Sunday, March 23, 2014

Outside of the circle



4LAKids: Sunday 23•March•2014
In This Issue:
 •  CANDIDATE TO HEAD L.A. TEACHERS UNION FACES DISCIPLINE
 •  THE UTLA ELECTIONS
 •  3 stories: YOUNG BLACK MALES DISPROPORTIONATELY SUSPENDED …EVEN WHEN THEY ARE PRESCHOOLERS
 •  JUST MY LUCK: Think taking the SAT is hard? Try taking it now.
 •  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?


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There is a tendency among troublemakers to create trouble.

I have no data to support this hypothesis; it is purely anecdotal, based on conjecture, observation and professional experience in the trade. But it is my theory and I’m sticking with it.

Take John E. Deasy, Ph.D. for example.

UTLA was having a most excellent little election, contesting who (if anyone) could do a better job than the incumbent at being president of the union and advocating for teachers in their very contentious relationship with the District. Ten different factions led by ten dissimilar candidates had sprung up over the differing opinions about what was right or wrong with UTLA and/or LAUSD.

There are those who pine for old leadership and those who long for new leadership. There are voices for work actions: Strike! Voices afraid of Wi-Fi in the classroom. Voices for-and-against Breakfast in the Classroom and the Common Core and Value Added Assessment and Merit Pay. Voices for Raises and Class Size Reduction; voices for getting along and voices for tearing up the cobblestones and taking to the barricades.

Dr. Deasy looked at this division and saw opportunity. Conflict is weakness. Divide and conquer. Stir the pot.

So last week he singled out one of the candidates – named names – and announced that the candidate he named is subject to discipline for being absent without leave. For campaigning for union office on company time. (See: Candidate to Head L.A. Teachers Union Faces Discipline)

Never mind that that candidate Alex Caputo-Pearl did have leave to campaign from his administrator …that principal (also called out for discipline) had allowed what Dr. Deasy wouldn’t have allowed. Administrators are encouraged to act independently …as long as their independent action is exactly what Dr. D would’ve done!

At one level Dr. Deasy is right – classroom teachers should be in class teaching.

But in this case Dr. Deasy named names and made charges to the media.

Normally (if that word is ever appropriate in LAUSD) when a certificated employee is subject to discipline they disappear into “housing” – into teacher jail and the rubber room – without explanation. The accused becomes a non-person – shunned, vanished into the gulag – replaced by a sub.

The District and this superintendent are scrupulously, thoroughly and maddeningly secretive about matters of employee discipline.

I submit that Dr. Deasy broke his own rules and the District process and interfered in the UTLA presidential election.

And why, pray tell, you ask, would he do such a thing? Why would he meddle? There is certainly no love lost between Dr. Deasy and Mr. Caputo-Pearl – surely if he were to interfere it would be to promote someone else?

Dr. Deasy, gentle reader, promotes Dr. Deasy’s interests+agenda and those of his allies. And conflict with+within UTLA – “The Bad Teachers Union” is what interests him and the anti-teachers-union crowd.


THERE HAS BEEN MUCH WRITTEN+SAID OF LATE about the numbers of teachers and administrators currently being housed. There are a few infamous cases out there – the chorus director at Crenshaw, the principal at Maya Angelou High School -- complete with public outcry. I get a couple of calls a week about disappeared staff. I have asked around and there probably is not more staff being housed now than ever before ….certainly not as many as when Dr. Deasy interned the entire faculty at Miramonte!


BUT LET’S GO BACK TO THE ELECTION.

Last April UTLA held a vote and 55% of the membership voted – with 91% of those voting No Confidence in Superintendent Deasy’s leadership. In the first round of the union leadership elections this March only 23% bothered to vote for anyone. It is obvious that Dr. Deasy is the polarizing figure in UTLA elections!

I’m not here advocating that UTLA should be running the District though collective bargaining and the union contract – or that the membership should vote for this-that-or-the-other-guy (and what’s with all the guys anyway? The membership is predominantly women …where are all those predominant women?) …but I am saying that the rank and file should vote!

Democracy is not a spectator sport – and 4LAKids hopes that in the runoff some genuine interest and genuine turnout can be generated.

…or the membership can let the Deasy’s and Broad’s and Gates’ and Bloomberg’s and Rhee’s and Duncan‘s make all the decisions. What could possibly go wrong?

“Oh, look outside the window
there's a woman being grabbed.
They've dragged her to the bushes
and now she's being stabbed.
“Maybe we should call the cops
and try to stop the pain
but Monopoly is so much fun
I'd hate to blow the game.
“And I'm sure
it wouldn't interest anybody
outside of a small circle of friends”
- Phil Ochs
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf

_________________

ADVISORY TO DISTRICT EMPLOYEES RE YOUR LAUSD.NET E-MAIL ACCOUNTS AND RECEIVING AND FORWARDING ELECTION MATERIALS: There are elections ongoing and coming up – including for union leadership and the special election for the school board and county sheriff vacancy. Primary and general elections will soon follow …it is election season and 4LAKids thanks AALA for the following in their weekly newsletter:
You may periodically receive campaign materials at your District e-mail address regarding various issues or endorsing a political candidate for any office from external e-mail providers. While you have the right to free speech and ability to advocate for candidates of your choice, it is a misuse of the District e-mail and network to forward or distribute this type of material from a District server or e-mail account to another server or e-mail account. As an exception, you may forward these e-mails to your own personal server or e-mail account.


CANDIDATE TO HEAD L.A. TEACHERS UNION FACES DISCIPLINE
By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1gfcYDk

March 14, 2014, 11:41 a.m. :: Los Angeles school district officials say one of the top candidates for president of the teachers union faces discipline for leaving his campus to campaign during the school day.

The issue has entangled L.A. Unified in a contentious union race with high stakes both for teachers and the nation’s second-largest school system.

Alex Caputo-Pearl, 45, is one of nine challengers to Warren Fletcher, who is bidding for a second and final three-year term. Mail-in ballots will be counted March 20.

Caputo-Pearl, a social studies instructor, visited other campuses during the school day by taking unpaid time on parts of 43 days during the current academic year, according to the district.

Caputo-Pearl said the missed hours added up to 17 days. Most of those hours, he added, were during a portion of the day when he was not scheduled to supervise students. The veteran instructor added that he had the permission of his principal to be off campus. He cited a provision of the union contract that gives a principal discretion to grant unpaid time off.

Two candidates for other offices also have used unpaid time, although to lesser extents. Some past UTLA candidates have done the same, according to some longtime UTLA activists.

The contract does not explicitly ban taking time off to campaign, but the district ordered a stop to the practice.

“Campaigning for an elected UTLA office is not an option for a leave of absence,” wrote Justo H. Avila, a human resources official, in a Feb. 27 letter to Fletcher. “Our principals do not have the authority to grant such leaves.”

