Fading Dreams: COMMUNITY COLLEGES’ CRISIS SLOWS STUDENT’S PROGRESS + New Law: THOSE RESPONSIBLE HELD UNACCOUNTABLE

Community colleges' crisis slows students' progress to a crawl

Thousands of degree seekers are able to enroll in only one class at a time. Hopes of graduating or transferring wither as years pass.

By Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/UhrVLE

Cinthia Garcia, 24, was able to register in only a Web design class at Pasadena City College. After years of struggle, she has given up on earning a four-year or two-year degree, and now hopes to get a certificate, which requires fewer credits. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times / September 11, 2012)

 

October 4, 2012  ::  The first course Charity Hansen is taking as a freshman at Pasadena City College is a basic class on managing time, speaking up in discussions, setting ambitious goals and then going after them.

If only she could.

It's the only class she managed to get this semester. No math. No English. No science.

"I can't use what I'm being taught yet because I can't get these classes," said Hansen, a 19-year-old from Los Angeles who hopes one day to become a psychologist. "It's frustrating."

Hansen's college education has stalled just as it is beginning. Like thousands of students in California's community college system, she has been reduced to taking one class because there's no room in other classes.

Instead of a full-time load of 12 units, some students are taking three units or even less.

Frustrated students linger on waiting lists or crash packed classes hoping professors will add them later. They see their chances of graduating or transferring diminishing.

It's a product of years of severe budget cuts and heavy demand in the two-year college system. The same situation has affected the Cal State and UC systems, but the impact has been most deeply felt in the 2.4-million-student community college system — the nation's largest.

At Pasadena City College, nearly 4,000 students who are seeking a degree or to transfer are taking a single class this fall. About 63% are taking less than 12 units and are considered part time. The school has slashed 10% of its classes to save money.

The lives of some community college students have become a slow-motion academic crawl, sometimes forcing them to change their career paths and shrink their ambitions.

Mark Rocha, president of Pasadena City College, said California's once-vaunted community college system has never been in such a precarious state.

"It breaks our hearts," he said. "The students who are here, we're desperately telling them 'Don't drop out, don't give up hope. We'll get you through.'"

Since 2007, money from the state's general fund, which provides the bulk of the system's revenue, has decreased by more than a third, dropping from a peak of nearly $3.9 billion to about $2.6 billion last year.

Without enough money, course offerings have dropped by almost a quarter since 2008. In a survey, 78 of the system's 112 colleges reported more than 472,300 students were on waiting lists for classes this fall semester — an average of about 7,150 per campus.

California ranks 36th in the nation in the number of students who finish with a degree or who transfer to a four-year university, according to a February report by the Little Hoover Commission. Many students drop out before completing even half of what is required to earn a typical associate's degree, the report found.

Even for those who persevere, it can take years to graduate — well beyond the two years it once took.

Cinthia Garcia thought she was on the right track. She went straight from high school to El Camino College in Torrance with plans to transfer to a four-year university.

That was six years ago.

"I've been in school forever," said the 24-year-old graphic design major from Compton.

At El Camino, she struggled to get classes, typically landing a spot in only two or three. The art department at El Camino began losing professors and Garcia decided she needed a change.

Pasadena City College, with a respected arts program, was appealing, so she moved to Los Angeles to be closer to school.

Still, she was unable to enroll in more advanced art classes, in part because they also were full.

She emailed every instructor in the art department, searching for a class. One responded. She told Garcia she would help her get the last seat in a Web design class. By then, the class was full, but a few days later, someone dropped the course and Garcia was in.

"All that for just one class," she said, shaking her head.

The crowding has rippled through the school, causing long waits to see academic counselors — an important issue for many community college students who need advice on navigating the sometimes complex requirements to transfer to Cal State, UC or a private university.

At El Camino, Garcia said, the lines to see counselors were hours long. She'd make appointments weeks in advance, never seeing the same advisor twice, she said.

"I tried to do it on my own but I was only able to get so far," she said. "Students are isolated because the counselors have such an overwhelming load."

Garcia said all the delays have made her life harder. She had a full-time job at Ikea, but cut back her hours, hoping the extra time would allow her to power through Pasadena City College.

Over the years, she has shifted her goals from a four-year degree, to a community college associate's degree, and now to a certificate, which requires fewer credits.

That decision could cost her in the long run.

A study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor showed that in 2009, the median weekly earnings of workers with bachelor's degrees was about $1,137 — about a third more than workers with an associate's degree.

Jeffrey MacGillivray attended three community colleges in search of classes and direction.

He started at Los Angeles Harbor College, then tried West Los Angeles College, where he failed to get into any classes, and now he is at El Camino.

This fall, he managed to find a seat in only one academic class — philosophy. He later added a boxing class to fill some mornings.

"I was thinking I can just go to community college, do my two years and transfer," said the 20-year-old Redondo Beach resident. "I had no idea I'd probably end up at El Camino for four years."

MacGillivray has focused much of his attention on trying to play football and run track in community college in hopes of getting a scholarship to a four-year school.

But he has never been able to get enough classes — at least 12 units each semester — to qualify for a team. At El Camino this semester, 98% of class sections are filled to capacity.

"It's really frustrating, having this goal of running track at a university and graduating with a degree," he said. "Junior college is being a bigger obstacle than it should be."

Next semester, MacGillivray may be changing schools again. He was offered a chance to join the Long Beach City College track team — with the possibility that the school could help him get the classes he needs.

For all the trouble, MacGillivray said there is a bright side to his academic wanderings. After two years, he's figured out what he wants to major in — media arts.

And to his surprise, he has discovered that he actually enjoys philosophy.

On a recent afternoon, he listened intently as his professor lectured on ethical relativism — the belief that morality is linked to the social norms of one's culture.

"She's so deep," MacGillivray said of his professor. "I only got one class, so it's pretty cool it was that one."

 

Incumbent protection 101

Signed into law this week, AB 2572 protects entrenched members of L.A.'s Community College District Board of Trustees.

LA Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/QT9sBW

Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 2572 on Sept. 29. Above: Gov. Brown looks on during a news conference at Google headquarters on Sept. 25 in Mountain View, Calif. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

October 4, 2012  ::  The politicians who oversee the Los Angeles community colleges just won a large measure of protection from voters and other inconveniences of democracy thanks to a bad bill that on Saturday became a bad law.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 2572, a bill deceptively modest in its language but astonishing in its audacity. It's a kind of incumbent protection plan for entrenched members of L.A.'s Community College District Board of Trustees, and it comes to their rescue in the wake of last year's revelations of massive waste and corruption in district construction programs — and just as voters may be ready to focus on the ineptitude of the elected trustees who oversaw it.

Under the new law, runoff elections are swept away, supposedly to save money, and an incumbent can now keep his or her seat (and yes, a challenger can now get elected) in the first and only round of voting with less than majority support. A sitting board member — like, say, Angela Reddock in the 2009 election — could be outpolled by four challengers and still stay in office even if a majority of voters opposed her. She would never have to go head to head with a viable candidate in a runoff.

But there were still runoffs in 2009, and Reddock did have to face a challenger — Tina Park, who promised better oversight and financial scrutiny. It was a message that may have resonated with voters, even before the construction scandal. Park had won only 19.8% of the vote in the five-way primary to Reddock's 47%, but in the one-on-one runoff, Park prevailed and she, rather than Reddock, now sits on the board.

The new law could theoretically help an upstart challenger, but in practice, given the enormous fundraising and other advantages enjoyed by incumbents, it is a huge gift to board members defending their seats, as well as to their financial and political backers: teacher unions, construction unions, contractors and anyone else with a stake in the status quo.

Park is up for reelection, as are multi-term trustees Kelly Candaele and Nancy Pearlman. If they are challenged by multiple candidates, as Reddock was, they and their political backers will have a much easier time of it than they would have without this new law.

There is one last chance to turn back this special favor to entrenched incumbents and their supporters. The law merely authorizes trustees to eliminate the runoff; they could still refuse. And they should, even though doing so might appear contrary to their immediate political interests. If they don't, they should be prepared to explain in March why voters should not oust them for this brazen flouting of democracy.

BILL NUMBER: AB 2572 CHAPTERED BILL TEXT CHAPTER 754 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 29, 2012 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 29, 2012 PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 27, 2012 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 29, 2012 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 6, 2012 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 19, 2012 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 19, 2012 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Furutani FEBRUARY 24, 2012 An act to amend Section 72031 of the Education Code, relating to community colleges. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2572, Furutani. Los Angeles Community College District: governing board elections. Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes community college districts, administered by a governing board, throughout the state. Existing law requires members of the governing board of the Los Angeles Community College District to be elected at large in a manner established by specified law. This bill would, commencing with the 2013 election, authorize the governing board of the Los Angeles Community College District to adopt a resolution by majority vote to enact an alternative method by which members of the governing board may be elected at large and by individual seat number, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Los Angeles Community College District. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 72031 of the Education Code is amended to read: 72031. The provisions of this section shall apply only to the Los Angeles Community College District. (a) Whenever in this code a section refers to a district, or to two or more districts, governed by a single governing board, or by governing boards of identical personnel, or to a district or districts in which the average daily attendance is in excess of 400,000, or makes a similar reference, all provisions of the section shall apply with equal force to both the city school district and community college district. (b) Members of the governing board of the Los Angeles Community College District shall be elected at large in the manner established by Chapter 62 of the Statutes of 1968. (c) Commencing with the 2013 election for the governing board of the Los Angeles Community College District, and each election thereafter, the governing board may adopt a resolution by majority vote to enact an alternative method by which members of the governing board of the Los Angeles Community College District may be elected at large and by individual seat number wherein, upon certification of the election, the candidate with the highest number of votes for an individual seat number shall be deemed the candidate elected for that individual seat number. SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares that a special law is necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution because of the unique needs of the Los Angeles Community College District. smf: Both the bill’s law’s author, Warren Furutani, and the governor are former members of the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees.

PARENT COUP: INSIDE THE NEXT PUBLIC EDUCATION SHOWDOWN. Moms in the Mojave Desert are trying to take over an elementary school with the help of some deep-pocketed friends.

By Caroline Winter  Businessweek http://buswk.co/Reokbr

Chrissy Alvarado opposes the takeover of Desert Trails - Photograph by Geordie Wood for Bloomberg Businessweek

September 13, 2012  ::   In Spanish, adelanto means “progress.” That’s exactly what Doreen Diaz and her family hoped for when they moved the 17 miles to Adelanto, Calif., from nearby Hesperia in 2007. The Diazes bought one of Adelanto’s new, affordable tract homes and admired the tidy-looking elementary school, Desert Trails, two blocks away. It was nestled between a park and playing field—a tiny green oasis amid the Mojave Desert’s omnivorous brown.

Once inside Desert Trails, things looked very different. “We really liked the look of the community,” says Diaz, a stay-at-home mother of three. “I had absolutely no idea how terrible the schools are.”

Twelve of the district’s 13 schools are failing, and Desert Trails Elementary, with around 650 students, is the worst. Last year, 68 percent of graduating sixth graders failed proficiency tests in math and English-language arts. That’s despite the school’s exclusive focus on those subjects in an effort to comply with No Child Left Behind, which mandates annual testing to assess students and teachers. Diaz worried constantly about her daughter, Vanessa. In third grade, the girl started crying daily before school. She’d been placed in an overcrowded special needs classroom with kids of all ages. Bullying went unchecked, Diaz says. By the fifth grade, Vanessa was still at a second grade reading level.

Diaz says that when she approached the school’s teachers, one told her, “We teach to the kids that get it, and too bad for the ones who don’t.” Another told her that Desert Trails students don’t learn because of the school’s “socioeconomic demographics.” When she complained to district administrators, she says she was told that if she didn’t like the school, she should find another. Desert Trails principal David Mobley says he’s unsure what the district told Diaz. District administrators didn’t make anyone available for comment.

Diaz tried to improve Desert Trails by leading the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) for two years and talking regularly with school administrators. It didn’t help. In 2010 she moved her daughter into a regular fifth grade classroom, where she became eligible for a program that offers an hour of one-on-one help each day. Within three months her daughter’s reading rose two grade levels. Instead of feeling better about the school, Diaz only became more disillusioned. “It made me wonder what they’d been teaching her for all those years,” she says. “Just because we live out in the desert, out in Boonyland, doesn’t mean that our kids don’t deserve the same quality education as someone who lives down the hill.”

Fed up, Diaz joined forces with a small group of other frustrated moms and dads and decided there was only one way for parents to improve Desert Trails: Take it over. Under California’s so-called parent trigger law, passed in 2010, if at least 50 percent of parents at a persistently failing school sign a petition to wrest control, they can pursue one of four options: (1) force the school district to bring in new staff; (2) force the school district to replace the school’s principal and make other changes, such as modifying teacher contracts or creating smaller classes; (3) convert the school into a charter; or (4) close the school entirely. The law applies at both public and charter schools.

As of September three states have adopted versions of California’s legislation: Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Another 12 are considering whether to follow suit. In June the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously endorsed trigger laws. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, now grappling with the city’s first teachers’ strike in 25 years, has said he plans to introduce the legislation there. Los Angeles’ Antonio Villaraigosa and Newark’s Cory Booker have also praised the parent trigger concept. On the Republican side, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush are supporters.

The idea is just as appealing in fiction. Won’t Back Down, a movie inspired by California’s law, is set to be released on Sept. 28. The film stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis as an embattled mom-and-teacher duo who take on bullying union bosses, corrupt school officials, and inept teachers to turn around a deplorable urban school.

For all the fervor, there has yet to be a parent coup carried to completion. Critics, including teachers unions, administrators, and some parent groups warn that pulling the trigger is no guarantee of a better school. Some even call the law a stalking horse for big corporations set on privatizing education and weakening unions.

The struggle for control of Desert Trails Elementary is shaping up as a test of how far parental empowerment can go toward improving the state of U.S. public schools. Doreen Diaz and her allies, who’ve formed the Desert Trails Parent Union (DTPU), are receiving assistance from Parent Revolution, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that conceived the parent trigger and helps parents use it. In July, after a heated six-month battle, a superior court judge upheld the Desert Trails parent petition, giving them the go-ahead to turn Desert Trails into a charter school. It seemed like a clear victory for the parents, until district officials in August announced they would not relinquish control. One board member, Jermaine Wright, proclaimed he had no choice but to stand up against the pro-trigger parents, whom he accused of lying and using strong-arm tactics to gather parental signatures. “There’s a lot of things I’m willing to do,” he said. “And if I’m found in contempt of court, I brought my own handcuffs—take me away today.”
The nerve center for the parent trigger movement is the downtown Los Angeles headquarters of Parent Revolution. The office is littered with brightly colored beanbag chairs, a Ping-Pong table, and a hammock. It looks like a tech startup. A giant “51%” graffiti mural covers one wall, and a poster for Waiting for ‘Superman,’ the controversial pro-charter, anti-union documentary, hangs in the entrance foyer.

Ben Austin, Parent Revolution’s executive director, sits cross-legged on a chair and explains how his idea for a parent-trigger law developed over the course of a career in progressive Democratic politics. After pushing for reforms as deputy mayor of L.A., he became frustrated that policy discussions were overly focused on the needs of educators, and thought outcomes would look very different if parents were involved. “Parents don’t care how many lobbyists you have,” says the father of two girls. “They just care what’s good for kids.”

Austin doesn’t think parents should run schools, but he wants them to have a seat at the table, along with teachers unions and district administrators. “Low income moms, people of color, and even undocumented parents, they have that same right to be empowered over the education of their own kids,” he says.

Austin launched Parent Revolution in January 2009, with funding from Green Dot Public Schools, a nonprofit charter-school operator. One year later, he persuaded politicians to include the parent trigger in an education reform bill. In January 2010 the law passed by one vote in both California’s Assembly and State Senate. Loud protests from unions ensued; one California Federation of Teachers newsletter referred to the parent trigger as a “lynch mob provision.”

Soon the funding from Green Dot ran out, and Austin began raising money. The first contribution, $500,000, came from California philanthropist and media executive Casey Wasserman. Later, Austin obtained funding from more big donors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and The Broad Foundation. Today, the nonprofit brings in about $1 million annually.

Before regulations were even firmly in place, Austin and his team identified a failing school—McKinley Elementary in Compton, Calif.—and with collaboration from parents attempted for the first time to pull the trigger. Despite high-powered help from lawyer Mark Holscher, who offered pro bono work from his firm, Kirkland & Ellis, McKinley’s pro-trigger parents ultimately lost their bid because Parent Revolution had omitted a date box on the petition forms. “We’re building the airplane while it’s in the air,” says Austin.

