In This Issue:
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CANDIDATE TO HEAD L.A. TEACHERS UNION FACES DISCIPLINE |
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THE UTLA ELECTIONS |
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3 stories: YOUNG BLACK MALES DISPROPORTIONATELY SUSPENDED …EVEN WHEN THEY ARE PRESCHOOLERS |
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JUST MY LUCK: Think taking the SAT is hard? Try taking it now. |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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There is a tendency among troublemakers to create trouble.
I have no data to support this hypothesis; it is purely anecdotal, based
on conjecture, observation and professional experience in the trade.
But it is my theory and I’m sticking with it.
Take John E. Deasy, Ph.D. for example.
UTLA was having a most excellent little election, contesting who (if
anyone) could do a better job than the incumbent at being president of
the union and advocating for teachers in their very contentious
relationship with the District. Ten different factions led by ten
dissimilar candidates had sprung up over the differing opinions about
what was right or wrong with UTLA and/or LAUSD.
There are those who pine for old leadership and those who long for new
leadership. There are voices for work actions: Strike! Voices afraid of
Wi-Fi in the classroom. Voices for-and-against Breakfast in the
Classroom and the Common Core and Value Added Assessment and Merit Pay.
Voices for Raises and Class Size Reduction; voices for getting along and
voices for tearing up the cobblestones and taking to the barricades.
Dr. Deasy looked at this division and saw opportunity. Conflict is weakness. Divide and conquer. Stir the pot.
So last week he singled out one of the candidates – named names – and
announced that the candidate he named is subject to discipline for being
absent without leave. For campaigning for union office on company time.
(See: Candidate to Head L.A. Teachers Union Faces Discipline)
Never mind that that candidate Alex Caputo-Pearl did have leave to
campaign from his administrator …that principal (also called out for
discipline) had allowed what Dr. Deasy wouldn’t have allowed.
Administrators are encouraged to act independently …as long as their
independent action is exactly what Dr. D would’ve done!
At one level Dr. Deasy is right – classroom teachers should be in class teaching.
But in this case Dr. Deasy named names and made charges to the media.
Normally (if that word is ever appropriate in LAUSD) when a certificated
employee is subject to discipline they disappear into “housing” – into
teacher jail and the rubber room – without explanation. The accused
becomes a non-person – shunned, vanished into the gulag – replaced by a
sub.
The District and this superintendent are scrupulously, thoroughly and
maddeningly secretive about matters of employee discipline.
I submit that Dr. Deasy broke his own rules and the District process and interfered in the UTLA presidential election.
And why, pray tell, you ask, would he do such a thing? Why would he
meddle? There is certainly no love lost between Dr. Deasy and Mr.
Caputo-Pearl – surely if he were to interfere it would be to promote
someone else?
Dr. Deasy, gentle reader, promotes Dr. Deasy’s interests+agenda and
those of his allies. And conflict with+within UTLA – “The Bad Teachers
Union” is what interests him and the anti-teachers-union crowd.
THERE HAS BEEN MUCH WRITTEN+SAID OF LATE about the numbers of teachers
and administrators currently being housed. There are a few infamous
cases out there – the chorus director at Crenshaw, the principal at Maya
Angelou High School -- complete with public outcry. I get a couple of
calls a week about disappeared staff. I have asked around and there
probably is not more staff being housed now than ever before
….certainly not as many as when Dr. Deasy interned the entire faculty at
Miramonte!
BUT LET’S GO BACK TO THE ELECTION.
Last April UTLA held a vote and 55% of the membership voted – with 91%
of those voting No Confidence in Superintendent Deasy’s leadership. In
the first round of the union leadership elections this March only 23%
bothered to vote for anyone. It is obvious that Dr. Deasy is the
polarizing figure in UTLA elections!
I’m not here advocating that UTLA should be running the District though
collective bargaining and the union contract – or that the membership
should vote for this-that-or-the-other-guy (and what’s with all the guys
anyway? The membership is predominantly women …where are all those
predominant women?) …but I am saying that the rank and file should vote!
Democracy is not a spectator sport – and 4LAKids hopes that in the
runoff some genuine interest and genuine turnout can be generated.
…or the membership can let the Deasy’s and Broad’s and Gates’ and
Bloomberg’s and Rhee’s and Duncan‘s make all the decisions. What could
possibly go wrong?
