JUST IN: LAUSD slapped with $1 billion lawsuit to end teacher jails - LA School Report

JUST IN: LAUSD slapped with $1 billion lawsuit to end teacher jails - LA School Report:

JUST IN: LAUSD slapped with $1 billion lawsuit to end teacher jails

Following up on a months-long threat, high-profile attorneyMark Geragos today slapped LA Unified with a class actionlawsuit, calling for an end to the practice of“teacher jails” and asking for more than $1 billion in damages.

The suit was filed in state superior court on behalf of Rafe Esquith, a well-known teacher who was dismissed in April, as well as thousands of other unnamed teachers who have been placed in “jail” by the district in recent years. Calling LAUSD “a criminal cartel,” the suit charges the district with violations of due process, age discrimination, whistleblower retaliation and wrongful discharge —  all in a scheme to remove older teachers whose salaries and benefits make them more expensive to retain.

Among the defendants named are Superintendent Ramon Cortines and his yet-to-be-chosen successor. Cortines intends to step down in December.

At his downtown office only a few blocks from LAUSD headquarters, Geragos accused the district of engaging in “a pattern and practice of the LA Unified school district basically divesting teachers of their benefits once they reach a certain age. The method by which they do this is they gin up false charges, they make false accusations.”

“I’m calling for the complete shutdown of LAUSD,” Geragos added. “I think LAUSD is a completely corrupt organization. They have consigliere lawyers.”

A spokeswoman said the district “has not reviewed the lawsuit and therefore has no comment at this time.”

This legal action comes a day after the Los Angeles Times disclosed that the school JUST IN: LAUSD slapped with $1 billion lawsuit to end teacher jails - LA School Report:

Did Common Core Win the War? | Peter Greene

Did Common Core Win the War? | Peter Greene:

Did Common Core Win the War?

Politico scored a coup this week by declaring that the war is over, and Common Core won it. One can only assume that Kim Hefling's piece "How Common Core Quietly Won the War" bumped equally hard-hitting pieces such as "The Earth -- Actually Flat After All" or "The Presidential Wisdom of Harold Stassen."

Hefling's main point is that Common Core is now everywhere, so it won. But this would be tantamount to saying that Kleenex has cornered 100 percent of the facial tissue market because all citizens wipe their noses on something that they call "Kleenex."

Sure, there's something called Common Core almost everywhere in education. But which Common Core Ish thing would we like to talk about?

State standards? Many states have changed the name and little else, but many states have further fiddled with the everyone-forgets-their-copyrighted standards, so that none particularly match any more.

Testing standards? A variety of Common Core based Big Standardized Tests are out there, and -- for now -- every state has to have one. But what those tests cover does not in any case correspond fully with the Common Core standards as originally written (for extreme instance, speaking and listening standards are not and likely never will be tested). And in many, if not most, school districts, curriculum and instruction are driven by the test, not the standards.

Curriculum standards? Most districts have "aligned" their curricula to the Common Core -- but that process looks a lot like taking what you already do anyway and assigning various standards to it until your paperwork looks good.

Textbook standards? One of the biggest effects of Common Core was the huge windfall for textbook publishers as schools rushed to get textbook programs with Did Common Core Win the War? | Peter Greene:

Lawyer for fired LAUSD teacher responds with class-action lawsuit | 89.3 KPCC

Lawyer for fired LAUSD teacher responds with class-action lawsuit | 89.3 KPCC:

Lawyer for fired LAUSD teacher responds with class-action lawsuit

The Los Angeles Unified school board this week voted to fire nationally recognized teacher Rafe Esquith, apparently over allegations he inappropriately touched children and had photos and video of a sexual nature on his computer.
His attorneys have denied the allegations.
An LAUSD spokeswoman confirmed Esquith is no longer being paid by the district.
A district employee not authorized to talk about the decision but who is close to the school board said members approved Esquith's firing in closed session on Tuesday.
When he was pulled from his classroom at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School he was asked to report to a school district building with dozens of other teachers. Teachers refer to this process as "teacher jail."
Esquith's attorneys held a press conference Thursday to denounce the firing and to announce the filing of a class action lawsuit to dismantle the "teacher jail" process.
"He wants to shut down teacher jail. Mostly he wanted to teach. That’s not going to happen anymore not at Hobart, not by L.A. Unified and he wants to never let this happen to any other teacher again," said criminal defense lawyer Mark Geragos.
About 140 district teachers and classified staff are currently in this status, having Lawyer for fired LAUSD teacher responds with class-action lawsuit | 89.3 KPCC:

