Seven things California public schools can't charge you for - and a few they can | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

Seven things California public schools can't charge you for - and a few they can | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

Seven things California public schools can't charge you for - and a few they can

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | May 28th, 2014, 5:00am

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC

Redondo High School principal Nicole Wesley says many school activities require suggested donations from parents to stay afloat.

A year after California passed a law meant to curb public schools from illegally charging students fees to take part in educational activities, state officials say they've received about 150 appeals from parents claiming their schools were violating it.

There's no way to know how many gave up after complaining to schools directly - the state doesn't collect those numbers. And each district has their own forms and process which parents must follow before getting the state involved.

The law doesn't stop schools from asking parents for donations - or even set a suggested amount. But students can't be left out for not paying.

So what can't schools charge for?

• Science lab equipment or supplies
• PE uniforms required to take the class
• Participating in sports teams
• Attending graduation ceremonies
• Books used in class
• Photography or art class supplies
• Attending summer school.

There are some things public schools can charge for: books a child destroys or a materials fee in a class where they get to keep what they make, like wood shop. And Seven things California public schools can't charge you for - and a few they can | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

NYC Educator: We Are the Real Reformers, Says Mulgrew

NYC Educator: We Are the Real Reformers, Says Mulgrew:

We Are the Real Reformers, Says Mulgrew

It's kind of surprising to hear Mike Mulgrew take up the mantra of those who've opposed UFT enabling of corporate reform, but he's absolutely correct that we're the real reformers. Pictured at left are a group of independent activist unionists, regularly excoriated by the elite invitation-only Unity Caucus. They predate Mulgrew's assertion by several years, are wearing real reformer capes and protesting a corporate reform event.

Yes, we are the real reformers, and yes we do whatever we have to in order to help the kids we see every day. Sadly, placing guns to our heads helps neither us nor them, and that's why the fear tactics Mulgrew uses to sell the substandard contract he negotiated are such bad ideas.

Mulgrew condemns the strategy of closing schools, but was part of the UFT leadership that endorsed mayoral control. When it became abundantly clear that school closing was the favored strategy of Tweed, UFT asked for a few changes, failed to get them, and supported mayoral control again anyway. Of course mayoral control's been seriously compromised now that Bill de Blasio tried to use it to slow down Eva Moskowitz. Governor Cuomo feels mayoral control should apply only to mayors who use it in support of Moskowitz, the legislature agrees, and Mulgrew's UFT leadership lifted not a finger to stop them from enabling her.

Mulgrew boasts of UFT lawsuits, and in fact used them when running against Jamaica Chapter Leader James Eterno for UFT President. Despite his words, UFT abandoned Jamaica High School, now set to be closed under the administration of the most progressive mayor in decades. The closure of Jamaica High School, among many others, epitomizes the failure of UFT leadership. It's unconscionable that Eterno himself, for my money the city's best chapter leader, will likely become an ATR subject to second tier due process. Union means we are one, not that some are less equal than others.

Our president bemoans the same charters his leadership failed to oppose with Bill de Blasio. But the UFT has a long history of failure regarding charters. UFT has not only supported charters, but has further partnered up with anti-teacher Steve Barr. Barr not only fired most of the LA NYC Educator: We Are the Real Reformers, Says Mulgrew:

Louisiana Educator: Big Business Shenanigans

Louisiana Educator: Big Business Shenanigans:

Big Business Shenanigans

The big business lobby in Louisiana loves to mess with education. They have not seen a deform or privatization scheme for public education that they did not like. LABI (The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry) wields its power over the Legislature because it commands big money control of the legislative process. It's simple! Legislators are afraid to go against LABI because big business can mobilize big dollars to either help or defeat legislators in their next election. It does not matter what real educators and real parents want as far as LABI is concerned. They know what is best for us!

LABI needs to create the impression that there are parents and educators who support the goals of big business in remaking education by firing teachers and administrators based on student test scores and for promoting voucher and charter school privatization schemes. Various business interests have therefore created what Noel Hammatt calls "Astro turf" (you know .... fake grass roots) organizations of parents and educators to counteract the legitimate educators and parents who do not agree with LABI and their allies. Here are the major fake groups lobbying the legislature that are really controlled by big business: Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL), Stand for Children, Louisiana Federation for Children, Associated Professional Educators, and the Black Alliance for Educational Options.

This year a real grass roots organization of parents have had their eyes opened at the legislature when they formed a group to object to the poorly implemented Common Core standards and the effort to create a big data sharing system for private companies Louisiana Educator: Big Business Shenanigans:

Kyle, and What I Learned about College Admissions (Michele Kerr) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Kyle, and What I Learned about College Admissions (Michele Kerr) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Kyle, and What I Learned about College Admissions (Michele Kerr)

Michele Kerr is a math teacher at Kennedy High School in Fremont, CA. She also wrote about teaching English and higher standards in previous guest posts. This post comes from her blog.

In the fall of his senior year, Kyle Evans1, one of my top pre-calculus students last spring, came to me for advice on his Questbridge scholarship application essay. I was scribbling edits, making comments, emphasizing a strong narrative, when I suddenly realized that the point of his essay was the struggles he’d faced freshman year as a homeless student. And now his family had just abruptly been left homeless again and was living in a single motel room.

Yeah, it was kind of a drag, he told me. Embarrassing. No privacy. Don’t tell anyone. He’d told the school counselor, but didn’t want the news getting about.

He maintained a 4.0 GPA that homeless freshman year, doing homework every night in the library. He ran cross country, although he would occasionally be benched for epileptic seizures. He transferred to our school his sophomore year, missing the first three weeks, which affected his grades and his progress on the math track.

His junior year, Kyle scored a 4 on the AP US History test; he couldn’t afford to take the AP English test and our school ran out of waivers. At this time, Kyle’s overall unweighted GPA is 3.7, weighted 4.2, putting him in the top 9% of the senior class. He took the AP Calculus test, but not the course, and I expect him to pass. He also took AP English Literature (the course and the test).

While his SAT scores were just above average, his ACT score composite was a 25 (super score 26), easily scaling the ACT Benchmarks for college readiness, Kyle, and What I Learned about College Admissions (Michele Kerr) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

K-12 News Network | Los Angeles Unified’s “Teacher Jail”

K-12 News Network | Los Angeles Unified’s “Teacher Jail”:

Los Angeles Unified’s “Teacher Jail”

admin May 27, 2014 Los Angeles, School Districts 0

Brian Hayes is a veteran teacher in Southern California. His piece refers to how, after a child predator on staff was caught and removed from MIramonte Elementary School, hundreds of teachers who had no connection to the predator were also removed and kept in isolation. Many are still there or have lost their jobs. Read The Nation’s full investigative report, “Where Shame Is Policy: Inside LA’s ‘Teacher Jail.’”

How many of us would protest vehemently if we were suspended from our job by our CEO and placed in a “company jail” without due process? That’s exactly what has happened to 450 teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

When Mark Berndt, a third grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary, was removed from his classroom in January, 2011 amid suspicions of lewd conduct, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy removed all of the school’s 76 faculty along with administrators and staff. In addition to Berndt, who is now serving a 25-year sentence, second grade teacher Martin Springer was later charged with committing lewd acts. None of the other Miramonte teachers were found guilty of any wrongdoing. Instead they were placed in an empty high school close by, sitting in limbo in what is known as “teacher jail” for six months and collecting full salaries.

In the fall, forty-six of the Miramonte teachers and a new principal returned to their original positions, while 30 educators either transferred to other schools or retired.

At its April 16 meeting last year, the LA Board of Education approved a resolution from District 3 member Tamar Galatzan which provided support for the impending passage of California State Assembly Bill 375, legislation designed to speed up the investigation and prosecutorial process of teachers removed from their classrooms on suspicion of unprofessional and/or criminal activity. However, on October 10, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the bill citing limits on depositions and a school district’s ability to amend charges, even when new evidence had come to light. While sharing the bills’ authors’ “desire to streamline the teacher discipline process,” Brown viewed it as “an imperfect solution.”

Consequently, LAUSD’s “teacher jail” has remained open for business despite Galatzan’s resolution. Today, approximately 450 K-12 News Network | Los Angeles Unified’s “Teacher Jail”:

Libraries and Librarians are not Luxuries | InterACT

Libraries and Librarians are not Luxuries | InterACT:

Libraries and Librarians are not Luxuries

MAY 28, 2014

by David B. Cohen

The library is the hub of academic life on campus (photo by the author).

At EdSource Today, a recent headline caught my eye (actually, thanks to Educate Our State for pointing it out):

School librarians a rare find in California public schools

Unfortunately, this problem is one of several indications that California’s policy makers don’t understand or don’t value the connection between “the whole child” and the classroom: we’re similarly underfunded when it comes to school counselors and nurses.

Many people hold an outdated image in mind concerning librarians, and they don’t know how much a professional librarian adds to the quality of a school. In response to comments at EdSource Today suggesting we could hire some “librarians” on the cheap to take the place of professionals, I composed the comment below – and encourage you to add your own comments here, and at EdSource.

Glad this is getting attention. It should be noted that librarians are teachers. In fact, a good librarian has to be the best teacher on a campus, because this is typically the only teacher whose responsibility extends to every student. We’re not talking about glorified book clerks and “Shhhh”-ing duty here. At Palo Alto High School, our librarian is incredibly pro-active. She anticipates student needs by familiarizing herself with the school-wide curriculum, to a degree possibly matched (but certainly not surpassed) by counselors and administrators. Knowing the curriculum allows the librarian to anticipate teacher needs as well. Collaboration between these teachers means that students (and even the classroom Libraries and Librarians are not Luxuries | InterACT:

Massive layoffs in Newark? Never mind. Cami was just joking. | Bob Braun's Ledger

Massive layoffs in Newark? Never mind. Cami was just joking. | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Massive layoffs in Newark? Never mind. Cami was just joking.

Fooled you, right?

State-appointed Newark schools superintendent Cami Anderson sent out an email late yesterday saying she had all but miraculously found a way to prevent massive teacher layoffs that had been predicted earlier. She also promised to stay in her job at least until next year.

While not saying there would be no layoffs at all, she said the firings would be limited to non-tenured teachers with low performance evaluations. She also conceded the state had refused to grant her the power to ignore seniority regulations when she went hunting for teachers to fire.

Her comments suggest a game of whiplash aimed at instructional personnel in the state’s largest school district. Let teachers–men and women with mortgages and tuition bills– think the worst and then, at the last moment, say it isn’t so bad after all. All part of the Broad Academy approach of creating disruption in the schools–and in the lives of school employees. The email also suggested worse layoffs might come in the future.

Anderson previously had said she would have to lay off about a third of the district’s more than 3,000 teachers.

Her email also suggests she plans to stick around, despite predictions from union leaders that her departure was “imminent.” She wrote: “I remain committed to the work here with you in Newark and look forward to working together now and next Massive layoffs in Newark? Never mind. Cami was just joking. | Bob Braun's Ledger:

John White’s Illegitimate 2013-to-2014 LEAP/iLEAP Comparisons | deutsch29

John White’s Illegitimate 2013-to-2014 LEAP/iLEAP Comparisons | deutsch29:

John White’s Illegitimate 2013-to-2014 LEAP/iLEAP Comparisons

May 27, 2014

Whenever Louisiana State Superintendent John White gets his hands on test scores, there will be problems.

He withheld release of the 2014 Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) and Integrated Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (iLEAP) scores on Friday, May 16, 2014, without explanation.

Today, he defended his decision before district superintendents by telling that compared to previous years, this year’s scores were not late.

Districts across the state came to expect to deliver LEAP and iLEAP scores to parents on Friday, May 16, 2014 because that was the Friday in May in which LEAP and iLEAP scores are usually released. White even acknowledged in a letter that the scores would be released later than in previous years:

In recent years, the Department has released these results May 17 or 18.

Friday, May 17, 2013.

Friday, May 18, 2012.

Thus, the commonly-held expectation that LEAP and iLEAP scores would be released on Friday, May 16, 2014, was logical, and White knew it.

In that letter, White makes another statement, one that solidifies the reality that any comparison of 2014 LEAP and iLEAP scores with those of prior years is useless:

An important step [toward connecting Common Core and its PARCC assessment] has been the one-time LEAP and iLEAP tests aligned to those new expectations (Common Core). [Emphasis added.]

I won’t pretend for a minute that White has actually carried out any sophisticated psychometric procedures to develop tests that are “aligned” with the Common Core he refuses to call by name (instead resorting to the vanilla term, “new expectations)

Trafficked Teachers: Neoliberalism’s Latest Labor Source - Working In These Times

Trafficked Teachers: Neoliberalism’s Latest Labor Source - Working In These Times:

Trafficked Teachers: Neoliberalism’s Latest Labor Source

Recruiting companies in the U.S. are attracting some of Philippines' best teachers with one-year guest worker visas to teach in American public schools, saddling the teachers with hidden fees and furthering the Philippines' growing teacher shortage. (SuSanA Secretariat/ Flickr / Creative Commons)  

Between 2007 and 2009, 350 Filipino teachers arrived in Louisiana, excited for the opportunity to teach math and science in public schools throughout the state. They’d been recruited through a company called Universal Placement International Inc., which professes on its website to “successfully place teachers in different schools thru out [sic] the United States.” As a lawsuitlater revealed, however, their journey through the American public school system was fraught with abuse. 

According to court documents, Lourdes Navarro, chief recruiter and head of Universal Placement, made applicants pay a whopping $12,550 in interview and “processing fees” before they’d even left the Philippines. But the exploitation didn’t stop there. Immediately after the teachers landed in LAX, Navarro coerced them into signing a contract paying her 10 percent of their first and second years’ salaries; she threatened those who refused with instant deportation. Even after they started at their schools, Navarro kept the teachers dependent on her by only obtaining them one-year visas before exorbitantly charging them for an annual renewal fee. She also confiscated their passports.

“We were herded into a path, a slowly constricting path,” said Ingrid Cruz, one of the teachers, during the trial, “where the moment you feel the suspicion that something is not right, you're already way past the point of no return." Eventually, a Los Angeles jury awarded the teachers $4.5 million.

Similar horror stories have abounded across the country for years. Starting in 2001, the private contractor Omni Consortium promised 273 Filipino teachers jobs within the Houston, Texas school district—in reality, there were only 100 spots open. Once they arrived, the teachers were crammed into groups of 10 to 15 in unfinished housing properties. Omni Consortium kept all their documents, did not allow them their own transportation, and threatened them with deportation if they complained about their unemployment status or looked for another job. 

And it’s not always recruiting agencies that are at fault. According to an American Federation Teachers report, in 2009, Florida Atlantic University imported 16 Indian math and science teachers for the St. Lucie County School District. Labeling the immigrant teachers as “interns,” the district only spent $18,000 for each of their yearly salaries—well below a regular teacher’s Trafficked Teachers: Neoliberalism’s Latest Labor Source - Working In These Times:

The Study that Keeps on Giving…(Hopefully) in its Final Round |:

The Study that Keeps on Giving…(Hopefully) in its Final Round

 In January I wrote a post about “The Study that Keeps on Giving…” Specifically, this post was about the study conducted and authored by Raj Chetty (Economics Professor at Harvard), John Friedman (Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard), and Jonah Rockoff (Associate Professor of Finance and Economics at Harvard) that was publishedfirst in 2011 (in its non-peer-reviewed and not even internally reviewed form) by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and then published again by NBER in January of 2014 (in the same form) but this time split into two separate studies (see them split here and here).

Their re-release of the same albeit split study was what prompted the title of the initial “The Study that Keeps on Giving…” post. Little did I know then, though, that the reason this study was re-released in split form was that it was soon to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Its non-peer-reviewed publication status was a major source of prior criticism. While journal editors seemed to have suggested the split, NBER seemingly took advantage of this opportunity to publicize this study in two forms, regardless and without prior explanation.

Anyhow, this came to my attention when the study’s lead author – Raj Chetty – emailed me a few weeks ago, emailed Diane Ravitch on the same email, and also apparently emailed other study “critics” at the same time (see prior reviews of this study as per this study’s other notable “critics” here, here, here, and here) to notify all of us that this study made it through peer review and was to be published in a forthcoming issue of theAmerican Economic Review. While Diane and I responded to our joint email (as other critics may have done as well), we ultimately promised Chetty that we would not share the actual contents of any of the approximately 20 email exchanges that went back and forth The Study that Keeps on Giving…(Hopefully) in its Final Round |:

5-27-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

Just Completely Revised & Updated My Bloom’s Taxonomy “Best” List

I’ve just completely revised and updated the most popular post on this blog, The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom. Additional suggestions are welcome…

by Larry Ferlazzo / 34min 

“A Teacher-Counselor Partnership Is ‘Essential’ For Student Success”

A Teacher-Counselor Partnership Is ‘Essential’ For Student Success is Part Two in my Ed Week Teacher series on teacher-counselor partnerships. Today’s post includes responses from Julie Hartline, the 2009 National Counselor Of The Year; and educator/authors Trish Hatch, Dr. Sherrel Bergmann and Dr. Judith Brough. In addition, I’ve included comments from readers. Here are some excerpts:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15min 

5-26-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles About Education PolicyHere are some recent good posts and articles on education policy issues: Who Gets To Graduate is by Paul Tough and appears in The New York Times. He raises many useful points, but misses others. Those “misses” are pointed out in a good response in T

by mike simpson / 5h 

Why a “fair start” is so important for California’s kids | EdSource Today

Why a “fair start” is so important for California’s kids | EdSource Today:

Why a “fair start” is so important for California’s kids

May 27th, 2014 | Add a Comment | 
By Jim Steyer / commentary

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Jim Steyer

Now that Gov. Jerry Brown has introduced his revised budget plan, a month-long negotiation over the state’s priorities has begun. Unfortunately, the governor’s spending blueprint is still missing a key investment in preschool-age children, even though California continues to sorely lag in preschool enrollment.

According to a recent report by the National Institute for Early Education Research, preschool enrollment in California dropped by almost 15,000 spots in 2012-2013, dragging down the national average down, despite most states making improvements in enrollment.

Buoyed by an even stronger fiscal outlook from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), California now has an enormous opportunity to make a smart and reasonable investments in its youngest children by providing funding that would make quality preschool opportunities open to all California families. Political leaders in the Golden State should take note of what’s happening around the country, and assume a strong leadership role by investing in the state’s youngest and most important citizens.

Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has made new funding for preschool programs a top priority, and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins is on board. But the governor has yet to commit to providing state funds for a program that will have a dramatic and positive impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of California children and families.

After years of deficits in Sacramento, the state’s finances have finally stabilized. California now has the means, and most importantly the responsibility, to make wise investments in our future. No other investment could have more benefit than investing in high-quality preschool programs for Why a “fair start” is so important for California’s kids | EdSource Today:

Denver teachers have more classroom, less planning time than those overseas | Chalkbeat

Denver teachers have more classroom, less planning time than those overseas | Chalkbeat:

Denver teachers have more classroom, less planning time than those overseas

 Denver teachers have less time to plan their lessons or collaborate with other teachers than those in high-performing overseas districts — or even others in the United States — a new report finds.

The report, which was produced by the Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ), compares professional development systems and teacher schedules in six cities, including Denver, Lexington, KY; Seattle, WA and Shanghai, China. The CTQ is a national non-profit focused on influencing teaching practice and strategies.

PHOTO: Center for Teaching Quality

A breakdown of a typical teaching schedule in six education systems.

The report also includes interviews with teachers from the featured districts, including Karen Wagner, a third grade teacher at Denver’s Polaris at Ebert Elementary School. Highlights from Wagner’s interviews include:

• “In my district, teachers only have three official professional days annually, and what we experience is pretty much determined by the principal and/or district.”
• “It’s extremely rare for another teacher in my building to see me teach. It only happened once last year when another colleague observed one of my math lessons—and the feedback was very informal.”
• “Teachers may seek our own professional development opportunities outside the district, and many do, but we do not have a way to coordinate our learning.”

The full report is available here.

The Power of Parents to Reform a School System | Philly in Focus

The Power of Parents to Reform a School System | Philly in Focus:

The Power of Parents to Reform a School System

PHILLYACTIVE™ (NEWS THAT GETS PHILLY ACTIVE) Felicia Roche, mother an 8th grader, analyzes the School District of Philadelphia and asks: “Do parents care?”

By Felicia Roche

5.27.14: Philadelphia – (Politics/Education): If you mention the words “School District of Philadelphia” to an active citizen, parent, or even politician living in Philly, nine times out of 10 they’ll respond with phrases of disgust and frustration, such as: “the schools are horrible,” or “the district doesn’t care about the students.” In an effort to avoid school district politics and ensure the safety of their children, many parents have resolved to move outside of Philadelphia, or place their children in private/charter schools.

READ: The Dangerous South Philly School Nobody Knows What to Do With

We know the headlines; we’ve read the news articles; and we know the crisis the School District of Philadelphia has been facing for years.  Enraged, we rally, march, complain and do our best to make noise. But in all the moments of civil disobedience, there seems to be a population that are consistently less vocal, a group from which we almost never hear from. There are literally tens of thousands of parents in Philly who are directly impacted by the cuts to education and mismanagement of the district, but they remain silent. To this fact, I must ask the question: do parents care?

Why does it seem like parents accept the cuts, the closures and the inequality without as much as a whisper of disapproval? Why isn’t the streets filled with parents demanding their children have access to the same resources as the schools in the suburbs?

Do parents not want smaller classroom sizes, a nurse every day of the week, counselors, libraries, better qualified teachers, afterschool programs, new books, computers, laptops, smart boards, new buildings, music, language, creative writing, career prep, college tours, early intervention resources, and educational field trips?  Do the parents of these unlucky students not want what’s best for their young? Do they not know they can make such demands? Or do they just not care?

CLICK HERE to read “Why a Vote Won’t Fix Our Schools But a Parent’s Power Can.”

When a group of my peers were presented with this question the majority resorted to the narrative that “most parents The Power of Parents to Reform a School System | Philly in Focus: