In This Issue:  | | • | SCHOOLWORK: The overblown crisis in American education | | | • | ACCEPT IT: POVERTY HURTS LEARNING - SCHOOLS MATTER, BUT THEY'RE NOT ALL THAT MATTERS | | | • | TWO L.A. NONPROFITS GET $500K EACH IN GRANTS TO CREATE PROGRAMS FOR LOW-INCOME AND MINORITY STUDENTS + GROUPS WILL TRY TO REPLICATE HPZ in LA | | | • | Daniel Pearl Magnet High School: A MIGHTY HEART LEAVES A MIGHTY LEGACY | | | • | 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: | | | | "Education is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution; the creation of the world’s first system of universal public education—from kindergarten through high school—and of mass higher education is one of the great achievements of American democracy. It embodies a faith in the capabilities of ordinary people that the Founders simply didn’t have."
This is from next week's Talk of the Town essay, SCHOOLWORK: The overblown crisis in American education by Nicholas Lemann in The New Yorker | http://nyr.kr/a9Ohnl
Lemann continues: Public education "is also, like democracy itself, loose, shaggy, and inefficient, full of redundancies and conflicting goals. It serves many constituencies and interest groups, each of which, in the manner of the parable of the blind men and the elephant, sees its purpose differently. But, by the fundamental test of attractiveness to students and their families, the system—which is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and decentralized—is, as a whole, succeeding. Enrollment in charter schools is growing rapidly, but so is enrollment in old-fashioned public schools, and enrollments are rising at all levels. Those who complete a higher education still do better economically. Measures of how much American students are learning—compared to the past, and compared to students in other countries—are holding steady, for the most part, even as more people are going to school."
"So it’s odd that a narrative of crisis, of a systemic failure, in American education is currently so persuasive."
ON MONDAY I was honored to be invited to eat lunch among and hear the stories of and stand on the stage with the Los Angeles County Office of Education Teachers of the Year. Sixteen Teachers were named LACOE TOY, five of whom were from LAUSD. 64 Teachers of the Year were named by individual school districts, 17 from LAUSD. Three parent volunteers were named LACOE Parent Volunteers of the Year, myself among them.
I invited my wife to attend. She knows me far too well to be impressed by me (and arrived fashionably late enough to miss my award) but was blown away by the excitement and passion and talent in the room—as were the 600 plus other guests in the hotel ballroom—including State Superintendent O’Connell and superintendents and school board members from throughout LA County. At its best American Public Education and American Public Educators are the best and the brightest. Bar none.
[4LAKids Takes Roll: No one from the LAUSD superintendents office, no LAUSD local district superintendents or board members were present. What's with that?]
LATER ON MONDAY I attended a screening of "Waiting for Superman", Davis Guggenheim's love song to charter schools, Geoffrey Canada and Michelle Rhee. Howard Blume in his LA Times review [http://lat.ms/9OoXUM] calls the film a "docu-editorial" - a fair appraisal of this and films like it that that use the documentary style to tell a very one-sided story. If you saw the film SPELLBOUND - about the National Spelling Bee - you know the technique: tracking bright, sympathetic, loquacious kids and their pushy parents though adventures and misadventures within the system. Kids v. The Machine.
You can imagine my delight when Mayor Tony introduced the film and the filmmaker - praising both and his own mission to save public education by quoting familiar and disproved statistics and promising that we would all be moved to tears at the film's end. This prompted me to resolve to emulate the apocryphal child who wouldn't clap to save Tinker Bell at the end of Peter Pan.
In fairness to Hizonner, everyone's ticket was free to this event ...though he did get a W4S baseball cap that the rest of us didn't get!
In further fairness it is the mayor's schools that are cited as the worst of public education in the film, Roosevelt High and Stevenson Middle are the 'dropout factory' schools that the film's young L.A. protagonists and their parents are desperately trying to escape.
