High School Principal in L.A. Sparks Student, Staff Protests

Published Online: August 20, 2007

Students rally outside of the Santee Education Complex in Los Angeles, Calif., on Aug. 7.
—Courtesy of The Association of Raza Educators

By Linda Jacobson

A Los Angeles school with a reputation for violence is embroiled in another type of controversy—this time involving some of its teachers and highest-achieving students.

The storm erupted in mid-July when, according to students and teachers, Vincent Carbino, the principal of Santee Education Complex, dropped or changed numerous courses—including some Advance Placement offerings—in the middle of the semester, even though some students will need those classes in order to graduate.

Teachers allege that the principal cancelled the courses without warning in advance of a scheduled inspection required by state legislation known as the Williams settlement, because textbooks for the courses had never been ordered and teachers had not been trained.

Morale is now so bad that some teachers are considering filing a petition with the district’s board of education to convert to a charter school, said Jose Lara, a history teacher at Santee and a union representative for United Teachers Los Angeles, an affiliate of both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

Tracy Mallozzi, a spokeswoman at Green Dot Public Schools, a Los Angeles-based charter schools organization, confirmed that preliminary conversations with Santee teachers have taken place.

Earlier this year, some teachers at Locke Senior High School, another low-performing high school in Los Angeles, signed petitions asking the school board to have Locke converted to a charter under Green Dot, which is opening small high schools in Watts, the neighborhood served by Locke. ("L.A. District Faces Mounting Pressure Over High Schools,", July 18, 2007.)

“If things don’t get better soon, many teachers are going to go that route,” said Mr. Lara. “It’s been a roller coaster ever since.”

A former police officer, Mr. Carbino was brought in a year after the school opened in 2005 to address safety concerns as well as academic performance. He refused to be interviewed for this article.

But Los Angeles Unified School District officials say they are trying to work with students and teachers to calm the situation. The district also denies charges that the number of AP courses at Santee has been reduced. Instead, they say that Mr. Carbino increased AP offerings from two last school year to 13 this year.

“It’s a fairly small group of teachers and students who are engaging in these protests,” said Hilda Ramirez, a spokeswoman for the 708,000-student district.

Troubled Campus

Santee opened two years ago under then-Superintendent Roy Romer and was supposed to be a symbol of educational renewal in a low-income community. Instead, the campus has been known for fighting, crime, and teacher turnover.

“It’s been a disaster from day one,” said Jordan Henry, an English teacher and a union official.

The latest controversy appears to stem from inspections required under the 2004 settlement that ended a lawsuit called Williams v. California, in which plaintiffs argued that many schools, particularly those in low-income neighborhoods, were lacking basic necessities such as textbooks, clean and safe facilities, and properly credentialed teachers. ("Improvements Seen to California Schools As Result of Williams Case Settlement," Aug. 13, 2007.)

The mandated inspections, conducted by county offices of education throughout the state, include a textbook audit to make sure students have the books they need.

Mr. Lara said no one was alerted to the course changes made in advance of the Williams inspections. Teachers found out, he said, when they logged on to their computers to take attendance and saw that the names of the courses they were teaching had changed. In some cases, AP courses were replaced with regular courses, he said.

Police escorted one teacher who complained about the unexpected changes from the building, according to Mr. Lara. Since then, dramatic photos and videos of students protesting in the auditorium and outside the building, chanting “Fire Carbino,” have shown up in local news reports and on Web sites. And this week, students and parents were planning a march through the neighborhood to voice their concerns.

“I’m not going to receive [AP] credit,” said 12th grader Araceli Aca, who says her AP English class was changed to a course called Writing Seminar. “My mom is really furious because she hasn’t been able to get any answers.”

District Response

The district denies claims that the number of AP courses at Santee has been reduced. In a written statement, Carmen Schroeder, the superintendent of Local District 5, which includes Santee and is located in South Los Angeles, said the principal added the writing courses to help students pass AP exams.

The school also is part of a new partnership with Los Angeles Trade Technical College and the University of California, Irvine that allows students to graduate with both a diploma and college credit, or even an associate’s degree. Ms. Schroeder called the arrangement “a wonderful opportunity for the South Los Angeles community that has traditionally had very little access—or financial means—to college.”

But Mr. Lara argues that students at the school—which has three academic calendars, or tracks—don’t have equal access to AP courses. Most of the new AP courses, he said, are available only to those on the A track, which most closely follows a traditional school calendar. The students that started school July 2, before the changes were made, are on the B track.

A chart he has compiled shows that 35 classes, primarily English classes, have been changed, and more than 850 students have been affected.

In spite of the latest controversy, Ms. Schroeder expressed support for Mr. Carbino.

“I believe that everyone at Santee has the same goal: providing students with a rigorous and relevant education that will prepare them for college and careers,” her statement said.

Ms. Ramirez, the district spokeswoman, also said the principal has worked with students on conflict resolution and peer-to-peer counseling. And a profile of the principal published last year in the Los Angeles Times discussed his determination to keep the school from being taken over by the state because of low test scores.

But A.J. Duffy, UTLA’s president, said he doesn’t blame Santee’s staff for talking to charter school operators about leaving the district.

