In This Issue:  | | • | MANY SCHOOLS ON CONTROVERSIAL REFORM LIST MAY NOT GET A DIME OF $416 MILLION: LAUSD didn't include enough struggling schools in funding application | | | • | Showtime: CALIFORNIA SCHOOL CHIEFS COMPETE FOR RACE TO THE TOP DOLLARS | | | • | U.S. to States: COME GET YOUR EDUCATION JOBS FUND MONEY | | | • | The Police Blotter: IVY ACADEMIA CHARTER SCHOOL OFFICIAL MISUSED $200,000 IN PUBLIC FUNDS + THE SCANDAL IN BELL BRINGS $2.9 MILLION TO SCHOOLS | | | • | HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources | | | • | EVENTS - Coming up next week: TALES OF TWO SCHOOL DISTRICTS: LAUSD’s HUGE DISPARITIES & HOW TO FIX THEM | | | • | What can YOU do? | |
Featured Links: | | | | LAUSD IS POISED TO BEGIN A NEW SCHOOL YEAR. School has already begun at the few remaining year 'round schools - and at three 'early start' high schools. On Monday 17 more early start high schools open. I have concerns about tinkering with the calendar - and not because the 9 months of school/3 months of summer vacation is written in stone or the greatest thing since sliced bread. (It's not - and it predates sliced bread!) I'm concerned because the whole effort is engineered to improve test scores. Not instruction; test scores. See Supt Cortines comments here: http://bit.ly/NVqYI
This is not transformative, different or challenging change; it's eyewash. This isn't reform to better educate children - or educate better children -- we're trying to improve test scores.
When do we - when do they - get it? The data isn't the outcome ...it's an indicator!
We are challenging parents and families by putting their children in elementary and middle schools and high school on different calendars. And, if one is believe the Daily News story, not doing a very good job of telling families about the new calendars.
● Rather than start high school a month early, why not try starting it an hour late?
There is conclusive evidence that shows starting high school later in the day improves education outcomes.- we know that high school kids learn better and smarter later in the day..And incidentally, they test better, (We also know it doesn't work that way for elementary and middle.) I'm not hearing a whole lot about changing the bell schedule. Plus, think of the surprised slackers that won't be caught in the tardy sweeps!
AS I WRITE THIS there are four news stories about LAUSD and public education on the online equivalent of the wires: ● The possible preservation of up to 2500 LAUSD jobs by the US Congress | http://bit.ly/bjZAvh ● The California application for Race to the Top | http://bit.ly/9YuaWo ● The possible loss of the Program Improvement Grants because the applications were not properly filed | http://bit.ly/bOtUpb ● and the change in the calendar reported above
THE FIRST, SECOND and THIRD show the new dependence on federal funding by public education. Most money for K-12 in California still comes from the state - but it's become obvious that the critical funding - the money that potentially makes the difference at the tipping point between success and failure (no matter how you measure it) - comes from the Feds. This funding doesn't go necessarily go to the districts, schools, classrooms or children that need it ...it goes to those that make the most convincing case that they need it.
IN THE CASE OF RACE TO THE TOP - THE SEQUEL - the team from California - which included Supt. Cortines - made a half-hour pitch and took an hour of questions from Dept of Ed bureaucrats in DC after over 100 hours of rehearsal and prep and watching You Tube. [Showtime: CALIFORNIA SCHOOL CHIEFS COMPETE FOR RACE TO THE TOP DOLLARS | http://bit.ly/9YuaWo]
It's pleasant if not exactly encouraging to know that the"The Pitch" - the same methodology used to green-light television series and reality programs - decides the future of our nation's children. This becomes even more problematic when you realize that the pitchmen are the same wonderful folks who didn’t follow the rules on the School Improvement Grant Application. [MANY SCHOOLS ON CONTROVERSIAL REFORM LIST MAY NOT GET A DIME OF $416 MILLION | http://bit.ly/bOtUpb]
Public education is being played as a game of 'gotcha' and decided as a beauty contest - and LAUSD is no one's paradigm of pulchritude. Kipling praised those that could "risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss" ...but he thought the blunder of the Light Brigade was heroic.
THIS IS THE TIME FOR THE ADULTS IN LAUSD TO GET REAL.
We need to start by reading the specs and filling out the grant applications by following the rules.
