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Thursday, March 8, 2012

LAUSD BOARD PROPOSED CHANGES TO TEACHER DISMISSAL PROCEEDINGS A COMPLETE SHAM - Perdaily.com

LAUSD BOARD PROPOSED CHANGES TO TEACHER DISMISSAL PROCEEDINGS A COMPLETE SHAM - Perdaily.com:


LAUSD BOARD PROPOSED CHANGES TO TEACHER DISMISSAL PROCEEDINGS A COMPLETE SHAM

Case dismissed with prejudice.jpg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)

The proposed changes to the teachers' dismissal process in light of the Miramonte and other child abuse scandals that have recently rocked LAUSD are based on patent falsities. The reality is that the present legal structure for teacher dismissal proceedings would have been more than adequate, if LAUSD administration had not been completely derelict in its duty. Sadly, reporters like KPCC's Tami Abdollah who covered this story only parrot the false statements feed to her, while exercising no independent journalistic investigation that even a cursory examination of the facts would have shown to be untrue. Regrettably, this seems to have become standard operating procedure in virtually all mainstream media.


The real reason LAUSD is seeking to streamline the teacher dismissal process has more to do with getting rid of expensive teachers at the top of the salary scale, teachers about to vest in lifetime health benefits under the Rule of 80, or simply to get rid of teachers like myself who had the temerity to question overt and longstanding administrative fraud by LAUSD administration in assessments, attendance, promotion of students, and graduation, where no honest standards have been maintained by LAUSD administration for years. Next stop: privatized public education.
 


FALSE OR MISLEADING STATEMENTS USED TO JUSTIFY CHANGING TEACHER DISMISSAL PROCESS


The resolution states, "The Education Code needs to be updated and clarified as it currently includes outdated and irrelevant language regarding grounds for termination such as 

Jack Latvala’s Attempt to Save Parent Trigger Discredits the Spin by Levesque, Parent Revolution | Scathing Purple Musings

Jack Latvala’s Attempt to Save Parent Trigger Discredits the Spin by Levesque, Parent Revolution | Scathing Purple Musings:


Jack Latvala’s Attempt to Save Parent Trigger Discredits the Spin by Levesque, Parent Revolution

From Mary Ellen Klas in the Miami Herald:
With a close vote expected Thursday on the proposal to allow parents at chronically low-performing schools to close the school or convert it to a charter school, a key senator is drafting a compromise that would phase in the so-called “parent trigger” on a pilot basis.
 The proposal, being drafted by Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, would allow parents to demand a turn-around plan if their school is deemed an F-school for the second year in a row. The proposal, which has not yet been filed, could potentially apply only to the 21 current public schools 

Saturday Parent Institutes | Seattle Education

Saturday Parent Institutes | Seattle Education:


Saturday Parent Institutes

Saturday Parent Institutes
The Finding Your Voice Parent Institute is a free one-day parent preparation program that teaches parents and family members to better understand the public school system and partner with public schools focusing on student achievement.
The institute offers interactive classes that provide critical information and skills that parents of students in public schools should have in order to support their students and their schools.  Topics include:
How the public school system works.
How to better communicate with schools.
How to prepare your student for college.
How to become an education advocate.
No registration fee and lunch is provided free of charge.
Seattle/Tacoma
Saturday, March 17, 2012
9 a.m.to 2:30 pm
New Holly Gathering Center
7054 32nd Ave S
Seattle, WA 98118
REGISTER NOW
For questions call 1-866-297-3251 or visit ParentPrep.org
This program is provided by the Office of the Education Ombudsman, an awesome state program that receives very little funding but does a lot of great work.
If you know of a family who might benefit from this program, please let them know about it.
Dora

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Keeping an eye on the power philanthropists

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Keeping an eye on the power philanthropists:


Keeping an eye on the power philanthropists

The Walton Family Foundation "invested" about $160 million last year in  so-called Education Reform Grants. That's an increase of about $2 million from a year ago.  The foundation is one of the three biggest and most powerful ed philanthropies, along side the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the one most focused on promoting vouchers and charter schools.

According to WaPo's Valerie Strauss, the foundation gave $49.5 million to Teach for America over five years to double its teaching corps and $25.5 million over the same period to the KIPP charter school network to double the number of students it educates. 

 "The foundation’s strategy is clear from the grants," writes Strauss. "It is funding organizations that it thinks can 

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top 3-8 AM Posts #soschat #edreform


Ed Reform in Louisiana. Coming Soon to Your State? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Ed Reform in Louisiana. Coming Soon to Your State? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher: Ed Reform in Louisiana. Coming Soon to Your State?byNancy FlanaganWhat has happened down here is the winds have changedThe river rose all day; the river rose all night.Some people got lost in the flood. Some people got away all right.Louisiana 1927, Randy NewmanDiane Ravitch's brilliant, must-read blog,Bobby Jindal vs. Public Education, caused me to pull out an e-mail I got from ... more »

How Parent Revolution’s Adelanto Saga Shows Parent Trigger is Wrong for Florida | Scathing Purple Musings

