Sunday, October 27, 2013

Implausible deniability.



4LAKids: Sunday 27•Oct•2013
In This Issue:
 •  The view from The Times: DEASY, LAUSD AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE
 •  The view from the classroom: SCRAP THE iPADS, KEEP THE PIANOS
 •  Q&A: LAUSD’s JAIME AQUINO – on iPads, Board Fights, and Stepping Down + someone else’s 2¢
 •  SENATOR RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT PROTECTING STUDENT DATA
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
 •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting
 •  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.
What just happened?
…and what does it mean?

On Thursday evening I was minding my own business, watching the World Series.
Daughter lives in Boston. Family comes from Boston.
But I met Stan Musial once; took him to an expense account lunch. (You gotta love the advertising business: you take the client and his celebrity friend to lunch, you make the bartender’s day and you mark up the tab 30%). Go Cardinals!

TOP OF THE 6TH, ST LOUIS UP 1 to 0.
I’m debating with myself (I always lose) whether to pop some popcorn or start dinner.

John Lackey is pitching for Boston
Beltran flied out to center.
Holliday struck out swinging.
Adams singled to left center.
Molina grounded out to second.
(Somewhere in there my phone makes that beep it makes when it gets a tweet.)

The inning over I head for the kitchen and the popcorn while a commercial tries to sell me some prescription medicine, describing side effects – including death - worse than whatever the ailment du jour is …and be sure to tell my doctor if I have any medical problems or am allergic to the drug itself. I hope my doctor has been paying attention; I hope he prescribes the meds I need, not the ones Big Pharma wants me buy.

I check the phone for the tweet. What could possibly have happened in LAUSD at 6:34 in the evening?

@latimes 24 Oct
L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy to resign in February http://lati.ms/q9Hu6

Say what?

Hit the DETAILS button!

Los Angeles Times
L.A. SCHOOLS SUPT. JOHN DEASY TO RESIGN
Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy has told Board of Education members that he plans to resign in February, according to high-level district officials, including some who asked not to be named.

As I fumble trying to figure out who to call: A second tweet.

@UTLAnow: Breaking @latimes reporting @DrDeasyLAUSD@LASchools is resigning in February. #UTLA will have more on this breaking story shortly.

I quickly retweet the Times message to the 4LAKids twtter unverse – knowing full well that the UTLA tweet quoting the Times tweet does NOT amount to a second source!

UTLA re-retweets the same message.

A reporter calls me. “What do I know?”

Just because I don’t know anything doesn’t mean I don’t pump her for what she knows. She is getting “no comments” – but no denials either. I give her a mealy-mouthed statement about how this – if true – will allow the District to move ahead rather than be submerged in controversy. Not distracted by iPads or Academic Growth Over Time and whatever other manufactured controversy is at hand.

Friends and followers and fellow travelers call, one after another, “Have you heard?”/”I just heard!”/”What do you know?” A verse+chorus of ‘Ding Dong the Witch is Dead’ is sung.

Someone I know who knows someone who knows Deasy calls his home or his cell phone or his aunt’s next-door-neighbor and gets a “There will be a statement in the morning” …which sounds as close to a confirmation as anyone’s going to get as the rumors go Ebola viral.

The breaking news updates on The Times’ website seem to be walking back from the edge; maybe those highly placed sources and unnamed district officials weren’t so lofty or official?

At 9:09 UTLA puts out a joyous press release that almost contains the words and music and dance choreography of “Ding Dong….”

And at 9:29 ‏@EdgarZazueta of LAUSD External & Government Affairs tweets “People on twitter need to calm down and slow it down a little bit tonight.”

At 9:37 @LADNschools (LA Daily News): “#LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy set to resign http://www.dailynews.com/social-affairs/20131024/lausd-superintendent-john-deasy-set-to-resign … @Playschools @Tulane - citing the LA Times as their source.”

Meanwhile
BOSTON - BOTTOM OF 6TH
Michael Wacha pitching for St. Louis
Victorino grounded out to third.
Pedroia walked.
Ortiz homered to left (375 feet), Pedroia scored. STL 1 - BOS 2
Napoli struck out looking.
Gomes grounded out to third.

ST. LOUIS - TOP OF 7TH
John Lackey pitching for Boston
Craig struck out looking.
Freese walked. 2
Jay singled to right, Freese to second.
Breslow relieved Lackey.
Kozma ran for Freese.
Kozma stole third, Jay stole second.
Descalso walked.
Carpenter hit sacrifice fly to left, Kozma scored, J Jay scored, Descalso to third on throwing error by pitcher Breslow. STL 3 - BOS 2
Beltran singled to right, Descalso scored. STL 4 - BOS 2
Tazawa relieved Breslow. Holliday grounded out to second.

And that’s how it ended STL 4 - BOS 2

Too late for popcorn. Leftovers, more phone calls, little information. Bedtime.

FRIDAY THE CURIOUSNESS BECAME CURIOUSER.

The superintendent’s office said the resignation, if it was a resignation, wasn’t in writing. Maybe it was pretend resignation. Or a misunderstanding.

“I said I was resigned to have a Latte instead d of a Mochachino.”

Perhaps fingers were crossed. Or maybe Thursday was Opposites Day. “Did so!” / “Did not!

Later in the day some boardmembers said they don’t know what’s going on. As the elected representatives of parents and voters and taxpayers why should they be any different than the rest of us?

And Dr. Deasy’s office said they would have nothing more to say until after the Closed Session Board Meeting scheduled for noon Tuesday – where the superintendent’s annual performance review was on the agenda

The Video Trucks deploy around Beaudry and the Boardroom, raising their masts with the satellite dishes.

The Regular Board meeting scheduled for Tuesday – planned and anticipated as an in-depth examination of the woebegone iPad program - is abruptly postponed.

The Times prints the following two articles: The first struggles to imagine an LAUSD without Deasy. The second describes a classroom where he has never been.

And so the forces start to gather, surveying the battlefield. UTLA and organized labor mobilizes; Deasy’s fans in the Education Coalition, the United Way and CLASS start to mobilize. The media machines gear up for the blitz.

Stand by.

HOW MUCH OF THIS IS MISDIRECTION AND SLEIGHT OF HAND? During this bogus crisis we totally lost track of the imposed-from-Beaudry misbegotten mid-semester reconfiguration of ESL programs – a brief shining moment when parents were almost heard - and the best interests of children were almost served! [http://bit.ly/1cPuvOQ / http://bit.ly/1ibFZgf / http://bit.ly/1a9Bu33 ] How much of it is about John Deasy’s future - a man characterized elsewhere as the educational equivalent of Dick Cheney [http://bit.ly/1a7X8X2] - and how much is about iPads and Apple and Pearson? How much is about the Billionaire Boys Club and the Educational Industrial Complex and privatizing public education? How much of it is about Dr. Vladovic's behavior ten years ago? How much is politics and money?

How little of it is about educating young people?

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


The view from The Times: DEASY, LAUSD AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE
SPECULATION THAT L.A. UNIFIED SUPT. JOHN DEASY COULD RESIGN PUTS HIS FUTURE — AND THE DISTRICT'S DIRECTION — IN DOUBT.

By Howard Blume and Teresa Watanabe | http://lat.ms/1aMXOht

October 25, 2013, 6:18 p.m. :: When John Deasy took the helm of Los Angeles Unified in 2011, he was backed by the school board, mayor and civic leaders in a bid to transform the nation's second-largest school district with bold measures to improve student performance.

Now Deasy's future — along with the district's direction — is in doubt at a critical point. L.A. Unified is facing new academic standards, major budget decisions and a massive iPad technology project.

On Thursday, just days before his scheduled performance review by a new, less supportive school board, the school chief told some top officials that he might step down. That, in turn, provoked strong warnings from civic leaders Friday to end what one called the "amateur hour" of political infighting that could endanger progress for students.

"I think the adults at the school district, across the board, need to remember that there are kids who are the collateral damage to any loss of leadership, any loss of momentum, and any dysfunction and fighting," Mayor Eric Garcetti said.

Garcetti added that the district had moved "in the right direction" under Deasy by continuing progress in lowering dropout rates, improving test scores and completing school construction projects.

Deasy, 52, remained tight-lipped Friday, saying he would not comment on his future until after Tuesday's performance review. He has said he hoped to stay eight years because continuity was essential for lasting change. He noted that his evaluation marked a key juncture.

"I am going to do everything in my human power to model dignity," he said. "Kids watch this. That is going to be my guideline."

In recent months, Deasy has struggled with a more combative teachers union and a more challenging school board.

Amid the tension, Deasy's second-in-command, Deputy Supt. Jaime Aquino, submitted his resignation last month after complaining that the board's second-guessing and micromanagement made it virtually impossible to function.

Robert Ross, president of the California Endowment, the state's largest healthcare foundation, said he was aware of the tensions but was "taken aback" by news of Deasy's possible resignation. While he said Deasy needed to work harder to forge more collaborative relationships with the teachers union and school board, he gave Deasy an "A-plus" for boosting student achievement and health with efforts to improve school nutrition and campus safety.

"On behalf of the children, people have to figure out a way to make things work," Ross said. "We adults need to improve our behavior."

At the same time, however, Deasy fell short — in some cases far short — of most of this year's performance goals for student achievement in reading and math.

United Teachers Los Angeles said it welcomed the possibility of new leadership. In April, 91% percent of 17,500 members polled responded that they had "no confidence" in Deasy's leadership.

News of Deasy's possible resignation surfaced this week, when some district insiders said Deasy talked of leaving in February. But Deasy said he has not submitted a letter of resignation.

What actually transpired between Deasy and other top district officials is still unknown.

Board President Richard Vladovic said he had spoken with Deasy multiple times over two days. "I think the clouds will clear more on Tuesday once we all hear the same things," he said.

Deasy's growing frustration has been evident for months. He failed to win support from the union for his revamped teacher evaluations and had to settle for a reduced role for the use of test results in the reviews.

His recommendations to use new state education dollars to close a budget gap and to boost pay based on test scores and other factors met resistance. Some board members instead are pushing to hire more teachers and others to restore staffing to pre-recession levels.

And Deasy's $1-billion initiative to equip all students and teachers with iPads has encountered numerous problems.

Board member Steve Zimmer said he believed the iPad deal had serious flaws but supported the concept and did not see the challenges as fatally undermining Deasy's position.

"John Deasy has one of the most remarkable work ethics I've ever seen," Zimmer said. "And I've seen no fracture in his drive, his urgency."

Board member Bennett Kayser, a frequent Deasy critic, could not be reached Friday, but his office issued a brief statement that all but anticipated the superintendent's departure.

"I met with Superintendent Deasy yesterday," the statement said. "I wish him well in his future ventures. We shall continue to remain focused on what is best for our students."

One senior official expressed disappointment over Deasy's possible exit but put much responsibility on the superintendent.

"Is he the kind of guy who would up and leave because the iPad program is under scrutiny? I hope not. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. I don't think that means out the door," the official said.

"There's a lot of amateur hour stuff going on," said a civic leader who didn't want to be publicly identified for criticizing the board. "It seems like a lot of adults are acting like kids."

Elise Buik, president of United Way of Greater Los Angeles, said community members are expected to pack the board meeting Tuesday to support Deasy. On Friday, United Way and 10 other organizations issued a letter to school board members urging them to retain Deasy and accusing some of "putting your own political agendas ahead of students' needs."

"After all of the progress that has been made, it is simply unacceptable to turn back to the failed policies of the past," the letter said.


●●smf’s 2¢: Is there a chance the United Way/CLASS letter, referred to above, should accuse board members of “putting your own political agendas ahead of our political agendas?" Just a thought.


The view from the classroom: SCRAP THE iPADS, KEEP THE PIANOS
IF YOU WANT A DEVICE THAT CAN INSPIRE, CRITIQUE, COUNSEL AND PUT ON A SHOW, GET A TEACHER.

LA Times Op-Ed By Jeff Lantos | http://lat.ms/HlIDVM

October 25, 2013 :: The Los Angeles Unified School District's plan to supply every student with an iPad is, to be charitable, not going well. Before any more school districts decide to spend millions on high-tech gadgets, let me offer a few words of caution. Why me? Because I was there in 1986 when Apple computers were first lugged into elementary classrooms.

This was at the Open Magnet School in West Hollywood, where I and other teachers first experimented with this new technology. After hours, we often hung out with Alan Kay, the leather-jacketed genius from Apple who would drop by to see how things were going. He had done pioneering work on the graphical user interface and the use of icons, among other things, while at Xerox Parc in the late-1970s. His informal job title at Apple was "visionary."

For this initial rollout, Apple provided not only the boxy Mac Classics but also some nifty glass-topped desks. The computers were tipped onto their backs and slid onto angled shelves under the glass so students could either point and click or put the mouse away and lay out books and papers. Every student had access to a computer. Essentially it was the one-to-one program being touted today by the U.S. secretary of Education, school superintendents and Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education and current chief executive of Amplify, a company that makes digital tablets.

After a month or two it became apparent that computers were to the writing process what the Cuisinart was to cooking. Every part of that process — writing, editing, revising, rewriting — was easier. The walls in my classroom were soon lined with typed essays and stories, many illustrated with computer-generated stick figures.

Twenty-seven years later, computers and their offspring are still wonderful tools for word processing. The Internet also made it easier for students to do research and to communicate with peers and mentors. And for many teachers, computers have replaced work sheets that reinforce concepts taught in directed lessons.

Of course, high-tech gizmos can also be used for plenty of other classroom projects. For instance, my fifth-grade digital natives could easily spend all day creating Keynote presentations on the Jamestown Colony or generating book reports that look like Pfizer's annual report. But is that the best use of precious class time? And is that the best use of me?

The fact is I'm the last guy you would want overseeing any high-tech razzle-dazzle in the classroom. But I am your man when it comes to delivering content, piquing a student's curiosity, helping a hesitant writer formulate a persuasive essay and encouraging students to make connections across the curriculum. And unlike a computer, I can inspire, critique, counsel, model good behavior and put on five shows a week.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says putting textbooks on Kindles, iPads (and such) will save districts millions of dollars. I'm not so sure. I've been using the same math text for 10 years. Why shouldn't I? My students do well on the state test, and the concepts don't change. The commutative property is still a+b = b+a. With a $19.95 purchase price, that comes to less than $2 a year. And textbooks don't crash, need batteries or break if you drop them. And I've never heard of one being stolen.

Another argument you'll hear from Duncan, Klein, et al is that our public schools need a high-tech "disruption," a cyber-shock that will send students scurrying to their glowing screens where they will absorb the knowledge that will lift them to ever higher levels of achievement.

I have three responses. First, in my experience, what technology disrupts is classroom discussion, debate, collaboration, cooperation and social interaction. Many elementary students are going to spend the next 60 years primarily dealing with some type of tech tool. Before they go into those digital cocoons, shouldn't they learn how to relate to, have empathy for and communicate with classmates? Shouldn't they be taught how to respectfully disagree, to defend a point of view, to negotiate and to compromise?

Second, another thing computers disrupt is the desire to get some exercise. Staring at that screen has a drug-like effect on students. Many times I've had to tell the boys (yes, it's always the boys) to close their computers and go to recess. No surprise that one side effect of excessive computer use is obesity.

Third, if bureaucrats and billionaires really want to "disrupt" the traditional educational model, they should forget iPads and Androids. Instead, put a piano in every classroom and make piano lessons part of teacher training. Imagine an educational model in which music, dance and drama are part of every lesson. Imagine students singing about math properties, taking history from the page to the stage, dancing their way through the Constitutional Convention and the Lewis and Clark expedition, acting out scenes from novels, borrowing from Tom Lehrer and singing the periodic table of elements.

Kindergarten teachers have always made good use of music, dance and drama. Why stop there? Drama helps students develop oral language and people skills. Dance gets kids off their butts. Music fires up the neural synapses, improves retention of the material and brings a sense of joy into the classroom.

I have a piano in my classroom. My students start each school day with 15 minutes of singing and dancing. In January, I conducted an experiment. I said to my students: "We're facing drastic budget cuts. We have to get rid of either the 15 laptops or the piano. Which should it be?" I don't think I have to tell you the response.

Jeff Lantos teaches at Marquez Charter Elementary School in Los Angeles.

●● A longtime 4LAKids reader-and-friend writes: “Jeff is our cousin. He is exceptional. He has written educational musicals for elem. students etc.” Marquez Charter is one of the 1:1 pilot schools cited in the Common Core Technology Project (iPads for All) proposal.

►LETTERS TO LOS ANGELES TIMES

Sunday, October 27, 2013
Re: AN OLD-FASHIONED TEACHER'S WISDOM Re “Scrap the iPads, keep the pianos,” Opinion, Oct. 25
::
Not only does Jeff Lantos speak truth to iPads, he knows that a classroom is a hollow experience without an effective, creative and keenly devoted teacher — you know, like Lantos, whose article should be distributed to all teachers and parents.
I bet they will smile and nod at the mention of dance, drama, art and music effectively used in the classrooms they may remember.
As a recently retired teacher of 38 years, I am still excited to see the wondrous things that happen when children are in the classroom of an exciting educator.
Janice Segall
Pasadena
::
Bravo to Lantos.
I am a retired fifth-grade teacher who understood the pros and cons of the new technologies infiltrating my classroom. The “educational fun” and interaction that brought life to the curriculum was being forced out, and the No Child Left Behind law certainly didn't help.
Let's hope that the powers-that-be will read and digest Lantos' wise thoughts.
David B. Housh
Glendora
::
Lantos is a visionary. The songs he's teaching his students will stay in their memories and hearts long after the tsoris of dead batteries, smashed screens and, yes, even theft of high-tech gadgets.
His method — starting each day with 15 minutes of singing and dancing — is the best way to keep the music playing.
Plus, pianos are seldom stolen.
Joan Arndt
North Hollywood



Q&A: LAUSD’s JAIME AQUINO – on iPads, Board Fights, and Stepping Down + someone else’s 2¢
by Benjamin Herold in Education Week http://bit.ly/1c765PU

Oct 25, 2013 :: For my recent story on the fresh controversies surrounding the new digital curriculum that is embedded on the iPads being distributed to tens of thousands of Los Angeles students [CURRICULUM PROMPTS NEW CONCERNS IN L.A. iPAD PLAN: By Benjamin Herold, Education Week | http://bit.ly/1eQxl ... http://bit.ly/19FaJ7q] , I sat down to talk with Jaime Aquino, the deputy superintendent of instruction for the 651,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District.

Aquino explained how and why the district selected the brand-new-and-untested-curriculum from education publishing giant Pearson, and how he thinks it will help the district with its transition to the Common Core State Standards

He also addressed head-on criticism that his prior employment with Pearson led the district to make an unsound purchase and called the ongoing questions over the district's iPad initiative "the icing on the cake" of his recent decision to step down.

The transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.

●Q: What about this new curriculum has you excited?

●A: I'm excited about the shift to the common core and how those standards are reflected in the Pearson Common Core System of Courses. For example, in mathematics, the common core calls for the mathematical practice that is called mathematical modeling, which means more of the students' ability to apply their mathematical knowledge to the real world. If you look at that Pearson Common Core System of Courses, you see that many of their lessons begin with a video, in terms of having a problem for students to explore, that is a real-life [problem]. And students then say, "OK, how would you graph the speed of this student riding the bike?" That was exciting in terms of how it aligns to the real world.
Photo of Jaime Aquino, courtesy Los Angeles Unified School District>>

●Q: How did LAUSD select this curriculum?

●A: We knew that there were not a lot of digital materials available that were aligned to the common core, and we didn't want anything that was repurposed...When we issued the RFP, we were very clear that we were using the publishers' criteria that was put out [to guide] the selection of materials that are aligned to the common core standards. The committee used that to determine what was there.

●Q: Is the new digital curriculum from Pearson meant to replace the existing instructional materials for LAUSD, or supplement them?

●A: It's just another tool to teach the common-core standards...Do we intend it to become what would be considered the core instructional material? Yes, to be supplemented with many other things, at the discretion of the teacher.

●Q: There's lot of concern that this product is being rolled out even though it's not finished.

●A: In the RFP, we said that we understand that the common-core [standards] are new. And because we're asking [publishers] to present [content] in a digital format, many might not have it completed. In the RFP, we said [vendors] would have up to the fall of next year in terms of having it completed and having it approved by the state. But [they] had to give us a very clear description and a prototype of what [they] want to accomplish and what it would look like. Because if not, I can tell you that we were going to be getting something that was repurposed, and that was not truly aligned to the common core.

●Q: Why not hold off until you could evaluate a completed product?

●A: We knew we were going in phases...It gave us an opportunity to learn some lessons [and] also to be in the driver's seat, in the sense that we wanted to also have an opportunity to shape [the curriculum], based on the lessons learned in [the initial phase of the project] from our teachers... And we embedded that into our contract negotiations. We were very clear that if at any point, this did not meet our requirements, did not meet the publishers' criteria, there was some consequence...It's a unique opportunity for a school district to have that type of leverage and input, as opposed to the traditional way that we've done in education, that the publishers just produce what they want...and we have to take whatever they do.

●Q: Some experts say that giving out sample lessons in a scattershot way can actually be disadvantageous to students and teachers.

●A: Right now, there is actually no curriculum out there that I know of, in print or digital, that is completely aligned to the common core. So are these experts saying that we should wait and not transition to the common core until something is produced in its final format, and the exams are going to be administered in the spring of 2015? Isn't it better to have our teachers begin to practice with some units? As professional development, they become familiar, and they inform the publishers about what the actual field needs.

●Q: What will the process be like for gathering and incorporating that feedback from the field?

●A: We have staff...that are always in the field, they get feedback in terms of what's working, not working. We collect that. My curriculum team here, my content area experts, do the same thing. They go and visit. They look at the curriculum. They have been working with Pearson in terms of our scope and sequence, which units should be taught when...We have already provided a lot of the feedback. In addition to that, at every school, Pearson has assigned [staff], and they go and get feedback.

●Q: Some school board members say that they were under the impression before voting that the curriculum was finished and were surprised to subsequently learn that it was not.

●A: The administration does not control what [board members] read or don't read...There was constant communication provided to the board. The board had access to the RFP. Board staff attended the industry forum where I clarified that we didn't expect anything to be completed...We provided daily information, and then they act as if they have never heard any about this.

●Q: You recently announced that you are stepping down at the end of this year. Was the criticism around the Common Core Technology Project, or your previous employment at Pearson, part of that decision?

●A: I did not want to leave...As an immigrant and second-language learner, I'm honored and humbled to be the deputy superintendent of the second largest district in the nation...That's the dream I have for all students in this district, particularly those who look like me. Who come from immigrants, who are Latino, and who speak English as their second language. And I can tell you they're not going to achieve the American dream if they don't have access to technology...

The reason I'm leaving is because in this hostile political environment, I cannot lead a student-centered agenda. This has been a place where I feel the board has micromanaged. People think I'm leaving because of this? This was just the icing on the cake...

I came here with an impeccable, unblemished national reputation. In places where I have left, even my vocal critics would say we disagree with some of his positions and perspectives, but he was an amazing leader.* Here, there have been innuendos that this contract was because I worked for Pearson...First, history. I worked for America's Choice. And America's Choice was acquired by Pearson around December of 2010. I left in June of 2011 to come here. Do people wonder if maybe my reason for leaving Pearson was because I didn't want to work for a big [corporation]? When I came here and we were going through this, I disclosed [my work history], I went through legal and procurement [and asked] should I be involved? They said your cooling period has sunsetted. You can be involved. But even still, I was not involved in the process. A committee reviewed all the applicants. The only thing I did, I said here's the publishers' criteria. I trained them. I was not [privy] to which were the applicants, their applications. I came on board at the end when they had done the screening and said these are the last three. The last three happened to have Pearson. The others were discarded.

●Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add about LAUSD's iPad initiative?

●A: The level of excitement in terms of our teachers, our parents, our students and our principals has been overwhelming. I think the media coverage on this has been very discouraging and very biased...To call students hackers was totally inappropriate. [These problems have] been blown out of proportion by the media.

________
* …and modest! See After Jaime Aquino, what’s next? (EdNews Colorado May 8, 2008) http://bit.ly/1afZup0



●● SOMEONE ELSE’S 2¢: a 4LAKids reader, who shall remain anonymous writes : “This article is full of lies and I could take pieces of the RFP, video of board meetings and vendor forums and make that point...but this thing is so blatantly fixed, I'm not sure why I need to keep pointing this out!”

- 4LAKids’ anonymous source continues, quoting the anonymous source – and ed-tech insider - who first forwarded the article:

"’The media journalists (and board) do not dig deep enough. The RFP called for adaptive software, not augmented PDFs. Jaime's former boss at America's Choice now heads Pearson's Common Core System of Courses. Perhaps your media friends can start asking. ‘"


SENATOR RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT PROTECTING STUDENT DATA
By NATASHA SINGER, New York Times | http://nyti.ms/Hm8aNF

October 22, 2013, 12:01 pm :: A lawmaker who is a staunch advocate of children’s privacy is investigating whether the data collection and analysis practices of the growing education technology industry, a market estimated at $8 billion, are outstripping federal rules governing the sharing of students’ personal information.

On Tuesday, Senator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, sent a letter to Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, about how K-12 schools are outsourcing management and assessment of student data, including intimate details like disabilities, to technology vendors. The letter cited an article in The New York Times this month about concerns over the proliferation of student data to companies.

“By collecting detailed personal information about students’ test results and learning abilities, educators may find better ways to educate their students,” Senator Markey wrote in the letter. “However, putting the sensitive information of students in private hands raises a number of important questions about the privacy rights of parents and their children.”

School districts nationwide are increasingly using digital technologies that collect and analyze academic and other details about students in an effort to tailor lessons to the individual child. But privacy law experts say that many schools are employing student assessment software and other services without sufficiently restricting the use of children’s personal data by vendors. Researchers at Fordham University School of Law in New York, for example, recently found that certain school districts have signed contracts without clauses to protect information like children’s contact details, the locations where they wait for school buses every morning, or the food items they buy in school cafeterias.

In his letter, Senator Markey asked Mr. Duncan to explain whether the Department of Education had assessed the types of student information schools share with private companies; whether the department had issued federal standards or guidelines that outline the steps schools should take to protect student data stored and used by private companies; what kinds of security measures the department requires companies to put in place to safeguard student data; and whether federal administrators believe that parents, not schools, should have the right to control information about their children even if it is housed by private companies.

“Sensitive information such as students’ behavior and participation patterns also may be included in files outsourced to third-party data firms and potentially distributed more widely to additional companies without parental consent,” Senator Markey wrote. “Such loss of parental control over their child’s educational records and performance information could have longstanding consequences for the future prospects of students.”


The letter, links and supporting data can be found here.



HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
Steve Lopez: PLAN TO TRANSFORM BLEAK SCHOOL PLAYGROUND HITS BIG SNAG: A popular beautification project planned for Berendo Middle School has one hurdle to clear — the L.A. school district's can't-do attitude. http://bit.ly/17pT5o

L.A. DAILY NEWS SAYS MAYOR GARCETTI SUPPORTS SUPERINTENDENT DEASY AND QUESTIONS SCHOOL BOARD.: Garcetti: Deasy... http://bit.ly/18Z1JuA

SCRAP THE iPADS, KEEP THE PIANOS: If you want a device that can inspire, critique, counsel and put on a show, ... http://bit.ly/1delRJZ

EDNA KRABAPPEL HAS LEFT THE CLASSROOM: Marcia Wallace (November 1, 1942 – October 25, 2013) has passed away... http://bit.ly/19IjCgA

ELI BROAD, KOCH BROTHERS FUNDED SECRET ANTI PROP 30/ANTI PROP 38 EFFORT IN CALIFORNIA: Bombshell: Eli Broad Se... http://bit.ly/1dbMDCE

L.A. UNIFIED POSTPONES TUESDAY’S SPECIAL BOARD MEETING ABOUT iPADS: L.A. Unified postpones meeting on iPads ov... http://bit.ly/1dbybKV

Q&A: LAUSD’s JAIME AQUINO – on iPads, Board Fights, and Stepping Down + someone else’s 2¢: by Benjamin Herold ... http://bit.ly/1auBCvT

COACHELLA VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT’S iPAD INITIATIVE BRINGS OPTIMISM AND SKEPTICISM: by Eric Westervelt NPR Educ... http://bit.ly/18W3JUl

SENATOR RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT PROTECTING STUDENT DATA: “Putting the sensitive information of students in priv... http://bit.ly/19FoIKG

RUMORS REACH FEVER PITCH – AND VIDEO TRUCKS HOVER – BUT LA SUPERINTENDENT DEASY DENIES HE’S RESIGNED: Annie Gi... http://bit.ly/17jPkBb

JOHN DEASY TO RESIGN FROM LAUSD AFTER ALMOST 3 YEARS AS SUPERINTENDENT: The Huffington Post | By Anna Almend... http://bit.ly/1dtFwZ4

CURRICULUM PROMPTS NEW CONCERNS IN L.A. iPAD PLAN: By Benjamin Herold, Education Week | http://bit.ly/1eQxl ... http://bit.ly/19FaJ7q

AALA: BIG PHILANTHROPY AND EDUCATION: from the AALA Weekly Update for the week of October 28, 2013 | http://bi... http://bit.ly/1dtwGud

UTLA: IT’S TIME. Time for a raise & Time for Deasy to go: utla president’s perspective; by Warren Fletcher fro... http://bit.ly/1d894c4

THE LAUSD iPAD MESS LEADS TO SUPERINTENDENT’S RESIGNATION: Perhaps it’s a generational thing?: By Allison Cohe... http://bit.ly/1ajG66y

LCFF: NEW FUNDING SYSTEM REQUIRES EDUCATION LEADERS TO SHIFT THEIR THINKING: commentary By Ron Bennett, Presid... http://bit.ly/1argxm1

DEASY LEAVING LA UNIFIED? WHO COULD BE SURPRISED + smf’s 2¢: News Analysis by Michael Janofsky, Managing ... http://bit.ly/17jjxAd

TWEET: 'During an early morning event on Thursday in Woodland Hills, Deasy said his next stop was a meeting with Vladovic'. http://bit.ly/auDNT3

LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY SET TO RESIGN: By Barbara Jones, Los Angeles Daily News and Rick Orlov, Los An... http://bit.ly/19DJWZ6

Is he or isn’t he?: L.A. SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY SAYS HE’LL TALK MORE AFTER HIS JOB EVALUATION: By Howard Bl... http://bit.ly/1drCtk4

L.A. SCHOOLS SUPT. JOHN DEASY MAY LEAVE IN COMING MONTHS: Superintendent has told some district officials that... http://bit.ly/1aoN4cC

LA Times: L.A. SUPT. JOHN DEASY TO RESIGN: By Howard Blume L.A. Times| http://lat.ms/16wSpiV Los Angeles U... http://bit.ly/1c1TSfr

Breaking: @latimes reporting @DrDeasyLAUSD @LASchools is resigning in February.

DON’T TEACH FOR AMERICA: “Education reform” that helps only your resume: By Sandra Y.L. Korn | Opinion | The H... http://bit.ly/1al9xaj

SEGREGATING ENGLISH LEARNERS IN SCHOOLS: The Los Angeles Unified School District has little choice in the matt... http://bit.ly/1a9Bu33

SCHOOL BOARD, NOT SCHOOLS, GETS FINAL SAY ON HOW LOCAL CONTROL FUNDING FORMULA SPENDING: by LA School Report, ... http://bit.ly/18KQLc5

MORE QUESTIONS ON L.A, UNIFIED’S iPAD PROGRAM, BUT FEW ANSWERS: District officials say they hope promise to p... http://bit.ly/1agvvvf

LA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT HAS NO PLAN B FOR iPAD PROJECT: Annie Gilbertson | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://b... http://bit.ly/1cXxcOt

LAUSD iPADS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN FIRST BUDGETED: By Barbara Jones, Los Angeles Daily News | http://... http://bit.ly/1a9vXcI

SCHOOL. LAUSD POLICE HQ EVACUATED DUE TO FOUL ODOR: Incident at the school formerly known as The Belmont Learn... http://bit.ly/1a9ryq9

SCHOOL iPADS TO COST NEARLY $100 MORE EACH, REVISED BUDGET SHOWS: L.A. Unified will spend $770 per iPad, a 14... http://bit.ly/19s4GmA

LAUSD plan for non-English speakers: segregation or solution? Last minute plan separates ESL kids fm native speakers http://bit.ly/1ibFZgf

LA Unified embarks on revamp of devastated adult education program | http://bit.ly/H8wzXi

Curriculum+Instruction, Budget+Facilities & iPads: LA Unified Bd of Ed Set for a Busy Afternoon of Committee Meetings http://wp.me/p2fzpD-49H

Heard on the radio: SHOULD STUDENTS BE SEPARATED BY THEIR ENGLISH PROFICENCY?: AirTalk with Larry Mantle| KPCC... http://bit.ly/1cPuvOQ

CA School Boards Asso. official: VLADOVIC CENSURE WOULD BE ‘EXTREMELY DEVISIVE EPISODE …AND DIFFICULT TO OVERC... http://bit.ly/1dbJ5TC

Developing working class consciousness: REDEFINING AND REBUILDING THE TEACHERS’ UNION: In the post-Occupy Wall... http://bit.ly/1cOCfAO

L.A. teacher writes Diane Ravitch: JOHN DEASY IS THE EDUCATIONAL EQUIVALENT OF DICK CHENEY: By dianerav in Dia... http://bit.ly/1a7X8X2


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
●Tuesday Oct 29, 2013
9th STREET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location:
9th Street Elementary School
835 Stanford Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90021
●● smf will speak at what may be - for reasons I will attempt to explain - the most important new school LAUSD has built.

●The School Board meeting about iPads on Tuesday Oct 29 has been POSTPONED - but the board will meet IN CLOSED SESSION at noon to discuss Deasy's future. There will be public comment, rallies and demonstrations!
●The Bond Oversight Committee is scheduled to meet on iPads on Wednesday Oct 30 at 1PM in the Beaudry Boardroom to discuss iPads and other issues - Call or check the info below for updates to the agenda.
*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
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, 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.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.


Sunday, October 20, 2013

Disrespect, dysfunction, disinformation, distraction.



4LAKids: Sunday 20•Oct•2013
In This Issue:
 •  WORKLOAD CONTINUES TO BE IMPACTED BY LACK OF SUPPORT, INADEQUATE PLANNING AND POOR COMMUNICATION
 •  L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS
 •  The Skeleton Crew: WITH MAJOR DEBT, PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS CUT BACK ON NURSES + smf’s 2¢
 •  'SEQUESTER' IMPACT FELT ON SPECIAL EDUCATION AID
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
 •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting
 •  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.
     “…I have never seen such chaos in the District…Dr. Deasy and his senior management team need to rethink their roles and be more supportive of principals. Principals are being worked to death with no consideration from top management. I don’t think the Board, and the public in general, realizes what we face every day. It’s never been so bad.” - From the AALA Update, (following).



The Update editorialist bemoans the plight of Principals. Please excuse my colloquial grammar and double negative – but this is no time for Standard English: It ain’t just the principals who aren’t being supported!

It’s classroom teachers and office staff and nurses and librarians and custodians and groundskeepers. It’s M+O workers and functionaries in cubicles and senior staff in corner offices. And it’s parents and students - because we feel the contagion of low morale caused by cuts-and-more-cuts rooted in hard times and exacerbated+compounded daily by fear and disrespect driven by poor priority-setting and bad policy promulgated by myopic tunnel-visionary leadership. Leadership who are great at talking-the-talk about civil rights and socio-economic disadvantage …and who then just continue on their chosen path.

It isn’t that these folk don’t know what they’re doing – I’m afraid they know it all too well. The sociopathology of the True Believer is like that.

It’s obvious that throwing open the window and shouting that we’re mad as hell and not going to take it any more isn’t enough. We need to stay mad-as-hell and continue not-taking-it until it stops.

And when we change the pilot and the course we need to keep an eye on the new leadership and the new direction …and on the weather ahead.

A commenter on my Facebook page says AALA is a labor union and as such should “… be proactively defending the rights of administrators in matters of working conditions, salary, and health benefits. It fine to let the public know how chaotic schools are, but AALA must also mobilize its membership and file charges with PERB and the courts or they will continue to lose membership like UTLA." This is true – but a. It’s a moral issue before it’s a labor issue and b. the AALA membership are also middle managers and find themselves caught between the rock of labor and the hard place of management. I believe that the role of management-as-leaders, from the second link in the chain of command to the lowest level of the org chart owes it to the children and the Mission of Education to call attention to the moral+ethical dishabille of the emperor.

To do less is just following orders. And it cannot be about the teacher’s union vs. the principal’s union vs. the school employees unions vs. the bus drivers vs. teacher’s aides vs. library aides.

All together. Now.

AS YOU READ ON you will see that the situation in L.A. is pretty much the same as the situation in Philadelphia.

MEANWHILE (OR PERHAPS ALL-THE-WHILE) Student and Parent’s Rights seem to be sacrificed in compliance with rules makers in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (not to be confused with the real OCR in the Department of Justice) …because bureaucrats in Washington and at Beaudry and the local district office know better than parents and classroom teachers. see: L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS.

I AM SICK+TIRED OF THE BROUHAHA OVER iPADS. I had a dream about it the other night – and I like to keep my dreams populated with better characters than these. The iPad debacle/disaster/fiasco is just another symptom of the poor leadership and bad direction they provide. If, as they say, they always knew there would be these glitches +missteps – and the self congratulatory “the administration has done a remarkable job …to make this remarkable task successful” - a piss poor job of sharing that knowledge has been done. And, gentle reader, isn’t sharing the knowledge the mission?
I am tired of the bugs and glitches and security breaches and remarkable² …and “we expect the new version of the iOS will fix that.” I am tired of trotting out the IT guys+gals when the Office of Instruction Team is required. The Times Op-Ed this Sunday AM “Rebooting the iPad Plan” XXXXX offers excellent advice (“It is more important for the district to move carefully than to move quickly.”*) …but focuses on the technology and fails to address the paucity of curricular content. And good grief: Where is the support for English language learners?/ ¿Dónde está el apoyo a los estudiantes del idioma inglés?
• Show me the content.
• What is the desired outcome?
• How will this initiative help achieve that?
iPads are not a Civil Right. And all the children seated in neat rows taking the new tests on the same day isn’t the answer either.

ANOTHER DISTRACTION/MISDIRECTION FROM THE ACTUAL CHALLENGE at hand is the challenge to Dr. Vladovic’s board presidency, based on something that may or may not have occurred over ten years ago before Dr. V. was elected to the board. I am as much a feminist as one of my gender can be and I find the allegations distasteful. But the voters have spoken twice in the interim, electing and reelecting him to the board. The board majority has elected him president. There have been investigations by outside investigators who have found no wrongdoing. For a boardmember to continue to prosecute/persecute a matter that is supposedly decided and closed is poor boardsmanship and political sore-looserage. When do we say enough already?

Historically school boards choose a new superintendent when the board majority changes. It’s time to pull the Band-Aid off. It’s not about getting even or about picking someone the Unions or the Mayor or Eli Broad wants. It about getting moving,


SO, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IS OVER – And the Debt Ceiling is raised. And the Sequester? …well that’s still with us – draining Special Ed funding and Head Start and impacting school programs like school meals and student mental health. And buried in budget settlement – a few short lines: “Public Law 111-242, as amended, is further amended by striking ‘2013-2014’ and inserting '2015-2016’ …which means that the “Highly Qualified Teachers” inner city kids were promised will continue to not be. They can be Teach for America volunteers – newly minted college grads with five weeks o’ training. Bright-eyed. Bushytailed. Twenty-two. And unprepared.

And so it is, moving ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
__________
*T-shirts will be on sale in the lobby after the board meeting.


WORKLOAD CONTINUES TO BE IMPACTED BY LACK OF SUPPORT, INADEQUATE PLANNING AND POOR COMMUNICATION

From the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update | Week of October 21, 2013 | http://bit.ly/1fIDJjz

17 October 2013 :: AALA is painfully aware that administrators are struggling under an increased workload and as we continue to raise this issue with District leadership, we wish to let the voices of those in the field be heard. Every day, we receive e-mails, letters and phone calls from our colleagues who are overwhelmed and frustrated. The stress is wearing on even our most experienced principals who have withstood a multitude of new initiatives and changes during the last several years. The latest debacles of the EL class reorganization and the iPad rollout just emphasize that thoughtful communication and coherent planning are necessary. In fact, from the sound of the letters below, communication threads in the District are unraveling at breakneck speed. It seems that the ESCs do not communicate with each other or the central office, nor is there a coordinated approval process for the myriad surveys and certifications. Just read some of our most recent letters.

1. Another sort of humorous and frightening side note to the whole PE certification...Once you upload the schedules, there is a box to check that you certify that you have submitted the schedules to your ESC designee. I emailed the schedules to my instructional director and asked if she was my designee. The response? “Please direct me to the source that asked you to submit them so that I may find out.” Great. So then I emailed Operations and they said they would look into it…at my Principals' Mtg, [I was told]…that no one had seen the certification menu so they didn't know what was required.

I still don't know who the ESC designee is for PE schedules...

2. Sent Sunday at 7 p.m. :: I wanted to thank you for your latest comments on the lack of support we are receiving at school sites. I am copying an email below that I sent my director emphasizing how disheartening it is to see the padding of central office while we at school sites are still working without the support we lost in 2009. Having never known what it is like to have a coordinator, assistant principal or coach, I would jump at the chance to have any combination of the three. With the demands of the job and all of our high standards, there is no other way to get accomplished what needs to get done without working 12 hours a day, 5 days a week and then on the weekends.

To be honest, I have been on the verge of illness all week, mostly from sleep deprivation…I have cleared about 200 emails today, and I still have about 100 more to go so I will be succinct: I understand that the District's focus is on transitioning to the Common Core. What concerns me, though, is that they are sinking money into NEW positions: coaches, coordinatorships, directors, etc. without restoring first to schools what we lost in 2009…Having worked at central, I know certain monies have specific earmarks, but does anyone ever bring up to the people who decide where money goes that we are still running our schools without APs or coordinators and librarian assistants and that with the exception of principals who went from D to E Basis, we have not had a raise inyears?...without some commitment from the District to support us directly, I fear that I will gradually burn out…

3. I have been a principal in LAUSD for over 10 years. The current workload…is unbearable. We are asked to do more and more with little support from central and the ESCs. Principals continue to be besieged with District policy changes and compliance accountabilities…safety, instruction, classroom observations, assessments, professional development, grade level meetings, discipline, budget, supervision, SSC, ELAC, LSLC, parent involvement, facility and custodial issues, community issues, fundraising, assemblies, breakfast in the classroom, employee discipline and evaluations, Common Core, TGDC, Master Plan, IEPs, SSTs, technology, health issues, family counseling, etc.

Recently, principals were directed to reorganize classes 6 weeks into the school year because… [The District] was out of compliance…Why did they wait until late September to inform schools? Parents, students and teachers were upset as children were uprooted and moved to different classrooms…

It is unethical that $1 billion in bond money [is] used for iPADS…when…schools need to be painted, playgrounds upgraded and bathrooms repaired, etc…if principals need any upgrades to their schools they are told they must pay for them from their own budgets…OUTRAGEOUS!

4. I am (one of many) elementary principals who is reeling from this mandate to segregate our ELL students into a single classroom per grade level…the ESC folks…told me that because our DISTRICT is not meeting its overall goals and presumably not meeting the ELL students’ needs, we ALL must reorganize! Every teacher at my school is against this, and as an educator and school administrator, I also must agree that forcing each schooleven successful schools…to change to a "cookie cutter" program because of a general "District" voluntary agreement is not good teaching. Where is the differentiation for us? Some schools…may need this and benefit from it, but our students would not. And where is the "autonomy”…to tailor our instructional programs and resources to our specific school site?

THE ABOVE EXCERPTS REPRESENT JUST A FEW of the communications that we receive daily from the field. We are, of course, keeping the authors anonymous to protect them in this era of intimidation, threats and retribution. By sharing this information with the public, we hope that senior staff will gain a much-needed level of sensitivity to the unreasonable demands being placed on administrators. As former Board Member, Mark Slavkin noted at the recent AALA Alumni Luncheon, “Just declaring it doesn’t make it so.” Good planning with input from those directly affected, followed up with appropriate communication and staffing will lead to better working conditions and contribute to the success of new initiatives. Please know that your AALA leadership is continuing to advocate for improved administrative norms at all levels and a reduction in the overburdensome workload. The following excerpt, from yet another seasoned principal, sums it up quite succinctly:

“…I have never seen such chaos in the District…Dr. Deasy and his senior management team need to rethink their roles and be more supportive of principals. Principals are being worked to death with no consideration from top management. I don’t think the Board, and the public in general, realizes what we face every day. It’s never been so bad.”


L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS
AS THE DISTRICT MOVES TO ENFORCE A POLICY OF GROUPING PUPILS OF SIMILAR ENGLISH FLUENCY ABILITY TOGETHER, THOSE OPPOSED PROTEST.

By Teresa Watanabe, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1eAU9rh

5:54 PM PDT, October 19, 2013 :: Luis Gaytan, the 5-year-old son of Mexican immigrants who speak Spanish at home, was so terrified by kindergarten that he would barely talk — prompting classmates to tease that he didn't have a tongue.

In the last two months, at Granada Elementary Community Charter, Luis has gained a growing command of the language in a class of students with a mixed range of English ability. His father, Jorge, is convinced that his son is learning English more quickly because he hears it every day from more-advanced classmates.

But Luis — and thousands of other Los Angeles Unified students — is being moved into new classes with those at a similar language level under an order that has sparked a storm of protest. In recent weeks, a group of southeast L.A. principals have mounted a rare challenge to district policy, teachers have flooded their union office with complaints, and parents have launched protest rallies and petition drives urging L.A. Unified to postpone the class reorganizations until next year.

"Kids with little or no English are going to be segregated and told they're not good enough for the mainstream," said Cindy Aranda-Lechuga, a Granada mother of a kindergartner who gathered 162 parent signatures seeking a postponement and spoke against the policy at an L.A. Board of Education meeting last week. "Kids learn from their peers, and they're not going to be able to do that anymore."

Marking the latest chapter in California's fierce language wars, the furor over class placements for those learning English raises the controversial question of which is more effective: separating students by fluency level or including them in diverse classes. Critics are also upset that the change is coming two months into the school year, after students have bonded with classmates and teachers have developed classroom lessons and routines. Opponents blame the district and local schools for the disruption.

Although the district adopted segregated classes as official policy for all schools in 2000, it has not been widely practiced or enforced, according to officials from both L.A. Unified and the teachers union.

But that changed this year. L.A. Unified settled a complaint by the federal Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, which contended that the district had failed to provide adequate services to students learning English.

Katherine Hayes, the district's chief research scientist, told teachers last week that district data show that students placed in classes with peers of similar language level progress more rapidly toward fluency than those in mixed-level classes. But she added that the question had not been widely studied and more research was needed.

Norm Gold, an independent educational consultant who has worked in the field of English language development for more than 35 years, said that although studies are mixed, they tend to skew toward separating students based on their English ability.

"My experience tells me, in addition to research, that there is an absolute necessity for doing this kind of grouping," he said — adding, however, that students should be moved in a timely manner to new classes as their fluency improves.

Two experts in bilingual education with the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, said they support the district policy because limiting English levels in a class allows teachers to better focus instruction. And although students may learn "social English" from more fluent classmates, they are better able to learn the "academic English" appropriate for their level in more segregated classes, according to Cheryl Ortega, UTLA's director of bilingual education.

In a Sept. 9 letter to local Supt. Robert Bravo, however, 17 principals from South L.A. schools expressed disagreement with the policy. They argued that fluent English speakers serve as classroom role models for less proficient peers and that segregating students creates a "chasm" among them as well as "communities that are intolerant of those who are different."

In his written response, Bravo rejected the request to delay the moves and told principals they "may be subject to discipline" if they failed to reorganize their classes as directed.

One principal, who asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation, said administrators believed they were following the spirit of the plan by trying to limit levels but also taking into account other factors, such as gender, gifted abilities and behavioral issues, to form well-balanced classes.

But the district plan requires English levels to be the top factor in forming classes. At one campus, three students with serious behavioral problems ended up in the same classroom; at another, some gifted children are set to be transferred out of the gifted teacher's classroom because she has been assigned to teach students with low levels of English.

Some of the elementary schools ordered to reshuffle classes, including Granada, Victoria and Tweedy, had recently been commended by the district for boosting the test scores of their limited-English students. Although it is possible to request a waiver from the plan, none have yet been granted.

Bravo and district official Hilda Maldonado said school staff had months of notice to make the changes. District officials conducted training on the new policy for all staff members last November, issued a detailed memo on forming classes in May and sent reminders during the summer that the district and federal government would be monitoring campuses in the fall, said Maldonado, director of the multilingual and multicultural education department.

But Judith Perez, whose Associated Administrators of Los Angeles represents principals, blamed L.A. Unified for the upheaval on school campuses, saying the district should have done more to prevent it.

"You can't just send people an email and expect them to fully grasp the ramifications of this change," Perez said. "We feel the fault lies with the district in providing inadequate communication with schools. People are very upset, frustrated and discouraged."

Maldonado said it was not clear how many of the district's 500 or so elementary schools are reorganizing their classes — some, such as Hoover Street Elementary, have organized them by English fluency for years. She added that the policy encourages mixing students with other levels for such non-core classes as P.E., art and music.

In the San Fernando Valley, parents at Granada and Bassett Street Elementary joined forces last week to hold a protest rally and are considering boycotting school one day this week when they said class changes are set to take effect.

Nieves Garcia, a Bassett parent, said she is particularly upset that Principal Linda Barr had not broadly informed parents of the impending change, which she learned about from a teacher. Barr did not respond to requests for comment.

"They're completely taking the parents out of the equation," Garcia said. "There's a bunch of finger-pointing, but no one is taking responsibility. Either way, our kids have to suffer."


The Skeleton Crew: WITH MAJOR DEBT, PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS CUT BACK ON NURSES + smf’s 2¢
STUDENT DIES FROM UNTREATED ASTHMA

From NPR Weekend Saturday |to listen: http://bit.ly/1a0DwGe

Transcript: 19 October 2013

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

A sixth grader who died from an asthma attack after being sent home from school, a school that did not have a nurse on duty, has set off sadness, regret, and anger in Philadelphia where public schools are facing a huge budget shortfall. The district is a billion dollars in debt, schools have been closed and thousands of employees have been laid-off, including nurses. Now, Pennsylvania Governor Corbett released $45 million in funding this week to allow the school district to rehire hundreds of staffers, but not school nurses. The city is standing firm.

Eileen DiFranco joins us now from Philadelphia. She has been a school nurse for over 23 years. Mrs. DiFranco, thanks so much for being with us.

EILEEN DIFRANCO: My pleasure.

SIMON: From your point of view, how does this work? Ratio of one nurse for 1,500 students, I gather.

DIFRANCO: Yes. Although, the recommendations from the National Association of School Nurses recommends a much lower ratio - one nurse to 750 students. And we had that. We had that been up until a couple of years ago. Basically, nurses are assigned according to numbers and acuity. So for instance, I'm in my school full-time because I have a large proportion of special education students. However, most of my co-workers are going to two, three, four, five, six, some people even have seven schools. And some of them have to do several schools in one day.

SIMON: What if a youngster becomes sick when a nurse is not on duty - which obviously is a concern that's at the heart of this case that's caused so much attention?

DIFRANCO: The vast majority of schools have no vice principal, no counselors and we only have one secretary in most schools. So what happens in the nurse's absence is some member of the skeleton crew has to deal with a sick child. And those people are not trained medically. And we try to tell the superintendent that cutting back on their service was really not in the best interest of the children. We predicted that something horrible would happen.

SIMON: Would school personnel feel that they can call 911 if they need to?

DIFRANCO: Yes. Absolutely. If they knew to call 911, certainly they could call 911. You could have a student who may not look like he or she is in distress and he or she may not actually understand the severity of their own symptoms, and so neither one of them may really understand that 911 needs to be called. And what happens with asthma is that asthma is a very sneaky disease - and it's dangerous, as we know. With a trained professional, with a nurse on duty, when a students says I have trouble breathing or I have a bad cold, the first thing that we do is we listen with our stethoscopes and we can tell just by listening whether a child is in distress. Either the child could be wheezing very badly or there's no air movement, which is even more dangerous.

SIMON: A lot of students in Philadelphia have asthma?

DIFRANCO: Yes. I think almost 20 percent of the school population has asthma and individual schools may have higher percentages.

SIMON: You've worked in this school for over 23 years, right?

DIFRANCO: Yes.

SIMON: How have things changed?

DIFRANCO: We just really don't have the support that we used to have. We used to have more nursing supervisors that were on hand to help us when we had questions. That's been reduced. Any extra hands that could have been helpful in handling an emergency, all of those people are on and everyone is pretty much flying by the seat of their pants. So in our school with 680 students, we have no counselors. The people who handle the mental health problems are myself and the dean of students and the principal.

SIMON: Is there anything you'd recommend that Philadelphia schools do right now?

DIFRANCO: The fact of the matter is, is the governor and the mayor and the superintendent are responsible for the children, and there needs to be some sort of conversation among the three of them with the taxpayers that our children are at risk. And to cut back necessary resources for vulnerable children is not in the best interest of the state. That conversation has not taken place, unfortunately.

SIMON: Are you closed off from the argument that although what happened to this young woman is tragic, it may not have been the cutbacks that were responsible for it, but other circumstances?

DIFRANCO: We'll never know what the story was. What I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt is the conditions under which we are working. Again, the skeleton crew, people who are extremely busy and taken up with a million different duties because there aren't enough people to do that. I think of educators as a caring web that surrounds all of our children. Well, there are gaping holes in that web that simply cannot be filled or have not been filled.

SIMON: Eileen DiFranco, who's the school nurse at Roxborough High School in Philadelphia. Thanks so much for being with us.

DIFRANCO: Thank you, Scott.


●● smf’s 2¢ - Note: The Student to Nurse ration in Philadelphia, decried in this national news story is 1500:1. According to the LAUSD District Nursing Website there are over 450 School Nurses who serve the health needs of more than 640,000 LAUSD students, creating the appearance of a student to nurse ration of 1442.1. The California state average 2187:1

This is all very misleading because an LAUSD does not assign nurses based on student need or even school size – it assigns nurses based on school type:

The following is from the heralded 2007-8 LAUSD Budget – the one before the cuts that the wishful thinkers aspire-to …and the powers-that-be see as utopian:

SUPPORT ALLOCATIONS – 2007-08
Custodial personnel are allocated to schools based on a complex formula involving enrollment, building area, grounds, service to teachers, etc.

District-funded nurses are allocated as follows:
Elementary Schools – 1 day per week
Middle Schools – 2 days per week
Senior High Schools – 3 days per week

School Psychologists and related personnel are allocated to schools based primarily on student population size, type of school, and need for those services in the school population.

So Custodians and Psychologists are assigned by needs basis …and Nurses are assigned by a cookie cutter one-size-fits all approach, x days per week.

There is not a shortage of school nurses, there is a shortage of school nurse positions.

The National Association of School Nurses recommends a needs-based formula approach for determining full-time school nurse-to-students ratio.

For example:

• 1:750 WELL students
• 1:225 in the student populations that may require daily professional school nursing servicesor interventions such as Special Ed inclusions
• 1:125 in student populations with complex health care needs
• 1:1 may be necessary for individual students with multiple disabilities


NASN: School Nurses – How does your state match up?



'SEQUESTER' IMPACT FELT ON SPECIAL EDUCATION AID
By Christina A. Samuels, Education Week Vol. 33, Issue 06, Pages 18,20 | http://bit.ly/1c7eR4C

October 2, 2013 :: Cutting professional development and assistive technology, freezing open positions, and shifting money from general education are among the ways that districts are coping with the $600 million that across-the-board federal spending cuts known as sequestration have carved out of the nationwide budget for special education so far.

Such strategies have muted the effects of the federal cuts, district officials and analysts say. But such stopgap measures can only last so long, administrators say, before cuts will be made that will be felt by students.

And because of provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that don't allow dramatic reductions in special education funding, other educational programs eventually could bear a heavier weight from the reduction in federal support, setting up what could be seen as a damaging competition for resources.

"We've continued to have a high level of unfunded mandates, without the financial resources to be able to handle that," said Laurie VanderPloeg, the president of the Council of Administrators of Special Education, which represents district-level officials. Future cuts are going to create a "significant strain" in the general education budget, she said.

Lindsay Jones, the director of public advocacy for the National Center for Learning Disabilities, based in New York, said that even reductions in areas such as professional development can be meaningful, as states prepare for the Common Core State Standards. Implementation of the common standards and the tests aligned to them will require significant accommodations for special education students and training for building-level educators putting them into effect.

States "are not going to be prepared for the new tests, either technologically or instructionally," she said.

LONG-TERM HEADACHE

The funding cuts under sequestration are slated to remain in place for the next decade throughout the federal government unless Congress can develop a long-term deficit-trimming plan. The Obama administration has used education as an example of sequestration's negative impacts, although it has had to back off on some of its earlier, dire predictions, such as that tens of thousands of teachers could be laid off.

The overall impact on education programs has been hard to quantify. However, the cuts have been felt keenly in programs such as Head Start, where the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been able to quantify the effects in 57,000 slots lost, and in the U.S. Department of Education's Impact Aid program, which provides funding to offset the loss of tax revenue in areas such as those near military bases and Native American reservations.

Special education funding levels come with stringent mandates under the IDEA. School districts are required to provide a free, appropriate education to students with disabilities, and are constrained from cutting classes or staff if doing so would violate that requirement.

Despite the fact that the federal government provides about 18 percent of the cost of educating special education students, it also controls how much state and local money is spent on special education services, through the provisions of the IDEA. In general, the law's goal is to avoid having major fluctuations in funding from year to year.
Regional Impact

However, when districts add more money to special education—as some have been doing to make up for sequestration shortfalls—that increased level of local spending has to be maintained in future years, even if the federal dollars start flowing again.

Not that the federal funding tap is expected to flow any time soon, said Candace Cortiella, the director of the Advocacy Institute, a nonprofit organization in Marshall, Va., and the creator of the blog IDEA Money Watch.

"It appears almost certain that this first round of sequester cuts will become our new baseline," Ms. Cortiella said. "We've lost the $600 million, and that's not insignificant," she said.

Some states, such as Michigan, absorbed a portion of the federal sequestration cuts. Michigan lost about $22 million reduction in special education money under sequestration, but came up with about $10 million from other revenue sources to help make up for that.

That state infusion was one-time event, however.

Kathy Fortino, the associate superintendent for special education and early childhood for the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District, which manages federal special education funds for 14 school systems and education agencies serving 30,000 students in western Michigan, said the situation reminded her of her early career as a special education teacher.

At that time, the 1970s, general education teachers were often given pink slips every year and were constantly worrying about maintaining their jobs, Ms. Fortino said. As a special education teacher, she was insulated from that fear, but it set up a difficult dynamic with her peers. And the challenging funding forecast is coming at a time when general educators and special educators are working together more than ever before, she said.

"People are going to start getting protective of their funding," she said.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
iProblems in other places: TABLET-COMPUTING INITITIVES SUFFER MAJOR SETBACKS
By Benjamin Herold, Education Week | http://bit.ly/1cKLy4z

Two large-scale efforts to put digital devices in the hands of students, including the largest deployment to date of the much-publicized Amplify tablets,and a have been halted because of a variety of problems.

In the 73,000-student Guilford County, N.C., school system, officials announced this month that they have suspended the use of tablets and related equipment provided by Amplify, an independent subsidiary of the global media conglomerate [Fox] News Corp.

In Texas, meanwhile, the 70,000-student Fort Bend school district scrapped a 19-month-old initiative to deliver an interactive science curriculum via iPads initiated by their former superintendent [Broad Academy 2002] after a consultant found that "the program fell short of its mission due to a combination of unrealistic goals, insufficient planning and project management, lack of consistency with existing curriculum-development standards, and poor contract-management practices."
______

REBOOTING L.A. UNIFIED’S iPAD PLAN: Although we live in a technological age, it is more important for the dist... http://bit.ly/18ze7RR

L.A. UNIFIED’S ENGLISH LEARNER ACTION UPSETS PARENTS, TEACHERS: As the district moves to enforce a policy of g... http://bit.ly/1cIIIgD

FLORIDA PAINTS MORE LIPSTICK ON TEST SCORES DRIVEN BY COMMON CORE: By Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report – ... http://bit.ly/19ir0iy

The Skeleton Crew: WITH MAJOR DEBT, PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS CUT BACK ON NURSES: Student dies from untreated asthm... http://bit.ly/18wZgap

CLASS CALLS MEETING WITH VLADOVIC ‘PRODUCTIVE”.: by LA School Report | http://bit.ly/UXHVhZ Posted on Octo... http://bit.ly/19SUEde

ASSEMBLYMAN ASKS WRONG COMMITTEE TO REVIEW LA UNIFIED’S iPAD PROJECT + smf’s 2¢: Annie Gilbertson| Pass / Fail... http://bit.ly/1cFHZg6

BROAD MAKES KEY DONATION TO L.A. ARTS HIGH SCHOOL: By Howard Blume, L.A. Times http://lat.ms/1a0BVP1 Ph... http://bit.ly/18vzlQv

“I’VE NEVER SEEN SUCH CHAOS IN THE DISTRICT; IT’S NEVER BEEN SO BAD”: from the AALA UPDATE FOR THE WEEK OF OCT... http://bit.ly/19eH3hm

MORE TEENS DRINKING SUGARY BEVERAGES, STUDY FINDS: By Jane Meredith Adams EdSource Today http://bit.ly/1fIB0a2 ... http://bit.ly/1cCw6aM

A New Majority: LOW INCOME STUDENTS FROM THE SOUTH (AND THE WEST): from Fritzwire by email 18 October 2013 :... http://bit.ly/16UFCoM

READ THE LEGISLATION AND ALL IT CONTAINS: The Federal Budget Bill we have been waiting for so long redefines “... http://bit.ly/1cCnWPE

LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER TAMAR GALATZAN’S MOTION FOR A PUBLIC CENSURE OF LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT RICHARD... http://bit.ly/18sKDFa

Putting the “diss” in dysfunction: BOARDMEMBER GALATZAN INTRODUCES CENSURE MOTION AGAINST BOARD PRESIDENT VLAD... http://bit.ly/19PZI1X

“Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything”: STANFORD PROFESSOR FINDS MICHELLE RHEE’S TEACHER EVALUATIO... http://bit.ly/19cb8y0

LA TIMES REPORTING ON L.A. UNIFIED iPAD ROLLOUT MARRED BY CHAOS …well, maybe glitches: Howard Blume @howardbl... http://bit.ly/1czsIgL

DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO/NICHT DIESES VIDEO ANSEHEN ON YOUR PHONE, iPAD or TABLET | http://bit.ly/17wKZHg

LCFF: POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES IN NEW SCHOOL FUNDING LAW DEMAND ATTENTION: By Louis Freedberg| EdSource Today http... http://bit.ly/1d07hrT

Letters: iPAD ANGST AT LAUSD: Letters: http://latimes.com http://lat.ms/1cYKixA October 17, 2013 Re "A ta... http://bit.ly/18qmfEc

With no staff, school libraries fall silent: STUDENTS CAN SEE BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY BUT CAN’T CHECK THEM OUT + ... http://bit.ly/16QH5fG

iPads: LAUSD PRESS RELEASE RE: PROGRAM RESET & MEDIA REACTION: L.A. schools chief wants to extend iPad rollout... http://bit.ly/16QH5fC

THE SPIN @ THE BUDGET MTG: Remember when the goal and law on Class Size Reduction in K-3 was 20:1? How+When did 24:1 become the new 20:1?

THE SPIN AT BUDGET MTG: The goal is to "preserve funding levels". "Preserve" as in taxidermy? Is the expectation:"amazingly lifelike"?

COMMENT AT BUDGET PRIORITIES MTG: "Priorities, Politics + Sidestepping. Enough! This is NOT all right! ...and there's NO accountability!"

COMMENT AT BUDGET PRIORITIES MTG:"Saying iPads are a civil right demeans, denigrates and devalues the Civil Rights Movement."

COMMENT AT BUDGET PRIORITIES MTG: "Everything the board+public wants is on the wish list; everything Deasy wants is already in the budget."

iPads: LETTER FROM DR. DEASY RESETTING PHASES 2 & 3 OF THE COMMON CORE TECHNOLOGY PROJECT: by John E. Deasy to... http://bit.ly/196OKpL

iPads4Today: WHY LAUSD SHOULD HOPE STUDENTS “HACK” THEIR iPADS: OpEd in the pasadena star-news By Katherine M... http://bit.ly/18iujqu

iPads4today: L.A. UNIFIED STAKES REPUTATION ON iPAD PROGRAM: The district risks its credibility with the troub... http://bit.ly/19M3dZl

s4Today: FOUR L.A. SCHOOLS DECLINE iPADS IN INITIAL ROLLOUT, ASSEMBLYMAN REQUESTS LEGISLATIVE HEARING: By ... http://bit.ly/1bvmAVD

GETTING RID OF BAD TEACHERS: Times editorial board conflates teachers with low test scores with child molesters... http://bit.ly/1cRVZpI

STUDENTS IN FOSTER CARE FACE ‘INVISIBLE ACHIEVEMENT GAP,’ STUDY SAYS + full study: California students in foste... http://bit.ly/19LyQCa


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
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, 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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