By that point, Caputo-Pearl already had been warned personally to remain on campus, said L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy. But Caputo-Pearl left campus on parts of three days after that admonition, Deasy said.

Violating a directive subjects a teacher to discipline, said the superintendent, adding that he cannot reveal any disciplinary action taken against a particular teacher.

Caputo-Pearl said that the district’s allegations that he violated rules are inaccurate. Officials said they learned of the issue after other challengers complained that they’d been unable to get time off, and that Caputo-Pearl had an unfair advantage. Some objected to any candidate being able to leave school.

Caputo-Pearl said the unpaid time helped him even the odds against two candidates with no classroom obligations: Fletcher and union Vice President Gregg Solkovits.

Caputo-Pearl works this year in the alternative program at Frida Kahlo High School in South Los Angeles. Students there typically work independently on different courses. Caputo-Pearl manages about 10 different academic programs at the same time. But he also receives extra paid planning time. The result is that he supervises no students between 12:45 p.m. and the end of the school day at 3 p.m.

To visit teachers elsewhere, Caputo-Pearl handled his planning after school hours and forfeited his pay for the missed time.

As for missed classroom periods, Caputo-Pearl said he entrusted his students to two substitutes with whom he’s worked for 10 years.

Deasy said the district should never have to pay a substitute for time spent campaigning.

“When your duties are done for which we pay you, campaign your hearts out,” Deasy said. “In the meantime, please teach.”

Caputo-Pearl, a longtime community organizer as a teacher at Crenshaw High, has a stormy history with district officials. When Deasy ordered Crenshaw reorganized because of low test scores, Caputo-Pearl was removed, despite his reputation as an effective teacher.

He has the support of 250 local school union representatives, among others.

The union has battled the district over the direction of reforms, including such matters as how teachers should be evaluated and whether performance or seniority should govern layoffs.

Most of Fletcher’s challengers say he hasn’t offered enough resistance to Deasy or fought hard enough for an alternative vision for education.

●Also See: DEASY SAYS PRINCIPAL WHO OK’D CAPUTO-PEARL CAMPAIGN LEAVE WAS DISCIPLINED
by Michael Janofsky, LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1kV0120



THE UTLA ELECTIONS
RACE TO LEAD L.A. TEACHERS UNION HEADED TO RUNOFF
By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1iQTKnW

March 20, 2014, 4:25 p.m. :: The contest to head the nation's second-largest teachers union will go to a second round, pitting incumbent Warren Fletcher against challenger Alex Caputo-Pearl.

Fewer than 1 in 4 teachers cast ballots. Caputo-Pearl received 48% of the votes and Fletcher, 21%.

Ten candidates had been vying for the office of president of United Teachers-Los Angeles. They sought to lead a teacher corps that is substantially dispirited and divided, with common grievances, but no clear consensus on how to move forward.

The candidates' ideas included becoming more -- or less -- adversarial with the district and changing the color of union T-shirts from red to pink or orange to seem less aggressive.

The leader of the union not only affects its 31,552 members but also half a million students. The union president speaks for the membership publicly and is a crucial figure for setting priorities and negotiating contracts. But the union's structure also is cumbersome and, without a strong president, it's difficult to bring the factions together.

Fletcher was seeking a second and final term for a three-year position that pays $101,000 annually. The ballots were mailed out in late February and tallied Thursday.

In his campaign, Fletcher, 54, noted that since he became president, teacher layoffs and furlough days have stopped. And he insisted that he made no major concessions to L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy on issues critical to teachers.

Veteran community activist and social studies teacher Caputo-Pearl, 45, told teachers that he could revive a union that had become too passive -- a theme of most of the candidates. Caputo-Pearl offered as proof of his ability the endorsement of 250 campus union representatives and a slate of candidates for other union offices.

Caputo-Pearl represents a left-leaning activist wing that rejected Fletcher.

The candidate who finished third, Gregg Solkovits, was the standard bearer for some traditional union stalwarts who also deserted Fletcher.

The L.A. Unified School District is slowly recovering from years of budget cuts that forced thousands of layoffs of teachers, counselors, nurses and others. UTLA, other unions and the district are battling over how best to use moderate increases in funding. There's also contention over the growth of charter schools, most of which are non-union, and a new teacher evaluation system that relies, in part, on student test scores.

Against the backdrop of perennially low student achievement, the district must decide how to achieve new state learning goals, while it also embarks on a $1-billion technology program and prepares for new state tests.
____________________________

‘UNION POWER’ WINS BIG BUT MOST UTLA MEMBERS DIDN’T VOTE: UTLA'S ELECTION DREW ONLY 23 PERCENT OF THE MEMBERSHIP
by Vanessa Romo | LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1iQO3Xd

March 21, 2014 2:39 pm :: UTLA is headed in a new direction — mostly veering to the left.

Despite a low turnout, Union Power candidates claimed victory today, with wins in nearly every leadership position within UTLA, the nation’s second-largest teachers union.

The progressive group — which plans to call for a strike if a new teacher contract can’t be negotiated soon — won outright in races for NEA Affiliate vice president, AFT Affiliate vice president, Elementary VP, Secondary VP, Treasurer, and Secretary. The race for President will be decided in a run-off pitting Union Power leader, Alex Caputo-Pearl, against incumbent Warren Fletcher.

“This shows that our members want UTLA to pro-actively and assertively fight against the attacks on the profession, while fighting for a clear vision of quality schools that we build through aggressive organizing with members, parents, and community,” Caputo-Pearl said in a statement.

Although he fell short of getting 51 percent of votes in the first round, Caputo-Pearl says he’s confident he’ll come out on top in the end.

“The organizing that led to these successes today,” he said, “will propel us to victory in the fight for a pay increase, for class size reduction and increases in staffing, against teacher jail, and around all of the other issues that are critical in public education today.”

Fletcher received fewer than half the votes Caputo-Pearl captured. He responded to the news in a statement, saying, “The results of the first round of the UTLA election were fairly unambiguous. The voting membership has decisively signaled the desire for a change in direction. To assert otherwise would be to deny an obvious reality.”

“I am confident that UTLA, whether under Mr. Caputo-Pearl’s leadership or mine, will move forward into the next three years with the common goal of fighting for what is best for students, for schools, and for the classroom,” he added.

John Lee, Senior Executive Director of Teach Plus in Los Angeles, told LA School Report that Union Power “was clearly the best organized among the different groups,” evidenced by their ability to get the endorsement of more than 250 UTLA chapter chairs. But Lee says the group’s sweep is far from a mandate on anything, given the total number of ballots cast. Only about 23 percent of UTLA’s 31,552 members participated in the election. And even Arlene Inouye, the incumbent treasurer who had the most votes (4,231) in her race, received only 13.5 percent of the total votes cast.

“When you’re talking about only only a quarter of members voting, that tells us that the majority of UTLA members aren’t engaged,” Lee said. “That means you have this vocal minority who are setting the direction for the union.”

Teach Plus launched a petition initiative to increase UTLA member participation getting that petition initiative to get online voting in the union. Gregg Solkovits came in third in the run for president, ending his bid for the position once held by his mother.

“Whoever is the next UTLA president is going to have to face the dilemma that unless you get UTLA well organized and ready to fight, then UTLA becomes increasingly powerless,” he told LA School Report.

Throughout his campaign Solkovits, like Caputo-Pearl, said the union has failed exert any strength over Superintendent John Deasy or the school board in negotiating a new teacher contract. The last contract expired two-years ago, leaving teachers and the district to operate under a temporary contract.

“My plan also was that we make sure that every school has a chapter chair then the union would have the ability to threaten a strike, Solkovits said. “A union that can’t threaten a strike is basically at the mercy of management.”

And that’s not a Union Power idea, he said, “that’s basically Union 101.”

FULL UTLA ELECTION RESULTS
http://www.utla.net/utlaelection2014


3 stories: YOUNG BLACK MALES DISPROPORTIONATELY SUSPENDED …EVEN WHEN THEY ARE PRESCHOOLERS
BLACK STUDENTS OF ALL AGES ARE SUSPENDED AND EXPELLED AT A RATE THAT’S THREE TIMES HIGHER THAN THAT OF WHITE CHILDREN

►THOUSANDS OF PRESCHOOL KIDS FACE SUSPENSION

By the Associated Press from the Omaha World-Herald | http://bit.ly/1dBHF0U

Friday, March 21, 2014 at 5:11 am | WASHINGTON (AP) :: Even preschoolers are getting suspended from U.S. public schools — and they’re disproportionately black, a trend that continues up through the later grades.

Statistics released Friday by the Education Department’s civil rights arm found that black children represent about 18 percent of children enrolled in preschool programs in schools, but almost half of the students suspended more than once. Six percent of the nation’s districts with preschools reported suspending at least one preschool child.

Advocates have long said that get-tough suspension and arrest policies in schools have contributed to a “school-to-prison” pipeline that snags minority students, but much of the emphasis has been on middle school and high school policies. This data shows the disparities starting in the youngest of children.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration issued guidance encouraging schools to abandon what it described as overly zealous discipline policies that send students to court instead of the principal’s office. But, even before the announcement, school districts have been adjusting policies that disproportionately affect minority students.

Overall, the data showed that black students of all ages are suspended and expelled at a rate that’s three times higher than that of white children. Even as boys receive more than two-thirds of suspensions, black girls are suspended at higher rates than girls of any other race or most boys.

The data doesn’t explain why the disparities exist or why the students were suspended. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder were to appear at J.O. Wilson Elementary School Friday in Washington to discuss the data.

“It is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet our goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed,” Duncan said in a statement.

Nationally, 1 million children were served in public preschool programs, with about 60 percent of districts offering preschool during the 2011-2012 school year, according to the data. The data shows nearly 5,000 preschoolers suspended once. At least 2,500 were suspended more than once.


SCHOOL DATA FINDS PATTERN OF INEQUALITY ALONG RACIAL LINES
By Motoko Rich, New York Times | http://nyti.ms/1dlPQny

March 21, 2014 :: Racial minorities are more likely than white students to be suspended from school, to have less access to rigorous math and science classes, and to be taught by lower-paid teachers with less experience, according to comprehensive data released Friday by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

In the first analysis in nearly 15 years of information from all of the country’s 97,000 public schools, the Education Department found a pattern of inequality on a number of fronts, with race as the dividing factor.

Black students are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of white students. A quarter of high schools with the highest percentage of black and Latino students do not offer any Algebra II courses, while a third of those schools do not have any chemistry classes. Black students are more than four times as likely as white students — and Latino students are twice as likely — to attend schools where one out of every five teachers does not meet all state teaching requirements.

“Here we are, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the data altogether still show a picture of gross inequity in educational opportunity,” said Daniel J. Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California at Los Angeles’s Civil Rights Project.

In his budget request to Congress, President Obama has proposed a new phase of his administration’s Race to the Top competitive grant program, which would give $300 million in incentives to states and districts that put in place programs intended to close some of the educational gaps identified in the data.

“In all, it is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet our goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.

One of the striking statistics to emerge from the data, based on information collected during the 2011-12 academic year, was that even as early as preschool, black students face harsher discipline than other students.

While black children make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment, close to half of all preschool children who are suspended more than once are African-American.

“To see that young African-American students — or babies, as I call them — are being suspended from pre-K programs at such horrendous rates is deeply troubling,” said Leticia Smith-Evans, interim director of education practice at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“It’s incredible to think about or fathom what pre-K students could be doing to get suspended from schools,” she added.

In high school, the study found that while more than 70 percent of white students attend schools that offer a full range of math and science courses — including algebra, biology, calculus, chemistry, geometry and physics — just over half of all black students have access to those courses. Just over two-thirds of Latinos attend schools with the full range of math and science courses, and less than half of American Indian and Native Alaskan students are able to enroll in as many high-level math and science courses as their white peers.

“We want to have a situation in which students of color — and every student — has the opportunity and access that will get them into any kind of STEM career that takes their fancy,” said Claus von Zastrow, director of research for Change the Equation, a nonprofit that advocates improved science, technology, engineering and math education, or STEM, in the United States. “We’re finding that in fact a huge percentage of primarily students of color, but of all students, don’t even have the opportunity to take those courses. Those are gateways that are closed to them.”

The Education Department’s report found that black, Latino, American Indian and Native Alaskan students are three times as likely as white students to attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers. And in nearly a quarter of school districts with at least two high schools, the teacher salary gap between high schools with the highest concentrations of black and Latino students and those with the lowest is more than $5,000 a year.

Timothy Daly, president of the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit that recruits teachers, said that while the data looked at educator experience and credentials, it was also important to look at quality, as measured by test scores, principal observations and student surveys.

“Folks who cannot teach effectively should not be working with low-income or African-American kids, period,” he said, adding that the problem was difficult to resolve because individual districts are allowed to make decisions on how to assign teachers to schools.


►DATA SNAPSHOT: SCHOOL DISCIPLINE
From US Department of Education | Office for Civil Rights | Civil Rights Data Collection
Issue Brief No. 1 (March 2014) | http://1.usa.gov/1jnIDkW

Inside This Snapshot: SCHOOL DISCIPLINE, RESTRAINT, & SECLUSION HIGHLIGHTS

• Suspension of preschool children, by race/ethnicity and gender (new for 2011-2012 collection): Black children represent 18% of preschool enrollment, but 48% of preschool children receiving more than one out-of-school suspension; in comparison, white students represent 43% of preschool enrollment but 26% of preschool children receiving more than one out of school suspension. Boys represent 79% of preschool children suspended once and 82% of preschool children suspended multiple times, although boys represent 54% of preschool enrollment.

