CAHSEE: State Assembly passes exit exam waiver, bill heading to Senate

by Elizabeth Weise, LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1NAIJXF

Posted on August 21, 2015 8:59 amIn an emergency vote yesterday, the state Assembly passed a bill that exempts 2015 high school seniors from passing the California High School Exit Exam, enabling them to graduate.

The bill now goes to the Senate, which will take it up Monday as the body is not in session today. If it passes there, it will be sent on to Governor Jerry Brown.

The California Department of Education suspended the exam in May. That left more than 5,000 seniors statewide who had planned to take the test in July in limbo and unable to graduate. Nearly 500 of them were from LA Unified.

Assemblymember David Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat and one of the co-authors of the bill, said he was pleased the bill is moving so quickly “to remedy a bureaucratic decision that placed our students and their futures in limbo.”

“None of these students should have their dreams deferred,” he said.

Just sayin’: TWO “PUFF PIECE” STORIES ABOUT PEARSON EDUCATION FROM NPR….

with the retirement of longtime NPR/PBS education correspondent John Merrow - and the sale of his production company to EdWeek [  http://bit.ly/1U5yoCO ] – hopefully NPR/PBS won’t go over to the dark side and just start rewriting the Pearson/Gates/Broad/Walton press releases.  Hopefully.

How The World's Biggest Education Company Will Spend The Next $2 Billion Anya Kamenetz | National Public Radio | http://n.pr/1JqDl7J

5 Big Ideas That Don't Work In Education Anya Kamenetz | National Public Radio | http://n.pr/1hQEJ97

<< Students pose for a selfie with John Fallon, the CEO of Pearson in Brownsville, Texas, on May 16. Fallon delivered the commencement address to more than 300 students at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville.  Brad Doherty/AP Images for Pearson August 21, 2015 8:43 AM ET   ::   Pearson was already the biggest education company in the world. Now its education business is getting even bigger. In the past several weeks, the company has sold off its two major media brands, the Financial Times (for $1.3 billion) and The Economist (for about $730 million). This move is part of a general moment of back-to-school upheaval in the education industry. News Corp. just announced that its much-hyped ed-tech brand Amplify is a $371 million write off. Yet at the same time, ed-tech venture capital deals have doubled in the past 12 months to a reported total $2.3 billion. Chinese ed-tech companies, in particular, are raising lots of money. There is a lot of room for everyone to grow. Pearson says it currently does $5 billion worth of business annually in the U.S. That's out of what the company estimates is a total of $1 trillion spent each year on education — most of it public money. As digital technologies continue to play a larger role in both instructional delivery and assessment, many observers see a larger role for private industry as well. "In the future world there are going to be more public-private partnerships in education," says Pearson's North American CEO, Don Kilburn. In other words, this isn't just about the expansion of a few companies — this is about the maturing of an entire sector. Pearson CEO John Fallon announced that thanks to The Economist and FT sales, the company is now "100 percent focused on our global education strategy." In a blog post, he elaborated: "In recent years, we've developed an increasing focus on our biggest, most exciting opportunity — to help people make progress in their lives through learning ... it's become clear to me and the Pearson board that the scale of the challenge requires our undivided attention." But is all this money and attention good news for learners? Prove You're Good Amar Kumar says it will be. He is a senior VP at Pearson and part of a relatively new unit called "Efficacy & Research." And he says the company wants to bring more "rigor and transparency" by measuring the impact of everything it does. "This company is serious about doubling down on education," he says. "We care about it. We feel like we're well-equipped to do it. The efficacy agenda ensures that when we do it, it's going to be with the right level of quality and rigor." Since 2013, Kumar says, Pearson has been evaluating all its investments and partnerships not only on financial performance (Can we get customers and make money?) but also on educational performance (Can we help learners succeed?). It may seem like a pretty basic proposition: Invest in products and services that can prove they do what they say on the label. But this outcomes focus is not exactly prevalent in the world of ed-tech. Amplify is a case study. Just three years ago, it was among the highest-profile launches this industry had ever seen. The company spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing tablets and electronic curricula. Some of the company's products, especially the games, were award-winning. But they failed to find a market with teachers. And as for the devices? In some cases they literally melted down. "There are 'big' startups with lots of users and venture funding that have yet to show impact on outcomes relative to the investment being made in them," says David Schiffman, former director of global education strategy at Samsung, who now consults to ed-tech startups. "Pearson's recent divestments ... are about them focusing on the elements that will make an impact in education." Access, Success, Progress The company uses a pithy slogan internally to describe its priorities: Access, Success and Progress. Access means bringing education to underserved communities. Kilburn points to College Park Academy, a partnership with the city of College Park and the University of Maryland to create a charter middle school with both online and on-the-ground programs that he says is performing well with a "fairly challenged demographic." Success means measuring students' learning in terms of useful skills for life and the workforce. Kilburn mentions the MyMathLab software product, in use at colleges around the country, which he says has demonstrated success with remedial math students. And progress means helping students move from K-12 through college and eventually to careers. Kilburn cites Pearson's partnership with Arizona State University, where Starbucks employees can enroll for free online. "We are helping power their online program," he says. "We recruit students, enroll students, create mentoring and help for those students, and measure their performance." Pearson's efficacy practice increasingly includes publishing the work of independent researchers, like John Hattie, whose findings don't always agree with the company's sales pitches. But as the company expands, it will have to work hard to counter some severely negative public perceptions. "Pearson is not a beloved brand — far from it," as Audrey Watters, ed-tech blogger and author, puts it. The British conglomerate began expanding rapidly into education in 1998. It purchased an American testing company for $2.5 billion in 2000. That purchase instantly made it the leading scorer of standardized tests in this country. It also put the company front and center in the expansion of standardized testing under the accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind. As both tests and the Common Core rocketed to national controversy, Pearson has increasingly incurred bad press. This past spring, the Los Angeles Unified School District formally severed a $1.3 billion contract with Pearson and Apple, saying it was "extremely dissatisfied with the work of Pearson." And in New York State, 20 percent of students refused to take Pearson-produced state tests; in July the state dropped Pearson as a vendor. Asked if the company has a credibility problem, Kilburn said, "I think there's quite a few educators and learners right now that trust us quite a bit, but I believe our journey should solidify and grow that trust. If we continue to focus on learner outcomes and get our story out, I hope we will be recognized for that." In a way, the circumstances that hurt Pearson's brand are the same ones that help its business. It finds itself without a competitor of similar size focused as intensively on educational innovation. The competition it does have comes from the old-guard of textbook publishers on the one hand (McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and the educational division of the big tech companies on the other (Apple, Google), plus startups and an outlier group of nonprofits (The College Board, Educational Testing Service, PARCC). That means when a state or group of districts is looking for a vendor for a new test, say, bidding processes are sometimes less competitive than they might be. And when an education policy becomes unpopular, Pearson, which is set up to make a profit on that policy, is a fat target. So while Pearson is trying to become known as a standardbearer of quality in the industry, what might really improve perceptions of the company and conditions for learners is more good old-fashioned market competition. "It would be good for outcomes to have many people doing this," Kumar says.

