In This Issue:
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CALIFORNIA'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS GETTING STUCK IN SCHOOLS' REMEDIAL PROGRAMS WHILE DISTRICTS SIT ON UNSPENT FUNDS |
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LESSONS FROM THE OTHER SIDE |
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LAO REPORT: THE 2013-14 BUDGET: California’s Fiscal Outlook |
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WHAT SHOULD CHILDREN READ? + smf’s 2¢ |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily 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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“I can no other answer make but thanks,
And thanks, and ever thanks. And oft good turns
Are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay.
But were my worth as is my conscience, firm,
You should find better dealing. What’s to do?”
Shakespeare’s Sebastian in Twelfth Night gives his thanks and admits
that words are cheap – but he has no better to give. I hope the Bard
intended a bit of irony amongst the pentameter – he was paid for his
words and they have proved golden.
If teaching is a thankless job as Warren Fletcher claims, let me thank
each and every one of you who ply the craft and tread the boards and
work the art – and the magic – of the trade. We cannot ever pay you
enough – and I don’t see much sentiment in D.C. or Sacramento or Beaudry
to correct that …just chin music. Eventually we will pay you more, “But
were my worth as is my conscience, firm, you should find better
dealing.” …but never enough.
But we should heap upon you honor and respect and we don’t.
If you administer or support the work – whether in the office or the
classroom or the in cafeteria or in the library or on the playground or
driving a bus or filling forms or in a cubicle …or voting yea or nay you
too are doing God’s work. Thank you.
If you are a parent stop reading this and go hug your child, Read a book
together. Convince your child to thank a teacher. And thank you!
If you are a volunteer: Thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks. And oft good turns are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay.
And if you are a student, please thank a teacher. It will confuse and
embarrass them and they won’t know what to think or say. And you will
have seized the teachable moment and wrestled that rascal to the ground!
Thank you everyone for reading thus far. I’m almost done.
Thanksgiving is about The Table, groaning with the harvest bounty. We
gather together as family – the most important and complicated and
continuous unit of civilized existence – all tangled in history and
drama and DNA. If we are lucky enough we gather with friends – and if we
are even luckier (and truer to the first Thanksgiving): with strangers –
usually around the Dining Room Table. We celebrate the bounty and the
gift of family and friendship with our family and friends and the
strangers amongst us. And in so doing none are strangers; all are
family.
Here is a poem about an even more apt and more workaday metaphor:
In "Perhaps the World Ends Here," Joy Harjo – a member of the Muscogee
(Creek) Nation of Cherokee descent delves into what really happens
around the kitchen table:
... It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our
children. They laugh at us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put
ourselves back together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the
shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.
…AND NO THANKS….
Today’s LA TIMES EDITORIAL: GIVE CHARTER SCHOOLS THEIR DUE [http://lat.ms/TaAt1h
] agrees with The Times long held belief that Charter Schools are the
magic bullet that solves the ills of LAUSD and attacks Boardmember Steve
Zimmer for his questioning of what Leonard Cohen called ‘the beauty of
their weapon’.
The Times gushes about the success of charter schools – which it accepts
on faith rather than on evidence – and concedes: “No one should deny
that some of Zimmer's concerns about charter schools are justified. Many
of L.A. Unified's charters are strong performers, but some aren't very
good. In general, the schools have not enrolled a fair share of
special-education students. Some parents have complained that their
children who did poorly in charters were "counseled out" — or simply
thrown out — by administrators who suggested they return to traditional
public schools. That helped the charters' test scores look better, but
it didn't help struggling students. The district has done too little to
investigate such practices; it also should conduct a meaningful
examination of charter high schools' four-year graduation rates, which
aren't always impressive. And the school board has at times been too
willing to renew the charters of schools with subpar test scores.”
Wait a minute. How many are the “Many” who are strong perfumers? How
many are “Some” that are poor performers? We don’t know, because as
the paragraph continues – the numbers and the scores and the rates are
either suspect or unimpressive. Or, quoting The Times: “Subpar”.
“In General”, the Times continues, charters have violated the law.
The District “has done too little to investigate such practices…” The
Times says – but when Mr. Zimmer suggests they do investigate The Times
Editorial Board wraps itself in its historic anti-union bias and attacks
him with all the vitriol they can load into their soy based ink.
One must remember that the Charter Law requires – REQUIRES – that
charter schools DO BETTER regular public schools; that’s the price they
pay for being charter schools.