Kick the Cap | EduShyster

Kick the Cap | EduShyster:

Kick the Cap

Behind the scenes (and out in the hallway) at the Statehouse charter school hearing…

And that’s a wrap, folks! After nine hours, and thousands of pages of testimony concerning 35 different pieces of legislation—35!—this week’s marathon hearing on the state and future of charter schools in the Bay State had finally reached its end. But still, the question lingered: had anyone actually learned anything? It might surprise you to learn that my answer is an unabashed *Yes.* In fact, I learned quite a lot.

Look, official
I arrived at the Statehouse with a singular aim in mind: I wanted to talk to charter school parents about how they see the divisive debate. And so I took up residence in the hallway outside of Garden Auditorium, and quickly discovered a delightful truism: that if you wear a lanyard that *technically* does not belong to you and happen to have a bossy-ish demeanor, it won’t be long before you are assumed to be in charge-ish. But enough about me. Governor Baker was in the House!

Cap kicker
First of all, let me disabuse you of the notion that the crutches Governor Baker was sporting were the result of a misguided attempt to kick off the charter cap. Old basketball-injured leg or not, Baker *brought it* to the hearing, delivering the kind ofcri de coeur against the cap that he seems to deliver, well, most days these days. Alas, Kick the Cap | EduShyster:

Charter Schools React to Arne Duncan's Latest Round of Excessive Grants (Free Money)

Charter Schools React to Arne Duncan's Latest Round of Excessive Grants (Free Money)

Big Education Ape: Charter love: Feds give $157 million to expand charter schools - The Washington Post http://bit.ly/1KGxcUn

Big Education Ape: The ugly charter school scandal Arne Duncan is leaving behind - Salon.com http://bit.ly/1QjuVjt

Big Education Ape: Auditor ‘shocked’ by $71 million grant for charter schools | The Columbus Dispatch http://bit.ly/1G82pRy

Big Education Ape: Ohio Congressman questions Arne Duncan’s $32 million charter grant - The Washington Post http://bit.ly/1Obugmz

Big Education Ape: Feds didn’t carefully monitor $3 billion it gave for charters — and it just awarded $157 million... http://bit.ly/1G82rcl

Big Education Ape: Despite Big Problems Charters Attract Hedge Fund Support and Presidential Candidates Hungry for ... http://bit.ly/1G82swK

Big Education Ape: Federal grant boosts charters, management organizations too :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essent... http://bit.ly/1LmcsVn

Big Education Ape: Thousands of Charter Schools Close: Rip Off Taxpayers, Steal Students’ Future | janresseger http://bit.ly/1G82wNc

Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: The Big Map O' Charter Failure http://bit.ly/1FzO2VR

Commentary: An open letter to David Boren | Oklahoma Gazette - Linkis.com

Commentary: An open letter to David Boren | Oklahoma Gazette - Linkis.com:

Commentary: An open letter to David Boren

To University of Oklahoma president and former Gov. and U.S. Sen. David Boren:

Teaching is an act of love. Teacher’s salaries are secondary to student needs. Their working conditions are our kids’ learning conditions. The best incentive for educators is providing us the opportunity to teach well.

Until now, I’ve deferred to leaders like you in terms of education funding, limiting myself to what I know, which is inner-city schools and policy. I focused on the failure of test-driven, competition-driven “reform” and why we must shift gears and restore teachers’ autonomy so we can once again provide engaging and holistic instruction that respects our students.

