Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Education Games


Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 25•Mar•2012
In This Issue:
 •  A LETTER TO MARGUERITE LAMOTTE
 •  LAO Report: PINK-SLIPPING COSTS $706 PER TEACHER
 •  COMMUNITY COLLEGES CHIEF DECRIES BUDGET CUTS' TOLL ON STUDENTS
 •  HIGH TEST SCORES FOR SCHOOLS ACROSS NATION LOOKS SUSPICIOUS
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
 •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404
 •  PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website
 •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
 •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
The plot is as old as they come. The heroic battle back from the apocalypse. Homer describes the end of the Achaean world as they knew it in The Iliad – The Odyssey is the battle back from dystopian Troy.

Novelists and moviemakers have gone there many times. Paradise Lost describes the fall of Heaven. Candide explores the world after the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. Metropolis and Mad Max; 1984, Silent Running, Escape From New York. Blade Runner is set in a future-dystopian L.A. The Sixth Sense is set in a personal dystopia.

This weekend The Hunger Games opens, based on the young adult novel and set in the dystopia of Pan Am. Kids do battle with each other for the greater glory of Bad Adults; following bad adult policies, politics, practices and priorities. Remember: Fiction is something that didn’t happen, not something that isn’t true.

In the movie biz you pitch a story to a studio exec – who may be a Harvard MBA – but is nevertheless the mogul’s idiot nephew.

Here’s the pitch: “THE EDUCATION GAMES” - a movie ripped from the Facebook pages of our times!

THE BACKSTORY: Our story is set in the smoldering ruins of an education system that was once almost as great as it remembers itself – now starved and attacked and hammered by Education’s ancient nemesis: Ignorance Itself.

The cause for this is ambiguous -- saying there’s no money is too obvious.

Maybe it was too much pink slime in the cafeteria mystery meat – or failure to flush the water pipes. Maybe it was the force of the all powerful and mysterious Thirteenth Proposition. Or a failure of the Blue Adults to work with the Red Adults. Maybe it was The Super Wealthy -- who developed a rapid-fire weapon that fired different Magic Bullets at every problem, real or imagined – wounding them all …and leaving them maimed and angry in the forest.

Or perhaps it was Welcome Back Kotter reruns watched by parents who didn’t understand the difference between comedy and documentary and reality television. Maybe it was Global Warming and/or the Denial Thereof. Maybe it was the Teacher College Graduates who believed everything they had been taught. Maybe it was Open Court and Standardized Testing and Standards Based Curriculum and Common Core Standards and No Child Left Behind. Maybe it’s just a game of chance and Finland got to BINGO first. Perhaps there were too many bloggers cursing the darkness.

THE SCREEN IS BLACK. Fade up: We are in Dark Times in the Lost Apocalypse Unified School Dystopia.

MUSIC CUE: O Fortuna from Carmina Burana *

Amidst the seemingly well regulated chaos there are small cells of intelligence, small bands of young people rebelling and being defiant where defiance is considered a bad thing rather than a way out. A few come together and begin to pool their knowledge and begin to take it to the next step.

The Powers That Be sense the danger and try to divert them – and then hatch a plan to have them destroy themselves in mindless competition – Spelling Bees and Science Fairs and Academic Decathlons – all televised and Facebooked and Tweeted and broadcast in Hi-Def -- more-real-than real – establishing a hierarchy of winners and losers, accomplishment and failure – A Race to the Top of The Pyramid of Success.

Ultimately The Kids rebel and see though the artifice. Ultimately – in a distant sequel – they triumph.
Because pyramids are large monuments to dead pharaohs. Dead ideas. Dead thinking.


THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: The controversial vacant space in Chinatown where Wal-Mart will open their store over the dead bodies of the LA City Council [http://lat.ms/GWFOoo] was formerly the LAUSD Parent and Community Services offices – before the District ‘right-sized’ that operation.


PERFORMANCE MANGLEMENT – VALUE ADDLED ASSESSMENT BROUGHT TO THE NEXT LEVEL? There is document making the rounds of Beaudry - circulated among upper management by The Powers That Be – “Pre-Reading for Performance Management” – that lays out the next direction for ®eform in LAUSD … which in the great scheme of things, is America – only sooner.

The document is pages 3-thru-10 of a 73 page paradigm shift blueprint called A PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: FROM MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING TO MANAGEMENT AND IMPROVING [http://bit.ly/H1chMD ] by the National Performance Management Advisory Commission – a self appointed group, not a government entity from any known government. This fits into the Gates+Broad model of self appointed spurious grassroots (aka AstroTurf) “authorities”. | http://bit.ly/jqDocs

The “commissioners” are a group of government officials, ivory tower academics, chamber of commerce Babbitts and school business officials – a subset of another group of the self-elect, The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada – those are the beancounters we want in charge of educating our children!

The false premise that requires disbelief first, most and always is that PUBLIC EDUCATION IS A GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTION. Public Education is an Education Function. The product is education – not governance, balanced budgets, legislation or pothole filling. The product is not diplomas - the product is an educated citizenry prepare not for colleges or careers… but for The Future. . Milton Friedman (I'm not a fan) wrote extensively back in 1955 on problems raised by the administration of the schools as a governmental function.

And I notice that the selected and highlighted highlights don’t include the following, from page 40.
“Collecting performance data will not yield results unless the information provided is communicated effectively.

“Effective communication requires that the target audience has access to and understands the message or information contained in the data, which requires more than distributing reports.

“Providing this information is essential to engaging managers, policy makers, and staff in improving results and in keeping stakeholders informed and actively interested in their government.”

If anyone is interested in some real scholarship and good thinking and positive change , read this: Reflections on a Half-Century of School Reform: WHY HAVE WE FALLEN SHORT AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: By Jack Jennings: http://t.co/VI9GFl6l


RETWEETING FROM THE FAULT LINE:
3/24 9:20 am :: John Deasy ‏ @DrDeasyLAUSD tweets:
Looking forward to East LA Arts Festival. This is a true collaboration of LAUSD, City, & community arts. http://web.me.com/clovito/Site/East_Los_Angeles_Arts_Festival.html

3/24 12:01 pm :: John Deasy ‏ @DrDeasyLAUSD tweets:
Everyone should see our amazing young artists from east Los angeles today at Torres high school. First east la arts community event

•• How exactly will this true collaboration be sustained with LAUSD eliminating all elementary arts and music programs in the 2012-13 budget? My review of the ELA Arts Festival program shows thirteen performances or exhibits by elementary arts programs and elementary arts students. And all the amazing young artists in all grades started in elementary – in an Arts Ed program that celebrated Art, Music, Dance and Drama that was, up until last year, acknowledged as one of the nation’s best.


