ED 100: California's Education System 100% Demystified. In English and Español.

by smf for 4LAKids

March 13, 2015  ::  Ed 100 (Ed100.0rg) is a website created by friends of mine. Partners+colleagues; fellow troublemakers. This is a shameless endorsement.

The tagline “California’s Education System, 100% Demystified” tells you they have set out to accomplish the impossible ….but they have done it wonderfully well!

Last week I wrote in an obit for the late John Mockler that there were one, maybe two people who understood California Ed Finance and that Mockler was the the one of  maybe two. (That “one, maybe two” thought was not an original one – it was accepted truth in the Capitol and wherever California School Finance was discussed.)  I have sat with John Mocker and others (including my candidate for “maybe two”) in a bar drinking glasses of the red stuff  discussing the vagaries+mysteries …and we were all occasionally mystified – and none of us were certain-to-a-certainty …and now John is gone.

In truth, Ed 100 is an online learning tool; it doesn’t have all the answers – it doesn't even have all the questions. It claims to be a primer – but it isn’t that either – any more than Principia Mathematica is a primer on Newtonian Physics. It’s more like a syllabus or course of study; over 100 short classes on what you choose to know.

Ed 100 also claims to be a crash course – but it’s the most in-depth crash course you ever took.

Ed 100 is certainly neither  “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You” nor Bob Segar’s “Working on mysteries without any clues”.

Ed 100 is a roadmap …but it comes with the GPS tools and the guide to navigation to help you, whether you are a parent, teacher, student, administrator, school site council member – or (gosh forbid) a school board member – to navigate the highways, back roads, alleys and points-of-interest of California's Education System. There’s even an OnStar Button.  

If you are a member of your school or school district's Local Control Accountability Plan Parent Advisory Committee Ed 100 needs to be in that flight case you never see pilots without!

Ed 100 has an optimistic purpose: to help you learn how education really works, so you can make a difference – whether you are a parent, a student, a teacher, or an interested citizen. Change happens. People who are prepared and informed can take moments of change and give them meaning. Ed100 can help you learn what you need to know.

Your school needs parent leaders who understand the issues - especially in California, where things are changing fast. Ed 100 is a crash course (in English and Spanish) for parent leaders to learn what they need to serve. It's free. Please like and share!

Here’s the Ed 100 intro to the Local Control Accountability Plan:

Here’s a checklist to help you understand and influence your district’s plan

Ed100 is designed to help you understand California’s complex education system so you can help make it work well for students.

A new element was added to the system in 2014: the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). It is meant to make the system more accountable to parents and other community members. Like the song says, each district now must have an LCAP.

But there’s a problem. On its own, the LCAP template is thick with legalese and edu-jargon.

So…Ed100 to the rescue! Together with the California State PTA, we have created a checklist that cuts through the jargon and gives you the information you need.

The LCAP Parent Checklist Template

You can use the LCAP Parent Checklist template (in English or Spanish) to frame conversations among people who care about your school. This checklist can help you contribute thoughtfully to your district’s discussions surrounding the LCAP process. It links to lessons in Ed100, in English or in Spanish, that can help inform your discussions

l Cap Checklist for Parents