In This Issue:
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UCLA STUDY FINDS MANY CHARTER SCHOOLS FEEDING |
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WHY FINLAND HAS THE BEST SCHOOLS |
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PRINCIPAL: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY SCHOOL ENDED USELESS HOMEWORK |
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LAUSD AND CHARTERS REACH AGREEMENT ON COURT-ORDERED MiSiS DATA SHARING |
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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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Today is the First Day of Spring. The equinox has already occurred - the earliest such since 1896.
Quite a week last week was.
JOHN B. KING, JR. was confirmed as US Secretary of Ed 49-40. The
consensus is that however you felt about Arne Duncan, you will feel the
same about Secretary King …only more so. The US Dept. of Ed is fixated
on attendance right now – if the US Senate had better attendance 49
votes wouldn’t have been enough!
[The LA Times, which takes money from the Broad Foundation and other
®eformers to fund education reporting …but doesn’t let it affect their
editorial output) has a lovely puff-piece on King in Sunday’s paper: http://lat.ms/1TZ7KQD]
LAUSD’s own Queen of Attendance, DR. DEBRA DUARDO – whose life story is a
Hallmark Hall of Fame plotline (From Drop-Out to Drop-Out Preventer | http://bit.ly/1LxrYhS)
– is apparently the front-runner to be named LA County Superintendent
of Schools. LAUSD and the LA County Office of Education have always been
more-or-less at odds – two megalith bureaucracies in the same field of
play doing pretty much the same work …though LACOE is technically the
senior partner with fiscal oversight authority. Perhaps Dr. Duardo can
bring some interagency cooperation into the fold.
Protesters rushed-in as students walked out when former LAUSD ISIC
Superintendent/Current Boston Public Schools Supe TOMMY CHANG announced
his proposed budget. If the rumors that John Deasy got him that job are
true I doubt if Tommy was all that thankful last week.
Presidential candidate BERNIE SANDERS announced his distaste for
‘private charter schools’ – whatever that means. (All charters claim to
be public schools; the US Dept. of Commerce and the federal courts say
they are all private schools.) Presidential candidate JOHN KASICH
apparently has some scandalous charter schools back home in Ohio –
public-or-private.
A UCLA study says charters are inordinately suspending Black and Special
Ed Students. Or maybe the applicable connecting verb is “were”; the
data are old. LAUSD and its charter schools have reached an agreement to
share more data – including student suspension – with the District and
the Independent Monitor via MiSiS. See the Bond Oversight Committee
meeting on March 31st to learn how much that will cost.
LAUSD’s attorneys argue that the Parent Trigger Law – pulled at 20th St
Elementary School – is moot because the rewrite of ESEA/NCLB
(now+henceforth ESSA) ended the Annual Yearly Progress requirement the
Parent Trigger depends on.
The Times Editorial page says California Needs to Reinstate the Parent
Trigger Law (which depends on standardized tests to evaluate schools)
…but on the Op-Ed page proclaims that Finland’s Schools Are Best.
Finland has no standardized testing.
In other news a car ran into a school bus | http://bit.ly/1UHKIMZ. School Boardmember MONICA RATLIFF announced she might run for LA City Council | http://lat.ms/1WyOyHi Terrorists were terrifying and computers won at Go 80% of the time. More pictures from Pluto were released | http://bit.ly/1UrvSeA. DR. LUCY JONES will no longer be our Earthquake Doctor | http://bit.ly/1nXZTof.
None of these things portend the apocalypse.
(I thought about inserting some glib line about PRESIDENT TRUMP here …but thought better of it.)
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
UCLA STUDY FINDS MANY CHARTER SCHOOLS FEEDING
FIRST-EVER ANALYSIS OF DISCIPLINE DATA FROM EVERY
CHARTER SCHOOL SHOWS “SHOCKING” SUSPENSION RATES AND DISPARITIES, BUT
ALSO INDICATORS OF PROMISE
• 374 charter schools suspended 25 percent of their enrolled student body at least once in the 2011-12 school year.
• More than 500 charter schools suspended black charter students at a
rate that was at least 10 percentage points higher than the rate for
white charter students.
• 1,093 charter schools suspended students with disabilities at a rate
that was 10 or more percentage points higher than for students without
disabilities.
Press Release from The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA| http://bit.ly/1SakoJi
LOS ANGELES – March 16, 2016 – A first-ever analysis of school
discipline records for the nation’s more than 5,250 charter schools
shows a disturbing number are suspending big percentages of their black
students and students with disabilities at highly disproportionate rates
compared to white and non-disabled students.
The new report, Charter Schools, Civil Rights and School Discipline: A
Comprehensive Review, reviews the out-of-school suspension rates for
every charter school during the 2011-12 academic year, the first time
since the growth in charters that all the nation’s charter schools were
required to report school discipline data to the federal government. All
told, 95,000 public schools of all types had to provide discipline
statistics for 2011-12.
The comprehensive analysis by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at
the UCLA Civil Rights Project identified 374 charter schools across the
country that had suspended 25% or more of their entire student body
during the course of the 2011-12 academic year. The comprehensive review
also revealed:
Nearly half of all black secondary charter school students attended one
of the 270 charter schools that was hyper-segregated (80% black) and
where the aggregate black suspension rate was 25%.
More than 500 charter schools suspended black charter students at a rate
that was at least 10 percentage points higher than that of white
charter students.
Even more disconcerting, 1,093 charter schools suspended students with
disabilities at a rate that was 10 or more percentage points higher than
that of students without disabilities.
Perhaps most alarming, 235 charter schools suspended more than 50% of
their enrolled students with disabilities.* (*This count includes
schools with at least 50 students enrolled and excludes alternative
schools, schools identified as part of the juvenile justice system,
virtual schools and schools that enrolled fewer than 10 students with
disabilities. Any school where rounding of the data or another error
produced a suspension rate of more than 100% for a subgroup also was
excluded.)
“It’s disturbing to see so many of these schools still reporting such
high suspension rates because that indicates charter leaders continue to
pursue ‘broken windows,’ ‘no excuses’ and other forms of ‘zero
tolerance’ discipline,” said Daniel Losen, the Center’s director and the
study’s lead author. “And we know from decades of research that
frequently suspending children from school is counter-productive.”
While it would seem self-evident that kids don’t learn if they’re not in
school, extensive research has demonstrated that frequently suspending
students for even minor infractions predicts lower academic achievement,
higher dropout rates and too many kids being pushed onto a pathway to
prison. Discipline data reported to the U.S. Department of Education by
non-charter schools also has consistently shown that students of color
and those with disabilities are suspended at much higher rates than
white students.
As is the case with non-charter schools, the new study makes clear that
only a portion of the nation’s charter schools are enforcing harsh
discipline policies. “In fact,” the analysis concludes, “more elementary
charter schools met our definition of a ‘lower-suspending’ school than a
‘high-suspending’ school . . .”
For each racial group, the charter analysis highlights the schools with
the highest rates and greatest disparities. It includes a companion
spreadsheet that enables users to find and rank the suspension rates of
charters in a particular state or across the nation.
The report describes in great detail the wide variations in suspension
rates among charter schools as well as between charters and
non-charters. Although most of the differences with non-charters are not
large, especially disconcerting is that charter schools at every grade
configuration suspend students with disabilities at higher rates even
though they enroll a lower percentage of such students.
The report is particularly timely as the federal Every Student Succeeds
Act (ESSA) calls upon states to take steps to improve learning
conditions, including preventing the overuse of suspension. States laws
that govern charter schools can exempt them from oversight. Therefore, a
core recommendation is that state policymakers do not exempt charter
schools when it comes to oversight or state laws designed to limit
excessive use of suspensions.
In passing ESSA, Congress also gave each state more freedom to design
their own school and district accountability system. These
accountability plans must still be submitted by every state for review
by U.S. Education Secretary John King this coming fall. While a state
could choose to monitor suspension rates, it also could choose to do the
minimum about discipline, including exempt charter schools. A related
concern is that some of the highest suspending charters schools may be
overlooked simply because they have a reputation as “high-performing
schools.”
“The high-suspending charters need not look very far to find much lower
suspending charter schools,” Losen added. “So these findings elevate the
need for oversight of charter schools and a continuing review for
possible civil rights violations. There should be no excuses for charter
schools that fail to comply with civil rights laws.”
●●THE LAUSD CHARTER SCHOOL DIVISION RESPONDS: “LAUSD has really led in
this area and through oversight and charter schools efforts here, we
have seen significant progress. Here are a few data points:
“According to data for the past three school years, independent charter
schools have consistently improved their collective rates of suspension
events, from 5.1% in 2012-13 to 3.8% in 2013-14 to 2.4% in 2014-15.
Over the same period, the single student suspension rate for independent
charter schools has also dropped, from 4.6% in 2012-13 to 3.01% in
2013-14 to 1.86% in 2014-15.
“The number of instructional days lost as a result of suspension has
likewise dropped significantly, from 8,692 days of suspension in 2012-13
to 4,486 days in 2014-15, a reduction by more than 48% in three years.
In fact, the total number of suspensions and suspension days continue to
decrease despite the increase in the number of charter schools (e.g. 16
more charter schools in the 2014-15 school year).
“Our team has also shared such with our leadership, board, and IM.”
●●LAUSD CSD specifically addressing Students of Color and Students with Disabilities: “There's certainly ongoing work!
“What I can share now is that our regular review of student
out-of-school suspension data includes a targeted review of suspension
rates for two student subgroups (African American and Student with
Disabilities) who have historically been suspended disproportionately.
The CSD strives to ensure that charter schools are not reaching
disproportional suspension rates of 15%+ for either student subgroup.
“For independent charter schools, disproportionality rates for students
with disabilities and African American students continue to decline.
There was a 66% reduction in the number of schools with concerning SPED
disproportionality rates, from 19 schools in 2013-14 to only six (6)
schools in 2014-15. There was a 64% reduction in the number of schools
with high African American student disproportionality rates of
suspension events, from 14 schools in 2013-14 to five (5) schools in
2014-15.
"Most recently, the 2015-16 midyear suspension analysis reveals only 1
school with a disproportionality concern for African American students,
and none for students with disabilities. Charter schools have
demonstrated a clear, targeted reduction in suspensions for these
subgroups in the last two years.
“More work (is) to be done to track suspension rates broken out for other student groups in charter schools.”
WHY FINLAND HAS THE BEST SCHOOLS
Op-Ed in the LA Times by William Doyle | http://lat.ms/1R3IR3W
March 18, 2016 :: The Harvard education professor Howard Gardner once
advised Americans, “Learn from Finland, which has the most effective
schools and which does just about the opposite of what we are doing in
the United States.”
Following his recommendation, I enrolled my 7-year-old son in a primary
school in Joensuu, Finland, which is about as far east as you can go in
the European Union before you hit the guard towers of the Russian
border.
OK, I wasn't just blindly following Gardner — I had a position as a
lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland for a semester. But the
point is that, for five months, my wife, my son and I experienced a
stunningly stress-free, and stunningly good, school system. Finland has a
history of producing the highest global test scores in the Western
world, as well as a trophy case full of other recent No. 1 global
rankings, including most literate nation.
In Finland, children don't receive formal academic training until the
age of 7. Until then, many are in day care and learn through play,
songs, games and conversation. Most children walk or bike to school,
even the youngest. School hours are short and homework is generally
light.
Unlike in the United States, where many schools are slashing recess,
schoolchildren in Finland have a mandatory 15-minute outdoor free-play
break every hour of every day. Fresh air, nature and regular physical
activity breaks are considered engines of learning. According to one
Finnish maxim, “There is no bad weather. Only inadequate clothing.”
One evening, I asked my son what he did for gym that day. “They sent us
into the woods with a map and compass and we had to find our way out,”
he said.
Finland doesn't waste time or money on low-quality mass standardized
testing. Instead, children are assessed every day, through direct
observation, check-ins and quizzes by the highest-quality “personalized
learning device” ever created — flesh-and-blood teachers.
In class, children are allowed to have fun, giggle and daydream from
time to time. Finns put into practice the cultural mantras I heard over
and over: “Let children be children,” “The work of a child is to play,”
and “Children learn best through play.”
The emotional climate of the typical classroom is warm, safe, respectful
and highly supportive. There are no scripted lessons and no
quasi-martial requirements to walk in straight lines or sit up straight.
As one Chinese student-teacher studying in Finland marveled to me, “In
Chinese schools, you feel like you're in the military. Here, you feel
like you're part of a really nice family.” She is trying to figure out
how she can stay in Finland permanently.
In the United States, teachers are routinely degraded by politicians,
and thousands of teacher slots are filled by temps with six or seven
weeks of summer training. In Finland teachers are the most trusted and
admired professionals next to doctors, in part because they are required
to have master's degrees in education with specialization in research
and classroom practice.
“Our mission as adults is to protect our children from politicians,” one
Finnish childhood education professor told me. “We also have an ethical
and moral responsibility to tell businesspeople to stay out of our
building.” In fact, any Finnish citizen is free to visit any school
whenever they like, but her message was clear: Educators are the
ultimate authorities on education, not bureaucrats, and not technology
vendors.
Skeptics might claim that the Finnish model would never work in
America's inner-city schools, which instead need boot-camp drilling and
discipline, Stakhanovite workloads, relentless standardized test prep
and screen-delivered testing.
But what if the opposite is true?
What if high-poverty students are the children most urgently in need of
the benefits that, for example, American parents of means obtain for
their children in private schools, things that Finland delivers on a
national public scale — highly qualified, highly respected and highly
professionalized teachers who conduct personalized one-on-one
instruction; manageable class sizes; a rich, developmentally correct
curriculum; regular physical activity; little or no low-quality
standardized tests and the toxic stress and wasted time and energy that
accompanies them; daily assessments by teachers; and a classroom
atmosphere of safety, collaboration, warmth and respect for children as
cherished individuals?
Why should high-poverty students deserve anything less?
One day last November, when the first snow came to my part of Finland, I
heard a commotion outside my university faculty office window, which is
close to the teacher training school's outdoor play area. I walked over
to investigate.
The field was filled with children savoring the first taste of winter
amid the pine trees. My son was out there somewhere, but the children
were so buried in winter clothes and moving so fast that I couldn't spot
him. The noise of children laughing, shouting and singing as they
tumbled in the fresh snow was close to deafening.
“Do you hear that?” asked the recess monitor, a special education teacher wearing a yellow safety smock.
“That,” she said proudly, “is the voice of happiness.”
● William Doyle is a 2015-2016 Fulbright scholar and a lecturer on media
and education at the University of Eastern Finland. His latest book is
“PT 109: An American Epic of War, Survival and the Destiny of John F.
Kennedy.”
_________
smf: Coincidentally, the most forwarded issue of 4LAKids ever was: "We
prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test"
[4LAKids: Sunday 28•Aug•2011 | http://bit.ly/25duL6a ] was about Finland's schools.
PRINCIPAL: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY SCHOOL ENDED USELESS HOMEWORK
From The Washington Post Answer Sheet edited by Valerie Strauss | http://wapo.st/1PhEM6t
March 18 at 11:27 AM :: Anyone who closely follows the debate about
the value of homework at different grades knows about a famous
meta-analysis of previous research on the subject, published in 2006 by
researcher Harris Cooper and colleagues, which found that homework in
elementary school does not contribute to academic achievement. You might
think that educators would have taken that to heart, but because
research rarely informs educational policy, it didn’t.
Today, children in preschool — that’s 3- and 4-year-olds — routinely get
homework in the form of dull worksheets. A February 2016 report on New
York City’s pre-kindergarten program reported this:
● Out-of-school enrichment activities was another way pre-K programs
engage parents in children’s learning at home. Homework most often
consisted of worksheet packets and reading with the child or
instructions to practice with children what they are learning at school.
Parents in the focus groups voiced strong opinions about homework, with
some favoring it and others feeling it was not age-appropriate for
preschoolers to have homework; some felt their children had too little
and others too much. On the positive side, parents enjoyed engaging with
their children and saw homework as a window into what they were
learning at school.
● On the other hand, some parents felt their children had too much
homework and preferred their children to spend more time at play. Most
felt the daily requirement of reading a book to the child was important
and key to their child’s reading and vocabulary progress. One parent
pointed out that some of the content of the homework is beyond the
child’s knowledge so parents are almost “required” to teach it at home.
To encourage children to enjoy reading, one center loans each child a
book every week that parents are expected to read with their child.
In Cambridge, Mass., one principal faced the homework issue and did
something about it. She is Katie Charner-Laird, principal of
Cambridgeport School, which educates students from what it calls “junior
kindergarten” through fifth grade. Charner-Laird is a progressive
educator who wrote the following piece about what happened when she led
her team to reevaluate homework and whether it was important to assign.
This appeared on the website of the nonprofit organization National
Association for the Education of Young Children, and I am republishing
it with permission.
____________________________
By Katie Charner-Laird, principal of Cambridgeport School
In 2014, I found myself in one too many meetings with discontent parents
talking about homework. Some parents felt the homework was not
meaningful. Others were upset because they felt there was not enough
feedback from teachers. Still, other parents wanted teachers to be
individualizing homework more. In each of these meetings, it became
uncomfortably clear that I really didn’t know what was happening across
the school with regards to homework.
By the end of that year, I had made one firm commitment both to myself
and to several parents. We would spend some time as a staff, before the
next school year started, articulating our beliefs and approach to
homework, and develop what some might call a homework policy.
Over that summer, I read a number of articles about how we have to get
better at homework, the argument being that homework is a problem for
children and families because it is tedious and doesn’t ask children to
think critically and creatively. While I didn’t completely disagree
with these articles, I also didn’t find a strong rationale for why we
give homework or how much homework we should be giving.
I had heard of Alfie Kohn’s book, “The Homework Myth,” but in truth, I
was avoiding reading it. As a former teacher, I had always felt that
homework was a critical part of children learning organizational skills
and responsibility and a way to practice newly developed skills.
Moreover, the idea of getting rid of homework seemed a bit too
unconventional. But when I finally did pick up “The Homework Myth,” I
couldn’t put it down. One by one, my reasons for considering homework an
essential part of the elementary school experience were dismantled.
[HOMEWORK: AN UNNECESSARY EVIL? SURPRISING FINDINGS FROM RESEARCH, by Alfie Kohn | http://wapo.st/1TVj2p3]
Time management and organizational skills: Kohn points out that rather
than teaching time management to students, homework actually requires
parents to do more to organize children’s time.
Newly learned skills: Kohn argues that it is rare that all students need
the same practice at the end of a lesson. For some, additional
practice may be confusing, while for others, it may be unnecessary.
What the research says: Kohn scoured the research to find that there is
no evidence that homework in elementary school leads to an increase in
student achievement.
At our opening staff meetings last August, I asked teachers to read
excerpts from “The Homework Myth,” and discuss the article with
grade-level colleagues. Many teachers were as dumbfounded as I was when
challenged to think about their long-held beliefs about homework. I
asked each grade level team to decide on a common homework approach for
the coming school year. While I knew where I stood on the homework
issue at this point, I felt it was important for teachers to make these
decisions themselves after I had provided them with research and the
opportunities to discuss it. As I met with each grade-level team, I also
felt it was my responsibility to ensure that there was some semblance
of a trajectory from kindergarten through fifth grade.
THE SCHOOL’S NEW HOMEWORK POLICY:
Last school year for the first time, I knew the homework expectations for each class in the school!
● In kindergarten, students dictate stories to their families on a
regular basis, but with no official due dates. Parents were encouraged
to read to their children, but there were no set expectations for how
much or how often.
● Starting in first grade, students were expected to read nightly and this included families reading to children.
● Most grade-level teams opted out of reading logs or other
accountability structures, noting that these often devolved into a
meaningless checklists lacking accountability altogether.
● Third graders were asked to write nightly. Students determine the
content and form of their writing, which is not graded. Third graders
are also expected to practice their math facts based on both grade level
expectations and personal levels of mastery.
In my experiences as both principal and teacher, parents often voice
two significant complaints: homework either took too long, or not long
enough; AND parents didn’t understand the homework, so they couldn’t
help their child. These issues have been addressed in our new approach
to homework. All homework is now open-ended enough to avoid these common
complaints.
Teachers give parents information about other elements also taught in
class so they can be supportive of the related homework. When a teacher
asks students to read for 30 minutes, some students may read 10 pages,
and others may read 30. Parents can help children find a regular time
to do that homework because the time needed is consistent. Moreover, if
a parent wants a child to do more homework, it is quite simple to just
have them keep reading. There is no “wrong way” to do the homework. And
this has led to many families reporting that the level of stress in
their household has decreased dramatically.
So in 2014, Cambridgeport became “the school that doesn’t give
homework,” yet I heard repeatedly from students, teachers, and parents
about the significant, meaningful work they are doing at home. A fourth
grader begged to take home his writing notebook on the third day of
school so he could keep working on the story he had started in class. A
class of fifth graders requested additional practice problems to take
home with them. A father-daughter pair showed me the model they created
of the setting of the book they were reading together.
Our school may be giving less homework but we have more students engaged
in more meaningful learning activities at home than ever before.
LAUSD AND CHARTERS REACH AGREEMENT ON COURT-ORDERED MiSiS DATA SHARING
Posted on LA School Report by Craig Clough | http://bit.ly/1Mi2FQL
March 18, 2016 4:05 pm :: LA Unified and its 221 independent charter
schools have reached an agreement on the court-ordered requirement that
charters sync their student data information systems with the district’s
massive MiSiS system.
The agreement calls on the district to develop an interface solution
that will allow data systems at charter schools to communicate with
MiSiS but allow the schools to keep their own systems in place. The
agreement also allows charters to adopt MiSiS if they wish to do so.
The agreement was reached on March 10 between LA Unified, its
independent charters, the plaintiffs of a special education consent
decree and the court-ordered independent monitor of the decree.
The agreement was characterized as “a huge win” for all parties by Gina
Plate of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), which
negotiated on behalf of LA Unified’s charters.
“It could have gotten very hostile and ugly, like some of the other
areas we have with charters and the district, but we were able to
resolve this one in a way that makes everyone happy,” said Plate, who is
a senior special education advisor for CCSA.
Plate said the district, the independent monitor and the plaintiffs
reached an internal agreement in December to agree to the interface but
did not share that with charter leaders until this month because they
needed time to draft the letter and get all of the details organized.
LA Unified has been under federal court oversight since 1996 as a result
of a class-action lawsuit that accused it of non-compliance with
special education laws. As part of the settlement, an independent
monitor was appointed in 2003 to oversee the district’s compliance with
what is known as the Chanda Smith Modified Consent Decree.
MiSiS, the district’s student data system, was created to fulfill part
of the decree which called for better tracking of special education
student records. And because special education students at LA Unified’s
independent charter schools are part of the same special education
district, the decree required charters to also take on MiSiS.
But when MiSiS was launched in the fall of 2014 it immediately began to
cause substantial problems at schools due to system failures and
glitches. Charter schools were hesitant to adopt the system themselves
due to the problems, Plate said, and also because many of the older
charters already have their own systems that they have dedicated time
and money to developing.
“Because there was no system available for the last 20 years, charters
have purchased their own systems. And not only have they purchased their
own systems, they have customized those systems to reflect the needs of
their student population,” Plate said.
MiSiS has been largely stabilized and is operating without any major
problems being reported this school year. CCSA officials have had weekly
meetings for the last year and a half to try and resolve the issue of
how to get charters in line with the court requirements, Plate said.
The agreement was announced to LA Unified school board members and
Superintendent Michelle King in a March 10 letter from LA Unified’s
Charter Schools Division Director Jose Cole-Gutierrez and CEO of
Strategic Planning and Digital Innovation Diane Pappas.
●●smf: This is not exactly correct. The March 10 letter
[bit.ly/1puA54q] is addressed to ‘Charter School Leaders’; the Board and
superintendent are copied.
“This approach will allow charter schools to retain their current
student information systems, provided that they transmit certain key
student data to the district in a technically compatible manner,” the
letter said.
Plate said the interface will be developed by LA Unified along with
experts from Microsoft, and the district will pay the bill. No timeframe
has yet been set on when the interface will be ready.
The agreement between charters and the district on MiSiS does not
complete the consent decree process for LA Unified. It still has to
spend over $600 million to make all of its schools compliant with the
Americans With Disabilities Act, and it has one more of 18
performance-based outcomes that it needs to meet. The outcome requires
disabled students to receive services as specified in their Individual
Education Plans. In November, district officials and the independent
monitor told LA School Report the district likely would be under the
watch of the monitor for several more years.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
EVA’S OFFENSIVE: The Battle for the Hearts, Minds and Classroom Seats of NYC Charter Schools
http://bit.ly/25ceYof
CO-LOCATION: A PARASITOID IS AN ORGANISM THAT LIVES ATTACHED TO A HOST AND ULTIMATELY KILLS OR CONSUMES THE HOST
WHAT TO EXPECT OUT OF JOHN KING, US SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
http://bit.ly/1Ud1vJw
NEW PRE-APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM EXPANDS PATHWAYS FOR CAREER-MINDED STUDENTS | LAUSD Daily
http://bit.ly/1TXnh3t
LAUSD AND CHARTERS REACH AGREEMENT ON COURT-ORDERED MiSiS DATA SHARING
http://bit.ly/1pTfUNQ
WHAT IS 'SCHOOL CHOICE'? ...AND WHY DOES IT MATTER EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE A KID?
http://bit.ly/1RrxKDY
PRINCIPAL: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY SCHOOL ENDED USELESS HOMEWORK
http://bit.ly/1Rs2Kxv
Editorial: CALIF. SHOULD RESTORE THE TRIGGER ALLOWING PARENTS TO FORCE CHANGE AT LOW-PERFORMING SCHOOLS + smf’s 2¢
http://bit.ly/1LvsgWv
Opinion: WHY FINLAND HAS THE BEST SCHOOLS
http://bit.ly/1ptj7Dk
CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOLS ASSO. HONORS ELI & EDYTHE BROAD OF THE BROAD FOUNDATION AS "SUPPORTER OF THE YEAR"
http://bit.ly/1Lvl8tg
A timeline o’ tweets: DR. DEBRA DUARDO CANDIDATE FOR L.A. COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS / @howardblume
http://bit.ly/1UaWeSN
YES, YOU CAN DRINK THE WATER. NO LEAD SCARES HERE, LAUSD SAYS. | http://laschoolreport.com/yes-you-can-drink-the-water-no-lead-scares-here-lausd-says/#.Vum3zX8ZZJM.twitter …
LOUISIANA GOVERNOR PROPOSES CURBS ON VOUCHERS, CHARTER SCHOOLS
http://bit.ly/1XtvnPq
Op-Ed: MAKING IT EASIER TO FIRE TEACHERS WON'T FIX AMERICAN EDUCATION
http://bit.ly/22jBOYJ
THREE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT NEW(ish) U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY JOHN KING JR. + 3 more things
http://bit.ly/1XtdjF8
LAUSD REJECTS 'PARENT TRIGGER' BID AT 20th STREET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
http://bit.ly/1M5s7J9
BERNIE SANDERS SAYS HE OPPOSES PRIVATE CHARTER SCHOOLS. What Does That Mean?
http://bit.ly/1SQmvnF
CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDAL HAUNTS JOHN KASICH | http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/charter-school-scandal-haunts-john-kasich-220700 …
Where are you now Tommy Chang? THOUSANDS WALK OUT, HUNDREDS EXPRESS OUTRAGE OVER BOSTON SCHOOLS BUDGET CUTS
http://bit.ly/1R0ITpJ
Tests+Children: ACCESSORIES TO EDUCATION - Red Queen in LA
http://bit.ly/1TJqlQy
Nomination deadline extended: HELEN BERNSTEIN AWARD FOR TEACHER LEADERSHIP
http://bit.ly/1QTik9q
SENATE TO VOTE UP OR DOWN ON JOHN B. KING, JR. FOR EDUCATION SECRETARY TODAY
http://bit.ly/1RJWvFy
AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS NEED FUNDS TO HELP STUDENTS THRIVE
http://bit.ly/1nJkFIl
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
¡SPRING BREAK!
*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:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Ref.Rodriguez@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 the Superintendent:
superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000
...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state
legislator, 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. Volunteer in the classroom.
Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child -
and ultimately: For all children.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!
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