In This Issue:
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WHAT'S DRIVING L.A. UNIFIED'S BETTER TEST SCORES? |
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CalPERS MOVES TO EXCLUDE PRIVATELY RUN CHARTER SCHOOLS |
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A SECOND LOOK AT THE iPADS IN LOS ANGELES |
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GIVING TWICE-AS-MANY KIDS HALF-AS-MUCH MUSIC EDUCATION? The latest LAUSD SNAFU? |
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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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Dec 21, 2013 :: Claire Davis, the 17-year-old
student from Arapahoe High School, died Saturday. She spent eight days
at Littleton Adventist Hospital on life support after being shot in the
head by a fellow student. Claire died with her family by her side.
How many deaths will it take till we know
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
___________
BEFORE 4LAKids GOES ALL POSTAL ON THE WACKINESS, imagined+real/past
present and future, of LAUSD let me point you to Something Good To Read –
a mandatory assignment - in today’s LA Times: The Sunday Column One IN
THE 'SILENT PRISON' OF AUTISM, IDO SPEAKS OUT |http://bit.ly/auDNT3
– a backgrounder and book review of Ido Kedar’s “Ido in Autismland”
–itself a series of autobiographical essays about growing up on the
spectrum in LAUSD.
Ido is not everychild; no child is. But he does answer the question
“What if Temple Grandin attended LAUSD in the first decade of the
twenty-first century?” The answer is not pretty but it is inspiring.
Because of the publication and printing format of the article – using
italics and photos and videos and multiple levels of quotation,
publishing the article from the Times in this e-newsletter/blog won’t
work and can’t do the journalism, the book or and/or Ido justice
Please read the article – and then walk, don’t run to buy the book, get
it at the library, or download it to your e-reader. Maybe our school
libraries should have it in their collections? There is a lot in print
about the autism spectrum of late: Temple Grandin’s work and the movie
about her. The novel and now the stage play The Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night-Time. Add Ido Kedar’s book to the literature. Ido –
who is nonverbal - has become an authentic celebrity in a time when
celebrity is cheap (‘Duck Dynasty’ anyone?):
“Ido's grown accustomed to public appearances. He says he only gets
embarrassed when people gush over him: “’It drives me crazy when people
do that. My situation may be new and tragic to them, but it is my life.’
“I'm a strange mixture. I am smart as a mind and dumb as a body. I can think of insights and my body ignores them.”
Celebrate.
LAUSD HAS PUBLISHED ITS INTERPRETATION OF MOST RECENT TEST RESULTS
[bit.ly/1fJqzAT ] – THE LOVELY ACRONYMIC TUDA of THE NEAP - because test
scores & acronyms are the warp and weave of the fabric of the
District! LAUSD is doing better, the nation is doing better, the
improvements are incremental and minuscule …but our miniscule growth is
bigger than theirs (whoever they are). And nobody can figure out what it
means or why it happened. 4LAKids suggests that it didn’t happen
because of the Culture of ®eform – but in spite of it. And the LA Times
pretty much agrees: WHAT'S DRIVING L.A. UNIFIED'S BETTER TEST SCORES?
TUESDAY‘S BOARD OF ED MEETING started with a quiet recognition of
Marguerite LaMotte’s empty seat and a call from the District’s labor
partners for reasoned unity.
What followed was a display of disunity from the board and community on
how or how not to respectfully honor the memory of the deceased; when
and how to fill the empty seat, whither elect or appoint and whether the
superintendent’s decision to defer the decision on iPads should be
honored …with his allies vociferously opposing him and his opponents
almost half-heartedly supporting.
The decisive vote to take no decision was undecided by a 3 to 3 tie –
with Monica Garcia presciently opining that no action in itself is a
political act. An act in this case poorly acted by bad actors in a play
about life+death, power, passion, greed and misunderstanding. A tragedy
badly written and poorly cast. Not the farce that Marx predicted at the
second coming of history (some of this is the twelfth re-run) - but
perhaps just plain bad comedy …but not bad enough to be good!
Read Joseph Mailander’s AFTER MARGUERITE LAMOTTE’S DEATH, LAUSD MELTS DOWN YET AGAIN | http://t.co/iRemJC59fT
. I don’t agree with where he gets but I support how he got there! He
uses ‘ninnyhammer’ and ‘lumpenproletariat’ so they
make-sense-in-the-nonsense and twists dumb things school boardmembers do
to make them dumberer still:
“Monica Garcia issued a statement: ‘I look forward to a healthy
discussion befitting Ms. LaMotte’s legacy and the District’s leadership
when the Board of Education meets on January 7, 2014. The children and
families of District 1 and the greater LAUSD deserve no less.’"