Charters must maintain a “B” Average or better or they get kicked out of
the program; it’s as simple as that! In exchange for waiver of certain
rules , regulations and district adminsitrivia charter schools are
supposed to be MORE (not less) accountable.
And that, Gentle Reader, isn’t happening.
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
Postscript: Godspeed to Larry Hagman (1931-2012), whose Larry Hagman
Foundation supports and promotes creative arts education for
economically disadvantaged children in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
CALIFORNIA'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS GETTING STUCK
IN SCHOOLS' REMEDIAL PROGRAMS WHILE DISTRICTS SIT ON UNSPENT FUNDS
By Rob Kuznia, Staff Writer, LA Newspaper Group|Daily Breeze/Daily News | http://bit.ly/Te4SMu
11/24/2012 03:53:41 PM PST :: Melanie Perez wishes she could have
played the saxophone. Octavio Reyes would have liked to take a computer
science class.
Both students at San Pedro High School say they can't sign up for these
electives because, at some point in their school careers, they were
stuck having to take remedial classes for English learners - even though
both speak English fluently and have performed reasonably well on
English tests.
"I actually feel retarded when (the teacher) says, `What is this
(word)?' and it's a carrot," Octavio said. "It's pointless. I already
know it, and I don't think it helps me."
Their complaints highlight a wider problem that, although little known,
could be among the state's most pressing educational challenges:
Students stuck for years in the state's remedial programs for English
learners are often denied the opportunity to take enriching electives or
the more rigorous courses required for getting into college.
It's a problem that has been attracting more attention of late, leading
to a raft of reforms that some say could make California a leader in the
field - which would be fitting, considering a third of the nation's
English learners attend California public schools.
But as is, the state is failing many of these students.
LOW ODDS FOR SUCCESS
Numbering 1.4 million, English learners make up nearly a quarter of all
K-12 students in the state - and nearly 40 percent of all California's
kindergartners. One in four quits school - the worst dropout rate of any
demographic group in California. Only 60 percent graduate high school
within four years.
Several pieces of legislation addressing this mammoth bloc of at-risk
students were signed in late September by Gov. Jerry Brown. All take
effect Jan. 1.
One, authored by Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D-Bell, seeks to prevent
English learners from languishing in the system for years by compelling
the state Department of Education to reveal the number of "long-term
English learners" at each school district.
Another, by state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, will force the state to
come up with more consistent guidelines for deeming kids fluent. The
implication here is that many students are unnecessarily stuck in
remedial classes when their command of the English language is
sufficient.
A third bill, also by Padilla, takes school districts to task for
banking state money earmarked for getting these students on track.
School officials chafe at some of these characterizations, in particular
that last one, especially at a time when schools are suffering from
historic shortages of state funding.
Meanwhile, advocates of English learners say large numbers of them - for
whatever reason - get stuck in the system, and that, at some point,
their very status as English learners seems to inhibit their chances for
success.
"If kids haven't been reclassified (as fluent) by fifth grade, they have
pretty much been tracked, and are not going to be able to go to
college," said Oscar Cruz, the head of Families in Schools, a nonprofit
advocate for parents of low-income and minority families. "They're on a
path where they're just taking remedial classes."
Lara's AB 2193 would create a consistent definition for long-term
English learners and force school districts to not only keep track of
such students, but also students at risk of earning the distinction.
Studies show that some 60 percent of English learners in grades 6-12 are
considered long term, meaning they've carried the label for at least
six years.
Padilla's SB 1108 - co-authored by Assemblyman Chris Norby, R-Fullerton -
aims to create a more consistent set of requirements for deeming
students academically fluent. As is, the state provides minimum
guidelines, but allows school districts to tack on additional
stipulations, arguably creating more barriers to reclassification.
"The criteria are just all over the map," Padilla said, adding that he
would prefer to see districts err on the side of removing the label.
Padilla's other bill, SB 754, is a transparency measure that seeks to
pressure individual school districts out of the practice of stashing the
extra money they receive to provide services for English learners.
Specifically, it would compel them to prominently post online their
budgets and carryovers in these accounts, as well as explain why the
money hasn't been spent.
School districts generally receive $300 to $500 a year in state dollars
for every English learner they designate, but they don't spend it all.
(This amount doesn't include the additional funds they receive from the
federal government.)
In 2010-11, the state gave California's school districts a total of $915
million for helping English learners and low-income students. Known as
the "Economic Impact Aid" fund, it lumps the two allocations together.
