In This Issue:  | | • | FIRST FURLOUGH DAY FOR 680,000 L.A. UNIFIED STUDENTS | | | • | UTLA, CTA, LONG BEACH, SAN FRANCISCO TEACHERS UNIONS WON’T SIGN CALIFORNIA’S APPLICATION FOR SECOND ROUND OF RACE TO THE TOP GRANT | | | • | "Up for grabs": LAUSD REVEALS LIST OF LOW PERFORMING SCHOOLS | | | • | NEW STUDY CALLS FOR SYSTEMIC REFORMS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH LEARNER EDUCATION: “REPAIRABLE HARM - Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Educational Opportunity | | | • | HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources | | | • | EVENTS: Coming up next week... | | | • | What can YOU do? | |
Featured Links: | | | | LEST WE FORGET, this is Memorial Day weekend. Not Race Week as banner headlines in USA Today proclaim ...or another three (now four) day break. Memorial Day was originally Decoration Day, given to visiting Civil War cemeteries and tending to the graves and memories.
Jackson Browne sang that "gravestones cheer the living; they're no use to the dead".
So be of good cheer: those who gave, in Lincoln's words, "the last full measure of devotion" - have left us may things worth having. To them - and to all of us: Peace.
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fur·lough
/ˈfɜrloʊ/
–noun
1.Military. a vacation or leave of absence granted to an enlisted person.
2.a usually temporary layoff from work: Many plant workers have been forced to go on furlough.
3.a temporary leave of absence authorized for a prisoner from a penitentiary.
Origin: 1615–25; var. of earlier furlogh, furloff < href="http://4lakids.c.topica.com/maan1XiabYlHAaaaaaac/">http://bit.ly/bEbowF
EARLIER THIS YEAR the State of Hawaii started Furlough Fridays in their schools. Hawaii became a laughingstock, pilloried and whatnot for lack of educational commitment, etc.
This Friday, LAUSD joined the club with our first Furlough Friday. Already a laughingstock and pilloried, etc., what did we have to lose? Just five days of instruction this year, seven next.
Sure, seventy thousand employees got an unpaid day off - and the District saved something like $11.7 million. But 680,000 students got a day deducted their educations. They'll lose 4 more this year, 7 next. Collective bargaineers will negotiate in the future behind closed doors to make up for the lost salaries ...but those kids will never get those days back.
Yes, lots of jobs were saved by this deal between the unions and the district - but sometimes we miss that K-12 public education is not an employment scheme for adults; it's an education program for children.
AND HOW DID I SPEND MY FURLOUGH DAY? I spent in at the unmerciful mercy of United Airlines; the end of a day that was to have my family in Lewiston, Maine at our daughter's college finds us instead at the New Orleans Airport Hilton as three legs of a two-legged cross-country journey got canceled.
1-2-3. LA to DC Canceled. LA to NOLA. Good. NOLA to DC Canceled. DC to Maine. Canceled.
The weather's nice in L.A.; the weather's nice in Maine. However, it's bad in D.C. - bummer for us!
Saturday we try NOLA to Newark, Newark to Maine.
There are parallels with the bureaucratic bungling and lack of corporate customer service/communication at UAL and LAUSD (there are always extraordinary personal efforts) to be developed later. Suffice it to say that the Airport Hilton ain't Bourbon Street ...you don't want the etouffee at the hotel cafe!
THE FURLOUGH AGREEMENT was supposed to herald a new day of cooperation between UTLA and LAUSD and Messrs Cortines+Duffy. That came to naught Friday as UTLA repudiated Cortines' efforts to qualify LAUSD for Race to the Top 2.0 (or is it RttT 1.1?). I'm staying clear of this. RttT is flawed, probably beyond redemption. The 'competition' is a food fight over not enough money. The pro-charter hidden agenda screams from the rooftop - and the free market voucher privateers are ready in the wings. Much of the RttT agenda is union busting. Despite what it seems I'm not for busting the unions, or even clipping their wings. If we could just clean some of the oil off their feathers.
FRIDAY was also an important filing deadline for many important federal grants. As LAUSD was closed with the edict that nobody was to come to work NO MATTER WHAT those deadlines may have been missed. Hopefully not.
Ever hopefully onward. If not to 100% graduation ...at least to Lewiston!
