3-15-14 This Week in LA - School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):

Stanford report shows advantages for LAUSD charter students

In it’s first analysis of LA Unified schools, Stanford University found that the typical student in a charter school made greater academic gains than a counterpart in a traditional school. “Charter School Performance in Los Angeles,” a report from Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), found that a student in an urban LA charter gains 50 more days of learning in reading and

15min 

Schwarzenegger benefits LA after school programs with tank ride (VIDEO)

Hollywood star and former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just launched the coolest campaign ever to benefit after-school programs in LAUSD and in other cities. The campaign comes in the form of a contest. For as little as $10 a ticket, you can win a ride with Schwarzenegger in his M47 Patton Tank. How awesome is that? The money raised from the contest will go to After School All-Stars – a program

2 by Aaron Stella / 16h 

Teachers refute ‘ineffective’ charges by Vergara witnesses

Dawna Watty The defense in Vergara vs. California today put more distance between student-plaintiffs who described their teachers as ineffective and the teachers, by calling them to the stand to defend their effectiveness. Both teachers, Dawna Watty and Anthony Mize, directly challenged the assertions of their former students — Brandon DeBose and Elizabeth Vegara, whose sister Beatriz is the lead

6 by Mark Harris / 17h 

McKenna wins endorsement of LA principals’ union

George McKenna George McKenna, one of the seven candidates running for LA Unified’s open District 1 board seat, picked up a strong endorsement today as the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, the union representing principals and their assistants, said it would support him in the race. The endorsement means that AALA will contribute $1,100, the maximum allowed, to his campaign. “George McKen

2 19h 

Deasy says principal who ok’d campaign leave was disciplined

Superintendent John Deasy LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy said a principal who gave Alex Caputo-Pearl permission to take unpaid time off to campaign for president of the teachers union, UTLA, has been disciplined. The action came in response to accusations that the leave, a violation of district’s contract with UTLA, provided Caputo-Pearl an unfair advantage over other candidates by allowing

2 by Michael Janofsky / 22h 

Morning Read: CA suspends statewide tests until 2016

State decides no API for schools until 2016 Faced with a complete sea change of its K-12 education system and having been relieved of its duty to meet some federal accountability requirements, the State Board of Education on Thursday temporarily suspended its school performance measurement tool known as the API. As a result of this decision, no Academic Performance Index scores – used to indicate

1 22h 

MAR 13

ULTA super PAC holds off on LAUSD school board endorsement

In an unusual move, PACE, the political arm of the second-largest teachers union in the country, is sitting on the sidelines for the moment, after voting last night to “recommend no endorsement” in the upcoming LA Unified school board race to fill the vacant seat in South Los Angeles, District 1. At the endorsement meeting at union headquarters, the PACE committee interviewed 5 of the 7 candidates

2 by Aaron Stella / 1d 

Vergara witnesses hail teamwork, even if API gaps remain

Shannan Brown Two witnesses from the same California school district told the court in Vergara vs. California today that collaborative efforts have enabled the district to deal smoothly with ineffective teachers without constrictions from the laws at issue in the case. Shannan Brown, the head of the San Juan Unified School District’s teachers union, and Elizabeth Davies, an assistant superintenden

75 by Mark Harris / 1d 

Field of candidates for LAUSD school board narrows to final 7

The race is on. The Los Angeles City Clerk’s office released the final list of LA Unified school board candidates who qualified to appear on the ballot in the June 3 special election. Of the 13 candidates who originally filed papers to run for the recently vacated seat, only seven submitted sufficient petitions with enough valid signatures to qualify. The District 1 seat, left open by the death o

4 1d 

City Terrace giving kids a window — and language — to the world

Students at City Terrace Elementary in east Los Angeles learn reading, writing and arithmetic, just like any other student in the LA Unified school district. Except for one thing: They are learning these subjects in Mandarin. City Terrace is located in a low-income neighborhood, and the majority of students are Latino. For many of them, English is their second language, after Spanish. “We’re takin

68 by Yana Gracile / 1d 

Morning Read: LA Unified board amends Deasy contract

L.A. school board approves amended contract for Supt. Deasy Los Angeles Unified schools Supt. John Deasy has a newly modified contract that includes an annual buyout of unused vacation days and new performance measures that require him to bring in revenue and enroll more students. He will also pay his own pension deduction for the first time, a cost offset by an increase of $20,000 to his annual s