By year's end, the school districts' combined ending balance from this
fund amounted to $382 million - or 42 percent of the annual
apportionment.
The 2011 carryover for LAUSD alone was $61.5 million, according to the California Legislative Analyst's Office.
That money, Padilla said, "should be spent; it should not be hoarded."
OCTAVIO AND MELANIE
Octavio is a good example of a student who could be fluent by state
standards, but isn't due to an unique additional local requirement.
A senior at San Pedro High, Octavio still bears the "English learner"
label even though he cleared the state-set hurdles for fluency. These
include passage of an exam taken annually by English learners until they
pass, and demonstrating a basic level of proficiency on standardized
tests.
But the Los Angeles Unified School District also has another requirement
for shedding the label: Students must maintain at least a C average in
their English classes. That has been Octavio's hang-up.
"It was mostly because I didn't try," said Octavio, who has been an
English learner since emigrating from Mexico at age 10. "I would get
bored."
Other districts have their own tack-on requirements. The K-8 Hawthorne
School District requires its English learners to pass a written exam. In
Torrance, English learners must score higher on standardized English
tests than what the state requires.
As for Melanie, who is a freshman at San Pedro High, she has been
successfully reclassified as fluent but says the year and a half spent
taking remedial English classes at Dana Middle School in San Pedro
denied her the ability to take desired electives, such as band. While
she was born in the United States, many other students were immigrants.
"There were times that I didn't care to do my work," she said. "I was like, `Why am I in this class if I know English?"'
NEW MASTER PLAN
Even as several pieces of English-learner legislation have become law statewide, LAUSD has its own new initiative.
The nation's second-largest school system has more English learners than
any other district - nearly 31 percent of its 650,000 students.
Officials estimate that nearly 40 percent of those are considered long
term, unable to attain proficiency after five years in a program.
LAUSD's strategy for teaching English to these students is detailed in
its 150-page master plan, which was overhauled last year after a federal
civil rights investigation found that English learners weren't getting
the same quality education as other students in the district.
Under the new plan, the district is more closely monitoring the progress
of its English learners, with tutoring and other forms of intervention
available to those struggling with either language or academic lessons.
"The goal is to increase proficiency in elementary grades, before
students get to middle and high school and get mired in the long-term
category," said Hilda Maldonado, director of LAUSD's Multilingual and
Multicultural Education Department.
"We're using more of the district's data system to be able to monitor the progress and achievement of our students."
The district also wants to remove the roadblocks impeding students who
can't test out of the English-learner programs despite their obvious
fluency. Beginning next year, Maldonado said, teachers will be assessing
middle and high school students with the goal of getting students
reclassified even if they can't hit the academic benchmarks on district
tests.
THE DISCONNECT
Statewide, there is an apparent disconnect between the number of English
learners who demonstrate proficiency on standardized tests and the
number of students who matriculate out of the English learner program.
In 2010-11, nearly 40 percent of California's English learners made the
grade in English on standardized tests, but only 11 percent were
reclassified as fluent, according to the California Department of
Education.
A South Bay district with a lower-than-average reclassification rate is
the K-8 Hawthorne School District. Here, just 8 percent of English
learners were deemed fluent in 2010-11, even though nearly 50 percent
scored proficient or better on standardized English tests.
Hawthorne schools Superintendent Helen Morgan - whose schools are
generally strong performers given their high rates of low-income
families - makes no apologies for setting the bar high for
reclassification.
"In our instance, the writing component is more of a hurdle, but we want
to make sure they are good writers before we drop all the support," she
said.
TORRANCE SCHOOLS
Torrance Unified seems to do a better-than-average job of getting students out of the program in a timely fashion.
For instance, in 2010-11, the latest data available, while just 11
percent of English learners in California were reclassified as fluent,
in Torrance the figure was 14.4 percent.
Kati Krumpe, the district's director of state and federal programs, says
reclassified students in Torrance tend to outperform many of their
peers who were never in the English learner program.
"I think that shows that the program is working," she said.
As for the 39-year-old Padilla, he himself was an English learner as an
elementary school student in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
That was before California voters passed Proposition 227 in 1998,
thereby ending mandatory bilingual education.
"My textbooks in first grade were 100 percent in Spanish," he said.
He is the rare example of an English learner who thrived, eventually earning a mechanical engineering degree from MIT.
Taking a step back, Padilla says the crux of the problem is a lack of urgency on this topic.
