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