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4LAKids:Sunday,22•April•2012 Earth Day
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In This Issue:
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THE OPPORTUNITY TO REPEAT |
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A “D” FOR DEASY? + MAGICAL THINKING + DIPLOMAS, YES; LEARNING, MAYBE |
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THE LEGISLATIVE WEEK IN REVIEW: From student success to teacher removal |
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ODE TO FERNIE |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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NotYetLAUSD [http://bit.ly/I1HNKO],
4LAKids favorite if slightly off-color anonymous blogger, writes
provocatively under the headline: WTFLAUSD. (Why The FrownLAUSD?
When’s The Furlough?)
“SAME MEETING, SAME TOPIC, TWO DIFFERENT HEADLINES”
“LAUSD CONSIDERS LOWERING THE BAR FOR GRADUATION “ | LA Times | http://lat.ms/IcD2d4
“LAUSD PLAN CALLS FOR RAISING GRADUATION STANDARDS” | LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/JfQ8rz
“We will reach 100% graduation in LAUSD, no matter how low we have to
tunnel. We will slap the finest labels on our curriculum. PS.
Harvard's graduation rate is 98%. Most elite private colleges average a
90% graduation rate.” (smf: The Harvard 4 year grad rate is actually
87%. Only 9 US colleges do better than 90%. )
THE SPIN + THE ORWELLIAN NEWSPEAK have become the lingua franca; an LAUSD Tweet is 140 characters in search of a message.
LAUSD’s PROPOSED REVISIONS TO THE GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS were rolled
out as “raising the bar”, L.A. Unified’s new flavor of A thru G will
make everything great and usher in A Great New Wonderful Tomorrow
-another magic bullet to solve the ills of public education.
Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Jamie Aquino announced the proposed
revisions to the Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment (CIA) Committee
of the Bd of Ed (twice) and to handpicked parents and community groups
to what he characterized as favorable reviews (smf was with the parents
group – my recollection is that reviews were discouraged.)
Gerardo Loera, LAUSD Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction
presented the plan to the CIA: “Raising the Bar for Graduation
Standards” in a PowerPoint [http://scr.bi/JYg1Lh] and Dr. Aquino spoke enthusiastically from the horseshoe to close the deal.
Except nobody bought it.
Lowering the number of credits needed to graduate from 230 to 170 (the
state minimum), eliminating Health Education and Technology classes,
getting rid of required electives while continuing to recognize the
grade of “D” as passing raised nothing but the ire of the board members
and committee members present, public commenters, academe and the media
…Yet Dr Aquino continued to represent the move as positive. (Aquino
did quietly admit that the Health Ed Cuts may not stand – but then
continued to advocate for them after the meeting.) Darn the naysayers,
full speed ahead!
And nobody accepted for a moment that it was Loera’s plan or even
Aquino’s: It was branded as Dr. Deasy’s plan from the get-go:
“Superintendent John Deasy this week announced plans to…” | http://t.co/yn77Xa1o
Q: What if they run it up the flagpole and nobody salutes?
Now we know:
A: “In an email Deasy said he believes the lessons taught in health
class are too critical to be offered as simply an elective. ‘We use this
course for our work on many, many issues, like anti-bullying, healthy
nutrition and lifestyle, etc. Given this, I feel that it must remain in
the plan’.” | http://t.co/YCrOWD1z
This is (im)Plausible Deniability – as evidenced by the exact same
story/different headline in Contra Costa: “LAUSD Superintendent John
Deasy overrules staff to keep health-class requirement for high
schoolers.” | http://bit.ly/JgZjN5
Remember the First Homework Policy? http://lat.ms/HWNIwI Bad staff work? … it’s like that.
[On Saturday – after Dr. Deasy’s Friday pronouncement about the critical
nature of Health Ed - the District stiil posted a “Do you think health
education should remain a requirement for graduation?” survey on the
LAUSD Facebook page | http://t.co/EPotE14y]
THE GOOD NEWS is that worst part of a bad idea has apparently been jettisoned.
THE BAD NEWS is that under the current requirements – according to the
standards this year’s graduates must meet – 170 credits is not even
enough credits to even be a Senior …let alone a Graduate.
Across 4th Street from LAUSD Beaudry they shoot the television drama
“Mad Men”. It’s going to take Don Draper himself to spin Deasy’s A-G
Plan as a move in anything but the wrong directions.
LET US TRAVEL BACK IN TIME TO SEVEN YEARS AGO: 2005 – when the A thru G
Graduation Requirements were the flavor of reform that would save us
all. LAUSD would put every student in the District on the college track –
by making the college entry requirements for UC and CSU the standard
for receiving a high school diploma. There was loud public pressure
supporting this from a small vocal minority – the community organized by
community organizers: Families in Schools, Alliance for a Better
Community and Inner City Struggle – supported by UCLA/IDEA – all well
meaning folks – folks with an agenda and grants from Gates Broad and the
usual suspects. [see By The Numbers - HOW TO TELL IF YOUR DISTRICT IS
INFECTED BY THE BROAD VIRUS #29: A rash of Astroturf groups appear
claiming to represent “the community” or “parents” and all advocate for
the exact same corporate ed reforms | http://bit.ly/jqDocs]
THE VERY BAD SITUATION WAS THIS: LAUSD wasn’t offering access to college
prep curriculum – the A-G courses – in “those” schools … you know, the
schools where “those” kids go. And they were absolutely right.
Opportunity was being systemically and systematically denied to students
of color. It was 1968 all-over-again: The soft bigotry of
institutionalized low expectations/ El suave intolerancia de las bajas
expectativas institucionalizadas.
At the same time LAUSD was building itself out of the hole of
overcrowded schools and inadequate facilities; there was light at the
end of the tunnel. The solution was simple: Make sure all students in
all schools have access to a college prep curriculum. Great thinking;
well thought.
But if going to college is a good idea for all kids, why not make it a
rule? What do Boards of Ed do if not make rules? ALL KIDS MUST TAKE THE
COLLEGE PREP COURSES TO GRADUATE!
Almost immediately someone said there would have to be opt-out
provisions – for kids who don’t want to go to college – and this was
added to the Board of Ed Policy | http://bit.ly/LAUSDa-g.
BUT BY MUTUAL AND UNSPOKEN AGREEMENT BY THE MAJORITY OF DISTRICT
STAFF AND THE SPECIALLY INTERESTED IT WAS CONCEDED THAT THIS WOULD BE
LIKE A PARENT REQUESTING EXEMPTION FROM A SCHOOL’S STUDENT UNFORM
POLICY: WE KNOW BEST AND IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN!
And gentle readers, I’m not speculating here – I was there in the
endless meetings of The A-G Task Force back in the day where the
difficulties in implementing A-G were discussed, debated, addressed –
and many solved. The challenges to master scheduling. The shortage of
qualified teachers. The shortage of science classrooms. The difficulty
in coordinating with Small Schools and Small Learning Communities. The
difficulty in communicating with parents and counseling the students.
Solutions were planned. There would be Bridge Programs from
elementary-to-middle and middle-to-high school. There would be
Individualized Graduation Programs for every student. There would be
Summer School and Intervention and Credit Recovery and every other
imaginable support. Parents would be brought on as partners in their
children’s education – a college going culture would be cultivated.
Elective classes supporting A-G would be strengthened. Career and
Technical Ed curriculum would be aligned with A-G; there would be
Multiple Pathways.
LAUSD was totally going to do this!
The dilemma of the D grade – and perhaps not enough time in the six
period day and the eight semester plan would be addressed later (Small
Schools, SLC’s and the block schedule presented problems …but hey: We
had seven – and then six – and then five years to work out the kinks!)
Some decisions were put off ‘til later.
But then the money got scarce and meetings stopped happening and the
leaders of the mission drifted away and superintendents came-and-went
and the members of the board changed and we were all distracted by other
things and …OMG: It’s 2012 already? Where did the time go?
Welcome to Later: Here we are making up another plan On the QT/On the Cheap.
The math the Instruction folks use to add up graduation credits needed
divided by hours in the day over classes offered ignores that many
students don’t pass the FitnessGram Test and must take PE in the 11th
and 12th grades. Additionally PE is a class that state law says must be
offered to all students in all four years of high school – LAUSD is
relying upon a very interesting mandatory/voluntary opt-out paradigm.
Boardmember Kayser is suggesting a two tier graduation standard
(something akin to the spurned-and-ignored opt-out option: one A-G, one
not) Opponents are horrified. It’s tracking and discrimination and reeks
of profiling and elitism. If done well this is hogwash; back in the
storied golden age we had Courses Of Study and Major Sequences in high
school. There were Science Majors and English Majors and Arts Majors and
Industrial Arts Majors – and it said that right on your diploma, in Old
English script.
AND HERE’S THE VERY, VERY SCARY NUMBER: It truly doesn’t matter what our
graduation or drop-rate has been up ‘till now. Only 15% of LAUSD
students to date have qualified to meet the A thru G standards. And
we’ve been working on this for seven years. We are looking at a 15%
graduation rate.
¡Onward/Adelante! – smf
THE OPPORTUNITY TO REPEAT
Themes in the News by UCLA IDEA Week of April 16-20, 2012 | http://bit.ly/Igc6gy
04-20-2012 :: The Los Angeles Unified School District is considering
changing its graduation requirements. Current district policy requires
the incoming class of 2016 to graduate college-ready, meaning students
would have to pass the minimum sequence of subject-area courses required
for eligibility into a University of California or California State
University campus, known as a-g. However, faced with collapsing budgets
and diminished support for teachers’ professional development, class
size reduction, summer school, facilities and more, proponents want to
pare down course offerings and graduation requirements.
The proposal, which will come before the full board in May, calls for
eliminating all non- a-g electives and reducing the required number of
credits to graduate from 230 to 170. District officials say requiring
fewer credits will create flexibility in students' schedules so that
they can make up failed courses (Los Angeles Times, Daily News, KPCC,
ABC 7, CBS).
In 2005, the board passed a resolution to graduate all students
college-ready, to create educational equity across the district and to
close the achievement gap. While LAUSD’s new proposal is in keeping with
the letter of that resolution, it strays from the spirit of expanding
opportunities.
Seven years ago, most schools in South and East Los Angeles did not
offer a full complement of a-g courses, or they rationed those classes
to a small proportion of students whom schools considered college
material. After parents and students organized and demanded greater
access to college prerequisites (the opportunity to take and succeed in
the a-g sequence), the board passed a resolution mandating a-g for all
students and stipulated that the requirements be accompanied by
"necessary learning supports, realignment and dedication of resources
necessary beginning early in a student's education so that they are
prepared to successfully complete the A-G course sequence at all grade
levels from K-12." (http://bit.ly/LAUSDa-g)
But those “necessary learning supports... at all grade levels” never
fully materialized. Indeed, some conditions have deteriorated
dramatically, such as access to summer school, tutoring, and small class
sizes. Without these and other supports, students are not passing their
college-prep classes at acceptable rates. And, unless this pattern
changes, once new graduation requirements are enforced, graduation rates
will drop.
Some critics of LAUSD’s new plan believe that reducing the number of
required credits and eliminating non- a-g electives will result in
students from historically underserved neighborhoods becoming less
engaged in school, less likely to graduate, less likely to be accepted
to the most competitive colleges, and have fewer prospects for success
if they do get to college.
The new “flexibility” created by the district’s proposal appears
designed to allow students to make-up classes instead of finding some
way to provide the k-12 resources that prepare students to pass their
a-g classes the first time around. Of course, schools with lots of
resources and with a history of high achievement might take good
advantage of the new flexibility by adding more varied and engaging
curriculum. But elsewhere, parents, students, and educators worry that
their schools are falling into a cycle of failure, remediation, and poor
prospects for college.
As members of the public and LAUSD officials deliberate about the policy
in the weeks ahead, they would do well to consider several questions:
• If the proposed policy is implemented, will schools that presently
experience high rates of failure in a-g classes add more credit recovery
classes and subtract elective and advanced coursework?
• If they do, will students in these schools receive as full and rich an education as students at other LAUSD high schools?
• Is it acceptable to have some district schools that provide more varied and higher-level coursework than others?
• What can be learned from Los Angeles schools that already graduate
substantial proportions of their students college-ready?
• What conditions prevail at these schools and their feeder schools?
• What does the district need to do to foster those conditions across all schools?
A “D” FOR DEASY? + MAGICAL THINKING + DIPLOMAS, YES; LEARNING, MAYBE
►A “D” FOR DEASY?: Strive for A's Not D's
by Rebecca Joseph, Associate Professor, California State University, Los Angeles in the Huffington Post | http://huff.to/HUWUXt
04/19/2012 4:43 pm :: Superintendent John Deasy this week announced
plans to adjust pre-approved changes to the graduation standards for the
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest school
district in the country. This choice partially delays a brave plan LAUSD
school board members passed in 2005 to raise graduation standards.
Intended to go into effect next school year, the LAUSD school board
graduation plan would have made it necessary for LAUSD students to take
the required classes to make it four year public colleges, which
includes raising the passing grade from a D to a C.
Earlier this week Deasy introduced a plan that would allow students to
continue to receive D's on their transcripts for one additional year
while reducing the credits to graduate from 230 to 160. While he keeps
the college readiness standards, I believe his basic plans are flawed.
Academic scholar Mike Rose famously wrote, "Students will float to the
mark you set." With D's in the teacher arsenal, they allow students to
float near the bottom. With lower units to graduate, many other students
will float at the bottom because failure will become a viable option as
they can spend significant time during the school year repeating core
classes rather than advancing.
Many brave school districts and charter schools around the country are
eliminating D's, requiring college readiness standards, and pushing kids
to take more rather than fewer units to graduate. Their students are
doing better. They are not dropping out. They are not repeating classes
multiple times. They are going to college.
In high schools across California, when students receive D's in core
college readiness classes, they can graduate from high school. However,
they cannot qualify for any of our public four year colleges for two
reasons. None accept D's in core college readiness class, and all have
minimum GPA standards. Moreover, to qualify for the University of
California system, they must also complete 11 out of 15 required college
readiness classes by the end of 11th grade. Truly competitive students
take more the 15 classes, including honors and AP classes.
Currently, college readiness among LAUSD students is dismal. Less than
50% of seniors take the required college readiness classes to qualify
for a public four year university in California. Even worse, only 15% of
students who started in 9th grade and made it to graduation last year
qualified for admissions to a University of California or California
State University campus.
One of the major reasons is the huge prevalence of D's.
The D is a grade I've never quite understood. If students do enough work
to get a D, then how hard is it for the teacher and student to work
towards a C? If they do so little work that they get a D, then don't
they truly deserve an F? At least with an F, they are forced to retake a
class.
Yet for one more year D's will become a default grade for thousands upon thousands of teachers and students.
I meet LAUSD kids all the time who have received many D's. They are so
much smarter than these grades. Some are happy with these grades, while
others want to remake their records. Yet in these tough economic times,
they have limited ways to make up these grades. Because of severe
budgets, LAUSD has cut summer school for most students and has proposed
severe cuts to other ways kids can remediate their grades-including
adult school and online courses.
Moreover, budget cuts have led to significant counseling cuts throughout
the district, state, and country. When I visited several high schools
in March to promote college access, I met schools with limited resources
to help kids make it to four year colleges. They help students graduate
but stop there for the majority of students.
Sadly, a high school diploma is no longer enough to help most students
make a decent living. There are fewer and fewer jobs available where
high school graduates can receive living wages, career advancement, and
benefits. Unemployment rates for these students are staggering.
Additionally, research shows California's economy needs 100,000 more
college graduates every year to make our economy more viable. Finally,
community colleges in California are increasingly challenging places for
students with low GPAs to make it through to AA degrees or four year
colleges.
To help decrease the high school dropout and college readiness rates,
Deasy should be focusing on increasing rigor in academic instruction.
Rather than embedding it into the school day, he should be emphasizing
multiple paths towards academic remediation, including support classes,
smaller class sizes, tutoring, and summer and adult school. He should be
increasing not decreasing intensive academic and college counseling in
schools.
Our schools need to promote higher standards. LAUSD should and can
become a leader in the country of a movement to move kids towards true
college readiness. Keeping D's in place for an additional year and
cutting core services allows the low bar to remain in place, and in my
mind, is more indicative of the grade the Superintendent should receive
for his current efforts.
• An Associate Professor at California State University, Los Angeles,
Dr. Rebecca Joseph believes that college should be an option for all
and devotes her teaching, research, presentations, evaluations, and
service to helping all students receive a high quality, college ready
education. She also helps students and schools focus on empowering
students throughout the college readiness, application, and admissions
process. She is an expert on helping student write powerful college
application essays to communicate their unique stories as well as
helping kids prepare to transfer to four year colleges. Dr. Joseph is a
member of NACAC, WACAC, AERA, and NCTE and an expert for Unigo. She can
be followed on twitter @getmetocollege and on her website
getmetocollege.org.
► LAUSD's TOO HIGH GRADUATION BAR: The district's policy requiring
students to pass a college-prep curriculum to graduate was a product of
magical thinking rather than wise educational leadership
LA Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/Je1DQn
April 19, 2012 :: There's a lot more to improving education than just
raising the bar and expecting everyone to reach it, as the Los Angeles
Unified School District is discovering about its ill-conceived,
7-year-old policy to require students to pass a college-prep curriculum
in order to graduate.
The district's intentions were good. Not only were too few students
attempting the so-called A through G curriculum — a required series of
high school English, math, social studies and other courses required for
entry to California's public four-year colleges and universities — but
the numbers attempting it were much lower among disadvantaged black and
Latino students. Before the policy was adopted, many school
administrators assumed these students were incapable of or uninterested
in a future in college and steered them toward a less rigorous course of
study.
What the district should have done is to undertake a thoughtful overhaul
of the curriculum, preparing students before they entered high school
for the more challenging academic course load and continuing with
tutoring and support as they moved from ninth to 12th grades.Instead,
under political pressure from justifiably frustrated community groups,
the school board merely passed a resolution calling for all students to
be required to pass the full college-prep series of courses, starting
with the freshman class of 2012.
The resolution was a product of magical thinking rather than wise
educational leadership. It created no plan for how the new bar would be
reached — a plan that should have started with an intensive focus on
lower-school math, because the single biggest obstacle to completing
college prep was that so many students arrived at high school unprepared
for algebra and flunked it repeatedly. Board members and teachers who
protested that the resolution would lead to high dropout rates were
roundly booed.
As Times staff writer Howard Blume reported Wednesday, the
administration now wants to scale back on graduation requirements, with
Deputy Supt. Jaime Aquino echoing some words familiar from seven years
ago: "We face a massive dropout rate" if the policy goes forward.
An abysmally small percentage of students who graduated from L.A.
Unified schools last year — 15% — qualified to enter a four-year
college. The district could certainly improve on this, yet the school
board has little choice at this point but to ease the requirements; it
would be unfair and counterproductive to hold students to a standard
they have not been prepared to achieve. But in its next move to improve
educational outcomes, the board should focus first on a coherent plan
for improving instruction, not on an arbitrary bar.
►L.A. UNIFIED GRADUATES: DIPLOMAS, YES; LEARNING, MAYBE
By Karin Klein, Editorial Staff, LA Times | http://lat.ms/HXsSQ2
April 19, 2012, 6:00 a.m. :: The call to lower graduation standards in
the Los Angeles Unified School District reminds me of a conversation I
had with a representative of the construction industry seven years ago,
back when the school board was first considering requiring all students
to take the full series of college-preparatory classes in order to earn a
diploma.
His group favored the switch to a college-prep requirement because the
sequence of courses known as "A through G" would also prepare students
better for jobs that don't require a college degree. Precious few of
L.A. Unified's graduates could pass the written test for his group's
apprenticeship program in construction because they lacked the math
skills.
I asked him what was required to pass that test, and he said Algebra I
and some Geometry. That was curious because those courses already were
required for a high school diploma in L.A. Unified; the college-prep
requirement added a third year of high school math to that, Algebra II.
When told that the students already had to pass the two courses he had
mentioned to graduate, he at first refused to believe that was true.
Then he said that although the students might be taking the courses,
they sure weren't learning the material.
There's the rub. The schools and the state can set all the requirements
they want, but until we pay attention to whether students are actually
learning what they need to learn rather than filling a seat in a class
that meets a certain requirement, we will continue the frustrating
reality of high school graduates who theoretically qualify for college
but have to take remedial courses once they get there, and who cannot
pass a basic test to drive a delivery truck or work on a construction
site.
THE LEGISLATIVE WEEK IN REVIEW: From student success to teacher removal
By Kathryn Baron , Thoughts on Public Education | http://bit.ly/IggT1B
John Fensterwald co-wrote this article.
4/20/12 :: One day after Democrats on the Senate Education Committee
rejected his sweeping approach to getting rid of poorly performing and
badly behaving teachers, Republican leader Bob Huff mentioned an often
cited but much disputed quote of the late Albert Shanker in letting the
Democrats have it.
“The Senate Education Committee’s actions exemplify the comments made by
Albert Shanker, former head of the United Federation of Teachers, who
stated, ‘When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll
start representing the interests of schoolchildren.’ Once again the
Democrats on the committee have chosen to put the demands of some union
bosses over the safety of our children,” Huff said in a press release.
(Shanker’s wife, Edith, denies he ever made the statement.)
UPDATE: I contacted Shaker’s biographer, Richard Kahlenberg, who wrote
Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions,
Race, and Democracy. His email response regarding the authenticity of
the quote: “I tried to track down the quotation for my biography of Al
Shanker but I was unable to confirm it, so it may well be apocryphal.”
Democrats passed a much narrower bill, SB 1530, that pared away the
due-process procedures for teachers being charged with offenses
involving drugs, sex, and violence against children. Not that they got
much love from union reps, who accused legislators from both parties of
“grandstanding” on the issue.
Huff issued a chart showing that the Democrats’ bill wouldn’t alter the
sometimes laborious dismissal procedures for teachers accused of a raft
of other vile offenses that don’t fall into the new category of “serious
and egregious” acts.
The odd thing is that, after the Democrats gutted an identical version
of Huff’s bill in the Assembly this week, leaving in only two small
reforms, the Republican co-sponsor of AB 2028 waxed poetic on the
bipartisan achievement in a press release. “It was great to see Assembly
Democrats today set politics aside and work with us to pass these vital
reforms to get those who try to harm our kids out of the classroom,”
said Assemblymember Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita.
Not wanting to get caught in this dogfight, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy testified
for both the Republican and Democratic versions.
STEPPING UP TO COMMUNITY COLLEGE PLATE
“I am a community college success story,” proudly proclaimed Jessie Ryan
at a news conference Wednesday after the Senate Education Committee
unanimously approved the Student Success Act. SB 1456 starts the process
of implementing some of the 22 recommendations in the Student Success
Task Force report, which was released late last year.
Ryan, the associate director of the Campaign for College Opportunity,
grew up with a “struggling, single welfare mother,” and said community
college was truly her “gateway to opportunity.” She was admittedly
fortunate that her college helped her develop an education plan and held
an orientation that put Ryan “on a path to success.”
SB 1456, by Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), chair of the Education
Committee, calls on all the state’s 112 community colleges to provide
all students with the type of support Ryan received. More than half of
all community college students fail to receive an AA Degree, earn a
certificate, or transfer to a four-year college within six years, and
the figures for Latino and African American students are even worse.
But the big drivers in the bill for boosting success were tempered amid
an outcry from students and the reality of state finances. Provisions
requiring students to declare a goal and not to exceed a certain number
of units in order to be eligible for Board of Governors (BOG) fee
waivers will not take effect unless colleges have the resources to
provide the needed support services, said Lowenthal. Just looking at
one of those, counseling services is daunting. On average, there are
1900 students for each counselor.
The bill would create a new fund which repurposes the $50 million in the
matriculation fund to provide colleges with some money to focus on
education planning and advising, but it’s not nearly enough, and the
chancellor’s office said they’re looking to schools to develop
innovative programs to help students make good decisions about which
classes to take.
“These reforms are about doing the most we can with what we have,” said
Erik Skinner, Executive Vice Chancellor of programs. “The next step is
to make the case for more investment.”
BUS STOP
Gov. Brown’s effort to eliminate funding for home-to-school
transportation at the time of the mid-year trigger cuts sparked
legislation by Assemblyman Warren Furutani (D-Gardena) to introduce
legislation protecting school bus service.
AB 1448 requires transportation funding for next year to be “at least
equal to the appropriation provided in the budget for 2011-12.” The
bill holds a special place for Los Angeles Unified, which, under a
court-ordered desegregation plan must provide transportation.
Budget uncertainty marked many bills that came before the committees
this week leading to one surprisingly stinging exchange between two
lawmakers. During the debate on AB 1448, Assemblymember Shannon Grove
(R-Bakersfield), asked fellow education committee member Das Williams
(D-Santa Barbara) why the democrats were trying to protect the school
transportation funds when they were the ones who supported putting it in
the trigger cuts when they approved the governor’s budget plan last
year. Williams retorted almost before she could finish, noting that
republicans forced their hand. “With all due respect,” said Williams,
“that wouldn’t have happened if you had the courage to vote for taxes to
support our education system.”
See also:
►KINDERGARTEN FOR ALL COMES OF AGE: Bills would make Kindergarten Compulsory,
Kathryn Baron, ToPED | http://bit.ly/I2aDcj
April 17, 2012 :: For being so young, kindergarteners have incited
more than their share of quarrels in California. State lawmakers and
governors argued for a decade about how old kindergarten students should
be, before voting in 2010 to raise the age to five. At the same time,
they created Transitional Kindergarten (TK) for those who miss the new
........[continues>>>http://bit.ly/I2aDcj]
ODE TO FERNIE
By Franny Parrish, Originally published in the LASLA L.A. School Library Aides GoogleGroup.
Franny Parrish is the Library Aide/Librarian In the Julie Korenstein
Library at Charles Leroy Lowman Special Education Center, an LAUSD
K-12 school serving special needs children in North Hollywood
Fri, Apr 20, 2012 :: He was almost 17 when I met him. I heard him
before I saw him, screaming with laughter at the top of his longs as he
raced through the halls on an adult size tricycle, safety helmet
jauntily placed on his head, with one of the older aides chasing after
him, desperate to keep up. It was quite a sight. Turning on my heels I
chased after them to ask if she needed help to stop this little guy
before he hurt himself or someone else? Was he okay? Oh no, she said,
Fernando was just fine, he was just so excited at the ease of the
mobility he was experiencing, and he was soooooo pleased with himself
that he had mastered pedaling! Silly me. He was laughing after all,
maybe a tad on this side of maniacal, but he WAS laughing.
I walked back to my library thinking about the simple tasks in life and
those little accomplishments that we take for granted, walking, feeding
ourselves, pedaling a bike, and for these students these are every day
struggles. Just as I sat back down at my desk I heard him, maniacal
laughter, pure joy, exhilaration in his voice. He passed by the
library, looked at me and waved, narrowly missing running into the wall.
He never missed a beat and Mila was there to keep him on track. This
was Fernando.
Short, 4' and counting, Fernando seemed taller because he walked on his
tip toes, slight of build, hint of a mustache, beautiful brown eyes with
eyelashes that any movie star could only wish to have. He wasn't
Antonio Banderas, but he was definitely charming, on most days, in a way
that Señor Banderas would have appreciated. He had his moments. For
almost an entire year, every day, I would see him after nutrition or PE
lying down on the yard, refusing to get up. We weren't sure what the
issue was. Maybe he just wanted to do things at his own pace and time,
not ours. Sometimes they just picked him and carried him in to the
classroom, but most times he eventually made it on his own.
When Miss Josie would come to the library for reading it took a lot to
get him there. He had to sit on his own chair apart from the others as
he had developed a new habit of grabbing you by the hair and not letting
go. (Trust me from personal experience it was not pleasant to be on
the receiving end.) To make the experience of coming to the library
more pleasant for Fernando, I often would play Mariachi music for the
class as they were walking or being wheeled in to the room. Fernie
LOVED mariachi music along with most other styles, but he seemed to come
alive when he heard it. He would often ask me to sing Skidda Ma Rinky
Dink... Mariachi. Yeah. Tough call, and I even asked friends who were
composers and writers if they could figure out an arrangement of the
song to surprise Fernie. No one could figure it out. No matter,I just
added a few yips into the song and he was happy.
Once reading time was over, discussions done, Skidda Ma Rinky Dink sung,
students, aides, and teacher filed out. Who was still there? Fernie.
The only way I could get him out was to turn off the lights, whip on my
sombrero, and start singing while backing out of the room so he would
follow me. In his raspy voice, most times unintelligible, he would try
to sing along and begin to leave. It became a weekly routine. The hat
never weighed heavy on my head.
Talking with Fernando was usually one way. You never really understood
what he was saying and, as is the case with many of these children, you
really don't know how much they comprehend. Just before Thanksgiving
when Fernie was around 20-21, I asked him, at his teacher's urging, what
was he going to have to eat for Thanksgiving. As he gathered his air,
you could tell he was working to get the words and strength together to
answer me, he said "Turkey!" "That's great! And what will you have to
go with the turkey?" Again, Fernie took his time, and in his raspy,
squeaky, voice said "Pappas! (translation - Potatoes)
"This is turning into quite a meal.", I said to Fernie. Then I asked
the final question, "And what will you have to drink with all this
wonderful meal Fernando?" This time, there was no hesitation in his
answer. Like an arrow shot straight from it's bow, he grinned and
shouted out "CERVEZA!!!!" There wasn't a dry eye left in the room as
all the adults laughed until our sides hurts. Fernando was laughing
too. He knew. He had me forever in his heart.
Fernando died yesterday. He was 22. June would have been his last
month with us here at Lowman. He went home a month ago after school
not feeling well. He had pneumonia. He never could get enough air. I
know that this is the hazard of working here at Lowman, but still, this
time it really hurt. I can't go to the funeral or the viewing as it
just doesn't seem natural to see him that way. For me, I will prefer to
remember him like this, laughing boy, sharing a story with my fellow
Library Aides of one child who made a difference in my life.
Thanks for letting me tell his story.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
CORONA-NORCO USD IN INLAND EMPIRE GIVES TEACHERS THE
FREEDOM TO EXPERIMENT INSTEAD OF PRESCRIBED LESSON PLANS, b... http://bit.ly/IlqxOn
4LAKids tweets: wtf?: A DAY AFTER DEASY SAYS HEALTH ED WILL BE SAVED LAUSD PUTS THIS SURVEY ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE: http://www.fa... http://bit.ly/Jff5a0
BENNETT KAYSER SHARES HIS VIEWS ABOUT LAUSD, PROP 39, REDISTRICTING & A-G: The School Board member talks about P... http://bit.ly/JyX42q
LAUSD CHIEF WANTS TO KEEP HEALTH CLASS AS GRADUATION REQUIREMENT: By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News ... http://bit.ly/JdeLbP
LAUSD tweets: Dr. Deasy says he will NOT recommend eliminatIon of health ed grad requirement
L.A. UNIFIED GRADUATES: Diplomas, yes; learning, maybe: By Karin Klein, Editorial Staff, LA Times | http://lat.m... http://bit.ly/I4lNNc
A THRU G IN LAUSD: Magical Thinking, not Educational Leadership: LAUSD's TOO HIGH GRADUATION BAR: The district's... http://bit.ly/HWdbGQ
A “D” FOR DEASY?: Strive for A's Not D's: by Rebecca Joseph, Associate Professor, California State University, L... http://bit.ly/I4gs8u
OUT-OF-STATE EXPANSION OF CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOL COMPANIES COULD AFFECT IN-STATE GROWTH: By Louis Freedberg ~... http://bit.ly/J1UoOM
CLINICS SET OUT TO LOWER ILLNESS RELATED ABSENTEEISM AT SCHOOLS: By: Mayra Ramirez LAUSD Journal | http://... http://bit.ly/IYzwbk
STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE WARNS 2-TIER PRICING FOR COLLEGES IS ILLEGAL: By Vanessa Romo KPCC Blog: Pass /... http://bit.ly/IWzaBO
4LAKids tweets: OFFICIAL LAUSD SOCIAL MEDIA CONTINUES TO ADVOCATE ELIMINATION OF HEALTH ED - http://bit.ly/JhGvrA
SENDING 6500 KIDS TO A MOVIE ABOUT BULLYING DOESN’T END BULLYING, IT PROMOTES THE MOVIE: 6,500 LAUSD students to... http://bit.ly/IQRYgw
LAUSD PROPOSES TO ELIMINATE D’S AS PASSING GRADES: smf: ‘Proposes’ being the operative verb, not ‘eliminate’ By... http://bit.ly/IQOHOj
LAUSD CONSIDERS LOWERING THE BAR FOR GRADUATION: The district could face a flood of dropouts if it doesn't ease ... http://bit.ly/JhGvrA
DEADLY ‘CHOKING GAME’ COMES WITH BIG RISKS + 1 in 16 EIGHTH GRADERS PLAY IT: by Rob Stein Morning Edition | http... http://bit.ly/ITCaOv
I WENT TO SOME OF D.C.’s BETTER SCHOOLS. I WAS STILL UNPREPARED FOR COLLEGE.: OP ED By Darryl Robinson in the Wa... http://bit.ly/J33si7
Not tested? Not taught!: 1992 RIOTS ARE A POIGNANT LESSON IN L.A. SCHOOLS …WHEN TIME ALLOWS: Deidre Powell disc... http://bit.ly/Jrl6vt
REPRESENTING KIDS …OR ADULTS? + smf’s 2¢: by Patrick Riccards in Eduflack | http://bit.ly/IGHghR
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
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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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.
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