Wednesday, April 2, 2014

LCFF and LCAP / California State PTA

LCFF and LCAP / California State PTA:



IT'S AN EXCITING TIME FOR OUR KIDS AND OUR SCHOOLS!














Have you heard? There's a new school funding law called the LCFF (Local Control Funding Formula). It's a new way for schools to focus on student success.
LCFF requires school districts to involve parents in planning and decision making.
It also:
  • Shifts spending decisions from the state to your local school district.
  • Requires your school district to focus on the eight key areas that help all students succeed.
  • Provides extra funding for students with greater challenges.
  • Gives your district more flexibility for how to spend its money to improve local schools.
LCFF is a huge opportunity for parents to shape the vision for your children's education and make it happen!
Now is the time to seize the moment for parent engagement -- guest column by Colleen, A.R. You, President, California State PTA

GET THE FACTS

Get the facts about LCFF and the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). Click to download and share with parents, teachers and your school community.
Listen to our recent Radio Disney broadcast about LCFF with California State PTA President Colleen A.R. You, Children Now President Ted Lempert and Vallejo City Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Ramona Bishop.











FAMILY ENGAGEMENT – MAKE IT HAPPEN

To support school districts and parents in the development of family engagement goals and activities as part of their newly required Local Control and Accountability Plans, California State PTA together with National PTA released an updated version of the PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships Assessment Guide.
The PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships Assessment Guide is based on extensive research over the past 20 years. It was developed with the guidance and support of prominent education leaders and practitioners in the field of family engagement across the country. It provides specific goals for each of six accepted family engagement standards, as well as indicators for measuring whether those goals are being met.
PTA recommends that every school district's LCAP seek to address each of the standards and that the various indicators be used to facilitate local conversations among parents and educators about how best to build stronger family-school partnerships and measure progress based on the priorities and needs of the community.

LEARN MORE – GET ENGAGED

This a huge opportunity for us as parents to shape the vision for our children's education and make it happen. Now is the time to engage!
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4/2/2014 – A ‘Fair Shot’ Agenda For Education

4/2/2014 – A ‘Fair Shot’ Agenda For Education:



Education Opportunity Network -






4/2/2014 – A ‘Fair Shot’ Agenda For Education

April 2, 2014
THIS WEEK: The Public School Brand … Common Core Lost Opportunity … Charter Schools And Inequity … Obama’s Boldest Civil Rights Reform … Who Is ‘College Material’?

TOP STORY

Time For A ‘Fair Shot’ Agenda For Education

By Jeff Bryant

“There’s an issue rife with populist discontent that Democrats have left out of the Fair Shot agenda: K-12 education … If Democrats want to put forth and fight for a compelling agenda for education they need to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans who espouse the current doctrine of testing, failing, closing, and privatizing … Democrats should have something better than “hope” to ensure they’re not the ones who deserve to get tossed.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

The Biggest Public School Problem Might Be the Brand

Takepart

“Most people believe that charter and private schools are preferable alternatives to traditional public schools … Yet private schools are often outperformed by their public counterparts … Charter school performance also fails to match public perceptions … What accounts for the split between popular perception and actual results … is marketing … Exclusivity also plays a part … The media has a role, as well … Knowing this, we might conduct fewer conversations about an ostensible crisis in public education … and, instead, concentrate on the importance of cultivating positive reputations among the vast majority of public schools that are doing just fine.”
Read more …

The Lost Opportunity Of The Common Core State Standards

Phi Delta Kappan

Education research expert Kevin Welner writes, “The Common Core standards themselves are fine … But the unfortunate reality is that whatever its potential benefits, the actual Common Core package will almost certainly exacerbate the policy failures of the past decade … Test-based accountability policies still advocated by politicians disregard the opportunity side of the equation … Many well-intentioned and smart people are working to advance the Common Core and make it successful. But unless and until our politicians reverse course and focus on closing opportunity gaps, the Common Core will be part of the problem.”
Read more …

What Applying To Charter Schools Showed Me About Inequality

The Atlantic

A parent in the Washington D.C. public schools system writes, “School choice is much less about choice than it looks … When the good being transferred and traded is something that should be a baseline public good for all students, the market solution starts to run into trouble … A system of lotteries can still tilt in favor of families with sufficient resources and free time to get around town and apply to as many as possible … Lotteries also reward families who can afford to live close to high-performing charter schools … Attempts to adjust the lottery unquestionably threaten the ethical neutrality of the school choice model … It opens the door to charges of inequity … In the absence of a school system that provides access to an excellent education for all students … we shouldn’t confuse a Band-Aid for a solution.”
Read more …

Relaxing Zero Tolerance In Schools Could Be Obama’s Boldest Civil Rights Reform

The Conversation

Education professor Paul Thomas writes, “The recent government initiative on discipline in schools could salvage the hope that education reform can turn in the direction of better equity for all students … The Obama administration is calling for an end to harsh discipline policies, such as zero tolerance, that ‘disproportionately affect minorities’ … Just as many of the current education reform commitments – such as those related to high-stakes testing, grade retention, charter schools, and Teach for America – are failing to address, and often intensifying, educational inequity, the discipline policies in US schools represent patterns that must be corrected. Although the Obama administration appears unwilling to change course on academic reform policies, a call for addressing discipline inequities could serve as a turning point that fulfills the claim that education reform in the 21st century is the civil rights issue of our time.”
Read more …

College Material Or Not: Who Should Decide?

The Washington Post

Welner joins award-winning principal Carol Burris to write, “We can all agree: college is not for everybody. But should school officials and top-down policy makers decide based, for example, on Common Core college readiness test scores, or should the decision be left to parents and students after schools have given them meaningful, enriching, equitable opportunities to learn? … History tells us that schools should not be in the business of foreclosing children’s options … When schools sort in this way, it is the disadvantaged children who are directed toward lower-tier tracks … To say in a supposedly neutral way that not all students will go to college is disingenuous without first acknowledging something else: that what’s really being said is that we should accept that college is for the already advantaged … High schools have an obligation to do their best to prepare students for college and career; preparation for both has more overlap than often assumed.”
Read more …
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4-2-14 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):






Abandoned LA Unified schools coming back to life — but how?
Oso Elementary School After more than 30 years, the West Valley may be closer to having four more schools. What kind of schools remains to be seen. Community members are invited tomorrow night to a meeting at Woodlake Elementary School to learn more about the the future of the elementary schools — Oso, Collins, Highlander and Platt Ranch Elementary — that were abandoned in the 1980s due to a massi
1 by Vanessa Romo / 1h 


Common Core Standards: Our new map tracks states’ movements
Via Education Week | By Catherine Gewertz  Today’s post marks a turning point in our coverage of the common standards: the revision of our widely followed map of state adoptions. Indiana made us do it. As you probably already know, because my intrepid colleague Andrew Ujifusa reported it last week, Indiana has become the first state to officially reverse its adoption of the Common Core State Stand
6min 


Rachel Johnson has experience, if not cash, for school board race
Rachel Johnson In keeping with the start of the baseball season this week, let’s use a baseball analogy: Rachel Johnson has a Hall of Fame batting average in running for office. Since 2001 when she was first elected as the City Clerk of Gardena, Johnson has run four successful campaigns for elected office — a second term for City Clerk, then three separate races for Gardena City Council. Her only
2 by Vanessa Romo / 0min hide  //  save
Morning Read: LAUSD wasting $100,000 of food daily
Solutions sought to reduce food waste at schools And so it goes on hundreds of campuses in Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second-largest school system, which serves 650,000 meals a day. Students throw out at least $100,000 worth of food a day — and probably far more, according to estimates by David Binkle, the district’s food services director. LA Times LAUSD investigates as Sunny Brae Element
2 31min  
4-1-14 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): Deasy at USC: Vergara is the next big civil rights caseJohn Deasy, with fellow panelist, Susan Estrich More than two months ago LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy took the stand as the first witness for the plaintiffs in Vergara v California, a lawsuit challenging teacher protections. He testified for t
by mike simpson / 21h 




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4-2-14 The Whole Child Blog — What Do You Think We Need from Education — Whole Child Education

High-Morale Schools: Readying Students to Take on the World — Whole Child Education:




What Do You Think We Need from Education?
As we continue our discussions on "Choosing Your Tomorrow Today" and "The Future of Schooling" as part of ASCD's Whole Child Symposium, let's add another question to ponder: What do you think we need from education? In the United States, historically, the purpose of education has evolved according to the needs of society. Education's primary purpose has ranged from instructin
by Whole Child Sympo... / 46min 


THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Lora M. Hodges

High-Morale Schools: Readying Students to Take on the World

April 2, 2014 by Lora M. Hodges
Post written by Lora M. Hodges for Northeast Foundation for Children/Responsive Classroom, a whole child partner organization.
Morale can be hard to define, but you know it when you see it. When you walk into a school and everything immediately feels calm, safe, respectful, rich with learning, you know you're standing in a school with high morale.
That's exactly how you'd feel if you were to walk in to one of the many schools in the nation using the research-based Responsive Classroom approach. You'd see and hear teachers showing patience, kindness, and respect toward each other and toward students. You'd observe engaging lessons in classrooms. Throughout the school you'd hear adults using positive language and drawing forth positive behaviors from students. You'd get the clear sense the adults like their jobs and the children want to be at school.
This is positive school culture. This is high morale. And this is indispensable to students' school success.

WHAT MAKES FOR HIGH MORALE?

So how do schools using the Responsive Classroom approach build this exceptional school culture? The answer is their leaders support teachers in developing teaching competencies—specifically, competencies in three key teaching domains: promoting academic engagement, building a positive learning community, and 




4-1-14 The Whole Child Blog — Building Bridges to El Salvador: A Model Global Curriculum — Whole Child Education
Building Bridges to El Salvador: A Model Global Curriculum — Whole Child Education: Building Bridges to El Salvador: A Model Global CurriculumPost written by Kerry Dunne and AnitaCristina Calcaterra We are so proud of the Arlington, Massachusetts, global education unit of study on our sister city of Teosinte, El Salvador! But before you read about it from us, please let three of our 4th graders te
by mike simpson / 19h 
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For-profit charter school bill clears House committee

For-profit charter school bill clears House committee:



For-profit charter school bill clears House committee



For-profit companies moved closer to being able to operate charter schools in Tennessee after a much-debated bill eked out a key legislative victory Tuesday.
The House Education Committee voted 8-7 to advance to the House floor House Bill 1693, which would let nonprofit charter schools hire companies that bring in profits for management.
With its companion Senate bill clearing committee last month, both full chambers are now on track to consider the legislation.
A combination of Democrats and Republicans questioned Tuesday why for-profit companies would be needed in a state where many nonprofit charter schools are flourishing. But the bill’s sponsor, Rep. John DeBerry, a Democrat from Memphis, the state’s biggest hotbed of privately run, publicly funded charters, argued that the measure would simply give charters the ability to contract vendors the same way local school districts can.
“They can’t make a profit if they run a sloppy operation,” DeBerry said before accusing critics of the legislation of basing claims on “false facts” and “untruths.”
He repeatedly stressed that only nonprofit boards of directors would still be able to gain approval to open charter schools. He later reflected on an ongoing debate since 
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Charter-mania, high-stakes testing and teacher-bashing: Can Rhee’s approach be stopped? - Salon.com

Charter-mania, high-stakes testing and teacher-bashing: Can Rhee’s approach be stopped? - Salon.com:



Charter-mania, high-stakes testing and teacher-bashing: Can Rhee’s approach be stopped?