I was wrong. It’s bad enough that corporate school reform undermines teaching and learning. Now, underfunding education is creating a perfect storm that could overwhelm our schools.

So, Mr. Boren, thank you for leading the campaign for a $608 million tax increase to dig Oklahoma out of our budget crisis. We also can use the initiative to start a conversation about science-based school policy.

We can’t merely ignore the understandable but misguided claim that “money doesn’t matter.” Since No Child Left Behind, tens of billions of dollars have been wasted on “output-driven” micromanagement. As Oklahoma schools endured years of bare-bone budgets, many also received federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) and other risky experiments. At a cost of $5 million per school, SIG largely failed, just like the alphabet soup of policies incentivizing test, sort, reward and punish. Locally and nationally, they failed in precisely the same way that educators and social scientists predicted.

Mr. Boren, I assume you know the work of Jack Jennings, author of the definitive analysis of education policy. He debunks the claim that accountability-free, progressive educators failed. He shows that the old-fashioned (Title I) approach of funding student supports improved student performance more than post-2002 test-driven mandates.

“From the 1970s to the early 2000s, achievement generally rose and achievement gaps generally narrowed, which would seem to refute the Title I evaluation results used to support the shift to test-driven reform,” he said.

Moreover, since 2008, the much more expensive use of incentives and disincentives has almost completely killed America’s long-term increase in student performance.

Teachers are exhausted by reforms that deputized them as the agents for overcoming the legacies of Commentary: An open letter to David Boren | Oklahoma Gazette - Linkis.com:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: At Yesterday's (Kind) Wild Executive Committee Meeting of the Whole

Seattle Schools Community Forum: At Yesterday's (Kind) Wild Executive Committee Meeting of the Whole:

At Yesterday's (Kind) Wild Executive Committee Meeting of the Whole

It was a hugely important meeting, if a bit wild.  Because there is SO much happening right now for our district and I'm trying to chase down so much information, I only have time for highlights:

The district has ended its relationship with the Alliance for Education (for the most part).  I will scan and post their letter but it is very damning.  Basically, the district says it has been trying, for years, to get on a better footing with the Alliance.  There are several allegations by the district.

The letter says:

• that the Alliance did some fundraising, using SPS' name, that didn't exactly find its way back to the district
•  that a superintendent (I'm assuming Banda) was bad-mouthed by the Alliance behind his back AND during an Alliance social event
• It says that the Alliance met with some principals without district permission or knowledge.  

As for the Seattle Teacher Residency program, it agrees to continue on with the Alliance but only if the district's payment share is $50,000 which is way below what the MOU says.  Basically, the district is saying, "take it or leave it" and will walk away from the MOU if the Alliance doesn't agree to these terms.  (I not that it seems likely the district will probably honor the current cohort of STR candidates but go no further.)  I agree with this action on the part of the district. 

The district will have to find another fiscal agent for those PTAs using the Alliance's (expensive) services.  I had heard at an A&F meeting that they did send out an RFP and only the Alliance submitted a proposal.  I find that hard to believe in a city of Seattle's size that no other firm was even interested.  (I Seattle Schools Community Forum: At Yesterday's (Kind) Wild Executive Committee Meeting of the Whole:


Unhappy with the District?

In addition to the perennial issues of the district - Special Education, Advanced Learning, ELL, building conditions, the debt on JSCEE and, of course, funding - we have more that have risen up.  To whit:

- staffing cuts at more than 25 schools this year
- bell times
- City's pre-K and their ever-increasing desire for space in the district
- capacity issues
- facilities' issues
- curriculum choices/use
- increased spending at district administration

(Please, add to the list.) 

The clamor is ever louder.  The frustration is growing - for teachers, parents, students, principals.  I'm sure district staff is frustrated but senior management is large and in charge and really, most of it is on them.  They HAVE to find better and more transparent ways to communicate.

It really is the communications that is killing them.  They refuse to treat parents as adults and give them full explanations of current situations.  They obfuscate, they deflect, they tell half the story and it is hurting this district.  

