Just watch and see. Thankfully.

4LAKids: Sunday 30•Nov•2014 In This Issue:  •  L.A. UNIFIED ADOPTS FREE HISTORY CURRICULUM FROM STANFORD UNIVERSITY + dt’s 2¢  •  2B or not, Part II: ANNOUNCING THE NEXT PHASE OF THE PROGRAM TO BUY MORE DIGITAL DEVICES WAS THE EASY PART. CARRYING IT OUT IS ANOTHER ISSUE  •  Time-out: SCHOOLS RECONSIDER RECESS AS A TOOL FOR DISCIPLINE  •  'HAPPY VALLEY': FIND YOUR OWN ANSWERS TO UNSETTLING CULTURAL QUESTIONS  •  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. Casting about for stuff to write about I came across an article from a year ago July that comes from me to you and the LAUSD Powers-That-Be exactly 18 months too late: 7 BIG MISTAKES K-12 EDUCATION NEEDS TO AVOID IN 1:1 COMPUTING PLANS [http://bit.ly/1w4zWG1] I don’t know what the equivalent word of “Trifecta” for seven instances is (“¿Septfecta?") …but here’s the example of one: #7: Follow Functionality, Not Fads, In Choosing Tech #6: Touch Shouldn't Trump All Else (Keyboards anyone?) #5: What Do Repair, Replacement, Support Costs Look Like for a Platform? (The LAUSD Apple contract looked at short term Repair. Replacement and Support – and ignored long term.) #4: Lack of Staff Professional Development is Like Tossing Money Away #3: Collaboration Should Be a Focus of Every 1:1 Plan #2: Flipped Classrooms Are Here to Stay (Devices must go home for 1:1 to work.) #1: Stop Focusing on Consuming Content -- Producing It Matters Much More. WHICH KIND OF SEGUES INTO THE NEW STANFORD HISTORY CURRICULUM …and to David Tokofsky’s gift horse’s mouth inspection. [story follows] • I know it’s free …but did you see what they did to our Bruins? • Wasn’t MiSiS “free” also? • History of course isn’t tested in the great English Language Arts, Math and a little bit o’ Science (+ the FitnessGram) Standardized Testing Regime …so maybe free IS the right price for History Curriculum! • As John Arbuckle said: “You get what you pay for.” TUESDAY’S BOARD MEETING SHOULDV'E PROVED INTERESTING ...except it got postponed for a week! Someone was bound to to have asked some sort of question about the iPads for All/CCTP Phase 2B return-from-the-grave. Miracle or malevolence? I know we are in the middle of a honeymoon with the new superintendent ...but this plays like some drawing room farce where the old lady love of the previous superintendent makes a surprise appearance on the arm of the new one! What is the Board of Ed to say or think? We won't know 'til next week! “THE PROBLEM IS: FERPA (The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act – which theoretically protects student privacy) IS ‘HOPELESSLY OUT OF DATE,’ said David Hoffman, global privacy officer for Intel Corp.” http://politi.co/1rJvru0 That is a problem, one of many. BUT THIS IS THANKSGIVING WEEK – and I’m sure there are many readers who will be thankful to return to school after a week with children and once-a-year relatives and pre-and-actual-and-post Black Friday doorbusters underfoot. I’m also sure the IT crew is really looking forward to impact of all the new MiSiS fixes plus the Cyber Monday online shopping on the LAUSD servers. 4LAKIDS is THANKFUL FOR EDUCATORS LIKE DR. GENEVIEVE SHEPHERD, a true hero of multicultural understanding in LAUSD. She is retiring from LAUSD after 55 years of service and leadership. Dr. Shepherd was instrumental in getting national recognition for the Tuskegee Airmen and in naming the magnet school at Dublin ES after former Mayor Tom Bradley. She has been principal of Dublin/ Tom Bradley Global Awareness Magnet School since 1985 and served as director of the District’s Title I Program for Intergroup Education. Dr. Shepherd is a long time educator and community activist who is known locally, statewide and nationwide. She – not literally but actually - wrote the book on multicultural education in LAUSD: Multi-Cultural-Bilingual-Selected Reference Guide for-Los Angeles Unified Schools. She’s a member of that most troublemaking of Greek campus organizations: The National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa. Dr Shepherd was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Who's Who in Black Los Angeles at The Staples Center in 2008 and was honored as Distinguished Educator of the Year Award at California State University, Los Angeles, also in 2008. But she proudly says that the most gratifying aspect of her career is seeing her students succeed. "Anything a mind can conceive, and then can believe, can be achieved," has been the motto of Dr. Genevieve A. Shepherd, almost since birth. According to her biography, she began her teaching career at the age of five. Every time she and friends played school, she walked in with her frayed book and announced, "I'm the teacher and if you don't let me teach, I'm going home." She practiced teaching on 3 year olds, trees, animals and anything else around willing to be taught. At nineteen, she was told by a counselor that she could not be a teacher. On the steps of a bungalow at Los Angeles City College, the motto flashed across her mind and silently she said to herself, "Just watch and see." That was the true beginning of her teaching career. Dr. Shepherd is a native Angelino. Her educational experience includes: an Associate of Arts degree from Los Angeles City College, a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State College, Los Angeles; Master of Science, Pepperdine University; and a Ph.D. from Golden State University. So much for never being a teacher. She is married to Rev. Edell Shepherd; together they are the proud parents of three children, Edell Lugene, a musician; Deborah, School Teacher and Jaime Shepherd, Technology Coordinator. Dr. Shepherd is much sought after as a guest speaker and lecturer. She has conducted numerous workshops and seminars throughout the city, state and nation. Her most requested sessions include: Believers, Receivers, Achievers (Building Self-Esteem), Survival of the Endangered Species (the Black Male Child), A Multi-Ethnic look at Education and Practice What You Teach (for teachers only). Her dynamic message captures, inspires, enthralls and challenges audiences to Wake Up, Sit Up, Shape Up, Sweeten Up, Fire Up and Go MAD (Make A Difference) in Society. She transforms audiences as her motivational message impacts lives. Additionally Dr. Shepherd works closely with high school students preparing to take the SAT tests. After her motivating presentation, students are challenged to increase their test scores. Dr Shepherd is retiring at the end of this year, but no one believes for a minute she will slow down. At her church, he serves as Sunday School Superintendent and Corporate Secretary; Board Member, Corporate Executive and Vice President of Our Authors Study Club; she’s a member of Council of Black Administrators, Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, California School Administrators, National Education Association, National Association of University Women,; Board Chairman of the Y.M.C.A. Metro L.A., 28th Street/Crenshaw Branch and Vice President and Instructor - Aenon Bible College. Dr. Shepherd is also a poet, an example follows. It isn’t Kipling or Wordsworth, but like all real art, it is True. Like all true art, it is Real. Leave No Child Behind © Dr. Genevieve Shepherd To say “Leave No Child Behind” sounds just fine. But what are we really trying to say each and every day? That we have no other choice! Every child has the right to excel. Children can do well If it’s truly to be It depends on you, it depends on me. To turn things around and do things differently. To expect nothing less than the very best. To teach, monitor, test and assess. To catch the child caught betwixt and between. To snatch them back with a sheer determined gleam. Always saying, yes you can! I’ve taught you so well Now I know what you can do. Walk in my footsteps each and every day. I’ll role model what you need to do and say. I’ll show you why you must achieve. I’ll teach you exactly how to succeed. Ill always endeavor to answer every question you ask. I’ll be there to support you and see you through each task. Sometimes I’ll have to go out far on the limb to reach But wherever you are, No matter how far. Patiently, I will teach. I will teach you all you need to know. In this classroom there is no such word as slow. L.D. is not Learning Disabled But Leaning Differently I know you are capable Physically, socially and mentally. What I teach you today will return to me in a better way. And so I’m determined And I’ve made up my mind From this day forward NO CHILD WILL BE LEFT BEHIND! Thank you Dr. Shepherd. ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf L.A. UNIFIED ADOPTS FREE HISTORY CURRICULUM FROM STANFORD UNIVERSITY + dt’s 2¢ By Teresa Watanabe, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1yc3DmR Nov.26, 2014 :: Venice High sophomore Vanessa Pepperdine had always hated history class: the dry lectures, the boring textbooks, the forgettable factoids about famous dead people. "You just read out of the textbook, and it wasn't interesting," Vanessa said. But during a recent period of World History, Vanessa and her classmates were engaged in excited discussion about the 1896 Battle of Adwa between Ethiopia and Italy. Their teacher, Daniel Buccieri, showed them an illustration of the event and peppered them with questions. Who do you think won? How do the American and Ethiopian accounts differ and why? How was Ethiopia able to defeat Italy in this pushback of European imperialism? With that, the students became sleuthing historians in search of truth rather than passive recipients of a droning lecture. That's the aim of a free, online Stanford University curriculum that is picking up steam nationally as educators grapple with widespread evidence of historical illiteracy among U.S. students. Only about a third of Los Angeles Unified School District high schoolers were proficient on state standardized U.S. and world history tests last year; nationally, 12% were proficient in U.S. history in the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress exam. L.A. Unified became the curriculum's largest booster this year when it signed an 18-month, $140,000 contract with the Stanford History Education Group for training and collaborating on more lesson plans. So far, 385 teachers and administrators — including about 40% of the social science instructors in the nation's second-largest school system — have attended Stanford-led workshops this year. Nationally, the curriculum has been downloaded 1.7 million times by educators in all 50 states since the program was launched in 2009. As the teaching of history comes under national scrutiny, with critics attacking the new Advanced Placement U.S. history guidelines as anti-American, the Stanford program takes no sides. With more than 100 ready-made lesson plans covering a range of U.S. and world events, the curriculum features a central historical question and provides primary documents for students to use in shaping their own answers, backed by evidence. Was ancient Athens truly democratic? Were the "Dark Ages" really dark? Why did Chinese students support the Cultural Revolution? Did Abraham Lincoln actually believe in racial equality? What made the Vietnam War so contentious? "This overturns the traditional textbook," said Sam Wineburg, the Stanford education professor whose research more than two decades ago laid the groundwork for the approach. "Students explore questions with original documents and cultivate a sense of literacy and how to develop sound judgment." In a 2001 book, Wineburg argued that students must be trained to question history in order to understand it, just as professionals do; the curriculum is called "Reading Like a Historian." The ability to question the credibility of information and its sources, he said, is critically relevant in today's digital age — judging claims, for instance, that President Obama was born in Kenya. The Stanford group has also developed free assessments, more than 65 so far, that gauge mastery of the targeted skills through short essay questions rather than traditional multiple-choice tests. In a test run five years ago, 236 students in five San Francisco high schools using the curriculum outperformed peers in factual knowledge and reading comprehension compared with those in traditional classes, Wineburg said. For school systems such as L.A. Unified, the curriculum came at an opportune time — just as the district is shifting to new learning standards known as Common Core. The standards focus on cultivating such skills as reading complex texts and integrating and evaluating information from multiple sources. "The Stanford curriculum aligns almost perfectly with Common Core," said Kieley Jackson, a district coordinator of social science curriculum. Not all teachers have embraced the lessons. Some say they take too long, typically four days, although Stanford trainers say they can be adapted for one or two. Others say they are short on content. And some instructors prefer their approach of lectures and textbooks. Only about a quarter of social science teachers at Hollywood High use the curriculum, said Neil Fitzpatrick, the department chair. But Fitzpatrick and many of the 60 colleagues who attended a training this month praised the curriculum and shared ideas on how they modified it — actions that Stanford fully supports — with bingo games, film clips, Play-Doh, poetry, poster sets, Google images. Buccieri, of Venice High, said he added the Italian perspective of the Battle of Adwa to further enrich the lesson. He said he began incorporating elements of Wineburg's approach after reading his book more than a decade ago and found the Stanford curriculum on his own four years ago. "History isn't a set of answers I'm passing down to kids," he said. "It's more a set of questions and problems. To me, that's more exciting." Many students seem to agree. Michael Corley, a history teacher at Polytechnic High in Sun Valley, said nearly 90% of about 100 students he polled preferred the Stanford curriculum over their textbook. Students don't feel they can argue with the textbook, he said. But using the Stanford lesson on Prohibition to debate why the 18th Amendment banning alcohol was adopted and evaluating perspectives about it from a medical doctor, anti-saloon activist and children's rights advocate? Now that excites them, he said. He added that the Stanford curriculum seems to especially engage boys, perhaps by appealing to their competitive "gamer mentality," and said his students who typically earn Cs and Ds also do well because the lessons spark their interest. "You can see what they're truly capable of," he said. At Venice High, Buccieri's 10th grade students said their teacher's approach has completely changed their attitude toward history. Rosio Salas said she had 10 substitutes in one year who did nothing but assign textbook readings and worksheets. She didn't remember anything she learned. "You just did it because you had to do it." Now, students say history is exciting. They understand it. They even remember it — as classmate James Gregorio proved by explaining that a Serbian terrorist's assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria ignited World War I. "You're not just sitting there having to listen to him," sophomore Drew Anderson said. "You get to figure things out for yourself." ____________ ●●David Tokofsky’s 2¢ | from Letters to the Editor of the LA Times | http://lat.ms/1xXlDyE HISTORY CLASSES DON'T NEED TO BE 'GAMIFIED' 28 Nov. 2014 :: To the editor: The article describing some students at Venice High School playing games to access world history saddens those who believe history need not be "gamified," put online to download and reduced in scope to stimulate thought and engagement in classrooms. ("L.A. Unified adopts free history curriculum from Stanford University," Nov. 26) To the generalist, the lesson presented — in which students play the role of history detective — appeared captivating. A keen eye, however, would recognize that a lesson presented for nearly five days has to come at the expense of learning many other standards and eras. Without a textbook, who would know that other eras were deleted and not being taught? History methodology revisionists argue that "less is more," and they are right with respect to deepening engagement. But unfortunately they often inadvertently diminish content and scope in service to their hip methods. Sadly for students, educational fads often repeat themselves as history does: the first time as a tragedy and the second time as farce. David Tokofsky, Los Angeles ►The writer, a former California Teacher of the Year, was a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education for 12 years. Before that he taught History and coached the Soccer and national champion Academic Decathlon teams at Marshall High School. STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP > Home > Curriculum > Reading Like A Historian 2B or not, Part II: ANNOUNCING THE NEXT PHASE OF THE PROGRAM TO BUY MORE DIGITAL DEVICES WAS THE EASY PART. CARRYING IT OUT IS ANOTHER ISSUE FOR LAUSD, MORE CHROMEBOOKS, IPADS MEANS MORE CONFUSION by Vanessa Romo, LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1vOn3AD Posted on November 25, 2014 4:41 pm :: While LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines was pretty clear on how he expected it to proceed, others in the district are not so sure. • SUPERINTENDENT DEASY: “Moving forward, we will no longer utilize our current contract with Apple Inc.” • BOARDMEMBER ZIMMER: “[The Apple/Pearson/LAUSD contract] was absolutely cancelled. The resumption of the iPad contract, as it was, will never get through the Board of Education.” • FACILITIES DIRECTOR HOVATTER: “There was never any cancellation of a contract, and the contract was never suspended.” • STOTHER MARTIN IN COOL HAND LUKE: “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” The district’s Chief Facilities Director says the choice of devices might not be so wide as Cortines suggested, and at least one board member is uncertain how it will all play out. Last week Cortines gave the go-ahead to spend capital improvement funds to outfit 27 schools with tablet devices and 21 schools with laptops — the so-called Phase 2B. The so-called Phase 2A authorized devices for 11 schools. In a written statement, Cortines said school principals “will be key in determining which educational tools are best for their school communities” and added that this round would include “more options than previous phases.” But Mark Hovatter, the facilities director whose department oversees the procurement of devices, says school leaders will only have two choices: iPads pre-loaded with Pearson curriculum or Chromebooks with content developed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “Those are the only two that are within the budget that the board has authorized,” Hovatter told LA School Report. “They already approved Phase 2B under that contract.” The board approved expanding the iPad program in January, allocating $114 million to the project. Under the existing contract the price tag on each Apple tablet is about $780 with all the bells and whistles, including a nearly indestructible protective case and keyboard. A Chromebook is about $100 dollars cheaper. But how can iPads be part of the deal if the district’s contract with Apple was halted by former superintendent John Deasy? Never happened, said Hovatter. “There was never any cancellation of a contract, and the contract was never suspended,” he said. “We just made the determination not to place an order against that contract.” That is a difficult position for board member Steve Zimmer to square. “It was absolutely cancelled,” he told LA School Report. In August, Deasy said he was halting the iPad program and the corresponding deal with Apple and Pearson, amid questions about the bidding process. At the time, Deasy told the school board, “Moving forward, we will no longer utilize our current contract with Apple Inc.