“Do I want that? No. Do I understand? Yes,” he said, adding strong words for Los Angeles Unified Superintendent David Brewer III. “If he doesn’t remove and fire [Carbino], he’s going to have another Green Dot school, and he’s going to be superintendent of nothing.”

►This has all the outward appearance of business as unusual in LAUSD: A three way adult tug of war between the District, The Teachers' Union, and principals and The Principals' Union – with the specter of Green Dot thrown in as a boogie man!

When push comes to shove, kids and parents get pushed and shoved!

Santee High School is the pointy end of the stick of school reform in LAUSD; what is trying to be accomplished is neither easy nor easy to accept ...especially to those invested in the status quo.

The partnership he envisions with Trade Tech to produce high school graduates with two years of college under their belts is a paradigm shift in public education in LA — success is not guaranteed - but we need to both wish him luck and give him and his students space!

The lyrics to "The Times, They Are a Changin' " are apropos ...in as many verses as one would care to apply.

4LAKids asked Principal Carbino and Principals' Union Executive Director Dan Basalone to comment on the EdWeek article; Basalone warned, "Don't believe all that you read......".

Carbino supplied the following letter sent to all Santee parents last August 4th in English and Spanish - "for insight" :

Los Angeles Unified School District Local District 5 Santee Educational Complex 1921 Maple Avenue Los Angeles, California 90011-1036 Telephone (213) 763-1000 Fax (213) 742-9883

David L Brewer III Superintendent of Schools Carmen N. Schroeder Superintendent, Local District 5 Vince Carbino Principal 323-321-2439

August 4, 2007

Dear Santee Parents

We are currently finalizing a grant with Trade Tech College to offer AS and AA degree programs to our students, as early as the 9^th grade. These classes and programs would be offered to the students without cost, and through the grant textbooks would be purchased entirely or at a significantly reduced rate for the students. The class schedules would accommodate our schedule, so that students could access the program. The classes would be offered while students are on and off track. The goal of the program is that our students would have the opportunity to complete their two year college degree while also completing their high school diploma classes, and transfer to colleges or universities as juniors.

This program will not replace our AP program, but add to our “Multiple Pathways for Student Success,” that is an ingredient of high performing schools. Due to the many of scheduling issues that face our students, it is imperative that we have more than one college program on our campus. We know through experience that some high qualified students can not access AP classes due to other class requirements, sports involvement, work or other family obligations. We also know that some students will not be able to access the AS or AA program with Trade Tech due to the same issues. But we hope through having both options, we can serve the needs of the students wishing this preparation.

Lastly we should be very proud of our AP program. We have grown from two (2) classes to thirteen (13) in a period of one year. We have increased our student enrollment significantly. We have also developed “AP pipeline classes” in the 9^th and 10^th grades to support student access and readiness for AP classes in the 11th and 12^th grade. We have also developed a writing class for students as they start their selected AP sequence to assist with writing development that has been a historical barrier for many of our AP students’ success. We also altered the scheduling of the AP classes to Mester 2, 3 and 4 of a students schedule to maximize preparation to the AP exam date. We offer AP training to ALL teachers during their off track time as what several off track teachers are during currently.

We are very proud of the multiple programs we have started to allow your child to succeed, and be ready for post secondary education and careers that await them. Through community partnerships such as Trade Tech, we hope that this allows all students to experience the best education possible.

Should you have any questions, please call me at 323-321-2439

Sincerely,

Vince Carbino

Principal

REGGIE AND THE POOL PROBLEM

Editorial: LA Downtown News | Aug 20, 2007

We're still annoyed by what happened at the Miguel Contreras Learning Center pool, the one where the city and the LAUSD can't find lifeguards so that the neighborhood residents can swim at the brand-spanking-new City West sea of cool water.

It was Reggie the Alligator that did it, that brought the subject back to these pages. Reggie escaped his fancy new digs at the Los Angeles Zoo, supposedly leveraging himself with his tail over the big chain-link fences. After finally finding him taking a snooze hundreds of yards away, the zoo immediately threw even more money at the Reggie problem and put a 24-hour watch on him so that he can't get out again.

We're big Reggie fans, and sure, we want everybody to be safe, but we sort of hope he escapes again, just because we like how he outsmarts humans. But that's not the point here. The point is that government finds money to do the things it really wants to do, and that darned pool ought to be a lot higher on government's list. If they can put a 24-hour watch on Reggie, they can staff up the Contreras pool for community use. As we said last week, a few weeks of bus rides from the pool to other pools (the city's response) is a tardy and paltry solution.

Since last we addressed this issue, City Councilman Tom LaBonge has taken us on one of his famous drives around the community, and he reminded us that the pool problem isn't so simple. Limiting access to other areas of the school is problematic, for instance. And it is a competition pool, meaning all deep water, no shallow end, so non-swimmers and little kids really can't use it.

Those are good points, but the largely underserved community is still hot. So go ahead, continue busing little kids and non-swimmers to the other pools, but get some lifeguards and do what needs to be done to open the pool to swimmers. We bet Reggie could figure this out. Why can't government?

PRO-CON: Is No Child Left Behind Act working?

PRO-CON is a feature in the Kansas City Star. This exchange appeared on Aug 13, 2007.

Is No Child Left Behind Act working? YES The Washington Post editorial

Is No Child Left Behind Act working? NO Albuquerque Tribune editorial

Blaming No Child Left Behind for failures of public education seems to be in vogue these days. So it was refreshing to hear a leading liberal Democrat speak passionately about his commitment to this landmark law. More important was the promise by Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat, who heads the House education committee, to fight for the bill’s reauthorization this year. There is no question that No Child Left Behind has brought accountability to America’s classrooms. In the past, schools could claim overall success while masking the failures of poor and minority children; No Child Left Behind doesn’t allow any group to be ignored. But Miller is right in saying that students are still not achieving as they should and that there are flaws in the law. But as one of the law’s original sponsors six years ago, he should know that to let states wriggle out of accountability on the basics would betray the mission of No Child Left Behind.

Life is a mixed bag. Sometimes we’re up; sometimes were down. Mostly we succeed; often, we fail. Why has educational success been defined by the federal No Child Left Behind Act in such stiff, absolute, black-and-white terms for all students and every group of students in all schools? Why not recognize that schools and their students are most realistically depicted using the same, graphed curve that separates the best and the brightest from those who do well from those who just get by and those who fail? Does that curve more accurately reflect the diversity of our children and their educational capabilities — and thus our schools — than some arbitrary 37-criterion bar set by bureaucrats who, at best, seem more interested in educational theories than classroom realities? It’s as if the federal No Child Left Behind act was actually designed to mandate failure. Whatever No Child Left Behind is intended to measure, it isn’t public school success. It needs to be fixed or abandoned.

A STATISTICAL CHALLENGE FOR THE ARITHMETICALLY CHALLENGED (an irregular feature of 4LAKids!)

• The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires school systems to have 100 percent of their students passing state assessments by 2014.

• In working toward that goal, schools and their districts must make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, which is based on at least 95 percent of students taking the assessments, and how all those students fared -- not just the average student score

• Scores are disaggregated (broken out) by subgroups ("each numerically significant group of students" in ten categories:
• 
  

• • African American (not of Hispanic origin)Hispanic or Latino

  • White (not of Hispanic origin)
  • Asian
  • Filipino
  • Pacific Islander
  • American Indian or Alaska Native
  • Socioeconomically Disadvantaged
  • English Learners
  • Students with Disabilities

• Every single subgroup must meet AYP for a school to succeed.

• EFFECTIVE NOW (not waiting for 2014) If a school does not meet AYP two years in a row and receives Title I funding, parents must be given the option of sending their children to another school.

• The federal funds under Title I are distributed to schools based on their number of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch. The schools then provide targeted services to children who are academically behind. And, even though the legislation is NO Child Left Behind – there is no accountability, expectation, or equity for schools not receiving Title One Funds – i.e.: middle class, suburban, "white" schools!

Gentle readers: Our public schools are filled with regular kids. Their average IQ is 100, half of them are above 100 – half below / some are gifted, some are slow, some are achievers, some are dreamers …just like in real life. Our schools turn no children away. Special Education kids with learning disabilities are mainstreamed. Yet the NCLB AYP goals fantastically require 100% of a schools student body to be performing at a level of proficient (grade B or better) – or the school fails! The grade of C (Satisfactory/Average/Passing) is inadequate!

...And so "C" becomes the new "F". - smf

WITH SO MANY SCHOOL OPTIONS, CONFUSED PARENTS NOW ARE HIRING CONSULTANTS TO HELP THEM PICK THE RIGHT EDUCATIONAL ANSWER FOR THEIR CHILDREN

by BARBARA CORREA, Staff Writer | LA Daily News

Sunday, August 19, 2007 - When the time came for Arthur Thompson, a single father in Westchester, to pick an elementary school for his daughter, he never even considered strolling over to the nearest public campus and simply signing her up.

Instead, he hired a consultant to help him navigate the confusing maze that has become education in Los Angeles.

"What's a charter school? What's a magnet school? What's the difference? It's overwhelming," said Thompson, who works for a talent agency. "I'm a busy guy, and I don't have a lot of time to do research. It seems like there are so many options that you don't even know where to start."

The varied and confusing education options have opened an entire business for educational consultants.

Parent aides

For a couple of hundred dollars, professional school finders will help parents lacking either time, money, or both, to sort through L.A. school options and come up with a shortlist of schools that best suit their children.

For a couple of thousand, they will hold your hand through the entire process, from cradle to classroom.

Some consultants focus on preschools, and some target private schools only. Clearly, parents are clamoring for the service; at least three local companies promising to simplify school choice have cropped up in the past year or so.

"We saw that there was a big need for this," said Jamie Nissenbaum, a teacher at Westwood Charter School and co-founder of startup L.A. School Mates. "The craze over how to get into these schools is just overwhelming. People think the moment you get pregnant, you have to call."

She said the main cause for feverish school hunting is that the general decline of the region's public school system has created a situation in which there aren't enough quality schools to meet demand. That has pressured private school admissions and given rise to the charter system - and the need for consultants to help sort it all out.

"Families are willing to not vacation for a year or two to do private schools ... or move to Manhattan Beach or Calabasas for the public schools."

Critics of the nascent industry say most of the people starting the companies are part of a passing trend.

"There are a number of people doing this who found it easy to get into," said Paul Vaughn, an educational planner in Van Nuys with a master's degree in psychology who has been practicing for 27 years.

"A lot of consultants in California have heard of Harvard, but they don't know it's in Cambridge."

Focus on the student

Vaughn said his approach is different and his practice is aimed at ensuring a positive educational experience for a particular student. The new consultants tend to have teaching backgrounds, and they are selling themselves more as practical guides to the L.A. school systems, he said. A counselor like Vaughn might work with a student for years, whereas the startup consultants offer more of a one-time informational boot camp.

L.A. School Mates charges from $250 for a one-hour consultation up to $3,500 for the full treatment, which includes home visits and arranged meetings at the schools. The company also wants to sell group consultations, "almost like a spa party, but an educational consulting party at $100 per person," Nissenbaum said.

Because of the cost, the consultants have tended to cluster in the wealthier areas of West L.A. and Malibu. But there's an emerging need from the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, said Christy Bergin, a mother and former teacher who runs Best Fit School Service, a consultancy for private preschools. "I'm looking for someone to help me grow in the (San Fernando) Valley and Pasadena," she said.

Money well-spent

Arthur Thompson, the divorced father in Westchester, ultimately decided on The Willows, a private school in Culver City. He said the money he paid for his school finder was a good investment.

"You're paying all this tuition, plus the $100 to $200 it costs to apply to these schools, so $500 for five or six years of happiness is well worth it."

The consultant whom Thompson hired, a Venice mom named Kim Hamer, says she wants to help parents take a deep breath and relax. Despite her company's name, GetIntoPrivateSchool.com, Hamer said her goal is to bring sanity back into the decision making and calm competitive parents' nerves.

"Not getting in to the school of your choice is not the end of the world. This decision is not going to make or break your child."

That sounds good on paper, but the reality is that in hyper-ambitious and affluent areas of Los Angeles, parents really do think the kindergarten they choose will determine their kids' success. And it's that fear that has fueled demand for education consultants.

"It's a service that you wouldn't use in smaller places, but it's very relevant for the competitiveness in this city," said Mary Kumble, a client of L.A. School Mates. "In the same way you would go to a specialist for a myriad of other things, they are the specialist for this."

The West Hollywood mother - who has a 3 -year-old and an 18-month-old - started working with L.A. School Mates because she wanted more details on which elementary schools tend to be more artistic and which lean toward the traditional academic. She's still undecided, though she is leaning toward private.

"I haven't looked at too many of the charter schools because there aren't any really close to me," she said. "As far as public schools, never say never."

Indeed, getting kids into prestigious private schools such as Harvard-Westlake, John Thomas Dye or the Center for Early Education in West Hollywood certainly defines the majority of educational consulting clientele. But L.A. has some wonderful public schools, and parents need to consider them, too, Nissenbaum said.

"A lot of people feel guilty about abandoning the public school system. ... We're in this panic of, `public schools are failing,"' Kim Hamer said.

Mania over schools

Still, she said her first advice for new clients is to go and visit the public schools in their area. "We all think we know what a good school looks like, but we can't articulate it."

Opting to go public doesn't exactly simplify the process. With charters, magnets, lotteries and permits, L.A.'s public system is downright Byzantine. It has become so complex that Tanya Anton, a mother and musician in Mar Vista, decided to write a book explaining it after getting involved at her daughter's preschool.

The handbook, "Westside Guide to Public Elementary Schools: Navigating Magnets, Charters, Permits & More," is a nuts-and-bolts guide to public school options. It grew out of Anton's observation that parents were filled with questions but had no good source to answer them all.

One thing she has learned from her experience is that parents have very different ideas about what makes a school desirable.

"I have people renting into a neighborhood so they can get into Westwood Charter. They'll rent a business office address to get into a neighborhood.

"And then other people live there and say, I would never send my kid to this school."'

Anton's own daughter will start this fall at Walgrove Elementary, an LAUSD school in Mar Vista that suffered from low test scores in the past but is making a comeback with the support of very involved parents. She describes the school as only a parent familiar with educational jargon could.

"It's open-court with an influence of Reggio and co-constructivism," meaning the school is a mix of traditional curriculum and several more progressive educational philosophies.

Whatever its philosophy, the point is that public school quality soars when parents get deeply involved, and vice versa. Anton said she would love to see Angelenos return to their neighborhood public schools. Of course, that might put the educational consultants out of business, a prospect that doesn't seem likely any time soon.

"So much can change when parents get involved and local businesses get involved ...," she said. "That's what I would love to see happen."

MONEY ALONE WON'T HELP SCHOOLS

by Dan Walters | The Sacramento Bee.

August 18, 2007 - One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's early acts as California governor was to settle a lawsuit alleging that poor children attending poorly performing neighborhood schools were being denied their right to a good education.

The 2004 settlement acknowledged, in effect, that the students were being denied textbooks, qualified teachers, safe and adequate classrooms and other educational basics. Schwarzenegger agreed to spend an additional $1 billion on schools with the lowest 30 percent of academic test scores.

This week, the lawyers who brought the suit — the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Public Advocates — hailed the outcome in an update prepared by researchers at UCLA. "The Williams case has provided millions of California students with the basic essentials they need to succeed," co-counsel Brooks Allen of the ACLU said as the report was released.

The study found that the paucity of fully qualified teachers had been eased, that schools are being repaired and that the shortage of textbooks had dropped sharply.

"We have not yet solved every problem in every school, but the positive trends that have emerged demonstrate that this system of accountability, combined with targeted funding, works," Public Advocates co-counsel John Affeldt added.

Few would dispute that good classrooms, adequate textbooks and qualified teachers are basic necessities. And providing them is largely a matter of spending money, as the lawsuit's settlement demonstrates. What no one has proved — or disproved, for that matter — is whether spending more money does, in fact, have a significant effect on educational outcomes.

It's no small question, because it lies at the heart of California's endless debate over public education, which has raged for nearly three decades, ever since voters adopted Proposition 13 and the state started seeing a massive influx of immigrants from other countries, both of which hugely affected schools.

The education establishment has argued vociferously, with some success, that spending more on teacher salaries, smaller classes and better facilities would produce better outcomes. In the main, political leaders have endorsed that contention, although they've been unable to supply all the money that educators say they need.

Critics have countered that there is no direct correlation between spending and academic success, noting that private schools and whole states with lower per-pupil spending levels often surpass California in national academic tests, high-school-dropout rates and other measures of performance. They contend that public education needs a structural overhaul, not merely more money.

The latter contention received a boost earlier this year when a 1,700-page, foundation-sponsored, Stanford University-managed series of studies on California's schools was released. While the study team said that California's schools need more money — but was unable to pinpoint a specific amount — it also concluded that spending more without what one study leader called "systemic and fundamental reform" would not create the renaissance that everyone professes to want.

The Stanford studies and this week's report on the lawsuit settlement's implementation are indications that the great debate on California education is beginning to reach a climactic stage, when some fundamental decisions about the direction of the 6 million student system will be made.

Schwarzenegger has declared that 2008 will be the "year of education," and the many educational interest groups are cranking up. There's even a possibility that the education establishment will mount a drive to raise state taxes for schools.

SCHOOLS CHIEF SEEKS END TO LEARNING GAP: Jack O'Connell earns praise for his candor on a sensitive subject.

Follow up on: STATE SUPERINTENDENT JACK O'CONNELL RELEASES 2007 STAR RESULTS SHOWING ENCOURAGING, TROUBLING TRENDS also from the pot - in which nothing melts - into the fire

By Mitchell Landsberg and Howard Blume, LA Times

August 19, 2007 - Jack O'Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction, turned heads in education circles last week with the message that race, not poverty, helped explain why African American and Latino students lagged behind their white and Asian counterparts.

It wasn't what he said that was remarkable. It was the fact that he said it at all.

"These are not just economic achievement gaps, they are racial achievement gaps," O'Connell said after his annual release of California's standardized test scores. "We cannot afford to excuse them; they simply must be addressed."

That message was old news to many educational researchers, who have been writing about the issue with increasing urgency for years. But policymakers, particularly white policymakers like O'Connell, have generally been reluctant to discuss race as a factor in student achievement for fear of inflaming racial passions and being seen as racially insensitive.

O'Connell's comments were generally applauded by leading educators, who said it was about time that someone in public life took on a crucial, and hitherto muffled, part of the educational debate.

But some cautioned that there were dangers in beginning such a conversation -- and that, in any case, talk about race was useless without carefully calibrated action to encourage higher achievement by black and Latino students.

"It's tricky to figure out how to introduce it in public," said Ron Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University and author of a forthcoming book on the subject. He said he worried that such discussions could lead not to constructive changes but to "blame and responsibility and maybe even genetics."

Jeannie Oakes, a professor in the graduate school of education at UCLA who has sometimes been critical of O'Connell, praised him for raising the issue. "It's a new level of candor, I think, about the combination of factors that seem to relate to low achievement," she said.

But Oakes added: "When you go down this path, then we have to be very careful about what we choose to talk about and examine, because it's very easy to fall into stereotypical views, and historical views, of people with darker skin being less intelligent . . . or people from immigrant families and African Americans not valuing education."

O'Connell drew his conclusions from the latest round of standardized test results for California schools. They showed, once again, the stubborn persistence of an achievement gap -- the difference in academic performance separating African American and Latino students from their white and Asian American counterparts. All groups have been making dogged upward progress, but at such similar rates that the gap has not budged.

In the past, the differences between groups have sometimes been "explained away," O'Connell said, by the fact that black and Latino students are more likely to be poor.

"The results show this explanation not to be true," he said.

The test results reveal that, in math, poor white and Asian students outperform black and Latino students whose families are not poor. In English, non-poor Latino students barely outperform poor whites, and non-poor African Americans lag further.

The findings are based on fairly crude measures of poverty. "Poor" students are those who have applied for free or reduced-price meals at school. "Non-poor" students are those who haven't applied, even though some of them might, in fact, come from low-income families.

Nevertheless, the data are in line with various studies over the last decade showing that African American students in particular fare worse than whites or Asians on various measures of achievement, even when they come from middle-class families.

Simply raising the issue brings up several uncomfortable questions: Are there cultural reasons why African Americans and Latinos lag? Do they come from families, or communities, that don't value education highly enough? Do they learn differently from white and Asian students? Are they more likely to go to bad schools with less-experienced teachers? Do teachers hold them to lower standards?

"If you don't acknowledge a problem, there's no way to address it," said Abigail Thernstrom, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York and coauthor, with her husband, Stephen, of "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning."

But, she said, "Once you say that and once you mean it, then you have to ask yourself what is going on with these kids and you've got to address not only the problems of reading, writing and arithmetic, but all the habits that make for an absence of internalized discipline when it comes to schoolwork, and . . . all the habits of life that make for the possibility of social mobility."

Thernstrom, who is white, has long been willing to suggest that educators and minority families need to confront their own attitudes and habits that, she concludes, are undermining academic achievement.

Kimberly Bush, the white mother of six biracial children, said she witnessed parent attitudes transform as Bunche Elementary, a nearly all-minority, all-low-income school in Compton, became a high-achieving school under Principal Mikara Solomon Davis.

Initially, Bush said, some parents complained about having to sign their child's homework every day. They also objected to mandatory suspensions when a student was rude to a teacher, part of the school's efforts to ensure that classroom time was not wasted on discipline. Teachers also worked after school to provide tutoring to students, among other strategies.

Solomon Davis, the former Bunche principal, put blame for the achievement gap squarely on poverty, combined with the subtle racism of low expectations. She acknowledged that multigenerational poverty, among African Americans, for example, might lead to counterproductive attitudes about education. But this should not be misread as a fundamental characteristic of black culture, she said.

As to needed remedies, she put responsibility squarely with educators.

"It is what we are doing as adults incorrectly that is resulting in these students not learning," she said. "The parents want the best for their children. What we brought to Bunche is showing them the picture of what the best can look like, providing college as the goal. Everybody jumped on the bandwagon, but it was a first for a lot of people in our community."

In raising race, O'Connell spotlighted his own inability to narrow the achievement gap during nearly five years as the state's top education official and raised expectations that he will propose a plan of action. He has called a summit on the issue in November.

O'Connell said he had tried to tighten the gap with policies that included a high school exit exam, an emphasis on "rigor" and "relevance" in education and increased funding for impoverished schools. However, his spokesman, Rick Miller, said of last week's shift in emphasis to race: "Part of this is an acknowledgment that what we've been doing at the state level isn't working."

In an interview, O'Connell added that part of the problem is "institutional bias or racism" in the public school system. "The system does treat some people differently, and race does have a role to play," he said.

O'Connell added he will wait to hear from an advisory body he created before deciding what changes in policy are needed. Asked if he will advocate differentiated instruction and learning materials for different racial groups, he said, "I think so." He also said he intended to "look at strategies that go beyond just education" and involve businesses, churches and the community.

David L. Brewer, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said he welcomed O'Connell's heightened attention to the issue, and said that he, too, has been looking for ways to raise the performance of African American and Latino students.

There are strategies that are known to be effective, and schools, some in his district, can be used as case studies of what works, he said.

"The key is personalized instruction and teachers who don't allow students to fail," he said. "And then you get the results you expect to get. We know what works; it's making everybody do what works."

In that respect, he said, he'll talk to employee unions about modifying work rules to allow for longer school days and more flexible schedules within the school day.

Brewer said that although L.A. Unified had made strides in academic achievement at elementary schools, "after the fourth grade, something is happening with African American and Latino students."

And the solution does not entirely lie in the schools, Brewer said. Responsibility also lies with the family: "We're going to have to make sure parents understand this is a problem," he said. "Our black and brown children can do math and science: We want that message loud and clear in your homes. We want parents to make sure they're holding their children accountable."

The news that didn't fit from Aug 19th!

►UNION'S 'BIG IDEA' FOR LAUSD: Proposed charter-like model would give schools more control - "Los Angeles Unified's teachers union stepped into district-reform efforts this week, proposing a charter-like model that would give campuses greater control over budgets, hiring and curriculum…", says the Daily News. But the new UTLA plan is an old plan that's been on the table in some form or another since spring. But (calm down Duffy!) in UTLA's defense: Maybe it's time the plan – which puts control for a school's budget and accountability for the school's performance at the school site – gets some consideration?

►49 DAYS WITHOUT A BUDGET: 4LAKids lays out the cost to LAUSD and kids in the classroom of the budget impasses in Sacramento.

►LONG-TERM SUBSTITUTES TO CUT COSTS FOR LAUSD: But the Teacher's Union Opposes the Proposal, Which Would Shuffle Instructors After Winter Break. The Daily Breeze's take on "Renorming" - a complicated issue that's even more convoluted than first it seems – filtered and spun through UTLA.

►Williams: WE'RE STILL FAILING OUR STUDENTS - Camille Esch's Op-Ed in the LA Times isn't as upbeat as the "'upbeat progress report' on the results of the settlement of Williams vs. California, a class-action suit brought on behalf of the state's most-neglected students" …even though the report comes from the plaintiffs themselves! "Sometimes," Rick Nelson said; "if you can't please everyone, you've got to please yourself."

►THINK TWICE ON RANKINGS + THE EDUCATION CONSERVANCY - The Education News column in the Dallas Morning News (what a concept!) and some College Admission Folks take on the annual silliness of the US News and World Report College Ranking – which are out ….but won't be reported here!

►WHY THE RUSH TO MANHATTANIZE L.A.?: There seems to be little public debate about the dramatic remaking of Los Angeles into a left-coast New York. At first blush Joel Kotkin's OpEd in the LA Times about city planning seems a bit off topic for a blog about public education – until one confronts and connects the dots.

►NOTHING WILL HAPPEN WITH NCLB – Arianna's hard to figure and No Child Left Behind is nobody's darling. Here the Huffington Post takes NCLB on – and the right, the left and the conventional thinking.

49 DAYS WITHOUT A BUDGET: School Finance 101 for and by the arithmetically challenged

by smf/4LAKids

August 19, 2007 - We are now 49 days without a state budget. We have been reading about preschool programs that are in danger of going out of business without their state subsidy – but what is the impact on LAUSD of there being no state budget?

THE GOOD NEWS is that two-thirds of LAUSD's budget is independent of the state budget process and IS being paid.

THE BAD NEWS is that about one third of LAUSD's expenses - paying for maintenance and operation, employees at central and local district offices, and the expenses of summer school and year-round programs is NOT being paid. And on Sept 5 all LAUSD students and employees will be "back to school"!

One third of LAUSD's annual budget is: $1.9 billion with a "B",

To give you an idea of the impact of this, figure $1.9 billion is $158 million a month. That money will eventually be paid – there is little doubt about that …but if you don’t have that $158 million to invest for one month, at 3%, you lose over $400,000 (or $13,333 a day) And that interest will NEVER be reimbursed – it comes out of the general fund - ie: classroom operations!

$13,333. is approximately the annual revenue (ADA) paid to the district generated by two school children …lost every day.

$400,000 equals something like the annual salary and benefits package for six teachers …lost every month.

LAUSD has ALREADY irretrievably lost the ADA for about one hundred kids, or the salaries of nine or ten teachers, or the cost of about 9,000 textbooks.

UNION'S 'BIG IDEA' FOR LAUSD: Proposed charter-like model would give schools more control

by Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer LA Daily News

August 18, 2007 - Los Angeles Unified's teachers union stepped into district-reform efforts this week, proposing a charter-like model that would give campuses greater control over budgets, hiring and curriculum.

If it gains support, the United Teachers Los Angeles model would become the only formally approved alternative to the increasingly popular charter-school movement, which has drawn interest from more than a dozen San Fernando Valley schools.

Under the union's proposal, schools would receive at least 95 percent of funding from the district but would also get full control over expenditures, hiring, curriculum, class schedules and professional development.

Unlike charter schools, however, teachers would be bound by the UTLA contract, providing protections for teachers but also making it difficult to remove ineffective workers.

"What we're trying to accomplish is to give schools the same kind of autonomies, or as close to those autonomies, that charter schools get," said UTLA President A.J. Duffy, who's been pushing for the program for years.

"Potentially, what we've done was to combine ideas that we have with ideas we've seen developed at charter schools and give them to schools that have the capacity to do it."

The union submitted its plan to the district's innovation division Wednesday, calling for Woodland Hills Academy (formerly Parkman Middle School) to be the first to roll out the model.

The high-performing school, frustrated by a bureaucracy that hampered its finances and led to students defecting to nearby charter schools, filed to become a charter school in 2005.

Concerned that it could spark a wave of similar conversions, the district offered charter-like freedoms to keep the school in the system. But after a successful year, the school staff still decided to reapply to become a charter in order to have greater access to funds.

For Duffy, who's running for re-election in February, the key to winning broad support for reform is local control, and he said he is determined to make Woodland Hills Academy the pilot school for his school-based management plan.

"One of the things charters have shown us is that the bureaucracy is the greatest bulwark for the status quo and we have to break the status quo. The status quo doesn't work," he said.

"It's going to give more life to teaching as a profession and this model is one of the answers to create a quality education program for students."

Woodland Hills Academy teacher Colleen Schwab said the school already has implemented many of the union's proposals.

"We believe it would bring in greater parent involvement and it gives a local school-based management council the ability to decide what would work for their school," Schwab said.

"We'd like the support of the district and we think it would be a good blueprint that would be effective for schools not only throughout the Valley but throughout the district."

Caprice Young, head of the state's Charter Schools Association, said she strongly supports the district experimenting with new forms of decentralized authority.

But Young cautioned that the concept must include accountability. Under state law, if a charter school performs in the bottom 30 percent of public schools, its charter will not be renewed in five years.

"They always talk about charter-like freedoms, but they don't talk about charter-like accountability," Young said. "For the first time in a long time, the district is actually being forced to compete in ways that are actually going to improve student achievement.

"Now, when they face a serious threat ... they're getting real about decentralization."

Karen Littman, director of the district's innovation division, said all of the proposals coming through her department are in progress.

[CORRECTION: Ms. Littman's first name is Kathi.]

"We've started the conversations, but we won't do any initiatives in the innovation division without accountability," she emphasized.

It is unclear whether the model would need approval by the district's board.

Young said she supports any exploration of decentralization and said that if teachers support it - and have a sense they're actively engaged in decision-making - there rarely is a need to fire teachers.

Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools are publicly funded campuses that operate independently of the district and most state regulations, exercising full control over their resources and electing their own school boards to set policies and budgets.

But Young warned that when schools taste a little freedom, they often want more, and the next natural step after the UTLA model may be the charter movement.

"The biggest likelihood is that once the school-site leadership begins to understand what real freedom looks like, they're going to want real freedom, not fake freedom," Young said.

"And the district is going to have to be ready to provide that in exchange for high student achievement."

But Duffy said most teachers do not favor charters.

"Teachers turn to charters because they can't get the system to give them the freedoms they want. Once we start giving them the freedoms, then this is the kind of thing they want," Duffy said.

Young would not say which schools have contacted her to discuss becoming charters, but she said several in the Valley are feeling competitive pressures.

Taft High School Principal Sharon Thomas said her teachers have been weighing whether to become a charter because they're frustrated with dwindling funding.

The teaching staff at the Woodland Hills school voted on the issue, but fewer than 50 percent supported the idea.

Thomas said some teachers are scared to leave the traditional public school system, but that another meeting has been set to discuss options - including, possibly, the union's proposal.

As the district works to end busing, Taft also is facing the loss of students over the next several years - and the Title I federal funding that comes with them.

"We don't have money and budgets like we used to, so teachers are having to do with less and less money for their programs," Thomas said.

"We're looking at the possibility of it and how it would help the school and students. Basically, we're here to help the students and get them the best opportunities for learning."

School board member Julie Korenstein, who has been opposed to charters, said she's seen the district attempt decentralization in the past.

She said it's important to see how any plans are structured, particularly on training school-site leaders to handle greater autonomy.

But she said she's always been interested in finding ways for schools and communities to make local decisions.

"I'd like to find the balance between centralization and local control," said Korenstein, who said she had not yet seen the union's plan.

"Neither one is bad and (both have) good points."

LONG-TERM SUBSTITUTES TO CUT COSTS FOR LAUSD: But the teacher's union opposes the proposal, which would shuffle instructors after winter break.

By Paul Clinton, Daily Breeze Staff Writer

August 14, 2007 - Despite objections from its powerful teachers union, Los Angeles Unified plans to ask high schools to submit a midyear enrollment count that could result in the loss of three to six teachers from each campus.

Teachers wouldn't be laid off. Instead, they would be shifted into long-term substitute positions. As a result, the district would reduce its reliance on substitutes.

The district is rolling out the practice - known as "renorming" - this fall as a cost-cutting move, claiming it will shave $14 million from the expense side of the budget ledger. However, United Teachers Los

Angeles President A.J. Duffy claims it would save only $8million.

New board member Richard Vladovic, who represents the San Pedro-to-Watts area, said the practice would harm student achievement by disrupting the learning environment.

"It's a budget trade-off, but I think it's disruptive," Vladovic said. "I'm not convinced it's the best for kids. I'm not convinced the savings justify the educational loss."

Under the plan, if the ratio of students to teachers falls below district formulas, teachers would be moved to other high schools and used as long-term substitutes, or "pool teachers."

The district determines the number of teachers at a school using ratios based on the number of students enrolled.

Enrollment at LAUSD high schools often falls between the start of school in early September and New Year's Day because students drop out or move out of the area.

Last fall at Gardena High School, for example, more than 3,500 students arrived for the start of school. By October, however, the school reported that number was down to 3,278.

The move is expected to undermine the district's bid to lower class sizes, a concession secured by United Teachers Los Angeles in contract negotiations in the spring.

"If there are fewer students, the class sizes would go down," said Russ Thompson, principal at Gardena High School. "But if the teachers are reduced, then class sizes would stay at their normal level."

At Gardena High, about 33 students are allocated for each teacher, Thompson said. Ninth-grade English and algebra average less than 25-to-1, while social studies and science are counted at 32-to-1. Spanish, French and other foreign languages are counted at 40-to-1, he added.

With extra room available, Gardena High will accept more than 250 students from Banning High in Wilmington and Narbonne High in Harbor City.

On the first Friday of the semester, usually in early October, schools submit their enrollment data to the district.

Duffy said the second enrollment count in January would violate the terms of the teachers' 2006-07 contract, which includes a promise of $20 million to reduce classes by two students in grades 4-12.

Duffy has been lobbying several board members to halt the plan.

"We're going to press this issue until the board realizes that it's not a good idea," Duffy said. "It was done in typical LAUSD fashion. It came out of a bean counter who looked at a spread sheet."

Julie Slayton, the district administrator in charge of the project, could not be reached for comment.

Schools are permitted to bank teaching positions in anticipation of the midyear enrollment drop, Vladovic said.

By following trends, school administrators can anticipate the drop by not filling several teaching positions in September.

The banking is permitted and can avert classroom disruptions, he added.

If schools don't "bank" positions, students in classrooms that lose teachers would be shifted to other rooms.