4LAKids: Sunday 17•Jan•2010 MLK Weekend In This Issue: • Testing: COMMUNITY-BASED ASSESSMENT MAKES THE GRADE • DEBUNKING THE CASE FOR NATIONAL STANDARDS • TOP-SCORING CHARTER SCHOOL NAMED FOR UCLA PROFESSOR + smf’s 2¢ • HOW TO DISCUSS THE HAITI DISASTER WITH YOUR STUDENTS • HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources • EVENTS: Coming up next week... • What can YOU do? Featured Links: • 4 LAKids on Twitter • PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website • 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. “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.’’ - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968 “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” - MLK ______________ EL DORADO, BEFORE IT WAS A TAIL-FINNED CADILLAC was a fabulous place where – myth has it – a prince or priest of the Amazonian Musica people coated himself in gold, dove into a clear mountain lake and emerged a king. In translation (“The Golden One”) this legend obsessed the Conquistadors – and after them Sir Walter Raleigh (who sought his El Dorado up the Orinoco rather than the Amazon) - and Milton in Paradise Lost and Voltaire in Candide. In Heart of Darkness Conrad (and The Company) sends Marlow up the Congo in search of Kurtz on a boat of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition. Edgar Allan Poe in 1848 – the year California gold fever swept the nation, wrote: Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of El Dorado. But he grew old- This knight so bold- And o'er his heart a shadow Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like El Dorado. And, as his strength Failed him at length, He met a pilgrim shadow- "Shadow," said he, "Where can it be- This land of El Dorado?" "Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied- "If you seek for El Dorado!" LAST WEEK, IN A MOMENT OF BIZARRE THAT EVEN HARPER'S WOULD FIND OUTLANDISH, the State Board of Education proved Mark Twain's Maxim of Educational Leadership yet again. [“First God made idiots; that was for practice. Then He made school boards.”] It ruled that charter schools need not follow the Special Education Plan of the school district they serve – or even the County they're in. [State Board of Ed Agenda Item # 32 - http://bit.ly/5CwL78] Charter Schools – never strong at serving Special Ed and Special Needs students - can, the board ruled, shop around for a better deal in Special Ed and services for Students with Disabilities. A better deal for charter schools ...not kids! And for good measure they served it up on a golden platter. WELCOME TO EL DORADO COUNTY on the Eastern slope of the Sierra, Population 172,889. And the El Dorado Charter Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA | definition: http://bit.ly/4RmTG5). And the “Local” in “Local Planning Area”? Everywhere is local to somewhere -- in Beverly Hills the schools are “Locals Only!” This amounts to El Dorado for the folks up there because they get a piece of federal buckos for overseeing and administering all those special ed big city charter school children. And El Dorado for the charter operators because well – how much accountability is there gonna be from or to El Dorado County? And the county seat of Placerville.(formerly Hangtown)? And if the Special Ed parents get their knickers in a twist because Amino Hypothetical Charter School #4 isn't serving their child they can go straight to the El Dorado Charter SELPA Community Advisory Committee up in Placervillle (353 miles from LA) ...and straighten that matter out! There are 118 Local SELPAs in California – and one exception: The El Dorado Statewide “Local” Charter SELPA. Dr. Barber, the El Dorado County Superintendent writes: "On July 9, 2007, the State Board of Education approved a three year pilot for the El Dorado County Charter SELPA. Although we believe it is always preferable for a charter school to participate with their geographic SELPA, we do realize that choice regarding SELPA participation may be of interest to some. On January 7, 2010 the State Board of Education took action to lift our pilot status and approved the continuance of the El Dorado County Charter SELPA." [http://bit.ly/4JBYve] "Although we believe it is always preferable for a charter school to participate with their geographic SELPA......?" C'mon: If Dr. Barber truly believes that it is 'always preferable' (...and she is right!) she shouldn't be the enabler for the contrary because "...it may be of interest to some". This is the Tyranny of the Some; a prime example/easy answer/ half-baked solution. With unintended consequences and children left behind queued up from here to kingdom come. Unless you have a child attending a charter school in El Dorado County (there are a few - though the official list [http://bit.ly/5VWrXk] includes schools in Sacramento, Costa Mesa and Huntington Park) this is about the worst Special Ed policy decision imaginable! They call them Special Education LOCAL Plan Areas for a reason. What part of Local is it that's so hard to understand? Gentle Reader, it's federal funds that underfund Special Ed – and I'm looking forward to some very amusing testimony in a federal courthouse. And I seriously doubt if it will be in Placerville! ¡Onward/Adelante! --smf The story/The spin: STATE BOARD GIVES MORE CONTROL TO CHARTER SCHOOLS FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS by Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News 01/08/2010 | http://bit.ly/7zMbwh Testing: COMMUNITY-BASED ASSESSMENT MAKES THE GRADE by Todd Farley | from the Feb & March issue | www.edutopia.org/ 12/23/2009 – We're fast approaching a point in this country when the promotion or graduation of students will result not from their classroom work or the opinions of the educators who spend each day with them but from their performance on a single standardized test. Because I've spent the last 15 years inside the testing industry -- working for many of the biggest companies on many of the biggest tests -- this trend doesn't seem so smart to me. In fact, I'd say linking federal education funds to regional standardized test scores (as No Child Left Behind does) or teacher pay to student test results (the probable, but unintended, outcome of President Obama's Race to the Top [1] program) are ideas that should be reconsidered. My complaint with large-scale assessment does not lie with the multiple-choice tests, because those are scored electronically. The real trouble begins in the realm of open-ended tests, where students answer questions in their own words and are assessed by fallible human beings. The testing industry wants those subjective student responses to be scored as consistently as multiple-choice tests. To do this, the industry establishes hard-and-fast rules for its short-term "professional scorers" to adhere to. In my experience, these rules -- written for recently hired temporary employees -- ultimately turn the process into a theater of the absurd. I know, because I've sat through the training sessions. Working on a national assessment test in 2005, I helped establish scoring rules for a test question that asked students performing a hands-on science task to describe what happened when they mixed a liquid and a solid. The rubric, written by classroom teachers, said full credit should be awarded to answers showing "complete understanding." But everyone had a different idea of "complete understanding." So the test company tried to specify exactly what that meant. I sat in on a lengthy conference call filled with test developers and science teachers as we tried to hammer out the right and wrong student responses, and I was amazed as those earnest educators considered potential responses. "If we accept 'The liquid bubbled,'" one scientist said, "then I don't see how we can't accept 'It sizzled.'" "But sizzled isn't the same as bubbled," another argued, and soon everyone on the phone was debating whether boiled meant the same as sizzled, fizzled the same as sizzled, fizzed the same as fizzled. When people ask how I would reform standardized testing, I point to models that work on a smaller scale. In the current system, temporary employees must adhere to unyielding rules established to deal with tens of thousands of student responses. A reformed system would have a smaller number of scorers assessing the work of a smaller number of students. This means placing assessment back in the hands of the teacher who can make thoughtful decisions about the students he or she knows. If small-scale assessment sounds like an expensive solution that won't fly in today's economy, consider Washington State's recent achievements. In response to a 2004 ballot initiative, the state rolled out a comprehensive classroom-based-assessment program for social studies, health, and the arts. These CBAs are written and administered on the state level, but student results are assessed by classroom teachers. This makes for a win-win: Administrators and policy makers receive standardized results across the state, and students are spared the obvious downfalls of large-scale test scoring. Organizations like Boston-based FairTest [2] consider programs such as Washington's to be authentic assessments. This is because the CBAs are based on student performances or portfolios they produce over a period of time. In this scenario, assessment no longer rests on the open-ended answers that students recall on one stressful day. It is increasingly important to change the testing industry. Race to the Top is based on national assessment criteria, and that is set to become the new gatekeeper for federal education funding. Absent reform, we are placing life-changing assessments about students in the hands of bored temps who give fleeting glances to students' work. - Todd Farley is the author of Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry [3]. More on 21st-Century Assessment Share your thoughts on this topic at Edutopia.org's Assessment group. [4] Source URL: http://www.edutopia.org/community-based-assessment-testing-reform Footnote Links: [1] http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html [2] http://www.fairtest.org [3] http://p3books.com/makingthegrades [4] http://www.edutopia.org/groups/assessment/11400 DEBUNKING THE CASE FOR NATIONAL STANDARDS Commentary By Alfie Kohn in EdWeek January 14, 2010 – I keep thinking it can’t get much worse, and then it does. Throughout the 1990s, one state after another adopted prescriptive education standards enforced by frequent standardized testing, often of the high-stakes variety. A top-down, get-tough movement to impose “accountability” began to squeeze the life out of classrooms. A decade ago, many of us thought we had hit bottom—until the floor gave way and we found ourselves in a basement we didn’t know existed. Now every state had to test every student every year in grades 3-8, judging them (and their schools) almost exclusively by test scores and hurting the schools that needed the most help. Ludicrously unrealistic proficiency targets suggested that the federal law responsible was intended to sabotage rather than improve public education. Today, we survey the wreckage. Talented teachers have abandoned the profession after having been turned into glorified test-prep technicians. Low-income teenagers have been forced out of school by do-or-die graduation exams. Countless inventive learning activities have been eliminated in favor of prefabricated lessons pegged to state standards. And now we’re informed that what we really need … is to standardize this whole operation from coast to coast. Have we lost our minds? Because we’re certainly in the process of losing our children’s minds. Let’s be clear about this latest initiative, which is being spearheaded by politicians, corporate CEOs, and companies that produce standardized tests. First, what they’re trying to sell us are national standards. They carefully point out that the effort isn’t driven by the federal government. But if all, or nearly all, states end up adopting identical mandates, that distinction doesn’t amount to much. Second, these standards will inevitably be accompanied by a national standardized test. “Standards alone,” warns Dane Linn, a key player, “will not drive teaching and learning”—meaning, of course, the specific type of teaching and learning that the authorities require. Even if we took the advice of the late Harold Howe II, a former U.S. commissioner of education, and made the standards “as vague as possible,” a national test creates a de facto national curriculum, particularly if high stakes are attached. Third, a relatively small group of experts—far from classrooms—will be designing standards, test questions, and curricula for the rest of us. Incredibly, the official Web site of the Common Core State Standards Initiative insists that these will be “based on evidence” rather than reflecting anyone’s “individual beliefs about what is important.” But evidence can tell us only whether a certain method is effective for reaching a certain objective—for example, how instruction aligned to this standard will affect a score on that test. The selection of the goal itself—what our children will be taught and tested on—unavoidably reflects values and beliefs. Should those of a single group of individuals determine what happens in every public school in the country? Advocates of national standards say they want all (American) students to attain excellence, no matter where they happen to live. The problem is that excellence is being confused with entirely different attributes, such as uniformity, rigor, specificity, and victory. Let’s consider each in turn. Are all kids entitled to a great education? Of course. But that doesn’t mean all kids should get the same education. High standards don’t require common standards. Uniformity is not the same thing as excellence—or equity. (In fact, one-size-fits-all demands may offer the illusion of fairness, setting back the cause of genuine equity.) To recognize these simple truths is to watch the rationale for national standards collapse into a heap of intellectual rubble. "Uniformity is not the same thing as excellence—or equity." I know of no evidence that students in countries as diverse as ours with national standards or curricula engage in unusually deep thinking or are particularly excited about learning. Even standardized-test results, such as those of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, provide no support. On 8th grade math and science exams, eight of the 10 top-scoring countries had centralized education systems, but so did nine of the 10 lowest-scoring countries in math and eight of the 10 lowest-scoring countries in science. So if students don’t benefit from uniformity, who does? Presumably, corporations that sell curriculum materials and tests will enjoy lower costs. And then there are the policymakers who confuse doing well with beating others. If you’re determined to evaluate students or schools in relative terms, it helps if they’re all doing the same thing. But why would we want to turn learning into a competitive sport? It’s not only that national standards are unnecessary, they’re also based on the premise that “our teachers cannot be trusted to make decisions about which curriculum is best for their schools,” as the University of Chicago’s Zalman Usiskin put it. Moreover, uniformity doesn’t just happen—and continue—on its own. Someone has to make everyone apply the same standards. What happens, then, to educators who disagree with some of them or with, say, the premise that teaching must be split into separate disciplines? What are the implications of accepting a system characterized by what Deborah Meier has called “centralized power over ideas”? I’ve written elsewhere about another error: equating harder with better and making a fetish of “rigorous” demands or tests whose primary virtue (if it’s a virtue at all) is that they’re really difficult. Read just about any brief for national standards and you’ll witness this confusion in full bloom. A key selling point is that we’re “raising the bar”—even though, as Voltaire reminded us, “That which is merely difficult gives no pleasure in the end.” Nor does it enhance learning. Then, too, there is a conflation of quality with specificity. If children—and communities—are different from one another, the only safe way to apply one standard to all of them is to operate at a high level of abstraction: “We will help all students to communicate effectively,” for example. (Hence Harold Howe’s enduring wisdom about the need to keep things vague.) The more specific the standard, the more problematic to impose it on everyone. Pretty soon you’re gratuitously defining some children as failures, particularly if standards are broken down by grade level. The reasonable-sounding adjectives employed to defend an agenda of specificity—“focused,” “coherent,” “precise,” “clear”—ought to make us nervous. If standards comprise narrowly defined facts and skills, then education consists of transmitting vast quantities of material to students, material that even the most successful may not remember, care about, or be able to use. This is exactly what most state standards have already become, and it’s where national standards are heading (even if, in theory, they could be otherwise). Specificity is what business groups and newspaper editorialists want. It’s demanded by theorists who think being well educated mostly means knowing lots of facts. It’s been a major criterion by which Education Week and conservative think tanks like the Thomas B. Fordham Institute evaluate standards documents. In any case, Achieve Inc. and the governors probably won’t need much convincing; they’ll give us specific in spades. Finally, what’s the purpose of demanding that every kid in every school in every state must be able to do the same thing in the same year, with teachers pressured to “align” their instruction to a master curriculum and a standardized test? "A prescription for uniform, specific, rigorous standards is made to order for those whose chief concern is to pump up the American economy." I once imagined a drinking game in which a few of those education reform papers from corporate groups and politicians were read aloud: You take a shot every time you hear “rigorous,” “measurable,” “accountable,” “competitive,” “world-class,” “high(er) expectations,” or “raising the bar.” Within a few minutes, everyone would be so inebriated that they’d no longer be able to recall a time when discussions about schooling weren’t studded with these macho managerial buzzwords. But not all jargon is meaningless. This language has very real implications for what classrooms will look like and what education is (and isn’t) all about. The goal here isn’t to nourish children’s curiosity, to help them fall in love with reading, to promote both the ability and the disposition to think critically, or to support a democratic society. Rather, a prescription for uniform, specific, rigorous standards is made to order for those whose chief concern is to pump up the American economy and triumph over people who live in other countries. If you read the FAQs page on the common-core-standards Web site, don’t bother looking for words like “exploration,” “intrinsic motivation,” “developmentally appropriate,” or “democracy.” Instead, the very first sentence contains the phrase “success in the global economy,” followed immediately by “America’s competitive edge.” If these standards are more economic than educational in their inspiration, more about winning than learning, devoted more to serving the interests of business than to meeting the needs of kids, then we’ve merely painted a 21st-century facade on a hoary, dreary model of school-as-employee-training. Anyone who recoils from that vision should strenuously resist a proposal for national standards that embodies it. Yes, we want excellent teaching and learning for all—although our emphasis should be less on achievement (read: test scores) than on students’ achievements. Offered a list of standards, we should scrutinize each one, but also ask who came up with them and for what purpose. Is there room for discussion and disagreement—and not just by experts—regarding what, and how, we’re teaching and how authentic our criteria are for judging success? Or is this a matter of “obey or else,” with tests to enforce compliance? The standards movement, sad to say, morphed long ago into a push for standardization. The last thing we need is more of the same. - Alfie Kohn's 11 books about education and human behavior include The Schools Our Children Deserve, The Homework Myth, and What to Look for in a Classroom. He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org TOP-SCORING CHARTER SCHOOL NAMED FOR UCLA PROFESSOR + smf’s 2¢ by Howard Blume | LA Times L.A. NOW Blog January 14, 2010 | 6:51 pm A four-year-old high school that became a 2009 California Distinguished School was formally named today for a respected expert on education and business management and his civic activist spouse. The new William and Carol Ouchi High School is in its first school year in its new, $17-million Hyde Park-area campus, which was built in 56 days, officials said. The simple, two-story structure has two computer labs and updated technology hookups, but no cafeteria, no gym and limited recreation space on its 2.5-acre site, which includes an adjacent middle school. The school’s test scores dipped slightly this year but its Academic Performance Index score of 799 ranks it among the best-scoring high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school is operated by the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, a locally based charter school management organization that also operates other high-scoring schools. About 100 of the school’s original 189 ninth-graders will be in the school’s first graduating class this year, said Principal Ena LaVan. All graduates must fulfill entrance requirements to apply for the University of California/Cal State system. And the first class had to endure a temporary location and a stint in trailers while awaiting the completion of the campus. Charters are independently run and free of some restrictions that govern traditional schools, including strict state school-construction rules that drive up construction costs and slow down the building process for schools built by L.A. Unified. Charters instead can erect their schools under city building codes. As a fundraising tool, the Alliance sells naming rights for its schools, and in this instance, Ouchi was nominated by former Mayor Richard Riordan, an education philanthropist and political power broker who has long relied on Ouchi, a UCLA professor, for expert guidance. Riordan has donated or committed a total of $2.8 million to Alliance schools. Ouchi has long promoted a form of school decentralization. He says principals — not a school district central office — should make decisions on how to spend a school’s money and then be held accountable for the results. In his most recent book, “The Secret of TSL,” he chronicled how principals, especially in New York City, have used autonomy to reduce the total number of students that each teacher must manage in a year. He says this allows teachers to get to know and to better assist each student. Principals have accordingly reduced support and administrative staff to pursue this strategy — because it yields results, Ouchi wrote. At his namesake school, Ouchi helped establish a Saturday business academy offering tutoring and enrichment classes to introduce students to potential careers. Carol Ouchi has served on the boards of philanthropic organizations including the Santa Monica YWCA, Santa Monica College Foundation and Children’s Home Society. ________________ ●●smf’s 2¢: The story above is reprinted entire as it appeared in the Times blog – in the print edition the Times editors removed all reference to the school being a charter school. As it is the poster child for successful charters one would almost think anti-charter forces were at work in the newsroom. Almost. Ouchi is an educator – but his expertise is in business, not in education. And in politics – he was Mayor Riordan’s chief of staff. Ouchi’s book: "Making Schools Work" - championed the concept of local control – empowering principals to run their own schools at the expense of central district control. He proposed this at the time when centralist Roy Romer was LAUSD superintendent – and UTLA has a hard time empowering principals to do anything except take notes at faculty meetings. 4LAKids supports much of Ouchi’s message – but as a business school scholar and a retired businessperson I question how far business school business practices go in public education. Balancing the checkbook would be good, but in K-12 education Return on Investment is measured a generation later, not in a quarterly report. And today’s LAUSD principal; has not been prepared to run their school – especially in a world where entrepreneurship collides with governance by the pink memo from downtown. Today’s pink memo seems to say: “You will be independent and that’s an order.” Ouchi’s original message wasn’t in advocacy of charters, but the charter community has embraced it and made it their own. TIMING IS EVERTHING This announcement is trobling against the backdrop of the Haiti Earthquake. One must remember that charter schools built with private funds – such as the Ouchi School – “Built in 56 days!” - are not subject to the same stringent building codes and earthquake standards (“The Field Act”) as publicly funded/publicly owned schools; charters only conform to local building codes. Haitian schools and Sichuan schools conformed to local building codes. The California charter law permits this …but how many parents with their children in charter schools are aware of this? And how will they feel after The Big One? HOW TO DISCUSS THE HAITI DISASTER WITH YOUR STUDENTS By Elena Aguilar, Teacher | from the Edutopia blog | http://bit.ly/8EjN9f 1/14/2010 – The unthinkable happened in Haiti on January 12, when a massive earthquake destroyed the nation's capital city and killed tens of thousands of people. The magnitude of the devastation is still unknown, but the stories and images coming out of Port-au-Prince are haunting. There is no doubt that life in Haiti -- already the poorest country in the hemisphere -- has just become much, much more difficult. All day long, as I heard the news and read reports coming from the island, I was overwhelmed by my feelings of wanting to do something, and by the frustration of not feeling like there is anything I can do. It doesn't feel like it's enough to donate money to relief organizations (although it's definitely needed). TEACHABLE MOMENTS Today, I really missed being in the classroom. When I was teaching and a catastrophic event happened, I felt like I could do something: I could support kids in how to think about a tragedy like this one, I could cultivate empathy in children, I could help them analyze media coverage, or I could provide them with history to understand the situation. If I was in the classroom right now, I think I'd also take the opportunity to teach kids something about Haiti: play Haitian music, read a folktale, learn some geography -- and for older students, I'd teach them something about Haiti's amazing history. For those who don't know, Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion, and the first postcolonial independent, black-led nation in the world. I'd expand students' knowledge of the country and its people so that their impressions of Haiti are not only one of tragedy. I was teaching when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. I helped students organize a drive to collect donations for schools. I designed a number of lessons on critically analyzing the media coverage. I also pushed students to explore the concept of a natural disaster. I thought about this today. The earthquake in Haiti is not a natural disaster; the disaster is the result of underdevelopment, poverty, and a complex series of political and economic decisions made by first world powers over the last 200 years. The earthquake has exposed Haiti's desperate poverty; it is underdevelopment that is a disaster. If I was teaching kids right now, I'd find some way to communicate this fact to them. It feels urgent. It makes what has happened in Haiti something that the world is responsible for -- particularly the United States and France, Haiti's former colonizers. But you'd have to understand something about Haiti's history in order to understand why I'm saying that. SERVICE AND SOLIDARITY I'd help students think about what they could do to help others -- what they can do right now to help Haitians, and what they might do one day to help others. I'm really big on the idea that everyone should contribute to the world, and I find that children are easily engaged with this notion. They want to be of service to people, or animals, or the environment. In my experience, kids really want opportunities to volunteer and help. Perhaps in learning about the desperate need in Haiti right now for doctors or nurses, or for sniffer dogs or people who speak French or Creole, a child might be inspired to pursue a career that one day could lead them into a tragedy like this one to help others. And so I'd use this situation to push this idea: We all belong to the same planet and have a responsibility to help each other. What can you do? What will you do? I think I'd also push the idea of solidarity, a concept we should reclaim and resurrect: What can a group of kindergartners do in solidarity with the people of Haiti? What does it mean to be in solidarity with a group of people? What are the many ways we can show our solidarity? It's really about building empathy, opening our hearts, and expanding our notion of who belongs in our community. As an educator, I often feel like this is my primary charge -- all I really aspire to do. Readers, please share: How have you addressed catastrophes like the earthquake in Haiti in the classroom? What have you done or what might you do with students in response to the earthquake? What are the opportunities for teaching that can come out of this tragedy? Please contribute your thoughts and ideas. _____________________ - ELENA AGUILAR has taught in Oakland, California, since 1995. She was a founding member of ASCEND, a small autonomous school in the Oakland Unified School District, which opened in 2001. At ASCEND, she taught history and language arts to children in grades 6-8 using project learning. Aguilar has also taught at the elementary school and high school levels. She is a lecturer in San Francisco State University's Department of Elementary Education and an instructional coach in one of Oakland's middle schools. She works closely with BayCES, the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, to dramatically improve educational experiences, outcomes, and life options for students and families who have been historically underserved by their schools and districts. HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources Letters to the Times: CHARTER SCHOOLS, BEVERLY HILLS ‘LOCALS ONLY’ SCHOOLS: LA Times Letters to the Editor 1/16 C... http://bit.ly/7J5MjO LAUSD RECALLS 3 HIGHLY REGARDED CAMS TEACHERS IN BUDGET MOVE: By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer | Daily Breeze 01/15/... http://bit.ly/7KJh8x BIDDERS FOR LAUSD SCHOOLS BEGIN PRESENTING PLANS TO PARENTS TODAY: meeting schedule: http://bit.ly/5NrxqK Howard... http://bit.ly/4BhkbJ JAN 15: MLK’s ‘REAL’ BIRTHDAY — “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think criti... http://bit.ly/4K01GV THE FUTURE (OF ARTS EDUCATION) BELONGS TO US? Sign the Petition! | http://bit.ly/arts_petition: LA WEEKLY ARTS NEW... http://bit.ly/7NGeVq Friday, January 15, 2010 7:02 AM BERKELEY CHARTER SCHOOL PRAISED AND DENOUNCED AT HEARING: By Doug Oakley - Berkeley Voice 01/14/2010 04:56:24 PM ... http://bit.ly/7f4HVH SCHEDULE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE APPLICANT PRESENTATION MEETINGS FOR PARENTS AND THE COMMUNITY: check District We... http://bit.ly/5NrxqK ONLY TWO APPLICATIONS RECEIVED TO OPERATE AND IMPROVE SAN FERNANDO MIDDLE SCHOOL: Written by Diana Martinez, Edito... http://bit.ly/6gGVVj Daily News: BANNINGS COACH FERRAGAMO STEPS DOWN, STRICTER RULES FOR CHARTERS, PSC APPLICATIONS IN: Banning's Ferr... http://bit.ly/57B8Jz Fiscal malfeasance?: L.A. SCHOOLS PAID $200 MILLION MORE IN SALARIES THAN BUDGETED: By Howard Blume | LA Times | h... http://bit.ly/4w1uWd TEACHER EVALUATIONS, UC BERKELEY RANKS HIGH IN MINORITY ENROLLMENT, CHARTER ACCOUNTABLITY IN LAUSD: from L.A. Time... http://bit.ly/8P2pmq LAUSD RECEIVES APPLICATIONS TO OPERATE AND IMPROVE SCHOOLS :Superintendent Ramon Cortines Encouraged by Continued ... http://bit.ly/5PLx2V SCHOOL BUILT ON SITE WHERE RFK SHOT NAMED FOR HIM: By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS From the NY TIMES 12 Jan - 9:23 p.... http://bit.ly/6ExeWz LAO: SCHWARZENEGGER’S ASSUMPTIONS FOR FEDERAL AID UNREALISTIC: It is "unclear" whether the governor has complied w... http://bit.ly/7vcueg ED WEEK REPORT CARD IGNORES FAMILY DATA + CA LAWMAKERS APPROVE GAS & OIL TAX FOR EDUCATION + …POT TOO!: States' re... http://bit.ly/7Rt9fe MOST ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICTS SAY NO TO OBAMA EDUCATION REFORMS: By SCOTT MARTINDALE and FERMIN LEAL | O.C. Registe... http://bit.ly/64oqx8 NYT: AS SCHOOL EXIT TEST PROVE TOUGH, STATES EASE STANDARDS: By IAN URBINA | New York Times | http://bit.ly/7959Kq... http://bit.ly/6Sms7u EVENTS: Coming up next week... • PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: BIDDERS TO TAKE OVER LAUSD SCHOOLS ARE PRESENTING PLANS TO COMMUNITIES OVER THE NEXT TWO WEEKS - A SCHOOL NEAR YOU YOU IS "UP FOR GRABS"! meeting schedule: http://bit.ly/5NrxqK *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: 213-893-6800 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Nury.Martinez@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! • 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 Schwarzenegger: 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. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD. He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee and the BOC on the Board of Education Facilities Committee. He is an elected repreprentative on his neighborhood council. 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 a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids. • FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. • To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

Deus ex Obama.

4LAKids: Sunday 01.10.01 Binary Day In This Issue: • Op-Ed #1: BETTER TEACHERS, THE UNION WAY. United Teachers Los Angeles leaders offer ways to improve teachers and the education system. • Op-Ed #2: REVOLUTION IN U.S. EDUCATION IS IN LAUSD SAYS VOUCHER ADVOCATE • The ‘Houston Miracle’ + Rod Paige revisited: EDUCATION CHIEF ARNE DUNCAN’S LEGACY AS CHICAGO SCHOOLS CHIEF QUESTIONED • Themes in the News: PARENTS TO JOIN "RACE TO THE TOP"...but Who and How Many Will Participate? And Will it Matter? • HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources • EVENTS: Coming up next week... • What can YOU do? Featured Links: • 4 LAKids on Twitter • PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website • 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. Desperately listening to Governor Schwarzenegger's State of the State Address [http://bit.ly/4UJxNj] for some good news among the humorous anecdotes about the pony and the pig, I heard the Governator say: “But I am drawing this line. Because our future economic well-being is so dependent upon education, I will protect education funding in this budget. (Applause) “ That sounds like a line in the sand: “Read my lips: No Cuts to Education”. But the tide came in and went out four times and washed away that line between the State of the State on Wednesday and the unveiling of Arnold's actual budget plan on Friday. Here's what The Times had to say about that: “Under the governor's plan, state funding formulas would be changed to reduce payments to schools and community colleges by $2.4 billion. The proposed cuts come after school spending has already been rolled back considerably and many districts have been forced to impose layoffs, eliminate programs and increase class sizes. “Schools would be given the option of reducing the academic year by up to five days to absorb the effect of the cuts. Specific programs targeted for cuts include class-size reduction.” [http://bit.ly/52TmAQ] One feels something deep inside … and it isn't warm+fuzzy. If you're the dog, the pony and the pig eating your food isn't amusing – it's tragedy. How one aligns the speech with the proposed budget cuts eludes me. But the man's an movie actor, he enters the light, stands on his mark and delivers the line on the page of the script he's been handed. Suspension of disbelief is the audience's job. In the entertainment biz there's the Script, the Shooting Script and the As-Produced Script. The FIRST used to finance the project and attract the talent. It's meant to sell the deal. The State o' th' State speech. The SECOND is based on the reality of the budget and the actual world of the production schedule and the whims of the director and producers. Not enough money for that scene? Can't find that location? Every change to every scene or scrap of dialog is printed on a different colored page – blue pages replace white; yellow: blue. The spectrum of revision goes on through pink and canary and goldenrod to lilac. The governor's proposed budget is the blue pages of the bright vision of the State o' th' State ...soon everyone will put-in and take-out their 2¢ worth. The THIRD is what comes out at the end, where a stenographer – not a writer – writes down the dialog and screen direction from the final movie as it was made. In our metaphor this is not the budget as produced in Sacramento but the the final movie as in plays on the screen of life. And our hopeful little comedy about the miniature pony and the pot-bellied pig becomes Animal Farm as produced by Wes Craven. Other telling quotes from the speech: “For too many years, too many children were trapped in low-performing schools. The exit doors may as well have been chained. Now, for the first time, parents -- without the principal's permission -- have the right to free their children from these destructive schools. That is great freedom.” [smf: “Freedom”, Kris Kristofferson tells us,“...is just another word for nothing left to lose”.] “Also in the past, parents had no power to bring about change in their children's schools but that will now change too. Parents will now have the means to get rid of incompetent principals and take other necessary steps to improve their children's education.” Principals seem to be the boogieman & boogiewomen du jour in Arnold's Ed Reform; what's with that? For the last month in LA we've heard how unqualified new teachers are the problem when it's really incompetent principals? OMG, who to believe? The teacher's unions (CTA and CFT) have a lot of political clout in Sacramento, the principal's union (ACSA) not so much. Am I being cynical ...or is Arnie? CYNICISM 2.0 : Also as part of his budget proposal Schwarzenegger called for other criteria besides seniority [aka: tenure] in teacher dismissals and advocated reducing power of the state oversight panel that can overturn decisions. [LA Times:Governor seeks to ease rules on firing weak teachers http://bit.ly/5r5WVt] C'mon ….removing weak, bad or incompetent teachers, principals or politicians and replacing them with good ones is a good idea ... but it is NOT a cost saving one! CYNICISM 2.1: In a radio interview [KPCC: “LAUSD chief applauds governor's proposed $50 billion for education” http://bit.ly/7tqLqQ] Superintendent Cortines praised Gov. Schwarzenegger for vowing to commit $50 billion in funding for education in the state budget proposal unveiled Friday. . $50 Billion is not enough to educate California's schoolchildren! The Prop 98 guarantee is a minimum level of funding ('A floor, not a ceiling!') and the superintendent is praising the governor for NOT violating the constitution? No mention is made of repaying the money previously taken, borrowed or stolen from the guarantee ...or the breaking of Wednesday's line in the sand promise with $1.5 – 2.4 billion in proposed cuts on Friday. Thank you for not kicking us after you took our lunch money and beat us up. CYNICISM 3.0+: By pretending to hold the line on Education the governor commits to slashing social programs – including children's health insurance. He calls for the California congressional delegation to oppose federal Health Insurance Reform. THE SMOKE+MIRRORS: All of Schwarzenegger's budget projections rely upon the federal government riding in to the rescue with an infusion of billions in as yet un-earmarked-and-undreamt-of stimulus or bailout dollars. Chrysler and GM and AIG and the Banks got loans;; California wants a handout. The Deus ex Obama scenario. Nobody in the governor's political party – or from the other party – sees much hope for this. But hope is audacious. And remains eternal. And floats. ¡Onward/Adelante! -smf ________________ ●● HORSES WITH FEATHERS: a response to email to 4LAKids A longtime 4LAKids reader – a retired teacher/administrator/union leader (once an educator/always an educator!) - writes, apropos of last week's “Cheerio” rant [http://bit.ly/7K282r] - about NCLB/Race2theTop/Public School Choice (all horses of the same feather) - and the previous one “Y2K+10” [http://bit.ly/4GG9Ys] and the Grab4theMoney rush to deregulate Public Education: “Good analysis of the trend in education in the first decade of the new millennium. We have a new breed of politician/educators or politicators. We used to have the Deweys and Hunters of the world who were actually looking at how children learned....now we have the Cortines and Mitchells of the world who are looking for ways to placate their political benefactors. You are correct.....actual student learning is not discussed or considered.....that is too much like pragmatic work.” 4LAKids wrote previously about the penchant for US Secretaries of Education and the presidents they serve to look wistfully upon their previous employment as Civic Miracles/Paradigms of Wonderfulness. [IOUs ON IOUs 12July09 http://bit.ly/A7Yax] That penchant and those paradigms are further developed in a series of articles in the Washington Post here. http://bit.ly/92k8J7 [synopsized following in The Houston Miracle, etc.] __________ ●● 4LAKids is still agonizing over publishing only abridged teasers to stories – along with links to “the rest of the story”. (Lemme know if this makes you crazy!) I do this in support of reporters and writers – and by extension, their employers, the publishers. The copyright law 'fair-use-doctrine' permits further distribution of copyrighted material for non-profit education and information sharing ...but publishers are entitled to some click-thru revenues – and reader exposure to their advertisers messages. (If you note many charter school organizations and supporters are advertisers on newspaper's Ed webpages – consider this in your consideration!) FOLLOWING ARE TWO OP-ED'S FROM TWO POLAR OPPOSITE POINTS OF VIEW ...and some might say similarly pointed-headed! I republish both in their entirely. Op-Ed content is uncompensated – and in fairness, 4LAKids shouldn't be editorially limiting it beyond the usual attaboy or cheap-shot criticism. One cannot miss that both sides are wrapping themselves in parent empowerment – though the charter/voucher advocate's wrapping his argument in the United Nations Charter of Universal Human Rights stretches rhetorical credibility! - smf Op-Ed #1: BETTER TEACHERS, THE UNION WAY. United Teachers Los Angeles leaders offer ways to improve teachers and the education system. LA Times Opinion by A.J. Duffy, Julie Washington and Gregg Solkovits January 8, 2010 -- Great teachers aren't born -- they evolve. They must have certain things starting out, of course: a passion for knowledge and a love of working with children, to cite two. But it then takes years of study and practice to master the art of teaching. The recent focus on evaluations as the overriding problem with teacher quality ignores the arc of an educator's career. Yes, honest feedback and assessment is crucial. But if we truly want to have an impact on teaching and learning, more effective evaluations alone aren't enough. Teachers need better training programs, better professional development and additional peer support. As teachers, we want to see our profession strengthened. But that won't happen simply through punitive measures. HERE IS OUR FRAMEWORK FOR POSITIVE CHANGE: ● OVERHAUL THE WAY WE EVALUATE TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS: Most teachers agree that the evaluation system needs to be fixed. Far too often, evaluations are carried out almost as afterthoughts by overloaded administrators who have received little training in assessing a teacher's performance. We would like to work with the school district to improve teacher evaluations so they can be used to identify areas of strength and weakness, but the process must include a plan to provide the support and resources an educator may need in order to improve. The school district makes a large investment in a new teacher, and it would be counterproductive to simply cast him or her aside without first giving him or her help to become a more effective educator. As officers for the teachers union, we will protect our members' professional rights. That said, no one supports keeping someone in the classroom who clearly isn't making the grade. Evaluations should also be a two-way street, with teachers involved in evaluating the administrators they work with every day. ● HAVE TOP-NOTCH TEACHERS HELP THEIR COLLEAGUES: In 1999, United Teachers Los Angeles was instrumental in passing a state law to bring peer assistance and review to school districts statewide. The Los Angeles Unified School District program, a collaborative effort with the union, provides both new teachers and struggling veterans with ongoing peer coaching from trained consulting teachers. Teachers who receive a below-standard evaluation are automatically referred to the program. So far, nearly 850 teachers have been referred to the program, and more than two-thirds of them have successfully improved their practice or decided to leave the profession. Many more could be helped if the program received more funding. We also need to reinstate the highly effective mentor teaching program (a victim of budget cuts) and tap into the wealth of national board certified teachers in the LAUSD. More than 1,000 in number, these educators have met rigorous national standards for teaching, and their expertise should be put to work helping struggling teachers. ● OFFER PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT THROUGHOUT A TEACHER'S CAREER: The best teachers are lifelong learners, and they need a system that sustains that. Every school should have effective, teacher-driven professional development and common planning periods for collaboration and sharing of best practices. UTLA helps by providing year-round professional development at our headquarters and supporting lesson study, in which teachers work together to design and field-test lesson plans for maximum effectiveness. In LAUSD, lesson study has been incorporated into the intern training program, where it has helped shape more than 15,000 educators, and is being used intensively with staff at five overcrowded inner-city schools. ● OFFER INCENTIVES TO KEEP ACCOMPLISHED TEACHERS IN THE CLASSROOM: Too many teachers move to administration or out-of-classroom positions simply to earn higher pay or avoid classroom pressures. California has among the highest student learning standards in the country, but the state continues to rank almost dead last in per-pupil funding. As part of an overall increased investment in our schools, we must raise teacher salaries and lower class sizes to match the higher demands of the profession. We should also look at pay initiatives that are working, such as the salary increase for educators who earn national board certification. That incentive has kept countless exceptional teachers in the classroom. ● REVAMP TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMS AT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES: Teacher certification programs need to concentrate on the skills teachers need the minute they step into their own classrooms. When we talk to new teachers, they give us similar feedback about what they felt was missing in their training: They want more classes in student discipline. They want to know how to talk with parents about their child's performance. They need help planning lessons that take into account the different ability levels of their students. Above all, they wish they had had more on-the-job experience in real-world classrooms similar to the ones in which they ended up teaching. ● GIVE TEACHERS A SAY IN HIRING THEIR COLLEAGUES: A fourth-grade teacher pays the price if a teacher in grade three is not doing the job. At some schools in LAUSD, teachers routinely interview teacher candidates. This should be expanded to all schools. Given the opportunity, teachers will choose to work with the best colleagues. All of the above will take resources, commitment and follow-through on many levels. We can't ignore that the task will be made much more difficult by the chronic underfunding of public education and the severe budget cuts, which threaten to cut the heart out of our schools and our communities. The most ineffective thing we can do to improve teacher quality is a tweak here and a tweak there. If we use this moment as the chance to look at the big picture and make systemwide changes, we will be helping not only those students who are in our classrooms now, but generations of students to come. ● A.J. Duffy is president of United Teachers Los Angeles. Julie Washington and Gregg Solkovits are both vice presidents in the union. Op-Ed #2: REVOLUTION IN U.S. EDUCATION IS IN LAUSD SAYS VOUCHER ADVOCATE by Alan Bonsteel | OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, January 10, 2010 - The greatest revolution in education in the United States today is taking place in Los Angeles. It is the mandate of the Los Angeles Unified School District School Board to convert almost a third of its schools either to charter schools, the public schools of choice that are the one shining light in an otherwise dysfunctional system, or other alternatives such as magnet schools. The change is not only a mighty one for the state's largest school district, but in time it could double the number of public schools of choice in California. What is remarkable is not just the magnitude of this earth-shaking change, but the complete shift of the paradigm about how we think about public education. The driving force behind this revolution is Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is not only a Democrat but also a former organizer for the United Teachers of Los Angeles, Los Angeles teachers' union. Villaraigosa took his nontraditional stand because, as he noted, LAUSD was racked with violence and plagued with a dropout rate of 50 percent, and showed no signs of improving. Even more astounding: With the doors open to making bids to the school board to launch pioneering schools, groups of public school teachers and the teachers' unions themselves are submitting proposals. "This is the power that teachers have always been asking for, the authority to choose what is happening in our schools," Monterey Park English teacher Patricia Jauregui told the Los Angeles Times. She added, "With power comes responsibility. We are accountable for the results, and I don't mind that." In his 1978 book, "Education by Choice," John Coons, UC Berkeley School of Law professor and father of the American charter school movement, predicted that one day public school teachers would see the benefit of teaching in schools in which they had professional autonomy, and in which every child wanted to be there and valued what that school had to offer. It has taken 32 years for that prediction to come to pass. California public schools, once the envy of the nation, have students performing on some tests of reading skills barely above Mississippi students. Our once-vaunted high technology sector must import engineers from Asia. And our state budget has been busted in large part because of a bulging prison system, with more than 85 percent of the convicts high school dropouts. At the state level too, school choice has become a far more bipartisan issue than could have been imagined even a year ago. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and his colleague Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, teamed up to get legislation passed that mandates more complete reporting of dropout rates. Four of the candidates for governor of California, Republicans and Democrats both, are charter school advocates. This is public education's fall of the Berlin Wall. The old model of the compulsory, one-size-fits-all, factory-style public school is being tossed on the scrap heap of history, to be replaced by upholding the U.N. Charter of Universal Human Rights, which guarantees the right of parents to direct the education of their children. Someday soon, all of our children will be enrolled in schools that their families have freely chosen and that give them the sense of community, even of family, that will keep them in school and get them safely to graduation day. ● Alan Bonsteel, M.D., is president of California Parents for Educational Choice, www.cpeconline.org. ●● Connect the Dots - Choice to Charters to Vouchers to Deregulation to Privatization of public schools: California Parents for Educational Choice (CPEC) has its roots in the 1993 campaign for Proposition 174, the School Voucher Initiative. The ‘Houston Miracle’ + Rod Paige revisited: EDUCATION CHIEF ARNE DUNCAN’S LEGACY AS CHICAGO SCHOOLS CHIEF QUESTIONED by Nick Anderson |Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 29, 2009; -- CHICAGO -- Soon after Arne Duncan left his job as schools chief here to become one of the most powerful U.S. education secretaries ever, his former students sat for federal achievement tests. This month, the mathematics report card was delivered: Chicago trailed several cities in performance and progress made over six years. _____________________________ ►smf: One of the cities it trailed was LA and LAUSD: Read full article with additional links and a chart with the NAEP results at:http://bit.ly/92k8J7 _____________________________ Miami, Houston and New York had higher scores than Chicago on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Boston, San Diego and Atlanta had bigger gains. Even fourth-graders in the much-maligned D.C. schools improved nearly twice as much since 2003. The federal readout is just one measure of Duncan's record as chief executive of the nation's third-largest system. Others show advances on various fronts. But the new math scores signal that Chicago is nowhere near the head of the pack in urban school improvement, even though Duncan often cites the successes of his tenure as he crusades to fix public education. "Chicago is not the story of an education miracle," said Chester E. Finn Jr. of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank in Washington. "It is, however, the story of a large urban system that has made some gains and has made some promising structural changes." For more than seven years, starting in 2001, Duncan tried to rejuvenate his city's struggling schools: jettisoning staff, hiring turnaround specialists, shutting down those deemed beyond hope. He pushed a back-to-basics curriculum, spawned dozens of charter schools and experimented with performance pay. State and federal test scores and graduation rates rose on his watch, and Chicago became a laboratory for innovation. As a result, the reputation of its schools has improved markedly since 1987, when an earlier education secretary, William Bennett, called them the worst in the country. 'FOCUSED ON OUTCOMES' Yet questions have arisen this year about the magnitude of Duncan's accomplishments. The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which represents business, professional, education and cultural leaders, concluded in June that gains on state test scores were inflated when Illinois relaxed passing standards and that too many students still drop out of high school or graduate unprepared for college. The Consortium on Chicago School Research, a nonpartisan group at the University of Chicago, reported in October that Duncan's closure of low-performing schools often shuffled students into comparable schools, yielding little or no academic benefit. "Obviously, you always want to get better faster," Duncan said in an interview when asked about the federal math scores. "I was focused on outcomes -- improving graduation rates, making sure that students who graduated had a chance to pursue higher ed. You can have the best test scores in the world, but if kids aren't going that next step, you're not changing their lives." Duncan also said he had adjusted his school closure policy a few years ago to ensure better opportunities for students. He said that he was unhappy that the state had relaxed passing standards and that graduation rates remain unacceptable. About half of Chicago students fail to graduate on time with their peers. In January, Duncan said at his Senate confirmation hearing: "We're proud to have made significant progress . . . and to really be a model of national reform. But again, hard work is going to continue there and is far from done." In the interview, Duncan said he is careful not to exaggerate his record. Critics, however, say his legacy is routinely overblown. "There's been this rhetoric about dramatic gains, dramatic success, that we have to replicate this model because of its dramatic success," said Julie Woestehoff of the advocacy group Parents United for Responsible Education. "And here in Chicago, we're looking at these schools and going, 'Uh . . . ' " In 2003, President George W. Bush's education secretary, Rod Paige, faced similar, perhaps stronger, criticism when his much-highlighted record as leader of Houston's schools in the 1990s came under scrutiny. Questions were raised that year about the reliability of Houston's reported dropout rates. Duncan's record is of more than historical interest. He wields considerable power through the combination of his Chicago connections, shared with President Obama, and his oversight of billions of dollars in reform funding. The Education Department is dangling an unprecedented $3.5 billion in grants for school systems to turn around weak schools and $4 billion for states to pursue innovation. HUGE CHALLENGES With 418,000 students in 675 schools, Chicago faces challenges on a scale exceeded only in Los Angeles and New York. Eighty-five percent of students come from poor families, and 12 percent have limited English skills. Tours in a handful of Chicago schools this month found educators pushing against formidable obstacles to establish a climate of learning. For some, simply asserting control over a campus represents a big victory. In the North Lawndale neighborhood west of downtown, dotted by decaying rowhouses and apartments, Johnson Elementary School was given a new staff this year and renamed the Johnson School of Excellence. Duncan, in one of his last actions before leaving Chicago, proposed the restart in January because of the school's perennially low test scores. The nonprofit Academy for Urban School Leadership, which pairs master's degree candidates with teaching mentors in a residency program, runs the school and 13 others under contract. Johnson serves 300 students from pre-K through grade 8. In the last school year, officials said, police were called to the campus nearly every day to deal with angry parents or disruptive students. "It was a war scene," said Jennifer Earthley, mother of a fourth-grader and a fan of the new regime. "The administrators were afraid of the children. The children did what they wanted to do. We have been on the low end for a long time. All we have been looking for is a passionate group of people who care." Now, attendance is up and fights are down. Students are drilled on respect, manners and lining up in the halls. In one fourth-grade classroom, teacher Katelyn Funderburk counted "5-4-3-2-1" after asking students to pull out their textbooks. "Steven Earthley got it opened fast and folded his hands," she said. "Thank you." [more.....] Read full article with additional links and a chart with the NAEP results Themes in the News: PARENTS TO JOIN "RACE TO THE TOP"...but Who and How Many Will Participate? And Will it Matter? Themes in the News for the week of January 4-8, 2010 By UCLA IDEA staff | A weekly summary of themes in education news provided by UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access. Hoping to qualify the state to receive federal ‘Race to the Top’ funds, California lawmakers passed legislation designed to empower parents and lead to meaningful school reforms. On Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to sign the bills into law. The new laws allow parents of children in the state's 1,000 lowest-scoring schools to apply to have their children enrolled in schools in other districts. And they allow parents “to overhaul up to 75 chronically underperforming schools each year by collecting signatures from a majority of parents” (Sacramento Bee). The challenge for the law is whether parents—acting individually and with school and community organizations— can access the resources and clout to press for substantive changes. Or will parents compete among themselves—school-by-school—for the scarce education funds that the state and federal governments make available? Ben Austin, executive director of Los Angeles based Parent Revolution told the Christian Science Monitor: “This is a groundbreaking and historic new policy. We think this is a 21st century roadmap to transform public education in America … around what’s good for kids, and not for grownups” (Christian Science Monitor). Parent Revolution “has close ties to Green Dot Public Schools, a charter school management organization based in Southern California. Charters are public schools that operate independently of many district rules and are mostly nonunion” (Los Angeles Times). “Is it a dawning of a new era of parent power?. . . It really depends on how many parents can be organized to take action here, how well informed they can be about their choices and how much pressure they can put on their school boards," according to Stanford Education Professor, Michael Kirst (Sacramento Bee). The Christian Science Monitor reports, “Some critics question the rush to embrace certain measures – like charter schools and turnaround measures for failing schools – that have little basis in research.” Others note that the new reforms don’t amount to much change from the Bush-era ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ (NCLB). Under NCLB, students in schools with the lowest test scores must be allowed to transfer to a different school within their district. Also, “many districts, such as Sacramento City Unified, have an open-enrollment process that lets parents choose a school for their child outside their neighborhood.” However, one important distinction is that these new bills take “open enrollment” a step further by allowing designated students to transfer to a better school outside their district (Sacramento Bee). Whether parents are able to move their children into new schools also will depend on rules established by “receiving” school districts. SB X5 4 requires districts to “adopt specific, written standards for acceptance and rejection of applications for enrollment subject to specified conditions and a specified priority scheme for applicants” (Around the Capitol). As Beverly Hills’ recent decision to rescind out of district permits suggests, some districts may be reluctant to accept students from outside their boundaries and hence create standards that lead most open enrollment applicants to be rejected (Los Angeles Times). Further, the California School Boards Association worries that “the bill does not provide enough real protection against “cherry picking,” the process of recruiting and accepting the best students from neighboring districts” (California School Boards Association). Other skeptics, even if they are well-wishers, raise questions about whether schools (from individual charters to entire districts) can mobilize to accept shifts in student enrollments as students move to different schools across neighborhoods and across school districts. For example, Debbie Look of the Sacramento chapter of the Parent Teacher Association was concerned that funding mechanisms don’t exist to transport students in high-poverty areas to a better school in another district (Sacramento Bee). Torie England, principal of F.C. Joyce Elementary in North Highlands, says it's tough to get parents engaged in difficult economic times. “Most of her students come from families that struggle with basic necessities. Many are homeless, sleeping in cars or staying with friends. Lots of her students live in single-parent homes with moms working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Other children are in foster care or have parents who don't speak English” (Sacramento Bee). Jeff Freitas, an advocate for the California Federation of Teachers, said the measures would divide parents and teachers at schools. While some students could transfer to other campuses, Freitas said, "you are leaving students behind with no reform for that school”” (Los Angeles Times). “We've got to strengthen the quality of all schools rather than allowing parents to search from among fairly mediocre alternatives in a lot of communities,” said UC Berkeley education professor Bruce Fuller (Sacramento Bee). According to Fuller, “We're creating the illusion of choice among schools that are collapsing among less and less state support” (San Francisco Chronicle). VISIT UCLA IDEA FOR THIS ARTICLE WITH ALL LINKS & CITATIONS HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources This just in: “AN UNPLANNED REVOLUTION?” Please! smf opines re: Sunday's Front page puff pieces on charter schools in the Times Calling the ‘revolution’ ”unplanned” is like calling reality television “real”. Or even “unscripted”. What of the premeditation and designs of Villaraigosa, Barr, Riordan, Broad, Gates, Garcia and Co? Helped by Schwarzenegger, Mitchell, Hastings, Romero, etc.? Do the names Gates and Walmart ring a bell? Not to mention the Times Editorial Board, which is playing LAUSD like the Chandlers played the City and the DWP back in the day. AN UNPLANNED REVOLUTION IN L.A.'s PUBLIC SCHOOLS http://bit.ly/7By2W9 By Mitchell Landsberg, Doug Smith and Howard Blume - Enrollment is up, and overall, standardized test scores outshine those at traditional campuses. Even the L.A. Unified board has eased its resistance. [smf: …being bought and paid for – however fair and squarely - has that effect] COUNTY GIVES LA INTERNATIONAL CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL A SECOND CHANCE http://bit.ly/7SGcaK By Mitchell Landsberg - The charter had a rough start with L.A. Unified but is gaining strength with a county charter. LAUSD IN THE NEWS: Friday, January 8, 2010: from LAUSD LOS ANGELES TIMES Opinion Better teachers, the union way .....and more .. http://bit.ly/6nUrZB COURT(?) TO DECIDE LAUSD’S BATTLE WITH CHARTERS: “The debate is more about adult politics than improving children'... http://bit.ly/6QCUYV UTLA v. LAUSD: Lawsuit filing contending the Public School Choice Resolution: UTLA v LAUSD - [FULL TEXT OF THE LAWSUIT] - http://bit.ly/7l0GOG HORSES WITH FEATHERS: response to email to 4LAKids A longtime 4LAKids reader – a retired teacher/administrator/u... http://bit.ly/7RZLz1 Race to the Top/Grab for the Money: LAUSD AGREES TO STATE MANDATE + ASSEMBLY OK’s BILLS TO CHANGE CA SCHOOLS + Mor... http://bit.ly/8Y5JlE L.A. UNION SUES OVER CHARTER PLAN: News in Brief In Ed Week Vol. 29, Issue 16, Page 4| By Lesli A. Maxwell Publi... http://bit.ly/7jEEpO Wednesday, January 06, 2010 8:06 AM COURT RULES THAT SCHOOL BOARD E-MAILS ARE PUBLIC INFORMATION: Massachusetts court also finds that superintendent’... http://bit.ly/8hrpUh MORE HEADLINES: Knowledgeable parents trigger autism, Another emergency session, Union leaders plead for education,... http://bit.ly/6veyah 1●5●2010 UCLA/IDEA CALIFORNIA EDUCATION NEWS ROUNDUP: Districts ready to Race …but will they really sign..Bl... http://bit.ly/4BkPN3 Read the 4LAKidsNews Update Blog ...or http://twitter.com/4LAKids EVENTS: Coming up next week... *Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________ • SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: http://www.laschools.org/bond/ Phone: 213-241-5183 ____________________________________________________ • LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR: http://www.laschools.org/happenings/ Phone: 213-893-6800 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Nury.Martinez@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! • 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 Schwarzenegger: 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. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD. He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee and the BOC on the Board of Education Facilities Committee. He is an elected repreprentative on his neighborhood council. 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 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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