Feature: Remember when teacher evaluations were the subject of controversy in LA Unified? Not anymore | 89.3 KPCC

Feature: Remember when teacher evaluations were the subject of controversy in LA Unified? Not anymore | 89.3 KPCC:

Remember when teacher evaluations were the subject of controversy in LA Unified? Not anymore

Only a few years ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District's system for evaluating teachers' job performance was the subject of legal disputes, full-blown lawsuits and bitter fractious debate between district leaders and the teachers union.

Not anymore. Last weekend, the rank-and-file of United Teachers Los Angelesoverwhelmingly approved new contract terms for a teacher evaluation system — and unlike in the past, both sides agreed the talks had gone smoothly.

"One of the things [the union's] chief negotiator said was that the entire process was one that had been very collaborative in nature," said Gifty Beets, co-director of labor relations for L.A. Unified.

"It was a collaborative effort on both ends," said UTLA vice president Cecily Myaert-Cruz, who was on the bargaining team for the union.

The amity didn't come about by accident. As a prelude to this last spring's contract negotiations, representatives for UTLA, the district, and the principals' union all met over six months in 2015 to discuss how to handle evaluations.

The new contract language contains few blockbuster changes to the evaluation system itself. Still, the tone of the debate over the system's future has shifted dramatically, according to Ama Nyamekye, executive director of the teacher advocacy group Educators For Excellence-Los Angeles.

"We went from an age where teachers weren’t getting teachers getting feedback on their practice to a national spotlight on the teacher evaluation effort," said Nyamekye, whose organization tends to provide a counterweight to teachers unions in policy debates.

"Suddenly," she continued, "everyone wants to come into your classroom and give you feedback. And there are a lot of warring perspectives on how to evaluate teachers, from academia, from districts, from unions, from reformers."

Now? "It feels less politicized," said Nyamekye.

But did the harmonious talks between union officials and district leaders produce a better teacher evaluation system? For Bootsie Battle-Holt, a math teacher at Marina Del Rey Middle School, the agreement is a mixed bag. On one hand, she feels the changes make for a process that's less about a "gotcha evaluation" and more about professional growth.

But "the evaluation process right now," Battle-Holt added, "is still the dog and pony show [based on] the one lesson [principals observe] … It needs to be a big, Feature: Remember when teacher evaluations were the subject of controversy in LA Unified? Not anymore | 89.3 KPCC:

La. BESE President James Garvey Active in the Purchase of 2010 Jeff Parish School Board Race | deutsch29

La. BESE President James Garvey Active in the Purchase of 2010 Jeff Parish School Board Race | deutsch29:

La. BESE President James Garvey Active in the Purchase of 2010 Jeff Parish School Board Race

On June 04, 2016, I wrote a post about an email that Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) president James Garvey sent to the rest of the BESE board especially regarding one of Louisiana state superintendent John White’s lawsuits to block public record requests.

At the end of the post, I noted that the real issue is that the public does not trust White because White is “a greasy, fast-tracked ‘superintendent’ who has an established reputation for narrative mud.”

Even as I was writing those words, I was thinking that Garvey is also greasy.

And wouldn’t you know, an anonymous commenter noticed that Garvey responded using his personal email and asked me if I were aware of this January 2016nola.com article regarding a public records request connected to Garvey.

I was not. It is quite a story, and at the end of the article, reporter Danielle Dreilinger attached the actual emails cited in her article.

The article concerns the 2010 Jefferson Parish school board election. It is entitled, “See How Jefferson Business Activists Plotted School Board Takeover.”

Here are some excerpts:

Newly released emails that passed through the government account of Lucien Gunter, former executive director of the Jefferson Economic Development Commission, shed new light on the extent to which Gunter and other business activists engaged in extensive campaigning and fundraising for candidates in the pivotal 2010 Jefferson Parish School Board races. …

The names of most of Gunter’s email correspondents have been redacted. But it is clear that he worked hand-in-glove with Metairie lawyer Jim Garvey, who is an elected member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and 

La. BESE President James Garvey Active in the Purchase of 2010 Jeff Parish School Board Race | deutsch29:

White Students Get Experienced Teachers, While Black Students Get Police In School

White Students Get Experienced Teachers, While Black Students Get Police In School:

White Students Get Experienced Teachers, While Black Students Get Police In School

“I don’t think there’s any way you could look at this data and not come away with a tremendous sense of urgency.”