Mailander: “The students of District 1 deserved ‘no less’ than a
delayed decision in which indecision ruled the day about as much as they
deserve Monica Garcia telling them what else they deserve after failing
them for so long.”
WEDNESDAY THE BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE MET and weighed in yet again on
the Common Core Technology Project [iPads] Phase 2 and Phase 1L - and
the superintendent’s ask for iPads for Common Core State Standardized
Smarter Balanced Testing.
●●: If the following is confusing please except my apology. I am
confused myself and in writing it out I am trying to understand it
better. I am sometimes suspicious that that confusion wasn’t the intent.
At the board meeting the day before Superintendent Deasy spoke about how
it was important for the BOC to weigh in …but he didn’t personally make
the presentation to the BOC and didn’t send anyone from his executive
staff (the so-called “sponsors”) to present to the BOC. (At earlier
meetings the BOC was informed that Chief Strategy Officer Matt Hill was
the official point-of-contact for the BOC on the Common Core Technology
Project). Matt Hill wasn’t there Wednesday.
Geraldo Leora and Bernadette Lucas from the office of instruction had no
presentation to make – announcing they were present only to answer
questions.
● They were questioned on the Board Report dated December 10th (which
makes up the superintendents official request for devices)
● And also on the letter from the superintendent to the Bond Oversight
Committee (also dated December 10th) that MODIFIED/REDUCED the requests
of the Dec 10th Board Report and addressed almost all of the BOC’s
request for information in our resolution 2013-33 of Nov 20th.
[The Dec 10th Board Report was actually posted on December 5th to meet
the 72 hour advance notice requirement for Board Action; the
superintendents letter to the BOC was actually sent December 10th – so
the BOC anticipated that the Superintendent’s letter a further modified
position]
NOTE: All meeting materials referred to here are available here: http://bit.ly/19kQkbu
It became embarrassingly obvious at Wednesday’s Bond Oversight meeting
that Mr. Leora and Ms. Lucas were unaware of the superintendent's letter
of December 10th. They had been sent to defend the Board Report. So
ether Dr. Deasy had not communicated his Dec. 10th position to his staff
– or he has reverted to his previous position
The situation becomes more confusing in that there are two versions of
the Board Report 129 13/14 dated December 10th, the earlier one (from
prior to the BOC input of Nov 20th) contains the request for iPads for
all teachers and administrators, abandoned shortly after the 11/20 BOC
review. Boardmember Garcia continued to refer to this version in the Nov
1th Board Meeting.
►District staff was requesting APPROVAL of the most recent (12/5) Board
Report, there was no motion from the BOC for approval or second so the
Motion died without action.
►There was then a vote to REjECT the Board Report, and that carried by a majority vote.
►There was then a motion to AMEND THE BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE’S NOV
20th RESOLUTION 2013-33 OF LIMITED SUPPORT for Phase 2 and 1L to include
support for MOST of the superintendent’s most recent request but
specifically stipulating that the reduced numbers and budget are Not To
Exceed Limits and that the BOC requests regular reporting+accountability
and expects further downward modification as a districtwide inventory
of existing computers is completed in January. That motion CARRIED by a
majority and the BOC’s amended recommendation will be returned to the
Board of Ed for final action as RESOLUTION 2013-33A Again, see: for
the sordid details.
Unaddressed in any of the action on Wednesday was the Apple/Pearson contract and/or the Pearson content.
The iPads specifically for testing – and the laptops for phase 1L high schools will not have the Pearson content.
See: IT’S TIME TO INVESTIGATE PEARSON IN TEXAS, TOO …but why stop there? California’s nice this time of year! http://bit.ly/1l1rCfO
AT THE LEAST THE CELEBRATION OF THE MIDWINTER SOLSTICE, THE
KRONIA/SATURNALIA/YALDA/ALBAN ARTHUAN/CHRISTMAS SEASON is a combination
of hype and commercialization. At its best it is a juxtaposition of hope
with the promise of salvation. Kind of like education.
The single known historical event in the Christmas story; the
Augustinian census and the speculative appearance of a strange celestial
event coincide, like all coincidences do. Was the Nova Bethlehem a
comet, the “Chinese Star”, or a supernova?
[Some Notes on the Visibility of the 5BC Chinese Star | http://bit.ly/1hwhnjJ]
Was it a fiction to fulfill a prophesy ...or was it a miracle?
Every birth is a miracle – every life miraculous. And fiction is something that didn’t happen, not something that isn’t true.
In the end we accept what we accept on faith; faith is the substance of hope.
“And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people’.”
Happy Holidays –
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
WHAT'S DRIVING L.A. UNIFIED'S BETTER TEST SCORES?
THE IMPROVED RESULTS ON THE TRIAL URBAN DISTRICT
ASSESSMENT INDICATE THAT SOMETHING HAS BEEN GOING RIGHT. THE QUESTION
IS, WHAT?
By The Times editorial board | http://lat.ms/1cou40A
December 20, 2013 :: Los Angeles schools showed the second-highest
improvement in the nation on a test of urban school districts that is
widely considered one of the most reliable measurements of student
skills. This is cause for applause but also some frustration, because
even the experts don't know which factors are driving the improvement.
The long-term success of students here and across the country depends on
finding out.
The Trial Urban District Assessment uses the biannual test that's
familiarly called the nation's report card, or more formally the
National Assessment of Educational Progress. The program oversamples
fourth- and eighth-grade students in participating school districts in
order to get valid results for them.
L.A. Unified's scores have been rising slowly since the urban district
assessment began a decade ago, but figures released this week showed a
more significant jump. Among L.A.'s fourth-graders, for example, the
percentage of math students scoring at the bottom level — known as
"below basic" — fell from 37% to 31%.
None of this makes L.A. Unified a high-achieving district. Only 25% of
its fourth-graders tested at proficient or advanced levels in math, and
only 18% in reading. Still, improved scores indicate that something has
been going right. The question is, what?
Researchers say it's impossible to ferret out the reasons because the
implementation of school reforms tends be haphazard, overly broad and
seldom assessed. The higher scores seem to indicate, as reformers have
claimed, that smaller class sizes don't necessarily matter much; class
sizes increased during the last few years because of the state's budget
crisis even as the test scores went up. At the same time, scores rose
without the change sought by Supt. John Deasy and other reformers that
would tie teachers' performance ratings to their students' test scores.
Apparently, teachers are successfully improving scores without that kind
of pressure.
The higher test scores might reflect policies from years ago that are
only now starting to show results. Or some factors might not even be
related to changes at schools at all, said UC Berkeley education
professor Bruce Fuller. Education levels among Latina mothers have been
rising, and maternal education has long been considered an important
factor in early literacy.
With hundreds of millions of dollars coming to L.A. Unified from an
improved state budget and a new school funding formula, it's more
important than ever for the district to use the money in targeted ways
that can be measured and then copied if they're successful. Future
progress depends on knowing what works.
CalPERS MOVES TO EXCLUDE PRIVATELY RUN CHARTER SCHOOLS
by Tom Chorneau - SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/JHOzJ2
December 19, 2013( Calif.) :: New eligibility requirements for
participating in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System
exclude private operators of charter schools, officials at the
California Charter Schools Association said Wednesday.
The new requirements were adopted earlier this year in anticipation of
changes to federal tax law that would tighten the definition of a
government entity participating in a public pension. That is, whether an
applicant is truly an agency or political subdivision of the state – a
test private charter operators apparently can no longer meet.
Charter advocates charge that five recent applicants – all of which are
controlled by a private, non-elected board have been rejected by CalPERS
for enrollment under the new policy.
They call the action premature and argue it violates the rights of charter schools under current law.
“Nowhere else is this sort of policy being even considered,” said Myna
Castrejon, senior vice president of government affairs for the
association. “It is jeopardizing the security and retirement of charter
school employees and we’re urging that the board to reverse this
decision and return to the policy of admitting all public charter
schools and their employees into the system.”
If left unchallenged, the move could pose an enormous problem to the
charter movement nationally given that CalPERS manages the second
largest pension funding in the U.S. and is well known as a trend setter.
At issue are proposed changes to the definition of a “government plan”
being considered by the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury
Department. The two agencies offered draft regulations two years ago
aimed at updating the code.
According to a CalPERS staff report made to the Pension and Health
Benefit Committee Tuesday, the new rules require that public pension
managers ensure new participants conform under a list of eligibility
tests. The questions include: who controls an entity’s board; who bears
fiscal responsibility; and the entity’s authority to exercise “sovereign
powers of the state” such as taxation.
Pension staff reported that although the IRS regulations are not final,
the new rules are based on existing guidance and reflect current law.
They also noted that allow even one non-governmental entity to be
included in CalPERS “could jeopardize” the system’s status.
Castrejon noted that no similar action is being considered at the
California Teachers’ Retirement System, which continues to accept all
credentialed employees at charter schools.
Further, she said, that every other state that authorizes charter
schools either requires or permits charter school participation in the
state’s retirement system.
Finally, she said, after hearings held across the country about the
proposed tax rules – charter schools made strong objections to the
proposed language, generating more than 2,000 critical comments and
letters in opposition from nearly two dozen members of Congress. “Yet,
in February, CalPERS decided to revise its procedures, making it the
only state retirement system in the country to do so,” Castrejon said.
●● smf's 2¢: Certain federal courts and the Bureau of the Census, which
is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, have previously determined
that charter schools are not public schools (as they claim) but private
schools. Like defense contractors they are private entities using public
funds doing public work.
A SECOND LOOK AT THE iPADS IN LOS ANGELES
Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice | http://bit.ly/18y2pt5
December 6, 2013 · 1:00 am :: The rollout of iPads in Los Angeles
Unified School District (LAUSD) is becoming a classic case study of what
not-to-do when implementing any innovation whether it is high-tech or
low-tech. I wrote about the adoption of the innovation six months ago.
What is clear now is that teachers and principals were excluded from the
decision-making process. The Total Cost of Operation (TCO) was a
mystery to the Board of Education who made the decision. And the initial
deployment of the devices was so botched that the pilot project was put
on hold. Phase 2 and the eventual distribution of devices to all LAUSD
students remains to be decided once errors have been sorted out.
Called The Common Core Technology Project, each iPad costs the district
$678, higher than the price of an iPad bought in an Apple store, but it
comes with a case (no keyboard, however) and an array of pre-loaded
software aimed at preparing students for the impending Common Core
standards and the state online testing system. The Board of Education
and Superintendent John Deasy want each student to have access to an
iPad. With mostly Latino and poor students in LAUSD, the eventual cost
of this contract with Apple Inc. could run over $400 million.
Were the Board and Superintendent to have paused and examined the
history of using technology in public schools, they might have thought
twice before major bollixes occurred.
1. There is no body of evidence that iPads will increase math and
reading scores on state standardized tests. There is no evidence that
students using iPads (or laptops or desktop computers) will get decent
paying jobs after graduation.
These are the most common reasons boards of education and school
administrators across the nation give for buying tablets for K-12
students. But not in LAUSD.
Acquiring 1:1 iPads for students, according to the LAUSD press release
is to: “provide an individualized, interactive and informative-rich
learning environment” for every student. One would have to assume that
such an “environment” would lead to gains in test scores. But it is an
assumption. Since many low-income families do not have computers at home
or Internet connections, providing iPads is a worthy reason–what used
to be called “closing the digital divide“–for the large expenditure.
On what basis, however, will the district determine whether to move to
phase 2 of the plan? Again, according to the official press release, the
assessment of this first phase “will include feedback … from teachers,
students, parents and other key stakeholders.” That’s it. No hard data
on how often the devices were used, in what situations, and under what
conditions. Nor mention of data on student outcomes.
Now, informal surveys of teachers and school administrators show mixed reactions, even disaffection for iPads in classrooms.
2. Apart from “closing the digital divide,” the main reason for the
Apple Inc. contract is that Common Core standards and accompanying
online tests are on the horizon and due to arrive in 2014-2015. LAUSD
wants teachers and students to be ready.
3. The true cost of this experiment runs far higher than the projected
$400 million to give iPads to 655,000 students. That is what Total Cost
of Ownership (TCO) means. The cost for the iPad is given as $678 per
unit (remember, there is no keyboard usually listed at $100 which will
have to be bought eventually for secondary school students).Now,
budget-watchers discovered that the devices will cost even more. An
Oops! that surprised the Board of Education.
Funds to hire school technical assistants, providing the wireless
infrastructure, loss of tablets, and repair of broken tablets,
insurance, professional development for teachers, costs for replacement
devices when three-year warranties expire—I could go on but these
numbers double and triple the published hardware and software costs.
Consider that the reports of the $30 million contract with Apple Inc.
omitted that the Board of Education approved $50 million for this first
phase to accommodate some of these other costs detailed above.
And just a few days ago, a major Oops! was announced when the Board of
Education, in questioning a top administrator, discovered that the
software license to use the math and English curriculum expires after
three years—the clock began ticking last July when the Board approved
the contract. Renewal of the license in just over two years will cost
another $60 million. Add that to the TCO.
Intel, a company with a vested interest in Microsoft tablets and a
losing competitor in the LAUSD bid for a contract, produced a white
paper [follows] that pointed out that TCO runs from two to three times
higher than the announced price of the device. No one said a word about
that.
The point is that administrators and school boards eager to buy devices
hide TCO in separate documents or glossy verbiage. In other instances,
they simply do not know or care to find out in their enthusiasm for the
innovation. LAUSD experienced a perfect storm of mistakes in plunging
into iPads without much forethought and a glance in the rear-view mirror
for earlier reform debacles in putting into practice a high-tech
innovation.
Larry Cuban is a former high school social studies teacher (14
years), district superintendent (7 years) and university professor (20
years). He has published op-ed pieces, scholarly articles and books on
classroom teaching, history of school reform, how policy gets translated
into practice, and teacher and student use of technologies in K-12 and
college.
His most recent research projects have been a study of school reform
in Austin (TX) 1954-2009 and of a large comprehensive high school in
Mapleton (CO) being converted into several small ones between 2001-2009.
The Austin book, As Good As It Gets, and the Mapleton study entitled
Against the Odds (with co-authors Gary Lichtenstein, Arthur Evenchik,
Martin Tombari, and Kristen Pozzoboni) were published in early 2010. He
and Jane David have just finished a second edition of Cutting through
the Hype that was published in late 2010.
Currently, he has just completed a two-year study of a high school
where teachers and students have had 1:1 laptops since 2004. He has been
writing vignettes of teachers and other aspects of the study and
posting them from time to time on this blog http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/about/
GIVING TWICE-AS-MANY KIDS HALF-AS-MUCH MUSIC EDUCATION? The latest LAUSD SNAFU?
by Eloise Porter, President, Los Angeles City Elementary Schools Music Assoc writes 4LAKids
Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 11:14 PM
So it seems the powers-that-be at LAUSD care not for children--only for numbers.
In the latest effort to be 'fair' in assigning the correct number of
arts semesters based on enrollment numbers in our elementary schools,
the District, in its great wisdom, is again creating chaos for students
and destroying long-standing instrumental music programs, as well as
bringing confusion to schools with other art teachers who are being
moved after schools planned for their schedules.
For some background, itinerant elementary music teachers have always
been assigned to schools for an entire year, although the newer program
of Dance, Theater, and Visual Art (VAPA) was scheduled in shorter blocks
of time. This school year there are 36 schools with general music
programs that have been down-graded to one semester only. This is NOT
creating a music program. However, we were told that the administrators
in the Arts Branch understood that they had to maintain year-long
programs for instrumental music, due to the distribution of instruments
and the amount of time needed for a child to become skillful on any
instrument.
However, on Tuesday last week, December 10, two of our instrumental
teachers were told (without prior notice) that they would have to leave
one of their schools (schools with long-established instrumental
programs) and move to another school in January that has never had an
instrumental program. This change of assignment, they were told, was
because of changes in enrollment on norm day last September. This means
several things:
Children will be devastated and orchestra programs destroyed
Instruments will have to be collected from students who have learned to play them.
Students in the new school will not have any instruction until at
least mid February, because of the audition process and process for
distributing instruments
Principals in future will not trust that they can sign up for an
instrumental program and expect it--or any other arts program--to
continue.
People who knew about this in October did not share it until now,
making it impossible for schools to find another solution, such as
raising funds to keep their program.
The elementary instrumental music program has never been an
'introduction to instruments' program, but rather a sequential learning
experience building to elementary orchestra and on to middle and high
school bands and orchestras. The School Board passed a resolution the
establish the arts as a core subject. In addition, they asked Deasy to
provide a budget to support restoration of the arts program to 2008-9
levels. This recent action is definitely NOT the way to do it. To
destroy established instrumental programs in Title I schools in the
middle of the school year seems especially egregious, unnecessary, and
totally ineffective in delivering music education.
Because of lack of transparency in the District, it is impossible for us
to know or find out who is responsible for this decision. Steven
McCarthy or Judi Garret, Arts Administrators? (Both theater people by
training) Susan Tandberg or Gerardo Loera or Jaime Aquino in the Office
of Curriculum, Instruction, and School Support (OCISS)? John Deasy?
Who knows???
Thank you for any help you can give bringing this matter to the attention of the public.
Sincerely,
Eloise Porter, President, LACESMA
Los Angeles City Elementary Schools Music Association
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
IN THE ‘SILENT PRISON’ OF AUTISM, IDO SPEAKS OUT: The
high school student's 'Ido in Autismland' is part memoir... http://bit.ly/1cL8y0W
AFTER MARGUERITE LAMOTTE’S DEATH, LAUSD MELTS DOWN YET AGAIN: Written by Joseph Mailander, MAILANDER’S LA | C... http://bit.ly/1jv0oTk
IT’S TIME TO INVESTIGATE PEARSON IN TEXAS, TOO …but why stop there? California’s nice this time of year!: In ... http://bit.ly/1l1rCfO
LAUSD’S LABOR PARTNERS UNIFY, REMEMBER MS. LAMOTTE AND CALL FOR PROMISES MADE TO BE PROMISES KEPT: reprinted f... http://bit.ly/1cFRauq
RELEASE OF NAEP 2013 READING AND MATH DATA FOR LAUSD: tweeted and posted online by Howard Blume of the Los Ang... http://bit.ly/1fJqzAT
CalPERS MOVES TO EXCLUDE PRIVATELY RUN CHARTER SCHOOLS: by Tom Chorneau - SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.l... http://bit.ly/1kYRUPN
1st Look/Taking Initiative: THE PROTECTION OF LOCAL SCHOOL REVENUES ACT OF 2014: via email from Educate our St... http://bit.ly/1c3RZ3B
®hee-Form 2014: “BAD TEACHERS” THE TARGET OF TWO PROPOSED BALLOT INITIATIVES 2014: California measure would re... http://bit.ly/JDJsK7
TWEET: Public Comment on the Draft Revised #LCFF Regs http://bit.ly/1fEEkAP & Accountability Template (cont) http://tl.gd/n_1rttreo
STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF TOM TORLAKSON FAVORS ‘STRONG ACCOUNTABILITY’ ON SCHOOL FUNDING: by Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabi... http://bit.ly/1dNOihk
UCSF CHANCELLOR RESIGNS TO HEAD GATES FOUNDATION: Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chancellor of UC San Francisco since... http://bit.ly/1khsQpB
The 1st of 3-to-3-ties?: LAUSD BOARD DELAYS ACTION ON FILLING BOARD SEAT, iPAD NEXT PHASE: L.A. Unified board ... http://bit.ly/1kV0jDL
TWEET: "Some things will be imperfect" because of the iPad delay”, Deasy said. http://lat.ms/1i1dwxR Because perfection would've been the outcome otherwise!
A SECOND LOOK AT THE iPADS IN LOS ANGELES: Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice | http://bit.l... http://bit.ly/1fDuM99
UPDATE: SUPERINTENDENT REJECTS APPLICANTS TO REPLACE AQUINO; LAUSD Re-posts Job Posting: by smf December 17th... http://bit.ly/1kcNhUC
GIVING TWICE-AS-MANY KIDS HALF-AS-MUCH MUSIC EDUCATION? The latest LAUSD SNAFU?: Eloise Porter, President, Los... http://bit.ly/1kcGzxW
CHARTERS GET KIDS CUBICLE-READY: Samantha Winslow | LaborNotes | http://bit.ly/19au9ok A Rocketship char... http://bit.ly/1bXgFuy
Moody's: CHARTER SCHOOLS POSE GREATEST CREDIT CHALLENGE TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN ECONOMICALLY WEAK URBAN AREAS: ... http://bit.ly/Jw1YEb
HOW TO START A REVOLUTION: Diane Ravitch and the Angry Rebellion against Common Core: Wielding her influential... http://bit.ly/1kRzGzC
Jackie Goldberg & David Tokofsky: Holding a special election in #LAUSD Board District 1 would waste time and money. http://bit.ly/auDNT3
ACT NOW AND NAME A REPLACEMENT L.A. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER: The late Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte's District 1 c... http://bit.ly/JvLkEF
#LAUSD | East L.A. high school girls volleyball coach accused of lewd acts http://bit.ly/19ahJg7
GOV. BROWN STATES OPPOSITION FOR FEDERAL & STATE STANDARDS, STANDARDIZED TESTING FOR SCHOOLS …AND EXPLAINS WHY... http://bit.ly/1dJh8PZ
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!.
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