

How to solve the LAUSD puzzle

The Los Angeles Unified School District is seeking a new superintendent, who will oversee a system with a $12.6-billion budget, 650,000 students, 90,000 employees and many challenges. Below, education experts, parents, teachers, students and others discuss what the district's priorities should be.

A community of collaboration

The perennial hope, in Los Angeles as elsewhere, is that Superman or Wonder Woman will come in and increase graduation rates, close the achievement gap, guarantee that all graduates are college or career ready — and will do it overnight.

That's not going to happen. What L.A. schools need isn't a miracle but a system built on trust and professionalism — one that treats teachers as professionals, with opportunities to work together as well as support from coaching and mentoring; that encourages networking among educators and collaboration among schools; that makes smart use of data to flag issues such as chronic absenteeism before they get out of hand; that stresses "soft skills" — what report cards used to describe as "works and plays well with others" — and not just literacy and numeracy; a system in which every school is a community school that, in tandem with other city agencies, nonprofits and businesses, delivers health services as well as after-school and summer programs; that forges close ties with early education providers, community colleges and universities; that delivers a seamless, high-quality education from preschool through high school and beyond.

That's a tall order, but it's doable over time.

David L. Kirp is a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley and a senior fellow at the Learning Policy Institute.

Foster parental involvement

My husband and I have three children who attend LAUSD schools. We believe that public education is a team effort, and we try to do our part. But for eight years, LAUSD has met our involvement with unwavering opposition. When a nonprofit we work with offered free on-campus tutoring, one school principal declined to meet with us and a second made the project unfeasible by requiring thousands of dollars in fees. When a parent group raised money to purchase books, host author talks and reward independent reading, school leaders criticized and impeded our efforts.

Arts programs, small class size and technology are expensive. Volunteer services and parent-led programs can help and are free.

I hope our new superintendent will ask families why they are leaving neighborhood schools and what would entice them to stay.

Anna Parks lives in South Los Angeles.

Don't go the charter way

Public education in Los Angeles is at a crossroads. Which option will the new superintendent endorse?

On one side are Eli Broad, Wal-Mart and other unaccountable billionaires. They are funding a plan to dismantle LAUSD by greatly expanding unregulated charter schools at the expense of neighborhood public schools, which would see a dramatic loss of resources. High-needs students would be left behind and parents would have little guarantee of input.

On the other side are educators, parents and students building sustainable community schools that are accessible to all. These institutions have well-rounded curricula including college prep, the arts and ethnic studies, involve parents deeply, rigorously support and develop educators, and offer wrap-around services and restorative justice programs.

Investing in community schools and scaling them up will improve public education.

The choice for the next superintendent should be clear.

Alex Caputo-Pearl is president of UTLA.

Ensure equitable education

The greatest challenge facing LAUSD and our public education system more broadly is the persistent inequity that has plagued our community for generations. We need a superintendent who will address this problem by making absolutely certain that all students receive the same educational opportunities: STEM classes and arts programs; college and career counseling; special education; a safe and supportive environment; and especially the best possible teaching and administrative staff.

The next superintendent must ensure that our best talent goes where it is most needed: to students from underserved communities. This may mean shifting long-standing policies, including how LAUSD funds individual schools and which campuses receive the most money. It also means allowing high-performing charter schools that are turning around low-performing schools to continue with their important work.

Marco Petruzzi is the national chief executive of Green Dot Public Schools, which runs charter schools in California, Tennessee and Washington.

Upgrade the infrastructure

It's not just curricula and testing regimens that need upgrading, it's the infrastructure. All our classrooms and auditoriums should be safe, structurally sound, temperate and well lighted. At the moment, they're not.

In the middle of our fifth-grade musical production in May, the lights in the school auditorium went out. The plant manager couldn't figure out how to turn them back on. We performed the rest of the show in semi-darkness. The next day an electrician said there was no permanent fix because, "The system is 50 years old, and the needed part isn't made any more." He told me that nearly all the schools on the Westside have antiquated electrical grids, and they continue to function only because of the ingenuity of the electricians. That aging grid is hardly the only sign of decrepitude on our campus. We also have leaky roofs, sketchy plumbing, malfunctioning air-conditioners and "temporary" portable classrooms still in use a decade after they were supposed to be replaced.

Jeff Lantos teaches at Marquez Charter Elementary School in Pacific Palisades.

Build strong relationships

The secret to successful schools is strong relationships up and down the hierarchy — between the superintendent and the administrators, between principals and teachers. When I was a new teacher at Coldwater Canyon Elementary School, I worked for a principal named Marvin Silver. He took the time to get to know each of us, to learn what was important to us, if we had families, if we were having an off day. He made each of us feel that we mattered. Is it surprising that our students prospered and their test scores increased?

