Sunday, September 27, 2015

The tune will come to you at last....



4LAKids: Sunday 27•Sept•2015
In This Issue:
 •  L.A. UNIFIED TO GET $6.4 MILLION IN SETTLEMENT OVER IPAD SOFTWARE
 •  CHARTER SCHOOLS’ TEST SCORES: THE REAL STORY
 •  CAMPAIGN ADDRESSES CONSEQUENCES OF SEXTING: L.A Unified takes on sexting with education campaign, not punishment
 •  WHY HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS DROPPED EVERYTHING TO PAY TRIBUTE TO A HAMILTON HIGH TEACHER
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


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“Listen Up. I’ve got nothing to say …and I’m only going to say it once!”

- attributed to Yogi Berra (1925-2015)
___________
NEWS STORY: The mayor and city council propose to spend $100 million to address homelessness in Los Angeles. | http://nyti.ms/1LDxBcc

NEWS STORY: Eli Broad and others propose to spend $490 million to convert half of LAUSD schools to charter schools. | http://bit.ly/1gVuqQ3

That’s a lot of money either way. What exactly is the Return on Investment? How does either impact us now and moving forward? Is one for the greater glory of The City of Our Lady Queen of the Angels …and the other for the greater of glory of Eli Broad+Friends?

WWPFD? What would Pope Francis do?

“Education cannot be neutral. It is either positive or negative; either it enriches or it impoverishes; either it enables a person to grow or it lessens, even corrupts him. The mission of schools is to develop a sense of truth, of what is good and beautiful. And this occurs through a rich path made up of many ingredients. This is why there are so many subjects — because development is the results of different elements that act together and stimulate intelligence, knowledge, the emotions, the body, and so on.”

“If something is true, it is good and beautiful; if it is beautiful; it is good and true; if it is good, it is true and it is beautiful. And together, these elements enable us to grow and help us to love life, even when we are not well, even in the midst of many problems. True education enables us to love life and opens us to the fullness of life.” - Pope Francis: Address with Italian school teachers, parents, educators, pupils and other workers, May 10, 2014


I AM NOT JEWISH, but my wife is. I was raised a Unitarian …and I’m not sure if even that stuck. For a while we were members of a Jewish congregation and we raised a Jewish child. On that clear September eleventh day, my sixth-grader daughter’s second day in middle school, she and I ate Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios and watched on TV and as the second plane flew into the second tower.

On Friday I watched the interfaith prayer service conducted with Pope Francis from the Ground Zero/911 site. When the cantor sang the Mourner’s Kaddish I found myself in tears. Maybe it’s the chemotherapy …but I think not.
“By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down,
Yea, we wept,
When we remembered Zion.”


ON FRIDAY the District announced a tentative settlement in its dispute with Apple over the Pearson content in the Common Core Technology Project (iPads for All) fiasco. L.A. UNIFIED TO GET $6.4 MILLION IN SETTLEMENT OVER IPAD SOFTWARE (follows). I am already on record about my concerns over the misbegotten CCTP and this woebegone settlement. However, IF the District was a party to alleged shady-dealing and contract-fixing (“The bidding process that led to the original contract is the subject of an FBI investigation”) then this settlement may be the best LAUSD can expect. If there was mal-or-misfeasance at Beaudry I don’t see how LAUSD has much of a leg to stand on against Apple and Pearson.


GODSPEED MR. KAPLAN (1955-2015): "People don't show up 20 and 30 years later to pay tribute to teachers who helped them do better on standardized tests. We are here because Alan Kaplan did what all great teachers do. He clarified, he inspired, he awakened; he worked in ways that are unquantifiable.”


I TOUCHED ON THIS LAST WEEK, but this week it became manifest. As charter proponents claimed otherwise the truth came out in a Board Informative from Superintendent Cortines and a data spreadsheet: CORTINES SAYS (+ THE DATA PROVES): “OUR LAUSD MAGNET SCHOOLS OUT-PERFORMED CHARTER SCHOOLS AT ALL GRADE LEVELS” http://bit.ly/1L77M5s + L.A. UNIFIED HIGHLIGHTS MAGNET SCHOOL PERFORMANCE COMPARED WITH CHARTERS | http://lat.ms/1iDd3ov + CHARTER SCHOOLS’ TEST SCORES: THE REAL STORY [following]

I think we all know by now that testing isn’t everything and that we are being data-driven to distraction. All these children in our schools - traditional, magnet or charter - are not data-points or cells-on-a-spreadsheet; they are the living/evolving future …and nothing is as anecdotal as the future when children are involved.

There is a hierarchy to information. It goes Data > Information > Knowledge.
And sometimes, when the stars shine just right (or there are that magic number of slides in the PowerPoint) > Wisdom.

Numbers under pressure can be forced to admit anything – as evidenced by charter schools claim to success – but as you read on you will see what the data proves and the information evidences: LAUSD magnet schools out-performed charter schools at all grade levels. That is the knowledge.

But “Wait!” you say. “Magnet Schools are special schools for special kids!”

All kids are special, but that argument is, politely: Balderdash. While there are magnet programs for gifted+highly-gifted kids – the majority of magnet programs and magnet schools are not for gifted students!

Magnet Schools require that parents take an extra step, fill out some extra forms, do some homework, and apply.

But that is exactly what Charter Schools require also!

When we compare magnet schools to charter schools we compare apples-to-apples; both are schools of choice that attract families who are looking for what they perceive to be a better option for their children’s education. OK, non-union apples to union apples or privatized unaccountable apples to traditional accountable apples.

LAUSD’s Magnet Schools outperform Charter Schools. At all grade levels and in almost all subgroups.

LAUSD’S MAGNET PROGRAM ROCKS!
"And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll."

Before we get too excited, let me pick on LAUSD’s data analysis a wee bit.
• When comparing High Schools, we need to consider that students are only tested in the eleventh grade. Only 25% of high school kids at any school get tested in a given year. Kids in High School get tested once in their high school career; there is no way to measure individual progress over time.
• In Elementary only second through fifth graders are tested, 2/3rds of the kids.
• In Middle School, everyone gets tested.

For this reason, a statistical anomaly is created for span schools – and schools like LACES and SOCES (grades 4-12) get really high scores. (I have two nieces at SOCES; that is why that school rocks over all!)

