Parents want ‘voices counted’ in search for LAUSD superintendent – Daily News

Valley parents want ‘voices counted’ in search for LAUSD superintendent – Daily News:

Valley parents want ‘voices counted’ in search for LAUSD superintendent

A group of San Fernando Valley parents decried the Los Angeles Unified School District’s search process for the next superintendent and claimed the school board is not being transparent and not seeking input from parents and students.

The school board has not held public input sessions as it did during the last superintendent search and has met in closed session to discuss who will lead the nation’s second-largest school district.

“The student voice and the parent voice must be part of that decision-making process,” said Joe Macias, of Reseda, a parent of two LA Unified students.

Macias and a handful of other parents spoke before the school board went into closed session last week to interview candidates.

LAUSD interim superintendent Vivian Ekchian is reportedly among the candidates for the permanent position heading the school district. She is seen above in July 2015 at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in the Lake Balboa area. (File photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News)

It appeared as though the board would make a decision last week, but on Friday the board announced it would recess until May 1 without reporting a decision had been made.

RELATED STORY: LAUSD board unable to pick new superintendent

Superintendent Michelle King revealed in January that she had cancer and said she would retire at the end of the year. King was named superintendent in 2016. Vivian Ekchian has been serving as interim superintendent since September when King went on medical leave. The interviews with the candidates began this month.

“It felt rushed, it felt not transparent and, in a way, it felt disingenuous because they’re talking about parent engagement, but not when it comes to these big decisions like selecting a superintendent,” said Evelyn Aleman, Macias’ wife, who also spoke at last week’s board meeting.

RELATED STORY: LAUSD Superintendent Michelle King, currently on medical leave, to retire

Two years ago, when King was selected superintendent, the board held numerous community forums and a search firm conducted a survey seeking input about what qualities the community wanted to see in the next superintendent. This time around, the board has not gone through the same process. Some have indicated the board could draw on the feedback it received two years ago.

Former Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso is reportedly among the finalists for the job of superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. (Courtesy photo)

But many parents expressed frustration that they read the names of the finalists in the Los Angeles Times. The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported last week that the finalists are Ekchian, former investment banker and former Times publisher Austin Beutner, and former Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso. Indianapolis public schools superintendent, Lewis Ferebee, announced last week he withdrew his name as a finalist.

“I don’t want the outcome to be that students and parents feel that their voice is not valued by the district. I want parents and students to feel that their participation and their engagement in the democratic process is critical to the success of their schools and the broader district.”

— Donald Cohen, executive director of In the Public Interest

Macias said he wished the district would have announced the finalists and that parents and students would be given the opportunity to interview the candidates and review their track record.

“Every one of these candidates has a vision for LAUSD, I just don’t know what that is,” he said.

Former LA Times publisher Austin Beutner is reportedly among the candidates for the position of superintendent at the Los Angeles Unified School District. (File photo)

John Rogers, a professor of education at UCLA, said other districts have released the names of  continue reading: Valley parents want ‘voices counted’ in search for LAUSD superintendent – Daily News:

Diane Ravitch: What The Teachers Are Asking For | HuffPost #RedForEd

What The Teachers Are Asking For | HuffPost:

What The Teachers Are Asking For

A stunning image of just how many teachers are marching to the Arizona State Capitol. 

The teacher walkouts began in West Virginia, where public school employees were woefully underpaid and faced spiraling health care costs. They stayed out for nine days and won a 5 percent salary increase. Oklahoma teachers soon followed suit, seeking a raise and increased education funding for their schools and students. They too won concessions. Then came Kentucky teachers, angry because the state planned to restructure their pensions for the worse. Starting Thursday, public school teachers in Arizona will walk out. On Friday several districts in Colorado will be closed.

What is happening? Almost all these states are red states, controlled by Republicans. Almost all are right-to-work states, with weak unions. Yet in these states, teachers have said enough is enough. Typically, it has not been their unions that spurred the walkouts. Time and again, the uprisings were from the grass roots, beginning with a page on social media calling other teachers to get together and protest working conditions.