We needed to have had - AND NOW MORE THAN EVER: WE NEED TO HAVE honest and meaningful conversations with the stakeholders about the impact of consequences (anticipated and unintended) of flexibility in funding categorical programs like class size reduction, adult ed, GATE, counselors, deferred maintenance, violence prevention, etc. [Chances are, if you liked the program, it's on the list: http://bit.ly/cSTIjP] The legislation that allowed flexibility and waiver of categorical programs didn't mandate them - it permitted them - after meaningful discussion at the local Board of Ed.
The LAUSD board showed little or no flex in their flexibility; they cut and eliminated funding piecemeal - if they could, they did!
The final decisions to cut or eliminate categorical programs weren't made in Sacramento, they were made at Beaudry - not as policy decisions but as done-deals in the budget process, -- passed as up-or-down votes: "Thank you for your three minutes of public comment. Call for the question.. Without objection? Passed. Next item."
There is no accountability in the accounting, it is as transparent as a brick wall. All in all, another brick in the wall ....We don't get no education. That wall!
Every corporation should have a Budget and Finance Committee on their board.
LAUSD is the second largest corporate entity in LA County, second only to the county itself. But the LAUSD's board has NO committees - a decision made to streamline the process, move things along and save the money (and time and bother) that actually having meetings cost! I suppose the easiest way around California's Brown Act - the Open Meetings Law - is to have no meetings ay all.
I'm going to posit here that if any billion-dollar-plus publicly traded corporation didn’t have a Budget and Finance Committee 'Sixty Minutes' would come to call ...and the Security and Exchange Commission ( and Congress) would investigate ....and would probably shut them down.
"THE JANITORIAL STAFF WAS LET GO IN THE LAST BUDGET CUT," Jack Slater, the governor's fictional aide tells Megan Fox in the Hot for Teachers Video.. "But let's not forget that when Governor Schwarzenegger was a boy he gathered up all the trash in his village and burned it to keep his family warm in the cold Austrian winter." - http://bit.ly/dtzChZ
AT A SCHOOL BUDGET MEETING ON THURSDAY THE NEW DISTRICTWIDE SCHOOL MAINTENANCE BUDGET & SCHEDULE - AND HOW IT IMPACTS THE LOCAL SCHOOL - WAS DISCUSSED - whereby school plant managers (head custodians) will no longer be dedicated to school sites but rather will be in charge of traveling crews going from school-to-school - working in the afternoons and evenings. At another meeting I actually had LAUSD Maintenance & Operations people attempt to explain to me how this would improve test scores ....though neither I nor they believed a word of it.
At the school budget meeting a parent representative asked if the school could use their limited and vanishing discretionary funds - or even parent raised funds - to supplement cleaning and custodial services - and was told "absolutely not!" Inadequate is apparently enough - or at least all you're allowed.
So much for school-based decision making.
Meanwhile the LAUSD Facilities Services Division is creating a program (with the code name of "The Company") that will offer premium LAUSD Maintenance+Operations services to charter schools on an "as much as you want to pay for" basis.
So much for for equity.
FINALLY (all this fun has to end sometime ...please!) BUT WITH LITTLE FINALITY: Today The LA Times began a in-depth series of articles about rating teachers - to guarantee the controversy the series is provocatively titled: GRADING THE TEACHERS | http://bit.ly/9rE3xm -(follow the link - the article is too long for the 4LAKids newsletter.)The article advocates for for a statistical methodology called 'value-added analysis",to evaluate teachers. For a technical explanation and some actual scholarship (what a concept!) see: http://bit.ly/azJ68d
The Times takes LAUSD to task for not using the statistical model - and then self congratulates:
"In coming months, The Times will publish a series of articles and a database analyzing individual teachers' effectiveness in the nation's second-largest school district — the first time, experts say, such information has been made public anywhere in the country."
The Times continues: "The respected National Academy of Sciences weighed in last October, saying the approach was promising but should not be used in "high stakes" decisions — firing teachers, for instance — without more study."
Isn't naming names and pointing fingers at individual classroom teachers - who are neither public officials nor celebrities - in a mass circulation metropolitan daily newspaper "high stakes"?
The Times goes on: "This summer, one district took a harder line: Washington, D.C., schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee fired 26 teachers based in significant part on their poor value-added scores."
So much for Chancellor Rhee's respect for the National Academy of Sciences.
The Times evidence implies that some teachers universally respected for being good teachers are actually bad teachers.