How Parent Revolution’s Adelanto Saga Shows Parent Trigger is Wrong for Florida | Scathing Purple Musings: How Parent Revolution’s Adelanto Saga Shows Parent Trigger is Wrong for FloridabyBob SikesWashington PostreporterLyndseyLayton and a photographer made the trip to Adelanto, California for a first hand look at thehotly contested parent trigger petition battle going on there. Layton’s reporting reveals details of therealities that exist at Desert Trails Elementary and the astonishing lengths that charter school advocacy group Parent Revolution go to achieve ... more »

Video Shows Law Student Obama Introducing Professor Derrick Bell at 1990 Campus Rally « Student Activism

Video Shows Law Student Obama Introducing Professor Derrick Bell at 1990 Campus Rally « Student Activism: 'Video Shows Law Student Obama Introducing Professor Derrick Bell at 1990 Campus RallybyAngus JohnstonVideo has surfaced from a speech President Obama gave at a campus rally in 1990, the first of a series of videos that conservative activist Andrew Breitbart claimed would reveal the president’s true radicalism to the American people.Only a little over a minute of the speech has appeared so far, but ... more »

Jersey Jazzman: Update: Happy "Where's Cerf's Charter Report?" Day!

Jersey Jazzman: Update: Happy "Where's Cerf's Charter Report?" Day!: Update: Happy "Where's Cerf's Charter Report?" Day!byDukeProfessor Bakerrightly chides me for not being clear in my message about"Where's Cerf's Charter Report?" Day.@jerseyjazzmanI beg of you. Please don't push for an analysis to be done that can't be done well with current data. You know what we'll getIt's a good point, and I need to be clear about this: another b.s. report from the NJ DOE about the wonders of charters is ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Early Afternoon Posts 3-7 #SOSchat #p2 #edreform

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Mid Day Posts 3-7 #edreform #soschatBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-14 minutes agoDirectory Scholarships, Internships, Programs for Latino Students - Hispanically Speaking NewsBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-10 minutes agoDirectory Scholarships, Internships, Programs for Latino Students - Hispanically Speaking News:Check Out: Directory of Scholarships, Internships and Programs for Latino StudentsMarch 6, 2012 | by HS News StaffPhoto Credits: CHCI Scholarships ResourceCheck Out “Directory of Scholarships, Internships ... more »

NYC Public School Parents: NYC parents boycotting the state tests ask other parents to join them

NYC Public School Parents: NYC parents boycotting the state tests ask other parents to join them:NYC parents boycotting the state tests ask other parents to join themby Leonie HaimsonAnne StoneStandardized testing has become an obsession for those in charge our our schools at DOE; as they increasingly base nearly all important decisions on the unreliable results of these exams. The new NY state teacher evaluation system will just make matters worse. To add insult to injury, this year'sstate tests will ... more »

Bang for the buck? « Fred Klonsky

Bang for the buck? « Fred Klonsky:Bang for the buck?by Fred KlonskyA year ago I was standing in front of the IEA state offices on Edwards Street in Springfield talking to IEA President Cinda Klickna.“It’s not like it was in the old days,” Klickna said. “Back then we could walk across the street to the legislative offices and tell them what we wanted. And for the most part, we got it. What’s different now is that we don’t have

Data Analysis of Value Added Teacher Model Shows No Correlation | FDL News Desk

Data Analysis of Value Added Teacher Model Shows No Correlation | FDL News Desk:Data Analysis of Value Added Teacher Ratings Shows They’re Uselessby David DayenWould you use this data to rate a teacher’s performance?The New York Times released “value-added” data for 18,000 elementary school teachers in New York City recently, joining the Los Angeles Times, which released data for LA teachers last year. But unlike in LA, the New York Times allowed the data itself to be released, allowing analysts ... more »

What Works — Whole Child Education

What Works — Whole Child Education:Making Learning Relevant for the Whole ChildASCD Whole Child Bloggers at Whole Child Education » The Whole Child Blog - 16 minutes ago21st century skills development can offer new platforms for students to explore through project-based learning, to integrate the use of real world information, and apply newly acquired knowledge and skills to address the most pressing problems of our time; the very challenges our young people are already engaged in and will need to ... more »

Firing of D.C. teacher reveals flaws in value-added evaluation - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Firing of D.C. teacher reveals flaws in value-added evaluation - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:Firing of D.C. teacher reveals flaws in value-added evaluationby Valerie StraussThe firing of a D.C. teacher called “creative,” “visionary” and “motivating” is the latest example of the many things wrong with value-added methods to evaluate teachers, the newest trend in school reform that is sweeping states with a push from the Obama administration.Read full article

Shanker Blog » The ‘Snob’ Debate: Making High School Matter For Non-College-Bound Students

Shanker Blog » The ‘Snob’ Debate: Making High School Matter For Non-College-Bound Students:The ‘Snob’ Debate: Making High School Matter For Non-College-Bound Studentsby James R. StoneOur guest author today is James R. Stone, professor and director of the National Research Center for Career Technical Education at the University of Louisville.The current debate about “college for all” centers on a recent speech made by President Obama in Troy, MI, in which he argued that all young people should get at least some ... more »