In America, the most rigorous classes, experienced teachers and moderate discipline practices tend to be reserved for white students, according to new survey results from the U.S. Department of Education. 

The Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection surveys 99 percent of the nation’s public schools on issues related to the level of opportunity provided to their students. The survey, which is conducted every other school year, collects data about students’ access to classes, teachers and school discipline trends. The latest survey, which has data from the 2013-2014 school year, also collected data on issues like student absenteeism and the quality of education provided in juvenile justice facilities. 

The Department of Education provided reporters with top-level national indicators and will release full data that informed its conclusions later in the week. 

The survey results paint a picture of vast educational inequalities based on students’ skin color and disability status, with only a few bright spots. Specifically, while student suspension rates appear to have dropped 20 percent since the last time data was collected in 2011-2012, stark racial inequities persist in terms of which students receive this punishment. 

“In general, the data shows students of color, students whose first language is not English, and students with disabilities are, according to a number of indicators, not getting the same the opportunities to learn as their classmates who are white, first language is English or who do not have disabilities,” U.S. Secretary of Education John King Jr. said on a call with reporters Monday.

King is hopeful that the nation’s new federal education law, The Every Student Succeeds Act, will serve to rectify some of these inequities. 

“These statistics are not just numbers. They represent the educational experiences of real students, whose lives are affected in profound ways by what goes on in their schools,” said King.

Even In Preschool, Black Students Are Punished More Harshly Than White Students

As early as preschool, students of color are subjected to harsher punishments than their white peers. The 2011-2012 Civil Rights Data Collection first reported this imbalance — finding that even though black children accounted for only 18 percent of preschool students, they represented 48 percent of children receiving one or more out-of-school suspensions. Several years later, little has changed. In 2013-2014, black children accounted for 19 percent of preschool students, but 47 percent of students receiving one or more suspensions — making them 3.6 times more likely to receive a suspension than their white peers. 

For K-12 students, this trend continues. Even though the 2.8 million K-12 students who received one or more out-of-school suspensions in 2013-2014 represents a 20 percent decrease from 2011-2013  — a decline the Education Department is highlighting — the racial gaps in who gets suspended persist. Black students are 3.8 times more likely to face suspension than white students. Also more likely to receive a suspension are Latino, American Indian and Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students; mixed-race males; and students with disabilities.

As far as female students go, though, only black girls are being disproportionately 

 White Students Get Experienced Teachers, While Black Students Get Police In School:

School suspensions are declining, but racial disparities in discipline persist

School suspensions are declining, but racial disparities in discipline persist:

School suspensions are declining, but racial disparities in discipline persist

Public schools across the country suspended nearly 20 percent fewer students in 2014 than they did in 2012, according to new federal data released Tuesday, a positive sign amid a mixed picture on how the nation’s school serve students of color.

Some 2.8 million students were suspended from public schools nationwide during the 2013-14 school year, a sign that efforts by the Obama administration to curb the use of suspensions, which activists say are linked to higher dropout rates and a greater likelihood of entering the criminal justice system, are working.

But there are also significant racial disparities, both in the use of discipline and in students’ access to experienced teachers and advanced math and science classes, according to the Civil Rights Data Collection, released every two years by the US Education Department.

Recommended: 1912 eighth grade exam: Could you make it to high school in 1912?

Black students were nearly four times as likely to be suspended as white students, and twice as likely to be expelled. The same pattern was apparent in preschools, where black children represent 19 percent of all preschoolers, but 47 percent of pre-schoolers receiving an out of school suspension.

“Fewer suspensions is an important sign of progress,” Education Secretary John King Jr.told The Washington Post. “But I don’t think there’s any way you can look at this data and not come away with a tremendous sense of urgency about continuing to close our equity gaps”

Students with disabilities are twice as likely to be suspended in K-12 schools, though they are not more likely to be suspended in preschool, the survey found. They are also more likely to be physically restrained or secluded than other students.