The Times ran their statistical model on data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, unilaterally and publicly evaluating over 6000 LAUSD teachers - and intends to publish their findings. Some will contend this is a piece of gotcha WikiLeaks journalism. And by comparing this database with the Daily News publication of LAUSD's payroll database last year [http://bit.ly/cA7BE0] we will all be able to to run our own program comparing teacher performance, student test scores and salary - a true ROI (Return on Investment) 'bang-for-buck' business study. That way our decision process can be driven by money rather than test scores. So we speed down the Race-to-the-Top racetrack, putting the pedal to the metal -- Data Driven to Distraction and hell-bent for the Destruction Derby.
● "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli -- the quote popularized the U.S. by Mark Twain.
● Twain himself said: "First God made idiots, that was for practice. Then He created school boards".
Having called my two expert witnesses, I rest my case.
¿Onward/Adelante? - smf
MANY SCHOOLS ON CONTROVERSIAL REFORM LIST MAY NOT GET A DIME OF $416 MILLION: LAUSD didn't include enough struggling schools in funding application
LAUSD OFFICIALS: "We were never told of such a requirement."
by Corey G. Johnson in California WatchBlog - A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
August 11, 2010 | If federal officials don't waive key rules, several of the state's largest school districts are at risk of not getting one penny of a nearly $416 million grant to turn around struggling campuses.
According to an Aug. 10 letter sent to the U.S. Department of Education, state officials are asking federal authorities to reconsider the rule requiring California to put 25 percent of its $415,844,376 away for next year – which equates to roughly $100 million.
The request comes as state officials take heat over the decision to only fund reforms at 95 of the 188 schools on the controversial "persistently under-performing" list. As first reported by blogger John Fensterwald, districts whose funding applications got rejected for a slice of the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) included Los Angeles Unified, Oakland Unified, Sacramento City Unified and Compton – all areas with sizable communities in need of aid. This news means that with the first day of school merely days away, districts who sought to improve by firing staff, revamping curriculum and taking on longer school days could end up with no money to see those reforms through.
According to the letter from state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and state board president Ted Mitchell:
California had 188 Tier I and Tier II schools identified as persistently lowest-achieving. As indicated in the tables above, we did not receive applications for all of those schools, and only 95 of the 188 Tier I and Tier II schools have approvable applications. Nevertheless, 75 percent of the SIG grant will not fund all approvable Tier I and Tier II schools. The additional 25 percent is needed to provide maximum funding for this year’s cohort of persistently lowest-achieving schools.
The requested waiver will increase the quality of instruction for more students and improve the academic achievement of students in a greater number of schools identified as Tier I and Tier II by enabling more schools and (local educational agencies) to benefit from the SIG program this year in implementing one of the four intervention models established by your agency.
In particular, LAUSD, the nation's second largest school district, was extremely unhappy with its snub. State officials, according to Fensterwald, said LA lost out because it didn't include enough struggling schools in its funding application. They had 30 schools on the state list but only requested funding for 13 campuses. LAUSD officials retorted they were never told of such a requirement.
Finger pointing aside, the bottom line is this: If federal authorities don't now agree to waive the requirements and free up more money, there may be little more that can be done – which ultimately means some of the biggest districts in the state would also be the biggest funding losers.
For several local school leaders, such an outcome would be bitterly ironic. When the state attached tough reforms to vie for the funds, reforms that included firing all the staff and principal; turning the school into a charter; or simply shutting the campus down – many on the local level thought such moves were so unfair and distasteful, they would take a pass.
Yet, the turmoil and despair triggered by the ongoing budget crisis, forced a change of heart. If this ultimately fails, what will this mean for the push for reform? And just how does all of this improve the lives of the children in these so-called struggling schools?
Showtime: CALIFORNIA SCHOOL CHIEFS COMPETE FOR RACE TO THE TOP DOLLARS
by Kitty Felde | KPCC
Aug. 11, 2010 | It was show time in Washington, D.C. this week for California education leaders. They competed with 18 other states for federal Race to the Top education grants. The team had 30 minutes to present its case and an hour to defend it.
The last time California competed for Race to the Top dollars, it finished in 27th place.
This time, the team enlisted local school superintendents Ramon Cortines of Los Angeles Unified and Chris Steinhauser of Long Beach.
They spent more than 100 hours preparing for the 90-minute presentation.
