In This Issue:  | | • | NATION'S REPORT CARD: CA Schools' Struggle 'Against a Riptide' | | | • | FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN: You, me — any parent — would risk it all to cross the border to secure a better future for our families. | | | • | FORMER SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT CANTER HEADS GREEN DOT CHARTERS + smf’s 2¢ | | | • | PROTECT SCHOOL-BASED MEDICAID FUNDING | | | • | HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources | | | • | MEDIA ENQUIRY + EVENTS: Coming up next week... | | | • | What can YOU do? | |
Featured Links: | | | | Stull, you say? "It is the process by which most LAUSD teachers and health and human services
personnel are evaluated. The Stull should be viewed as an opportunity for introspection by the teacher. It should also promote a dialogue between the teacher/ support staffer and the administration." – Hardly a rabid indictment, from "The UTLA Stull Handbook" - http://bit.ly/vYKlXB
THE STULL ACT, AB 293, was passed by the California Legislature and signed by the governor in 1971. It became Article 5.5 of the Education Code, later renumbered Article 11. The legislative intent was to “establish a uniform system of evaluation and assessment of the performance of certificated personnel within each school district of the State.”
Note the stated intent was to create uniformity WITHIN the school districts, not ACROSS the school districts.
A review of the CTA informative: "UNDERSTANDING THE STULL ACT" | http://bit.ly/tiT1up - or the Full Ed Code Article 11: EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT OF PERFORMANCE OF CERTIFICATED EMPLOYEES [Cal Ed Code §44660. - 44665.] http://bit.ly/ulyyZC make it clear that the authority, accountability and process for Teacher and Administrator Assessment and Evaluation lies with each school district's Board of Education - not the State Dept of Education, not the county Offices of Education, nor the district superintendents. Boards of Ed under § 44662 (f) are given fairly wide latitude in what they MAY and CAN do and little instruction on what they MUST do – but § 44661.5 recognizes that whatever they do must be collectively bargained with bargaining units. And § 44662 (e) makes it clear that that certificated employees cannot be evaluated on the use of publisher’s norms established by standardized tests.
[The Ed Code is a complicated muddle that makes it easy to jump to confusion. My copy is 2137 tiny-type pages, plus 200 pages+ of index. Congress, the legislature and regulators are constantly working to make it more complicated every year - and every revision and tweak inevitably+invariably modifies another - proving The Law of Unintended Consequences.]
The new not-very-voluntary COMMON CORE STANDARDS (more on this later) from the US Dept of Ed – and whatever revisions eventually come down from a revised No Child Left Behind/Elementary and Secondary Act (NCLB/ESEA - ditto) as well as Race to the Top (RttT) will inevitably change how everyone does educator evaluations..
CTA opines: By 2014, the state will establish standards, create the curriculum, create performance standards, get the textbooks and instructional materials that match, and then develop a statewide test to match the standards that will amend §44662 (b)
1. Progress of pupils toward the standards established in (a).
to add:
2. Instructional techniques and strategies.
3. Adherence to curricular objectives.
4. Having a suitable learning environment.
(Note the future tense …this has not happened yet!)
WHEN - (the operative word) – WHEN school districts adopt the new state standards the standards will be incorporated into the Stull Act and local collective bargaining agreements. (CTA/ibid)
Hold that thought . . .
FROM THIS WEEK'S AALA UPDATE
On Tuesday, November 1, 2011, a Century City law firm, Barnes & Thornberg, filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of alleged minor students, parents and taxpayers within LAUSD, contending that the District has failed to comply with the Stull Act in administrator and teacher evaluations. The petition claims that the recently approved AALA collective bargaining agreement, Phase II of the Educator Growth and Development Program, 2011-2012 (the pilot program on evaluation), and the pending UTLA collective bargaining agreement violate or will violate the Stull Act by preventing LAUSD and its superintendent from complying with the Stull Act.
The respondents in the case are AALA, LAUSD, Superintendent John Deasy, LAUSD Board of Education members, UTLA and the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). The case is assigned to Judge James Chalfant, who held a first hearing this past Tuesday and denied the petitioners’ request for a temporary restraining order or injunctive relief. Thus, there is no immediate effect on AALA’s collective bargaining agreement or the pilot program on evaluation. Both agreements remain in full force.
Representatives of all the respondents appeared in court to oppose the matter. The judge set a trial-setting conference for November 21, 2011. At that time a briefing schedule will be set, leading to a hearing in about four months on the merits. The judge did not express any opinion on Tuesday on the merits of the petition.
According to columnist Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times (November 1, 2011, pp. AA1 and AA4 | http://lat.ms/t1C10V), “The lawsuit was drafted in consultation with EdVoice, a Sacramento-based group. Its board includes arts and education philanthropist Eli Broad, former ambassador Frank Baxter and healthcare company executive Richard Merkin.” In his concluding sentence in a related article on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 (Page AA3 | http://lat.ms/v1NiPD), Howard Blume states, “Deasy has said the district intends to comply with the Stull Act.”
AALA wonders who is funding this lawsuit. We question its timing and are curious about the players involved. We would like the Superintendent to clarify the intent of his comment cited above. We will continue to keep AALA members advised of the developments in this litigation via Update.
[end AALA Update]
I think it's safe for the AALA members and 4LAKids readers to presume that the lawsuit is funded by the same wonderful folks who have brought us brand-named School Reform®; we can add the usual suspects to those named in the Times. (The Times printed a correction to an earlier version of the story that named former mayor Richard Riordan and Netflix founder Reed Hastings [both billionaire charter funders] as being on the EdVoice Board - they are former board members) As board members emeritus Dick+Reed have no input to the current board whatsoever. And if you believe that I have a timeshare in a New York bridge I'd like to interest you in - plus some magic lottery tickets that will fund California education!
If you analyze the Stull Act and the lawsuit it becomes obvious that: the intent of the suit is to hold LAUSD and the defendant/respondents responsible for:
1. Failing to use test scores to evaluate educator performance – which is explicitly forbidden in the law.
2. Allowing collective bargaining to influence assessment and evaluation policy, which is mandated in the law, and
3. Failing to implement changes not yet mandated.
The added and unspoken complication is that the STAR (Standardized Testing And Reporting) test program – on which all this hinges – is set to expire in 2013 and be replaced by another testing program and evaluation system
Add to those facts that the principal named defendants are in sympathy with the plaintiffs and we have the beginnings of a truly fine mess.
►Addl coverage+background: THE STULL ACT & THE ED VOICE v. LAUSD LAWSUIT:: Less than meets the eye, more than you wanted to know: http://bit.ly/tX1gEM
FROM TODAY'S TIMES: "For state senators, there is such a thing as a free lunch. And dinner. And breakfast.
"On an August day last year when California deferred a $2.5-billion payment to public schools because it didn't have its finances in order, the Senate took a break from bickering over legislation to lunch on the taxpayers' dime.
"The public picked up the $935 tab for an assortment of meats, cheeses and breads from a local Italian deli."
The senators also receive a tax-free $143 per diem for Sacramento expenses. http://lat.ms/tMXvqh
THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS, OR NAEP, RESULTS ARE IN . . . and things aren't all that good. [see: NATION'S REPORT CARD: CA Schools' Struggle 'Against a Riptide']
That riptide is against a backdrop of teacher layoffs and funding cuts – and the name-calling, scapegoating and finger pointing over school reform … plus general adult misbehavior (Maybe the billionaires and teachers unions deserve each other?) how could we expect anything else? The NAEP tests are pretty much more o' th' same – multiple choice tests focused on Math and English Language Arts with only a smattering of Social Studies – no Science, no Arts, no assessment of independent thinking skills.
THIS BRINGS US TO THE SO-CALLED REAUTHORIZATION OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. C'mon Folks – NCLB is Too Broke to Fix.
WHICH BRINGS US TO THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS – this year's flavor of The Magic Bullet That Will Save Public Education. Again, fixed only on Math and English Language Arts. We remain obsessed measuring success in the "Three R's" – 19th century educational outcomes – at the expense of the totality of the curriculum and the rest of the child. Where are Science, History, Geography, Arts, Music, Health, Technology, Engineering, Home Economics, Craftsmanship, Citizenship, Civics, and Physical Education? Or Government, Driver Training, Other Languages.
IN FINLAND, WHICH THE WORLD CONCEDES CURRENTLY HAS THE BEST EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, they have no high stakes testing.
The test companies and the test prep gurus and the data-driven are aghast: How do they possibly know have the best system if they don't test?
Governor Brown in his veto message to increased testing quotes an apocryphal sign on Einstein's Wall: "Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted."
Brown went on in his message [http://bit.ly/u73zBi]:
"… while SB 547 attempts to improve the API, it relies on the same quantitative and standardized paradigm at the heart of the current system. The criticism of the API is that it has led schools to focus too narrowly on tested subjects and ignore other subjects and matters that are vital to a well-rounded education. SB 547 certainly would add more things to measure but it is doubtful that it would actually improve our schools. Adding more speedometers to a broken car won’t turn it into a high-performance machine.
"Over the last 50 years, academic “experts” have subjected California to unceasing pedagogical change and experimentation. The current fashion is to collect endless quantitative data to populate ever-changing indicators of performance to distinguish the educational “good” from the educational “bad.” ….
"SB 547 nowhere mentions good character or love of learning. It does allude to student excitement and creativity but does not take these qualities seriously because they can’t be placed in a data stream. Lost in the bill’s turgid mandates is any recognition that quality is fundamentally different from quantity."
So maybe we CAN have questions and answers and successful students without high stakes testing?
What a concept.
¡Onward/Adelante! – smf
NATION'S REPORT CARD: CA Schools' Struggle 'Against a Riptide'
Themes in the News for the week of Oct. 31-Nov. 4, 2011 by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/uX5gWc
4 Nov 2011 - The Nation’s Report Card was released this week and the scores don’t look good for California. But first, how did the rest of the nation do?
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP http://nationsreportcard.gov/ tested a sample of 4th and 8th graders from each state in reading and mathematics. This year, 40 percent of 4th graders and 35 percent of 8th graders scored proficient or above in math, and 34 percent of students in both grades scored proficient in reading. These scores reflect a 1- or 2-percentage point increase from 2009, the last year the tests were administered (New York Times, Christian Science Monitor).
The slight increases continue a 20-year trend during which 4th graders have posted a 5-percent increase in proficiency. Mathematics scores in the past two decades have shown greater improvement with a 27-percent increase in 4th graders demonstrating proficiency.
The relatively modest progress and low proficiency rates on the NAEP contrast with performance on many state tests. Because NAEP’s definitions for basic, proficient and advanced are different from various states’ tests, students can be classified as “proficient” on state exams but fall to “basic” on NAEP (Washington Post). It is also the case that state tests have high-stakes consequences. These high-stakes consequences lead schools to target a limited set of skills and focus attention on test preparation, so state test scores might inch up at the expense of an overall high-quality education for students. Recent news of testing irregularities in Washington D.C., Atlanta and California also suggest that high stakes testing promotes an environment where scores are vulnerable to manipulation. Some believe that NAEP is a more reliable measure for judging state and federal policy because there are not consequences for individual students, teachers, or schools and only states are reported on and ranked.
Here in California, 34 percent of 4th graders and 25 percent of 8th graders were proficient in math. In reading, 25 percent of 4th graders and 24 percent of 8th graders were proficient (between 9 percent and 10 percent behind the nation). These figures reflect marginal improvement from 2009 (San Francisco Chronicle, Thoughts on Public Education).
California has been near the bottom of NAEP rankings for a while now, in both reading and math. This time around it’s worse with the state tied with Louisiana at 49th in 8th-grade reading, just one point above Mississippi.
Regardless of one’s opinion of NAEP as a high-profile (if not high-stakes) test, it’s clear that California public schools lag far behind the rest of the nation in promoting core skills in reading and mathematics. Of course, some progress is better than no progress, but the current rate of improvement means that more decades will pass by with large proportions of California students unable to demonstrate critical academic skills.
Perhaps mindful that some California schools are considering cutting another week from the school year to meet their budgets (Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News), State Superintendant of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said of the NAEP results:
Our students are still making progress, even as they swim against a riptide of crowded classrooms and deep budget cuts to our schools. Asked to do more with less, students, teachers, school employees, and administrators have delivered. Imagine how much more they could accomplish—and how many more students would share in this progress—with the resources they deserve (http://1.usa.gov/sjauON).
► Addl coverage :: CALIFORNIA STUDENTS RANK AT BOTTOM OF NATIONAL TEST: Corey G. Johnson | California Watch | http://bit.ly/uRrnfL
FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN: You, me — any parent — would risk it all to cross the border to secure a better future for our families.
Op-Ed By Susan Straight in the LA Times | http://lat.ms/vtEHvE
30 Oct 2011 - In 1979, in my hometown of Riverside, my father came home one evening with news from the linen plant where he worked. A group of women whose job it was to wash, dry, iron and stack hospital linen had been taken away by immigration officials that day. They were undocumented workers from Mexico and would be deported.
I was 18 when I heard this, and I couldn't stop thinking about the likelihood that the deported women had left children behind. What if one had been forced to leave her children with a neighbor she didn't like or trust, just for that morning, because she had no one else? What if a 10-year-old had been left to watch younger siblings, and then the house grew dark, and still no one came home? What would happen to those children now?
That summer, I wrote 50 pages in a notebook imagining the life of a young Mexican woman who was taken in an immigration raid, leaving her California-born daughter to be raised by a foster mother. It was a scenario I knew, since my own mother had raised foster children for years, and I knew how, for many of them, "mother" was just a distant idea.
But I didn't really understand — nor could I finish the novel — until I had daughters of my own, and nearly lost one of them. Only then did I begin to understand the full complexity of the story and why mothers, and fathers, would take such huge risks for the possibility of helping their families.
In 1997, I journeyed to Oaxaca so that I could see the landscape and talk to people about making the decision to risk it all and travel illegally to a new country. My daughters, 7 and 5, were surrounded by Mexican women who cooed over their hair and eyes, and offered them sweets and tortillas. But the younger one soon became very ill with a bacterial infection she had apparently picked up before leaving California. A kind Oaxacan woman helped us find a doctor, and my husband carried our delirious, nearly unconscious child for blocks and blocks to the doctor's home. We then had to trust that the injection he gave her was the antibiotic she needed, and that he knew how to make her better.
I was horrified. This was my fault. I had wanted to write about a mother who would do anything to find the child she left behind in the United States, and I had ended up putting my own daughter at risk in the country my character would flee.
When the fever finally broke, I walked to the nearest church where a dozen women with shawls over their heads were praying in front of La Virgen de Soledad, patron saint of Oaxaca. I told them in Spanish what had happened, and they showed me how to offer my own life for that of my child, assuring me that God would hear my prayer. That's what they were doing, on their knees, in the dark, with photos of their children and offerings of candles and coins and flowers.
I joined them. And when I returned, her father said that he had offered the same prayer, but alone in the hotel room with no candles, only her breathing.
This is what I learned in Mexico: that parents will make any sacrifice for their children. Why do so many come across the border illegally? If you told me that one of my daughters would die young after stepping on a nail in a village without a doctor, or that my girls would have to leave school because they were needed to work and support the family, or that they would be in danger every day from drug cartels, I can promise you I would risk everything to give them a better life, especially if that life was available just across the border.
This fall, we are watching a different kind of migration, as undocumented immigrants flee Alabama in the wake of a draconian new law that involves schools, employers, landlords and police in a comprehensive immigration crackdown.
It's no wonder immigrant families are fleeing Alabama. But are they returning to their countries of origin? That's not likely — not as long as they can do better for their children in another state.
Alabama farmers and other employers are having difficulty filling jobs, and when they do, the new workers aren't as willing to work long hours doing difficult labor.
Moises Beneros rides on the shoulders of another marcher as they walk down Elkton Road in Athens, Ala., during a protest against Alabama's immigration law Oct. 16. (The Decatur Daily, Gary Cosby Jr. / AP Photo)
Living only 100 miles from the Mexican border, I've seen wave after wave of immigration and a variety of laws intended to control it. I saw lives changed by Reagan's amnesty in the 1980s and by Clinton's Operation Gatekeeper in the 1990s. And through all the policy shifts, the migration has continued. We can't simply open the borders, of course. But we need to acknowledge the labor issues, and family realities, that have produced the situation and develop policy that acknowledges those complexities.
A teacher friend told me recently about her second-grade student whose father was killed in drug violence. An uncle helped the boy and his mother get to California, but then the uncle was killed. The boy has nightmares and never says a word in class, and his mother is desperate. But will she return to Mexico? Would you?
● Susan Straight's novel "Highwire Moon" explores the lives of a mother and daughter separated by the mother's deportation. Her most recent book is "Take One Candle Light a Room."
FORMER SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT CANTER HEADS GREEN DOT CHARTERS + smf’s 2¢
Howard Blume | LA Times/LA Now | http://lat.ms/taPzzQ
November 3, 2011 | 8:01 pm - Former Los Angeles school board President Marlene Canter will head the governing board for Green Dot Public Schools, one of the nation’s largest charter school groups, the organization announced Thursday.
The locally based nonprofit operates schools mostly in the low-income, heavily minority areas of south and southwest Los Angeles. Its best-known effort is the takeover of Locke High School, near Watts, where academic achievement and enrollment have improved substantially although the school’s test scores remain low overall.
This fall, Green Dot took control of Clay Middle School and half of Jordan High School.
Canter succeeds Shane Martin, dean of the Loyola Marymount University School of Education.
Green Dot’s new vice-chair is UCLA Vice Chancellor Kevin Reed. Reed was the head attorney for the Los Angeles Unified School District when Canter served as board president. Some advocates for charter schools, which are publicly financed, managed independently of the school system, viewed them then as not sufficiently supportive of charters.
Separately, a recently troubled local school-management group also announced a new leader this week.
L.A.’s Promise, which manages three Los Angeles schools, announced its new executive will be Veronica Melvin. She had been working as chief operating officer of Communities for Teaching Excellence, a new local nonprofit advocacy organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Founding L.A.’s Promise Director Mike McGalliard had recently resigned for undisclosed reasons.
L.A.’s Promise recently came under scrutiny for a disorganized opening this fall of Manual Arts High School. The group converted the school from year-round operation to a traditional calendar a year earlier than previously planned. The benefit was a longer school year for each student. The drawback was a campus more crowded than at any time in its history, which teachers said created numerous problems.
School district officials recently reasserted some control over Manual Arts, but L.A.’s Promise is still managing the campus on a day-to-day basis.
●● smf’s 2¢: CUE THE IRONY POLICE: Marlene Canter is currently a City of Los Angeles Ethics Commissioner – a job I would think would fill all one’s waking hours and challenge the sleeping ones.
In 2006-07 LAUSD Board of Education Board President Canter and LAUSD General Counsel Kevin Reed successfully led the effort in court to defeat Mayor Villaraigosa’s takeover of LAUSD under AB 1381.
At that time Green Dot Public Schools Founder/Chairman/CEO Steve Barr (along with UTLA President A.J. Duffy) led the effort in support of Mayor Tony (laughing over Marlene’s left shoulder in the picture above) …initially though Barr’s “Small Schools Alliance” and its Ging-grinchian “Contract to Transform LA. Schools” (which morphed into Mayor Tony’s Partnership for LA Schools and his “Schoolhouse” reform® plan) …and also produced the LA Parents Union which begat Parent Revolution. Barr was the sole appellant in support of AB1381 when the challenge reached the California Supreme Court.
Barr has since left Green Dot to form Green Dot America which became The Future is Now (FIN) Schools - which has as their logo not a green dot – but green type and a red-white-and-blue dot.
Duffy is starting his own charter school.
If the bedfellows were strange then, they are estranged now. And it all becomes stranger+stranger still.
PROTECT SCHOOL-BASED MEDICAID FUNDING
●● smf: PTA in L.A. invented School -based Health Clinics over a century ago.
In addition to my role as a health commissioner for California State PTA and VP for Health/ Health Clinics Director for Tenth District PTA, I also serve on various committees and organizations and boards and task forces. promoting access to healthcare for the children iof Los Angeles - including the LA Trust for Children's Health –LAUSD's children's health non-profit , the California School Health Centers Association, The Oral Health Task Force of Children Now and a couple County Health Dept/Community advisory committees.
I go to a lot of meetings. But this isn't about me — it needs to be about you and your advocacy for children's health+wellness.
You don't need to have a PTA card, you just need to care. Please make a call, write a letter, send an email to remind our elected officials that children who are not well cannot learn.
CALIFORNIA STATE PTA LEGISLATIVE ACTION ALERT:
November 4, 2011
California State PTA invites you to please send a message to members of the Congressional Super Committee urging them to protect and preserve school-based Medicaid.
California State PTA has sent a letter to California Congressman Xavier Becerra, a member of the Congressional Super Committee, urging the United States Congress to protect and preserve school-based Medicaid funding.
The full letter follows:
________________________
November 3, 2011
The Honorable Xavier Becerra
Congressman
United States House of Representatives
1226 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Fax: 202-225-2202
1910 W Sunset Boulevard, Suite 810
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Fax: 213-483-1429
Re: PROTECT SCHOOL BASED MEDICAID FUNDING
Dear Congressman Becerra:
On behalf of California State PTA we are writing to urge you as a member of the Congressional Super Committee mandated to identify $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions to protect and preserve School Based Medicaid during your deliberations. The California State PTA believes children with access to health care services, receive quality care, are better prepared to learn in school, and have a better quality of life.
Medicaid funds flow to school districts with the greatest need to assist them in meeting the financial burdens of providing mandated related services in schools. Given the more than $18 billion dollar cut California’s schools have taken over the last three years, a cut to School Based Medicaid could bankrupt some of our school districts and schools already shouldering overwhelming costs in special education and other health related costs.
We are particularly concerned that if the Super Committee considers cuts to School Based Medicaid that disabled students will shoulder a disproportionate burden. School-based Medicaid claiming has a firm legal basis: Title XIX Section 1903 (c) of the Social Security Act clearly forbids the Secretary of Health and Human Services to deny reimbursement for claims related to eligible services for students with disabilities. The federal mandate to perform Medicaid administrative activities does not go away if Medicaid is cut to support children in schools. Instead local school districts will be forced to replace lost Medicaid dollars with additional state and local taxpayer dollars which are not available and both students and programs will suffer.
The economic benefits of Medicaid are significant. For every $1 that CMS reimburses a state for Medicaid, up to $2 of services are being provided making it one of the most cost effective federal funding programs. We urge you to strongly oppose any cuts to the School Based Medicaid program.
Sincerely,
Carol Kocivar
President
California State PTA.
________________________
(Carol continues, writing to YOU)
We believe children with access to health care services are better prepared to learn and have a better quality of life. Given the more than $18 billion that has been cut from California's schools over the last three years, an additional cut to school-based Medicaid could bankrupt some of our school districts.
To take action now, visit the committee's web page at
http://www.deficitreduction.gov/public/index.cfm/home.
● Scroll down and click on "Write to us today."
● Complete the form.
● Write your own message, or copy and paste the message below in the "Message" box.
I urge you to strongly oppose any cuts to the school-based Medicaid program during your deliberations over how to identify $1.5 billion in deficit reductions.
If you would prefer to send a message by FAX:
Patty Murray (D – Washington)
Co-Chair
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
Fax: (202) 224-0238
Jeb Hensarling (R – Texas)
Co-Chair
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
Fax: (202) 226-4888
Or to Congressman Beccerra, the sole California representative on the committee.
Xavier Becerra (D-California)
Committee member
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
Fax: 202-225-2202
Thank you for taking action on this important issue!
______
For Twitter updates on California State PTA's advocacy team, follow our Director of Legislation, Patty Scripter, at:@CAPTAatCapitol
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
REFORM/REVENUE PLAN FOR ‘12 BALLOT: Higher taxes coupled with finance, personnel reforms: By John Fensterwald - ... http://bit.ly/tgdanH
LAUSD COPS TRY TO KEEP UP WITH ILLEGAL STREET VENDORS: Esther Kang | Contributor | Neon Tommy/the online publica... http://bit.ly/tF1qvY
BACKSLIDING ON SCHOOL REFORM: The latest effort in Congress to overhaul No Child Left Behind would only make thi... http://bit.ly/tL5Z35
NATION'S REPORT CARD: CA Schools' Struggle 'Against a Riptide': Themes in the News for the week of Oct. 31-Nov. ... http://bit.ly/vFjSTs
FORMER SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT CANTER HEADS GREEN DOT CHARTERS: Howard Blume | LA Times/LA Now | lat.ms... http://bit.ly/t3RwVh
JOIN PTA. If not now, when?: by smf in the AALA Weekly Update - week of Nov 7, 2011 | http://bit.ly/tUcz8I ... http://bit.ly/uXrnJ7
Media enquiry: LAUSD MAGNET APPLICATION PROCESS: e-mail to 4LAKids Sent: Thu, Nov 3, 2011 12:05 pm Subje... http://bit.ly/uT9mCW
CALIFORNIA STUDENTS RANK AT BOTTOM OF NATIONAL TEST: Corey G. Johnson | California Watch | http://bit.ly/tE5ZGw ... http://bit.ly/uRrnfL
Dispatches from the frontlines: REFORM® WINS ONE IN DENVER: e-mail from save our schools colorado ... http://bit.ly/uCOOXz
The Death and Life of the Great American School System: RAVITCH UPDATES BEST SELLING BOOK ON ED REFORM: By Valer... http://bit.ly/vqiuf7
LA UNIFIED HOLDS FIRST POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SYMPOSIUM: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC | http://bit.ly/rJnqrY Robyn B... http://bit.ly/umuEzt
THE STULL ACT & THE ED VOICE v. LAUSD LAWSUIT: Less than meets the eye, more than you wanted to know: ●● s m f ... http://bit.ly/tX1gEM
FOSTER YOUTH GET A VOICE: New policies focus on lasting connections: By Kathryn Baron | Thoughts on Public Educa... http://bit.ly/uiaOPl
U P D A T E D: CSEA RATIFIES AGREEMENT WITH LAUSD + smf’s 2¢ questions: originally posted 1 Nov 2011 9:57 PM UP... http://bit.ly/tLO6mB
HOLLYWOOD HIGH SCHOOL HOSTS “FRENCH OPEN MARKET PLACE”: HHS Alumni Association/Councilman LaBonge Press Release ... http://bit.ly/vdWKjj
CSEA RATIFIES AGREEMENT WITH LAUSD + smf’s 2¢ questions: LAUSD Press Release... http://bit.ly/vva4HJ
AT-RISK QEIA SCHOOLS CONTINUE TO EXCEL: california teachers association press release | http://bit.ly/uMGfP7 Co... http://bit.ly/tAcPdj
LAUSD FACES SUIT LINKING TEACHER RATINGS TO STUDENT PERFORMANCE + smf’s 2¢: The suit would demand that LAUSD com... http://bit.ly/vdwIgc
An appeal to join Communities for Teaching Excellence + “Don’t Hold Us Back” to demand a REFORM® CONTRACT FOR AL... http://bit.ly/sSuKjU
SCHOOL DISTRICTS WAIT TO SEE IF STATE REVENUE SHORTFALLS TRIGGER MORE CUTS: By Diana Lambert | Sacramento Bee | ... http://bit.ly/sJ5XKz
REPAIR AND MODERNIZE AMERICA’S CRUMBLING PUBLIC SCHOOLS. http://wh.gov/bCs
CALIFORNIA TEACHERS LACK THE RESOURCES AND TIME TO TEACH SCIENCE: A statewide survey and interviews with LAUSD e... http://bit.ly/rxBWts
LAUSD's $30 MILLION MISTAKE: Schools must make costly repairs to meet standards for disabled: By Susan Abram, Da... http://bit.ly/s6UvKB
FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN: You, me — any parent — would risk it all to cross the border to secure a better fu... http://bit.ly/uhBqbw
MEDIA ENQUIRY + EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Media enquiry: LAUSD MAGNET APPLICATION PROCESS
e-mail to 4LAKids
Sent: Thu, Nov 3, 2011 12:05 pm
Subject: Magnet school applications
Scott, I’d like to do some in person interviews with parents navigating LA Unified’s magnet application process for the first time and/or who’ve done it before. I’m preparing a news story for public radio KPCC 89.3FM. Ideally I’d like to do the interviews on Monday or Tuesday (Nov 7 or 8) Do you know any parents who fit this description? Can you forward this?
Thanks!
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, Reporter
aguzman@scpr.org
________________________________________
• 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!.
|
