In This Issue:
 |
| • |
WORKLOAD CONTINUES TO BE IMPACTED BY LACK OF SUPPORT, INADEQUATE PLANNING AND POOR COMMUNICATION |
|
| • |
L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS |
|
| • |
The Skeleton Crew: WITH MAJOR DEBT, PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS CUT BACK ON NURSES + smf’s 2¢ |
|
| • |
'SEQUESTER' IMPACT FELT ON SPECIAL EDUCATION AID |
|
| • |
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:
|
|
|
|
“…I have never seen such chaos in the District…Dr.
Deasy and his senior management team need to rethink their roles and be
more supportive of principals. Principals are being worked to death with
no consideration from top management. I don’t think the Board, and the
public in general, realizes what we face every day. It’s never been so
bad.” - From the AALA Update, (following).
The Update editorialist bemoans the plight of Principals. Please excuse
my colloquial grammar and double negative – but this is no time for
Standard English: It ain’t just the principals who aren’t being
supported!
It’s classroom teachers and office staff and nurses and librarians and
custodians and groundskeepers. It’s M+O workers and functionaries in
cubicles and senior staff in corner offices. And it’s parents and
students - because we feel the contagion of low morale caused by
cuts-and-more-cuts rooted in hard times and exacerbated+compounded
daily by fear and disrespect driven by poor priority-setting and bad
policy promulgated by myopic tunnel-visionary leadership. Leadership who
are great at talking-the-talk about civil rights and socio-economic
disadvantage …and who then just continue on their chosen path.
It isn’t that these folk don’t know what they’re doing – I’m afraid they
know it all too well. The sociopathology of the True Believer is like
that.
It’s obvious that throwing open the window and shouting that we’re mad
as hell and not going to take it any more isn’t enough. We need to stay
mad-as-hell and continue not-taking-it until it stops.
And when we change the pilot and the course we need to keep an eye on
the new leadership and the new direction …and on the weather ahead.
A commenter on my Facebook page says AALA is a labor union and as such
should “… be proactively defending the rights of administrators in
matters of working conditions, salary, and health benefits. It fine to
let the public know how chaotic schools are, but AALA must also mobilize
its membership and file charges with PERB and the courts or they will
continue to lose membership like UTLA." This is true – but a. It’s a
moral issue before it’s a labor issue and b. the AALA membership are
also middle managers and find themselves caught between the rock of
labor and the hard place of management. I believe that the role of
management-as-leaders, from the second link in the chain of command to
the lowest level of the org chart owes it to the children and the
Mission of Education to call attention to the moral+ethical dishabille
of the emperor.
To do less is just following orders. And it cannot be about the
teacher’s union vs. the principal’s union vs. the school employees
unions vs. the bus drivers vs. teacher’s aides vs. library aides.
All together. Now.
AS YOU READ ON you will see that the situation in L.A. is pretty much the same as the situation in Philadelphia.
MEANWHILE (OR PERHAPS ALL-THE-WHILE) Student and Parent’s Rights seem to
be sacrificed in compliance with rules makers in the U.S. Department of
Education’s Office of Civil Rights (not to be confused with the real
OCR in the Department of Justice) …because bureaucrats in Washington
and at Beaudry and the local district office know better than parents
and classroom teachers. see: L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION
UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS.
I AM SICK+TIRED OF THE BROUHAHA OVER iPADS. I had a dream about it the
other night – and I like to keep my dreams populated with better
characters than these. The iPad debacle/disaster/fiasco is just another
symptom of the poor leadership and bad direction they provide. If, as
they say, they always knew there would be these glitches +missteps – and
the self congratulatory “the administration has done a remarkable job
…to make this remarkable task successful” - a piss poor job of sharing
that knowledge has been done. And, gentle reader, isn’t sharing the
knowledge the mission?
I am tired of the bugs and glitches and security breaches and
remarkable² …and “we expect the new version of the iOS will fix that.”
I am tired of trotting out the IT guys+gals when the Office of
Instruction Team is required. The Times Op-Ed this Sunday AM
“Rebooting the iPad Plan” XXXXX offers excellent advice (“It is more
important for the district to move carefully than to move quickly.”*)
…but focuses on the technology and fails to address the paucity of
curricular content. And good grief: Where is the support for English
language learners?/ ¿Dónde está el apoyo a los estudiantes del idioma
inglés?