“Oh, look outside the window
there's a woman being grabbed.
They've dragged her to the bushes
and now she's being stabbed.
“Maybe we should call the cops
and try to stop the pain
but Monopoly is so much fun
I'd hate to blow the game.
“And I'm sure
it wouldn't interest anybody
outside of a small circle of friends”
- Phil Ochs
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
_________________
ADVISORY TO DISTRICT EMPLOYEES RE YOUR LAUSD.NET E-MAIL ACCOUNTS AND
RECEIVING AND FORWARDING ELECTION MATERIALS: There are elections ongoing
and coming up – including for union leadership and the special election
for the school board and county sheriff vacancy. Primary and general
elections will soon follow …it is election season and 4LAKids thanks
AALA for the following in their weekly newsletter:
You may periodically receive campaign materials at your District e-mail
address regarding various issues or endorsing a political candidate for
any office from external e-mail providers. While you have the right to
free speech and ability to advocate for candidates of your choice, it is
a misuse of the District e-mail and network to forward or distribute
this type of material from a District server or e-mail account to
another server or e-mail account. As an exception, you may forward these
e-mails to your own personal server or e-mail account.
CANDIDATE TO HEAD L.A. TEACHERS UNION FACES DISCIPLINE
By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1gfcYDk
March 14, 2014, 11:41 a.m. :: Los Angeles school district officials
say one of the top candidates for president of the teachers union faces
discipline for leaving his campus to campaign during the school day.
The issue has entangled L.A. Unified in a contentious union race with
high stakes both for teachers and the nation’s second-largest school
system.
Alex Caputo-Pearl, 45, is one of nine challengers to Warren Fletcher,
who is bidding for a second and final three-year term. Mail-in ballots
will be counted March 20.
Caputo-Pearl, a social studies instructor, visited other campuses during
the school day by taking unpaid time on parts of 43 days during the
current academic year, according to the district.
Caputo-Pearl said the missed hours added up to 17 days. Most of those
hours, he added, were during a portion of the day when he was not
scheduled to supervise students. The veteran instructor added that he
had the permission of his principal to be off campus. He cited a
provision of the union contract that gives a principal discretion to
grant unpaid time off.
Two candidates for other offices also have used unpaid time, although to
lesser extents. Some past UTLA candidates have done the same, according
to some longtime UTLA activists.
The contract does not explicitly ban taking time off to campaign, but the district ordered a stop to the practice.
“Campaigning for an elected UTLA office is not an option for a leave of
absence,” wrote Justo H. Avila, a human resources official, in a Feb. 27
letter to Fletcher. “Our principals do not have the authority to grant
such leaves.”
By that point, Caputo-Pearl already had been warned personally to remain
on campus, said L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy. But Caputo-Pearl left
campus on parts of three days after that admonition, Deasy said.
Violating a directive subjects a teacher to discipline, said the
superintendent, adding that he cannot reveal any disciplinary action
taken against a particular teacher.
Caputo-Pearl said that the district’s allegations that he violated rules
are inaccurate. Officials said they learned of the issue after other
challengers complained that they’d been unable to get time off, and that
Caputo-Pearl had an unfair advantage. Some objected to any candidate
being able to leave school.
Caputo-Pearl said the unpaid time helped him even the odds against two
candidates with no classroom obligations: Fletcher and union Vice
President Gregg Solkovits.
Caputo-Pearl works this year in the alternative program at Frida Kahlo
High School in South Los Angeles. Students there typically work
independently on different courses. Caputo-Pearl manages about 10
different academic programs at the same time. But he also receives extra
paid planning time. The result is that he supervises no students
between 12:45 p.m. and the end of the school day at 3 p.m.
To visit teachers elsewhere, Caputo-Pearl handled his planning after school hours and forfeited his pay for the missed time.
As for missed classroom periods, Caputo-Pearl said he entrusted his
students to two substitutes with whom he’s worked for 10 years.
Deasy said the district should never have to pay a substitute for time spent campaigning.
“When your duties are done for which we pay you, campaign your hearts out,” Deasy said. “In the meantime, please teach.”
Caputo-Pearl, a longtime community organizer as a teacher at Crenshaw
High, has a stormy history with district officials. When Deasy ordered
Crenshaw reorganized because of low test scores, Caputo-Pearl was
removed, despite his reputation as an effective teacher.
