Sunday, April 27, 2014

The week: done+undone


Onward! 4LAKids4LAKids: Sunday 27•April•2014
In This Issue:
 • A Blast From the Past: LAUSD BOARD MEMBER SEEKS OVERHAUL OF 'TEACHER JAIL' SYSTEM + smf’s 2¢
 • Memo to the LAUSD bureaucracy: GET A CLUE
 • THE LAWSUIT'S CALLED VERGARA, BUT THE NAME YOU SHOULD KNOW IS WELCH + smf’s 2¢
 • DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAYS NO CHARGES WARRANTED OVER L.A. SCHOOL’S iPAD CONTRACT + smfs’s 2¢ …x2!
 • 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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MONDAY was so long ago I can barely remember. Back from Spring Break. There were chocolate bunnies and Peeps. Eggs on the White House lawn. The L.A. District Attorney, after reading the LAUSD Inspector General’s Investigation of the iPad Procurement decided not to prosecute.[ DISTRICT ATTORNEY REVIEWS LAUSD INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT ON iPAD CONTRACT; ELECTS NOT TO PROSECUTE + smf’s 2¢ | http:// bit.ly/1i4od2s ] So, if not-being-arrested equals a clean bill-of-health…

TUESDAY was Earth Day; there was a Board of Ed meeting that probably contributed to global warming. ●CHAMPS Charter School tried to explain away a-bit-o’-th’-old-grand-larceny complicated by non-existent oversight. (Teachable moment: It’s still misappropriation of public funds - and stealing from kids - even if the insurance company says they’ll make it up!) [CHARTER OF VAN NUYS CHAMPS IN JEOPARDY OVER STAFFER’S $27,000 CREDIT-CARD MISUSE + smf’s 2¢ |http://bit.ly/1icJoPY] ●Public speakers spoke of teachers and administrators inexplicably in Deasy Jail. ●The Inspector General gave his iPad report to the Board of Ed; predictably it hasn’t been released or (amazingly) leaked to the public yet. ●The Board went into closed session and gave senior staff contract extensions and raises. [AT LEAST 5 LA UNIFIED STAFF GETTING RENEWED ABOVE $200,000 LEVEL |http://bit.ly/1nwCCHz] The superintendent’s favorites got three year contracts, loyalists: Two; the-not-so-favorites: One. It is interesting to note that Dr. Deasy – who wrote his PhD thesis on the scientific value-added evaluation of teachers - and has based his entire career on using data to evaluate students, employees and programs - offered no explanations, data or evaluations of his staff to the Board or the public. Boardmember Ratliff: “I cannot, in good conscience, support very public performance metrics for our Superintendent, a publicly available multi-faceted evaluation template for our teachers, and then vote for senior management contracts that do not include publicly available accountability standards or metrics on which to evaluate performance.”[http://bit.ly/UXHVhZ] ●In D.C. he Supreme Court continued to get it wrong.

WEDNESDAY was Shakespeare’s 450th Birthday:

“Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we! For such as we are made of, such we be.”

And Wednesday was Denim Day. Violence against women – in fact violence against anyone was decried at an event featuring Mayor Garcetti, Chief Beck and Congresswoman Roybal-Allard.…with Dr. D. notably absent. [http://bit.ly/1ipcufO] Quote o’ th’ week: “Peace over Violence: It’s an equation we all can live with.”- PoV founder Patti Giggins.

THURSDAY the LA Times had an interesting Column One profile of San Diego parent advocate Sally Smith (http://t.co/0imTZ7xvS0). ●Attorneys in the Miramonte Child Abuse civil trial accused LAUSD of failing to disclose, suppressing or even shredding evidence. This becomes interesting in light of the apparent fact that key information - the actual scoring sheets - in the iPads procurement investigation is also missing. [WHAT THE L.A. UNIFIED iPAD INVESTIGATION COULDN’T FIND http://bit.ly/QF7sjL]

Thursday the Bond Oversight Committee met and District staff announced that the Common Core Technology Project phase 1L procurement (to evaluate laptops at seven high schools in addition to the iPads everywhere else) would be further enhanced/complicated by the addition of a third RFP procurement [Phase 1L(c)?] to include Chromebooks – a lower cost option which look+function like laptops but must be connected to the internet to work.

Also Thursday the Common Core Technology Committee met for what was supposed to be their final meeting and was advertised as ending with a long-awaited live demonstration of the remote shutdown of a student iPad – “turning it into a brick” should it be stolen or lost. But District staff wasn’t available to answer some outstanding questions, other staff was reticent to show the “brick” demo lest some secret stuff be revealed – so the next meeting of the CCTP Task Force may be their last …but I wouldn’t make book on it!

And late on Thursday it was announced the Greg Schiller, the science teacher who was suspected of allowing students to manufacture weaponry as Science Fair projects, would be returned to his classroom at the Arts School Formerly known is Central High School #9. Schiller had become the poster child for the so called Deasy Jail abusive removal+ housing of “bad” teachers – and his case had drawn national attention that made LAUSD leadership look very foolish. [See many news stories cited below and last week’s 4LAKids lead article: TELL OLD PHARAOH http://bit.ly/1jqStAN ]

That’s one educator sprung from Deasy Jail out of a total the District says is about 250 …and others say is far more.

FRIDAY MORNING Mr. Schiller returned to his school and was welcomed back by joyous students, parents and those faculty brave enough to challenge the powers-that-be at 450 N. Grand and 333 S. Beaudry. The students had been planning a walkout next week; that was thankfully avoided. The powers-that-be at H.S. #9 and Beaudry made it clear that the mysterious non-charges against Mr. Schiller – whatever they are – have not been dropped; he had just better watch his step! And as foolish as the allegations were, the powers-that-be certainly don’t appreciate being made to look foolish!

Even though that fault, dear Brutus, is not in their stars …but in themselves.

AND ON SATURDAY El Camino Real High School won the National Academic Decathlon in Hawai’i. And Granada Hills Charter High School, three-time defending national champion, placed second nationally. Congratulations to both teams and both schools and to every decathlete in the District and the nation. Thanks to the coaches who coached and the parents who brought+bought pizza. It is the LAUSD AcaDeca Program’s 15th national championship.

TODAY is Holocaust Remembrance Day. In recent history the promise of Never Again has been hard to keep; we must teach our children to teach their children to Never Forget.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


A Blast From the Past: LAUSD BOARD MEMBER SEEKS OVERHAUL OF 'TEACHER JAIL' SYSTEM + smf’s 2¢
________________________________
●●smf’s 2¢: OK, so normally my 2¢ comes last, but let me set the scene here:
●This article is from 13 months ago. Obviously (or obliviously) from the current reporting around the Greg Schiller, Iris Stevenson and the at least 248 other cases of teachers and administrators housed in ‘Deasy Jails” – the problem persists.
● At the April 16, 2013 meeting, board member Tamar Galatzan’s “PROTECT CHILDREN AND SAFEGUARD DUE PROCESS”(link follows) resolution was passed without dissent, (unanimously) back when there were seven boardmembers on the board.
●Tamar Galatzan, just this week was called “a strong supporter of Superintendent John Deasy and his efforts to reform public education” by the LA School Report, which is itself a strong supporter of Superintendent John Deasy, etc… |http://bit.ly/1ffVF6C
● According to LA Weekly, the average time of teachers’ stay in the "jail" is 127 days. During this period of time, L.A. Unified keeps paying the teachers’ salaries while hiring substitutes to fill the classrooms| ● http://bit.ly/1j1pgA3
●The cost is enormous - about $1.4 million a month for salaries and investigations and $865,000 for substitutes, according to the Daily News. http://bit.ly/1hCrAJ7
●Neon Tommy, from the USC School of Journalism reports that this problem did not cause much attention until the sexual misconduct scandal at Miramonte Elementary School last year sparked a surge of investigations and pushed the number of housed teachers to more than 300. L.A. Unified said it was time to overhaul the system. The number of housed employees still hovers near 300. | http://bit.ly/1lV5DJj
● This may be making too much of coincidence, but Barbara Jones – the writer if this story for the Daily News back in 2013 is currently Tamar Galatzan’s Chief of Staff.
____________________________________

LAUSD BOARD MEMBER SEEKS OVERHAUL OF 'TEACHER JAIL' SYSTEM
By Barbara Jones | LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/1li7Lwh

POSTED: 04/06/13, 9:00 PM PDT | Los Angeles Unified would create a team of professional investigators to handle serious misconduct complaints against teachers as part of a new plan to overhaul the district's disciplinary process, which has been criticized as costly, unwieldy and unfair.

Set for a vote on April 16, the resolution by school board member Tamar Galatzan would take investigations of alleged physical or sexual abuse away from principals and put them into the hands of professionals. The investigations would involve employees cleared of any crime by police but still suspected of violating state or district codes of conduct.

"Some of the people who are tasked with doing investigations of suspected child abuse or sexual misconduct don't have the level of training to be able to handle them," said Galatzan, who is also a prosecutor for the City Attorney's Office. "Administrators are trained to ferret out allegations of cheating, but when it comes to conducting detailed investigations, like handling evidence and interviewing witnesses, we haven't necessarily done a good job of training them."

For decades, teachers accused of misconduct have been pulled from the classroom and "housed" in district offices while administrators investigate the allegations and decide their fate. The process typically drags on for months, with teachers collecting their full pay - an average of $6,000 a month, plus benefits - until they're returned to work or fired.

The system drew little notice until last year's sex-abuse scandals involving teachers at Miramonte and Telfair Elementary schools prompted a flood of new allegations.

Hundreds of teachers were pulled from the classroom after the district received what it considered a "credible allegation" of misconduct. Dozens were put on-track for firing after the district quietly enacted a zero-tolerance policy for physical or verbal abuse.

Last year, the board fired 99 teachers, most for misconduct, and allowed 122 others to resign rather than face termination, according to district officials. Through Feb. 21 of this year, 24 teachers have been fired, half for misconduct and half for incompetence, and 92 were allowed to resign.

As more and more educators were assigned to what some call "teacher jail," they began complaining to Galatzan and others about the district's disciplinary system.

Some said they were treated disrespectfully while they were housed, although procedures varied from office to office. Others said the system itself is weighted against them, presuming them guilty and denying them the chance to prove otherwise.

They expressed frustration with the policy that prevents them from being advised of the allegations against them until the investigation is complete. Even then, they said, the district is slow to act, delaying their return to the classroom or keeping them in limbo about their fate.

After a state audit released in November criticized LAUSD for its handling of teacher misconduct cases, citing instances in which investigations had inexplicably stalled for months, Galatzan began meeting with district officials, union leaders and parents to address their concerns.

"The prosecutor side of me understands the criminal investigation and proceedings that frequently go on. Couple that with the fact that I'm a parent and a district employee and a board member and I see how it gets played out at the school site," said Galatzan, who represents the West San Fernando Valley.

"This is one of those issues where, depending where you are in the continuum, you have a different perspective," she said. "Given the same incident, different people see what happened, and what should have happened, differently. They say the problem is here, or here, or here."

While Galatzan's proposal wouldn't resolve all of the concerns, it would create what she hopes is more efficient and effective process for dealing with abuse complaints.

Teachers also would be told - at least in general terms - why they are being housed and how long they might be out of their classroom. Housed employees would also be treated in a "respectful and professional manner," with uniform procedures established at all district offices.

There would also be tighter deadlines for handling investigations, and administrators would have to justify any delay to the school board.

However, the most important recommendation, Galatzan said, would be to hire professional investigators - preferably with a law enforcement background and expertise in collecting evidence and interviewing youngsters - to handle cases of abuse and sexual misconduct.

She and others believe that professionals would be able to resolve cases more quickly and that their involvement would eliminate any concerns about favoritism or retaliation toward the accused.

"Whatever system is set up, we need to be sure that the investigator has independence. The mandate is to have a thorough and fair and complete investigation, without a concern for politics," said Warren Fletcher, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

"This is about having people who know what to look for - not just to clear innocent teachers but to catch the ones who aren't. The goal of any process has to be schools where kids are safe," he said.

Judith Perez, president, of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, said principals are educated to be instructional leaders - not investigators - and most feel ill-equipped to look into abuse allegations despite the training they receive from the district.

"It's more than knowing what questions to ask," Perez said. "There's confidentiality and being sensitive and knowing how to talk to the children. "

Capt. Fabian Lizarraga, who commands the Juvenile Division for the Los Angeles Police Department, said it takes skill, experience and a special knack for dealing with children to effectively investigate cases in which youngsters may have been victimized.

His detectives -- who includes those who review complaints against LAUSD teachers for possible criminal activity - have to work their way up through the system, and continue to receive training to hone their interview techniques.

"There's a certain level of experience and expertise in talking to kids, to get them to the level where they feel safe enough and comfortable enough to give us the information," Lizarraga said.

Los Angeles Unified officials say the district has worked hard to train principals in investigative techniques, such as reviewing case studies compiled by law enforcement and conducting role-playing sessions. Still, they acknowledge there would be benefits to having professionals handle the complicated cases.

"It would be reassuring to the school community," said Ira Berman, director of Employee Relations. "It takes it out of that personal back-and-forth. "

Galatzan's resolution gives Superintendent John Deasy 90 days to come up with a plan for creating an investigative team, including how it would be funded. Deasy has previously said he wanted to hire two investigators with law-enforcement backgrounds to handle complex abuse cases. That plan is still in the works, officials said, and might now be combined with Galatzan's resolution.

The plan is co-sponsored by board President Monica Garcia as well as board member Bennett Kayser, a UTLA ally whose views often run counter to Galatzan.

A veteran science teacher, Kayser said he felt strongly trying to improve about the district discipline process.

"I want bad teachers removed from the classroom, as they harm our students

and the profession," he said. "On the flip side, many good teachers have been left to rot in so-called teacher jail, with no due process or even knowledge of what they are accused of.

"This motion strikes a fair balance, but one that puts our students first."


PROTECT CHILDREN AND SAFEGUARD DUE PROCESS RESOLUTION for the LAUSD Board of Education



Memo to the LAUSD bureaucracy: GET A CLUE

By email to 4LAKids from the parent of a student at the school formerly known as High School #9 for the Visual & Performing Arts



Sunday, April 27, 2014

What further proof could anyone need, of the intelligence and good intentions of the LAUSD?

