In This Issue:
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“The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast…”: BROAD FOUNDATION PLANS MAJOR CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION FOR L.A. UNIFIED STUDENTS |
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TEACHERS FROM MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA COLLABORATE TO TEACH ALGEBRA IN LAUSD |
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SHOULD
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS HAVE TO ‘DEFEND’ THEIR DIPLOMA LIKE A Ph.D?
CALIFORNIA’S NEW WAY OF RANKING SCHOOL PERFORMANCE COULD OPEN THE DOOR
TO PORT |
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TEACHERS
OBJECT AS LAUSD EXPANDS PLAN TO CUT ARTS ED TIME …even as District is
continues out of compliance with state education code |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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“We hear every damn day about how fragile our country
is — on the brink of catastrophe — torn by polarizing hate and how it’s
a shame that we can’t work together to get things done, but the truth
is we do. We work together to get things done every damn day!” – Jon
Stewart
This may come as a shock, but I don’t spend a lot of time watching Fox News.
Thursday evening was the exception; I succumbed to the media hype and
watched both the not-ready-for-prime-time and prime-time Republican
Primary Debates. Too much has already been written, spun, framed,
re-written, re-spun and re-framed about the festivities …but I leave you
with a few random thoughts:
I never realized that Facebook is an unwholy owned subsidiary of Fox
News and the RNC; they left that part out of “The Social Network”.
Education was pretty much unspoken of, though Jeb Bush managed to get
Common Core and School Vouchers into the same story+sentence about
“success.” Apparently Jeb had a ‘Florida Education Miracle” just as
grand+miraculous as his brother W’s ‘Texas Education Miracle’. We all
know how that worked out!
Nobody up there liked Arne Duncan and I don’t either.
Nobody up there seemed to have seen the likes of Donald Trump before. But I have: Silvio Berlusconi.
A WEEK AGO FRIDAY THE GRANDLY TITLED BETTER TOGETHER TEACHER SUMMIT
(#CATeachersSummit) was held up-and-down the state –
grandiloquently+hyperbolically: “The State’s Largest Teacher Training
Ever Attempted”.
The they who report such things report that 15,000 teachers attended at
33 venues (20,000 by LASR’s count) – plus unenumerated multitudes via
smartphone apps and livestream media. It was all very high tech and
interactive. Most of the media coverage from the ®eformistas
[“California Teachers Summit Attracts 20,000 Educators Statewide” - LA
School Report | http://bit.ly/1gjzz4t] and Silicon Valleyites [“Teachers Summit Draws Thousands to Sites Across California”| EdSource http://bit.ly/1DAuf7E]
gushed at the digitally connected wonderfulness. The small market local
press [“Stanislaus State Joins Statewide Teacher Conference, Site Of
Live-Stream Feed” | The Modesto Bee | http://bit.ly/1K86uk9]
gushed at being included. The free event – which featured live-on-video
video appearances from a TV actress and an NFL-player-turned-astronaut
(!)- was organized by California
State University, the Santa Cruz-based New Teacher Center and an
association of the state’s independent private colleges and was funded
by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.
Did your eyes glaze over at the mention of The Gates Foundation?
But wait …there’s more!: The “Santa Cruz-based New Teacher Center”
Executive Vice President of Strategy and Innovation is 4LAKids
regular/John Deasy’s former LAUSD #2/Common Core Technology Project
(iPads4All) architect Jaime Aquino …just in case you think Aquino is
just sitting around waiting for a subpoena and/or indictment from the
newly sworn-in US Attorney for the Central District of California [http://lat.ms/1hodnqE] over the LAUSD iPad fiasco.
Thumper: He doesn't walk very good, does he?
Mrs. Rabbit: Thumper!
Thumper: Yes, mama?
Mrs. Rabbit: What did your father tell you this morning?
Thumper: "If you can't say something nice... don't
say nothin’ at all."
MEANWHILE UTLA, ALLIANCE CHARTER SCHOOLS AND THE STATE LABOR BOARD HAVE AT IT.
State Labor Board Issues Complaint In Charter School Unionization Effort | http://lat.ms/1K8lej9
UTLA Outlines Accusations Against Alliance For Anti-Union Efforts | http://bit.ly/1JRJnyJ
Alliance Charters Says Some Its Teachers ‘Feel Harassed’ By UTLA | http://bit.ly/1KVaKXi
Maybe Mr. or Mrs. Rabbit need to go straighten that out?