THE DECISION WAS MADE TO SEND LAYOFF NOTICES to 11,700 LAUSD EMPLOYEES LAST WEEK -- at $706 a pop. 4LAKids wonders is the Board of Ed knew it would cost LAUSD $8,260,000 whether or not the employees were actually let go? Or did the board read it in the paper like the rest of us taxpayers? That’s about 90 classroom teacher’s salaries and benefits for a year – gone. Money the District won’t get back.


HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO PAY TWO MIRAMONTE ELEMENTARY STAFFS? One at the school and one housed elsewhere? Yes, that housed staff is getting a lot of good professional development – but how does that benefit the 1,234 LAUSD schools that are not Miramonte?


IF NONE OF THE BOARD OF ED ARE ASKING THIS QUESTION – ALLOW ME: What is the projected cost of all these Child Abuse and Misconduct Crises (The Daily News reports 130 investigations ongoing | http://t.co/HoxRf8no) …in actual out-of-pocket, in anticipated corrective action, and potential legal exposure?

¡Onward/Adelante! – smf


* Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem
sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite!

At this hour, therefore, let us pluck the strings without delay.

Let us mourn together, for fate crushes the brave.



A LETTER TO MARGUERITE LAMOTTE
Copied in the AALA Weekly Update Week of March 26, 2012 | http://bit.ly/GLJWJP

Thank you for your courage, your vision, your understanding of the proposed Los Angeles Unified School District Budget for the 2012-2013 school year. What was presented to you was neither a budget, nor a workable plan for a new school year. It was a detailed plan for failure of our school district to serve our children, our adults, our staff and our community!

Your stand-alone vote was, in my opinion, spectacular, greatly admired and appreciated. There was no mention of cutting or curtailing consultants, attorneys or other staff in the Beaudry building. There was no mention of salary cuts for senior staff. There was no mention of cutting a few Superintendents. I only heard, it’s UTLA’s fault and the need for voters to approve ballot measures.

Thank you, Marguerite, for your leadership, your spirit, your courage. You are an exemplary Board Member.

Dr. William Johnston
Superintendent of Schools, 1971-1981
Los Angeles Unified School District

••AALA comments “We share many of his sentiments”. 4LAKids seconds the motion and echoes the sentiment.


BIO: Dr. William Johnston began his LAUSD career in 1950 as a teacher at Gardena High School. He quickly distinguished himself as a mathematics teacher and junior varsity baseball coach. In 1958, he became principal of the Gardena Adult School. He also served as the Assistant Superintendent of the Adult and Career Educational Division, and the Chief Instructional Officer for Secondary Schools, before becoming LAUSD Superintendent in 1971.

Among his many accomplishments as Superintendent, he established the All-District Honors Band, which unites 300 students from throughout LAUSD. The band has performed in the Rose Bowl Parade, at the World Series, at Super Bowls, inauguration and Olympic ceremonies, and much more.

While Superintendent, Dr. Johnston also encouraged the participation of LAUSD schools in the new state academic decathlon competition. Since then, District schools have dominated the state contest and have won 11 national championships.

He retired in 1981. The William J. Johnston Community Day School is located in San Pedro.


LAO Report: PINK-SLIPPING COSTS $706 PER TEACHER
THREE IN FOUR CALIFORNIA TEACHERS WHO GET AN INITIAL LAYOFF WARNING ARE REHIRED, THE LEGISLATIVE ANALYST’S OFFICE SAYS.

By Scott Martindale / The Orange County Register | http://bit.ly/GHv8Na

March 22, 2012 Updated: 4:30 p.m. :: Too many teachers in California receive preliminary layoff notices each spring as school districts plan for worst-case budget-cutting scenarios, a time-intensive process that carries a hefty $706 price tag per notified educator, according to an independent review from the state's Legislative Analyst's Office.

An estimated 75 percent of teachers who are pink-slipped by the state's mandated March 15 deadline are rehired by summer, according to the nonpartisan state report, released Thursday.

But between March and June, districts spend an estimated $706 per teacher to prepare paperwork, formally notify the educator and hold appeals hearings. With more than 20,000 pink-slips issued to California educators last year, that translated to a cost of about $14 million statewide, the report concluded.

"It's what every superintendent and school board member have been saying for years," said Orange County schools Superintendent William Habermehl. "The current process is out of date. It's inhumane to tell teachers: 'You may not have a job, but we won't know for three or four months.' It's also a waste of money."

The teacher layoff timelines have been virtually unchanged since they were codified in state law in 1976, the report said.

Districts typically pink-slip far more than they actually lay off to protect themselves from state funding uncertainties, and from the possibility they don't achieve savings in other ways, including through pay concessions.

Last year, O.C. school districts notified about 1,500 employees of possible job losses, but only ended up cutting 524 jobs. Furthermore, most of the employees whose positions were eliminated were subsequently rehired into other positions, after taking into account retirements and resignations.

JUNE 1 INITIAL NOTICE

The Legislative Analyst's Office on Thursday recommended moving the initial pink-slipping deadline to June 1, with final layoff notices to be issued Aug. 1. Under existing law, initial notices go out by March 15, and final notices by May 15, even though districts don't adopt a final spending plan until June 30.

"The state layoff deadlines force districts to make layoff determinations too early without accurate fiscal information," the report says. "Additionally, critical local information, such as the number of teachers that will leave the district or retire, is typically not available by the time school districts are required to make layoff decisions."

The report also recommended doing away with a pink-slipped teacher's right to an appeals hearing in front of an administrative-law judge. Instead, the report suggested that any factual discrepancies be worked out between district officials and the employee's labor union representative; then the facts of the case would be submitted to the administrative-law judge for a final recommendation.

Under the current model, teachers often contest whether the district correctly determined their seniority date, which is the date used by districts to decide which educators get pink-slipped.

Indeed, the state teachers union urges all pink-slipped teachers to take advantage of this hearing: "The layoff notice will ask if you want a hearing. You do!" a 2011 California Teachers Association publication reads.

SENIORITY POLICY SHOULD BE REVISITED

Also recommended in Thursday's report was for lawmakers to consider alternatives to the "last hired, first fired" state law. Right now, teachers with the least seniority in a school district are the first to be let go, a policy that "can lead to lower quality of the overall teacher workforce," the report says.

The Legislative Analyst's Office recommended weighing other factors, including student performance, teacher quality and contributions to school communities. It also suggested California could play a key role in implementing them statewide.

Habermehl, the county superintendent, said the sweeping changes outlined in the report likely could not become reality unless they are embraced by the powerful state teachers union.