Despite the loss, Parent Revolution kept growing—expanding from 20 to 32 employees this summer to assist parents at about a dozen more California schools, as well as pro-trigger groups around the country. The staff includes a former labor organizer under Cesar Chavez, a one-time teachers union spokesman, a U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret-turned-charter school principal, as well as several former teachers. In June 2011, the same month they lost in Compton, Parent Revolution got the call from Doreen Diaz’s Desert Trails moms. They wanted help.
The involvement of Parent Revolution has turned Adelanto, a dusty town of about 32,000 northwest of Los Angeles, into an unlikely battleground in the country’s long-running conflict over the future of public school reform. “Why should 51 percent of the parents be able to take ownership of something that belongs to the public?” asks education historian and NYU professor Diane Ravitch, who says parent triggers are part of a national push by the Right and corporations to privatize education. “Should 51 percent of people in a public park be able to decide that they want to take control and hand it over to a private developer who can then build apartment buildings?”

Caroline Grannan, a founding member of Parents Across America, one of several parent groups that helped shut down an attempt to introduce parent trigger legislation in Florida, says, “the idea that busy parents can simply take over and run a school in their spare time is obviously magical thinking.” She points out that charters overall don’t outperform public schools and suggests that instead of pulling the trigger, parents should assert their voices by voting in good school board members, getting to know administrators, and getting involved in schools. “Handing over public schools to privatizers doesn’t benefit students, improve education, or empower parents,” she says.

Amy Wilkins, vice president of the research and advocacy group The Education Trust, warns that the law is incomplete, but thinks that “the baby should not be thrown out with the bath water.” Clear safeguards and regulations must be added to the legislation, she says. “It’s a very powerful way for parents to say no—not only no, but ‘hell no’—but what are they saying yes to? These are kids who need to go to school, so we need to be saying yes to something.”

The parent trigger crowd also has plenty of opponents in Adelanto. Chrissy Alvarado is a Desert Trails mom fighting the takeover with the help of the local teachers union. She says her kids have good teachers and are on track to go to college. She blames the school’s low ranking on a lack of leadership in previous years and questions Parent Revolution’s motives. “They’re all just a bunch of rich people who want to get richer,” Alvarado says. “When someone has money over you, they can tell you what to do.”

Desert Trails principal Mobley says he’ll “be the first to say that we need to make changes.” As of this school year, Mobley says he’s introduced a full curriculum that includes arts, social studies, and sciences. In his opinion, Desert Trails ran into trouble partly because of a breakdown in communication between parents, the school, and the district—something he hopes to remedy. La Nita Dominique, president of the Adelanto District Teachers’ Association points out that, because of the school’s transient population, “students that teachers start with in August … are rarely the students they end the year with.” Dominique believes the parent trigger law could be effective if regulations were rewritten to make implementation more transparent and less contentious. “Parents’ voices are integral when it comes to their child’s education,” she says, but adds, “the two times the trigger has been pulled, it has been very divisive, it has destroyed communities.”
Diaz and her parent union make no apologies for enlisting the help of Parent Revolution or their goal of bringing in a nonprofit charter operator. They say they’ve tried to work with the district to no avail. In January, after several months of knocking on doors, the DTPU had signatures from the parents of 466 Desert Trails students—roughly 70 percent of the student body. Yet at a hearing in February, the district’s superintendent invalidated almost 100 signatures, pointing to errors and a counterpetition that some parents had signed to withdraw their support. The loss of those signatures left the group with less than 50 percent support. The DTPU cried foul. “It was an insult to us,” says Cynthia Ramirez, a mom who has been working with Diaz and the parent union. “We stood up as a group and walked out.”

Each side accuses the other of using harassment, misinformation, and even intimidation to get their signatures. Alvarado says the DTPU tricked parents by telling them the petition was only to get new computers and clean bathrooms for Desert Trails, and that there would be no charter school. DTPU parents counter that they made sure everyone knew exactly what they were signing, and claim the opposition used tactics such as blocking traffic at the school, only allowing parents to exit after signing counterpetitions.

In April, Diaz filed suit against the Adelanto School District to defend the DTPU’s original petition, and with the help of Kirkland & Ellis won the case. In the town, civility deteriorated. Members from both parent factions have called the police on each other, claiming harassment, and the DTPU alleges that intimidation tactics are being used against parents who are undocumented immigrants. “Some of our members have had poop left on their doorstep,” says Diaz.

In late July, Diaz’s group became the first public school parents in history to solicit takeover proposals from nonprofit charter operators. They also asked Adelanto’s school district to apply to run their own school. They received three lengthy submissions from charters, detailing their qualifications and ideas for reform—and, at the very last minute, a two-sentence “letter of interest” from the school’s then-superintendent, Darin Brawley, which was disqualified for not meeting proposal requirements. Two weeks later, Brawley stood up at a board meeting and announced that the district would not cede power to the DTPU, nor to any charter operator. The board’s reasoning, explained Brawley, was that the parents’ efforts had been invalidated by the fact that the group was not prepared to implement a restart for the 2012-13 school year. He also claimed that a charter would not attract enough students.

Kirkland & Ellis has filed a motion to compel the Adelanto School District, which Holscher says “knowingly and flagrantly” defied the superior court judge’s ruling from 30 days earlier, to relinquish control. The district has opposed the motion. As of late August, the school district had spent roughly $140,000 on litigation costs, according to Brawley. He resigned his post on Sept. 7. The school year is now under way in Adelanto, and the children of Diaz, Ramirez, and Alvarado are back in the classroom while their parents prepare for another court battle.

In the Hollywood version of the story, Gyllenhaal and Davis succeed in taking over their school, and even manage to win over a dyed-in-the-wool union leader played by Holly Hunter. The movie, which is not affiliated with Parent Revolution* or anyone in Adelanto, tackles America’s complex struggle between parents and the status quo. But it doesn’t lay out a clear path for making schools work once parents take them over. Though not out yet, Won’t Back Down is already pushing buttons: Ravitch, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, and others have dismissed it as a film backed by big corporations that misrepresents the issues.

The film made Diaz cry. “I hope that more people see it and are inspired to stand up and fight.” Of course, she says, it also “makes the process look a lot easier than it really is.

*smf: This article, which connects dots and comes out and says that Parent Revolution has “deep pocketed friends” (Casey Wasserman, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and The Broad Foundation – collectively The Bankrollers of School ®eform) misses a few dots+connections  in failing to also connect the film’s producer, Anschutz Entertainment Group – which also produced “Waiting for ‘Superman’”.

Of course, now that Won’t Back Down has flopped, AEG is thankful to be forgotten.

The Presidential Debate: EDUCATION ISSUES BARELY BREAK THE SURFACE

by Emily Richmond/The Educated Reporter - Commentary on education coverage, writing and a few other things from the Education Writers Association | http://bit.ly/QRRDDh

Thursday, October 4, 2012  ::  The first presidential debate was peppered with references to education issues, although some of the more controversial topics, such as vouchers and teacher evaluations, barely surfaced. However, education did come up significantly earlier and more frequently than in 2008, when it wasn't referenced until the closing moments of the final debate in the series.

Based on my unofficial score card, President Obama made more direct references to education than Republican nominee Mitt Romney. CNN also clocked the total speaking time on education at around four minutes for Obama compared with about two minutes for Romney. That totals about six minutes out of the 90-minute debate.

Obama twice invoked the importance college affordability, and gave a shout-out to community colleges as vital to workforce retraining and boosting economic opportunity. Romney mentioned school choice, but not specifically vouchers, as well as the importance of teacher quality. The former Massachusetts governor also sang the praises, repeatedly, of the Bay State's top-ranked schools, citing them as evidence of his commitment to public education.

Romney made it clear he's a fan of Race To The Top, a central component of Obama's education policy reform. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was also the only member of the president's cabinet to be singled out for praise (by Romney) during the debate.

There were some education-related zingers. Obama pointed out that not every student can borrow money from their parents to pay for college, a direct reference to Romney having had the advantage of his family's wealth. Romney questioned the need for 47 different education training programs spread out across eight federal agencies.

The Politics K-12 blog noted via Twitter during the debate that Romney's brand-new pledge not to cut education funding was arguably the big news of the night. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in the coming days and weeks. As the Fordham Institute's Michael Petrilli tweeted last night, Romney's comments "are going to make it harder for him to cut ed(ucation) funding if elected."

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.

smf: At the  at KPCC Debate Screening Wednesday evening  Ann – a teacher from Hollywood, stood up to say how disgusted she was with how out-of-touch both candidates were with public education. She suggested that rather than weeks of debate prep they spend a week in a public school. All of Mitt and Ann Romney's five boys attended the Belmont Hill School for Boys - a private all-boys non-sectarian school in the affluent Belmont Hill neighborhood of Belmont, Massachusetts. Barack and Michelle Obama’s daughters attend Sidwell Friends School, a vo-educational K-12 Quaker school  in DC. While in Chicago, both attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory School – the alma mater of Arne Duncan. Barack Obama attended the exclusive Punahou Academy, a private, co-educational, college preparatory school located in Honolulu. Mitt Romney attended Cranbrook Schools - a private college prep boarding school located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

An Education: HOW PROP 32’s BACKERS HAVE TRIED TO DITCH PUBLIC SCHOOLS

by Matthew Fleischer, Frying Pan News: Hot Ideas for a Cold Economy | http://bit.ly/ODbeYU

October 2, 2012  ::  The billionaire backers of Proposition 32 are an eclectic bunch–from bow-tied Tory parodies like Charles Munger Jr., to Bible-thumping fire-breathers like Larry T. Smith, to old-fashioned oil tycoons like the Koch brothers. Over the years members of this crew have combined to push a number of conservative pet projects through the halls of Sacramento’s Capitol–on every issue from stripping gay rights to dismantling environmental protections.

But if there’s a common philosophical through-line connecting Prop. 32’s moneyed donors, it’s that almost all of them advocate some version of the full or partial dismantling and privatization of California’s public schools and its higher education system. And, above their Prop. 32 efforts, hovers the ghost of a far-right education ballot initiative that was decisively rejected by voters 12 years ago.

The group’s most radical anti-public education advocate is third-generation venture capitalist and “viral marketing” guru Timothy C. Draper–who thus far has given $100,000 to push Prop. 32.

In 2000 Draper was the brains and the piggybank behind Proposition 38–arguably the most extreme school voucher effort in recent American history. The measure would have drained California public school coffers to give students up to $4,000 in taxpayer-funded vouchers to pay for private schools. The bill included no means testing, so that children of privilege who were already attending California’s prep schools would be given an unneeded subsidy for their elite education.

Additionally, Draper’s state vouchers could have been used towards religious schooling– potentially, public money could have been funneled towards the teaching of creationism or homophobic Bible courses.

Draper gave a monumental $23,386,553 to the effort.

He was joined in his pursuit of radical vouchers by his father, William Draper III, who gave $2,044,730 to the cause. The senior Draper is also a major donor to Prop. 32.

The overlap between Prop. 38 and Prop. 32 doesn’t stop there. Former Univision CEO Jerry Perenchio gave $1,040,000 to back Prop. 38 and to date has donated $250,000 to Prop. 32. One of the Republican Party’s biggest pocketbooks, Perenchio has spent upwards of $50 million in recent years to swing the national political compass rightward. He recently gave $2 million to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads PAC and was the national co-finance director of John McCain’s 2008 presidential run.

Though Perenchio’s pattern of donations to right-wing candidates would seem to imply he is a small-government, starve-the-beast conservative, that philosophy apparently doesn’t apply when it comes to acting upon his distaste for public education. In 2000 the California Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that the Perenchio-backed Prop. 38 would cost California taxpayers upwards of $3 billion within five years. Not surprisingly, voters were cold to the idea.

“Do they want their tax dollars taken from public schools and spent on helping rich people send their children to private schools?” George Skelton asked in a 2000 Los Angeles Times column. “Probably not.”

With Prop. 38 lagging in the polls, supporters began holding online raffles for Apple iMac computers and Hawaiian vacations in an effort to drum up more interest in the campaign. These weren’t enough: Prop. 38 failed by a 70 percent to 30 percent margin.

According to Cynthia Brown, Vice President for Education Reform at the Center for American Progress, there’s no empirical evidence to justify a measure as drastic as a Prop. 38-like voucher program–which is likely part of the reason the measure failed so miserably. But that isn’t going to stop voucher advocates like Draper from trying.

“Communities of color and poor communities are getting very discouraged with the slow pace of education reform and with poor outcomes,” says Brown. “They’ll take any means available to get into other schools.”

Expect voucher advocates to take advantage of that desperation.

“We’re going to see quite a bit of [voucher measures pushed] in the next few years,” Brown predicts.

While the Drapers, Perenchio and their Prop. 38 crusade may be the most extreme example of the wealthy’s impulse to eliminate public education in California, other Prop. 32 backers aren’t far behind.

William Oberndorf is a co-founder of the Mill Valley, California investment firm SPO Advisory Corp. and a $150,000 donor to the Prop. 32 cause. He is also the chairman emeritus and founding board member of the national voucher-advocacy group Alliance for School Choice–which has received donations from the Koch Institute as well as the Walmart heirs’ Walton Family Foundation–and gave $376,793 in 2009 to the radical right-wing voucher organization American Federation for Children.

Oberndorf has referred to Indiana’s voucher law, passed in 2011, as the “gold standard” of American educational models. Similar to California’s failed Prop. 38, the law gives students upwards of $4,500 in taxpayer subsidies annually towards private school tuition. Unlike Draper’s California effort, however, Indiana’s conservative voucher backers were politically astute enough to means-test their program. Only families earning under $62,000 are eligible for the subsidies–although the bill does grant a universal tax write-off of $1,000 per child already enrolled in private school. Oberndorf is so appreciative of the law and its potential to become a model for California that he recently channeled $10,000 into the reelection of Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett.

Vouchers aren’t the only public educational boondoggle Prop. 32 backers want to impose on California:

• Investment banking billionaire Frank E. Baxter is a member of the Common Core movement to establish a national standardized testing regime on American students.

• Public storage magnate B. Wayne Hughes, meanwhile, though largely media shy, isn’t afraid to publicly rail against America’s “entitlement culture”–which appears to include public funding of higher education. “When I went to college, I had to drive a truck to pay,” he told GQ earlier this year. “I had a partial scholarship, but I took care of myself. Some people don’t belong in college!”

• Robert J. Oster is vice chair of Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institute think tank – and also happens to be the chairman of the board of directors for the massive charter school company Summit Public Schools (where 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is also a board member).

If Prop. 32 passes, its moneyed backers will no doubt fight out their differences on education amongst themselves. The rest of California would just have to wait and see what form the demolition of its public school system eventually takes.

• Matthew Fleischer is an award-winning investigative journalist, a former LA Weekly staff writer, and an editor at FishbowlLA.

EDUCATION FUNDING REFORM STALLS IN CALIFORNIA

DAN WALTERS - Sacramento Bee   | http://bit.ly/VggqU9

October 02, 2012 - 7:45 am EDT  ::  There's a tale behind the death of California's proposed school funding allocation overhaul. The measure, Assembly Bill 18, was one of the casualties as Gov. Jerry Brown waded through hundreds of bills from the hectic, final hours of the 2012 legislative session. — Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, carried the bill, a watered-down version of her proposal to overhaul how the $60-plus billion in state, local and federal funds are allocated to California's K-12 school districts each year.

She wanted to streamline state aid and shift more money to low-performing schools with large numbers of students who are poor or "English learners," responding to criticism that the state was not focusing money on its most urgent needs.

The state Supreme Court four decades ago decreed the "equalization" of school finances, which were then rooted in property taxes.

But the state assumed the major burden for schools after the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the level of that support was locked into the state constitution by Proposition 98 in 1988, and great disparities in spending -- among the highest in the nation -- evolved.

Five years ago, a massive report prepared under the aegis of Stanford University detailed the shortcomings of California schools -- under-financing, irrational funding formulas and ineffective governance. Schools need more money, the report said, but just as importantly, need to spend it more wisely to improve outcomes.

The Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank, has dubbed that concept "return on investment" and devised a complex method to rate how efficiently school systems allocate resources for maximum effect on educational performance, figuring in adjustments for differences in financing and composition of student populations.

By its formula, California has one of the nation's lowest returns on educational investment.

Brown has endorsed a "weighted student formula" to spend more on the neediest students and schools.

However, he never submitted a specific proposal, and his tax measure -- supposedly aimed at improving school finance -- doesn't move in that direction. But a rival tax increase for schools, sponsored by attorney Molly Munger, does include that element.

When Brownley advocated a weighted formula, she ran into stiff resistance. California's per-pupil spending is already well below average, in part because chronic state budget woes have cut school aid, and a weighted formula would cost some districts even more money.

Brownley dropped reform and amended AB 18 to create a task force to study the issue. But Brown vetoed it, saying, "A task force ... may actually delay action on reforms" and adding, "Rather than create a task force, let's work together and craft a fair weighted student formula."

It is, however, easier said than done.

ARNE DUNCAN WOULD STAY ON FOR 2nd OBAMA TERM, TRIES TO PATCH RELATIONS w/TEACHERS, CALLS FOR MOVE TO DIGITAL TEXTBOOKS

Arne Duncan would stay on for second Obama term

Posted by Lyndsey Layton to Washington Post Election 2012 | http://wapo.st/PP6qM1

September 27, 2012 at 3:59 pm  ::  Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Thursday that he intends to remain in the Obama cabinet if there is a second term. “I’m in it for the long haul,” Duncan said. “I’m staying, unless the president gets sick of me.”

Duncan is routinely praised by both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. He made the remarks after addressing a roomful of education officials and economists gathered for a program about K-12 education that was sponsored by the Hamilton Project, part of the Brookings Institution.

Duncan corrected one audience member who asked about his agenda if there is second Obama term. “When,” Duncan interjected, prompting laughter. “When there is a second term.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have both said they do not plan to stay on in a second Obama administration.

 

Arne Duncan tries to smooth relations with teachers

YURI GRIPAS/REUTERS - U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks next to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about providing states flexibility under No Child Left Behind in exchange for reform at the White House in Washington February 9, 2012.

By Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post | http://wapo.st/Vu9K3j

October 2, 2012  ::  Education Secretary Arne Duncan made a careful effort Tuesday to smooth relations with teachers, saying the Obama administration understands that many educators feel besieged by the national push for new evaluations and faster improvements in student achievement.

“I know some educators feel overwhelmed by all of this change,” Duncan said during a wide-ranging speech at the National Press Club in Washington. “Teachers always, always support accountability and a fair system of evaluation. They want the feedback so they can get better. But some of them say it’s happening too quickly and not always in a way that is respectful and fair.”Teacher evaluations, which were a central issue in a recent seven-day strike by the Chicago Teachers Union, are being implemented across the country as a result of President Obama’s Race to the Top grant program and his decision to issue waivers to 33 states to exempt them from No Child Left Behind, the 2011 federal education law that, many say, is overdue for a rewrite.

The Obama administration wants good teachers to be rewarded with merit pay, promising teachers to get support to improve and weak teachers to leave the classroom. But figuring out how to measure the quality of a teacher is difficult, and many states are struggling to determine the best methods. Some teachers worry that they are being blamed for the weak academic performance of students struggling with poverty, homelessness and other social ills beyond the control of a classroom teacher.

“They want an evaluation system that recognizes out-of-school factors and distinguishes among students with special needs, gifts and backgrounds,” Duncan said. “They certainly don’t want to be evaluated based on one test score — and I absolutely agree with them.”

During his speech, Duncan nodded to a seat occupied by Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, and referred to him as “my good friend.” The nation’s largest labor union, the NEA is a major Democratic donor.

Duncan said the country needed to “rise above the partisan politics — we have to set aside the tired debates pitting reformers against unions — we have to discard the ugly and divisive rhetoric of blame.”

He talked repeatedly about the need for cooperation between the parties. But he also slipped in a campaign message dinging Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

“They fundamentally see education as an expense and the president sees education as an investment,” Duncan said, referring to the GOP ticket. “Congressman Ryan’s budget would mean 200,000 less kids in Head Start, potential massive cuts to Pell grants. None of that leads us in the right direction.”

 

Arne Duncan Calls For Textbooks To Become Obsolete In Favor Of Digital

By JOSH LEDERMAN, Associated Press in Huffington Post | http://huff.to/PamLPk

10/02/12 06:11 PM ET EDT   :: WASHINGTON -- Worried your kids spend too much time with their faces buried in a computer screen? Their schoolwork may soon depend on it.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan called Tuesday for the nation to move as fast as possible away from printed textbooks and toward digital ones. "Over the next few years, textbooks should be obsolete," he declared.

It's not just a matter of keeping up with the times, Duncan said in remarks to the National Press Club. It's about keeping up with other countries whose students are leaving their American counterparts in the dust.

South Korea, which consistently outperforms the U.S. when it comes to educational outcomes, is moving far faster than the U.S. in adopting digital learning environments. One of the most wired countries in the world, South Korea has set a goal to go fully digital with its textbooks by 2015.

"The world is changing," Duncan said. "This has to be where we go as a country."

The transition to digital involves much more than scanning books and uploading them to computers, tablet devices or e-readers. Proponents describe a comprehensive shift to immersive, online learning experiences that engage students in a way a textbook never could.

A student studying algebra might click to watch a video clip explaining a new concept or property. If they get stuck, interactive help features could figure out the problem. Personalized quizzes ensure they're not missing anything – and if they are, bring them up to speed before they move on to the next lesson. Social networking allows students to interact with teachers and each other even when school isn't in session.

Using digital textbooks, schools can save money on hard copies and get updated material to students more quickly. School districts may also be able to pick and choose their curriculum buffet-style. A district might choose one publisher's top-notch chapter on Shakespeare, but follow it with another publisher's section on Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter."

But adopting digital textbooks isn't as easy as a directive from Washington. States set their own processes for selecting and purchasing textbooks that match their needs.

Over the last two years, at least 22 states have taken major strides toward digital textbooks, said Douglas Levin, executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association. Until recently, Levin said, states struggled to collaborate because each had its own curricular standards, a particular burden for smaller states. That burden has been eased now that 48 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core standards, a set of uniform benchmarks for math and reading.

"There are opportunities for the federal government to encourage states and districts not to reinvent the wheel," Levin said.

A school district in Huntsville, Ala., launched an effort over the summer to become the first district to transition fully to digital textbooks. To do that, the district must first ensure every student has either a laptop or a tablet computer. In California, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a pair of bills in September aiming to make his state a national leader in electronic college textbooks.

Still, many districts, already buckling from diminished budgets, don't have the bandwidth or the equipment to make digital materials available to every student. That's created a new challenge for the educational publishing industry as it works to market products to district across the technological spectrum.

"We haven't produced anything that's print-only in over three years. One hundred percent of what we have is available to school districts electronically," said Vineet Madan, senior vice president of new ventures for McGraw-Hill Education.

A central tension in the movement toward digital materials is what it means for textbook publishers whose profits rely on replacing old, worn-out textbooks with new ones. Yet to be seen is whether textbooks, like music, will become easy to steal or copy without payment, or whether the industry will find new ways to make money off of teaching materials.

LAUSD “RUNNING ON FUMES” GOING INTO NOVEMBER TAX VOTES

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News from the Pasadena Star News | http://bit.ly/RbgkrD

ONLINE: Link to LAUSD PowerPoint about impacts Prop. 30 and Prop. 38 would have on the district

10/02/2012 06:04:12 PM PDT  ::  Trying to toe the line without crossing over into advocacy, Los Angeles Unified's finance chief on Tuesday outlined the impacts of the two proposed tax-hike initiatives that would pump revenue into an education system she said is now "running on fumes."

During an "informational" presentation to the school board's Budget Committee, Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly predicted that the kinds of layoffs and program cuts seen over the last five years would continue in the future without an infusion of cash from Propositions 30 or 38.

"Either the state has to get more revenue or there have to be cuts. One or the other has to give," she said.

"Over the last five years, more than $10 billion has been cut from education (statewide) and $9 billion has been deferred. If anything about running on fumes touches anyone as an analogy, we're there.

"The thought of having additional cuts right now is daunting."

Gov. Jerry Brown's Proposition 30 would raise the sales tax by a quarter percent for four years and hike the tax rate on wages more than $250,000 for seven years.

It would generate an estimated $6 billion annually that would be used to repay the state's IOUs to school districts and to bolster education funding. Reilly said the money would allow LAUSD to restore at least two of the five instructional days now set aside for furloughs.

The measure's failure, however, would immediately trigger $6 billion in statewide education cuts, including about $255 million - or $439 per student - for Los Angeles Unified.

To account for that loss, Brown has said that districts could shave 15 days off the school year, meaning that California's kids would be in school just 160 days - weeks less than students in other parts of the U.S., or in Asia or Europe.

Proposition 38, meanwhile, backed by civil-rights attorney Molly Munger, would raise the tax rate on incomes over $7,316 for 12 years. It would take effect in 2013-14, generating an estimated $10 billion annually.

Thirty percent of the revenue would be used to repay IOUs during the first four years, with 60 percent going to K-12 and 10 percent to early education programs. Beginning in 2017-18, 85 percent of the revenue - about 1,000 per student - would go to directly to K-12 schools, and 15 percent to early ed.

Reilly and others had to speak carefully during the meeting since state Education Code prohibits district staff or resources from being used to advocate for or against a ballot measure.

Toward that end, Reilly's presentation included tables showing how the measures would increase the tax rates for various income levels - a nod to opponents who say it would be imprudent to raise taxes while the economy is struggling to recover.

But school board member Steve Zimmer said he wanted the district to undertake an information campaign so voters know that LAUSD hasn't had the money to implement many of its goals.

"These initiatives are about the civil rights of students, about classroom conditions and the safety of students, and we haven't been able to fund those," he said. "This is about the basics of maintaining what we have and the hope of being able to move forward."

MIRAMONTE ATTORNEY CALLS FOR MORE AGGRESSIVE MEASURES, CRITICIZES ART

Did Picasso made him do it …or make kids insensitive?

Post-Miramonte, attorney calls for more aggressive measures

by Howard Blume, LA Times/LA Now | http://lat.ms/PSOIIu

October 1, 2012 |  3:38 pm  ::  An attorney representing two dozen students urged school officials Monday to take more aggressive action in response to alleged lewd conduct at Miramonte Elementary School.

The Los Angeles Unified School District should agree to an independent monitor over safety issues, said Luis A. Carrillo in a news conference at his South Pasadena office. The monitor’s tasks would include setting up a safety hotline available for every school that allowed for anonymous reports. Other duties would include submitting quarterly reports. The monitor also would be responsible for directing staff training on child safety issues, outreach to parents and a review of best practices elsewhere.

L.A. Unified reacted by listing measures it has taken since the January arrest of former instructor Mark Berndt on 23 counts of lewd conduct. Berndt has pleaded not guilty.

The school system has provided ongoing counseling to anyone affected at Miramonte or in the surrounding Florence-Firestone community, cooperated with investigators, pursued an internal review, opened its records to a state audit, reviewed 40 years of employee files and established an investigative commission.

The district also has begun alerting parents when an employee is removed from a school as a result of alleged lewd conduct. Carrillo asserted, however, that not all such notifications have been made as promised.

District employees take part in child abuse-awareness training annually.

The school system has set up or been forced to allow various forms of oversight over the years. Currently, an independent monitor reviews the education of children with disabilities. School bond spending is scrutinized by an appointed committee.

In his materials, Carrillo also objected to a small print of Pablo Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror,” which Berndt had posted on a classroom bulletin board. Carrillo called the 1903 cubist work inappropriate for elementary school.

___

Miramonte: Lawyers say Picasso print distressed students; propose reform plan (poll)

By Vanessa Romo, KPCC’s Pass Fail blog | http://bit.ly/SiaARC

Picasso's 1932 painting, which is now hanging in New York's Museum of Modern Art. Lawyers point to a print of this painting that hung in a Miramonte classroom.

Lawyers for 24 children who claim sexual abuse at Miramonte Elementary School in South Los Angeles said a Picasso print hanging in a classroom was "distressing" to students and suggested an 11-point plan to protect children from future abuse.

Attorney Luis Carrillo suggested that Los Angeles Unified School District and other districts throughout the state should enact the plan. He sent copies to L.A. Superintendent John Deasy, California State Superintendent Tom Torlakson and federal education secretary Arne Duncan.

The alleged victims’ lawyers also claim that at least one of their clients experienced "suffering" because a print of a Pablo Picasso painting was posted in Mark Berndt’s classroom. Berndt is the former teacher who's accused of abusing 23 students over at least five years.

Pointing at a copy of Picasso's "Girl Before a Mirror" (pictured right), Carrillo said, "Given the context of everything that was occurring within the classroom, everything that he was doing with the children, this may be additionally distressing to the kids, to confuse them because these kinds of symbols [in the painting]."

MOMA>>

The original of the abstract nude hangs in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Here's its description:

Picasso's young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, one of his favorite subjects in the early 1930s. Her white-haloed profile, rendered in a smooth lavender pink, appears serene. But it merges with a more roughly painted, frontal view of her face—a crescent, like the moon, yet intensely yellow, like the sun, and "made up" with a gilding of rouge, lipstick, and green eye-shadow.

(You too can be an art critic!: Do you agree that this painting is inappropriate for children? Vote in KPCC’s poll.)

Reform plan

The centerpiece of the proposed reform plan is appointing an independent monitor or ombudsman to ensure that school officials at every level are complying with outlined safety policies. Carrillo also proposes setting up an anonymous hotline to report abuses.

At a press conference in his Pasadena office, Carrillo said, "We seek permanent structural changes and the way to [that] is with an independent monitor."

He said the security of anonymity will encourage teachers and other school adminstrators to report abuses without fear of retribution. And he went on to say the hotline would be "like a fire alarm" that "rings in the superintendent’s office and board members’s office alerting the district that there are problems in a particular school."

In response to Carrillo's assertions that the district neglected to respond to allegations that Berndt abused students during the 1990s, L.A. Unified's General Counsel released a statement listing changes enacted since Berndt's arrest. They include:

• Implementing new District-wide 72-hour guidelines for mandatory notification of parents regarding alleged abuse.
• Participating in a full external audit of LAUSD practices and efforts by the California State Auditor.
• Immediately reviewing 40 years of past personnel files and streamlining reporting to improve information sharing and monitoring for potential problems and signs of abuse.
• Establishing an investigative commission, led by retired California Supreme Court Associate Justice Carlos Moreno and distinguished civil rights attorney Connie Rice, to evaluate district efforts and policies and recommend ways to improve protections against abuse.

_

 

Miramonte Victims Propose Policies to Protect Students

Lawyers of victims of the Miramonte Elementary School scandal suggest new policies to better protect children.

By Ivana Banh and Stephanie Case, Annenberg TV News USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism | http://bit.ly/U3dZF6

Monday, October 1, 2012 | 12:59 p.m. PDT  ::  Lawyers for the victims called for safety measures to protect students from teacher misconduct, in such cases as Mark Berndt

Lawyers for the 24 victims of alleged sexual abuse at Miramonte Elementary School presented new policy ideas to ensure student safety at a press conference Monday morning.

The attorneys wrote letters to both the Los Angeles Unified School District and state officials asking for the implementation of more effective measures to prevent sexual abuse in schools.

One suggestion the lawyers presented was for the school district to employ "Independent Monitors" who would oversee children's safety. These officials would be responsible for training teachers in LAUSD's "Safety Policies" and providing quarterly reports on complaints and actions made.

The attorneys also proposed the idea of a hotline for teachers, parents and students to anonymously report incidents of abuse or harassment to the District.

The new policy suggestions emanate from the charges that former teacher Mark Berndt molested 23 children at Miramonte Elementary School. Berndt, who taught at the school for 32 years, was arrested in January. He pleaded not guilty to the 23 charges of lewd behavior. Another Miramonte Elementary teacher, Martin Springer, was also charged for inappropriately touching two female students in 2009.

The attorneys for the 24 students filed a negligence and liability suit against LAUSD in July. The civil lawsuit alleges that school officials failed to take action after receiving complaints that Berndt had harassed students.

"We feel that they fell asleep at the wheel and didn't see the warning signs," said Michael Carrillo, one of the attorneys representing claimants against LAUSD.

"We want to see changes for these families. They're suffering, they're continuing to suffer, and we want to see that at the end of the road that some changes are made."

Following the arrests of the two teachers, LAUSD replaced the entire staff at Miramonte Elementary School. Every member of the 130-person staff, from the principal to teachers to janitors, was reassigned in July.

Miramonte students were also offered the choice of transferring to other elementary schools in their area.

"I'm intolerant when it comes to students being disrespected," said LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy.

The District plans to take the lawyers' policy suggestions, as well as the ideas of others, into consideration when moving forward.

"[We have] consistently sought expertise and recommendations on ways we can improve our practices throughout this process," said LAUSD representative David Holmquist.

"Our goal is to ensure that we are taking every opportunity to ensure the most healthy and safe learning and working environment possible for the entire LAUSD family."

Teaching+Learning Artfully: ARTS INTEGRATION FOR DEEPER LEARNING IN MIDDLE SCHOOL

video and articles from Edutopia/The George Lucas Educational Foundation  about the Arts Integration Program at Bates Middle School in Annapolis Md. | http://bit.ly/PHeT3H

Critical thinking, risk taking, and collaboration -- along with academics and discipline -- are just some of the areas where Bates Middle school educators report big improvements since integrating the arts across all subject areas.

How the Arts Unlock the Door to Learning

Student achievement was down. Teachers were demoralized. Until a bold strategy -- integrating the arts into curricula -- helped students embrace their learning and retain their knowledge. Today the faculty, staff, and students of Maryland's Bates Middle School are crafting a whole new vision of school transformation.

By Mariko Nobori | Edutopia | http://bit.ly/PHmqQf

What do Mars and modern dance have to do with each other? How do you connect fractions with Andy Warhol? At Wiley H. Bates Middle School, in Annapolis, Maryland, the answer is arts integration. Every teacher there is committed to weaving the arts and standard curricula together to create a richer and more lasting learning experience for their students.

Students at Bates Middle School learn about art concepts such as photo composition (above) that are integrated into other curricula like math. Credit: Zachary Fink

Topic: Art Integration School: Wiley H. Bates Middle School Location: Annapolis, MD School Setting: Suburban Target Audience: Grades 6-8 Note: Demographic data below is from the 2011-12 academic year. Enrollment: 715 Student Population: 46% free or reduced-price lunch 39% Caucasian 34% African American 20% Latino 2% Asian 10% receiving special education services 7% English learners Note: Expenditures below are from 2010-11 academic year. Average per-pupil operating expenditures: School: n/a District(county): $7,451 State (MD): $4,694

Arts integration goes beyond including art projects in class; it is a teaching strategy that seamlessly merges arts standards with core curricula to build connections and provide engaging context. For example, in a science classroom you might see students choreographing a dance using locomotor and nonlocomotor movements to demonstrate their understanding of rotation versus revolution of the planets (PDF). In a math class, you might see students learning fractions by examining composition in Warhol's Campbell's soup paintings.

(See more arts-integrated lesson plans from Bates)

What we also saw in these classrooms were students who were enthusiastically participating in the learning process, and having fun. It's not revelatory to say that the arts can engage kids. But that that engagement can also be leveraged to boost academic growth and improve discipline seems like a secret that really needs to be revealed. When you see how the kids embrace these lessons, hear them tell how art helps them remember concepts better, and learn about the improvements teachers have noted in student understanding and retention, it makes you wonder why more schools aren't integrating the arts in every class.

A Whole-School Reform

Bates decided to become a fully arts-integrated school in 2007 as the primary initiative in a whole-school reform effort. Other initiatives in their school improvement plan (PDF) included Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), an operational framework for implementing practices and interventions to improve academic and behavioral outcomes, and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), a college readiness system with research-based methods for elementary through postsecondary students. Their principal at the time, Diane Bragdon, had brought the school back from the brink of failure and now was ready to aim its trajectory squarely toward greater success. Bragdon got the support of Anne Arundel County Public Schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell, long a proponent of schools of choice, who knew well the impact arts integration had had in other Maryland schools. The district applied for a four-year grant called Supporting Arts Integrated Learning for Student Success (SAILSS) from the U.S. Department of Education and was one of 15 districts and schools to receive it.

Since they started implementing arts integration schoolwide in 2009, Bates has seen a 23 percent drop in the average number of referrals and suspensions per student. The school’s percentage of students proficient or advanced in math has grown four times more than the state's over the same period, and five times more in reading. Not all lessons are taught with arts integration, but Bates takes pains to diligently track those that have been in a regular log (PDF), and they report substantial improvements in student comprehension and retention.

Why Does Arts Integration Work?

Why does it work? Arts integration uses teaching practices that have been shown in brain-based research to improve comprehension and long-term retention. For example, when students create stories, pictures, or other nonverbal expressions of the content they are learning -- a process researchers call elaboration -- they are also helping to better embed the information. In one eighth-grade math class, students prepared for a test on linear equations by creating photo stories of the steps involved. This required that teacher Laura Casciato spend nearly a full class period teaching about basic principles of design (PDF). She explained the trade-off: "It was an easy decision to spend time on the art because we know that they retain that information better. They're going to look at that test and say, 'Oh yeah, I remember that information from my photo.'"

As with any new initiative, there are a number of factors that must be in place for it to succeed. With arts integration, high-quality professional development is essential. Teachers don't need to be "artistic" to be able to use arts integration; they just need to learn some of the fundamentals so they will be better able to think of ways to merge art concepts with other content. For example, knowing the basic elements of design, such as emphasis, balance, contrast, and repetition, enabled Casciato to teach her students how to create more informative photo compositions to illustrate each step in solving a linear equation (PDF).

(Read tips for administrators and teachers for getting started with arts integration)

Bates used the bulk of their grant money for professional development, which they started in the 2007-08 school year. They have PD Thursdays every other week, and at least one per month is on arts integration. Last year (2011-12) was the final year of their grant funding. Teachers report they are now well versed in arts standards and know how to create arts-integrated lessons. Many now train their colleagues and new teachers entering the school.

Beyond engagement and retention, adults and students at Bates cite numerous other benefits of arts integration: It encourages healthy risk taking, helps kids recognize new skills in themselves and others, provides a way to differentiate instruction, builds collaboration among both students and teachers, bridges differences, and draws in parents and the community. Plus it's just plain fun.

Lastly, there's equity. If we agree that the arts can provide all kinds of benefits for kids, from intellectual to creative to social-emotional, then shouldn't all kids have the opportunity to learn about and experience them? But far too few schools have either the funding or the bureaucratic support to make this a priority, a lack often born out of fear of sacrificing academic achievement. What Bates and many other arts-integrated schools across the country are showing is that by creating a richer, more memorable learning experience through the arts, they unleash not only a rising tide of academic achievement but they lay the foundation for what it means to be a truly creative community.

 

Article

How the Arts Unlock the Door to Learning

Thanks to a bold strategy -- integrating the arts into curricula -- the faculty, staff, and students of Maryland's Bates Middle School are crafting a whole new vision of school transformation.

8/29/2012 | 3 comments

Article

Lesson Plans and Resources for Arts Integration

Educators from Bates Middle School, in Annapolis, Maryland, share arts-integrated lessons and resources that you can use in your school.

8/29/2012 | 1 comment

Article

Arts Integration: Fundamentals for Getting Started

Becoming an arts-integrated school doesn't happen overnight, but there are ways to enhance the process. Two veterans of successful transitions share tips from their experiences.

8/29/2012 | 2 comments

Article

A Research-Based Approach to Arts Integration

At Bates Middle School in Annapolis, Maryland, arts integration has helped raise student achievement, in conjunction with other key best practices.

8/29/2012 |

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• It's strange to me that a middle school that has strict uniform policy is preaching about arts.....don't express yourself except, through the means that we provide you!!! The school ranked 158 out of 239 middle schools (below average) while the school district outperforms it and is ranked 6 out of 25(above average). Actually look up info don't trust these people! Just look over their union contract!!!

  - bacon4u21 2 weeks ago

 

• Thanks for your comment. We chose to cover Bates because they've shown growth in many subjects and achievement indicators (i.e. math, reading, attendance), and in several areas they're improving at a faster rate than the state. Bates also has a higher free or reduced lunch population than the state and district, so direct comparisons don't show the complete picture of Bate's remarkable growth. Check out our research summary for more details: edutopia.org/stw-arts-integrat­ion-research

  - edutopia in reply to bacon4u21 2 weeks ago

Art In Public Schools: COULD A MORE CREATIVE CURRICULUM LOWER DROPOUT RATES? + FANNING THE FLAME OF CREATIVITY

Brianna Sacks | Staff Reporter | Neon Tommy-USC/ Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism|http://bit.ly/Sgx31t

September 30, 2012 | 6:04 p.m. PDT  ::  Where do Los Angeles Unified students go when they have fallen so far behind in high school that they are at risk of not graduating on time, or considering dropping out entirely?

 (Creative Commons/Parker Michael Knight>>

Continuation schools provide a smaller campus, lower student-to-teacher ratio and more flexibility to allow students to graduate on time. However, a former continuation high school principal says that these schools are still "more of the same" and are not helping L.A. Unified's 62 percent graduation rate, one of the lowest in the state. 

Ran Klarin, a former principal at Westchester Continuation High School, explained that although continuation schools give at-risk students another chance to finish high school at their own pace, the reality is only a small percent of these students actually graduate.

Klarin-who spent 27 years at various positions throughout Los Angeles Unified-is working to change this reality by developing a creative curriculum that better integrates artistic self-expression in students. Klarin believes that when high school students who are so used to failing are presented with an artistic outlet, they have a better chance at excelling academically and graduating.

Klarin was also the Dean of Discipline at Los Angeles High School and the Coordinator of Dropout Prevention for LA Unified from 2006-2007, where he supervised student counselors in over 80 schools.

Klarin says there is a reason that these students are failing academically: "The curriculum doesn't address what many of these at-risk students need. It is hard for them to focus on their English homework when they have a bad home life, or their parents are not involved."

As a writer and spoken word artist, Klarin decided to introduce a variety of these creative classes to his Westchester students in hopes to evoke interest in an academic environment. Klarin noticed positive changes in at-risk students and realized that public schools should better support the arts, as not every student is able to learn and perform in a strict academic setting. However, Klarin encountered some hesitancy from some district members when he suggested more creative electives.

"The money situation is much worse, and it makes it more difficult for the kids," said Klarin.

Yet Klarin believes that by thinking outside the box and giving these resistant students more opportunities for positive feedback, we may see a change in how students treat school, and in turn, may keep them in school.

Students enter continuation schools because they are behind in credits, far below grade level in reading and math, and many deal with difficult issues outside the classroom that affect their academic performance.

Traditional high schools refer a "very select population of disaffected kids to continuation schools," said Klarin.

Many students have a difficult family life and some come from probation camps to finish their high school education, and a majority are boys, explained Klarin.  

"The mission is to get them ready to graduate, but they generally don't make it," he said. "They just fill space for a couple years."

There are currently 11,000 students in L.A. Unified continuation schools, and the Los Angeles Board of Education recently directed Superintendent John Deasy to create a plan that better assists high school students who "are often absent or struggle academically at traditional high schools, as candidates for campuses with smaller classes that offer more individual assistance from teachers."

A continuation school program is more intense than a traditional high school, and Klarin said that is part of the problem. Although they have access to more resources and are in a classroom setting with 15 students instead of 40, school no longer interests these types of students. 

"A lot [of students] just sign up because they have to go to school, and their probation officers check in on them," he added.

The dropout crisis and students' disinterest in traditional curriculum "demands a new solution and a systemic campaign to provide artistic outlets for students who are academically challenged. Classes in music, drama, art, and dance should not be relegated to electives at the end of high school, but integrated into the core curriculum," Klarin wrote in a blog for the Huffington Post, titled "Fanning the Flame of Creativity."  [follows]

But Klarin found that the L.A. Unified education system was not developed for the arts. Students were on a very structured academic path, even at continuation schools.

"When I was in the school system I was adamantly opposed to 'hard teaching,'" Klarin said. "Hard teaching," he explained, is spending more time and energy trying to teach struggling students the same material that they did not respond to in traditional high schools.

"Educators are trying to make everyone fit into the same role, and many students don't want to. It's one of the reasons I left LAUSD," said Klarin.

Klarin teamed up with Adwin Brown, another writer and spoken word artist who works with at-risk continuation high school students, to develop a curriculum that enhances creative interests in high school students. 

"I noticed a lot of these students needed a chance to express themselves," said Klarin. "All these kids have stories, a lot have drama in their lives."

Klarin and Brown's lessons present a more creative approach to help struggling students succeed in a high school setting. The program will include lesson plans and text materials, and the two spoken word artists and writers plan to present this curriculum to public schools and market it as a "dropout prevention" program.

The program is still in the works.

"You need to know what is really going on on the ground in these schools," said Klarin. "There is not enough reality based attitude about Los Angeles schools, and a majority of educators are really trying to do a good job, they just face a lot of limitations."

Klarin hopes that continuation schools--and traditional high schools--understand the importance of creative expression for students and start to integrate these types of classes into the current system.

"Creativity is valued by American industry but not the education establishment," he wrote.  "And providing a mode of creative self expression might help this dropout epidemic."

Klarin calls for more part-time arts instructors in every grade, especially high school, to develop and encourage artistic talent, and be looked at as a legitimate scholastic path in high school. 

"My superiors would say things like, 'that's a good idea, but it's rather innovative.' I gained a bad reputation about being 'innovative,'" he said. 

But with about 20 percent of Los Angeles high school students dropping out, Klarin believes that something "innovative" might be the only way to help these at-risk students succeed

 

 

Fanning the Flame of Creativity

by Ran Klarin Writer, spoken word artist, former school principal in the Huffington Post | http://bit.ly/STsERJ

Thursday, February 4th, 2010 02:58 PM ET   ::  During a routine patrol of the boys' restroom I detected the distinct odor of pot. I heard from one of my teachers that Andre had just been there. I summoned Andre to my office, and he was clearly high. He sat in front of me slumped in the chair with a sheepish and sullen grin. He was impervious to counsel and kind words. As the principal of a local continuation high school, I was in charge of discipline, so now it was time to get creative. I've found that creative outlets get better results with 'at risk' students than traditional punishments. The next day I enrolled him in our weekly yoga class. That was followed by elective classes in spoken word.

Continuation schools typically provide extra time and intensified instruction to make up the deficiencies that have developed over a school career of eight to ten years. The idea is that more of the same will fix them. The high school drop-out rate in the LA Unified School District and most urban school districts approaches 50%. Rather than addressing the core issue, the system insists that all students take an academic track of classes for admission to the University of California. Since many are far behind by the time they reach high school, middle school has become the focus of more academic catch-up (double math and English periods, after-school tutoring, summer school). About 40% of ninth grade students do not earn enough credits to advance in high school. At that point many become chronic truants, transfer to continuation and eventually simply disappear.

It is not hard to imagine where these so-called failures end up. We have the highest incarceration rate and teen pregnancy rate in the developed world. Many eventually find themselves and develop into productive citizens. I have met former students who are now in their 30s and 40s who regret the lost opportunity of high school.

These are not hopeless and bad kids. The entrenched and antiquated educational system needs a new approach to this glaring failure. We are failing, not the kids. In over 27 years as a teacher, dean and administrator I saw many students who failed academically but blossomed when offered experiences in the arts. When I was principal of the continuation high school, I introduced a variety of creative classes that inspired otherwise resistant students. A longstanding arts in the schools program run by California Institute of the Arts incites the creative spirit in hundreds of continuation students every year. It is one of several that recognize the need to encourage art in the schools.

What is not commonly recognized is the special need for creative expression in the at-risk student. He or she has lost confidence in doing anything well in school. Personal expression can jump-start a "failing" student by building confidence through expressing their experience. Spoken word artist Adwin David Brown conducts continuation school classes in poetry and creative writing. I've watched as a class of bored and reluctant boys come alive with a pen and paper and a drum beat, thanks to Brown's infectious ability to open up these closed down kids.

The drop-out epidemic demands a new solution and a systemic campaign to provide artistic outlets for students who are academically challenged. Classes in music, drama, art, and dance should not be relegated to electives at the end of high school, but integrated into the core curriculum. Creativity is valued by American industry but not the education establishment. Developing and encouraging artistic talent could be more than a finger in the dike of drop-outs, it could also be a legitimate scholastic path in high school. Ultimately, this transformation calls for an overhaul of our graduation requirements but in the interim more part-time arts instructors are needed at every level but especially high school.

Andre, the busted student, turned out to have a natural talent for performance and played Abraham Lincoln in a district-wide play. The creative experience helped Andre escape from delinquency, drugs and failing grades. Through creativity he had found his voice and his passion and could let go of the fear and self-loathing. He renewed his academic promise and is currently succeeding in college.

The drop-out crisis must be addressed with new solutions, not more of the same-old. Let's look at it honestly and provide real opportunities to encourage confidence, expression and success in our youth. Let's fan the creative fires of expression.