"Waiting for Superman" is narrated by Guggenheim, the film's director. And right off he confesses that as the son of public school teachers and a product of public education he sends his kids to private schools - a message that discredits the messenger.
The film gets the challenges of inner city public education about right - old, crowded, underfunded in pockets and/or seas of poverty and neglect - and grabs for usual quick-fix golden rings and magic bullets - and lays blame on the wrong bogie men+women. The enemy isn't teachers unions as personified by Randi Weingarten or bad teachers in rubber rooms ...though both share some responsibility - as do we all.
The enemy is Poverty - fiscal poverty and a poverty of ideas and investment and commitment. We aren't going to test or race or spend or choose our way out of poverty .
Geoffrey Canada and the founders of KIPP Academy and D.C. chancellor Michelle Rhee are set on white horses to ride in and save the day.
Canada rises to the occasion; he is charismatic and successful in his 97 square blocks He gets that enemy is generational poverty—and that the solution lies in educating and empowering parents, pre-school, child-oriented health programs for children and families and three public charter schools. His Harlem Children s' Zone is being emulated, tweaked and brought to scale in Newark ...though the film doesn't say so. The Arne Duncan/Race-to-the-Top driven federal Dept. of Ed is also trying to emulate Canada's efforts though "Promise Grants " - though if you read The Times' account of those efforts in L.A. beyond the headlines [http://bit.ly/aHTx4l] you will detect that the program is hammered by the combined curse of being expensive and underfunded—with future money from 'donors to be named later'.
In this spirit of deus-ex-machina/maybe-I-can-buy-me-love philanthropy Newark's efforts got a gift of $100 Million over five years Friday from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Oprah | http://bit.ly/aHTx4l. It's doubtful that Zuckerberg has enough money and/or bad press to save every struggling school district—his generous pledge is less than $500 per year for every schoolchild in Newark. Newark Public Schools serves 42,000 kids—making it about one-half the size of a single LAUSD local district—or anyone to match Zuckerberg's gift in L.A. it would cost about $1.5 Billion. And New Jersey already spends $13,781 per child in K-12 compared to California’s $8,486 or New York's $13,551. [data for 2005-06 |http://bit.ly/bzUFLq])
And remember: the HCZ model requires investment in Schools, Parent Education, Preschool and Health Programs.
Michelle Rhee doesn't come off as well. In addition to being charisma-challenged Rhee has made the political mistake of being both outspoken and aligning herself with the wrong politician. (In the film she promises to never be a school superintendent again; hopefully a promise kept and not a YouTube moment!) Steve Barr, last year's charter school golden boy, makes a "Didn't you use to be..." cameo in W2S. The sequence about SEEDS, the DC charter boarding school needs to be seen alongside the 60 Minutes story on the same subject | http://bit.ly/b2rnZd. Nothing is ever always hunky-dory all the time.
Editorially and comedically W4S discredits boards of education using fifties era film clips. As a filmmaker I would have gone for more modern misbehavior. Opportunity abounds, close at hand.
HERE'S THE UPSHOT; In 1984 California turned to the lottery to save public education. Look around—how well did that work? Today we place our faith on different lotteries—ones by charter schools to select winners and losers from among the applicants—and W4S correctly concludes that that doesn't work either. (In Spellbound, the kids succeed and fail because they spell or misspell words; in W4S the outcome is about the ball that rolls out of the bingo cage or a name pulled from a fishbowl. A random number generator is even worse than a taught-to-test as a lever for success!
Still, you root for the kids and their parents who are struggling against fate and the odds to game the system. Success or failure isn't based on a test or mettle or skill. This week's flavor of change/ th' reform o' th' moment/ The magic bullet du jour — is the luck of the draw.
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
● Meanwhile, in Chicago, parents defy the law to get a library in their school [http://bit.ly/bYlaT6] ...while our Mayor Tony - emulating Detroit (DETROIT!) - shuts L.A. libraries down [http://bit.ly/cESu8y].