-smf
FIRST FURLOUGH DAY FOR 680,000 L.A. UNIFIED STUDENTS
FIRST FURLOUGH DAY FOR 680,000 L.A. UNIFIED STUDENTS
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC
May 28, 2010 -- The parents and guardians of nearly 700,000 Los Angeles Unified School District students had to make alternate plans for their kids today. It’s the first unpaid day off for the staffs of most district schools.
L.A. Unified’s 70,000 employees took the unpaid day off to help close a $600 million budget deficit. In March, the school district’s largest union, United Teachers Los Angeles, agreed to five furlough days this academic year and seven next year.
The district’s 29-story headquarters in downtown L.A. closed for the day. So did more than a thousand campuses. The furloughs are expected to save the district $140 million. That money, by agreement with the teachers union, is to be used to save about two thousand jobs – mostly for teachers.
The furlough day resulted in more teenagers out and about in L.A. streets and malls. In the neighborhoods, more families with young children were visible, compared with the middle of a typical Friday. The 340-officer L.A. Schools Police is not subject to furloughs. A watch commander reported few incidents, but no one was available to explain how the school district shutdown affected the police force’s deployment.
UTLA, CTA, LONG BEACH, SAN FRANCISCO TEACHERS UNIONS WON’T SIGN CALIFORNIA’S APPLICATION FOR SECOND ROUND OF RACE TO THE TOP GRANT
by Howard Blume | La Times LA Now blog
May 28, 2010 | 7:56 pm -- The Los Angeles teachers union won’t sign the state’s application for federal Race to the Top school-reform grants, diminishing the state’s chances of claiming up to $700 million in grants tied to specific, but controversial reform strategies.
The grant has the potential to bind the state to future policies that would cost the state more than the one-time dollars would pay for, said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. He added that the extra costs could strain school district finances and ultimately result in damaging budget cuts.
California fell short during the first round of competition for a share of the $4.35 billion in federal grants, but tried again at the urging of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and developed a new strategy. A few school districts would pursue reforms more specific and more aggressive than in the original state submission.
The approach was a calculated gamble because federal evaluators rewarded plans that reached as many students in a state as possible. The two winning states — Tennessee and Delaware — scored high marks for doing so.
A handful of school districts, including Los Angeles Unified and Long Beach Unified, expressed early interest. The number of school systems has since swelled to 123, along with dozens of independently operated charter schools. These school systems represent more than 1.7 million of the state’s 6.3 million students. That’s more students than in all but six other states. Unions in 17 districts also signed on.
But other unions followed the lead of the California Teachers Assn. and nonunion critics in opposing the effort, including the unions representing San Francisco Unified and Long Beach Unified, according to state documents.
L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said the money would help pay for reforms that L.A. Unified already was pursuing. These include revamping the teacher evaluation system, making better use of data to improve instruction and turning around struggling schools.
Duffy, however, characterized the required blueprint as vague on key points and overly prescriptive on others.
“We agree we need a new evaluation system, no question about it,” Duffy said. “But this money requires the evaluation system of teachers to be tied to standardized test scores and there’s too much solid evidence to show this is not effective.”
The union's leadership made the decision not to take part in Race to the Top on behalf of the membership.
The state will formally sign its application Tuesday -- the federal deadline -- at an elementary school in Long Beach. Expected participants include Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell.
“We feel like we’ve put together a strong application that puts together the best thinking of some progressive district leaders,” said education department spokeswoman Hilary McLean. “We’re hopeful the federal government will recognize the innovative ideas we’ve put forth.”
"Up for grabs": LAUSD REVEALS LIST OF LOW PERFORMING SCHOOLS
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | L.A. Daily News
05/24/2010 04:25:10 PM PDT -- Los Angeles Unified officials released a list Monday of 17 new and chronically underperforming campuses that will be up for grabs under a district reform plan that allows teachers, charter operators and nonprofits to apply to operate campuses.
Eight chronically underperforming schools were selected: Woodcrest Elementary; Audubon, Henry Clay, Bret Harte, Horace Mann, and John Muir Middle schools; and Los Angeles and Huntington Park High schools.
This year none are in the San Fernando Valley.
In addition, nine new campuses – which could house up to 29 small schools – are slated to be part of the School Choice program that was approved by the district school board last summer.