California’s education secretary Bonnie Reiss says they studied what ad worked for winners in the first round.
"All their presentations were posted on YouTube," Reiss said. "So part of our prep was reviewing that."
The key, says Reiss, was convincing federal officials that with the money, California can use data to help identify talented teachers and teaching methods that work.
Using good data can identify inspiring educators.
"Certain teachers were doing incredibly well with teaching the kids in math and in English and in science and they modeled that and then that teacher became a mentor teacher and they used them as coaches and student improvement went up across the board," she said.
This time, the California team also got cooperation from teachers unions on methods to measure teacher effectiveness.
There’s a lot at stake: California could get $700 million dollars.
The feds will decide which dozen or so states will get the money before the school year begins in most districts next month.
U.S. to States: COME GET YOUR EDUCATION JOBS FUND MONEY
By Alyson Klein | Education Week
August 13, 2010 2:35 PM | U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wasn't kidding when he promised school districts and states that the applications for the new Education Jobs Fund (created under the $10 billion edujobs bill) would be very quick and "streamlined."
Less than a week after President Obama signed the edujobs bill, the application has been posted, and it is super straightforward. There is basically only one question: States have to specify whether they plan to distribute the funds through Title I or through their state education funding formula. (Except for Texas, which is special, and gets no choice in the matter. Texas has to distribute the funds via Title I. And, it has stricter maintenance-of-effort provisions.)
The money can be used for restoring cuts in salaries and benefits and boosting teacher pay in the 2010-2011 school year. Districts can also eliminate furlough days that had been scheduled for the 2010-2011 school year.
But they can't use the funds to pay salaries and benefits for outside contractors, except in cases where districts contract with other districts for specific services. And the money can't be used for central office staff.
Districts can use the funds to pay the salaries of teachers and other employees, including principals, assistant principals, academic coaches, in-service teacher trainers, classroom aides, counselors, librarians, secretaries, social workers, psychologists, interpreters, physical therapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, information technology personnel, nurses, athletic coaches, security officers, custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers.
The Police Blotter: IVY ACADEMIA CHARTER SCHOOL OFFICIAL MISUSED $200,000 IN PUBLIC FUNDS + THE SCANDAL IN BELL BRINGS $2.9 MILLION TO SCHOOLS
► Court Documents: IVY ACADEMIA CHARTER SCHOOL OFFICIAL MISUSED $200,000 IN PUBLIC FUNDS
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News
8/13/2010 | 7:44:52 PM PDT -- A $995 CD set on "how to avoid paying taxes" was among the items an Ivy Academia charter school official purchased with more than $200,000 in misused public funds, authorities alleged in court documents unsealed this week.
The husband-and-wife team that runs the high-performing West Valley charter school was charged in June by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Public Integrity Division with 38 felony and misdemeanor crimes, including misuse of public funds, embezzlement, money laundering and tax fraud.
Eugene Selivanov, 38, and his wife, Tatyana Berkovich, 32, operate Ivy Academia, an independently run charter school in the West San Fernando Valley that is funded with state and federal dollars.
The couple has temporarily stepped down from the school's board of directors and will remove themselves from day-to-day operations when a new interim director is in place, at least for the course of the trial, district officials and the couple's attorney said Friday.
Selivanov and Berkovich were unavailable for comment Friday, but their attorneys said the couple are innocent of all charges.
"We are confident the evidence will reveal that Eugene and Tatyana have always acted in the best interest of Ivy, its students and families," said Jeff Rutherford, with the firm Crowell & Moring.
Affidavits unsealed by the District Attorney's office this week allege that Selivanov transferred public funds to for-profit company bank accounts and to himself, and used public funds to pay credit-card bills not tied to the schools.
For example on May 25, 2007, the documents said, Selivanov wrote a check for $50,000 from Ivy Academia's Support Fund Account — set up to collect donations for the public school — to Ivy Academia's general account.
On the same day Selivanov wrote a check for $30,000 from Ivy Academia's account to Egeneration LLC, the bank account for one of the couple's private businesses, and later wrote a check to himself from that account for $30,000 that was later deposited in his personal bank account, the documents said.
On May 30, 2007, Selivanov transferred $24,000 from his personal account to pay Citibank credit card charges, the documents said.
Investigators dug through boxes of bank and credit card statements, receipts and tax documents confiscated from the couple's West Valley home, their accountant's house and their four school campuses.