But what to do?  I would say - as I frequently do when senior staff don't appear to be listening - the district needs a shock to the system.  But maybe a gradual build-up might just do the trick.

• as has been previously suggested, start opting your child out of any non-required testing, starting with Amplify.  If you are asked, tell your teacher and your principal that this is your stand against how the district is being managed.  Politely state that yes, you know the blah, blah on how taking the test helps your kid but that you feel that, overall, the direction of the district and the treatment of parents in the district is being hurt much more and that you want the district to listen to parents.

• the Board WILL have three new members in just about two months (new members generally are installed in early December).  Maybe four new members.  I'm sure that some of the senior staff are already trying to figure out how to "manage" these new members (as I'm sure the Mayor and Tim Burgess are as well).  Those new members will need to find a way to become a team with the remaining members but also, to review the issues and find a new way.

         EVERY board has to do this and has done this in the past.  One thing the new Board should be   considering, right away, is the search for a new Unhappy with the District?

The NCRP Debate on Market Approaches to Education Reform | Nonprofit Quarterly

The NCRP Debate on Market Approaches to Education Reform | Nonprofit Quarterly:

The NCRP Debate on Market Approaches to Education Reform

A Debate About Whether the Walton Foundation and Markets Promote Equity for Students | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1G7UO5I

At first glance, it would have been reasonable to ask why the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy would want to host a debate between advocates and opponents of market-based approaches in education reform. What was the upside of picking that issue for a debate above any of a number of other issues in which the efficacy of market-based strategies in significant societal issues is, so to speak, “debatable?”

The “privatization” question in public policy, in which public programs are more or less ceded to the private sector (particularly the market-driven for-profit sector) to structure and implement, is at the heart of many initiatives. Examples include the proliferation of private sector builders and operators of prisons, proposals to turn over municipal water systems to private corporations, and even the turning over of child welfare services to for-profit companies.

In this instance, the roots of the debate were in an NCRP report published in May 2015, part of NCRP’s “Philamplify” series, on the Walton Family Foundation, subtitled, “How Can This Market-Oriented Grantmaker Advance Community-Led Solutions for Greater Equity?” Compared to earlier NCRP reports on the Walton Family Foundation, notably NCRP’s 2005 report, “The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy,” and its 2007 follow-up, “Strategic Grantmaking: Foundations and the School Privatization Movement, it was distinctly less critical of the ideology and agenda of the Arkansas philanthropic behemoth. Both earlier reports indicated that the foundation’s promotion of school choice, charter schools, and school vouchers in education reform had led to a pernicious undermining of public school systems.

When it comes to market approaches, however, as Sherece West-Scantlebury, the president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and chair of the NCRP board, noted at the beginning of the debate, NCRP is “agnostic.” In fact, for the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation itself, headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, West-Scantlebury described the Walton Family Foundation, headquartered in Bentonville 200 miles away, as a “great partner” for her foundation’s programs. Walton has a major programmatic emphasis in its “home region,” with grantmaking focused on Northwest Arkansas and Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi totaling more than $40 million in 2014, whileWinthrop Rockefeller is totally dedicated to Arkansas’s advancement, both with overlapping commitments to education programs in Arkansas, including the two foundations’ joint sponsorship in 2014 of the “ForwARd Partnership for Arkansas Education” initiative.

The Philamplify report on the Waltons was actually complimentary of the Walton The NCRP Debate on Market Approaches to Education Reform | Nonprofit Quarterly:

10/15/2015 – Where Will John King Stand On Student Suspensions?

10/15/2015 – Where Will John King Stand On Student Suspensions?:

Where Will John King Stand On Student Suspensions?

 THIS WEEK: Arne Duncan Business Hero … Gentrification Stops At Schools … Charter School Real Estate Game … Spending For Prisons Not Colleges … Costs Of Child Care Exceed College

TOP STORY

Where Will John King Stand On Student Suspensions?

By Jeff Bryant

“With [US Education Secretary Arne] Duncan we have a leader who makes claims about doing ‘what’s right’ for kids, but who actually never directly oversaw children in an organized education setting … That’s not true for his replacement, [Acting Secretary John] King, who has a track record of teaching in schools and eventually founding and leading a school and overseeing a chain of charter schools. With King, there is ample evidence of how he treats children when he has direct control of them. And it’s not altogether a pretty sight to behold.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

The Legacy Of Arne Duncan, ‘A Hero In The Education Business’

The Nation

Zoë Carpenter writes, “Outgoing US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan proved himself a champion for those who saw a money-making opportunity in America’s beleaguered public school system … Pushing a market-based vision of reform, Duncan oversaw mass school closures and a deepening obsession with standardized tests … Test scores have risen nationally under Duncan’s tenure, but that data is only as strong as your faith in the ability of standardized tests to measure quality of education. It’s hardly surprising that scores have gone up, since schools are now spending considerably more hours and money… drilling students in preparation. But the obsession with data comes at the expense of types of learning … The gulf between what poor and rich school districts are able to offer their students has not closed under Duncan … Though Duncan leveraged federal funding to press states into adopting certain policies … he was far more reluctant to create incentives for state to address these resource inequities or resegregation.”
Read more …

When Neighborhoods Gentrify, Why Aren’t Their Public Schools Improving?

The Atlantic

“Gentrification … usually stops at the schoolhouse door. Because newcomers tend to send their kids outside of the local system, often to private or charter schools, gentrification tends to have a neutral or even negative effect on neighborhood schools … A report on underperforming San Francisco public schools … notes that many if not most urban institutions are ‘left to flounder,’ remaining segregated, low-quality ‘Apartheid schools’ … The exceptions … seem to be those that compete with charter and private schools by becoming magnet schools or starting gifted-and-talented programs … Economic and racial integration works: It is what has been shown to help higher-need students without hurting others … The best way to have gentrification help local schools may be to invest in more and larger magnet schools and bring more diverse students into gifted-and-talented programs.”
Read more …

Charter-School Movement Grows – For Real-Estate Investors

The Wall Street Journal

“Almost all charter schools are operated by nonprofit organizations. But these groups often rent and buy their buildings from private real-estate developers, and that is creating a new niche asset for some investors … Established players in the business are seeing volume increases on chart school developments … Some states are beginning to make financing tools available to charter schools that had been limited to traditional public schools … reducing their capital costs when acquiring facilities … Critics say charter schools are in danger of cutting costly deals with developers who are more concerned with investment return than educating children.”
Read more …

These States Spend More On Prisons Than Colleges

The Washington Post

“State spending on corrections has outpaced funding for public education over the last three decades, with 11 states pouring more money into their prison systems than into public universities … Public higher education is perceived as a flexible budget item and has suffered relative to other state priorities, including corrections. Funding for prisons has grown 141% between 1986 and 2013, but funding has only crept up 5.6% for public colleges and universities … Although states began dialing back their higher education spending a decade ago, the collapse of the financial markets in 2008 led to deeper cuts … Legislatures responded by slashing higher education funding by 23% per student.”
Read more …

Hard To Believe: In Most States, Child Care Is Now More Expensive Than College Tuition

Alternet

“The price of child care places it out of reach for millions of families … In 33 states including the District of Columbia, child care is now more expensive than four-year public university tuition … Families with particularly young children have it worst … Child care ranges from 19.3% to 28.7% of total family budgets … The situation is particularly rough for minimum wage workers, especially in the northeast and Washington, DC.’”
Read more …

10/15/2015 – Where Will John King Stand On Student Suspensions?:

CURMUDGUCATION: 21st Century PSAT

CURMUDGUCATION: 21st Century PSAT:

21st Century PSAT

Yesterday was National Support David Coleman's Cash Flow Day, otherwise known as the day that high school juniors across the nation give up a treasure trove of personal information in exchange for the opportunity to take a standardized test that is, if not actually meaningful or useful, at least a venerable tradition.

The P, as I repeatedly remind my highly stressed 11th grade students, stands for "practice." It is, for most of us, the ultimate no stakes test. If a student is perched at the very tippy top of Score Mountain, she will have a shot at a National Merit Scholarship, a scholarship program that functions much like the scholarships attached to beauty pageants-- as a sort of protective fig leaf of uplifting nobility for an otherwise mercenary enterprise. And if you have the misfortune to teach at a school that thinks there's something useful to learn from PSAT-ing every single student, then, well, it sucks to be you.

But for the rest of us, the PSAT means bupkus. Less than bupkus. Just bup.

The College Board (now helmed by Common Core auteur Davic Coleman) has been trying hard to reverse this trend by, among other things, creating more baby PSAT's-- PPPSATs-- to push the marketall the way down to eighth grade. Coleman has also worked to position the SAT as an engine for fixing inequality in America, a narrative that has, if nothing else, convinced the USED to shovel a bunch of money in the College Board's direction. Oh-- and because corporate synergy should always be leveraged to foster dynamic growth, the new PSAT is also a marketing tool for AP coursework.

Note too that the PSAT begins with a 45-minute session of having students volunteer their personal CURMUDGUCATION: 21st Century PSAT:

Not lovin’ McTeachers’ Night | Parents Across America

Not lovin’ McTeachers’ Night | Parents Across America:

Not lovin’ McTeachers’ Night

 Can you believe that McDonald’s enlists teachers to sell junk food to their students? On “McTeacher’s Nights” across the country, teachers “work” behind the counter selling burgers, fries, and soda to their students and their students’ families. It’s a marketing ploy disguised as a school fundraiser. McDonald’s is exploiting the hard-earned trust, respect, and popularity of teachers to sell junk food to kids and create brand loyalty.

It’s shameful that McDonald’s is using the tragic underfunding of our public schools as a marketing opportunity. Teachers should never have to sacrifice their students’ health in order to earn a few extra resources for their classrooms.

Recently, PAA joined with the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and many other groups and individuals across the U.S. to call for an end to this insulting and misguided program.

You can add your name and/or the name of your organization to the letter below, telling McDonald’s CEO Easterbrook: No More McTeacher’s Nights!

To learn more, please visit http://commercialfreechildhood.org/action/stop-mcteachers-nights.

Dear Mr. Easterbrook,

I urge you to end the exploitative practice of McTeacher’s Nights.

As you know, on McTeacher’s Nights, teachers “work” at a local McDonald’s in hopes of raising much-needed funds for their schools. Parents and children are encouraged to eat at McDonald’s so they can see

- See more at: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/lovin-mcteachers-night/#sthash.jVL5X5Qw.dpuf

Top 10s in 2016— Vote and Nominate Brightest Ed Policy Minds | Cloaking Inequity

Top 10s in 2016— Vote and Nominate Brightest Ed Policy Minds | Cloaking Inequity:

Top 10s in 2016— Vote and Nominate Brightest Ed Policy Minds

Nominate and vote in this new poll. Who will or should make the biggest impact on education policy priorities in the 2016 campaign? Encourage your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections and others to vote and nominate too!

Teach For America probably has their list. The DFERs likely have a list again (Do you think Arne Duncan is at the top of their list?). So I thought I would crowd source a list of our nation’s brightest educational policy minds— the people who actually know who they are talking about. The individuals who will support community-based education policy and oppose top-down, privately controlled “education reform.” This list is to crowd source the brightest minds across generations in the United States that will or should have the most impact in the 2016 campaign.

Could the new Secretary of Education be on this list? The appointment of John King as acting Secretary of Education— at 40— means that Generation X could also now be eligible for that important position post-election.

After voting for existing name(s), feel free to add the names of person(s) you want to nominate, then a comma, then their current location and professional position. Yes, you can nominate yourself— if you believe you have the credentials to be impactful in the 2016 election.

Click Here to Vote: Top 10s in 2016— Vote and Nominate Brightest Ed Policy Minds | Cloaking Inequity: