Another ballad, another thin man

4LAKids: Sunday 26•Oct•2014 In This Issue:  •  FACTS, NOT HYPERBOLE: Regarding Deasy’s Termination/Resignation…  •  THE SHORT SHELF LIFE OF URBAN SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS  •  RETHINKING VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AS A PATH TO COLLEGE  •  THE LAUSD’s POSSIBLE CLASSROOM MORALE PROBLEM + 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:  •  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. Dashiell Hammett’s Thin Man had all the answers, the witty wife, the wire-haired fox terrier and the martinis. We are not so lucky; life’s easier when you don’t have kids. You walk into the room With your pencil in your hand You see somebody naked And you say, "Who is that man?" You try so hard But you don't understand Just what you'll say When you get home. Novelists invent worlds and populate them with themselves and people they imagine. The real Dashiell Hammett was thin and liked his martinis, the woman we and he imagine to be wife said "Jail had made a thin man thinner and a sick man sicker…”. She wrote “The Children’s Hour”, a book not for kids. It’s all very complicated and we don’t have time for it now if we ever did. Because something is happening here But you don't know what it is Do you, Mister Jones? I had a conversation in the parking garage with an undisclosed source one day last week and we agreed that the feeling throughout the District is so much improved. He has contact with many principals; he visits many schools every day. He senses the universal relief. One only needs to look at him to sense his relief. It’s a contagion and it spreads easily. No protective gear required. I have met with a couple of principals myself recently. They and their school sites are relieved – but the questions of “What’s next…?” and the rumors abound. The truth is that Deasy’s superintendency was punitive+disruptive and Cortines prior superintendencies were marked with budget cuts and program reductions – driven by efficiency and economic necessity. What will Cortines v. 3.0 do with an increasing budget – even if it’s Deasy’s? Will there be more local districts? …or less? Will ISIC endure? What will happen to Deasy’s initiatives? The Common Core Technology Project? Breakfast in the Classroom? MiSiS?. The alphabet soup of teacher accountability programs? The CORE Waiver? What will the board do? Do we have to use the MiSiS grade book? Rumors abound. So-and-so is toast. My favorite is that Cortines is only an interim placeholder; Mayor Tony will soon be superintendent. (Ray Cortines made it clear that he is interim nothing, he is The Superintendent. Tuesday’s board meeting was a paradigm shift. It started when it was supposed to, superintendent and six board members in their seats at the appointed hour. The latecomer was only slightly late and was probably surprised that the proceedings began on-time without her! Dylan again: Don't stand in the doorway Don't block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled. Urgency is neither an excuse nor a urinary complaint It is the Order of the Day. The closed session ended on time too, at 1:30 when the superintendent said it would. At one thirty Cortines was at his lectern and the board was in their seats as the audience filed in. Cortines’ brief to the Board on MiSiS was short and to the point – exactly like the man himself: “I have begun to dig into the issues of our student information system. I have learned a great deal about the situation, but still have much more to learn. “I want to make sure the Board and public are frequently updated on our progress with MiSiS. We will be transparent about what is working and what is not working. “We need to have a stronger relationship with all of our collective bargaining partners, especially for MiSiS with UTLA, AALA, and CSEA, so that we can inform our work based on the needs of our employees. “We need to be more direct and forthright about the issues our schools are facing. I see that the system is improving, but there are going to be issues for the rest of this year. “We need to have a greater sense of urgency in resolving these issues. It is clear that we are going to need to invest more resources in development, training and support to make this work for our schools. He will report to the board weekly on MiSiS developments, and when a public comment parent spoke about a student who didn’t have the right classes there was no brush off – there was an immediate response. As the superintendent wrote in his message to principals Thursday: “I want you to know that if there is something I should know or an emergency at your school, do not hesitate to contact me. We are here for each other and we will move forward together.” That’s as good a place to end as any – but I want you to think about the sixteen year old in Houston who was denied getting to take her driver’s test at the Department of Public Safety last week because her birth certificate listed two mothers instead of a mom and a dad as the Good Lord and the vehicle code intended. Yes, I know it’s Texas and the public safety is compromised by the daughter of lesbians behind the wheel. But one of her mothers is the Mayor of Houston. There is Hope and Hopelessness enough to go around. ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf FACTS, NOT HYPERBOLE: Regarding Deasy’s Termination/Resignation… From the AALA Weekly Update for the week of Oct 27 | http://bit.ly/1rFNalV AALA thanks Alan Warhaftig, a member of AALA’s MiSiS Committee who shared these comments. Oct 23, 2014 :: The MiSiS debacle was more of a factor than the iPads. The decision to implement MiSiS this year was irresponsible and schools are in shambles due to MiSiS. Unfortunately, there's no obvious way to extricate ourselves from this mess that affects, to varying degrees, every school in LAUSD. Students will be hurt, and after multiple system failures, employees have lost faith in LAUSD's Information Technology Division. At a series of eight meetings (22 hours total) hosted by Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) between November 2012 and May 2014, school-site administrators and coordinators warned Chief Information Officer Ron Chandler, Chief Strategy Officer Matt Hill and other high District and ITD officials repeatedly, and in compelling detail, about the consequences of potential problems. These District officials chose to ignore the school-based experts who would have to use the system. Most stories state that Superintendent Deasy raised test scores, so I reviewed the data... The Deasy superintendency began in April 2011, shortly before the CST exams were given, so 2011 seems a sensible baseline. Since the CST was not given in 2014, claims about Superintendent. Deasy raising test scores rest on the 2012 and 2013 CSTs. Click HERE [http://bit.ly/1w7bAdf ] for a spreadsheet that includes the 2011-2013 LAUSD and (for comparison) statewide CST ELA scores for grades 3-11, the CST math scores for grades 3-6, and the CST Algebra 1 scores for grades 7-11. Cohort views of the ELA and Math are included so that one can see how the same (or substantially the same) group did through three years of testing. There are a few bright spots (6th grade and 10th grade English; 4th and 6th grade Math; 8th grade Algebra 1), but there are no huge, across-the-board improvements. Besides, the achievement of an 8th grader on the 2013 CST is the consequence of at least nine years of schooling, only two of which were during Dr. Deasy's superintendency. ●●4LAKids published these comments earlier anonymously; another anonymous responder responded with data and graphs here [http://bit.ly/1081pcs]. So much Excel spreadsheet anonymity, so few names. THE SHORT SHELF LIFE OF URBAN SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS by Steve Drummond | NPR Morning Edition | http://n.pr/1oFDfRE Listen to the Story | 4 min 40 sec | http://n.pr/1tT0NVe October 21, 2014 4:35 AM ET :: If you're a 12th-grader right now in the Los Angeles schools, that means you probably started kindergarten back in 2001. It also means that, as of this week, you've seen four superintendents come and go. As we discussed today on Morning Edition, the ouster of John Deasy last week as the head of the nation's second-largest district has renewed a long-running debate about leadership of big-city schools, and particularly the challenges of raising achievement in such a politically charged environment. Deasy told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep last week that there's a clock ticking on "reform"-minded superintendents, such as himself, who want to shake things up quickly. "I think there is," he said, calling it a "worrisome trend in America." But he said that, regardless of that external pressure, he felt personally that there was no time to waste in his efforts to make a difference for students. "I think there's always the delicate balance of how slow you're willing to go," Deasy told Morning Edition. "And then you have to square that with looking youth in the eye and say, 'Well, it's not your turn this year,' and that's difficult to do." So, is there a time limit? Actually, superintendents tend to get hired, and fired, pretty quickly regardless of whether they consider themselves reformers. Deasy's tenure, at 3 1/2 years, is about average for an urban superintendent. That's a bit longer than it used to be, but still means that superintendents of any stripe struggle to stick around long enough to make a difference. What's been called the "revolving door" of urban superintendents has created a lot of policy angst over whether they can be effective in that short a time period. And it raises this question: How much time would it take to turn around a struggling urban district? I've often thought of a comparison from the world of baseball: In 1979, when Sparky Anderson took over as manager of the Detroit Tigers, he famously said he needed five years to rebuild the team and win a pennant. And in 1984, right on schedule, Anderson delivered. Writing about this issue some years ago, I related that story to David Hornbeck, who lasted six years as the superintendent of the Philadelphia schools in the 1990s. And I asked him the question: How long does an urban superintendent need? He told me the minimum length of time to reasonably gauge a superintendent's tenure was four years. The first year, Hornbeck said, is hiring and getting a team in place. The second year provides baseline test scores and time spent developing a plan. The third year is for putting that plan in place, and the fourth year provides scores that should be expected to show improvement. The problem with all this, of course, is that the superintendent by that time has often moved on to his or her next job, or the one after that. And so while some people see, in highly publicized departures like Deasy's, or that of Michelle Rhee from the Washington, D.C., schools in 2010, a sign of a backlash against "reform," the bigger picture is much more complicated. Whatever the superintendent's agenda, there are powerful political forces at work in an urban system: mayors, school boards, and teachers and their unions, to name a few. And it's often the case that pleasing one of those factions can alienate or anger the others. As Michael Casserly, head of the Council of the Great City Schools, told the Huffington Post, "The demands of the job are among the toughest in the nation, with cultural, racial and language challenges; increasingly high academic standards and scarcer resources; demanding unions and communities; and brutal local politics." Which may be partly why a recent study showed that when it comes to the real test of a school district's performance — student achievement — the person sitting in the superintendent's office doesn't make that much of a difference. Perhaps what a superintendent can do is create an environment (stable leadership, adequate resources, freedom from labor strife) that will allow the people who actually make a difference — teachers and principals — to do their jobs. That is, if they're given enough time. ►TRANSCRIPT : STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Now let's ask if school reform is being stalled in the United States. John Deasy suggests that reformist leaders are being steadily replaced. To hear him tell it, Deasy is one of them. He was superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District until last week, when he had to resign under pressure after three and a half years. Afterward, at an NPR interview, Deasy told us there is a time limit for school reformers. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST) JOHN DEASY: I think there is. I think there's always the delicate balance of how slow you're willing to go, and then you have to square that with looking youth in the eye and say, well, it's not your turn this year. INSKEEP: So what's really happening in Los Angeles and across the country? We're putting that question to Steve Drummond. He leads NPR's Ed team, and he's in our studios. Welcome back, Mr. Drummond. STEVE DRUMMOND, BYLINE: Hi, Steve. INSKEEP: So first, when we talk about school reformers, who exactly are we talking about here? DRUMMOND: Well, I think Deasy defines it as a group of leaders who've come in promoting some common ideas in education, technology, how to evaluate teachers. They use greater parental control in terms of choice like charter schools, but I think it's not quite that simple. INSKEEP: OK, so there's a complexity to reform. But there is a group of people across the country, and we'll be talking about that. Are they facing a time limit? When a reformer comes in at a big city like Washington or Chicago or New York, is there a limit to how far they can go? DRUMMOND: Well, you've mentioned that John Deasy lasted three and a half years; frankly, that's about average. Reform superintendent or not, the average tenure of an urban school superintendent is about three and half years, so he was kind of in the middle. INSKEEP: Is that a good length of time? DRUMMOND: There's a lot of discussion in education about the revolving door of urban superintendents. I once spoke with the head of the Philadelphia schools, a man named David Hornbeck, and I asked him this question - how long do you need? How long does an urban superintendent need? He said four years. INSKEEP: To turn around a troubled school district. DRUMMOND: Right. The first year, you're putting your team in place. He said the second year, you get baseline test scores that tell you how you're doing. The third year you're putting your curriculum and your reforms in place, and the fourth year, you would get second-year data to give you even an indication of how you're doing. But as we were just discussing, by that time the superintendent is usually off into his next job. There's a new person in charge, bringing in their reforms by that time. INSKEEP: So there's a revolving door problem whether your superintendent describes himself or herself as a reformer or not. DRUMMOND: Sure. Let's take Los Angeles - if you're a senior in the LA Unified District this year, you are on your fifth superintendent since you started kindergarten in 2001. INSKEEP: And every single one of those people maybe came in saying, I need to change some things, maybe go in a new direction, try to get reforms in place. And, of course, there's some political turmoil each time there is a change. In fact, John Deasy in our interview pointed toward what he saw as a kind of reaction by teachers unions and others opposed to the changes he wanted to make, kind of turning back the clock. Let's listen to a little bit of what he had to say. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST) DEASY: We now have the three largest school systems, all of which now are being - have been exited by a, quote, "reformer" and being led by either former employees, but certainly people who left their jobs, went into retirement and came back at a significant age. INSKEEP: A significant age, he says, maybe a reference to the fact that Deasy has been replaced by a former superintendent who's now in his 80s. DRUMMOND: I don't think age has anything to do with it. There are superintendents who've succeeded at all different ages or failed. There are, however, powerful political forces at work, including teachers. There are 31,000 teachers in the Los Angeles school district. They're the people charged with carrying out whatever reforms are going to be in place. And their unions and the teachers themselves have a big voice, so, too, does the school boards, so, too, do mayors in urban districts. And those are often key factors in whether a superintendent thrives or gets shoved out. INSKEEP: Maybe we're hearing the real answer why so many superintendents don't last very long. DRUMMOND: Yeah. And another interesting point, Steve, is that research out this year raises really good questions whether superintendents really have all that much effect when it comes right down to the classroom. INSKEEP: What do you mean? DRUMMOND: Well, a study out from the Brookings Institution looked at superintendents and their effect on the actual student achievement, and it found a very minimal effect as to whether who's in the superintendent's chair really has an effect on what happens in the classroom. INSKEEP: You know, we begin with that word, reformer. Is there any consensus about what really does work, what really can improve the performance of American schools? DRUMMOND: Well, from the superintendent's point of view, I think the key thing is what these leaders can do is create the conditions for reform. They can create a stable environment with the teachers unions so there isn't a teacher's strike all the time. They can get the budget under control. In Los Angeles, it's $6.78 billion. There are things that can be done that create the conditions for the real important people, the teachers and the principals, to do their jobs. INSKEEP: If the superintendent has time. DRUMMOND: Exactly. INSKEEP: Steven, thanks very much. DRUMMOND: Thanks, Steve. INSKEEP: That's NPR's Steve Drummond of the Ed team. It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. RETHINKING VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AS A PATH TO COLLEGE by Emily Hanford, NPR Marketplace | http://bitly.com/1wxJckz Thursday, October 23, 2014 - 14:04 :: For years, vocational high schools have been seen as a lesser form of schooling – tracking some kids off to work while others were encouraged to go on to college and pursue higher income professions. But things are changing. Vocational high schools are focusing much more on preparing students for higher education. At one of those schools - Minuteman Regional High School in Lexington, Massachusetts - students can learn traditional trades like carpentry, plumbing and welding. They can also learn high tech fields such as video game design, engineering, and biotechnology. Minuteman students spend half their time in vocational classes – often referred to as “career and technical classes - and half their time in academic courses. About 60 percent of the school’s graduates go on to college. That’s not the way things were when principal Ernest Houle learned welding at a vocational high school back in the 1980s. “The highest-level math I ever had in high school was an Algebra 1,” says Houle. “And that only happened my sophomore year because it fit in the schedule.” Houle went to Leominster Trade School, in Massachusetts. The school was located in a wing off the regular high school; Houle says he and his classmates were referred to as “trade rats” and no one expected them to go to college. After high school graduation, Houle worked as a welder. “It wasn’t until I went to become a teacher and I realized that not being offered the classes during high school made it more difficult for me when I got into the college arena,” he says. THE ORIGINS OF VOCATIONAL