They describe finding "questionable charges" totaling some $96,000 on the couple's American Express credit card, including $3,000 for a community property investment seminar, $995 for the CD set, and about $9,000 in restaurant charges for more than 100 restaurants.
"Statements reflect that the American Express credit card charges were paid with public funds," documents said.
Attorneys for the couple filed a motion Friday to dismiss 14 of the 38 charges, including all American Express and tax-related charges.
Ivy Academia operates four campuses, in Woodland Hills, Winnetka, West Hills and Chatsworth, that serve 1,100 students from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Allegations of misuse and co-mingling of public funds first arose against Selivanov and Berkovich in an LAUSD Inspector General audit in 2007. Even after that, however, LAUSD officials gave Ivy a five-year renewal in June 2008.
Los Angeles Unified officials recently called for the couple to step down from managing day-to-day operations at Ivy Academia and abandon their positions on the school's board of directors to avoid being shut down for as long as they are being investigated for the criminal charges.
Parker Hudnut, LAUSD's executive director of innovation and charter schools, said Berkovich and Selivanov have stepped down from Ivy Academia's board of directors and have hired an interim executive director.
"Unless sufficient safeguards are in place to protect public funds... LAUSD retains its right to proceed to revocation," Superintendent Ramon Cortines said in a written statement.
"I am insisting that we keep an even closer eye on Ivy Academia — if it continues to operate."
Hudnut sought to reassure parents of the school.
"We don't want parents scared that we are going to arbitrarily shut down their school," Hudnut said.
"As long as Ivy cooperates with our demands and the ongoing work, the school will remain open."
____________________
► BELL MUST GIVE UP $2.9 MILLION IN ILLEGAL PROPERTY TAXES: BY LAW, THE MONEY MUST GO TO SCHOOLS IN THE CITY.
State Controller John Chiang orders officials to roll back the tax rate, but homeowners won't get a refund. By law, the money must go to schools.
By Kim Christensen, Ruben Vives and Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times
August 14, 2010 - The city of Bell illegally raised its property taxes in 2007 and must immediately give up $2.9 million it has collected since then, state Controller John Chiang said Friday.
Chiang ordered Bell to immediately reduce the "retirement tax" rate, which its City Council increased in 2007 to cover rising pension costs for its employees. The reductions will apply to the next round of property taxes due in November, said Jacob Roper, a spokesman for Chiang.
"Taxpayers should not have had to pay that money," Roper said.
The controller's finding appears to confirm longstanding complaints from Bell property owners that they were being overtaxed. The Times reported last month that Bell officials collected huge paychecks, that the city had cut police and other services and that its property owners were paying higher tax rates than all but one city in Los Angeles County.
The owner of a home in Bell with an assessed value of $400,000 will save about $360 a year because of the cut, an official with the Los Angeles County auditor-controller's office said Friday.
But Bell residents won't be getting a tax refund. According to state law, the nearly $3-million overpayment cannot be refunded to taxpayers and must instead go to schools in the city, Roper said.
smf chimes in: (sorry) The City Of Bell has become a laughingstock in recent weeks. It is important that this money be allocated and legally well spent. The $2.9 million should not go to LAUSD’s general fund. It should not go to the local district or become part of the school board member’s discretionary fund. It should not go to the Southeast Cities Schools Coalition – a leftover from Mayor Tony’s ‘Council of Mayors’ ….some of those folks are some of the same wonderful folks who created the whole Bell Fiasco. It should be spent by the schools in Bell on what the schools in Bell want and need with the input of the community. And every single cent should be accounted for to the unfortunately generous taxpayers of Bell with the thanks of the schoolchildren.
Chiang's order marked the latest twist in a scandal that broke last month when The Times reported that the working-class city of about 39,000 was paying its administrators and police chief the largest municipal salaries in the state, if not the country, with City Manager Robert Rizzo making nearly $800,000 a year.
On Friday, some Bell residents said they were angry about being overtaxed but that they found the controller's findings vindicating.
"As a resident and property owner I am very outraged," said Ali Saleh, co-founder of the Bell Assn. to Stop the Abuse. "This proves all the complaining we have done about the high taxes is true."
Bell resident Huitzil Arenas, 43, agreed, adding: "I'm very angry.... They stole money from the people."
Bell's interim city manager, Pedro Carrillo, said Friday that auditors from the state controller's office discovered the overcharge Thursday night. The City Council is expected to vote on a resolution Monday that will lower the tax rate, he said, and Bell will repay the $2.9 million from a $5-million reserve fund.
"We haven't determined what the fiscal impact of this is yet," he said.
The focus of Chiang's action Friday is a so-called retirement tax, which was approved by local voters in 1944 and made property owners responsible for some of the cost of municipal employees' pensions.
For at least 20 years prior to 2007, the retirement tax had stayed at the same rate of 0.187%.
In 2007, the City Council passed a resolution calling for a series of increases over the next three years. The current rate is 0.277%, or roughly 50% higher than it was three years ago.
On Friday, Chiang ordered the rate rolled back to 0.187%.
Roper, the controller's spokesman, said the amount of property tax that residents can be assessed for pension costs are capped by the tax code to the rate Bell applied in 1984. Increases the City Council set in motion starting in 2007 are illegal, he said.
Roper said the controller's office is unaware whether the property tax increase was implemented concurrently with increased pension benefits for local officials, or if it was intended to be used to cover existing contracts.
The former officials' salaries and Bell's hefty property taxes contrast sharply with city residents' financial standing. Median household income in Bell, just southeast of Los Angeles, is $40,556 —- well below the countywide average of $57,152.
The district attorney and state attorney general have launched investigations into the high pay, as well as allegations of voter fraud and improper property transactions.
Carrillo and interim City Atty. Jamie Casso said they are intent on getting to the bottom of the property tax issue and other alleged improprieties.
"This is why we've been working with the state controller and our city attorney," Carrillo said. "And that is to fix whatever is broken — and it seems we are finding a lot of that."
He also said the city is exploring options for making rebates to residents for their retirement tax overpayment.
All county property owners pay a 1% general property tax, along with special or direct assessments levied by their municipalities. The countywide average of all tax rates is 1.16%, or $11.60 for every $1,000 of assessed value.
Bell's total property tax rate is 1.55%.
That means the owner of a home in Bell with an assessed value of $400,000 pays about $6,200 in annual property taxes. The owner of the same house in Malibu, whose rate is 1.10%, would pay just $4,400.
Bell's high tax rate is due to several factors, records show, including bond debt for municipal improvements such as a sports complex now under construction. Since 2006, county records show, Bell's local taxes have doubled, as have direct assessments for trash collection, sewer maintenance and other services.
Even with the retirement tax cut, Bell's overall rates will remain higher than many cities in the county, in part because of a 0.09% assessment that kicked in this year to cover the bond debt, which was approved by voters.
Revenue from the tax increases went to designated funds or services and did not directly pay for administrators' salaries. But by freeing money from the city's general fund, the higher taxes appear to have made the outsized salaries more feasible for the small city.
Miguel Sanchez, 33, said he paid $5,403 in property taxes in 2009, up from $4,866 the year before.
"It was hitting us hard," Sanchez said. "We knew our property taxes in Bell were high. But I'm very upset about this. Enraged really."
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
UCLA STUDY: “…CHARTERS WERE ACTING AS HAVENS FOR WHITE STUDENTS” - The reality is that charter schools have become... http://bit.ly/cqAOXH a
POLITICAL DETERMINATION SALVAGES FUNDS TO KEEP TEACHERS TEACHING: Themes in the News for the week of Aug. 9-13, 20... http://bit.ly/c9Vydw
GRADING THE TEACHERS: WHO’S TEACHING L.A.’S KIDS?: A Times analysis, using data largely ignored by LAUSD, looks at... http://bit.ly/9rE3xm
VIRTUAL HIGH SCHOOL OPENING THIS FALL IN LOS ANGELES: By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News History te... http://bit.ly/c73xQz
BELL MUST GIVE UP $2.9 MILLION IN ILLEGAL PROPERTY TAXES: By law, the money must go to schools in the city.: State... http://bit.ly/bdRYvA
Learning Curve: STUCK IN THE MIDDLE: By Maureen Downey | Get Schooled Blog/Opinion in the Atlanta Journal Con... http://bit.ly/dpx5ix
School Reform in Chicago: HALF OF CHICAGO CHARTER SCHOOLS RUN DEFICITS + LITTLE EQUITY, MANY BUDGET LANDMINES IN C... http://bit.ly/dps7kK
SUMMER SCIENCE CAMP GIVES HOMELESS CHILDREN A CHANCE TO EXPLORE: The program, organized by Cal State Long Beach, p... http://bit.ly/cgRUDD
Court Documents: IVY ACADEMIA CHARTER SCHOOL OFFICIAL MISUSED $200,000 IN PUBLIC FUNDS: By Connie Llanos, Staff Wr... http://bit.ly/ccRwd8
U.S. to States: COME GET YOUR EDUCATION JOBS FUND MONEY: By Alyson Klein | Education Week August 13, 2010 2:35 ... http://bit.ly/crPdkv Friday, August 13, 2010 5:35:11 PM via twitterfeed
LINCOLN HIGH, SAN FERNANDO MS PILOT SCHOOLS TO OPEN ON TIME: By Gloria Angelina Castillo, EGP Staff Reporter | Eas... http://bit.ly/9nTA0x
SCHOOLS PACK IN MORE KIDS TO COPE WITH CUTS: By Diana Lambert | Sacramento Bee Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 | Californ... http://bit.ly/c5Hmvy
Showtime: CALIFORNIA SCHOOL CHIEFS COMPETE FOR RACE TO THE TOP DOLLARS: Kitty Felde | KPCC Aug. 11, 2010 | It was... http://bit.ly/c6gxLa
FIFTY WORDS @ FIFTY: We really like Green Eggs and Ham, we really like them Sam I Am.: by smf for LAKidsNews Aug... http://bit.ly/by7Uwb
$26 BILLION TO SCHOOLS, MEDICS - HOUSE: Emergency House session aids health services, saves jobs of laid-off teach... http://bit.ly/bjZAvh
MANY SCHOOLS ON CONTROVERSIAL REFORM LIST MAY NOT GET A DIME OF $416 MILLION: “LA … didn't include enough struggli... http://bit.ly/bOtUpb
LEGISLATURE ADOPTS DEMOCRATIC BUDGET PLAN: With the caveat - Caution: This is a preliminary analysis of the budget... http://bit.ly/dvA4Pj
LOS DESAPARECIDOS: Reality of An LA Urban School: News Feature by Yolanda Arenales | La Opinión/New Amer... http://bit.ly/cITFFG
NEW SCHEDULE BEGINS FOR SOME LAUSD CAMPUSES: Officials say 'balanced traditional' calendar will help students lear... http://bit.ly/bSVFN7
California Alliance for Arts Education: OPPOSE AB 2449 & AB 35: California Alliance for Arts Education E-mail blas... http://bit.ly/bFqq4J
EDUCATION SECRETARY DUNCAN ANNOUNCES $115.2 MILLION FOR 124 GRANTS TO IMPROVE TEACHING OF AMERICAN HISTORY: from T... http://bit.ly/cRiXAL
Birmingham Charter HS & Daniel Pearl Magnet HS: TENSIONS AFTER CHARTER CONVERSION RESULT IN LAWSUIT: By Aleksandr ... http://bit.ly/cy346v
EVENTS - Coming up next week: TALES OF TWO SCHOOL DISTRICTS: LAUSD’s HUGE DISPARITIES & HOW TO FIX THEM
Upcoming Town Hall - from 89.3 KPCC/Southern California Public Radio
* Student A attends El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, one of the top-achieving public schools in the state, a school that is a regular finalist in national Academic Decathlon competitions with plenty of advanced placement classes available, located in a bucolic upper-middle class neighborhood.
* Student B attends Belmont Senior High School in Westlake, a struggling school with an unbelievable 60% drop out rate where 80% of its students qualify for federal free or reduced lunches and students’ proficiency rates in both math and reading hover around 50%.
How can two schools in the same district produce such wildly different results? This is the tale of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which with 617,000 students is one of the nation’s largest and most unwieldy, with huge disparities in access to good classrooms, teachers and coursework.
Join Patt Morrison and guests on Thursday, August 19th at KPCC's Crawford Family Forum as we hear stories from students themselves about the differing experiences of going to school in the LAUSD and what can be done to bridge the educational gap.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
The Crawford Family Forum
474 S Raymond Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91105
Get directions
RSVP for this event | http://bit.ly/b3VCOK
7:00p.m.--Doors Open
7:30p.m.--Program
ADMISSION is FREE but please RSVP
Sponsor: 89.3 KPCC/Patt Morrison
*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! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • 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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