Mary Melvin is principal of Porter Ranch Community School

Empower the teachers

I hope that the next superintendent will rethink and reinvent the relationship between teachers and the district. I know many effective educators who feel completely powerless and unappreciated. Outside of our schools we are rarely acknowledged for significant accomplishments, asked for our opinions about district policies or invited to authentically participate in the next stages of education reform.

One step in the right direction would be to regularly survey teachers and publish the results for the public to see. These surveys could help gauge morale at individual schools and the impact of district policies on the classroom. Other worthwhile steps: Creating avenues to help teachers voice their opinions, and ensuring mutual accountability between district level initiatives and teachers.

The new superintendent should also explore creating hybrid roles for highly effective teachers, who would spend part of the day in the classroom and part of it working on policy, curriculum or administrative tasks. Similarly, rather than hire outside consultants to conduct professional development, the district should leverage the talent we have and pay effective teachers to lead these workshops.

By showing teachers that our skills are truly valued, we'll keep more of them in the classroom where they have the greatest impact on student achievement.

Daniel Jocz teaches at the Downtown Magnets High School. He is a 2016 California Teacher of the Year and a nominee for National Teacher of the Year.

Include music and visual arts

My elementary school put together concerts that showcased what we'd been learning in dance and music class. My middle school had poetry slams and film classes. My arts high school has curricula that focuses on dance, music, theater and visual arts. But not everyone's so lucky. I know that students at other schools don't have access to these classes, and that's patently unfair. Every L.A. school should offer instruction in music and the visual arts.

Maya Abee is a senior at Ramon Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts.

Assist the underprivileged

The new superintendent must be someone who not only believes in setting high expectations for all students, but also be someone who is willing to make the investment to support underprivileged students.

My experience is telling. I attended K through 12th grade in L.A. Unified schools in East L.A., an underserved community. I trusted my teachers and advisors to offer the appropriate academic guidance. When I started applying to colleges, however, I realized my district had failed me: My A-G requirements — the sequence of high school courses that students must complete to be eligible for admission to the University of California and California State University — were incomplete.

A new A-G policy goes into full effect in 2017, lowering the passing grade in required classes from "C" to "D." Though the district sees this as a solution for increasing graduation rates, the reality is that it lowers standards and sets students up for failure.

Students will not put as much effort into school if all it takes to graduate is a "D," and universities will not accept such low grades. This will result in even more students of color like me not being able to enroll in a four-year college.

Erika Perez is a senior at UC Riverside and a member of Students For Education Reform

Focus beyond academic needs

The proposal by the Broad Foundation to significantly increase the number of charter schools in Los Angeles has generated a highly polarized debate. Supporters present charter schools as a panacea that will "save" public education; opponents claim such expansion will destroy it.

The next superintendent can't afford to see the issue in such stark terms. He or she should learn from the small number of successful public schools — charter and traditional — that serve poor children. All of them have one thing in common: They are organized to meet student needs.

This sounds simple but it is actually quite complex. In poor neighborhoods, you can't focus on the academic needs of a child and ignore their social needs. You must also find ways to reduce their isolation and provide social services.

Pedro A. Noguera is a professor of education at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Services.

Hire superintendent from within

The next superintendent should be hired from within. Parents are tired of the political-office seekers and overpaid out-of-town administrators who don't know the challenges of this vast district as intimately as those who have worked their way up the ranks from educator to administrator. We need a staunch supporter of public education and not someone who would hand over our public schools to the privatization whims of local billionaires and the graduates of administrative "universities" run by these billionaires, while local media and politicians look the other way.

Debbie Lopez lives in Northridge and her two children attended LAUSD schools.

Next leader should emphasize partnership

The first order of business for the new superintendent is to restore confidence in the district. This will require highly publicized meetings with all stakeholders: parents, teachers and civic leaders in all zones of the district. The most important message the superintendent has to consistently emphasize is that education is a partnership.

We need a standing committee made up of representatives from each zone to chart the district's progress. This committee should issue monthly report cards to the media in the same way that teachers issue report cards about their students. By making all parties partners in the decision-making, everyone will have a stake in creating a better school system.

Walt Gardner, who writes the Reality Check blog for Education Week, taught for 28 years in LAUSD.

Make it easy to follow the money

What the school district needs is financial transparency. All funding coming into the district and to the individual schools and expenditures should be transparent. By making this information available online, the public and students can offer their input on crucial decisions.

Jake Levey, Josh Berman and Freddy Cushnir are 10th-graders at Hamilton High School.

How to solve the LAUSD puzzle - LA Times: