No quota on humanity

4LAKids: Sunday 13•Sept•2015 In This Issue:  •  The new Common Core test results: DON’T PLAY THE BLAME GAME!  •  WHY THE WASHINGTON STATE SUPREME COURT RULING MATTERS: The origins of a surprisingly simple decision that could have major implications  •  LAUSD NEARING $6 MILLION SETTLEMENT WITH APPLE, PEARSON OVER INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT ON iPADS  •  Editorial: A CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION COULD BE GREAT FOR L.A.  •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources  •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...  •  What can YOU do? Featured Links:  •  Give the gift of a 4LAKids Subscription to a friend or colleague!  •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404  •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!  •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. In between the corporate demise of LA Times publisher Austin Beutner, the new Common Core Test Scores and the International Migrant Crisis – there must be a story in there somewhere! Add to that Washington State Supreme Court’s outlawing charter schools and the renewed brouhaha over “Dr.” John’s expense account and you have enough stories to make an issue! (…or issues to make a story.) But first a correction: TAKE A DAY OFF! TAKE 2! TAKE 3 or 4! The representation in last week’s 4LAKids that the annual rescheduling of the Admission Day Holiday was somehow the work of the LAUSD-UTLA contract was incorrect; it is apparently the work of the LAUSD-clerical staff contract. Which leaves us with SEIU, CSEA and the Teamsters as likely suspects. 4LAKids apologizes after-the-fact for getting the first bit wrong …and apologizes in advance for not clarifying which contract requires the bogus holiday observance. This coming Monday Sept 14th and next Wednesday Sept 23 are “Unassigned Days” (no classes in session) that align with the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. To be clear: 4LAKids has no problem with observing the Jewish New Year (acknowledging a Higher Authority than the union contract and the ed code!) But Admission Day? Really? 4LAKids IS WARY OF WANDERING TOO FAR into the LA Times/Austin Beutner affair. [LA TIMES PUBLISHER+CEO TO BE REPLACED http://bit.ly/1KZuAlY] Everything that happens in the world is not the direct result of ®eform Agenda Public Education Policy, Big Business Corporate Shenanigans and the undue influence of Eli Broad & Company. But sometimes it seems that way. The protests from the likes of former Mayor Tony over Beutner’s fall-from-power echoes the same messages over John Deasy’s denouement. | http://bit.ly/1FEAgvL THE TIMES PUBLISHED AN EXCELLENT EDITORIAL about how we shouldn’t pay all that much attention to the new Common Core test scores [WHAT WILL COMMON CORE TEST RESULTS SHOW? Comparing old+new results like comparing apples+porcupines | http://bit.ly/1OvoWaf] and then proceeded to slice+dice them every way possible.[ NEW CALIFORNIA TESTS PRESENT SOBERING PICTURE OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT http://bit.ly/1J1oJXw] The news was not good, we had been warned that it wouldn’t be – it’s a different test testing different skills in a different way using different metrics. We don’t erase the Achievement Gap by changing the test and/or distributing iPads and/or going wall-to-wall charter schools. But the sky isn’t falling either. [This Sunday’s Times’ editorial relapse into Dr. Deasyland and Babbiting boosterish paean to Eli Broad notwithstanding: A CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION COULD BE GREAT FOR L.A.] AND THE REFUGEE/MIGRANT CRISIS CONTINUES – with the Hungarian government mobilizing troops to keep the displaced persons out while the German government mobilizes troops to welcome them in. All along the way there are stories of Good Samaritans doing their small part, one good deed at a time. Meanwhile the wars rage on and the borders overflow and the rhetoric becomes more shrill and the razor wire is stretched tighter …and children are the victims. ¡Onward/Adelante/L'shanah tovah! - smf The new Common Core test results: DON’T PLAY THE BLAME GAME! “SBAC SCORES SHOULD NOT BE PUBLISHED IN THE UPCOMING SCHOOL REPORT CARDS. PUBLISHING THE SCHOOL’S SCORES IN THE REPORT CARDS WILL MAKE THE SCORES EVALUATIVE BY THE VERY NATURE OF DOING SO AND WILL MISINFORM PARENTS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS.” From the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update for the Week of September 14, 2015 | bit.ly/1UKiYUV 10 Sept 2015 :: The California Department of Education released the first year’s results of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) tests in English language arts/literacy and math on September 9, 2015. AALA understands that comparing SBAC scores to previous state assessments is like comparing the proverbial apples to oranges. Moreover, it appears students did not fare well overall. This may be attributed to the newness of the test, the increased level of technology, the delayed arrival of the technology to many schools, the challenges of bandwidth infrastructure at many schools and because the professional development provided thus far lags behind the teaching and learning needed to parallel it with the California’s Common Core-aligned tests. Most importantly, the scores are baseline, not for stakes, nonevaluative and are meant to be used for the purpose of strengthening pedagogy. To access the scores, please follow this link: CAASPP Results. AALA is concerned that, in the public’s eye, the scores have quickly become evaluative for administrators and teachers. Teachers make a fair point when they tell principals that if the results are indeed intended to improve practice and alignment, why publish them? Therefore, context is of great importance in this matter to maintain a keen perspective and to provide administrators the appropriate, genuine and required levels of supports. There has been a significant influx of new principals since the transition to and implementation of the Common Core State Standards began in earnest some three years ago. Since beginning their assignment, these principals have served TWO general superintendents, probably TWO local District Superintendents, TWO Deputy Superintendents of Instruction and more-than-likely, THREE Instructional Directors, THREE ELA and THREE math coordinators from the Educational Service Centers now known as Local Districts. In the process, freezes were imposed, and then lifted, no substitutes were allowed for professional development purposes on Mondays and Fridays, conference approvals required myriad approvals and scrutiny and the operational demands kept coming! Thus, situational awareness, empathy and understanding are needed to ensure administrators are receiving the necessary supports to empower and facilitate the process of being the instructional leaders the District expects them to be. Herewith are some questions from AALA for the District’s Leadership: ● How is the District going to streamline the duties and responsibilities of administrators to optimize instructional leadership? ● How soon will District Leadership realize that additional assistant principals are a mandatory part of the equation to improve student achievement? ● How will the professional development provided by the District and the Local Districts be differentiated to meet the needs of English learners, standard English learners, students with disabilities, gifted and talented students? ● How is the District stabilizing leadership at every level of the organization to enhance a coherent, unified and articulated professional development plan? ● How are the District and the Local Districts differentiating professional development to meet the needs of the constituents served by the Local District? ● How is the District organizing for effort and allocating the required professional development funds to ensure Districtwide alignment with the California Common Core curriculum and the tests? It is predictable that scores will rise as teachers and administrators become more familiar with the Common Core standards, and students become familiar with the more complex questions on the examinations. For example, in 2003, when the California Standards Tests were introduced, 30% of 3rd graders and 40% of 5th graders scored proficient and above in English/Language Arts. Ten years later, 45% percent of 3rd graders and 60% percent of 5th graders scored at a proficient level. Some of this improvement can be attributed to familiarity with testing structures and procedures. It is AALA’s position that SBAC scores should NOT be published in the upcoming school report cards. Publishing the school’s scores in the report cards will make the scores evaluative by the very nature of doing so and will misinform parents and community members. There is no doubt transparency and accessibility to the public is important. Therefore, the school report card can link the public to the website repository with a CLEAR disclaimer that the scores are nonevaluative. WHY THE WASHINGTON STATE SUPREME COURT RULING MATTERS: The origins of a surprisingly simple decision that could have major implications By Martha Carey from edushyster2012 | http://bit.ly/1FyDv7L September 9, 2015 :: Something unusual happened in Washington state late last week. Charter schools came out on the losing end of a lawsuit. In fact, charter schools, as they are currently defined, funded and organized, were actually ruled unconstitutional by that state’s Supreme Court. And the basis of that decision was surprisingly simple. The charter school law that narrowly passed Washington in 2012 was found to be in violation of the state’s constitution precisely because charter schools have private boards. UNCOMMON SCHOOLS ≠ COMMON SCHOOLS The constitution in that state clearly defines public schools as schools that operate via taxpayer funds, and which are *under the control of the qualified voters of the school district.*The Supreme Court just ruled that *because charter schools [under the new charter law] are run by an appointed board of nonprofit organization and thus are not subject to local voter control, they cannot qualify* as public schools as defined in Washington’s constitution. Which means funding them violates the law – as noted in the ruling: *money that is dedicated to common schools is unconstitutionally diverted to charter schools.* What happens next will be pretty fascinating. Several charter organizations and charter operators are calling for a special session of the state legislature to *fix* this pesky problem. Others, including the Washington State Education Association, are expressing vindication and are urging legislators to address the poor state of public school funding once and for all. Each state’s charter school laws are distinct, and some are far vaguer than others. In Pennsylvania, where I live, the charter school law put into effect in 1997 allows for charter schools to be run as entirely independent entities within a school district, and allows for those charter schools to receive public funds from the state in order to operate. SCHOOLS-AS-FRANCHISES The Pennsylvania model of loose policy regulation of charter schools and essentially no oversight by the electorate is in alignment with the language of minnesota-welcome-e1332613731772the earliest charter school law, passed in Minnesota in 1991. The premise there was that public school districts were restricting choice by their stranglehold on schools-as-franchises in the education *market.* And the 1991 law promoted the notion that groups of parents, businesses, cultural organizations, etc. could get together and start schools that would give parents and students more education options, and the state and local districts would, correspondingly, divest themselves of the core responsibilities (and rules and regulations) for these schools, essentially allowing the *franchise* to organize and govern itself. I first worked with several charters schools in St. Paul in 1996; in the five years between the charter school law passing and then, not only did a cluster of pretty random, curricular-specific charters (arts, music, science) spring up around the Twin Cities, but several quickly developed negative public reputations, mostly due to poor fiscal management. Each state’s approach to charter laws is distinct, but this case seems to make a clear and compelling case about an idea that should be unifying: taxes to fund schools come from taxpayers who elect representatives at the state, local, and district levels who are our proxies in providing oversight and regulation over where those funds go. A UNIFYING IDEA The case in Washington should give both charter proponents and legislators pause, and hopefully will add fuel to cases now working their way up the legal numbers 2pipeline. Each state’s approach to charter laws is distinct, but this case seems to make a clear and compelling case about an idea that should be unifying: taxes to fund schools come from taxpayers who elect representatives at the state, local, and district levels who are our proxies in providing oversight and regulation over where those funds go. If the population of taxpayers is not content with that process, they can change the legislators, the funding structure, the tax structure, or all of the above, and this will directly and immediately impact schools. But charter schools are actually exempt from this most democratic of processes, which is amazing when one considers that education is actually a property right (meaning students are both required to have an education and also cannot be denied an education without due process). In most states, charters can put anyone they want to on their boards, can raise funds from anyone they want to, can be housed wherever they want to, can reject students whenever they want to, and can even opt out of giving accurate reporting on the most basic of items – including how many students they actually have – should they choose to. And the taxpayers whose money is being funneled to these charters do not have a say, an option, or a choice once these independently operated entities get up and running. The only hope is that there is some appointed or elected body that periodically reviews and, if they are found to be engaging in fraud, closes down charter schools. And then the students in those schools, of course, re-enter what remains of the public school system. But what the case in Washington underscores most is the elemental choice made by charter proponents all those years ago, as they crafted the Minnesota legislation, variations of which are now on the books in 42 states. AND AN ELEMENTAL CHOICE But what the case in Washington underscores most is the elemental choice made by charter proponents all those years ago, as they crafted the Minnesota legislation, variations of which are now on the books in 42 states. The choice was: do we work together as a community to best provide the state-mandated education of all our citizens and do so in a way that continues to be overseen by the electorate, which may mean re-allocating resources and (gasp) raising taxes, or do we just let private groups of folks do their own thing, using our taxes, in the name of education? ●Martha Hope Carey lives in the Philadelphia area and recently completed her PhD in Urban Education at Temple University. Her dissertation research on urban charter teachers can be found at careythinking.org. LAUSD NEARING $6 MILLION SETTLEMENT WITH APPLE, PEARSON OVER INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT ON iPADS Posted on LA School Report by Mike Szymanski | http://bit.ly/1Y0qZJK September 11, 2015 3:32 pm :: LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines said yesterday the district is close to finalizing a $6 million-plus settlement deal with Apple and Pearson over the botched iPad program. In a statement this afternoon, the district confirmed that it was engaged in “cooperative discussions with our vendors” to resolve concerns about the companies’ contribution to the district’s Instructional Technology Initiative. “Given the cooperative nature of these discussions, we anticipate there will be a settlement proposal for the LAUSD Board of Education to consider in the near future. the statement said.” Even before sharing information about the pending deal with the school board, which must approve any final deal, Cortines revealed details of the settlement late yesterday, while attending a meeting of the district’s new technology task force. “It’s not what I want,” Cortines told the task force. “It will be $6 million-plus, and I want to pour all of that back into technology.” Cortines launched the new school year’s meetings for the ITI Task Force that will decide how to mix computer technology into the classroom instruction. He said he plans to take the money from the settlement and put a small amount aside for technology repair. He also said he would propose that some of the money would be “set aside for grants for schools that write exciting grants.” He emphasized that he wanted to help the school with the most needs but also be fair throughout all six of the Local Districts. “I don’t want to penalize the schools that begged, borrowed and sold cupcakes to bring technology to their schools,” he told the task force. Cortines explained he would like to see a $1-to-$1 matching program for some schools with innovative technology plans. And, if there are schools that will use technology from elementary to middle school to high school, he would like to see a $2-to-$1 match from the district using the settlement money. Previously, the district demanded a refund from Apple for iPads loaded with Pearson software as part of the failed $1.3 billion program to get an iPad to every LA Unified student. The district’s chief legal advisor, David Holmquist, noted that Apple and Pearson had failed to deliver on the promise of “a state-of-the-art technological solution for [the district’s Instructional Technology Initiative] implementation” and noted that the district is “extremely dissatisfied.” The district had asked for a multi-million dollar refund for the failed plan that led to the resignation of previous Superintendent John Deasy. ____________________ ►LAUSD IN TALKS WITH APPLE, PEARSON TO SETTLE SOFTWARE DISPUTE by KPCC Staff | http://bit.ly/1gjTJuM September 11, 2015 :: The Los Angeles Unified School District is negotiating a settlement that could end its dispute with Apple Inc. and Pearson Education over faulty software in iPads purchased from the computer giant. The district told Apple in April that it would not spend another dollar on the Pearson software installed on its iPads and demanded a multimillion-dollar refund. Teachers have complained about numerous problems with the Pearson software, including missing math problems and material that contained errors. David Holmquist, LAUSD general counsel, said in a letter to Apple that it had promised a state-of-the-art solution for the district's Instructional Technology Initiative, the name for the iPad program. But Holmquist said the Apple and Pearson "have yet to deliver it." Initially, the tablets were to go into the hands of each student in the district, but after problems with its rollout and mounting costs, the initiative was scaled back. A Pearson spokesman told KPCC in September 2014 that there were important enhancements to add to the software “as there always will be” and that “no digital product should ever be considered complete." LAUSD issued a statement Friday saying that the district is in “cooperative discussions with our vendors about resolving past concerns around the Pearson content.” “Given the cooperative nature of these discussions, we anticipate there will be a proposal for the LAUSD Board of Education to consider in [the] near future,” the district stated. The LA School Report first reported the settlement talks Friday. ●●smf’s 2¢: Not to make too much of the obvious, but the Apple-Pearson contract was paid out of school construction bond funds – and any settlement in the deal should be returned to that source. And there is the outstanding question being investigated by various law enforcement entities, including the FBI, as to whether the Apple-Pearson procurement was legal. Editorial: A CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION COULD BE GREAT FOR L.A. By The L.A. Times Editorial Board | http://lat.ms/1F7nPNZ 13 Sept 2015 :: Slightly more than a fifth of all students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are currently enrolled in charter schools. That number would rise to nearly half of the district's students if the early ambitions of a group of charter organizations and their benefactors come to fruition. The rapid ramp-up, if successful, would bring the number of students in Los Angeles charter schools to nearly 300,000, more than twice as many as anywhere else in the country. And if the charter schools of L.A.'s future are like the ones of its past, this could be a great thing. Studies by Stanford University have found that although charter schools generally have a mixed record, those in Los Angeles have brought about significantly better academic outcomes for students than traditional district schools. The district's largest and best-known charter school organizations — Green Dot Public Schools, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools and so forth — have dedicated themselves to bringing higher-quality education to low-income minority students who previously had no alternatives to their low-performing district schools. Those respected groups are reportedly involved in the expansion talks, as is the Broad Foundation, whose philanthropist founder, Eli Broad, has long donated to charter schools. Charter schools are publicly funded but independently operated, and are free from many of the regulations that govern district schools. They're also free of sometimes stultifying union rules. The large charter presence in L.A. speaks volumes about the high levels of dissatisfaction with many of the district's regular public schools. Charter schools also have put significant competitive pressure on traditional schools, many of which have improved as a result, especially at the elementary school level. Now, charter school organizations and their supporters seem ready to bet that within eight years, they can double their enrollment. It has taken two decades to build enrollment to the current level, but charter advocates say there is pent-up demand among families who believe their traditional public schools are improving too slowly or not at all. Waiting lists for charter schools in L.A. already exceed 40,000 applicants. Not all charter schools are great schools, and if there is to be a massive expansion, it will be important to make sure that those that do not do a good job are fixed or closed. - Of course, not all charter schools are great schools, and if there is to be a massive expansion, it will be important to make sure that those that do not do a good job are fixed or closed. Another issue is whether the charter operators — even the very good ones — can attract and retain enough high-quality teachers and administrators. It has never been done at this scale or in this time frame, and it would have to happen in the midst of a nationwide teacher shortage. And teacher turnover at charter schools is higher than at traditional public schools. That doesn't mean it can't be done, but it should be scrutinized along the way. The boldness of the plan should be applauded — poorly educated students can't wait forever for help — but charter leaders should move carefully if they are to be successful. And there will undoubtedly be pushback from within the district. Some will come from the teachers union — United Teachers Los Angeles — which reviles charter schools and is dedicated to protecting its members' jobs at regular district schools. And some will come from L.A. Unified officials, who have long complained that the district loses state money when students decamp for charter schools, while charter operators contend that the district is simply unwilling to restructure itself to be more efficient. One overriding principle should guide the school board as it considers new charter applications, and it has nothing to do with teacher jobs or the ramifications for the district's budget. It should be this: Will the charter applicant run a good school? Will it provide an excellent education for L.A.'s students? The needs of students, not those of the institution, are what matter. The school district shouldn't seek to rein in charter growth, but it and the state should be doing a better job of overseeing such schools. There have been numerous reports that charter schools, in an effort to improve their test scores, have prodded their lowest-performing students to leave and return to traditional public schools. This never has been proved, but then again, no one has ever bothered trying to find out. The concerns have been worrisome enough, though, that new school board member Ref Rodriguez — a charter supporter and co-founder of a group of charter schools — wants the issue thoroughly investigated. There also have been scattered cases of charter schools ensuring that they enroll only the most motivated and successful students by setting high bars for interested families, such as parent-volunteering requirements and long application essays. Efforts to cherry-pick students are unacceptable; charter schools are supposed to accept all comers, just as regular public schools do. (If too many apply, charter schools are supposed to use a lottery.) When they have been caught breaking or bending the rules, it has generally been by the media and student advocacy groups, not by the agencies responsible for approving and checking up on charter schools. The only serious official scrutiny that charter operators typically get is when they are issued the right to operate, and five years later when they apply for renewal. It would seem a more thoughtful approach could be developed. A new era of charter schools is at hand, one in which they seek to be a bigger, more established player in the education arena rather than simply a model of how public schools might improve. But California law and policy need to be brought out of the 20th century. The state needs well-enforced rules requiring charters to keep their doors open to all students. Poor academic performance cannot be grounds for keeping a child from enrolling, or for telling him or her to leave. By all means, bring on more charter schools, as long as they are built on the principles of academic excellence and equal access for all. I'm sure it will be a lovely museum, but: HOW TO TELL IF YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT IS INFECTED BY THE BROAD VIRUS HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources The new Common Core test results: DON’T PLAY THE BLAME GAME! http://bit.ly/1UFNqVB The new Common Core test results: NEW CALIFORNIA TESTS PRESENT SOBERING PICTURE OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT http://bit.ly/1J1oJXw LA COUNTY OFFICE OF ED+HEALTH DEPT ISSUES EMERGENCY HEAT ALERT IN EFFECT THRU FRIDAY 9/11 Let's be careful out there! http://bit.ly/1K0myax Editorial: LAUSD WON A LAWSUIT — but lost the moral high ground http://bit.ly/1O2iYk0 2 MORE ON THE WASHINGTON STATE SUPREME COURT DECISION ON CHARTER SCHOOLS http://bit.ly/1FyDv7L DIANE RAVITCH+GERONIMO+F. SCOTT FITZGERALD’S THOUGHTS ON DEASY’S EXPENSE ACCOUNT http://bit.ly/1OAuqR4 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: ¡OMG! THE NEW TEST SCORES ARE LOWER THAN THE OLD TEST SCORES! http://bit.ly/1OdNczE WASHINGTON STATE’S CHARTER LIMBO: More on that charter schools ruling. http://bit.ly/1K6Lizj More Beutner: LA TIMES PUBLISHER+CEO TO BE REPLACED http://bit.ly/1KZuAlY JOHN OLIVER’S GUIDE TO “EVERYTHING STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW FOR BACK TO SCHOOL” http://bit.ly/1QmCdTZ LA Unified selects 8 schools as models for technology expansion - LA School Report http://bit.ly/1NgcKvq LAT Editorial: WHAT WILL COMMON CORE TEST RESULTS SHOW? Comparing old+new results like comparing apples+porcupines http://bit.ly/1OvoWaf CHARTER SCHOOLS SHOULDN’T BE LITMUS TEST FOR NEW CHIEF http://bit.ly/1KZjPQI “DON’T PANIC”, OFFICIALS SAY AS CALIFORNIA BRACES FOR LOWER STUDENT TEST RESULTS …but “Thanks for all the fish?” http://bit.ly/1XHc1YT Ed Week: TEACHER EVALUATION – AN ISSUE OVERVIEW http://bit.ly/1iuLzSc LA Times: AUSTIN BEUTNER OUT AS L.A. TIMES PUBLISHER - Broad connection suggested http://bit.ly/1M8KSuk UPDATE: Tribune Publishing dismisses Los Angeles Times publisher and CEO - Chicago Tribune http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-austin-beutner-la-times-0909-biz-20150908-story.html … Breaking: Austin Beutner out as publisher of the LA Times. Modern Sex Ed: CALIFORNIA WILL BE FIRST IN THE NATION TO TEACH HIGH-SCHOOLERS ABOUT CONSENT, VIOLENCE, RELATIONSHIPS http://bit.ly/1LTNauC Aiming low: STATE BOARD OF ED SETS K-8 ATTENDANCE GOAL AT 90% http://bit.ly/1K3oHng WASHINGTON STATE SUPREME COURT RULES CHARTER SCHOOLS UNCONSTITUTIONAL http://bit.ly/1KX0XSt Learn From LA Unified: WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN ROLLING OUT TECHNOLOGY | The AIR Report, LAUSD’s response + smf’s 2¢ http://bit.ly/1O8ORq9 EVENTS: Coming up next week... • REGULAR LAUSD BOARD MEETING – Tues. September 15, 2015, Including Closed Session Items - 5:00 p.m. NEW BUSINESS FOR ACTION: A. Board of Education Report No. 061-15/16 : Office of the Superintendent (Consideration of Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) 2015-2018 Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) Amendments.) Recommends the adoption of amendments to the 2015-2018 Local Control Accountability Plan. The LCAP allows the District to update its Annual Accountability Plan to meet the goals, services, and expenditures to support pupil outcomes and state priorities. B. Board of Education Report No. 064-15/16 : Office of the Chief Financial Officer (Unaudited Actuals Report for Fiscal Year 2014-15, Gann Limit Resolution, and Resolution to Adjust the Fiscal Stabilization Plan.) Recommends approval of submission of the annual statement of all receipts and expenditures of the District for the proceeding year to the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) as required under Ed Code 42100. Further approves adoption of Gann Limit Resolution and resolution committing to adjust the District’s fiscal stabilization plan by the submission of the First Interim Budget Report. • Saturday, September 19 : INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY 2015 | http://bit.ly/1O9mTf9 ARRRGGGGHHHH, Mateys!! *Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________ • SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: http://www.laschools.org/bond/ Phone: 213-241-5183 ____________________________________________________ • LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR: http://www.laschools.org/happenings/ Phone: 213-241.8700 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: 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 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. 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 at http://registertovote.ca.gov/ • If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO! Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for over 12 years. He is Vice President for Health, Legislation Action Committee member and a member of the Board of Directors of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT "WHO" Gold Award and the ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids. • FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. • To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-mail smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

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4LAKids: Sunday 21•Sept•2014 In This Issue:  •  LAUSD HAS BECOME THE NATIONAL EXAMPLE OF HOW NOT TO PROVIDE TECHNOLOGY TO STUDENTS AND HOW NOT TO ACTIVATE A COMPREHENSIVE STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEM  •  LAUSD’S STUDENTS NEED BETTER LIBRARIES, NOT iPADS + smf’s 2¢  •  MORE THAN 100,000 LA SCHOOL REPAIRS BACKLOGGED: Fire safety at risk in some schools  •  STATE NEEDS A 'GRAND BARGAIN' ON TEACHERS' EFFECTIVENESS, OBSTACLES INEFFECTIVENESS IN THE CLASSROOM OFTEN DOES NOT DERIVE FROM INCOMPETENCE  •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources  •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...  •  What can YOU do? Featured Links:  •  Give the gift of a 4LAKids Subscription to a friend or colleague!  •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404  •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!  •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. For the past three weeks there have been issues with delivery of this email newsletter to email addresses in the lausd.net domain. Last Sunday the servers blocked the issue and 4LAKids to all lausd.net addresses bounced. The first step in Denial is Denial: This can’t be happening! The second step is Paranoia. It’s all about ME! And of course: THEM! …then there was a little doubt. Maybe I forgot to edit out a naughty word? Or referred to the parts of poultry that email filters find inappropriate (…anything but drumsticks, wings or backs.) Then my outraged sense of social justice kicked in and I made sure my ACLU membership was paid up. The Founding Fathers had exactly this in mind when they contemplated the unspeakable atrocities an unfettered tyranny could impose! Then, before I could complain to the President of the Board of Education about the injustice of it all, he complained to me about not getting his issue of 4LAKids. I figured that the LAUSD IT folk were probably too busy with MiSiS… [Note to self: Never create a project acronym that rhymes with “crisis”, “disaster”…or lends itself to the suffix: “-gate”] …..to mess about blocking 4LAKids …even if tempted by tantalizing bonuses (“All the overtime in the world!”) or nerdy perks (“A new iPad 6+!”)from their corporate masters on the 24th floor who are tired of 4LAKids incessant muckraking, doubled metaphors, biting satire and obscure song lyrics. The truth, conspiracy theorists, is predictably mundane: The IT folk had innocently installed some new fangled Spam filter, and filters being filters, it filtered out 4LAKids. (You may either insert the entire Monty Python Spam Sketch [season 2, episode 12 | http://bit.ly/1uNNVOb] here ...or just the Spam Song as sung by the Vikings in the Spam Sketch). (If you didn’t get this issue, look in your spam folder.) So on Saturday I re-emailed last Sunday’s issue to everyone who had been bounced. The problem, 8.7% of you will be delighted to know, has been ever so slightly corrected: …only 91.3% of the resends bounced! Don’t worry; even if you got the resend and/or this issue - the other new LAUSD email software enhancement will automatically delete it from your mailbox after a year! ______ IT WAS HOT LAST WEEK. My air conditioner broke. Apparently air conditioners broke all over LAUSD and the A/C fixit troops are out there 24/7 working alongside the IT MiSiS fixit troops. The Times reported that students at Franklin High tweeted that they were walking out because of the broken A/C. ‘Shannon Haber, a Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman, denied that students were walking out of class but did say eight air-conditioning units were not functioning on campus. ‘But the heat misery was hardly isolated to Franklin High. ‘There were issues with air conditioning districtwide. Nearly 500 calls for service for older air-conditioning systems were reported as of Monday. ‘Some of the district's older systems, Haber said, failed because of the heat. "Safety is our first priority," she said. "These kids deserve air conditioning." The district was working to address the problem, Haber said. http://bit.ly/1pjSZmS …and Sinclair323 commented on the Times’ website: “Isn't this what our bond money was supposed to fix? Not iPads!” Let me, as a member of the LAUSD School Construction Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee, address+answer Sinclair323’s question (above): Yes. The County Office of Education issued an Extreme Heat Health Advisory to all schools, public, private and parochial for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – and LAUSD complied by issuing an outdoor activity restriction and banning all outdoor sports activity and competition. The sense of entitlement in athletic programs is palpable, some football programs in LA County practiced in the heat on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. “The rules don’t apply to us; we’re (Insert School Name Here)”. The teams that practiced early in the week were punished by winning games played against competitors who didn’t. If you can practice when you’re not supposed to, who’s to say you can’t play through a concussion or coldcock your fiancé in an elevator? Taft High School had a water polo match with Birmingham Charter High School on Monday; they cancelled – and the Birmingham coach as much as called them a bunch of wimps for following the health directives of the County and District. Apparently charter schools have a waiver from all health+safety advisories along with all the other waivers they get. And their coaches can engage their mouths without putting their minds in gear.| http://t.co/KjtD2V2RnP and http://t.co/a3AuyIZyY7 WHILE I’M PICKING ON CHARTER SCHOOLS, Governor Brown vetoed SB1263, which closed the loophole allowing school districts to charter schools that are not operating within their boundaries. Apparently the Acton-Agua Dulce USD will issue a charter to anyone, especially if they don’t intend to operate in Acton or Agua Dulce. Get your charter in AADUSD, your SELPA in Eldorado County: That ain't workin' that's the way you do it Money for nothin' and charters for free. The California Charter School Association is ecstatic. Capitol Update http://bit.ly/1qknlG3 Though LACOE eventually approved LAUSD’s budget and LCAP, the US Department of Education wasn’t quite so generous in approving the LAUSD/CORE California NCLB waiver. Read: CORE CALIFORNIA WAIVER EXTENDED: Seven CORE districts – including LAUSD - placed on “High Risk Status” | http://bit.ly/XR2Ha2 LAUSD’s partners in CORE are not universally overjoyed – and districts outside the CORE umbrella – which see the waiver as a ‘get out of NCLB jail free card’ - aren’t all that delighted either. LAUSD’s OWN COMMON CORE TECHNOLOGY PROJECT REPORT BY AN INDEPENDENT AUDITOR WAS RELEASED. The evidence of how educationally ineffective all those iPads with their controversial Pearson content were screams from the page and the closets where the devices are apparently kept. Underutilized and, for the most part: Unused. Because teachers were un-or-undertrained. Because the District wouldn’t/didn’t invest in the training. We are an educational institution; how do we miss that? AND IF YOU CARE ABOUT TEST SCORES, the CAHSEE results are out. The superintendent says “We are making great progress… .” The results don’t show that. The National DEBATE OVER COMMON CORE State Standards bubbles-on in the background, covered with great superficiality by CBS News Sunday Morning. THE WEEK’S GOOD NEWS is the expansion of Medicaid coverage to include kids on the Autism spectrum. And Steve Lopez’ piece on Ginny Mancini’s support of the Community Music School is heartwarming. And scattered throughout last week’s news is all the speculation in the Fantasy-Superintendent’s-Derby-and-Succession-Parlor-Game: After Deasy… what? And when? And who? And 4LAKids splits the Quote o’ th’ Week three ways. ●On the Deasy Drama: "Deasy is an unnecessary distraction that is hindering the LAUSD. The honorable option is for him to resign. Otherwise, the Board of Education should decisively intervene and terminate his contract." http://bit.ly/1pi9z6I ●On School Libraries: “A good school library is not in conflict with technology; it can enhance our understanding and use of it.” http://bit.ly/1uEp1PV ●On Music Education: "Music is something that every child needs, nourishment just to be sure he succeeds. Music is magic wherever it leads, a hundred years from today." - Ginny Mancini http://bit.ly/1sq6yTC ...with extra credit to Ginny Mancini, who sang hers! ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf LAUSD HAS BECOME THE NATIONAL EXAMPLE OF HOW NOT TO PROVIDE TECHNOLOGY TO STUDENTS AND HOW NOT TO ACTIVATE A COMPREHENSIVE STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEM Published in the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Update for the week of September 22 with the title of: KUDOS TO SCHOOL STAFFS FOR KEEPING IT TOGETHER! | http://bit.ly/JidN0H September 22, 2014 :: This school year’s opening has been one of the worst in history for school staffs. Not since the 1994 Northridge earthquake has the normal, day-to-day, operation of the school been so challenged. That natural disaster brought school closures, damaged buildings, power outages, loss of water, broken equipment, high student and staff absences and general turmoil throughout most of the LAUSD. But the MiSiS crisis has been far worse, in that it was not caused by forces beyond our control, like Mother Nature, but by our own District. With the unfortunate decision to move swiftly, caution was thrown to the wind and pleas by those in the field to delay implementation were ignored. Secondary students began school with their schedules in disarray and both elementary and secondary schools were unable to get required reports, teachers could not access student information for assignment purposes and enrollment had to be counted by hand. “This was one of the hardest school openings ever because of MiSiS!” Comments like this from administrators in e-mails and calls bombarded the AALA office during the first weeks of school. Nevertheless, staff members held their schools together by working long hours, evenings and weekends, and tenaciously made sure students were safe and campuses were orderly. AALA commends our members and other employees for working hard during this crisis. Students were eventually situated in the correct classes and the ITD team is working feverishly to get the system to accurately reflect information and provide administrators with the reports they need. While the media pummels the District about the escalating iPad scandal, administrators and other staff are losing confidence in its leadership. This entire opening fiasco could have been avoided if the District had not rushed to roll out MiSiS in July 2014, when it had originally been scheduled for 2015. AALA members tried for two years to work with senior leadership and share their concrete concerns about the start date and the enhancements that were needed prior to the roll out. To its credit, the ITD team did make fixes here and there, but just did not have enough time to work out all of the bugs that any new software will contain. Time and time again, we said MiSiS was not ready for prime time and asked for a delay in order for some of the key pieces needed at the schools to be included. Why did no one at Beaudry listen to those in the field? Was it hubris, job protection, public relations, politics? What caused this insensitivity and blatant disregard for the school site? LAUSD has now become the national example of how not to provide technology to students and how not to activate a comprehensive student information system. The Board and Superintendent are being attacked in the media. Senior staff is on the defensive and a cloud is hovering over Beaudry. Yet, school administrators and staff persevere. Teachers are teaching, campuses are safe, students are engaged, support staff is steadfast and administrators remain committed. AALA and all other school staff members should be acknowledged, applauded and appreciated for making it through this chaotic opening and providing stability for students. WE GET LETTERS AALA thanks the secondary administrator, who wishes to remain anonymous, for submitting this letter. The opinions expressed are those of the author. In reference to your 09/15/2014 article: WHO WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE? It is very convenient that Chief Information Officer Ronald Chandler and Chief Strategy Officer Matt Hill are willing to fall on their swords and take responsibility for the MiSiS CRiSiS. And very interesting that Superintendent John Deasy attempts to duck blame for the fiasco, stating “This is not my area of expertise.” News Flash: Superintendent Deasy came to LAUSD from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. News Flash: Microsoft is the vendor for MiSiS. News Flash: This is not the first instance of questionable financial shenanigans involving a proposed billion dollars being siphoned from the LAUSD treasury into the coffers of a major technology firm. FOR THE RECORD: • Student programming in ISIS was not implemented for years because of valid concerns around functionality requirements insisted upon by LAUSD veterans. But when it came to MiSiS, Deasy and his minions cared little about functionality requirements. We were told by the Beaudry Ivory Tower to just do it. • Superintendent Deasy has done his best to privatize education by supporting charter schools (as does the Gates Foundation). • Superintendent Deasy has worked hard at directing public funds to private industry, especially the • technology sector. • Superintendent Deasy will be well taken care of after he floats away from LAUSD with his golden parachute. The fact that MiSiS was such a mess is actually a plus for Deasy and his pro-private industry masters. After all, the glitches that need to be fixed will cost hundreds of thousands more dollars than the initial projected roll out costs of half a billion dollars. And Bill Gates does need another billion dollars. The sooner we jettison Deasy and company, the better. LAUSD’S STUDENTS NEED BETTER LIBRARIES, NOT iPADS + smf’s 2¢ A GOOD SCHOOL LIBRARY IS NOT IN CONFLICT WITH TECHNOLOGY; IT CAN ENHANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING AND USE OF IT Op-Ed By Rebecca Constantino in the LA Times | http://lat.ms/1uEk1L7 Sept 15, 2014 :: Like Supt. John Deasy and others in the Los Angeles Unified School District, I am concerned about the educational civil rights of the district's students. While the iPad-for-every-student controversy has gotten much media coverage lately, a long-term problem has gotten very little attention: the lack of equal access to a quality school library. A 19-month investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights concluded in 2011 that thousands of LAUSD students were being denied equal educational opportunities, which included libraries with sufficient books and staffing. Although the research is inconclusive regarding the results of providing every child a laptop, it is overwhelmingly positive for providing students well-stocked, well-staffed school libraries. In fact, an internal LAUSD memo from June attests to "the correlation between student achievement and well-staffed and well-stocked school libraries. This correlation is documented in many longitudinal studies. Access to such libraries is a necessary tool for student achievement and the implementation of the Common Core." The state school library association recommends 28 library books per child. LAUSD falls far short of that goal. Some schools have as few as seven books per child. Older schools have outdated and uninteresting collections. The district has not provided significant funding for school libraries since 1997. The funding provided in the past was measly and later slashed. Although there are some well-stocked school libraries in the district, this is a result of parental support and fundraising. According to district records, LAUSD provides no funding to provide current and up-to-date print and electronic collections. There is no significant funding at the state or federal level. Students who have access to high-quality school libraries learn more, get better grades, score higher on standardized tests and enjoy reading more. - A great library includes not only a great collection but also a well-trained, enthusiastic staff. In the district, the ratio is one teacher-librarian to nearly 6,000 students. Elementary schools that have libraries that are open staff them with aides who work, on average, three hours a day and not every day in some schools. This leaves no time for real interaction with students, staff and the collection. For many people, the school library seems old-fashioned and even unnecessary in this electronic age. However, the research and kids don't support that notion. Across the United States, studies have shown that students who have access to high-quality school libraries learn more, get better grades, score higher on standardized tests and enjoy reading more. Many students tell me that a well-stocked library is the best thing about school. One fifth-grader said, "I never knew about so many great things until I got to find out about them in the library." Another called the library "magical." I've asked many students: If they had to choose, would it be a laptop or a library? Overwhelmingly, they choose the library. "Man, someone who wants to do that doesn't know about kids. We all want the library," said one. Many reported fatigue from reading on a tablet. They still want to hold a book, flip the pages. Two significant findings have resulted from studies comparing reading on a tablet versus reading a book: Adults and children skim more and comprehend less when they read on a tablet. Many of the students whose civil rights are being violated based on the quality of the school library have little, if any, access to print materials. They have few books at home, and for many, the public library is inaccessible. For some students, the bus trip to the library is long. Many students tell me they would love to go to the public library but the one near their home is "scary." "There are a lot of homeless people and I am really afraid. Plus, my parents won't let me go alone," a student in Hollywood told me. A school library is not in contradiction to technology but rather should enhance our use and understanding of it. Effective school libraries are more than books. They are hubs of learning with well-trained and well-supervised staff. The school library is one of the best options for addressing the civil rights of our students. ●Rebecca Constantino is the founder and executive director of Access Books, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of school libraries. ●●smf’s 2¢ :: I cannot and will not argue with anything Rebecca says above. But it is the unsaid and unwritten that must be addressed. The books-to-student ratio, the number of shelf-feet per library, the hours of access and the age and the relevancy of the collection, the inventory of fiction, non-fiction and reference books – the technology and the catalog and all the rest are meaningless without paid professional staff to operate the library. The library is the most important classroom in the school, but a library without a librarian is a book room. Up until recently LAUSD-under-Deasy has been unwilling to fund librarians. If a school wanted a librarian (called a library aide in elementary) they had to find the money somewhere to pay for one. Couch-cushion money, washing machine money, bake sale money. Spare change. Do you want a counselor? Do you want a nurse? Classroom aides, enough paper towels and toilet paper to last all year? like that. Now the District is out hiring lots of three hour a day library aides– with three (count ‘em) three hours of training – to staff libraries. Library aides are not security aides with an orange vest and a roll of stickers – they are paraprofessionals whose qualifications, duties and responsibilities are defined in the Ed Code. Three hour employees don’t get benefits yet they are responsible for a couple of hundred thousand dollar inventory of books – and they must do allthe wonderful things Rebecca outlines for not quite a living wage after three hours of training. That the District is funding the positions is good news, make no mistake. But it’s nowhere near good-enough news. MORE THAN 100,000 LA SCHOOL REPAIRS BACKLOGGED: Fire safety at risk in some schools By Annie Gilbertson and Claire Withycombe with Chris Keller | KPCC 89.3 | http://bit.ly/1AZHJCu September 18 2014 | This story has been updated. :: From burned out light bulbs and cracked concrete to compromised fire safety systems and exposed electrical wiring, Los Angeles Unified schools are waiting on 116,000 maintenance and safety problems reported since January, records show, and officials said they don't have the staff or money to fix them all. An analysis of 165,400 repair requests filed with the school district this year showed less than a third have been addressed. "We are very short staffed," said Roger Finstad, head of maintenance and operations at L.A. Unified. "We're operating at less than half the funding we had just about six years ago." L.A. Unified set aside about $100 million for repairs this year, but Finstad said it would cost about $400 million every year to get all the work done. The state used to require schools to reserve 3 percent of funds for upkeep. During the recession, that requirement was removed to give schools more flexibility. If the mandate was still in place, L.A. Unified would have to double funds for maintenance and repairs this year. Superintendent John Deasy is proposing hiring another 900 maintenance workers next school year for a total of about $80 million. "But even with that, it's still not going to be sufficient to do the full maintenance program our schools truly need," Finstad said. Alex Orozco, a social studies teacher at James Madison Middle School in North Hollywood, said without routine maintenance, basic, necessary systems are falling apart. "We have classrooms that are being flooded," Orozco said. "They aren’t ready for heavy rains when we do get them. Some classrooms have no air conditioning." Of the outstanding requests district-wide, the data shows about 1,400 relate to school fire safety systems: leaking ceiling sprinklers, rust-covered fire sprinkler pipes and fire alarms and extinguishers are past due for repairs. Rick Flores, an inspector for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said out-of-date fire extinguishers are a serious problem. SAFETY HAZARDS "What happens is the powder starts to cake in the bottom," Flores said. "The danger is if you go to use it, it won't work." A year and a half ago, staff at Hamsaki Elementary school in East Los Angeles pleaded for upgrades to a 50-year-old fire sprinkler system, according to the most recent data provided by L.A. Unified in response to a public records request. An aging kitchen fire suppression system worried staff at Hope Street Elementary in Huntington Park. They put in a request in March. It still isn't done. Seven months ago, San Pedro Elementary reported every fire extinguisher was out of date. Officials said they replaced them a month later. At Cesar Chavez Learning Academies in San Fernando, which was built in 2011 with $147 million in bond funds, records show 205 repairs were requested since January, including five fire extinguishers housed in busted glass cases. Student Oscar Ruiz said it's the little things that get him. The bathroom mirrors at Cesar Chavez have been shattered as long as he's been going there. "It's hasn't been fixed since 9th grade - and I'm a senior," Ruiz said. "It's, like, come on." LA Unified schools with most pending work orders (as of Aug. 8, 2014) SCHOOL BONDS Between 1997 and 2005, voters approved $19.5 billion in school bonds to fix leaky roofs, upgrade deteriorating bathrooms and build new schools to alleviate overcrowding and end forced busing. Measure R, for instance, raised almost $4 billion, promising to upgrade “fire safety systems, improve plumbing and electrical systems, and upgrade restrooms.” School officials said bond money can only be used for capital improvements – like replacing a roof – not routine repairs like fixing a leak. The school district's legal counsel decides which projects are eligible for bond funds and which isn't. "You've got to draw a line between capital expenditures and regular expenditures and sometimes that's hard to do," said Stephen English, chair of the Citizens' Oversight Committee for L.A. Unified's bond program. Because the administration doesn't believe bonds can be used for a wide range of repairs, those are not submitted for approval, according to English. Even large repairs, such as new air-conditioning systems and roofs, are projected to run the district $13 billion over the next fifteen years, much more than what's left of the bond funds. Over 90 percent of Measure R had been spent as of July, according to Tom Rubin, a consultant for the bond oversight committee. What is left is already committed to future projects. Deasy plans to use $1.3 billion in bond funds to equip every student and teacher with a digital device loaded with learning software. Because many of the voter referendums also promised to upgrade technology, the school district's legal counsel has determined that is a legitimate use of bond funds. ANGRY TEACHERS Adult education teacher Julie Carson accuses the district of pulling a bait and switch. “The public isn’t going to vote for bonds any more because of this," said Carson, the co-founder of a Facebook group called Repairs Not iPads which posts pictures of broken water fountains and toilets and insect infestations. "Someone has to say 'no'!” And then there are the ones no reports to officials downtown. At Cesar Chavez, students said sewage smells seep up into classrooms near bathrooms at the 4-year-old school. Sophomore Alexiz Acosta attends one of the four "learning campuses" at the school - which is following a newer model of breaking up behemoth high schools into manageable sub-schools. Her building serves about 500 kids, but Acosta said only one of the bathrooms is usually open - and even then, it's not uncommon for toilets to be out of order. State law mandates schools provide at least one toilet for every thirty female students. During a recent visit, more than one toilet was available - but water was running in only one of the three sinks. Staff have been calling for plumbing repairs for at least three months, repair tickets show. Cesar Chavez's principal declined to comment on why bathrooms stay locked or sinks were not working. OVERSIGHT While state education officials and the Office of the State Architect have to sign off on new schools before they open to make sure they're safe and sturdy, they aren't involved in making sure they stay that way. City and county fire departments are charged with conducting annual inspections of schools. Flores, the L.A. County fire inspector, said when county fire officials find violations, they give the school a written warning and can impose fines. Officials at Los Angeles city and county fire departments said the number of warnings and fines issued to L.A. Unified campuses in the last year were not readily available. Peter Sanders, a spokesman for the city fire department, said his inspectors can only enforce the fire code, leaving a number of L.A. Unified fire repairs outside their oversight. "They may flag things on their own that may not be in violation of the fire code," Sanders said. The only apparent oversight of conditions on campus comes from the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Cal-OSHA received 49 complaints from L.A. Unified school staff over the past five years, records show, many after accidents. Last year, inspectors found bathrooms at Mulholland Middle School in Lake Balboa were unsanitary or inaccessible. OSHA found school staff either weren't routinely inspecting the bathrooms or hadn't for a long time. The agency issued only one fine since January. Even with the threat of a $5,000 fee, it took Cabrillo Elementary School three months to come into compliance, Cal-OSHA records show. Without more cash on hand, Finstad said it would be hard for his repair staff to abolish the backlog. "I don't see it in the very near term," Finstad said. STATE NEEDS A 'GRAND BARGAIN' ON TEACHERS' EFFECTIVENESS, OBSTACLES INEFFECTIVENESS IN THE CLASSROOM OFTEN DOES NOT DERIVE FROM INCOMPETENCE Op-Ed by Ken Futernick in the LA Times | http://lat.ms/1rbeOdw 20 Sept 2014 :: The Vergara ruling does not mean, as many believe, the end of bad teachers. Unless it's overturned on appeal, the Los Angeles Superior Court's June decision in Vergara vs. California making it much easier to fire teachers will hurt students if lawmakers, unions and other state education leaders don't move beyond its limited focus and address the many factors that adversely affect student learning and teacher performance. Stakeholders must come together around a “grand bargain” that would address not only teacher incompetence but all the obstacles educators face that, in the end, prevent many students from learning. The court's ruling, which Gov. Jerry Brown has appealed, found that several California employment statutes violate the state Constitution's guarantee of equal educational opportunity. Judge Rolf M. Treu wrote that evidence that a disproportionate number of poor and minority students are more likely to have ineffective teachers is “compelling,” adding that it “shocks the conscience.” Were Vergara to hold up, administrators would be able to fire teachers with little difficulty. That's what has generated all of the excitement, the belief that no student will ever again have to be subjected to a bad teacher. Or so the thinking goes. Unfortunately, the ruling misdiagnoses the problem of teacher ineffectiveness and gives false hope for the cure it prescribes. That's because ineffectiveness in the classroom often does not derive from incompetence. lRelated Making it easier to fire teachers won't get you better ones To be sure, many of those who teach in poor neighborhoods don't have the same effect on test scores as those who teach in wealthier schools. But most schools that serve poor and minority students — those with high concentrations of English learners, transient students, students with health problems and so on — have fewer resources to meet students' many needs, larger class sizes and inadequate materials and facilities. In addition, they are staffed with many beginning teachers who turn over at high rates. Not surprisingly, student achievement suffers. Also, schools that serve poor students routinely assign teachers to subjects in which they have no expertise. For instance, a 2008 study showed that 27% of math courses in schools serving poor students were taught by teachers who were not qualified to teach math. Why are schools that serve poor and minority students overstaffed with inexperienced and out-of-field teachers? Most teachers seek to make a difference and are eager to teach disadvantaged students. But many don't want to teach in such schools because most of them are extraordinarily difficult, dysfunctional places to work. The teachers there suffer from poor professional support, low morale, run-down facilities, a revolving door of principals and unrelenting accountability pressures. Ineffectiveness in the classroom often does not derive from incompetence. - Consequently, administrators in these schools can't attract and keep enough well-qualified, experienced teachers. That, in turn, highlights another critical flaw in the judge's decision — the assumption that these schools can find suitable replacements for fired teachers. Quite the contrary, and administrators' power to fire teachers without real due process will only exacerbate the teacher recruitment problem. At the Vergara trial, powerful evidence was aired about the devastating effects of poverty on student achievement and about the state's meager investment in its K-12 schools. California, whose child poverty rate is among the nation's highest, spends less per student than almost every other state. So, what's the best path forward? The case will probably linger in the courts on appeal for years while battles over tenure and other employment statutes intensify. None of that bodes well for students. We need a “grand bargain” — now — that addresses all of the conditions affecting educator effectiveness and gives students the kind of instruction they deserve. What would such a bargain include? For starters, the state should develop a new teacher dismissal process that is fair and efficient. It should not take years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to fire an ineffective teacher if he or she has been given a reasonable chance to improve, has been carefully evaluated and hasn't done better. Brown signed legislation this year that provides a fair and efficient way to adjudicate cases of gross teacher misconduct. Education leaders should develop a similar way to handle cases of teacher incompetence. They also should develop solutions for the other statutes that the court struck down, such as the one that allowed teachers with more seniority to keep their jobs during layoffs. California could do what other states have done, recognize experience along with other factors in making layoff decisions. But California must have a solid due process system for teachers, and contrary to popular belief, that's all that tenure provides. Without a reliable way to determine whether a teacher is truly incompetent, the state will return to an era when employment decisions were fraught with abuse that included higher-salaried, experienced teachers replaced with less-expensive beginners and competent teachers fired because of their political or religious views. A grand bargain also would need to address other problems that cause teacher ineffectiveness and make some schools unattractive places to work. The good news is that many of the strategies needed exist in “Greatness by Design,” a recent report from a diverse group of California stakeholders (myself included) to boost educator effectiveness. Here are three recommendations from the report: The state must develop a robust teacher evaluation framework designed to help all teachers improve, not just to identify low performers. Such systems would ensure that principals and other evaluators have the time and training needed to conduct meaningful evaluations. The state should build on the successful peer assistance and review programs that exist in places such as Poway Unified and San Juan Unified. These programs provide high-quality support to struggling teachers. Most participating teachers improve; those who don't either leave voluntarily or are dismissed without grievances and expensive lawsuits. The state and school districts must improve the conditions in hard-to-staff schools to attract and retain the best teaching candidates and the strongest principals. Among other things, these schools need high-quality professional development, time for teachers to plan and collaborate, and the authority to make professional decisions. Through its new weighted student funding formula, California is wisely directing more resources to the schools that need them most. But we will never see real equity when it comes to teacher effectiveness until the state provides enough education funding to fully address the problem. Ken Futernick is a professor emeritus at Cal State Sacramento. He was an expert witness for the state of California in the Vergara trial. Email: ken.futernick@gmail.com. ●● Somebody else’s 2¢: Commenter Mayo Gubbins on the Times website at 10:44 AM on September 20, 2014: “Seems to me that inefficient teachers are probably a small problem in education, and the need to fire them is also a small problem. The major problem in CA education appears to be poverty, students who don't speak English as a first language, and lack of funding.” ●●smf's 2¢: It seems that way to me and many others too. I daresay most others. Unfortunately it does not seem that way to Eli Broad or Dick Riordan or Bill Gates or the Walton and Koch Families. Their opinions on public education count for more in the editorial boards and halls of power than ours. Dr. Deasy in LAUSD gives this argument lip service when he says his mission is to eliminate poverty – which he believes he can do more effectively if it is easier to fire teachers and distribute iPads. But the truth is that his mission - and that of all of our colleagues in education - is to educate children collaboratively, not competitively or as a business strategy to optimize performance or throughput. And it needs to be all of our mission, “We the People’s” mission, to eliminate poverty. Once and for all. One day/paycheck/opportunity/diploma/successful child at a time. HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources ►Letters to the editor of the LA Times Sunday AM: http://lat.ms/1v6ktRR ●BATTLING RACIAL BIAS WITH BETTER EDUCATION To the editor: Stanford psychology professor Jennifer Eberhardt's stunning findings on the effects that social biases regarding skin color have on basic perceptual processes is a marvelous example of creative thought and the importance of the behavioral sciences for society. ("Stanford's Jennifer Eberhardt wins MacArthur 'genius' grant," Sept. 16 | http://lat.ms/1mofsnY) Recent findings in neuroscience provide an underlying explanation of her discoveries. Traditional thought assumed that our experiences involve two stages of brain processing: The sensory systems first perform objective analysis of environmental stimuli and then pass on the results to "higher" regions of the cerebral cortex for interpretation. The belief in "pure objective sensory analysis" is now known to be wrong. There is no purely objective perceptual system in the brain. Rather, our basic sensory systems themselves actually give psychological meaning to sensory stimuli based on prior associations. That may explain why an association between crime and blacks enabled white subjects to perceive guns better in the presence of black faces. The good news is that associations can be changed or reversed. So education, by building new associations, is the remedy, and our brains will give perceptual advantages to them. Norman Weinberger, Irvine ●The writer, a research professor at UC Irvine, is a fellow at the university's Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. .. ●To the editor: What a valuable and humbling article on Eberhardt and her research. Even the slightest conscience dictates that all of us raise our consciousness to the unintended biases we harbor. No other response would be just. Eileen Bigelow, Whittier ►MCCLATCHY HIGH WANTS STUDENTS BACK TO TEACH, BOLSTER MINORITY FACULTY -- At C.K. McClatchy High School [in Sacramento City Unified] an ad hoc colectiva is exploring ways to encourage minority students to return to teach – a grow-your-own approach to adding greater diversity to the faculty. Loretta Kalb and Phillip Reese in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/21/14 | http://bit.ly/GBpxtk ►Democrats divided: THE RACE FOR STATE SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT -- For an obscure elective office that is often ignored, unknown or regarded as superfluous in California’s convoluted education bureaucracy, the November election for state Superintendent of Public Instruction is shaping up as one of the most contentious — and costly — races among statewide candidates. Sigrid Bathen Capitol Weekly -- 9/21/14 http://bit.ly/GBpxtk _________ "¿Great progress?": LAUSD STUDENTS IMPROVE ON MATH AND ENGLISH EXIT EXAMS …BUT STILL LAG BEHIND STATE AND COUNTY | http://bit.ly/1qXba8r THE DEBATE OVER COMMON CORE | http://bit.ly/1p8tDt2 STATE NEEDS A 'GRAND BARGAIN' ON TEACHERS' EFFECTIVENESS, OBSTACLES | http://bit.ly/1AXWGVG LAUSD GETS APPROVAL FOR NEW MAYWOOD CAMPUS | http://bit.ly/1pmblUc CORE CALIFORNIA WAIVER EXTENDED: Seven CORE districts – including LAUSD - placed on “High Risk Status” | http://bit.ly/XR2Ha2 IS TURMOIL IN LOS ANGELES UNIFIED BECOMING TOO FAMILIAR? | http://bit.ly/1mlcdhk FEW LA STUDENTS USING PEARSON'S IPAD SOFTWARE, SURVEY SHOWS | http://bit.ly/1sfcYuG LAUSD PAYS $6 MILLION FOR ISIS (not the terrorists) TO GO AWAY, WILL PAY $9.2 MILLION FOR MORE iPAD TRAINING | http://bit.ly/1ww7Tfr LAUSD’S CAUTIOUS APPROACH TO HEAT CREATES ISSUES FOR FOOTBALL TEAMS | http://bit.ly/1saEv09 LETTERS: What's LAUSD doing with ex-military weapons? + The school board’s the boss, like it or not | http://bit.ly/1v06D3d LAUSD: POSTER CHILD FOR HOW NOT TO PROVIDE TECHNOLOGY TO STUDENTS AND HOW NOT TO DO A STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEM | http://bit.ly/1mladpm Editorial: THE BAD OLD DAYS AT LAUSD …and 2¢ more or less http://bit.ly/1uWFkH3 WHAT’S NEXT *IF* DEASY IS OUT? Speculation abounds...and even the LA School Report is playing the parlor game! | http://bit.ly/1BNCo3t GINNY MANCINI GIVES BACK TO THE MUSIC THAT NURTURED HER "Music is something that every child needs, nourishment just to be sure he succeeds ... music is magic wherever it leads, a hundred years from today." - Ginny Mancini | http://bit.ly/1sq6yTC MORE THAN 100,000 LA SCHOOL REPAIRS BACKLOGGED: Fire safety at risk in some schools | http://bit.ly/1wWkP1o L.A. UNIFIED STUDENTS CLAIM WALKOUT OVER HEAT; DISTRICT REPAIRING A/C + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1pjSZmS SOME LA UNIFIED STUDENTS WILTING IN HEAT WAITING FOR AIR CONDITIONING REPAIRS | http://bit.ly/1tYXLxF WE CODDLE BAD COPS, VILIFY GOOD TEACHERS | We defer to cops even when they kill, and scapegoat schools for the ills America has given up on. This must change | http://bit.ly/1t7spmS EMAIL RETENTION ESSENTIAL FOR L.A. SCHOOL DISTRICT http://bit.ly/XcSNyM Letters to the editor: SUPT. DEASY IS A DISTRACTION FOR LAUSD | "Deasy is an unnecessary distraction that is hindering the LAUSD. The honorable option is for him to resign. Otherwise, the Board of Education should decisively intervene and terminate his contract." h http://bit.ly/1pi9z6I BICKERING BETWEEN L.A. UNIFIED LEADERS WON’T MAKE SCHOOLS BETTER | http://bit.ly/1uFoXj0 More Info on Medi-Cal for Kids with Autism: MEDI-CAL TO NOW PAY FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH TREATMENT FOR AUTISM http://bit.ly/1r29v0j LACOE ISSUES EXTREME HEAT WARNING THROUGH WED, LAUSD CANCELS ALL OUTDOOR SPORTS+ATHLETIC ACTIVITY THROUGH TUES. | http://bit.ly/1m7h2uw Webinar on College-and-Career-Ready Standards for Hispanics | Wednesday, September 17 at 2pm EDT/11am PDT http://bit.ly/XsLNhO CALIFORNIA BROADENS AUTISM COVERAGE FOR KIDS THROUGH MEDICAID | http://bit.ly/1m774JH LAUSD’S STUDENTS NEED BETTER LIBRARIES, NOT iPADS + smf’s 2¢ | A good school library is not in conflict with technology; it can enhance our understanding and use of it.(and I.T.!)|http://bit.ly/1uEp1PV EVENTS: Coming up next week... Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee - September 23, 2014 Start: 09/23/2014 4:00 pm BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE Thursday Sept 25, 2014 Starts 10 AM *Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________ • SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: http://www.laschools.org/bond/ Phone: 213-241-5183 ____________________________________________________ • LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR: http://www.laschools.org/happenings/ Phone: 213-241.8700 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600 • Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/ • Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school. • Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it! • Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child. • If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE. • If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE. • If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. 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