SCHOOLWORK: The overblown crisis in American education
by Nicholas Lemann Talk of the Town/Comment in The New Yorker | http://nyr.kr/a9Ohnl
September 27, 2010 -- A hundred years ago, eight and a half per cent of American seventeen-year-olds had a high-school degree, and two per cent of twenty-three-year-olds had a college degree. Now, on any given weekday morning, you will find something like fifty million Americans, about a sixth of the population, sitting under the roof of a public-school building, and twenty million more are students or on the faculty or the staff of an institution of higher learning. Education is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution; the creation of the world’s first system of universal public education—from kindergarten through high school—and of mass higher education is one of the great achievements of American democracy. It embodies a faith in the capabilities of ordinary people that the Founders simply didn’t have.
It is also, like democracy itself, loose, shaggy, and inefficient, full of redundancies and conflicting goals. It serves many constituencies and interest groups, each of which, in the manner of the parable of the blind men and the elephant, sees its purpose differently. But, by the fundamental test of attractiveness to students and their families, the system—which is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and decentralized—is, as a whole, succeeding. Enrollment in charter schools is growing rapidly, but so is enrollment in old-fashioned public schools, and enrollments are rising at all levels. Those who complete a higher education still do better economically. Measures of how much American students are learning—compared to the past, and compared to students in other countries—are holding steady, for the most part, even as more people are going to school.
So it’s odd that a narrative of crisis, of a systemic failure, in American education is currently so persuasive. This back-to-school season, we have Davis Guggenheim’s documentary about the charter-school movement, “Waiting for ‘Superman’ ”; two short, dyspeptic books about colleges and universities, “Higher Education?,” by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, and “Crisis on Campus,” by Mark C. Taylor; and a lot of positive attention to the school-reform movement in the national press. From any of these sources, it would be difficult to reach the conclusion that, over all, the American education system works quite well.
The school-reform story draws its moral power from the heartbreakingly low quality of the education that many poor, urban, and minority children in public schools get. This problem isn’t new, and the historical context is important: one of the cornerstones of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which for the first time directed substantial national funding to schools attended by these children. (George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind was technically a tweak to Johnson’s law, and Barack Obama is incorporating his education-reform ideas into another tweak.) The gap in educational achievement between black and white children narrowed during the nineteen-seventies and eighties, and has been mainly stuck since then, but it’s misleading to suggest that the gap is getting bigger.
It should raise questions when an enormous, complicated realm of life takes on the characteristics of a stock drama. In the current school-reform story, there is a reliable villain, in the form of the teachers’ unions, and a familiar set of heroes, including Geoffrey Canada, of Harlem Children’s Zone; Wendy Kopp, of Teach for America, the Knowledge Is Power Program; and Michele Rhee, the superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. And there is a clear answer to the problem—charter schools. The details of this story are accurate, but they are fitted together too neatly and are made to imply too much. For example, although most of the specific charter schools one encounters in this narrative are very good, the data do not show that charter schools in general are better than district schools. There are also many school-reform efforts besides charter schools: the one with the best sustained record of producing better-educated children in difficult circumstances, in hundreds of schools over many years, is a rigorously field-tested curriculum called Success for All, but because it’s not part of the story line it goes almost completely unmentioned. Similarly, on the issue of tenure, the clear implication of most school-reform writing these days—that abolishing teacher tenure would increase students’ learning—is an unproved assumption.
In higher education, the reform story isn’t so fully baked yet, but its main elements are emerging. The system is vast: hundreds of small liberal-arts colleges; a new and highly leveraged for-profit sector that offers degrees online; community colleges; state universities whose budgets are being cut because of the recession; and the big-name private universities, which get the most attention. You wouldn’t design a system this way—it’s filled with overlaps and competitive excess. Much of it strives toward an ideal that took shape in nineteenth-century Germany: the university as a small, élite center of pure scholarly research. Research is the rationale for low teaching loads, publication requirements, tenure, tight-knit academic disciplines, and other practices that take it on the chin from Taylor, Hacker, and Dreifus for being of little benefit to students or society.
