GRADUATION RATES DECLINING IN L.A.UNIFIED DESPITE HIGHER ENROLLMENT, STUDY FINDS
Experts say the exit exam is having a huge effect on dropouts.
The UC-led report showed that middle school experiences and teacher quality were also major factors.Debra Duardo, the LAUSD director of dropout prevention and recovery said there were no surprises in the new data, and the dropout project study confirmed what district officials have assumed about the barriers that keep students from graduating.
"The study overlooks the district's recent success in keeping students in school, and on track to graduate, after they miss their normal graduation date.
"If they don't do it in four years, maybe they can do it in five years," she said.
The number of students graduating from Los Angeles public schools has declined for two straight years even as enrollment in the 12th grade has been rising sharply, new state data show. The graduation slump began when California started requiring students to pass an exit exam before they could receive a diploma.
The data caught educators by surprise after they were quietly posted on the state Department of Education website. Separately, new research released this week indicated that only 48% of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District graduate on time.
SAT WILL LET STUDENTS PICK WHICH SCORES TO SHOW COLLEGES
Youths who take the exam multiple times can choose just the best results. Some people see a reduction in stress, but others say the move will mostly help the affluent because of the test's cost.
TEACHER INSTILLS LOVE OF WORDS, BUT THE LESSON IS ABOUT LIFE.
Phil Holmes has taught English for decades, first to the privileged but lately to the disadvantaged. His method and his intensity make a solid connection with both extremes.
MIDDLE SCHOOLS TONE DOWN GRADUATION CEREMONIES
Campuses stress that the event marks a transition to more education, not the end of the process. At a Santa Ana school, it's 'promotion' and in Los Angeles it's 'culmination activities.'
Schools throughout the country in recent years have eliminated or scaled back eighth-grade graduations, concerned that over-the-top ceremonies too closely resemble high school graduations and imply finality rather than a mere transition to further education.
4LAKids disagrees - Middle School/Junior High or whatever - this is a milestone and the kids deserve the recognition. This is a big deal when you're 14!
L.A. SCHOOL WORKERS WILL LOBBY AGAINST CUTS IN CAPITAL
Local school workers are mobilizing to take a midnight ride to Sacramento Monday to urge California legislators to stop the devastating cuts to school budgets that loom as the result of the governor’s proposal to reduce the state’s education funding by more than $4 billion for the upcoming school year.
Hundreds of Los Angeles Unified School District teaching assistants, cafeteria workers, clerks, custodians and others are signing up to board buses at midnight Monday to travel overnight and spend the day lobbying state legislators about the impact the governor’s budget cuts will have on local classrooms and communities.
EX-TREASURER OF EMERSON MIDDLE SCHOOL BOOSTERS IS SUSPECTED IN THEFT OF $65,000.
The former treasurer of a parents' booster group at a West Los Angeles middle school is suspected of stealing $65,000 raised by parents and students, police said
WOMAN'S SPECIAL NEEDS SONS IN LAUSD
From KPCC Public radio: In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the approach to special education is simple: Provide support and services and place disabled children with the rest of the students. In the second part of our series, KPCC's Patricia Nazario goes behind the scenes with a single mom bringing up her three sons. L.A. Unified covers the cost of their special education needs.
RAND's CALIFORNIA PRESCHOOL STUDY: Adequacy and Efficiency of Preschool Education in California
California's sizeable achievement gaps in English-language arts and mathematics in second and third grades have early roots, with the same groups of children that lag in academic performance in elementary school trailing in measures of school readiness when they enter kindergarten. Participation in effective preschool programs has the potential to narrow these gaps, but the state's current system of publicly funded early care and education programs are not designed to maximize the child development and school readiness benefits. New data collected for the project on preschool use and quality shows most California children attend center-based preschools, but quality of programs falls short.
BRAND NAME CHARTERS: The franchise model applied to schools
"In the business world, when the owners of restaurants or retail stores want to expand, they choose between two models: corporate-style growth with central management or franchising. "
If you don't think that some charter schools are a high-growth-model for-profit instruments to privatize public education and maximize return-on- investment, read on.And not just any business model, ...Retail!
"TWO MILLION MINUTES" SUGGESTS IT'S TIME TO IMPROVE U.S. EDUCATION
A Memphis entrepreneur's documentary compares high-achieving students from India, China and America. It has drawn mixed reactions from academics.
L.A. UNIFIED GRADING SYSTEM? GRADE IT F.
Los Angeles Unified elementary school teachers have had a tough time this week dealing with the district's computerized grading system.
Administrators at Lockhurst Elementary have advised teachers to fill in grades and comments by hand, if necessary, said Rod Wylie, who teaches third grade at the Woodland Hills campus.
"It just frosts me that this is happening now," Wylie said. "It's a real inconvenience to do it by hand. We used to, but it seems like wasted time when the technology is available to input and print."
"The culprit was an old system working at capacity and the lingering effects of a probable virus infestation," said Tony Tortorice, chief information officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
LAUSD WINS CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP AWARD
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is being recognized for building more new healthy green schools than any other school district in the country. LAUSD is creating a healthy, high-performing learning environment for tens of thousands of children and teachers while helping to protect the environment for people throughout the region.
LA DAILY NEWS WEEKLONG SERIES OF EDITORIALS ON LAUSD
· DAY 1: Criminal negligence: District officials failed public in school sex scandal
· DAY 2: Dance of the lemons: Dud teachers, administrators keep turning up in L.A. schools
· DAY 3: System failure: Cost of LAUSD payroll fiasco will linger on
· DAY 4: Charter chaos: Tale of rescinded offers is a saga of mass confusion
· DAY 5: LAUSD has two superintendents - one actual, one a figurehead
NEW YORK TEACHER GIVES DEMOCRATS WEEKLY RADIO ADDRESS
Democrats tapped a teacher from upstate New York to make the case that their party will do more for working Americans than Republicans will.
Jeff Alberici, an eighth-grade history teacher in Auburn, N.Y., was chosen to deliver the Democrats' Saturday radio address — an unusual choice for a weekly task usually performed by elected officials.
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