"English learners are a segment of the population that continues to
grow," he said. "If the trend is on the way up, and the educational
attainment level of English learners continues to stagnate, I think we
have a perfect storm for a crisis. And many would say the crisis is
already here."
______________________________________
SB 754 + ECONOMIC IMPACT AID (EIA) FUNDS
State Sen. Alex Padilla faults some school districts for banking money
they receive from the state meant for English learners and low-income
students. This year he passed a bill (SB 754) that seeks to provide more
transparency with these funds.
Beginning Jan. 1, local school districts will be required to prominently
post online their budgets and carryovers in these accounts, as well as
explain why the money hasn’t been spent.
To find out how much money your local school district received in
2010-11 for these groups -- and the size of its reserve -- simply type
the name of the district in the field.
The funds in question are known as “Economic Impact Aid,” or – as this
chart says – EIA funds. The “reserve balance” is the unspent amount. The
2010-11 EIA entitlement is the amount those districts received that
year.
LOS ANGELES UNIFIED
EIA restricted reserve balance as of June 30, 2006 $20,975,555
EIA restricted reserve balance as of June 30, 2007 $95,858,247
EIA restricted reserve balance as of June 30, 2008 $57,040,977
EIA restricted reserve balance as of June 30, 2009 $70,760,344
EIA restricted reserve balance as of June 30, 2010 $70,624,847
EIA restricted reserve balance as of June 30, 2011 $61,561,321
2010 - 2011 EIA entitlement $136,039,688
June 2011 reserve balance as % of 2010-11 entitlement 45.3%
EIA eligible pupils 2010-11 441,231
EIA per pupil rate 308.32
______________________________________
Staff Writer Barbara Jones contributed to this report.
LESSONS FROM THE OTHER SIDE
PARA LOS NIÑOS CHARTER SCHOOL IN AN INDUSTRIAL PART OF DOWNTOWN LOS
ANGELES TURNS OUT TO BE A MODEL FOR WHAT UPSCALE PARENTS SAY THEY WANT
FOR THEIR CHILDREN.
By Sandy Banks, LA Times columnist | http://lat.ms/UYFE4q
November 23, 2012, 4:39 p.m. :: It's not exactly where you might expect to find an example of public school success:
The campus is in a former flower mart, across the street from the
Greyhound station and a short walk from skid row in an industrial area
of downtown Los Angeles.
But inside the Para Los Niños Charter School, children defined by disadvantage are proving skeptics wrong.
I paid a visit to the school last month, after I'd mentioned it in a
column about an effort by parents in nearby South Park to create a new
Metro Charter school for children living in the upscale neighborhoods
near LA Live downtown.
Some of those parents seem to have written off nearby Para Los Niños;
it's too poor, too Latino, too linguistically deprived to offer their
children enough of a challenge. They are business owners, architects,
technology creators, accountants — not elitists, just upscale
high-achievers worried that their dreams and the school's aspirations
wouldn't be a good fit.
Those are the kinds of concerns on many middle-class minds. Para Los
Niños is a magnified version of a city school system that gets less
diverse and more economically challenged with every passing year.
Of the 410 students on Para Los Ninos' elementary campus, 99% are Latino
and 96% hail from low-income families. More than two-thirds of the
students are not fluent in English.
But the school is proving that demographics are not destiny.
Its test scores are on par with many suburban public schools. And its
curriculum relies on the sort of child-centered approach favored by
progressive private schools with five-figure tuition.
Admission is by lottery, and the school has twice as many applications
as open spots some years. Most students live in the garment district,
but others come from as far away as Lennox and Long Beach.
"If you had our parents in a room and asked how many want their kids to
go to college, 100% would raise their hands," Principal Titus Campos
told me.
Still, Campos knows that the school's student-body profile turns some parents off. "We hear it all the time," he said.
When they try to recruit in other neighborhoods to diversify enrollment,
"the question asked most is 'Where do the children come from? Are they
all Latino?'"
Does that matter?, I asked sixth-grader Ron Bellamy. He's biracial but
looks black and didn't speak Spanish when he came to Para Los Niños four
years ago.
"It was perplexing at first," Ron admitted. "But there was always
somebody around to translate." Most of his classmates spoke both Spanish
and English. Instruction after second grade is in English only.
What mattered most to Ron was not skin color or language but the
well-stocked library, lively music classes and elaborate art projects,
he said. "My other school didn't have any of that."
What would he say to parents worried that their non-Latino children
wouldn't fit? "They'd get along just like all of us. We don't put people
in groups," he said. "We don't judge by race."
::
Social issues are part of the calculus that parents use to choose. But
what happens in the classroom is what matters most. And the reality of
Para Los Niños seems to me surprisingly close to the prospective Metro
Charter's goals:
The focus is on learning by doing and fostering personal growth.
Teachers aren't required to "teach to the test" but to reward curiosity
and nurture creative thinking.
And the school is beautiful inside, with student collaborations — giant
murals, sculptures and collages — lining the hallways. It looks more
like a hipster art museum than an elementary campus with skid row roots.
The charter was launched in 2002 by Para Los Niños, a 30-year-old
nonprofit that pioneered social service programs for neglected children
whose homeless parents were trapped by economics on skid row.
The neighborhood is students' laboratory and their lives the canvas for
their discoveries. They take city buses to Disney Concert Hall, hike
historic Sixth Street Bridge, study the architecture of Union Station
and the history of Little Tokyo.
The school has an artist-in-residence and a team of visiting architects.
Students practice math by designing their own playground, study anatomy
by constructing a "human" body, learn about the ocean by creating an
image out of glass beads, chicken wire and fabric scraps.
It may not be glamorous or high-tech, but the students I met and projects I saw make me believe it works.
::
My column on the campaign for a new Metro Charter drew applause for
parents' efforts to create a downtown school that newcomers can shape
through high standards.
But it also drew complaints about "boutique charters" that promote isolation and shortchange "impoverished children of color."
Para Los Niños Charter shows the choice is not so stark.
By using art as a forum for the study of math, science and history, Para
Los Niños keeps its students from falling behind while they are still
learning English.
That embodies the promise of the tax-funded charter movement: allowing
unconventional schools to experiment in ways that will ultimately offer
public school systems road-tested measures for raising student
achievement.
Para Los Niños Charter works because it brings parents into the process,
trusts its team to innovate and isn't hamstrung by district rigidity or
by union rules. Teachers create their own lesson plans and can go where
students' interests lead; the cafeteria ladies who serve the lunches
also clean the tables after students eat.
And the principal is not above mopping up a sick child's vomit, or afraid to receive a second-grader's hug.
"The focus here," Campos said, "is on everybody doing whatever it takes to meet the children's needs."
That may not make it right for every family, but it does make the campus a model of what a charter should be:
Not just a refuge for students fleeing unsafe, uncomfortable or
underachieving schools, but a testing ground for new ways of teaching
that broaden children's possibilities.
••smf’s 2¢: The PLN model of serving severely impacted inner-city
children is exemplary; the kind of thing that charter schools can do in
“out-neighborhood-ing” neighborhood schools – rather than out-competing
the LAUSD big-box model with another corporate model. Thank you Sandy
Banks for recognizing that PLN is a testing ground for everyone to do
better - though I wish you wouldn’t fall into the trap of reporting
things like the alternative being “unsafe, uncomfortable or
underachieving schools”. Children are at their safest when they are in
school, whether in the ‘hood or in Westwood or at PLN. They are probably
safer in traditional District public schools because most charter
schools are not built to the rigorous California Field Act seismic
standards or Green Oaks fire safety standards.
LAO REPORT: THE 2013-14 BUDGET: California’s Fiscal Outlook
…your rose-colored-glasses are located in a compartment under the center armrest.
From the 11/20 CCSA email to their members:
The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released its annual Fiscal
Outlook last week, updating its projections on the state’s fiscal
situation. With the passage of Propositions 30 and 39, the LAO reports
that “the budget situation has improved sharply” and that we can expect
increases to Proposition 98 education funding in both the current year
and in 2013-14, with steady increases of about $3 billion per year
thereafter.
The LAO suggests that this new funding could be used to begin paying
off maintenance factor obligations and deferrals, provide Cost of
Living Adjustments and equalize funding. As a reminder, the Governor
will issue his budget plan for 2013-14 in mid-January 2013.
The LAO Report: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
[link to complete report follows]
BUDGET SITUATION HAS IMPROVED SHARPLY.
The state’s economic recovery, prior budget cuts, and the additional,
temporary taxes provided by Proposition 30 have combined to bring
California to a promising moment: the possible end of a decade of acute
state budget challenges.
Our economic and budgetary forecast indicates that California’s leaders
face a dramaticallysmaller budget problem in 2013-14 compared to recent
years. Furthermore, assuming steadyeconomic growth and restraint in
augmenting current program funding levels, there is a strong possibility
of multibillion-dollar operating surpluses within a few years.
THE BUDGET FORECAST
Projected $1.9 Billion Budget Problem to Be Addressed by June 2013. The
2012-13 budget assumed a year-end reserve of $948 million. Our forecast
now projects the General Fund ending 2012-13 with a $943 million
deficit, due to the net impact of (1) $625 million of lower revenues in
2011-12 and 2012-13 combined, (2) $2.7 billion in higher expenditures
(including $1.8 billion in lower-than-budgeted savings related to the
dissolution of redevelopment agencies), and (3) an assumed $1.4 billion
positive adjustment in the 2010-11 ending budgetary fund balance. We
also expect that the state faces a $936 million operating deficit under
current policies in 2013-14. These estimates mean that the new
Legislature and the Governor will need to address a $1.9 billion budget
problem in order to pass a balanced budget by June 2013 for the next
fiscal year.
Surpluses Projected Over the Next Few Years. Based on current law and
our economic forecast, expenditures are projected to grow less rapidly
than revenues. Beyond 2013-14, we therefore project growing operating
surpluses through 2017-18—the end of our forecast period.
Our projections show that there could be an over $1 billion operating
surplus in 2014-15, growing thereafter to an over $9 billion surplus in
2017-18. This outlook differs dramatically from the severe operating
deficits we have forecast in November Fiscal Outlook reports over the
past decade.
LAO COMMENTS
Despite Positive Outlook, Caution Is Appropriate. Our multiyear budget
forecast depends on a number of key economic, policy, and budgetary
assumptions. For example, we assume steady growth in the economy and
stock prices. We also assume—as the state’s recent economic forecasts
have—that federal officials take actions to avoid the near-term economic
problems associated with the so-called “fiscal cliff.” Consistent with
state law, our forecast omits cost-of-living adjustments for most state
departments, the courts, universities, and state employees. The forecast
also assumes no annual transfers into a state reserve account provided
by Proposition 58 (2004). Changes in these assumptions could
dramatically lower—or even eliminate—our projected out-year operating
surpluses.
Considering Future Budget Surpluses. If, however, a steady economic
recovery continues and the Legislature and the Governor keep a tight
rein on state spending in the next couple of years, there is a strong
likelihood that the state will have budgetary surpluses in subsequent
years. The state has many choices for what to do with these surpluses.
We advise the state’s leaders to begin building the reserve envisioned
by Proposition 58 (2004) as soon as possible.
Beyond building a reserve, the state must develop strategies to address
outstanding retirement liabilities—particularly for the teachers’
retirement system—and other liabilities. The state will also be able to
selectively restore recent program cuts—particularly in Proposition 98
programs (based on steady projected growth in the minimum guarantee).
WHAT SHOULD CHILDREN READ? + smf’s 2¢
By Sara Mosle in Opinionator – Exclusive Online Commentary from the New York Times | http://nyti.ms/UjFJ6b
November 22, 2012, 7:58 pm :: Malcolm Gladwell, author of “The
Tipping Point” and a New Yorker staff writer, told me how he prepared,
years ago, to write his first “Talk of the Town” story. “Talk” articles
have a distinct style, and he wanted to make sure he got the voice
straight in his head before he began writing. His approach was simple.
He sat down and read 100 “Talk” pieces, one after the other.
The story nicely illustrates how careful reading can advance great
writing. As a schoolteacher, I offer Mr. Gladwell’s story to students
struggling with expository writing as evidence that they need not labor
alone. There are models out there — if only they’ll read them!
Mr. Gladwell’s tale provides a good lesson for English teachers across
the country as they begin to implement the Common Core State Standards, a
set of national benchmarks, adopted by nearly every state, for the
skills public school students should master in language arts and
mathematics in grades K-12.
The standards won’t take effect until 2014, but many public school
systems have begun adjusting their curriculums to satisfy the new
mandates. Depending on your point of view, the now contentious
guidelines prescribe a healthy — or lethal — dose of nonfiction.
For example, the Common Core dictates that by fourth grade, public
school students devote half of their reading time in class to historical
documents, scientific tracts, maps and other “informational texts” —
like recipes and train schedules. Per the guidelines, 70 percent of the
12th grade curriculum will consist of nonfiction titles. Alarmed English
teachers worry we’re about to toss Shakespeare so students can study,
in the words of one former educator, “memos, technical manuals and
menus.”
David Coleman, president of the College Board, who helped design and
promote the Common Core, says English classes today focus too much on
self-expression. “It is rare in a working environment,” he’s argued,
“that someone says, ‘Johnson, I need a market analysis by Friday but
before that I need a compelling account of your childhood.’ ”
This and similar comments have prompted the education researcher Diane
Ravitch to ask, “Why does David Coleman dislike fiction?” and to
question whether he’s trying to eliminate English literature from the
classroom. “I can’t imagine a well-developed mind that has not read
novels, poems and short stories,” she writes.
Sandra Stotsky, a primary author of Massachusetts’ state standards
(which are credited with helping to maintain that state’s top test
scores) challenges the assumption that nonfiction requires more rigor
than a literary novel. One education columnist sums up the debate as a
fiction versus nonfiction “smackdown.”
A striking assumption animates arguments on both sides, namely that
nonfiction is seldom literary and certainly not literature. Even Mr.
Coleman erects his case on largely dispiriting, utilitarian grounds:
nonfiction may help you win the corner office but won’t necessarily
nourish the soul.
As an English teacher and writer who traffics in factual prose, I’m with
Mr. Coleman. In my experience, students need more exposure to
nonfiction, less to help with reading skills, but as a model for their
own essays and expository writing, what Mr. Gladwell sought by ingesting
“Talk of the Town” stories.
I love fiction and poetry as much as the next former English major and
often despair over the quality of what passes for “informational texts,”
few of which amount to narrative much less literary narrative.
What schools really need isn’t more nonfiction but better nonfiction,
especially that which provides good models for student writing. Most
students could use greater familiarity with what newspaper, magazine and
book editors call “narrative nonfiction”: writing that tells a factual
story, sometimes even a personal one, but also makes an argument and
conveys information in vivid, effective ways.
What Tom Wolfe once said about New Journalism could be applied to most
student writing. It benefits from intense reporting, immersion in a
subject, imaginative scene setting, dialogue and telling details. These
are the very skills most English teachers want students to develop.
What’s odd is how rarely such literary nonfiction appears on English —
or other class — reading lists. In addition to a biology textbook, for
example, why can’t more high school students read “The Immortal Life of
Henrietta Lacks”?
Narrative nonfiction also provides a bridge between the personal
narratives students typically write in elementary school and the essays
on external subjects that are more appropriate assignments in high
school and beyond. David Coleman may dismiss self-expression. Yet he
recommends authors, like the surgeon and medical writer Atul Gawande,
who frequently rely on personal storytelling in their reporting.
Models of narrative nonfiction are everywhere, on programs like “This
American Life” and “Radiolab,” in nonfiction books for young adults,
like “Sugar Changed the World” (which is about slavery and science in
the pursuit of the food additive), and even in graphic nonfiction works,
like “Persepolis,” which tells the story of a young woman who grew up
in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Each has a personal angle that
students can relate to but is also a genuinely enthralling narrative.
Adult titles, like “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” already have young readers
editions, and many adult general-interest works, such as Timothy
Ferris’s “The Whole Shebang,” about the workings of the universe, are
appropriate for advanced high-school students.
Most readily, narrative nonfiction is available every day of the week in
the dwindling outlets for long-form journalism. Students are a natural
(and the future) audience for serious, in-depth reporting. Skilled
practitioners can demonstrate the power of facts, and provide models —
topic sentence by topic sentence — for compelling narrative.
There are anthologies of great literature and primary documents, but why
not “30 for Under 20: Great Nonfiction Narratives?” Until such editions
appear, teachers can find complex, literary works in collections like
“The Best American Science and Nature Writing,” on many newspaper Web
sites, which have begun providing online lesson plans using articles for
younger readers, and on ProPublica.org. Last year, The Atlantic
compiled examples of the year’s best journalism, and The Daily Beast has
its feature “Longreads.” Longform.org not only has “best of”
contemporary selections but also historical examples dating back
decades.
If students read 100 such articles over the course of a year, they may
not become best-selling authors, but like Mr. Gladwell, they’ll get the
sound and feel of good writing in their heads. With luck, when they
graduate, there will still be ranks of literary nonfiction authors left
for them to join.
• Sara Mosle has written about public education for The New York Times,
The New Yorker and Slate, among many other publications. A member of the
first Teach for America’s corps in 1990, she has taught in New York
City public schools and currently teaches sixth-grade English at St.
