The news that didn’t fit from May 24

California, Out of Money, Reels as Voters Rebuff Leaders | The New York Times ~ May 21, 2009 - Direct democracy has once again upended California — enough so that the state may finally consider another way by overhauling its Constitution for the first time in 130 years.

California's charter schools get mixed scores in new study | Los Angeles Times ~ May 20, 2009 - USC researchers cite lapses in financial reporting, but say it appears that many are using public funds wisely, and that academic scores are fairly similar to those of public schools.

California voters kill budget measures | Los Angeles Times ~ May 20, 2009 The "big five" elected leaders -- Schwarzenegger and the legislative chieftains from both houses -- are slated to begin closed-door meetings today upon the governor's return from Washington, where he spent election day after casting a last-minute absentee ballot.

Rejection at polls deepens the deficit to $21.3 billion | Sacramento Bee ~ May 20, 2009  - California voters gave an emphatic thumbs-down Tuesday to five ballot measures that elected leaders were banking on to help plug a gaping hole in the state budget. With about 72 percent of the state's precincts reporting, Propositions 1A through 1E were being crushed by margins as wide as 30 percentage points, and none was winning more than 40 percent approval.

Calif. Voters Reject Measures to Keep State Solvent | The New York Times ~ May 20, 2009  - A smattering of California voters on Tuesday soundly rejected five ballot measures designed to keep the state solvent through the rest of the year.

California Voters Reject Budget Measures | The Wall Street Journal ~ May 20, 2009  - Californians on Tuesday rejected a series of ballot initiatives to help fix the state's massive budget shortfall, as authorities prepared deep spending cuts in anticipation of the measures' defeat.

Budget measures defeated | San Diego Union-Tribune ~ May 19, 2009  - The special-election ballot agenda crafted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders to bail some of the water out of California's leaky financial boat went down to a crushing defeat Tuesday.

Pool of teachers being depleted: Experts say layoffs could dissuade potential educators | San Diego Union-Tribune ~ May 19, 2009  - Even with thousands of teachers statewide facing layoffs, recruitment experts are warning of an impending teacher shortage.

High school counselors brace for big caseloads | San Diego Union-Tribune ~ May 18, 2009  - Three years after state lawmakers agreed to spend $200 million to hire 3,000 high school counselors, cash-strapped districts across California are slashing the number of overworked advisers at their schools.

CREATIVITY: THE PATH TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY - Wednesday, May 20, 2009 4:07 PM - Published Online: May 12, 2009 | Published in Print: May 13, 2009 This article was forwarded to 4LAKids by LAUSD Local District 4 Superintendent Richard Alonzo. Dr. Alonzo has succumbed to the siren call of the Early Retirement Package …or perhaps to his dream of retiring to the Hill Country of Virginia to paint. He is an Art

SCHOOL TIES: As the gatekeepers of two of Los Angeles’s most coveted schools, Tom and Deedie Hudnut inspire awe and fear. - Tuesday, May 19, 2009 10:01 AM-  By Marshall Heyman | W Magazine | June 2009 Photograph by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin The athletic field at Harvard-Westlake's upper campus. In Hollywood, it is generally understood that few things are harder than getting your movie made. One of those things may be getting your child into the Center for Early Education, a progressive elementary school off Melrose Avenue…

Report: DISCIPLINE METHODS ENDANGER DISABLED/SPECIAL ED KIDS - Tuesday, May 19, 2009 5:58 AM - by Joseph Shapiro | National Public Radio/Morning Edition | Broadcast Tuesday May 19, 2009 Listen Now [4 min 46 sec] add to playlist Seven-year-old Angellika Arndt died in 2006 when she suffocated while being restrained by two adult staff at the Rice Lake Day Treatment Center in Wisconsin. Courtesy of the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse Morning

GAO REPORT LINKS ACHIEVEMENT GAP AND ACCESS TO ARTS EDUCATION - Tuesday, May 19, 2009 6:30 AM - Access to Arts Education: Inclusion of Additional Questions in Education's Planned Research Would Help Explain Why Instruction Time Has Decreased for Some Students “Teachers at schools identified as needing improvement and those with higher percentages of minority students were more likely to report a reduction in time spent on the arts.” GAO-09-286 February 27, 2009 Highlights Page (PDF

PARENTS UNITED: LAUSD moms and dads are mad and not going to sit it out anymore - Sunday, May 17, 2009 2:23 AM - LA DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL \ LA Newspaper Group 5/12/2009 - IF there is a bright spot in the otherwise dark picture of public education and the Los Angeles Unified School District, it is the burgeoning activism of parents fed up with budget cuts that continually diminish the quality of schools. A growing army of parents has begun to organize in response to the latest round of LAUSD cuts

GOVERNOR’S EDUCATION CUTS RANGE FROM BAD TO WORSE – O’Connell: “The proposals offer a choice between devastating and horrific cuts to public schools.”  -  Sunday, May 17, 2009 2:16 AM - Canan Tasci, Staff Writer | Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (LA Newspaper Group) 16 May | In a year when schools have been pummeled by budget cuts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed two budgets that will continue to eliminate money to the already struggling state education system. The two proposals were released just days before Tuesday's special election as part of Schwarzenegger's May….

Study - CALIFORNIA FOSTER YOUTH: WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

A report from the Cities Counties and Schools Partnership

CCS Partnership is a joint effort of the League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties and the California School Boards Association. The Partnership promotes the development of public policies that build and preserve communities by encouraging local collaborative efforts among California's 478 cities, 58 counties and more than 1,000 school boards and districts the partners represent.

“My goal continues to be to have foster youth treated as we would treat our own children.” Karen Bass, current Speaker of the California Assembly at 2007 CA Foster Youth Education Summit

 

 

The Issue

California has the largest number of children and youth in foster care of any state in the nation with approximately 80,000 children in care in 2007. While 10 percent of the nation’s youth live in California, 20 percent of the children in foster care reside here. Outcomes for youth who remain in the system until they age out at 18 years old are predominately negative and include homelessness, unemployment or underemployment, incarceration and failure to graduate from high school. Half of the children in care are under the age of five and about the same percent have been in the system more than two years. Domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental illness are factors that contribute to the removal of children from their homes with 75 percent placed in care because of neglect.

Conclusion

In 2007, the CCS Partnership Conditions of Children Task Force decided to study the topic of emancipating foster youth in order to explore ways that local governments can improve the plight of these young people. As study of the topic progressed, it became obvious, that it is important to address the issues facing foster youth long before emancipation. In order to meet the needs of this very vulnerable population and improve their outcomes, we need to address care within the system itself.

Of course, the most desirable outcome is to prevent youngsters from entering the system at all.

If our focus begins with prevention, then we must educate both the general public and our school children about brain development and the adverse affects of substance abuse on fetal development. Drug and alcohol screening of pregnant women, infants and children at various stages of development are crucial. Then we need to develop a collaborative approach to supporting families through community resource centers that integrate programs and resources in order to provide tools to families so that they are more likely to be successful and stay intact. In this approach, communities are viewed as resources that can help support struggling families. Differentiated Response provides different levels of intervention to families in crisis, which results in the delivery of resources and services to children faster and younger than ever before and a decreased number of children being removed from their homes. If children are removed from their homes, it is important to seek a placement with relatives, before placing a child in foster care. “Family Find Software” is essential to this quest.

Additionally, children in the system benefit from the coordination of services.

Barriers between education and social services need to be eliminated to best meet the needs of youth. Legislation is needed to facilitate the sharing of information and the development of a shared data system between agencies.

Furthermore, the California system needs to provide resources appropriate for all of our varied counties so that they might meet the needs of the populations that they serve.

Rural counties in our state face unique challenges, such as, isolation, distance and lack of resources for basic services.Their unique issues need to be addressed, if we are to create a system that serves all of the people of California.

Finally, a web needs to be created to support those who do emancipate from the system.

In order for those young people to successfully integrate into adult life, we must ensure that the have the tools and resources they need: education, employment, housing, access to mental and physical health care and connections to adults and systems.

These young people are our responsibility; they are wards of the State of California and it behooves all of us to work together to ensure that their needs are being met.

Supportive legislation is important, but it is also important for cities, counties and schools to work together to improve the conditions for these children. Collaboration prevents duplication of services, enhances the quality of the services and saves valuable dollars. The solutions are simple, but not easy. Therefore, we need to look at exemplary programs across the state and replicate them in other areas.

This is important work; children’s lives are at stake.

The Complete Report:

We Can Make a Difference

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other Research california foster youth

Raw News: THE BALLOT MEASURES DEFEATED + more

 

California voters kill budget measures | Los Angeles Times ~ May 20, 2009

The "big five" elected leaders -- Schwarzenegger and the legislative chieftains from both houses -- are slated to begin closed-door meetings today upon the governor's return from Washington, where he spent election day after casting a last-minute absentee ballot.

Rejection at polls deepens the deficit to $21.3 billion | Sacramento Bee ~ May 20, 2009

California voters gave an emphatic thumbs-down Tuesday to five ballot measures that elected leaders were banking on to help plug a gaping hole in the state budget. With about 72 percent of the state's precincts reporting, Propositions 1A through 1E were being crushed by margins as wide as 30 percentage points, and none was winning more than 40 percent approval.

Calif. Voters Reject Measures to Keep State Solvent | The New York Times ~ May 20, 2009

A smattering of California voters on Tuesday soundly rejected five ballot measures designed to keep the state solvent through the rest of the year.

California Voters Reject Budget Measures | The Wall Street Journal ~ May 20, 2009

Californians on Tuesday rejected a series of ballot initiatives to help fix the state's massive budget shortfall, as authorities prepared deep spending cuts in anticipation of the measures' defeat.

Budget measures defeated | San Diego Union-Tribune ~ May 19, 2009

The special-election ballot agenda crafted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders to bail some of the water out of California's leaky financial boat went down to a crushing defeat Tuesday.

Pool of teachers being depleted: Experts say layoffs could dissuade potential educators | San Diego Union-Tribune ~ May 19, 2009

Even with thousands of teachers statewide facing layoffs, recruitment experts are warning of an impending teacher shortage.

High school counselors brace for big caseloads | San Diego Union-Tribune ~ May 18, 2009

Three years after state lawmakers agreed to spend $200 million to hire 3,000 high school counselors, cash-strapped districts across California are slashing the number of overworked advisers at their schools.

Creativity: The Path to Economic Recovery

Published Online: May 12, 2009 | Published in Print: May 13, 2009

This article was forwarded to 4LAKids by LAUSD Local District 4 Superintendent Richard Alonzo. Dr. Alonzo has succumbed to the siren call of the Early Retirement Package …or perhaps to his dream of retiring to the Hill Country of Virginia to paint.  He is an Art Teacher who followed a different career path – away from the classroom and into administration.      You know,      I think he did it       pretty up and walking good. When 4LAKids forwarded him the GAO article tying the lack of arts education to the achievement gap, he responded: Scott, Thanks for always copying me with these reports on the arts.  Please see the article on “Creativity” that I just shared with all my principals. Thanks, Richard A. Alonzo We hope and fully expect his principals have ingested and digested the message – and spread it to every classroom and teachers’ lounge. I wish our friend Richard clear days and Northern light …and perhaps an occasional 0pportunity to debate the philosophic differences between creativity and imagination. I hope his students find him on occasion in his beret and smock -- and tell him how he made a difference.

 

Creativity: The Path to Economic Recovery

commentary by David Burns

Since its first publication in 2005, Thomas L. Friedman’s book The World Is Flat has assumed almost Sputnik-like qualities. Like a warning shot across the bow of prosperity, it has forced us to rethink our position in the world and re-examine education’s contribution to the American dream. Seemingly innocent technological revolutions in distant lands have become dominoes falling toward us, threatening our economy. A sense of urgency permeates our thinking. It is heightened by alarming reports that U.S. schoolchildren lag their international peers, imperiling both their future and the nation’s.

The shaken conservative education community, reacting to a stirred business community, has responded in typical 1960s fashion: Send more troops—more engineers, more scientists, more mathematicians. The radical liberal-arts community, reacting to an overstimulated Starbucks community, questions the wisdom of this business decision: Where is Yeats? Thoreau? Where’s art for art’s sake? The debates have been limited mostly to academic arenas, but if the economy disintegrates, there will be intense pressure to move from Friedman’s sounding of the alarm to a call to arms. Lines will be drawn. Sides taken. The future of the U.S. economy is at stake. It comes down to an either-or proposition. Or does it?

Conventional wisdom tells us that the United States needs to do a better job of preparing students to participate in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers if we want to get our economic engine back on track. To accomplish this, so the thinking goes, we will need to draft our best and brightest students into STEM fields and support them with the tools necessary for high levels of academic achievement. In theory, this strategy will eventually produce an army of world-class scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technologists, and our future will be secured.

But there is a downside to this plan. In today’s structure of schooling, the emphasis on specific disciplines creates a de-emphasis on others. Unfortunately, in the context of STEM, the de-emphasis comes at the expense of the arts. While there are those who say it’s a fair trade-off, especially in terms of economic development, cutting the arts may be sacrificing our greatest asset in the 21st century: creativity. Pushing STEM may help win a battle or two in global competitiveness, but ultimately cause us to lose the war, unless we can re-engineer our system of education to include the genius of "and."

The trench warfare employed by U.S. companies since World War II—squeeze the margins and drive the competition out of business—still works. Unfortunately, with the ascent of India, China, and Wal-Mart, it’s American workers who are being squeezed and our companies that are losing ground in the battle for profitability. Under the new rules of global engagement, we can no longer rely solely on strength in numbers to secure strongholds in an ever-changing economic environment. Companies that traditionally have carried America’s fortunes are struggling to navigate this new terrain (GM ↓). Corporations that once seemed invincible are suddenly on a slippery slope (Ford ↓). To stay competitive, American businesses must find new ways to be successful, new strategies to deploy. In other words, it’s time to get creative.

The companies finding traction in the new economy are those that create new markets to infiltrate (GOOG ↑) and new products to proliferate (AAPL ↑). Their modus operandi is to attack unsuspecting competitors with unconventional means. They utilize sophisticated technology to sabotage established supply chains, and invent new methods of access (iTunes). They seize market share by scrambling traditional lines of communication with high-powered hand-held devices (iPhone) and decoding coveted information at the click of a mouse. While these rebels clearly possess the technological savvy and engineering know-how to be disruptive forces, their arsenal also includes something more powerful to attract legions of devoted followers—creativity. For these Zen masters of the new universe, the clever uses of science, technology, engineering, and math are survival tactics, but creativity is the weapon of mass destruction.

---

Unfortunately, the creative thinkers our businesses will need are currently being schooled in a system that was designed to do the work of Henry Ford, rather than produce the next Steve Jobs. In the manufacturing model of education, the ability to connect literature and social science or see the influence of art on engineering is left largely to happenstance rather than intention. While the utility of this approach is rarely questioned, the significance should be. Despite multimillion-dollar investments to dismantle education’s assembly-line mentality, we continue to treat students as Model T’s, bolting parts on bodies as they roll down the line. Even though we pride ourselves on our customized options (French, Spanish, or Latin!), the end product still looks a lot like a Model T. In our current way of doing things, creativity is an elective and innovation is a vocabulary word.

If the business world is seeking creative thinking as the means to provide a competitive edge in the global economy, shouldn’t we plant the seeds of creativity in our education system? Shouldn’t we design a system that nourishes the arts as well as science? As the last few months have painfully illustrated, the global marketplace is fiercely competitive, and only the strongest will survive. But we should remember that strength comes from a variety of sources. While there is little dispute about the importance of the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math, we must consider beauty, art, invention, and imagination. It’s quite possible that emphasizing certain disciplines at the expense of others would be an economic mistake. The law of unintended consequences may work against us. A better strategy may be to ensure that there are multiple paths to knowledge.

Can trigonometry be taught through painting? Can engineering be taught through sculpture? Does literature enhance the understanding of science? While these are rhetorical questions, they are worthy of consideration, as are a thousand others. What we do know is that we can’t afford, as a country, to rely on the status quo. The countries that will be successful in the 21st century will be forward-leaning ones—those pushing the envelope of education system design for the full development of their people

David Burns is the director of sustainability for the Ohio STEM Learning Network, based in Columbus, Ohio.

Bricks in the Wall: GREEN DOT/BROAD ACOLYTES NAMED TO TOP FEDERAL DEPT OF ED POSTS

from the LA Times California Briefing | May 20, 2009

School reform leader is named PASADENA -- Joanne Weiss on Tuesday was named the leader of the nearly $4.4-billion "Race to the Top" fund, a federal effort to reform the nation's schools. The announcement was made by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in remarks delivered via videoconference at the annual NewSchools Venture Fund Summit. Weiss is a partner in and chief operating officer of the NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit that invests in efforts to turn around underperforming schools. Weiss, who has a degree in biochemistry from Princeton University, is also on the board of directors of Green Dot Public Schools, which operates 10 charter schools in Southern California and this year took over Locke High, which it divided into several small schools. In her new role, she will lead the development of the Race to the Top fund, which will offer competitive grants to states in 2009 and 2010 aimed at improving student achievement. The fund is part of the $100 billion in education spending included in the economic stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year. - Seema Mehta Can you say “Conflict of Interest”? The Race to the Top Fund is supposedly competitive – though just how competitive depends on who makes the rules. LAUSD and Green Dot will compete for the funds in the LA ‘market’. Even if Ms. Weiss recuses herself people who work for her will decide. Sect of Ed Duncan has alreday weighed in: "’You seem to have cracked the code’ Duncan told (Green Dot founder) Steve Barr.” [The New Yorker 5/10]

Schools chief in line for U.S. post POMONA -- Was it the video? The superintendent of the Pomona Unified School District, whose students produced a video that was mentioned by President Obama in a speech in March, is being nominated to oversee kindergarten-through-12th-grade schooling as assistant secretary of Education, the White House announced Tuesday. Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana was named California's superintendent of the year in November by the Assn. of California School Administrators. If confirmed by Congress, she would become a top advisor to Education Secretary Arne Duncan as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education. As Pomona's superintendent since July 2006, Meléndez has worked on a plan to reconfigure the grade span of some schools, pushed through a $235-million bond issue and introduced a new accountability system for student achievement, said Becca Bracy Knight, executive director of the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems. Meléndez is a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy, funded by philanthropist Eli Broad. "She's a reform-minded leader," Knight said. "She's deeply passionate about ensuring that all children can achieve." During a speech about education in March, Obama praised Pomona's Village Academy High School, whose students had produced a video about how the economic recession was affecting their lives. But, Knight said, "I'm sure she was on their radar screen before that." -- Mitchell Landsberg

SCHOOL TIES: As the gatekeepers of two of Los Angeles’s most coveted schools, Tom and Deedie Hudnut inspire awe and fear.

By Marshall Heyman | W Magazine | June 2009

Photograph by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin

 

The athletic field at Harvard-Westlake's upper campus.

In Hollywood, it is generally understood that few things are harder than getting your movie made. One of those things may be getting your child into the Center for Early Education, a progressive elementary school off Melrose Avenue, founded in 1939 by a group of psychoanalysts. Popular with the entertainment community—the spawn of Jodie Foster, Jack Nicholson, Barbra Streisand, Mel Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Eisner and Denzel Washington have matriculated there—the Center, as alumni call it, receives 1,000 applications annually for 60 spots: 30 two-year-olds, 14 three-year-olds and 16 kindergartners. (The school, which goes through the sixth grade, has 536 students.) The acceptance rate—6 percent—is smaller than Harvard College’s.

“The numbers are insane,” admits Deedie Hudnut, 61, who has been in charge of the Center’s admissions since the early Nineties. Deedie’s post, which she mans from an unassuming office strewn with Beanie Babies and a stuffed Kermit the Frog, is so significant that in 2006 the Los Angeles Times named her one of Southern California’s 100 most powerful people, alongside Eli Broad, Frank Gehry, David Geffen, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Deedie is just half of one of the area’s most influential power couples. Her husband, Tom Hudnut, 62, is the president and CEO of Harvard-Westlake School, one of the best prep schools in California, if not the nation. Among Harvard-Westlake’s famous graduates are Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Candice Bergen and playboy film producer Stephen Bing (the latter two attended the all-girls Westlake and the all-boys Harvard, respectively; the schools merged in 1989). The Hudnuts may not have the paparazzi pull of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, but they have been known to keep the occasional studio chief quaking in his Gucci loafers.

The Center for Early Education sends roughly 20 to 25 students a year—up to 40 percent of its graduating class—to Harvard-Westlake’s posh new middle-school campus in Holmby Hills, built on property formerly owned by Revlon honcho Ron Perelman. Yet the schools have no formal link, and Deedie generally doesn’t speak to her husband about potential candidates. “I think there’s a common knowledge that I’ve got no pull at Harvard-Westlake, so you don’t have to butter me up,” she says.

The two schools are also distinct in terms of atmosphere. Some observers would describe the Center, where students call teachers by their first names, as “touchy-feely.” “It’s more than just academic—a lot of emotional and social development goes on there,” says fashion designer Jenni Kayne, who attended the Center and hopes to enroll her infant son, Tanner, when he’s old enough. (Competition is so fierce that legacies, says Deedie, are not necessarily admitted, though spots are almost always reserved for siblings.) Deedie agrees with Kayne’s assessment: “That’s probably what makes us different from our peers,” such as the Brentwood School or John Thomas Dye, in Bel-Air. “That,” she adds, “and our diversity.” Many Center students receive financial aid, and 44 percent are children of color.

From top: Deedie and Tom Hudnut.

In contrast, Harvard-Westlake is so academically rigorous that it attracts a specific type of applicant. “By the time kids apply, they know it’s the right place for them,” explains Tom, a jovial Princeton University graduate. He sits behind a regal desk in his office overlooking the Harvard-Westlake upper campus in the San Fernando Valley, classical music pumping through the speakers. “We’re not going to take anyone who can’t do the work. You’d be sunk.”

One member of the media elite who graduated from both schools distills the difference thusly: “Harvard-Westlake is a pressure cooker for the students, whereas the Center is a pressure cooker for the families trying to get their kids in.” Unlike New York private nursery schools, which routinely “interview” toddlers—or, at least, observe them in playgroups—the Center interviews only the parents. “We don’t think we can evaluate a two-year-old,” says Deedie, who had conducted several interviews with parents earlier in the day, none of whom would likely receive an offer of acceptance for their child. “You have to ask: Is this a family you want to spend the next 10 years with?” If there’s a secret to a successful interview, it’s a well-kept one: Most parents of alumni and current students who were contacted for this story declined to speak on the record.

“There’s a lot of anxiety,” says film producer Richard Zanuck, who attended Harvard before the merger, as did his sons, and also served on the school’s board. “And the parents are competitive, whether they’re in show business or are doctors or lawyers.”

But the Hudnuts are quite comfortable dealing with high-maintenance moms and dads. After Deedie and Tom met at a Janis Joplin concert during the Summer of Love—“It doesn’t quite jibe with my students’ vision of me,” admits Tom—they landed jobs in Washington, D.C., he at the prestigious St. Albans School and she at the nearby Beauvoir elementary school. “The entertainment person is similar to the politician in that they’re used to getting special attention,” explains Deedie. “And yet, underneath, they’re regular people with the same kinds of concerns that other parents have.”

A Harvard-Westlake student athlete.

Wealth, of course, is on prominent display at both schools. “What’s my big gripe? Tory Burch shoes,” says Deedie. “I have a couple of pairs, and I thought before buying them. And then you see this four-year-old in them, and you think, No! No!” And Hollywood is constantly bleeding into educational life: Harvard-Westlake has its own student film festival (it hosted director Paul Thomas Anderson in 2008). Last fall Juno director Jason Reitman, class of 1995, started a filmmaking lecture series, which kicked off with an appearance by Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody. “After my parents, Harvard-Westlake is most responsible for who I am today,” says Reitman.

And, as reported by the tabloids, Ashton Kutcher signed on last fall as Harvard-Westlake’s assistant freshman football coach. Paparazzi arrived in droves. “I’d never heard of the man until someone said, ‘We hired this guy because he was a friend of our coach,’” Tom says, insisting he’s out of the pop culture loop.

The Center, meanwhile, is often jokingly referred to as the Center for Early Entertainment. But Deedie claims to be equally difficult to impress. Asked whether Apple Martin, the daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, would be a shoo-in, Deedie laughs heartily: “No! None of it is automatic!”

Famous parents, Deedie says, are admitted into the community only if they’re “hands-on.” She will not deal with their assistants. “It’s one of my pet peeves,” she says. “If you’re a good parent, you should be the one finding out about the school.” A certain kind of celebrity can even be a demerit. A couple of years ago, paparazzi followed a couple through the gate. “It’s not the real reason we didn’t take them,” says Deedie, “but we did feel it would be disruptive.”

Predictably, parents with such vast resources come up with outlandish ways to make their children’s applications to the Center stand out. Recently Deedie received a movie treatment from a gay couple about their surrogacy. “I kept it in my pile of outrageous things,” she says, “but I actually liked it.”

“Deedie sees much more [Hollywood posturing] than I do,” Tom says. No one has ever sent him a mock script. “I’ve never met the parent of an eight-year-old that wasn’t going to be president of the United States,” he adds, explaining that by the time kids appear on his doorstep, their parents’ fantasies about them have faded somewhat. “It’s like buying a racehorse: In the beginning, you imagine it will be in the Kentucky Derby. [When kids are applying to the Center], the parents think their kid can do anything. By the time they’re applying to seventh grade, there’s a track record.” When it comes to Harvard-Westlake admissions, most parents know that no amount of sweet-talking or aggression can erase a less-than-stellar academic record.

In any case, like his wife, Tom has no interest in glamorous offerings or quid pro quos, even if two of the Hudnuts’ three children—Sarah, 35, an actress married to a movie producer, and Spencer, 32, a screenwriter who recently received an M.F.A. in producing—could benefit from them. “I’ve never played that card,” says Tom, reclining in his preppy academic’s office smack in the middle of Hollywood. “I am very New England Protestant when it comes to that kind of thing.”

 

Report: DISCIPLINE METHODS ENDANGER DISABLED/SPECIAL ED KIDS

by Joseph Shapiro | National Public Radio/Morning Edition | Broadcast Tuesday May 19, 2009

Listen Now [4 min 46 sec] add to playlist

Seven-year-old Angellika Arndt died in 2006 when she suffocated while being restrained by two adult staff at the Rice Lake Day Treatment Center in Wisconsin. Courtesy of the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse

Morning Edition, May 19, 2009 · A large number of schools use potentially dangerous methods to discipline children, particularly those with disabilities in special education classes, a report from Congress' investigative arm finds.

In some cases, the Government Accountability Office report notes, children have died or been injured when they have been tied, taped, handcuffed or pinned down by adults or locked in secluded rooms, often to be left for hours at a time.

The report looking at restraint and seclusion in schools will be released Tuesday at a hearing by the House Committee on Education and Labor. Committee Chairman George Miller, who asked for the GAO report, says it begins to give lawmakers a sense of the frequent use of those methods.

Only five states require schools to report when restraint and seclusion are used. The congressional investigatory group looked at records in two of them — Texas and California — and found that in the 2007-08 school year alone, there were more than 33,000 cases.

Many of the children have cognitive disabilities, mental health issues, autism, attention deficit disorder and other disabilities.

"This hearing," Miller says, "will show us is that, in fact, every year in schools in the United States, hundreds and hundreds of children are the victims of abuse, and in some cases I would say almost torture."

Some deaths have occurred when large adults pinned down agitated children to try to calm them but, instead, accidentally suffocated them. One 7-year old girl died that way in Wisconsin. She was restrained because she was fidgeting and blowing bubbles in her milk.

In another case, a 13-year-old boy left alone in a seclusion room hanged himself and died.

"I was also stunned by how young some of these children were: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 years old — some of whom had died," says Miller, a California Democrat. "And really, this is a very sad, a very tragic report."

Should Such Discipline Be Used?

Other recent reports by legal groups representing children with disabilities and their parents have shown the same problems. In January, the National Disability Rights Network reported that "children with disabilities are being victimized in our nation's schools at the hands of the professionals who are entrusted to keep them safe." And earlier this month, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates reported that in more than 70 percent of cases, families say they had not given teachers consent to use such discipline.

The issue has gotten the attention of the White House. On Monday, Kareem Dale, the White House assistant for disability policy, invited leaders of disability groups to the White House next Monday to discuss the issue.

Miller wants Congress to consider passing federal restrictions on the use of restraint and seclusion. And that raises the question: When — if ever — should such discipline be used?

Reece Peterson, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has looked at studies and says there's almost no data to suggest whether secluding or restraining children does any good.

But, he says, for the most part, educators agree that sometimes teachers need to seclude or restrain children who are at risk of hurting themselves or others.

"We wouldn't consider banning handcuffs altogether from the police department, I don't suppose. But yet we know that they can also be abused, and they are occasionally," says Peterson, who is scheduled to testify at the hearing. "So I think the issue is trying to ensure that they're only used to improve safety."

Teacher Training

Some groups that represent children with disabilities and their parents have called for a ban on the use of all restraints and seclusion. Barb Trader of TASH, a grass-roots advocacy group, notes that a growing number of school districts have reported success using alternative ways of dealing with problem behaviors.

The practice, called "positive behavior support," is "not rocket science," Trader says. The idea is to train teachers to recognize the things that agitate disabled children, especially ones that have difficulty speaking or communicating, and then act on the source of the problem.

"If you figure out what's causing the behavior in the first place," she says, "you can eliminate the cause or you can change the cause or you can structure the environment in such a way where the child won't have a need to exhibit the behavior."

For example, she says, "If a student gets hungry at quarter to 12 and they don't have verbal expression, and you don't know what's going on and then they act out because they're hungry, if you feed them at 11:30, then you've removed the cause for the behavior and the behavior doesn't exist. And we know that works because there's been lots and lots of research."

Teachers want more training in this kind of technique, says Lisa Thomas of the American Federation of Teachers, a teachers union with more than 1.4 million members.

"The ideal is to have school staff trained," says Thomas, "which means to go through role-play situations, going through crisis scenarios on how to handle students and de-escalate an explosive situation."

But because of school funding issues or unclear guidance for states and school districts, few teachers get this training — or get adequate training. "Sometimes, it's nothing more than a video and 15 to 30 minutes of conversations," says Thomas. "And I think many of them walk away hoping and praying they're never involved in those types of situations."

'He's Not An Animal'

In San Antonio, parent Annette Maldonado thinks her son's teachers need more training. In February, she got a call from the boy's middle school. She was told her 11-year-old son, Moses, was having a bad day and she needed to come pick him up. When she arrived, she passed by the office of the school's security officer. Inside, she saw Moses, handcuffed to a chair and crying.

"It really crushed me, broke my heart," Maldonado says. "Because he's not an animal. He's a human being."

Moses has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder. That day, he was removed from his special education classroom after he and his classmates were told to write letters to her about their poor behavior. When some of the students complained about the teacher in their letters, the assistant principal and school police officer were summoned to the classroom.

According to the school police report, Moses shouted to them, "You don't listen to us anyway," cursed, and threw a pen that landed harmlessly. The security officer took him out of the classroom and told him he wouldn't get the end-of-the-day snack of peanuts he usually got for good behavior.

The report says Moses became agitated. When he started hitting his head on a door hinge in her office, the security officer handcuffed him. The San Antonio Independent School District says that's the proper action when a child becomes a danger to himself or to others.

But Maldonado says she didn't see Moses banging his head, and his only visible injury was bruising and bleeding caused by the handcuffs. The security officer had to tighten them because Moses is so scrawny, he had slipped his hand out of the handcuffs.

This week, Moses is taking a bus across town to a new school.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104277070

GAO REPORT LINKS ACHIEVEMENT GAP AND ACCESS TO ARTS EDUCATION

Access to Arts Education: Inclusion of Additional Questions in Education's Planned Research Would Help Explain Why Instruction Time Has Decreased for Some Students

“Teachers at schools identified as needing improvement and those with higher percentages of minority students were more likely to report a reduction in time spent on the arts.”

 

GAO-09-286 February 27, 2009

Highlights Page (PDF)   Full Report (PDF, 48 pages)   Accessible Text Recommendations (HTML)

Summary

Under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), districts and schools must demonstrate adequate yearly progress (AYP) for all students. Because schools may spend more time improving students' academic skills to meet NCLBA's requirements, some are concerned that arts education might be cut back. To determine how, if at all, student access to arts education has changed since NCLBA, the Congress asked: (1) has the amount of instruction time for arts education changed and, if so, have certain groups been more affected than others, (2) to what extent have state education agencies' requirements and funding for arts education changed since NCLBA, (3) what are school officials in selected districts doing to provide arts education since NCLBA and what challenges do they face in doing so, and (4) what is known about the effect of arts education in improving student outcomes? GAO analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education (Education), surveyed 50 state arts officials, interviewed officials in 8 school districts and 19 schools, and reviewed existing research.

According to data from Education's national survey, most elementary school teachers--about 90 percent--reported that instruction time for arts education stayed the same between school years 2004-2005 and 2006-2007. The percentage of teachers that reported that instruction time had stayed the same was similarly high across a range of school characteristics, irrespective of the schools' percentage of low-income or minority students or of students with limited English proficiency, or the schools' improvement under NCLBA. Moreover, about 4 percent of teachers reported an increase. However, about 7 percent reported a decrease, and GAO identified statistically significant differences across school characteristics in the percentage of teachers reporting that the time spent on arts education had decreased. Teachers at schools identified as needing improvement and those with higher percentages of minority students were more likely to report a reduction in time spent on the arts. Because Education's survey did not include questions about why instruction time changed, GAO was not able to determine the reasons for the disparities its analysis identified. A new study of NCLBA implementation that Education plans to undertake may collect information on the uses of instruction time, among other topics. However, Education has not yet determined if it will collect information on the reasons instruction time changed for certain groups. While basic state requirements for arts education in schools have remained unchanged in most states, state funding levels for arts education increased in some states and decreased in others, according to GAO's survey of state arts officials. Arts education officials attributed the funding changes to state budget changes to a greater extent than they did to NCLBA or other factors. School principals have used several strategies to provide arts education; however, some struggled with decreased budgets and competing demands on instruction time, according to those GAO interviewed. Strategies for maintaining arts education include seeking funding and collaborative arrangements in the arts community. Competing demands on instruction time were due to state education agency or school district actions taken to meet NCLBA proficiency standards. Overall, research on the effect of arts education on student outcomes is inconclusive. Some studies that examined the effect of arts education on students' reading and math achievement found a small positive effect, but others found none.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director:
Team:
Phone:

Cornelia M. Ashby
Government Accountability Office: Education, Workforce, and Income Security
(202) 512-8403

Recommendations for Executive Action

Recommendation: To help identify factors that may contribute to changes in access to arts education for certain student subgroups, the Secretary of Education should require that the department's planned study of NCLBA implementation include questions in its surveys asking survey respondents to describe the reasons for any changes in instruction time they report. Once the information has been collected and analyzed, Education could disseminate it to school districts and schools to help them identify and develop strategies to address any disparities in access.
Agency Affected: Department of Education
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

PARENTS UNITED: LAUSD moms and dads are mad and not going to sit it out anymore

 

LA DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL \ LA Newspaper Group

5/12/2009 - IF there is a bright spot in the otherwise dark picture of public education and the Los Angeles Unified School District, it is the burgeoning activism of parents fed up with budget cuts that continually diminish the quality of schools.

A growing army of parents has begun to organize in response to the latest round of LAUSD cuts totaling $600 million, including planned layoffs of 3,000 teachers. They were moved by the prospect of what those cuts will mean to their children's education - larger class sizes and further reductions to physical education, music classes, field trips and all those other programs that round out a child's education.

Worse, seniority rules mean administrators and veteran teachers can bump newer teachers out of a job - meaning many schools will see an upheaval in staff next year.

Yet parents - and by extension, students - have had little say in budget discussions despite their obvious interest. No wonder they're angry.

But they've done something smart - turned their anger into action by staging protests, initiating letter drives and organizing marches. More rallies are being planned, including one on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento.

Right on.

School district leaders and politicians only seem to take the concerns of ordinary people seriously when they become persistent and noisy.

It's about time parents demand a greater role in L.A.'s public schools. Right now, administrators and public employee unions call the shots. It is essential that the strongest advocates for children - their parents - have an equal opportunity to influence decision-makers.

Too often parents have been passive participants in public education, content to let the bureaucrats, board members and teachers union decide how to run our schools.

And school districts have done little to encourage parental involvement, particularly at the LAUSD, where parents are forced to deal with a monster government agency and a maze of red tape. Even those dedicated parents who schlep downtown to LAUSD board meetings aren't guaranteed an opportunity to address the board.

Fortunately, there are signs that parents are beginning to hold greater sway in these important budget choices. School-site councils, made up of staff and parents, will make decisions on how to spend federal stimulus dollars. Parents will be able to decide whether to hire back teachers or reinstate certain programs with the money.

School districts and teachers should welcome greater parental activism. These moms and dads can be the best allies - they want more funding for schools and they want to keep good teachers in the classroom, and they're willing to march on Sacramento to make it happen.

GOVERNOR’S EDUCATION CUTS RANGE FROM BAD TO WORSE – O’Connell: “The proposals offer a choice between devastating and horrific cuts to public schools.”

Canan Tasci, Staff Writer | Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (LA Newspaper Group)

 

16 May | In a year when schools have been pummeled by budget cuts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed two budgets that will continue to eliminate money to the already struggling state education system.

The two proposals were released just days before Tuesday's special election as part of Schwarzenegger's May revision.

One plan is based on voter approval of Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E. The other proposal is based on the rejection of the ballot measures.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said the proposals offer a choice between devastating and horrific cuts to public schools.

"I am heartsick at the prospect that public schools in California are being asked to absorb between $800 million and $1.4 billion in the final month of the traditional school year, and then an additional

$1.6 billion to $4.2 billion in the next school year," O'Connell said.

"If approved, these proposed cuts would be added to the $11.6 billion in cuts to schools approved last February."

Thursday's budget proposal also detailed ways the state will try to close its $15.4 billion gap.

Both plans call for laying off thousands of state employees, cutting health-care programs for the poor, transferring up to 19,000 illegal-immigrant prisoners to federal custody and selling off state assets such as Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and San Quentin State Prison.

Local schools have anticipated the 2009-10 school year tocome with deep cuts, meaning school closures, teacher layoffs, freezing positions and program cuts.

The overall cuts to education didn't surprise Casey Cridelich, assistant superintendent of business at Ontario-Montclair School District.

"Not really - not when (Schwarzenegger) has been hammering on us this whole time. We knew what it was going to be like," Cridelich said. "It's better to go with the worst-case scenario, because if it does get better it's a surprise, like dodging a bullet."

What educators weren't expecting were cuts proposed to this school year, which is weeks away from ending.

"How do you cut a budget when you're already 90 percent into the year? It's just not a reasonable thing to do," said Bob Dalton, assistant superintendent of business services at the Rancho Cucamonga-based Central Elementary School District.

"But they're doing this because there is just nothing else they can do. We're way beyond the point of politics - this is a recession, and the state just doesn't have the money for funding."

Pomona Unified School District spokesman Tim McGillivray said he would like to see more solutions.

"To say the state has provided a solution with the budget being passed is not a solution, and I don't think the solution is cut more and tax more," McGillivray said. "There is something fundamentally wrong with the revenue collection and spending priorities in the state."

At this point, districts are left to dig into their reserves to make ends meet, Dalton said.

"You're nibbling and nibbling away at places where you don't want to go, but you're also left with no other choices, and believe me it's not like the districts even want to do that," he said.

O'Connell said schools will lose counselors, nurses and librarians. The school districts will also likely have to cut athletic programs as well as classes in art, music and career technical education.

The real question is how will schools survive the next year and following years, Dalton said.

Although the federal stimulus money - which districts expect to see in their accounts by the end of the month - will provide them with some flexibility, it may not be enough to soften the blow of the cuts.

"Education is 40 percent of the state's budget, so you know they're obviously going to have to cut from that," McGillivray said. "But California has to stop thinking this is sustainable for the future of the state. How far can we go in cutting education before damaging our future?"

Area educators had the same reaction as O'Connell to the governor's May budget revision - describing it as an already worst-case scenario getting worse.

"We share O'Connell's reaction because either proposal shows education is slated to sustain further cuts," said Lisa Rivero, director of categorical programs for the Fontana Unified School District.

"And it's the uncertainty that makes this difficult process more challenging. That uncertainty being where the additional cuts will come from and to what extent."

San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Gary Thomas said it will be extremely painful for school districts to make more cuts in this school year.

"I think the state has been moving in a very positive direction with student achievement and academic gains, and I fear these kinds of cuts will muddy that progress," he said.

"It will be very difficult for school districts to find these reductions without affecting the services and programs that are provided for the students."

California is already ranked 47th in per-pupil spending, with an average $7,571 per student in comparison with a national average of $9,961.

California trails most states in academic performance and suffers from high dropout rates.

Simply put, additional cuts to public education would be paralyzing, O'Connell said.

"We think about having a world-class education system," O'Connell said. "These cuts would bring us a Third World education system."

Staff writer Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell contributed to this report.

The news that doesn’t fit from May 17th

DREAMKEEPERS+TRUTHTELLERS: CALIFORNIA STATE PTA PRESIDENT PAM BRADY’S ADDRESS TO THE DELEGATES at the California State PTA Annual Convention
Sunday, May 17, 2009 12:43 AM
May 1, 2009 -- “There was a time when California was truly the Golden State; we understood that children were our No. 1 precious resource. In our Golden State there was a time when Californians recognized that a viable economy doesn’t just happen – you plan, strategize, and invest resources to build one. It is up to us to remind everyone that we must start with a vision and work together to make it happen. If we all pitch in and help, we can build the Golden State dream again. First, we need to look past our own discomfort and reach out and help others succeed. Because when we do that it comes back to us tenfold. There is a huge multiplying factor here that is capable of turning a state completely around. When the whole population joins together, we in turn build our internal capacity, and in the end, the state economy thrives. The essential ingredient in ensuring success is to ask ourselves if we have the will to make it happen. Do we have the will?”

AP/EIS ARE STILL BEING CUT: “A LOSE-LOSE PROPOSITION”
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 11:31 PM
On May 12, 2009, at 8:14 PM, a RIF'ed AP/EIS wrote:  This is a copy of a letter that I sent to the parents at my school. [Despite assurances to the contrary] AP/EIS's (Assistant Principal/ Elementary Instructional Specialist) are still being cut. There will not be enough of us to be effective. It's a lose/lose proposition.      4LAKids background: The LAUSD definition of the AP/EIS position:

Dan Walters: CALIFORNIA’S NEW DROPOUT RATE RENEWS OLD DEBATE
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 10:34 AM
The new dropout number, 20.1 percent, is an extrapolation of reports from schools, rather than hard computerized data, which won't be available for several more years.    By Dan Walters | Sacramento Bee Columnist  May. 13, 2009 -- Jack O'Connell, the state superintendent of schools, released the new high school dropout rate Tuesday, declaring it to be "a very slight improvement" over the

ESTIMATED HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATE RISES IN L.A. + STATE DATA SHOWS SLIGHT DIP IN DROPOUTS + CDE PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3:55 PM
Published : Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 1:51 PM PDT  Text story by City News Service from myFOXla.com  Los Angeles - The estimated four-year dropout rate for Los Angeles Unified School District high school students rose by more than 3 percent for the 2007-08 academic year, according to figures released today by the California Department of Education.   According to the CDE, the estimated rate of ninth-

RESTRAINING ORDER HALTS TEACHER’S STRIKE + UTLA RESPONSE
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3:40 PM
Judge halts teachers' strike  12:47 PM | May 12, 2009 | LA Times blog  A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has granted a restraining order prohibiting the city's teachers union from staging a one-day strike Friday.   L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said he was "elated" regarding the decision by Judge James C. Chalfant, which was issued moments ago.  "I’m hoping that this will provide the

The ‘L.A. Parents Union’ Reloaded: PARENTS ARE URGED TO DEMAND MORE FROM L.A. SCHOOLS: Green Dot charter operator Steve Barr wants to organize grass-roots power to improve public education.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 6:15 AM
Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times - Organizer Shirley Ford talks to a parent about the Parent Revolution as she distributes fliers outside Grand View Elementary in the Mar Vista neighborhood. [A photo accompanying this story for a brief period tonight was said to be of Steve Barr. It was not.]  By Howard Blume | LA Times      May 11, 2009 -- Risk-taking charter school operator Steve Barr is

NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS: May 9-11, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 6:09 AM
LOS ANGELES TIMES  A TIMES INVESTIGATION: Accused on complaints once police or prosecutors dropped criminal actions, leaving students vulnerable to molesters.  By Jason Song    May 10, 2009   The 13-year-old on the witness stand looked to be an ordinary adolescent, her diffident smile unveiling a set of braces. Her attorney began gently, with questions about her favorite band and trips to the

BACK TO THE SCHOOL GARDEN PARTY
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 4:02 PM
Our City of Angels gets a new one in the garden …and new gardens in schools!   Join LAUSD's School-District-Gardener-in-Residence Mud Baron, Nicole Richie, People Magazine and The New York Times (not, Mud assures 4LAKids, the four Horsepeople of the Post-Budget Crisis Apocalypse) at Bernstein High School on Tuesday, May 12 @ 10AM   They're launching the (almost defunct) LAUSD SCHOOL GARDEN

DREAMKEEPERS+TRUTHTELLERS: CALIFORNIA STATE PTA PRESIDENT PAM BRADY’S ADDRESS TO THE DELEGATES at the California State PTA Annual Convention

 

May 1, 2009 -- Good morning. Thank you for taking the time to come to convention!

With each day as your state president, I have become even more grateful for each of you. It has been an honor and privilege to serve as the President of the California State PTA. I have been so proud of the state Board of Directors, the entire Board of Managers and our staff, who have worked so hard this year to raise the visibility of our organization and to listen to your concerns, so we could do a better job for you and help you achieve more at your PTA site.

Throughout my term I have had the opportunity to travel up, down and around the state of California. This has given me the chance to meet with the heart of PTA … and the heart of PTA is our membership. Our members – yes, that includes each of you – who are so willing to give your precious time for the children of California. I ask you, what could have more heart than that? I look around convention and I realize that I have had the opportunity to meet and speak with many of you. You keep me real. You need to know that you absolutely inspire me. You inspire me with your dedication and commitment to children. You inspire me because even though times are tough, you each continue to fight for children!

Our journey in PTA began a lot alike. Mine was when our eldest child boldly raised his hand in kindergarten and said, “My mom will do it.” Have you been there? So then, he comes home all enthusiastic to tell me (or you –because some of you have been there) what he has promised the teacher we will do by tomorrow. Looking into those hopeful eyes, we have lost the battle. There is NO way I or you are going to disappoint this child. And so the PTA journey began. First, with us wanting to make a difference for our own. And then the PTA path led you and me to wanting the same for all children.

My faith in PTA is steadfast. PTA is a remarkable volunteer organization. For more than 112 years PTA has given countless hours willingly to benefit all children. We must ensure our voice for children continues to be even stronger in the future. The best way we can do that is for each of us to commit to bringing in new members. There are people who tell me there are some units that only send in 15 members’ names because that is all we ask for to start a unit. We cannot fall into the pit on focusing on numbers. This is about voices for children. More voices for children at your local schools, more voices for children in California speaking on behalf of children. We need to continue to revitalize this organization and bring in new voices. We need to ensure that the voices we bring into PTA actually represent the diversity of the children we serve. It will only be through our continued outreach and willingness to speak up on crucial issues that we can ensure we will be known as the largest and most dedicated volunteer go-to children’s organization in California. We must remind people that by joining PTA, they inherit a rich history of volunteer advocacy. By joining PTA they have a greater opportunity to have a significant impact on children’s issues at the local, state, and national level. By joining PTA, they ensure we have many voices speaking together on behalf of children. PTA is our vehicle for being heard on children’s issues.

What a term we have all had! I don't have to remind you that as a state we're in the midst of incredibly challenging times. Our economy is struggling, parents and families are working harder than ever to make ends meet. Our children's future and California's future are threatened by deep budget cuts to education and other services. We have all answered the challenge by adding more to our plates, and collectively we have raised our voices to speak up to protect children and those issues that affect them. We see unemployment skyrocketing to the point that it is the highest it has been in California in 25 years. The state budget is in a downward slide, and still the hopes and dreams of children remain at the forefront of our volunteer work. We understand our responsibility.

Children have hopes and dreams for the future, and they are counting on the adults in our society to help them achieve them. So, I see each PTA member throughout California as a dream-keeper! It is up to each of us to dedicate our time and energy to ensure all children have the opportunity to reach their greatest potential. Together, we must continue to send our message by making the connection between a viable economy and investing in our children. It is not just coincidence that during the years that California invested less money in education and services that support our children our great state fell from fifth to seventh and now eighth position as a global economy. There is a direct relationship between investing in children and building a viable economy. Children of today are the workforce of tomorrow. It is not OK to let more children fall between the cracks. It is not OK to let more children go hungry. And it is not OK that the great state of California is willing to balance its budget by putting a whole generation of children at risk.

We are not only the dream-keepers for children; we also have the responsibility to be the truth-tellers. We must be willing to stand up and shout. We must be willing to speak up when it might not be popular to do so and ensure that everyone, especially our legislators, understand that the relationship between cutting services for children and education actually carries a greater cost to society. Remind them about the simple math: Over time as we cut programs or attempt to save money in education, we drive expenses up by 1,000 percent to 2,000 percent in other areas of the budget. Unemployment rates soar, homelessness increases, social services costs rise, and there is a higher demand for police services in our local communities, along with escalating prison populations and associated costs. If that were not enough, it also creates a burden on emergency medical services as families who are without health care insurance will postpone treatment and, only as a last resort, they access care in our emergency centers at an astronomical cost. The cycle continues into the classroom as children with illnesses miss more and more school and fall further and further behind and require a multitude of supplemental educational services, until finally many just give up and leave school. We can do better than that! So, after reminding legislators of the math, bring them back to the fact that this is not a numbers-only game. We are dealing with lives; we are dealing with the hopes and dreams of our children; we are speaking about the future of California!

There was a time when California was truly the Golden State; we understood that children were our No. 1 precious resource. In our Golden State there was a time when Californians recognized that a viable economy doesn’t just happen – you plan, strategize, and invest resources to build one. It is up to us to remind everyone that we must start with a vision and work together to make it happen. If we all pitch in and help, we can build the Golden State dream again. First, we need to look past our own discomfort and reach out and help others succeed. Because when we do that it comes back to us tenfold. There is a huge multiplying factor here that is capable of turning a state completely around. When the whole population joins together, we in turn build our internal capacity, and in the end, the state economy thrives. The essential ingredient in ensuring success is to ask ourselves if we have the will to make it happen. Do we have the will?

It is easy to get lost in the negativism. It is easy to say I am just one person … what can I do? But you must never doubt for a minute that your individual power does make a difference. There is really only one thing that stops any of us; it is our own negative thoughts. When we tell ourselves over and over, we can’t do it, and when we don’t believe we make a difference, we stop ourselves from moving forward. The same is true for the positive, when we believe we move forward. We hold our own power to make a difference. Our own PTA founders knew the power of believing that you could make a difference. They quickly learned that additional strength and power occurred when you increased your numbers. PTA is the power of working together. PTA members make a difference by keeping their eye on what is important. We are the hope for an entire generation of children.

From my heart, thank you for staying strong this year, thank you for your dedication, and thank you for staying focused on the children. PTA members are the children’s dream-keepers, we are also their truth-tellers, and together we have the collective power to make a difference and change the future! The heart of PTA is its membership, and together we have the faith, vision, and tenacity to create a new day for California. A day where we can ensure we live in a state that values our most precious resource … our children.

AP/EIS ARE STILL BEING CUT: “A LOSE-LOSE PROPOSITION”

 

On May 12, 2009, at 8:14 PM, a RIF'ed AP/EIS wrote:

This is a copy of a letter that I sent to the parents at my school. [Despite assurances to the contrary] AP/EIS's (Assistant Principal/ Elementary Instructional Specialist) are still being cut. There will not be enough of us to be effective. It's a lose/lose proposition.

4LAKids background: The LAUSD definition of the AP/EIS position:

• The position of Assistant Principal/Elementary Instructional Specialist (AP/EIS) is an intervention brought about by the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) initiative to address the way special education services are delivered to children in LAUSD's elementary schools.
• Further, the District addressed the interventions that are undertaken to address the educational needs of at-risk students.

Dear Parents:

Have you ever had a concern about your child's speech, motor skills, socialization, or academic development?

Has your child's teacher ever come to you and expressed concerns over their school performance?

If you've had these concerns, you usually come to me to address the issues and to find out how to solve potential problems.

The procedure is to convene an SST or Student Success Team meeting where we discuss these issues and find solutions. If this new plan goes through to split assistant principals between two or more schools, I will no longer be available to do those meetings. Classroom interventions, such as scheduling teacher assistants in the specific classrooms based on the students, will become a thing of the past.

Does your child have special needs? Addressing those special needs through an IEP, (Individualized Educational Program) will be seriously compromised. At (our school) , we've been 100% compliant in all areas of special education because of a wonderful team of support personnel, such as our school psychologist, speech teacher, occupational therapist, adapted P.E. teacher, and resource staff.

I coordinate that team, but I won't be at (our school) to work on that as consistently.

IEP compliance is seriously in jeopardy, but more importantly, your students may not receive services that are necessary to their educational success. In short, if this plan goes through to split my position, children will suffer because they won't be able to receive the appropriate educational services that are necessary for their success.

Please take some time to email the following people. If your child already receives special education services, tell them that. It's very important that they hear from the people who will be most directly affected by this change.

ramon.cortines@lausd.net donnalyn.anton@lausd.net marlene.canter@lausd.net richard.vladovic@lausd.net marguerite.lamotte@lausd.net

monica.garcia@lausd.net tamar.galatzan@lausd.net yolie.flores.aguilar@lausd.net julie.korenstein@lausd.net

Thank you.

JOURNALISTS HEAR STIMULUS CONCERNS + STIFLING THE STIMULUS

 

	“Frankly, the Administration has not always been clear enough or vocal enough about whether their priority was jobs and economic stimulus or reform and improvement. And no one has clearly said what they expect schools to accomplish with the funds after two years.” Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools
	“Even the most savvy local school officials are perplexed by mixed messages from federal and state levels on how the stimulus money can be used.    Local school districts are also getting mixed messages about whether they should be using the funds to promote school reforms or save jobs and stimulate the economy.” Jeff Simering, Director of Legislation OF THE Council of Great City Schools

 

JOURNALISTS HEAR STIMULUS CONCERNS

from the May '09 Urban Educator | Council of Great City Schools

In Meeting to Track Education Aid News reporters covering education heard concerns about the distribution of economic stimulus funds to local school districts at the Education Writers Association conference held recently in the nation’s capital.

It’s not clear how much of the $40 billion education portion of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund of the federal stimulus package will be diverted by the states to fill their own budget gaps, Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, told the education journalists.

“State after state have been lowering their overall spending levels down to the Fiscal Year ’06 levels based on the amounts of resources they expect to get from the stimulus,” he stressed.

Casserly maintained that some states are indicating they will use the stabilization dollars to backfill their own budget deficits, replenish state pension systems – or even provide tax cuts to their citizenry.

“It is not clear that this is illegal, but it is clearly not consistent with the spirit of the law,” he emphasized, noting that the U.S. Department of Education’s threats to withhold the second half of the stimulus money are probably not enforceable.

As a result, most city school districts are now assuming that they won’t receive much stabilization dollars, he contends.

Casserly was one of three panelists to discuss “Tracking the Stimulus,” a conference session moderated by USA TODAY education reporter Greg Toppo. Education writers from across the nation packed the room to learn more about how to monitor the distribution and use of the $100 billion in federal stimulus money for elementary, secondary and higher education.

OTHER ISSUES

Of the other funds to be distributed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law in February, Casserly pointed out that the city school districts will probably receive most of the stimulus funds through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Although Title I and IDEA programs are highly regulated, there are some atgrade point averages, college readiness and attendance, and assume leadership roles in their schools and communities. tempts by states to cut funds in the amounts of those allocations, said Casserly.

“Ultimately, most of these funds should make it to the local level, but neither Congress nor the [Obama] Administration has been very eager to grant flexibility in their use,” he continued, indicating the highly restrictive provisions on the use of Title I and IDEA funds.

Moreover, Casserly said that many local school districts are confused by how to use the stimulus funds. “Frankly, the Administration has not always been clear enough or vocal enough about whether their priority was jobs and economic stimulus or reform and improvement [in school districts],” he argued. “And no one has clearly said what they expect schools to accomplish with the funds after two years.”

But Casserly noted that at least the dollar amounts are clearer under Title I and IDEA than most parts of the stimulus bill passed by Congress.

He said that many of the big-city school districts are planning expenditures using stimulus funds within the “narrow confines” of the Title I and IDEA provisions to build capacity, institute one-time activities and reform practices.

The Council of the Great City Schools is collecting data on stimulus money being received and how funds will be used, and advising and counseling its member districts on how to best use the funds effectively, wisely and transparently.

Casserly said that he knows urban school districts are building some of their planned Title I and IDEA expenditures around early childhood education, extended day, weekend and summer programs, and teacher incentives to work in hard-to-staff schools among a host of other activities to boost student achievement and reform efforts.

STIFLING THE STIMULUS

By Jeff Simering, Director of Legislation | Council of Great City Schools (from the May Urban Educator)

If “too many cooks will spoil the broth,” then maybe “too many government officials can stifle the stimulus.” After winding its way through Congress and the federal executive branche; funneling through the states; and trickling down to the local level (something that still has not happened yet), the actual assistance provided by the education stimulus package appears less sizable or flexible than what many local school officials originally anticipated.

Topping the list of local school frustrations is the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, the largest single source of federal education aid in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Big-city school officials are reporting that some states are lowering state education aid beyond what is necessary in anticipation of replacing these state funds with federal stabilization aid. The “supplanted” state educationfunds are then slated for other purposes, including state pension systems or even the state “rainy day” fund. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Education has yet to prohibit such “Bait and Switch” tactics regarding the State Stabilization Fund, a situation that could result in many local school systems effectively getting no additional funds at all.

To cope with losses in state and local revenue, school districts are particularly eager to have maximum flexibility in the use of remaining dollars to push their reforms forward. With the “gaming” of the $40 billion Education Stabilization Fund in some states, school districts have turned their attention to the flexibility provided under the 2004 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The amendments allowed school districts to use half of their annual IDEA funding increases to supplant local efforts. This would free up some $11 billion to be used more flexibly. Thousands of school districts—including the majority of school districts in some states—may be precluded from using this provision, however, by the Department of Education because of how it is being interpreted by agency staff.

Finally, even the most savvy local school officials are perplexed by mixed messages from federal and state levels on how the stimulus money can be used. Over $25 billion of the education stimulus funds are categorical in nature—Title I and IDEA—and retain most of their current requirements and regulations. Unfortunately, these stimulus funds are being subjected to the same type of inconsistent, restrictive, and questionable state guidance that typically frustrates local officials in dealing with any federal aid. Local plans to extend the school day in certain Title I low-performing schools, for example, have been stifled by state directives.

Local school districts are also getting mixed messages about whether they should be using the funds to promote school reforms or save jobs and stimulate the economy. It is possible to do some of both, of course, but the task is made more difficult without the flexibility.

Everyone is watching closely to see how the ARRA funds will be used in the nation’s schools, but the ultimate impact of the stimulus initiative may be affected as much by state and federal regulators as it will by local level educators.

Dan Walters: CALIFORNIA’S NEW DROPOUT RATE RENEWS OLD DEBATE

The new dropout number, 20.1 percent, is an extrapolation of reports from schools, rather than hard computerized data, which won't be available for several more years.

By Dan Walters | Sacramento Bee Columnist

May. 13, 2009 -- Jack O'Connell, the state superintendent of schools, released the new high school dropout rate Tuesday, declaring it to be "a very slight improvement" over the previous year.

The new number, however, merely provides new grist for the never-ending debate over how well – or how poorly – our schools are performing their basic function of getting kids through 12 years of education with a meaningful diploma in their hands.

O'Connell acknowledged that the new dropout number, 20.1 percent, is an extrapolation of reports from schools, rather than hard computerized data, which won't be available for several more years. And it's markedly lower than the numbers generated by outside researchers and critics.

A Harvard University study a few years ago, for instance, found that 29 percent of California's high schoolers fail to graduate. Alan Bonsteel of California Parents for Educational Choice, a persistent critic of the state's methodology, puts the current number at 29.3 percent and says it rises above one-third when middle-school dropouts are included.

The situation in the immense Los Angeles Unified School District, which handles more than 10 percent of the state's 6 million K-12 students, illustrates the uncertainty.

The California Dropout Research Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, tabbed L.A. Unified's dropout rate at more than 50 percent, but the district paid for its own research last year and claimed it was under 26 percent – a few days before O'Connell's department placed it at 33.6 percent, a number later revised to 31.7 percent. The new state data placed LAUSD's dropout rate at 34.7 percent.

Authorities generally agree that 65 percent to 70 percent of California's ninth-graders obtain diplomas three years later (the new state figure is 68.3 percent) and at least 20 percent of them are dropouts. The debate is what happens to the other 10 percent to 15 percent.

Some clearly obtain diplomas or their equivalent later, a few die and some transfer to private schools or those in other states, but the full picture is still cloudy.

There's also broad agreement that the dropout problem, whatever its true dimensions, is concentrated in a relative handful of the state's 2,000-plus high schools. UC Santa Barbara researchers say 100 high schools, most of them in Los Angeles and other urban centers, account for 40 percent of dropouts.

Finally, we know that there are huge ethnic and racial differences, what O'Connell calls the "achievement gap." The state's new data peg the Asian American dropout rate at about 9 percent, with Filipinos at 10.6 percent, whites at 13.3 percent, Pacific Islanders at 24.8 percent, Latinos at 26.7 percent, Native Americans at 28.1 percent and African Americans at 35.8 percent.

What we don't know is what to do about the dropout rate, whatever it may be, especially since the state is mired in a perpetual budget crisis and is looking at reducing state school aid even more.