ED Vocational education wasn’t designed to prepare students for college. The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, the law that first authorized federal funding for vocational education in American schools, explicitly described vocational ed as preparation for careers not requiring a bachelor’s degree. “The early vocational education was driven by a philosophy of fitting people to their probable destinies,” says Jim Stone, director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. “Kids from poor families were tracked off into becoming the worker bees. Others were tracked off to go to universities and be the intelligentsia.” Stone says vocational education was designed to teach kids the specific skills for one job. To be a welder or a cosmetologist, for example, “with the idea that, once you become a welder, you’ll always be a welder. Or once you become a cosmetologist, you’ll always be a cosmetologist,” says Stone. The goal was, get kids really skilled at one thing, “and life will be good,” he says. The idea that people could be trained in one area and rely on an industry to employ them for life was a reasonable one for much of the 20th century. There were lots of jobs – good union jobs – for people with just a high school education. But by the 1970s, the good jobs that required just a high school education were beginning to disappear. Technology and globalization were increasing the skill levels required for most occupations, and making the labor market more volatile. Entire sectors of the economy were being wiped out, and new kinds of jobs were being created. To be successful in this kind of economy, experts say workers have to be multi-skilled and able to retrain for new jobs throughout their careers. Everyone needs a good academic foundation in order to do that, experts say, and most kids in vocational programs were not getting that foundation. IMPROVING VOCATIONAL ED By the late 1990s, vocational education had a major image problem. Vocational programs had become a kind of dumping ground for kids who weren’t succeeding in the traditional academic environment. That included a lot of students with behavior problems, and a lot of students with learning disabilities. In many school districts, vocational education wasn’t much more than a “second-tier special ed program,” says Jim Stone. At the same time, the standards and accountability movement was taking hold in public education. States had begun to write academic standards, or goals, for what students should learn. In 2001, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act. That law required states, in exchange for federal education funding, to test their students every year and to insure that all students would eventually be proficient in math and reading. All students meant the kids in vocational programs too. And once states starting testing their students, it became clear that many students in vocational programs were at the bottom in terms of math and reading skills. Under No Child Left Behind, those programs could eventually be shut down for poor performance. If they were going to survive, vocational schools had to up their game in terms of academics. “The early 2000s was a time of significant change in voc ed,” says Dave Ferreira, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators. “What we wanted to do was create a student who was able to go out” and get a job, he says, but also able to “get accepted into a four-year college or university.” The idea was to make sure all students were both “career and college ready.” Massachusetts stands out as a state that devoted significant time and resources to overhauling its vocational education programs, according to experts. The key was to convince vocational teachers to put aside “the old philosophy of saying, ‘It’s all about the trades. I don’t teach academics,’” says Ferreira, and to help them learn how they could integrate academic instruction into career training. For example, show teachers how to teach writing skills when students were writing up materials lists and job estimates. And it wasn’t all about integrating academics into career classes, says Ferreira. It was also about adding academic classes to the vocational curriculum. Massachusetts has largely succeeded in bringing the academic quality at its vocational high schools up to par with its traditional high schools. In 2013, students at regional vocational high schools in Massachusetts did as well on the state English tests (92 percent proficient) as students at traditional high schools (93 percent proficient). On the math tests, they did nearly as well: 78 percent of students at regional vocational high schools were proficient in math compared to 82 percent at traditional high schools. CAREER AND COLLEGE READINESS Ernest Houle, the former welder who is now principal of Minuteman High School, started working at the school as a teacher’s aide in 1996. He says things were already different from when he was a student at Leominster Trade School a decade earlier. “The students [at Minuteman] had advanced math classes, they had the opportunity to enroll in foreign language classes,” he says. Houle worked his way up at the school, earning a Bachelor of Science in occupational and vocational education and a Master of Science in educational leadership along the way. To get his Bachelor’s degree, Houle had to take a calculus class, a tall order having had only Algebra 1 in high school. “It was a lot of hard work and staying after class, working with the professor,” says Houle. But he did it. “I am probably the poster child for the importance of career and college readiness,” he says with a chuckle. He says his goal is to make sure every student who graduates from Minuteman is prepared for higher education. “Students get the same kind of college prep here that they’d get at any high school,” he says. “And they get career skills too.” That’s a bonus students don’t get at most traditional high schools, and it’s one of the reasons many students and parents choose Minuteman. A BETTER PATH TO COLLEGE Sean and Brandon Datar went to private school until 8th grade. Their dad is an electrical engineer and their mom teaches at a Montessori school. They’re probably not the kinds of kids you’d imagine at a vocational high school. But when Brandon was looking at options for high school, Minuteman stood out, says his dad, Nijan Datar. “Being an engineer myself, I like the fact that schools like this cater to making an actual living,” he says. The family had been touring public and private high schools in the Boston suburbs, many of them considered among the best high schools in the country. But Datar wasn’t impressed. He says the main goal seemed to be getting students into the best, and most expensive, colleges. But no one seemed to be talking about what kids were going to do with their college degrees once they got them. His wife, Teresa Datar, says high school students need more direction. “My feeling is that in many high schools, students don’t know why they’re in the classes that they’re in. They’re just kind of biding time,” she says. “And then they go off to college and they flounder.” Her son Sean did not want that to happen to him. He says what he liked best when he toured Minuteman is that the students he met seemed to have a plan for their lives. “When you think about it, you want to know what you want to do, and you want to be sure of it, by the time you go to college,” says Sean. “You don’t want to pick a major, get like $50,000 in debt,” and then realize you want to do something else. Ed Bouquillon, the superintendent of the school district where Minuteman is located, says one goal of vocational education is to help kids figure out what they don’t want to do. “Sometimes I’ll have kids who, at the end of their four years, they’ll say, ‘Dr. B, you know, I came here in nursing and I really don’t like it.’ And that’s a valuable thing to know,” says Bouquillon. Better to figure it out in a public high school, where you’re not paying tuition, than at a college that’s charging you thousands of dollars, he says. But students and families who choose vocational education face stereotypes. Nijan Datar says friends and neighbors in their affluent Boston suburb were kind of startled when they heard his son Brandon was going to Minuteman. “What we did was definitely not the norm here,” says Datar. “I have had raised-eyebrow looks. It’s almost like you can read that other person’s mind thinking, OK, the reason I did this is because my son is not very smart.” But Datar says his family chose Minuteman because it seemed like a better path to college than a traditional high school. His sons are “going to a regular high school but also dipping [their] feet into the real world and starting to get an understanding of what it takes to get a job,” he says. His son Brandon is now a freshman at the Colorado School of Mines, working on a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering. His son Sean is a sophomore at Minuteman, majoring in robotics. AFTER MINUTEMAN Alice Ofria graduated from Minuteman in 2009. She majored in environmental science. Now she works as a lab technician for the drinking water department in Billerica, Massachusetts. It started as an internship, the summer after she graduated from Minuteman. But she was so good at the job, the town hired her on as a permanent employee, says John Sullivan, her boss. “She’s an expert in computers and a whiz in chemistry,” says Sullivan. Sullivan says it’s hard for the town to find people with Ofria’s skills. There’s a “chasm” between what people learn in school and what’s needed in the “real world,” says Sullivan. Even college graduates don’t tend to have the needed mix of skills and knowledge. But Ofria was ready to go from day one, he says. “The program at Minuteman prepared her to actually learn” what she needed to on the job, and fast. “She’s done outstanding work here,” he says. As a lab technician for the