• Show me the content.
• What is the desired outcome?
• How will this initiative help achieve that?
iPads are not a Civil Right. And all the children seated in neat rows
taking the new tests on the same day isn’t the answer either.
ANOTHER DISTRACTION/MISDIRECTION FROM THE ACTUAL CHALLENGE at hand is
the challenge to Dr. Vladovic’s board presidency, based on something
that may or may not have occurred over ten years ago before Dr. V. was
elected to the board. I am as much a feminist as one of my gender can be
and I find the allegations distasteful. But the voters have spoken
twice in the interim, electing and reelecting him to the board. The
board majority has elected him president. There have been investigations
by outside investigators who have found no wrongdoing. For a
boardmember to continue to prosecute/persecute a matter that is
supposedly decided and closed is poor boardsmanship and political
sore-looserage. When do we say enough already?
Historically school boards choose a new superintendent when the board
majority changes. It’s time to pull the Band-Aid off. It’s not about
getting even or about picking someone the Unions or the Mayor or Eli
Broad wants. It about getting moving,
SO, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IS OVER – And the Debt Ceiling is
raised. And the Sequester? …well that’s still with us – draining Special
Ed funding and Head Start and impacting school programs like school
meals and student mental health. And buried in budget settlement – a
few short lines: “Public Law 111-242, as amended, is further amended by
striking ‘2013-2014’ and inserting '2015-2016’ …which means that the
“Highly Qualified Teachers” inner city kids were promised will continue
to not be. They can be Teach for America volunteers – newly minted
college grads with five weeks o’ training. Bright-eyed. Bushytailed.
Twenty-two. And unprepared.
And so it is, moving ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
__________
*T-shirts will be on sale in the lobby after the board meeting.
WORKLOAD CONTINUES TO BE IMPACTED BY LACK OF SUPPORT,
INADEQUATE PLANNING AND POOR COMMUNICATION
From the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update | Week of October 21, 2013 | http://bit.ly/1fIDJjz
17 October 2013 :: AALA is painfully aware that administrators are
struggling under an increased workload and as we continue to raise this
issue with District leadership, we wish to let the voices of those in
the field be heard. Every day, we receive e-mails, letters and phone
calls from our colleagues who are overwhelmed and frustrated. The stress
is wearing on even our most experienced principals who have withstood a
multitude of new initiatives and changes during the last several years.
The latest debacles of the EL class reorganization and the iPad rollout
just emphasize that thoughtful communication and coherent planning are
necessary. In fact, from the sound of the letters below, communication
threads in the District are unraveling at breakneck speed. It seems that
the ESCs do not communicate with each other or the central office, nor
is there a coordinated approval process for the myriad surveys and
certifications. Just read some of our most recent letters.
1. Another sort of humorous and frightening side note to the whole PE
certification...Once you upload the schedules, there is a box to check
that you certify that you have submitted the schedules to your ESC
designee. I emailed the schedules to my instructional director and asked
if she was my designee. The response? “Please direct me to the source
that asked you to submit them so that I may find out.” Great. So then I
emailed Operations and they said they would look into it…at my
Principals' Mtg, [I was told]…that no one had seen the certification
menu so they didn't know what was required.
I still don't know who the ESC designee is for PE schedules...
2. Sent Sunday at 7 p.m. :: I wanted to thank you for your latest
comments on the lack of support we are receiving at school sites. I am
copying an email below that I sent my director emphasizing how
disheartening it is to see the padding of central office while we at
school sites are still working without the support we lost in 2009.
Having never known what it is like to have a coordinator, assistant
principal or coach, I would jump at the chance to have any combination
of the three. With the demands of the job and all of our high standards,
there is no other way to get accomplished what needs to get done
without working 12 hours a day, 5 days a week and then on the weekends.