PURE » Theater of the Oppressed: Play about Chicago parent advocates

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Theater of the Oppressed: Play about Chicago parent advocates:Theater of the Oppressed: Play about Chicago parent advocatesby adminInvitation from our friend, Tania Giordani:Event: Theatre of the Oppressed on Thursday March 8th at Francis W.Parker School, 330 W. Webster Ave., Chicago. The play,” The End Game at Jansen School” is based on the lives of parent advocates in Chicago. Discussion will follow.Please share this with others who may be interested.As you may ...more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: Inner City School Failures - Is It A Case Of Too Many Carrots?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Inner City School Failures - Is It A Case Of Too Many Carrots?:Inner City School Failures - Is It A Case Of Too Many Carrots?by AnngieST LOUIS - The Turner v. Clayton and King-Willmann v. Webster Groves cases continue to wind their way through the court system. It is expected that the Turner case will wind up today in St Louis County Courts. The question the court is addressing is whether or not surrounding districts must allow ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Mid Day Posts 3-7 #edreform #soschat

Directory Scholarships, Internships, Programs for Latino Students - Hispanically Speaking NewsBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-10 minutes agoDirectory Scholarships, Internships, Programs for Latino Students - Hispanically Speaking News:Check Out: Directory of Scholarships, Internships and Programs for Latino StudentsMarch 6, 2012 | by HS News StaffPhoto Credits: CHCI Scholarships ResourceCheck Out “Directory of Scholarships, Internships and Programs for Latino Students”. This directory was prepared by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute with the support of State ... more »

Are College Students a Privileged Elite? « Student Activism

Are College Students a Privileged Elite? « Student Activism:Are College Students a Privileged Elite?by Angus JohnstonA little while ago I linked to a piece by Malcolm Harris on what he calls the “generational war” being waged against American youth. Harris’s argument has been criticized from the left by a blogger named Freddie DeBoer who writes that he’s “using the language of revolution to justify what is, at its essence, a dispute among the ruling class,” making “a case that is ...more »

AERA Erasing Line Between Scholarship and Partisanship :: Frederick M. Hess

AERA Erasing Line Between Scholarship and Partisanship :: Frederick M. Hess:AERA Erasing Line Between Scholarship and Partisanshipby Frederick M. Hess • Mar 7, 2012 at 10:03 amCross-posted from Education Week Print Send RSS ShareThe American Educational Research Association (of which I am a member) modestly labels itself "the nation's leading scientific and scholarly association...devoted to advancing knowledge about education." Readers may assume that AERA does its best to avoid gratuitous partisan political fights.Ha!! Hah-hah! Silly readers. Indeed, it often seems ... more »

Teachers, Parents, and the Economy….Important Results from the Metlife Survey of the American Teacher | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Teachers, Parents, and the Economy….Important Results from the Metlife Survey of the American Teacher | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:Teachers, Parents, and the Economy….Important Results from the Metlife Survey of the American Teacherby Cheryl S. WilliamsIn this year’s Metlife Survey of the American Teacher there’s good news and there’s bad news.In the good news column, parent engagement has increased in the past 25 years, though it still remains a challenge for many schools. The bad news exposed ...more »

Modern School: Teen Harassed by School for Comparing Schools to Slavery

Modern School: Teen Harassed by School for Comparing Schools to Slavery:Teen Harassed by School for Comparing Schools to Slaveryby Michael DunnIn a scathing indictment of public education, Jada Williams, a 13-year old eighth grader at School #3 in Rochester, New York, asserted that today's education system, like slavery, keeps children of color from meaningful learning. According to Good Education, Williams essayreferred to a quote by Frederick Douglass, who said that his slave master, Mr. Auld, told his wife, "If you ... more »

PPB: Value-added, value subtracted. Children are not strawberries.

PPB: Value-added, value subtracted. Children are not strawberries.:Value-added, value subtracted. Children are not strawberries.by Anne GeigerPart 1--Before I finish another post I'm struggling with, I wanted to share this article by Bill Turque of the Washington Post- 'Creative and motivating".....and fired! It's a personal story of a teacher, Sarah Wysocki, who had been positively reviewed by her principal but later fired under D.C.'s new teacher evaluation system.Wysocki, 31, was let go because the reading and math scores of her students ... more »

Is Occupy Wall Street a Youth Movement? « Student Activism

Is Occupy Wall Street a Youth Movement? « Student Activism:Is Occupy Wall Street a Youth Movement?by Angus JohnstonOver at The New Inquiry, Malcolm Harris is taking a look at the dismal circumstances today’s young people find themselves in. Youth unemployment is at record levels. Youth arrest rates are skyrocketing even as youth crime plummets. College tuition is going through the roof, as is youth debt, and household incomes of youth-headed families are lagging far behind those of other age cohorts.It’s ... more »