Yet for a system that—according to Taylor, especially—is deeply in crisis, American higher education is not doing badly. The lines of people wanting to get into institutions that the authors say are just waiting to cheat them by overcharging and underteaching grow ever longer and more international, and the people waiting in those lines don’t seem deterred by price increases, even in a terrible recession.
There have been attempts in the past to make the system more rational and less redundant, and to shrink the portion of it that undertakes scholarly research, but they have not met with much success, and not just because of bureaucratic resistance by the interested parties. Large-scale, decentralized democratic societies are not very adept at generating neat, rational solutions to messy situations. The story line on education, at this ill-tempered moment in American life, expresses what might be called the Noah’s Ark view of life: a vast territory looks so impossibly corrupted that it must be washed away, so that we can begin its activities anew, on finer, higher, firmer principles. One should treat any perception that something so large is so completely awry with suspicion, and consider that it might not be true—especially before acting on it.
We have a lot of recent experience with breaking apart large, old, unlovely systems in the confidence of gaining great benefits at low cost. We deregulated the banking system. We tried to remake Iraq. In education, we would do well to appreciate what our country has built, and to try to fix what is undeniably wrong without declaring the entire system to be broken. We have a moral obligation to be precise about what the problems in American education are—like subpar schools for poor and minority children—and to resist heroic ideas about what would solve them, if those ideas don’t demonstrably do that. ♦
ACCEPT IT: POVERTY HURTS LEARNING - SCHOOLS MATTER, BUT THEY'RE NOT ALL THAT MATTERS
By Pedro Noguera | OpEd in NY Daily News | http://bit.ly/9f02Oo
Thursday, September 2nd 2010, 4:00 AM -- There has been a fierce, ongoing debate among educational leaders about how to teach poor children: One side has argued that we must address the wide variety of social issues (like poor health and nutrition, mobility, inadequate preparation for school, etc.) that tend to be associated with poverty. The other side has argued that schools serving poor children must focus on education alone and stop making excuses.
For more than 20 years, I've been associated with the first camp - and I remain baffled about why we are still debating such an obvious point. We've long known that family income combined with parental education is the strongest predictor of how well a student will do on most standardized tests. There is abundant evidence that in schools in the poorest communities, achievement is considerably lower than in schools with more socioeconomic diversity.
Studies on literacy development in small children show that middle-class children arrive in kindergarten literally knowing hundreds more words than poor children.
And schools alone - not even the very best schools - cannot erase the effects of poverty.
In recent years, policymakers have focused on how to achieve higher test scores without addressing the influence of poverty. The results have mostly been discouraging. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan claims that thousands of schools across America are chronically underperforming; in New York, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have shut down more than 100 schools in eight years. Inevitably, the struggling schools serve the poorest children and experience the greatest challenges. It will take more than pressure and tough talk to improve these schools.
Under both Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, the federal Education Department has largely avoided addressing the socioeconomic challenges that impact schools. Instead, they've championed reforms like performance pay for teachers, raising academic standards and creating charter schools. Seeking to avoid poverty as an excuse for low achievement, Klein and other educational leaders wrote the following in The Washington Post in April:
"[M]any believe that schools alone cannot overcome the impact that economic disadvantage has on a child, that life outcomes are fixed by poverty and family circumstances, and that education doesn't work until other problems are solved.
"Problem is, the theory is wrong. ... [P]lenty of evidence demonstrates that schools can make an enormous difference despite the challenges presented by poverty and family background."
While it may seem like a good sign that our (NYC schools) chancellor (who's done a good job, despite the recently recalibrated test scores) refuses to accept poverty as an excuse for low achievement, it's disappointing to see that he doesn't understand that it will take more than higher standards to bring about real improvement. Acknowledging this reality is not the same thing as making excuses for failure.
In Newark, I and others have recently embarked on a reform strategy, inspired in part by the Harlem Children's Zone, that we hope will confront the effects of poverty on children. Called the Newark Global Village Zone, the effort is being supported by partnerships between seven schools and local universities. Hospitals, nonprofits, churches and city agencies will work with the schools to provide services and support community and parent engagement.
We believe that by addressing the academic and nonacademic needs of students, extending learning opportunities and improving the quality of instruction, student achievement will improve.
There's growing support in Newark for the approach we're taking. The Brick City has some of the most successful charter schools in New Jersey, and we aim to build partnerships between successful charter and public schools so that the best practices can be shared.
I have been working with urban schools long enough to realize that the obstacles to success are formidable. Newark schools have a history of failure, and despite significant investments in private and public resources, success has been difficult to realize. Unfortunately, the Promise Neighborhood initiative - a federal effort to expand on the good work of the Harlem Children's Zone - will likely see its funding drop from a proposed $210 million to something closer to $20 million. The initiative would have provided seed funding to cities willing to take a more integrated approach to addressing the needs of impoverished communities, similar to what we are doing in Newark.
That setback need not deter us. No city has made a concerted effort to support schools by addressing the effects of poverty while simultaneously making a concerted effort to improve learning conditions.
We must end the either-or debate. In Newark, we intend to prove that we can raise student achievement and mitigate the effects of poverty. We need cities like New York to join this effort wholeheartedly.
- Noguera is the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University.
TWO L.A. NONPROFITS GET $500K EACH IN GRANTS TO CREATE PROGRAMS FOR LOW-INCOME AND MINORITY STUDENTS + GROUPS WILL TRY TO REPLICATE HPZ in LA
● TWO L.A. NONPROFITS GET $500,000 EACH IN GRANTS TO CREATE PROGRAMS FOR LOW-INCOME AND MINORITY STUDENTS
● THE 'PROMISE GRANTS,' MEANT TO HELP DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS FROM CRADLE TO COLLEGE, GO TO THE YOUTH POLICY INSTITUTE AND PROYECTO PASTORAL.
By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/cBhWtn
September 22, 2010 - Two Los Angeles nonprofit groups have received $500,000 each in federal grants to create programs modeled on a high-profile Harlem effort to help low-income and minority students from cradle through college, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The federal "Promise Grants" are an anti-poverty and education-reform initiative in one, an approach many experts applaud but also say is expensive, with goals that are difficult to achieve.
The grants will go to the Youth Policy Institute, based in Los Angeles, and Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights. The funds are for planning a broad-based, community initiative that would emulate the Harlem Children's Zone project of Geoffrey Canada.
The zone covers a 97-block area of Manhattan and has a $48-million budget, or about $5,000 per child annually, not including government funding for schools that substantially surpasses education spending in California. Mothers can begin to participate in its programs when they are pregnant, and services follow their children throughout their education.
The two L.A. organizations will be in the running next year for federal grants of $10 million to $20 million; but ultimately the effort, if it follows the Harlem model, will depend on private funding and a more effective use of government funding for schools.
All told, federal officials handed out planning funds to 21 groups, including a Boys & Girls Club, universities, a housing organization and healthcare nonprofits in areas from New York City to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana.
Groups will try to replicate Harlem Children's Zone in Los Angeles
By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times/LA Now | http://lat.ms/d8DA3D
September 21, 2010 | 6:25 pm -- Two Los Angeles nonprofit groups have received $500,000 federal grants to create programs modeled on a high-profile Harlem effort to help low-income and minority students from cradle through college, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The federal Promise Grants are an anti-poverty and education-reform initiative in one, an approach many experts applaud but also say is expensive, with goals that are difficult to achieve.
The grants will go to the Youth Policy Institute, based in Los Angeles, and Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights. They will fund planning for a broad-based community initiative that would emulate the Harlem Children’s Zone project of Geoffrey Canada.
The Harlem zone covers a 97-block area of Manhattan with a $48-million budget, or about $5,000 per child annually, not including government funding for schools that substantially surpasses education spending in California. Mothers can begin to participate in its programs when they are pregnant, and services follow their children throughout their education.
The grantees, among 21 groups chosen nationwide, will be working in communities where, for instance, no child had tested as academically advanced in school for several years. In another area selected, one-fifth of children had a parent sent to prison, said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
“This is about communities where educational outcomes haven’t been what any of us want,” Duncan said. “We want everybody rallying together” so children can be successful.
The two L.A. organizations will be in the running next year for federal grants of $10 million to $20 million, but ultimately the effort, if it follows the Harlem model, will depend on both private funding and a more effective use of government funding for schools.
The Los Angeles awards were announced at City Hall, where Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke of a coordinated effort among city and county staffers, local nonprofits and the Los Angeles Unified School District, which was represented by school board President Monica Garcia.
L.A. Unified “has its arms open to the community to help us help our children and our families,” Garcia said.
Proyecto Pastoral will focus on a portion of Boyle Heights. The Youth Policy Institute will have one project area in Pacoima and another in Hollywood. Its efforts already include job training, computer donations, day labor centers, after-school programs and two charter schools.
Unsuccessful local applicants included the University of Southern California; a collaboration involving the Brotherhood Crusade, Community Coalition and Urban League; and ABC, a nonprofit working with UCLA in the neighborhoods around the new RFK Community Schools complex in Koreatown. These groups can still apply for future grants; Duncan said this year’s funding ran out before the list of deserving applicants.
Across the country, the groups chosen for planning grants included a Boys & Girls Club, universities, a housing organization and healthcare nonprofits in areas ranging from New York City to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana.
Daniel Pearl Magnet High School: A MIGHTY HEART LEAVES A MIGHTY LEGACY
by Jonathan Dobrer | published on 4LAKidsNews 9/19 + as as an LA Daily News OpEd 9/26 | http://bit.ly/bcvOeL
Sept 19, 2010 - Most of us know journalist Daniel Pearl’s name because of how he died. He was executed by the Taliban while trying to get a story that would have given them a human voice. They chose inhumanity and ended the life of a passionate journalist, a gifted musician and a loving man.
Yes, you know his name because of how he died, but his true legacy is in how he lived. His legacy is thriving, fittingly near where he grew up in the San Fernando Valley, and is taking form at the Daniel Pearl Magnet High School. Here three hundred and fifteen students are learning not simply about journalism; they are learning and doing journalism. They are learning investigative journalism, straight reporting and opinion. They are learning to write, to think and to edit the news. They are learning to create stories for ink and paper, for the Internet and for webcasting. Their skills span journalism from yesterday to today and both point them towards tomorrow. But their curriculum is far wider than simply being a kind of journalistic trade school. They are challenged to be and become leaders and communicators whatever field they may ultimately choose. Ethics and judgment are an important focus of their education.
Not only is there a great spectrum of journalistic learning taking place, there is a much wider vision. This is a comprehensive magnet. They study math, history, English and science. They also play—music and sports. Their teachers are dedicated and seem to thrive in, what is for public education, an amazingly intimate environment.
Along with Daniel’s parents, Dr. Judea and Ruth Pearl, I toured their new facility—actually a recycled and refurbished 1940s era military hospital with many courtyards and patios. I was impressed that Principal Janet Kiddoo knew the names of nearly everyone we saw in the halls and in the six classrooms we visited. With only 315 students, and room for 150 more, there is no place either to hide or to get lost. The full staff is there with and for the students. And what students! The spectrum of students is as wide as the subject matter. The classrooms look like America. The students are of all our ethnicities—and when they greeted each other at the start of the semester, they did so in 12 languages.
Their parents and grandparents came from all over the globe, and they come from all across Southern California: From Carson to Eagle Rock, from Down Town to the West Side. Some, it is rumored, come from the San Fernando Valley! Every class we visited reflected our rich diversity. The students in science reflected exactly the same spectrum of ethnicities as the Advanced Placement class.
There are students with physical, social and learning challenges ahead of them—but they have support. There are outstanding students who bring much to share with others. They too will be challenged. In this small school environment there is a visible degree of attention, community and dedication that is literally priceless. One teacher actually turned down a full-time position to be half time in this unique educational environment.
It looks good. It feels good. It sounds good. But does it work? Well, last year, their first graduating class graduated 65 students out of a class of 68. Compare this rate of 95.5% with the 53% rate for the district! Seven of their graduates were accepted at UCLA, with others going to USCSB, Irvine and Santa Cruz—as well as Pepperdine and Syracuse.
The Daniel Pearl High School Magnet is exemplified by last year’s valedictorian, Patricia Equiza. Born in the Philippines, raised here in the Valley, she plays sports, loves to compete and writes with wit, clarity and passion. She is so attached to the school that she came in to help conduct our tour just as she is starting her college career at UCLA.
When I say that she is attached to the school, what I mean is not an abstraction. She loves the students with whom she spent three years. She clearly is close to Principal Kiddoo and the teachers—all of whom greeted her by name. She too knew the name of every student—save the new kid who just showed up that day. She knew his name by the time we left.
This school is formed around a vision that exemplifies the values of Daniel Pearl. Ultimately it is about teachers and students creating an environment of learning, respect for learning, respect for the truth, respect for each other and for themselves. Does it work? The smiles on the faces of the Pearls and the enthusiasm in the eyes of the students, brought tears to the eyes of this writer. Does it work? I wish my kids were younger and could attend. I can’t wait for my 5 Valley grandchildren to be ready. I’ll volunteer in their classes. But why wait? I’ll volunteer now.
* Jonathan Dobrer is a professor of comparative religion at the University of Judaism in Bel-Air, is a frequent contributor to the Op-Ed page of the Los Angeles Daily News, and writes a syndicated column, Out of My Mind, which is carried by the Fullerton Observer. He blogs at insidesocal.com/friendlyfire. Write to him by e-mail at jondobrer@mac.com
_________________________________
No "Lottery Learning" at Pearl:
DANIEL PEARL MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL - CENTER FOR JOURNALISM & COMMUNICATIONS [http://bit.ly/axYi4P] has openings in their current enrollment and is NOW accepting applications from students interested in attending or transferring from other schools.
Apply or enquire directly to Principal Janet Kiddoo
DANIEL PEARL MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL
6649 Balboa Blvd.
Van Nuys, CA 91406-5529
(818) 654-3775
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
CITY OF AIRHEADS: Villaraigosa Dismantles L.A.'s Vaunted Library System: Mayor mirrors Detroit's disastrous choice... http://bit.ly/cESu8y
GROUP DEMANDING SCHOOL LIBRARY DEFIES ARREST THREATS ON THIRD DAY OF PROTEST: BY Maudlyne Ihejirika - Chicago Sun ... http://bit.ly/bYlaT6
Political Event Advisory: FACEOFF AT FORUM FOR STATE SUPERINTENDENT CANDIDATES - Sept. 29 Evening Gathering at LAC... http://bit.ly/aUtKMk
86-days-and-counting/hold your nose, not your breath!: CALIFORNIA STATE BUDGET BREAKTHOUGH ANNOUNCED: Wyatt Buchan... http://bit.ly/97st7N
DISTRICTS MISS OUT ON FEDERAL GRANTS: 2 Rural Districts, Charters get money: By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess ... http://bit.ly/cMUTdy
The Dream Act: SENATE KICKS OPPORTUNITY OUT OF REACH: Themes in the News for the week of Sept. 20-24, 2010 By UCLA... http://bit.ly/bLV9hG
Stuff Happens!: LAPTOPS STOLEN FROM CHARTER SCHOOL + FENCES TORN DOWN AT SOUTH BAY HIGH SCHOOLS: from LA Times/L.A... http://bit.ly/94n6bX
TWO L.A. NONPROFITS GET $500K EACH IN GRANTS TO CREATE PROGRAMS FOR LOW-INCOME AND MINORITY STUDENTS + GROUPS WILL... http://bit.ly/aHTx4l
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SCHOOLWORK: The overblown crisis in American education: by Nicholas Lemann Talk of the Town/Comment in The New Yor... http://bit.ly/c72FRv
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smf 2 make speech in Huntington Park @ 10am today @ groundbreaking 4 new elementary school. Not2big. Not2$. Just right! 3737 Saturn Ave ...
LOS ANGELES COUNTY TEACHERS & PARENT-VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR SELECTED FOR 2010-11 + FIVE LAUSD EDUCATORS WIN LA COU... http://bit.ly/aDoXE8
Daniel Pearl Magnet High School: A MIGHTY HEART LEAVES A MIGHTY LEGACY: by Jonathan Dobrer Sept 19, 2010 - Most ... http://bit.ly/9PFELZ
WILL PACKED TORRANCE CLASSES PUSH THE LEARNING OUT?: By Rob Kuznia, Daily Breeze Staff Writer | from the Contra Co... http://bit.ly/btphqj
Edutopia Webinar: CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION - Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 4 p.m. PDT: Career And Technical ... http://bit.ly/cNTdrB
THE MYTH OF A HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION: by Manny Barbara | Thoughts On Public Education (TOP-Ed) - a forum on educat... http://bit.ly/csrsoh
CALIF. BUDGET IMPASSES ABOUT TO BECOME THE LONGEST EVER: By Judy Lin, Associated Press Writer | The Boston Globe |... http://bit.ly/9ZJ7WX
Zimmer on ‘Value Added’: PARTNERSHIP AND TRUST ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT VALUES WE CAN ADD: by Steve Zimmer - Member,... http://bit.ly/b7NvFS
A CHANCE TO LEARN FROM RHEE’S MISTAKES: By Mark Simon | Op-Ed in the Washington Post | http://bit.ly/bXellE Washi... http://bit.ly/c3eKIX
Reporter's Notebook: 'WAITING FOR SUPERMAN' AND AMERICAN EDUCATION REFORM. 'An Inconvenient Truth' filmmaker Davis... http://bit.ly/a6EXqF
Steve Lopez: A CONVERSATION WITH A.J. DUFFY : The head of the L.A. teachers union has definite ideas on improving ... http://bit.ly/90sMzP
LAUSD & MONTEBELLO USD SCORES UP, CONCERNS REMAIN: By EGP News Service from City News Service | Eastside Sun / Nor... http://bit.ly/8ZjWYS
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
FACEOFF AT FORUM FOR STATE SUPERINTENDENT CANDIDATES - Sept. 29 Evening Gathering at LACOE Presents Larry Aceves and Tom Torlakson
http://bit.ly/anRenf
WHAT: A forum featuring the two candidates for the office of California State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The candidates — Larry Aceves and Tom Torlakson — will discuss and take audience & panel questions on the critical issues impacting preschool-through-12th-grade education.
WHY: To learn the positions and perspectives of the two candidates for the statewide, nonpartisan post that will be decided in the Nov. 2 general election.
WHEN: WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 29, 2010 — 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
WHERE: Education Center West — Main Conference Room
L.A. County Office of Education, 12830 Columbia Way, Downey, CA 90242 [map]
WHO: Co-hosted by the Los Angeles County Office of Education and the Los Angeles County School Trustees Association, and co-sponsored with the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and the California State PTA.
The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and RSVPs are encouraged. School community representatives from across the Southland, including board members, superintendents, administrators, teachers and other staff, as well as parents and students, are expected to attend.
The forum will be telecast live on The California Channel, and streamed on the cable system's website at: calchannel.com
*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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