As educators often say, teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions. It is not merely low pay that is sending the teachers into the streets: It is also large class sizes, obsolete textbooks, crumbling buildings and the fact that many teachers — already underpaid — are shelling out $1,000 or more each year to pay for classroom supplies that their schools no longer provide.

In short, teachers are calling on their legislatures to fund their schools and their students adequately.

For years, the red states have been working from a common playbook: low taxes for corporations and budget cuts for schools, universities and other public services.

The result? Many teachers have to work two or three jobs — sometimes even more ― to feed their families, pay their mortgages and make their car payments. Some move in with continue reading: What The Teachers Are Asking For | HuffPost:

School Climate and Safety. Civil Rights Data Collection | U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Releases 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection | U.S. Department of Education:

School Climate and Safety. Civil Rights Data Collection

Washington — The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today released the 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). This data, which is self-reported by 17,300 public school districts and 96,400 public schools and educational programs, is collected and published biennially by OCR.

Since 1968, the federal government has collected civil rights data about schools. For the first time, the 2015-16 CRDC report includes comprehensive data regarding incidents of criminal offenses in our nation's public schools. It also includes several new categories of data on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) course taking.

"Protecting all students' civil rights is at the core of the Department's mission," said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. "We are pleased to produce the CRDC in a way that it can be reviewed, analyzed and utilized by local, state and federal education leaders. I want to commend the many educators, school leaders and OCR staff who put in countless hours to produce this data and who work tirelessly to ensure all students are able to learn in a safe and nurturing environment free from discrimination."

The Department used CRDC data to produce topic-specific data briefs on two major topics: STEM Course Taking and School Climate and Safety.

The full CRDC data set is available at: https://www2.ed.gov/ocr/docs/crdc-2015-16.html

 U.S. Department of Education Releases 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection | U.S. Department of Education:

School attendance: A building block of student achievement

School attendance: A building block of student achievement:

School attendance: A building block of student achievement

Although most schools have daily attendance rates of well over 90 percent, according to the newly released U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC),  about 8 million students in the United States missed more than three weeks of school during the 2015–16 school year (CRDC 2015–16). This represents an increase over the 6.8 million students who missed more than three weeks of school during the 2013–14 school year. These students were chronically absent.

The building block that must be in place to meet student achievement and high school graduation goals is attendance. Physically being present in school is one of the most basic conditions for a student’s success – if students are not in school, they are not learning what is being taught and could be falling behind in earning the course credits needed to graduate.

In a new video, I use building blocks to illustrate the ways in which poor attendance impacts both chronically absent students and their classmates with better attendance.

What should schools focus on to improve student outcomes?

As background, in the past two decades of school accountability, policies have directed schools to improve on key indicators of student success. No Child Left Behind (NCLB; 2002) required schools to improve student achievement on reading and math as well as increase high school graduation rates. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; 2015) changed the national structure of NCLB by empowering states to design and implement their own accountability systems. In addition to test-based academic metrics, and, for high schools, graduation rates, ESSA requires states to hold schools accountable for at least one measure of “school quality or student success (SQSS).”

In a 2016 Hamilton Project strategy paper, we recommended that states choose to hold schools accountable for reducing rates of chronic absenteeism as a state’s SQSS metric under ESSA. Since then, 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have chosen to hold schools accountable for reducing rates of chronic absenteeism through their state-led accountability plans.School attendance: A building block of student achievement:

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Reducing chronic absenteeism under the Every Student Succeeds Act

Lauren Bauer, Patrick Liu, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, and Jay Shambaugh

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

 School attendance: A building block of student achievement:

Teacher strikes poll: most Republicans and Democrats agree that American teachers need a raise - Vox

Teacher strikes poll: most Republicans and Democrats agree that American teachers need a raise - Vox:

Most Republicans and Democrats agree that American teachers need a raise

And a majority of Americans are even willing to pay more taxes for it.

Teachers across the United States who are protesting years of school funding cuts have the American public on their side.