"The unions need to realize they represent the teachers and must do what's right emotionally for teachers, and not put the districts in the spot where they must waste money," Habermehl said. "The teacher unions have got to realize it's a smart move to get supportive of this and not continue to oppose it."

California Teachers Association officials said Thursday they were reviewing the just-released report. But they stressed that the union supports the early-notification deadlines because teachers deserve to know as soon as possible if they face a possible job loss.

With a June 1 initial warning, "it would cut it awfully short for people to find another job," spokesman Bill Guy said.


••smf’s 2¢: livin’ in th’ red / doin’ the math

COST PER–NOTICED–TEACHER
• Estimate of district personnel costs (including costs associated with time spent by human resources directors, support staff, and other administrators in preparing and implementing the RIF process): $324
• Estimate of legal fees/costs: $244
• Estimate of substitute teacher costs (to replace teachers that participate in hearings or other RIF activities): $104
• Estimate of costs associated with notification mailings (including preparation for mailing): $34

►TOTAL: $706

• 11,700 RIF Notices last week cost LAUSD EIGHT AND A QUARTER MILLION DOLLARS
• 20,000 RIF Notices last week in CA cost FOURTEEN MILLION DOLLARS
• The rule of thumb is that $1 million pays for eleven teachers and their benefits for a year




Legislative Analyst's Office Report: A REVIEW OF THE TEACHER LAYOFF PROCESS IN CALIFORNIA (scroll down)



COMMUNITY COLLEGES CHIEF DECRIES BUDGET CUTS' TOLL ON STUDENTS
“IF WE KEEP DASHING COLLEGE DREAMS AND DENYING OPPORTUNITIES FOR CALIFORNIANS, WE’RE GOING TO LOSE OUR BEST AND BRIGHTEST TO OTHER STATES.”

By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/GP5fXi

March 25, 2012 :: California community colleges have shed more than 300,000 students since 2009 because the students cannot get into classes, and the toll is likely to grow unless the state reverses course and pumps more money into higher education.

That bleak assessment was delivered last week by California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott in a State of Community Colleges address at Pasadena City College.

Scott served as president of the college from 1987 to 1995, before being elected to the state Legislature. He became chancellor of the community college system in 2009 and recently announced his retirement, effective Sept. 1.

"We should be working together to rebuild California and making it a better place for our children," Scott told about 300 students, faculty and community members who gathered in the campus auditorium. "Dreams are necessary to live. If we keep dashing college dreams and denying opportunities for Californians, we're going to lose our best and brightest to other states, which will only further exacerbate our state's economic situation."

Earlier last week, California State University announced that it will freeze most admissions for spring 2013, with the exception of a few hundred community college transfer students who will be offered admission to eight of Cal State's 23 campuses.

The move will shut out an estimated 16,000 others, most of them would-be transfer students who are likely to remain at community colleges and clog access for recent high school graduates and unemployed workers who have been streaming into the two-year system for job retraining.

Scott said he understood the reasoning for Cal State's actions: State universities suffered $750 million in funding cuts in 2011-12. Meanwhile, community colleges took a $564-million hit. Both systems could lose millions more if a tax measure on the November ballot fails.

The budget cuts have caused community colleges to reduce course offerings by about 20% at a time when demand is greater than ever. California's 112 community colleges now serve about 2.6 million students.

"The desire for community colleges has never been higher, but unfortunately, we don't have the resources to provide for everybody we'd like to provide for," Scott said in an interview after his Pasadena appearance. "When you keep piling on those kinds of cuts, colleges have no ability to respond but to reduce the number of courses we offer."


HIGH TEST SCORES FOR SCHOOLS ACROSS NATION LOOKS SUSPICIOUS
The Associated Press from the LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/H5f1XW

03/24/2012 11:55:05 AM PDT :: ATLANTA—Hundreds of school systems nationwide exhibit suspicious test scores that point to the possibility of cheating, according to an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The newspaper examined test results for 70,000 public schools and found high concentrations of scores in school systems from coast to coast.
___________________

CHEATING OUR CHILDREN: Suspicious School Test Scores Across the Nation | ajc.com http://bit.ly/GNZY4j
___________________

The analysis doesn't prove cheating. It reveals that scores in hundreds of cities followed a pattern that, in Atlanta, indicated cheating in multiple schools.

The AJC reported in 2008 and 2009 about statistically improbable jumps in test scores within the 109-school Atlanta Public Schools system. Those reports led to an investigation by Georgia officials, which found that at least 180 principals, teachers and other staff took part in widespread test-tampering in the 50,000-student district.

In Sunday's editions, the AJC reports that 196 of the nation's 3,125 largest school districts had enough suspect test results that the odds of the results occurring naturally were less than one in 1,000.

For 33 districts nationwide, the odds of their test scores occurring naturally were worse than one in a million.

Standardized test scores have been at the forefront of national and local efforts to improve schools. Test performance was the centerpiece of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which demanded higher classroom accountability. Tougher teacher
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evaluations that many states are rolling out place more weight than ever on the tests.

But the AJC report found that the sweeping policy shifts rely on test results that may be unreliable.

While the federal government requires states to use standardized testing, it does not require educators to screen scores for anomalies or investigate those that turn up.

"If we are going to make important decisions based on test results—and we ought to be doing that—we have to make important decisions about how we are going to ensure their trustworthiness," said Daria Hall, director of K-12 policy with the nonprofit Education Trust.

"That means districts and states taking ownership of the test security issue in a way that they haven't to date."

In nine districts—Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, East St. Louis, Ill., Gary, Ind., Houston, Los Angeles and Mobile County, Ala.—scores careened so unpredictably that the odds of such dramatic shifts occurring without an intervention such as tampering were virtually zero, the newspaper found.

In Houston, test results for entire grades of students jumped two, three or more times the amount expected in one year, the analysis showed. When children moved to a new grade the next year, their scores plummeted—a finding that suggests the gains were not due to learning.

"These findings are concerning," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement after being briefed on the AJC's analysis. He added that "states, districts, schools and testing companies should have sensible safeguards in place to ensure tests accurately reflect student learning."

Many school district officials contacted by the AJC disputed any conclusion that cheating was to blame for the swings.

Some school leaders attributed steep gains to exemplary teaching. But experts said instruction isn't likely to move scores to the degree seen in the AJC's analysis.

Cheating is one of only a few plausible explanations for such dramatic changes in scores for so many students within a district, said James Wollack, a University of Wisconsin-Madison expert in testing and cheating who reviewed the newspaper's analysis.

"I can say with some confidence," he said, "cheating is something you should be looking at."

In each state, the newspaper used statistics to identify unusual score jumps and drops on state math and reading tests by grade and school. Declines can signal cheating the previous year. The calculations also took into account other factors that can lead to big score shifts, such as small classes and dramatic changes in class size.

The newspaper also developed a statistical method to identify school systems with far more unusual tests than expected, which could signal endemic cheating similar to what occurred in Atlanta. In its approach, the score analysis used conservative measures that highlighted extremes. The methodology is more likely to overlook possible indications of cheating than to suggest problems where none exist.

The newspaper's methodology was reviewed by outside experts.

The AJC's analysis suggests that tens of thousands of children may have been harmed by inflated scores that could have kept them from getting the academic help they needed.

In 2010 alone, the grade-wide reading scores of 24,618 children nationwide—enough to populate a mid-sized school district—swung so improbably that the odds of it happening by chance were less than 1 in 10,000.

Experts said the findings warrant deeper investigation at the local level.

Statistical checks for highly improbable scores are like medical tests, said Gary Phillips, a vice president and chief scientist for the large nonprofit the American Institutes for Research, who advised the AJC on its methodology.

"This is a broad screening," he said. "If you find something, you're supposed to go to the doctor and follow up with a more detailed diagnostic process."




HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
WHY BILINGUALS ARE SMARTER: By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee | New York Times Sunday Review | http://nyti.ms/GMzlfn ... http://bit.ly/GYPWdz

LAUSD HAS $700+ MILLION IN RESERVES …BUT STILL PLANS TO CLOSE ADULT SCHOOLS?: By Sean Abajian —A guest blog arti... http://bit.ly/GWDO36

Book Review: THREE FORMER TEACHERS TAKE ON THE SYSTEM: Written by Patty Rasmussen, http://womenetics.com | http:/... http://bit.ly/GWXMVg

CALIFORNIA SUPERINTENDENTS GATHER AT USC TO DISCUSS LATINO EDUCATION CHALLENGES: By Vanessa Romo | KPCC Pass/Fai... http://bit.ly/GVxFnQ

FRANKLIN DECATHLON TEAM CHIMES IN ON LAUSD BUDGET CUTS: The Los Angeles Unified School District voted to elimina... http://bit.ly/H1sT5n

SMYTH, KNIGHT INTRODUCE TEACHER MISCONDUCT REFORM BILLS: By San Clarita Signal Staff | http://bit.ly/GWEpvo Ma... http://bit.ly/GWT8rN

130 LAUSD EDUCATORS BEING INVESTIGATED FOR POSSIBLE WRONGDOING: By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News | ... http://bit.ly/H0LMoX

LAO Report: PINK-SLIPPING COSTS $706 PER TEACHER: livin’ in th’ red / doin’ the math Cost Per... http://bit.ly/GQegkx

PANEL SAYS SCHOOLS’ FAILINGS COULD THREATEN ECONOMY AND NATIONAL SECURITY: By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS In the N.Y... http://bit.ly/GT2bMa

MICHELLE RHEE'S BACKERS INCLUDE OBAMA BUNDLER BILLIONAIRE, BIG ROMNEY BACKER: by Joy Resmovits | huffingtonpos... http://bit.ly/GOpSlf

TESTING OUR LIMITS …from Pencils Down: Rethinking High-Stakes Testing and Accountability: By Melissa Bollow Temp... http://bit.ly/GMOsEV

CAL STATE COULD TURN AWAY 25,000 STUDENTS IN BUDGET SLASHING: by Carla Rivera and a Times staff writer | LA Time... http://bit.ly/GJT6pC

ENGAGING STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES EARLY ON: PBS NEWSHOUR REPORT | http://to.pbs.org/GG5PMK “T... http://bit.ly/GJxc6H

SCHOOL CUTS SURVEY REVEALS OVERCROWDED CLASSES, NOT ENOUGH BOOKS AND WORSE + OP-ED: SENDING KIDS OFF TO COLLEGE ... http://bit.ly/GJzSwm

FEW DETAILS EMERGE ON 85 MIRAMONTE ELEMENTARY TEACHERS REMOVED FROM CAMPUS: By Tami Abdollah, KPCC Pass/Fail |ht... http://bit.ly/GJuKbw

The Spin: LAUSD HIRES SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR TO IMPROVE COMMUNITY OUTREACH: By Barbara Jones Staff Writer, la dAI... http://bit.ly/GIeHLI

Bulletin 5688: LAUSD SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY MEANS EDUCATORS COULD BE DISCIPLINED FOR INAPPROPRIATE POSTS + LAUSD HI... http://bit.ly/GHbyiJ

Save the date: THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2012 THE WHITE HOUSE INVITES YOU TO THE HISPANIC COMMUNITY ACTION SUMMIT: GOAL... http://bit.ly/GFF3yZ

Take Action: MAINTAIN ELEMENTARY ARTS EDUCATION: Increasing support for the arts in Los Angeles County Our work... http://bit.ly/GAKGgb

Reflections on a Half-Century of School Reform: WHY HAVE WE FALLEN SHORT AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: By Jack ... http://bit.ly/GA5syb

L.A. UNIFIED REMOVES TEACHER, PRINCIPAL FROM WILMINGTON SCHOOL: by Hector Becerra and Howard Blume, LA Times/LA... http://bit.ly/GzL3gm

YOU HAVE JUST SUCCESSFULLY BEEN MADE AWARE OF THE ‘OUR CHILDREN, OUR FUTURE’ CAMPAIGN: the :3o Second Spot: Cali... http://bit.ly/GzEkDX
19 Mar Scott Folsom Scott Folsom ‏ @4LAKids

LAUSD DOES ITS HOMEWORK (POLICY) + smf’s 2¢ + meeting schedule: LA Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/ACAZ31 Supt.... http://bit.ly/A7Lqug

MAKING CHANGES TO PROTECT CHILDREN: By Joey Becerra, Daily Titan, CSU Fullerton | http://bit.ly/wzqaE5 Marc... http://bit.ly/xYDsfH


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:
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!.


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Rosy Scenario: a no-budget screenplay


Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 18•March•2012
In This Issue:
 •  “IT’S A RACE TO THE BOTTOM”: Looking out of state for what California once offered
 •  L.A. UNIFIED HAUNTED BY AN OLD DEAL + smf’s 2¢
 •  “Value Addled”: SADLY, THE NEWS FROM THE TEACHING FRONT ISN’T GOOD
 •  FOR ACADEMIC DECATHLON TEAM, HARD WORK AND ADRENALINE RUSHES
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
 •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting
 •  THE OUR CHILDREN, OUR FUTURE INITIATIVE: What will your school get?
 •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
 •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
On Tuesday the Board of Education passed a “qualified” one-year budget for next year (“Qualified” meaning it’s not really balanced …and the law requires a three year budget) based on the rose-colored assumptions that:

1. Everything will be rosy in the Governor’s May Revision of the State’s Budget;
2. That the courts will decide in LAUSD’s favor in a pending lawsuit,
3. That the unions will concede some other things …in exchange for what?
4. That the voters of California will approve the Governor’s Tax Hike Initiative (which itself changed substantially within 24 hours); and
5. That ⅔ of the voters in Los Angeles will approve a Parcel Tax to raise their taxes $295 a year on the same ballot.

Those are some pretty presumptuous assumptions.

Don’t get me wrong – 4LAKids hopes the May Revise will be everything we all hope for - and will undoubtedly advocate YES votes on the Governor’s Initiative and the Parcel Tax, and for the Our Children/Our Future (Munger/PTA) Initiative if they qualify for the ballot – because California needs the tax revenues, the Governor needs the Realignment Constitutional Change and Public Education (and your school and all these children) needs OCOF. The parcel tax puts the Board of Education in charge of those funds, not the Legislature. OCOF puts the local school in charge of their funds, not the lege or the school board.

The Board of Ed also approved sending out 11, 700 preliminary-layoff/RIF/”pink slip” notices. To one quarter of the LAUSD teacher force. 20,000 layoff notices went out in all of California, 58% of them in LAUSD.

No matter how important the programs are to the superintendent and the board, they gutted Arts Education, they gutted Adult Education, they gutted Early Childhood Ed, they gutted Gifted Ed, they gutted After School Programs and eliminated the Academic Decathlon and the All City Band. The Board took two old resolutions about policies that had been approved and never implemented re: Child Abuse Identification and Prevention and passed them again. More studies and reports and plans are called for. (I am reminded of Einstein’s Definition of Insanity. And the historical success of studies, plans and reports in solving problems.) This may be a way to work on pedagogy and educational policy …but the safety of children is at stake

No more resolutions: Resolve.

IN SACRAMENTO – where I spend much of this week – the governor reached a compromise with the CFT and their Millionaires Tax. And furthered his intended/unintended mission to defund Transitional Kindergarten, reduce Early Childhood Education to child care (again a plug for OCOF – which funds ECE and K-12) while pushing for a per-pupil-funding-formula that would simply spread the inadequate funding thinner with a different knife.

ALSO IN SACRAMENTO, a couple of Academic Decathlon Teams were staying in my hotel – reminding us all that this may be the last year for LAUSD’s participation. And teams from LAUSD are perennial National Champions.

To all the decathletes from Redlands, Redondo or LAUSD: you are all already champions. To Cliff Ker, LAUSD AcaDecca Director: Happy New Grandfatherhood!

AND – I know this has had us all concerned – the Feds have ruled that it’s apparently OK to eat the pink slime …but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. (It goes better with ketchup-the-vegetable.)

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf

THIS JUST IN:

● SCHOOL REFORM LEGEND PREPARES TO TAKE OVER WAYWARD JOHN MCDONOGH HIGH SCHOOL: The reappearance of shy, self-effacing Steve Barr in New Orleans | . http://bit.ly/w2Ef8c

● Special Report: SAN GABRIEL TRIBUNE TO LAUNCH SCHOOL SAFETY WEBSITE in response to Miramonte and LAUSD child abuse issues | http://bit.ly/wG7mFQ


“IT’S A RACE TO THE BOTTOM”: Looking out of state for what California once offered
GREAT EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS ARE BEING DECIMATED THROUGH BUDGET CUTS IN THIS STATE.

By Steve Lopez, LA Times Columnist | http://lat.ms/x275hf

March 14, 2012::: Many moons ago, I went to California public schools, then on to a community college and later got my degree from a state university. And I can tell you we had some complaints.

They weren't using enough turf builder on the outfield grass. The band instruments had been around a few years. And the San Jose State student newspaper only published five days a week.

The problems are a little different these days.

My daughter attends elementary school in Los Angeles Unified, which has just sent out 11,700 layoff notices in the latest round of miserable news.

Eleven-thousand seven-hundred.

Even if the actual cuts fall way below that number, as expected, there'll be plenty of pain to go around. Art, physical education, early childhood education and adult education — among many other things — are on the chopping block at schools around the state.

I had it good as a kid and didn't even know it. State leaders believed, back when I went to California schools, that a quality, affordable education for everyone was not just a civic virtue but an economic no-brainer.

Today, the Golden State is making every effort to destroy its own best traditions. At every level of public education, from elementary school to graduate school, constant budget cuts are decimating once-great institutions and devaluing our greatest resource — eager young minds.

Last week, California State University students marched on Sacramento to protest the devastating effects of a 42% decline in state funding over the last decade. Tuition and fees have nearly tripled in that time, even though students are getting less for their money.

I was in the Bay Area recently and caught this headline in the Contra Costa Times:

"Believe it: Harvard cheaper than Cal State."

Well, certainly not if you go by the sticker prices for tuition, room and board. But on Harvard's website, there's a calculator that says a family of four with a $130,000 annual income could qualify for as much as a $39,750 scholarship for the undergrad program. So instead of $56,750 for freshman tuition, room and board at Harvard, the bill would come to $17,000.

At Cal State L.A., the cost of tuition, room board and other fees is $21,335 per year, and that same family of four making $130,000 wouldn't qualify for aid, according to the calculator.

"I am seeing families more open to looking at alternatives out of state," said Audrey Kahane, a West Hills consultant who works with families and kids on college admissions.

One of her clients, the Sigel family, just opted out of California. Jeff Sigel told me his daughter, Molly, is completing her first year of college in Israel but plans to return home to the U.S. for her sophomore year.

"She's been accepted at UC Santa Cruz and San Diego State," said the father, but his daughter will instead go to the State University of New York at Binghamton. It will cost more than San Diego and less than Santa Cruz, he said, but there was another major financial factor in the decision.

"It seems more likely she will graduate on time in Binghamton," Sigel said, because drastic cuts in course offerings are making it harder for California students to finish in four years.

On the Cal State L.A. campus Monday afternoon, sophomore Andres Valdez told me he scrambled to get into a critical thinking class required for his major, only to see the class canceled.

Juan Garcia, who works by day and takes evening classes, said he couldn't get into an anthropology class he needs for his master's degree. "I may have to extend my stay here," he said, even as tuition and fees keep going up.

Community colleges, meanwhile, were already reeling from a $415-million cut this year when another $149-million cut was tacked on last month. L.A. City College President Jamillah Moore told me the school's budget was $67 million in 2007, it's down to $53 million now, and she's got to get it down to $50 million by July 1.

"We're turning students away altogether," said Lawrence Bradford, vice president for student services.

Bradford handed me a business card he had printed at his own expense, and at one point he asked Ted Segal, a counselor, if the office printer was working. No, said Segal. They'd run out of replacement parts, and it was still out of order.

Class sizes have gone from 25 to 50 in some cases, Bradford said, to help manage costs. And many students have been forced to hang on an extra year or two, while managing jobs and families, as they wait for classes to open up.

"It's really painful to have students who know what they want to do, and we can't help them," Bradford said.

I wouldn't say the remedies are simple, but I will say this:

You cannot fix any of this in a state more inclined to build prisons than schools, despite projections of a huge shortage of college-educated workers by 2025. You can't fix it when you're the only major oil-producing state with no excise tax, and you refuse to correct the huge property tax advantage Proposition 13 extended to corporations. You can't fix it without modest concessions from public employees, including teachers, on pensions and benefits.

And you certainly can't fix it with three competing and unimaginative tax-increase proposals — one by Gov. Jerry Brown — that would restore some school funding, but are likely to do each other in come November.

We used to be able to brag about our schools, and maybe we took quality for granted. That's all behind us now, and even mediocrity is fading from sight in the rearview mirror.
________________________

LETTERS TO THE TIMES | http://lat.ms/FQl02T
School cuts put futures at risk
Re "It's a race to the bottom," Column, March 14

We moms clip box tops to earn dimes for our schools while our south Orange County legislators refuse our kids millions but pretend otherwise.

My son attends public elementary school in the Capistrano Unified School District; he is doomed to be part of a lost generation of students unless serious funding changes are made.

Julie Colombero
Aliso Viejo

Steve Lopez is wrong in asserting that "it's a race to the bottom." The race is over. California is already at the bottom.

Program cuts being considered by L.A. Unified include academic decathlon, gifted and talented, music and arts, and early childhood education. These programs turn children on to learning. They nurture and foster students to become California's future leaders, scientists and innovators. California will no longer be the innovative and economic engine of the U.S.

California voters who allow budgets for schools and colleges to be cut by legislators should be ashamed of their betrayal of our children and our future.

Lloyd A. Dent
Studio City


L.A. UNIFIED HAUNTED BY AN OLD DEAL + smf’s 2¢
TEACHERS NEVER IMAGINED MOLESTATION CASES WHEN THEY WON A DEAL TO EXPUNGE UNPROVEN MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS FROM FILES AFTER FOUR YEARS

By Sandy Banks, LA Times Columnist | http://lat.ms/zXn9uW

March 17, 2012 :: Today's lesson, boys and girls, is to be careful what deals you make when your back is against the wall.

Let's open our history book to 1992, when California was mired in a recession and the Los Angeles Unified School District was forced to cut its budget by $400 million.

Teachers had walked off the job three years earlier and were threatening to strike again if the district followed through on its plan to cut their pay by 12%. So political kingpin Willie Brown brokered a deal that reduced the pay cut to 10% and expanded teachers' campus rights.

Most of the perks seemed pretty mundane:

Teachers would be allowed to park in the principal's parking space and use the principal's private bathroom. They would no longer have to perform "yard duty" when their students were on the playground.

And — in a clause that is haunting the district now — campus files would be routinely purged of allegations of teacher misconduct that had not been proved or did not result in discipline.

Today, in the aftermath of a series of teacher sex abuse arrests, that 20-year-old policy is making it hard to figure out whether more troubled teachers are operating under the radar.

Two elementary school teachers jailed on sex charges — from Miramonte in South Los Angeles and Telfair in Pacoima — had been the subject of complaints before. So Supt. John Deasy has ordered every principal to review the files of every employee on every campus.

But a personnel file is only as useful as the rules that govern what it holds. And the deal that expanded teachers' rights looks to some, in hindsight, like a predator's loophole.

It wasn't controversial back then, just a way to protect a hard-working teacher from a petty bureaucrat.

"We were trying to do something good for our members," said Sam Kresner, a former elementary school teacher who led the union's negotiating team.

The policy is straightforward. It requires that unproven allegations of misconduct, or complaints that did not result in discipline, be removed from a teacher's file after four years.

The rationale, Kresner said, is straightforward too: "If you happen to stumble at one point in your career, that shouldn't be on your permanent record."

By "stumble" he doesn't mean molesting children. The protection was intended for teachers accused of minor misdeeds: having a messy desk, being absent too much; bringing your class in late from the playground.

"We always assumed that anything serious would be treated as a disciplinary matter," Kresner said. "We were never trying to protect people who were doing really bad things. We were trying to take something away from principals who were looking at small infractions as a way to punish people."

I was a reporter covering the school district then, when there was a sense of open warfare between teachers and principals.

Student achievement was tragically low, yet campuses were strangled by power struggles over everything from how teachers should dress on campus to how lottery money should be spent.

The union contract ran more than 300 pages and included rules on such basics as who could operate the mimeograph machine.

What did all this have to do with improving learning? Not much, and parents knew it.

I was also the mother of a Los Angeles Unified student, and that 1992 contract had me looking at private schools.

Another of its power-sharing provisions took the right to assign classes away from principals and allowed teachers to choose, by seniority, which grade or subject they would teach.

At my daughter's school, the very worst and most senior teacher — even her colleagues called her "the witch" — dumped her fifth-grade class and took over kindergarten, putting vulnerable 5-year-olds at the mercy of her screaming fits.

That didn't sit well with parents. We were disappointed that longevity was allowed to trump temperament and competence.

School is no place for a factory approach. "That's one of the problems with negotiations," Kresner admitted. "You're trying to defend the people who are just getting by.... Contracts are built on both teachers and administrators who aren't at the top of the list.

"The administrators wanted to protect their turf. My job was to protect our members."

That's the trouble with "power sharing." The only ones who are powerless are the children.

They thrive when educators are on the same page, but they have no champion at the bargaining table and no clout in the deal-making.

It's naive to presume that what's good for teachers is always going to be good for children. Decisions made in teachers' best interests don't always trickle down in ways that benefit students.

Kresner, who retired a few years ago, said teachers and administrators today "are working together better than we were before." But the economic squeeze, campus scandals and demands of high-stakes testing are stressing that relationship.

A few months ago, before the Miramonte scandal, the district and the teachers union agreed to support a "thin" contract that would require collaboration between teachers and principals and give individual campuses unprecedented autonomy.

We'll soon see how that pact holds up. Deasy is pressing the union to eliminate the contract clause that allows misconduct claims to be absolved. But union president Warren Fletcher has his hands full with angry teachers, convinced that Deasy is on a witch hunt.

Erasing the clause seems like a no-brainer. It shouldn't be necessary in a district where principals are picked for their leadership skills and teachers rewarded for their success with students.

That's the kind of district Los Angeles Unified imagines itself to be. But unfolding stories of classroom horrors — unnoticed, unreported or brushed off — tie the district to its dysfunctional history.

The contract clause is not the problem. It's a symbol of a deeper illness: an adversarial approach in an overwhelmed district where rules are a stand-in for common sense.


•• smf – Sandy Bank’s concluding sentence is truth writ large.

BUT THESE FACTS REMAIN, BOYS+GIRLS. IN CASES OF ALLEGED CHILD ABUSE;

• - The law REQUIRES that reports be made to either Law Enforcement or Child Protective Services. There are no exceptions.
• - The law REQUIRES that the Superintendent report the allegations to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. There are no exceptions.

Those agencies DO NOT expunge the records.


“Value Addled”: SADLY, THE NEWS FROM THE TEACHING FRONT ISN’T GOOD
Op-Ed By Kay McSpadden, High School English Teacher in York ,NC - Charlotte Observer | http://bit.ly/AhpRF7

Saturday, Mar. 17, 2012 :: Nadia Zanariri is leaving public education. A successful Advanced Placement World History teacher at Miami Beach Senior High School and a mentor teacher for Miami-Dade County, Zanariri is calling it quits after nine years.

Not because her high school is a challenging urban school with a mix of students – although it is. And not because her classes are overcrowded – although they are.

Zanariri is leaving public education because next year Florida will require public school teachers to be evaluated on a value added model, a methodology that has a margin of error as high as 66 points.

“Teachers are ranked on a curve, thus a certain percentage will always be considered failures,” Zaniriri writes in Edweek. “I will not let myself be labeled an ‘ineffective’ teacher after continuously striving to improve my instruction, my knowledge base, my relationship with my students and parents. I will not be labeled an ineffective teacher after spending hours on the phone, in person and over email contacting parents over skipping students, sick students, struggling students, amazing students… I will not be labeled an ineffective teacher after spending hours on my weekends and evenings grading student papers when I should be reading to my own young children.

“It has reached the point where I know that I will inevitably wind up a loser, no matter how hard I work… I am a proud product of public schools from elementary to university, but the policies imposed in recent years by politicians are destroying the same system politicians claim to be saving.”

Zanariri’s comments were published a few days after the most recent MetLife survey about teacher satisfaction was released. I’ve been in the classroom since 1977 and the results didn’t surprise me. Beaten down by a recession that has hit education hard with budget cuts, layoffs, and furloughs, and perhaps more importantly, by the scapegoating of teachers in the public discourse, teachers report the lowest level of satisfaction with the profession in over 20 years. A third of teachers plan to leave within the next five years.

Interestingly enough, the results were stable regardless of where the teachers worked, the kinds of students they taught, or how long they had been teachers.

During my career, it’s never been harder to be a teacher in America.

This week I was invited to meet with my district’s first-year teachers for part of their induction and professional development. They have been reading “Notes from a Classroom,” a book I published in 2007 that includes many essays about education, and they had prepared a list of questions for me.

First they told me their stories. One elementary guidance counselor wanted ways to help her students broaden their horizons, to resist the temptation to “think small” about their futures. A high school guidance counselor wept when he recalled a gifted soccer player who is now serving time in prison.

A music teacher wanted to know how to deal with an emotionally disturbed youngster who is sabotaging his performance ensemble. A PE teacher wanted advice on how to channel the high energy of his 7th and 8th graders into meaningful class discussions.

One teacher is being bullied by a parent. Another teacher is being bullied by a disruptive group of students. A 4th-grade teacher worries about her students with disabilities, and the teacher who works in an alternative school worries about the multiple challenges her students face.

These first-year teachers were tired, and they wanted answers. Here I was, someone who’s written a book. What could I do to help?

It wasn’t a moment of epic fail, but it was close. In an hour I could do little more than listen and commiserate, offering small suggestions around the edges of the problems that loom large throughout their days.

“I’ve survived,” I said, “and you will, too.”

At least I hope that’s true. The news from the front isn’t so good right now. It’s far too easy to blame teachers rather than address the systemic social and economic stresses that hobble our students and keep them from being successful.

As we walked out of the meeting, one of the teachers – a former student – leaned toward me and said, “Every day I try to teach like you.”

It was an unlooked for gift – her tribute to class discussions and long nights reading difficult assignments, essays rewritten until they were error-free, and above all, the fun of exploring through questions, the pleasure of finding things out.

Nothing unusual – just the kind of learning going on in classrooms everywhere, every day.

The kind of learning increasingly at risk as good teachers flee the profession and new teachers question whether or not to stay.


FOR ACADEMIC DECATHLON TEAM, HARD WORK AND ADRENALINE RUSHES
A GROUP OF EIGHT LOS ANGELES HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS GETS HOOKED ON THE 'MIND BATTLE' THAT THE COMPETITION REPRESENTS. THE COACH VOUCHES FOR THEIR COMMITMENT. 'THEY'RE FEARLESS,' HE SAYS.

By Rick Rojas, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/wkdESR

March 18, 2012—Reporting from Sacramento :: On a recent afternoon, Andy Ayala looked like a TV reporter in the middle of his stand-up on a rooftop in Mid-Wilshire, downtown skyscrapers and palm trees just over his shoulder. His feet were planted firmly, his back straight, his brow furrowed with a note of authority.

But there was no camera rolling as the 17-year-old ad-libbed an impromptu speech on what it means to be an American — overcoming adversity and pursuing big dreams. His coach and a few teammates with a sharp critique stood by.

The state Academic Decathlon in Sacramento was a week away. The clock was running out for this team from Los Angeles High School to improve enough to come home with a medal or two in the tough competition.

There wasn't a minute to waste on anything but an honest appraisal of Andy's speech.

He started strong and ended strong, but seemed to trail off in the middle, they told him. And there were moments when his elocution could have been clearer. But his argument was solid.

On this day, the team had spread out across what is probably the best study spot in Los Angeles, a roof-top perch — the "penthouse," as it's known around school — with a killer panoramic view.

The team of seniors has given up afternoons and Saturdays and time that could be spent doing just about anything but studying. But this group of eight has become hooked.

"It's really the competition, the adrenaline rush," said Kristian Saravia. "That's what deca is — a mind battle."

"When people think about adrenaline, they think soccer, football — not studying," added Sun Garcia Baltazar. "It gives you a rush. It's such a nerdy rush."

::

The day before the team left for the state competition, the coach admitted that he hadn't thought they'd make it to the grueling two-day event.

"I don't have a team of superstars," said Richard Cunningham, 76, who is in his sixth season as decathlon coach at L.A. High. "I don't have kids who are guaranteed to be a top scorer. I don't have a single 4.0 kid on this team."

What the team does have, though, is commitment. "They're fearless," he said. "It takes courage to say they are going to do this."

The night before, the team stayed until after 10 p.m. before Cunningham finally drove some of them home. A few stayed on the next day too, poring over dense binders with a year's worth of highlighter marks, even though the trek to Sacramento would be long and start early. To save money, the team took two buses and a train.

::

If dressed-up "decathletes" are pacing the sidewalk and talking aloud to themselves, it must be Speech Day.

The team from L.A. High formed a circle, standing arms-length apart, for a practice exercise: All eight gave their speeches at the same time.

"If you can give your speech in the middle of that chaos, you should have no problem standing up there," Cunningham said.

Snippets of their speeches rose above the din: Justin De Toro singing "Happy birthday" at the start of his, Andy discussing the Cuban Missile Crisis and Sharmaine Cerezo wrapping up her speech with "sometimes all a teenager needs is a hug." (May Sathatham ran over to give her one.)

"Slow down!" said John De Toro, a former competitor, who is Justin's older brother and who helps coach the team. "You guys need to be more energetic. I need more enthusiasm!"

They tried again and again, each time with more energy.

::

The unofficial winners of the Super Quiz were Granada Hills Charter High School and Marshall High School in Los Feliz; they beat out more than 60 teams from around California. The overall winner of the 10-subject competition will be announced Sunday. And that's when medals will be given out.

In the Super Quiz, in which each team member takes a written test, Los Angeles High's Salome Ok and Joanna Manansala were both one away from getting perfect scores. "So close!" Salome said.

The end of the Super Quiz likely marks the end of a year's worth of hard work.

"Even if I don't like 80% of it, if I could do it again next year, I would," Joanna said, "because this moment right here is priceless."

Their time has run out. Now, they have to go back to clean up the penthouse and help Cunningham recruit a new team.
RADIO STORY Featuring Marshall HS AcaDecca Team
http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201203160850/b


RADIO STORY Featuring Marshall HS AcaDecca Team



HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
USDA’s ‘PINK SLIME’ CHOICE: Schools will be able to opt out, Kids can have additive or more fat
| http://lat.ms/FP5XXB

SHARE THE BURDEN, SHARE THE BENEFITS: Themes in the News by UCLA IDEA/Week of March 12-16, 2012 | http://bi... http://bit.ly/AxfqkJ

AT THE PTA, CLASHES OVER CUPCAKES AND CULTURE: By KYLE SPENCER, NEW YORK TIMES | http://nyti.ms/wICDnN Dav... http://bit.ly/FPKhYg

U P D A T E D - EDUCATION COALITION POLICY STATEMENT: Budget Position and Need for New Revenues Amidst School Layoffs Notices and Threats of Additional Trigger Cuts + Position on Per Pupil Funding + Early Childhood Ed Cuts http://bit.ly/FQ4Wf8

P E T I T I O N - Los Angeles Board of Education: Rescind all layoff notices for LAUSD teacher librarians http://chn.ge/FPjvhn

OF THE 20K PINK SLIPS SENT TO CALIFORNIA TEACHERS THURSDAY MORE THAN HALF WENT TO LAUSD STAFF: By Lindsay Willia... http://bit.ly/xjzEKi

INTERESTING FACT: No other portions of the State Budget has been cut as much as K-12 education

Primary Sources: America's Teachers on America's Schools - SURVEY FINDS TEACHERS DON'T TRUST ANNUAL STATE SKILLS... http://bit.ly/y8eMNg

STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF TOM TORLAKSON LEADS OPPOSITION TO CHILD CARE CUTS: California Department of Education | htt... http://bit.ly/FOsAJ6

OF TWENTY THOUSAND EDUCATORS PINK-SLIPPED IN CALIFORNIA, PINK SLIPS ARRIVE IN 11,700 LAUSD MAIBOXES: …if Los Ang... http://bit.ly/ymcbQU

POTENTIAL BUDGET CUTS . . .: Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update Week of March 19, 2012 | htt... http://bit.ly/y4serJ

“Value-addled” assessments: OVER 1400 NEW YORK PRINCIPALS CANNOT BE WRONG ABOUT TEACHER EVALUATIONS: by email fr... http://bit.ly/xL0Igy

A bittersweet moment as LAUSD AcaDeca teams head to state competition: By Tami Abdollah | KPCC 89.3 pass/fail |... http://bit.ly/zwUMqx

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: The value of adult education: 15 March 2012 | Re "L.A. adult education classes are threat... http://bit.ly/zRNeV8

LACCD Follies: LA COLLEGE VIOLATED CONTRACTOR’S RIGHTS, JUDGE RULES: The evidence against FTR International didn... http://bit.ly/A1a7z3

(PI)E + (PI)ZZA = A CELEBRATION OF MATH: Millikan Middle School students enjoy pieces of pi: One pupil even won ... http://bit.ly/zo24WV

ACROBAT BROWN DOES BACK FLIP ON TAX HIKE MEASURE: Governor strikes a deal with California Federation of Teachers... http://bit.ly/wUxzzJ

GOV. BROWN REACHES BALLOT DEAL WITH “MILLIONAIRES TAX” GROUP: By JULIET WILLIAMS and ROBERT JABLON Associated P... http://bit.ly/xwDubL

LAUSD APPROVES WORST-CASE SCENARIO CUTS TO ART CLASSES, ADULT AND EARLY-CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: Barbara Jones, Staf... http://bit.ly/xwof1V

GOP LAWMAKERS TAKE AIM AT TEACHERS ACCUSED OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT: They join Villaraigosa and L.A.'s school board ... http://bit.ly/xQNbUW

LA SCHOOL DISTRICT SEEKS PARCEL TAX, SALARY CUTS: By CHRISTINA HOAG Associated Press (from Mercury News) | http:... http://bit.ly/xzgCaU

LAUSD BOARD REJECTS OCEAN CHARTER FACILITY ON WALGROVE ELEMENTARY CAMPUS + smf’s ?: The LAUSD's Board of Educati... http://bit.ly/zeKMhp

LAUSD BOARD APPROVES DEEP PROGRAM CUTS, BUT HOPES THEY WON’T BE NEEDED: Board is hoping voters and the state res... http://bit.ly/x9TAxY

A WHOLE LOTTA BAD NEWS AND A LITTLE GOOD NEWS: Cuts + layoffs + a parcel tax + recycled eyewash for child abuse ... http://bit.ly/yQ1T5p


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:
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!.


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
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