To be honest, I have been on the verge of illness all week, mostly from
sleep deprivation…I have cleared about 200 emails today, and I still
have about 100 more to go so I will be succinct: I understand that the
District's focus is on transitioning to the Common Core. What concerns
me, though, is that they are sinking money into NEW positions: coaches,
coordinatorships, directors, etc. without restoring first to schools
what we lost in 2009…Having worked at central, I know certain monies
have specific earmarks, but does anyone ever bring up to the people who
decide where money goes that we are still running our schools without
APs or coordinators and librarian assistants and that with the exception
of principals who went from D to E Basis, we have not had a raise
inyears?...without some commitment from the District to support us
directly, I fear that I will gradually burn out…
3. I have been a principal in LAUSD for over 10 years. The current
workload…is unbearable. We are asked to do more and more with little
support from central and the ESCs. Principals continue to be besieged
with District policy changes and compliance accountabilities…safety,
instruction, classroom observations, assessments, professional
development, grade level meetings, discipline, budget, supervision, SSC,
ELAC, LSLC, parent involvement, facility and custodial issues,
community issues, fundraising, assemblies, breakfast in the classroom,
employee discipline and evaluations, Common Core, TGDC, Master Plan,
IEPs, SSTs, technology, health issues, family counseling, etc.
Recently, principals were directed to reorganize classes 6 weeks into
the school year because… [The District] was out of compliance…Why did
they wait until late September to inform schools? Parents, students and
teachers were upset as children were uprooted and moved to different
classrooms…
It is unethical that $1 billion in bond money [is] used for
iPADS…when…schools need to be painted, playgrounds upgraded and
bathrooms repaired, etc…if principals need any upgrades to their schools
they are told they must pay for them from their own budgets…OUTRAGEOUS!
4. I am (one of many) elementary principals who is reeling from this
mandate to segregate our ELL students into a single classroom per grade
level…the ESC folks…told me that because our DISTRICT is not meeting its
overall goals and presumably not meeting the ELL students’ needs, we
ALL must reorganize! Every teacher at my school is against this, and as
an educator and school administrator, I also must agree that forcing
each schooleven successful schools…to change to a "cookie cutter"
program because of a general "District" voluntary agreement is not good
teaching. Where is the differentiation for us? Some schools…may need
this and benefit from it, but our students would not. And where is the
"autonomy”…to tailor our instructional programs and resources to our
specific school site?
THE ABOVE EXCERPTS REPRESENT JUST A FEW of the communications that we
receive daily from the field. We are, of course, keeping the authors
anonymous to protect them in this era of intimidation, threats and
retribution. By sharing this information with the public, we hope that
senior staff will gain a much-needed level of sensitivity to the
unreasonable demands being placed on administrators. As former Board
Member, Mark Slavkin noted at the recent AALA Alumni Luncheon, “Just
declaring it doesn’t make it so.” Good planning with input from those
directly affected, followed up with appropriate communication and
staffing will lead to better working conditions and contribute to the
success of new initiatives. Please know that your AALA leadership is
continuing to advocate for improved administrative norms at all levels
and a reduction in the overburdensome workload. The following excerpt,
from yet another seasoned principal, sums it up quite succinctly:
“…I have never seen such chaos in the District…Dr. Deasy and his senior
management team need to rethink their roles and be more supportive of
principals. Principals are being worked to death with no consideration
from top management. I don’t think the Board, and the public in general,
realizes what we face every day. It’s never been so bad.”
L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS
AS THE DISTRICT MOVES TO ENFORCE A POLICY OF GROUPING
PUPILS OF SIMILAR ENGLISH FLUENCY ABILITY TOGETHER, THOSE OPPOSED
PROTEST.
By Teresa Watanabe, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1eAU9rh
5:54 PM PDT, October 19, 2013 :: Luis Gaytan, the 5-year-old son of
Mexican immigrants who speak Spanish at home, was so terrified by
kindergarten that he would barely talk — prompting classmates to tease
that he didn't have a tongue.
In the last two months, at Granada Elementary Community Charter, Luis
has gained a growing command of the language in a class of students with
a mixed range of English ability. His father, Jorge, is convinced that
his son is learning English more quickly because he hears it every day
from more-advanced classmates.
But Luis — and thousands of other Los Angeles Unified students — is
being moved into new classes with those at a similar language level
under an order that has sparked a storm of protest. In recent weeks, a
group of southeast L.A. principals have mounted a rare challenge to
district policy, teachers have flooded their union office with
complaints, and parents have launched protest rallies and petition
drives urging L.A. Unified to postpone the class reorganizations until
next year.