As a new lawsuit seeks to radically transform teaching conditions, an expert warns of our nation's education shift



Final briefs are due next week in Vergara v. California, an under-the-radar billionaire-backed lawsuit that could transform teaching conditions in the largest state. Citing the constitutional rights of its public school student plaintiffs, the suit seeks to overturn state laws that schedule tenure consideration after two years of teaching, dictate the use of seniority when budget cuts force layoffs, and impose due process rules on teachers’ terminations. It very well may succeed; the president of one of the statewide unions fighting the suit warned L.A. Weekly that Judge Rolf Treu’s more aggressive questioning of his side “unfortunately … may be quite telling about where he’s going.” And it could inspire copycat efforts across the United States.
“It’s certainly not going to improve education,” said Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who co-directed the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future, directed President Obama’s 2008/2009 education transition team, and last month testified for the Vergara defense. In a Monday interview, Darling-Hammond disputed Students First’s claim to the mantle of Brown v. Board; argued for “another War on Poverty” to transform “apartheid schools”; and said Obama has offered “a continuation” of the George W. Bush approach to “high-stakes testing without investing.” A condensed version of our conversation follows.
Angelia Dickens, the general counsel for Michelle Rhee’s group Students First, wrote that “The Vergara case is a logical extension from Brown” v. Board of Education, because it would help “move our country towards educational equity.” Why do you disagree?
I can’t understand why anyone would agree. To me, it’s completely unrelated to the agenda from Brown, which was about getting equal access to educational opportunities for students — you know, initially through desegregation, but the heritage of Brown is also a large number of school finance reform lawsuits that have been trying to advocate for equitable resource distribution between districts and schools. And Vergara has nothing to do with that …
Even if you got rid of teachers’ due process rights for evaluation, you would do nothing to 
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Arne Duncan—This is What’s “Pretty Scary” to Parents, Teachers and Students | Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Arne Duncan—This is What’s “Pretty Scary” to Parents, Teachers and Students | Nancy Bailey's Education Website:



Arne Duncan—This is What’s “Pretty Scary” to Parents, Teachers and Students

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testing
Posted on November 18, 2013 and updated for April 2, 2014 by Nancy Bailey
Last November I wrote about why parents worried about Arne Duncan, who stands in support of Common Core State Standards. It was after he said, in reference to the standards,  “It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary.”
On March 28, the PBS NEWSHOUR did an interesting report on Mr. Duncan’s diminishing support by both the left and the right which can be seen here.
I thought I’d revise and reprint my list of what keeps many parents up at night when it comes to their child’s education and schools. Feel free to add to the list….
This is what I think scares parents:
  1. Common Core State Standards.
  2. Having your family’s life disrupted due to your child’s difficulties in school.
  3. Knowing high-stakes tests are totally inappropriate and out to get your child, their teacher and the school.
  4. Worrying that your child will be singled out and punished if you opt them out of the test.
  5. Having an Autistic child who you know could make progress, but there’s no behavioral program in your public school to serve them.
  6. Recognizing there is no realistic Individual Education Plan for your child and your  Arne Duncan—This is What’s “Pretty Scary” to Parents, Teachers and Students | Nancy Bailey's Education Website:
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FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Wednesday, April 2, 2014

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:



EdSource: How budget cuts and PTA fundraising undermined equity in San Francisco public schools







Education Headlines

Wednesday, April 2, 2014
FCMAT provides links to California K-12 news stories as a service to the industry. However, some stories may not be accessible because of newspapers' subscription policies.

EdSource: How budget cuts and PTA fundraising undermined equity in San Francisco public schools

In an era of shrinking public investment in schools, parents have struggled to hold the line one school at a time. Since the pre-recession year 2007, elementary school PTAs in San Francisco collectively managed to more than quadruple their spending on schools. But school district finance data, PTA tax records and demographic profiles reveal an unintended byproduct.

District oversight group discusses bond status

A citizens committee that oversees bond money for the Sweetwater Union High School District said Tuesday during a special meeting that the school board has some improvements to make with regard to funding priorities.

Carlsbad school aids Vista students in service learning project

What started last year with an affluent elementary school in Carlsbad helping a Vista school in a poorer neighborhood has grown into series of projects in which students from both campuses learn from each other and grow.

Solutions sought to reduce food waste at schools

Federal rules require students to take at least three items each day, but a Los Angeles Unified School District manager wants to change the policy to reduce the $100,000 in food thrown away daily.

LAUSD investigates as Sunny Brae Elementary principal Jeff Hum is removed in Winnetka amid misconduct allegation

A principal at a Winnetka elementary school has been removed and an investigation launched, a Los Angeles Unified School District spokesman said Tuesday.

San Jose Unified backs down on placing charter middle school on elementary campus

Despite interest and compromises by San Jose Unified School District, the charter school and residents, the effort fell victim to volatile charter-school politics. The agreement to create Downtown College Prep Middle was cemented in September, but the school remains homeless for 2014-15.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Harold Cebrun’s last day at Rialto Unified School District is quiet

The five-year tenure of Rialto Unified Superintendent Harold Cebrun is officially over, as of Monday.

Teacher-tenure debate ends in court; decision likely months off

Attorneys for a group seeking to eliminate tenure protection for California teachers argued Thursday that such iron-clad job security makes it almost impossible to fire an incompetent instructor. Attorneys for the teachers and the state responded that the real problem lies not with bad teachers but with unqualified school administrators.

Administrators tap into student funds

Student activity funds are supposed to be for student use, but two districts in San Diego County began dipping into the funds for something else during the recession — to pay an administrative fee.

Modesto City Schools board to look at safety, 10-year plan update

Modesto City Schools will update its 1988 10-year plan for its 34 school sites. The board also will address traffic safety for young students, in light of the death of a kindergartener hit by a bus last week while running across the street after school at Tuolumne Elementary.

Newark teachers, administrators get 5.5 percent raise

Newark teachers and administrators will get a 5.5 percent raise under a new contract signed with the Newark Unified School District, officials said.Newark teachers and administrators will get a 5.5 percent raise under a new contract signed with the Newark Unified School District, officials said.

Liberty Union High School District settles teacher's lawsuit for $260,000

Liberty Union High School District recently settled a lawsuit brought by a teacher who said administrators were harassing her and discriminating against her.

Superintendent's pay in South Bay district called 'excessive'

The superintendent of the small Centinela Valley Union High School District, Jose Fernandez, made $674,559 last year, far more than the New York and Los Angeles school district heads. 

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s approach to LAUSD draws mixed reviews

Two weeks after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s top education adviser left City Hall, there are no immediate plans to fill the position, a sign of the mayor’s hands-off approach to the nation’s second-largest school district.
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Zombie Ideas and Conventional Wisdom: Why NYC’s School “Reform” Matters to the Rest of Us | janresseger

Zombie Ideas and Conventional Wisdom: Why NYC’s School “Reform” Matters to the Rest of Us | janresseger:



Zombie Ideas and Conventional Wisdom: Why NYC’s School “Reform” Matters to the Rest of Us

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Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economist and NY Times columnist, wrote a columnearlier this week about myths in economics.  He calls them “zombie ideas.”  Here is how Krugman defines a zombie idea: “one of those things that everyone important knows must be true, because everyone they know says it’s true.”   Back in 1958 in a famous book, The Affluent Society, another economist John Kenneth Galbraith called such ideas “the conventional wisdom” —”the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability.”  Galbraith continued: “The conventional wisdom is not the property of any political group…. the consensus is exceedingly broad.  Nothing much divides those who are liberals by common political designation from those who are conservatives.”
Zombie ideas.  The conventional wisdom.  Bipartisan consensus based on not much evidence and maybe even contrary to the evidence.  Sounds like today’s wave of so-called public education “reform.”
Gene V. Glass, one of the authors of a fine new book on the facts and the evidence about what’s needed to improve public schools, 50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools,recently commented on the conventional wisdom–zombie ideas that dominate today’s theories of school “reform”:
“One narrative prominent these days — the Crisis Narrative — holds that our nation is at risk because our children are dumber than Finland, because our teachers are tools of greedy unions, because incompetent ‘ed-school’ trained administrators are incapable of delivering first-rate education.  And — this narrative goes on — what public education needs is total reform: higher standards, more tests, brighter teachers uncorrupted by the wishy washy 
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