Those new sites include long-awaited high schools in Granada Hills and the city of San Fernando.
"We are working to create the conditions for success for all of our schools," said LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines, in a written statement.
"I remain committed to our three guiding principles: educational quality, community involvement and urgency. Our students deserve the best we can offer."
LAUSD's "School Choice" process opens all new and select low-performing public schools up to a competitive process.
Applications are then reviewed by district officials and voted on by parents, educators and community members. Cortines then makes a recommendation to the school board, which makes the final decision.
Last year, more than 200 applications were submitted by groups that hoped to take control of three dozen schools.
In the end, the board voted to allow charter operators, which had bid to operate 18 schools, to have full control of three campuses and partial control of another – the remaining 28 went back to district operators.
District officials said they have made a few changes to the School Choice process to address concerns raised last year.
For example fewer schools are participating and applicants have been given more time to develop proposals and get community members involved.
Still,charter school advocates said fewer operators have expressed an interest to apply for district campuses.
Allison Bajracharya, policy director for the California Charter Schools Association, said many of her members were disappointed by the process that they said limited the access outside applicants got to students, parents and district employees.
"The handful of charter applicants (that apply) in round two, will enter the process with the expectation that it will include level opportunities," Bajracharya said.
"Simultaneously, they will participate with the conviction that the operator with the strongest track record of success will be the selected operator."
Charter operators also took issue with the community vote element of the School Choice process, which they said resulted in foul play and electioneering.
All district employee unions were also completely opposed to the School Choice process last year and United Teachers of Los Angeles - the district's largest union – even filed a lawsuit against the plan, which later failed.
A.J. Duffy, president of UTLA, said his union is still opposed to the School Choice plan which he called a "wholesale give away of our schools by the district."
"The other side of this though, is that we believe firmly that plans developed locally by teachers, administrators and parents have the best chance of being successful over a long period of time," Duffy said.
Duffy said in an effort to keep district educators at the helm of schools, UTLA will team be organizing its teachers and providing them with the help and resources they need to submit high quality proposals.
The union will also be involved in reaching out to the community and parents on behalf of teacher-led proposals.
NEW STUDY CALLS FOR SYSTEMIC REFORMS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH LEARNER EDUCATION: “REPAIRABLE HARM - Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Educational Opportunity
California Community Foundation Press Release
27 May 2010 – LOS ANGELES — Systemic issues in California’s public education have created a majority of high school English Learners who despite many years in our schools are still not English proficient and have developed major academic deficits, according to a recent study authored by Californians Together and funded by the California Community Foundation.
The report, Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Educational Opportunity for California’s Long Term English Learners, calls upon state policymakers and leaders to provide solutions and outlines basic principles and promising approaches for school districts to meet the needs of English Learners more effectively.
”Educating our youth is key to a successful society, and we are letting these kids down.We must invest in them, and find solutions to support students, teachers and school districts to encourage success for all students,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO of the foundation. “This report highlights concrete issues and solutions that policymakers and school districts should take to heart.”
“When these students started out, they looked like any other student who has succeeded in the system,” said study author and researcher Laurie Olsen. “But school policies, programs and practices have not served them well. To make matters worse, most students and their families don’t realize how underprepared for graduation and college they actually are.” Key findings and recommendations from the report include:
• 59 percent of California’s high school English Learners are Long Term English Learners (defined as students in U.S. Schools for six or more years who have not been able to achieve English proficiency), according to a survey of 40 school districts across California
• In some districts, Long Term English Learners make up 75 percent of all English Learners
• State policy should require the districts to collect data ad monitor the progress of English learners to prevent the development of Long Term English learners
• Policymakers must commit to providing materials, program, ,professional development and curriculum support to help English Learners succeed and ensure that students do not become Long Term English Learners While state policy provides no definitions for Long Term English Learners and little to no direction about this issue or how to address it, a number of school districts are stepping up to take responsibility. “In El Monte, this is a problem we refuse to ignore, said Nick Salerno, superintendent of the El Monte Union High School District. “We’re mobilizing administrative, certificated, and classified staff and resources to promote success for these students. Through our work with Californians Together, we have an invaluable forum from which to learn, share ideas, and make real progress for our English learners.”