He has the support of 250 local school union representatives, among others.
The union has battled the district over the direction of reforms,
including such matters as how teachers should be evaluated and whether
performance or seniority should govern layoffs.
Most of Fletcher’s challengers say he hasn’t offered enough resistance
to Deasy or fought hard enough for an alternative vision for education.
●Also See: DEASY SAYS PRINCIPAL WHO OK’D CAPUTO-PEARL CAMPAIGN LEAVE WAS DISCIPLINED
by Michael Janofsky, LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1kV0120
THE UTLA ELECTIONS
►RACE TO LEAD L.A. TEACHERS UNION HEADED TO RUNOFF
By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1iQTKnW
March 20, 2014, 4:25 p.m. :: The contest to head the nation's
second-largest teachers union will go to a second round, pitting
incumbent Warren Fletcher against challenger Alex Caputo-Pearl.
Fewer than 1 in 4 teachers cast ballots. Caputo-Pearl received 48% of the votes and Fletcher, 21%.
Ten candidates had been vying for the office of president of United
Teachers-Los Angeles. They sought to lead a teacher corps that is
substantially dispirited and divided, with common grievances, but no
clear consensus on how to move forward.
The candidates' ideas included becoming more -- or less -- adversarial
with the district and changing the color of union T-shirts from red to
pink or orange to seem less aggressive.
The leader of the union not only affects its 31,552 members but also
half a million students. The union president speaks for the membership
publicly and is a crucial figure for setting priorities and negotiating
contracts. But the union's structure also is cumbersome and, without a
strong president, it's difficult to bring the factions together.
Fletcher was seeking a second and final term for a three-year position
that pays $101,000 annually. The ballots were mailed out in late
February and tallied Thursday.
In his campaign, Fletcher, 54, noted that since he became president,
teacher layoffs and furlough days have stopped. And he insisted that he
made no major concessions to L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy on issues
critical to teachers.
Veteran community activist and social studies teacher Caputo-Pearl, 45,
told teachers that he could revive a union that had become too passive
-- a theme of most of the candidates. Caputo-Pearl offered as proof of
his ability the endorsement of 250 campus union representatives and a
slate of candidates for other union offices.
Caputo-Pearl represents a left-leaning activist wing that rejected Fletcher.
The candidate who finished third, Gregg Solkovits, was the standard
bearer for some traditional union stalwarts who also deserted Fletcher.
The L.A. Unified School District is slowly recovering from years of
budget cuts that forced thousands of layoffs of teachers, counselors,
nurses and others. UTLA, other unions and the district are battling over
how best to use moderate increases in funding. There's also contention
over the growth of charter schools, most of which are non-union, and a
new teacher evaluation system that relies, in part, on student test
scores.
Against the backdrop of perennially low student achievement, the
district must decide how to achieve new state learning goals, while it
also embarks on a $1-billion technology program and prepares for new
state tests.
____________________________
► ‘UNION POWER’ WINS BIG BUT MOST UTLA MEMBERS DIDN’T VOTE: UTLA'S ELECTION DREW ONLY 23 PERCENT OF THE MEMBERSHIP
by Vanessa Romo | LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1iQO3Xd
March 21, 2014 2:39 pm :: UTLA is headed in a new direction — mostly veering to the left.
Despite a low turnout, Union Power candidates claimed victory today,
with wins in nearly every leadership position within UTLA, the nation’s
second-largest teachers union.
The progressive group — which plans to call for a strike if a new
teacher contract can’t be negotiated soon — won outright in races for
NEA Affiliate vice president, AFT Affiliate vice president, Elementary
VP, Secondary VP, Treasurer, and Secretary. The race for President will
be decided in a run-off pitting Union Power leader, Alex Caputo-Pearl,
against incumbent Warren Fletcher.
“This shows that our members want UTLA to pro-actively and assertively
fight against the attacks on the profession, while fighting for a clear
vision of quality schools that we build through aggressive organizing
with members, parents, and community,” Caputo-Pearl said in a statement.
Although he fell short of getting 51 percent of votes in the first
round, Caputo-Pearl says he’s confident he’ll come out on top in the
end.
“The organizing that led to these successes today,” he said, “will
propel us to victory in the fight for a pay increase, for class size
reduction and increases in staffing, against teacher jail, and around
all of the other issues that are critical in public education today.”
Fletcher received fewer than half the votes Caputo-Pearl captured. He
responded to the news in a statement, saying, “The results of the first
round of the UTLA election were fairly unambiguous. The voting
membership has decisively signaled the desire for a change in direction.
To assert otherwise would be to deny an obvious reality.”
“I am confident that UTLA, whether under Mr. Caputo-Pearl’s leadership
or mine, will move forward into the next three years with the common
goal of fighting for what is best for students, for schools, and for the
classroom,” he added.
John Lee, Senior Executive Director of Teach Plus in Los Angeles, told
LA School Report that Union Power “was clearly the best organized among
the different groups,” evidenced by their ability to get the endorsement
of more than 250 UTLA chapter chairs. But Lee says the group’s sweep is
far from a mandate on anything, given the total number of ballots cast.
Only about 23 percent of UTLA’s 31,552 members participated in the
election. And even Arlene Inouye, the incumbent treasurer who had the
most votes (4,231) in her race, received only 13.5 percent of the total
votes cast.
“When you’re talking about only only a quarter of members voting, that
tells us that the majority of UTLA members aren’t engaged,” Lee said.
“That means you have this vocal minority who are setting the direction
for the union.”
Teach Plus launched a petition initiative to increase UTLA member
participation getting that petition initiative to get online voting in
the union. Gregg Solkovits came in third in the run for president,
ending his bid for the position once held by his mother.
“Whoever is the next UTLA president is going to have to face the dilemma
that unless you get UTLA well organized and ready to fight, then UTLA
becomes increasingly powerless,” he told LA School Report.
Throughout his campaign Solkovits, like Caputo-Pearl, said the union has
failed exert any strength over Superintendent John Deasy or the school
board in negotiating a new teacher contract. The last contract expired
two-years ago, leaving teachers and the district to operate under a
temporary contract.
“My plan also was that we make sure that every school has a chapter
chair then the union would have the ability to threaten a strike,
Solkovits said. “A union that can’t threaten a strike is basically at
the mercy of management.”
And that’s not a Union Power idea, he said, “that’s basically Union 101.”
FULL UTLA ELECTION RESULTS
http://www.utla.net/utlaelection2014
3 stories: YOUNG BLACK MALES DISPROPORTIONATELY SUSPENDED …EVEN WHEN THEY ARE PRESCHOOLERS
BLACK STUDENTS OF ALL AGES ARE SUSPENDED AND EXPELLED
AT A RATE THAT’S THREE TIMES HIGHER THAN THAT OF WHITE CHILDREN
►THOUSANDS OF PRESCHOOL KIDS FACE SUSPENSION
By the Associated Press from the Omaha World-Herald | http://bit.ly/1dBHF0U
Friday, March 21, 2014 at 5:11 am | WASHINGTON (AP) :: Even
preschoolers are getting suspended from U.S. public schools — and
they’re disproportionately black, a trend that continues up through the
later grades.
Statistics released Friday by the Education Department’s civil rights
arm found that black children represent about 18 percent of children
enrolled in preschool programs in schools, but almost half of the
students suspended more than once. Six percent of the nation’s districts
with preschools reported suspending at least one preschool child.
Advocates have long said that get-tough suspension and arrest policies
in schools have contributed to a “school-to-prison” pipeline that snags
minority students, but much of the emphasis has been on middle school
and high school policies. This data shows the disparities starting in
the youngest of children.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration issued guidance encouraging
schools to abandon what it described as overly zealous discipline
policies that send students to court instead of the principal’s office.
But, even before the announcement, school districts have been adjusting
policies that disproportionately affect minority students.
Overall, the data showed that black students of all ages are suspended
and expelled at a rate that’s three times higher than that of white
children. Even as boys receive more than two-thirds of suspensions,
black girls are suspended at higher rates than girls of any other race
or most boys.
The data doesn’t explain why the disparities exist or why the students
were suspended. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General
Eric Holder were to appear at J.O. Wilson Elementary School Friday in
Washington to discuss the data.
“It is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet
our goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed,”
Duncan said in a statement.
Nationally, 1 million children were served in public preschool programs,
with about 60 percent of districts offering preschool during the
2011-2012 school year, according to the data. The data shows nearly
5,000 preschoolers suspended once. At least 2,500 were suspended more
than once.
