Monday, May 30, 2011

Memoriam

Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Memorial Day 30•May•2011
In This Issue:
Two Reports: U.S. REFORMS OUT OF SYNC WITH HIGH-PERFORMING NATIONS + FEW LEARNING GAINS FROM TESTING MOVEMENT
CALIFORNIA MUST KEEP FREE EDUCATION TRULY FREE
LAUSD, UTLA REACH TENTATIVE AGREEMENT+ TEACHERS UNION AGREES TO FURLOUGH DAYS + LAUSD, UNION REACH AGREEMENT ON NEW CONTRACT + AGREEMENT TEXT
LOS ANGELES SCHOOL DISTRICT'S HEALTH BENEFITS HELP PUSH CAFETERIA FUND INTO THE RED
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:
Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website
4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
“Gravestones cheer the living dear, they're no use to the dead”. - (Motola/Marascalco)



On Memorial Day weekends past 4LAKids has recounted the history of this holiday [http://bit.ly/lJ5Ewg]. We honor sacrifices made and hold ourselves to high standards that they are repaid.

Let us now memorialize an unlikely hero. Not a “last full measure of devotion” hero but a veteran of the war we fight on our streets every day, newly encamped in the bivouac of the dead. Gil Scott-Heron told us in 1970 that The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. [http://bit.ly/jDim0x] In the years since revolutions have been routinely televised – with television itself losing what Scott-Heron called 'damned relevance'. This is more because of Scott-Heron's poetic influence on popular music+culture than Facebook+Twitter. Three power chords have been replaced by the power of language+pentameter. Through rap and hip-hop the vocabulary of the streets has increased exponentially – not just by the seven-words-you-shouldn't-say but by a lexicon cut+pasted from an AP English text. Parents now worry about what the words actually say – not what they imply. Popular music isn't about holding hands or even spending the night together. Like it or not, it is The Revolution. Godspeed GSH

THIS WEEK HAS SEEN THE ADVENTURE of public education increase if not improve. With the state budget unresolved UTLA and LAUSD made a deal that clings to a hope that the state budget will be solved in way that becomes more unlikely daily. (There is nothing like a get-outta-town-3-day-weekend to focus a negotiator's attention!) It is now up to the legislators and the electorate (should the legislators permit) to save librarians and art+music teachers and nurses and class size and all the other issues on the table – cleared away and refrigerated as left-overs. Hopefully the lege will look as these as programs-to-be-preserved: Libraries and Music & Arts Education, Student Health & Welfare are not categories to be flexed or electives-to-be-chosen-between or employment opportunities and collective bargaining chits to be weighed against API + AYP + Value-Added Assessment.

They are critical: core to the mission!

Categorical Flexibility is a bureaucratic Hobson's Choice/Catch22: “Here's not enough money; spend it as wisely as you can given you don't have enough information, preparation or time.”

However, hope springs eternal - perched befeathered in our souls. Especially as failure seems to be Plan B.

THE LAUSD CAFETERIA SERVICES FOLK are caught between the two 2s in Mr. Heller's Catch. When they serve as many meals as they do there are sure to be leftovers – and they are now addressing that by getting their surplus to the needy. But they are fiscally challenged by decisions they argued against made about benefits awarded to their employees in a bit of social engineering. (see: Health Benefits Push Cafeteria Fund Into the Red, below) Board President Garcia's quote “...we are in the business of needing good schools and good jobs" confuses . Isn’t the “business” about the students?

REPORTS OUT IF DC TELL US WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW (Perhaps the plural of anecdote is data, after all - http://bit.ly/kUzlVS) see: Two Reports: U.S. Reforms Out of Sync with High-Performing Nations + Few Learning Gains From Testing Movement.

THE LA TIMES EDITORIALIZED ON THE OBVIOUS: see: California Must Keep Free Education Truly Free. And if you attempt to tie budget cuts/corporate monetization of public education/billionaire philanthropy [http://bit.ly/kXGFQG] and New Markets tax credits [EVIL ED, INC.: The Wall Street/Charter School Connection - http://bit.ly/kA4Zov] , etc. together into a unified theory (or dark conspiracy) you begin to see that America's great gift to democracy: Universal Free Public Education - is increasingly less universal, free or public. One of the reasons Goodwin Liu's appointment to the federal bench was filibustered by Senate Republicans is that he had the audacity to write that Public Education is a fundamental right. Ironically he wrote in support of charter schools – but we don't want any activist judges legislating the obvious from the bench ...not in our tea party!

REMEMBER HOW THE SCHOOL REFORM BILLIONAIRE-OF-THE-MOMENT Jeff Zuckerberg was going to save Newark Schools (and his own reputation) with $100 million last September? Mr. Zuckerberg's reputation is secure, Newark Schools? Not so good. http://youtube.com/watch?v=phpVcB + http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55fhCi2dBag

Across the state parents rallied and tried to Wake Up California. http://bit.ly/jnaBLI

And so it goes, and we with it. Brighter days ...or hell in a handbasket? With the parent vote removed from Public School Choice [http://bit.ly/jswNrU ] I'm not sure whochooses.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


Two Reports: U.S. REFORMS OUT OF SYNC WITH HIGH-PERFORMING NATIONS + FEW LEARNING GAINS FROM TESTING MOVEMENT
● U.S. REFORMS OUT OF SYNC WITH HIGH-PERFORMING NATIONS, REPORT FINDS
By Stephen Sawchuk – EdWeek Vol. 30, Issue 33 | http://bit.ly/iliY5n

“This paper is the answer to a question: What would the education policies and practices of the United States be if they were based on the policies and practices of the countries that now lead the world in student performance?“ - STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS: An American Agenda for Education Reform by Mark S. Tucker


May 27, 2011 - The United States’ education system is neither coherent nor likely to see great improvements based on its current attempts at reform, a reportRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader released this week by the National Center on Education and the Economy concludes.

The NCEE report is the latest salvo in a flurry of national interest in what can be gleaned from education systems in top-performing or rapidly improving countries. It pushes further than other recent reports on the topic by laying out an ambitious agenda for the United States it says reflects the education practices in countries that are among the highest-performing on international assessments.

Among other measures, the report outlines a less-frequent system of standardized student testing; a statewide funding-equity model that prioritizes the neediest students, rather than local distribution of resources; and greater emphasis on the professionalization of teaching that would overhaul most elements of the current model of training, professional development, and compensation.

“I think we have been for a long time caught in a vicious cycle. We’ve been unwilling to do the things that have been needed to have a high-quality teaching force,” including raising the entry standard for teacher preparation and requiring prospective teachers to major in a content area, said Marc S. Tucker, the president of the NCEE.

“We’ve been unwilling to pay teachers at the level of engineers. We’ve been solving our problems of teacher shortages by waiving the very low standards that we have. We have been frustrated by low student performance, and now, we’re blaming our teachers for that, which makes it even harder to get good people,” Mr. Tucker continued.

The paper also states that progress on any one of the reform areas alone is unlikely to result in widespread boosts in student learning. All efforts, it says, are interconnected and should be linked to a coherent vision of what students should know and a system for ascertaining whether they achieve those goals.

The report also praises the United States’ progress on clearer, common academic standards in English/language arts and mathematics as a first step in defining such outcomes. But it notes that the success of that venture will depend on its ability to connect such expectations to the other pieces of the country’s education system.
Major Findings

Once a topic primarily reserved for academics, the “international comparisons” discussion has exploded over the past few years, with policymakers, pundits, and teachers’ unions arguing that better educating students is crucial to the nation’s economic success.

It has also been the subject of considerable federal interest. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan helped convene a major forum of education leaders from 16 countries in March, and he commissioned the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a forum representing a group of industrialized nations, to produce a report about what lessons could be learned from the results of the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA. ("International Leaders Urge Nations to Raise Status of Teachers," March 30, 2011.)

The NCEE report draws both on qualitative case studies of other countries’ systems and on the quantitative data and extensive background surveys produced as part of PISA. Much of the analysis incorporates information from the OECD report commissioned by Mr. Duncan, which NCEE also produced.

It builds on the former efforts, however, by contrasting the practices of those countries with undertakings in the United States.

For instance, the report notes that no other country has grade-by-grade national testing, pointing out that such countries as Singapore and Japan tend to use such exams sparingly, only at the end of primary and secondary schooling. The tests are closely linked to curricula and carry stakes for students in terms of progressing, rather than being used for school or teacher accountability.

Such countries also have much higher entry standards for teachers and require greater content knowledge, which is better integrated with training in pedagogy. In general, the report states, such efforts have helped to elevate the status of the profession, which is reflected in higher pay, more autonomy, and additional career opportunities as teachers advance.

Finally, teachers’ unions are prevalent in top-performing jurisdictions such as Finland and Ontario, Canada, but work in a “professional” rather than “industrial” mode. The report says that U.S. teachers must give up blue-collar work rules like seniority rights and recognize difference in performance in exchange for being treated as professional partners, who are given autonomy and trusted to diagnose and solve instructional problems on their own.

The report also takes aim at what it deems “myths” of international comparisons, such as the notion that other countries educate only an elite corps of students, or that their scores are higher because of less-diverse student populations.

The report concludes by calling on the federal government to fund a competition, modeled on the Race to the Top program, to help states adopt a comprehensive system of education practices used by other countries.

States, it says, should be the key level of government to help move toward a more coherent education system—as they have been in provinces, such as Ontario, that are part of federated nations.
On Track?

At an event where the report was released this week, panelists outlined different opinions about whether the agenda embodied in the report reflects or diverges from the current education reform efforts in the United States.

In his remarks, Secretary Duncan highlighted similarities between the two. He noted that, for instance, high-performing systems like Singapore use bonuses, scholarships, and salary supplements to reward great teaching and to attract teachers to hard-to-staff schools or shortage areas. The Obama administration has pursued such policies through the Race to the Top and other federal competitions.

“Clearly, our education system is not as far down the track as those of top performers, nor are we anywhere near where we need to be to win the race for the future,” Mr. Duncan said. “But we are not off-track or chugging down an abandoned spur line.”

He also praised the work on the common standards, which was underwritten by experts convened by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia have adopted those standards, which draw heavily on curriculum guidelines used in top-performing countries.

Mr. Duncan stated, however, that the federal government would not prescribe a national curriculum as part of its support of the common-standards agenda. That comment came as an apparent rebuttal to a group of scholars and education advocates who have accused the Education Department of overstepping a federal law prohibiting it from mandating a national curriculum. (" 'Manifesto' Proposing Shared Curriculum Draws Counterattack," May 18, 2011.)

Other commentators, though, outlined perceived differences between international practices on teaching and the United States’ current efforts.

For instance, the Obama administration supports the idea of linking test scores to teacher evaluations. But many international education leaders at the March forum raised concerns about such policies.

“The perception is teacher evaluation based on narrow student test scores, and no country thinks that’s a good idea,” noted Vivien Stewart, the senior adviser for education for the Asia Society, a New York City-based nonprofit that facilitates policy dialogues between the United States and Asian nations, in an interview. “The evaluation systems in these countries tend to be fairly broad,” said Ms. Stewart, who is writing a paper about the issues discussed at the forum.

Singapore, she noted, has 16 domains in which evaluation takes place, including a focus on achievement, professional contribution to the school, community involvement, and relationship with parents.

Data on student performance and teaching are widely used to improve practice, but not disseminated in the public way they are in the United States, she added.
Challenging Views

William H. Schmidt, a professor of statistics and education at Michigan State University who has extensively studied other countries’ curricula, generally praised the NCEE report, especially for its focus on defining a specific body of knowledge students should master. Mr. Schmidt, who has also researched vast differences in the math skills of middle school teachers prepared in the United States, said teacher preparation should be the next frontier. ("U.S. Middle-Grades Teachers Found Ill-Prepared in Math," December 19, 2007.)

“We’re really at a precipice here. We’ve got these common standards, a nationally specified set of clearly focused standards. The problem is what comes next,” he said. “The U.S. has such a short attention span.”

The report’s general principles have been debated by other international scholars, however, who have raised concerns that the movement to common standards and tests could lead to more rigid schooling and lockstep expectations for students.

Many of the report’s recommendations also do not fit neatly within current U.S. debates about the use of assessments or how to upgrade the quality of teaching.

For instance, the national teachers’ unions have been among the strongest proponents of less standardized testing for accountability and more autonomy for classroom teachers. But doing away with seniority, which the report characterizes as a relic from “industrial” unionism, could be challenging.

The American Federation of Teachers has been reluctant to discard seniority as a factor in layoffs, noting that evaluation systems capable of distinguishing teachers by performance are not yet widespread.

At the release event, however, AFT President Randi Weingarten said that the union is open to discarding some work rules as long as teachers are treated fairly and maintain due process rights. She pointed as an example to the “thin” contract signed by AFT-affiliated teachers in a New York City charter school and the Green Dot charter-management organization, which among other provisions does not specify work hours for teachers.

And increasing teacher-preparation quality means tackling the perception of teacher education as an easy route to a diploma, a change that will have consequences, noted Mari Koerner, the dean of the education school at Arizona State University, a top preparer of teachers. She described losing teacher-candidates after the college increased the rigor of its preparation programs.

“These sentimental views of teachers [in the United States] drive me nuts,” Ms. Koerner said at this week’s forum. “[Preparation] is not about whether you love children; it is whether you can teach children.”

Read the Report - STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS: An American Agenda for Education Reform - http://bit.ly/kdMH0g


● PANEL FINDS FEW LEARNING GAINS FROM TESTING MOVEMENT
By Sarah D. Sparks- EdWeek Vol. 30, Issue 33 | http://bit.ly/kAmcTU

May 26, 2011 - Nearly a decade of America’s test-based accountability systems, from “adequate yearly progress” to high school exit exams, has shown little to no positive effect overall on learning and insufficient safeguards against gaming the system, a blue-ribbon committee of the National Academies of Science concludes in a new report: Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education

“Too often it’s taken for granted that the test being used for the incentive is itself the marker of progress, and what we’re trying to say here is you need an independent assessment of progress,” said Michael Hout, the sociology chair at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the chairman of the 17-member committee, a veritable who’s who of national experts in education law, economics and social sciences that was launched in 2002 by the National Academies, a private, nonprofit quartet of institutions chartered by Congress to provide science, technology and health-policy advice. During the last 10 years, the committee has been tracking the implementation and effectiveness of 15 test-based incentive programs, including:

• National school improvement programs under the No Child Left Behind Act and prior iterations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act;

• Test-based teacher incentive-pay systems in Texas, Chicago, Nashville, Tenn., and elsewhere;

• High school exit exams adopted by about half of states;

• Pay-for-scores programs for students in New York City and Coshocton, Ohio and;

• Experiments in teacher incentive-pay in India and student and teacher test incentives in Israel and Kenya.

On the whole, the panel found the accountability programs often used assessments too narrow to accurately measure progress on program goals and used rewards or sanctions not directly tied to the people whose behavior the programs wanted to change. Moreover, the programs often had insufficient safeguards and monitoring to prevent students or staff from simply gaming the system to produce high test scores disconnected from the learning the tests were meant to inspire.

“I think there are some real messages for school districts on accountability systems” in the report, said Kevin Lang, an economics professor at Boston University who, during his time on the committee, also served as a district school board member in Brookline, Mass.

“School boards need to have a means for monitoring the progress of their school systems, and they tend to do it by looking at test scores,” he said. “It’s not that there’s no information in the objective performance measures, but they are imperfect, and including the subjective performance measures is also very important. Incentives can be powerful, but not necessarily in the way you would like them to be powerful.”

GAMING THE SYSTEM

Among the most common problems the report identifies is that most test-based accountability programs use the same test to apply sanctions and rewards as to evaluate objectively whether the system works. As a result, staff and students facing accountability sanctions tend to focus on behavior that improves the test score alone, such as teaching test-taking strategies or drilling students who are closest to meeting the proficiency cut-score, rather than improving the overall learning that the test score is expected to measure. This undercuts the validity of the test itself.

For example, New York’s requirement that all high school seniors pass the Regents exam before graduating high school led to more students passing the Regents tests, but scores on the lower-stakes National Assessment of Educational Progress, which was testing the same subjects, didn’t budge during the same time period, the report found.

“It’s human nature: Give me a number, I’ll hit it,” Mr. Hout said. “Consequently, something that was a really good indicator before there were incentives on it, be it test scores or the stock price, becomes useless because people are messing with it.”

In fact, the report found that, rather than leading to higher academic achievement, high school exit exams so far have decreased high school graduation rates nationwide by an average of about 2 percentage points.

The study found a growing body of evidence of schools and districts tinkering with how and when students took the test to boost scores on paper for students who did not know the material—or to prevent those students from taking the test at all.

Recent changes to federal requirements for reporting graduation rates, which require that schools count as dropouts students who “transfer” to a school that does not award diplomas, may help safeguard against schools pushing out students to improve test scores or graduation rates. Still, the National Academies researchers warned that state and federal officials do not provide enough outside monitoring and evaluations to ensure the programs work as intended.
AYP and Academics

For similar reasons, school-based accountability mechanisms under NCLB have generated minimal improvement in academic learning, the study found. When the systems are evaluated—not using the high-stakes tests subject to inflation, but using instead outside comparison tests, such as the NAEP—student achievement gains dwindle to about .08 of a standard deviation on average, mostly clustered in elementary-grade mathematics.

To give some perspective, an intervention considered to have a small effect size is usually about .1 standard deviations; a 2010 federal study of reading-comprehension programs found a moderately successful program had an effect size of .22 standard deviations.

Moreover, “as disappointing as a .08 standard deviation might be, that’s bigger than any effect we saw for incentives on individual students,” Mr. Hout said, noting that NCLB accountability measures school performance, not that of individual students

Committee members see some hopeful signs in the 2008 federal requirement that NAEP scores be used as an outside check on achievement results reported by districts and states, as well as the broader political push to incorporate more diverse measures of student achievement in the next iteration of ESEA.

“We need to look seriously at the costs and benefits of these programs,” said Daniel M. Koretz, a committee member and an education professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Mass. “We have put a lot into these programs over a period of many years, and the positive effects when we can find them have been pretty disappointing.”

Jon Baron, the president of the Washington-based Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy and the chairman of the National Board for Education Sciences, which advises the Education Department’s research arm, said he was impressed by the quality of the committee’s research review but unsurprised at minimal results for the various incentive programs.

Incorporating diverse types of studies typically reduces the overall effects found for them, he noted, adding that the study also addresses a broader issue. “One of the contributions that this makes is that it shows that looking across all these different studies with different methodologies and populations, some in different countries, there are very minimal effects in many cases and in a few cases larger effects. It makes the argument that details matter,” Mr. Baron said.

“It’s an antidote to what has been the accepted wisdom in this country, the belief that performance-based accountability and incentive systems are the answer to improving education,” Mr. Baron said. “That was basically accepted without evidence or support in NCLB and other government and private sector efforts to increase performance.”

Read the Report: Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education http://bit.ly/kwUzJz


CALIFORNIA MUST KEEP FREE EDUCATION TRULY FREE
AS CALIFORNIA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE LOST STATE FUNDING, THEY'VE INCREASINGLY TURNED TO A SORT OF 'PAY TO LEARN' SYSTEM. IT'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

L.A. Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/k4vNts

May 24, 2011 - The California Constitution is unequivocal:

"A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence" is essential to the "preservation of the rights and liberties of the people." Therefore, it says, the state shall provide a free education to its children.

That provision — Article IX — was enacted at the Constitutional Convention of 1878-79. Today, California has nearly 10,000 taxpayer-supported public schools serving just over 6 million students. Gratis.

Except for one little hitch. It's true that you can enroll and attend class at a California public school without paying an entrance fee or a tuition bill. But what if the teacher tells you that it's going to cost $90 to purchase the novels that you must read to pass AP English, or that you have to pay $30 for your Spanish workbook? Is your education still free? What if you want to join the basketball team but the school hits you with a $50 uniform fee? Is basketball part of your education, and if so, can the school make you pay to play?

Charging for instructional materials as well as for art, music and sports programs is increasingly common in the state's public schools, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which last year filed a lawsuit arguing that such fees violate Article IX. In December, a tentative settlement was reached with the Schwarzenegger administration, but it was rejected by the judge in the case on technical grounds. So Assemblyman Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) has proposed legislation to reaffirm that student fees are illegal and to set up an enforcement mechanism; his bill, AB 165, will be considered by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Friday.

Not surprisingly, many schools are displeased at the thought of losing the fees. They have already absorbed more than $18 billion in state cuts over the last three years, resulting in shorter school years and larger class sizes as well as reductions in program offerings for students. Further cuts could be ahead if the Legislature rejects Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to extend the 2009 temporary tax hikes. As the crisis has deepened, schools have turned to fees, among other things, to replace some of the lost dollars. Now they're at risk of losing that money too, which they say could require them to cut still more academic programs and extracurricular activities.

California was once near the top of the national list in per-pupil spending, but it is now close to the bottom. So it's tempting to see student fees as a reasonable stopgap measure to help pick up some of the slack. But charging fees to students to offset budget cuts is not legal, just as it would not be legal to announce that in an effort to make ends meet, schools will no longer accept students of Filipino descent, or girls. Student fees deny opportunities to low-income students and put them at an academic disadvantage. Nearly 30 years ago, the California Supreme Court reached exactly that conclusion.

"Under the California Constitution … access to public education is a right enjoyed by all — not a commodity for sale," the court ruled in Hartzell vs. Connell in 1984. "Educational opportunities must be provided to all students without regard to their families' ability or willingness to pay fees…. This fundamental feature of public education is not contingent upon the inevitably fluctuating financial health of local school districts. A solution to those financial difficulties must be found elsewhere."

That was the correct decision a generation ago, and it is the correct decision today. It applies, the court held, not just to lab fees and book fees for traditional academic classes but to extracurricular activities as well, because they are an "integral component" of a child's education. In an effort to find middle ground, some have suggested keeping the fees while providing a waiver for low-income students, but the court rejected that idea in 1984 too. After all, why should poorer families have to request charity every time they can't pay for a workbook? And besides, if the Constitution says schools must be free, then they must be free for everyone, rich or poor.

Schools still have fundraising options that will meet constitutional scrutiny. They can solicit voluntary donations for general needs or for specific programs such as the basketball team or the ninth-grade class trip. While it's true that a voluntary system may not raise as much as a mandatory one, at least it's legal.

The rules banning fees do not have to be carried to a ludicrous level. Just because sneakers are required for gym class doesn't mean the school needs to pay for them. That would defy common sense. Other costs, such as pencils and three-ring binders, traditionally fall on parents as well, and don't seem to cause a significant problem. Furthermore, it would not be reasonable for non-school organizations — such as the PTA or booster clubs or organizations that use school buildings after hours for activities unrelated to regular academic or official extracurricular activities — to be barred from charging fees.

The basic rule, however, is that a public school education is free. It's true that California's schools are underfunded and that they need more money if they're going to provide a first-class education. But charging students to participate in academic and extracurricular programs is not the answer. That's why the Legislature should pass AB 165.


LAUSD, UTLA REACH TENTATIVE AGREEMENT+ TEACHERS UNION AGREES TO FURLOUGH DAYS + LAUSD, UNION REACH AGREEMENT ON NEW CONTRACT + AGREEMENT TEXT
● LAUSD, TEACHERS UNION REACH TENTATIVE AGREEMENT

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC & wire services | http://bit.ly/iVzAkO

27 May 2011 - 4:48 p.m. | The Los Angeles Unified School District announced today it has reached a tentative agreement with its largest union, which could save about 3,400 jobs and maintain class sizes in elementary schools at their current levels.

In exchange, United Teachers Los Angeles members would take four furlough days in the coming school year -- three teaching days and one day when students are not in school.

The agreement caps months of heated debate between teachers union leaders and top school administrators. United Teachers Los Angeles staged large rallies urging the district to protect all teacher jobs and cut administrative budgets instead. L.A. Unified said it needed to prepare for a worst-case funding scenario.

The four furlough days will cancel out all but 1600 of the 5,000 preliminary dismissals the school district sent to employees with teaching credentials.

The teachers union said LA Unified could rescind all those notices. The school district did not predict the same.

"While this agreement does not restore all the cuts -- because our schools are still drastically underfunded -- it goes a long way toward providing the resources and personnel for our students to succeed,'' LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy said in a statement.

The agreement hinges on how much money may land in state coffers. Recent predictions suggest that this year’s picture looks a lot better than last year’s, but if the state budget sinks further into the red, L.A. Unified teachers would have to take six furlough days instead of four. If districts receive unexpected money, they’d subtract employee furlough days.

"This agreement demonstrates that when UTLA and the district collaborate, problems can be solved to the benefit of our students,'' UTLA President A.J. Duffy said.

Teachers and the school board still must approve the furlough deal. Teachers took seven unpaid furlough days this school year.
___________
Additional coverage:

● L.A. TEACHERS UNION TENTATIVELY AGREES TO FURLOUGH DAYS

THE DEAL BETWEEN THE TEACHERS UNION AND L.A. UNIFIED COULD SAVE $42 MILLION AND THOUSANDS OF JOBS. THE AGREEMENT REQUIRING TEACHERS TO TAKE FOUR UNPAID DAYS OFF MUST BE RATIFIED BY UNION MEMBERS.

By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times

READ THE TIMES' STORY: http://lat.ms/ji9qoZ
___________________

● LAUSD, TEACHERS UNION REACH AGREEMENT ON NEW CONTRACT

By Connie Llanos Staff Writer | Daily Breeze/Daily News |

READ THE DAILY BREEZE/DAILY NEWS STORY: http://bit.ly/lA3uCj



THE AGREEMENT TEXT IS AVAILABLE HERE



LOS ANGELES SCHOOL DISTRICT'S HEALTH BENEFITS HELP PUSH CAFETERIA FUND INTO THE RED
HEALTHCARE ASSISTANCE FOR PART-TIME CAFETERIA WORKERS, APPROVED IN 2007, HAS ABSORBED A RESERVE FUND AND CONTRIBUTES TO INCREASED COSTS, DISTRICT OFFICIALS SAY.

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/lpSsAU

May 30, 2011 - The cafeteria fund for the Los Angeles Unified School District has run a multimillion-dollar deficit since 2007, when board members approved a plan to provide health benefits for part-time cafeteria workers, district officials said last week.

The benefits have helped low-paid workers who need healthcare assistance, and the expense isn't the only one pushing food operations into the red. But the fund's cash shortfall has exacerbated a systemwide budget crunch caused mainly by the state budget crisis and declining enrollment in the state's largest school system.

In the 2006-07 school year, the district's cafeteria fund was close to breaking even and had a reserve approaching $60 million, officials said. Then in August 2007, the Board of Education overrode the advice of its senior staff and approved the extended benefits.

The move was led by a newly installed majority elected with the support of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents cafeteria workers and many other employees.

Over the next three years, food operations exhausted the reserve and still ran in the red by $8 million, $16.5 million and $12.2 million successively, said Megan Reilly, the district's chief financial officer. (That first-year deficit was covered by one-year funding under a state program called Meals for Needy; the general fund covered the deficit subsequently). This year, the deficit is estimated at $20 million; the benefits cost more than $20 million per year.

Federal funds pay for most of the food program, which costs about $290 million annually.

Proponents called the extension of benefits a social justice issue, pointing out that district managers had created staggered shifts to keep cafeteria workers at less than four hours a day, the threshold for benefits. The results, they said, were hard-to-fill jobs and poor service, as well as a less healthy workforce.

"Everything we do has a positive and negative side," said school board President Monica Garcia. "It's a balancing act. We have to be mindful of every dollar, but we are in the business of needing good schools and good jobs."

Opponents said the school system shouldn't add to costs at the price of reducing resources for students. L.A. Unified, they said, was the wrong forum to address a nationwide issue.

Board member Tamar Galatzan, although an ally of the mayor, voted no. "Everyone in this country deserves health benefits," she said. "But it was a very expensive proposal. And it wasn't done at the bargaining table, which is where health benefits are usually negotiated. And no one had any idea where the money was going to come from."

The broader budget crisis has resulted in thousands of layoffs, including those of hundreds of part-time cafeteria workers. About 2,000 remain, earning from $10.65 to $13.24 per hour.

Initially, about 44% of them had other insurance options; now, nearly all use L.A. Unified, which requires no monthly premium, for themselves and family members, including many children who attend district schools. "I used to go to work sick," said Gamaliel Andrade, 33, a food-service worker at Murchison Street Elementary in Boyle Heights. "Now I go to the doctor."

"Don't we all deserve a healthy life?" he asked.

Costs also have risen because of increasing food and fuel prices and declining state support, said food services director Dennis Barrett. In response, the division has simplified menus, prepared more food in a central kitchen, reduced waste and altered food-contracting processes.

L.A. schools served 122 million meals in 2009-10, up from 109 million in 2006-07, despite enrolling about 50,000 fewer students. More meals served means more money for the program. Officials credit faster service and more appealing food for the surge, although critics have recently challenged the school system over food quality and nutrition.

Separately, state auditors said recently that L.A. Unified failed to account properly for $109.8 million in cafeteria funds from 2004-05 through 2007-08. Auditors are working out an estimate for subsequent years.

District officials acknowledged substandard record-keeping but also said the money was not misused. The questioned practices predated the deficits.

Better use of cafeteria funds could have allowed officials to "buy more food or more fresh food and vegetables," said David Jang, a staff services manager in the nutrition services division of the state Department of Education.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources

VALUE-ADDED MEASURES: What’s It All About?: Themes in the News for the week of May 23-27, 2011 by UCLA IDEA | ht... http://bit.ly/koPE3e

THE CASE FOR/AGANST CALPADS: 5 advocates, one opponent share their perspectives: By John Fensterwald - Educated ... http://bit.ly/k6UR04

UTLA COMPLAINT ON VALUE ADDED TEACHER ASSESSMENTS AND JORDAN H.S. RESTRUCTURING DISMISSED: -- Jason Song/LA Tim... http://bit.ly/iZAykC

The Coalition for Community Schools Presents: A CONVERSATION WITH DAVID KIRP - our first live Video Webinar!: Co... http://bit.ly/jxEDVf

BENNETT KAYSER DECLARED WINNER OF THE LAST OPEN SEAT ON THE LAUSD BOARD: Retired teacher supported by UTLA defea... http://bit.ly/lIRqTz

L.A. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER CAN'T JOIN UNION IN LAWSUIT AGAINST SCHOOL DISTRICT, ATTORNEYS SAY: by Howard Blume | L... http://bit.ly/iBTjzI

CALIFORNIA MAY WIN SMALLER GRANT FROM FEDERAL 'RACE TO THE TOP': California's previous plan for schools could h... http://bit.ly/m5mG3R

Letters: IN PRAISE OF LIBRARIANS: Letters to the LA Times | http://lat.ms/inp6fPRe "Success beyond the stacks," ... http://bit.ly/k8LY4G

THE THREE Rs, PLUS COAL: The coal lobby gained access to fourth-grader learners through Scholastic Inc., the ven... http://bit.ly/lZeMqu
26 May

STATE AGENCY FILES TWO CLAIMS AGAINST LAUSD REFORMS: Howard Blume - LA Times/LA NOW | http://lat.ms/l1h2bx ... http://bit.ly/juldU4

5 SURPRISING PERSPECTIVES ABOUT ONLINE SCHOOLS: By Sara Bernard | KQED MindShift Blog | http://bit.ly/l5HM1g ... http://bit.ly/m1JFqL

President Obama appoints Dr.Darline Robles + others to Presidential Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics http://go.usa.gov/Dau

Zuckerbergs $100 million? @Diane Ravitch-Newark Youth speak out: Don't close our public schools! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55fhCi2dBag

Remember last September, when Mark Zuckerberg gave $100 Million to Newark Schools? Do you wonder how that's workin' out? youtube.com/watch?v=phpVcB…

JORDAN HS RECONSTITUTION, VALUE-ADDED TEACHER ASSESSMENTS: State agency files two claims against LAUSD reforms latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/05/…

Charter Schools and New Market Tax Credits: EVIL ED, INC.: The Wall Street/Charter School Connection written+Po... http://bit.ly/kA4Zov

A Call to Action: RALLY TODAY/TUESDAY TO SAVE ARTS & MUSIC EDUCATION + UTLA NEGOTIATION UPDATE: An Open Lette... http://bit.ly/ijsets

Videos: HERE’S TO THE PARENTS, HERE’S TO THE STUDENTS, HERE’S TO THE TEACHERS: We need them all to Save Our Scho... http://bit.ly/jt7NJ5

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR PUTS THE TESTING JUGGERNAUT ON ICE: from Living in Dialogue/EdWeek by Anthony Cody | http:/... http://bit.ly/ktqDtG

LOS ANGELES TEACHERS UNION SEEKS TO BLOCK TEST OF EVALUATION PROGRAM: Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy appea... http://bit.ly/kG7iJF

CALIFORNIA STILL LEADS THE U.S., INCLUDING IN INEQUALITY + A PORTRAIT OF CALIFORNIA/A Measure of America: By Pet... http://bit.ly/jHm8WD

LAO REPORT: The 2011-12 Budget - Overview of the May Revision: “California now is in a position to dramatically ... http://bit.ly/kWA5UL

TEN THINGS TEACHERS NEED TO RECLAIM THEIR PROFESSION: By Horace B. Lucido, posted on The Answer Sheet/Washingto... http://bit.ly/k1Lu6O

Mathews: CLOSE BAD CHARTERS FASTER: By Jay Mathews, Washington Post | http://wapo.st/mpEUSw ●●smf: Mathews, ... http://bit.ly/jHXU4b

Foshay Learning Center: A MODEL FOR SUCCESS: Nearly 40 years ago, the L.A. Unified school was more like a battle... http://bit.ly/leZ2G4

President’s Weekly Address: OBAMA URGES ACTION ON NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: By Michael A. Memoli, LA Times Washingto... http://bit.ly/kPF6y6


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Save the Date: SAVE THE ARTS BENEFIT AT THE HISTORIC COCOANUT GROVE - Saturday, June 11th at 6:00pm
http://bit.ly/kpJz1N

*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


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



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 Brown: 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. THEY DO!.


Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them?




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.



Saturday, May 21, 2011

Acts of God

Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 22•May•2011
In This Issue:
L.A. TEACHERS UNION SEEKS TO HALT SCHOOL DISTRICT INITIATIVES
MAYOR SAYS TEACHERS SHOULD EARN TENURE IN FOUR YEARS – NOT TWO
CALIFORNIA’S REVENUE SURGE MIGHT STYMIE EFFORTS TO STABILIZE FINANCES:
Data-Driven Instruction, Results-Oriented Improvement + Evidence-Based Education: DATA-DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION
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:
Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website
4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
You probably noticed that the world failed to come to an end yesterday, purportedly the 7000th anniversary of the Biblical Flood - though the irony of the anniversary is probably not lost in Cajun Country. Laissez les bons temps rouler, rouler vous rivière boueuse.

Had the world actually ended the L.A. Times headline would've read: "LAUSD, UTLA REACH ACCORD, TIMES APPROVES".

But it was: "L.A. TEACHERS UNION SEEKS TO HALT SCHOOL DISTRICT INITIATIVES" ...thus we know that nothing has changed much

But wait ...it has!

● THIS YEAR @ THIS TIME: The national news is LAUSD attempting to get rid of school librarians.

● LAST YEAR @ THIS TIME: SUPERINTENDENT CONSIDERS LIBRARY STAFF "ESSENTIAL"
from the 20 May 2010 Galatzan Gazette - Boardmember Galatzan's weekly e-newsletter | http://bit.ly/bHLte8

"Superintendent Cortines said this week he will ask local district superintendents to conduct an inventory to determine if library aide positions are being funded for next year at individual school sites. Speaking at the Committee of the Whole [of the Board of Education] meeting, the Superintendent also asserted that libraries must be administered by"professionals" rather than volunteers, as is the case at some schools.

"The Superintendent made his remarks in response to comments from library aides, several from schools in [boardmember] Tamar [Galatzan]’s district, decrying severe cuts being proposed for the library program.

"He called libraries and library aides "essential" and stated unequivocally that neither high schools nor middle schools should be without a library. The Superintendent did remind the Board, however, that because of the budget crisis, there will be less money for libraries next year."


I WAS AT A GATHERING OF PARENT LEADERS from across the state Friday in Sacramento.

Even before we discussed the state budget and the May Revise the topics were, in this order:
1. School Librarians in LAUSD
2. The Get Out of Parking Tickets Free 'Gold Card' scandal in L.A, and
3. How and why was Mayor Tony presenting himself as some sort of an expert at the English Language Learner conference in Sacramento the day before? (I may have initiated the librarian talk ...the rest came from others.)


AS A RECOVERING SCREENWRITER I cannot help but consider the the visual metaphor: The cover of this week's New Yorker is the image of the two famous stone lions guarding the entrance
of the New York Public Library – underwater.


THE GOVERNOR'S MAY REVISE seems at first a shining light at the end of a long dark tunnel. $6.6 billion in unanticipated revenue. An act of God that saves California and public education – and the legislature from doing anything,

Not so fast.

This is good news, but it's the "I've got good news and bad news" kind of news. The good news is that the $6.6 billion with-a-B means $3 Billion with-a-B for K-12. But, depending on how you count it, K-12 has been cut between $19 and $25 Billion with-a-B in recent memory – and paying back that debt to California's schoolchildren is going to take more than than good intentions and a revenue spike, And, the red+blue crowd in Sacramento - thinking they been saved (or worse yet, are saviors) will become reliant on the Miraculous Windfall that Saves the Day Just Before The Apocalypse, ...before the problems of boom-and-bust revenues and two-thirds majorities and no-new-taxes pledges - and the concentration on election over service are addressed.

Repent!

- and ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION ON A-G STORY LAST WEEK



L.A. TEACHERS UNION SEEKS TO HALT SCHOOL DISTRICT INITIATIVES
UNION OPPOSES TESTING OF A NEW TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM AND WANTS TO THWART PLANS TO HAND OVER SOUTH LOS ANGELES CAMPUSES TO A CHARTER ORGANIZATION.

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/mxIJph

May 21, 2011 - The Los Angeles teachers union is seeking a court order to halt key initiatives favored by the new L.A. schools superintendent, the Board of Education and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

If successful, the legal action would suspend pilot testing of a new evaluation system that would use students' scores on standardized tests as one measure of teacher effectiveness.

The legal action also would thwart plans to hand over all or part of two long-struggling South Los Angeles campuses to a charter school organization. Los Angeles Unified School District officials want Green Dot Public Schools to take over all of Clay Middle School and about half of Jordan High School.

Charters are independently managed and can hire teachers and other employees from outside the school system. The restaffing of Jordan is under way.

The attempt to halt the proposals took the form of a filing Friday by United Teachers Los Angeles with the state's Public Employment Relations Board. The union wants the employment board to file a court injunction on its behalf. If successful, the district-favored reforms would be placed on hold while the employment board weighs their legality, a process likely to stretch over months. That action could delay the district strategies for at least a year.

The injunction is needed, said union attorney Jesus Quinonez, because otherwise it would be difficult, if not impossible, to undo actions that he said are illegal.

The union's underlying claim is that L.A. Unified has violated collective bargaining laws. The district has not followed through with negotiations over new teachers' evaluations, the union says, and has attempted to make illegal side deals with individual teachers by offering incentives for them to try out a new evaluation approach.

"The evaluation system needs to be negotiated," said union President A.J. Duffy. "We should be at the table before this thing gets rolled out. We should look at their piece. They should look at our piece and we should try to meld the two together. This is not what they're doing."

District officials say their actions are legal and in the best interests of students. Many teachers are eager to move forward with an improved evaluation system, said L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy.

The filing also opposes the district's attempt to mandate so-called thin contracts for a school's improvement plan. These abbreviated work agreements could "impose working conditions at a school that are not permitted by the full union contract," said Quinonez.

Deasy said he found the union's action on this front disheartening, saying it could frustrate the ability of teachers to adopt work rules at their own schools that would improve learning.

Villaraigosa accused the union of restricting the reform efforts of groups of teachers.

"The teachers themselves," he said, "are putting students first — before their union — and calling for the freedoms and flexibilities they want to improve student learning and grow as educators."

A separate union court action, filed previously in Los Angeles County Superior Court, also challenges the legality of handing over Clay and Jordan to a charter operator.


MAYOR SAYS TEACHERS SHOULD EARN TENURE IN FOUR YEARS – NOT TWO
by Jason Song - LA Times/LA Now --http://lat.ms/k56QJ6

May 19, 2011 | 4:22 pm -- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in a speech in Sacramento on Thursday, called for doubling the amount of time it takes for teachers to earn tenure, linking students’ test scores to teachers’ evaluations and ending layoffs based strictly on seniority.

Villaraigosa has made similar remarks, but his speech at a teacher evaluation conference hosted by the Education Trust-West had new details of what he wants to include in teachers’ evaluations and how he wants to change tenure.

Evaluations, which are based almost entirely on subjective measurements, should include students’ test data, including how well they have performed on standardized exams over time, Villaraigosa said, according to his prepared remarks. Performance reviews should also include classroom observations, peer evaluation, as well as an instructor's contributions to the community, including giving students extra help, coaching a sports team or chaperoning a club.

"Those things have a tremendous effect on kids, their sense of self and they way they learn," he said.

A new evaluation system that includes multiple measures should help administrators and teachers make more informed personnel decisions, Villaraigosa said.

"We wouldn't have to rely on something as arbitrary as seniority to make important decisions for us," he said.

Currently, teachers with the fewest years of seniority are laid off first during economic shortfalls and instructors with the most seniority generally have first pick of school and classroom assignments. A bill in the state Senate that would have allowed performance to be included in layoff decisions failed to make it out of committee last week.

The mayor also called for extending the time it takes for teachers to earn tenure, or permanent status, to four years. Currently, teachers can be fired for almost any reason during their first two years but are entitled to go through an often lengthy termination process after that.

Villaraigosa acknowledged that he has no formal authority over state legislators or city schools, even though he heads a nonprofit group that runs some Los Angeles campuses and has backed candidates for school board.

"But I do have a bully pulpit and I will continue to use it," he said.
_________

●●smf's 2cents: The Mayor has no formal authority over state legislators or city schools.
Who paid for his air travel to and from Sacramento?
Who paid his salary?
Who paid for his staff support and travel to and from the airports?
Who paid for his security detail?
How much did it cost?
Was it worth it?


CALIFORNIA’S REVENUE SURGE MIGHT STYMIE EFFORTS TO STABILIZE FINANCES:
THE $6.6-BILLION OF UNANTICIPATED REVENUE MAY RELIEVE SOME OF THE PRESSURE CAUSED BY CALIFORNIA'S HUGE DEFICIT, PERHAPS WEAKENING GOV. JERRY BROWN'S ARGUMENT FOR TAX EXTENSIONS.

News analysis By Evan Halper and Anthony York, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/mwPujW

California's budget

Gov. Jerry Brown points to a chart as he introduces his revised budget proposal at the Capitol in Sacramento on Monday. State revenue has increased to a projected $6.6 billion beyond expectations. (Ken James / Bloomberg)

May 18, 2011- Reporting from Sacramento— The cash pouring into state coffers may seem like good news for Gov. Jerry Brown, who this week announced a surprise $6.6-billion surge. But the joke in the Capitol is that he might have served the public better by burying the windfall in the backyard.

Propelled by the higher wages and investment incomes of the rich, the new money could actually stymie meaningful change in California's broken budget system, experts say, leaving state books unbalanced indefinitely.

"It's going to relieve some of the pressure, which is exactly what Jerry Brown did not want," said Christopher Thornberg, a principal at Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. "If he could've taken that money and stuck it under a pillow, where nobody can see it, I'm sure he would have liked to."

The dilemma is part of a familiar pattern in California, where state funds are at the mercy of taxes paid by top earners whose bank accounts are subject to unpredictable swings. One bad year for them can, and does, throw state finances into turmoil. Alternately, the accounting misery is quickly forgotten when the economy starts to rebound and tax receipts mushroom.

The boom-bust cycle creates instability that makes employers anxious, cripples the ability of public schools and universities to plan, throws into disarray efforts to overhaul California's deteriorating infrastructure and causes other problems. The potential cures are not complicated, but they are politically painful.

Placing strict limits on spending — especially during good times — and bolstering the state's rainy-day fund would require lawmakers not to use revenue spikes to reinvest in programs that for years have been pummeled with cuts.

Restructuring the tax code is an unpopular idea among those who don't want to see the rich pay less. Leaving it in place but maintaining higher sales, car and income levies, as Brown is proposing, may be difficult to sell to voters who believe the government poorly manages the money they already provide.

It takes an emergency to move such policy changes forward, experts say, and a simple blip in revenue can cause momentum to die.

Steve Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, said voters accustomed to a steady drumbeat of budget gloom may mistakenly believe that a little more money means that the hard times are over, or at least coming to a close.

"It's ironic," he said. "It is good news that can become bad news for solving the problem."

Even the star power and public relations juggernaut of then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who ejected a sitting governor in a historic recall by promising to impose fiscal discipline, didn't help. He couldn't keep lawmakers and the public focused on the task once revenue began seeping back, in the middle of his tenure.

"You have to have some discipline, and it's hard to exert when everyone thinks things are looking better," said Mike Genest, who was Schwarzenegger's budget director. "The political analysis seemed to be that when you have this much money, it is pretty hard to tell people you need to cut the budget or raise taxes. So we stopped trying for two years," putting the administration's energies elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the deficit lingered in the background. As soon as the state dipped into recession again, the state's fiscal crisis was worse than the one Schwarzenegger had inherited.

Like governors before him, Schwarzenegger nagged lawmakers repeatedly to confront California's underlying fiscal problems when money was in hand. But they had long since abandoned the cause.

"Individual legislators all understand what it means to be responsible," Genest said. "But the Legislature as a body is inclined to act incredibly irresponsibly, especially at times like this."

Then-Gov. Pete Wilson, after addressing a historic state budget crisis with painful tax hikes and program cuts in the early 1990s, emerged determined to fix the underlying problems. After years of stagnant revenue, he gathered a group of lawmakers, seasoned bureaucrats and academics to search for ways to change the budget process through a constitutional revision.

But when the economy began to rebound toward the end of Wilson's second term, "all the reforms we'd been talking about just evaporated," said Jim Mayer, a former member of the Little Hoover Commission, a government oversight panel that worked with the group.

Mayer is now executive director of the think tank California Forward, which is seeking solutions to the state's financial problems. He said Brown, who has vowed to stabilize the budget for the long term, now faces the same challenge.

"When the revenue starts rebounding, the first thing people forget is how bad the crisis was," Mayer said.

Brown sent a shot across the Legislature's bow Monday in unveiling his latest budget plan, saying that the state faces a menacing "wall of debt" and that the new revenue would make only a dent in it. He said more taxes are needed to put the state on sound financial footing. He made clear that he would not agree to accounting shifts and gimmicks to balance the budget, especially now that the deficit could be reduced significantly by honest means.

"There is something infantile about the idea that we spend and then we borrow," he said.

Republicans, whose votes Brown needs to carry out his plans, responded with defiance, saying the unexpected revenue is reason enough for the governor to abandon his push for more taxes. The GOP members of the Assembly had earlier crafted their own budget that Brown said would leave the state with deficits for years to come.

Some say Brown missed an opportunity by not reaching an accord with Republicans earlier this year. Now, the extra money can be used to blunt the pain of budget cuts that might have moved voters to support Brown's plan, said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist who was a senior advisor to Schwarzenegger.

"You need to capitalize on a crisis while you have it," he said.

●●smf: Begging to differ with Mr, Sutzman or the Times reporters, I believe the operative quote is:

“You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.”

– Rahm Emanuel, quoted in the N.Y. Times November 6, 2008

* Times staff writer Jack Dolan contributed to this report.


Data-Driven Instruction, Results-Oriented Improvement + Evidence-Based Education: DATA-DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION
WHY AMERICAN EDUCATORS NEED A REFORM ALTERNATIVE —AND WHERE THEY MIGHT LOOK TO FIND IT!

By Dennis Shirley & Andy Hargreaves | Education Week Vol. 26, Issue 06, Pages 32-33 | http://bit.ly/iXCzB7

●●smf: I was directed to this article by a 4LAKids reader+contributor. Thank you! It's just as true now, five years later, as it was when first published. Only more so!

image October 4, 2006 - Every few years in American education, a new slogan is coined as the Next Big Thing. Total quality management, shared decision-making, and outcomes-based education all marched across the educational landscape once, grabbing headlines, filling copy—and leaving little improvement in learning in their wake.
< illustration—Bob Dahm

Right now, data-driven instruction, results-oriented improvement, and evidence-based education are the watchwords. They show up everywhere—from state education department Web sites to principals’ and superintendents’ job descriptions—insisting that instructional practices should be driven by the analysis of student-achievement data as measured by prescribed standardized tests. Of course, data-driven instruction sounds tough and businesslike. No need to actually think about what you’re doing, just let the data drive you.

Teachers are no longer the drivers of reform, but the driven. Many teachers and schools, in fact, are being driven to distraction. Under the pressures of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and its mandate for “adequate yearly progress,” teachers in struggling schools are being told that only results matter—and even these rarely extend beyond tested achievement in literacy and math. In hurried meetings after school, educators go through endless reams of performance data, targeting the problematic cells where results are defective—a subject department here, a grade level there, a group of male minority students elsewhere.

With AYP deadlines looming and time running out, teachers have little chance to consider how best to respond to the figures in front of them. They find themselves instead scrambling to apply instant solutions to all the students in the problematic cells—extra test-prep, a new prescribed program, or after-school and Saturday school sessions. There are few considered, professional judgments here, just simplistic solutions driven by the scores and the political pressures behind them.

Data-driven instruction obliterates the crucial fact that to be effective, educators have to use many different kinds of information to think about what they are doing in classrooms. While statistics can be immensely useful, they do not automatically point to which instructional approaches will work best with the diverse learners that make up a school’s classes, or a nation’s schools. One child may struggle with underperformance because she has difficulties with reading, a second because he has a turbulent home life, and a third because she is a recent immigrant learning English as a second language. Faced with such diversity, teachers and educational leaders have to be intelligently informed by evidence, not blindly driven by it to teach a certain way.

When such evidence points to apparent performance problems, we can find ourselves in a position familiar to players of the popular board game Clue: The data indicate that an achievement crime has occurred, but they don’t tell us who did it, with what weapon, or in which room. Once performance problems have been exposed, instead of rushing to judgment about what must be done, we need more evidence, deeper reflection, and further inquiry before we act. Our instructional choices should be based on all kinds of evidence and experience, processed together in professional learning communities that help us identify common problems, swap ideas and strategies, and develop and deploy our own school-based assessment instruments. Mindful teaching needs to be evidence-informed, not data-driven.

Better alternatives already exist. This has become clear to us through a series of visits to schools in England. There, we have led a research team evaluating the Raising Achievement Transforming Learning, or RATL, project of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, an organization that coordinates many of the state secondary schools across the country. RATL comprises more than 330 English secondary schools. To be eligible to join the project, the schools first had to be identified as underachieving, as defined by a composite of diverse pupil-test-score data. In its first two years, student achievement at project schools has risen steadily, and, in almost three-quarters of them, strikingly so. How has this happened?

First, RATL is the antithesis of top-down improvement. Its principals receive the equivalent of about $16,000 each year to spend on whatever they deem best to raise pupil achievement. School leaders provide project members with a menu of short-, medium-, and long-term strategies that have had proven success when applied elsewhere. Schools are then networked with each other, attached to coaching principals from high-achieving mentor schools, and offered regional conferences to help principals understand what their pupil-achievement data mean and how best to capitalize on the information with their teachers. By following a teacher-friendly principle of schools helping schools, and providing principals and teachers with considerable latitude in defining and addressing problems, the network has achieved rapid and impressive success.
Second, the project has a key cultural component that is based on the insight that test results rarely present self-evident instructional strategies to address the needs of struggling pupils. Rather, the data are, in and of themselves, often ambiguous, reflecting the nonlinear, and sometimes ingenious, ways that diverse learners acquire knowledge. As a consequence, project leaders do not rush from diagnosis to action, but emphasize the intermediary step of professional reflection and analysis. This step requires deep cultural change in many schools, as teachers work to shift their school culture from one of isolated instructors responsible only for their own pupils, to one of lifelong learners with the mission of improving the education of all learners in a school. As part of this cultural transformation, RATL leaders try to ensure that pupil-achievement data are embedded in school-based cultures that appreciate the value of tests, but are not limited to them.

Data-driven instruction obliterates the crucial fact that to be effective,
educators have to use many different kinds of information to think about what
they are doing in classrooms.

In a country that has just abolished national achievement targets (with Wales going even further and abolishing standardized tests), RATL schools now have the freedom to set their own ambitious goals and targets, instead of frantically trying to comply with targets imposed by others. They emphasize that much school improvement involves cultural change, and that it takes time and professional sophistication to understand what test scores can and cannot tell us. In this model, careful scrutiny and discernment, not “drivenness,” are valued, and indeed are viewed as the heart and soul of successful educational change.

Third, RATL’s consistent focus on pupil achievement has not distorted or diminished the curriculum in ways that are becoming increasingly evident in many American schools. Here, standardized tests often have become the curriculum. In England, many principals have used the RATL funds to support art projects, physical education, or foreign-language courses. Principals of RATL schools in poor and working-class communities try to both broaden and deepen the curriculum to give all children multiple opportunities to flourish academically. In the United States, on the other hand, the achievement gap in tested performance coexists with a widening learning gap between functional basics for the poor and working class and an enriched and enlarged set of learning experiences for the privileged in the suburbs—where schools are free of many testing constraints and can (and do) fly far beyond the standards.

Evidence and experience, teachers working with teachers, schools helping schools, and continual reflective inquiry by educators—this path to improvement offers students so much in terms of teacher professionalism and creative responses to the on-the-ground realities of classrooms and schools. Do we American educators dare to learn from our British counterparts? Can we apply the inventiveness of professionals collaborating at their best, rather than adhere blindly to the fad of the moment marketed as “data-driven instruction”?

- Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves are professors in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, in Chestnut Hill, Mass.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
►COMPARE+CONTRAST:

BEHIND GRASS-ROOTS SCHOOL ADVOCACY, BILL GATES: By SAM DILLON New York Times | http://nyti.ms/ko6FBZ Published:... http://bit.ly/kXGFQG

BEHIND STUDENT SUCCESS, AN LAUSD LIBRARIAN: Rosemarie Bernier, an LAUSD teacher-librarian facing layoff, teaches... http://bit.ly/lARb4b
____________

►MORE LIBRARY MADNESS:

SCHOOL LIBRARIES VITAL FOR STUDENTS: This editorial ran in Wednesday’s Waterloo Ontario, Canada Region Record | ... http://bit.ly/kP7Uu7

LAUSD DOUBTS THAT SEASONED TEACHE-LIBRARIANS CAN TEACH: By Beverly Goldberg, Senior Editor - Published in Am... http://bit.ly/iKLm7m

The Defunding of School Libraries+Librarians: AN OPEN LETTER TO SUPERINTENDENT DEASY FROM THE AMERICAN LIBRARY A... http://bit.ly/lJa1tY

UPDATE ON UPCOMING PATT MORRISON SHOW ON LAUSD TEACHER-LIBRARIANS : appx 2 pm 89.3FM: LAUSD librarians, fighting... http://bit.ly/kVJvAN

LAUSD LIBRARIAN FIASCO IN THE WASHINGTON POST AND ON PATT MORRISON’S RADIO SHOW THIS AFTERNOON: Teacher: 'My emp... http://bit.ly/jVm9zU

L.A. UNIFIED’S LIBRARIANS ON TRIAL: The school district appears determined to cut teacher- librarians.: Op-Ed in... http://bit.ly/kowp34

LIBRARIANS GET THE THIRD DEGREE: Warren OLney ,Which Way L.A.? | Reporter's Notebook | KCRW | http://bit.ly/lWt... http://bit.ly/imlz8M

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: L.A. Unified librarians under siege: L.A. Times 17 May 2011 | http://lat.ms/gqr641 re... http://bit.ly/jxi7NQ

__________________________

ON EQUAL TERMS: Themes in the News for the week of May 16-20, 2011 by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/mgEncK 05-20-20... http://bit.ly/mH8Voi

JOHN DEASY’S PRESSURE CHAMBER: LAUSD's new leader needs to make things happen fast: By John Fensterwald - Educat... http://bit.ly/jSWHwo

Eastside/Westside Charter Co-locations: SIX EASTSIDE SCHOOLS MAKE SPACE FOR CHARTERS + THREE CHARTER OPERATORS R... http://bit.ly/jpQlah

Gulen: FEDS QUESTION CHARTER SCHOOLS’ FOREIGN-TEACHER HIRING PRACTICES + OBJECTIVES OF CHARTER SCHOOLS WITH TURK... http://bit.ly/jcywfy

MAYOR SAYS TEACHERS SHOULD EARN TENURE IN FOUR YEARS – NOT TWO: by Jason Song _ LA Times/LA Now --http://lat.ms/... http://bit.ly/mSiZXa

Data-Driven Instruction, Results-Oriented Improvement + Evidence-Based Education: DATA-DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION: Wh... http://bit.ly/jVyrJa

CORRECTION/CLAIFICATION ON A-G STORY LAST WEEK: John Rogers of UCLA/IDEA writes 4LAKids 18 May 2011 - The stor... http://bit.ly/mytGyS

CALIFORNIA’S REVENUE SURGE MIGHT STYMIE EFFORTS TO STABILIZE FINANCES: The $6.6-billion of unanticipated revenue... http://bit.ly/lIzerb

SIX FURLOUGH DAYS MAY OFFSET MOST THTEATENED LAUSD CUTS: By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News | http:/... http://bit.ly/m6xoxU

UTLA REQUESTs RECISION OF ALL RIFs, LAYOFFS & PINK SLIPS: from the UTLA Website | http://bit.ly/k0uCwf In light... http://bit.ly/k7qydp

Arts+Music Education in LAUSD: WINNING THE FUTURE – LOSING THE PRESENT: by Rubi Fregoso, Associate Producer, Edu... http://bit.ly/jTrtAe

BENNETT KAYSER WINS IN CLOSE SCHOOL BOARD RACE, UNOFFICIAL TALLY SHOWS: by Jason Song | L.A. Times/L.A. Now |... http://bit.ly/js8tQ6

CHARTERS, LAUSD AGREE TO SHARE CAMPUSES: Some schools not happy with arrangements + smf’s 2¢: By Connie Llanos, ... http://bit.ly/k3upWu

California State PTA: MAY REVISE TAKES A POSITIVE STEP - Final budget plan must protect children and our future:... http://bit.ly/mzG7go

THE MAY REVISE: Education spending up / Unexpected state revenue leaps to $6.6 billion [Updated – FULL BUDGET RE... http://bit.ly/kfs3SO

KAYSER, SANCHEZ: 2 vie for LA Unified board seat: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC | http://bit.ly/jrIZZ5 AUDIO: MP3 ... http://bit.ly/j2njpX

Joint Hearing of the Assembly Education and Health Committees: CALIFORNIA HEALTHY STUDENTS RESEARCH PROJECT: Inf... http://bit.ly/lb9583

THE MAY REVISE: Governor Brown’s revised budget proposal to be broadcast and posted online Monday May 16 @ 11AM:... http://bit.ly/iGKzpU

Sanchez v. Kayser: RIORDAN, BROAD, THE EASTSIDE LATINO MACHINE, AND THE LEGACY OF DISTRICT 2: By Mulholland Terr... http://bit.ly/lsPGnO

A Rant: SEGMENTS+TIDBITS: by smf for 4LAKids 15 May 2011 – 4LAKids has a love-hate relationship with the L.A. ... http://bit.ly/k8j67A


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


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



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 Brown: 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. THEY DO!.


Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them?




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.