In addition to the survey upon which the report is based, Californians Together has convened interested school districts to deepen their understanding of these issues and how they might prevent the systemic issues that have caused high numbers of Long Term English Learners. Californians Together will also head efforts to mobilize legislators and policy makers, as well as convening future workshops, to provide leadership on how best to accelerate language and academic development for Long Term English learners.
Read the report at www.californianstogether.org. | http://bit.ly/9JjX4l
Californians Together is a statewide coalition of 22 parent, professional and civil rights organizations that mobilize communities to protect and promote the rights of 1.6 million English Learners, 25 percent of California’s students. Californians Together has served for 11 years as a statewide voice on behalf of language minority students in California public schools. The coalition is committed to securing equal access to quality education for all children. Visit californianstogether.org.
As L.A.’s foundation, the California Community Foundation has been around since 1915 and has more than $1 billion in assets. We manage more than 1,600 funds whose donors chose us because we help them create the change they envision through our personal service and expertise. Visit myccf.org.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
CAN LAWSUITS UNTANGLE SCHOOL FUNDING?: Commentary By UCLA IDEA Staff 05-28-2010 -- Maya Robles-Wong, along wi... http://bit.ly/9AVEmG
UTLA, CTA, LONG BEACH, SAN FRANCISCO TEACHERS UNIONS WON’T SIGN CALIFORNIA’S APPLICATION FOR SECOND ROUND OF RACE ... http://bit.ly/alk9Fn
The California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System: IS CALPADS UNFIXABLE? NO ANSWER YET: by Johns Fensterw... http://bit.ly/bFMNJq
CALIFORNIA’S STUDENT LAWSUIT EXPOSES EDUCATION DISPARITIES IN AMERICA’S CLASSROOMS: by Rep. Mike Honda (D-Silicon ... http://bit.ly/bBWdAm
NEW STUDY CALLS FOR SYSTEMIC REFORMS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH LEARNER EDUCATION: “REPAIRABLE HARM - Fulfilling the Unke... http://bit.ly/dhXHLJ
This Week in EdWeek: LONG TERM ELLs LANGUISH IN CA SCHOOLS, PERCENTAGE OF HIGH-POVERTY SCHOOLS RISES: Report Finds... http://bit.ly/a1bdV0
FORMER JUSTICE O’CONNOR GIVES SCHOOLS POOR CIVICS MARKS, BLAMES NCLB: By The Associated Press 27 May 2010 (AP) N... http://bit.ly/czQYvl
L.A. UNIFIED FACES TOUGH TASK IN SELLING PARCEL TAX: Turnout for the June 8 primary is expected to be low and tren... http://bit.ly/dhM8mT
ESTUDIANTES DE MACLAY MIDDLE SCHOOL TIENEN BUENAS GANANCIAS | STOCKS SOAR FOR MACLAY MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS: Gana... http://bit.ly/bd3rJ8
Louis Pugliese: WHAT IT REALLY COSTS TO RUN AN LAUSD SCHOOL: By Louis Pugliese | OpEd in the Daily News Louis Pu..(+smf's 2c) http://bit.ly/ctXcYl
LAUSD TO RESCIND 522 MORE LAYOFFS: By Connie Llanos,Staff Writer | L.A. Daily News 05/25/2010 09:27:18 PM PDT -- ... http://bit.ly/dshqPI
BUSING FOR PALI HIGH STUDENTS IN JEOPARDY: June 6 fundraiser hopes to raise a portion of $600,000 shortfall: By Da... http://bit.ly/aESR2C
"Up for grabs": LAUSD REVEALS LIST OF LOW PERFORMING SCHOOLS: By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | L.A. Daily News 05... http://bit.ly/9OQbZB
"E" IS FOR….: http://bit.ly/92QdQb
HERE IS THE LAUSD PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE "We are LAUSD" LOGO: The achievement arrow points down …and where are parents?... http://bit.ly/df4B04
BIDDERS CAN VIE FOR EIGHT (make that seventeen - but who's counting!) SCHOOLS. INCLUDING L.A. HIGH; CHARTER SCHOOLS FILE LAWSUIT: by H... http://bit.ly/dai1hy
STATE CHARTER GROUP SUES LAUSD FOR BETTER CAMPUSES: By Connie Llanos Staff Writer | LA Daily News Posted: 05/24/2... http://bit.ly/cR8QD4
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Schwarzenegger: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT.
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