MEANWHILE, (IGNORE THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN) Eli Broad+John Deasy
make some noise …but are not heard from: BROAD FOUNDATION PLANS MAJOR
CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION FOR L.A. UNIFIED STUDENTS. So the line it is
drawn and the curse it is cast for the years ahead. The goal is (or
maybe isn’t) 50% of LAUSD kids in charter schools in eight years.
Eli has his $450M. I have my 2¢: By the numbers: HOW TO TELL IF YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT IS INFECTED BY THE BROAD VIRUS | http://bit.ly/ByTheNos
CARL COHN, longtime Long Beach Unified superintendent, former State
Board of Education member and recent advocate for breaking up LAUSD [http://bit.ly/1cAiXTV],
will lead the new autonomous state agency that will direct the state’s
evolving school improvement system and oversee implementation of the
Local Control Funding Formula [http://bit.ly/1Ef8UM6].
The five-member board of the California Collaborative for Educational
Excellence announced the appointment of Cohn as its first executive
director on Thursday. (Nothing for LAUSD to worry about there!)
SCHOOL STARTS IN NINE DAYS ON AUGUST 18th. The good news is that
Superintendent Cortines promises that MiSiS will be ready: CORTINES
PROMISES MISIS IS FIXED AND READY TO GO AS NEW SCHOOL YEAR OPENS | http://bit.ly/1INWvQj
“MiSiS is the heart of this district,” the superintendent said in a
statement. “After months of tireless repairs, our heart has some new
stents, replaced valves, a pacemaker, and reduced cholesterol, and it is
pumping much stronger.”
“Despite the challenges we’ve faced, I’ve never seen so much excitement
and enthusiasm for the start of the school year,” he said. “Everyone has
come together to help pick up the broken pieces of our schools and put
them back together again. I’m very grateful that the LAUSD community was
there to take action.”
THE OTHER GOOD NEWS – especially I suppose if folks get hot under the
collar if MiSiS isn’t ready - is that Roger Finstad, director of
Maintenance and Operations for LAUSD, promises that all the District’s
Air Conditioning will be ready for the First Day o’ School! [LA Unified
Has The A/C Ready For The Start Of The New School Year http://bit.ly/1MSRUTY]
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
“The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast…”: BROAD
FOUNDATION PLANS MAJOR CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION FOR L.A. UNIFIED
STUDENTS
By Howard Blume | Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1OXmr0m
8 Aug 2015 :: A prominent local education foundation is discussing a
major expansion of charter schools in Los Angeles aimed at boosting
academic achievement for students at the lowest performing campuses.
Details of the project are not yet fully clear. But charter school
leaders said they have met with officials from the Eli and Edythe Broad
Foundation in recent months about the effort. The Keck Foundation, the
Walton Family Foundation and other organizations that support the
independently run, publicly financed charters also are involved,
according to people who attended the meetings. They requested anonymity
because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.
The Broad Foundation said the charter plan is in an early, exploratory phase, but declined to provide specific information.
"People have been demanding better public schools forever and not
getting them," said Swati Pandey, a spokeswoman for the foundation. "We
hope this will be a bigger, better and more ambitious effort to make
that happen."
The people who attended the meetings said organizers displayed maps
showing Los Angeles neighborhoods where they said thousands of students
are going to under-performing public schools.
An ambitious expansion of charter schools would be costly and would
likely face a political fight. And it's not known what kind of funding
commitments the organizers have locked down.
One person who attended a meeting said the goal was to enroll in charter
schools half of all Los Angeles students over the next eight years.
Another said there was discussion of an option that involved enrolling
50% of students currently at schools with low test scores. A source said
the cost was estimated to be $450 million; another said hundreds of
millions of dollars are needed.
Officials from Keck and Walton could not be reached for comment.
Currently, more than 100,000 L.A. students attend charters, about 16% of
district enrollment, according to the Los Angeles Unified School
District. L.A. Unified has more charters, 207, and more charter students
than any other school district in the country.
"The conversation I had focused on decreasing the number of students
attending failing public schools," said Parker Hudnut, chief executive
officer of ICEF Public Schools, a charter group that enrolls 3,900
students in 10 South Los Angeles schools.
"We looked at maps of L.A. and how many students are attending these
schools and talked about what can we do about it," he said. "They tried
to identify areas of L.A. where tens of thousands of students are going
to schools that they deemed unsatisfactory."
"It's exciting," said Cristina de Jesus, president and chief executive
of Green Dot Public Schools California, which operates 20 charters in
the L.A. area. "It's re-energizing the conversation around education and
education choices in Los Angeles."
Charters are exempt from many rules that govern traditional schools; most are non-union.
United Teachers Los Angeles has long been at odds with Eli Broad. Union
President Alex Caputo-Pearl accused the philanthropist of repeatedly
trying to weaken the "input of teachers over how education is run in
their schools."
"We're concerned about anything Eli Broad is involved with," he said.
School board President Steve Zimmer said that while some charters serve
students well, a rapid expansion could undermine the district's own
school improvement efforts. L.A. Unified enrolls students who are more
difficult and expensive to educate than those at charters, he said.
Those students would be left with fewer resources if there were an
exodus to charters, Zimmer said.
"The most critical concern would be the collateral damage to the children left behind," he said.
The most critical concern would be the collateral damage to the children left behind. - Steve Zimmer, Board of Education
Funding for the proposed effort could go toward obtaining classroom
space and for covering the early administrative costs of new charters.
It also could be used for training teachers and administrators.
Discussions are underway with Teach for America to provide instructors,
according to those familiar with the planning.
TFA recruits recent college graduates for two-year stints, frequently in charter schools.
Charters became a central issue in this year's school board elections;
supporters, through a political action committee, spent more campaign
dollars than any other interest group.
The election resulted in charters gaining an ally on the school board:
Ref Rodriguez, a charter school co-founder. He could not be reached
Friday for comment.
While charters benefit from philanthropic and bipartisan political
support, they also have many critics, including teachers union leaders.
In L.A., charters have clashed with district officials over access to
classrooms and resources.
Charter proponents considered it a setback when former Supt. John Deasy
resigned under pressure in October. Deasy now works for the Broad
Foundation as "superintendent in residence" to help train and coach
current or aspiring senior school district administrators.
Broad had said Deasy was the best L.A. superintendent in memory. Deasy's
departure may have been a catalyst for Broad to pursue an aggressive
strategy outside the school system, some observers said.
"John Deasy was not able to move the needle enough on changing the
bureaucratic culture at LAUSD," said Shane Martin, dean of the School of
Education at Loyola Marymount University. Given his departure, it's
"not a surprise" that critics of that bureaucracy "are drawn to a
charter effort."
The foundation declined to discuss what role, if any, Deasy is playing in the new effort.
TEACHERS FROM MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA COLLABORATE TO TEACH ALGEBRA IN LAUSD
By Sarah Tully, EdSource | http://bit.ly/1eXM4ln
Aug 4, 2015 | A group of Los Angeles students who are new to the United
States spent part of their summer break learning algebra in a pilot
program with materials that are lacking in most places nationwide –
Common Core-aligned lessons in Spanish.
For five weeks, high school students completed an algebra class given in
both English and Spanish by teachers from the Los Angeles Unified
School District and the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. All of the
Los Angeles Unified students in the class have lived in the United
States for less than a year, speak Spanish as their native language and
have minimal English skills. In the end, 36 students completed the class
in July.
The class used a new online curriculum that toggles between English and
Spanish, developed by University of California and Guadalajara
university educators in the hope that eventually some schools in both
countries may use the materials.
“I don’t think there’s much question that there’s a real need out there
for this support,” said Patrick Callahan, statewide co-director of the
California Mathematics Project, who helped develop the curriculum. “I
think the challenge is that it’s not just an issue of translating into
Spanish, but a combination of understanding the more rigorous
expectations of the Common Core and how that plays out for English
language learners.”
This fall, Los Angeles Unified officials will decide how the materials
could be used in classrooms, said Gerardo Loera, the district’s chief
academic officer*. The goal is that the curriculum will be a key part of
some algebra classes and may eventually be extended to all newcomers in
the district.
“We see it as a promising project for us,” Loera said.
While UCLA has directed a project to help Spanish-speaking high school
students since 2008, this new class for the first time is aligned with
Common Core standards, said Patricia Gandara, co-director of the UCLA
Civil Rights Project, who leads Project SOL, or Secondary Online
Learning. Project SOL has worked with educators in Mexico since the
beginning, but it is one of the few programs of its kind to incorporate
schooling from both sides of the border.
Proposition 227, the 1998 state law that banned bilingual education,
generally forbids Spanish-language instruction and materials in most
cases, unless there is a waiver. But the restrictions only apply for
those students under age 10, Gandara said.
Project officials chose to focus first on algebra because it is
considered a gateway for higher-level classes and college preparation,
Gandara said. In addition, the need for language help is greater in
math, since English learners tend to get more help in other subjects.
Next year, Gandara hopes to add geometry and algebra II.
Gabriela Uro, director of English language learner policy and research
for the Council of the Great City Schools, said schools nationwide are
struggling to find native-language materials to assist students. She
said programs like Los Angeles Unified’s – which use online curriculum
and teachers from the U.S. and Mexico – are rare. She knows of just one
other in Yakima, Wash., in which U.S. students use online curriculum
from Mexico.
“It was a challenge even before Common Core. Now with Common Core, the
publishers are focused on revising (books) in English,” Uro said.
“Producing them in Spanish doesn’t come up as a big priority.”
It’s especially an issue in Los Angeles Unified, which has the largest
population of English learners in the country – about 164,349 in
2014-15, according to state data.
Statewide, about 1.4 million students are English learners. The vast majority – 84 percent – speak Spanish.
Still, Los Angeles Unified doesn’t have “a huge library of primary language materials,” Loera said.
Loera said it’s difficult for teachers to determine if students don’t
know a subject – like how to solve algebra equations – or whether they
don’t understand the vocabulary. Native language materials help explain
the subject matter while students are still learning the English words.
The summer class was held at the district’s West Adams Preparatory High
School, just west of downtown Los Angeles, that has seen an influx of
new immigrants in recent years, said Assistant Principal Jose Gonzalez.
Many of them are from Central America, including some considered
“unaccompanied minors” who had spent time in immigration detention
centers before entering Los Angeles schools.
Overall, about 27 percent of the school’s students are English learners,
according to state data. The district doesn’t track numbers of students
who are new to the country, Loera said.
Everyone in the summer school class had failed algebra during the school
year. The summer class was aimed at students with beginning-level
English skills – the first time a makeup class was offered for that
group.
Although the students were all enrolled in algebra during the school
year, their math abilities varied. Some had been attending school in
Mexico or Central America before moving to the United States, while
others hadn’t been in classes recently.
Some students needed help with the basics, such as fractions and
multiplication, said Edith Issakhanian, one of two Los Angeles Unified
teachers in the pilot. Others seemed to understand algebra, although
they struggled with the vocabulary.
As part of the summer school class, students answered math word problems
on iPads, going back and forth between English and Spanish, so they
could master the vocabulary and explain the concepts.
“I think that those kids were a little skeptical at the beginning,”
Gonzalez said. “They were not sure what was happening or what to expect.
As the program continued, they realized they were being taught in the
primary language. It made it a lot easier.”
Omar Contreras, 18, who is going into 10th grade, started at West Adams
in February. He had left school at age 14 to work in the fields, growing
corn and beans, in El Salvador. Students like Contreras, who missed
some years of school, can stay in traditional high schools past their
18th birthday if they are making academic progress, Gonzalez said.
In class during the school year, Contreras said a Spanish-speaking aide
sometimes explained material. But the summer school class helped more
because of the Spanish translations on the iPad, Spanish-speaking
teachers from Mexico and group work with students of similar
backgrounds. He got a B.
“They explain it better,” Contreras said in Spanish about the summer school class.
Alfonso Benitez, 17, an incoming 10th-grader, was born in Los Angeles,
but he moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, at age 2. After returning to Los
Angeles, he enrolled in school in January and initially struggled with
algebra because he had never taken the subject before.
“I understood the (summer) class very well because it was bilingual,” Benitez said in Spanish.
Previously, Project SOL offered college-prep math and science classes to
about 500 Spanish-speaking immigrant students in four Southern
California high schools from 2008 to 2012. While the program increased
access to those classes, less than half got a C or better in those
classes, according to the project.
In 2013, the project launched its “2.0” version to build on that
program, making it aligned both to the Common Core in the United States
and school standards in Mexico. Eventually, the goal is for students to
get course credit in both countries, especially for those who go back
and forth, Gandara said.
Compared to the previous California standards, Common Core-aligned math
is considered more difficult for English learners. Before, students were
assigned more numeric computations, like 2 + 2, which are the same in
both languages. But students now need to explain or write out how they
came up with answers.
Issakhanian, the summer school teacher, said she used some of the early
Spanish materials from Project SOL during the school year to help
students in her classes who didn’t understand English. Because she
didn’t have technology, she printed out papers, which her students
appreciated. Other than that, Issakhanian had to rely on other
Spanish-speaking students to translate the material that they might not
understand themselves.
“I really am excited about this program and I hope a lot of schools take
it on,” Issakhanian said. “For me as a teacher, it makes me happy to
have the materials to make it an even better experience for my
students.”
_________________
▲ENGLISH LEARNER TEST TAKERS :: All English learners who enter the
school system must take a test to assess their English ability. Students
are given an initial assessment if they come from another country,
state or district.
Here is some data about students who took the initial English test,
called the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) , in
2013-14, the most recent numbers available:
►STATE, 2013-14:
• 297,154 students took the test
• 39 percent scored at the beginning English level
• 29,306 high school students were tested
►LOS ANGELES UNIFIED, 2013-14:
• 34,394 students took the test
• 38 percent scored at the beginning English level
• 2,452 high school students were tested
_____________
• Sarah Tully covers Common Core and early education for EdSource in the Los Angeles area.
* Loera is no longer the LAUSD CAO.
SHOULD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS HAVE TO ‘DEFEND’ THEIR
DIPLOMA LIKE A Ph.D? CALIFORNIA’S NEW WAY OF RANKING SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
COULD OPEN THE DOOR TO PORT
by Brenda Iasevoli | The Hechinger Report | http://bit.ly/1MglnqR
August 7, 2015 :: LOS ANGELES — Looking smart in a blue button-down
shirt, Jorge Magana, 18, zipped through a PowerPoint presentation with
the confidence of a Fortune 500 CEO.
Seated in front of Magana in a classroom at Los Angeles High School of
the Arts was a panel of three judges: the school’s assistant principal, a
school coordinator, and a former student. The occasion was his senior
defense. Magana was trying to convince the panel that he was ready to
graduate.
He had 45 minutes to present a portfolio of three “artifacts,” one
academic, one artistic, and one of his own choosing. The panel grilled
him: Can you describe your research process? Which obstacles did you
face and how did you overcome them? How will the skills you learned help
with your future plans?
Portfolio assessments like this one, which look a lot like doctoral
dissertation defenses, are on the rise in California. The practice,
touted by educators nationwide as a proven path to college success, has
largely been squeezed out by standardized tests, the quicker,
less-costly measure of student performance. But the state’s reliance on
test scores to rank school performance is about to change, and educators
see an opportunity.
Since 1999, California has primarily tied school rankings to test
scores, using the Academic Performance Index (API). Since its repeal in
July 2013, the three-digit ranking has been undergoing revision. On the
new API, which will debut in the 2015-2016 school year, test scores will
account for only 60 percent of a school’s ranking. The other 40 percent
will factor in graduation data and “proof of readiness for college and
career.” Portfolio assessment can supply this data. The tricky part is
convincing skeptics that these assessments are reliable.
Magana’s presentation seemed to come off smoothly. He started with the
personal statement he wrote for AP English about his father’s alcoholism
and its effect on his family. Then he presented a model of a set for
the play “Electricidad” that he built for Advanced Scenic Design class.
He finished with a policy memo he wrote for AP Government on the high
cost of rehab.
But when the panel asked him specific questions, Magana stalled.
“What policies already exist to help those who can’t afford rehab?”
asked Cathy Kwan, the high school coordinator who is developing the
portfolio model. She schedules the defenses, recruits panel members, and
trains teachers.
Magana fell silent and looked off to the side. He had just argued in the
memo that the price tag for alcohol rehab is prohibitive for minimum
wage earners and that there should be policies in place to ensure
alcoholics can get the help they need free of charge.
“I did research that,” he said. “But I can’t remember.”
• 40 — the percentage of a California school’s ranking that will be
based on data other than test scores in the 2015-2016 school year.
Magana stepped outside the classroom while the panel evaluated his
performance. The judges agreed his presentation skills were solid: he
made eye contact, he knew how to hold the audience’s attention, and he
was organized. But he failed to demonstrate content knowledge and sound
research skills. Assistant principal Matthew Hein pointed out a “classic
bad research move,” Magana’s admission that he “dismissed research that
didn’t fit his opinion.”
The verdict: Magana would have to rewrite the policy memo and defend his work again.
This is only the second year Los Angeles High School of the Arts has
required its seniors to do portfolio defenses. The seriousness of the
process and the amount of work it takes hasn’t yet sunk in. “Students
didn’t really take the defenses seriously enough,” says Kwan reflecting
on this year’s presentations. “They thought we were just going to let
them pass. They’d say to me, ‘I got this.’ And I’d tell them, ‘No, you
don’t. You have to practice.’”
MAKING PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENTS RELIABLE
Kwan is struggling with the difficulty facing any educator hoping to use
the portfolio model: defining a standard approach to evaluation.
Harvard education professor Daniel Koretz knows this difficulty
firsthand. He studied the portfolio models of Kentucky and Vermont in
the 1990s, when those states were trying to replace standardized tests
with portfolio assessments. The criteria for what makes a good
portfolio, Koretz found, can vary widely from school to school, making
comparisons difficult.
“The standardized assessment is standardized precisely so that there is
nothing extraneous that differs between kids or between schools,” he
says.
This problem has sent educators in California searching for an objectivity not usually associated with portfolio assessment.
A recent report from Stanford University professors Soung Bae and Linda
Darling-Hammond promotes graduation portfolios as one measure of how
well schools prepare students for college. The authors recommend that
the state allow schools to use “well-designed” portfolios, comprised of
work from each of five different subject areas to include research
essays, art work and other sophisticated projects that can’t be captured
on a test in place of traditional exit exams.
“There’s an openness in the legislature [to consider] what would be more
indicative of college and career readiness than sitting down and
filling in a multiple-choice Scantron,” says Darling-Hammond. “Some say
U.S. kids are the most tested and the least examined in the world. We
have a lot of tests, but we don’t have high-quality examinations of
thinking and performance.”
Aiming to test the digital portfolio as a way of producing reliable
data, Stanford’s Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) has
teamed up with ConnectEd, a Berkeley-based organization that promotes a
mix of academic and career-centered school programs called “linked
learning.”
The resulting online tool, ConnectEd Studios, tries to take the
subjectivity out of evaluating portfolios. Students can earn digital
badges for completing performance tasks. A student writing an
argumentative essay, for example, can upload the essay to the site,
where his teacher can evaluate the writing according to a scoring rubric
with criteria for grading. A series of dots represents the progress of
the essay: red dot (ungraded), purple dot (not proficient), and green
dot (proficient). When the essay is deemed proficient, the student earns
a badge.
“We see these badges as data nuggets,” says Dave Yanofsky, director of
strategic communications for ConnectEd. “If done right, digital badges
give you both the qualitative and quantitative component. It’s not just
that the student turned in the work and got a pat on the back. These
badges show that students turned in work that is up to the level of
quality we established.”
The development of reliable portfolio assessments could have huge
implications for how we judge school effectiveness, not just in
California but nationwide. Yanofsky estimates that 20 school districts,
including Houston and Philadelphia, have expressed interest in working
with ConnectEd to build their portfolio programs.
The expectation is that an online platform like ConnectEd Studios would
create a secure place for students to share videos, audio files, photos,
writing samples, digital badges, resumes, and letters of
recommendation, showcasing their qualifications for universities and
potential employers.
“Students can sell themselves short,” says Nadia Schafer, a digital
specialist with Philadelphia Academies, a nonprofit that works with area
high schools to provide students with career training and college
preparation. “But the portfolio shows them all that they’ve
accomplished. A portfolio tells their stories so much better than just a
resume ever could.”
For now, the goal at the Los Angeles Unified school district is to make
the portfolio defense a graduation requirement. Ten high schools are
piloting the initiative, and there are plans to get more schools on
board next school year.
“Students have improved immensely since we first started,” says Kwan.
“But it still wouldn’t be fair to hold them back based on the defense.
We haven’t yet learned how to prepare kids adequately to do this.”
Half of the Los Angeles Unified schools testing portfolio defenses have
partnered with Envision Schools, a network of three small charter high
schools in the San Francisco area that has systematized the portfolio
model over the past 13 years and can provide step-by-step instructions
on how to build a portfolio program. L.A. teachers traveled to San
Francisco to watch the Envision students’ defend their portfolios and to
get training on how to critique them. Envision has shared videos of
model defenses and scoring rubrics that L.A. teachers can revise to suit
their schools’ specific needs.
CAN PORTFOLIOS MAKE THE GRADE?
At first, many teachers at Los Angeles High School of the Arts thought
the defense was an unnecessary torture. Then, they actually witnessed a
defense.
“When you see your students reflect on what they’ve learned, and see how
that learning has affected them, it’s hard to say this isn’t a good
idea,” says Isabel Morales, a 12th grade social studies teacher.
“Watching the defenses taught me how much my lessons count, how crucial
it is for me to provide a transformative learning experience for my
students.”
• “Some say U.S. kids are the most tested and the least examined in the
world. We have a lot of tests, but we don’t have high quality
examinations of thinking and performance.” - Stanford University
education professor Linda Darling-Hammond
Morales says students can simply “go through the motions” in class,
taking in information without really retaining it. But portfolio
defenses force them to explain what they’ve learned, and to apply it in
different ways; for instance, Magana tackled the issue of alcoholism as a
statement on policy and in a personal statement. Since the portfolio
program started, Morales has discovered that the best preparation for a
portfolio defense is for students to share their work and reflections on
what they learned in the process, something she didn’t always make time
to do.
Realizations like this one are the most important outcomes of the
defenses, according to Tom Skjervheim, associate director at ConnectEd.
In fact, when Skjervheim views a defense, he finds himself evaluating
the teacher more than the student. “The portfolio defenses shed a light
for teachers on what they should be doing in professional development,”
he says. “They allow teachers to think about how they might tighten up
their practices and get the results they want from students.”
According to a survey of students at Los Angeles High School of the
Arts, 90 percent of students who passed and 68 percent of students who
failed said the portfolio defense was a “worthwhile experience.” Magana,
who passed his second defense a week later, says he’s learned from his
mistakes and won’t repeat them at the University of California
Riverside, where he’ll major in computer science this fall.
“I’m worried that in college I won’t have anyone there to push me,”
Magana says. “But I have this experience to refer back to. I will
remember this. I won’t allow myself to fail again.”
Kwan is already planning ways to make the experience more worthwhile
next year, including training teachers to revamp their lessons. She
thinks teachers need to tell kids up front what they’re going to learn
and why they’re learning it. “This isn’t as common as you might think,”
says Kwan. “Kids often don’t know why they do assignments.”
Students will also get more opportunities to practice their
presentations before the big day. Groups of four will be assigned a
mentor teacher who will critique their portfolios and presentations.
Eleventh graders will assist during senior defenses, by switching slides
or serving as panelists, gaining a sense of what will be expected of
them the next year. Tenth graders will participate in mini-defenses in
front of their classes.
While Kwan is intent on perfecting the process, she worries that
portfolio assessment could become rote in pursuit of data. The Envision
Schools have the defenses “down to a science,” she says. Students start
to sound robotic when they’re all saying the same things, she adds.
Success, for Kwan, depends on a continuous evaluation of the process,
not on routine. What counts as a real demonstration of learning?
“Many visitors are impressed that students are speaking in front of an
audience,” Kwan says. “They don’t notice that the presentation is
disorganized or that the students are having trouble answering the
judges’ questions. It’s not good enough that students face a difficult
task. They have to go up there and have substance. Just because you show
up to an interview doesn’t mean you get the job.”
Of the 92 seniors who defended their portfolios this year, 33 failed.
Like Magana, they were scheduled to redo their presentations.
But, in the end, all students passed and nabbed diplomas.
“They worked their tushes off,” says Kwan. “Not one of them gave up.”
TEACHERS OBJECT AS LAUSD EXPANDS PLAN TO CUT ARTS ED
TIME …even as District is continues out of compliance with state
education code
by Mary Plummer with Will Craft | KPCC | http://bit.ly/1MboHSp
August 04 2015 :: Some art teachers are protesting as Los Angeles
Unified expands a plan to provide arts education to more students by
shortening the time spent on each subject.
Under the plan, elementary students would receive nine weeks of
instruction in each of four art forms — visual arts, theater, music and
dance. Historically, these were taught in longer increments of up to one
year.
The program, known as the Creative Network Pilot, launched last year in
31 schools and will expand this fall to an additional 10 schools. Third
to sixth-graders take part in the program. Younger students at the
schools involved receive instruction in the arts that is blended into
other subjects throughout the school day.
Many art teachers expressed concerns when the district first rolled out
the nine-week pilot program. The move to expand it is renewing their
worries.
Katherine Williamson, a long-time elementary music teacher, described
the nine weeks of instruction as a "breadcrumb" approach. She sees the
program as a rollback rather than an expansion of arts instruction in
the district.
"It just doesn't make sense to me. And every art teacher that I talk to —
we're just dumbfounded that we would go backwards," she said.
The criticism comes as LAUSD and other California school districts
struggle to comply with a state law that mandates arts education in
public schools for all four core art subjects. The districts have
generally said they lack resources to provide the required instruction.
LAUSD's head of arts education Rory Pullens defended the Creative
Network Pilot program during an interview with KPCC in late June.
"This is a step in the right direction when we talk about, you know,
access and equity for all," he said. But Pullens acknowledged the
program has its limitations.
"There certainly, in this model, are some structural deficiencies in the
sense that students are getting arts exposure, but they're not getting
the same depth of instruction that we would actually like them to have,"
he said.
Pullens said as more funding becomes available, the district is looking
at expanding the program from nine weeks for each art form to a full
semester per subject.
When the program was announced during a school board meeting in April
2014, Steven McCarthy — the district's head of arts education at the
time — described the new program as a bit of a step backwards. “This is
pruning,” he said at the time.
But in a report released in May, which McCarthy helped prepare, the program was described more positively:
"The Creative Network pilot is both ambitious yet practical in that
it has uniquely marshalled the limited arts financial resources,
instructional time, and teacher talents to effectively implement an arts
education model that can positively affect future equity and access to
the arts far all LAUSD students."
The report also notes the district is currently out of compliance with
the state's education code, which requires that first through
12th-graders have access to arts instruction every year of their public
school careers. Under the current system, which the report calls “void
of equity and access,” a student could go through elementary school
without receiving any formal arts instruction.
According to district officials, 31 elementary schools volunteered to be
a part of the Creative Network Pilot program for the 2014-2015 school
year. The table below gives a detailed picture of arts education at some
of the schools that participated in the program. The data comes from a
survey that LAUSD sent out to school principals asking detailed
questions about arts education at each school.
Some caveats regarding the data: Not all the schools that participated
in the nine week program filled out the survey. The 26 schools that
filled out the survey and participated in the new program are listed
below, along with information on the time spent in different subjects,
the percentage of students at the school that receive an arts education,
and their Arts Equity Index Score.
The Arts Equity Index Score is a rating that the district assigned to
schools based on the answers to the arts survey; it's a broad measure of
the success or failure of the school to provide students an arts
education. It is calculated by assigning different levels of importance
to 14 different survey questions that each have a different maximum
score. The higher the score, the better the school is doing with respect
to that category. There were 89 possible points. The 14 questions
measure things such as instructional time in different disciplines and
the budget for art supplies and resources. Though instrumental music is
not a part of the program, it is a part of calculating the equity index
score, which is why it is included here.
Additional elementary schools that will be added to the program for the
2015-2016 school year: 2nd Street, Aragon, Clifford, Fletcher, Ford,
Hillside, Logan, Burbank, Fullbright, Hubbard, Mayall. (One school,
Blythe, from the 2014-2015 pilot year is dropping the program.)
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
U*P*D*A*T*E: CSBA + LAUSD CALL ON STATE SUPREME COURT TO HEAR FRESNO LEASE-LEASEBACK CASE
http://bit.ly/1UvpNeF
“The line drawn, the curse cast…”: BROAD FOUNDATION PLANS MAJOR CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION FOR L.A. UNIFIED STUDENTS
http://bit.ly/1Ka9HQu
CSBA CALLS ON STATE SUPREME COURT TO HEAR LEASE-LEASEBACK CASE
http://bit.ly/1UvpNeF
TEACHERS OBJECT AS LAUSD EXPANDS PLAN TO CUT ARTS ED TIME. Is District out of compliance with state education code?
http://bit.ly/1HxoS4g
LAUSD IN REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS! :: Rand Paul: Los Angeles school district wasting lunch money http://bit.ly/1SZQCF9
HEAD OF LAUSD FOOD SERVICES RESIGNS IN WAKE OF AUDIT FINDING MISMANAGEMENT, ETHICAL VIOLATION http://bit.ly/1P1RCZ9
Chris Christie: THE NATIONAL TEACHER’S UNION IS “THE SINGLE MOST DESTRUCTIVE FORCE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION IN AMERICA”
http://bit.ly/1SE6Zwf
“I’m not saying that you have to be a reader to save your soul in the modern world.I’m saying it helps" Walter Mosely http://bit.ly/1gFmO56
PATTER AND PATOIS: A ‘Grandchild of Louisiana’ writes about storytelling and reading and writing …and LA and L.A.
http://bit.ly/1gFmO56
LAUSD TO DOUBLE SPENDING ON MEALS DESPITE CRIMINAL PROBE AS FOOD SERVICES DIRECTOR RESIGNS
http://bit.ly/1hggKQp
IT’S TIME TO RECONSIDER THE PARENT TRIGGER + smf’s 2¢
http://bit.ly/1Uj8GNg
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
No meetings scheduled.
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Ref.Rodriguez@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, county supervisor, state
legislator, 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 at http://registertovote.ca.gov/
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!
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