►SCHOOL DATA FINDS PATTERN OF INEQUALITY ALONG RACIAL LINES
By Motoko Rich, New York Times | http://nyti.ms/1dlPQny
March 21, 2014 :: Racial minorities are more likely than white
students to be suspended from school, to have less access to rigorous
math and science classes, and to be taught by lower-paid teachers with
less experience, according to comprehensive data released Friday by the
Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
In the first analysis in nearly 15 years of information from all of the
country’s 97,000 public schools, the Education Department found a
pattern of inequality on a number of fronts, with race as the dividing
factor.
Black students are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of
white students. A quarter of high schools with the highest percentage of
black and Latino students do not offer any Algebra II courses, while a
third of those schools do not have any chemistry classes. Black students
are more than four times as likely as white students — and Latino
students are twice as likely — to attend schools where one out of every
five teachers does not meet all state teaching requirements.
“Here we are, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the data
altogether still show a picture of gross inequity in educational
opportunity,” said Daniel J. Losen, director of the Center for Civil
Rights Remedies at the University of California at Los Angeles’s Civil
Rights Project.
In his budget request to Congress, President Obama has proposed a new
phase of his administration’s Race to the Top competitive grant program,
which would give $300 million in incentives to states and districts
that put in place programs intended to close some of the educational
gaps identified in the data.
“In all, it is clear that the United States has a great distance to go
to meet our goal of providing opportunities for every student to
succeed,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.
One of the striking statistics to emerge from the data, based on
information collected during the 2011-12 academic year, was that even as
early as preschool, black students face harsher discipline than other
students.
While black children make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment, close
to half of all preschool children who are suspended more than once are
African-American.
“To see that young African-American students — or babies, as I call them
— are being suspended from pre-K programs at such horrendous rates is
deeply troubling,” said Leticia Smith-Evans, interim director of
education practice at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
“It’s incredible to think about or fathom what pre-K students could be doing to get suspended from schools,” she added.
In high school, the study found that while more than 70 percent of white
students attend schools that offer a full range of math and science
courses — including algebra, biology, calculus, chemistry, geometry and
physics — just over half of all black students have access to those
courses. Just over two-thirds of Latinos attend schools with the full
range of math and science courses, and less than half of American Indian
and Native Alaskan students are able to enroll in as many high-level
math and science courses as their white peers.
“We want to have a situation in which students of color — and every
student — has the opportunity and access that will get them into any
kind of STEM career that takes their fancy,” said Claus von Zastrow,
director of research for Change the Equation, a nonprofit that advocates
improved science, technology, engineering and math education, or STEM,
in the United States. “We’re finding that in fact a huge percentage of
primarily students of color, but of all students, don’t even have the
opportunity to take those courses. Those are gateways that are closed to
them.”
The Education Department’s report found that black, Latino, American
Indian and Native Alaskan students are three times as likely as white
students to attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year
teachers. And in nearly a quarter of school districts with at least two
high schools, the teacher salary gap between high schools with the
highest concentrations of black and Latino students and those with the
lowest is more than $5,000 a year.
Timothy Daly, president of the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit that
recruits teachers, said that while the data looked at educator
experience and credentials, it was also important to look at quality, as
measured by test scores, principal observations and student surveys.
“Folks who cannot teach effectively should not be working with
low-income or African-American kids, period,” he said, adding that the
problem was difficult to resolve because individual districts are
allowed to make decisions on how to assign teachers to schools.
►DATA SNAPSHOT: SCHOOL DISCIPLINE
From US Department of Education | Office for Civil Rights | Civil Rights Data Collection
Issue Brief No. 1 (March 2014) | http://1.usa.gov/1jnIDkW
Inside This Snapshot: SCHOOL DISCIPLINE, RESTRAINT, & SECLUSION HIGHLIGHTS
• Suspension of preschool children, by race/ethnicity and gender (new
for 2011-2012 collection): Black children represent 18% of preschool
enrollment, but 48% of preschool children receiving more than one
out-of-school suspension; in comparison, white students represent 43% of
preschool enrollment but 26% of preschool children receiving more than
one out of school suspension. Boys represent 79% of preschool children
suspended once and 82% of preschool children suspended multiple times,
although boys represent 54% of preschool enrollment.
• Disproportionately high suspension/expulsion rates for students of
color: Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times
greater than white students. On average, 5% of white students are
suspended, compared to 16% of black students. American Indian and
Native-Alaskan students are also disproportionately suspended and
expelled, representing less than 1% of the student population but 2% of
out-of-school suspensions and 3% of expulsions.
• Disproportionate suspensions of girls of color: While boys receive
more than two out of three suspensions, black girls are suspended at
higher rates (12%) than girls of any other race or ethnicity and most
boys; American Indian and Native-Alaskan girls (7%) are suspended at
higher rates than white boys (6%) or girls (2%).
• Suspension of students with disabilities and English learners:
Students with disabilities are more than twice as likely to receive an
out-of-school suspension (13%) than students without disabilities (6%).
In contrast, English learners do not receive out-of-school suspensions
at disproportionately high rates (7% suspension rate, compared to 10% of
student enrollment).
• Suspension rates, by race, sex, and disability status combined: With
the exception of Latino and Asian-American students, more than one out
of four boys of color with disabilities (served by IDEA) — and nearly
one in five girls of color with disabilities — receives an out-of-school
suspension.
• Arrests and referrals to law enforcement, by race and disability
status: While black students represent 16% of student enrollment, they
represent 27% of students referred to law enforcement and 31% of
students subjected to a school-related arrest. In comparison, white
students represent 51% of enrollment, 41% of students referred to law
enforcement, and 39% of those arrested. Students with disabilities
(served by IDEA) represent a quarter of students arrested and referred
to law enforcement, even though they are only 12% of the overall student
population.
• Restraint and seclusion, by disability status and race: Students with
disabilities (served by IDEA) represent 12% of the student population,
but 58% of those placed in seclusion or involuntary confinement, and 75%
of those physically restrained at school to immobilize them or reduce
their ability to move freely. Black students represent 19% of students
with disabilities served by IDEA, but 36% of these students who are
restrained at school through the use of a mechanical device or equipment
designed to restrict their freedom of movement.
►More US Dept of Ed Office for Civil Rights Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) | http://1.usa.gov/1pmMnVi
JUST MY LUCK: Think taking the SAT is hard? Try taking it now.
WHO WANTS TO BE AMONG THE LAST TO TAKE A REPUDIATED VERSION OF THE TEST?
Op-Ed By Haskell Flender in the LA Times | http://lat.ms/1nQLhpr
March 23, 2014 :: Two Saturdays ago, I, along with tens of thousands
of other high school juniors, awoke with butterflies in my stomach,
reviewed the definitions of "lachrymose" and "inchoate" as I choked down
a power breakfast, and double-checked the batteries in my calculator.
Clutching my freshly sharpened Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencils, I filed
into a large, unwelcoming classroom, took a seat, said a prayer to the
College Board, opened my test booklet and took my first SAT.
On the face of it, there was nothing unusual about this particular day.
Generations of over-caffeinated high school students have sat in these
same halls, trying to remember the Uniform Motion Formula and sensing
their college prospects slipping away as they struggle to stay awake
through some of the most excruciatingly dull reading passages ever
written.
But my group of test takers had a dubious distinction, one that set us
apart from those who have taken the SAT before us and those who will
take it in years to come. We were taking a test that, just three days
prior, had been declared by the organization that administers it to be
flawed because it a) tests antiquated vocabulary, b) presents artificial
obstacles, c) disadvantages those who cannot afford expensive
preparatory courses, d) is a poor predictor of college readiness and
success, or e) causes "unproductive anxiety" among high school students.
(Correct answer: all of the above.)
Unproductive anxiety? Tell me about it. It's hard enough to take the SAT
under normal conditions; try taking it immediately after the College
Board's president, David Coleman, has proclaimed: "It is time for an
admissions assessment that makes it clear that the road to success is
not last-minute tricks or cramming."
Tricks? I've studied them all. Cramming? My middle name.
I have spent hours pushing through vocabulary, practicing math problems
and learning all the ins and outs of every unnatural and forced
grammatical rule ever created. I have my own analysis of exactly what is
unfair about the SAT: It tests test-taking, not genuine skill or
knowledge. In the hopes of getting a good score, I've had to take time
away from my actual course work to study material that has virtually no
practical application in my life.
While a new and better SAT may be coming, it has not yet arrived. The
College Board's revised exam won't make an appearance until 2016. That
leaves the graduating class of 2015 — my class — and the class of 2016
no option but to take a test whose shortcomings have been acknowledged
by the very people who created it. It also raises a question for college
admissions officers: How should they weigh a prospective student's
performance on a tainted test?
It's unrealistic to think that the College Board could overhaul the test
and put it into practice immediately; moreover, students deserve the
opportunity to familiarize themselves with the new format. But where's
the harm in implementing a few very basic changes that would bridge the
gap between the old and new tests for those of us caught in the middle?
For example, the essay will be optional in 2016, but for now, it is
scored in such a way that length is valued over content and facts can be
made up without penalty. Why not allow students to opt out of the essay
now? Similarly, in the future, points will no longer be deducted for
incorrect answers. Why wait
to put that into practice? Why continue to penalize test-takers for
making educated guesses, a valuable skill that any good teacher
cultivates in his or her students?
Nevertheless, kudos to you, College Board, for your perspicacity in
acknowledging your parochialism and for taking steps to ameliorate your
antediluvian test. I hope I've adequately registered my disapprobation
with your timing; pardon my circumlocution.
If only I had been born two years later! In that case, I wouldn't need to know what any of those words means.
● Haskell Flender is a high school junior at Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
U.S. SCHOOLS PLAGUED BY INEQUALITY ALONG RACIAL
LINES, STUDY FINDS: In discipline, access to education and oth... http://bit.ly/1rip56N
Avoiding the front-runners: UTLA BOARD RECOMMENDS - ¡Not Endorses!- 3 TEACHERS FOR LA UNIFIED SEAT: UTLA bo... http://bit.ly/OKzut3
AALA VOTES TO ENDORSE DR. GEORGE MCKENNA: Associated Administrators of L.A. Update - Week of March 24, 2014 ... http://bit.ly/1h8sjSg
SAY GOODBYE TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Diane Ravitch warns Salon some cities will soon have none: "Why destroy p... http://bit.ly/1oIKGDj
PUBLIC DENIED ACCESS TO LA SCHOOL OFFICIALS’ iPAD SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATION + smf’s 2¢: by Annie Gilbertson, KPCC... http://bit.ly/1h1FaWv
US Dept of Ed I.G. notes a general upswing in the # of criminal cases involving Title I funds set aside for SES | http://bit.ly/1eVXyj4
CELES KING IV, Civil Rights Leader, Community Activist, Education Advocate dies at 70: Of his friend and mento... http://bit.ly/1dqsyXX
►UPDATE TO THE ABOVE: Celes King’s Funeral services will be held on
March 29 at 11 a.m. at Angeles Mesa Presbyterian Church, 3751 W. 54th
St., Los Angeles. http://bit.ly/1kVez1◄
LEARNING TO THINK IS THE GOAL: Letter to the Los Angeles Times | http://bit.ly/OksXFm R... http://bit.ly/1iDaD5m
FROM LAUSD’s SECOND INTERIM FINANCIAL REPORT: “There must be some way outta here, said the joker to the thief”... http://bit.ly/1cVm7Bh
TODAY’S LAUSD BOARD AGENDA: “the District may not be able to meet its financial obligations for the current fi... http://bit.ly/1qPBcZ1
State Board makes it official: NO API SCORES FOR NEXT TWO YEARS: By John Fensterwald | EdSource Today http://b... http://bit.ly/1cV5c1H
THELMA MELENDEZ, MAYOR’S EDUCATION ADVISOR, TO JOIN L.A. UNIFIED, Maria Casillas back as Deasy’s interim #2: B... http://bit.ly/1fVUVlx
L.A. UNIFIED’S DECISION TO MOVE STUDENTS SPARKS FUROR: Officials didn't take into account long-standing (commu... http://bit.ly/1qMWzKr
Tweet: St. Patrick's Day: James Cahill said the Irish saved western
civilization in the medieval period. Come back St. Pat!
pic.twitter.com/uZNIqGnPWo
Tweet: Parents react to @DrDeasyLAUSD mandatory #LAUSD Breakfast in the
Classroom on @KPCC AirTalk w/@Patt_Morrison today 3/16 11AM 89.3FM
Tweet: Stealth Changes at the Top: Transfer of LA Deputy Mayor to
#LAUSD, Appointment of Deasy new #2 rates only a flurry of tweets from
#LATimes
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
March 25, 2014 | Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee -
Start: 03/25/2014 2:00 pm
*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
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!.
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