In This Issue:  | | • | FIXING NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: The Education secretary's plan sacrifices some of the best features of the law to fix the worst. | | | • | LAUSD GRADUATE NUMBERS IMPROVE BUT STILL TERRIBLE + CALIFORNIA REPORTS EIGHTH-GRADE DROPOUT RATE FOR FIRST TIME | | | • | MORE LEADERSHIP TURMOIL AT FLAGSHIP ARTS HIGH SCHOOL: + VERDUGO HILLS HIGH SCHOOL PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOILED IN NAMING NEW PRINCIPAL | | | • | A VERY GOOD BLUEPRINT. NOW, WHAT WILL WE BUILD? | | | • | 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: | | | | “When I get to the bottom
I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and turn
and I go for a ride “
Wikipedia: A helter skelter is a funfair or amusement park ride with a slide built in a spiral around a high tower.
Somehow Charlie Manson twisted John+Paul's lyric into his own apocalyptic dream. It doesn't seem too twisted to me to view last week's economic cataclysm through that same lyrical metaphor. Though - the pundits and the doomsayers and Chicago-School-of-Economists notwithstanding – even a week like the last an apocalypse does not make.
Randomly observed:
● The magical solution to the Debt Ceiling Crisis – with its poison pill resolution – puts off until Thanksgiving the next iteration of the crisis: "For the blessings we are about to receive we are.....". Never mind.
● [sub]Standard and Poor's (which sounds like the low end of a scoring rubric) action devaluing US Treasury securities deserves questioning.
● Where was S+P earlier on the bundled sub-prime mortgages? (as an afterthought S+P did devalue Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac – THIS WEEK!)
● Politics-as-Unusual: S&P in an explainer worried about the political will in Washington to repay debt, not the ability to do so. I've got to agree here, 'willfulness' is rampant in D.C.; 'will' AWOL.
- 1. Waren Buffet questioned S&P's motives.
- 2. S&P questioned Buffet's creditworthiness
- 1a. Buffet owns Moody's, S&P's competitor in the credit rating game.
- 2a. ...and who owns S&P? Mayor Tony? Eli Broad? Bill Gates? No. McGraw-Hill - a textbook publisher!
- 2b. Uh-oh.
SOMETIMES WHEN THINGS GO WRONG IT'S CIRCUMSTANCE. When it happens again it might be a pattern. Again and again? A trend. Or a conspiracy. Or just the abnormal way things happen in a bureaucracy.
Case in Point: The principality at the High School for The Arts, aka High School #9 aka The Ramon C. Cortines High School for the Visual & Performing Arts. [Friday: MORE LEADERSHIP TURMOIL AT FLAGSHIP ARTS HIGH SCHOOL] Compare and contrast to the principality at Verdugo Hills High School. [Monday: VERDUGO HILLS HIGH SCHOOL PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOILED IN NAMING NEW PRINCIPAL] Take into consideration the recent actions at Obama Global Prep and Clay Middle School and the Board of Ed tossing out the parent vote in Public School Choice. Whatever's going on, parents and the school communities at these schools deserve an explanation beyond the terse “It's a personnel matter”.
And the schools? They deserve and are entitled to the leadership they want.
Immediately following is the LA Times editorial from Saturday: FIXING NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. Please read it twice – and take into consideration the emergent data on dropouts and grad rates. We are beginning to see information from CALPADS (California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System) – the state's long-awaited/way-overdue and currently-canceled student database that tracks kids over time.
According to LAUSD GRADUATE NUMBERS IMPROVE BUT STILL TERRIBLE + the supe's three-peat-tweets [@DrDeasyLAUSD] dropout and grad rate numbers are improving incrementally. But new information revealed on dropouts from Eighth Grade CALIFORNIA REPORTS EIGHTH-GRADE DROPOUT RATE FOR FIRST TIME is particularly worrisome
● The Superintendent wants to organize a study about the graduation rate – but promises the test score data will be better – oh joy!)
● LAUSD has it's own 8th grade dropout data - but doesn't want to release it.
● And our Education Mayor, whose partnership operates a couple of the schools with the worst graduation rates, disputes the new numbers. He insists they're worse than that!
17, 257 kids in California dropped out in the 8th Grade – or between the 8th and 9th last year.
Eighth graders are children who are 14 years old. Education in California is mandatory until age 18. No one has waived, postponed or granted flexibility on that requirement. We parents, we educators, we administrators, we community members, we school board members, we politicians and we taxpayers who allow 14-year-olds to drop out must be held accountable.
I'm not talking about an angry blog post or a scathing report or fines or even threats of jail time. A special circle in hell is more like what I have in mind. Not very progressive ...but these seem to be conservative times.
MEANWHILE the state revenue numbers are looking not-so-wishful and the State Supreme Court and the City of LA aren't for sharing the CRA money. The LA Community College District is busted for some fast-and-looseness (or Waste, Fraud and [not-or] Abuse) with bond funds and The Times did an informative series on childhood immunization.
¡Onward/Alelante! -smf
FIXING NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: The Education secretary's plan sacrifices some of the best features of the law to fix the worst.
LA Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/n8OMCV
August 13, 2011 - It's time to stop holding schools hostage to the overly rigid and often counterproductive demands of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which was supposed to have been rewritten four years ago. More and more schools — many of them good or at least improving — are being labeled failures and are facing severe sanctions as the 2014 deadline approaches, when the law requires schools to make 100% of their students proficient in reading and math. A frustrated Obama administration, which has tried in vain to persuade Congress to overhaul the act, is now pursuing a workaround.
But the plan advanced by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sacrifices some of the best features of the law in an effort to fix the worst ones.
Duncan has announced that he will grant states waivers from selected No Child Left Behind mandates. That would certainly be taking administrative powers to a new level — the department wouldn't be interpreting the education reform law; it would be countermanding parts of it. Yet Duncan has little choice. The law, as he pointed out, doesn't differentiate between schools at which a modest percentage of students are failing and those at which almost all are; nor does it give any credit to schools making real, measurable improvements that don't happen to match the specific targets set for each subcategory of students (black, Latino, white, poor, in need of special education and so forth).
Yet some of the potential requirements for states to obtain a waiver, as vaguely outlined by Duncan last week, have their own problems. The Education secretary appears only partly concerned about devising more reasonable measures of school progress. He also is using the waivers, and the threat of sanctions under the law as it exists, to impose his own agenda for school reform. As he draws up the specific requirements, Duncan should keep in mind why the 2001 act passed with strong bipartisan support.
Before No Child Left Behind, scant attention was paid to what was happening to low-income students, especially low-income black and Latino students, who attended schools with higher proportions of underqualified teachers. A shocking number of them reached high school unable to read so much as Dr. Seuss books. The federal government provides extra money for schools with large numbers of low-income students, but with those funds spent on unproven programs that didn't seem to improve outcomes, Congress rightly felt it was getting a bad deal for the money.
So the law hasn't been an utter failure. If nothing else, its yearly testing requirement showed the nation just how badly disadvantaged students were faring. The law also was appropriately focused on results, not techniques. Schools could employ whatever educational method they thought would be useful, as long as it worked. And achievement has improved at least somewhat in many schools.
Yet No Child Left Behind was riddled with problems from the start. Its poorly conceived formula for measuring progress unintentionally gave schools reason to ignore the lowest-achieving students. Instruction lost depth even in high-achieving schools, as teachers focused on raising scores on multiple-choice tests in reading and math. At the same time, states were left to adopt their own standards for proficiency; those that set the bar low made themselves look good on their own tests. California set its standards fairly high.
All of this must be fixed. But Duncan's solution goes far beyond fixing a broken accountability system; he is prescribing the educational changes he wants to see states make in order to receive a waiver. Those include tying teacher evaluations to standardized-test results, adopting certain curricula and reorganizing low-performing schools by firing much of their faculties.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with these reforms, most of which are worth trying at least. But there is little evidence that any of them will significantly raise achievement. Duncan's approach recalls the days before the federal school-reform law, when well-intentioned but possibly ineffective programs were valued over accountability.
Fortunately, Duncan mentioned overhauling the measurement system as well. One change should be to judge schools by individual students' growth year by year, rather than holding schools to some arbitrary measure of student proficiency. And although standardized test scores are one important achievement indicator, student progress also should be measured by dropout rates, college attendance and portfolios of work that go beyond penciling in bubbles on a multiple-choice test.
Duncan is unfortunately stuck with doing Congress' work. As he prepares detailed requirements for obtaining waivers, he should concentrate on defining reasonable goals for schools. Then he should leave it to states and their school districts to decide how to go about meeting them.
LAUSD GRADUATE NUMBERS IMPROVE BUT STILL TERRIBLE + CALIFORNIA REPORTS EIGHTH-GRADE DROPOUT RATE FOR FIRST TIME
LAUSD GRADUATE NUMBERS IMPROVE BUT STILL TERRIBLE
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/n7jO2P
8/11/2011 09:14:42 PM PDT - Graduation rates continued to inch upward last year while dropout rates decreased at Los Angeles Unified schools, according to new district data released Thursday.
The district's high school graduation rate reached 56 percent in 2010-11, according to preliminary data, up from 55 percent in 2009-10 and 52 percent the year before.
Despite the improvement, LAUSD continues to have one of the lowest graduation rates in the state - above only Oakland Unified among big-city districts - and officials bemoaned the slow progress.
"LAUSD remains far from realizing its stated goal of graduating 100 percent of students, college-prepared and career-ready," said LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy.
"The case for graduation is obvious, and yet, too many of our youth are not getting the message. We have to figure out the obstacles to graduation, and attack them," he added.
The district's release of graduation and dropout data coincides with the California Department of Education releasing its own set of statistics, although the two sets of figures don't match because of different calculation methods.
The state does not yet have 2010-11 figures, but in 2009-10, the district's four-year graduation rate was listed at 64 percent, down from just under 70 percent in 2008-09.
The district argues that its own figures are more accurate because they take into account factors that the state has only begun in recent years to consider in its own calculations.
This is the first year that the state is measuring the number of first-time ninth-grade students who graduate in four years - a method that LAUSD has used since 2008.
Discrepancies between district and state figures were somewhat expected by state officials since this is the first time that California is using its Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, or CALPADS, which tracks individual students.
Still, state officials celebrated finally having a way to more accurately track the progress of students.
"For far too long, the discussion about graduation and dropout rates has revolved around how the results were obtained," said State Superintendent Tom Torlakson.
"Now, we can focus on the much more important issue of how to raise the number of graduates and lower the number of dropouts."
Torlakson also celebrated the state's inaugural release of middle school dropout rates, reported for the first time this year.
According to the state, more than 17,000 eighth-graders dropped out of school before entering ninth grade in 2008-09. District-by-district breakdowns weren't available Thursday.
"Our research shows that chronic absence from school, even as early as kindergarten, is a strong indicator of whether a child will drop out of school later," Torlakson said.
"Clearly, we need to invest more in programs designed to keep elementary and middle school students in school."
The state and the district do agree on the dropout rate.
According to the latest statistics, 25.4 percent of LAUSD's high school students dropped out in 2009-10, an improvement from the 2008-09 rate of 29.6 percent.
Also troubling is the handful of schools that saw their graduation rates drop significantly.
In 2010-11 Van Nuys High School saw a decrease of 10 percentage points in its graduation rate, which sunk to 49.3 percent.
At East Valley High graduation rates also dipped by 5 percentage points, reaching 50.2 percent.
Conversely, some schools made tremendous gains including Arleta High School, which saw its graduation rate soar from 54 percent in 2008-09 to 75 percent last year; and Taft High school which grew its graduation rate from 61 percent to 78 percent.
Several high performing schools also continued to boast stellar graduation rates that topped the district and the state average.
Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies boasted one of LAUSD's highest graduation rates last year with 94.8 percent of its students graduating in four years.
Deasy said he planned to organize a study, with education experts from within and outside the district, to look at the different factors that could be contributing to LAUSD's perpetual dropout crisis.
Deasy wants LAUSD to raise its graduation rate to 70 percent by 2013-14.
However, education experts said the district's steady and consistent progress is something to be celebrated, if it can be maintained.
"According to the research, it is reasonable to expect any school district to achieve an increase of between 2 and 3 percentage points a year," said Dan Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies with the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.
"Even as a civil rights advocate that acknowledges that where we are today is unacceptable, it's important to note that if the district can keep making these steady gains it will eventually make real progress."
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CALIFORNIA REPORTS EIGHTH-GRADE DROPOUT RATE FOR FIRST TIME: A new system that tracks every public school student finds that about 3.5% of eighth-graders — 17,257 in all — left school and didn't return for ninth grade. The high school dropout rate is 18.2%.
By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/pIjXvE
August 12, 2011 - An overlooked corner of the dropout problem became more visible Thursday when state officials for the first time released the dropout rate for eighth-graders.
Statewide, about 3.5% of eighth-graders — 17,257 in all — left school and didn't return for ninth grade, according to the state count now available with a system for tracking students individually.
The California Department of Education released the new dropout and graduation rates, the first such report based on unique identification numbers for every public school student. It looked at eighth-graders in the 2008-09 academic year and students who started high school in 2006 and should have graduated four years later.
Overall, 74.4% of California high school students graduated in four years, according to state data; 18.2% dropped out. The remainder were still in school (6.6%), were in non-diploma programs for disabled students (0.5%) or left high school by taking the General Educational Development (GED) Test (0.4%).
Steep gaps persist in the comparative fates of different ethnic groups. The graduation rate is 68% for Latinos, 59% for African American students and 56% for students who are learning English. This compares with 83.4% for whites and 89.4% for Asians.
"The data reveal the sad truth about our state's four-year graduation rates and California's failure to adequately serve all of our students," said Arun Ramanathan, executive director of Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based advocacy organization.
The latest numbers could still underestimate the number of dropouts, because, for example, they depend on school clerks verifying whether a student dropped out, moved or transferred to a private school.
Most experts say the new system is more reliable than what it replaced and that the data on eighth-graders are a helpful, if worrisome, benefit.
Among eighth-graders statewide, about 4,200 dropped out during the academic year; more than 13,000 finished eighth grade but didn't show up for ninth, the traditional beginning of high school.
"That transition from middle school to high school is crucial," said state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. "Those years are vulnerable years for many students, especially if a student loses hope, gets off track or falls behind."
He said dropping out is the culmination of a problem that probably has been building for years. Students who are behind in reading skills by the third grade, or nonnative speakers who don't make the transition from Spanish to English, can fall increasingly behind in all their subjects. And there is pressure in some families to earn money rather than stay in school.
The Los Angeles Unified School District did not provide figures for its eighth-graders, although it has the data. It did, however, deliver related news: The graduation rate in the state's largest school system has improved slightly but remains low — and worse even than the figure calculated by the state.
"The sobering reality is that the graduation rate for LAUSD is too low," said Supt. John Deasy.
L.A. Unified's estimated graduation rate for the four-year period is 55%. However, the state's new system places the district's rate at 64.2%.
And a broadly adopted formula used by the National Center for Education Statistics credits L.A. Unified with graduating 70.4% of high school students in four years.
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has long sided with experts who believe dropout numbers are higher than reported, expressed ongoing doubt about the new state numbers.
"We still don't have an accurate way to determine who's dropping out," he said, citing studies that estimate L.A. Unified's four-year high school dropout rate at more than 50%. (The state-calculated dropout rate for L.A. Unified is 26.1%.)
Two high schools managed by the mayor's nonprofit organization —Roosevelt in Boyle Heights and Santee south of downtown — are graduating more students than previously, but still recorded among the worst four-year graduation rates in L.A. Unified, 41% and 44% respectively, the district reported.
MORE LEADERSHIP TURMOIL AT FLAGSHIP ARTS HIGH SCHOOL: + VERDUGO HILLS HIGH SCHOOL PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOILED IN NAMING NEW PRINCIPAL
MORE LEADERSHIP TURMOIL AT FLAGSHIP ARTS HIGH SCHOOL: LAUSD Principal Choice Rejects Post; New Search Starts Three Weeks Before Classes Begin
by Ryan Vaillancourt, Staff Writer, LA Downtown News | http://bit.ly/pzuPYv
Friday, August 12, 2011 4:41 PM PDT - DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – The $232 million performing arts high school on Grand Avenue has had two principals in its first two years. Now, three weeks before classes begin, the school finds itself without a permanent leader.
Los Angeles Downtown News has learned that the high-profile New York arts school administrator who had been tapped for the job has decided not to take the position. It is the second time she has walked away from the LAUSD’s offer to lead the attention-grabbing school designed by Wolf Prix.
The latest rejection of the job by Kim Bruno, the principal at the lauded LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and Performing Arts in New York City, comes after a recent courting process that included in-person interviews in Los Angeles. She was not the only candidate, but she was the district’s top choice.
The principal position is due to be re-posted on Monday, said Dale Vigil, the local district superintendent for the region that includes the arts school, recently re-named the Ramon C. Cortines School for Visual and Performing Arts.
In late July, a selection committee consisting of parents, teachers and other stakeholders in the school at 450 N. Grand Ave. named Bruno their top choice to replace Luis Lopez, who was suddenly ousted in June. They also selected second and third candidates.
LAUSD Supt. John Deasy and Vigil approved the recommendation, but Bruno ultimately rejected the district’s offer, Vigil said. The district has appointed interim principal Chiekko Rupp, a retired educator, to open the school in September and remain there until a permanent leader is chosen, Vigil said.
It is unclear why Bruno, who could not immediately be reached for comment, backed out. When asked what could have caused the rejection, Vigil said, “You’d have to talk to her. I was very supportive of the committee and that’s who they wanted.”
This is the second time Bruno appeared to want the job before changing course. She verbally committed to taking the position in 2009, when the district wanted her to be the school’s first principal. After visiting Los Angeles, she canceled, citing “professional reasons” in an email to Downtown News.
Vigil said the selection committee could choose to make an offer to one of the candidates who were ranked below Bruno. More likely, he said, the district will start over and re-post the position Monday.
Whoever ultimately takes the job will be the third principal in three years at a school that has been roiled by political and administration-related conflicts. First year principal Suzanne Blake was fired after one year, though no reason was ever publicly given. Parents who claimed Blake had done an able job and was adored by students staged a protest outside the district’s headquarters in July 2010.
Blake’s replacement, Lopez, was fired in June. Again, there was little explanation for the move.
Vigil said the school nevertheless has stability because four assistant principals, who oversee the campus’ four arts-related academies in music, theater, visual arts and dance, are all returning. Still, the district will look to quickly find a permanent principal.
“We’d like to have someone in place before September is out,” Vigil said.
Greg Schiller, a science teacher at the school, and a member of the selection committee, said he knew the group’s recommendation was “held up in human resources.” That was the last he had heard about the process, Schiller said.
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VERDUGO HILLS HIGH SCHOOL PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOILED IN NAMING NEW PRINCIPAL: Supt. John Deasy overrules Ramon Cortines, the former superintendent, and appoints an interim administrator.
By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/p6N4ls
August 9, 2011 - Former Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines agreed last year to let teachers and parents at Verdugo Hills High School implement their own reform plan, which included hiring their own principal.
But Cortines' successor, current Los Angeles Unified School District chief John Deasy, has not approved the school's top choice for principal. Instead, district officials appointed an interim principal at the Tujunga campus. Deasy said that because he evaluates the district's principals, he should have a say in hiring.
Verdugo's plan was never approved by the school board, and Cortines said he believes Deasy has the right to ignore it. But many Verdugo teachers and parents say they feel betrayed by district management, partly because Deasy and others have said that campuses should have greater autonomy.
"The district asked us to take responsibility and to undertake reforms, and when we step up and do those things, we're not listened to and respected," said Jodie Brittain, a parent who sat on two hiring committees and whose children previously attended Verdugo.
The flap at Verdugo Hills is among several recent instances in which teachers and community members have accused the L.A. district of backtracking on promised collaboration. That has happened in both the hiring and removal of principals, including twice at the new downtown arts high school and at the Obama Global Preparatory Academy middle school in South L.A.
Cortines, who retired in April, said he agreed to partial autonomy for Verdugo because its test scores had improved in recent years and because he feared that its faculty might vote to make the campus a charter school, which would have led to a loss of enrollment and funding for the district.
The school's reform plan stated that "the selection of administrators is the sole purview of the Governing Council and shall remain independent of superintendent approval."
The district's administrators union was not involved in the negotiation, said union president Judith Perez. The superintendent typically has final say on principal assignment, Perez said.
After the former Verdugo principal retired this summer, teachers and parents interviewed candidates and forwarded their top choices to administrators. Deasy did not agree to the first choice, and the second took a job at another campus.
Deasy then asked the school to conduct another round of interviews and to include a senior administrator on the search committee. Once again, Deasy did not favor the school's top choice.
In an interview, Deasy declined to discuss his reasons for approving some candidates and not others, but he said he would not agree to a deal in which the superintendent has no say in a principal's hiring.
"I can't live with portions of the agreement," he said. "I personally will need to be comfortable with every single principal in this district."
School board member Nury Martinez, who represents the area around Verdugo, said she supports Deasy's actions. "I have to trust he's going to do what's right for the kids of Verdugo," she said.
Deasy said he would like to reach consensus with Verdugo teachers and parents on the next principal. In the meantime, he said, he has assigned an interim administrator to the post and will revisit the issue after state test scores are released in coming weeks.
A VERY GOOD BLUEPRINT. NOW, WHAT WILL WE BUILD?
Themes in the News for the week of Aug. 8-12, 2011 by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/ncTnVd
Amidst the worrisome news about California’s public schools, it’s encouraging to find sensible leadership and a promising plan for the future. This week, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson unveiled a broad blueprint to reverse the state’s education decline and improve opportunities for all students. Torlakson and his advisory committee steered clear of silver bullets and patchwork fixes, emphasizing a more systemic and realistic approach.
Leadership and a strong teacher workforce are the foundation of Torlakson’s plan. “There’s no substitute for investing in our children’s education,” Torlakson said at a press conference. “But we owe our students much more than just money. We also owe them our leadership, our best thinking—and above all—our very best people” (CDE).
A Blueprint for Great Schools is a 31-page report—the product of months of discussion and collaboration by a diverse group of educators, administrators, parents, and business and community leaders. The report touches on familiar schooling issues including accountability, curriculum, early childhood, community resources, poverty, and others. But central to addressing these multiple challenges is developing and retaining the best teachers. To further that end the report recommends creating a Commission on Educator Quality (KPCC, California Watch, Educated Guess, Fresno Bee, Patch).
Here are some goals pertaining to teaching found in the report and expected to guide the deliberations of a Commission on Educator Quality should one be formed:
…a future in which California has a stable, uniformly high-quality teaching and leadership workforce from preschool through high school environments. Schools, districts and higher education institutions collaborate to provide high-quality, comprehensive teacher and leader preparation programs. Teachers and leaders are evaluated based on meaningful professional standards integrated with evidence of student learning. Teacher and leader evaluations are used to inform professional development. High-quality, widely available professional development infrastructure to support educators across their careers.
Overall, the report reaches beyond current reform strategies that emphasize efficiency (doing more with less) and competition (winning and racing). Instead, the report addresses the relationship between a quality education system and a workforce of well-prepared and high-quality educators. California education was once an example to the nation of how education policy should be guided by a commitment to giving every child a great teacher. Now it needs to rebuild that commitment.
Torlakson is aware of the wide gap between California’s educational goals and the state’s capacity and willingness to implement the recommendations in the report. "My top priority continues to be restoring California's investment in education, and the Blueprint makes it clear that while some ideas will cost little, or even save money, much of what we want to do will take resources. We also have to consider the cost of not providing a vision for education in this state, and that would place the future of California and its children at risk” (CDE).
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
STUDENT TEST SCORES AND EVALUATION: Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Update | . http://t.co/WJBjDmm
MORE LEADERSHIP TURMOIL AT FLAGSHIP ARTS HIGH SCHOOL: LAUSD Principal Choice Rejects Post; New Search Starts Thr... bit.ly/ntjYVN
RESERVE FUND AN ANSWER FOR CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS, A QUESTION FOR OTHERS …including LAUSD: LAUSD maintains a res... http://bit.ly/n6Z9cZ
SCHOOL COP SHOOTING HOAXER WAIVES JURY TRIAL: By Lindsay William-Ross in LAist.com | http://bit.ly/mPSEUK Augus... http://bit.ly/pcHDeR
STATE SUPREME COURT + LA CITY COUNCIL BLOCK TRANSFER OF COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT FUNDS TO STATE BUDGET: Some of t... http://bit.ly/naC7DB
CALFORNIA TAX REVENUES PLUNGE, DEEP CUTS TO SCHOOLS COULD BE TRIGGERED + Controller’s July Cash Update + more (o... http://bit.ly/nFKII8
UCLA LIBRARY ACQUIRES LAUSD HISTORICAL ARCHIVE: Collection illuminates century of educational, civic history in ... http://bit.ly/q4e7Q9
STATE CONTROLLER’S AUDIT FINDS POOR MANAGEMENT OF LA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT BONDS: PRESS RELEASE: California... http://bit.ly/nYZPtl
US Dept of Ed, United Way, National PTA, SEDL and Harvard Webinar: EVALUATING FAMILY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES - ADD... http://bit.ly/nD10ww
Schools that Expel, Suspend, Deny (Update): SCHOOL DISCIPLINE OFTEN METED OUT UNEVENLY: NPR TALK OF THE NATION +... http://bit.ly/pPL9mM
TITLE I AND Pre-K WEBINAR: “Made for Each Other” - Wednesday August 17: forwarded by a 4LAKids Reader from the N... http://bit.ly/nOmzqR
VERDUGO HILLS HIGH SCHOOL PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOILED IN NAMING NEW PRINCIPAL: Supt. John Deasy overrules Ramon ... http://bit.ly/qPuLaD
15 FACTS ALL PARENTS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT 529 (College Savings) PLANS: recommended by a 4LAKids Reader from Online ... http://bit.ly/pc8bZp
Immunization 411 | DEAR PARENTS: WHY VACCINES ARE VITAL - Dr. Steve Dudley tries to persuade parents to get thei... http://bit.ly/obHejL
Immunization 411 | MEDICAL COMMUNITY CONFRONTS VACCINE FEARS: Despite reassuring studies, doctors still find the... http://bit.ly/r3y78W
Immunization 911 | DOCTORS SEE CHINKS IN VACCINATION ARMOR: As parents opt out of getting shots for their childr... http://bit.ly/pm7G3E
JERRY BROWN’S CHARTER SCHOOLS IN OAKLAND REAP BIG DONATIONS: Energy companies, telecommunication interests and I... http://bit.ly/qfEfMd
Speak softly and stick-it-to-‘em with a big carrot: OBAMA GIVES GO-AHEAD FOR NCLB WAIVERS TO STATES: Plan will b... http://bit.ly/pAGu5D
DEASY INTERVIEW ON TV7: Despite promos claiming they would be, charters not discussed. I should know better! video: http://bit.ly/CdGDE -smf
DEASY ON TV: "I have seen the embargoed test scores - and I believe that LAUSD will have much to celebrate."
STOP THE STONEWALLING: Los Angeles County supervisors’ refusal to release files on child deaths is arrogant and ... http://bit.ly/mYWJOD
LAUSD Supe Deasy will be talking about "school reform" + how charter schools fit that vision on Ch. 7@11am on the show Newsmakers TYMP!
LAUSD VETERAN TAKES OVER AS TAFT PRINCIPAL: By C.J. Lin, Staff Writer | LA Daily News . http://bit.ly/nNycqV
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Save the Date/Make your Reservation Aug 31/7-8:30 pm: KPCC EDUCATION SUMMIT - THE WAY FORWARD FOR YOUR CHILD'S EDUCATION & LAUSD: Patt Morrison hosts Supt Deasy, Board of Ed Pres. Garcia and UTLA Pres. Fletcher | http://bit.ly/pkKMcT
*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:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
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!.
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