i Better measurements help make learning visible, says John Hattie. Arthur MacDonald/Internet Archive August 13, 2015 6:03 AM ET   ::  There are few household names in education research. Maybe that in itself constitutes a problem. But if there was an Education Researcher Hall Of Fame, one member would be a silver-haired, plainspoken Kiwi named John Hattie. Hattie directs the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He also directs something called the Science of Learning Research Centre, which works with over 7,000 schools worldwide. Over the past 28 years he has published a dozen books, mostly on a theory he calls Visible Learning. His life's work boils down to one proposition: To improve schools, draw on the best evidence available. Obvious? Maybe, but it's rarely honored in reality, Hattie claims. "Senior politicians and government officials clearly want to make a difference," he says. "But they want to do this, that and the other silly thing which has failed everywhere else, and I want to know why." In a new paper, "What Doesn't Work In Education: The Politics Of Distraction," published by Pearson Education, Hattie takes on some of the most popular approaches to reform. Small classes. High standards. More money. These popular and oft-prescribed remedies from both the right and the left, he argues, haven't been shown to work as well as alternatives. Hattie doesn't run his own studies. Nor does he analyze groups of studies on a single variable, a technique called meta-analysis. He goes one step further and synthesizes the findings of many meta-analyses, a kind of meta-meta-analysis. Over the years, he has scrutinized — and ranked — 1,200 different meta-analyses looking at all types of interventions, ranging from increased parental involvement to ADHD medications to longer school days to performance pay for teachers, as well as other factors affecting education, like socioeconomic status. He has examined studies covering a combined 250 million students around the world. The good news, he says, is that most education reforms tested in published studies show at least some positive effect (this should not be surprising, because studies that show no effect or negative effects are less likely to be published). If you are the kind of person who finds certain graphs sexy, beholding Hattie's ranking of educational effect sizes will be exhilarating. The average effect, across all the studies he's analyzed, is 0.4. standard deviations. This average also happens to translate — roughly — to the amount of progress a student can be expected to make in one year of school. Hattie believes that all educational reforms should concentrate on interventions with proven effects that fall above that line. In his ranking, socioeconomic status has an effect size of 0.57, meaning that a student growing up in poverty may be expected to perform roughly a year and a half behind an otherwise similar student growing up more wealthy. Putting televisions in the classroom, on the other hand, has an average negative impact of -0.18. Holding students back a grade really does hold students back, with an effect of -0.16. "The problem is there are a lot of effects that are very small," he says, while others are huge. And yet, he says, "We never have a debate of relativity — why are we spending billions on things that have small effects?" Technical Challenges Hattie's grand unified theory is simple — maybe too simple. Critics have taken issue with his approach to research, the precision of some of his calculations, even his grasp of concepts as basic as probability. "Meta-analyis is relatively new in education, and ... particularly problematic," says Dylan Wiliam, professor emeritus of educational assessment at the Institute of Education, University of London, and an expert on assessment. He argues, for example, that averaging together studies done on students of different ages, in different settings, with different kinds of interventions and different measures of outcomes may produce entirely misleading results. There's a danger, Wiliam says, of mushing good studies together with bad ones, or comparing apples and oranges. "In education, meta-analysis presents a number of significant technical difficulties," he explains. "Some of these are unavoidable but Hattie does not mention these." Others, Wiliam adds, "are avoidable, but Hattie does not avoid them." "The synthesis approach is not an established method," agrees John O'Neill, director of the Institute of Education at Massey University in New Zealand. O'Neill is a coauthor of a 2009 paper critical of Hattie's work, titled "Invisible Learnings?" At the same time, he acknowledges, Hattie's work "has had a profound effect on education policy and practice globally." Many of Hattie's basic observations have been upheld by other researchers. And he and his organization continue to advise and influence governments and school leaders all over the world. Here are five of the most common policy ideas that, he argues in his new paper, are wrongheaded — and the alternatives Hattie suggests. 1. Achievement standards. "It seems very sensible. You set up minimum standards you want students to reach; you judge schools by how many reach them. But it has a very nasty effect," Hattie tells me. "All those schools who take kids in difficult circumstances are seen as failures, while those who take privileged students and do nothing are seen as successful." By the same token, it seems to make sense to set achievement standards by grade level, but the further along students get in school, Hattie points out, the more of them are performing either behind or ahead of the schedule that's been set. The alternative: a focus on growth and progress for each student, no matter where he or she starts. 2. Achievement tests. High-performing schools, and countries, don't necessarily give more standardized tests than low performers. They often give fewer. The alternative: testing that emphasizes giving teachers immediate, actionable feedback to improve teaching. 3. School choice. Many education reformers tout school choice as a tool for parent empowerment and school improvement through competitive pressure. But Hattie says his research shows that once you account for the economic background of students, private schools offer no significant advantages on average. As for charter schools? "The effect of charter schools, for example, across three meta-analyses based on 246 studies is a minuscule .07," he writes. The alternative: teacher choice. In the United States, variation within schools accounts for 70 percent of the differences in scores on the international PISA exam, while variation between schools makes up the rest. Hattie argues that if parents had the right to select the best teacher in a given school, that could truly be empowering. It would also be challenging to implement. 4. Class size. This has been one of Hattie's more controversial claims. In the U.S., groups such as Class Size Matters are dedicated to the proposition that fewer students per teacher is a recipe for success. This, Hattie argues, would come as a surprise to Japan and Korea, two of the highest-performing education systems in the world, with average class sizes of 33. Russia is the outlier in the other direction, a below-average performer with average classes around 18. The alternative: Hattie says reducing class size can have a positive impact. That's if teachers are coached and supported to take advantage of it by actually changing the way they teach — to collaborate, offer personalized feedback and continuously measure their impact for improvement, for example. 5. More money. $40,000 per child, from age 6 through high school graduation. That's the rough threshold for reasonable school performance, according to Hattie: Countries that spend less than $40,000, which are all poor, tend to have much lower reading scores on the international PISA exam, and their performance correlates strongly with the money they spend. But for countries above that threshold, there is almost no relationship between money spent and results earned. For example, Korea and Finland far outscore the U.S. on PISA, while spending $60,000 and $75,000 compared with $105,000. The alternative: Money's a necessity, but more money is not a panacea, says Hattie. "We spend millions on things that don't matter, and then we get jaundiced." Hattie's forthcoming book, in September, will present case studies of 15 schools that are implementing some of the ideas that have the strongest evidence behind them. He says many of these boil down to empowering teachers to work collaboratively and continuously improve. "Around the world there is so much excellence," he says. "Have we got the spine to identify and grow that?"

MiSiS HELD UP FOR LA UNIFIED OPENING, BUT FUTURE SNAGS EXPECTED

by Mike Szymanski, LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1NKU7OC

Diane Pappas, in charge of MiSiS

Posted on August 19, 2015 10:44 am  ::  The first day of school went off yesterday without a hitch for LA Unified’s MiSiS system, a huge improvement over last year’s rocky start that caused so much disruption across the district.

The My Integrated Student Information System allowed 23,110 users to log into the system and handled the schedules of 439,756 students, according to Diane Pappas, Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Planning and Digital Innovation.

During a tour of the MiSiS Control Center on the 10th floor of district headquarters, Pappas said 16,767 teachers were able to register their attendance, a number expected to reach 22,000.

“We only had four schools with issues,” Pappas said. “We had to send support staff to some of the schools to help them register new students.”

But those issues were not MiSiS or computer related in any way, as Superintendent Ramon Cortines confirmed. The schools were overwhelmed with an unexpected surge of new students.

Audubon Middle School in Leimert Park, Narbonne High School in Harbor City and Cleveland Charter High School in Reseda all had some student enrollment issues that required help, and they were resolved by noon. Assistance also went out to Washington Preparatory High School in Westmont.

The $133 million computer system has an additional $80 million set aside for issues that may crop up this year as the system is fixed. None of the problems that occurred last year at Jordan High, Jefferson High, Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy or El Sereno Middle School occurred this time, but staff was waiting just in case.

Jennifer Kessler, Director of Organizational Change Management for the district’s information technology division said 182 calls came into the command center and were responded to within 50 seconds. Last year, the wait time alone was nearly an hour-and-a-half.

Pappas left a note of encouragement for staffers on a board the command center: “Everything you do helps students! Keep going! – Diane.”

“I have an amazing team with an extraordinary work ethic,” Pappas said. “There are some people on this team who have not taken vacation in a few years.”

To prepare for the first day of school, all principals were told that if they ever had more than 20 students sitting in an area waiting to be registered or without a schedule to call them. No principal called.

A few elementary schools had Internet trouble before school began on the first day: 28th Street, Ascott Avenue and Hooper Avenue had online issues that were taken care of immediately.

There are still 324 posted known issues on the website for MiSiS, but some of those are future fixes, and some are minor that won’t impact the overall system, Pappas explained.

By the end of the school day, Cortines offered a thank you and a pep talk for the MiSiS teams located in two different rooms on the 10th floor.

“This is not the end of all the issues, I know,” he said. “There will be bumps in the road.”

Updated: JEB BUSH’S EMBRACE OF COMMON CORE IS A CAMPAIGN LIGHTNING ROD …or not

By Kathleen Hennessey | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1KaQ9Q9

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush speaks at a forum on education policy in Londonderry, N.H. (Jim Cole / Associated Press)

Aug 20, 2015  ::  As former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sat for a public chat about education on Wednesday, the conversation turned, inevitably, to Common Core, and the candidate was primed with a cheeky quip.

"What's that?"

In truth, Bush, a former governor and education advocate, knows more than most about the contentious education standards — and all too well how they're dogging his White House bid.

Although the standards were developed by state and local officials as a way to measure student achievement nationally, they've evolved into a stand-in for federal overreach in education. Key parts of the GOP base have united in opposition, and Bush and other Republican leaders have found themselves up against a formidable and organized constituency.

update Compare+Contrast this story with: Common Core yet to emerge as major issue in presidential campaign -- One reason is surely the result of the near total eclipse of most substantive policy discussions in the GOP presidential contest by the presence and pronouncements of Donald Trump. Louis Freedberg EdSource -- 8/21/15

I'm not going to change my position because there's four people in the front row yelling at me. - John Kasich, defending his support of Common Core educational standards

Bush has watched his onetime signature issue — education reform — transformed into the thorniest of topics. As his campaign struggles to win support in a crowded field, the standards have become a test of his ability to win over conservatives, or keep them from pulling him too far to the right.

His effort was on full display Wednesday, as he and five other Republican contenders sat for back-to-back interviews at an education forum hosted by the Seventy Four, a news site founded by journalist-turned-advocate Campbell Brown, and the American Federation for Children, a group that pushes for school vouchers, charter schools and similar education policies.

Several of the Republican participants had abandoned their support for Common Core and had to explain their newfound opposition. Former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina suggested the standards evolved into something she had not imagined when she endorsed them. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie argued that his willingness to reverse his position was a sign of leadership.

"I don't 'seem to have' backed away from it, I did! It doesn't work," said Christie, winning applause. "All the polling in New Jersey was against it. After a while, the other part of leadership is to listen. So I've listened."

Bush staked out a middle ground — backing statewide benchmarks but not federal involvement — and suggested the differences were inconsequential.

"The debate needs to be broader. It needs to be about real accountability, school choice, high standards," Bush told Brown. "If people don't like Common Core, fine. Just make sure your standards are much higher than the ones you had before. We can't keep dumbing down standards."

The answer was a version of one he has given repeatedly to voters who ask persistently at events. At the recent GOP debate, the moderators singled him out to explain his support.

He said he supported state standards but opposed federal involvement and said flatly that he did not think opponents of Common Core were "a fringe group." He was applauded, and Bush's advisors argued that his response was one of his strongest of the night.

But it did not end the questions. On the stump last week at the Iowa State Fair, Bush fielded another one by arguing that "the term 'Common Core' is so darn poisonous, I don't even know what it means."

As political analysis, Bush isn't wrong. Polling shows support for Common Core standards has eroded steadily in recent years, from 65% of the public in 2013 to 49% in a poll conducted in the spring for the academic journal Education Next. Just 37% of Republicans said they supported the standards, the survey found.

Common Core supporters have repeatedly argued that the heated rhetoric on the right has obscured the facts of the debate, particularly that the achievement measures were developed by a bipartisan group of governors and experts and aren't mandated by the federal government.

The Obama administration's Race to the Top program, a competition among states for federal education funding, rewarded states for adopting some common standards and accepted the Common Core. That essentially "forced" states to adopt them or suffer economic consequences, opponents argue.

Bush has so far chosen not to fight over the details, an approach that contrasted sharply with Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday. Kasich, also a supporter of the standards, went after his opponents for flip-flopping.

"I'm not going to change my position because there's four people in the front row yelling at me," Kasich said, adding that he based his view on data. "I'm looking through all the facts and not getting all the information from the Internet."

On Wednesday, Bush and Kasich both received F grades for their positions from the conservative think tank American Principles in Action.

The group wrote that Bush "has propagated the false narrative that the Common Core standards are merely learning goals and are of high quality."

Kasich, meanwhile, was criticized for "making fun" of Common Core opponents.

The other two candidates at the forum, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, also oppose the standards after once supporting them.

While Bush has defended his position on the standards, he has taken a hard line on other education issues that might come to haunt him if he wins the Republican nomination. On Wednesday, he said he could not see himself working with Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, which has endorsed Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton for president.

"I'd love a day when Randi Weingarten and I could hold hands and sing 'Kumbaya,'" Bush said. "Her job is to represent the economic interests of the adults" in the system.

And he appeared to endorse a new Nevada school voucher law praised by advocates as perhaps the most sweeping voucher system in the country.

"Why not allow total voucherization? Nevada is moving in this direction," Bush said. "Let the suppliers come up with the creative solutions, have high expectations and accountability, and get out of the way."

Democrats pounced on the phrase "total voucherization" as evidence of Bush's "extreme" views.

"This would drain federal resources from our public education system and from programs that support vulnerable, low-income children," said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Christina Freundlich. "He wants our education system to look like an episode of 'Extreme Couponing.'"

SCHOOL DISTRICTS EXPERIMENT WITH TAKE-HOME INTERNET ACCESS

 

by Alisha Kirby | SI&A Cabinet Report :: http://bit.ly/1Lo4HdZ

August 17, 2015 (Mo.)  ::  A St. Louis district is one of many across the nation looking to provide InternetInternet access to students at home in an effort to keep them from falling behind after the school bell rings.

Affton School District, where more than 40 percent of students live in poverty and 12 percent are without reliable home Wi-Fi, allows high school students to check out wireless hotspot devices. The program is rolling out to the middle school when classes begin this week.

Although originally designed to give students more time to complete school assignments, Robert Dillon, the district’s director of technology and innovation, said students have benefitted from the new program immensely in other aspects.

“It’s amazing what they can do and learn in those other 18 hours each day they aren’t in school when they have the ability to do so,” Dillon said in an interview. “You see students get excited about new careers, follow their musical passions, create digital art, or find their voices by blogging, or even run Etsy accounts where they make and sell jewelry.”

As students are expected to contribute more thorough and complex research to various assignments it is pertinent that they have regular access to Internet outside of school, educators say. Yet in rural or low-income areas especially, many students can fall behind if a lack of Internet access keeps them from being able to simply complete their homework.

Students in urban areas can often find a temporary solution, such as using free Wi-Fi at the local library or even many fast food chains and coffee shops, according to Dillon. However, older students who go to a part time job after school may not get off in time to use those facilities’ free Internet service.

At Affton, students can check out devices and keep them for up to two gigabytes of use – which lasts about one month on average – before bringing them back to school for a check-up. This time is also used to talk with the students about what assistance they may need or answer any questions they might have.

“It’s just another way for us to dig into what is truly affecting their learning,” Dillon said. “It’s another human interaction with students who are already struggling. Often times, students that have needs in the way of Internet or broadband access have other needs we can help with.”

Schools and cities across the country have taken different approaches to providing all students with reliable Wi-Fi. In Austin, Texas and the California cities of Santa Clara, San Jose and San Francisco,  citywide Wi-Fi access is provided. Council Bluffs, Iowa is in the process of doing the same.

Some districts in California, Kansas and Iowa have equipped school busses with Wi-Fi so that students can begin their schoolwork on what can be an hour-long trip for some.

In Maine, the students in rural Washington County will soon be able to check out Wi-Fi hotspot devices similar to those in Affton County. “When students have that access at home the entire family has access too,” Dillon said. “Maybe a younger sibling can use it or parents can create resumes or look for jobs. It really helps entire families.”

BILLIONAIRES FUND EDUCATION NEWS AT LA TIMES

By diane ravitch, from her blog | http://bit.ly/1Jrzw43

August 18, 2015  ::  Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, you read a story like this.

It is a letter from the publisher of the Los Angeles Times informing readers that a group of wealthy foundations are underwriting expanded coverage of education. Not surprising to see the Eli Broad Foundation in the mix. Former Mayor Richard Riordan is not listed but you can be sure he is involved.

These control freaks–er, philanthropists–worry that the LAT has not provided enough space to cover this vital topic.

Publisher Austin Beutner writes:

“We are calling our initiative Education Matters, and I encourage you to join us as we explore the issues that matter most to you and your child. If you want to understand the latest debate on curriculum or testing, find out about the role of student health in learning, study how charter schools are changing public education or experience a classroom from the perspective of a teacher, then Education Matters will be an essential destination.

“With an expanded team of reporters, we will take a fresh approach to our news and analysis starting with today’s stories about the unique challenges facing LAUSD and the last year-round school in Los Angeles. Our editorial pages feature a guest column by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on the need for more investment in math and science education. You will find our reports at latimes.com/schools in English and Spanish.

“In the coming months, we will convene public forums to address topics such as educational education policy, saving for college and talking to your child’s teacher. We intend these conversations to be both thoughtful and practical.”

A guest column by Arne Duncan! Now there’s a fresh perspective!

I wonder if I will ever be invited to write for the LA Times again?

 

• What Diane says about Diane: I am a historian of education and Research Professor of Education at New York University.
  I was born in Houston, Texas, attended the Houston public schools from kindergarten through high school, and graduated from Wellesley College in 1960. I received my Ph.D. in the history of American education in 1975.
  I am the mother of two sons. They went to private schools in New York City. I have four grandsons: two went to religious schools, the third goes to public school in New York City, and the fourth will go to the same wonderful public school in Brooklyn.
  I live in Brooklyn, New York.
• More from Wikipedia: She was appointed to public office by Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. She served as Assistant Secretary of Education under Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander from 1991 to 1993 and his successor Richard Riley appointed her to serve as a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which supervises the National Assessment of Educational Progress; she was a member of NAGB from 1997 to 2004. From 1995 to 2005 she held the Brown Chair in Education Studies at the Brookings Institution^[

Writings and statements on education

Ravitch renounced her earlier support for testing and choice in 2010, in a best-selling book. She critiqued the punitive uses of accountability to fire teachers and close schools, as well as replacing public schools with charter schools and relying on superstar teachers, in The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Undermine Education (2010). In the book Ravitch sharply broke with policies she had formerly espoused^[7] and the book became a surprise best seller a month after its release. One reviewer wrote "Ravitch exhibits an interesting mix of support for public education and the rights of teachers to bargain collectively with a tough-mindedness that some on the pedagogical left lack."^[12]

While she originally supported No Child Left Behind and charter schools, Ravitch later became "disillusioned," and wrote, "I no longer believe that either approach will produce the quantum improvement in American education that we all hope for." On her blog, she often cited low-performing charters, frauds, corruption, incompetent charter operators, exclusionary policies practiced by charters, and other poor results that diverted funding from public schools into private hands. High-stakes testing, "utopian" goals, "draconian" penalties, school closings, privatization, and charter schools didn't work, she concluded. "The best predictor of low academic performance is poverty—not bad teachers."^[13]

Ravitch said that the charter school and testing reform movement was started by billionaires and "right wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation," for the purpose of destroying public education and teachers' unions.^[14] She reviewed the documentary Waiting for Superman, directed by Davis Guggenheim, as "propagandistic" (pro-charter schools and anti-public schools), studded with "myths" and at least one "flatly wrong" claim.^[15] Of Education Secretary Arne Duncan's Race to the Top program, Ravitch said in a 2011 interview it "is an extension of No Child Left Behind ...[,] all bad ideas." She concluded "We are destroying our education system, blowing it up by these stupid policies. And handing the schools in low-income neighborhoods over to private entrepreneurs does not, in itself, improve them. There's plenty of evidence by now that the kids in those schools do no better, and it's simply a way of avoiding their - the public responsibility to provide good education."^[16]

Her book The Language Police (2003) was a criticism of both left-wing and right-wing attempts to stifle the study and expression of views deemed unworthy by those groups. The Amazon.com review summarizes Ravitch's thesis as "pressure groups from the political right and left have wrested control of the language and content of textbooks and standardized exams, often at the expense of the truth (in the case of history), of literary quality (in the case of literature), and of education in general."^[17] Publishers Weekly wrote: "Ravitch contends that these sanitized materials sacrifice literary quality and historical accuracy in order to escape controversy."^[18]

Ravitch's writings on racial and cultural diversity were summarized by sociologist Vincent N. Parrillo:

[Ravitch] emphasized a common culture but one that incorporated the contributions of all racial and ethnic groups so that they can believe in their full membership in America’s past, present, and future. She envisioned elimination of allegiance to any specific racial and/or ethnic group, with emphasis instead on our common humanity, our shared national identity, and our individual accomplishments.^[19]

Ravitch's first book The Great School Wars (1974) is a history of New York City public schools. It described alternating eras of centralization and decentralization. It also tied periodic controversies over public education to periodic waves of immigration.^[7]

Published works

Books

• The Great School Wars: New York City, 1805-1973 (1974, reissued 1988, 2000) ISBN 0-8018-6471-2
• The Revisionists Revised: A Critique of the Radical Attack on the Schools (1978) ISBN 0-465-06943-6
• Schools in Cities: Consensus and Conflict in American Educational History (1983) ISBN 0-8419-0850-8
• Against Mediocrity: The Humanities in America's High Schools (1984) ISBN 0-8419-0944-X
• Challenges to the Humanities (1985) ISBN 0-8419-1017-0
• The Schools We Deserve (1985) ISBN 0-465-07236-4
• The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945-1980 (1985) ISBN 0-465-08757-4
• What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know: A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature (1989) ISBN 0-06-015849-2
• The American Reader : Words That Moved a Nation (1990) ISBN 0-06-016480-8
• National Standards in American Education: A Consumer's Guide (1995) ISBN 0-8157-7352-8
• New Schools for a New Century: The Redesign of Urban Education (1997) ISBN 0-300-07874-9
• City Schools: Lessons from New York (2000) ISBN 0-8018-6341-4
• Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform (2000) ISBN 0-684-84417-6
• Kid Stuff: Marketing Sex and Violence to America's Children (2003) ISBN 0-8018-7327-4
• Making Good Citizens: Education and Civil Society (2003) ISBN 0-300-09917-7
• The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn (2003) ISBN 0-375-41482-7
• Forgotten Heroes of American Education: The Great Tradition of Teaching Teachers (2006) ISBN 1-59311-448-6
• The English Reader: What Every Literate Person Needs to Know (2006) ISBN 0-19-507729-6
• EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon (2007) ISBN 978-1-4166-0575-1
• The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (2010) ISBN 978-0-465-01491-0
• Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools (2013) ISBN 978-0385350884

Back@School @CA: THE CAHSEE DEBACLE (2 stories) “By the power vested in me, and a waiver from the legislature, I hereby award you….”

 

State schools chief flunks on exit exam

By The Times Editorial Board | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1KvOfFx

State schools chief Tom Torlakson waits backstage before speaking at the California Democratic Convention on March 8, 2014. (Los Angeles Times)

19 Aug 2015  ::  State schools chief Tom Torlakson is bemoaning an unfair situation that threatens the diplomas of thousands of students. He's pledged to do something about it. What the superintendent of public instruction hasn't done is acknowledge his own culpability in creating it in the first place.

At risk are 5,000 students who recently finished their senior years but who have not yet passed the high school exit exam, which is intended to ensure that students don't get diplomas unless they have mastered the rudiments of English and math. Torlakson canceled this summer's test. As a result, these students cannot apply for jobs requiring a diploma; others, who have already been admitted to college, could see those admissions threatened.

SB 172 would solve the short-term problem by retroactively excusing the class of 2015 from the test. But it's a bad bill that threatens the entire future of the exam.

The current exit exam has to go because it's out of step with the new curriculum based on Common Core, Torlakson explains. But whose fault is that? It's not as though everyone didn't know years ago that Common Core was coming. Why wasn't the exit exam updated in tandem with this curriculum change?

The bill calls for a three-year hiatus from the test while a panel studies its future. Not only is that unnecessarily long, but the bill makes no commitments about what happens after that. Under the bill, there might be no requirement at all that high school graduates show mastery of basic skills, which would practically ensure a return to the days of social promotion and meaningless diplomas.

It's not as though everyone didn't know years ago that Common Core was coming. Why wasn't the exit exam updated in tandem with this curriculum change? - 

Torlakson's decision to cancel this summer's testing (the test is first given in sophomore year, but those who fail are given many additional chances) puts significant pressure on the Legislature to pass SB 172 swiftly in order to protect the 5,000 students. Was this politically motivated or simple ineptitude? Neither is acceptable.

Rather than rushing to pass SB 172, legislators are wisely amending another education bill, to be considered Thursday, to award these students their diplomas without the exit exam. It's a less-than-perfect solution — three-fourths of summer test-takers typically flunk the test, which means schools will be awarding diplomas to students who lack the requisite skills. But it's probably the only acceptable step right now; this situation isn't the students' fault. Then the Legislature should swiftly kill SB 172 and instead propose a more sensible plan, requiring an updated exit exam that doesn't take years to develop.

 

______________________________

 

Cal State freshmen can still start school this fall, despite the July exit exam being cancelled

by KPCC Staff | KPCC 89.3 | http://bit.ly/1WEERIR

In file photo, Cal State Fullerton students walk on campus. The CSU says they still welcome graduating 2015 high school students to their campus if they were admitted despite not taking exit exam. Anibal Ortiz

18 August 2015  ::  High school seniors who were provisionally admitted to one of the 23 California State University campuses but missed their last chance to take the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) can breathe a sigh of relief. CSU officials say they can still start classes this fall even if they didn't complete the CAHSEE.

The test is an exit exam meant to determine whether a student graduates with appropriate grade-level skills in various subjects.  The July test date was cancelled and was the last opportunity for graduating 2015 seniors to take the test.  The CAHSEE is a requirement to earn a high school diploma in California, so many graduating students who could not take the test were left to face the possibility of not graduating and thus not starting college in the fall.

Since Cal States don't actually require the CAHSEE to be admitted, there shouldn't be a problem for students, said Toni Molle, director of public affairs for Cal State University's Chancellor's Office. CSU will still let admitted seniors start the semester on time. Molle said potential CSU students only need a graduation date on their final high school transcripts, which means students' admission will not be affected as long as they have proof that that they finished high school and meet all other CSU requirements.

"Our vice chancellor of academic affairs put out the word and wanted to assure students, as well as our admissions people, that we're going to be flexible if the only missing requirement is that they don't have that date," Molle said.

Some Cal States, like Cal State Long Beach, start classes on Monday.

"Our staff is going to be working with high schools with the students who didn't get those dates and their families to make sure they are going to be able to start the academic year on schedule," Molle said.

Back2School@LAUSD:/Day 2: A SMOOTH START …AND NOW THE HARD WORK BEGINS

By Howard Blume and Sonali Kohli |LA Times | http://lat.ms/1J3CXup

• Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the nation, went back to school Aug. 18. Here’s the district by the numbers: http://www.latimes.com/local/education/back-to-school/la-me-when-650000-children-go-back-to-school-video-20150818-premiumvideo.html (opens endless stream of Times videos!)

19 August 2015  ::  Everyone, it seems, has an opinion about L.A. Unified.

Some critics consider the mammoth school system so hopeless that they are trying to dismantle it. Others say it's too late.

For the opening of school Tuesday, L.A. Unified presented itself as thriving, reviving and vital. In events stretched throughout the day, officials showcased some of its best.

El Sereno Middle School offers classes in Mandarin for its mostly Latino students and hosts a program with USC to pay tuition for those who graduate from high school.

"He speaks three languages," Irma Henriquez said proudly of her son, Nelson, 13. "Imagine how many doors will open to him in the future."

At Vine Street Elementary in Hollywood, parents got the chance to question school board President Steve Zimmer and even complain about a few things.

Liliana Rodriguez said he needs to do something about the cafeteria lunches.

Teacher Maritza Ferrandiz asks Ray Cortez, 6, to hold the classroom sign as students line. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

"My kids don't like to eat at school very often because the foods are frozen," Rodriguez said.

New Principal Kurt Lowry was determined to be responsive. He put in a call to food services about the frozen or undercooked meals. And he made a radio call to custodians when he was alerted that there was no soap in the preschoolers' bathroom.

The district even took the media into its command center for the online student records system that failed last year, leaving schools in chaos with students unable to get into classes.

That program, called My Integrated Student Information System, or MISIS, appeared to work Tuesday. Fixing it cost $133 million. An additional $80 million was set aside for this year.

"The district is in a renaissance," said L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, who took over the top job last fall. "A year ago, the opening of school was a disaster. And I believed it could be fixed.... It's my hope that [parents] are willing to say: 'Hey, maybe we can trust the district again.' "

The new year finds the 650,000-student L.A. Unified School District at a crossroads. Increased funding has restored staff and programs that were lost during the recession; long-awaited salary increases have improved labor relations and polarizing Supt. John Deasy resigned under pressure.

Cortines, 83, returned from retirement with a pragmatic focus: fixing the records system and charting a path forward on technology after a disastrous, now-abandoned effort to provide iPads to every student, teacher and campus administrator.

But higher state funding isn't keeping up with claims on it. Many adult school teachers were laid off and some question whether the district can afford the pay raises.

At Jefferson High School south of downtown Tuesday, the big story was the absence of a big story.

The faulty records system generated inaccurate transcripts and miscalculated grade-point averages, among other problems.

Justin Fernandez, a junior, said the focus on Jefferson has benefited the school.

"They've put kids in the right places," he said. "I haven't seen no one with mistakes in their schedule. And the school is getting lots of attention."

Principal Jack Foote had been prepared for the worst, with printouts of rosters and attendance sheets if, for example, the city of Los Angeles suffered a major power outage.

There were minor glitches. Eleventh-grader Miguel Figueroa said he need a more advanced Spanish class than the one he received. Another student said he wanted ROTC as an elective but it wasn't on his schedule.

3Overall, the system functioned as it should. "It's no longer that it doesn't work or 'I wish I could take attendance,' or, 'I wish I knew how many students I had in my class,'" said history teacher Katherine Harrison.

The district highlighted Cleveland High School in the west San Fernando Valley, where the humanities magnet sends students to some of the best colleges in the country.

At 186th Street Elementary in Gardena, teaching veteran Lisa Harmison oversaw organized chaos. The pre-kindergarten class of 24 was split into groups, each assigned a color, and rotated between stations.

At one, children used blocks in free play, sitting on a mat with the alphabet on it, learning to play together to build social skills. In a second, students worked independently, gluing together pre-cut pieces of paper to make an owl, the school mascot. The goal was to learn how to follow directions.

At a third table, pupils matched colored pieces to the shapes on paper, a math-related exercise.

"Patterning in preschool is big," said Dean Tagawa, a senior administrator. It lays the foundation for math concepts later on, he said.

Some of the 4- and 5-year olds were in a classroom setting for the first time, and it showed — Harmison constantly directed them back into their groups. She pulled one out of the play kitchen, built out of wood, sending him to the library area.

One of her biggest concerns in the so-called transitional kindergarten is the length of the day: there isn't time for napping.

L.A. Unified's public relations efforts aren't likely to sway some civic leaders and philanthropists who have lost faith in the system. A group led by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation* is seeking to rapidly expand the number of independently operated charter schools, which could shrink a school system already dealing with declining enrollment.

Jefferson history teacher Susan Ferguson said it would be wrong to give up on schools such as hers and the students who depend on it.

Even though the scheduling problems led to student protests, she said, "the kids wanted to come back here. They wanted their classes. They want an education. They want the best for themselves and they deserve it."

* ●●: smf: …which underwrites LA Times education coverage…

MORE ON EDUCATION:

What parents want L.A.'s school board to work on: students' lunch

Jefferson High has smooth start after last year's chaos

Back2School@LAUSD: ARNE DUNCAN TELLS CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS WHERE THEY NEED TO PUT THEIR MONEY

Op-Ed in the LA Times By Arne Duncan | http://lat.ms/1E3u8BD

Student Nathanael Juan (3rd from leftt), a junior Engineering students at STEM Academy of Hollywood answering questions of the design by their group at the school in Hollywood on May 26.  (Los Angeles Times)

18 Aug 2015  ::  On the Westside of Los Angeles, there's a school where eighth-graders code and build websites, develop entrepreneurial ventures and use gaming software to design solutions for saving local endangered species. At the Incubator School, teachers leverage technology to individually tailor student learning and track progress toward challenging academic standards. And students regularly participate in a design laboratory in which they study sciences and complete projects based on their personal interests and passions.

High-quality instruction in science, technology, engineering and math — subjects collectively known as STEM — can provide students with a lens to approach and view the world. When students — like those at the Incubator School — engage in hands-on STEM learning, they aren't just gaining subject matter knowledge. They're developing a mind-set that affirms they can use inquiry and their own logic to reach new conclusions and tackle tough problems.

If we want our children to grow into the scientists, researchers, educators and entrepreneurs who will address our most pressing challenges, and if we want our nation to remain a global leader in innovation, we must ensure that all students have access to deep learning in STEM subjects and are taught by talented teachers knowledgeable in these fields.

Yet, across the country, there are disparities in students' access to the full range of math and science courses, including such subjects as algebra, geometry, biology and physics. Nationwide, while 71% of white high school students have access to the complete range of these courses — often required for college admittance — only two-thirds of Latino students and a little more than half of black students do.

This situation is compounded by shortages of qualified math and science teachers, which disproportionately affect schools serving low-income and minority students. In California, teacher shortages in math, science and computer education have persisted for more than a decade. This school year, California districts will need to fill more than 21,000 teaching positions, many in hard-to-staff STEM subjects.

All of this comes at a time when the United States must ramp up to keep up with international competitors — ranking 29th in math and 22nd in science among industrialized nations.

Despite these challenges, I'm optimistic about the future of STEM teaching and learning, in California and throughout the country.

The Galt Joint Union Elementary School District in Sacramento County represents one encouraging example. Through a federal Race to the Top district grant, Galt Joint Union is increasing access to STEM with after-school clubs that offer virtual courses in subjects such as mechanical engineering. At River Oaks Elementary School, it's not uncommon to see children working together to design and program robots. These efforts have led to increased student engagement in STEM, and have prepared Galt Joint Union to be one of eight school districts in California working toward early implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards.

To inspire and prepare more students to excel in STEM and build a strong pipeline of teachers in these disciplines, we need new ways of approaching STEM education, and our efforts must involve everyone: States, districts, schools, tech developers, teacher prep programs and our best scientists, mathematicians and engineers all have roles to play.

At the federal level, President Obama's Educate to Innovate campaign has resulted in more than $1 billion in financial and in-kind support for STEM programs from corporations, philanthropists, colleges and a host of stakeholders. And more than 230 organizations have come together through 100Kin10, answering the president's call to recruit and develop 100,000 excellent STEM teachers over the next decade.

In California, teacher shortages in math, science and computer education have persisted for more than a decade. - 

Additionally, four of the nation's largest youth development organizations — Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Girls Inc., YMCA and the National 4-H Council — are establishing a partnership to ignite the interest of traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM. This partnership will provide low-income and minority students and young girls with access to mobile STEM labs, science expos and STEM-themed summer camps.

It's also promising that online hubs, like the Connectory, are helping teachers and parents find science and tech-related programs and activities for children in their communities.

We need even more initiatives like these to move students, teachers, and our nation from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math. This work must start early; it's critical to inspire children, starting in preschool, to be lifelong learners in STEM.

And we need more role models like Isis Wenger, an engineer at a San-Francisco-based tech company who, through her #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign, shatters notions of who can succeed in STEM industries.

With the start of this new school year, I'm confident that working together and across sectors, we can commit to connecting all students to strong STEM learning and great teachers that not only push our young people to explore and understand the world but also build the capacity to change it for the better.

• Arne Duncan is the U.S. Secretary of Education.

Back2School@LAUSD: L.A. TIMES ANNOUNCES WEEKLY EDUCATION NEWSLETTER …what a concept!

A letter from the publisher of the Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1gUrnIg

Austin Beutner: A renewed emphasis on education at The Times

With the start of a new school year, the Los Angeles Times is rededicating itself to coverage of teaching and learning. Above, first-graders at San Pedro Elementary. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

18 Aug 2015

Dear Reader,

Today is the first day of school for hundreds of thousands of children throughout Los Angeles, and for students, teachers and parents, the occasion is cause for both excitement and trepidation.

Education, it has been said, is the soul of society, and few institutions embody our hopes and dreams as much as our public schools. They are the cornerstones of our communities and the foundation for our future, where children from all backgrounds are given the tools to shape their lives and their world.

With the start of a new school year, the Los Angeles Times is rededicating itself to coverage of teaching and learning. Our goal is to provide an ongoing, wide-ranging report card on K-12 education in Los Angeles, California and the nation.

We are calling our initiative Education Matters, and I encourage you to join us as we explore the issues that matter most to you and your child. If you want to understand the latest debate on curriculum or testing, find out about the role of student health in learning, study how charter schools are changing public education or experience a classroom from the perspective of a teacher, then Education Matters will be an essential destination.

“The California Endowment, the Wasserman Foundation and the Baxter Family Foundation … are providing funds to support Education Matters. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles have also supported this effort with grants from the The Broad Foundation. These institutions, like The Times, are dedicated to independent journalism that engages and informs its readers.”   Wasserman… Baxter… UWofGLA… Broad…? This calls for a very interesting interpretation of “independent journalism”.

With an expanded team of reporters, we will take a fresh approach to our news and analysis starting with today’s stories about the unique challenges facing LAUSD and the last year-round school in Los Angeles. Our editorial pages feature a guest column by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on the need for more investment in math and science education. You will find our reports at latimes.com/schools in English and Spanish.

In the coming months, we will convene public forums to address topics such as educational education policy, saving for college and talking to your child’s teacher. We intend these conversations to be both thoughtful and practical.

The Times continues to draw more high school students to journalism with HS Insider, available at highschool.latimes.com. And as the school year begins, more college students will receive free access to The Times through our College Connection program, which brings them news and information relevant to their studies and their communities.

A child’s success in the classroom depends on the participation and support of everyone in the community, a view shared by the California Endowment, the Wasserman Foundation and the Baxter Family Foundation, which are providing funds to support Education Matters. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles have also supported this effort with grants from the The Broad Foundation. These institutions, like The Times, are dedicated to independent journalism that engages and informs its readers.

Your first assignment is to become involved. Read and share our stories. Attend a discussion in your neighborhood. Sign up for our weekly newsletter, “Education Matters.” Follow us on Twitter at @LATEducation.

As we launch Education Matters, I look forward to hearing from you. Please let me know how we’re doing and how we can best serve your needs.

 

Austin Beutner,
Publisher and CEO, Los Angeles Times

Back2School@LAUSD: HOW BIG ARE HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES IN L.A.? An LA Times survey

By Daniela Gerson | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1PxC3Zh

LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 12, 2014: (L-R) Luis Natalio, 14, Alberto Garcia, 14, Ryan Flores, 14, and Milton Hernandez, 14, work together in their 9th grade advisory class at Los Angeles Big Picture High School. The school is a charter school in a downtown high-rise, where teachers use Downtown LA as their classrooms by incorporating the surrounding city into lessons and projects. (Photo By Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times

 

18 Aug 2015  ::  Welcome back to class.

As you go about your first days back in school, we're interested in hearing about your classes -- especially if they're big ones. Students, teachers and parents: Please share information about your class sizes with us, so that we can figure out the truth about this important question in the Los Angeles area. We may follow up with you for more information. Thank you!

THIS IS A SAMPLE FORM. GO TO http://lat.ms/1PxC3Zh TO TAKE THE SURVEY

THIS IS A SAMPLE FORM. GO TO http://lat.ms/1PxC3Zh TO TAKE THE SURVEY

You can reach Daniela Gerson on Twitter @DHGerson and by email at Daniela.Gerson@LATimes.com.

Back2School@LAUSD: THESE LAUSD STUDENTS ARE NOT HEADING BACK TO SCHOOL

By Teresa Watanabe | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1JfHuv3

Rising Bell High seniors Emily Romero and Dulce Penuelas came in during their breaks for school activities, volunteer service and extra academic help. Dulce even took an extra calculus class. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

18 Aug 2015  ::  As thousands of Los Angeles students head back to school Tuesday, Sabrina Campos is already six weeks deep into her algebra, chemistry, English and history classes.

That's because she attends Bell High School — the last year-round campus in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Under the school's four-track schedule, Sabrina, a junior, began school July 1 while many of her friends were splashing in water parks, playing at Disneyland and visiting Mexico. Instead of one long summer vacation, Sabrina and her Bell classmates get two six-week breaks.

Bell is a throwback to what was once the much-maligned norm in L.A. Unified before the building boom. But as year-round schools fade, some students, teachers and administrators who have had to adjust to the unusual schedule are resisting joining the rest of the district.

In fact, Bell Principal Rafael Balderas likes his campus' current calendar so much that he plans to propose keeping it — even after a new school down the road is completed in two years and solves his overcrowding problem.

The two shorter breaks prevent students from forgetting as much as they do during the traditional 10-week summer vacation and allow him to bring more of them in for extra academic support, he said.

"It's an extra scoop of learning," Balderas said. "How else can you catch them up?"

The campus, located in the southeast city of Bell, is the last vestige of an era of explosive growth that pushed L.A. Unified's enrollment to 700,000 from 500,000 between 1980 and 2000. The growth caused acute overcrowding, with some schools tripling in size to 2,000 students.

District officials eased the crisis with massive cross-town busing, hundreds of portable classrooms and the advent of year-round school schedules. But each of the temporary solutions caused other problems.

The busing of thousands of children from overcrowded schools to those with space deprived them of opportunities to participate in after-school sports and other extracurricular programs. The cost of portable classrooms — which reached at least $13 million a year at one point — diverted dollars from instructional programs, according to David Tokofsky, a former L.A. Unified Board of Education member.

Communities organized protests, including a brigade of Southgate mothers in trademark red outfits. A bond measure to build new schools passed in 1997, but a turning point came in 2001, when California voters dropped the threshold of approval needed to 55% from 67%.

By 2002, 227 campuses were still on the year-round system — permitting campuses to squeeze in more students by dividing them into groups that attend school on staggered schedules, with one group on vacation at all times. More than 80% of the campuses used a multitrack system known as Concept 6, which resulted in 17 fewer school days — and quickly bred controversy.

A pair of 2002 studies by UCLA and Gallaudet University found that students on that shorter calendar performed substantially worse than those on traditional schedules. Further, those students were disproportionately Latino, low-income and learning English.

A successful lawsuit by civil rights attorney Connie Rice and others freed $750 million in state school construction dollars for Los Angeles. Subsequent bond measures have allowed L.A. Unified to complete 130 new campuses and many other additions under its $17-billion construction program.

Today, the overcrowding problem has been widely eased but not completely solved. Bell is still on a year-round schedule, about 20% of students remain in portable classrooms and two campuses may still require busing after officials determine final enrollment when the school year begins, said Mark Hovatter, the district's chief facilities executive.

"We believe there's a lot more building that needs to be done," he said.

One ongoing project is a new high school in Maywood a mile north of Bell set to open in two years. Balderas said he expects about 600 of his 3,100 Bell students to move to the new campus, which would allow his school to return to a traditional August-to-June calendar for the first time since 1981.

Balderas said, however, he's a firm believer in two shorter breaks rather than one long summer vacation. The double breaks, he said, allow his students to take more community college classes, receive more tutoring and better prepare for high school exit exams and Advanced Placement tests.

During a recent vacation, rising seniors Emily Romero and Dulce Penuelas both said they came in during their breaks for school activities, volunteer service and extra academic help. Dulce said she came to school every day for four of her six weeks off to take an extra calculus class after receiving a C in the subject the previous semester; she raised her grade to a B.

The extra support for Bell students costs $250,000 — about half from the district and half from a grant, Balderas said. But he said he believes it has helped the school continuously improve to an 85% graduation rate, 45.5% Advanced Placement exam pass rate and 24% reclassification rate of students to fluent English speakers.

John Rogers, a UCLA education professor, said that the school calendar Bell uses has not been systematically studied to see whether it produces more academic gains, but that expanded learning time is a crucial factor in student achievement.

Last year, Public Counsel and the ACLU Foundation of Southern California filed a class-action lawsuit challenging California's alleged failure to provide sufficient learning time to all students.

"To the extent that the calendar at Bell expands learning time, it's terrific," Rogers said. "Many high-poverty schools are losing days because there have been more and more cuts to extended learning time opportunities."

Balderas also said he is able to plan more teacher training during the double breaks. And Bell teachers say they see other benefits.

"Traditionally kids go into zombie mode during those longer breaks and it takes them longer to get back into the swing of things," said Lee Kimura, a government and leadership teacher.

Dulce said some families struggle with multiple school calendars — especially when it prevents Bell students from being able to babysit younger siblings on summer break.

Hovatter said that keeping schools open year-round is more expensive — with maintenance bills possibly 20% higher. But it was unclear what the price tag would be for Balderas' proposal to keep the double breaks.

Sabrina said she's all for her principal's plan — not the least of which is because it would continue to give Bell students a huge benefit during their two breaks in the spring and fall.

"There are no lines at Disneyland and the beaches aren't crowded," she said.

Back2School@LAUSD: L.A. UNIFIED LOOKS FOR SMOOTHER START-UP THIS YEAR

By Howard Blume | L.A, Times | http://lat.ms/1J0mpDD

Students Jordann Ventura, 14, left, Karyna Mills, 15, Guillermo Romero, 15, and Dayanara Trujillo, 15, try out their iPads in pre-first-day orientation at Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

18 Aug 2015  :: Getting students into the right classroom on the first day of school is a modest goal.

But it's a huge improvement over last year, when thousands of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District were left without class assignments and teachers couldn't even take roll.

Officials this week are trying to right two major technology debacles: a malfunctioning records system and a now-abandoned plan to provide iPads to all students.

Last year, the records system caused chaos at campuses around the district. The iPad project led to an ongoing FBI investigation. And both contributed to the departure of the superintendent and other top administrators.

As schools opened Tuesday, officials are hopeful that they've turned the corner on their technology fiascoes.

A recent spot check of district schools found about 3% of students still needed to be assigned classes. At Jefferson High School, south of downtown, only one student, a new arrival to the campus, was lacking a schedule.

This time last year, Jefferson couldn't determine how many students it had, and few, if any, had correct class assignments — let alone accurate transcripts or grade-point averages needed for college applications.

Although Jefferson may have been most affected, the system failed districtwide. It couldn't handle the volume of data or the complexity of tasks.

"We feel good that students are in the right classes," said Jefferson Principal Jack Foote. "We had kids pick up their schedules last week."

The student records system had seemed like a bargain at first — it was based on free computer code, obtained from Fresno Unified, which could be modified as needed. It was intended to unite all student records in one place, including attendance, course schedules, emergency contacts, past performance and special needs. Such coordination, officials hoped, would lead to faster and more appropriate services for students and more efficient business practices.

The new program, called My Integrated Student Information System (MISIS), cost $133 million to get on track. Officials set aside $80 million this year to pay for additional fixes.

Veteran school system lawyer Diane H. Pappas was placed in charge of salvaging the records system. She assembled consultants, district technicians, volunteers from the private sector and staffers from schools.

A software company might update a program two or three times a year, Pappas said, whereas the district has had to push through 100 fixes some weeks.

"We've been rebuilding on what was here," Pappas said. "MISIS was in a complete state of disarray."

In the middle of last week, 14,107 students, of about 500,000 total, still were without schedules.

We feel good that students are in the right classes. We had kids pick up their schedules last week. - Jack Foote, principal at Jefferson High School

"Last year, the district couldn't generate a report about how many students lacked schedules and the data wasn't accurate," Pappas said.

L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines spent an hour on the phone last week with administrators going over the situation at every school with potential problems. Cortines vowed to empty the central office, if needed, to provide help to campuses on opening day, Pappas said.

A reliable records system "is the heart of the district," said Cortines, who returned from retirement to head the school system last October after then-Supt. John Deasy resigned under pressure. Soon after, the head of technology also resigned.

"After months of tireless repairs, our heart has some new stents, replaced valves, a pacemaker and reduced cholesterol, and it is pumping much stronger," he said recently, extending a metaphor that he has employed on several occasions.

Shortly after Cortines' return, the FBI seized records related to the bidding process that resulted in the iPad contract. Current and former district officials have denied any wrongdoing.

By then, the iPad effort had expanded to include other devices but also had ground nearly to a halt.

Cortines decided that L.A. Unified could not afford the $1.3 billion start-up cost of providing computers to all students, teachers and campus administrators.

Still, every student will receive a computer this year at 103 previously approved schools, about a 10th of district campuses.

At one of them, Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills, students received their iPads last week when they turned in forms and picked up textbooks.

Tenth-grader Scott Murray enrolled at the school after leaving another with a program for highly gifted students — because he wanted the iPad.

Scott is dyslexic and has trouble writing homework assignments. He takes a photograph of the blackboard instead. And he dictates the first drafts of essays and writing assignments into his iPad.

"Writing is the problem," he said, "not thinking."

"Until he got this single device, he wasn't a full, equal member of the class," said his mother, Gail Murray.

Campus-wide Wi-Fi allows students to do research online. Students receive assignments on their devices and use them to turn in written work and other homework. Some textbooks and novels can be downloaded to the devices. Students also avoid bringing home textbooks by photographing pages with math problems, for example.

Art teacher Jess Perry-Martin has students take photos of their art projects, which she can then take home to evaluate.

Valley Academy first tested iPads in 2012, the year before the district adopted its iPad plan.

The school's experience with the tablets reflected the district's inconsistent, incomplete policies.

In that first year, students initially could taken the iPads home; later, they couldn't. The next year, students were allowed to use the iPads only during a single class period, every other day. Last year, students didn't receive the devices until they were in the third month of school.

Eventually, officials decided that schools need to demonstrate that they can make good use of the devices. Valley Academy was the first to get such a plan approved. As of last week, it was the only school with an approved plan, but other campuses are not far behind, said Bill Wherritt, a deputy director in the facilities division.

He added that all classrooms throughout the district now have WiFi, and every school has enough shared computers for students to take new state standardized tests online.

At Jefferson, the ratio is about one computer to every four students. Most of the new devices are Chromebooks, a less expensive alternative to the iPad. Foote said his staff would benefit from additional training in computer-based instruction.

A task force will meet in the coming months to develop a long-term technology plan for L.A. Unified.