"Kids with little or no English are going to be segregated and told
they're not good enough for the mainstream," said Cindy Aranda-Lechuga, a
Granada mother of a kindergartner who gathered 162 parent signatures
seeking a postponement and spoke against the policy at an L.A. Board of
Education meeting last week. "Kids learn from their peers, and they're
not going to be able to do that anymore."
Marking the latest chapter in California's fierce language wars, the
furor over class placements for those learning English raises the
controversial question of which is more effective: separating students
by fluency level or including them in diverse classes. Critics are also
upset that the change is coming two months into the school year, after
students have bonded with classmates and teachers have developed
classroom lessons and routines. Opponents blame the district and local
schools for the disruption.
Although the district adopted segregated classes as official policy for
all schools in 2000, it has not been widely practiced or enforced,
according to officials from both L.A. Unified and the teachers union.
But that changed this year. L.A. Unified settled a complaint by the
federal Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, which
contended that the district had failed to provide adequate services to
students learning English.
Katherine Hayes, the district's chief research scientist, told teachers
last week that district data show that students placed in classes with
peers of similar language level progress more rapidly toward fluency
than those in mixed-level classes. But she added that the question had
not been widely studied and more research was needed.
Norm Gold, an independent educational consultant who has worked in the
field of English language development for more than 35 years, said that
although studies are mixed, they tend to skew toward separating students
based on their English ability.
"My experience tells me, in addition to research, that there is an
absolute necessity for doing this kind of grouping," he said — adding,
however, that students should be moved in a timely manner to new classes
as their fluency improves.
Two experts in bilingual education with the teachers union, United
Teachers Los Angeles, said they support the district policy because
limiting English levels in a class allows teachers to better focus
instruction. And although students may learn "social English" from more
fluent classmates, they are better able to learn the "academic English"
appropriate for their level in more segregated classes, according to
Cheryl Ortega, UTLA's director of bilingual education.
In a Sept. 9 letter to local Supt. Robert Bravo, however, 17 principals
from South L.A. schools expressed disagreement with the policy. They
argued that fluent English speakers serve as classroom role models for
less proficient peers and that segregating students creates a "chasm"
among them as well as "communities that are intolerant of those who are
different."
In his written response, Bravo rejected the request to delay the moves
and told principals they "may be subject to discipline" if they failed
to reorganize their classes as directed.
One principal, who asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation, said
administrators believed they were following the spirit of the plan by
trying to limit levels but also taking into account other factors, such
as gender, gifted abilities and behavioral issues, to form well-balanced
classes.
But the district plan requires English levels to be the top factor in
forming classes. At one campus, three students with serious behavioral
problems ended up in the same classroom; at another, some gifted
children are set to be transferred out of the gifted teacher's classroom
because she has been assigned to teach students with low levels of
English.
Some of the elementary schools ordered to reshuffle classes, including
Granada, Victoria and Tweedy, had recently been commended by the
district for boosting the test scores of their limited-English students.
Although it is possible to request a waiver from the plan, none have
yet been granted.
Bravo and district official Hilda Maldonado said school staff had months
of notice to make the changes. District officials conducted training on
the new policy for all staff members last November, issued a detailed
memo on forming classes in May and sent reminders during the summer that
the district and federal government would be monitoring campuses in the
fall, said Maldonado, director of the multilingual and multicultural
education department.
But Judith Perez, whose Associated Administrators of Los Angeles
represents principals, blamed L.A. Unified for the upheaval on school
campuses, saying the district should have done more to prevent it.
"You can't just send people an email and expect them to fully grasp the
ramifications of this change," Perez said. "We feel the fault lies with
the district in providing inadequate communication with schools. People
are very upset, frustrated and discouraged."
Maldonado said it was not clear how many of the district's 500 or so
elementary schools are reorganizing their classes — some, such as Hoover
Street Elementary, have organized them by English fluency for years.
She added that the policy encourages mixing students with other levels
for such non-core classes as P.E., art and music.
In the San Fernando Valley, parents at Granada and Bassett Street
Elementary joined forces last week to hold a protest rally and are
considering boycotting school one day this week when they said class
changes are set to take effect.
Nieves Garcia, a Bassett parent, said she is particularly upset that
Principal Linda Barr had not broadly informed parents of the impending
change, which she learned about from a teacher. Barr did not respond to
requests for comment.
"They're completely taking the parents out of the equation," Garcia
said. "There's a bunch of finger-pointing, but no one is taking
responsibility. Either way, our kids have to suffer."
The Skeleton Crew: WITH MAJOR DEBT, PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS CUT BACK ON NURSES + smf’s 2¢
STUDENT DIES FROM UNTREATED ASTHMA
From NPR Weekend Saturday |to listen: http://bit.ly/1a0DwGe
Transcript: 19 October 2013
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A sixth grader who died from an asthma attack after being sent home from
school, a school that did not have a nurse on duty, has set off
sadness, regret, and anger in Philadelphia where public schools are
facing a huge budget shortfall. The district is a billion dollars in
debt, schools have been closed and thousands of employees have been
laid-off, including nurses. Now, Pennsylvania Governor Corbett released
$45 million in funding this week to allow the school district to rehire
hundreds of staffers, but not school nurses. The city is standing firm.
Eileen DiFranco joins us now from Philadelphia. She has been a school
nurse for over 23 years. Mrs. DiFranco, thanks so much for being with
us.
EILEEN DIFRANCO: My pleasure.
SIMON: From your point of view, how does this work? Ratio of one nurse for 1,500 students, I gather.
DIFRANCO: Yes. Although, the recommendations from the National
Association of School Nurses recommends a much lower ratio - one nurse
to 750 students. And we had that. We had that been up until a couple of
years ago. Basically, nurses are assigned according to numbers and
acuity. So for instance, I'm in my school full-time because I have a
large proportion of special education students. However, most of my
co-workers are going to two, three, four, five, six, some people even
have seven schools. And some of them have to do several schools in one
day.
SIMON: What if a youngster becomes sick when a nurse is not on duty -
which obviously is a concern that's at the heart of this case that's
caused so much attention?
DIFRANCO: The vast majority of schools have no vice principal, no
counselors and we only have one secretary in most schools. So what
happens in the nurse's absence is some member of the skeleton crew has
to deal with a sick child. And those people are not trained medically.
And we try to tell the superintendent that cutting back on their service
was really not in the best interest of the children. We predicted that
something horrible would happen.
SIMON: Would school personnel feel that they can call 911 if they need to?
DIFRANCO: Yes. Absolutely. If they knew to call 911, certainly they
could call 911. You could have a student who may not look like he or she
is in distress and he or she may not actually understand the severity
of their own symptoms, and so neither one of them may really understand
that 911 needs to be called. And what happens with asthma is that asthma
is a very sneaky disease - and it's dangerous, as we know. With a
trained professional, with a nurse on duty, when a students says I have
trouble breathing or I have a bad cold, the first thing that we do is we
listen with our stethoscopes and we can tell just by listening whether a
child is in distress. Either the child could be wheezing very badly or
there's no air movement, which is even more dangerous.
SIMON: A lot of students in Philadelphia have asthma?
DIFRANCO: Yes. I think almost 20 percent of the school population has asthma and individual schools may have higher percentages.
SIMON: You've worked in this school for over 23 years, right?
DIFRANCO: Yes.
SIMON: How have things changed?
DIFRANCO: We just really don't have the support that we used to have. We
used to have more nursing supervisors that were on hand to help us when
we had questions. That's been reduced. Any extra hands that could have
been helpful in handling an emergency, all of those people are on and
everyone is pretty much flying by the seat of their pants. So in our
school with 680 students, we have no counselors. The people who handle
the mental health problems are myself and the dean of students and the
principal.
SIMON: Is there anything you'd recommend that Philadelphia schools do right now?
DIFRANCO: The fact of the matter is, is the governor and the mayor and
the superintendent are responsible for the children, and there needs to
be some sort of conversation among the three of them with the taxpayers
that our children are at risk. And to cut back necessary resources for
vulnerable children is not in the best interest of the state. That
conversation has not taken place, unfortunately.
SIMON: Are you closed off from the argument that although what happened
to this young woman is tragic, it may not have been the cutbacks that
were responsible for it, but other circumstances?
DIFRANCO: We'll never know what the story was. What I do know beyond a
shadow of a doubt is the conditions under which we are working. Again,
the skeleton crew, people who are extremely busy and taken up with a
million different duties because there aren't enough people to do that. I
think of educators as a caring web that surrounds all of our children.
Well, there are gaping holes in that web that simply cannot be filled or
have not been filled.
SIMON: Eileen DiFranco, who's the school nurse at Roxborough High School in Philadelphia. Thanks so much for being with us.
DIFRANCO: Thank you, Scott.
●● smf’s 2¢ - Note: The Student to Nurse ration in Philadelphia, decried
in this national news story is 1500:1. According to the LAUSD District
Nursing Website there are over 450 School Nurses who serve the health
needs of more than 640,000 LAUSD students, creating the appearance of a
student to nurse ration of 1442.1. The California state average 2187:1
This is all very misleading because an LAUSD does not assign nurses
based on student need or even school size – it assigns nurses based on
school type:
The following is from the heralded 2007-8 LAUSD Budget – the one before
the cuts that the wishful thinkers aspire-to …and the powers-that-be see
as utopian:
SUPPORT ALLOCATIONS – 2007-08
Custodial personnel are allocated to schools based on a complex
formula involving enrollment, building area, grounds, service to
teachers, etc.
District-funded nurses are allocated as follows:
Elementary Schools – 1 day per week
Middle Schools – 2 days per week
Senior High Schools – 3 days per week
School Psychologists and related personnel are allocated to schools
based primarily on student population size, type of school, and need for
those services in the school population.
So Custodians and Psychologists are assigned by needs basis …and Nurses
are assigned by a cookie cutter one-size-fits all approach, x days per
week.
There is not a shortage of school nurses, there is a shortage of school nurse positions.
The National Association of School Nurses recommends a needs-based
formula approach for determining full-time school nurse-to-students
ratio.
For example:
• 1:750 WELL students
• 1:225 in the student populations that may require daily professional
school nursing servicesor interventions such as Special Ed inclusions
• 1:125 in student populations with complex health care needs
• 1:1 may be necessary for individual students with multiple disabilities
'SEQUESTER' IMPACT FELT ON SPECIAL EDUCATION AID
By Christina A. Samuels, Education Week Vol. 33, Issue 06, Pages 18,20 | http://bit.ly/1c7eR4C
October 2, 2013 :: Cutting professional development and assistive
technology, freezing open positions, and shifting money from general
education are among the ways that districts are coping with the $600
million that across-the-board federal spending cuts known as
sequestration have carved out of the nationwide budget for special
education so far.
Such strategies have muted the effects of the federal cuts, district
officials and analysts say. But such stopgap measures can only last so
long, administrators say, before cuts will be made that will be felt by
students.
And because of provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act that don't allow dramatic reductions in special education funding,
other educational programs eventually could bear a heavier weight from
the reduction in federal support, setting up what could be seen as a
damaging competition for resources.
"We've continued to have a high level of unfunded mandates, without the
financial resources to be able to handle that," said Laurie VanderPloeg,
the president of the Council of Administrators of Special Education,
which represents district-level officials. Future cuts are going to
create a "significant strain" in the general education budget, she said.
Lindsay Jones, the director of public advocacy for the National Center
for Learning Disabilities, based in New York, said that even reductions
in areas such as professional development can be meaningful, as states
prepare for the Common Core State Standards. Implementation of the
common standards and the tests aligned to them will require significant
accommodations for special education students and training for
building-level educators putting them into effect.
States "are not going to be prepared for the new tests, either technologically or instructionally," she said.
LONG-TERM HEADACHE
The funding cuts under sequestration are slated to remain in place for
the next decade throughout the federal government unless Congress can
develop a long-term deficit-trimming plan. The Obama administration has
used education as an example of sequestration's negative impacts,
although it has had to back off on some of its earlier, dire
predictions, such as that tens of thousands of teachers could be laid
off.
The overall impact on education programs has been hard to quantify.
However, the cuts have been felt keenly in programs such as Head Start,
where the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been able to
quantify the effects in 57,000 slots lost, and in the U.S. Department of
Education's Impact Aid program, which provides funding to offset the
loss of tax revenue in areas such as those near military bases and
Native American reservations.
Special education funding levels come with stringent mandates under the
IDEA. School districts are required to provide a free, appropriate
education to students with disabilities, and are constrained from
cutting classes or staff if doing so would violate that requirement.
Despite the fact that the federal government provides about 18 percent
of the cost of educating special education students, it also controls
how much state and local money is spent on special education services,
through the provisions of the IDEA. In general, the law's goal is to
avoid having major fluctuations in funding from year to year.
Regional Impact
However, when districts add more money to special education—as some have
been doing to make up for sequestration shortfalls—that increased level
of local spending has to be maintained in future years, even if the
federal dollars start flowing again.
Not that the federal funding tap is expected to flow any time soon, said
Candace Cortiella, the director of the Advocacy Institute, a nonprofit
organization in Marshall, Va., and the creator of the blog IDEA Money
Watch.
"It appears almost certain that this first round of sequester cuts will
become our new baseline," Ms. Cortiella said. "We've lost the $600
million, and that's not insignificant," she said.
Some states, such as Michigan, absorbed a portion of the federal
sequestration cuts. Michigan lost about $22 million reduction in special
education money under sequestration, but came up with about $10 million
from other revenue sources to help make up for that.
That state infusion was one-time event, however.
Kathy Fortino, the associate superintendent for special education and
early childhood for the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District,
which manages federal special education funds for 14 school systems and
education agencies serving 30,000 students in western Michigan, said the
situation reminded her of her early career as a special education
teacher.
At that time, the 1970s, general education teachers were often given
pink slips every year and were constantly worrying about maintaining
their jobs, Ms. Fortino said. As a special education teacher, she was
insulated from that fear, but it set up a difficult dynamic with her
peers. And the challenging funding forecast is coming at a time when
general educators and special educators are working together more than
ever before, she said.
"People are going to start getting protective of their funding," she said.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
iProblems in other places: TABLET-COMPUTING INITITIVES SUFFER MAJOR SETBACKS
By Benjamin Herold, Education Week | http://bit.ly/1cKLy4z
Two large-scale efforts to put digital devices in the hands of students,
including the largest deployment to date of the much-publicized Amplify
tablets,and a have been halted because of a variety of problems.
In the 73,000-student Guilford County, N.C., school system, officials
announced this month that they have suspended the use of tablets and
related equipment provided by Amplify, an independent subsidiary of the
global media conglomerate [Fox] News Corp.
In Texas, meanwhile, the 70,000-student Fort Bend school district
scrapped a 19-month-old initiative to deliver an interactive science
curriculum via iPads initiated by their former superintendent [Broad
Academy 2002] after a consultant found that "the program fell short of
its mission due to a combination of unrealistic goals, insufficient
planning and project management, lack of consistency with existing
curriculum-development standards, and poor contract-management
practices."
______
REBOOTING L.A. UNIFIED’S iPAD PLAN: Although we live in a technological age, it is more important for the dist... http://bit.ly/18ze7RR
L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS: As the district moves to enforce a policy of g... http://bit.ly/1cIIIgD
FLORIDA PAINTS MORE LIPSTICK ON TEST SCORES DRIVEN BY COMMON CORE: By Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report – ... http://bit.ly/19ir0iy
The Skeleton Crew: WITH MAJOR DEBT, PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS CUT BACK ON NURSES: Student dies from untreated asthm... http://bit.ly/18wZgap
CLASS CALLS MEETING WITH VLADOVIC ‘PRODUCTIVE”.: by LA School Report | http://bit.ly/UXHVhZ Posted on Octo... http://bit.ly/19SUEde
ASSEMBLYMAN ASKS WRONG COMMITTEE TO REVIEW LA UNIFIED’S iPAD PROJECT + smf’s 2¢: Annie Gilbertson| Pass / Fail... http://bit.ly/1cFHZg6
BROAD MAKES KEY DONATION TO L.A. ARTS HIGH SCHOOL: By Howard Blume, L.A. Times http://lat.ms/1a0BVP1 Ph... http://bit.ly/18vzlQv
“I’VE NEVER SEEN SUCH CHAOS IN THE DISTRICT; IT’S NEVER BEEN SO BAD”: from the AALA UPDATE FOR THE WEEK OF OCT... http://bit.ly/19eH3hm
MORE TEENS DRINKING SUGARY BEVERAGES, STUDY FINDS: By Jane Meredith Adams EdSource Today http://bit.ly/1fIB0a2 ... http://bit.ly/1cCw6aM
A New Majority: LOW INCOME STUDENTS FROM THE SOUTH (AND THE WEST): from Fritzwire by email 18 October 2013 :... http://bit.ly/16UFCoM
READ THE LEGISLATION AND ALL IT CONTAINS: The Federal Budget Bill we have been waiting for so long redefines “... http://bit.ly/1cCnWPE
LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER TAMAR GALATZAN’S MOTION FOR A PUBLIC CENSURE OF LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT RICHARD... http://bit.ly/18sKDFa
Putting the “diss” in dysfunction: BOARDMEMBER GALATZAN INTRODUCES CENSURE MOTION AGAINST BOARD PRESIDENT VLAD... http://bit.ly/19PZI1X
“Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything”: STANFORD PROFESSOR FINDS MICHELLE RHEE’S TEACHER EVALUATIO... http://bit.ly/19cb8y0
LA TIMES REPORTING ON L.A. UNIFIED iPAD ROLLOUT MARRED BY CHAOS …well, maybe glitches: Howard Blume @howardbl... http://bit.ly/1czsIgL
DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO/NICHT DIESES VIDEO ANSEHEN ON YOUR PHONE, iPAD or TABLET | http://bit.ly/17wKZHg
LCFF: POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES IN NEW SCHOOL FUNDING LAW DEMAND ATTENTION: By Louis Freedberg| EdSource Today http... http://bit.ly/1d07hrT
Letters: iPAD ANGST AT LAUSD: Letters: http://latimes.com http://lat.ms/1cYKixA October 17, 2013 Re "A ta... http://bit.ly/18qmfEc
With no staff, school libraries fall silent: STUDENTS CAN SEE BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY BUT CAN’T CHECK THEM OUT + ... http://bit.ly/16QH5fG
iPads: LAUSD PRESS RELEASE RE: PROGRAM RESET & MEDIA REACTION: L.A. schools chief wants to extend iPad rollout... http://bit.ly/16QH5fC
THE SPIN @ THE BUDGET MTG: Remember when the goal and law on Class Size
Reduction in K-3 was 20:1? How+When did 24:1 become the new 20:1?
THE SPIN AT BUDGET MTG: The goal is to "preserve funding levels".
"Preserve" as in taxidermy? Is the expectation:"amazingly lifelike"?
COMMENT AT BUDGET PRIORITIES MTG: "Priorities, Politics + Sidestepping.
Enough! This is NOT all right! ...and there's NO accountability!"
COMMENT AT BUDGET PRIORITIES MTG:"Saying iPads are a civil right demeans, denigrates and devalues the Civil Rights Movement."
COMMENT AT BUDGET PRIORITIES MTG: "Everything the board+public wants is
on the wish list; everything Deasy wants is already in the budget."
iPads: LETTER FROM DR. DEASY RESETTING PHASES 2 & 3 OF THE COMMON CORE TECHNOLOGY PROJECT: by John E. Deasy to... http://bit.ly/196OKpL
iPads4Today: WHY LAUSD SHOULD HOPE STUDENTS “HACK” THEIR iPADS: OpEd in the pasadena star-news By Katherine M... http://bit.ly/18iujqu
iPads4today: L.A. UNIFIED STAKES REPUTATION ON iPAD PROGRAM: The district risks its credibility with the troub... http://bit.ly/19M3dZl
s4Today: FOUR L.A. SCHOOLS DECLINE iPADS IN INITIAL ROLLOUT, ASSEMBLYMAN REQUESTS LEGISLATIVE HEARING: By ... http://bit.ly/1bvmAVD
GETTING RID OF BAD TEACHERS: Times editorial board conflates teachers with low test scores with child molesters... http://bit.ly/1cRVZpI
STUDENTS IN FOSTER CARE FACE ‘INVISIBLE ACHIEVEMENT GAP,’ STUDY SAYS + full study: California students in foste... http://bit.ly/19LyQCa
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
Monica.Ratliff@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!.
|