…Not only will this decision enable us to take advantage of an ever-changing marketplace and technology.” For Zimmer, Deasy’s actions indisputably put an end to the deal with the companies. Furthermore, Zimmer added, “the resumption of the iPad contract, as it was, will never get through the Board of Education.” Beyond that, Zimmer says he doesn’t believe the Pearson curriculum actually exists. “Until I have it in front of me, until I see it demonstrated with a real child at every grade level, then the Pearson curriculum does not exist,” he said. “I have never seen it. I have never held it. I have never seen a child use it.” But Hovatter contends that without any action by the board, the contract remains in place. “The board never made the decision not to move forward, it was the [former] Superintendent who made that decision,” he said. “If there had been a board action that had directed us not to move forward then of course, we would have to go back to the board” for approval to continue under the existing contracts, he added. In other words, Cortines is not required to return to the board for another round of approval. That means Zimmer, other board members, or principals and teachers who had hoped for a better deal or different type of device, will have to wait a little longer. The district intends to re-open the bidding process to new vendors and curriculum developers for Phase 3 of the one-to-one program. A timeline for that has yet to be determined. The Common Core Technology Project team is scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss the rollout and set a timeline for the project. ●●smf: The Board of Education meets on Tuesday. In closed session. The open session meeting was postponed until Dec. 9th. Time-out: SCHOOLS RECONSIDER RECESS AS A TOOL FOR DISCIPLINE by Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/11yipso November 24, 2014 :: (Calif.) It’s been a time-tested disciplinary tactic for teachers for decades but as concerns over taking recess away from misbehaving students continue to mount, more and more school districts across the nation are seeking to modify the practice or restrict it altogether. Among the latest local educational agencies to take on the increasingly controversial subject, Berkeley Unified School District last week adopted a new policy limiting the amount of time a student may be kept from recess for misconduct. “A clear and adopted board policy is what is required for teachers to be able to use recess restriction in limited and appropriate situations,” Pasquale Scuderi, the district’s assistant superintendent of educational services, wrote in a memo to the board late last week. “The proposed policy ensures among other things, that no student will ever be prohibited for more than 10 minutes of any activity in a single day.” The issue represents a collision of goals within the education community and exposes the pitfalls of making any one change independent of competing concerns. Some child advocates argue, for instance, that restricting a pupil’s recess time runs counter to federal and state initiatives aimed at increasing students’ physical activity – a position supported by research showing playtime reduces obesity and improves mental function in the classroom. Critics also complain that punishment is meted out in a haphazard manner – some kids are being kept from recess for not completing homework assignments, others for behavioral challenges –neither of which is typically grounded in clear policy. Many educators say recess restriction works and is one of few tools teachers have to control behavior in a classroom with between 20 and 30 students. Board members at Connecticut’s Wallingford Public Schools, for example, recently realized that a wellness policy adopted in 2006 to meet federal child nutrition requirements prohibits the district from denying recess as a form of discipline. In June, Gov. Dannel Malloy signed into law a bill requiring school boards to adopt, as they “deem appropriate,” policies “concerning the issue regarding any school employee being involved in preventing a student from participating in the entire time devoted to physical exercise in the regular school day.” Trustees are now working to devise a policy that complies with both mandates but leaves in place the option for teachers to use recess time as an incentive for good behavior. “I don’t see what the problem is if a child stays at the wall,” Wallingford board member Michael Votto told the local Record-Journal. “If they stand by the wall for 10 minutes, I don’t think it’s a big deal.’ Other than an obligation to “administer student discipline without discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin,” there is no federal law dictating school discipline policies, and while some states have laws on their books giving teachers authority to remove problem students from the classroom most leave the specifics up to local districts. California’s Education Code, for example, doesn’t dictate policy on recess restriction but rather simply states that: “The governing board of a school district may adopt reasonable rules and regulations to authorize a teacher to restrict for disciplinary purposes the time a pupil under his or her supervision is allowed for recess.” Legal experts on both sides of the debate interpret this law differently, with those opposed to the punishment arguing the intent is that if a district doesn’t have a policy specifically addressing it then they don’t have the right to use it. Berkeley Unified School District’s policy adoption last week follows a push two years ago by the mother of a kindergartner who was repeatedly being kept from recess for misbehaving. She, like many parents focused on the issue, has said it’s often the kids acting out in class that need recess the most. “It’s not effective,” Sinead O’Sullivan told Berkeleyside.com, an independent local news site that covered last week’s discussion by the school board. “The kids who get [recess taken away] are the high-energy kids who can’t control their bodies. It’s the last punishment they need.” Similar arguments were made in August when the Grand Island school board in Nebraska approved a revised wellness policy that allows a child to be removed from the playground if he or she gets in a fight with another student, but denies the use of restricted recess as punishment for misbehavior during other parts of the school day. The new rules in Berkeley are similar to several in policies adopted by a host of other California districts and less restrictive than some others, including Palo Alto, which in October rewrote its student discipline rules to ban the practice of taking away recess time as a disciplinary measure “unless the safety and health of the student or other students are at risk.” Berkeley Unified’s policy allows recess restriction only after the teacher or administrator seeks alternative disciplinary actions “consistent with our positive behavioral support systems,” and requires all schools to create guidelines within their individual PBIS plans to “create a positive recess behavior plan which analyzes behavioral function, additional environmental supports needed and/or alternative consequences. Other regulations in the policy include: • Recess restriction shall not be used as a penalty for incomplete homework. • The student shall remain under employee supervision during the time of the consequence. • The student shall be given adequate time to use the restroom and get a drink or eat lunch, as appropriate. • Teachers shall inform a site administrator in writing of any student who has their recess restricted. When a student has their recess restricted either two times per week or three times a month, parents or caregivers will be notified and the site Response To Intervention team or the administrator will review that information and seek alternative means to address the needs of the student. • A student will not be restricted for more than half of any given recess period wherein the consequence is assigned, and a maximum of 10 minutes of restriction per day should be adhered to in all uses. • Recess participation may not be restricted for students where such a consequence is explicitly prohibited by a student’s IEP or 504 plan. • Data will be reviewed annually following the passage of the policy and data will include data disaggregated by ethnicity. “Staff is not putting forth a policy to encourage the use of recess restriction as a corrective action,” Berkeley’s Scuderi wrote in a memo to the board and district superintendent Donald Evans. “However, a clear and thoughtful policy being put in place will allow teachers and administrators some discretion to apply the consequence in a limited way where it is reasonable and appropriate to do so.” 