Catherine Lhamon, the assistant secretary for civil rights called the 20 percent reduction in suspensions across the country “breathtaking.”

But “these disparities beg for more districts to follow the lead of places like Baltimore and Chicago, which are dramatically limiting the use of suspensions in early grades,” she told the Associated Press.

Students’ access to advanced classes in math and science is also limited across the country. Only 48 percent of the nation’s high schools offer courses in calculus. At schools that serve predominately black and Latino students, that number drops to 33 percent.

King said the recently passed federal Every Students Succeeds Act could help spur further changes. In addition to test scores, the law also allows states to hold schools accountable for measures such as student absences and how schools discipline students, The Washington Post reports.

"A systemic failure to educate some groups of children as well as others tears at the moral fabric of the nation," he said in a phone call with reporters. "What sets the U.S. apart from any other country is the idea that opportunity is universal. These data show that we still fall far short of that ideal."

This report contains material from the Associated Press.School suspensions are declining, but racial disparities in discipline persist:

Why Doesn't Society Care About the Education of Incarcerated Youth - The Atlantic

Why Doesn't Society Care About the Education of Incarcerated Youth - The Atlantic:

Learning Behind Bars

Why doesn’t education in juvenile detention facilities get any attention or support?

In spite of some signs of improvement, fundamental disparities persist in youth incarceration. The number of youngsters in U.S. correctional facilities has been cut in half—a dramatic drop of 53 percent from 2001 to 2013—according to a Pew analysis of federal data. Still, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a child-advocacy group, found “in every year for which data are available, the overwhelming majority of confined youth are held for nonviolent offenses.” And children of color bear the brunt of juvenile-justice policies: Black children are nearly five times as likely, and Latino and Native American youngsters are two to three times as likely, to be incarcerated as are their white peers.

Similar inequities carry over to the learning that happens behind bars. Though confined young people are entitled to an education by law, the quality of the education they receive can vary greatly. The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice issued guidance to states in December 2014 to improve school programs in youth detention. But overall, the education of incarcerated youth is mostly ignored and poorly understood.

Among those working to bring greater visibility to the issue of schooling in juvenile-detention facilities is David Domenici, the director of the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings (CEEAS), a nonprofit devoted to improving teaching and learning at juvenile-justice schools. In 2013 CEEAS developed “Words Unlocked,” a nationwide poetry contest to amplify the voices and creative talents of incarcerated youngsters. After speaking recently at an education summit hosted by The Atlantic, Domenici offered additional thoughts on why educating students in juvenile facilities deserves more attention and support. The interview that follows has been edited for length and clarity.

---

Melinda D. Anderson: “Education is the civil-rights issue of our time” is a recurring catchphrase in education policy, until the topic turns to the civil rights of incarcerated youth. The notion that youth in juvenile detention are “bad kids” who deserve their fate—and thus that educating them is immaterial—is a philosophical hurdle that activists and others engaged in this work must constantly strive to overcome. How do we begin to combat the belief that these children are expendable?

David Domenici (CEEAS)

David Domenici: These are not bad kids—they are poor, they have failed at and been failed by our school systems, they are disproportionately kids of color, many are victims of violence and abuse, and they mostly live in under-resourced neighborhoods, wracked by violence and high unemployment. And yes, many are hard to work with, and some have done some bad stuff. [Yet] I was the principal at what’s now known as New Beginnings Youth Development Center (D.C.’s secure facility for adjudicated youth formerly known as Oak Hill Detention Center) for four years. Hundreds of kids passed through Oak Hill during my time there. Not one was white.

I don’t want white kids locked up either—but we have to be honest about this. About 98 percent were black, the rest Hispanic. Almost all of the kids came from a handful of poor, segregated neighborhoods. None attended the city’s magnet schools, or the one integrated, high-performing high school. How is this not a Why Doesn't Society Care About the Education of Incarcerated Youth - The Atlantic:

The 7 steps to making a standardized test - The Boston Globe

The 7 steps to making a standardized test - The Boston Globe:

The 7 steps to making a standardized test

Inside the New Hampshire not-for-profit where assessments like the MCAS are born.