Here's how NOT to further your agenda:

When you pick a teacher to set up, try NOT to choose a multiply-honored and much-loved teacher, respected by his students and peers, who teaches AP and Honors classes and volunteers with lunchtime clubs and after-school extra-curricular activities on his own unpaid time.

Try NOT to trump up accusations so bogus that even a small child could see through them, and try NOT to wait seven weeks without issuing any formal charges. Do NOT invite observers to question your validity or your motives or your competence.

Try NOT to choose an exemplary teacher who happens to chair the UTLA chapter negotiating committee, and try NOT to shelve him just before a union vote. This will look extremely suspicious and politically motivated to even casual observers.

Try NOT to institute such an atmosphere of fear among the remaining staff and teachers that they are afraid to speak with parents or even each other, worried that if such an above-reproach teacher can be targeted then nobody is safe.

Try NOT to let the public discover that your targeted teacher is on his school's Site Council, and that removing him from the classroom, the campus and the table impairs the SSC's ability to deliver the required Pilot School Proposal that's due on June first in order to qualify for a million dollars and WASC accreditation.

Try NOT to look like incompetent fools who failed in their coup, when publicity and public opinion force you to back down and "Re-instate" the teacher who never should have been "housed" in the first place.

This is not about one teacher at one school or even three hundred or so educators currently in Teacher Jail. It is about you. You know who you are, whether superintendent, boardmember, administrator or faceless functionary in the bureaucracy - singular or collective. Try to take another position; your credibility and competence in this gig have been fatally damaged by such transparent and obvious Putin-like measures. Between the names you are called by staff and parents and the laughter of your students, all you can accomplish at this point is to be a unifying force for disparate groups who all dislike you for their many disparate reasons.


THE LAWSUIT'S CALLED VERGARA, BUT THE NAME YOU SHOULD KNOW IS WELCH + smf’s 2¢
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC |http://bit.ly/1flWdrr

April 25th, 2014, 5:00am :: David Welch is the main funder of the Vergara vs. California lawsuit. He founded the Silicon Valley tech company Infinera.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch made his money creating breakthrough technology in fiber optic communication and building hardware to run the massive internet networks of the future.

He's spending it - at least some of it - on a pet project that could substantially change teaching in California and the rest of the country.

Welch is the man behind Students Matter, the advocacy group that recruited nine public school students to sue the state of California, saying teacher job protections harm their ability to get the 'adequate' education they are promised in the state constitution.

Despite not having a background in public education, he said he had no choice but to take on the issue.

“About four years ago, I got to the point where there was too many children that were being harmed in the system,” he said. “If I had the capability of doing the right thing to make life better for someone else or for my society, then I try to do it.”

In interviews, Welch wouldn't say how much money the case has cost him. It's no doubt been substantial.

Tax records for 2012 show he loaned Students Matter nearly $1 million that year alone, half of which was spent on public relations. The group paid $1.1 million to lawyers which ultimately filed the suit, called Vergara vs. California.

That was before the suit was filed, before a legal team led by high powered lawyer Ted Boutrous of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher faced off in a Los Angles courtroom for two months this year against a team of lawyers from the state Attorney General’s office and others hired by California teachers unions.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Rolf Treu said he'll issue a ruling by July. Both sides vow to appeal a decision that isn’t in their favor.

Welch said he firmly believes California schools are failing.

He said the public schools he attended Maryland were full of passionate teachers and paved the road for him to earn a Ph.D. in engineering at Cornell University.

He said he set out to find out why he wasn't seeing that in California classrooms.

“I went around and talked to a large number of individuals and they would range from parents to superintendents to teachers and asked them ‘If you had one magical thing you could do within the system, what would it be?’” he said.

They told him they would change the way teachers are hired, evaluated, and laid off because the current system protects bad teachers, he said.

“When I wake up in the morning, I ask myself, and I guide myself, do the right thing,” Welch said.

Vergara vs. California is Students Matter's first effort. The nonprofit's stated mission is to litigate for better education policies. Welch said he'll support similar lawsuits in other states. He said he's passionate about giving kids the tools they need to succeed academically.

His opponents said he's part of the charter reform movement, which they say seeks to privatize public education.

“People like David Welch, Eli Broad, the Waltons, the Michelle Rhees, have been able to spend a lot of money creating a narrative that sees educators as the problem in public education,” said Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers.

Welch said the unions are making him out to be more powerful than he is. And he insists there's nothing wrong with asking courts to decide if public schools are doing what they’re supposed to be doing - or with aligning with like-minded advocates.

“I am interested in having anyone who believes in putting children first in the education system," he said. "If Mr. Broad, or Michelle Rhee are part of that then I welcome their support."


●● smf’s 2¢: “He said the public schools he attended Maryland were full of passionate teachers and paved the road for him to earn a Ph.D. in engineering at Cornell University.”

This isn’t about the schools in Maryland and hopefully it isn’t about how billionaires can spend their money to get anything they want, wherever and whenever they want it.

But if it were:

• Look into Dr. Deasy’s record of leading all those passionate teachers in Prince George’s County, Maryland. |http://bit.ly/1h3XWx3
• Look into Michelle Rhee’s distinguished career as an 2nd grade teacher for Teach for America in Baltimore, Maryland. |http://wapo.st/QMi3tj


DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAYS NO CHARGES WARRANTED OVER L.A. SCHOOL’S iPAD CONTRACT + smfs’s 2¢ …x2!
THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE ACTS AFTER REVIEWING AN INTERNAL L.A. SCHOOL DISTRICT REPORT ON THE iPAD CONTRACT THAT IS SAID TO RAISE ISSUES ON THE HANDLING OF THE BIDDING PROCESS.

BY HOWARD BLUME, L.A. TIMES | HTTP://LAT.MS/1RECIRZ

10:00 PM PDT, April 21, 2014 :: The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has reviewed an internal L.A. school district report on its iPad contract and concluded that criminal charges are not warranted.

The report, which has not been released publicly, raises issues about the handling of the bidding process, according to L.A. Unified School District officials who spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to discuss it.

Apple's iPad was selected in June as the device to be provided to every student, teacher and campus administrator in the nation's second-largest school system. The district is using voter-approved school construction bonds for the purchases.

The $1-billion-plus effort has been plagued by difficulties that delayed the first distribution of the iPads at 47 schools last fall. These issues included problems with wireless networks and security and inconsistent policies on whether students and parents would be responsible for the costly devices.

Early on, students at three high schools deleted security filters so they could browse the Web freely. Officials also have come under fire for misstating costs and terms of the deal. More recently, officials revisited the decision to purchase solely iPads.

The scope of the internal inquiry, conducted by L.A. Unified's inspector general, was limited mainly to the bidding process that resulted in the selection of a vendor team led by Apple.

Prosecutors from the public integrity division reviewed the internal inquiry, focused on whether there was a criminal conflict of interest, district attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison said. "We closed it out in March," she said. "No charges will be filed."

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy said he was unable to comment on the report or the district attorney's investigation.

"I have not seen the report yet," Deasy said. "Nor have I been given a copy."

Some district officials cited the report's confidentiality for their unwillingness to comment. Others said they didn't want to discuss the report until it had been fully distributed among senior staff and the Board of Education.

Nonetheless, some officials and district staff, speaking not for attribution, said the 18-page report noted potential problems.

