Sunday, October 07, 2012

Just "eh."


Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 7•Oct•2012
In This Issue:
 •  LAUSD BOARD'S NURY MARTINEZ WANTS TO RESTORE -- AND INCREASE -- ARTS FUNDING IN SCHOOLS
 •  [more about] EDUCATION REFORM + ARTS EDUCATION ...than you ever wanted to know
 •  The demise of AB 5: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO REFORM TEACHER EVALUATIONS
 •  LAUSD’s TABLET PLAN DOESN’T COMPUTE …and “the legality is somewhat sketchy”
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
 •  OUR CHILDREN, OUR FUTURE: What will California schoolchildren, your school district and YOUR School get when the initiative passes?
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 •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
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The young girl ran up to her mother, who was having a boring conversation with another adult – breathless with the realization of previously unknown truth.

“Mom,” she said; “ Listen to this: If you take the “ART” out of “EARTH”, all you have left is “EH…!” Isn’t that cool?!”

Her mom was nonplussed, embarrassed by the interruption.

[Interrupting adults’ boring conversations with newly uncovered truths is a basic responsibility of childhood, protected by scripture; (“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength.”). Discouraging it is a self-perpetuating failure of adulthood. ]

The girl ran off. Her mom apologized. I stole the line.


In LAUSD we seem to be quite intent on taking the arts out of education. Because we can’t afford it.

Arts+Music Ed costs money. It isn’t tested. Oh sure, it’s there in the California Standards and in Subpart #15 of No Child Left Behind, it’s the “F” in A-thru-G and it’s a graduation requirement – but allow me to repeat myself: It isn’t tested.

If we can’t measure progress, how do we know if we’re getting anywhere? How do we know who the good and bad arts teachers are? Where are the Arts+Music in AYP and API?

Art is very hard to define, we rarely agree on what it is …or what is it.

A story well told. The world well observed, well portrayed on the page, the canvas, the screen, the dance floor or the stage. Something that makes you think in another way. A musical experience we hear in our soul. A fourteen year old finding Yorik and the Bard on the boards or in the seats. A photograph that transcends the moment; a dance step that defines a moment. A phrase well turned, turned inside out.

Art the most important product of humanity. To not teach Art to our children is to close the doors through which we have come and through which they must pass. Is all we need to know when to pick up the pencil when to put it down and how much time we have to take the test?

Eleven years ago LAUSD embarked on a ten year Arts Education Plan that was second to none. Other school districts came to study and marvel and emulate it. The Board President spoke of its wonderfulness and importance. She accepted awards for her visionary leadership of it - and slowly began to dismantle it with Rightsizing, RIFs+Budget Cuts. In about year eight the Powers-That-Be began to dismember it; by year nine it was an empty shell. Despite all the claims of it having been saved today Arts+Music Ed is a chalk outline on the sidewalk alongside school nurses and school libraries and health education and adult ed and afterschool programs –the few survivors are held back by the crime scene tape.

ON TUESDAY THE BOARD OF ED will vote on a resolution to make Arts Education part of the Education Core and 4LAKids supports that resolution and every whereas and therefore.

But without genuine commitment – without funding and staffing and classroom teachers and supplies– a board resolution – no matter how artfully crafted +unanimously supported can end up an empty promise and the waste of an agenda item and copier paper+toner.

I welcome and do not question the good intentions and/or commitment of the Superintendent, the Mayor, the Board and The Trust for LA Schools …but if Arts Ed is really Core it must be embedded in the curriculum and have guaranteed funding in the school district budget– not reliant upon philanthropy and the kindness of others or the PTA bake sale. The LA Trust has not been all that successful at fundraising up to now – and its budget is not accountable to elected officials. No outsotcing.