Who designs the standardized tests that spread a blanket of silence and stress across schools in Massachusetts and other states each spring?

A) A phalanx of drill sergeants who would ban recess if they could

B) A coven of witches who feed on the sweat and tears of small children

C) Dozens of PhDs and former teachers who spend their days in cubicles in Dover, New Hampshire.

The answer is C. The Massachusetts tests for grades 3 through 8 — used to rate schools, partially evaluate teachers, and help decide if students move to the next grade — are created by the employees of the not-for-profit Measured Progress, an enthusiastic bunch who care deeply about improving education through testing. Measured Progress has worked with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to make and score the MCAS for all but four of the 19 times it has been given. The company also works on large-scale assessments for 16 other states and is one of two companies in the running to design the MCAS 2.0.

 View Story

Can Massachusetts build a better standardized test?

The MCAS has long been considered the best assessment in the nation. Here’s why we’re throwing it out.

Here’s how they do their work:

1. The state decides what the test should look like

The list of standards — the skills and knowledge states decide their students should have at each grade level — is the test maker’s bible. Examples from the Massachusetts standards, which incorporate the Common Core, include: “Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text” or “Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems.” The state and Measured Progress agree on how many questions to devote to each standard and the ratio of multiple-choice questions to open-ended ones.

2. Measured Progress begins writing questions

 Next, it’s time to start writing “items,” as they’re called in the industry. Each year, MCAS tests included some recycled items, but a large number will have been field-tested in previous years and used for scoring for the first time. A good item is clear and concise and will address the standard it’s supposed to be assessing. Multiple-choice questions can have only one right answer. Reading passages need to be drawn from actual fiction or nonfiction. In math, word problems need to be realistic. “You can’t have someone going on a hike where he’s hiking 20 miles per hour,” says Raymond Reese, a math content development specialist.

3. Educators weigh in

After an internal review, the state assembles six to 12 educators from across Massachusetts for each grade (and sometimes subject area) that’s being tested to go through items with them, one by one. If teachers don’t like an item, they can either suggest revisions or vote to reject it (fewer than 10 percent are discarded at this stage). Meanwhile, separate committees of state educators vet the items for bias. “They’re really looking for things that might affect performance on items other than the student’s ability,” says Stuart Kahl, Measured Progress’s founding principal. A writing prompt to The 7 steps to making a standardized test - The Boston Globe:

Your Cheat Sheet for the Proposed ESSA Accountability Rules - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Your Cheat Sheet for the Proposed ESSA Accountability Rules - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Your Cheat Sheet for the Proposed ESSA Accountability Rules

By Andrew Ujifusa and Alyson Klein

It's been close to two weeks since the U.S. Department of Education released proposed regulations for the Every Student Succeeds Act that would govern school accountability. We've touched onseveral high-profile issues in the draft rules since they were made public, including their requirement for a single overall rating for schools and the tricky shift to ESSA that some schools might face in 2016-17. 

But below, you can find several of the most important issues in a straightforward, "cheat sheet" format. We've organized the material into three categories:

• What ESSA says about the issue in statutory language; 

• How the proposed ESSA regulations would handle the issue, and;

• Some of the reaction to the proposed regulations. (We included this where it was relevant—not every area has gotten serious pushback or praise at this early stage.) 

Let us know if you think we've missed any major issues in the comments section, or email us ataujifusa@epe.org, or aklein@epe.org. You have until Aug. 1 to submit your comments to the department about these proposed rules. They're expected to be finalized at some point after that later this year.

Overall School Rating

• What ESSA Says: ESSA does not explicitly require states to apply an overall rating to each school in their accountability plans.

• What the Draft Rules Say: The regulations require a "summative" rating for each school. States have to have at least three categories of summative ratings. The rating can take the form of a number (say on a scale of 1 to 100), an A through F grade, or it could just be a category (say, "needs improvement", "satisfactory", or "excellent.") Plus, states need to make publicly available any data that informs the overall summative rating. If schools are calculating the rating based on growth, achievement, and school climate, for example, they need to publish that data for parents, alongside the overall score. 