For one, scoring sheets used to rate different vendors competing for the contract had been lost, hampering efforts to assess whether the rankings of different vendors were fair or reasonable, they said.

The initial contract was worth about $30 million. About half of the ultimate billion-dollar tab is expected to go to the provider of the device and the curriculum software. Much of the remaining cost would go toward building wireless infrastructure across the sprawling system of more than 1,000 schools.

● smf notes: The cost of “the remaining cost would go toward building wireless infrastructure across the sprawling system of more than 1,000 schools” has absolutely nothing to do with the Apple-Pearson Contract and the Inspector General’s investigation and report.

After winning the bidding competition, the iPad was considered locked in for the entire multiyear effort, but officials now are considering other devices and other providers. Among the issues are the cost of the iPads and whether laptops would be a more useful device for older students.

Another matter raised in the L.A. Unified probe was that one of the members of the review panel responsible for evaluating the bids owned a moderate amount of Apple stock, officials and others said. That individual may have not disclosed this conflict early enough, they said. This person was allowed to remain on the panel after the disclosure.

Deasy, who has acknowledged owning some Apple stock, was not involved in evaluating the bidders. He later sold his holdings.

The review by the inspector general also looked at Pearson, a British firm that has provided the curriculum on the iPads as a key piece of the Apple contract.

Pearson has gotten into trouble in New York state for some of its business practices. In December, Pearson agreed to pay $7.7 million to settle allegations that its charitable foundation illegally drummed up business on behalf of the for-profit wing.

Pearson is ubiquitous across the education sector, helping to design the new high school equivalency test as well as tests to measure new curriculum standards adopted by 44 states, including California. L.A. Unified already was using a Pearson math program districtwide before the Apple contract.



●● smf’s 2¢: Unfortunately the line “The LA County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges in the allegations because….” has been so frequently repeated in cases involving LAUSD, other LA County school districts and the Department of Family and Children’s Services that it has become a mantra of stasis, an excuse for the status quo and the paralysis of inaction around children’s issues. ● It was the sad history L.A. D.A. refusing to prosecute because they couldn’t guarantee a conviction that returned serial abuser Steven Rooney to schools [http://bit.ly/1hETHqW] …where he could molest middle schoolers instead of high school students. ●The good news is that children will not be abused this time; I worry that the taxpayers will not be so lucky.

Additionally:

It is my understanding that the IG’s Report is currently being reviewed by the California Attorney General.
The LAUSD Inspector General, by statute, reports to the Board of Education and the State Legislature (not the superintendent!) whom ultimately will review and act upon the report.

The Board of Education would be derelict in their fiduciary responsibility if they did not question the IG whether any of LAUSD’s senior staff for contract renewal at Tuesday’s closed session board meeting were implicated in the IG’s report.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
Photo: OBAMA & THE MARSHMALLOW GUN: photo from Getty Images by Sal | http://bit.ly/1irvauD

IS PEARSON EDUCATION IN SERIOUS FINANCIAL TROUBLE? -http://huff.to/1ldzFJH

Board District 3: TWO CANDIDATES FILE TO SEEK GALATZAN SCHOOL BOARD SEAT …AND THEN TAMAR DOES TOO!:http://bit.ly/1fBjGQq

●Did LAUSD Shred Evidence in Miramonte Case?|http://bit.ly/1k0HnE4 :: ●Are Score Sheets Lost in iPads/Pearson Query?|http://bit.ly/QF7sjL

Tweeted: Scoring sheets? What scoring sheets? ....we don't need no stinkin' scoring sheets! | http://bit.ly/QF7sjL

WHAT THE L.A. UNIFIED iPAD INVESTIGATION COULDN’T FIND: The Inspector General couldn’t find the scoring sheets...http://bit.ly/QF7sjL

L.A. TEACHER WINS JOB BACK AFTER REMOVAL FOR SCIENCE PROJECTS: By Howard Blume, L.A. Times |http://bit.ly/1lbHcIU

L.A. UNIFIED DOESN’T HAVE TO RELEASE TEACHER’S NAMES WITH PERFORMANCE RATINGS: A state appellate court panel t... http://bit.ly/QEXcYT

L.A. UNIFIED BATTLES LAWYERS OVER MIRAMONTE DISCLOSURES, LAUSD ACCUSED OF DESTROYING EVIDENCE: L.A. Unified ba... http://bit.ly/1jLeiv0

SCIENCE TEACHER RETURNING TO SCHOOL: Published on United Teachers Los Angeles (http://utla.net |http://bit.ly/1lMwoiV

Media Alert: SCIENCE TEACHER GREG SCHILLER RETURNS TO HIS CLASSROOM TODAY FROM TEACHER JAIL: to 4LAKids by email | http://bit.ly/1laqBFj

Tweeted by @howardblume: Science teacher Greg Schiller has been reinstated. He'd been removed after student science projects judged "dangerous."

EX-LAWYER ON A MISSION TO KEEP SCHOOLS FAIR: Sally Smith knows California law and is challenging districts acr...http://bit.ly/1l7Cs7f

CHARTER OF VAN NUY’S CHAMPS IN JEAPARDY OVER STAFFER’S $27,000 CREDIT-CARD MISUSE + smf’s 2¢: By Thomas Himes,... http://bit.ly/1icJoPY

Tweeted: #DenimDay 2014 pic.twitter.com/p4rApe62jV

Tweeted: #DenimDay 2014 pic.twitter.com/thLBLnj8JC
Embedded image permalink

Tweeted: “Peace over violence. It's an equation we need to live with.” #DenimDay 2014

THE COMMON CORE MAKES MATH MORE COMPLICATED. HERE’S WHY. + Stephen Colbert explains it all for you |http://bit.ly/1jMbS0u

LAWMAKERS REJECT BROWN’S ONLINE LEARNING PROPOSAL: by Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report ::http://bit.ly/1i8NzfH

REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR HOPEFUL NEEL KASHKARI PROPOSES MAJOR EDUCATION OVERHAUL: The GOP candidate for governor wo... http://bit.ly/QxFUg3

L.A. ETHICS COMMISSION SUSPENDS AGGREGATE CONTRIBUTION LIMITS IN CITY+LAUSD ELECTIONS IN THE WAKE OF McCUTCHEON... http://bit.ly/1jLrwcv

Tweeted: 2nd speaker talks about Velasco's exemplary record at Eagle Rock HS

Tweeted: Parent from Eagle Rock HS tearfully discusses Principal Velasco's removal to Deasy Jail at BdOfEd

LAUSD INSPECTOR GENERAL iPAD REPORT: The BdOfEd would be derelict in their fiduciary responsibility if they (cont)http://tl.gd/n_1s1g2dd

Updated coverage: DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAYS NO CHARGES WARRANTED OVER L.A. SCHOOL’S iPAD CONTRACT + smfs’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1lzheO1

DEASY DISMISSED AS MIRAMONTE DEFENDANT - BUT HIS ATTORNEY CONTINUES TO SIT AT COUNSEL'S table - Who's paying? | http://bit.ly/1myb9Fk

AcaDeca: GRANADA HILLS, EL CAMINO REAL HIGH SCHOOLS PREPARE FOR NATIONAL DECATHLON IN HAWAI’I: By Brenda Gazza... http://bit.ly/1jAcoP0

inBloom: SCHOOL ®EFORM’S NSA ‘BIG-DATA’ DATA MINER, BUBBLES UNDER: THE DANGER REMAINS: http://bit.ly/1i4T8vp

Tweeted: UNCONFIRMED/UNCONFIRMABLE RUMOR: Pearson wins LAUSD contract for Laptop (not iPad) contract!

ONE MORE TIME: “The LA County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges in the allegations because….”http://bit.ly/auDNT3

DISTRICT ATTORNEY REVIEWS LAUSD INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT ON iPAD CONTRACT; ELECTS NOT TO PROSECUTE: By Howard ... http://bit.ly/1i4od2s


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
• Tues, April 29, 2014 :: 1:00 pm
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee
in the Beaudry Boardroom

*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, April 20, 2014

Tell old Pharoah

Onward! 4LAKids4LAKids:Sunday•20•April•2014 Happy Eastover
In This Issue:
 • PUNISHED FOR TEACHING SCIENCE: Popular Teacher Suspended for ‘Research and Development of Imitation Weapons’
 • SAME FIGHT, ANOTHER ARENA
 • SERIOUS READING TAKES A HIT FROM ONLINE SCANNING AND SKIMMING, RESEARCHERS SAY
 • DISTRICTS FACE CHALLENGE OF PRIORITIZING PUBLIC INPUT ON SCHOOL SPENDING + smf’s 2¢
 • 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:
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 • 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.
The Spring "Eastover" Break is almost over – a good time to reconsider capital “B” Belief.

W.C. Fields infamously said “Everybody has to believe in something; I believe I’ll have another drink!”

Do we believe in the God of Moses – who teaches social justice and liberation from bondage …but sends His angel to smite the first born and drown Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea?

Do we believe that Isaiah’s prediction of the Messiah was kept two millennia ago …or is it still to come?

The Passover Seder is an educational ritual, the transmission of belief from one generation to the next.

The dinner table becomes a classroom: “And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you: ’What does this service mean to you?’ that you shall say: ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of  the Lord, for He passed over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses’."

"And you shall tell your child in that day, saying: ’It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt’."

It comes from Exodus with an African-American melody …from the Black church:
Go down, Moses,Way down in Egypt’s land;Tell old PharaohTo let My people go!

I’ve never been to a Passover observance, whether in a church or a temple or around a Seder table where that song isn’t sung. It is as ubiquitous as Dayenu.

In my work on the Small Learning Communities Central Committee we rarely saw a school plan that didn’t include a Social Justice Academy – Social Justice is religion in the secular universe of public education. Much is made of the social justice embedded in the Restorative Justice aspect of LAUSD’s Student Discipline Policy.

Restorative justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused or revealed by bad behavior by working with the offender and the victim.

The Board of Ed passes resolutions commending Restorative Justice – and then passes resolutions reaffirming their belief. The superintendent funds it in his draft budget, community organizations endorse it – Restorative Justice is the next new thing: The quick-fix magic bullet that ends the bad old days of expulsion and suspension. A cold and broken Hallelujah.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against RJ. But the first+best thing to do is Prevent bad behavior – before there’s an offender or a victim.

Restorative Justice is the Blue Fairy – or Glinda the Good Witch - to Zero Tolerance as played by Maleficent in leather.

To embrace the seasonal metaphor: When we put all our enlightened discipline policy eggs in the Restorative Justice basket we miss this: RJ reacts to incidents that Prevention would have prevented. Discipline isn’t about punishment-of or reaction-to bad behavior – discipline should be about behaving well in the first place. The first goal of education is to teach the right thing, not remediate the wrong. The superintendent’s budget neither addresses nor funds Prevention – it continues to be reactive rather than proactive.

BUT LAUSD’s BIGGEST FAILING IN DISCIPLINE POLICY is exemplified in the way the District addresses adults who are suspected of transgressing policies+rules.

Currently about 250 LAUSD educators are being “housed” – languishing in so-called rubber rooms or teacher jails – “Deasy Jails” is the pejorative du jour. Teachers+Administrators are removed to classrooms and confined to cubicles – sent into seclusion in district offices – replaced in their jobs by often un-or-under- qualified substitutes. The “disappeared/ Deasyaparecido” educator is forbidden from communicating with his/her students, parents or colleagues – or even from transmitting a lesson plan to their substitutes. And often the housed employee is not even informed of the allegations against them.

The most notorious cases are of Iris Stevenson, the chorus director at Crenshaw High [http://lat.ms/1kNobfJ] and Greg Schiller, the science teacher at The Arts School Formerly Known as New Central High School #9 [http://lat.ms/1mni9lP]. Iris and Greg are two names we know, there are 248 others.

Educators are housed pending investigation – not as a punishment we are told. They are housed to protect students and to make them more readily available to investigators, investigators who rarely come. Investigations drag on for weeks. Or months. Or years.

There is no bail or bond or recourse; there is no habeas corpus. No right to face your accuser. There is certainly no promise of a speedy resolution.

And no one, from the site administrator to the superintendent and board members can-or-will talk – because it is “a personnel matter”. Lest we forget: The “Cone of Silence” on Get Smart” was a running joke about bungling bureaucratic secrecy.

The courts are loathe to intervene: the housed employees are being paid aren’t they? What’s the problem? Except for the taxpayers who are actually paying. And the students who don’t have their teachers.

There are allegations that employees are housed in adminsitrivial reprisal – or for not toeing the company line.

The truth is: Employees are housed because they can be.

This all boils down to Zero Tolerance at its most Intolerant. It’s a policy that propagates The Culture of Fear+Suspicion. And it works.

This is not America.

And how can LAUSD possibly make any pretence at having a progressive discipline policy for students when they treat their employees so shabbily?

Where are the adults modeling behavior?

I heard it from a student this week; “If they can treat Mr. Schiller like that, what chance do I have?

Tell old Pharaoh
To let My people go!

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


PUNISHED FOR TEACHING SCIENCE: Popular Teacher Suspended for ‘Research and Development of Imitation Weapons’
By Evan Bernick in The Foundry/The blog of the Heritage Foundation | http://herit.ag/1gK1iVB

April 18, 2014 at 12:33 pm :: Greg Schiller’s classroom seems to be a fruitful learning environment. One of his students recently stated, “He’s a really great teacher, and he really cares, he really wants to teach and he loves teaching.” It’s no surprise that he’s such a popular science teacher. It is astonishing, however, that he’s now apparently being punished for making science fun.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Schiller, who teaches at the Cortines School of Visual & Performing Arts, in Los Angeles, California, is in hot water because two of his students turned in science projects designed to shoot little projectiles. One of the projects used compressed air, the other consisted of a tube surrounded by a coil and was powered by a standard AA battery.

Sounds pretty cool, and very ingenious. But an unnamed school employee caught sight of one of these devices and “raised concerns.” Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District then reportedly accused Schiller of “supervising the building, research and development of imitation weapons.” And now he’s been suspended.

As the Times notes, President Obama not only supervised but actually operated a more powerful air-pressure device at a White House Science Fair that could launch a marshmallow nearly 200 feet. Perhaps, he, too, should be reprimanded for corrupting the youth.

We’ve written before of children who have been suspended over “level 2 lookalike firearms” made with their own thumbs and forefingers. While these suspensions are ludicrous, Schiller’s is unique, not only because it involves a teacher, but also because the harm of Schiller’s suspension will impact his students as well. For example, students in Schiller’s classes, particularly those who would like to pass AP tests for college credit, are now left with a substitute teacher.

Fortunately, Schiller’s fellow teachers and the parents of his students aren’t standing for it. “As far as we can tell, he’s being punished for teaching science,” Warren Fletcher, president of the Los Angeles teachers union, told the Times. Schiller’s suspension is now a cause célèbre, prompting rallies drawing hundreds of parents and students, a petition drive, and a flurry of social media activity.

Perhaps there is more to this story. The Los Angeles Unified School District on Thursday published a statement saying that, while it does not comment on ongoing investigations, “We will always err on the side of protecting students.” While no one wants to see another school shooting, one wonders if the “concerns” voiced about Schiller’s students were driven less by the prospect of violence than by politically correct concerns about promoting a “gun free culture.”

Educators shouldn’t be punished for doing their jobs, nor should students’ education suffer because of political correctness. Barring the revelation of damning undisclosed facts, Schiller’s suspension should be lifted.


●●smf: Just sayin’:
●The Heritage Foundation is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense" …lest we be accused of knee-jerk liberality!
●And if the PC crowd is really driving this because of the gun alusion in reference to school shootings, let’s get real. And let’s get really real about the ®eformers love affair with the “Parent Trigger”.
●And lets also consider that Mr. Schiller is UTLA’s Chapter Chair (union representative) at HS#9, that he was in negotiations with the administration over the pilot schools “Elect to Work Agreement” …and apparently those negotiations weren’t going to the administration’s satisfaction.


Friday on KPCC 89.9 by Larry Mantle on AirTalk. You can hear the interview here.



SAME FIGHT, ANOTHER ARENA
by smf for 4LAKidsNews

April 18, 2014 :: Apparently the way to fund a school bond campaign to relieve overcrowded conditions and fix aging facilities is to pack too-many like-minded potential donors into a too-small room, give them wine and cheese and canapés (and diet Coke) – tell stories about the glory days of yesteryear and shake ‘em down for checks.

So it was Thursday night in when School board President Lara Calvert-York and Superintendent Jim Morris of Fremont Unified tightened the screws in an Echo Park restaurant …in a room across the hall from the bar and 349 miles from Fremont.

Say: Wait a minute, board president whom and superintendent who from where? …in Echo Park?

Here’s the story: Dr. Morris in another life was an LAUSD teacher and administrator – focused on teaching kids to read – and later a local superintendent – and ultimately chief of staff and chief operating officer to three superintendents before he left Beaudry for Fremont Unified in 2010.

Fremont serves 33,000 students in a bedroom community between San Jose and Oakland and has increasing enrollment …its older schools are bursting at the seams and the district is faced with passing a large school bond – or busing kids or going onto a year ‘round calendar.

Sound familiar? It did to Dr. Morris – who thought of his mentor and asked himself: “What would Roy Romer do?”

He didn’t just think it; he picked up the phone and called Governor Romer. And then he got together with his school board and they put Measure E - a $650 million school bond on the ballot for June 3rd. image

As Dr. Morris said on Thursday: “Not for iPads, but to upgrade and renovate facilities.”

"All 42 of our campuses are aging, out-of-date and need significant repairs," board President Lara Calvert-York said in a news release. "Upgrading our schools and classrooms will protect the quality of academic instruction in core subjects."

Fremont’s Measure E is the largest school bond in California this year; the $650 million is the maximum FUSD can ask. Keeping schools up-to-date is worth the cost, Morris said.

"Any Fremont resident knows the reason our property values are what they are is because of our schools," he said. "Our kids deserve to have a safe place where they can be educated and prepare to be the leaders of tomorrow."

All of that is press release talk.

Dr. Morris came back to Los Angeles and passed the hat in Echo Park with the human story: About kids in schools where the HVAC and elevators don’t work, the science labs are old, how five comprehensive high schools must share a athletic stadium, and how the facilities are just plain tired.

And Jim brought Roy Romer and former LAUSD Boardmembers Marline Canter and David Tokofsky and literally dozens of us who fought the fight with Prop BB and Measures K, R, and Y to build the schools L.A. needed.

And we were a team again, telling stories of how it was and how it should be – pulling together instead of apart. Sharing a vision and a goal – not for the brief shining moment that was, but for the once and future Camelot.

Romer reminded us that when he first came to Los Angeles it was to teach kids to read and write and do math – and to raise test scores. But once here he looked around and quickly realized that to do that we would have to build and repair schools. So he led that effort – and while he did kids learned to read and write and do math.

And test scores went up …more than they have since he left.

We listened to Roy Romer, man in the arena. At once teacher, captain, coach and cheerleader - always the most intellectually curious and enthusiastic and engaged scholar; always in the moment. He shared with us the book he’s reading and what he learned in the past week about the neuropsychology/neurophysiology of the act of reading and Socratic v. Platonic dialog and the difference between knowledge acquired from a page as opposed to a screen - and how he broke a rib in a ATV tumble (He’s 85 years old going on 19) …and how that didn’t keep him from this gathering of the clan that could and did and will again.

“I hadn’t had time to see that before.”

Exhibiting leadership by leading.

No one more than Romer deserved to have school named for him, a middle school with a marvelous and well stocked library. I don’t think I go too far to say he agrees with me that the library is the most important classroom in any school.

It’s too bad the library at Roy Romer Middle School is locked up because the school doesn’t have a librarian.


SERIOUS READING TAKES A HIT FROM ONLINE SCANNING AND SKIMMING, RESEARCHERS SAY
By Michael S. Rosenwald, The Washington Post |http://wapo.st/Rw0z4U

●●smf: This article, and the cited book Proust and the Squid comes recommended by former Superintendent Roy Romer. [see previous] Romer and I suggest you read it deeply – and in a not-so-subtle message from the author: Proust and the Squid is not available for your e-reader!

April 6, 2014 :: Claire Handscombe has a commitment problem online. Like a lot of Web surfers, she clicks on links posted on social networks, reads a few sentences, looks for exciting words, and then grows restless, scampering off to the next page she probably won’t commit to.

“I give it a few seconds — not even minutes — and then I’m moving again,” says Handscombe, a 35-year-old graduate student in creative writing at American University.

But it’s not just online anymore. She finds herself behaving the same way with a novel.

“It’s like your eyes are passing over the words but you’re not taking in what they say,” she confessed. “When I realize what’s happening, I have to go back and read again and again.”

To cognitive neuroscientists, Handscombe’s experience is the subject of great fascination and growing alarm. Humans, they warn, seem to be developing digital brains with new circuits for skimming through the torrent of information online. This alternative way of reading is competing with traditional deep reading circuitry developed over several millennia.

“I worry that the superficial way we read during the day is affecting us when we have to read with more in-depth processing,” said Maryanne Wolf, a Tufts University cognitive neuroscientist and the author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.”

If the rise of nonstop cable TV news gave the world a culture of sound bites, the Internet, Wolf said, is bringing about an eye byte culture. Time spent online — on desktop and mobile devices — was expected to top five hours per day in 2013 for U.S. adults, according to eMarketer, which tracks digital behavior. That’s up from three hours in 2010.

Word lovers and scientists have called for a “slow reading” movement, taking a branding cue from the “slow food” movement. They are battling not just cursory sentence galloping but the constant social network and e-mail temptations that lurk on our gadgets — the bings and dings that interrupt “Call me Ishmael.”

Researchers are working to get a clearer sense of the differences between online and print reading — comprehension, for starters, seems better with paper — and are grappling with what these differences could mean not only for enjoying the latest Pat Conroy novel but for understanding difficult material at work and school. There is concern that young children’s affinity and often mastery of their parents’ devices could stunt the development of deep reading skills.

The brain is the innocent bystander in this new world. It just reflects how we live.

“The brain is plastic its whole life span,” Wolf said. “The brain is constantly adapting.”

Wolf, one of the world’s foremost experts on the study of reading, was startled last year to discover her brain was apparently adapting, too. After a day of scrolling through the Web and hundreds of e-mails, she sat down one evening to read Hermann Hesse’s “The Glass Bead Game.”

“I’m not kidding: I couldn’t do it,” she said. “It was torture getting through the first page. I couldn’t force myself to slow down so that I wasn’t skimming, picking out key words, organizing my eye movements to generate the most information at the highest speed. I was so disgusted with myself.”

ADAPTING TO READ

The brain was not designed for reading. There are no genes for reading like there are for language or vision. But spurred by the emergence of Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Phoenician alphabet, Chinese paper and, finally, the Gutenberg press, the brain has adapted to read.

Before the Internet, the brain read mostly in linear ways — one page led to the next page, and so on. Sure, there might be pictures mixed in with the text, but there didn’t tend to be many distractions. Reading in print even gave us a remarkable ability to remember where key information was in a book simply by the layout, researchers said. We’d know a protagonist died on the page with the two long paragraphs after the page with all that dialogue.

The Internet is different. With so much information, hyperlinked text, videos alongside words and interactivity everywhere, our brains form shortcuts to deal with it all — scanning, searching for key words, scrolling up and down quickly. This is nonlinear reading, and it has been documented in academic studies. Some researchers believe that for many people, this style of reading is beginning to invade when dealing with other mediums as well.

“We’re spending so much time touching, pushing, linking, scroll­ing and jumping through text that when we sit down with a novel, your daily habits of jumping, clicking, linking is just ingrained in you,” said Andrew Dillon, a University of Texas professor who studies reading. “We’re in this new era of information behavior, and we’re beginning to see the consequences of that.”

Brandon Ambrose, a 31-year-old Navy financial analyst who lives in Alexandria, knows of those consequences.

His book club recently read “The Interestings,” a best-seller by Meg Wolitzer. When the club met, he realized he had missed a number of the book’s key plot points. It hit him that he had been scanning for information about one particular aspect of the book, just as he might scan for one particular fact on his computer screen, where he spends much of his day.

“When you try to read a novel,” he said, “it’s almost like we’re not built to read them anymore, as bad as that sounds.”

Ramesh Kurup noticed something even more troubling. Working his way recently through a number of classic authors — George Eliot, Marcel Proust, that crowd — Kurup, 47, discovered that he was having trouble reading long sentences with multiple, winding clauses full of background information. Online sentences tend to be shorter, and the ones containing complicated information tend to link to helpful background material.

“In a book, there are no graphics or links to keep you on track,” Kurup said.

It’s easier to follow links, he thinks, than to keep track of so many clauses in page after page of long paragraphs.

Kurup’s observation might sound far-fetched, but told about it, Wolf did not scoff. She offered more evidence: Several English department chairs from around the country have e-mailed her to say their students are having trouble reading the classics.

“They cannot read ‘Middlemarch.’ They cannot read William James or Henry James,” Wolf said. “I can’t tell you how many people have written to me about this phenomenon. The students no longer will or are perhaps incapable of dealing with the convoluted syntax and construction of George Eliot and Henry James.”

Wolf points out that she’s no Luddite. She sends e-mails from her iPhone as often as one of her students. She’s involved with programs to send tablets to developing countries to help children learn to read. But just look, she said, at Twitter and its brisk 140-character declarative sentences.

“How much syntax is lost, and what is syntax but the reflection of our convoluted thoughts?” she said. “My worry is we will lose the ability to express or read this convoluted prose. Will we become Twitter brains?”

BI-LITERATE BRAINS?

Wolf’s next book will look at what the digital world is doing to the brain, including looking at brain-scan data as people read both online and in print. She is particularly interested in comprehension results in screen vs. print reading.

Already, there is some intriguing research that looks at that question. A 2012 Israeli study of engineering students — who grew up in the world of screens — looked at their comprehension while reading the same text on screen and in print when under time pressure to complete the task.

The students believed they did better on screen. They were wrong. Their comprehension and learning was better on paper.

Researchers say that the differences between text and screen reading should be studied more thoroughly and that the differences should be dealt with in education, particularly with school-aged children. There are advantages to both ways of reading. There is potential for a bi-literate brain.

“We can’t turn back,” Wolf said. “We should be simultaneously reading to children from books, giving them print, helping them learn this slower mode, and at the same time steadily increasing their immersion into the technological, digital age. It’s both. We have to ask the question: What do we want to preserve?”

Wolf is training her own brain to be bi-literate. She went back to the Hesse novel the next night, giving herself distance, both in time and space, from her screens.

“I put everything aside. I said to myself, ‘I have to do this,’ ” she said. “It was really hard the second night. It was really hard the third night. It took me two weeks, but by the end of the second week I had pretty much recovered myself so I could enjoy and finish the book.”

Then she read it again.

“I wanted to enjoy this form of reading again,” Wolf said. “When I found myself, it was like I recovered. I found my ability again to slow down, savor and think.”


DISTRICTS FACE CHALLENGE OF PRIORITIZING PUBLIC INPUT ON SCHOOL SPENDING + smf’s 2¢
Louis Freedberg | Edsource Today | http://bit.ly/RBINNU


April 15th, 2014 | California’s school funding reform law has triggered a burst of outreach efforts to solicit parent and community input in at least some districts – along with a plethora of suggestions about how to spend the additional education funds they will receive from the state.

But what is not clear is how these multiple recommendations – in some districts running into the thousands – will be prioritized so that they will be useful to school officials and school boards as they draw up their Local Control and Accountability Plans before the rapidly approaching deadline of July 1.

The funding law championed by Governor Jerry Brown that went into effect last summer requires parents and other key stakeholders, such as school personnel and community representatives, to provide input into the draft accountability plan. But the law is most silent on how they should provide that input. That is in line with the spirit of the new law, which is intended to shift the locus of decision-making from Sacramento to individual districts.

But some parent advocates worry that districts may have generated so much input it may not be focused enough to provide guidance to school boards and superintendents as they come up with their accountability plans.

San Diego Unified, for example, has sponsored five meetings to review its Vision 20/20 strategic plan, and is currently in the process of holding 16 smaller meetings to discuss the district’s LCAP. Lisa Berlanga, president of San Diego United Parents for Education, attended a meeting on March 20 at Patrick Henry High School – the same school where her son is enrolled. Berlanga said that all of the information collected by the district will pose a challenge for the people who end up crafting the LCAP.

“Parents are concerned about how they are going to meaningfully use all this data,” she said.

Michael Kirst, president of the State Board of Education and one of the architects of the new law, does not share those concerns.

“People are going to have to get used to a new system, and a new way of setting priorities,” he said. “I think most people realize that they are not going to get everything they want, and you can’t do it all in a year.”

He said that this is how the budget process is supposed to happen – get input from key stakeholders, then forward it to elected school boards to review what they have received and make decisions after they have done so. “The key thing is that there is an endgame here,” Kirst said. “It is the annual budget. It forces you to state your priorities.”

The Natomas Unified School District near Sacramento has generated over 3,000 suggestions from more than 1,000 people, gleaned from an aggressive effort to get community input. The suggestions are all listed on the district’s website in a file spanning 127 pages. The list is compiled from surveys of parents and teachers, community meetings, student gatherings, and a range of other sources.

The suggestions have been divided into categories such as “academic support,” “school climate and emotional support,” “college and career and student success,” “high quality staff,” and “English learners.” They include a range of ideas and suggestions, such as “better lunches,” “better Wi-fi,” and “more AP options.”

The six community meetings held in January and February in the West Contra Costa County Unified School District have similarly generated hundreds of recommendations, all written down on flip charts at the meetings, but not summarized on the district’s website. The recommendations run the gamut from tablets for every child and mindfulness/peer support programs to all-day kindergarten and smaller class sizes.

The 100-plus community forums held by the Los Angeles Unified School District or community partners, along with online surveys, have spawned more than 10,000 recommendations. In its draft accountability plan released last week, the district says these have yielded budget priorities such as increased employee salaries, expanding adult education and summer schools, reducing class sizes, and increasing the number of counselors and librarians in schools, along with funding for the arts.

District officials are taking different approaches to synthesizing the materials. San Diego, for example, is working with a doctoral student from San Diego State University to compile public comments and identify themes and priorities that emerged during the district’s public meetings.

The Santa Ana Unified School District is relying on WestEd, a San Francisco-based policy and research organization, to synthesize community members’ concerns garnered at each meeting.

Following the San Bernardino City Unified School District’s final LCAP meeting on April 23, Linda Bardere, the district’s director of communications, said the school system will form a writing committee to review the public input recorded during their meetings and start developing a draft of its accountability plan.

Paul Richman, executive director of the California State PTA, said one way for parents to prioritize their input is to tie recommendations to one of the eight “priority areas” stipulated by the new funding law, including indicators of student achievement, implementation of the Common Core state standards, school climate, and levels of parent and student engagement.

In general, Richman said, the more input a school district can get the better. ”It is very positive that we are seeing districts getting overwhelming feedback, because it shows that parents want to have a voice, and want to be involved in decision making,” he said. ”But it is a whole new process and we are all going to have to learn together about how to make this work.”

In the coming months, the decision making process will shift to parent and district advisory committees that the law specifies must give input into a district’s draft Local Control and Accountability Plan before it can be adopted. These committees will have the chance to give more specific input than the more general community forums have typically done so far. However, it will be challenging even for these committees to agree on a manageable set of recommendations that districts could then incorporate into their accountability plans.

Kirst noted that even though districts may be overwhelmed by a flood of recommendations, “not everything has to be done in 2014.” ”This can be done over time,” he said. “This is what boards are all about.”

Karla Scoon Reid and Alex Gronke contributed to this story.

This report is part of EdSource’s Following the School Funding Formula project, tracking the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula in selected school districts around the state.



2cents small from the above: “In the coming months, the decision making process will shift to parent and district advisory committees that the law specifies must give input into a district’s draft Local Control and Accountability Plan before it can be adopted. These committees will have the chance to give more specific input than the more general community forums have typically done so far. However, it will be challenging even for these committees to agree on a manageable set of recommendations that districts could then incorporate into their accountability plans.”

Superintendent Deasy has opined that the LAUSD Local Control Accountability Plan Parent Advisory Committee is purely advisory; his compliance with its mandate is obligatory+perfunctory. State Bd of Ed President Kirst is right: LCFF and the LCAP will not be totally implemented in the coming year – but the direction for the District will be established in June for this first three years of LCFF and continuing into the future. Hopefully, thankfully and realistically Dr. Deasy will not be LAUSD superintendent for the entirety of the future.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
“Obamacore”: REPUBLICANS SEE POLITICAL WEDGE IN COMMON CORE
By Jonathan Martin | New York Times | http://bit.ly/1lq8ZYG

“You have this unlikely marriage of folks on the far right who are convinced this is part of a federal takeover of local education, who have joined hands with folks on the left associated with teachers unions who are trying to sever any connection between test results and teacher evaluation” - Gov. Bill Haslam (R –Tennessee)


L.A. NONPROFITS GET NEARLY $1 MILLION TO TRAIN PARENTS TO ADVOCATE FOR THEIR KIDS’ EDUCATION: Deepa Fernandes ... http://bit.ly/1jmP5XP

Academic Advantage: TUTORING CENTER PUSTED FOR SCAMMING MILLIONS IN FEDERAL DOLLARS: by Vanessa Romo, LA Schoo... http://tinyurl.com/mpt5jq4

FIELD POLL: 3 OUT OF 5 OF CALIFORNIA VOTERS SUPPORT UNIVERSAL PRESCHOOL FOR 4-YEAR-OLDS: News stories/Follow t... http://bit.ly/QlEyVH

Cartoon: THE 20 STAGES OF READING: by Lynda Berry | The Washington Post |http://bit.ly/1jgaQJZ

SERIOUS READING TAKES A HIT FROM ONLINE SCANNING AND SKIMMING, RESEACHERS SAY: By Michael S. Rosenwald, The Washington Post http://bit.ly/1kKi0ZN

SAME FIGHT, ANOTHER ARENA: By smf for 4LAKidsNews | April 18, 2014 :: Apparently the way to fund a school bond ...http://bit.ly/1jeIAGg

1st ANNUAL FERNANDO JONES’ BLUES CAMP LOS ANGELES COMES TO LAUSD!: by smf for 4LAKidsNews At the risk of taki... http://bit.ly/1kyzus4

DISTRICTS FACE CHALLENGE OF PRIORITIZING PUBLIC INPUT ON SCHOOL SPENDING + smf’s 2¢: By Louis Freedberg | EdSou... http://bit.ly/1t9rMZv

API SUSPENDED …BUT NOT ACCOUNTABILITY MANDATES + smf’s 2¢: by Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report ::http://... http://bit.ly/1iZg8rU

CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE COMPLETION RATE FALLS DURING RECESSION | http://bit.ly/1ePxLJA

COLLEGE BOARD OFFERS GLIMPSES INTO REDESIGNED SAT - releases sample questions and other materials from the revamp. http://lat.ms/1jK6mx5

Compare+Contrast: PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IS OVERRATED + TEACHERS OFTEN BLAME PARENTS FOR PROBLEM STUDENTS + smf’... http://bit.ly/1t5h9XI

LAO Report: THE 2014-15 BUDGET - MAINTAINING EDUCATION FACILITIES IN CALIFORNIA: http://bit.ly/1iU55Bo 


EVENTS: Coming up next week...


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


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



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