Outsourcing Arts+Music Ed makes it a charity case – and The Core is part of the apple one doesn’t eat.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf



●● 93 Candles on his Birthday Cake: SHERIFF JOHN ROVICK 1919-2012 - In the time between Howdy Doody and Sesame Street there was Sheriff John. Any Angeleno of my age would be remiss in not wishing Godspeed to John Rovick. | 'Sheriff' John Rovick dies at 93; popular L.A. children's TV host - latimes.com http://lat.ms/Q57FH9


R E Q U I R E D • R E A D I N G :: Under the Influence/The Price of Ed Reform – LOS ANGELES : THE PROVING GROUND OF EDUCATION ®EFORM



LAUSD BOARD'S NURY MARTINEZ WANTS TO RESTORE -- AND INCREASE -- ARTS FUNDING IN SCHOOLS

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/UvaQy7

10/06/2012 :: Third-graders listen to teacher Steven Baxter during their drama class at Carlos Santana Arts Academy on Oct. 5, 2012, in North Hills. (Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer)
NORTH HILLS -- Accompanied by teacher Darlene Abiog on the guitar, the second- and third-graders at the Carlos Santana Arts Academy sang the lyrics written on the board, their reading lesson set to music.

In the campus auditorium, drama teacher Steve Baxter coaxed a group of third-graders to perform the actions for "lumbering" and "empathy," the kids gleefully unaware they were also learning new vocabulary words.

Down the hall, meanwhile, stacks of donated keyboards, guitars, woodwinds and drums sat along the walls of a classroom, idle since the day that funding was cut for an instrumental-music teacher.

"If you're going to have arts in school, you have to find ways to pay for people," said Leah Bass-Baylis, principal
Students sing along with teacher Darlene Abiog during a reading lesson at Carlos Santana Arts Academy on Oct. 5, 2012, in North Hills. (Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer)
of the K-5 campus that bears the name of the legendary guitarist. "You've got to have money if you're going to make art part of everything."

And that's what Los Angeles Unified school board member Nury Martinez hopes to accomplish on Tuesday, when she introduces a resolution seeking to restore and even increase the district's arts programs that were gutted during the 5-year-old budget crisis.

She also wants a commitment to make arts a component of the new Common Core curriculum, integrating skills like drama, drawing and dance into the teaching of math, English and science. The national standards are set to take effect in Fall 2014, and the district is slowly phasing in the lessons.

"The timing for this couldn't be better," said Martinez, who represents the east San Fernando Valley. "We'll be talking about a whole new way of teaching that's more rigorous, where children don't just memorize information but learn to solve problems."

The Common Core standards, which have been adopted by 45 other states and the District of Columbia, emphasize critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity, with the goal of preparing students for college or a career.

Martinez noted the close connection between math and music and suggested that the arts would help provide a real-world context for the tougher academic standards that are at the heart of Common Core.

"This is a social justice and education equality issue," Martinez said. "Those who are exposed to these skills at an early age will be able to do better in mastering the Common Core."

Among those backing Martinez's resolution is the nonprofit Los Angeles Fund for Public Education, which on Monday will announce details of a fundraising campaign to support arts education.

"This resolution can really set the stage for reviving arts education," said Executive Director Dan Chang, explaining that the fund will help provide professional development for district teachers and resources for integrating arts into the Common Core.

He added that one of the biggest challenges for the fund is selecting which programs to support from among the hundreds offered by the nation's second-largest district.

"A little bit of philanthropy can go a long way," he said. "We try to find programs where philanthropy can get the district over the hump in terms of major initiatives."

During Tuesday's meeting, Martinez hopes to win support from her fellow board members to stabilize funding for the Arts Education Branch and add courses that would prepare students for jobs in Hollywood.

She'd eventually like to build funding back to levels seen in 2008, when the Arts Division
Carlos Santana Arts Academy principal Leah Bass-Baylis laughs while visiting with students in a third-grade class on Oct. 5, 2012, in North Hills. (Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer)
had 345 instructors teaching visual and theater arts, music and dance.

Arts chief Steven McCarthy said the division today has just 210 teachers, like Baxter, who rotate among the district's elementary schools. Kids typically get one day a week of arts instruction, but not every medium is offered at every campus.

High schools must offer arts classes because students have to take two semesters in order to graduate. Instructors' salaries come out of the school-site budgets.

Middle schools are not legally bound to offer arts education, and the cuts there have been the most severe, McCarthy said.