2 1d 

MAR 12

Ex-district chief tells Vergara court teacher laws don’t interfere

Former El Monte City School Superintendent Jeff Seymour A former superintendent of the El Monte City School District today became the latest defense witness in Vergara v California to describe how school administrators can work within state laws to craft policies and strategies for dealing with ineffective teachers. Jeff Seymour, who spent 25 years as the superintendent, told the court that a well

2 by Mark Harris / 2d 

Denied renewals, 2 Aspire charters appeal to LA County

After the LA Unified board denied renewals last month for two high-performing charter public schools in southeast Los Angeles — Aspire Antonio Maria Lugo Academy and Aspire Ollin University Preparatory Academy — the schools vowed to fight on. They filed an appeal with the LA County Board of Education and now have a public hearing scheduled March 18, with the board’s vote expected on April 15. “We

4 by Yana Gracile / 2d 

Morning Read: Pre-K costs could be higher than expected

Cost grows for proposal to expand transitional kindergarten A Senate proposal to expand transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-olds would be more expensive than originally predicted, according to a new analysis. At full rollout in 2019-20, Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg’s proposal would cost $1.46 billion in addition to the $901 million already being spent on the current transitio

2 2d 

MAR 11

3 defense witnesses tell Vergara court collaboration works

Susan Mills The defense in the Vergara vs. California trial got a boost today from witnesses involved with three different school districts – Riverside, La Habra and Long Beach — each describing how collaboration and professional development helps deal with ineffective teachers without any difficulties from the challenged laws in the case. Susan Mills, Assistant Superintendent of the Riverside Uni

17 by Mark Harris / 3d 

The field for LA Unified’s open seat loses a candidate

The field of candidates for LA Unified’s vacant District 1 seat can only reach eight. An update from the LA City Clerk’s office today indicated that Alison Noel, who described herself as an “Educator Advocate/Engineer” on her filing form, produced an “insufficient” petition to get her name on the ballot for the June 3 special election. So far, seven candidates have been qualified — Genethia Hudley

2 3d 

Alex Johnson shows clout at LAUSD campaign kickoff

Mark Ridley-Thomas (left), Alex Johnson LA Unified school board hopeful Alex Johnson kicked off his campaign last night at a west side home, filled with elected officials, education advocates and political funders. “We’ve waited long enough.” Johnson told the room of supporters. “We can’t leave a generation of kids behind… every child should have an opportunity to succeed, to graduate from high s

37 3d 

Morning Read: Rising truancy draws Capitol attention

Rise in elementary school truancy prompts raft of bills Warning that truancy has reached a crisis level in California elementary schools, state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris and half a dozen lawmakers proposed a raft of bills Monday aimed at keeping kids in school. Harris said 30% of elementary school students were truant in the 2012-13 school year. LA Times Truancy bills propose to revamp data col

2 3d 

MAR 10

Vergara witness says San Diego district, teachers worked together

Richard Barrera A member of the San Diego Unified School District board testified today in the Vergara v California trial that the district increased student achievement scores while managing deep budgetary cutbacks. Richard Barrera, who has served on the board since 2008, told the court that he attributed the academic gains to creating “a culture of collaboration and teamwork between teachers and

2 by Mark Harris / 4d 

Hudley-Hayes: ‘I will not be bullied’ out of school board race

Alex Johnson In her first public comments since a rival in the LA Unified school board race accused her of falsifying her resume, Genethia Hudley-Hayes told LA School Report today she considers the allegations to be “mudslinging” in an effort “to bully” her out of the race. “I will not be bullied,” she said, of the charges from Alex Johnson. “My record stands for itself, with 30 years of service i

2 4d 

LAUSD Museum opens doors to commemorate first arts festival

Click to view slideshow. The LAUSD’s Art and Artifact museum will open to the public for the first time at 1 p.m. tomorrow. The museum is making its debut in honor of the LAUSD Arts Fest, which ends Sat., March 15 with a day-long celebration of student excellence at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles. Vintage artifacts, such as old typewriters, inkwells, desks, rare Roman coins, old textbooks, imp

9 4d 

Morning Read: LAUSD iPads content still unavailable

LAUSD iPads: Officials chose incomplete software over competitors When the Los Angeles Unified School District set out last year to buy tablets for every teacher and student, officials drew up a scoring system to rate 19 hardware and software options. The scores meant a lot: the contract will ultimately be worth about $500 million and marks the largest school technology expansion in the country. K