My point is that it would be helpful if the data were disaggregated by individual grade level …and then sliced+diced every which way from Sunday.
And some of the data – especially when crunching numbers involving Free+Reduced Meals and English Language Learners and Special Ed seems a bit suspect – things like meal programs don’t really differentiate between magnet and non-magnet students on a shared campus. And Special Ed students run the gamut from mobility and vision impaired through ADD to profoundly challenged Down Syndrome.

And, of course, charter schools – when they share data – might not compile it in the same way.

Superintendent Cortines is absolutely right. While this data shows that Magnet Programs outperform Charter Schools – we need to be applying the best-practices+lessons-learned from both to general population traditional schools. Standard-issue kids need to benefit from all the wonderfulness!

And I submit that the best way to do this is to expand LAUSD’s time-proven, successful and popular Magnet Program so that it can serve more kids in their neighborhood schools. We got kids off of the bus and the year-round calendar; now we need to get the kids off of wait-lists for magnet schools and charter schools and into attractive+effective local Magnet Programs.

And if the billionaire philanthropists want to help us they are welcome.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


L.A. UNIFIED TO GET $6.4 MILLION IN SETTLEMENT OVER IPAD SOFTWARE
By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1YHO9VL

Sept 25, 2015 8:05PM :: The Los Angeles Unified School District has reached a tentative $6.4-million settlement over curriculum from education software giant Pearson that the school system said its teachers barely used.

The pact is the latest fallout from an aborted $1.3-billion plan to provide an iPad to every student, teacher and campus administrator in the nation’s second-largest school district.

The Board of Education is expected to vote on the settlement in October. The bidding process that led to the original contract is the subject of an FBI investigation.

Under that contract, Apple agreed to provide iPads to L.A. Unified while Pearson provided curriculum on the devices as a subcontractor. As a result, the settlement was with Apple, even though the dispute concerned the Pearson product.

Under the agreement, Apple will pay the district $4.2 million. Another computer company, Lenovo, also had charged the district for Pearson curriculum. The district won’t have to pay $2.2 million for laptops recently purchased, according to the settlement.

“That amount of money doesn’t make up for the damage to the district’s reputation or compensate for the amount of time lost by students and educators in this misbegotten project,” said Scott Folsom, a member of the independent committee that oversees school modernization and construction bonds.

The deal avoids protracted, costly legal wrangling with Apple and Pearson.

L.A. Unified bought more than 40,000 iPads with the Pearson curriculum at a cost of $768 apiece. The district used bond funds to make the purchases.

Nearly all the money from the settlement will be used to buy computers through a competitive district grant program.

“There are many schools that have not received devices, but that nonetheless have a need for instructional technology and innovative ideas for how to use it,” said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines in a memo this week to the Board of Education. “The $6.4 million in proceeds represents an exciting opportunity to invest in such schools and to promote collaboration among campuses.”

The deal with Apple, reached in June 2013, was part of a bold initiative — and an exclusive deal with the company — to use school bonds to pay for industry-leading tablets. The deal with Lenovo came later, after the district decided to include devices from other manufacturers and to slow down a technology rollout that was beset with problems.

At the time of the pact with Apple, Pearson was supposed to provide all the math and English curriculum for the school system. The contract with Apple included a three-year license for the Pearson curriculum that added about $200 to the cost of each computer.

During the first year of the license, Pearson provided only sample units of curriculum, rather than a finished product. The contract allowed for the partial curriculum.
Teachers received limited training on the devices. The district later accused Pearson of providing an underwhelming product beset by technical glitches. Consultants concluded that few teachers even used the Pearson software.

Pearson has defended the quality of its work, noting that other school systems continue to use its online courses.

The district had threatened to sue over the Apple/Pearson contract. A district spokesman on Friday praised the work of all involved in the negotiations.

Representatives of Apple and Pearson could not be reached late Friday.

L.A. Unified, which has about 1,000 schools, has provided computers for every student at about 100 campuses. At others, students are getting by with fewer devices.

To win the technology grants, schools must submit proposals showing they are ready to use computers and they also must set aside some of their own funds to pay for a portion of their plan. The school’s funds could pay for software or extra staffing, for example.

A proposal is more likely to win funding if it has the potential to yield academic gains. Schools that collaborate with others are eligible for more generous grants. The district wants to encourage elementary campuses to coordinate with middle and high schools to improve instruction.

Gregory L. McNair, a senior attorney with L.A. Unified, said one goal is to make sure schools are ready to use technology before they receive it.

Cortines first mentioned the broad outlines of the settlement at a recent public meeting of a technology task force, which was reported on by L.A. School Report.


CHARTER SCHOOLS’ TEST SCORES: THE REAL STORY
From the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update Week of September 28, 2015
AALA (+4LAKids) thanks Alan Warhaftig, Fairfax HS Magnet Coordinator, for providing this analysis.

Sept 24, 2015 :: On September 9, 2015, the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) issued a press release [CCSA Press Release | http://bit.ly/1FmqAvt], comparing the performance of charter schools and traditional schools on the 2015 Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Common Core Math and English Language Arts Assessments.

The press release begins by stating, “Charter public schools performed better than the state averages on math and English language arts while serving a diverse population of students.” The second table indicates that charter schools and traditional schools tied in the percentage of students who met or exceeded the SBAC math standard but that 46% of charter school students met or exceeded the SBAC ELA standard compared to 43% of traditional school students.


The press release claims, “Charter schools accomplish these results while continuing to serve a highly diverse student population,” and it follows with a chart that demonstrates this diversity:

The chart compares 2014-15 Charter Enrollment as a percentage to 2014-15 Traditional School Enrollment as a percentage:
• African American Students are 9% in Charters/6% in Traditional
• Latino Students are 49% in Charters/54% in Traditional.
• Asian Students are 5% in Charters/9% in Traditional.
• White Students are 30% in Charters/24% in Traditional.
• Other Students are 7% in Charters/7% in Traditional.
• English Learner Students are 17% in Charters/23% in Traditional.
• Free+Reduced Lunch are 56% in Charters/59% in Traditional.

The significance of a 46% to 43% “win” diminishes when one considers that the enrollment of traditional schools includes 6% more English learners, who presumably would be at a disadvantage on the SBAC English language arts assessment (though they were apparently not at the same disadvantage on the SBAC math assessment). In addition, the traditional schools have a slightly higher percentage of students who qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. Finally, the chart DOES NOT include the percentages of special education students—who would have difficulty with both SBAC assessments—enrolled at charter and traditional schools.

The reality is that LAUSD magnet schools out-performed charter schools at all grade levels.

In fact, in a memo to the Board of Education, Superintendent Cortines pointed out that fifteen LAUSD schools and magnet centers had 90 percent or more of their students meeting or exceeding standards in ELA, higher than any charter school.

Given this, the analysis presented in the CCSA press release is sophomoric–advocacy at the expense of rigor. Serious comparisons may only be made between schools with similar socio-economic status. For example, it might be appropriate to compare Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies (SOCES), a LAUSD magnet school, with Granada Hills Charter High School because the percentages of their students that qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program are approximately the same (53% for SOCES and 52% for Granada Hills Charter). While Granada Hills Charter is, no doubt, a fine school, it comes off badly in the comparison: 58% of the students at both schools met or exceeded the SBAC math standard, but 87% of SOCES students met or exceeded the SBAC ELA standard compared to 76% of Granada Hills Charter students.

It would not, however, be appropriate to compare Granada Hills Charter with LAUSD’s Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet or Fairfax Visual Arts Magnet, 82% of whose students qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program (compared to 52% at Granada Hills Charter). The comparison wouldn’t work well for CCSA, as Bravo Medical Magnet outscored Granada Hills Charter on the SBAC ELA by 87%-76% and Fairfax Visual Arts Magnet outscored Granada Hills Charter by 84%-76%. Granada Hills Charter prevailed on the SBAC Math, however, outscoring Bravo Medical Magnet by 58%-52% and Fairfax Visual Arts Magnet by 58%-38%.

In addition to matching for demographic/socioeconomic factors, it really only makes sense to compare charters with magnets, as both are schools of choice and attract families who are looking for what they perceive to be a better option for their children’s education. This might backfire for the CCSA, as close examination of the SBAC magnet and charter scores might result in a call for more LAUSD magnets, not more charters.

Please follow this link, [SBAC-Comparative | http://bit.ly/1Ve0q4O] to see a chart that shows rankings of LAUSD magnet schools, LAUSD charter schools, and high schools in neighboring districts, such as Glendale, Culver City, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, among others.


CAMPAIGN ADDRESSES CONSEQUENCES OF SEXTING: L.A Unified takes on sexting with education campaign, not punishment
By Teresa Watanabe | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1iCePpZ

Sept 22, 2015 :: Two Los Angeles high school students are hanging out when a friend arrives with gossip: Someone texted a naked picture to a classmate and it was soon forwarded "all over the place."

When one of the students expresses skepticism, another takes her friends on a journey of discovery about "sexting." Educators, an attorney and a police officer lay out the consequences of sexting – public humiliation, loss of educational and job opportunities, possible criminal violations -- and hammer home a message:

“THINK TWICE. WHAT YOU DO NOW MATTERS LATER.”

The scenario is featured in a video unveiled Tuesday as part of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s new campaign against sexting. Officials have asked principals at about 900 elementary, middle and high schools to incorporate information from its "Now Matters Later" website page, which offers the video, lesson plans, posters, bilingual tip sheets for parents and other resources. [http://bit.ly/1OZ1If6]

"What we're trying to accomplish is to educate kids today so they have a clear understanding that sexting is against the law," L.A. Unified Police Chief Steven Zipperman said at the school police headquarters Tuesday. "This program will reach out to our students, our parents, our staff and our community...and hopefully eradicate this dangerous trend."

Zipperman has said the campaign was not directly sparked by the Venice High case this year in which 15 boys were arrested on suspicion of sexual assault after a sexually explicit photo of at least one of the two suspected female victims was widely circulated on social media. Prosecutors ultimately declined to file charges against the boys, based on insufficient evidence.

But Zipperman said that sexting is "serious stuff" that students and their families should understand.

A 2012 study of more than 1,800 L.A. Unified high school students found that 15% of those with cell phone access surveyed said they had texted a sexually explicit message or photo of themselves and 54% knew someone who had. The study by researchers from USC, Clark University and elsewhere found that those who sexted were more likely to be sexually active. Non-heterosexual students were more likely to sext and have unprotected sex.

As teens' access to social media grows – 92% report going online daily and three-quarters have access to smartphones, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center report – sexting has proliferated. Across the nation, police and prosecutors have charged teens with criminal offenses and more than 20 states have enacted legislation to deal with sexting.

In the L.A. Unified video, a school police officer tells students that sexting sexually explicit photos of those under 18 – even themselves – is considered child pornography. City Atty. Mike Feuer also appears in the video, saying that sending, forwarding or possessing child pornography could result in a criminal record and lifelong registration as a sex offender.

But Zipperman said school police have handled only a "handful" of cases so far.
Deputy City Atty. Tracy Webb, who speaks about cyber safety to as many as 20 schools a month, said the vast majority of students she encounters say they sext to "goof around" or as part of a romantic relationship, often involving breakups. She said Los Angeles prosecutors generally try to handle cases with education.

"We can't arrest and we can't prosecute our way out of this problem," Webb said.

Mileidy Maldonado and Alexandra Hernandez, high school students at the Roybal Learning Complex, said sexting wasn't that widespread - but both knew girls who had been victimized by it. In one case two year ago, Alexandra said, a boy texted nude photos of his then 15-year-old girlfriend that went viral, following the victim from one school to another until she finally had to be home-schooled.

"She was bullied and called names," Alexandra said. "It was horrible."

Holly Priebe-Sotelo, the district's intervention coordinator, said educators will be asked to incorporate the new materials into the current required lessons on bullying and sexual harassment. Lessons in cybersafety will be offered to younger children, with middle school students taught about safe online chatting. More explicit material on sexting will be presented to high school students.

Bilingual materials for parents, such as cybersafety tips and suggested questions to start conversations about the topic, are also available on the website.

Much of the material was provided by Common Sense Education, a nonprofit focused on media and technology, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.


"NOW MATTERS LATER" website page



WHY HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS DROPPED EVERYTHING TO PAY TRIBUTE TO A HAMILTON HIGH TEACHER
by Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times | http://t.co/Y0n4UJ05Na

27 Sept 2015 :: One week ago, very early Sunday morning, Harvard University graduate student Jimmy Biblarz boarded a plane and flew from Boston to Los Angeles to attend a memorial service.

He knew he would have to fly back to Boston later that evening, which made for a grueling day, but Biblarz never had a second thought about making the trip.

The provocative, maddening, abrasive, endearing, passionate, controversial Hamilton High School teacher who tormented, challenged and ultimately inspired him, had died. So Biblarz and hundreds of other students who got the same treatment from history and philosophy teacher Alan Kaplan crowded into the un-air-conditioned school auditorium on a blistering afternoon to pay their respects.

"Each of us spends our time on this Earth trying to ensure we are remembered in death. Mr. Kaplan, you won," Biblarz said in his eulogy. "You produced hundreds of activists, organizers, scholars, therapists, teachers and thinkers. Your effects are exponential."

I never met Kaplan, 60, who became ill this summer and died Aug. 29. But from everything I've heard about him and his work in Hamilton's humanities magnet, I wish I had a teacher like him when I was in school.

"People don't show up 20 and 30 years later to pay tribute to teachers who helped them do better on standardized tests," fellow Hamilton High teacher Barry Smolin said at the service, a tape of which was made available to me. "We are here because Alan Kaplan did what all great teachers do. He clarified, he inspired, he awakened, he worked in ways that are unquantifiable."

As I watched the tributes, I was reminded that from Los Angeles to New York, we have endured years of bare-knuckle battles but reached no consensus on how to improve public schools. Public education is shamefully underfunded, some say, while others insist money is not the answer. You can find equally rabid supporters and critics of charter schools, and the new Common Core curriculum is either a breakthrough or a curse.

But wherever you stand on any of that, we can all go to school on how a teacher managed to touch so many lives in such profound ways, loyal to both his convictions and his students even as his stubborn independence drew critics and even landed him in trouble at times.

Some students were intimidated by Kaplan. Some administrators and fellow teachers found him irritating.

He flat-out refused to teach Advanced Placement history, arguing that the curriculum was a memorization drill that allowed for neither true teaching nor learning.
I'm not as brave as my father, who died in misery
His text was a manifesto — Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States," a fist to the face of robber barons and exploitative institutions.

And some black parents thought he was out of line with his provocations on race, so much so that they wanted something done about it.

And yet when Kaplan passed away, more than 500 students — from classes dating back to at least 1999 — dropped what they were doing. They came from near and far to pay tribute in the auditorium of the school where Kaplan implored them not to believe everything they thought they knew about one another, the world or themselves.

"I knew he was a force to be reckoned with," said Camila Lacques-Zapien, whose older brother warned her there was no sliding and no hiding in Mr. Kaplan's classroom. The guy was dead serious.

But even that didn't prepare her. Kaplan confronted and cajoled. He knocked students off-balance, forcing them to find some truth to hold onto. He called on students randomly and put them on the spot, all the while holding forth, part preacher and part performer, on race, class, power and justice.

"It's hard to articulate," said Lacques-Zapien, a UCLA graduate, "but there was a sense of purpose and high stakes in his class because there was no B.S.… You better show up and be honest and be yourself or you might get called out. He will recognize you and you will be seen."

Lacques-Zapien set up a tribute page on Facebook and it drew hundreds of mournful comments and fond reminiscences from former students, some of whom became teachers because of him.

He had been their confidant, their rabbi, their therapist. He taught critical thinking. He demanded conceptual clarity. You needed a seat belt in his class because he might jerk you from the American Revolution to President Obama to Vietnam and back again.

"You were and still are my hero."

"I live my life according to, 'What would Kaplan say.'"

"A man that intimidated me so much … also pushed me to be better than I expected."

The comments were from students of all colors, which is worth noting because in 1999, administrators and the media investigated claims by some black parents that Kaplan was a racist. They said he degraded black students by asking why no one sympathized with the slave masters.

The L.A. Weekly assigned a young African American reporter to check out this menace to public education, and she found an entirely different man than the one described by critics.

"Alan was teaching in his own way, very in your face, challenging everybody — black and white," says the reporter.

She understood the concerns among parents, because Kaplan was blunt about race. He would tell students, for instance, that statistically speaking, "All you black kids are going to do worse than white kids."

But the reporter, who went by the name Erin Aubry at the time, reported the story deeply enough to understand what Kaplan, a Jewish kid from the San Fernando Valley, was doing.

He was challenging students of all colors to be honest and open about race and about history itself. He had been shocked into a permanent state of moral outrage by the inequalities he witnessed in his first job at a middle school in a poor neighborhood, Kaplan said, and he taught with urgency and conviction.

That reporter not only understood Kaplan, she married him, and Erin Aubry Kaplan was with her husband to the end. In an essay after his death, she wrote that while they knew love across the color line, "race was always present," and getting along sometimes meant negotiating with history.

Back when he was a student in Mr. Kaplan's class, Biblarz was negotiating with his own identity.

"I was a kid trapped in the closet in high school," Biblarz said in his eulogy. He recalled that when California's proposition to ban same-sex marriage was in the news, Kaplan talked about how he had nervously visited a gay bar, only to be welcomed and made comfortable.

"He told us that experience made him check his own homophobia and that the more seemingly uncomfortable situations we put ourselves in, of being the minority, the more empathy and understanding we would gain," Biblarz said. "Nothing could have made me feel better or more loved."

If there is one last lesson from Mr. Kaplan, for all of us, it's that in the end, the type of school doesn't matter, the curriculum is but a guide and students are hungry to learn.

It's the teaching that makes the difference and there is no higher order of business than to recruit and nurture talented and passionate instructors, give them the freedom to challenge themselves and their students, and let creativity and imagination run wild.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
A PARENTS GUIDE TO AP CLASSES
http://lat.ms/1Jx1IMc

THE L.A. PLAN TO CRUSH PUBLIC EDUCATION
http://bit.ly/1iz99wS

Cortines says (+ the data proves): “OUR LAUSD MAGNET SCHOOLS OUT-PERFORMED CHARTER SCHOOLS AT ALL GRADE LEVELS”
http://bit.ly/1L77M5s

L.A. UNIFIED’S BULLYING TACTICS WOUND ABUSE VICTIMS AGAIN
http://bit.ly/1NRKOjj

Updated: $490-MILLION PLAN WOULD PUT HALF OF LAUSD STUDENTS IN CHARTER SCHOOLS
http://bit.ly/1PpAP1O

X minus 10: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN WATCH
http://bit.ly/1NI9xEW

SEATTLE TEACHERS APPROVE NEW CONTRACT
http://bit.ly/1OMkMgC

"THE GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOW INITIATIVE" sounds like something embroidered on Donald Trump's hat!
http://bit.ly/1FbM1z5

From the folks who brought you Deasy, iPads+FBI hauling off boxes of files: THE GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOW INITIATIVE
http://bit.ly/1FbM1z5

NY Times/Page One: A FIRING AT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES FOCUSES DISCONTENT
http://bit.ly/1L1pzLj

The Great Public Schools Now Initiative: WE WANT ½ OF LAUSD STUDENTS IN CHARTERS IN 8 YRS REPORT SAYS + full report
http://bit.ly/1FbM1z5


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Nothing scheduled this week

Upcoming Events:

CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATIONAL EQUITY COMMITTEE MEETING – Tues. October 6, 2015 - 10:00 a.m.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND PARENT ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE - Tues. October 6, 2015- 2:00 p.m.
REGULAR BOARD MEETING - Tues. October 6, 2015 - Williams Valenzuela Textbook Sufficiency - 4:00 p.m.
REGULAR BOARD MEETING - Tues. October 13, 2015 - 10:00 a.m. - Including Closed Session Items


*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:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
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!


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for over 12 years. He is Vice President for Health, Legislation Action Committee member and a member of the Board of Directors 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 "WHO" Gold Award and the ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors 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. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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Sunday, September 20, 2015

Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war



4LAKids: Sunday 20•Sept•2015
In This Issue:
 •  THIS IS WHY I SEND MY SON TO PRIVATE SCHOOL + someone else’s 2¢
 •  CIVIC GROUP ASKS FOR OUTSIDE COMMITTEE ON L.A. SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
 •  THE SURPRISING THING ABOUT SCHOOLS WITH LOTS OF TECHNOLOGY: The best way to use computers in schools is “moderately” + smf’s 2¢
 •  PAT+ELLEN: GODSPEED
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


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“The military order ‘Havoc!’ was a signal given to the English military forces in the Middle Ages to direct the soldiery (in Shakespeare's parlance 'the dogs of war') to pillage and chaos.” http://bit.ly/1NBxqhw Crying “Havoc” is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of the Spanish and Mexican bugle call “El Degüello”: No quarter given/Take no prisoners.


When the LA Times editorialized last Sunday that A CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION COULD BE GREAT FOR L.A. [last week’s 4LAKids | http://bit.ly/1OIA5Xr] a metaphorical red line was drawn and a curse was cast. Those who hoped that the demise of Austin Buetner as publisher of The Times marked the end of Eli Broad’s bought+paid-for influence on editorial education policy were quickly disabused.

How could it be any way else?

Did you see the cover of last Sunday‘s Arts&Culture Section?: Smiling Uncle Eli, L.A.’s Philanthropist King, his head in a halo of light, descending the escalator into his eponymous Art Museum.| http://bit.ly/1V3c8iE

I’m sure it’s a lovely museum, and I appreciate that it’s free to the public …but what is it (besides accumulating billions of dollars) about being a successful home builder, insurance executive and art collector that makes one all-knowing about public education?

The reviews of The Broad have been mixed; the reviews I saw+heard of The Times editorial were quick+savage.

A former schoolboard member drew the obvious comparison of this “war” with the one started by former Mayor Tony over AB 1381 – his attempted unconstitutional takeover of LAUSD. An awful lot of time, effort and money that could’ve been spent educating kids was wasted fighting off Tony.

The eminently quotable and infinitely eponymous “Quentin Compson” wrote to The Times:

“Obviously the LA TIMES has just declared war.

“I think we both realize as this war begins in earnest over policy and public opinion, it will be a very long, protracted one.

“I fully expect the LA TIMES to put all its money, power and influence on the side of Charter expansion.

“With the Times' extraordinary record of being spectacularly wrong on almost everything in the public education sphere from its enthusiastic support of VAM testing, the propagation of John Deasy, the Times' embrace of "realistic" budgetary constraints that determine larger classes and fewer enrichment opportunities, and finally the over-the-top Scott Walker/Chris Christie rhetoric about the evil teacher unions, the LA TIMES supports a "fantasy" education panacea that, um, coincidentally, those with tremendous money, influence and financial interests in charter schools wildly support.

“You argue this war is for "the children", but the war is being planned and operated from swank conference rooms in Five Star Hotels and corporate executive suites far removed from the these kids' homes.

“The LA TIMES has convinced itself that charters are indeed public schools by rewriting the definition of the word "public". It's the same rewriting that corporate entities like The LA TIMES always champion as they advance 1% Neo-liberal economic policies, promoting them as "good" for the masses while fattening the portfolios of those with zero children in LAUSD-like school systems.

“This is a watershed moment in LA's education history.

“We have contrary notions of what American democracy represents when placed on the streets and neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

Normandie will become Normandy.”


THAT FIRST SHOT BY THE TIMES was followed by a second opinion piece: THIS IS WHY I SEND MY SON TO PRIVATE SCHOOL – written by Michelle Maltais, ostensibly a frustrated mom sending her four-year-old to a private pre-school program. “Quentin Compson” responded again, the article+reply follow below.

The parents of 4+5 year olds are historically+correctly squirrelly, they are investing their most precious asset into a system notably+infamously suspect. But the author/mom is basing her rage+separation anxiety exclusively on test scores, notably the new test scores – and nobody gets tested until the second grade!

At first impression the author/mom is entitled/elitist middle-class and incidentally: Black. Private-school-educated, she imagines the “other” children she doesn’t want her kids going to school with.

Further complicating the issue is that the author/mom is an LA Times employee with the title of Deputy Director of Audience Engagement. That fact was never disclosed – which brings the journalistic ethics+integrity of The Times into question. We are back to the mutual back-scratching between The Times and The Staples Center, or the profiteering boosterism practiced by the Norman Chandler Times, land developers and the William Mulholland DWP.

¿Chinatown, anyone? I’m sure it’s a lovely museum, and I appreciate that it’s free to the public…


MEANWHILE, THE ONCE+FUTURE POWE® B®OKERS took the school board president to lunch at The City Club to see if they could influence the selection of the next superintendent: CIVIC GROUP ASKS FOR OUTSIDE COMMITTEE ON L.A. SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH [follows].

“WAR,” Carl von Clausewitz said, “is the continuation of politics by other means.”

“WAR,” Edwin Starr sang, “(Good God y’all!) What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Say it again”


AND WHILE WE ARE BRINGING UP THOSE NEW TEST SCORES, even though the LA Times and others (including me) warned us they are essentially meaningless baseline reference points, consider this:

• LAUSD’s highest performing school was Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies – a grade 4-12 magnet school. Not a charter school, a magnet school. LAUSD’s Magnet Schools generally outperformed charter schools.

• Bravo Medical Magnet LAUSD school test scores outpaced all Alliance Charter Schools.

• LAUSD Magnet schools outpaced all schools in LAUSD on new SBAAC test, including famed charters as well as Beverly Hills High, Agoura High, etc.

• Magnet schools are not exclusively for gifted or high performing kids; there are arts and music magnets, humanities and STEM and world languages magnets …and many more. There will soon be an all-girls magnet.

• LAUSD’s magnet program has many more kids on waiting lists than charter schools do.

Ladies+Gentlemen, Boys+Girls: ¡WE ARE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT IN LAUSD …AND WE HAVE BEEN FOR QUITE SOME TIME!

We need to expand the Magnet Program, not the charter program. With a long term and a short term and a dynamic plan; a plan born in the school community – not in swank conference rooms in Five Star Hotels and corporate executive suites …or the dining room of The City Club.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


THIS IS WHY I SEND MY SON TO PRIVATE SCHOOL + someone else’s 2¢
By Michelle Maltais in the LATimes Education Matters blog | http://lat.ms/1Ox8msT

Sept 15, 2015 :: Did you see the test scores last week?

This is why I send my son to private school.

Sure, the scores were said to be lower than the year before -- and yes, this was a baseline year -- but it was something else that triggered that response in me: The achievement gap.

It was no surprise, really, that the scores would be lower than last year's. Many officials warned us ahead of time. The head of the Council of Chief State School Officers, a nonprofit group that represents the country's state education leaders, explained to The Times’ Howard Blume: "This is going to show the real achievement gap. We are asking more out of our kids, and I think that's a good thing."

OK, asking more sounds like a good thing on the surface.

But the real question is, will that be carried out across the board?

Or could black and brown students be allowed to continue to slip because expectations aren’t that high for them to begin with?

One thing I continue to learn as a mother is that kids perform to the level of expectation. Set the bar high, and they will strive to reach it. They don't know anything other than to reach and reach further -- if that's what's expected of them. Expect them to fail, and they will.

My 4-year-old is just starting to navigate all of the adventures that come with going to school. He’s an amazing little sponge, as all kids at that age are. I can see him, with our guidance and that of teachers, making connections and constructing for himself a floor, a foundation on which the rest of his academic experience, curiosity and love of learning will stand. My job is to push and block and fight to make sure he -- and later, his baby sister -- gets the best possible education.

The challenges of raising and educating a black male in a major American city are not lost on me.

We live in a predominantly black community and checked out the schools nearby. Everyone in the parenting circles I'm connected to extols the virtues of magnet and charter schools. But getting into those schools is largely a matter of chance.

The neighborhood magnet left us a little cold: The children at this "high ability gifted magnet" are performing at grade level, the director told us. According to the LAUSD website, "Gifted/Highly Gifted/High Ability Magnets serve students who demonstrate ability to work two years above grade level in academic subjects."

That doesn't inspire much confidence in that system, either.

The case for higher expectations

My husband and I are mostly the products of private education. We grew up hearing how our struggling middle-class moms scrimped and sacrificed to give their kids the best education. To a large degree, when it comes to the education we are responsible for providing our children today, that narrative is ingrained in our DNA.

From kindergarten through eighth grade, I went to Palm Valley School in Palm Springs. Though I was the only black student in every one of my classes, all of us were expected to perform to a level of excellence. My next four years, I went to a public high school that opened the year I started. What a different experience.

Straight from private school, knowing nothing else, I was an annoying overachiever my freshman year. But lowered expectations in most of the public classrooms eventually had a detrimental effect on me by my senior year.

A typical teenager distracted by all the things that come with the fabulous life of a 17-year-old, I turned in a really substandard essay in my English class.

At a conference with my mom, an English professor herself, the teacher said he understood our challenge: It must be rough for me working two jobs to support my family.

While that is a reality in some families, this assumption was preposterous in my case. He never really asked.

First, I had a weekend job at a movie theater -- primarily so that I could buy my own clothes and gas up the car. Second, this was an honors/AP English class. The performance standards should have been higher -- for all students. I was excused from the expectation of high standards and given a pass in the name of "understanding" instead of digging deeper to find out what was really at play.

Later in the year, when I submitted an essay that was really up to my standard of performance, that same teacher accused me of cheating. Lowered expectations.

I want more for my son. I expect more of my son -- and so should his school.

Honestly, it’s been a long time since I was in school. And that was Palm Desert. This is Los Angeles -- a diverse, overpopulated and overtaxed school system that struggles to even keep the air conditioning current and functional.

Yes, much has changed. However, the basic truths haven’t: Schools are still struggling to lift performance across the board. Teachers are still overworked and underpaid -- and underappreciated. Resources are still hard to come by.

Black and low-income children overall are consistently still at the bottom of the achievement list. And, no, most of them can't afford the luxury of a private education. I get that. It's hard for my family, who can't afford it either, but it's certainly harder for others. That is real.

While state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson might be "encouraged that many students are at or near achievement standards," this mother is sobered by that.

The fact is most students in the state are falling short of learning targets and are not on track to succeed in college. Black students have traditionally performed more poorly on these tests. They aren't expected to reach the same level of achievement as the rest of their class. That just will not do in my home.

That lowered performance bar has a detrimental effect on expectations -- those of the teachers, those of the students themselves and collectively and certainly of the system overall.

The fact that the bar is only now being set higher overall doesn’t really strengthen my confidence as a parent that the education system will challenge, encourage and expect or even consider excellence from my brown-skinned children.

There are no do-overs or reboots, and our primary job as parents is to lay a solid foundation for our children’s future.

Sure, it’s not all up to the schools to spark and develop the drive to strive for excellence. That should but doesn't always happen at home, too. But the place our kids spend the majority of their days cannot be the force working to undo all of our work as parents. We must work together as a team, setting and facilitating high expectations.

As Antonio Villaraigosa said of his family's choice to move from public to Catholic school when he was running for mayor: "We want our kids to have the best education they can. If I can get that education in a public school, I'll do it, but I won't sacrifice my children any more than I could ask you to do the same."

Put bluntly: My kids are not an experiment for a foundering system.

::

●●smf’s 2¢: The ever pseudonymous “Quentin Compson” writes to the Times | http://lat.ms/1Ox8msT:

Okay. My head is spinning.

The LA TIMES has gone beyond pathological in its take-no-prisoners public school war.

Michelle Maltais has a four-year-old whom she will not deign pollute in a public system. She, unlike most other parents, so loves her child, she will "sacrifice" anything to give this child the "best".

Maltais looks at the test scores of public schools and sees a system that does not set high standards for kids.

She sees a school system and parents that accept mediocrity as the norm.

As we proceed sentence by sentence further in this commentary, this woman's INSUFFERABLE privilege becomes written in neon.

Columbia J-School educated Maltais looks at the kids and families who would surround her children and it obviously makes her sick. Not that they are not good, hard-working people--but definitely not people who care about education as she and her private school educated husband do. Not like private school parents.

She ticks off the problems with society that undermine the schools as if they were mere obvious nuisances--but nothing that couldn't be overcome by setting a high bar.

She ends, "Put bluntly: My kids are not an experiment for a foundering system."

Yes, your kids ARE an experiment in a foundering system. A system that culls children based on race and class from the start and is run by politicians and bankers to the detriment of these kids.

And your grotesque "take" on that society in relation to your kids propagates that system.

God speed, Ms. Maltais. You love your kids. Wish you loved ours


CIVIC GROUP ASKS FOR OUTSIDE COMMITTEE ON L.A. SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1NFeI8B

Sept 18, 2015 9:20AM :: A group of civic leaders has privately urged the Los Angeles Board of Education to appoint an outside committee to assist with or even lead the search process for a superintendent of schools.

Their early efforts culminated in a noon lunchtime meeting on Aug. 19 at the City Club, on the 51st floor of a downtown skyscraper.

The unofficial delegation met with school board President Steve Zimmer, who did not commit to the idea but said he would put the matter before the full board. So far, the board has not taken action on the proposal.

"Having a broader external committee would be a good addition to the process," said Elise Buik, president and chief executive of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

Such a committee would not only provide valuable assistance to the board but also result in broader buy-in to the selection process and support for the eventual person chosen, she said.

Buik said she envisions a search committee that would include representatives of students, teachers, community groups, the business sector and civil rights organizations.

At the meeting with her were: Antonia Hernandez, head of the nonprofit California Community Foundation; Ed Avila, a former city official and leader of the downtown revitalization group Project Restore; Monica Lozano, a University of California regent and publisher of the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinión; Nolan V. Rollins, leader of the Los Angeles Urban League; Gary L. Toebben, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; and George Kieffer, a partner in the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and also a UC regent.

Kieffer also heads the Civic Alliance, a coalition of groups that has worked with and tried to influence L.A. Unified. The group strongly backed former Supt. John Deasy, who resigned under pressure a year ago after losing the confidence of a majority on the Board of Education.

The individuals meeting with Zimmer were doing so in their role with Civic Alliance.

If the board favored a committee, said Buik, she would like one that could screen potential candidates and present the board a small list of finalists.

Kieffer said a search committee could take a variety of forms.

“Anything that would be done would be up to the board,” Kieffer said. “It’s done different ways in different searches. But I think that the more different kinds of folks they could have on a search or advisory committee, the stronger their selection process would be.”

The Board of Education chose Deasy without considering other candidates after a brief trial period during which he served as deputy to then-Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. At the time, key local leaders, including some within the Civic Alliance, pressured the board to choose Deasy without a search.

Cortines returned from retirement when Deasy left but would like to hand over the office to a successor by the end of the year.

The school board recently hired an executive search firm to assist with the process.

Zimmer characterized the City Club meeting as “very positive.”

“It was a very open and frank conversation, and an important conversation, and I hope they will invite me to meet with them again soon,” he said. “I think their voice is an important voice in the process.”

Other groups also are weighing in. The influential teachers union, for example, would like the finalists to be announced publicly.

“We would like to see a process where the finalists would come in front of parents, students and educators,” said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. “We want to make sure that parents, students and educators have an opportunity to weigh in during the superintendent search.”

The search firm has recommended a confidential selection process, saying it would yield a stronger field of applicants.


THE SURPRISING THING ABOUT SCHOOLS WITH LOTS OF TECHNOLOGY: The best way to use computers in schools is “moderately” + smf’s 2¢
TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS DOESN'T ALWAYS ADD TO LEARNING

By Joy Resmovits |LA Times | http://lat.ms/1LyNr3i

Sept 15, 2015 :: More time spent on technology in the classroom doesn’t necessarily help kids do better in school, a new study has found.

In fact, above a certain threshold, an over-reliance on technology might actually detract from learning.

“Limited use of computers at school may be better than no use at all, but levels of computer use above the current … average are associated with significantly poorer results,” states a new report released late Monday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“Students who use computers very frequently in school don’t outperform students who use them moderately, even when we modify for social background,” OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher, said in an interview.

It’s a lesson Angelenos might want to consider as the Los Angeles Unified School District rethinks its relationship with educational technology, thanks in part to a failed attempt to provide iPads to every student districtwide. In Los Angeles, the FBI is investigating the bidding process that led to the iPad program, which now includes other devices.

Supt. Ramon Cortines decided in February that the $1.3-billion program was too expensive to continue. At the start of this school year, only one school had devices for every student because the other schools had not yet had their technology instruction plans approved by the district.

L.A. Unified chose the schools now slated to receive the devices by examining campuses and determining which schools had such minimal or outdated technology that they needed an immediate boost, or which schools were optimally positioned to incorporate new digital tools into their lessons. The district also chose schools that were part of a U.S. Justice Department settlement agreement to provide more resources to schools with large populations of black students.

A report released earlier this month found that the district still struggles with integrating devices. That LAUSD-commissioned report -- conducted by the American Institutes for Research -- found that teachers didn’t receive enough tech support, and that Wi-Fi access on campus remained inconsistent.

Now, an L.A. Unified task force is devising a technology plan for the district.

The new study is based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, an international exam given to 60,000 15-year-olds in 32 countries. OECD has previously released results on the subject tests — many Americans are familiar with these scores, as they create educational rankings between countries.

Monday’s report marks the release of the digital test associated with PISA — in general, students took the pencil-and-paper test in the morning and the computer test the afternoon of the same day.

Overall, the report finds that the best way to use computers in schools is “moderately.”

What exactly does moderately mean? Not too often, and for deliberately chosen activities. For example, as Schleicher notes, students who “practice and drill” on computers in school at least once a week perform more than 20 points below students who don’t do this.

And while some degree of browsing the Internet for assignments is helpful, performance drops significantly, on average, when it is done “almost every day” or more regularly.

Why might this be? “If you have 21st century technology added to 20th century classrooms, it might be unrelated and take opportunities away,” Schleicher said. “Schools probably haven’t become good enough at the kind of pedagogies that use technology well.”

If you have 21st century technology added to 20th century classrooms, it might be unrelated and take opportunities away. - Andreas Schleicher, OECD's education director

For example, while a school might call itself tech-savvy for having students copy and paste answers on Google to pre-fab questions on smartphones, “it won’t make kids smarter,” Schleicher said. “If it’s used on a smaller scale, which is more useful, it’s usually more interactive teaching. If you want students to become smarter than a smartphone you have to think about instructional methodology and learning environment.”

That’s another lesson for Los Angeles. Cortines has said that the district lacks a coherent way for wrapping technology into pedagogy.

According to a self-reported survey, students across OECD countries spent at least 25 minutes online every day at school. That number ranges from 58 minutes in Australia to less than 10 minutes in South Korea.

American students performed better on the reading test on screens than they did on paper. On the general PISA, the U.S. performed at the average level of OECD countries. But on the digital test, America performed slightly better than average. And on PISA’s pencil-and-paper math test, Americans performed below average. But taking the test online bumped the U.S. up to the OECD average.

“We were quite disappointed by the findings in general,” Schleicher said. “Bringing technologies to the classroom didn’t seem to be related to positive skills outcomes.” There’s a lot of investment in educational technology right now, he said, “but we haven’t gotten it right.”



●●smf’s 2¢: This is not “just another survey”, this is the PISA/OCED Survey – the gold standard in comparing educational outcomes across nations/around the world (see blizzard of news stories below) used frequently by those who would beat-up the US education system and and American teachers.

It is also interesting (in a couriouser+couriouser way) that The Times provides links to the AIR report critical of LAUSD’s tech roll-out – which is about something else - but none to the actual survey that that this article is about – which follows.


STUDENTS, COMPUTERS AND LEARNING: MAKING THE CONNECTION Published Sept. 15, 2015



PAT+ELLEN: GODSPEED
Remarks by Scott Folsom to the LAUSD Board of Education meeting Tuesday afternoon, Sept 15th:

President Zimmer, Superintendent Cortines, members of the board:

L’shannah tovah.

I am Scott Folsom, California State PTA Vice President for Health.

One would think the PTA would find a healthy VP …but elective politics is what it is.


In PTA we traditionally open our meetings – right after the pledge of allegiance – with inspirational remarks. A story. A poem. An inspiring anecdote.

The Queen of Inspiration in PTA in LA was Patricia Hansen; she collected the stories and poems and anecdotes in an archive; it wasn’t a PTA meeting until Pat spoke. She was a past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTA from 1983-1985 – she first joined PTA in 1949 – and was our institutional memory – reminding us of when PTA members wore hats and gloves – and wore their passion for children’s issues on their sleeves …back in the day as it is today.

We lost Pat a few days ago, after a long life-well lived – and we will miss her.


We also lost Ellen Eckard, past 31st District President from 2009-11.

Ellen was young and vital and served at her school, Sutter Middle, as the Parent Center Director. She enabled the network that brought together the PTA and the School and the teachers and administration and parents and students – building the school community …and the bowling league – sponsoring the bake sale and the can drive and making what needed to happen happen.

She organized middle schoolers; and the only things squirrelier than they are their parents. And teachers.

A former Sutter Principal, who had retired to the Sacramento area, suggested to Ellen that they have lunch together when PTA had our convention up in the capital. Ellen suggested to the principal that she come and volunteer at the convention instead; effective PTA leaders make these offers that can’t be refused!

Ellen died too young – but left the promise for us to continue to keep.

If Pat Hansen was “Old School”: “Your Mother’s …or even Your Grandmother’s PTA”; Ellen Eckard was “New School”: “Definitely Not Your Mom’s PTA!”

But both kept the promise that each and every one of us make:

To speak for all children
With one strong voice.

Good job.
And Godspeed.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
TEACHERS WANTED: PASSION A MUST, PATIENCE REQUIRED, PAY NEGLIGIBLE
by Lillian Mongeau | http://bit.ly/1YrAT7z

WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE $100 MILLION THAT NEWARK SCHOOLS GOT FROM FACEBOOK’S MARK ZUCKERBERG? NOT MUCH
by Arianna Skibell | http://bit.ly/1YrB0zS

TEST SCORES SHOW ACHIEVEMENT GAP, EVEN IN HIGH-PERFORMING SCHOOLS
byAdolfo Guzman-Lopez | http://bit.ly/1FnQH4N

Op-Ed on School Fundraising: HAWKING POINSETTIAS TO PAY FOR HIGH SCHOOL EXTRACURRICULARS
By Lisa Lewis | http://lat.ms/1LGGT2A

LAWSUIT: SCHOOLS FAILED TO INFORM PARENTS OF RIGHT TO OPT OUT OF TESTS
By Sarah Tully | http://bit.ly/1KD4FA2

STATE NAMES SAN JOSE SUPERINTENDENT TO RUN INGLEWOOD UNIFIED
By John Fensterwald | http://bit.ly/1MzVeUi


EVENTS: Coming up next week...


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


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
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!


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for over 12 years. He is Vice President for Health, Legislation Action Committee member and a member of the Board of Directors 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 "WHO" Gold Award and the ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
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