• The Reaction: Supporters of such a comprehensive rating for schools say the proposal is consistent with the intent of ESSA to provide clear information to educators, parents, and others. Some, however, are concerned that it could undermine alternative methods of school accountability, such as "dashboards" that provide information about various indicators, but don't place a single rating on schools. 

Test Participation

• What ESSA Says: States are still required to test all students annually in English/language arts and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school. But states are allowed to set consequences for schools that don't meet the 95 percent participation threshold. States could also have laws explicitly allowing parents to opt their children out of tests.

• What the Draft Rules Say: States must choose one of three sanctions for schools that miss the threshold, such as giving schools the lowest rating on their academic achievement indicators or knocking down their overall ratings. Or else states can submit their own plans for dealing with test-participation problems. 

• The Reaction: Fans of annual standardized tests say the proposal is appropriate and highlights how important these tests are. However, those friendly to the testing opt-out movement argue the plan is too prescriptive and that states would not get the flexibility they think the law contains when it comes to dealing with high opt-out rates. (If you're thinking the legal environment for opt-out seems complicated or unclear right now, you're not alone.) AFT President Randi Weingarten is among those critical of the proposed rules here, saying they're too punitive.

Accountability Indicators

• What ESSA Says: States must create an accountability system that relies on both academic indicators like test scores, graduation rates, and English-language proficiency, plus at least one indicator of school quality, which could be teacher engagement, student engagmement, school climate, or anything else the state cooks up that's subject to federal approval of their accountability plans. Each of these indicators must carry "substantial" weight. And the academic indicators, as a group, must be given a weight "much greater" than the school-quality indicator. 

• What the Draft Rules Say: The proposed regulations don't define what "much greater" means or give any sense of what would be an appropriate weight for each indicator. They do say, however, that the academic indicators need to give equal weight to math and reading. And they say that the school-quality indicator should be something that research shows will contribute to student achievement or boost graduation rates. (There's research to back up indicators like access to the arts, or science and social studies classes, U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr. said in a recent interview with Education Week.)

Also, the school-quality indicator should be something that shows real differentiation from one school to another. For example, the department is discouraging states from using average daily attendance; it says there's simply not enough variation from school to school, which means it's harder to tell which schools need closer attention and support. Also, importantly, just as with the summative rating, states need to come up with at least three performance levels for each indicator. That means if a state picks, say, teacher engagement, it needs to figure out what it means for a school to have at least high, low, and medium teacher engagement. (States could come up with more than three levels, if they want.) 

•The Reaction: Mike Petrilli, of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, thinks the department is attaching too many strings to the school quality indicator. Check out his post here. 

Subgroups of Students and 'N' Sizes

• What ESSA Says: States need to consider the performance of each subgroup of students (that's English-language learners, racial minorities, students in special education, and disadvantaged kids) seperately, no combining of subgroups into "super subgroups." Also, states need to set an "n" size, meaning the minimum number of students in a particular group that a school must have in order for that group to count for accountability purposes. The state gets to pick the "n" size it wants—the department doesn't get to require any particular number. (The thinking behind an "n" size: If a Your Cheat Sheet for the Proposed ESSA Accountability Rules - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

The Waiting Game Sacramento City Unified’s central kitchen slow to progress | Comstock's magazine

The Waiting Game | Comstock's magazine:

The Waiting Game

Sacramento City Unified’s central kitchen slow to progress

I’m a locavore — an advocate for eating local food. Local food tastes better. Sadly, kids eating school lunches rarely know the joys of a blueberry or tomato grown in their own communities. In Sacramento, school cafeterias don’t have the equipment or capacity to store and prepare fresh, local food. They’re designed mainly to warm frozen, processed food.

In 2012, taxpayers approved Measure R to fund a solution to this problem: build a “central kitchen,” a large kitchen that serves as a hub for the whole district, where meals are prepared from scratch daily and distributed same-day to all schools. Yet, four years later, kids are still waiting for a better school lunch.

