In This Issue:
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Whistleblower Case (cont.): EX-L.A. UNIFIED TEACHER WINS $3.35 MILLION AFTER FIRING FROM JROTC JOB |
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AN UPDATE ON LA'S IPAD PROGRAM |
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DATA DRIVES THE BUS (OVER A CLIFF) …and some parents say “enough” to a district’s assessment craze |
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JOHN GOODLAD DIES AT 94; LED RESEARCH ON HOW SCHOOLS FAIL TO EDUCATE |
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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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Charles Dickens pretty much invented the modern
secular Christmas in a novella published in 1843. “Marley was dead” it
begins. Thankfully 2014…far, far from the best+worst of times… is
almost dead too.
in her annual Christmas message, H.M. The Queen of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain & Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and
Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, etc.,
singled out two (if you can ‘single out ‘two) items for specific
mention:
THE FIRST was the selfless heroism of those fighting the battle against Ebola.
THE SECOND was the centennial of the Christmas Truce of 1914, when peace
broke out spontaneously on the Western Front of World War I. The war
would last four years, but four months into it the fighting stopped and
No Man’s Land was occupied in Peace. For one brief instant in the
bloodiest century in the history of mankind (no disrespect to our
sisters, but we of the masculine gender own that title!) the promise of
“Silent Night”/”Stille Nacht” was kept and the melody and verse sung in
true harmony. Football games may have been played.
The generals were horrified. The Powers That Be made sure that
precedent was never repeated, – not in that war or in any since. One
hundred years later it is a singular moment of unauthorized heroism.
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Hirten erst kundgemacht
Durch der Engel Halleluja,
Tönt es laut von fern und nah
Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heav'nly hosts sing Alleluia;
…with apologies to Leonard Cohen: It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah.
May they all sleep in that heavenly peace.
2014: A year with little to recommend it. A year that celebrates the Triumph of Fracking and the Reemergence of Terrorism.
Terrorism reestablished a caliphate, kidnapped and enslaved and
married-off schoolgirls and slaughtered schoolboys. It annexed Crimea
and shot down airliners while other planes from the same airline
vanished into thin air and/or the deep blue sea.
Fracking brought us the appearance of energy independence;
$2.50-a-gallon gasoline, cheap natural gas, an 18,000 point Dow Jones
Average and the collapse of the ruble. Capitalism so rocks! Of course
fracking also uses and/or contaminates water during an historic draught,
adds more CO² to the atmospheric soup (which warms the globe),
possibly triggers seismic disturbance and depletes whatever oil reserves
are left – creating an economic bubble in the energy business while
doing nothing for sustainability or renewability. It’s a stay, not a
reprieve.
Fracking+Terrorism. “A plague o' both your houses!” A plague named Ebola.
MORE LOCALLY we have issues with GOP Hacking Sony and North Korean
Cinema Criticism, Police Use of Deadly Force against Black men, GOP
Congressional Gridlock, Immigration Policy and iPads and MiSiS. (Rhymes
with Isis!) The good news is that we have neither Donald Sterling nor
John Deasy to kick around anymore – next Wednesday is officially Dr.
DZ’s last day! The bad news is that that catchall excuse-for-everything
(…and answer to the question: “What else could go wrong?”) won’t work
for anything new in2015.
Some LAUSD students are hoping they get a full class schedule when the
next term starts; kids everywhere are wondering when they can have their
chocolate milk back.
Here I Will Wander Afield and Upset Everyone, One Way or Another:
COMPARE+CONTRAST: BAD TEACHERS & BAD POLICEMEN.
The pinhead conventional wisdom has it that If only we could eliminate
The Bad Teachers and/or The Bad Policemen, everything would be better.
The media seems to agree. Sure these are complicated problems … but
surely there are simple solutions!
• If only there was more accountability/more classroom observations/CCTV
in every room/more dashboard and body cams. Video fixes everything –
remember Rodney King? / Remember Eric Garner?
• If only the Teacher’s Unions/Police Unions/and the rank+ file wouldn’t
blindly rally around their own. Sure we’ve been attacking them …but
what’s with them defending themselves?
• Maybe the problem isn’t bad teachers/bad police officers. Maybe the problem is bad public sector unions.
• Most teachers and most police do a fine job; we just need to root out the bad ones – whatever that percentage is.
• Peer review doesn’t work; the conflict-of-self- interest is too great.
• Prosecutors and principals and downtown brass and grand Juries and
school boards are too close/too intertwined/too systemically embedded to
be trusted to self police.
There ought to be an algorithm. An independent third party. There ought
to be The National Council on Teacher Quality or some other Bill
Gates/Eli Broad off-the-shelf grassroots organization. Where is ALEC
when we need them?
In the words+music of Mr. Sondheim:
Don't you love a farce; my fault I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want - sorry my dear
But where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns
…Don't bother they're here
Some will say that my comparison doesn’t work; police make life or death
decisions – teachers shape young lives, deciding over time. Generally
cops are politically red; teachers're blue. Most cops would probably
agree that teachers’ unions are the problem – buncha’ knee jerk
liberals. Likewise teachers will blame police unions – paramilitary
right-wingers. Both are control valves in the School-to-Prison Pipeline.
And the truth is that both teachers and police can ruin lives in a
single moment and/or over time - by mistake or by design or by pure
unadulterated ignorance.
“We have met the enemy,” the possum said,”… and he is us."
And so it was and need not forever be.
Next week: 2015.
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
Whistleblower Case (cont.): EX-L.A. UNIFIED TEACHER
WINS $3.35 MILLION AFTER FIRING FROM JROTC JOB
JURORS AWARD $3.35 MILLION TO AN EX-MILITARY MAN THEY FIND WAS FIRED FOR WHISTLE-BLOWING AT LAUSD SCHOOL
• EARLIER STORY: WHISTLEBLOWER CASE COSTS LAUSD A $3.3 MILLION JURY AWARD + smf’s [less than] 2¢ | http://bit.ly/16Duak9
by Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1EvKra3
Dec.27, 2014 :: After Archie Roundtree and Gerardo Loera clashed at
John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, their careers
quickly diverged. Roundtree lost his job and his teaching certification.
Loera rose to become chief academic officer for the Los Angeles Unified
School District, the nation's second-largest school system.
This month, however, Roundtree, 57, received a measure of vindication regarding the events that ended his career.
After a three-week trial, a Superior Court jury found that Loera had
targeted Roundtree for blowing the whistle on problems with the Air
Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Polytechnic.
Loera was the school principal at the time.
The verdict was $3.35 million in damages, including more than $1 million for Loera's conduct.
L.A. Unified has denied that Loera or anyone else did anything improper and may appeal.
The lawsuit arises from events that occurred three years ago, when
Roundtree headed the JROTC at the San Fernando Valley campus. Loera had
hired Roundtree in 2009, after the retired Air Force major left an Apple
Valley school that had discontinued the program.
Roundtree said he taught students about drill and military ceremonies,
the history and structure of the Air Force as well as government systems
and the Constitution and Bill of Rights. He also taught ethics,
fitness, ways to deal with stress and good conduct.
In the fall of 2011, Roundtree met with Loera to discuss the
instructor's concern that the schedule allowed for only an introductory
JROTC class, which he felt was not enough to build a program. He said he
also believed Poly was not complying with two key rules.
For one, Poly failed to enroll at least 100 students for two full
quarters. And too few students chose to be in JROTC; rather, they had
been assigned involuntarily to the class, according to testimony.
Roundtree wrote a request to the Air Force that Loera signed, asking for
Poly to offer the program temporarily with fewer than 100 voluntary
cadets. And the letter talked of these students being enrolled for two
quarters. The Air Force approved it, according to court documents.
______
“I respect the jury verdict, but that cannot replace what was taken from me. “- Archie Roundtree, former L.A. Unified teacher
_____
"I thought he would shake my hand and be happy to stay in compliance
with the law," Roundtree said. "I thought he would appreciate me
bringing that to his attention."
But Roundtree reported that Loera did not abide by the commitment. The
teacher also later raised concerns about the school's other JROTC
instructor teaching geometry. The Air Force paid half the cost of its
instructors and expected them to teach only JROTC, he said.
Scheduling more JROTC courses was challenging because they no longer
counted toward a student's physical education requirement. The school
system also was focusing more intensively on English and math.
Loera complained to the Air Force about Roundtree, accusing him of
undermining the program to force a transfer to another school. He also
directed an assistant principal to compile student complaints, which,
Loera testified, first surfaced without his prompting. Within L.A.
Unified, Loera was regarded as a JROTC supporter, sometimes serving as
the district's designated expert on the subject.
Loera, 41, did not respond to requests for an interview.
In a statement, L.A. Unified said that "each of the administrators'
actions were taken with the students' interests at heart and were not
done in retaliation against Major Roundtree."
In court documents and at trial, Roundtree's attorney, Renuka V. Jain,
raised several issues with Loera's conduct. She offered evidence that
Roundtree learned that a case was being made against him only after the
military had already taken steps that led to his "decertification" as a
JROTC instructor. That action can't be appealed.
Moreover, under the teachers contract, Jain said, Roundtree should have
had a chance to address all of the accusations against him.
At trial, witnesses from the Air Force, relying on information from L.A.
Unified, sided with the school district. The Air Force has declined to
comment.
The jury, on Dec. 16, found that Roundtree proved that district
employees retaliated for his report of a violation of a federal law or
regulation. It also found that Loera and two other administrators made
"one or more defamatory and untrue statements" with the intent to harm
Roundtree.
Loera had never been under an obligation to keep Roundtree at Poly, but
his actions against him ultimately prevented the instructor from
teaching ROTC at any campus after he finished the school year at Poly,
Jain said.
Loera left Poly for a senior management position later that same year.
The district's share of damages owed was more than $1.8 million. Loera
was assessed $1 million, and assistant principal Adriana
Maldonado-Gomez, $500,000. The district said it will pay these costs
because the administrators acted within the scope of their duties.
"I respect the jury verdict, but that cannot replace what was taken from
me," said Roundtree, who returned to Apple Valley and works as a
part-time driving instructor and substitute teacher.
The Air Force closed its program at Poly last June. It hadn't attracted enough students.
AN UPDATE ON LA'S IPAD PROGRAM
• National Public Radio is updating some of the top stories we've been following in 2014.
By Annie Gilbertson | NPR Ed | http://n.pr/1COLTlX
December 22, 2014 7:23 AM ET :: The 650,000 students in the Los
Angeles Unified School District expected to be tapping and scrolling on
their very own iPads by now, halfway through the school year.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy, seen in a
photo taken last year, says his resignation was "by mutual agreement. i
But the largest school technology expansion in the country became a
magnet for controversy and was a factor in the resignation of
Superintendent John Deasy in October. He had made technology a
centerpiece of his efforts to close the persistent academic achievement
gap between disadvantaged students and their more privileged peers.
Eighty percent of LA Unified's student body is low-income and only about half read at grade level.
"So the pace needs to be quick, and we make no apologies for that," Deasy told KPCC in 2012.
But in the last year, the largest school technology expansion in the
country stalled. The iPads arrived in schools before WiFi, officials
didn't include keyboards with the tablets and students found ways to
bypass online protection software and access Facebook and Twitter.
Then this month, in a surprising move, the FBI seized 20 boxes of
documents related to a $500 million iPad contract with Apple and
Pearson, the company that provided the software loaded on many of the
iPads. The investigation is housed in the agency's office of public
corruption.
In August, KPCC published emails between Deasy and executives at Apple
and Pearson. The early email discussions resembled LA Unified's later
bidding requirements, which included such details as a 9.7-inch screen —
the size of the original iPad.
"I believe we would have to make sure that your bid is the lowest one,"
Jaime Aquino, a former top district staffer, wrote to executives at
Pearson in one of the email exchanges.
Both Aquino and Deasy have said the selection process was fair.
Three days after KPCC's report, Deasy canceled the contract with Apple.
In October, less than two months later, he announced his resignation.
A federal grand jury has convened, but prosecutors haven't revealed the
individuals targeted or possible charges in their investigation.
The school board has purchased 112,500 iPads so far. After a board
member fought for a laptop option, they also bought 8,394 Google
Chromebooks.
A survey released in September found most students skipped over
Pearson's software in favor of playing games and watching videos in
class.
Student reviews of the iPad have been mixed.
Aiden Lafreniere, a junior at Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in
Granada Hills, said having a tablet makes it easier for her to stay in
touch with her teachers.
"We have a place we can constantly go and check our instructions," she
said. "There isn't that factor of losing work when you turn it in
because of massive amounts of paperwork."
Jesus Vargas was less enthusiastic when he test-drove a district iPad in October 2013.
Then a senior at USC Math, Science and Technology High School, Vargas
coded his own apps. He complained Pearson's learning software wasn't
challenging, and the iPad wasn't adequately versatile.
"It's very similar to the interface of an iPod, which I have not used in a long time," Vargas said.
It's not clear when the rest of the district's students will receive their own tablets or laptops.
Ramon Cortines, LA Unified's new superintendent, plans to put out a call for new bids in 2015.
When that happens, Marc Zev, an parent in the district and a software
developer, hopes the district will base the new purchase requirements on
what works best for students and teachers.
So far, most of the devices were purchased without input from those who will be using them.
"I think the board really blew it," Zev said. "They just didn't think it through."
• Annie Gilbertson covers education for KPCC.
DATA DRIVES THE BUS (OVER A CLIFF) …and some
parents say “enough” to a district’s assessment craze
by edushyster2012 | http://bit.ly/1xqwYKp
December 17, 2014 :: It’s field trip time and today we’re headed to the
scenic seaside community of Salem, Massachusetts. When last we stopped
by to “discover the magic of Salem,” we also discovered a school system
gone wild for “bigger rigor,” especially for young Salem-ites who hail
from the city’s less, well, luxurious lanes. But one child’s opportunity
gap is an opportunity for a savvy eduprenueur, and edupreneurial
opportunities abound here these days. Buckle up reader, because it’s
time to board the data bus.
THE JARGON GAP
As you’ll recall from our last visit here, the schools in Witch City
face a bewitching problem. A spell had fallen upon the city’s school
choosers, so that affluent residents all chose certain schools, like the
Saltonstall, whose privately-funded science lab overlooks the harbor,
while poor students, many of whom were still learning English, chose
other schools at which science is now an enrichment.
But then a unique opportunity arrived to close this opportunity gap by
way of a system called the Open System. You can read about the wonders
of this approach here [http://bit.ly/1xqxKXN], here [http://bit.ly/1xqxVCt], here [http://bit.ly/1xqxYy7] or here [http://bit.ly/1xqxYOB]
— but suffice it to say that the approach seems to entail filling
Salem’s gaps with jargon. Give “leaders and teachers real control over
the time, people, data and culture within a system to best meet their
students’ needs”? Check. Learn from “high-flying outliers”? Check.
“Empower best leaders and teachers across the city and support them in
delivering results for our students?” Check.
EMPOWER EMPOWER
The Open Systems solution comes to Salem via Lawrence, whose state-run
school system is now a net exporter of, if not excellence per se,
edupreneurial ideas. At the center of the Open System beats an
edupreneurial heart, one belonging to Empower Schools, founded by
edupreneur Chris Gabrieli, whose list of political connections is as
long as an extended school day, and Bret Alessi, former Education
Pioneer and current Mass 2020 visionary. What precisely Empower Schools
does, other than BELIEVE IN OPEN SYSTEMS…and produce case studies like
this one [http://bit.ly/1AXmC6U],
remains a bit vague-ish. What I can tell you is that Empower has
quickly won over powerful friends aka “aligned leaders,” like
Massachusetts Commissioner of College and Career Readiness, Mitchell D.
Chester, who recently sang Empower’s praises to the Boston Globe in a
story on how school partnerships with edupreneurial groups like Empower
are failing to produce results.
EVERYBODY WHO IS ANYBODY
But I digress. The important thing is that the Salem schools bus is
hurtling towards a new system, an Open System, and that everyone who is
anyone appears to be on board, from the city’s politically ambitious
mayor, to the members of the Salem Partnership, to the members of the
Community Advisory Board of the Salem Partnership, to the members of the
Salem Education Foundation. In other words, everybody who is anybody in
the city is “highly aligned,” jargonically speaking, behind a vision of
what the city’s students need to succeed: a “laser-like focus on
instruction” and “frequent assessments.” The Open System also comes with
transportation — and to quote district leaders, “data drives the bus.”
And teachers don’t just want to teach, they want to Teach Plus
co-captain the data bus.
IN WHICH SOME PARENTS ASK TO GET OFF OF THE BUS
The problem with a community in which everyone who is anyone is “highly
aligned,” is that it’s very difficult to find anyone who is willing to
yell “stop,” even as the data bus careens towards Salem Harbor. Well
there is somebody… Earlier this year, Stephen and Sherry Croft alerted
Salem Public School officials that they refused to let their sons take
ANet tests, the diagnostic assessments that eat up an increasing amount
of instructional time in the schools, which paid $337,000 last year for
the Achievement Network’s services. To which they were told “too bad,
you can’t” because, as the superintendent explains in this letter
denying the Croft’s request, assessment is now so “highly aligned” with
instruction that the two can’t be separated.
“In addition to the fundamental purpose assessment serves as part of the
instructional cycle, it is our goal to provide all of our students with
a comprehensive program of studies. Subsequently, parents are not
allowed (with the exception of sex education) to “pick and choose” which
aspects of the school program their/child/children will or not
participate in. This responsibility rests with those of us directly
involved in your children’s education here in the Salem Public Schools.”
In his testimony to the Salem School Committee, Stephen Croft pointed
out that with its obsessive focus on assessments, Salem isn’t actually
providing students with a comprehensive program of study. And that it is
parents who are the most directly involved in their children’s
education and “they need to know that they have the right to refuse
these tests.” The Crofts prevailed, by the way, and their sons won’t be
taking any more ANet tests. What’s more they’re not alone. A total of
five families—so far—are refusing to let their kids take ANet tests, a
number that will only grow as more parents learn that the choice is
theirs to choose.
HIP, HIP HOORAY—IT’S TEST-TAKING DAY!
Meanwhile, it’s a day of the week that ends with “day,” which means it’s
already time for another round of ANet assessments in Salem. Which
means that at the Collins Middle School, where the Salem School
Committee holds its regular meetings, it’s time for an ANet pep rally.
Students, teachers, teacher leaders and data bus drivers are all on hand
to boost spirits in hopes of boosting scores so that the scores on the
test that actually counts will be boosted as well. Students wear blue
and white, the Collins colors, and once pencils are down, volunteers
scour student test sheets, awarding prizes to testees whose tests
display the most “annotation.” There’s even a special cheer. “There is
nothing we can’t do, when we’re dressed in white and blue.”
Except, apparently, get off the bus.
____
• EduShyster is the blog of freelance journalist and public education advocate Jennifer Berkshire.
JOHN GOODLAD DIES AT 94; LED RESEARCH ON HOW SCHOOLS FAIL TO EDUCATE
GOODLAD, FORMER UCLA DEAN, WROTE THE 1984 BOOK "A
PLACE CALLED SCHOOL". HE ARGUED STRENUOUSLY AGAINST USING TEST SCORES AS
A SERIOUS MEASURE OF SUCCESS.
By Elaine Woo | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1Be8TqJ
Sunday. Oct. 28 2014 :: John I. Goodlad, whose exhaustive analysis of
the culture of schools and the reasons for their failures made him one
of the intellectual leaders of the education reform movement that took
off in the early 1980s, (smf: Not to be confused with the ®eform
movement, which has financial leaders!) died Nov. 29 in Seattle. He was
94.
The former dean of UCLA's Graduate School of Education, who later taught
at the University of Washington, had cancer, said his son, Stephen.
Goodlad was the author of "A Place Called School" (1984), a classic
eight-year study of 38 schools in 13 communities in which he described
chronic problems that were pushing the nation's schools "near collapse."
Published shortly after "A Nation at Risk," the 1983 report by a
presidential commission that found American education beset by "a rising
tide of mediocrity," Goodlad's book sounded many of the same alarms
while also laying out an alternative vision of what schooling should be.
A progressive in the tradition of philosopher John Dewey, Goodlad
described schools where accomplished teachers could lead their peers,
where students are not grouped by age, and where the ability to discuss
and assess ideas matter more than test scores.
"John always argued strenuously against test scores as a serious measure
of whether we had good schooling," said Roger Soder, an emeritus
professor of education at the University of Washington and president of
the Institute for Educational Inquiry, a nonprofit group Goodlad founded
in1992 after retiring. "He said what we really needed to talk about was
the relationship between schooling and what it takes to maintain a free
society."
One of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, "A Place Called
School" drew its conclusions from the detailed observations of a team of
researchers and more than 20,000 interviews with students, teachers,
principals, parents and others.
It offered evidence of the adverse effects of common practices such as
the "tracking" of students into high- and low-performance groups and
grade divisions that ignore differences in students' readiness to learn.
"John was always saying, 'What is sixth grade anyway, and who made it
up?'" recalled Jeannie Oakes, a nationally recognized expert on tracking
and other inequities who was one of Goodlad's researchers as a UCLA
graduate student. "He invented the idea of the non-graded elementary
school. He studied reading failure and what happens when kids don't get
promoted. He came up with the idea that kids ought to be given the
opportunity to learn to read when they are developmentally ready."
The book also closely examined the education of teachers and lamented
the practice of rewarding the most capable teachers by taking them out
of the classroom and putting them into administration.
• “FOR THE MOST PART, REWARDS FOR FACULTY MEMBERS INTERESTED IN TEACHER
EDUCATION ARE FOR STUDYING TEACHERS, NOT FOR PREPARING THEM. “- John
Goodlad
"Teaching is perhaps the only 'profession' where the preparation
recognized as most advanced [the doctorate] almost invariably removes
the individual from the central role of teaching," Goodlad wrote. He
recommended instead a system in which teachers progress from teaching
aide to doctorate-holding head teacher, with commensurate increases in
pay.
In "Teachers for Our Nation's Schools," his 1990 report based on 1,600
hours of interviews at 29 colleges of education, he criticized education
schools' weak faculties and misplaced priorities.
"For the most part," Goodlad wrote, "rewards for faculty members
interested in teacher education are for studying teachers, not for
preparing them."
Many of Goodlad's ideas were grounded in personal experience. Born on
Aug. 19, 1920, he had a bucolic childhood in an isolated mountainside
community near North Vancouver, Canada. Growing up during the
Depression, he found teaching one of the few occupations available to
him. In 1938, after one year of normal school, he obtained an elementary
school teaching certificate.
His first job was in a one-room schoolhouse with 34 children spanning
eight grades. An unhappy student named Ernie, who had been held back
several times, made a deep impression on him, spurring his thinking
about how grade levels based on age were, as he wrote later in "A Place
Called School," little more than "an adult convenience for classifying,
tracking, assessing, advancing, and retarding the millions of students
who move through it."
He had more time to grapple with those issues in his next school, which
was so crowded that he and the overflow of students from several grades
were sent to a makeshift classroom in a church. The less-than-ideal
conditions forced the young teacher to find ways to reach all the
students without watering down instruction.
Recalling that he asked a custodian to build a sand table for his
classroom, "I created a very progressive environment," Goodlad said in
Educational Leadership magazine in 1995. "With a great big sand table … I
integrated history, geography, art, reading and other subjects as well
as broke down all of the grade lines."
By 1946 he had earned both bachelor's and master's degrees from the
University of British Columbia. After receiving a doctorate in education
from the University of Chicago in 1949, he began training teachers in
the Atlanta Teacher Education Service and at Emory University and the
University of Chicago.
In 1960 he moved to UCLA, where as director of the university's lab
school he blended students of different ages in the same classroom. He
later served as dean of the education school for 16 years, molding it
into one of the top teacher training schools in the country.
In 1985, he joined the faculty at the University of Washington, where he
founded the Center for Educational Renewal to promote collaborations
between schools and the universities where teachers are trained. He
retired in 1991.
In the foreword for a 20th anniversary edition of "A Place Called
School," prominent education theorist Ted Sizer noted that Goodlad's
findings were "still sweepingly familiar. The breathtaking waste of time
and treasure tolerated in many schools is no less with us today than
when today's middle schoolers' mothers were 12th graders. There is a
sad, almost eerie relevance to the detailed specifics of Goodlad's
critique."
Goodlad acknowledged that not enough had changed in the nation's
schools. But he never lost his optimism that real reform—or renewal, as
he preferred to call it--was possible. "He absolutely loved schools,"
Oakes said of the scholar, who titled his 2005 memoir "Romances with
Schools: A Life of Education."
Besides his son, Goodlad is survived by a daughter, Paula, and five grandchildren.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
ENGLISH-LEARNING STUDENTS IN CALIFORNIA STILL BEHIND
“These kids need to be visible,” said Shelly Spiegel-Coleman of
Californians Together, a Long Beach-based nonprofit that promoted the
legislation and released the state data. “In many instances, these
students are sitting in mainstream classes and are not getting any
specialized help.” | http://bit.ly/1CON5pB
LAUSD BOARD MEMBERS LOOK TO SLOW CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION
http://bit.ly/1COMGmZ
LAUSD MONITOR REPORTS PROGRESS IN MISIS CLASS SCHEDULING FOR SPRING
http://bit.ly/1COMRyN
MOST SCHOOLS SOLVE WEB ISSUES FOR COMPUTER TESTING
(Calif.) Of the state’s more than 11,000 public school sites, students
at fewer than 21 of them will be taking the Common Core assessments this
spring the old fashioned way – on pencil and paper. | http://bit.ly/1Bed9q4
TEACHER TENURE, TAXES ON UNION EXECUTIVE’S 2015 AGENDA
The walls of Joe Nuñez’s second-floor office, a stone’s throw from the
state Capitol, bear reprints of fruit- and vegetable-crate labels from
California farms, colorful reminders of his humble roots as the son of
south-state farmworkers. Now, as the first Latino executive director of
the powerful California Teachers Association, the 61-year-old product of
public education and long-time teacher-activist confronts a new year
brimming with tensions born of politics and plenty. | http://bit.ly/1Bednxx
LAUSD STUDENT ORGANIZED PROTEST THAT HELPED REFORM SCHOOL POLICING
Understanding the power of carrying signs, singing chants and “not
changing the world but improving our day-to-day lives” is what drove one
South Los Angeles student to organize protests that helped bring about
sweeping reforms in the policing of Los Angeles Unified schools. | http://bit.ly/1Bedqtm
LACER AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS GIVE STUDENTS A REASON TO GO TO CLASS
http://lat.ms/1COMx31
SKIPPING KINDERGARTEN DAYS CAN HAVE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUNG LEARNERS
December is a rough month for attendance among kindergarteners at Los
Angeles schools where winter sick days and extended family vacations
take their toll on learning, perhaps more than parents of the young
students realize. | http://bit.ly/1BeduJu
WHY CAFETERIA FOOD IS THE BEST
Many parents undoubtedly think they are doing the best for their
children by having them bring lunch from home instead of eating the
lunches served in school. But recent studies clearly prove them wrong. |
http://nyti.ms/1BedGsb
THE CONTRACT, THE SCHOOLS, AND THE WORLD WE WANT TO SEE
by Alex Caputo-Pearl, UTLA President | http://bit.ly/1BedNnH
DUNCAN'S EDU-PREDICTIONS FOR 2015
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is predicting big things for
college access, preschool, and ed-tech. But he doesn't mention NCLB
reauthorization. | http://bit.ly/1BeeddI
A 2014 RECAP, AND COMMON-CORE HEADLINES YOU PROBABLY WON'T SEE IN 2015
http://bit.ly/1Beeeyr
COUNSELING COMES UP SHORT
Many state ambitions to increase college readiness and completion are
being undercut by policies that perpetuate the status quo in high school
counseling, according to a report by the Education Commission of the
States. It’s not too late to get on track — but states and high school
counselors need to abandon their current “students will ‘figure it out’”
approach, ECS says. That means investing in strategies — not all of
them pricey — that research shows correlate with increased odds of
college-going: low student/counselor ratios and better support for
counselors; three-minute videos on college costs, financial aid and the
benefits of attending college; and asking parents to sign off on their
child’s college/career plan, to name a few. More on promising state
efforts: http://bit.ly/1CrE9q6
CELEBRATING TEN YEARS OF POST-KATRINA, NEW ORLEANS CHARTERS– AND YOU ARE NOT INVITED
By deutsch29 - Mercedes Schneider's Blog
In modern America, when it comes to selling a product, the question of
whether the product actually works as promised becomes irrelevant. The
narrow concern for the profit-driven ends with effectively marketing the
product. <
Sales result from effective marketing– not the least of which is repeatedly telling the consumer that the product works.
Tell consumers that the product works. Tell them repeatedly.
They then mistake repetition for truth, and voila! the product moves off of the retailer’s shelf.
This is the story of the now-all-charter Recovery School District (RSD)
in New Orleans: It is an inferior product that continues to be pushed as
a nationwide model of charter school success, yet it is a failure. A
flop. Nothing more than marketing hype.
And certainly no miracle.
In June 2015, a questionably-funded group will be hosting a ten-year
celebration of all-charter RSD. The event– focused on school “choice”–
will be closed to the public.
Makes one wonder what story will be told at this exclusive conference in
order to package and nationally promote the RSD product .
You won’t get to hear it firsthand.
You are not invited.
Fortunately, I have a story for you here, a documented story, and it is
available to any who would read it. No RSVP required, even. I must note,
though, it is a long story– more like a book chapter than a blog
post–and it ends with a challenge for our 2015 invitation-only
conference host– so make yourself comfortable. | http://bit.ly/1COEW4n
A YEAR IN REVIEW
Feeling nostalgic for all the negotiated rulemaking and regulatory
proposals issued by the feds in 2014? Never fear. The Education
Department is out with a year-end recitation of accomplishments,
published in the Federal Register. Peruse at your leisure: http://1.usa.gov/1Hr0C4B
WANT TO TEACH KIDS ENGLISH? THEN TEACH THEIR PARENTS.
Letter to the Editor of the LA Times
The Los Angeles Unified School District is trying to fix something it
broke. ("California schools step up efforts to help 'long-term English
learners,'" http://lat.ms/1CONngi)
Amid the Apple iPad fiasco, sex abuse scandal and new computerized
student attendance problems, few have decried the cruel destruction of
the district's nationally acclaimed adult education program, which could
help the parents of LAUSD students learn English.
Of the 300,000 students in the program before 2012, there are now 97,000
(plus a long waiting list); of the 3,200 teachers, there are now 850.
If the parents of non-English speaking children cannot learn English,
how can their children? Children need help with their homework and their
self-esteem. Seeing their parents going to school and learning English
creates wonderful, lifelong role-models.
Prior to 2012, the LAUSD graduated adults fluent in English and American
culture, holding high school diplomas as well as credentials from the
excellent vocational programs. As a retired longtime adult education
teacher of English as a second language, I have yet to receive a good
answer as to why these cuts were made.
Planaria Price, Los Angeles | http://lat.ms/1CONsk1
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
George.McKenna@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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