Agenda April 30 and May 1, 2014 -Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE) (CA Dept of Education)

Agenda April 30 and May 1, 2014 - Administration & Support (CA Dept of Education):

Agenda April 30 and May 1, 2014

Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE) meeting agenda.

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Advisory Commission on Special Education Members

• Gina Plate, Chair
  Vacant, Vice Chair
  Feda Almaliti
  Mildred Browne
  Morena de Grimaldi 
  Kristi Hagans
  Somer Harding
  Sara Jocham
  Betty Karnette
  Matt Navo
  Lester Pincu
  Nancy Portillo
  Mariano Sanz
  Barbara Schulman
  Steve Winlock

Student Members

• Hyla Rachwal
• Timothy Higgins

Legislative Members

• Carol Liu, Senate
• Joan Buchanan, Assembly

State Board of Education

• Carl Cohn, Liaison

State Special Schools

• Scott Kerby, Director, State Special Schools and Services Division
  California Department of Education

Executive Secretary

• Fred Balcom, Director, Special Education Division
  California Department of Education

Agenda Times Are Approximate and Are Provided for Convenience Only

All items may be re-ordered to be heard on any day of the noticed meeting. The order of business may be changed without notice.

Advisory Commission on Special Education

Schedule of Meeting	Location
Wednesday, April 30, 2014 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time ±	California Department of Education 1430 N Street, Room 1101 Sacramento, California 916-445-4602
Thursday, May 1, 2014 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time ±	California Department of Education 1430 N Street, Room 1101 Sacramento, California 916-445-4602

Please see the detailed agenda for more information about the items to be considered and acted upon. The public is welcome.

Guidelines for Public Input Sessions

The Commission welcomes public involvement. Opportunities for public comment are provided at every Commission meeting.

Reasonable Accommodation for Any Individual With a Disability

Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in a meeting or function of the Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE), may request assistance by contacting the Special Education Division, 1430 N Street, Suite 2401, Sacramento, CA, 95814; telephone, 916-445-4602; fax, 916-327-3706.

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Advisory Commission on Special Education
Agenda, Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time
California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 

NOTE: Items not heard or completed on April 30, 2014, may be carried over to May 1, 2014.

10:00–10:15 a.m.

• Call to Order–Roll Call
  Salute to the Flag
  Welcome New Members
  Communication and Announcements
  Review of Agenda and Meeting Standards

10:15–10:45 a.m.

Operations and Planning

• Review 2014–15 ACSE meeting dates, quantity of meetings, and times
  • August orientation
• GOAL Award
• Recognition of Service – Diane Fazzi, Naomi Rainey, Timothy Higgins, Doug McDougall
• Member Biographies
• Election of 2014–15 Officers

Type of Action: Action, Information

10:45–11:45 a.m.

Item 1–California Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS): Introduction of new MTSS module and its role in the implementation of the California Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Presented by Carrie Roberts, Administrator, Professional Learning Division, California Department of Education (CDE); and Dona Meinders, Project Director, WestEd, Center for Prevention and Early Intervention.

MTSS Module on Brokers of Expertise 

Type of Action: Information, Discussion, Action

11:45–Noon

Item 2−Legislative Report: Update and discussion of current legislation related to the education of students with disabilities. Presented by Jennifer Moreno, Legislative Representative, Legislative Affairs Office, Government Affairs Division, CDE.

Noon–12:15 p.m.

Item 3−Legislative Members and Liaison Reports: Reports from Joan Buchanan, Assembly Member and Chair, Committee on Education; Carol Liu, Senate Member and Chair, Committee on Education; and Carl Cohn, Member, State Board of Education (SBE) and SBE liaison to the ACSE.

12:15–1:30 p.m. LUNCH

1:30–1:45 p.m.

Item 4–Public Comment: Public comment is invited on any matter not included on the agenda. The ACSE is precluded from discussing matters not included on the agenda; however, questions may be asked for clarification purposes. Issues raised by the public may be referred to a future meeting agenda for discussion. Depending on the number of individuals wishing to address the ACSE, the Chair may establish time limits on presentations.

*Time will be allocated to distance participant Parent Training Institutes to present issues of importance to parents.

1:45–2:45 p.m.

Item 5−Legislative and Policy Committees: Commissioners will meet in two committee groups to discuss and prepare legislative and policy recommendations for consideration by the ACSE. Stakeholders and visitors are welcome to participate in these roundtable discussions.

• Legislative Committee: Review status of current legislation and make recommendations to ACSE for positions on legislation.
• Policy Committee: Review ACSE Bylaws and make recommendations for updates.

2:45–3:00 p.m. BREAK

3:00–4:00 p.m.

Item 6−National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC) Community of Practice (CoP): Supporting California Teachers in Instructing Students with Disabilities in the CCSS and CCSS Update. Presented by Kristen Brown, Ph.D., Education Research and Policy Consultant, SED, CDE; and Jodi Fortney, Special Day Class Teacher, Tulare County Office of Education.

• CDE Common Core Special Education Resources
• NCSC Wiki 

Type of Action: Information, Discussion, Action 

4:00–4:30 p.m.

Item 7–State Special Schools Division Director’s Report: Scott Kerby, Director, State Special Schools and Services Division, CDE.

Type of Action: Information, Discussion, Action

4:30–5:00 p.m.

Item 8–Special Education Division Director’s Report: Fred Balcom, Director, SED, CDE.

Type of Action: Information, Discussion, Action

5:00 p.m. ADJOURNMENT

Adjournment of day's session.

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Advisory Commission on Special Education
Agenda, Thursday, May 1, 2014, 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time
California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 

8:30–8:40 a.m.

• Call to Order–Roll Call
• Salute to the Flag
• Communications and Announcements
• Review of Agenda
• Operations and Planning

8:40–9:00 a.m.

Item 9–ACSE Annual Report in the Special EDge: Discuss division of writing duties by Commissioners, timelines, and topic areas for inclusion in the 2014 annual report. Presented by Mary Grady, Writer and Editor, CalSTAT.

2013 ACSE Annual Report 

Type of Action: Action, Information

9:00–10:30 a.m.

Item 10–ACSE Core Content Committee Work: Commissioners will meet in the three established Content Committee groups (as defined in the ACSE strategic plan) to discuss and prepare recommendations for consideration by the ACSE at future meetings. Stakeholders and visitors are welcome to participate in the group of their choice.

1. Common Core State Standards implementation via an MTSS framework
2. Quality Services and Support—with a focus on eligibility and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)
3. Secondary Transition

10:30–10:45 a.m. BREAK

10:45–11:00 a.m.

Item 11–Content Committee Reports: Committee chairs will report on Committee focus, progress, and next steps. (Note: The purpose of Committee work is to synthesize information and recommend appropriate agenda items and considerations for the full ACSE.)

11:00 a.m.–Noon

Item 12–Statewide Assessment Update: Report and status of Smarter Balanced Assessment implementation, and the status and timeline of the National Center and State Collaborative implementation for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Presented by Deborah Sigman; Deputy Superintendent; District, School, and Innovation Branch; CDE.

Type of Information, Discussion, Action

Noon–12:15 p.m.

Item 13–Public Comment: Public comment is invited on any matter not included on the agenda. The ACSE is precluded from discussing matters not included on the agenda; however, questions may be asked for clarification purposes. Issues raised by the public may be referred to a future meeting agenda for discussion. Depending on the number of individuals wishing to address the ACSE, the Chair may establish time limits on presentations.

Type of Action: Information

12:15–12:30 p.m.

Item 14–Agenda Building for August 2014 Meeting and Orientation: Commissioners are invited to submit recommendations for future meeting agenda items directly to the Chair and Vice-Chair.

Type of Action: Information, Discussion, Action

12:30 p.m. ADJOURNMENT

Adjournment of day's session.
Adjournment of meeting. 

Related Content

• ACSE Meeting Webcast - Live and recent Webcasts of the California Advisory Commission for Special Education (ACSE) Meeting.

Common Core Critics Are Not Just Saying No | Truth in American Education

Common Core Critics Are Not Just Saying No | Truth in American Education:

Common Core Critics Are Not Just Saying No

Filed in Common Core State Standards by Shane Vander Hart on April 15, 2014 • 0 Comments

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Hess & McShane?

Frederick M. Hess & Michael McShane wrote an an article for National Review yesterday.  They contend that we must develop our own state-level versions of “repeal and replace.”

Duh.  Thanks for stating the obvious.  We’ve got a regular Sherlock and Dr. Watson duo here.

It’s quite apparent the esteemed gentlemen from American Enterprise Institute have not been paying attention to Common Core critics and the state-level battles.  We have advocated higher standards.  We have offered alternatives.  We have pointed to superior state standards like what California and Massachusetts had before the Common Core.

They bring up the mess in Indiana, I agree it is a mess, and is one created out of a desire to kiss 

Help Elect RESPECT: Donate to support social justice union slate & Jesse Hagopian’s bid for president of the Seattle Education Association | I AM AN EDUCATOR

Help Elect RESPECT: Donate to support social justice union slate & Jesse Hagopian’s bid for president of the Seattle Education Association | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

Help Elect RESPECT: Donate to support social justice union slate & Jesse Hagopian’s bid for president of the Seattle Education Association

By I AM AN EDUCATOR on April 15, 2014

We need your help raising $1,000 to help us reclaim public education

I am writing to ask for your support in my bid to be the president of the Seattle Education Association (SEA)–the union representing teachers, instructional assistants, councilors, clerical workers, and support staff who work in the Seattle Public Schools.

SEE RESPECT candidates and supporters at a campaign event.

No one I have talked to can remember a time when a union president incumbent was unseated in Seattle. We are attempting to make history in this election and we have already created a healthy and rigorus debate about the way forward for public education.

Time is running out to support this effort.  On-line voting in the SEA union election begins Sunday, 4/27/14 at 12:01am and ends on Wednesday, 5/07/14, at 11:59pm. Please consider supporting our slate with your financial contribution and help us reclaim public education.  Below is an appeal from the RESPECT campaign team with more details.

Please consider donating to our Indiegogo fundraising campaign to help make our vision of social justice unionism a reality. I can’t thank you enough for your support.

Best,

-Jesse Hagopian

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Dear Friends,

Elections for leadership of the Seattle Education Association (SEA) are coming right up and ballots will be cast at the end of April. On behalf of Social Equality Educators (SEE) and the many brothers and sisters working with us on the RESPECT campaign toward the common goal of strengthening our union, we are campaigning to ask you to make a financial contribution to support the campaign . We have assembled a remarkable group of educators on the SEE “RESPECT” ticket –award-winners and National Board Certified Teachers, experienced educators and those newer to the profession – to run for union office. We have over a dozen candidates, including Jesse Hagopian for SEA president, Marian Wagner for SEA Vice President, and Dan Troccoli for SEA Treasurer.

Together, we are confident we can achieve the contract educators deserve, the schools our students deserve, and the city our families deserve. Our record of supporting the MAP test boycott showed we could unite students, parents, and educators in a common struggle to defend–and transform–public education.

We have already been endorsed by Dr. John Carlos, 1968 Olympic medalist, medal stand protester, Gerald Hankerson, President of the King County/Seattle NAACP, Nick Licata, Seattle City Council Member, Dr. Wayne Au, Editor at Rethinking Schools and Professor at University of Washington Bothell, and Robert Wood, Professor President of the UW American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Bob George, National Director, Save Our Schools, Dave Zirin,sports editor The Nation Magazine, Dora Taylor, President of Parents Across America, Tim Harris, Founder and Director of Real Change newspaper, and many others!

Vice Presidential RESPECT candidate Marian Wagner at the campaign kickoff event.

The Respect slate of candidates stands for:

• A union that will fight for a strong contract. When we ask for less than what is required to do our jobs well, we cannot serve our students effectively, or be true to the passion that brings us into the classroom.
• A union that will demand full funding of education. This will only happen if we insist lawmakers adhere to the law.
• A union that will stand for fair and sustainable teacher evaluation. Evaluation should empower us to continually improve our professional practice and care for our students—it should not simply serve as a “gotcha” tool for administrators.
• A union that protects our right to teach culturally relevant curriculum and works to replace disproportionate disciplinary procedures with restorative justice. Seattle’s students deserve a holistic education that fosters critical thinking and civic engagement.
• We need a union that brings families and community members into the schools as partners and collaborators.
• A union that empowers the union membership to be an active voice.
• A union that keeps us updated with accurate information and invites us to take an active role in a truly member-driven association.
• A union that will join the growing national movement to fight for fair and meaningful student assessments, including opportunities to pilot performance-based alternatives to high-stakes testing.

To endorse the SEE Respect union campaign visit http://socialequalityeducators.org/endorse-the-campaign/ .

Poll Shows Philly Voters Down on Corbett and SRC, Up on Teachers | WeArePCAPS

Poll Shows Philly Voters Down on Corbett and SRC, Up on Teachers | WeArePCAPS:

Poll Shows Philly Voters Down on Corbett and SRC, Up on Teachers

Posted on April 15, 2014by wearepcaps

http://pft.org/docs/PhillySchoolPoll4152014.pdf

Russ on Reading: John Kuhn's Fear and Learning in America: A Review

Russ on Reading: John Kuhn's Fear and Learning in America: A Review:

John Kuhn's Fear and Learning in America: A Review

http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Learning-America-Teachers-Education/dp/0807755729

John Kuhn is one part story teller, one part evangelist and one part passionate champion of public education. Through personal narrative, historical reference, sound research and righteous indignation he lays waste to the corporate education reform movement in his compelling new book. What I love about Kuhn's writing is that his well told stories and carefully cited sources give way at times to bursts of passionate advocacy that have the reader, at least this life-long educator, primed to storm the beaches of the Gates Foundation or the Halls of Teach for America if necessary, to do what is right by children, teachers, parents and public education.

I have had the opportunity to hear Kuhn speak and his writing voice leaps off the page at you, just as his speaking voice jumps out at you in an auditorium. Indeed Kuhn first came to prominence on the public stage for a speech he gave at a Save Our Schools rally in Texas a few years ago that went viral on You Tube. Fans of Kuhn the public speaker are sure to be fans of Kuhn the author. Fear and Learning is his second book. I reviewed his previous work,Test and Punish, on this blog last year.

Kuhn's bona fides as a critic of the education reform movement are impeccable. After two years working as a missionary in Peru, Kuhn returned to his native Texas and became a teacher of Spanish, eventually working as an assistant principal, principal and superintendent in rural Texas. His book is punctuated by telling stories of his time as a teacher and administrator and 

Another NYCDOE Educator Arrested for Speaking Up! southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Another NYCDOE Educator Arrested for Speaking Up!

I should write this post as if it were a Twilight Zone episode.

Imagine if you will a young, attractive, white female, first year teacher who unravels a string of corruption at her school and is sent without warning or knowing why to the Rubber Room. Soon she is terminated whilst the principal that she exposed for financial improprieties and other not nice stuff is removed from her school and promoted. Meanwhile this young lady enters the Kafkaesque world of the NYCDOE in which up is down, good is bad, and insane is sane.

Not knowing why she has been fired she hires hot shot attorney and commences a letter writing campaign only asking to explain to her why she has been terminated. Soon this campaign reaches the desk of Det. Barney Fife of the 84th precinct in Brooklyn. She is arrested and soon enters the Twilight Zone.

Nah.....

Again, this post comes to you from the files of the "You Can't Make This Shit Up," department.

I am talking of course that yet another educator was arrested and booked for daring to speak their mind as the New York Post reported this past Sunday. 

Yes, add Lydia Howrilka to the list of teachers arrested by the 84th Precinct to the list, albeit small and exclusive thus far, of educators arrested for just speaking up.

What innocuous act did Lydia perform that got her locked up for over 14 hours and send to Central http://www.southbronxschool.com:

IEA/NEA replay: Don’t throw away your vote. Choose the lesser of two evils. | Reclaim Reform

IEA/NEA replay: Don’t throw away your vote. Choose the lesser of two evils. | Reclaim Reform:

IEA/NEA replay: Don’t throw away your vote. Choose the lesser of two evils.

Posted on April 15, 2014by Ken Previti

This past weekend the Illinois Education Association Representative Assembly performed its meet-and-greet of the two opposing gubernatorial candidates. President Klickna and others decided to continue this event in spite of 2014 reality. Both candidates are anti-teacher, anti-public school, anti-pension, anti-union, pro-high stakes testing, pro-corporate charter, pro-corporate-tax cuts. pro-public-education cuts, etc. Clones in everything but political brand name.

It is important to keep in mind that this is not a Democrat versus Republican issue. To call the event a debate would be like calling a Kabuki Theater performance a potato. It was a performance – no more, no less.

What happened?

Gov. Pat Quinn (D), who gleefully signed the teacher cutting pension cutting bill (SB1) and chose teacher hating Paul Vallas (Read HERE.) as his running mate, portrayed himself as the opposite of what he has done and is doing.

Bruce Rauner (R), who is the billionaire claiming to be far right of the Tea Party and who chose the totally inexperienced and unqualified Palin sound-alike Evelyn Sanguinetti (ReadHERE via Fred Klonsky.) as his running mate, spoke all the same sound bites that Paul Ryan likes to repeat.

Why were the candidates there? The IEA leadership did not want its members to throw away their votes.

Because the present and past IEA presidents for the past few decades have not created, sought or supported a pro-public education, pro-teacher, pro-pension candidate, IEA members have been told to choose the lesser of two evils.

Don’t throw away your vote.
Choose the lesser of two evils.

Even Homer Simpson knows that we shouldn’t throw away your vote. Or does he?

Take 19 seconds to find out.

Charter Schools and the Destruction of Public Education

Charter Schools and the Destruction of Public Education:

Charter Schools and the Destruction of Public Education

Monday, 14 April 2014 09:05By Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report | Op-Ed

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Every injustice in American life can be laid at the feet of the richest people in the country and the politicians who do their bidding. Nowhere is that terrible dynamic more obvious than in the destruction of public education by the charter school system.

The fix is officially in for charter schools in the state of New York. The legislature finished its session by giving these privately funded “public” schools more protection than they have almost anywhere else in the nation. Charter schools are allegedly public schools but that label is nothing more than public relations gimmickry. In March a New York state Supreme Court judge ruled that the comptroller had no standing to audit charter schools because they are educational corporations and not “units of the state.” The charter school executives who usually insist that they are running public schools were strangely silent and for once didn’t disagree when someone said their schools are not public after all.

Charter schools are a scam inflicted on black and Latino children and are meant to turn education into just another profit center. These schools take public money without being accountable to the public and they are funded by organizations like the Walton Family Foundation of WalMart fame and hedge fund chieftains. There is no data which proves that they provide superior education. They don’t have to accept children with special needs and often expel children who are struggling academically because they may bring down the all important test scores they use to justify their access to public dollars.

Bill de Blasio, New York City’s newly elected mayor, promised to slow down the process of co-locating schools, shoving charter schools into real public schools and depriving children of physical space and resources. At Public School 149 in East Harlem, special education students will literally not have a place in that school. A Success Academy charter school already in residence is expanding and the disabled children at P.S. 149 will have to be moved elsewhere.

Teachers at charter schools are akin to fast food workers. They are the least experienced and have a high rate of turnover, all of which happens by design. The hedge fund honchos and the Walton Family Foundation want to get rid of the teaching profession and make educators as insecure in their work lives as everyone else in the country.

The protections recently given to New York state charter schools are the result of cynical collusion between governor Andrew Cuomo, big money political donors and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. In the last weeks before he left Charter Schools and the Destruction of Public Education:

A Refresher: What is Community-Based Accountability? | Cloaking Inequity

A Refresher: What is Community-Based Accountability? | Cloaking Inequity:

A Refresher: What is Community-Based Accountability?

How can we banish No Child Left Behind’s top-down and narrow paradigm? Local control has been a bedrock principle of public schooling in America since its inception. NCLB sent us in the opposite direction of this traditional notion. A return to a traditional locally based educational policy can be again realized via a multiple measures approach to accountability that is democratically decided on the community level.

Community-Based Accountability (CBA) involves a process where superintendents, school boards, school staff, parents, students and community stakeholders create a plan based on set short-term and long-term goals based on their local priorities.

• CBA strategic plan developed at the local level would serve as alternatives to NCLB’s intense focus on a top-down, one-size-fits-all policy. It would enable local communities to focus on the outcomes that really matter in addition to test scores (i.e. career readiness, college readiness, safety).
• This new form of accountability would allow for communities to drive a locally based approach that focuses on a set of measures of educational quality for their one-year, five-year, and ten-year goals.
• State and federal government role would be to calculate baselines, growth, and yearly ratings (Recognized, Low-Performing etc.) for a set of goals that communities selected in a democratic process.

Policymakers from Texas to California are either taking notice of CBA, and/or they are thinking on the same wavelength. The first positive sign in Texas was that the High Performance Coalition of 20 districts in Texas A Refresher: What is Community-Based Accountability? | Cloaking Inequity:

4-15-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Tuesday Open Thread

Now, for the second year in a row, the most objected to book in libraries is...Captain Underpants.   Do these boys "defy" authority and do silly things?  Yes.  Do I think it needs a warning label, "Kids, don't try this at school?"  Not really.  (I even have a tiny Captain Underpants toy in my car who serves as my parking diviner.  Works 95% of the time.)You've probably all hear

by Melissa Westbrook / 33min 

4-14-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Common Core Roundup (with trends and memes)I'd been meaning to do this for awhile but every single day - in multiple news outlets - there are stories about Common Core.  I occasionally see some "good news" ones but frankly, those mostly come from Gates Foundation funded groups (or more often than not, seriously, in Forbes magazine).Let's be clear - this i

by mike simpson / 18h