On May 5, the Sacramento City Unified School District school board received an assessment from the Central Kitchen Task Force about the viability of local properties for a central kitchen site. I’m on the task force, and I joined a group of food activists at the meeting to speak in favor of building the central kitchen and to inspire a sense of urgency to keep the project on track. Two feasible sites have been identified. One is owned by the district, but not centrally located to school sites. The other is favorably located next to the SCUSD’s existing food warehouse, but isn’t owned by the district. No action has been taken yet to select a site — the first barrier standing between Sacramento students and their local watermelon. Board Member Jay Hansen, who appointed the task force, says he anticipates an action on property by August.

Let me provide context for the problems that lead to the need for a central kitchen. It’s not the fault of “lunch ladies” that our kids aren’t eating fresh school meals; it’s a systems-level problem that runs much deeper. Through my job as executive director of the Food Literacy Center and as a volunteer appointee of the SCUSD’s task force, I work closely with district staff from the Nutrition Services Department. They’re the ones banging their pots and pans the loudest to resolve the fresh food issue, working to fill school lunches with local fruits and veggies (defined by the district as grown within 250 miles). But making these dreams come true takes a lot of work.

“If Sacramento is to deliver on its promise as the Farm-to-Fork Capital, we need to start with what we feed students in our schools,” says Nutrition Services Director Brenda Padilla. With a master’s degree in human nutrition, she’s the one in charge of the meals our kids eat. And she’s eager to improve the choices offered to them.

Campuses Not Equipped

When it comes to serving local food, the story is like an orange with a very stubborn peel: It’s hard to get to the good stuff. In this case, federal school lunch regulations don’t stand in the way  — it’s a problem of equipment and infrastructure.

Many SCUSD campuses were built during an era when processed foods reigned supreme, with small kitchens designed to serve one goal: heat and serve. They are tiny spaces without much prep or The Waiting Game | Comstock's magazine:

Charter schools’ dire lesson: Deregulation invariably leads to disaster - Salon.com

Charter schools’ dire lesson: Deregulation invariably leads to disaster - Salon.com:

Charter schools’ dire lesson: Deregulation invariably leads to disaster
Moneyed interests have turned learning laboratories into just another racket, plagued by questions of transparency

 The original concept of charter schools emerged nationally more than two decades ago and was intended to support community efforts to open up education. Albert Shanker, then president of the American Federation of Teachers union, lauded the charter idea in 1988 as way to propel social mobility for working class kids and to give teachers more decision-making power.

“There was a sense from the start that they would develop models for the broader system,” John Rogers tells Capital & Main. Rogers, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, is director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access. He adds that charter schools were to be laboratories where parents and educators would work together to craft the best possible learning environment and to serve as engines of innovation and social equity.

But critics of today’s market-based charter movement say monied interests have turned those learning labs into models for capital capture in the Golden State and beyond–“the charter school gravy train,” as Forbes describes it. Charters are publicly funded but privately managed and, like most privately run businesses, the schools prefer to avoid transparency in their operations. This often has brought negative publicity to the schools – last month the Los Angeles Daily News reported that the principal of El Camino Real Charter High School charged more than $100,000 in expenses to his school-issued credit card, many of them for personal use.

“Information belongs to the public,” says Daniel Losen, who conducts law and policy research on education equality issues. “To the extent that you think choice should benefit parents—good choices are made with good information.” Losen co-authored a March, 2016 report about charter schools’ disciplinary policies, produced by theCenter for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.

Billions of taxpayer dollars have flowed into expanding America’s privately-run charter school system over the past two decades, including $3.3 billion in federal funds alone, reports an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy. California has the nation’s largest number of charter schools, with most of them located in Los Angeles County. But in an age when words like “accountability” and “transparency” dominate political discourse, the financial mechanics of charters receive less oversight and scrutiny than the average public school bake sale.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools candidly spells out the Golden State’slaissez fairerules of the game on its website: “California law provides that charter schools are automatically exempt from most laws governing school districts.”

The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) has explicitly opposed state legislation that would clearly define the existing transparency laws and codes for charter schools — standards charters can now avoid despite their use of public funds.

“Charters don’t have to disclose budgets,” says Jackie Goldberg, a long-time Los Angeles school teacher and former Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board president, who also served in the California State Assembly. “Once a charter is written, it’s not subject to the Brown or the Public Records acts.”