Still, principals are scraping together the money and getting help from many of Los Angeles' renowned cultural institutions.

A ceramic mural at the Santana Academy, for instance, was completed with a Music Center grant, while the Getty Museum funds visits for all 600 students and their families.

"Many admirable principals have found ways to keep arts alive and at the forefront," said McCarthy, who previously taught drama at San Fernando Middle School.

"It's important for students who excel at visual and performing arts to express their knowledge in other key disciplines."

"Some children will excel in arts before they excel in other things," he said. "And once they're able to experience success, it's contagious."

Bass-Baylis knows that feeling well.

Now 58, she can't remember a time that she didn't dance. She was accomplished enough to become a professional, working as a dancer in New York while earning her master's degree in special education from Columbia University -- one of two advanced degrees she holds.

"You dance because you have to," she said. "It's a part of your being."

As an arts educator, she started the dance program at the Millikan Performing Arts Magnet in Sherman Oaks and took a troupe of students on a trip to China.

She has similar aspirations for her students at Santana Academy, who are well-versed in the "Artist's Pledge" voicing the hope to be a lifelong learner, college bound and on a quest for greatness.

"Arts opens doors," said Bass-Baylis, who has been principal of Santana Academy since it opened in Fall 2011. "And there's nothing that does better than the arts in helping kids engage and pushing them to take what they learn and make it their own."


[more about] EDUCATION REFORM + ARTS EDUCATION ...than you ever wanted to know
Americans for the Arts | http://bit.ly/UM8sxs

The arts (dance, music, theater, and visual arts) are considered “core academic subjects” under federal law—the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This means that changes in federal education funding and policy affect opportunities for local arts programs and teachers. Below is an overview of some of the big changes to the education landscape and how they affect the arts.

ESEA

The reauthorization of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is now long overdue. This body of federal education policy, last authorized in 2002 as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), has resulted in a narrowing of the curriculum (described in this report|) http://bit.ly/OMrzdP and arts education has struggled to remain in many schools across the country.

Each year, through the national Arts Advocacy Day, a large coalition of national cosponsors of arts and arts education advocacy organizations releases their legislative recommendations for the reauthorizations of NCLB | http://bit.ly/VNxUpy (110 KB). These national cosponsors continue to work with House and Senate committee staff to incorporate these recommendations into the reauthorization drafts.

RECOMMENDATIONS INCLUDE:

• Retain the Arts in the Definition of Core Academic Subjects of Learning;
• Require Annual State Reports on Student Access to Core Academic Subjects;
• Improve National Data Collection and Research in Arts Education;
• Reauthorize the Arts in Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education.

The Arts Education Federal Resource Guide|http://bit.ly/TiljLE is a report produced by Americans for the Arts on the arts-related aspects of No Child Left Behind. The document includes information on arts education policy under NCLB and information on grant opportunities, including program descriptions, Department of Education contact information, and links to many other resources.

STATE WAIVERS

Because the No Child Left Behind Act expired in 2007 and is currently authorized through a temporary provision, many advocates have been calling on Congress to reauthorize it. However, as of 2012, no bills have been seriously considered by either chambers of Congress.

In absence of legislative movement on the issue, the Obama administration has been issuing “waivers” from certain provisions in NCLB to states in exchange for statewide reform efforts. More than half the states have received such waivers.

The Center for American Progress (CAP) hosted a panel in August 2012 titled “The State of State Education Reform: What’s Happening, What’s Next?” that reviewed the impact of the U.S. Department of Education state waivers and the Elementary & Secondary Education Act. Their report, No Child Left Behind Waivers, is now available|http://bit.ly/RofvvU.

So what reforms are the states planning? The major waiver-based reform efforts that affect arts education are:

• Creating assessment strategies for subjects other than English, language arts, and math.
• Creating highly qualified designation for teachers and teacher evaluation.
• Using extended learning time to combat the narrowing of the curriculum.
• Here is an infographic|http://bit.ly/PMcKTo summarizing the differences between NCLB and the state waivers.
• This short video clip|http://cs.pn/SFZ8iR from the CAP event shows Senior Director for Federal Affairs and Arts Education Narric Rome discussing the impact of the state waivers on arts education and the narrowing of the curriculum. Watch the panelists, including U.S. Department of Education Deputy Assistant Secretary Michael Yudin, respond.

COMMON CORE

The Common Core State Standards Initiative| (http://bit.ly/OgePL1CCSS) is a partnership between the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association to develop a set of “common” (not national or federal) academic learning standards for students. The standards address English, language arts, and math, and were released in June 2010. Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have adopted them.

The standards are meant to prepare students for both college and career, and they contain an emphasis on higher order thinking skills. These standards are not curriculum, and they do not dictate how to teach the content. Two consortia are developing assessments| http://bit.ly/RK3JxJ to complement these standards, with an emphasis on digital and performance-based assessments for students.

There are several possible ways that CCSS will affect arts education:

• Arts teachers could provide training to general classroom teachers on how to use performance-based assessments and portfolios for student assessment;
• Arts teachers could partner with English and language arts teachers to find curricular connections between the new non-fiction reading requirement and the historical/cultural connections in the arts;
• CCSS emphasis on English, language arts, and math could produce an even narrower curriculum;
• CCSS emphasis on integration could result in an expanded, project-based curriculum;
• And many more possibilities that will come with implementation of CCSS.

Here are a few resources to help you understand this new initiative:

• Presentation by Arts Education Partnership Director Sandra Ruppert provides information about Common Core and other standards issues. | http://bit.ly/Rogvjm
• Americans for the Arts blog salon about the intersection of the arts and common core. | http://bit.ly/SVFLNa
• Education Week article, “Districts Gear Up for Shift to Informational Texts,” addresses how the non-fiction reading requirement lends itself to integration with content in science, social studies, and the arts.| http://bit.ly/Ta3qJA
• A video clip of David Coleman, a main author for CCSS, during an event called “Truant From School: History, Science, and Arts.” | http://bit.ly/Ta3wAV

ADDITIONAL REFORM INITIATIVES

• Americans for the Arts has also joined peer efforts to improve education in America. We have signed onto the following coalitions, each advocating for a well-rounded complete education for all students.
• Joint Organizational Statement on No Child Left Behind | http://bit.ly/VBqUxB
• Broader, Bolder Approach to Education | http://bit.ly/VNBeBc
• Statement on College, Career, and Citizenship Readiness | http://bit.ly/SGeUZ3
• Time to Succeed Coalition | http://bit.ly/RK4hnw


The demise of AB 5: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO REFORM TEACHER EVALUATIONS

By John Affeldt, EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/VByN65

October 3rd, 2012 :: The Chicago teachers’ strike is the most recent example of how bloody the ideological debate over teacher evaluation has become in this country. Though not the only issue in Chicago, how to evaluate teachers and the role of standardized tests in that process has been at the core of the contentiousness in the Windy City. In California, we recently saw our own version of the teacher evaluation debate turn toxic with the demise of AB 5.

Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes’ bill sought to significantly reform the Stull Act, the moribund 41-year-old process for evaluating teachers. With one day left in the legislative session, Fuentes pulled his bill after dozens of inside interests and some outside advocates created a near hysteria over the fear of expanded union rights and diminished achievement measures.

AB 5 was not perfect, but for the community groups and advocates who supported it, its demise represents the loss of a much-needed reform of the state’s teacher evaluation system. In its stead, our public schools are left with the status quo of drive-by evaluations under the Stull Act, where teachers go years without meaningful feedback and rarely, if ever, have their professional development informed by the evaluation process. In figuring out a way forward, it’s worth examining the loudest arguments opposing AB 5 and whether and how to address them.

First, it’s interesting to note that 10 days after AB 5’s defeat, State Superintendent Tom Torlakson’s Task Force on Educator Excellence released its Greatness by Design report, proposing the most significant overhaul of teacher quality in a generation for California. The Task Force that Torlakson convened was a cross-section of superintendents, principals, teachers, researchers, labor, student advocates, and policymakers. Among its recommendations on teacher evaluation were many of the exact reforms AB 5 had come so close to enacting, including ensuring districts adopt systems that:

• utilize multiple measures to examine both student learning and teaching practice but without relying on unstable and unreliable state standardized test scores;
• must be based on the California Standards for the Teaching Profession;
• are sophisticated enough to distinguish between excellent teaching and merely satisfactory (versus only the current satisfactory vs. unsatisfactory distinctions);
• feed into professional development and support for educators who need assistance; and
• necessarily grow out of a collective labor/management vision for improving instructional quality.

NOT ENOUGH TESTING?

The two primary arguments opponents asserted against AB 5 were that it watered down the role of standardized tests in measuring student learning and that it dangerously expanded union rights to collectively bargain evaluations. Though some opponents never stopped repeating the testing-dilution straw man, in fact the bill was amended to ensure that it did no more or less than the Stull Act or the recent Doe v. Deasy decision in Los Angeles as regards the use of standardized tests. The bill required that state and local standardized tests be used in measuring student learning but left the precise role of such tests to local discretion.

In fact, for some opponents increasing the use of ill-suited state standardized tests for individual teacher evaluation is a major piece of their agenda. Groups like Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and Democrats for Education Reform want to see students’ scores on state standardized tests make up as much as 50 percent of a teacher’s performance rating. A key goal for many so-called “education reformers” these days is to require not just the use of some type of appropriate standardized test for evaluating teachers, but the significant use of state standardized achievement test scores. When I have had frank conversations with some, it’s clear to me that being able to compare teacher quality judgments across a given state is more important to them than making sure each district actually has in place a meaningful, high-quality evaluation system.

Yet, as pointed out in the Educator Excellence Task Force report, leading research organizations like the National Research Council strenuously warn against using state standardized test scores to evaluate any unit lower than school-level performance. These tests prove entirely too unreliable and variable when measuring individual teacher performance. About half of top performers one year score below average the next, and the same proportion of the bottom performers simultaneously jump to average or above. Also, teachers of students with disabilities and new English Learners are systematically penalized with low ratings based on state standardized test scores, no matter the supposedly sophisticated statistical machinations employed to control for such factors. The fact that teachers who are effective with such students can still be penalized for teaching them creates a huge and troubling disincentive for serving in our neediest classrooms.

Finally, many state tests, like California’s, are not “vertically aligned,” which is a psychometrician’s way of saying they only tell you if a student is proficient or not at a given grade level and are incapable of illustrating a student’s growth outside that grade span.

As an advocate for kids, I’d really like to make teacher quality comparisons across districts too, but the technology just isn’t there yet. Our highest priority, instead, has to be on developing good systems for districts rather than first promoting comparable but questionable metrics to satisfy someone’s reform agenda.

TOO MUCH BARGAINING?

The most understandable fear of many AB 5 opponents was that it would have subjected the evaluation process to collective bargaining in new and untold ways. There is more than a little greyness under California law about what exactly must be bargained in the teacher evaluation process.

Personally, I did not read AB 5 as expanding the reach of collective bargaining beyond existing law, which requires evaluation processes be bargained and allows districts to set performance standards, but admittedly the statute was not a model of clarity on the point. Still, AB 5’s collective bargaining language was placed in the bill in the summer of 2011, and no one claimed the provision would alter the education universe as we know it. Only when the bill was close to passing last month did the collective bargaining doomsday scenario suddenly surface. When Fuentes agreed to amendments in the last few days that sought to placate district concerns, it was too late to unpoison the atmosphere. The safest future course would seem to be language clarifying that the existing bargaining balance in the Stull Act should continue.

On the merits of the collective bargaining question, I have to ask, though: Is all the fuss really well-considered? Long Beach Unified is thought to have a model teacher evaluation program; it has been collectively bargained. I now sit on the Emery Unified school board. District relations with the teachers union have generally been good but have seen tensions rising lately. Nonetheless, I don’t see how it makes any sense for a district to impose an evaluation system unilaterally on a workforce that hasn’t bought into it. How are the underperforming teachers in any such district going to believe in the judgments that say they need to improve?

The fact is AB 5 fell victim, in significant part, to the standoff between John Deasy and United Teachers Los Angles over whether and to what extent state standardized test scores should be part of LA teacher evaluations. But the answer for those districts where labor relations are sour can’t be to give one side all the power to impose a system or the other side all the power to resist one. There have to be some middle ways to facilitate conciliation between distrustful parties. Perhaps this should be an area of focus for the next run at an evaluation bill.

STATUS QUO FOREVER?

AB 5 had room for improvement. We and our grassroots partners in the Campaign for Quality Education and PICO California would have preferred that it had required that the multiple measures of student growth be a “substantial” part of the teacher’s evaluation and that appropriate student and parent input be a part of every evaluation. But passage of AB 5 would have enabled us to argue for those refinements on a district-by-district basis as well as in future statutory tweaks to apply statewide.

Having missed the opportunity to accomplish the heavy lift, I fear the pro forma Stull Act evaluations that our state’s hundreds of thousands of teachers are currently subject to will continue for the foreseeable future. I pray the education community will rise above the fears and even fear mongering of recent weeks. I hope we can focus next year on passing a bill that again promises to reform our state’s teacher evaluation system in a way that produces truly robust evaluations that support teacher development and a higher standard of instructional practice. Our students deserve nothing less.

• John Affeldt is Managing Attorney at Public Advocates Inc., a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy. He is a leading voice on educational equity issues and has been recognized by California Lawyer Magazine as a California Attorney of the Year, The Recorder as an Attorney of the Year, and a Leading Plaintiff Lawyer in America by Lawdragon Magazine.


LAUSD’s TABLET PLAN DOESN’T COMPUTE …and “the legality is somewhat sketchy”

SUPT. JOHN DEASY WANTS TO PROVIDE A TABLET COMPUTER TO EVERY TEACHER AND STUDENT. BUT HE DOESN'T HAVE A REAL PLAN; IT'S MORE LIKE A NOTION — AND THAT'S NOT ENOUGH

LA Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/QOyjTZ

October 5, 2012 :: Superintendent John Deasy wants to buy every teacher and student in Los Angeles Unified School District a tablet computer within a year or two — 700,000 of the electronic devices, he figures — and pay for it with bonds that were passed by voters to build, repair and update school facilities.

Deasy isn't the only one eager to use bond money to buy tablets, though L.A. Unified's purchase would be uniquely ambitious in its size and reach. In fact, though the legality is somewhat sketchy, this is becoming as much a trend as starting up charter schools.

So far, though, Deasy doesn't know which tablets he's interested in buying or have an estimate of how much they might cost. He hasn't figured out whether students would take their tablets home to do their homework and, if they do, how the district would keep them and the devices safe (it would be widely known that students were carrying expensive equipment around) or who would pay if the tablets were lost or broken.

Despite the lack of details, Deasy is forging ahead with a request for "conceptual approval." The school board will discuss the matter next week, and the bond oversight committee will consider it the following week.

The problem is that the superintendent has yet to develop a concept worthy of approval. It's more like a notion at this point.

Spending money on tablets would be a departure from the usual school bond expenditures, which traditionally fund construction of new schools and renovation of buildings so decrepit that teachers have to place garbage cans under leaky ceilings during rainstorms. The money can be used for in-school equipment such as desks and computer wiring but not for instructional materials such as textbooks, copied worksheets, papers and pens. When voters supported L.A. Unified's bond measures in recent years, it's safe to assume they didn't have tablets in mind.

That said, it might be time to expand the definition of equipment that can be bought with bond money. In the near future, standardized testing and in-class lessons will require computer use, though this doesn't necessitate a computer for every student.

We'd love to see the best, most helpful equipment in the hands of L.A. Unified students, but Deasy has not laid out a persuasive argument for this purchase. Though it might sound preliminary, "conceptual approval" puts the district on a path from which it's hard to deviate. The oversight committee needs to take its role seriously as the bulwark against imprudent expenditures of bond money; it should require the superintendent to do his homework and return with a better proposal.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
Los Angeles: THE PROVING GROUND OF EDUCATION ®EFORM: By Catherine Cloutier, fellow, News21 - The USC/Annenberg S... http://bit.ly/QIIxqr

SOUTH LA SCHOOLS TEAM UP TO FIGHT RECONSTITUTION: By Vanessa Romo, KPCC Pass-Fail | http://bit.ly/PZTTGL ... http://bit.ly/QzMGwZ

POLICE PEPPER SPRAY BREAKS UP FIGHT AT NARBONNE HIGH SCHOOL: A fistfight between two girls that drew a crowd of ... http://bit.ly/VqrnTh

LAUSD’s TABLET PLAN DOESN’T COMPUTE …and “the legality is somewhat sketchy”: Supt. John Deasy wants to provide... http://bit.ly/UmRdrS
Expand

GRADING TEACHERS: L.A. Youth’s staff writers say there are better ways to evaluate teachers than using students'... http://bit.ly/QOkncM

IN CHICAGO, THE TEACHERS’ LAST STAND: Photograph by Michael Hitoshi/Getty Images By Drake Bennett Bloomberg Bus... http://bit.ly/T7IDf0

VETO PITS CHARTER SCHOOL AUTONOMY AGAINST REDUCED PRICE MEALS: Joanna Lin California Watch | http://bit.ly/PB1zw ... http://bit.ly/T6fNM8

“THE TEXAS MIRACLE” v.2.0: EL PASO SUPERINTENDENT PLEADS GUILTY TO PUSHING LATINO STUDENTS OUT: El Paso Superint... http://bit.ly/VAEuzC

FACT CHECK: On education, gains difficult to demonstrate: By Howard Blume LA Times Politics NOW | http://lat.m... http://bit.ly/UizPEP

INGLEWOOD HIGH GRAD TAKES OVER CITY’S TROUBLED SCHOOL DISTRICT: Kent Taylor, who graduated from Inglewood High i... http://bit.ly/Wp8mys

Fading Dreams: COMMUNITY COLLEGES’ CRISIS SLOWS STUDENT’S PROGRESS + New Law: THOSE RESPONSIBLE HELD UNACCOUNTAB... http://bit.ly/VzDrzT

PARENT COUP: INSIDE THE NEXT PUBLIC EDUCATION SHOWDOWN. Moms in the Mojave Desert are trying to take over an ele... http://bit.ly/UfAl6n

The Presidential Debate: EDUCATION ISSUES BARELY BREAK THE SURFACE: by Emily Richmond/The Educated Reporter - Co... http://bit.ly/VxEDDW

Ed®eform LoveFest @ #Debates:Obama likes Race to the Top.Mitt likes Arne Duncan+Vouchers Kids lose, Arne gets 2B EdSect no matter who wins?

An Education: HOW PROP 32’s BACKERS HAVE TRIED TO DITCH PUBLIC SCHOOLS: by Matthew Fleischer, Frying Pan News: H... http://bit.ly/QrqmFB

EDUCATION FUNDING REFORM STALLS IN CALIFORNIA: DAN WALTERS - Sacramento Bee | http://bit.ly/VggqU9 October 02... http://bit.ly/VueJ3Q

ARNE DUNCAN WOULD STAY ON FOR 2nd OBAMA TERM, TRIES TO PATCH RELATIONS w/TEACHERS, CALLS FOR MOVE TO DIGITAL TEX... http://bit.ly/Uc7Bv9

LAUSD “RUNNING ON FUMES” GOING INTO NOVEMBER TAX VOTES: By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News from the P... http://bit.ly/QDrvZr

MIRAMONTE ATTORNEY CALLS FOR MORE AGGRESSIVE MEASURES, CRITICIZES ART: Did Picasso made him do it …or make kids ... http://bit.ly/SX8Eha

Teaching+Learning Artfully: ARTS INTEGRATION FOR DEEPER LEARNING IN MIDDLE SCHOOL: video and articles from Eduto... http://bit.ly/Po5XyP

Art In Public Schools: COULD A MORE CREATIVE CURRICULUM LOWER DROPOUT RATES? + FANNING THE FLAME OF CREATIVITY: ... http://bit.ly/STtAph


EVENTS: Coming up next week...


*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
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!.


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
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