2 4d 

MAR 07

LA Unified District 1 special election narrows to 9 candidates

The original field of 13 candidates vying for the vacant LA Unified school board seat just got smaller. Thirteen candidates had expressed interest in the District 1 race, but at the 5 p.m. deadline today, only nine filed the required petitions to qualify to appear on the ballot. The June 3 special election was called after longtime school board member, Marguarite LaMotte died in office. The nine w

5 7d 

School board race gets ugly with accusations of resume padding

Genethia Hudley-Hayes, Candidate for School Board The race for LA Unified’s open board seat took a dramatic turn today as Alex Johnson’s campaign accused a rival, Genethia Hudley-Hayes, of “deliberately falsifying” her academic credentials. Roy Behr, Johnson’s political consultant, said research into her background found discrepancies in her resume and, in a meeting yesterday with his counterpart

8 by Michael Janofsky / 7d 

Teacher in Vergara trial blames student for performing poorly

Vickie Decker For the second time this week, the defense in Vergara vs. California today turned to a teacher characterized as “ineffective” by a plaintiff in the case to show a starkly different picture. Vickie Decker, a middle school math teacher, refuted assertions by Jose Macias, the father of student plaintiff, Julia Macias, who had claimed in earlier testimony that Decker was harmful to his d

24 by Mark Harris / 7d hide  //  save

As deadline nears, only 3 have qualified for District 1 race

With the 5 pm deadline just hours away, only three of the 13 candidates who expressed an interest in running for the vacant District 1 LA Unified board seat have qualified for the ballot. By the close of business yesterday, according to the city clerk’s office, George McKenna, Sherlett Newbill and Alex Johnson have submitted the required signature petitions and fees to qualify for the June 3 speci

4 7d 

Morning Read: Budget cuts push young teachers out

New teachers scarce after state funding cuts Young teachers have become far more scarce in California classrooms after school districts slashed their budgets to survive the recession. From 2008 to 2013, California saw a 40 percent drop in teachers with less than six years’ experience, according to a Sacramento Bee review of state data. Sacramento Bee  California school spending goal would cost $3

3 7d 

Stephen Krashen Blog 3-15-14

SKrashen:

Nonstop hi-tech testing

Sent to the Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2014Not mentioned in the Times' editorials  (March 13, 14) is the astonishing amount of testing required by the Common Core and the requirement that testing must be done online. No Child Left Behind "only" required tests at the end of year in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school. The common core aims to test all subjects in all g

2 by skrashen / 20h 

MAR 12

Does the data support charters? Does the data support test-centered schooling?

Sent to the Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2014"Cuomo steps up for charters," (editorial, March 10) claims that New York charter school students outperform students in nearby traditional schools. But charters can often be very selective in who they admit, and can expell "problem" students. Were these factors included in the New York analysis? Despite their advantages, studies s

by skrashen / 2d 

MAR 11

How we acquire language

Sent to the China Daily, March 11 Re: "Language is better learned in casual study, scholars say"  March 6Prof. Van Damme's conclusion that language acquisition takes place in informal environments and through active communication is correct, but research supports a deeper generalization, one that gives hope to language education programs: Language is acquired when we understand what we

1 by skrashen / 3d 

Yes, let's drop the SAT essay. While we're at it, let's drop the SAT.

Sent to the NY Times, March 11Re: "Can writing be assessed?"  March 10.There is no point in testing writing form, i.e. the use of conventional writing style, grammatical accuracy.  Research consistently tells us that writing form comes from reading, not from writing and not from study.Writing itself is a powerful tool for solving problems and making yourself smarter.  This requires maste

11 by skrashen / 3d 

MAR 09

The common core: An untried curriculum plus nonstop testing

Sent to the Salt Lake Tribune, March 9, 2014M. Donald Thomas is right: "Common Core supporters (are) providing misinformation" (March 7). In addition to the points he makes, there are other serious problems.First, the common core standards are untested.  There were no pilot studies. Second, the common core requires a huge increase in testing; research has indicated that increasing testin

100+ by skrashen / 5d 

MAR 08

No Unnecessary Testing, Not No Testing

Submitted to the Indy Star, March 8, 2014Tim Swarens writes that "Diane Ravitch’s opposition to accountability isn’t realistic," (March 7) because we need to "identify those who excel and those who lag behind."Agreed. But we don't need to test every child every year on every subject to find this out.  The NAEP test, a zero-stakes standardized test, is given to samples of studen

10 by skrashen / 6d 

MAR 07

Let's do some critical thinking

Let's do some critical thinkingSent to the Denver Post, March 7.The Douglas County school superintendent says that students should not just "compare and contrast" but "create and evaluate" and engage in critical thinking ("Educators to state: Let's go above common core," March 6).Agreed. Let's start by evaluating whether we should have common core standards and tests

13 by skrashen / 7d

3-15-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

With A Brooklyn Accent:

With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

When It Comes to Education Policy- It's All About the Benjamins

One question we have to ask ourselves is how many of the policies we are fighting, from Common Core, to test based teacher evaluation, to school closings and charter school preferences, would have gotten any traction were it not from the support they have gotten from a small group of people whose wealth has reached unprecedented proportions because of changes in tax laws, deregulation of the finan

4 by Mark Naison / 20h 

Why Charters Can't Always Be Trusted to Serve Inner City Communities

Henry Louis Taylor · Buffalo, NY · This is about Betrayal The struggle to regenerate the East Side is a protracted fight, which requires tireless dedication. In the late 1980s, a group of Buffalo residents and concerned citizens saved the St. Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church from being turned down and transformed it into a community center, early learning school, and neighborhood anchor institution

16 by Mark Naison / 22h 

MAR 13

Destroying Public Education: A Fourth Inner City Catastrophe?

One of the great ironies in contemporary American History is that top leaders of the Democratic Party are supporting the elimination of public education in Urban America - even though the public schools are the one institution in inner city neighborhoods that survived de-industrialization, the crack epidemic, and the war on drugs.Instead of treating schools in those communities, which certainly ha

11 by Mark Naison / 2d 

MAR 11

Letter from a Los Angeles English Teacher to his Students:

A letter to my students of Los Angeles Unified: You have been failed. You have been failed not by the school or your teachers (or their boogeyman union), but by people far removed from the world you inhabit. These people in plush houses and all the creature comforts of life have tried to label the school you are now attending a failure, but the people who know only “of” you--who have never come d

2 by Mark Naison / 3d 

A First Year Bronx Teacher Who Loves Her Kids Says "Enough"

There comes a point when you've been shoved around by your job so much that you stop caring. It's scary when that day is a Tuesday in March and you're a teacher. I've been bullied. I've been ignored. My kids IEPs are a catastrophe (I don't do them, we have a "team" for that). I've been told I can't do my EdTPA for my certification with my students because I can't record them when my sch

3 by Mark Naison / 4d 

The Perils of "Grit"

Many proponents of Data Driven education reforms, including Arne Duncan,and NY Education Commissioner John King have spoken of the need to toughen up children to prepare them for the Global Marketplace- especially children growing up in poverty-and have claimed their policies were designed to impart characteristics like "Grit" and ability to perform under pressure.There is a certain crue

2 by Mark Naison / 4d 

MAR 10

On the Misuse of Statistics in Testing by the NY State Department of Education: Anonymous Posting by a Friendly Statistician

The Common Core and Departments of Education: Lies, Darn Lies, Statistics and Education StatisticsNumbers have taken center stage in the discussion of education policy in the United States. Test score metrics have become a particularly critical set of numbers. They are seen as objective measuring devices, comparable across years, that provide a reliable evaluation of how students, teachers, school

12 by Mark Naison / 5d 

MAR 09

Some Thoughts on Randi Weingarten and BATS

I have no problem with people on our page critiquing Randi Weintarten's leadership of the AFT. I have a HUGE problem with anyone asking to remove her from BATS. We only remove people from the organization for violating our posting policies- or for being persistently divisive on our pages- not for their actions outside of BATS. To do so would set a terrible precedent and turn us into intelligence o

by Mark Naison / 5d 

MAR 08

America's Top Colleges and Teach for America

i wonder what future historians will say about the nation's top colleges- especially the Ivies,  Duke and Stanford,and the top public univerisites- enthusiastically welcoming a program that systematically undermines the teaching profession and provides replacement labor for cities trying to weaken, if not destroy teachers unions and fire veteran union teachers. That organization is Teach for Ameri

7 by Mark Naison / 7d