The CCSA opposes several bills currently progressing through the state legislature that would bring charter school transparency requirements into line with those expected of public schools. One measure spells out the expectation that charters would follow the same standards as public schools when it comes to the Public Records Act that guarantees access to public records; CCSA argues that most charter schools already voluntarily comply—so the law is Charter schools’ dire lesson: Deregulation invariably leads to disaster - Salon.com:

Debate over transgender use of bathrooms & locker rooms | WBFO

Debate over transgender use of bathrooms & locker rooms | WBFO:

Debate over transgender use of bathrooms & locker rooms

Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers.

CREDIT WBFO NEWS PHOTO BY EILEEN BUCKLEY

Many school districts are working to draft a transgender policy to protect a student’s rights.  The transgender issue effects not only students in K through 12, but at colleges and universities. WBFO's Senior Reporter Eileen Buckley says there is no one set policy in place for schools to follow.

Inside a school bathroom.

CREDIT WBFO NEWS PHOTO BY EILEEN BUCKLEY

Listen

Listening...

3:48

A few weeks ago President Obama issued a directive to public schools across the U.S. stating transgender students should use a bathroom or locker room in which they 'identify with'.

"I think some districts are absolutely struggling with this situations. They want to make sure individuals, students are 100-percent protected from any discrimination,” said Traci Lopardi, Attorney, Harris Beach in Buffalo.

Traci Lopardi, Attorney, Harris Beach in Buffalo, specializes in education law.

CREDIT WBFO NEWS PHOTO BY EILEEN BUCKLEY

The law firm represents more than 150-school districts across the state and more than 50-school districts in western New York. Lopardi specializes in education law. As the debate continues over a transgender student's rights in a school, Lopardi said the Obama directive was issued in a joint letter from the Department of Justice and Department of Education.

“And that guidance, while it doesn’t have the same force of law, that’s certainly that is something that various educational institutions need to consider, because otherwise they could potentially lose federal funding. We’ve seen some lawsuits around the country, but certainly the Department of Justice becoming involved with some various schools and telling them that they must provide appropriate facilities to transgender individuals, otherwise they will lose federal funds,” Lopardi explained.

Almost a year ago here in New York the State Education Department issued a Debate over transgender use of bathrooms & locker rooms | WBFO:

The Media Still Doesn't Grasp Problems with Bill Gates Control of Ed Policy | Truth in American Education

The Media Still Doesn't Grasp Problems with Bill Gates Control of Ed Policy | Truth in American Education:

The Media Still Doesn't Grasp Problems with Bill Gates Control of Ed Policy 

Photo credit: World Economic Forum (CC-By-SA 2.0)

We’ve written about the Gates Foundation’s admission that its efforts to impose Common Core nationwide were misguided and ineffective. Remarkably, the mainstream media have begun to analyze the relatively unexamined problems with allowing one unelected man – even one who is very very very rich – to control public-education policy. But although they’ve taken a small step in the right direction, they still miss some essential conclusions.

Case in point: a recent column in the Los Angeles Times, promisingly entitled “Gates Foundation Failures Show Philanthropists Shouldn’t Be Setting America’s Public School Agenda.” The Timescorrectly observed that “the Gates Foundation strongly supported the proposed Common Core curriculum standards, helping to bankroll not just their development, but the political effort to have them quickly adopted and implemented by states.” Agreeing with and elaborating on the foundation’s admission of “stumbling,” the Times concluded that Gates accumulated “an unhealthy amount of power” and was given “too much sway in recent years over how schools are run.”

Too bad no one ever saw this problem before. Oh wait – thousands of parents and other concerned observers have been protesting for years now Gates’s assault on local control over education, and his blunderbuss attempts to remake schools in his own image. But not until his foundation itself admits what has been glaringly obvious for some time does the Times notice the situation.

Perhaps we shouldn’t criticize the Johnny-come-latelies in the press but rather welcome them to the train wreck. But they richly deserve criticism for still clinging to the shreds of Common Core propaganda that Gates and other proponents continue to recycle. From the same Times piece: “Financial support for Common Core isn’t a bad thing. When the standards are implemented well, The Media Still Doesn't Grasp Problems with Bill Gates Control of Ed Policy | Truth in American Education: