In This Issue:
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School Discipline Policy: TRAUMA-SENSITIVE SCHOOLS ARE BETTER SCHOOLS |
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NEW
YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS AUGMENTED: Instead of using bond money to purchase
iPads, why not use it to upgrade safety+security technology in our
schools? |
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STATE
SUPERINTENDENT TOM TORLAKSON PROPOSES NEW STATEWIDE TESTING SYSTEM:
Common Core Assessments to Focus on Problem Solving and Critical
Thinking |
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'THIS IS NOT ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY' |
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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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FRAUGHT appeared in a headline in the NY Times last
week – it jumped off the page as one of those words that are
almost-but-not-quite archaic: “full of”…but with a slight negative
connotation. “Here be the possibility of dragons.” In the past week
I’ve heard it in conversation twice – “fraught with possibilities” is my
favorite usage. Not all the possibilities are positive.
DISCIPLINE is a whole other thing – a word that used to signify a value
that was highly prized but now seems to worry folk for its negative
meaning. If one were to envisage ‘school discipline’ one might conjure
up an image of Michelle Rhee in fishnets and a leather bustier. Maybe
that’s just me …let’s not go there.
I have been working for a number of years with folks on an LAUSD
Discipline Policy. We agonized over the word itself – but continued on
in an attempt to restore discipline’s good name. LAUSD’s previous policy
was a mess – and was certainly uneven from school-to-school,
classroom-to-classroom and principal-to-principal.
Students were regularly suspended for truancy and tardiness. Kids were
suspended in large numbers for “willful defiance” – something I consider
the job description of an adolescent …but no one could agree upon what
‘defiance’ meant. It might be dropping a pencil or a provocative stare
or owning that dog that routinely eats homework. The Discipline Policy
Task Force ran the numbers and found that suspension for willful
defiance was epidemic among students of color, special ed students and
males. If you were a Black special ed kid you might as well just take a
seat outside the principal’s office!
There are times when 4LAKids is willfully defiant. This is one of them.
If you Google LAUSD and Discipline Policy your screen will fill with contradictions – and will ultimately bring up this image: http://bit.ly/11qL68a
- with Superintendent Harry Handler paddling School Board Member Bobbi
Fieldler in a 1979 photo op promoting Fiedler’s initiative to restore
corporal punishment in the District after a four year hiatus. (Fiedler
was against busing but for paddling. She successfully ended the first
and brought back the later – and got herself elected to Congress.)
LAUSD’s new discipline policy is research-based and data driven; reached
through collaboration, consensus and hard work by a lot of folks –
including Beaudry educrats, outside agencies, ivory tower educational
theorists (sorry Dr. Sprague!), classroom teachers, school
administrators, parents, school police, civil rights attorneys and law
enforcement. The policy is a mouthful: The Discipline Foundation Policy
for the implementation of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support and
Response to Intervention Strategies – but it is extremely good work/very
well done.
And now that it’s in place and being implemented districtwide the
conventional thinking by the conventional thinkers (“It must be working –
we have 100% compliance!”) is that the work is complete and those that
worked on it are no longer needed. That nothing is ever done and
anything+everything in public education is dynamic and constantly
evolving seems to have eluded the powers-that-be. The folks in School
Operations who now are charged with implementing the plan are wonderful
warm human beings with the milk of human kindness by the quart in every
vein. But they are not the ones who created and nurtured the plan. They
are not the Health and Human Services folk who lived and breathed the
plan. They were not at the table.
Consequently we are back at the table with a new cast and we are having
the conversation again. And the consensus at the table among the new
folk is that ‘Discipline’ is too loaded a word.
Déjà vu. Welcome to square one. For those of you who have been here
before please do not complain overmuch: There is work to be redone.
THE GOVERNOR’S WONDERFUL NEW BUDGET … Fraught with possibilities and ‘Discipline’s in the headlines.
Huffington Post: Jerry Brown's New Budget for Post-Crisis California: Discipline Begets Opportunity
Wall Street Journal Opinion:Brown's Breakthrough Budget
Marketplace: California's budget goes from red to black
Sacramento Bee: California budget has money for promised raise for state workers, but little else
The Governor hit the ground running Thursday, selling The Weighted
Student Formula – which didn’t get much traction in the legislature last
year – so he’s not calling it that this year.
Whatever Jerry calls it, LAUSD+UTLA will be for it because it will bring
added money to the District. But most students, teachers,
administrators, superintendents and school board members don’t work in
LA. Most parents, voters taxpayers and legislators are from Somewhere
Else. And the folk from Somewhere Else (when SE isn’t San Diego,
Sacramento, San Jose, Long Beach or Fresno) are going to want to know
what’s in it for them. Stay tuned.
THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION proposed to eliminate some of the
STAR test a year early next year in anticipation (we can hardly wait)
for the new Common Core Tests. [STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF URGES CUT IN NUMBER
OF TESTS NEXT YEAR]. This has Superintendent Deasy’s knickers in a
twist: How will her evaluate teachers and measure Academic Growth Over
Time and Add (or subtract) Value without those tests? This is actually
an opportunity for him to find out …because the STAR tests are going
away totally in 2015!
• Statistical Analyst par-excellence Nate Silver – the Mario Andretti of
the data drivers –- on data-driven metrics for teacher evaluation:
“…applying objective measures badly is worse than not applying them at
all”
And buried in the CDE plan is a proposal to fund all the tablets and
laptops needed to implement Common Core Testing with a California State
Bond. Why would LAUSD use local Q bond money to fund this investment
when California is going to anyway? Though 4LAKids believes the testing
companies – who will reap huge profits from the Common Core Tests –
should foot the bill. And to repeat the question asked in the AALA
Update: “Instead of using bond money to purchase iPads, why not use it
to upgrade safety and security technology in our schools and offices?”
THE SAME U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION that denied California a waiver
from No Child’s Left Behind - because we won’t evaluate teachers based
on test scores that are meaningless to students - granted waivers to
Virginia and Florida who created different testing benchmarks for Black,
Brown, White, Asian and Special Ed Students [see “YOU DON’T FIX
EDUCATION BY LOWERING THE BAR. YOU DO IT BY LIFTING THE KIDS.”].
There’s a name for this but it’s not a nice word. Another name for it is
‘separate but unequal’. The case law is Brown v. Board of Education +
Mendez v. Westminster. The U.S. Dept. of Ed has an Office of Civil
Rights. Maybe they were too busy sending out their resumes?
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
School Discipline Policy: TRAUMA-SENSITIVE SCHOOLS ARE BETTER SCHOOLS
Huffington Post | http://huff.to/W19CGh
This article by June Ellen Stevens appeared in the Huffington Post on June 26th and 27th of 2012 .
.
The first time that principal Jim Sporleder tried the New Approach to
Student Discipline at Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, he was
blown away. Because it worked. In fact, it worked so well that he never
went back to the Old Approach to Student Discipline.
This is how it went down:
A student blows up at a teacher, drops the F-bomb. The usual approach at
Lincoln -- and, safe to say, at most high schools in this country -- is
automatic suspension. Instead, Sporleder sits the kid down and says
quietly:
"Wow. Are you OK? This doesn't sound like you. What's going on?"
The kid was ready. Ready, man! For an anger blast to his face..."How
could you do that?" "What's wrong with you?"... and for the big boot out
of school. But he was NOT ready for kindness. The armor-plated defenses
melt like ice under a blowtorch and the words pour out: "My dad's an
alcoholic. He's promised me things my whole life and never keeps those
promises." The waterfall of words that go deep into his home life, which
is no piece of breeze, end with this sentence: "I shouldn't have blown
up at the teacher."
Whoa.
And then he goes back to the teacher and apologizes. Without prompting from Sporleder.
"The kid still got a consequence," explains Sporleder -- but he wasn't
sent home, a place where there wasn't anyone who cares much about what
he does or doesn't do. He went in-school suspension, a quiet, comforting
room where he can talk with the attending teacher, catch up on his
homework, or just sit and think about how maybe he could do things
differently next time.
Before the words "namby-pamby", "weenie", or "not the way they did
things in my day" start flowing across your lips, take a look at these
numbers:
2009-2010 (Before new approach)
• 798 suspensions (days students were out of school)
• 50 expulsions
2010-2011 (After new approach)
• 135 suspensions (days students were out of school)
• 30 expulsions
"It sounds simple," says Sporleder about the new approach. "Just by
asking kids what's going on with them, they just started talking. It
made a believer out of me right away."
Trauma-sensitive schools. Trauma-informed classrooms. Compassionate
schools. Safe and supportive schools. All different names to describe a
movement that's taking shape and gaining momentum across the country.
And it all boils down to this: Kids who are experiencing the toxic
stress of severe and chronic trauma just can't learn. It's
physiologically impossible.
These kids express their toxic stress by dropping the F-bomb, skipping
school, or being the "unmotivated" child, head down on the desk or
staring into space. In other words, they're having typical stress
reactions: fight, flight or freeze.
In trauma-sensitive schools, teachers don't punish a kid for "bad"
behavior -- they don't want to traumatize an already traumatized child.
They dig deeper to help a child feel safe so that she or he can move out
of stress mode, and learn again.
Pick any classroom in any school in any state in the country, and you'll
find at least a handful -- and sometimes more than a handful -- of
students experiencing some type of severe trauma.
What's severe trauma? We're not talking falling on a playground and
breaking a finger here. This trauma is gut-wrenching, life-bending and
mind-warping: Living with an alcoholic parent or a parent diagnosed with
depression or other mental illness. Witnessing a mother being abused
(physically or verbally). Being physically, sexually or verbally abused.
Losing a parent to abandonment or divorce. Homelessness. Being bullied.
You can probably name a few others.
Since at least 2005, a few dozen individual schools across the U.S. have
adopted some type of trauma-sensitive approach. But the centers of
gravity for most of the action are in Massachusetts and Washington.
These two states lead the way in taking a district-wide approach to
integrating trauma-informed practices, with an eye to state-wide
adoption.
Without a school-wide approach, "it's very hard to address the role that
trauma is playing in learning," says Susan Cole, director of the Trauma
an Learning Policy Initiative, a joint project of Harvard Law School
and Massachusetts Advocates for Children. Cole is co-author of a seminal
book: Helping Traumatized Children Learn, sometimes known as "The
Purple Book."
With a school-wide strategy, trauma-sensitive approaches are woven into
the school's daily activities: the classroom, the cafeteria, the halls,
buses, the playground. "This enables children to feel academically,
socially, emotionally and physically safe wherever they go in the
school. And when children feel safe, they can calm down and learn," says
Cole. "The district needs to support the individual school to do this
work. With the district on board, principals can have the latitude to
put this issue on the front burner, where it belongs."
Many teachers have known for years that trauma interferes with a kid's
ability to learn. But school officials from both states cite two
research breakthroughs that provide the evidence and data.
One was the CDC's Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study). It
uncovered a stunning link between childhood trauma and the chronic
diseases people develop as adults. This includes heart disease, lung
cancer, diabetes and many autoimmune diseases, as well as depression,
violence, being a victim of violence, and suicide.
The study's researchers came up with an ACE score to explain a person's
risk for chronic disease. Think of it as a cholesterol score for
childhood toxic stress. You get one point for each type of trauma. The
higher your ACE score, the higher your risk of health and social
problems.
A whopping two thirds of the 17,000 people in the ACE Study had an ACE
score of at least one; 87 percent of those had more than one. With an
ACE score of 4 or more, things start getting serious. The likelihood of
chronic pulmonary lung disease increases 390 percent; hepatitis, 240
percent; depression 460 percent; suicide, 1,220 percent. Public health
experts had never seen anything like it.
(By the way, lest you think that the ACE Study was yet another involving
inner-city poor people of color, take note: The study's participants
were 17,000 mostly white, middle and upper-middle class college-educated
San Diegans with good jobs and great health care - they all belonged to
Kaiser Permanente.)
The second game-changing discovery explains why childhood trauma has
such tragic long-term consequences: Toxic stress physically damages a
child's developing brain. This was determined by a group of
neurobiologists and pediatricians, including neurobiologist Martin
Teicher and pediatrician Jack Shonkoff, both at Harvard University,
neuroscientist Bruce McEwen at Rockefeller University, and Bruce Perry
at the Child Trauma Academy.
Together, the two discoveries reveal a story too compelling for schools to ignore:
Children with toxic stress live their lives in fight, flight or fright
(freeze) mode. They respond to the world as a place of constant danger.
Their brains overloaded with stress hormones and unable to function
appropriately, they can't focus on schoolwork. They fall behind in
school or fail to develop healthy relationships with peers or create
problems with teachers and principals because they are unable to trust
adults. With despair, guilt and frustration pecking away at their
psyches, they often find solace in food, alcohol, tobacco,
methamphetamines, inappropriate sex, high-risk sports, and/or work. They
don't regard these coping methods as problems. They see them as
solutions to escape from depression, anxiety, anger, fear and shame.
When Sal Terrasi, director of pupil personnel services for the Brockton
Public Schools, learned about this research, it really didn't surprise
him that trauma interfered with a kid's ability to learn. A 40-year
veteran of public schools, "I wasn't unaware of this," he says.
But having empirical data gave him a good reason to try something in
Brockton's 23 schools that had never been attempted: Create a
trauma-informed school district that works in tandem with the local
police department, and the departments of children and family services,
mental health, youth services and a group of local counseling agencies.
Oh, he ran into resistance all right. Some teachers' knee-jerk reaction
to an angry 15-year-old yelling in their faces is to yell back, kick the
kid out of class, and talk with other teachers about how to punish the
punk. Or, as Terrasi puts it: they regard the behavior as willful
disobedience instead of a manifestation of trauma.
The same teacher is not likely to have the same attitude toward a
six-year-old girl who's lost in a daze and will not participate in any
class activities.
And yet both children might be responding in their own way to a similar
event: awakening to a mother's screams in the middle of the night,
calling 911 in despair and watching in terror as police cart dad off to
jail.
► SO, IF BEING TRAUMA-INFORMED IS SUCH A GOOD THING, EXACTLY WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE IN THE CLASSROOM?
Take a short walk on the dark side of our public education system, and
you learn some disturbing lessons about school punishment.
First. U.S. schools suspend millions of kids -- 3,328,750, to be exact.
Since the 1970s, says a National Education Policy Center report
published in October 2011, the suspension rate's nearly doubled for
white kids, to nearly 6 percent. It's more than doubled for Hispanics to
7 percent, and to a stunning 15 percent for blacks. For Native
Americans, it's almost tripled, from 3 percent to 8 percent.
Second. If you think all these suspensions are for weapons and drugs,
recalibrate. There's been a kind of "zero-tolerance creep" since schools
adopted "zero-tolerance" policies. Only 5 percent of all out-of-school
suspensions were for weapons or drugs, said the NEPC report, citing a
2006 study. The other 95 percent were categorized as "disruptive
behavior" and "other", which includes violation of dress code, being
"defiant" and, in at least one case, farting.
Third. They don't work for the kids who get kicked out. In fact, these
"throw-away" kids get shunted off a track to college or vocational
school and onto the dead-end spur of juvenile hall and prison. One
suspension triples the likelihood of a child becoming involved with the
juvenile justice system, and doubles the likelihood of a child repeating
a grade. And those suspensions begin early.
In Pierce County, Washington, a study of nearly 2,000 children who were
on probation, 85 percent were suspended before they reached high school.
A heartbreaking one-third of these students experienced their first
suspension between 5 years old and 9 years old.
When you hear information like that, you've got to consider that it's
not the kids who are failing the system -- the system is failing the
kids.
That's what Sal Terrasi, director of pupil personnel services for the
Brockton Public Schools, had been thinking for years. Now he had
empirical evidence -- the CDC's ACE Study, the neurobiological research
that definitely showed that traumatized kids cannot learn when they are
over-stressed, and Helping Traumatized Children Learn, the book that
Susan Cole, director of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI)
at Harvard Law School and Massachusetts Advocates for Children,
co-authored.
With all that in hand, he said, metaphorically, "Enough already." What
he really said was: "I saw the data as providing us with powerful
support for change."
He called a community-wide meeting. Each of the district's 23 schools
sent a four-member team. Representatives from the district attorney's
office showed up. So did local police (in a learning capacity), as well
as the departments of children and families, youth services, and mental
health. Local counseling agencies sent folks. They spent a whole day
working with TLPI and talking about trauma and learning.
The response has been nothing short of amazing: an entire community
figuring out ways to turn the system from a blame-shame-punishment
approach to one of taking care of kids so that they can learn.
• Many of the district's 23 schools have adopted trauma-informed
improvement plans. Suspensions and expulsions have plummeted. Arnone
Elementary, for example, which has 826 students from kindergarten
through 5th grade, 86 percent of which are minorities, has seen a 40
percent drop in suspensions.
• Three hundred of the district's 1400 teachers have taken a course
about teaching traumatized children that TLPI developed with the
district and educators at Lesley University.
• The attention to child trauma doesn't stop at the schoolyard fence.
Local police alert school personnel of any arrest or visit to an
address. Counselors identify children who live at that address so that,
"at the very least, the school is aware that a second or third-grader is
carrying something around that is a big deal," says Terrasi.
So many schools in Massachusetts are interested in adopting a
trauma-informed approach that the state legislature is considering a
bill -- House Bill 1962 -- requiring schools to develop an action plan
to develop "safe and supportive schools." (Apparently, that's a little
more positive wording than "trauma-sensitive.")
It's all well and good to advise schools to do everything through a
trauma-informed lens, but when you get down to classrooms and students,
what exactly does that mean?
The Arnone School staff, which was trained by TLPI's Joe Ristuccia in
how trauma affects learning, instituted two programs: Collaborative
Problem Solving, developed by child psychologist Ross Greene, author of
The Explosive Child and Lost at School. The other is the Positive
Behavioral Interventions & Support program, which is used in more
than 16,000 schools across the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Education-sponsored program acknowledges that
punishment, "including reprimands, loss of privileges, office referrals,
suspensions, and expulsions," is ineffective, according to a
description of the program that appears on its website, "especially when
it is used inconsistently and in the absence of other positive
strategies". Instead, "teaching behavioral expectations and rewarding
students for following them is a much more positive approach than
waiting for misbehavior to occur before responding."
These expectations include teaching children how to "show respect,
responsibility, safety and kindness," says Peri Jacoubs, Arnone's
assistant principal. Teachers use a system of rewards for good behavior,
as well as positive reinforcement, such as telling a child who's
walking in the hallway "I really like the way you're walking," instead
of waiting for, or only saying or yelling, "Stop running", if a child
starts running.
In Washington State, six elementary schools in the Spokane Public School
District are becoming trauma-informed. After the successful adoption in
Lincoln High School (see Part I of this series, as well as a longer
story about how Lincoln High School changed its system), the Walla Walla
Public Schools plan to figure out how to integrate the approach in its
other schools.
The training for both school districts comes from the Washington State
University's Area Health Education Center (AHEC). It started from
completely different place than Massachusetts did -- wanting to reduce
children's exposure to violence.
It began with juvenile justice and public health, but it soon became
clear that "no treatment system was large enough or versatile enough to
respond" to the challenge, says Chris Blodgett, AHEC director. The
answer was to engage "universal" systems -- the ones that touch children
every single day. That means schools. They adapted the ARC model
developed at the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute, as well as
the "Flexible Framework" found in Helping Traumatized Children Learn.
Even though each state started down different paths, they've arrived at the same conclusions.
• To be successful, this transition requires the participation of all schools in a district.
• It takes an entire community to support the changes.
• It takes more than one school district to have a long-term impact on a state.
• And there's no such thing as a cookie-cutter approach. The training,
the goals, the strategy -- all have "to be tailored to culture of
community," says Susan Cole. One school, like Lincoln, might have most
of its students grappling with severe and chronic trauma, while another
might have a small percentage, but one that needs attention.
Or, as AHEC assistant director Natalie Turner, who does much of the
training in Washington State schools, says: "If you've seen one school,
you've seen one school."
"Understanding trauma is such a missing piece to school reform," says
Cole. The changes that have taken place at schools such as Arnone in
Brockton, MA, and Lincoln in Walla Walla, WA, are just the beginning,
but they should be the norm, not the exception, she believes.
"There is much work ahead at the policy level," she explains. "Helping
educators understand that trauma is playing a key role in many of the
problems they are seeing at school is going to require a movement."
● Health/science/tech journnalist Jane Ellen Stevens has 30 years of
media experience under her belt: newspapers (Boston Globe, San Francisco
Examiner), magazines (National Geographic, Discover), TV (New York
Times TV) and web sites (NYTimes.com, Discovery.com,
MSNBC.com,WellCommons.com). Last year, she founded ACEsTooHigh.com and
itsa ccompanying social network, ACEs Connection.
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS AUGMENTED: Instead of using
bond money to purchase iPads, why not use it to upgrade safety+security
technology in our schools?
Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update Week of January 14, 2013 | http://bit.ly/Uflmq0
School safety is always a major issue for educators and parents;
however, in the aftermath of last month’s tragedy in Connecticut, it has
come to the forefront of the nation’s collective conscience.
Myriad proposals have been made, many based in sound pedagogy and others
that go from the ridiculous to the sublime. Of course, nothing can
ensure 100% safety from the mentally unbalanced or those experiencing a
psychotic break, but it is the obligation of District leadership to take
an honest look at what security measures can be implemented to enhance
safety on LAUSD campuses and in offices. The voters demonstrated their
support for public schools in November. It is now time that the District
show some tangible uses of the additional revenue it will receive and
nothing could be more critical at this time than safety.
Last week, Dr. Judith Perez, AALA President, suggested that senior staff
and Board Members consider three New Year’s resolutions related to
improving safety for students and staff members:
1. Increase the number of school-based administrators to improve safety and security at school sites.
2. Find ways to use remaining bond money to ensure that all LAUSD
schools, particularly older ones, receive needed security upgrades,
including those that are technology based.
3. Identify and allocate the resources necessary to provide adequate
mental health services and support for students and their families.
This week, we would like to go one step further and provide some
specific examples of how to actually carry out the above resolutions.
First and foremost, significantly improved norms for administrators,
clerical and custodial staffing in elementary and secondary schools need
to be reestablished. A full complement of administrators, clerical and
custodial support is critical to the efficient and safe functioning of a
school. Therefore, every elementary school needs a full-time principal,
assistant principal, plant manager, building and grounds worker, school
administrative assistant and office technician, irrespective of size.
In addition, full-time campus and/or supervision aides are a mandatory
part of the school safety equation. All schools need a person to monitor
the main entrance before, during and after school. Also, aides are
needed elsewhere on the site to maintain security throughout the campus;
a minimum of two per school is necessary, with larger sites allocated
four to six. Our recommendation is for 8-hour positions in order to
maintain continuity and reduce transiency.
Technology, which is rapidly changing the way society looks at safety,
may be used in multiple ways by school staffs and the School Police
Department to improve security. Safe School Plans need to be
internalized and accessible; emergencies do not allow the luxury of
going to the file cabinet to review the action plan.
Technology, including well-designed apps for smart phones, is available
that allows teachers, administrators, police and others to access
critical information in a few seconds, such as access points, floor
plans, reunification areas, shut off and emergency equipment and those
with special skills. Instead of using bond money to purchase iPads, why
not use it to upgrade safety and security technology in our schools and
offices?
Practically every time there has been a mass shooting at a campus, the
perpetrator has been one who had previously demonstrated some mental
abnormalities. Often, teachers and students have noticed unusual
behavior and, in some cases, reported it. However, without adequate
mental health support, these disturbed individuals have been able to
carry out their deranged plans of revenge. Good emotional and mental
health is Critical for students to succeed in school. All too often,
children are worn down by societal, peer, parental and global stressors
that hinder their ability to focus and achieve. Mental health services
in the state have been continually cut in the past years and that is
being reflected in society today. LAUSD was once known nationally for
its crisis intervention and mental health programs. School staffs used
to receive training on threat assessment and intervention procedures and
one would think that training contributed to the District not
experiencing a
catastrophic event such as what occurred in Newtown and other
not-as-urban school
districts.
It is time to restore LAUSD’s legacy and provide on-site counselors,
social workers, psychologists and other mental health professionals who
can support students, families and staff members. Partnering with public
and private agencies can be of benefit to the entire community.
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings, LAPD, LASPD, the
Superintendent and Board Members have been very visible at school sites.
While the momentum is there, why not do more than create a photo op?
Why not actually put the money where our collective voices are and
provide schools with the additional safety and security measures that
are needed to maintain an environment conducive to learning. The time is
now; school safety is on the public’s conscience. LAUSD Board Members
and Senior Staff—Carpe Diem, seize the day!
STATE SUPERINTENDENT TOM TORLAKSON PROPOSES NEW
STATEWIDE TESTING SYSTEM: Common Core Assessments to Focus on Problem
Solving and Critical Thinking
Via twitter from @Tom Torlakson and the California Department of Education Facebook page | http://on.fb.me/REtUaY
Tuesday, January 08, 2013 :: SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public
Instruction Tom Torlakson today recommended shifting the focus of
standardized testing in California to require students to think
critically, solve problems, and show a greater depth of knowledge—key
tenants of the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
In a report to the Governor and Legislature, Recommendations for
Transitioning California to a Future Assessment System, Torlakson made a
dozen recommendations that would fundamentally change the state’s
student assessment system, replacing the paper-and-pencil based
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program assessments with
computerized assessments developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment
Consortium (SBAC) starting in the 2014‒15 school year.
“Multiple-choice, fill-in-the-bubble tests alone simply cannot do the
job anymore, and it’s time for California to move forward with
assessments that measure the real-world skills our students need to be
ready for a career and for college,” Torlakson said.
“As a teacher, what’s most exciting is that these new tests will serve
as models for the kind of high-quality teaching and learning we want in
every classroom every day,” Torlakson continued. “The concept is simple
but powerful: if our tests require students to think critically and
solve problems to do well on test day, those same skills are much more
likely to be taught in our classrooms day in and day out.”
Torlakson’s report was mandated by Assembly Bill 250 (Brownley, D-Santa
Monica), which the State Superintendent sponsored, to bring school
curriculum, instruction, and the state assessment system into alignment
with the CCSS. The state’s existing STAR Program assessments are
scheduled to sunset July 1, 2014.
California is one of 45 states and three territories that formally have
adopted the CCSS for mathematics and English‒language arts. The proposed
revisions to align the state’s assessment system with the new standards
mark a key milestone in implementing the Common Core.
California serves as a governing state in SBAC, a multistate‒led group
that has been working collaboratively to develop a student assessment
system aligned with the CCSS.
The SBAC was designed to meet federal- and state-level accountability
requirements and provide teachers and parents with timely and accurate
information to measure and track individual student growth.
Among the 12 recommendations is the suspension of particular STAR
Program assessments for the coming school year unless the exams are
specifically mandated by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education
Act (ESEA) or used for the Early Assessment Program (EAP). This would
suspend STAR testing of second graders and end-of-course exams at the
high-school level.
Torlakson also recommends that the state provide formative diagnostic
tools developed by SBAC to all schools, which would provide teachers and
schools with the option of receiving continuing informal feedback on
the progress of students throughout the school year.
As required by AB 250, Torlakson’s recommendations reflect an assessment
system that would meet the requirements of the current ESEA. But the
report also puts forth several different approaches of assessment and
urges policymakers to question the current regimen of testing all
students, every year, in English‒language arts and mathematics.
Through work group meetings, focus groups, regional public meetings, a
statewide survey, and an e-mail account specifically for public
comments, thousands of stakeholders provided input to the California
Department of Education regarding the state’s transition to a new
assessment system.
“I extend my gratitude to the many teachers, school administrators,
parents, students, business leaders, and higher education faculty for
their expertise and experience that contributed to the formation of
these recommendations, Torlakson said.
Recommendations for Transitioning California to a Future Assessment
System can be found on the Statewide Pupil Assessment System Web page (http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sa/ab250.asp).
More information on California’s efforts to implement the Common Core
State Standards can be found on the California Department of Education’s
Common Core State Standards Web page (http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/cc/).
'THIS IS NOT ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY'
Themes in the News by UCLA IDEA Week of Jan. 7-11, 2013
1-11-2013 :: A three-year study released by the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation might shed light on the proper role of testing in
public education reform; or the study’s most important findings might be
ignored—overwhelmed by the national educational-testing juggernaut.
The Gates Foundation has long used its substantial clout and resources
to promote value-added measures, or a practice that relies on students’
standardized test scores to evaluate teacher performance. Across the
nation many policymakers and reform advocates have been quick to seize
upon value-added as the key tool to improve public schools. Advocates of
value-added claim that the measures can produce easily understood and
scientific teacher rankings to identify most-effective and
least-effective teachers.
Educators, backed by strong research evidence, have mostly claimed that
the measures are woefully inexact, and their fears of inappropriate use
have been borne out. For example, value-added has been used in some
districts or states as the dominant or even single teacher-evaluation
measure; it has been promoted as the basis for merit rewards; it has
been used to “motivate” teachers by publicly posting their individual
“scores” in newspapers.
The new report, Measures of Effective Teacher (MET), confirmed some of
the concerns that value-added critics anticipated years ago when Gates
first became a powerful education-reform player. The philanthropic
foundation continues to tout value-added measures, but now it takes a
more nuanced stand, urging that a mixture of multiple measures,
including student surveys and classroom observations, yields more
predictive results (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Reuters,
Huffington Post, School Finance 101).
“If you select the right measures, you can provide teachers with an
honest assessment of where they stand in their practice that, hopefully,
will serve as the launching point for their development,” said Thomas
Kane, a professor of education and economics at Harvard University, who
headed the study (Education Week). Since 2009, the nearly $50 million
study observed 3,000 teachers in six districts
nationwide—Charlotte-Mecklenberg, N.C., Dallas, Denver, Hillsboro
County, Fla., Memphis, Tenn., and New York City.
The key, then, becomes figuring out just how much weight to put on each
of these measures and what to do with the drawn conclusions. This is a
matter of some urgency as more and more states—under pressure from the
federal government—are reforming their teacher evaluation systems to
include standardized test scores (Hechinger Report). The MET report
concluded that test scores should count for between 33 percent and 50
percent of a teacher’s overall evaluation. It’s unclear how the
researchers arrived at this sweeping estimate for how to “weigh” teacher
evaluations. Perhaps, in the real world of schools and classrooms, it
should be taken to mean that student performance on state standardized
tests can help guide but should not determine teacher evaluation.
And what of the remaining 50 percent to 67 percent? Will these other
measures receive the attention, funding, and study comparable to that
given to testing? Surveys and classroom observations are especially
useful, along with student performance that is not measured by
tests—including students’ practical application of skills, student
improvement, demonstrations, portfolios, and so forth.
Classroom observation poses challenges to ensuring evaluator competence
and fairness. The observations recommended in the MET report have to be
more discerning than once-a-year drop-ins by a principal. Such single
observations were a poor indicator in the study, whereas averaging
multiple visits by multiple observers improved reliability. Randi
Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said,
“Just dropping by a teacher’s classroom and writing up an evaluation
must be replaced with a more serious process that actually helps improve
teacher practice and student learning,” Weingarten said (SchoolBook).
Using teacher observations to improve student learning requires
extensive training for observers, support services to help struggling
teachers, and changed attitudes that favor teacher learning over teacher
competition. Without such commitment and investment as a starting
point, the default position will surely be to settle on the “silver
bullet” of using student test data to determine which teachers to reward
and which to punish.
There may be hints of hope in the words of Kane, the study’s lead
researcher, whose earlier work is often cited by advocates of using
student test scores to make high stakes decisions on teachers’
employment. “If we want students to learn more, teachers must become
students of their own teaching” Kane said (Los Angeles Times). “This is
not about accountability. It’s about providing feedback every
professional needs to strive toward excellence.”
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
After Miramonte: LAUSD’s TAMAR GALATZAN, UTLA CHIEF
WARREN FLETCHER LOOK AT REFORMING SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATING ... http://bit.ly/VBinu1
EDUCATION AND ITS DANCE WITH POLITICS: Editorial in the Lompoc Record | http://bit.ly/WAecdR January 11, 2013 1... http://bit.ly/ZTVxR7
KNOCKING AT THE COLLEGE DOOR: New Report Projects High School Graduating Classes Will Be Smaller, More Diverse: ... http://bit.ly/VqdMuJ
GOVERNOR’S PROPOSED BUDGET FOR 2013-2014: “Under this budget, K‑12 school districts will see an increase in fund... http://bit.ly/VoWdLw
NATE SILVER ON DATA-DRIVEN TEACHER EVALUATION: “applying objective measures badly is worse than not applying the... http://bit.ly/VoWdLr
Consider the source: CHARTER SCHOOL ADVISORY GROUP ENDORSE LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES: politics as unusual ... http://bit.ly/VmA7cG
TESTING TROUBLE: -- Schools are having a hard time just educating students; it's the wrong time for unfunded man... http://bit.ly/WSvp2L
Opinion: LAUSD’s AIRPLANE MECHANIC SCHOOL AT VAN NUYS AIRPORT SHOULD BE RESCUED + smf’s 2¢: Los Angeles Daily Ne... http://bit.ly/ZLut6A
ELITE COLLEGES STRUGGLE TO RECRUIT SMART, LOW-INCOME KIDS + smf’’s 2¢: by Shankar Vedantam, Morning Edition/Nati... http://bit.ly/ZtiUvZ
HIGH DESERT CHARTER SCHOOL FIRST ‘SUCCESS’ FOR PARENT TRIGGER LAW: --Teresa Watanabe, LA Times/LA Now | http://... http://bit.ly/ZtiUfD
SECOND PHASE OF L.A. ARTS FUNDRAISING PLAN BEGINS: 'Art Matters' campaign has brought in more than $750,000 in t... http://bit.ly/ZtiUfA
Report - CALIFORNIA’S DIMINISHING RESOURCE: CHILDREN: kidsdata advisory by email from The Lucile Packard Found... http://bit.ly/Vc5Zkf
Dr. John explains it all for you: NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW ON THE LAUSD BUDGET: http://abc7.com - KABC Los Angele... http://bit.ly/ZnQROy
2 years after Tucson/25 days after Sandy Hook: GABBY GIFFORDS & MARK KELLY TAKE ON GUN VIOLENCE: Our new campaig... http://bit.ly/ZnQT99
STATE SUPERINTENDENT TOM TORLAKSON PROPOSES NEW STATEWIDE TESTING SYSTEM: Common Core Assessments to Focus on Pr... http://bit.ly/ZEkRun
EDUCATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR ARTS TEACHERS: Arts, History, Storytelling + Narrative: from music center education di... http://bit.ly/ZnQT92
DAY IS 40th ANNIVERSARY OF SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK AND 11th ANNVERSARY OF NO CHILD’S LEFT BEHIND: 1 helped kids learn... http://bit.ly/XIPZZh
SPECIAL PROGRAM ON BULLYING OF LGBTQ YOUTH AT EAGLE ROCK HIGH SCHOOL, Wed. Jan 9th at 7PM: EAGLE ROCK HIGH S... http://bit.ly/WJ2HRO
EdSource/EdWatch 2013: HEAD START FUNDING AND TRANSITIONAL KINDERGARTEN: By Lillian Mongeau | EdSource Today htt... http://bit.ly/XIPY7P
®eform v. Reason: THE EDUCATION REFORM DICHOTOMY – BIG CHOICES AHEAD: By Anthony Cody in Living in Dialogue - Ed... http://bit.ly/XIPY7L
A v. Z / ®eform v. Reason: SCHOOL BOARD SHOWDOWN IN LOS ANGELES: by Diane Ravitch in her blog |
LAUSD STUDENT CULINARY TEAMS VIE TO SEE THEIR DISHES SERVED IN CAFETERIAS: By Rob Kuznia, Staff Writer, The Dail... http://bit.ly/WDbBAf
EDUCATORS, POLITICIANS HAVE STARK REACTION TO GOV. JERRY BROWN’S SCHOOL FUNDING REVAMP: By Barbara Jones and Bea... http://bit.ly/WDbzZd
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:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress,
senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find
your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these
thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!.
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