Philip’s Academy in Newark, which will become a public charter school as
of September 2013. Ms. Mosle is also the author of a forthcoming book
about a school explosion in 1937 in New London, Tex., which killed
hundreds of children. She lives in Montclair, N.J., where her daughter
attends public school.
_____
••smf’s 2¢: “Fiction is something that never happened, not something
that isn’t true”. And children should be encouraged to read everything
…and discouraged from reading nothing. . Comics. Classics. Cereal boxes.
Novels. Textbooks. Poetry. People Magazine and The Atlantic. The idea
that children’s reading should be metered or determined by an algorithm
isn’t preposterous, it’s evil.
And to say that modern non-fiction writing doesn’t have its roots in
fiction not only misses the importance and contribution of Shakespeare
but also of Melville and Twain and Hemingway and Fitzgerald – and
certainly of Capote and Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S. Thompson and Tom
Wolfe.
The Gladwell story is about The New Yorker – a journal of exceptional
content that is mostly non-fiction – but with roots in short and long
form fiction; poetry, criticism and social commentary. And some fine
cartoons. ‘I say it’s non-fiction and I say the hell with it.’
David Coleman has been president of the College Board for exactly one
month and 25 days. He writes neither fiction nor non-fiction; he markets
tests for a living. Before he went to the College Board - a nonprofit
where they pay him almost $750,000 a year to promote the SAT and AP
Tests and the Common Core State Standards (NY Times: “…full adoption of
the standards is uncertain — and the possibility that all states would
agree to use the same tests and passing scores a distant fantasy…”)
Coleman was a consultant with McKinsey & Co, a global management
consulting firm {“We are the trusted advisor to the world's leading
businesses, governments, and institutions”] . Coleman also started a
company that became a leading provider of assessment reporting and
customized content for states and large school districts across the
country; that company was sold to textbook publisher McGraw-Hill.
http://nyti.ms/10tMPra |http://bit.ly/UXNNpZ | http://bit.ly/Womia3
Follow the money/Connect the dots: Coleman is the tester-in-chief for
the wonderful folks at School ®eform, LLP. He has Arne and Jeb Bush and
Bill Gates and Eli Broad on his speed dial.
Coleman’s hypothetical boss’s hypothetical writing assignment is this:
“Johnson: Tell me the story of the market analysis.” And Gentle Reader
- let’s be real: If Johnson can’t make the market analysis
compelling+personal he’s gonna be looking for other employment after
Friday.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
LAUSD’s REVAMPED TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM GETTING
MIXED GRADE: Teachers are finding value in the new evaluation... http://bit.ly/10BDxK1
ICEF: FINANCIALLY TROUBLED CHARTER SCHOOL COMPANY SAYS FINANCES NOW IN ORDER: By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | Pass Fail... http://bit.ly/WNOOXz
LOW-INCOME STUDENTS GET CRASH COURSE IN COLLEGE PREPARATION: Low-income and immigration-status-challenged studen... http://bit.ly/UCR9jV
AFTER MORE THAN A DECADE, DISTRICTS, CHARTERS MAKING PEACE OVER FACILITIES: …or so says the Charter School Association... http://bit.ly/10wtTbi
Failing a test that really matters (continued): MORE THAN HALF OF LAUSD STUDENTS OVERWEIGHT: By Barbara Jones, S... http://bit.ly/10MB3r7
LAO Report: The 2013-14 Budget - CALIFORNIA’S FISCAL OUTLOOK: …your rose-colored-glasses are located in a compar... http://bit.ly/SNJM74
Poll: PROP 30 DREW SUPPORT FROM YOUTH, MINORITIES: By Isha Kawatra • Daily Trojan | http://bit.ly/RQXKqg Nov 19... http://bit.ly/SNs0Rt
The privatization of the University of California: THE FIGHT TO SAVE EDUCATION MUST CONTINUE: Op-Ed By Elana Ede... http://bit.ly/WtbU5s
DUNCAN SKETCHES OUT SECOND-TERM AGENDA, says NCLB waivers “make no sense”: By Michele McNeil, Education Week | h... http://bit.ly/Uea3NS
David Tokofsky: Congrats LAUSD for putting aside nearly 300 million in
case prop 30 did not pass...now what to do with that money? Retweeted
by smf
CAMPUS CUISINE: Serving up the exceptions and the challenges …but not the acorn squash + L.A. Unified student stores... http://bit.ly/U6E2qK
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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