In This Issue:
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UNICEF WARNS OF LOST GENERATION OF WAR CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL |
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FIRM SELECTED TO SEARCH FOR L.A. UNIFIED’S NEXT SUPERINTENDENT |
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LAUSD FACES A TOUGH CHOICE AFTER DEASY: PLAY IT SAFE OR TAKE A RISK? |
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Dan Walters: HOW DO WE GRADE OUR SCHOOLS |
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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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The ask is simple; the image is heartbreaking: "Just
pause 4 moment & imagine this was your child, drowned trying 2 flee
#Syria war 4 safety of #EU. #solidarity http://t.co/Crm1uApzLJ
His name was Aylan and he was-and-will-forever-be-three-years-old. A
BBC newsreader said it: “Three-year-olds should be playing with their
friends in a park , not washing up dead on a beach.”
These pages have occasionally wandered afield and lamented the
plight+tragedy of
immigrants/migrants/refugees/undocumented/pilgrims/illegals: The
wretched refuse and the huddled masses yearning to live/work/dream/learn
free. Lampedusa and Murrieta and the Sonoran Desert and the Chunnel and
the border fence and the Mediterranean Sea and Mr. Trump’s Wall and ICE
Immigrant Detention Centers separate us from those who want access to
what we have access to.
Not what we have, not your job or my Kia or Donald’s billions. Just access.
In “Casablanca” Victor and Ilsa need Letters of Transit; at the Budapest
Train Station that’s all the Syrian refugees ask for. Safe Passage:
Permission to get from here to there.
On the 29th floor of Beaudry, in a hallway past Library Services and
almost to Beyond-the-Bell there is a painting on the wall: The iconic
black-on-yellow highway sign image/silhouette/warning of a fleeing
immigrant family. It is boldly labeled EDUCACIÓN.
It is art that tells the truth.
Surging conflict and political upheaval across the Middle East and North
Africa are preventing more than 13 million children - 40% of the
population - from going to school, according to a UNICEF report released
Wednesday.
The report focuses on the impact of violence on schoolchildren and
education systems in nine countries that have been directly or
indirectly impacted by violence.
Attacks on schools and education infrastructure – sometimes deliberate –
are one key reason why many children do not attend classes. In Syria,
Iraq, Yemen and Libya alone, nearly 9,000 schools are out of use because
they have been damaged, destroyed, are being used to shelter displaced
civilians or have been taken over by parties to the conflict.
“It’s not just the physical damage being done to schools, but the
despair felt by a generation of schoolchildren who see their hopes and
futures shattered.”
AND SO THE BOARD OF ED MET ON TUESDAY and agreed on a search firm and a
plan to pick the next superintendent. There will be outreach and
community input and transparency and confidentiality all-in-one – a
process sure to infuriate any-and-everyone. There will be an application
process – but there will be active recruiting too. You will have a
chance to have your say and nominate your nominee. The Board spoke of
doing the right things for kids and impressed the applicants (who were
inescapably sycophants) …and me - who wears his cynicism on his sleeve.
They anguished over denying a charter to a school that had failed in
properly applying and would probably fail in delivering. The Charter
School Association pleaded and the vote they probably were sure they had
they didn’t.
FILE UNDER “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?” …or maybe “What? Were they
thinking?”: Despite the State Auditor finding the District has improved
its handling of abuse cases [http://t.co/MGiZv0lW5I]
and even as LAUSD doles out more in Miramonte abuse claims – and sues
its insurance companies to underwrite the claims – it argues in court
that a 13 year-old minor child was partially responsible for her own
abuse by her 8th grade teacher. “Teen Partly Responsible for Her Sex
Abuse by Teacher, L.A. Unified Tells Appeals Court” (LA Times) http://lat.ms/1NdGhaA. Also: In Civil Suit LAUSD Argues Teen Partly Responsible for Sex Abuse by Teacher (City News Service) http://bit.ly/1UuRrGS /
And: In LAUSD Teacher Abuse Case, 13-Year-Old Student's Sexual History,
Responsibility Still At Issue (KPCC) Http://Bit.Ly/1fzsdcm
"Just like the
Old man in
That book by Nabokov"
FRIDAY WAS ADMISSION DAY …a holiday that used to be a holiday but now is
an excuse for LAUSD teachers+students to turn a three-day-weekend into a
four-day-weekend.
• Wikipedia: “California Admission Day is a legal holiday in the state
of California in the United States. It is celebrated annually on
September 9 to commemorate the anniversary of the 1850 admission of
California into the Union as the thirty-first state.”
• In 1984, however, Governor George Deukmejian signed legislation changing its observance to a “personal” option’
• California Admission Day is a legal observance but most public
offices, schools and other businesses generally do not close. | http://bit.ly/1Fm6zj1
• Except this is LA Unified and Friday wasn’t Sept. 9th; in fact
Admission Day is whenever the LAUSD/UTLA Contract says it is. Next year
Admission Day will fall on a Friday Sept 9th – but it will be sure to
be observed in LAUSD a week earlier, on Sept 2n. (Admission Day
would’ve been a good day for John Deasy to put on the orange jumpsuit
and admit that the Apple-Pearson Contract was a crooked deal …but I
checked the papers and that didn’t happen.)
And Monday will be Labor Day – dedicated to the social and economic
achievements of American workers – which also has something to do with
appropriate fashion choices depending upon whether it is
before-or-after.
It’s always OK to wear your red UTLA T-shirt to the union picnic. And
it’s permissible to wear white bucks and a seersucker jacket to the
country club on (but-not-after) Labor Day. But let’s be safe out there –
do not add charcoal lighter to an established fire!
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
UNICEF WARNS OF LOST GENERATION OF WAR CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL
By RICK GLADSTONE, New York Times | http://nyti.ms/1VAocF3
SEPT. 2, 2015 :: War and upheaval across parts of the Middle East and
North Africa in recent years have driven more than 13 million children
from school — 40 percent of the affected area’s school-age population,
the United Nations said Wednesday.
A report by Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, cast a sobering
new light on the subtle long-term destructive consequences of violent
conflicts that have convulsed a region encompassing all or portions of
Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and the
Palestinian territories, particularly Gaza.
In some countries — particularly Syria, which once had one of the
world’s highest literacy rates — many children who ordinarily would be
third or fourth graders by now have rarely if ever been inside a
classroom.
“Attacks on schools and education infrastructure — sometimes deliberate —
are one key reason many children do not attend classes,” Unicef said in
a summary of the report.
In Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya alone, it said, nearly 9,000 schools are
out of use because they have been “damaged, destroyed, are being used
to shelter displaced families or have been taken over by parties to the
conflict.”
Other reasons, the summary said, include “the fear that drives thousands
of teachers to abandon their posts, or keeps parents from sending their
children to school because of what might happen to them along the way —
or at school itself.”
Dr. Peter Salama, the Unicef regional director for the Middle East and
North Africa, said the report was based on calculations from the
combined data for each individual population that have been compiled by
the agency over the years.
“We’ve had country-specific numbers in the past, but not the aggregate
of major trends in the region,” Dr. Salama said in a telephone interview
from Amman, Jordan. “For us, it’s actually quite staggering when you
aggregate the numbers across these countries.”
Five or 10 years ago, he said, it was unusual to have even 10 percent of
the school-age populations in the region out of school. “Now it’s 40
percent,” he said.
“Their educational achievements are going to be quite low,” he said. “These are the future professionals in these societies.”
While death, mayhem, hunger and disease are among the most obvious risks
to civilians in these conflict zones, the collapse in primary education
is another compelling reason for families with young children to flee.
This partly explains the increasing surge of migrants into Europe, Dr.
Salama said.
“Seventy to 80 percent of asylum seekers have been from Syria,” he said. “It’s not coincidental.”
In Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, where millions of Syrians have fled since
the war in their homeland began in 2011, more than 700,000 refugee
children are unable to attend school because the education systems in
those countries cannot cope with the extra load, the report said.
Dr. Salama said the report highlighted what he called another alarming
issue: If children are not in school, they are often working, and
exploited in hazardous jobs.
A parallel trend, he said, is increased recruitment of children into military and paramilitary organizations.
“In the past there was child recruitment, but it tended to be older boys
in noncombat roles,” Dr. Salama said. “That has really changed in the
last year or two.”
He said, “We are on the verge of a lost generation of kids.”
FIRM SELECTED TO SEARCH FOR L.A. UNIFIED’S NEXT SUPERINTENDENT
By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1NNjBhd
2 Sept 2015 :: e search for a new Los Angeles school district chief
moved into the open Tuesday, but it's not clear how long the effort will
remain public.
The Board of Education selected an executive search firm that emphasized
the need to keep the applicants secret until the choice is made.
"The more confidential a search, the better the candidates," said
William Attea of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, based in
Rosemont, Ill.
Any activity that potentially exposes candidates would affect who is
willing to apply, Attea said. That's because individuals could damage
their status in their current positions if they sought the L.A. Unified
post and didn't get the job.
"We want a transparent search, except for identity of candidates," Attea said.
Hazard got the job after a presentation to the board that also
emphasized its national reach and the need for members to be as clear as
possible in deciding what they wanted. The firm also presented a
well-known local face to the board as a key advisor, veteran
administrator Darline Robles, former superintendent of the Los Angeles
County Office of Education.
School board President Steve Zimmer has said the board needed to select a
search firm no later than Sept. 15, but officials clearly were ready to
act 10 hours into a day of private and public meetings.
The board has set aside $250,000 plus expenses for the contract.
Hiring a schools chief is one of the most important duties of an elected
board of education. The next schools chief will provide direction for
the nation's second-largest school system — one beset by declining
enrollment, financial hurdles, disappointing student achievement and
broad public skepticism.
"This is singularly the most important search that is happening in our
nation," Zimmer said. "I would argue to you that this is the single most
important job in public education in America."
Board members made their choice two days after selecting two firms to
interview, following a lengthy and unusual Sunday meeting, most of it in
private.
The board is under pressure to find a successor to Supt. Ramon C.
Cortines. His contract runs through June 2016, but Cortines, 83, said he
would prefer to leave by the end of the year. He came out of retirement
to take the top job in October after John Deasy resigned under
pressure.
On Tuesday, board members heard presentations and asked questions of two
search firms, Hazard and Leadership Associates, based in La Quinta:
Both firms had at least 45 minutes in open session with the board.
In brief deliberations, the strongest opinion was offered by Richard
Vladovic on behalf of Leadership Associates. He said his endorsement was
partly based on working with the firm when, earlier in his career, he
was chosen as superintendent of West Covina Unified.
Vladovic also criticized Hazard's handling of the superintendent search
in Boston, which became a protracted process. The effort ended with the
selection of senior Los Angeles district administrator Tommy Chang.
Vladovic said he was not faulting the choice of Chang but rather the
public and political maneuvering involved.
Board member George McKenna said that the problems in Boston probably
had more to do with how city officials managed the selection. He said he
believed either company was capable.
Board members made a point to praise the presentations of both firms before settling on Hazard with little elaboration.
Even Vladovic ultimately voted for Hazard in the interest of making the
choice unanimous. Five firms has applied to conduct the search.
Attea said his push for secrecy was not meant to exclude public input.
He said there could be numerous public forums and surveys, with a large
role for an appointed committee that represents the community. Such a
committee could even help screen candidates, but at a potential risk to
confidentiality, he said.
LAUSD FACES A TOUGH CHOICE AFTER DEASY: PLAY IT SAFE OR TAKE A RISK?
THE RECORDS SHOW THAT AT MOMENTS OF TUMULT DEASY WAS SIMPLY NOT IN TOWN.
By Zahira Torres and Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1IQPgXe
Sept 5, 2015 | 2PM :: When the school board chose John Deasy as
superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2011, it
knew what it was getting: an outsized personality with a national
reputation as an advocate for school reform.
And in his 31/2 turbulent years at the helm, Deasy proved to be just
that. He courted wealthy donors who helped subsidize a robust travel
schedule, and he spent about 200 days on the road as he attempted to
raise the district's profile and promote his agenda.
A close look at Deasy's tenure clearly shows the challenge of juggling
the responsibilities of running a sprawling, often-dysfunctional
district while serving as a leading voice in the national movement to
overhaul schools.
At key moments of tumult in the district, the records show, Deasy was simply not in town.
Now, as the Los Angeles Board of Education begins to search for a new
superintendent, it faces an important choice: Should it take a chance on
a nontraditional candidate? Or should it take the safer route and turn
to a conventional educator?
In Deasy's case, his critics argue, his national role came to subsume his home-base responsibilities.
The beginning of the end came a year ago, just before the school year
started. Deasy was in New York to discuss challenges threatening
education reform.
Back at home, the city's public schools were in disarray. By the time
Deasy returned for the first day of classes, a malfunctioning scheduling
system had forced students into gyms and auditoriums to await
assignments. Some of them ended up in the wrong courses, putting their
path to graduation in jeopardy.
Two months later, in October, a Superior Court judge ordered state
education officials to meet with Deasy to fix the scheduling problems
that he said deprived students of their right to an education. But Deasy
flew to South Korea the next morning to visit schools and meet
government officials. A week later, he resigned, under pressure, as head
of the nation's second-largest school system.
Deasy's tenure has become a lesson for the board in an era when urban
school chiefs must navigate a minefield of political interests —
including unions, politicians and foundations — all seeking greater
influence.
Jeffrey Henig, professor of political science and education at Teachers
College, Columbia University, said strong ties to the foundation world
and national education leaders can draw additional revenue for
superintendents who want special initiatives at cash-strapped districts.
But, he added, "the time that they're out traveling, they're not meeting
with parent groups at schools. They're becoming familiar with what's
happening in Newark, Detroit, New York and Chicago but they're not
necessarily as well-versed in what's happening in particular
neighborhoods or among ethnic groups in their own communities."
Deasy was a bold choice nearly five years ago, an outsider with a
background in educational foundations but also earlier experience as a
public school administrator. He soon surprised union leaders and school
board members with his aggressive and sometimes polarizing actions.
He sought to weaken the power of the teachers union, advocated using
student test scores in performance evaluations and supported the growth
of charter schools — all of which were part of a larger reform agenda.
And he represented a culture shift for Los Angeles Unified. He came from
the Gates Foundation after stints as head of the Santa Monica-Malibu
school system and the district in Maryland's Prince George's County. He
was a hard-charging and well-connected leader, as comfortable on wonky
education panels as he was riffing with celebrities about school lunches
on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
He also was a frequent traveler.
Deasy, who was paid $350,000 a year as superintendent, took more than
100 trips, spent generously on meals as he lobbied state and national
lawmakers and wooed unions, foundations and educational leaders,
according to credit card receipts, calendars and emails obtained under
the California Public Records Act.
Deasy spent about $167,000 on airfare, hotels, meals and entertainment
during his tenure; half paid by philanthropists and foundations, and the
other half by the district. Private foundations often make
contributions to school districts, and the LAUSD’s position is that
those funds can be used for the superintendent’s expenses.
Among the philanthropists who subsidized his expenses, according to
district records, were entertainment executive Casey Wasserman and Eli
Broad, both of whom support education causes through their foundations.
Deasy attended conferences and held meetings in cities including Boston,
New York City, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. The tab for an evening
with teachers union officers at Drago Centro in Los Angeles ran to more
than $1,000. During a one-night stay at the Four Seasons hotel in New
York, for which he spent $900, he met, among others, Laurene Powell
Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and president of the
Emerson Collective, which awards grants and invests in education
initiatives.
Deasy contends his trips and expenses greatly benefited Los Angeles
Unified. In one case, he said, he persuaded the federal government to
give the district control over the spending of millions of dollars. And
he said his attendance at national conferences helped him develop some
of his policies on student discipline, which attracted attention for
reducing the number of suspensions.
"What happens in Los Angeles affects the nation and the state of
California profoundly," Deasy said in an interview. "It is important
that the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District have a
national voice that speaks to the issues of equity, justice and state
and federal funding."
Deasy, who now works for the Broad Center, which offers a training
program for senior school district leaders, said the time he spent away
from the district never hampered his work. "I think people would
describe me as being hands-on," he said. "I would know what was
happening in the district at all times and respond if there was an
issue."
Deasy left a mixed legacy.
Test scores and graduation rates rose incrementally, and dropout rates
fell during his tenure. While total enrollment decreased at Los Angeles
Unified during his term, enrollment in charter schools grew from about
70,000 students to more than 101,000.
Yet Deasy's signature effort to provide iPads to all students failed,
and the cost of untangling the troubled student records system has now
topped $200 million.
The school board is trying to find a different balance in the next
schools leader. It's looking for a leader with a more grounded ambition
and hands-on management. And, board members said they may need to keep
the new superintendent on a tighter leash.
Influential philanthropists — along with former Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa — leaned on school board members to bypass a national
search and hire Deasy because they believed that then-Supt. Ramon C.
Cortines was not moving fast enough. (Cortines was coaxed out of
retirement to return when Deasy left; Cortines has said he wants to
leave by year's end.)
Villaraigosa left office two years ago, and Mayor Eric Garcetti so far
has shown less interest in playing a major role in the district.
Some fear the district could backslide without a forceful leader.
"Deasy was brought in to do the hard stuff," said Frederick M. Hess, an
education analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute in
Washington, D.C. "You can try to be nice, but at the end of the day,
doing some of the stuff Deasy was brought in to do is generally
confrontational."
However, board President Steve Zimmer said Deasy's confrontational
approach reached a breaking point for him when the superintendent became
a star witness for the plaintiffs in Vergara vs. California.
That case, now on appeal, was heralded by national school reformers for
making it easier to fire teachers and ending the current practice of
layoffs based on seniority. It angered teachers who believed that they
were under constant attack from the superintendent, who did not consult
the board about the litigation.
"Once he chose to do what he did in the way that he did it, I knew I
could no longer support his superintendency," Zimmer said. "There was no
reason he had to be on that stand."
In many ways, Deasy's determination to be a different type of superintendent reflected the changing landscape of education.
He courted foundations that support reform efforts, which traditionally
have ignored Los Angeles Unified and instead invested in publicly funded
but privately run charter schools.
Groups with ties to Silicon Valley and Wall Street have played growing
roles in the education reform movement by donating to school board
candidates. The Emerson Collective, along with Broad and others, put
hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns for board members who
supported Deasy's goals.
Board member Monica Ratliff said Deasy's travel initially did not raise
red flags. But his absence during the school-records troubles deepened
concerns about his leadership. She also said he failed to alert board
members on numerous occasions when he was on the road.
"You don't leave town when there's a significant problem occurring," Ratliff said.
Some board members said they also worried that by requesting and
accepting reimbursement for travel from Wasserman, Broad and others who
supported his reform efforts, Deasy was creating the perception that he
might give a special hearing to those donors.
In an email, for example, Deasy sought a "scholarship" from Broad to
attend a dinner in New York honoring two education leaders who shared
his vision for turning around troubled school districts.
"Would Eli support my attendance at an event?" Deasy wrote in October
2011 to Gregory McGinity, a senior official with the Broad Foundation.
"I do not have such means to buy the ticket myself…. Do you think he
would 'scholarship' me?"
The Broad Foundation reimbursed the district $1,400 for Deasy's airfare
and hotel. A board member of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think
tank hosting the event, covered the superintendent's $1,500 ticket for
the dinner, according to the email.
Deasy denies that the donations influenced him.
Broad has criticized the pace of change at traditional public school
systems and started a multimillion-dollar effort to expand charter
schools in Los Angeles. His foundation, which also supports the Broad
Center, said it has contributed more than $2 million since 2011 to
benefit Los Angeles students, including funds to outside organizations
that run local public schools.
When Deasy resigned, Broad said that "there has never been a better, more effective superintendent."
Wasserman offered a more nuanced assessment of Deasy's tenure.
"No question he was driving hard, pushing the agenda, pushing reform to
achieve better results for the students," said Wasserman, whose
foundation has given about $7 million to the district in the past six
years, including $56,000 to pay for Deasy's expenses. "But because of
certain things — some of his own doing and some not of his doing — [he]
probably didn't achieve all that he wanted to during his leadership."
Eleven months after his departure, Deasy's legacy is still passionately debated.
"He was interested in making a splash in the media and nationally, but
he really faltered on implementation," said United Teachers Los Angeles
President Alex Caputo-Pearl, whose union clashed with Deasy over funding
decisions, performance evaluations and job protections.
Others say he might have simply aimed too high, especially with his ill-fated $1.3-billion effort to give all students iPads.
"It's possible that L.A. tried to run before it could walk under John
Deasy," said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham
Institute, a Washington, D.C., education policy organization. "There is
an important lesson learned. You've got to start with the basics and
then move on from there."
_____
EXCERPTS FROM THE EXPENSE ACCOUNT: JOHN DEASY’S BUSINESS DINNERS …W/FOOTNOTES
from the Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1JKFEBg
4 Sept 2015 9:50PM
The following are excerpts from the (former) superintendent's expense account:
Donors¹ and the L.A. Unified School District paid about $167,000 to
cover travel and meals, usually at high-end restaurants here and
elsewhere, for former L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy, related to his
local and national education agenda.
Here are some examples:
Date: Jan. 8, 2013
Place: Craft, Los Angeles
Cost: $248.37
Purpose: Dinner with Newark schools Supt. Cami Anderson, an ideological ally, and two others.
----------
Date: June 19, 2013
Place: Piccolo Ristorante, Venice, Calif.
Cost: $227.91
Purpose: Dinner with Pearson executives Sherry King and Judy
Codding, the day after approval of iPads-for-all contract that included
Pearson as curriculum provider.²
----------
Date: Oct. 22, 2013
Place: Drago Centro, Los Angeles
Cost: $1,014.45
Purpose: Dinner with midlevel teachers union leaders; Deasy wasn't
speaking to then-union president Warren Fletcher at the time.
----------
Date: Dec. 9, 2013
Place: Bouchon Bistro, Beverly Hills
Cost: $183.60
Purpose: Dinner with board members Tamar Galatzan and Monica Garcia.
----------
Date: June 18, 2014
Place: Water Grill, Los Angeles
Cost: $221.84
Purpose: Dinner with Tommy Chang and Donna Muncey ³, two senior staff members.
----------
Date: July 23, 2014
Place: Vincenti Ristorante, Brentwood
Cost: $311.96
Purpose: Dinner with philanthropist Megan Chernin, head of L.A. Fund
for Public Education, and fund manager Melissa Infusino.⁴
----------
Source: L.A. Unified records and interviews.
____________________
smf’s Footnotes:
¹ Casey Wasserman of the Wasserman Foundation picked up much of
Deasy’s entertainment+travel expenses, per employment arrangement
w/Deasy and LAUSD. Deasy continued to charge expenses this account after
he left the District in Oct 2014..
² The Apple/LAUSD/iPads contract is the subject of an ongoing FBI/US
Dept of Justice investigation; The District has a pending lawsuit with
Apple over Pearson’s performance (or failure to perform) under the
contract.
³ Chang and Muncey both left LAUSD for Boston after Deasy’s
downfall; Muncey had been with Deasy since he was a superintendent in
Rhode Island. Rumor/Speculation is that Deasy was instrumental in
Chang’s appointment as Boston superintendent.
⁴The LA Fund’s role in LAUSD’s Cafeteria Fund/Breakfast in the
Classroom funding irregularities is the subject of multiple ongoing
investigations by the LAUSD Inspector General, District Attorney and
FBI.
Dan Walters: HOW DO WE GRADE OUR SCHOOLS
STATE DUMPING TEST-BASED SYSTEM OF SCORING SCHOOLS,
REFORM GROUPS SAY THAT WILL REDUCE ACCOUNTABILITY. BATTLE WILL CONTINUE
FOR MONTHS, MAY WIND UP IN COURTS
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee | http://bit.ly/1N8oYGi
4 Sept 2015 :: The state Board of Education, for the umpteenth time,
heard presentations Thursday about a new method of gauging how well
public schools are educating 6-plus million kids.
As usual, they were couched in opaque educational jargon, such as
“evaluation rubrics,” “multiple measures” and “a flashlight not a
hammer.”
And as usual, education reform groups were critical of replacing the
Academic Performance Index, an annual test-based score given to schools,
with something that, they said, would make it more difficult for
parents and public to know what’s happening.
The educational establishment, including powerful teacher unions,
despises the API, saying it’s simplistic and encourages teaching to the
test. It also is a basis for parents to intervene and even take over
poor-performing schools, which the establishment also dislikes.
The official rationale for dumping the API, which has been suspended and
is almost certain to be erased, is that it’s out of sync with new
Common Core standards and the new Local Control Funding Formula, which
provides extra money to school districts with concentrations of
“high-needs” poor and English-learner students.
The state Department of Education will release initial results of
“Smarter Balance” tests aligned with Common Core standards in English
and math next week, and the results are widely expected to show huge
shortfalls in what kids have learned.
The biggest conflict in the work-in-progress accountability system is
how prominent a role results of the new tests will play in assessing how
school districts are spending the targeted LCC funds.
“As proposed,” EdVoice President Bill Lucia told the board in a letter
prior to Thursday’s meeting, “the rubrics omit critical data and limit
the authority of policy makers to exercise new authorities to identify
schools in need of improvement and intervene when a school district has
academically failed its students.”
Unless they make test results an integral measure in the new system,
Lucia warned, the board would be ignoring a key provision of the LCFF
law and “essentially repealing any notion of accountability for actual
academic outcomes.”
Children Now offered similar, if less direct, criticism to the board,
telling members that since LCFF assumes that parents will be active in
monitoring how its extra money is spent, “they need simple, clear and
easy-to-understand data on the school’s and the district’s performance.”
Enforcing tight accountability standards, including academic testing, is
the “hammer” that the education establishment dislikes. Its members
prefer the “flashlight” approach that uses performance data to encourage
improvement, with intervention by authorities as a rare last resort.
Conflicts over developing a new accountability system will continue for
many months, culminating late next year. And if education reformers are
unhappy with the outcome, they may, as Lucia’s letter hints, take the
battle into the courts.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
LAUSD'S TOUGH CHOICE AFTER DEASY: PLAY IT SAFE ...OR TAKE A RISK?
At moments of tumult Deasy was simply not in town
http://bit.ly/1IQQ26P
Excerpts from the expense account: JOHN DEASY’S BUSINESS DINNERS …w/footnotes
http://bit.ly/1EHvtyM
Tweet> Today is LAUSD unique Admission Day. Real Admission Day is Sept 9th.
Admit something!
LA Times Ed Matte®$: HOW A DUMPY LOS ANGELES HOTEL ROOM BECAME A METAPHOR FOR SCHOOL CHOICE + smf’s 2¢
http://bit.ly/1QeMf9m
STATE AUDIT GIVES L.A. UNIFIED BETTER MARKS IN HANDLING ABUSE CASES + Audit Report
http://bit.ly/1NSwE17
LINDA DARLING HAMMOND AIMS TO SHAPE CALIFORNIA + NATIONAL K-12 POLICY AT NEW THINK TANK
http://bit.ly/1PO4QbB
Because test scores are the most important things in the whole world: U.S. AP+SAT SCORES ARE DOWN …BUT CA IS HOLDING ITS OWN! http://bit.ly/1Nd1LEt
“SERIOUS PROBLEMS PERSIST?” or “STEADY PROGRESS?”: Just what does the latest report on LAUSD’s ‘iPads for All’) say?
http://bit.ly/1N5KmMg
In civil suit LAUSD argues teen partly responsible for sex abuse by teacher
http://bit.ly/1UuRrGS
JUDY BURTON STEPS DOWN AS CHAIR OF LAUSD TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE TASK FORCE + smf’s 2¢ http://bit.ly/1JNr1dn
FIRM SELECTED TO SEARCH FOR L.A. UNIFIED’S NEXT SUPERINTENDENT http://bit.ly/1EBm8Z9
TWO FIRMS MEETING LAUSD BOARD TODAY TO START SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
http://bit.ly/1Q6Fo1M
LAUSD BOARD INVITES TWO FIRMS TO INTERVIEW FOR SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH + smf’s 2¢
http://bit.ly/1UiDzov
LA TIMES EDITORIAL: COMPULSORY KINDERGARTEN - Still a bad idea http://lat.ms/1KWUpil
"ETK"/EXPANDED TRANISTIONAL KINDERGARTEN IN LAUSD :: The newest lesson in pre-K http://lat.ms/1PGFrAA
LAUSD SCHOOL MEMBERS WILL INTERVIEW 2 FIRMS TO HELP THEM FIND A SCHOOLS CHIEF http://fw.to/M2Q3Cce
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
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!
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