Most Americans agree that teachers are underpaid, and slightly more than half of adults support striking as a strategy to change that, according to a new AP-NORC poll. Half of Americans also said they are willing to pay more taxes to fund schools and pay teachers more.

Support for raising teachers’ salaries cuts across party lines. Nearly 90 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of independents, and 66 percent of Republicans think teachers don’t get paid enough.

The survey of 1,140 adults, conducted April 11 through 16, gauged public opinion on the wave of teachers strikes sweeping through the nation. Teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Kentucky all walked out of class in recent months to pressure state lawmakers to spend more money on schools or teachers (or both). Their success has inspired teachers in Arizona and Colorado to prepare their own work stoppage.

The AP-NORC poll shows that these teachers have a lot of support, though not everyone agrees with their strategy. About 78 percent of adults surveyed said schools don’t pay teachers enough, and 52 percent said they support educators who are going on strike to demand higher salaries. (25 percent disapprove of strikes.) Adults who knew about the recent teacher walkouts were more likely to support the idea of teachers striking — 80 percent of them did.

On Thursday, a majority of teachers Arizona plan to go on strike, despite Gov. Doug Ducey’s promise to give them a 20 percent pay raise to avert a shutdown. The teachers group, Arizona Educators United, said they want to see a bill passed, and that it should include more school funding and raises for all school staff.

Teachers in Arizona are among the lowest-paid in the country, and lawmakers have cut education spending per student more than any other state since 2008 — by 36.5 percent. Meanwhile, state lawmakers have been on a tax-cutting spree, slashing taxes on a host of businesses in 2016, from insurance companies to charter plane operators. Last year, Ducey signed a bill with more tax breaks for businesses as well as a 1 percent raise for teachers.

In the AP-NORC poll, half of respondents said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to improve education funding. The view was equally shared by parents and adults without Teacher strikes poll: most Republicans and Democrats agree that American teachers need a raise - Vox:

 

Charter schools boom in California. Here's where they grew | The Sacramento Bee

Charter schools boom in California. Here's where they grew | The Sacramento Bee:

Charter schools are booming in California. Here’s where they are growing fastest

California’s charter school enrollment continues to skyrocket, growing by more than 25,000 students during each of the past 10 years.

Almost 630,000 students attended California public charter schools at the start of this school year — about one in every 10 students, according to new data from the California Department of Education. California charter school enrollment has increased 150 percent in the last 10 years.

Charter schools operate independently from public school districts. Proponents of charter schools say this freedom benefits teachers and students by encouraging innovation. Opponents say they take away funds from traditional public schools, increasing educational disparities.

The fight between charter schools and traditional schools is a major issue in California politics. Charter school proponents, for instance, are pouring millions into the gubernatorial campaign of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

During the past five years, charter school enrollment grew by at least 30 percent in 26 California counties. Among urban counties, growth was fastest in Contra Costa, San Francisco and Los Angeles counties.

Charter school enrollment grew by 34 percent in Sacramento County. Enrollment in Placer and Yolo counties grew by about 27 percent. El Dorado County’s charter school enrollment declined because a statewide charter, Aspire, moved the charter for six schools from there to other counties.

Charter schools boom in California. Here's where they grew | The Sacramento Bee:

More than one in 10 public school students attends a charter school in 24 California counties. Sonoma, San Diego and Los Angeles have the greatest proportion of charter school students among urban counties.

About 13 percent of public school students in Sacramento County attend charter schools. In neighboring Placer County, that number is 14 percent.

Charter schools boom in California. Here's where they grew | The Sacramento Bee:

Phillip Reese is The Bee’s data specialist and teaches at Sacramento State: 916-321-1137.

Charter schools boom in California. Here's where they grew | The Sacramento Bee:

Betsy DeVos Is Making It Easier for Schools to Send Black Kids—Like This 13-Year-Old Girl—to Jail – Mother Jones

Betsy DeVos Is Making It Easier for Schools to Send Black Kids—Like This 13-Year-Old Girl—to Jail – Mother Jones:

Betsy DeVos Is Making It Easier for Schools to Send Black Kids—Like This 13-Year-Old Girl—to Jail

“They want to give this harsh punishment for something that we could’ve easily resolved at the schoolhouse.”