town, Ofria stated off making more than $26 an hour. She gets regular raises, and health and retirement benefits too. Her friends are amazed. “Most of my friends are waitresses or work as a secretary somewhere, or at a tanning salon,” she says. Some of them are college graduates, struggling to get by. But Ofria recently bought a new truck and went on a vacation to Puerto Rico. And having a good job – she now makes more than $30 an hour – was a huge help when it came to paying college tuition. In May, Ofria graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Boston with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science. And just last month, she picked up a second job – as a teacher’s aide in the Environmental Technology program at Minuteman. She’s thinking about pursuing a teaching career, and if she does, she says she wants to teach at a vocational high school. “Vocational school is where it’s at, to put it bluntly,” she says. “Because no one experienced a field, a trade and also got the same [academic] education. None of my friends experienced that, except for the friends I went to Minuteman with.” ● This story originally appeared on "American RadioWorks" as part of their hour-long documentary "Ready to Work: Reviving Vocational Ed." THE LAUSD’s POSSIBLE CLASSROOM MORALE PROBLEM + smf’s 2¢ Readers React: By LA Times Letters to the Editor Editor Paul Thornton | http://lat.ms/ZRHzkY 25 Oct 2014 :: The teachers in Los Angeles who write to The Times — and I may be understating the intensity of their views here — are no fans of John Deasy. So when the embattled former superintendent resigned from the Los Angeles Unified School District last week, one might have expected a collective sigh of relief from our educator letter writers. Hardly. Though a handful of teachers celebrated Deasy's departure, the vast majority who wrote us expressed continued anxiety and frustration over their jobs. If letters are any indication of broader opinion, it's safe to say there may be a morale problem in L.A. Unified classrooms. ●MELANIE PANUSH LINDERT OF LOS ANGELES takes the pulse of teachers: at several campuses: I thought it couldn't get worse, but indeed it has: LAUSD teachers are even more stressed than last school year. As an itinerant dance teacher, I work with several dozen teachers a year. I trudge to a different school every day. The teacher inferno has reached epic proportions this year, with no relief in sight. We must remember that what befalls our teachers trickles down to our children. We have the endless flow of testing. One fourth-grade teacher explained how frustrated she was because there was no opportunity to prepare her children for a math test. Teachers must know the new Common Core curriculum, terminology, objectives and how to record data on computers. Parents and principals are demanding more. There is a new, complex system for evaluating teachers, and teachers are required to take workshops to comply with this new system. I thought it couldn't get worse, but indeed it has: LAUSD teachers are even more stressed than last school year. - Melanie Panush Lindert, Los Angeles Teachers are serious, responsible, caring, creative, resourceful and patient. Why haven't these professionals been part of the team to create the very best system for our kids? ●RANCHO PALOS VERDES RESIDENT MICHAEL WHITTEMORE gives credit to his fellow teachers for gains in achievement: I am a retired teacher (30 years of experience), and I am amazed by the arrogance of education "talking heads" claiming credit for student achievement. They don't teach; teachers do. It is the joy of that nexus that brings progress. Teachers love teaching. Giving us decent class sizes, materials (most teachers spend their own money on classroom materials) and administrative support will result in even greater achievement. ●JIM WAKEMAN OF LONG BEACH says education reforms are driving away teachers: Deasy's sympathizers give him credit for reducing the number of student suspensions and raising students' test scores. Well, when teachers are required to keep students in class in spite of their behavior, yes, there will be fewer suspensions. And when teachers' jobs may be threatened by low student test scores, some teachers, understandably, will "teach to the test." Then, yes, test scores will improve. Neither of these predictable results will improve student learning, but they will drive more teachers away from the profession. ___________ ●● smf’s 2¢: The L.A. Times is obviously getting farther out on a limb than they feel comfortable. I guess if your window on the world is through The Times mailbag yours is a rather limited perspective – as evidenced by the editor/headline writer’s use of the qualifier ‘possible’. The world is possibly round and chocolate is possibly tasty. The newspaper industry is in a possible downturn. District morale is abysmal, all the way to eleven on the knob. And, like Captain Bligh in the old joke, apparently the flogging won’t stop until the morale improves. All surviving LAUSD staff, whether in the classroom, the school, the local district, or the central office - have been through six years of RIFs, class size+workload increases and program cuts. They haven’t got a raise in slightly less than forever. They have worked hard, they have raised test scores, they campaigned for Prop 30 which brought in more money to schools – and are rewarded by the superintendent taking a 17% pay raise and offering them 2%. There is money for iPads and failed technology but none for the District’s most valuable asset: Its human resources. The powerless-that-be have turned back the billionaires who would break their unions and take away their jobs and outsource public education to charter schools at the ballot box…and are rewarded with a Time Magazine cover that hammers Bad Teachers with a Judge’s Gavel. Never mind that the cover story doesn’t even agree with the cover picture and headline – “Bad Teachers” sells magazines! “Bad Teachers” allegedly don’t teach to the test with enough urgency. The “Embattled+Beleaguered Superintendent” may have fixed a contract according to The Times own reporting. And the Publisher/CEO of the LA Times goes on the radio and bemoans his downfall. HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources "CRENSHAW" UC Santa Cruz graduate student's thesis film examines bitterness of Crenshaw High reconstitution | http://bit.ly/1wzZFmp ACLU: Jefferson High class scheduling improvement plan may be flawed http://bit.ly/1sqqLbs 9 LAUSD schools each get $50,000 because they’re near a huge garbage dump | http://bit.ly/1pNZRui ANOTHER CALIFORNIA EXPORT INDUSTRY: CA Charters plan for future growth ....outside state | http://bit.ly/1zwiVGS LAUSD STUDENTS COULD TAKE iPADS HOME SOON | http://bit.ly/1sqoz3H THE LAUSD’s POSSIBLE CLASSROOM MORALE PROBLEM + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1uWFg8z iPAD + MiSiS CRISES: LAUSD Parents Seek L.A.Superior Court Civil Grand Jury Investigation + smf’s 2¢ | http://bitly.com/1DccbdT THE TROUBLED HISTORY + PROMISING FUTURE OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sdfn42 BAD APPLES / BAD TEACHERS / BAD TIME MAGAZINE :: #TIMEfail | http://bit.ly/1sZDYM5 DUNCAN SOFTENS STAND ON K-12 TESTING ....looks for the 'Goldilocks' balance Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sdcs1k TIME: "......some tech millionaires may have found a way to change that" | http://ti.me/1oxiDeq View summary TIME MAGAZINE: "It's nearly impossible to fire a bad teacher...." | http://ti.me/1oxiDeq 1st Look: TIME MAGAZINE COVER STORY ON TEACHER TENURE, VERGARA, DAVID WELCH Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sdcqh5 Politico AM Ed: NEW FEDERAL REGS LOOSEN CREDIT REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENT LOANS Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sdcqaq GUNS IN SENIOR PORTRAITS OK IF DONE TASTEFULLY, NEBRASKA SCHOOL BOARD SAYS, Omaha World-Herald: http://bit.ly/ZEQvdd Bonds should not pay for iPad curriculum, new L.A. Unified head says http://fw.to/CDXfLNj /s/IWi9 UPDATED AGAIN: TWO THOUGHTS (and some statistical analysis) WORTH FAR MORE THAN 2¢ RE: THURSDAY’S TRANSITION | http://bit.ly/1081pcs Politico shout out to Carson High farm program! GOOD MORNING! It's Tuesday, Oct. 21 and I can't stop thinking ab… http://twishort.com/54Ggc Uh-oh, that word again: CORTINES FEELS ‘URGENCY’, THE FORCES OF ®EFORM FEEL PRESSURE | http://bit.ly/1w2DVmc "......and I need to find out the extent of the problem so we can deal with the issues." | http://bit.ly/1whPzrb "I’m very concerned that it’s not just one or two, three schools, it’s all across the district.... http://bit.ly/1whPzrb "I don’t think anybody knows the magnitude, neither do I, of the (MiSiS) meltdown," Cortines said. | http://bit.ly/1whPzrb Who knew there was a spin cycle on the Polar Express?: EX-LAUSD CHIEF SAYS RESIGNATION CAME IN POLARIZED ATMOSPHPERE http://bit.ly/1nxR8AB Cortines doesn't want/won't seek Deasy's advice.| http://bit.ly/1nxPHC0 | Cortines Interview: 9AM @KPCC 89.3 Cortines contract runs through June 2015, but can be ended by either party with 30 days notice. 0 replies 6 retweets 0 favorites Scott Folsom @4LAKids • Oct 20 POLITICO MORNING ED: T vs. T - California superintendent battle escalate$ | http://bit.ly/1ySwwHo 30 year LAUSD teacher's CALSTRS pension = $36,009 annually / 4 yr Deasy superintendent's CALSTRS pension = $39,995 | http://bit.ly/1t2uNfl Tea-baggers lament: LA SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT GETS PENSION SPIKE, THEN RESIGNS | http://bit.ly/1t2uNfl 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 George.McKenna@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. • To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

LAUSafterD: Superman has left the building

4LAKids: Sunday 19•Oct•2014 In This Issue:  •  TOO MANY MAVERICK MOMENTS FINALLY LED TO DEASY'S UNDOING AT LAUSD  •  L.A. SCHOOL BOARD OKS PLAN TO RESOLVE JEFFERSON HIGH PROBLEMS  •  DEASY RESIGNS AND CHANDA IS STILL WAITING…  •  DEASY’S DEPARTURE PRESENTS OPPORTUNITY FOR LAUSD TO FOCUS ON EDUCATION  •  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. This is an issue of 4LAKids I suspect many readers have been looking forward to; I have been anticipating writing it. It was the week that was inevitably to be. MONDAY the Special Monitor’s report on the Special Ed Modified Consent Degree went live – and like much that is written about LAUSD of late, it was mostly about MiSiS. And it certainly wasn’t flattering. As late as Thursday senior staff were anticipating an exit from the MCD. Dream on. "Sing with me, sing for the year Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear" TUESDAY had the Board meeting where the Board ran, not walked, into special session at ten AM– and stayed locked in their little room three and a half hours past the start time of the next meeting. I will write more on that later. Then they came out and addressed the Jefferson High School debacle – which is less about MiSiS and more about a perfect-storm failure of leadership at every level ...but let’s blame it in MiSiS! I will write more on that later. Then the Board continued on into the rest of the next agenda (and reapproved my appointment to the Bond Oversight Committee ThankYouVeryMuch) and talked about MiSiS and approved less testing devices than the superintendent asked for and even less than the Bond Oversight Committee approved and voted against releasing the Inspector General’s investigation of the iPads procurement (I will write more on that later) and scurried back into closed session to resume talking about secret stuff into hours way past my bedtime. A pitiful tweet from LA Times reporter Howard Blume stated “It is 10:56 pm and the school board is still meeting in closed session”. And at 11:15 Howard tweeted: “L.A. school board fires 4 teachers & zero superintendents Tuesday night”. AND THEN, AT 8:04 PM ON WEDNESDAY EVENING the LA School Report – usually aligned with the superintendent’s camp - leaked the Breaking News: DEASY EXPECTED TO STEP DOWN My phone rang almost immediately: “Is it true?” (apparently two blogs in agreement passes for fact) …and within a few minutes it was somewhat confirmed and the Twitterverse and Blogosphere lit up and the superintendent-in-Korea was established to be back in town and Michelle King was-in-and-then-out-as interim supe and media availabilities and press conferences were scheduled and cancelled. On THURSDAY MORNING All the TV Crews in the World descended on Beaudry anyway and media advisories were issued and at 10 AM everyone read it on their Smartphones at the same moment. Deasy was gone and Cortines was back without a press conference or a photo op. Cirque du Soleil is the circus without animals; this was a media circus with only the media. This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a tweet. And life went on. Meetings were held. Classes were taught. Students learned and ate their lunch and achieved and/or underachieved as is their wont. Books were checked out of libraries. The school play was rehearsed and a new playground tetherball champion was crowned. Thursday was, in addition to the big shake up, the Great California Shake Out statewide earthquake preparedness drill and everyone from Beaudry to Broadway Elementary duck+covered. There was more relief than happy dancing. It’s theoretically easier to smile than frown …and that proved true. AND WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? You will read in the story from Sunday’s L.A. Times below of how the Board of Ed negotiated Deasy’s departure while wooing Cortines; a bit of behind the scenes Byzantine intrigue that demonstrates premeditation rather than planning. Not the way to run a twenty-first century school district but Machiavelli would be proud. (To English and Poli Sci majors who balk a mixing the Byzantine and Machiavellian metaphors I offer no apology – power politics like dry martinis are shaken, not stirred.) Spin Dr. Deasy is not so quietly running Crisis Containment/Damage Control, not so far behind the scenes. He declares victory and retires from the field. His superintendency was “a historic period of time unlike any other”, he is “overwhelmed with pride at what his administration has accomplished”; he has magnanimously stepped aside so that ‘the work’ can be continued. Half-baked/half-digested data are regurgitated about test scores and grad rates. Apparently the recent past was the great new wonderful tomorrow we were promised. Whatever went awry was due to his urgency or the school board’s lack-of-support or the teachers union’s intransigence …or “when you direct resources solely to students, that means those resources are not available to go to adults”. Which resources are those that went solely to students? They all didn’t get iPads, and those that did didn’t get robust instructional content. Is it the iPads that free students from poverty – or the education embedded therein? Did the students across the District get the resources promised by a new student information system? Did the students at Jefferson get resources when they couldn’t get the classes they needed? Aren’t bond funds resources? Aren’t the executives and stockholders of Apple and Pearson PLC adults? The most important resource the District has is its people. And Dr Deasy is not a people person. When he says he cares about teachers in the classroom he truly believes he is being honest with us. Not so much so with the man in the mirror. Please excuse the pop social/political psychology: Dr. Deasy falls somewhere on the right of the Eric Hoffer True Believer leadership spectrum: Man of Words/Man of Action/Fanatic. We all get to pick where. Urgency is the watchword and the ‘excuse me’ excuse. I’m an old guy beset by old guy worries and concerns and maladies. I watch television shows old guys watch – with commercials targeting my ilk. Urgency is not a good thing; it’s a euphemism for bladder control problems, down there on the list with ED and whatever it is the purple pill treats. Mayor Tony was big on urgency too; he could’ve benefited from a little ED. Sandy Banks and other Deasy cheerleaders claim that “District test scores have soared….” Ms. Banks accuses Mayor Garcetti of being a “hands-off mayor content with incremental gains.” Even I wish the mayor would be more hands-on – but calling Deasy’s miniscule gains “soaring” tortures hyperbole. The severance package is pretty severe. It’s effective immediately. It pays sixty days when only thirty would be called for if he were to be terminated - but saves Board and Superintendent the drama and embarrassment of a public vote to fire him. He must keep himself available till the end of the year to aid in transition and any “various pending and threatened litigation”. The board opines no wrongdoing, but the agreement specifies that he can never work for the District ever again: "DEASY agrees that he will not seek or accept employment or independent contractor status with the district in any capacity in the future." “DEASY represents that he is unaware of any undisclosed District-related misconduct he has engaged in as of the date of this agreement” …and in exchange: “While the District’s investigation into the Common Core Technology Project has not concluded, the Board wishes to state that at this time. It does not believe that the superintendent engaged in any ethical violations or unlawful acts, and the Board anticipates that the Inspector General’s report will confirm this.” Closing the door on what he’s best at, he’s forbidden from testifying in court representing LAUSD without permission. This is all well and good and predictable and cognizant of a presumption of innocence – and also tells us that the previous IG’s report (which the Board in its finite wisdom has decided to keep secret) did not convince the Board of unlawful acts or ethical violations. That investigation looked into the CCTP (LAUSD/Apple/Pearson) RFP, contract and award - but DID NOT investigate the potential unethical/illegal action prior to the RFP now being investigated. I am going to speculate (because nobody can stop me) that the Board’s stated belief that nothing unethical or illegal took place may be why the one boardmember who voted against the agreement did so. And I am reminded of a New Yorker cartoon where the subject protests “I thought it was legal - I wrote it on a legal pad.” http://bit.ly/1zgbeEF When asked about future plans Dr Deasy spins+frames: "I'm not going to speak about them specifically but I would give you the general topics. One would be youth corrections," he said. "Another would be working and supporting the development of superintendents, and the third would be a consideration for political office." Biting my tongue – or planting it firmly in my cheek – I wonder if he does more damage working with incarcerated youth or developing impressionable superintendents? A good place to start on a political career is running for school board. Does employment “in any capacity” include the Board of Education? I am quoted in the social media as saying that I don’t believe Deasy is a bad man, but I do believe he did bad things. A friend spouts some Texas wisdom: “Even the most arrogant bastard elevates to sainthood upon their demise.” (She used words more colorful than ‘arrogant’ or ‘bastard’; I have translated from the Texan.) Deasy isn’t dead and I come neither to praise nor bury him. ► TWO THOUGHTS WORTH FAR MORE THAN 2¢ RE: THURSDAY’S TRANSITION By e-mail to 4LAKids from a knowledgeable school-based educator and occasional contributor Thur., Oct 16, 2014 11:58 pm As I read about Supt. Deasy's resignation, I have two thoughts: The MiSiS debacle was more of a factor than the iPads. The decision to implement MiSIS this year was negligent, and schools are a shambles do to MiSIS. Unfortunately, there's no obvious way to extricate ourselves from this mess that affects, to varying degrees, every school in LAUSD. Students will be hurt, and after multiple system failures, employees have lost all faith in LAUSD’s Information Technology Division. At a series of eight meetings (22 hours total) hosted by Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) between November, 2012 and May, 2014, Chief Information Officer Ron Chandler, Chief Strategy Officer Matt Hill and other high district and ITD officials were warned repeatedly, and in compelling detail, by school site administrators and coordinators, but they chose to ignore the school-based experts who would have to use the system. Most stories state that Supt. Deasy raised test scores, so I reviewed the data this evening. The Deasy superintendency began in April, 2011, shortly before the CST exams were given, so 2011 seems a sensible baseline. Since the CST was not given in 2014, claims about Supt. Deasy raising test scores rest on the 2012 and 2013 CST. Attached [http://bit.ly/1081pcs] is a spreadsheet that includes the 2011-2013 LAUSD and (for comparison) statewide CST ELA scores for grades 3-11, the CST Math scores for grades 3-6, and the CST Algebra 1 scores for grades 7-11. Cohort views of the ELA and Math are included so that one can see how the same (or substantially the same) group did through three years of testing. There are a few bright spots (6th grade and 10th grade English; 4th and 6th grade math; 8th grade Algebra 1), but there are no huge, across-the-board improvements. Besides, the achievement of an 8th grader on the 2013 CST is the consequence of at least nine years of schooling, only two of which were during Mr. Deasy's superintendency.◄ And even Monica Garcia’s effusive valedictory for Dr Deasy qualified his claims to improved ‘preliminary’ graduation rate(s) for ‘comprehensive’ schools. What happened to No Child Left Behind/Every Child Achieves? ON THAT NOTE: I was sitting with senior Sacramento staff form California Dept of Ed, and the Governor’s and AG’s offices while we waited for 3½ hours for the board meeting to begin on Tuesday. After we all got acquainted and showed each other Smartphone pictures of our kids, grandkids, horses and cats - and talked about what high schools we went to (apocryphally they promote parent engagement in Connecticut by sending a car for folks to attend PTA meetings!) we discussed the LAUSD advertised goals of 100% attendance + 100% graduation that hovered over us on the big screen. The consensus was that: 1.) Goals – especially for kids - should be realistic …and as almost everyone in the boardroom was making other plans for childcare, feeding families and airplane reservations: 2.) Scheduled meetings should start on time. Q: Is it always like this? A: Pretty much. Yes, the Board of Ed was discussing important stuff – and yes, they were having no fun – but they would be doing those things until past 11PM (3PM the next day in Seoul) anyway. Why keep all of LAUSD’s senior staff and students and parents, the California Superintendent of Public Instruction and half the passenger load of Southwest Airlines flight #502 from LAX to SMF – and your querulous blogger – waiting? When the proceedings finally began I was hoping Superintendent Torlakson would tear into LAUSD for our failures at Jefferson, but he didn’t. It’s a case in litigation and though LAUSD was obviously+admittedly culpable at Jefferson, the judge was watching and attorneys had scripted the response and the plaintiffs and the defendants were in the room. The outrage had already been perpetrated, the damage done and solutions agreed to …and now everyone was on their best behavior. The students made the best presentations – and a student from Dorsey made it clear to the Board and the CDE that Jefferson itself was more of a norm than an outlier. TO BE CLEAR: Jefferson was a catastrophic failure in leadership in reacting to the MiSiS crisis. The rollout of MiSiS was not exclusively an IT problem; it was and continues to be an institutional LAUSD problem. Chanda Smith Modified Consent Decree Independent Monitor David Rostetter “Our conclusion is that this is fundamentally an organizational management problem, not a technical problem”. The organization, such as it is, doesn’t just "get" IT. And it was a management failure at the very top by whoever (singular or plural) made the “green light” strategic+executive decision to go ahead with the districtwide MiSiS rollout on the first day of school, driven by urgency without institutional buy-in, adequate preparation, staffing, training, systems integration, etc. Someone(s) who understood neither IT nor LAUSD. On Aug 24 Dr. Deasy said: “(IT) is not my area of expertise…” and proposed to hire a special liaison to bring him up to speed. [http://bit.ly/1zqMJiV] Aug 21st was ten days into the MiSiS Crisis. Students would walk out of classes at Jefferson on the 25th. THE POSITIVE THINGS Dr. Deasy accomplished he did by fiat – in what the Times calls his ‘maverick moments’ – flying solo – all by himself. He got rid of chocolate milk on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He forbade out of school suspensions for ‘willful defiance’. He imposed Breakfast in the Classroom, making a promising program really unpopular. WELCOME BACK RAY CORTINES. You’ve been here before, you know what to do; we know who you are. We all have opinions and hopefully we all remember how to share them. There is a lot of work to do moving forward and we look forward to doing it. Together. ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf ●●MORE THAN A PS: This may come as a shock, but there is far more going on in the world than LAUSD. Here’s a question: Will all those parents who are vaccine resistant – and expose their children and all children to measles and diphtheria and pertussis, etc. – continue when the Ebola vaccine comes on line? The reason why nobody has to get immunized against small pox and polio anymore is because everybody did back in the day. TOO MANY MAVERICK MOMENTS FINALLY LED TO DEASY'S UNDOING AT LAUSD SCHOOLS SUPT. JOHN DEASY FLEW SOLO, BEYOND THE CONTROL OF HIS ELECTED BOSSES ON THE L.A. SCHOOL BOARD By Howard Blume, James Rainey | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1t2M4pA Oct 19, 2014 | 5:00 AM :: The Los Angeles Unified School District dumped a heap of trouble on its schools this fall when it rolled out a new student records system. The breakdown was the most severe at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles. Seniors couldn't get courses they needed to graduate. Others had to sit in classes they had already passed. Hundreds waiting for a complete class schedule crammed into the school auditorium for up to three weeks. In this moment of crisis, L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy came up with a novel response, one that positioned him where he had been many times before: flying solo, beyond the control of his elected bosses on the school board, campaigning for reform on a high-profile platform. Without the knowledge of board members, Deasy prepared a sworn statement in a court case that attacked scheduling practices in L.A. Unified and other districts, citing Jefferson as an example of what was going wrong. Deasy's declaration irked some school board members and the judge in the court case, who wondered why Deasy didn't take charge of the problem in his own school system. By then, Deasy's bosses on the L.A. school board had endured enough of his maverick moments. They sent their attorney on a mission to reach out to former Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, who had led the district before Deasy. The talks had to remain secret because there had been past tensions between the two, and board members didn't want Deasy to know they were courting Cortines. The lawyer posed the big question: Would the 82-year-old Cortines consider coming out of retirement? :: Deasy's 3 1/2 years as head of the nation's second-largest school district ended with his resignation last week, but his path was unusual from the very outset of his tenure at L.A. Unified. Not the product of a nationwide or local search, Deasy instead was installed as the heir apparent, taking the No. 2 job under Cortines with every expectation he would soon be in charge. Then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had staked considerable political capital on improving low-performing schools, was among those who quietly demanded that Deasy take over. His previous post had been as a deputy director with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He'd also served as superintendent in Santa Monica-Malibu Unified and Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland. Deasy said from the outset that he would use any means necessary — including supporting legislation and outside litigation — to pursue his vision of what would propel gains in student achievement. His sense of urgency was heightened, he said, by the poverty and low academic skills he saw in Los Angeles. This is not about me. This is about making a statement to the community that the superintendent, whoever it is, and the board are going to make every effort to work together. - Ramon Cortines, named interim head of L.A. schools The superintendent repeatedly proved true to his word — most notably earlier this year, when he testified in a groundbreaking court fight that stripped teachers of some key traditional job protections. He wanted to make it easier to remove ineffective teachers in the name of promoting student civil rights. Deasy had his staff devote considerable time to Vergara vs. California before he spent three days on the witness stand. "I was the only sitting superintendent to participate in the Vergara case and there is a reason for that," Deasy said at the time. "I am taking a risk, but I feel the issue is too important to sit out." An angry backlash from teachers proved his words prophetic. He also didn't endear himself to members of the Board of Education by proceeding without their approval. (The lawsuit succeeded at trial and is on appeal.) Deasy's desire to be the vanguard of change also had found expression in his bid to provide iPads for every student — pledging that he would close the technology gap with the state's more privileged children. The school board unanimously went along, with little discussion and no dissension, until problems ensued with the rollout last year and questions recently emerged about the bidding process. Months before bidding began, for example, Deasy made a promotional video for Apple, talking about the wonders of the iPad. That endorsement and other statements and actions gave the appearance, to critics, of a single-minded rush toward one product, which troubled some board members and financial overseers. They pointed out how other districts brought technology to students at lower cost or without using school construction bonds. Deasy insisted no wrongdoing had occurred and said he had sat out the formal bidding process. The troubled iPad initiative — with students accessing forbidden sites and officials misstating costs — enhanced a portrait of Deasy as the big-picture advocate who was too passionate, or distracted, to attend to details. Many rank-and-file employees came to view him another way: as imperious and punitive, always demanding more from teachers and administrators even when budget cuts resulted in larger classes and fewer resources. Nonetheless, he remained the darling of a community of philanthropists and proponents of a certain style of education reform that borrows heavily from the principles of private enterprise. They applauded his push for a teacher evaluation system that incorporated student standardized test scores, and that he fired teachers identified as poor performers in greater numbers than before. Deasy's path was made more difficult because he never had a solid majority on the Board of Education. His supporters tried, and failed, to elect newcomers who would give him broad latitude. Four pro-Deasy candidates lost over two election cycles, resulting in a board majority that would not unreservedly follow his lead. Those officials also felt that Deasy ignored their directives and treated them dismissively. "It was clear that he thought he was the smartest person in the room," said one senior district official, a comment echoed by others. And he wasn't the most patient, diplomatic or strategic leader, something that even Deasy has acknowledged. Deasy threatened at least twice to leave the district. In the summer of 2013 the superintendent tried the tactic to prevent the elevation of Richard Vladovic to board president. The effort failed. All the while, test scores continued to improve, as did graduation rates. By those two crucial measures, the superintendent, and students, appeared to be winning. But for the board majority, Deasy had become an uncommunicative, ungovernable, somewhat detached leader. It didn't help that he became a target for the teachers union to rally against in its push for a better contract. Instead of looking for ways to unite behind Deasy, board members — unhappy with their leader — began looking for reasons or justifications to push him aside. The recent crises over technology programs — first the iPad and then the student records system — gave them a rationale they could, if necessary, defend in public. The board had additional leverage over Deasy. His regular performance evaluation was set for next Tuesday. Anything less than a positive rating would place his reputation under a bigger cloud if he did not step aside. For their part, board members began to see Cortines as an irresistible balm for a leadership crisis, sources said. He'd been in occasional touch since his retirement in 2011. At least three board members began to talk to him in the latter part of September, getting his advice and sounding out whether he might consider an interruption in his retirement. Cortines initially said no. Then he said an official request would have to be made on behalf of the board. That happened after Deasy filed his court declaration attacking L.A. Unified's scheduling practices. Next, Cortines insisted on a unanimous vote. "This is not about me," Cortines said in an interview. "This is about making a statement to the community that the superintendent, whoever it is, and the board are going to make every effort to work together." Meanwhile, the board was negotiating more intensely with Deasy, who had retained an attorney. Deasy received a few concessions, including an arrangement that keeps him on the payroll through the end of the year. The school board also agreed to a departure announcement that celebrated his accomplishments and indicated their confidence that Deasy would be exonerated of any wrongdoing related to the iPads-for-all program. In 7 1/2 hours of closed meetings last Tuesday, the board reached its final terms with Deasy and gave Cortines a unanimous offer, which Cortines said he never expected to be possible. "I might have had a different strategy for responding to them," he said with a laugh, "if I thought this would ever happen." L.A. SCHOOL BOARD OKS PLAN TO RESOLVE JEFFERSON HIGH PROBLEMS L.A. UNIFIED WILL SPEND $1.1 MILLION TO HELP STUDENTS WHO LOST INSTRUCTIONAL TIME AND WILL AUDIT OTHER HIGH SCHOOLS TO SEE IF THEIR STUDENTS HAD SCHEDULING PROBLEMS By Howard Blume | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1FmhHON Oct 14,2014 | 10:12PM :: The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday approved a $1.1-million plan to provide a longer school day, additional classes and tutoring to Jefferson High students who lost instructional time as a result of widespread scheduling problems this semester. Officials also announced that the Los Angeles Unified School District would audit other high schools to find additional students who might have been similarly shortchanged. The controversy with the scheduling problems at Jefferson adds another layer to the intrigue surrounding L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy, whose job evaluation is scheduled for next week. A majority of school board members have signaled to insiders that they could support the departure of Deasy, either through a resignation or buyout. Earlier this month, the board authorized its legal staff to initiate discussions over a possible departure agreement. His contract — and preparation for his evaluation — were on the agenda Tuesday for a closed-door meeting, along with other matters. The board remained in closed session for six and a half hours, delaying the start of a public meeting. Members made no announcement upon convening into open session for several hours. They were expected to return to closed session for additional deliberation late Tuesday evening. Some board members and other critics have faulted the superintendent for what happened when Jefferson opened this fall. "We have to do better at this side of the table," said board member George McKenna, referring to senior staff, and, implicitly, to Deasy. Deasy is out of town on a previously planned trip to South Korea. Before he left, he offered a sworn declaration on behalf of students suing over conditions at Jefferson. Some board members have criticized Deasy for getting involved without clearing it and for focusing on the lawsuit rather than on doing more to address problems at Jefferson. Hundreds of students had incomplete or incorrect schedules. Many lost two to three weeks of instruction waiting in the auditorium, and then many were programmed into schedules that still had mistakes. The result was that students fell behind in course work they needed to graduate or to complete college preparatory requirements. The remedy will include extending the school day by 30 minutes. In addition, teachers will be paid for up to two hours per week to provide tutoring before and after school. Counselors will be freed from lunch and playground supervision, so they can provide more counseling. And new class sections will be offered to students to replace non-academic classes. These non-academic periods include students assigned to run errands for staff or to spend time off campus unsupervised. Officials also insisted that conditions at Jefferson had been mostly dealt with even before last week's court order. As of Tuesday, the district identified eight students who lacked classes they needed to graduate. Forty-three other students were improperly placed in courses they'd already passed, said Tommy Chang, a senior administrator. The scheduling flaws were not unique to Jefferson, which is south of downtown. Many campuses also dealt with major hitches caused by a new student records system that was activated before it was ready. Board members Tuesday criticized that rollout and asked the district's inspector general to broaden a probe into what went wrong. The technology fiasco came at a bad time for Deasy, who already was under scrutiny for a districtwide iPad program for students. The inspector general also is looking into that project, and Deasy intends to launch a new bidding process. The scheduling challenges at Jefferson were exacerbated by administrative turnover as well as by glaring errors in the first master schedule, officials acknowledged. With the help of advocates, Jefferson students and teachers took their complaints to court, joining a lawsuit over non-academic classes that was filed in Alameda County. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Hernandez Jr. chastised L.A. Unified for allowing problems to persist and last week ordered the state to intervene. A state delegation came to Los Angeles for meetings and praised the proposed plan Tuesday. Advocates insisted that the fixes don't go far enough and that too many students still could be forced to waste time taking non-academic classes or courses they'd already passed. "Content-free classes and an education are an oxymoron," said attorney Mark Rosenbaum. "The state should ban these classes tomorrow." Some students expressed ongoing concerns in public comments to the board. "All that lost time adds up," senior Jason Magana said. "I will leave Jefferson High School with my diploma. But so many Jefferson students don't. DEASY RESIGNS AND CHANDA IS STILL WAITING… From the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) Weekly Update for the week of Oct 20th | http://bit.ly/JidN0H ►DEASY RESIGNS! Oct 16, 2014 :: The Board of Education reached a termination agreement with Superintendent John Deasy. The interim superintendent will be Ramon C. Cortines who starts on Monday, October 20, 2014. We welcome back Mr. Cortines and look forward to commencing AALA’s regular meetings with him. ►CHANDA IS STILL WAITING: MiSiS’ IMPACT ON STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Oct 16, 2014 :: The District’s announcement to take immediate action and fund resources at Jefferson High School needed to happen and AALA welcomes the corrective move. However, AALA wonders why the administrative team supervising Jefferson didn’t act in a more timely and effective manner. The Jefferson news clouds another alarming report that surfaced this week from the Office of the Independent Monitor on the impact of MiSiS on students with disabilities. The independent monitor’s report shows that major problems still exist. Key findings include: • 98% of the 201 schools that participated in the survey reported problems with MiSiS, with 57% reporting they used alternative methods for maintaining data • 83% reported problems with identifying students with disabilities enrolled at their school • • 69% reported varying degrees of problems with placement for students with disabilities • • 69% reported varying problems with services for students with disabilities • Nearly 56% did not participate in any training • 35% indicated inadequate training • Interface problems continue between MiSiS and Welligent By way of background, it was in 1993 that the Chanda Smith class action lawsuit was filed to challenge the adequacy of supports received by Chanda Smith, an LAUSD special education student. As one of its 15 outcomes, the Modified Consent Decree (MCD) requires the District to build an integrated student data system to track all of its students through all grade levels and school sites. The “new” system was to replace 26 “legacy” (aka “obsolete”) student data systems. The new system was implemented at the start of this school year despite alarms about glitches in MiSiS and the lack of readiness for the system to be effective. On the District’s MiSiS website it says: “The beginning of a new school year is the only feasible time to implement this type of system, as a midyear transition from a legacy to a new system would cause an intolerable level of disruptions to instruction and operations. While public attention has focused on schoolwide scheduling and other disruptive problems, we should keep in mind that MiSiS was also intended to remedy the District’s failure to identify and track students with special needs and provide instructional services to meet their needs. As a result of that failure, Chanda Smith entered 10th grade with 2nd and 3rd grade reading and math skills. After repeating 10th grade twice, Smith’s mother took action. The 1993 lawsuit found 21 areas of noncompliance by the District that included failure to identify, assess and serve students with disabilities (SWD), meet required timelines, offer designated instructional services and track, maintain and access records. The rush to implement the imperfect technology of MiSiS just to bring closure to the MCD instead hit schools and students with a double whammy! In retrospect, it’s been 21 years since the Chanda Smith lawsuit. Wouldn’t the District have been better off to wait just one more year to genuinely refine MiSiS instead of foisting it upon schools before it was ready? It would have saved major disruption and disservice to students, as well as hours of additional labor for school-site administrators, counselors, teachers and other school personnel. DEASY’S DEPARTURE PRESENTS OPPORTUNITY FOR LAUSD TO FOCUS ON EDUCATION By Thomas Himes, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1sD4ydF Posted: 10/18/14, 9:16 PM PDT | Updated: 10/19/14 :: In ousting an embattled superintendent, leaders of the nation’s second-largest school district can set aside their differences and focus instead on educating 650,000 students in Los Angeles. While the departure of former Superintendent John Deasy marks another win in a battle to preserve traditional public schools — primarily centering on teacher tenure — now is no time to take a victory lap, said Raphael Sonenshein, director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles. Los Angeles Unified’s school board, which has become more and more populated by union-backed members, is poised to make decisions even its most vocal opponents would support. “This is their opportunity to show that in power, they too can be reformers,” said Sonenshein, adding that influential business and civic leaders will be watching closely when it comes to picking a new school superintendent. In the meantime, Sonnenshein said, school board members have turned to a seasoned and politically savvy interim superintendent, Ramon Cortines, to run the district while they conduct a search for a replacement. No stranger to the district, Cortines has great “political antennae,” making him a go-to pick for districts that encounter leadership trouble. School board member Tamar Galatzan, a frequent Deasy supporter and San Fernando Valley representative, said Cortines’ ability to handle complicated issues will come in handy. “He has decades of experience and people skills that are legendary. That’s what we need right now,” Galatzan said. With Cortines’ help, Galatzan said, she hopes the district and its stakeholders will be able to settle down, focus on the budget, learn the new Smarter Balance standardized testing and ensure that students obtain the education they need to attend state universities. “That’s where all of our energy should be focused,” whether you’re a student, parent, teacher, classified employee, board member or superintendent, Galatzan said. Board member Monica Ratliff, who is occasionally at odds with her fellow San Fernando Valley representative, also believes the school district will be served well under Cortines. “I think the district is going to be able to move forward very successfully,” she said. Cortines has already sought to open lines of communication with his elected bosses, Ratliff said, by sending them his calendar, which lists all of his appointments and previews his priorities for the first day of work on Monday. “I think that transparency is going to be very helpful in terms of building consensuses and building collaboration,” Ratliff said. The first two things on his agenda, Cortines said, will be unraveling the MiSiS computer mess and getting caught up on contract talks. The district’s disastrous new computer software, MiSiS, continues to hamper educators, impairing their ability to perform tasks that range from taking attendance to reporting grades and generating college transcripts. Meanwhile, talks with leaders of the 35,000-member teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, haven’t made any real progress in months. Union leadership is demanding a 10 percent pay raise this year alone and other improvements, such as smaller class sizes. Regardless of the issue, Cortines said, he will look to the hardworking employees of LAUSD for solutions “The district needs to use the talent at schools and the people who are there to help solve the problems,” Cortines said. “The superintendent alone cannot do it.” The teachers union demands are part of a campaign called “Schools LA Students Deserve,” which also aims to rally members and parents in case of a strike. “That continues and we do look forward to meeting with Mr. Cortines, as well as continuing to meet with school board members around the Schools LA Students Deserve,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said. HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources Deasy blames LA school district politics for blocking 'reforms' | http://bit.ly/w0MlFb Sandy Banks: DEASY'S EXIT LEAVES UNFINISHED WORK AT LAUSD | http://bit.ly/1rlO2Ls TWO THOUGHTS WORTH FAR MORE THAN 2¢ RE: THURSDAY’S TRANSITION | http://bit.ly/1081pcs LAUSD/Deasy Separation Agreement states categorically that it is 7 pages long. Only 6 pages have been made public.| http://bit.ly/1sAtJ0j UPDATE: TRANSCRIPT OF NPR EXIT INTERVIEW WITH JOHN DEASY :"It was a historic period of time unlike any other " | http://bit.ly/1CytSE6 On the day Apple unveils a new iPad Air, Time Magazine explains: HOW THE iPAD HELPED BRING DOWN L.A. SCHOOLS CHIEF | http://bit.ly/11FHMcj Which Way, L.A.?: JOHN DEASY STEPS DOWN FROM L.A. UNIFIED | http://bit.ly/1FdE8Wx THE DEASY DENOUEMENT: The national media [ NY Times/AP-Wash Post/EdWeek] http://bit.ly/1yKDXjQ DEASY’S RESIGNATION LETTER: “I am overwhelmed with pride with what this administration has accomplished….” | http://bit.ly/1tzQtkM LAUSD/DEASY SEPARATION ACCORD “Deasy has determined to resign” meets “there is various pending+threatened litigation” http://bit.ly/1yKpLYb THE DEASY DENOUEMENT: Four stories from Thursday | http://bit.ly/1xZ5Elz Teachers are "bad"/parents "uncaring"/students "failures" but John Deasy is only 'beleaguered"? It seems to be his new honorific. Like "Dr." LAUSafterD: The LA Times reports that Cortines is back for a third try. L.A. school board in closed session more than 5 hours so far. Several topics, including the evaluation & future of Supt. John Deasy. INDEPENDENT MONITOR’S REPORT RE: THE SPECIAL ED MODIFIED CONSENT DEGREE ON MiSiS: "Our conclusion is that this is fundamentally an organizational management problem, not a technical problem." | http://fw.to/ij711qH 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. 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