'HAPPY VALLEY': FIND YOUR OWN ANSWERS TO UNSETTLING CULTURAL QUESTIONS By Steven Zeitchik, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1rBWE7r ●● smf: The documentary feature “Happy Valley” is not about public education, but 4LAKids is recommending it anyway. It’s also not really about college football or Joe Paterno or Jerry Sandusky or the University of Pennsylvania or child sexual abuse. It’s about the perfect-storm/ critical-mass collision of all those people, places and things – and the fallout therefrom. It’s about uneasy truth that must be told. It’s not an easy picture to watch and totally inappropriate for the holiday season; you should see it anyway. ______________ 28 February 2014 :: Around their Brooklyn home, the documentary filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev and his wife have developed a kind of code phrase -- a "thumbnail," they call it -- for how people talk about the Jerry Sandusky affair. "Rhythmic slapping” is the term, and, picking up on a descriptor used by the key witness and former assistant coach Mike McQueary, it sums up people’s reflexive need to seek out the prurient aspects of the controversy. And yet there is also, Bar-Lev has found, a desire for distance, an interest in lamenting or condemning aspects of the case so that people feel better about it, feel as if it’s something that happens far away from their own lives and consciousness. I think one of the things that really stands out about Sandusky is how everyone thinks that someone else was culpable ... And really we're all responsible in some way. - Amir Bar-Lev, documentary filmmaker “I think one of the things that really stands out about Sandusky is how everyone thinks that someone else was culpable,” Bar-Lev said in an interview here last week, returning home after weeks on the road with the film. “And really we’re all responsible in some way.” Bar-Lev has become an expert in the notorious case and its fallout. His new movie, "Happy Valley," which opened in theaters in Los Angeles last weekend, takes a look at the ways — some obvious, some subtle — our culture participated in the incident, and in fact continues to do so. As top-tier football institutions have been shaken by assault scandals and alleged cover-ups in the past few months — the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson affairs, among others — “Happy Valley” speaks to a charged set of questions that were hardly put to rest when Sandusky was sent away on a long prison sentence in 2012. Sandusky, of course, was the Penn State defensive coach who almost three years ago was found guilty on 45 charges of sexual abuse. The many-tentacled scandal that led to that courtroom moment — particularly the tentacle that involved legendary Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, who it turned out had been made aware of Sandusky’s activities years before but did little to stop them — was a watershed event. It rocked the university’s State College campus, raised difficult questions about the culture of modern athletics and brought down Paterno, who saw his job and legacy vanish seemingly overnight, then died shortly after. “Happy Valley” (the title is an ironic nod to the Penn State nickname) is not especially interested in issues of criminal guilt — those have long been established — but in the ways the town, the media and society at large responded to the incident. Through his months of filming on the Penn State campus, Bar-Lev discovers uncomfortable cultural truths in the various explanations and rationalizations. 'Happy Valley' Most notably, he unveils what he and a Penn State professor named Matt Jordan call a “shaming spectacle” — the idea that in public condemnations of Sandusky, people can feel better about the event and its outlier status without undergoing a more difficult process of self-scrutiny. In both making the film and tracking the reactions since it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the director says he’s most noticed an innate discomfort with the subject. That is not, he said, simply because of the nature of child sex abuse, but because of how Sandusky went about his crimes. Instead of blunt force, Sandusky used a variety of seduction techniques, building trust with boys through the many perks of Division I Athletics and a nonprofit he founded for underprivileged youth. “Sandusky was recruiting young men in the way that was not that different from how this country recruits young men to college football programs,” Bar-Lev said. “He may have been doing it for a different purpose, but he was borrowing from the playbook of Paterno and other football coaches regarded as heroes.” Bar-Lev added: “In some ways I think had these been more literal rapes, where Sandusky physically held them down, we would be able to talk about it more." With football reigning supreme at Penn State, the Sandusky scandal raises the question of whether beloved programs at high-end schools operate above the law, its instructors shielded by the bubble of fandom and its administrators willing to look the other way when presented with evidence of wrongdoing. (Incidentally, these are also issues explored in this fall’s indie breakout, “Whiplash.") We say that Joe Paterno put blinders on, but we all put blinders on to inequities all around us. I think that's what makes this so fundamentally difficult to deal with. - Amir Bar-Lev The Rice and Peterson cases raise similar questions. The running backs’ superstar status among their respective fan bases seemed to offer them wide berth to engage in the acts of domestic abuse they've been accused of. Questions about how much the Ravens and Vikings organizations — not to mention NFL commissioner Roger Goodell — knew about their activities have dogged the case and continue to draw criticism to the league. But where many football fans are eager to see these scandals as the acts of lone deviants, Bar-Lev views them broadly — very broadly. Sandusky’s actions, he notes, were over the years enabled not just by a football program that was deemed above the law but by a larger economic system. “I’m sure something like this could just as easily happen in more socialist cultures as well,” said Bar-Lev, who speaks in an articulate, at times academic, manner. “But there is a class component to the story. It’s not an accident that Sandusky went outside his world, to the other side of the tracks, to find many of his victims.” There was, Bar-Lev argues, a wide gulf between the redoubt of privilege that Sandusky occupied and the impoverished football-playing world many of his victims came from, and the director concludes that the exploitation of this gap was key to his crimes. Matt Sandusky, the coach's adopted son, is a key figure in the film. Coming from a hardscrabble family, he was adopted by Sandusky and his wife and given a new life before he was, he says, abused by him. Matt Sandusky has begun to break his public silence by appearing with Bar-Lev at screenings and talking about the abuse he suffered; he describes in the film the cult of personality that lay at the heart of the scandal. "If people thought of Joe Paterno as God, Jerry was like Jesus," he says. "They could do whatever they wanted, they could do no wrong." Just being near Jerry Sandusky, the young man notes, gave him a sense of importance and power. As Bar-Lev has toured the country — he even took the film to State College recently, where he found a mostly receptive audience, and some scattered protesters — he has encountered many people, even those with no connection to Penn State, who'd rather avoid the subject. He said he believes the reaction is telling of the scandal itself. "There’s something about the failings of everyone in this case that come close to a lot of our own failings," he said. "We say that Joe Paterno put blinders on, but we all put blinders on to inequities all around us. I think that's what makes this so fundamentally difficult to deal with.” The director has developed a specialty in what might be called hero revisionism — he previously directed “The Tillman Story,” which took another look at the popular legend around the late soldier and football player Pat Tillman, and is currently working on a documentary about the Grateful Dead that reevaluates the mythos of Jerry Garcia and the relationship between the band and its followers. (Bar-Lev, interestingly, is not a big sports fan but is a hard-core music devotee.) It is in these areas of fan worship that he says we find something uniquely American, even human. Among the many other implications of Sandusky, after all, is a pulling back of the hero veil. "I think the underlying questions of the movie is 'Can we still go on? Is it OK to cheer now that we know all that we know?'" Bar-Lev offers no easy answers. But all of us who have ever admired and rooted for a public figure will now find ourselves asking questions. Kenneth Turan’s Review: The documentary 'Happy Valley' looks at how veneration of football factored into the Sandusky scandal HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources IS DIGITAL LEARNING MORE COST-EFFECTIVE? MAYBE NOT | http://bit.ly/1pCzOvm ONLINE EDUCATION RUN AMOK? Private companies want to scoop up your child's data | http://bit.ly/1yxe9pQ SANDY HOOK FINALLY PUTS LOCAL LAUSD SCHOOLS ON ALERT …TWO YEARS LATER | http://bit.ly/1z5hdIk Diane Ravitch: “Texas Approves Textbooks That Acknowledge Moses as One of Our Founding Fathers” | http://bit.ly/1v5hUSC From the wonderful folks who brought you NCLB+Common Core: U.S. PROPOSES NEW GUIDELINES ON TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS : US Dept of Ed proposes rules that would shift money to colleges ranking higher on educating teachers …and (Surprise! Surprise!!) Eli Broad likes ‘em! | | http://bit.ly/1yvLOjT Debate > RESOLVED: EMBRACE THE COMMON CORE; Urgency vs. Following-through on what we’ve already started | http://bit.ly/1FCvGgP No Turkey Left Behind>NCTQ: NATIONAL COUNCIL ON THANKSGIVING QUALITY (Part I) …And yes, Virginia, there is a part II+II I http://bit.ly/1rsNgDg HOUSE OF BLUES FOUNDATION TO GIVE AWAY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS SO STUDENTS CAN PRACTICE AT HOME | http://bit.ly/1AWrpXw LESSONS FROM LOS ANGELES’ SCHOOL RECORDS DISASTER | http://bit.ly/1xLTfj6 SAN FRANCISCO USD, UNION AGREE TO 12% PAY RAISE OVER 3 YEARS FOR TEACHERS AND ASSISTANTS | http://bit.ly/1vOAXCO 2B or not: ANNOUNCING THE NEXT PHASE OF PROGRAM TO BUY MORE iPADS WAS THE EASY PART. CARRYING IT OUT IS ANOTHER ISSUE http://bit.ly/1ycoZAG FORMER SUPT. TRAVELED ON PRIVATE FOUNDATION’S FUND | http://bit.ly/1ycgdCO L.A. UNIFIED ADOPTS FREE HISTORY CURRICULUM FROM STANFORD UNIVERSITY | http://bit.ly/11UCdHw Red Queen: IT’S NOT THE INSTITUTIONS, IT’S THE WAY WE LET THEM BE MANAGED | "We need to recognize not only where the buck should stop, but demand accountability once it gets there." | http://bit.ly/11QnhsO EVENTS: Coming up next week... Regular Board Meeting including Closed Session items - December 2, 2014 - 10:00 a.m. - Regular Board Meeting - December 2, 2014 - RESCHEDULED TO DECEMBER 9, 2014 Start: 12/09/2014 10:00 am *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.

2B? ...or not to be?

4LAKids: Sunday 23•Nov•2014  Thanksgiving Week In This Issue:  •  HUGE SETTLEMENT IN SEX ABUSE CASE HAS L.A. UNIFIED RETHINKING REFORMS  •  CORTINES APPROVES NEXT PHASE OF LAUSD iPAD PROGRAM …but returns the armored vehicle  •  “Forced Labor”: REPORT ALLEGES CHARTER PARENTS FORCED TO VOLUNTEER  •  Immigration Reform: THE WHEN IS NOW ...AND IT'S LONG OVERDUE + 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. The headlines and the unanticipated budget numbers: L.A. SCHOOLS WILL PAY VICTIMS IN CHILD ABUSE SCANDAL $139 MILLION – not including $30 million previously awarded and its own legal costs LAUSD NEEDS ANOTHER $13 million for testing devices – in addition to $31 million already spent, $9.1 million already allocated but not spent, and the $114 million already spent on iPads and other devices for the now-on-hold (…or maybe not) 1:1 computing initiative – the debacle formally known as the Common Core Technology Project. THE CURRENT COST OVERRUNS ON MISIS are projected to be about $53 million. Or more. LAUSD MAY HAVE A GENERAL FUND DEFICIT THIS YEAR OF $300 MILLION – even though the superintendent proposed and the board approved a budget last June that was theoretically balanced and there is supposed to be all this new Prop 30 money rolling in! (“Oh c’mon Scott,” you say. “…those numbers are so one-superintendent-ago!”) There is a current backlog of $5.2 billion in unmet maintenance and repair needs, that number increases about $1.1 billion a year. The District has the ability to raise about $7 billion over the next decade in Measure Q bonds – but in reality needs about $30 billion to rebuild and modernize LAUSD facilities to meet 21st century standards. The good news is that California schools may get an additional $2 billion next year in general fund increased tax revenue – if projections are correct. | http://lat.ms/11GmqMb LAUSD may get as much as 15% of that. The bad news is the previous sentence contains the modifier “may” twice and “if” once. And LAUSD is 384 miles from Sacramento where decisions really get made – no matter what we like to believe about Local Control and Subsidiarity. Those are some big numbers ….but what do they mean? There is more difference between a million and a billion besides an ‘M’ and a ‘B’. A billion is a thousand times bigger than a million: A million is to a billion as a penny is to a ten dollar bill. • One million seconds would take up 11 days, 13 hours 46 minutes and 40 seconds. A week and a half. • One billion seconds is a bit over 31 and one-half years. • One trillion seconds is slightly over 31,688 years. The LA Times Sunday morning, looking at the Miramonte payout, (follows) says: “The total of $169 million, plus $11 million in legal fees, would fund a one-year 7% bonus for teachers. To save that much money, the district would have to make every employee take 12 unpaid days off. “L.A. Unified avoided such measures by starting to put aside higher sums in a self-insurance fund. In 2010-11, before the allegations against Berndt came to light, the district paid $12.4 million into the fund. In the ensuing four years, the district set aside $30.7 million, $80.5 million, $37.7 million and $23.3 million.” LAUSD set aside $172.2 million – and like clockwork – got $169 million in claims plus legal fees on this case. Funny how that works out. What the Times doesn’t point out is that under Superintendent Brewer the District initiated a top-to-bottom/deep+wide Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention program through an organization called Darkness to Light that educated staff, students and parents (Parents? What a concept!). D2L came to LAUSD as a direct result of the Rooney Case described in the Times article (and in these pages previously [see: http://bit.ly/11LjoFy] and was powerful, well received and very effective. Even though D2L was probably the most effective tool in the toolbox to identify “Bad Teachers” it was also the first program cut and subsequently eliminated in budget cuts. D2L and other programs that teach bullying prevention and teen dating violence prevention address socio-emotional problems directly through education and prevention. Prevention is proactive; Intervention is reactive. Prevention always trumps intervention. Even Restorative Justice, the feel-good flavor of the month for socio-emotional intervention, is reactive. Squirreling away money into a self-insurance pool is a Risk Management Strategy that cynically accepts the inevitability of the problem insured against. LAUSD is in the business of Education. Had we invested a small percentage of the Insurance Pool in Prevention we might’ve empowered students, staff and parents to stop Mark Berndt and his ilk. Had we identified Berndt earlier – or prevented his atrocities – we would have that $172.2 million (less a few million invested in D2L) to invest in something else. Class Size Reduction? Teacher salaries? iPad curriculum? And there would be fewer children violated. As Pete Seeger dared to add to the wisdom of Ecclesiastes: “I swear it’s not too late.” THURSDAY SAW A WHOLE NEW DAY IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DISTRICT AND THE BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE – and by extension the voters+taxpayers the BOC represents. Superintendent Cortines and his team were transparent and forthright in their appeal for more funds for Testing Devices and the MiSiS fix. Assistant Superintendent Ruth Perez described LAUSD as far behind other districts in deploying testing devices – an about-face from Deasy’s appeal to be on the cutting edge. Cortines himself was apologetic and businesslike in his statements on MiSiS – echoing the “Grossly Inadequate” findings of the Inspector General in the District's previous efforts: "We don’t know what we don’t know”. Promises were made and everyone expects them to be kept about the resolution of the MiSiS Crisis and the expensive road ahead to correct the situation. Cortines stated unequivocally that he understands that Bond Funds are Limited and should be for Bricks and Mortar …and that Safety, Modernization and Repair are jobs 1A, 1B and 1C. ON FRIDAY – the second day of the bright new wonderful tomorrow - there was a hiccough – and hopefully this will be explained away next week while the rest of us are interviewing turkeys, dealing with the kids underfoot and locating the big salad bowl. Two news stories surfaced (CORTINES APPROVES NEXT PHASE OF LAUSD iPAD PROGRAM – follows) that announced the surprise resurrection of Phase 2B of the Common Core Technology Project (1:1 computing/iPads for All) and stated that “…the Phase 2B devices will be loaded with instructional software”. Really? WHAT instructional software? …and paid for by whom? Superintendent Cortines is on record that he doesn’t consider bond funds appropriate for instructional content [http://bit.ly/1uQvER8 ] – but the (‘shut down’/’halted’/’suspended’ but not ‘cancelled’) CCTP devices+content contract with Apple+Pearson is for the Pearson Common Core System of Courses exclusively – and is 100% funded by the bonds. Yes, Dr. Deasy assured us that there would be a new RFP+procurement …but that never happened. And so it is. ¡Thankfully Onward/Esperemos Adelante! - smf PS: I think – but I’m not sure - the big salad bowl is in the garage. “Grossly Inadequate”: THE LAUSD INSPECTOR GENERAL’S SPECIAL AUDIT OF MiSiS HUGE SETTLEMENT IN SEX ABUSE CASE HAS L.A. UNIFIED RETHINKING REFORMS “WE STILL HAVE THAT QUESTION OUTSTANDING: WHAT HAPPENED?” - Former state legislator Martha Escutia By Howard Blume & Stephen Ceasar | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1tp2dQS 23 November 2014 :: Six years ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District found itself at the center of a high-profile teacher sex abuse scandal. The year was 2008, and then-L.A. schools Deputy Supt. Ramon C. Cortines reacted firmly amid revelations that a school administrator, Steve Rooney, had sex with an underage student at one campus before being transferred to another, where he molested two girls. Cortines oversaw new practices to improve communication with law enforcement agencies, conduct internal investigations of any employee under suspicion of wrongdoing and keep accused instructors out of classrooms until they are cleared. But in the last couple of years, L.A. Unified found itself dealing with an even larger scandal. On Friday, the district approved paying the staggering sum of more than $139 million to alleged victims of former Miramonte Elementary teacher Mark Berndt. The settlement has Cortines — the current superintendent — and others concerned that other earlier reforms didn't work and considering what needs to be done for the district to better protect students from sexual misconduct by adults. Even after the Rooney case, a small number of sexual predators still worked for L.A. Unified; some had managed to keep their jobs for years without calling much attention to themselves. "Some of these people are very smart," said Cortines, "and they have strategies" to avoid being caught. As with Rooney's case, and other abuse cases before it, the Berndt episode led to aggressive responses. Former Supt. John Deasy decided to pull employees from their duties the moment an allegation was made or wrongdoing suspected. The number of suspended and dismissed employees ballooned, leading some to accuse him of overreacting. School board member Tamar Galatzan said the issue was larger than Miramonte. "There were several situations in the time that I've been on the board that showed that the district had to step up the investigation, the reporting and the record keeping. I think we've made necessary steps to do that," she said. These measures include a new internal investigative team, a permanent database on teacher conduct and a pledge to provide more information both to parents and to the accused. Critics still question the district's commitment. Former state legislator Martha Escutia, who was part of the legal team suing L.A. Unified, said the district never followed through with a promise to set up a commission to examine what went wrong and what measures to adopt. "We still have that question outstanding: What happened?" Escutia said. Several times after Berndt joined the school system in 1976, some children complained about bizarre or sexually tinged behavior. In some instances, the children were doubted. In others, the evidence was sketchy. The incidents also generally were far apart and not tracked over time. "In some cases, adults think that comments by students are not relevant, but they are," said Cortines, who came out of retirement to take over the school system last month. "I think we're more aware of that now." "I don't want to put the children and their families in a scare mode," he said, adding that children need to be encouraged to report things that bother them. Attorneys for Miramonte students and their families cited the Berndt case as proof that L.A. Unified has been negligent. The size of the settlement, said attorney John Manly, is evidence that the district feared a jury would agree. The Berndt case was unusual. The third-grade teacher had convinced students they were playing a tasting game when he allegedly had them eat cookies tainted with his semen. This activity, among others, was uncovered when a drugstore employee alerted law enforcement about bizarre photos of children found on film Berndt had brought to develop. Last year, he pleaded no contest to 23 counts of lewd conduct and received a 25-year prison sentence. Cortines said the district has learned from Miramonte. "We listen better," he said. "We see better." He said he's also learned that he can never assume that the problem will be completely addressed. "You can't predict what is going to happen," he said. "You can't pass enough rules. You can't institute enough policies. You can't screen employees in a way that you're going to catch every issue that needs to be looked at." In addition to last week's settlement, an additional $30 million was previously paid out to resolve other cases involving Berndt and another Miramonte teacher against whom charges were later dropped. The total of $169 million, plus $11 million in legal fees, would fund a one-year 7% bonus for teachers. To save that much money, the district would have to make every employee take 12 unpaid days off. L.A. Unified avoided such measures by starting to put aside higher sums in a self-insurance fund. In 2010-11, before the allegations against Berndt came to light, the district paid $12.4 million into the fund. In the ensuing four years, the district set aside $30.7 million, $80.5 million, $37.7 million and $23.3 million. The money was not just for the Berndt case — there were other costly abuse cases as well — but the Miramonte allegations were the major driver. "When we know there is some sort of liability, the accounting rules require us to do our best estimate and recognize it," said Megan Reilly, the district's chief financial officer. Whether L.A. Unified could have anticipated the abuse beforehand would have been the subject of the trial. That was avoided with Friday's agreement. CORTINES APPROVES NEXT PHASE OF LAUSD iPAD PROGRAM …but returns the armored vehicle ►LAUSD TO MOVE FORWARD WITH PHASE 2B OF THE COMMON CORE TECHNOLOGY PROJECT: A total of 85 schools will be equipped with devices LAUSD PRESS RELEASE |http://bit.ly/1Fh3L61 21 Nov. 2014 LOS ANGELES :: Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines today gave staff the green light to move forward with Phase 2B of the Common Core Technology Project (CCTP). Phase 2B will equip teachers and students at an additional 27 schools with learning devices. In January, the LAUSD Board of Education voted unanimously to approve up to $114 million in bond funds to continue with Phase 2 of the project. With this action, 85 schools will be equipped with devices, and 21 more schools with laptops under the Phase 1L laptop pilot. “Our students deserve the best tools available to meet the requirements to be successful in the 21st century workforce,” Cortines said. “Without the appropriate tools, they will be disadvantaged compared to their peers across the entire nation. We also need to keep the dialogue open with our schools. We want Phase 2B to provide more options than previous phases so that our students are fully utilizing the most appropriate and current devices available.” Principals at these 27 Phase 2B schools will be key in determining which educational tools are best for their school communities. The CCTP team is currently looking into options available to facilitate this choice for schools and will coordinate all logistics needed to make Phase 2B a success. The full timeline for implementation will be announced in the coming weeks. “I am extremely pleased that the superintendent sees the benefit of moving forward with our technology initiative,” CCTP Director Bernadette Lucas said. “Access to technology is a necessity for every student, and is a key part of adopting the Common Core State Standards. This project is an essential piece of the District’s adoptions of these new standards, as well as achieving our over-arching vision for all students to graduate college-prepared and career-ready.” _____________ ►CORTINES APPROVES NEXT PHASE OF LAUSD iPAD PROGRAM by LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1xD7hHl November 21, 2014 5:35 pm :: Let the iPads roll. Again. LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines today approved moving ahead with the next phase of the district’s iPad program, officially known as Phase 2B of the Common Core Technology Project. It’s actually, iPads et. al. The goal with this action is to complete the second round of buying digital devices by equipping teachers and students at an additional 27 schools with learning devices. That brings the total to 85 district schools with iPads or, in the case of the Phase 2B buy, other digital devices, such as Chromebooks. The total reflects 47 schools receiving iPads in Phase 1 and 11 in Phase 2A, which was halted by former Superintendent John Deasy after questions arose about the procurement process. The cost to date: $114 million, which covers devices, keyboards, charging carts, testing devices, and the laptop pilot program for 21 high schools. In this latest phase announced today, each school will have the option of buying devices that the principal and teachers deem best for their students. And the district intends to sustain that approach going forward. District officials said they expect this latest round of devices to reach students by February. “Our students deserve the best tools available to meet the requirements to be successful in the 21st century workforce,” Cortines said in a statement. “Without the appropriate tools, they will be disadvantaged compared to their peers across the entire nation. We also need to keep the dialogue open with our schools. We want Phase 2B to provide more options than previous phases so that our students are fully utilizing the most appropriate and current devices available.” Unlike iPads being purchased under a new request of $13.3 million from the Bond Oversight Committee for computerized testing at the end of the academic year, the Phase 2B devices will be loaded with instructional software. The list of schools scheduled to receive new devices is here: http://bit.ly/1FgYMSX ______________ ►LAUSD SENDING IPADS, LAPTOPS TO 27 MORE SCHOOLS Annie Gilbertson | KPCC 89.3 | http://bit.ly/1xD8TkC November 21, 06:51 PM :: Los Angeles school district superintendent Ramon Cortines is expanding the iPad program to 27 more schools, the second round of computer purchases announced this week. Without seeking new bids from tech companies for the latest purchases, the district may need to rely on a controversial contract with Apple that former Superintendent John Deasy said would be canceled. "Our students deserve the best tools available to meet the requirements to be successful in the 21st century workforce," Cortines said in a statement on Friday. Before a bond oversight committee Thursday, Cortines requested $22 million worth of iPads and Google Chromebooks to allow students to take new digital state tests. In the latest announcement, the superintendent declared he would tap into a $114 million fund (allocated in January) to extend the school technology program to 27 more schools. That would bring the total of schools outfitted with tablets or laptops to 106 of the district's more than 800 schools. Deasy spearheaded the effort to supply all students with a tablet, but the program stalled after reports of missing iPads, inadequate school WiFi and a controversial contract with Apple. KPCC found Deasy had close ties with executives at Apple and Pearson, the manufacturer of the curriculum software loaded onto many of the tablets. KPCC reported in August that email conversations between top district staff and the vendors resembled bidding requirements, calling into question whether the bidding process was fair. Deasy canceled the contract three days later, stating the district would reopen the bid. It hasn't. "There was no need to cancel the contract," said Mark Hovatter, LAUSD chief facilities executive, on Wednesday. "We believe we got the best value." Purchases under the latest two announcements allow for principals to choose their preferred device for their schools. Shannon Haber, a district spokeswoman, said the officials were still deciding whether to expand offerings beyond iPads and Chromebooks. ______________ ►LAUSD SCHOOL POLICE RETURN ARMORED MILITARY VEHICLE, WHICH IS NOW IN BARSTOW By Thomas Himes, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1xDa7w3 Posted: 11/21/14, 5:24 PM PST | Updated: 11/22 :: Los Angeles Unified’s school police have returned their armored vehicle after community outcry over a federal program that sent military weapons to local law enforcement agencies. That “1033 program” came under scrutiny in the wake of scenes from Ferguson, Mo., where police confronted protesters with military weapons. The school police had also accepted battle-ready weapons. After returning three grenade launchers in September, School Police Chief Steven Zipperman said Friday he sent back the mine resistant and ambush proof (MRAP) vehicle his department received in June. “We’ve decided that particular vehicle, based on its sheer size and maneuverability and the resources it takes to operate it, wasn’t viable for us,” Zipperman said. At nearly 20 feet long, the more than 14-ton vehicle was designed to keep troops safe during ambushes in which enemies would blow up the lead vehicle of a convoy, while raining down gunfire on Marines and soldiers who were trapped. School police wanted the MRAP to rescue people in the event of a wide-scale attack that would prevent other law enforcement agencies from responding to campuses, Zipperman said. With a value of $733,000, the vehicle seemed a cost-effective alternative to armor-plated vehicles built for civilian use, which cost $300,000, Zipperman has said. However, the cost of maintenance and certifying a driver played a role in Zipperman’s decision to send the MRAP back to state officials who administer the federal program, he said. State officials transferred the MRAP to the Barstow Police Department last month, said Alex Pal, an attorney in the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. As for a replacement, Zipperman said, the district will consider obtaining a used armored car and other cost-effective alternatives. Manuel Criollo of the Community Rights Campaign has been advocating for LAUSD police to destroy its military arsenal, as part of efforts to demilitarize law enforcement across the city. “We’re trying to demilitarize all police in Los Angeles, so clearly it’s an important breakthrough they’re returning the MRAP vehicle that was made for Iraq and Afghanistan and had no place on school grounds,” Criollo said. Last month his organization sponsored a protest near Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. Youths who turned out for the demonstration told stories of how police patrol their neighborhoods in military gear, he said. “It’s a real thing,” Criollo said. “It’s not just that people are fearing their right to protest and the reaction of police, but we see a lot of this military equipment in use.” The Community Rights Campaign has requested an inventory of all weapons possessed by LAUSD. The school district previously returned three 40mm grenade launchers that were used for fighting in the jungles of Vietnam — and obtained by LAUSD in the months following Sept. 11, 2001 — as a means to fire less-than-lethal rounds that could disperse crowds in civil unrest, Zipperman has said. However, LAUSD’s armory still contains M16 rifles received through the program. The 61 fully automatic rifles were converted to semi-auto and are used in training by officers seeking credentials to fire assault rifles, he said. Zipperman said his department is in the process of providing public records that will detail the district’s weapon inventory. Once that happens, Criollo wants the school board to ensure all of the weapons are either destroyed, disassembled or returned to the Department of Defense, according to a Nov. 10 letter he sent to board members. The Community Rights Campaign is also part of a coalition of groups urging the federal government to end its 1033 program. U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Mark Harnitchek wrote that state agencies decided how to distribute weapons to local agencies. However, Harnitchek notes that he fully supports President Barack Obama’s decision to review the program. “I have directed my staff to cooperate fully with the review as I strongly support ensuring transfers of Department of Defense materials for law enforcement activities strike a proper balance of accountability and need,” Harnitchek wrote in an Oct. 17 letter. Since 1993, Southland law enforcement agencies have collected $150 million worth of military gear, according to a database maintained by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. More than $4.2 billion in equipment has been given away nationwide since the 1990s, according to an Associated Press report that found a disproportionate share went to police departments in rural areas with few officers and little crime. While federal authorities previously released a database detailing equipment giveaways to county law enforcement agencies, a database detailing equipment collected by local police is expected to be released any day, Pal said. As police prepared to react to civil unrest in Ferguson, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday urged officers to show restraint. “The Justice Department encourages law enforcement officials, in every jurisdiction, to work with the communities they serve to minimize needless confrontation,” Holder said. “Forced Labor”: REPORT ALLEGES CHARTER PARENTS FORCED TO VOLUNTEER By John Fensterwald | EdSource | http://bit.ly/1Ayu3mf November 20, 2014 | Dozens and possibly hundreds of the state’s charter schools have adopted policies that illegally require parents to volunteer, the nonprofit law firm Public Advocates charged in a report issued on Thursday. Some schools give parents the alternative of paying hundreds of dollars in lieu of volunteering and some charters policies threaten to dis-enroll children whose parents don’t comply, the Public Advocates report states (see school by school policies). Public Advocates examined online documents of 555 of the state’s 1,184 charter schools, including charter petitions, handbooks and letters to parents. It found that 30 percent – 168 schools – imposed volunteer quotas. The report did not say how many of the charters had policies stating students would not be allowed to re-enroll if parents did not volunteer. An appendix summarizes all of the schools’ requirements and conditions. John Affeldt, Public Advocates’ managing partner, said his firm did not contact any of the schools whose policies were cited to see how the schools enforced the policies and if they followed through with threats to prevent re-enrollment, he said. But, he said, the fact that a school has a policy requiring parents to volunteer is illegal and “discourages people from enrolling in a school who have a right to go there.” Jed Wallace, the CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, said that Public Advocates’ findings may be a case where charters’ “paperwork has not caught up with their actual practice.” The association has not heard of instances where charters have sanctioned students for their parents’ failure to volunteer. If it had, the association would have spoken out about this, he said. Public Advocates said that the practice of requiring volunteer quotas violates children’s right under the State Constitution to a “free public school.” The firm also said it violates a 2012 state law banning public schools from demanding parents to provide “money or donations or goods or services.” Such policies discriminate against poor and working families, the report said, noting, “No public school should ever penalize or exclude a student because his or her parent or guardian cannot or chooses not to donate time or labor to the school.” Wallace agrees. He said Thursday that the association has posted legal advice on the members’ portion of its website stating that “it is not legal or appropriate to take actions against students because of the actions of a parent.” He said that charters should actively encourage parents to volunteer and be flexible in seeking ways to involve families but they must not require it. “No public school should ever penalize or exclude a student because his or her parent or guardian cannot or chooses not to donate time or labor to the school,” the report said. Some of the schools Public Advocates reviewed had ambiguous policies or did not post policies online, the report stated. Volunteering requirements ranged from one event per year to one day per week, with 30 hours per year a common amount. Some charters permitted parents to buy back the hours at $5 to $25 per hour. Public Advocates’ report calls on charter schools to halt the practice immediately and for districts to revoke charters of schools that continue it. Public Advocates also wants the State Board of Education to adopt regulations and the Legislature to amend charter laws to state that a forced donation of services constitutes an illegal fee and to demand that districts and county offices of education monitor for compliance. Charters are public schools of choice, open to those who apply, that are independently managed – most often by nonprofit boards consisting of educators, parents and community leaders. They are overseen by school districts but are free from many of the regulations that the state Education Code imposes on districts. However, they are not exempt from the prohibition on charging fees and parental volunteer quotas, Public Advocates said. James Trombley, Manzanita’s executive director, said the 150-student middle school relies on parents to be involved in the classroom and to help with custodial work. The school tries to accommodate scheduling conflicts and medical needs of its mostly low-income families. Those families that do not receive a waiver from the volunteer requirement lose their priority enrollment status but can enter the lottery the next year for admission, he said. “We’re a distinguished school recognized for our parent partnerships,” he said. Some confusion may come from a 2006 memo by Michael Hersher, deputy general counsel of the state Department of Education. Hersher wrote that it was his opinion that a charter school proposal “may lawfully include reasonable admission criteria, including a requirement that parents agree to do work for the charter school.” Affeldt said the memo is no longer on the Department of Education website, but at least one law firm serving charter school clients has posted it on its website. He wants the Department of Education to disavow it. In 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union in California sued the state for permitting dozens of school districts to routinely charge fees, including charges for textbooks, AP exams, lab materials and gym uniforms. That led to the passage of AB 1575, which explicitly prohibits all public schools from charging fees for participating in an educational activity at the school. Public Advocates argues that forced volunteering constitutes a fee. Public Advocates’ report: “CHARGING FOR ACCESS: How California Charter Schools Exclude Vulnerable Students By Imposing Illegal Family Work Quotas”. Immigration Reform: THE WHEN IS NOW ...AND IT'S LONG OVERDUE + smf’s 2¢ Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times | http://t.co/kG22VFV70x 22 November 2014 :: Fresh off a victory in which they took control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the GOP suddenly finds itself in a jam. The story of the moment is no longer President Obama's healthcare program, which Republicans have promised to blow up on the way to the presidency in 2016. It's Obama's immigration reform plan, which he delivered Thursday night in a short speech, laying out the terms by which 5 million or so immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally will have temporary legal protection. "We are in great shape," Eliseo Medina, an immigration reform activist for many years, said to me in an email. "People now have proof positive that they can make change, and the GOP is in a box — attack, and make their relations with Latinos worse, or do their own bill and tick off" the more conservative wing of the party by compromising. When I wrote about Medina earlier this year and mentioned his 22-day fast in Washington, D.C., in 2013, he was optimistic that there'd be reform this year. I didn't share his enthusiasm, but he said Obama — who visited him during the fast — struck him as sincerely determined to get something done. "I had discussed it with him so many times that I was convinced he was going to do it. The only question was how far he was willing/able to go and when." The when is now. Advocates didn't get the whole package they wanted, and the scramble to determine who is eligible for protection and to process applications could be chaotic for months to come. But in making a first move toward change, Obama struck a blow to the duplicity and hypocrisy surrounding immigration law. It has never made sense that children without documents could attend school legally, but could be deported the moment they leave school. Nor has it made sense for us to then slam the door on the investment by refusing immigrants college or jobs in which they'd pay back the investment through taxes. It has never been fair to point a finger at those who fled poverty, crime and corruption for a chance at a better life, when all along, major U.S. industries have not only embraced them, but profited handsomely, as have consumers who demand the lowest prices for a head of lettuce, a restaurant meal, a hotel stay, a nanny, a gardener, a housekeeper. What about the rule of law, scream the opponents of immigration reform. Rule of law? The wink-and-nod policies of the past were a sham. A firm set of rules on who gets to stay and who has to leave is long overdue. ______________ ●● smf’s 2¢ :: I often get rankled when the knee-jerks' knees jerk – and the Board of Education passes a resolution is support of social justice issues outside their jurisdiction or competency. The $15 dollar-an-hour minimum wage for hotel workers comes to mind …especially when we consider that there are many jobs in LAUSD that don’t pay $15 an hour. I’m all for social justice and community organizing and progressive politics … but not on the taxpayer’s dime or the District’s time. Immigration Reform is an entirely different matter and the reason is this: The Presidents Executive Action last Thursday directly impacts 1.1 million parents of California schoolchildren. A correspondent reminds me and I remind all of us - Steve Lopez and John Boehner included - as we occupy ourselves with the concept and bluster+ fulminate that we are a Nation of Laws. We are. But laws are a process. We aspire to be a Nation of Justice. Justice is an outcome. EdSource: CHILDREN KEY TO DEPORTATION RELIEF :: California will be the main beneficiary of President’s historic announcement – in most cases children will be the key to them taking advantage of it. EdSource: CHILDREN KEY TO DEPORTATION RELIEF :: California will be the main beneficiary of President’s historic announcement – in most cases children HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources SUPERINTENDENT’S WEEKLY MiSiS UPDATE | http://bit.ly/1Fh364z “Forced Labor”: REPORT ALLEGES CHARTER PARENTS FORCED TO VOLUNTEER | http://bit.ly/1AyxYzr CORTINES APPROVES NEXT PHASE OF LAUSD iPAD PROGRAM …but returns the armored vehicle | http://bit.ly/1xiva2Y ALEC: John Oliver explains it all for you | http://bit.ly/1xNWagi LAUSD WILL PAY MIRAMONTE VICTIMS $139 MILLION—not including $30 million previously awarded and its own legal costs | http://bit.ly/1uLMqzo LAUSD TEACHERS RALLY FOR PAY RAISES, SMALLER CLASS SIZES | http://bit.ly/1uK0iu1 BREAKING: Miramonte civil lawsuits settle for cumulative $139 million @4LAKids • Nov 21 LAUSD BOND PANEL OKs ANOTHER $25 MILLION FOR MiSiS, DEVICES + smf’s (very costly) 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1tajaze CA SCHOOLS + COMMUNINITY COLLEGES COULD GET ANOTHER $2 BILLION Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sij8pl iPAD CONTRACT RESURRECTED: LAUSD to spend $22 million on devices for tests Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sij8lc MiSiS: OVERSIGHT OF STUDENT RECORDS SYSTEM "GROSSLY INADEQUATE" Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sij8gd “Grossly Inadequate”: THE LAUSD INSPECTOR GENERAL’S SPECIAL AUDIT OF MiSiS | http://bit.ly/1uNd24o Thurs nite at 5PM PST President Obama will address the nation to lay out the executive actions he’s taking to fix broken immigration system. FRIEDRICHS v. CTA: Was Labor’s biggest mistake not organizing the Federal Judiciary? | http://bit.ly/1uSQ1Nk PEARSON FOUNDATION, A NON-PROFIT IN TROUBLE FOR ITS TIES TO THE PARENT PEARSON LLC, WILL CLOSE SHOP BY YEAR’S END | http://bit.ly/11Ch2cZ Double Standardized Education: HOW STRICT IS TOO STRICT?-The backlash against no-excuses discipline in high school | http://bit.ly/1uELWfS Double Standardized Education: CALIFORNIA STUDENTS IN HIGH-POVERTY SCHOOLS LOSE LEARNING TIME, STUDY SAYS | http://bit.ly/1oZxLB1 LAUSD/UTLA CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS: "Neither side has reported any agreement on anything" | http://bit.ly/1xkJOup LAUSD/UTLA CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS: LA Unified guaranteeing teachers the pay raise already offered | http://bit.ly/1xkJOup 2ND ANNUAL LAUSD 5K ‘MOVE IT’ CHALLENGE AND HEALTH FESTIVAL IS SATURDAY AT DODGER STADIUM | http://bit.ly/1xkIhEM $40 billion of need: LAUSD EYEING MORE BONDS AS FUNDS FOR SCHOOL REPAIRS DWINDLE + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/11piq1I Newsfeed: JURY SELECTION BEGINS, SETTLEMENT TALKS CONTINUE IN MIRAMONTE CIVIL TRIAL | http://bit.ly/1vmvmTj LCFF/LCAP: STATE BOARD APPROVES FINAL LOCAL CONTROL FUNDING FORMULA/LOCAL CONTROL ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN RULES | http://bit.ly/1yPLbzv UPCOMING MEETINGS THIS WEEK AT LAUSD BEAUDRY Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sih23n MiSiS, meet ARIS: NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS DUMPING $95 MILLION COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR TRACKING STUDENT DATA | http://bit.ly/1xfBr3t Politico AM Ed: LAUSD OFFICIAL WANTS ACTION ON IMMIGRATION: Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sigua5 Politico: FCC TO PITCH $1.5 BILLION E-RATE BOOST: Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sigu24 EVENTS: Coming up next week... Nada. Have a Happy Thanksgiving! *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.