• Disproportionately high suspension/expulsion rates for students of color: Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than white students. On average, 5% of white students are suspended, compared to 16% of black students. American Indian and Native-Alaskan students are also disproportionately suspended and expelled, representing less than 1% of the student population but 2% of out-of-school suspensions and 3% of expulsions.

• Disproportionate suspensions of girls of color: While boys receive more than two out of three suspensions, black girls are suspended at higher rates (12%) than girls of any other race or ethnicity and most boys; American Indian and Native-Alaskan girls (7%) are suspended at higher rates than white boys (6%) or girls (2%).

• Suspension of students with disabilities and English learners: Students with disabilities are more than twice as likely to receive an out-of-school suspension (13%) than students without disabilities (6%). In contrast, English learners do not receive out-of-school suspensions at disproportionately high rates (7% suspension rate, compared to 10% of student enrollment).

• Suspension rates, by race, sex, and disability status combined: With the exception of Latino and Asian-American students, more than one out of four boys of color with disabilities (served by IDEA) — and nearly one in five girls of color with disabilities — receives an out-of-school suspension.

• Arrests and referrals to law enforcement, by race and disability status: While black students represent 16% of student enrollment, they represent 27% of students referred to law enforcement and 31% of students subjected to a school-related arrest. In comparison, white students represent 51% of enrollment, 41% of students referred to law enforcement, and 39% of those arrested. Students with disabilities (served by IDEA) represent a quarter of students arrested and referred to law enforcement, even though they are only 12% of the overall student population.

• Restraint and seclusion, by disability status and race: Students with disabilities (served by IDEA) represent 12% of the student population, but 58% of those placed in seclusion or involuntary confinement, and 75% of those physically restrained at school to immobilize them or reduce their ability to move freely. Black students represent 19% of students with disabilities served by IDEA, but 36% of these students who are restrained at school through the use of a mechanical device or equipment designed to restrict their freedom of movement.

More US Dept of Ed Office for Civil Rights Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) | http://1.usa.gov/1pmMnVi


JUST MY LUCK: Think taking the SAT is hard? Try taking it now.
WHO WANTS TO BE AMONG THE LAST TO TAKE A REPUDIATED VERSION OF THE TEST?

Op-Ed By Haskell Flender in the LA Times | http://lat.ms/1nQLhpr

March 23, 2014 :: Two Saturdays ago, I, along with tens of thousands of other high school juniors, awoke with butterflies in my stomach, reviewed the definitions of "lachrymose" and "inchoate" as I choked down a power breakfast, and double-checked the batteries in my calculator. Clutching my freshly sharpened Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencils, I filed into a large, unwelcoming classroom, took a seat, said a prayer to the College Board, opened my test booklet and took my first SAT.

On the face of it, there was nothing unusual about this particular day. Generations of over-caffeinated high school students have sat in these same halls, trying to remember the Uniform Motion Formula and sensing their college prospects slipping away as they struggle to stay awake through some of the most excruciatingly dull reading passages ever written.

But my group of test takers had a dubious distinction, one that set us apart from those who have taken the SAT before us and those who will take it in years to come. We were taking a test that, just three days prior, had been declared by the organization that administers it to be flawed because it a) tests antiquated vocabulary, b) presents artificial obstacles, c) disadvantages those who cannot afford expensive preparatory courses, d) is a poor predictor of college readiness and success, or e) causes "unproductive anxiety" among high school students. (Correct answer: all of the above.)

Unproductive anxiety? Tell me about it. It's hard enough to take the SAT under normal conditions; try taking it immediately after the College Board's president, David Coleman, has proclaimed: "It is time for an admissions assessment that makes it clear that the road to success is not last-minute tricks or cramming."

Tricks? I've studied them all. Cramming? My middle name.

I have spent hours pushing through vocabulary, practicing math problems and learning all the ins and outs of every unnatural and forced grammatical rule ever created. I have my own analysis of exactly what is unfair about the SAT: It tests test-taking, not genuine skill or knowledge. In the hopes of getting a good score, I've had to take time away from my actual course work to study material that has virtually no practical application in my life.

While a new and better SAT may be coming, it has not yet arrived. The College Board's revised exam won't make an appearance until 2016. That leaves the graduating class of 2015 — my class — and the class of 2016 no option but to take a test whose shortcomings have been acknowledged by the very people who created it. It also raises a question for college admissions officers: How should they weigh a prospective student's performance on a tainted test?

It's unrealistic to think that the College Board could overhaul the test and put it into practice immediately; moreover, students deserve the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the new format. But where's the harm in implementing a few very basic changes that would bridge the gap between the old and new tests for those of us caught in the middle?

For example, the essay will be optional in 2016, but for now, it is scored in such a way that length is valued over content and facts can be made up without penalty. Why not allow students to opt out of the essay now? Similarly, in the future, points will no longer be deducted for incorrect answers. Why wait

to put that into practice? Why continue to penalize test-takers for making educated guesses, a valuable skill that any good teacher cultivates in his or her students?

Nevertheless, kudos to you, College Board, for your perspicacity in acknowledging your parochialism and for taking steps to ameliorate your antediluvian test. I hope I've adequately registered my disapprobation with your timing; pardon my circumlocution.

If only I had been born two years later! In that case, I wouldn't need to know what any of those words means.

● Haskell Flender is a high school junior at Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
U.S. SCHOOLS PLAGUED BY INEQUALITY ALONG RACIAL LINES, STUDY FINDS: In discipline, access to education and oth... http://bit.ly/1rip56N

Avoiding the front-runners: UTLA BOARD RECOMMENDS - ¡Not Endorses!- 3 TEACHERS FOR LA UNIFIED SEAT: UTLA bo... http://bit.ly/OKzut3

AALA VOTES TO ENDORSE DR. GEORGE MCKENNA: Associated Administrators of L.A. Update - Week of March 24, 2014 ... http://bit.ly/1h8sjSg

SAY GOODBYE TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Diane Ravitch warns Salon some cities will soon have none: "Why destroy p... http://bit.ly/1oIKGDj

PUBLIC DENIED ACCESS TO LA SCHOOL OFFICIALS’ iPAD SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATION + smf’s 2¢: by Annie Gilbertson, KPCC... http://bit.ly/1h1FaWv

US Dept of Ed I.G. notes a general upswing in the # of criminal cases involving Title I funds set aside for SES | http://bit.ly/1eVXyj4

CELES KING IV, Civil Rights Leader, Community Activist, Education Advocate dies at 70: Of his friend and mento... http://bit.ly/1dqsyXX

►UPDATE TO THE ABOVE: Celes King’s Funeral services will be held on March 29 at 11 a.m. at Angeles Mesa Presbyterian Church, 3751 W. 54th St., Los Angeles. http://bit.ly/1kVez1◄

LEARNING TO THINK IS THE GOAL: Letter to the Los Angeles Times | http://bit.ly/OksXFm R... http://bit.ly/1iDaD5m

FROM LAUSD’s SECOND INTERIM FINANCIAL REPORT: “There must be some way outta here, said the joker to the thief”... http://bit.ly/1cVm7Bh

TODAY’S LAUSD BOARD AGENDA: “the District may not be able to meet its financial obligations for the current fi... http://bit.ly/1qPBcZ1

State Board makes it official: NO API SCORES FOR NEXT TWO YEARS: By John Fensterwald | EdSource Today http://b... http://bit.ly/1cV5c1H

THELMA MELENDEZ, MAYOR’S EDUCATION ADVISOR, TO JOIN L.A. UNIFIED, Maria Casillas back as Deasy’s interim #2: B... http://bit.ly/1fVUVlx

L.A. UNIFIED’S DECISION TO MOVE STUDENTS SPARKS FUROR: Officials didn't take into account long-standing (commu... http://bit.ly/1qMWzKr

Tweet: St. Patrick's Day: James Cahill said the Irish saved western civilization in the medieval period. Come back St. Pat! pic.twitter.com/uZNIqGnPWo

Tweet: Parents react to @DrDeasyLAUSD mandatory #LAUSD Breakfast in the Classroom on @KPCC AirTalk w/@Patt_Morrison today 3/16 11AM 89.3FM

Tweet: Stealth Changes at the Top: Transfer of LA Deputy Mayor to #LAUSD, Appointment of Deasy new #2 rates only a flurry of tweets from #LATimes


EVENTS: Coming up next week...

March 25, 2014 | Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee -
Start: 03/25/2014 2:00 pm
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
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!.


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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Sunday, March 16, 2014

Cue the Rhinemaidens: Ce n'est pas un test.



4LAKids: Sunday 16•March•2014
In This Issue:
 •  From the Twitterverse: THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF THELMA & MARIA
 •  SMARTER BALANCED DELAYS NEW TEST ROLLOUT IN 22 STATES BY ONE WEEK: 2 Stories + smf’s 2¢
 •  L.A. SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES AMENDED CONTRACT FOR SUPT. JOHN DEASY
 •  LAUSD EMPLOYEES SHOULD GET A WELL DESERVED RAISE
 •  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:
 •  Give the gift of a 4LAKids Subscription to a friend or colleague!
 •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404
 •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
 •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
As usually happens, lots o’ stuff occurred in the world of public education last week. The LA Community College District hired a new chancellor. Governor Brown named a trio of new State College Trustees. There was serious discussion about Early Childhood Ed and Bilingual Ed. The Times wrote editorials about the Inspector General and not-one-but-two the Common Core. More questions emerged on the iPads purchase. Even as SAT Vocab Words seem to be in decline we learned a new one: Agnotology - "The production of ignorance". The Vergara lawsuit dragged on as Silicon Valley billionaires and Dr. Deasy advocate “Us v. Them” for poor inner city children and against the California Teachers’ Unions …maybe the courts will let them “Fire their way to Finland!”

But there were three really meaningful developments:

1. THE BOARD OF ED APPROVED A NEW CONTRACT FOR SUPERINTENDENT DEASY – one that pays him extra for not taking his vacation days (no other LAUSD employee enjoys this) and conforms to new state law in paying him directly ‘his share’ share of pension contributions. Included in the contract are performance bonuses for increasing enrollment …an interesting development in that many believe that his personal agenda has been to foster and “give away” as many charter schools as possible – thereby decreasing District enrollment. [see: L.A. School Board Approves Amended Contract for Supt. John Deasy)] He also will receive a bonus for increasing revenue to the District. He’s going to be paid extra for doing what should’ve been doing all along …but maybe if we pay him more he’ll do the right thing?

Deasy’s salary now comes in $330,000 per year, plus $20,000 towards his pension contribution plus $1,341 per day for as a many as 24 vacation days per year not taken (vacation pay = $32,184) for a total of $382,184 per year + performance bonuses. Dr. Deasy receives other perks as well, including a housing allowance, a car+driver and an expense account.

The interesting development is that the Board of Education has taken a page from the Broad Academy playbook in dealing with the superintendent in a behind-closed-doors collective bargaining contract negotiation rather than in direct open public discussion …the public governance of the school district being the reason why Boards if Education meet and exist!

2. ON FRIDAY THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE AT THE SMARTER BALANCED TESTING CONSORTIUM ANNOUNCED A ONE WEEK DELAY IN THE ROLL OUT OF THEIR TEST – essentially giving 22 states, tens of thousands of school districts and millions of schoolchildren two days notice. The testing window in some districts was to open next Tuesday. Acting in an abundance of caution they need next week to get everything “just right”; it takes more restraint than I possess to not introduce “Obamacare Roll Out” or “FBI Trilogy Technology Upgrade” or “Business Tools for Schools” into this independent clause. The Smarter Balanced spokesperson assures us all there will be no cost for this delay – a pronouncement of absurdity that demonstrates why the words “This is not a Test” in a crisis indicates actual-and -usually-unwelcome reality. The “extra week” SB proposes to give school districts is the week after LAUSD ends – my ‘back o’ th’ envelope calculation conservatively estimates that adding a week to the LAUSD calendar would cost at least $100 million. Plus five additional days on the superintendent’s compensation at $1341 per day.

3. LATE FRIDAY EVENING DR. DEASY ANNOUNCED THAT MARIA CASILLAS, whose tenure as ‘Chief’ of the Parent Community Services Branch was a fiasco for parents, the community and services-in-general would become his Interim Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction. This was reported as a water cooler rumor in 4LAKids Twitter feed back on March 5 and produced lots o’ angry emails – and a statement from a School Boardmember that this would happen only over their dead body. This action by the superintendent …and that statement – evidence one of those ‘Red Lines’ pundits observe and John Wayne draws in the Alamo courtyard sand.*

ADDITIONALLY DR. DEASY ANNOUNCED THAT DR. THELMA MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA WOULD BE JOINING LAUSD as the number two person in the Beyond the Bell Branch – which runs after school/extra -curricular programs in the District. Dr Melendez is a former #2 to Arne Duncan** and former superintendent of Santa Ana Unified – where her superintendency ended in controversy. She has most recently been Eric Garcetti’s invisible Deputy Mayor for Education – paid by LAUSD in that capacity with her salary reimbursed by the city to preserve her CalSTRS benefits. She graduated from the Broad Superintendent’s Academy in the same graduating class as John L. Deasy.

Cue the Rhinemaidens and fasten your breastplates: This, gentle readers, just may be how Götterdämmerung begins.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf

____________
* Don’t write: I know it was Laurence Harvey!
** Arne Duncan ran After School Programs in Chicago before becoming CEO there.



From the Twitterverse: THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF THELMA & MARIA
from @HowardBlume: LA Times Education Reporter Howard Blume’s Twitter Feed

[Reads chronologically top-to- bottom]

1. [8:58 PM on Friday Night 14 Mar 2014]
L.A. Unified is hiring Thelma Melendez from mayor's office AS senior administrator,. She once was contender for top LAUSD job.

2.
Melendez will serve as 2nd in command for Beyond the Bell division, which oversees after-school programs, among other functions

3.
She's likely to take over that dept after the anticipated retirement of the current head. Melendez was senior ed official in Obama admin

4.
She's also been supt. in Pomona and Santa Ana. Resigned from Santa Ana, where she had stormy relationship with that teachers union.

5.
In mayor's office, she's had a low-key role as an advisor on schools and other city programs affecting children.

6.
L.A. schools Supt. Deasy also is making another hire. Maria Casillas will come in to head instruction, sorta the No.2 position in LAUSD.

7.
Casillas succeeds Jaime Aquino, who departed amid controversy over the district's iPad program and his criticism of school board.

8.
Casillas is not the long-term choice, but agreed to serve as interim. Most recently, she had retired as head of parent engagement.

9.
Casillas will probably work something less than a full-time schedule but gives Supt. Deasy a veteran hand on key, looming projects.

10.
Deasy said of Melendez: He's fortunate to land some1 w her skill&record, esp w her knowledge of how to help students learning English.

11.
L.A. Unified was not immediately able Friday to provide salary information for Melendez & Casillas.

12.
Statement from Mayor Garcetti: "Dr. Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana has been a valuable member of our team, working on important programs...

13.
Garcetti: ..."that will improve the lives of young people in L.A., including increasing youth work and learning opportunities in the summer.

14. [Final Tweet at 9:12 PM on Friday Night 14 Mar 2014]
Garcetti: "I congratulate her on this exciting new opportunity with LAUSD and am sure our work together will continue."

_____________________________


MAYOR GARCETTI’S TOP EDUCATION DEPUTY THELMA MELÉNDEZ LEAVES CITY HALL FOR LAUSD

By Dakota Smith, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1iRcRkd

3/15/14, 6:31 PM PDT :: Just seven months after joining Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s administration, his top education deputy Thelma Meléndez is leaving to take a position at Los Angeles Unified School District, a district spokesman said Saturday.

LAUSD superintendent John Deasy said he approached Garcetti about hiring Meléndez. Deasy added he was “thrilled” to have her join the nation’s second-largest school district.

“I asked the mayor if I could poach her,” Deasy said. “I did ask the mayor, of course, I met with the mayor, and said, ‘I really need to build a robust team as we are now beginning to think about expanding our program.”

Meléndez will work for LAUSD’s “Beyond the Bell” division, which focuses on after school and weekend programs.

Garcetti, who is out of town this weekend, according to an aide, released the following statement: “Dr. Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana has been a valuable member of our team, working on important programs that will improve the lives of young people in Los Angeles, including increasing youth work and learning opportunities in the summer.

I congratulate her on this exciting new opportunity with LAUSD and am sure our work together will continue.”

A former Santa Ana school superintendent, Meléndez was appointed as Garcetti’s education deputy in August, earning $140,000 a year. In an unusual arrangement, Meléndez was hired as an administrator by Los Angeles Unified, then “detached” to serve as Garcetti’s director of education and workforce development.

Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman said in an email Saturday Meléndez’s replacement was “to be determined.”

The $140,000 annual salary Meléndez earned working at City Hall is likely to stay the same, Deasy said.

As Garcetti’s point person on education issues and LAUSD, Meléndez maintained a low profile. While Garcetti is focusing on a summer youth employment program, he has pushed no major education policies since taking office.

Meléndez retired as superintendent of Santa Ana Unified, the largest district in Orange County, last year. According to published reports, the time Meléndez spent at the district was marked by conflict with the Santa Ana teachers union and by turmoil at a middle school.

__________
●●smf - News Management 101: As the LAUSD Office of Communications, Superintendent Deasy and 4LAKids readers know, when one releases a news story late on Friday evening (the closer to midnight the better) you miss the news deadlines for the Friday broadcast news and Saturday and often Sunday’s print news – those editions being having been put to bed and most Ed Beat reporting staffs being on a 9-to-5/Monday-Friday schedule. There are exceptions of course: Preps sports scores, hard news (a stage collapse/a teacher arrest), etc. …but potentially controversial hires and/or other midnight surprises can avoid media scrutiny and timely transparency through stealth Friday Night Press Releases.


SMARTER BALANCED DELAYS NEW TEST ROLLOUT IN 22 STATES BY ONE WEEK: 2 Stories + smf’s 2¢
NEW CALIFORNIA STANDARDIZED TEST - SCHEDULED TO START NEXT WEEK - POSTPONED FOR A WEEK …with one day’s notice!

● ONE OF THE CONTRACTORS RUNNING THE TESTS WANTS MORE TIME TO “TEST THE LOAD”.

By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/1gyawDE

March 14th, 2014, 4:58pm :: Southern California students will have to wait another week to take new computerized standardized tests.

Testing was set to start on Tuesday, but the test's creator, the Smarter Balanced consortium, decided Friday to put it off for a week because one of the contractors running the tests wanted more time to test the load. The test is taken over the internet.

“There was nothing that was broken, there was nothing that’s wrong,” said Smarter Balanced director Jacqueline King. “We need a couple more days to run through all of that so that we can make absolutely certain that we’ve done all the quality control and due diligence that we can do.”

Los Angeles Unified, Hacienda-La Puente Unified, and Capistrano Unified were scheduled to start some testing on Tuesday.

The delay means schools will have 10 weeks instead of 11 to administer the tests - but King said schools can use another week after that for make-ups, if needed.

The tests have been three years in the making. They’re the first standardized computer tests on this scale in the U.S. Administering them is a complicated undertaking that for the first time involves separate contractors to write test questions, develop software, and report problems and other data, King said.

California's tests this year are pilot tests. Students will only be given half of the full English and math portions.

King said there’s no extra cost to postpone the start date. The tests are now set to begin March 25.

“I would rather they do something right the first time than sort of rush and plow through something that they’re not ready to give,” said Brian Huff, testing director at Rowland Unified.

The Smarter Balanced tests are being used by California and nearly two dozen other states to measure kids' mastery of new curriculum called the Common Core, which is meant to teach students problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills.

California’s previous standardized test, nearly two decades old, was a multiple choice, paper and pencil test.

The new test requires students to write paragraphs, show work solving math problems. The web-based test adjusts to individual student’s right and wrong answers to more deeply probe his or her level of understanding.
______________

ONLINE STANDARDIZED TEST DELAY IS NATIONWIDE: SMARTER BALANCED GROUP DELAYS FIELD-TESTING IN 22 STATES BY ONE WEEK

By Stephen Sawchuk | Curriculum Matters - Education Week http://bit.ly/1hky9kM

March 14, 2014 12:00 PM :: One of the two state consortia developing exams aligned with the Common Core State Standards is giving itself an additional week to iron out any glitches before field-testing begins.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, which counts 23 states as members, had planned to begin field-testing March 18. Schools will now begin the process on March 25, according to a consortium official. (Twenty-two states and the U.S. Virgin Islands are involved in Smarter Balanced field-testing; Pennsylvania is an "advisory" state and isn't participating.)

The delay isn't about the test's content, officials said: It's about ensuring that all the important elements, including the software and accessibility features (such as read-aloud assistance for certain students with disabilities) are working together seamlessly.

"There's a huge amount of quality checking you want to do to make sure that things go well, and that when students sit down, the test is ready for them, and if they have any special supports, that they're loaded in and ready to go," Jacqueline King, a spokeswoman for Smarter Balanced, said in a March 14 interview. "We're well on our way through that, but we decided yesterday that we needed a few more days to make sure we had absolutely done all that we could before students start to take the field tests."

Field-testing will take place through June 6. Some 3 million students in 20,000 schools are participating. Smarter Balanced expects most of the schools that would be affected by the delay to reschedule sometime during the field-test window. The group will also offer a "make-up week" from June 7-13 for schools that request it.

Most importantly, the brief delay won't delay the next steps in development, during which researchers analyze the results of the field tests to make sure that all of the test items are working as expected and generating the appropriate information.

"It won't have any impact on the subsequent work that we need to do," King said.

It's not entirely clear how many schools are affected. Some states don't have any schools in the first week of testing.

In most states, those students participating in the field tests take them in only one subject, English/language arts or mathematics. Five states are testing nearly all their students, and some of those, like California, are giving some version of the tests in both subjects to meet the U.S. Department of Education's "double testing" waiver requirements.

The other testing group, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, still plans to begin field-testing March 24.

________
●●smf’s 2¢ - Quoting The Above: “Field-testing will take place through June 6. Some 3 million students in 20,000 schools are participating. Smarter Balanced expects most of the schools that would be affected by the delay to reschedule sometime during the field-test window. The group will also offer a "make-up week" from June 7-13 for schools that request it.”

smf: That's all very well+good. Except that June 5th is the last day of school for almost all LAUSD schoolchildren.

The previous article from KPCC [NEW CALIFORNIA STANDARDIZED TEST - SCHEDULED TO START NEXT WEEK - POSTPONED FOR A WEEK:] quoted Smarter Balanced Testing Director Jacqueline King that there’s no extra cost to postpone the start date. That comment – about disrupting the testing schedule for millions schoolchildren in tens-of-thousands of schools across 22 states fails the Test of Reality.

Following is a link to the LAUSD Testing Calendar, as it was before this happened. It’s a complicated+convoluted+tightly scheduled affair; consider all the testing scheduled between now and the end of the year.


LAUSD Testing Calendar



L.A. SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES AMENDED CONTRACT FOR SUPT. JOHN DEASY
THE L.A. UNIFIED SCHOOLS CHIEF'S PERFORMANCE WILL NOW BE BASED ON MEASURES THAT REQUIRE HIM TO INCREASE ENROLLMENT AND REVENUE.

By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1gnXN5P

8:59 PM PDT, March 12, 2014 :: Los Angeles Unified schools Supt. John Deasy has a newly modified contract that includes an annual buyout of unused vacation days and new performance measures that require him to bring in revenue and enroll more students. He will also pay his own pension deduction for the first time, a cost offset by an increase of $20,000 to his annual salary.

The amended pact, approved by the Board of Education last week after private discussions, offers the latest evidence of a board that is exerting more control over the direction of the nation's second-largest school system.

The contract was provided to the Times in response to a Public Records Act request.

Deasy originally accepted the job in 2009 with the understanding that he would be able to advance his own aggressive reforms. These included revamping teacher evaluations to include student test scores as one measure of effectiveness. Deasy also has pushed, with limited success, to conduct layoffs based on performance rather than seniority.

Deasy's revised contract drops the superintendent's previous goals related to student achievement because the state is moving to a new exam and won't provide scores.

Despite incremental progress, the district has fallen short of most of Deasy's targets, which experts have characterized as ambitious. Deasy, for example, was never able to earn a $10,000 bonus by increasing the percentage of ninth-graders proficient in algebra by 8 points.

Instead, Deasy will be required to submit a plan for increasing revenue for schools by June 30. He's also charged with increasing enrollment by 5% a year; that strategy also will be required by June 30.

The enrollment target is intended to blunt growth at independently operated charter schools. The loss of students to charter schools and for other reasons has resulted in reduced funding for district operations.

Boosting enrollment could be difficult because numbers are trending the other way. From 2009 to 2013, enrollment in L.A. Unified's campuses has dropped 11% to 567,150.

"Charters are in direct competition for our enrollment," said school board member Steve Zimmer. "Anyone who doesn't recognize that is not in contact with reality. One thing we ask for in this contract is that we compete."

Emily Galbreth, a spokeswoman for the California Charter Schools Assn., said that in choosing charters, parents are "voting with their feet."

"If LAUSD believes that this new policy will improve their educational offerings such that parents would be excited and driven to seek traditional district schools — that would be a great thing," she said.

According to the revised contract, Deasy's plan for enrollment should include developing magnet schools as well as programs designed to help students become fluent in two languages. Improving daily attendance and lowering the dropout rate also must be involved.

Deasy will be eligible for a pay bump at the end of each year for vacation days he fails to take, beyond the 36 he's allowed to accrue. Each day is worth $1,341.

In an email, Deasy said the vacation buyout was a practical matter, because he simply could not take off the 24 days a year his contract provides.

Other employees must use or lose their vacation time, although they can petition to have their maximum number of days increased. Typically, unused days are paid when an employee leaves the school system.

Only board member Bennett Kayser opposed that provision, saying that the superintendent should not, in effect, receive a pay increase prior to other employees.

The modified deal also makes more visible a salary perk that Deasy had been receiving. L.A. Unified had been paying Deasy's share of his annual obligation — $20,400 — to a state pension fund.

This contribution came on top of Deasy's $330,000 salary. Now, the district will add $20,000 to Deasy's salary, and he'll pay his share of the pension deduction.

This restructuring was proposed by general counsel David Holmquist.

He noted that some union employees also receive a subsidy for their pension deduction, but could lose that benefit under recent state regulations. These rules would not necessarily apply to Deasy, but the superintendent decided to conform to them.

Over the last year, the school board has evolved into a more assertive but fractious group less inclined to back Deasy's priorities.

In October, matters reached a low point when Deasy told insiders he wanted a buyout of his contract over personal and policy differences. He decided to stay in response to statements of support from the public and board members.

Shortly thereafter, the board evaluated the superintendent and gave him a positive review, which automatically extended his contract to June 2016.

Deasy now also will be assessed on five-point scales for his relationship with board members, his communication with them and his responsiveness to policies and positions the board adopts.

Board members have complained that Deasy has ignored or delayed complying with their numerous resolutions. Some critics have said the board passes too many of these, which are sometimes unclear or conflicting or that create too much extra work for district staff.


LAUSD EMPLOYEES SHOULD GET A WELL DESERVED RAISE
Guest commentary in the LA Daily News by Bennett Kayser | http://bit.ly/1fKkdD8

3/14/14 :: When I joined the school board in July 2011, the employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District were in a state of shock. Many colleagues had been laid off the month prior. By then we were three years into the recession, and multiple rounds of layoffs and cuts in hours and services had devastated every facet of our public education system.

Whether it was one fewer custodian to clean a campus, one fewer librarian to assist a child, one fewer administrator to ensure safety, or one fewer art teacher to enrich the lives of our students, the work remained. The stressed-out, overworked, dispirited LAUSD employees shouldered the increased burden with little complaint.

Compared nationally, California schools are shamefully underfunded. Leaders in Sacramento regularly prioritized non-essentials over what is best for the future of our state. For LAUSD, the recession’s cuts were akin to putting a malnourished person on a diet.

As the recession deepened, it was LAUSD employees who made the sacrifices to save critical programs. Nearby districts allowed K-12 classes to balloon and shuttered early and adult education programs; LAUSD employees took furlough days to keep K-3 class sizes manageable and doors open to youngsters and adults.

If not for LAUSD employees and the cuts they endured, there would be no victorious 2014 Marshall High Academic Decathlon team, the All-City Marching Band would not have again graced the Rose Parade and the life-changing Outdoor Education programs would be dead. Without the financial sacrifice made by our employees, thousands of children would be roaming the streets without after-school programs.

To all LAUSD employees, I say thank you! On behalf of the students, parents and communities within LAUSD, I salute you for taking the cuts, working the extra hours and accepting the “other duties as assigned” without blinking. You did it for our children and for the well-being of this institution. You did the right thing with little acknowledgement and no reward.

Since then, the picture has brightened somewhat. While still lagging the nation, there are three pieces of good news. The recession has bottomed out and revenues are up. Second, Proposition 30 passed last November. Thirdly, the new Local Control Funding Formula extends additional dollars to districts serving the neediest of the needy, for which 81 percent of our students qualify. LAUSD will receive hundreds more dollars per student than in years past.

So, how do we relieve the crushing weight of current workloads and expectations? Simple, take some of the new money and bring the grown-ups back to campus! “Boots on the ground” matter. Return the district to pre-recession norming ratios wherever appropriate. Not only is this good for employees but great for our students who will benefit from the increased safety, support and services provided by additional staff. Reducing class size is another win-win opportunity for our students and those who educate them.

How do we best recognize our remaining employees for their years of fiscal sacrifice? As a public agency with year-to-year budgets, we have no stock options, perks or bonuses to give. What we can do is what other districts around the state are already doing; give LAUSD employees a well-deserved, reasonable raise. For most, it has been seven years since the last pay hike and many of those years saw salary reductions.

I am proud to be at the helm of LAUSD, an organization filled with good-hearted, caring individuals who put the community’s children ahead of their own families’ budgets. I am impressed by the “can do” attitude that got us through the tough times. I am honored to call myself a colleague. In this improved fiscal environment I want to do right by you, as you have done for our children. Thank you.

- Bennett Kayser is a member of the L.A. Unified School District board.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
TWO L.A. TIMES EDITORIALS ON THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS + other people’s 2¢: IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMON COR... http://bit.ly/1fMQ3Pr

MAYOR GARCETTI’S TOP EDUCATION DEPUTY THELMA MELÉNDEZ LEAVES CITY HALL FOR LAUSD: By Dakota Smith, Los Angeles... http://bit.ly/1is3uF4

Alex Caputo-Pearl: CANDIDATE TO HEAD UTLA FACES LAUSD DISCIPLINE: By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.... http://bit.ly/1iPBo4P

THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF THELMA & MARIA: From the Twitterverse: from @HowardBlume: LA Times Education Rep... http://bit.ly/1ipPKdO

TWEET: Deasy names Thelma Melendez as #2 in BTB, Maria Casillas as interim head of C&I ...late on a Fri night

Vergara v. California: SCHOOLS ON TRIAL: SoCal Insider 328 - Gun Fight/Schools on Trial – YouTube | http://bi... http://bit.ly/1ksXL1C

Smarter Balanced: ONLINE STANDARDIZED TEST DELAY IS NATIONWIDE + smf’s 2¢: Smarter Balanced Group Delays Field... http://bit.ly/1gymrS2

Smarter Balanced: NEW CALIFORNIA STANDARDIZED TEST - SCHEDULED TO START NEXT WEEK - POSTPONED FOR A WEEK – wit... http://bit.ly/1cHjyCJ

Education in California/Dance of The Lemons: THE VERGARA LAWSUIT: ®eformers want to make it easier to sack bad... http://bit.ly/1cYB7Jp

LAUSD IN THE NEWS: from Thursday March 13, 2014 + smf’s 1½¢: 4LAKids is having a small computer problem this A... http://bit.ly/1cCmH6R

Webinar – GEARING UP FOR SCHOOL HEALTH: Riding the Path to a Comprehensive School Health Program: by email fro... http://bit.ly/NXy4v4

STRIKING THE BALANCE IN SCHOOL BUDGETING CONTROL: Cross & Joftus http://eds... http://bit.ly/OhXSSi

Agnotology: CULTURAL PRODUCTION OF IGNORANCE PROVIDES RICH FIELD FOR STUDY + smf’s 2¢: Robert Proctor is one o... http://bit.ly/1lpB9PD

The UTLA Presidential Race: CANDIDATES VYING TO LEAD UTLA REFLECT RECENT TEACHER WOES + UTLA STATEMENTS & E4E ... http://bit.ly/1i4zEGw

LA Schools iPads: OFFICIALS CHOSE INCOMPLETE SOFTWARE OVER COMPETITORS: Annie Gilbertson, Education Reporter |... http://bit.ly/1nAl1vU

Pro/Con: SHOULD TABLETS REPLACE TEXTBOOKS IN K-12 SCHOOLS?: Tablets vs. Textbooks - ProCon.or... http://bit.ly/1copYq7


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
• REGULAR BOARD MEETING – TUES. MARCH 18, 2014 (9:30 a.m.) including Closed Session items
• SPECIAL BOARD MEETING – TUES. MARCH 18, 2014 (9:30 a.m.) including 2nd Interim Financial Report
• COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE-TUES. March 18, 2014 CANCELLED
• BUDGET, FACILITIES AND AUDIT COMMITTEE MEETING – THURS. 3-20-14 - 11:00 a.m.
• EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND PARENT ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING – THURS. 3-20-14 - 2:00 p.m.

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


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
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!.


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




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