Beside a highway in Bryan, Texas, tucked between a motorcycle bar and the county jail, stands a low-slung, sprawling complex with tinted windows, sandstone walls, and barbed wire lining parts of its roof. A roadside sign identifies it as the Brazos County Juvenile Justice Center.

One Friday afternoon last October, after an incident at nearby Arthur L. Davila Middle School, a police officer arrested 13-year-old Trah’Vaeziah Jackson and brought her to the juvenile detention facility. She cried as employees patted her down, cut off her hair extensions, and took her photo and fingerprints. She was served dinner—chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, and an apple in a styrofoam box with a carton of milk—but had no appetite.

In the shower room, guards applied thick anti-lice shampoo to Trah’Vaeziah’s hair. As she washed and combed it, clumps fell out. Afterwards, she reluctantly changed from her school clothes, a T-shirt and jeans, into the detention uniform, an orange shirt with matching shorts. Then she was locked in her cell, which contained a sink, a toilet, and, instead of a bed, a stuffed blue mat atop a brick base. High on the wall was a sliver of a window, but she wasn’t tall enough to see outside.

Only after 8pm was she permitted a phone call. She called her mother, and sobbed into the receiver. How could this accident have turned into a jail sentence?

Three decades ago, schools across the country began bolstering discipline to deter juvenile crime. Zero-tolerance policies were introduced, school law enforcement budgets swelled and suspensions, expulsions, and student arrests multiplied.

These punishments, though, are applied unequally. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of students of color, like Trah’Vaeziah, bear the brunt. Black students are almost four times as likely to receive an out-of-school suspension and twice as likelyto be arrested as their white peers, according to federal data. The pattern starts early: Even black preschool students are more than three times as likely as their white peers to be suspended from school.

Harsh discipline can backfire, especially when meted out arbitrarily. It may reinforce bad behavior, or encourage students to drop out, creating what sociologists call the “school-to-prison-pipeline.” A suspension increases the Continue reading: Betsy DeVos Is Making It Easier for Schools to Send Black Kids—Like This 13-Year-Old Girl—to Jail – Mother Jones:

Whistleblower: ECOT used software to get more state money

Whistleblower: ECOT used software to get more state money:

Whistleblower: ECOT used software to get more state money

COLUMBUS: Education regulators are reviewing a whistleblower’s claim that Ohio’s then-largest online charter school intentionally inflated attendance figures tied to its state funding using software it purchased after previous allegations of attendance inflation, the Associated Press has learned.

A former technology employee of the now-shuttered Electronic Classroom for Tomorrow said he told the Ohio Department of Education last year that school officials ordered staff to manipulate student data with software obtained following the state’s demand that it return $60 million in overpayments for the 2015-2016 school year.

The employee spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions for speaking out. His concerns were first raised in an Aug. 3 email to the state a month before it released its 2017 attendance review of ECOT.

The state challenged ECOT over how it claimed student time using the new software, called ActivTrak, after finding that it duplicated learning hours, according to Education Department spokeswoman Brittany Halpin.

Neil Clark, ECOT’s lobbyist and spokesman throughout last year’s review, dismissed the whistleblower’s allegations.

“I think most of this is made-up, ridiculous attempts to abuse a corpse,” he said. Clark said he no longer works for the school that abruptly closed in January.

Marion Little, the school’s attorney, said Monday that he was unaware of the man’s claims or that the Education Department had interviewed him. Messages were left with other school leaders seeking comment.

The whistleblower email and other department records, obtained by the AP through a public records request, show state officials waited until December to meet with the man about his concerns with the ActivTrak software.

Halpin said, “We appreciated hearing from this individual and will be taking into consideration the information for ECOT’s [next attendance] review.” That review will take place this summer.

In an interview, the whistleblower said that before he left the school last July he was in meetings where officials ordered staff to manipulate student data to reach desired outcomes.

“They would put a model in place, they would look at what it produced, then continue reading: Whistleblower: ECOT used software to get more state money: