AB 817: AN ATTACK ON STUDENT PRIVACY RIGHTS – EVEN BEFORE THEY TAKE EFFECT!

By smf for 4LAKidsNews

18 April 2015 :: EdWeek reports that a spate of recent laws and policies intended to better protect the privacy of students' sensitive information don't go nearly far enough, according to researchers concerned about commercialization in public education. | http://bit.ly/1DmlO96

"Computer technology has made it possible to aggregate, collate, analyze, and store massive amounts of information about students," according to a new report from the National Education Policy Center, based at the University of Colorado, in Boulder.

"This has opened opportunities for private vendors to access student information and share it with others. Further, the computerization of student work offers opportunities for companies that provide education technology and educational applications to obtain and pass on to third parties information about students."

The report, titled "ON THE BLOCK: STUDENT DATA AND PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE” |http://bit.ly/1OrYxsK   is the latest in a series from the NEPC on "schoolhouse commercializing trends." The group has consistently released reports critical of the private sector's role in public education.

“A trifecta of laws passed in California— especially the Student Online and Personal Information and Protection Act, or SOPIPA—were praised by the National Education Policy Council for their expansive definition of the student data to be protected and their restrictions on commercial use of student information.”

BUT THERE IS ALREADY LEGISLATION from $pecail intere$ts in the hopper in Sacramento to limit SOPIPA. To amend it into squishy meaninglessness.

Here are comments from an authority on online student privacy – culled from an email, his first+best appraisal of recent amendments to AB 817, not his last+final word. As a work in process I cloak the writer in anonymity:

“As amended, AB 817 would severely limit SOPIPA by creating broad exemptions to the definition of “K-12 school purposes.

• These exemptions would leave sensitive student information vulnerable to privacy and security risks.
• They would mean numerous operators collecting sensitive student information from students in schools are no longer subject to SOPIPA.
• ·It would also vastly limit the sensitive student “covered information” protected by SOPIPA.

“Our students’ privacy and safety is not served by taking these broad categories of activities and exempting them from SOPIPA. Any app designed to help a student with helping K-12 students outside the classroom—or even standard school hours—could be considered an “extracurricular educational” product. “Enrichment opportunities” could be limitless. The law has not even gone into effect, but already it appears that certain players are looking for loopholes and ways out.

“These exemptions could give companies license to market to our students in schools and eliminate protections California decided to put in place for our students’ sensitive personal information. This is an example of precisely the kinds of results SOPIPA was designed to prohibit. Students deserve the school zone to be a privacy zone, a trusted environment where they can focus on learning.”

• AB 817 Assembly Bill – AMENDED |  http://bit.ly/1JUeIhO

BURBANK SCHOOL BOARD HIRES HILL ON 4-0 VOTE, BUT NOT BEFORE BOARD MEMBER KEMP SCOLDS TEACHERS, RESIGNS AND WALKS OUT OF MEETING

by Kelly Corrigan | The Burbank Leader – an LA Times publication | http://bit.ly/1CWZrGV

Before the Burbank Unified school board hired new superintendent Matt Hill Thursday - despite opposition from teachers - board member Dave Kemp, himself a former BUSD teacher, tendered his resignation, said he was "appalled" by the teachers' behavior and walked out of the meeting.

April 17, 2015 | 8:29 a.m.  ::  During a heated meeting packed with teachers who opposed the Burbank school board’s proposed choice for the district’s next superintendent, the board made the hire in a 4-0 vote Thursday, but not before longtime board member and retired teacher Dave Kemp submitted his immediate resignation and walked out of City Council chambers,  saying he was ashamed of the teachers’ behavior.

Matt Hill, who replaces current Supt. Jan Britz, will begin his new post on July 1.

Many teachers, along with parents, who filled council chambers Thursday night, spoke against Hill’s hiring, in part, because he does not have any teaching experience or credentials. They also pointed to his role in a $130 million implementation of a student management system that failed at Los Angeles Unified, where he had two years remaining on his contract as LAUSD's chief strategy officer.

“I can hardly tell you how disappointed I am in the board tonight for putting us and the community in this position,” said Lori Adams, president of the Burbank Teachers’ Assn. during the public comment portion of the meeting.

She encouraged board members to continue their search for an “experienced” superintendent to guide the 15,000-student district, winning applause from fellow teachers.

A few days earlier, the teachers’ union asked the L.A. County district attorney's office to look into possible violations of the state's open meeting law, the Brown Act, regarding the potential hiring of Hill as the new superintendent.

District officials reported that Hill had been selected as a finalist for the position on March 15, but nothing was reported out of closed session from that day's meeting. Public officials are allowed to discuss certain matters behind closed doors — including personnel matters — but votes are required to be reported in the open afterward.

Under the Brown Act, actions taken in violation of the law are voided.

In response to the union’s allegations, school board member Larry Applebaum said the district has been “overly transparent,” and when two former superintendents, Greg Bowman and Stan Carrizosa, were hired, their contracts were not made public until the meeting where they were offered a job.

During the meeting on Thursday night, Burbank High teacher Diana Abasta said Hill’s contract, which includes a $241,000 base salary, was an “insult.”

“I have never been so disheartened,” she told the board. “And you make me feel that it’s not good enough to be a teacher because you can bring someone in without any experience.”

Many also had issue with Hill’s salary, which totals about $36,000 more than what is paid to Britz, who took the district’s helm in 2012 and whose salary was raised to $205,000 last year from $190,000.

“This is one of those times I feel you guys are making a serious mistake,” high school teacher Jerry Mullady said.

Also in the audience was a Burbank police officer in uniform, which is not typical during Burbank school board meetings.

A few people pleaded with the board to hold off on voting until two newly elected board members — Steve Ferguson and Armond Aghakhanian, who are expected to take their oath of office in early May — have time to weigh in on the hiring process.

The current board, however, began deliberating over the next superintendent in November after Britz announced in October she would retire at the end of this school year, after 40 years in education and about a decade at Burbank Unified.

“Common Core’s all about evidence and argument,” said Burroughs High teacher, Jill Sullivan. “Make your case. What has Mr. Hill done that is so special to you?”

However, before they offered their insight, Kemp, a board member for 12 years and a teacher in the district for many more years, stepped down from the dais and walked up to the podium as the teachers had, speaking during the public comment session not as a board member, he said, but as a citizen.

Because Kemp did not seek re-election this year, the night was his final meeting as a board member, along with board member Ted Bunch, who also did not seek reelection.

“I am absolutely appalled and ashamed by [this] mob mentality,” Kemp said during his seven-minute address to the teachers.

“This is unsuitable. And I am so unhappy that so many of my former colleagues decided how I’m going to vote on this situation,” he said, adding that he’s been “raked over the coals” over Hill’s potential hire.

Even so, as he did during Tuesday’s three-hour public forum with Hill, Kemp spoke in support of Hill, 38, describing him as “a terrific young man.”

“I’m so ashamed of the people I always thought were such good friends and former colleagues that meant so much to me, that at this time, I can no longer be a part of this. I’m tendering my resignation to Dr. Britz,” he said.

He then picked up his belongings, handed Britz a yellow slip of paper and walked out of the chambers.

Shortly after, school board President Roberta Reynolds called for a brief break, and within 10 minutes, the meeting resumed — without Kemp — for additional public comments.

Then Ted Bunch, who has also served on the board for a dozen years, said he empathized with Kemp’s reaction.

“He feels betrayed by you,” he said. “I can understand why Dave said, ‘The hell with it and walked out.’ You have no confidence in us. You listen to what the union says and you eat it up like it’s steak.”

Fellow board members went on to offer their insight into choosing Hill as a finalist after a national search that brought the board a total of 18 candidates, which they whittled down to five to interview.

“If you think that I have not spent dozens and dozens and dozens of hours going through binders this thick of people’s qualifications, doing due diligence and doing vetting… I didn’t just leave it to a search firm to do it,” board member Applebaum said. “I want somebody who’s going to lead the entire district to greatness. I believe Mr. Hill could.”

Fellow school board member Charlene Tabet said she was looking for a leader “who wasn’t just what we’ve always had,” adding that Hill “made me feel I needed to be a better board member if he was going to be our superintendent.”

Tabet said she thinks Hill could facilitate employees’ growth as well.

Out of the candidate pool, Reynolds said Hill stood out “with something different” than the others. “And honestly, I don’t think I’ve slept for four weeks because the decision is that important,” she said.

Board members noted that Hill would have a three-year contract and no cellphone or auto stipend, but they did not elaborate on their reasoning for setting Hill’s salary at $241,000.

After casting their vote approving his hire, the school board invited Hill to take the podium, at which point -- before he began speaking -- Adams and dozens of others, many of them teachers, abruptly left the chambers, leaving about 25 people who stayed.

“Tonight, even though it’s so difficult to have this experience, it means something that I knew when I started researching Burbank,” Hill said. "Every single person in this room tonight, and probably at home, has a deep conviction and passion for students. And this work is so challenging that we get emotional. It’s personal, and it should be because it’s every single one of our responsibilities to help those children.”

Hill recalled that when he first met Kemp, he said Kemp told him he wouldn't vote for him because teachers and others stated in early feedback that they wanted the next district chief to have been a teacher and a superintendent.

“But you know what he did? What we should do for every single human being? He said, ‘There’s something in you that I believe in. I’m going to hear you out. I’m going to listen. I’m going to give you a chance,’” Hill said.

“I didn’t know how he was going to vote today. He told me initially he wasn’t going to vote for me. Maybe he would have, maybe he wouldn’t. I don’t know,” Hill added. “The biggest disappointment I had today, and we’ll move on from it — we have to make sure that we do something different as a community, is we give every student and every adult an opportunity, and when they fail, we pick them up together. I am here to help, to lead, to serve, and I want to thank the board for seeing what’s in me and helping me realize the leader I can be.”

The board continued with its regular meeting, and adjourned about 12:15 a.m.

Video of Board of Ed Meeting: BURBANK HIRES CONTROVERSIAL NEW SUPERINTENDENT

Matt Hill to be paid $241,ooo – current superintendent’s salary is $205,000 and started at $185,000

from schoolhouselive | http://bit.ly/1NYAirb

Watch live streaming video from schoolhouselive at livestream.com

STUDENTS WOULD BENEFIT IF LAUSD KEPT CURRICULUM, PEARSON EXEC SAYS. Sir Michael Barber: “It’s a brilliant product”

By Howard Blume | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1FStDF9

17 April 2015  ::  A top official from Pearson said Thursday that students would benefit if the Los Angeles Unified School District continued to use its curriculum on iPads and other computers.

The school district this week demanded a refund for the curriculum, which was part of a now-abandoned $1.3-billion effort to provide an iPad to every student, teacher and administrator in the nation’s second-largest school system.

Pearson, as a subcontractor to Apple, provided digital math and English course materials.

<< Sir Michael Barber, a top Pearson executive, says his company's digital curriculum could transform education in Los Angeles. (Pearson)

“First of all, I think it’s a brilliant product,” said Sir Michael Barber, the chief education advisor at Pearson. Barber called the Pearson system innovative and explicitly tied to new learning standards adopted by California and 42 other states.

“It’s got that emphasis on depth of learning as well as coverage,” he said. “You have to learn the ideas and then apply the ideas.”

L.A. Unified bought 43,261 iPads with the Pearson curriculum. The curriculum added about $200, for a three-year license, to the $768 price for each device. (The district purchased another 77,175 iPads under the contract without the Pearson curriculum to be used initially for state standardized tests.)

The iPad effort in L.A. Unified faltered from the start. Currently, the FBI is investigating the bidding process and the SEC has launched an informal inquiry into whether the district complied with legal guidelines in the use of bond funds for the devices and curriculum.

Pearson offered only a partial curriculum during the first year of the license, which was permitted under the agreement.

The product has not caught on in L.A. Unified. Only two schools of 69 with the devices use Pearson regularly, according to an internal March report from project director Bernadette Lucas.

The report cited a litany of complaints, including content that could not be fully adapted for students with limited English skills, a large group in L.A. Unified. The district also claims the curriculum lacks important features such as online tests and data on how and when students are using it. Another problem has been getting access to the online curriculum quickly and consistently.

"Any given class typically experiences one problem or more daily,” Lucas wrote in the report. "Teachers report that the students enjoy the interactive content -- when it's available. When it's not, teachers and students try to roll with the interruptions to teaching and learning as best they can."

The district characterized Apple and Pearson as insufficiently responsive to these problems.

Barber acknowledged that there have been difficulties and said that Pearson, Apple and the district shared responsibility as partners in the effort. But he added that Pearson is willing to work through such issues, and that students would benefit if the district stayed the course.

With such sweeping change, "you’re going to have glitches. You’re going to run into challenges," he said. In the long run, he predicted, Pearson’s product could help "transform teaching and learning."

"Once you get used to using these materials," he said, students and teachers will find them "very engaging, very empowering."

He added that the company is committed to making its materials prove themselves.

“All of our products should be judged by their impact on learner outcomes, not just their financial outcomes,” he said.

School board member Steve Zimmer, for one, was not ready to reconsider the district’s refund demand.

“Very simply, it’s not good. It’s not easy to use,” he said of the Pearson product in a Thursday interview on KCRW. “Give the taxpayers their money back.”

_______________________

• Some light reading: “Top Ten Scariest People in Education Reform: #7 – Sir Michael Barber, CEA Pearson” http://bit.ly/1yC6UjB
• A little heaver reading: ‘The Incomplete Guide to Delivering Learning Outcomes’, outlines Pearson’s own efficacy programme and shares the company’s strategy and initiatives in its first phase. The report is authored by Pearson’s Chief Education Advisor, Sir Michael Barber, and SVP of Efficacy, Saad Rizvi, with a foreword from former Pearson Chief Executive Dame Marjorie Scardino*.   Download ‘The Incomplete Guide to Delivering Learning Outcomes’ as a PDF.

_______________

* Of “John+Marjorie” fame:

"Looking forward to further work together for our youth in Los Angeles!" Deasy wrote to Marjorie Scardino, then Pearson's CEO, on Tuesday, May 22, 2012, after hearing an initial pitch over lunch.

"Dear John, It's I who should thank you," Scardino replied. "I really can't wait to work with you."  | http://bit.ly/1qgNKIl

 

Or quoting my favorite source, me: THEN, AT ABOUT 10:20 ON FRIDAY AM [Aug 22, 2014]  KPCC reporter Annie Gilbertson began reading some e-mails on the radio from folks at Pearson and LAUSD to each other – emails from a year before the iPads RFP was issued.

Reading emails on the radio. Who knew who entertaining that could be?

From Pearson CEO Dame Marjorie Scardino, DBE to LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, PhD on May 22, 2012: “My mind was racing all weekend, and I was so impressed by your intelligent and committed and brave hold on the moving parts of the opportunity. I really can’t wait to work with you. I would love to think that we could together do this so well that in your Sunday visits to prisons you won’t see one person who has been educated in LAUSD; rather, you’ll be meeting them as teachers, as contractors, as bankers (well, maybe not bankers), as poets all round the city.”

The gush seems like pre-coital sexting. I didn’t know whether to turn up the radio or stay tuned for the bodice ripping and the “Ooh John…, Ooh Marjorie…” There must be special pages in the Kama Sutra for folks with honorifics after their names. | http://bit.ly/1tKo33m

3 new stories: L.A. SCHOOLS iPAD PROGRAM SUBJECT OF INQURY BY SEC

• "The particular use of the bond proceeds is not material” (to investors), the district wrote.

• Contract between LAUSD and Apple not being examined, only financials.

 

SEC launches informal inquiry into LAUSD's use of bonds for iPads

Students at Theodore Roosevelt High School received iPads as part of LAUSD's Common Core Technology Project. (Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times)

By Howard Blume | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1CUdjDd

17 April 2015 | 3AM  ::  The federal SEC has opened an informal inquiry into LAUSD's use of bonds for its iPad project

The federal Securities and Exchange Commission recently opened an informal inquiry into whether Los Angeles school officials complied with legal guidelines in the use of bond funds for the now-abandoned $1.3-billion iPads-for-all project.

In particular, the agency was concerned with whether the L.A. Unified School District properly disclosed to investors and others how the bonds would be used, according to documents provided to The Times.

District officials said they were optimistic that they had addressed the SEC concerns.

The news of the SEC inquiry came the same week that L.A. Unified officials demanded a refund from computer giant Apple over curriculum supplied on the devices by Pearson, which sells education services and materials worldwide. Pearson was a subcontractor to Apple under a contract approved by the Board of Education in June 2013.

That fall, problems immediately plagued the rollout of devices to campuses, and questions soon arose about whether Apple or Pearson had an unfair advantage in the bidding process. An ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI is looking into that matter. Current and former district officials have denied any wrongdoing.

Apple has not responded to requests for comment. Pearson has consistently defended its actions, including on Thursday, when top executive Michael Barber said that L.A. students would benefit if the district stayed the course with the company's product.

The SEC declined to comment and does not, by policy, confirm or deny investigations. L.A. Unified acknowledged meeting with an agency attorney.

The federal agency is charged with protecting investors and maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets. Its enforcement division frequently looks into "misrepresentation or omission of important information about securities," according to the commission.

With the help of an outside law firm, L.A. Unified prepared a presentation, dated March 31, that outlined measures it took to inform the public and potential investors about how the taxpayer-approved bond funds would be spent.

"LAUSD was transparent regarding the program and its funding," and all necessary disclosures were made to the public, underwriters, rating agencies and investors, the district told the SEC representative.

The district also distinguished between the L.A. Unified bonds and different types of bond debt that are issued under other disclosure rules.

The L.A. Unified general obligation bonds are paid back over time through property taxes. Projects funded by the bonds have no role in generating revenue to investors, the district said.

"The particular use of the bond proceeds is not material," the district wrote.

California law allows school construction bonds to be spent on technology; districts also list the intended uses of bond funds in ballot materials available to voters.

L.A. Unified clearly designated funds for technology, but did not mention tablets. At the time of the district's most recent bond issue, in November 2008, iPads were still two years away from entering the marketplace.

But officials have maintained that tablets are a modern equivalent of the traditional computer lab and therefore a legal and appropriate use of bond funds.

A separate question has been whether the district acted properly in using bond funds to purchase curriculum on the devices. But that issue was not part of the district's presentation.

School board member Bennett Kayser said Thursday that legal questions regarding use of the bonds were not sufficiently examined before the project moved forward.

"I wish the SEC had looked into this over a year ago," Kayser said.

(Kayser did not participate in the original discussion or vote on the contract because he owned a small amount of Apple stock. He sold his holdings and emerged as a project critic, although he later voted to purchase additional devices for schools and for testing.)

The district's demand for a refund came in the form of a letter sent Monday to Apple.

L.A. Unified bought 43,261 iPads with the Pearson curriculum. The curriculum added about $200, for a three-year license, to the total price of $768 for each device. (The district purchased another 77,175 iPads under the contract without the Pearson curriculum to be used initially for state standardized tests.)

Pearson offered only a partial curriculum during the first year of the license, which was permitted under the agreement.

The product has not caught on in L.A. Unified. Only two schools of 69 with the devices use Pearson regularly, according to an internal March report from project director Bernadette Lucas.

The report cited a litany of complaints, including content that could not be fully adapted for students with limited English skills, a large group in L.A. Unified. The district also claims the curriculum lacks important features such as online tests and data on how and when students are using it. Another problem has been getting access to the online curriculum quickly and consistently.

Barber, Pearson's chief education advisor, acknowledged that there have been difficulties and said that Pearson, Apple and the district shared responsibility as partners in the effort. But he added that Pearson was willing to work through such issues.

With such sweeping change, "you're going to have glitches. You're going to run into challenges," he said. In the long run, he predicted, Pearson's product could help "transform teaching and learning."

"Once you get used to using these materials," he said, students and teachers would find them "very engaging, very empowering."

The iPad project was pushed by then-Supt. John Deasy, who resigned under pressure in October, largely due to fallout from the iPad effort and a faulty new student records system.

____________________________________________

SEC questions LAUSD on use of bonds for iPad project

This Sept. 12, 2013 file photo shows then LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy looking on as students learn to use their new iPads at Chavez Learning Academy in San Fernando, Calif. Andy Holzman/Los Angeles Daily News/File

By Christine Armario, Associated Press from the LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/1JQy8nv

Posted: 04/16/15, 5:39 PM PDT | Updated: 7 AM 4/17/2015  ::  LOS ANGELES >> The Securities and Exchange Commission recently questioned Los Angeles Unified School District officials as part of informal inquiry into whether they properly used bond funds for a beleaguered $1.3 billion project to provide an iPad for every student.

Lawyers for the nation’s second-largest school district and an outside firm met at the SEC’s Los Angeles office in late March to answer questions about the use of bonds for the iPad project and whether officials had publicly disclosed how the funds would be used.

“They asked us to come in and present to them on the bonds themselves,” Thomas Zaccaro, a partner with the firm that presented information along with the district, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. “All in all, we don’t see any issue with the disclosures.”

Both SEC and LA Unified officials declined to comment. The SEC does not routinely confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

Former LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy launched the initiative to provide an iPad for all of the district’s 650,000 students, but it faced trouble from the start. Students found ways to bypass security installations and freely surf the internet. Teachers said they hadn’t been properly trained to use the technology. Questions were raised after emails were disclosed showing Deasy had been in communication with vendors Apple and Pearson before the contracts were put to bid.

Deasy resigned under pressure in October. In December, FBI agents seized about 20 boxes of records form LA Unified as part of a federal grand jury probe.

On Monday, LA Unified general counsel David Holmquist sent a letter to Apple demanding it stop any further delivery of Pearson software and vowed to seek reimbursement for math and reading materials students have been unable to use. The vast majority of students still can’t access Pearson material on their iPads, Holmquist said.

Pearson declined to comment.

At the SEC meeting on March 31, Zaccaro said he and district officials showed that LA Unified had publicly disclosed bond use for computer hardware and software through investor presentations, presentations to rating agencies and to the public in board and county meetings. He also said because general-obligation bonds are repaid through county tax revenues, there is no connection between how proceeds are used and how they are repaid.

“There was a lot of public disclosure about the use of proceeds,” Zaccaro said.

Zaccaro said attorneys have not heard back from the SEC since.

___________________________

US SEC investigating LA bond sale around troublesome iPad deal; Contract between LAUSD and Apple not being examined, only financials

MacNN News/The Macintosh News Network | http://bit.ly/1PYfoXE

updated 08:49 am EDT, Fri April 17, 2015  ::  Adding a further level of complexity to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) failed iPad program, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened an "informal inquiry" to investigate if the school complied with legal requirements for bond usage in the purchase. The agency is reportedly examining if the contract was properly disclosed to investors, and if sufficient documentation was provided to insure the bonds were used legally.

The LAUSD believes that they have accommodated the SEC's investigation. The SEC has not commented on the investigation, but the LAUSD has confirmed meeting with an attorney from the agency, as reported by the LA Times.
The most recent bond agreement was established in 2008, well before the iPad existed. In the ballot for the bond agreement, the LAUSD spelled out funds for technology -- which the LAUSD considers that applies to iPads as well. The SEC is not investigating the contract with Apple and Pearson, but rather just the sale of the bonds to facilitate the troubled purchase.
The news comes the same week that the LAUSD made public that it was seeking a significant refund from Apple on the devices and educational materials, saying that "will not accept or compensate Apple for new deliveries of curriculum." The LAUSD appears to have not paid enough out yet to Apple to cover even the iPad hardware, let alone the problematic educational materials, but this has not been positively confirmed.
Apple is the primary contractor for its deal with the school district, with Pearson being the sub-contractor. Any refund, or legal obligation to the LAUSD would have to come from Apple, with Apple choosing whether or not to pursue Pearson for recompense.

by MacNN Staff

LAUSD BOARD APPROVAL OF NEW SPENDING ON HEALTHCARE PROMPTS REVOLT

By Thomas Himes, Los Angeles Daily News |http://bit.ly/1E9SDNc

4/14/15, 8:32 PM PDT | Updated: 4/16/15  :: Los Angeles Unified’s board agreed Tuesday to spend $185.9 million more on employee health care without requesting additional information in a move that prompted one board member to vow to vote against all high-dollar expenditures.

After Monica Ratliff’s request for extra information was rejected in a 5-2 vote, she voted against the health care spending and pledged to vote against all significant expenses in the future.

“I’m going to vote no on this,” Ratliff said. “And I’m going to continue to vote no on large monetary expenditures, because I think we are going toward a cliff.”

Ratliff said she fears the new plan for employee health care, which will cost the district’s general fund an additional $92.5 million over the next three years, will require layoffs and program cuts.

In 2015, the health care plan will cost $1.029 billion, increasing to $1.095 billion in 2016 and growing to $1.163 billion in 2017.

Among the information requested, Ratliff wanted to know how bankruptcy would impact the pension and health care of retirees.

LAUSD faces a projected $10.9 billion price tag for retiree health care over the next 30 years, requiring more than $890 million per year.

The most experienced former administrator on the school board, George McKenna, supported Ratliff’s effort to obtain additional information before a budget is passed, noting he has worked for a school district that went into bankruptcy.

“We need to know the budget. To not know it and not project it is fiscally irresponsible,” McKenna said.

McKenna, however, joined the 6-1 vote that agreed to the extra spending on health care.

Ratliff, one of two San Fernando Valley representatives on the seven-member school board, said she would approve the health care spending if additional information is provided before a budget vote in June.

Under the plan, premiums and co-pays will not increase for employees, Health Care Benefits Committee co-chair and Teamsters Union Local 572 representative Thomas Beatty said.

The Health Care Benefits Committee, which is comprised of representatives from the district’s various unions and one LAUSD-appointed member, recommended the plan.

Board member Tamar Galatzan opposed Ratliff’s request for the information, she said, because of the burden it would place on LAUSD’s number crunchers, who are working to create a budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Earlier this year, LAUSD sent layoff notices to 609 employees, including teachers and counselors. Those educators could lose their jobs if the district fails to close its budget deficit.

The district is currently in contract negotiations and is hundreds of millions of dollars apart from its teachers union. The two sides will head back into negotiations today. United Teachers Los Angeles is demanding an 8.5 percent pay raise and more than 5,000 new educators, in part to reduce the size of classes.

Speaking at Tuesday’s board meeting, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl struck a positive note.

“We are encouraged by the conversations we’ve been having during mediation around a number of issues,” Caputo-Pearl said.

 

 

MATT HILL APPOINTED BURBANK USD SUPERINTENDENT AMID NEW+CONTINUING CONTROVERSY

●● smf: 17 April 2015 :: KPCC reports that the Burbank School Board appointed Matt Hill as Burbank superintendent at their meeting last night. A commenter on the KPCC blog reports that board of education member Dave Kemp publicly+dramatically resigned from the board to avoid having to participate in this vote:

drea • [appx 9 pm 16 April] kemp just resigned ON AIR at the board meeting over this vote--even though he was retiring!--in order to not vote on it tonight.

The following article was published before the board meeting and Hill’s appointment:

It probably tells one all one needs to know that the article is headed by a photo of John Deasy and not Matt Hill.

That said, 4LAKids wishes Burbank Unified and the Burbank board of ed, educators, staff, parents and most of all students the best of luck. Including Superintendent-elect Hill.

It would be glib to append the obvious put-down “…they’re going to need it.”  We all of us need it.

It’s just that skill and practice are preferable.

Controversy swirls around Burbank Unified school superintendent candidate

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC | http://bit.ly/1CTOc3n

Audio from this story  |  2:27 Listen

Former Los Angeles Schools Superintendent John Deasy's legacy is impacting the candidacy of a one-time deputy, Matt Hill, who is seeking the job as Burbank Unified superintendent. AFP/AFP/Getty Images

April 16, 07:06 PM  :: Fallout from Los Angeles Unified’s high-profile technology troubles is being felt in a neighboring school district.

Teachers in Burbank Unified School district are up in arms over a superintendent candidate who helped direct the LAUSD technology programs and whose hiring is before the school board Thursday night.

Matt Hill, Los Angeles Unified's chief strategy officer, was a deputy of former LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy and was hired by Deasy to guide that district’s technology and curriculum improvements.

If Hill is approved by Burbank Unified’s school board, he would take over as superintendent of the 16,000-student district in July, succeeding Jan Britz who is retiring.

Hill's involvement in the LAUSD iPad and MiSiS projects have been cited by his opponents who argue he should not hold the top job in the Burbank district.

His connection to Deasy, who frequently clashed with the Los Angeles teachers union over such issues as teacher evaluations, has brought out union members who view Hill as a reformist in the Deasy mold.

At a public forum this week in Burbank, teachers grilled Hill about his views on job protections and teacher evaluations, and his role directing Deasy’s controversial tech programs.

Teacher Dana Ragel told Hill he shouldn’t be superintendent if he hasn’t taught in a classroom.

"I’m sure that you’re a wonderful person and parent but someone without an instructional background should not have been considered for the position of superintendent," Ragel said.

Hill distanced himself from his former boss.

"Working for our superintendent, with John Deasy, was very aggressive and combative, and sometimes that baggage comes with me as part of that leadership team," Hill said "As you can tell, I have a different style. I believe in the outcome he was trying to achieve. He knows he burned some bridges, but I have a different approach."

Hill said he would follow the Burbank school board’s direction on issues such as charter schools, accepting funds from pro-charter school foundations, and using student data for teacher evaluations.

Burbank Teachers Association President Lori Adams said Hill’s LA Unified resume has some negatives.

"We found out he was directly involved in the iPad scandal, directly involved in the MiSiS program, which caused teachers not to be able to take attendance or know which students were in their class," she said.

School board member Larry Applebaum said Hill owned up to the mistakes made at LAUSD and talked about how he helped fix the problems.

Applebaum said Burbank Unified’s students don’t need a superintendent who is a master teacher. The district’s teaching is good, he said. Instead, Applebaum said, the district needs someone to create a long-term plan for its finances, staff, and facilities.

"We cobble together policies and are without a cohesive long-term strategic plan as an organization," Applebaum said.

While her union has voiced strong opposition to Hill’s appointment, Adams says she’ll respect the board’s decision on Hill.

"I will work with anyone, but I definitely will keep a very strong eye on him and I will make sure that he follows the rules. I will watch any hirings and firings," she added.

 

LAUSD’s MATT HILL A FINALIST FOR SUPERINTENDENT OF BURBANK SCHOOLS + smf’s 2¢

Posted on by Vanessa Romo | LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1D4o2tJ

Matt Hill

April 15, 2015 4:01 pm  ::  One of the last top tier LA Unified executives who was instrumental in launching the disastrous iPad and MISIS programs, is one step away from getting a new job.

Matt Hill, the district’s Chief Strategy Officer, is believed to be the favorite among two finalists for the superintendent position at Burbank Unified School District, a position he would assume upon the retirement of the current leader at the end of the school year.

“We will be making our final decision tomorrow,” Charlene Tabet, Vice President of the Burbank School Board told LA School Report. She would not reveal the name of the other finalist.

Hill has survived two rounds of interviews by the board and is a “strong contender,” according to Tabet. His name was first presented to the school board by Leadership Associates, a California-based superintendents search firm, which submitted four potential candidates for consideration, now down to two. “He’s really impressed us,” Tabet said.

But Hill, who did not respond to a message seeking comment, is already facing opposition.

Through a series of email blasts, the Burbank Teachers Association is rallying teachers to block Hill’s appointment. Union officials are urging the board to reject him and continue the search.

The teachers’ greatest concerns involve Hill’s role in the LA Unified iPad program that brought the FBI to the district’s doors as part of a federal investigation into procurement procedures. They have raised questions about his leadership role as well as his involvement in the district’s monumental technological mess that is MISIS, the student data management system that continues to bleed money by the millions.

Just yesterday, the board approved another $8.5 million expenditure to pay for fixes in the MISIS system.

Burbank teachers also object to Hill’s lack of experience in the classroom. He has never served as a teacher nor as a school principal. Prior to his career in education, Hill worked in Black & Decker’s business development group. He’s also been a strategy consultant in the financial services industry.

Hill’s resume, however, is a bonus, said Larry Applebaum, another member of the Burbank board.

“I’m a business man,” he said. “I’m the first to admit that not everything I’ve touched has turned to gold.”

“Hill was able to articulate what he learned from those failures, what he would do differently, and he convinced us, through a very rigorous interview process, that his vision could help get us where we want to go,” Applebaum said.

Teaching credentials are also unnecessary for the job according to Applebaum, who argues that Burbank’s existing instructional team has established a district full of high achieving schools. What Hill does bring to the table, said Applebaum, is extensive experience in managing systems and technology.

“He has a lot of experience and background that will help the district overcome some longstanding issues that have much more to do with human resources, business, technology, and facilities. A lot of that has direct impact on what happens in the classroom on a day to day basis,” he said.

In recent months, Hill was stripped of many of his duties as the head of LA Unified’s most prominent technology endeavors, for which he apologized to the board and the public at school board meetings. Both the iPad program and MISIS were championed by former superintendent John Deasy, who framed the billion dollar iPad program as a civil rights issue. But it was Hill who recommended to Deasy sticking to the district’s timeline on MISIS, a mistake that has cost the district the nearly $60 million thus far, and has caused massive disruptions on school campuses.

After the resignation of the district’s Chief Information Officer, Ron Chandler, in October Superintendent Ramon Cortines, Deasy’s replacement, asked Hill to share oversight of MISIS, but he has since been pulled off of that project to oversee the Information Technology Department.

Still, Cortines wrote a letter of recommendation for Hill in his application for the Burbank job.

Hill is one of the district’s highest salaried employees, earning an annual salary just under $200,000. Applebaum suggested Hill will be earning close to that amount if he gets the job.

“At the highest it’s possible he could make up to $250,000,” Applebaum said.

 

One cannot write a better comment on Mr. Hill’s potential elevation than Ms. Romo’s opening sentence.

I just hope the Burbank Board of Ed has made duly diligent enquiries of the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California that Mr. Hill is not a person of interest in their investigation of the LAUSD iPad procurement.  

There is a rumor afoot that John Deasy was instrumental in pre-selecting all the candidates for the Boston superintendency from his position with the Broad Foundation.

from the LA Daily News of January 12th:: Deasy will work as a consultant, one of “two superintendents-in-residence,” at the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems.

He will provide executive coaching to the center’s alumni and facilitate professional development sessions at The Broad Academy.” | http://bit.ly/1CM7esr

 

It seems that he’s been a busy man – Matt Hill was in the Broad Residency Class of 2005-2007. “The Broad Residency is a leadership development program that places qualified participants into full-time managerial positions in urban school districts, charter management organizations and federal and state departments of education. Residents often lead major projects like opening new schools, managing budgeting processes, increasing operational efficiencies and supporting major policy initiatives.” | http://bit.ly/1Dkr6Fq

LAWSUIT IN THE WORKS? :: DISTRICT EXPELS PEARSON FROM APPLE/PEARSON/LAUSD ‘iPADS FOR ALL’ CONTRACT: “APPLE AND PEARSON PROMISED A STATE-OF-THE-ART SOLUTION, THEY HAVE YET TO DELIVER IT”

LAUSD ditching Pearson iPad program software, demanding multimillion dollar refund

by Annie Gilbertson KPCC | http://bit.ly/1EIpffI

 

Los Angeles Unified may be headed toward a show down with Apple Inc. over the software installed for a controversial iPads program. flickingerbrad via flickr

4/15/2015  ::  Los Angeles Unified told Apple Inc. this week that it will not spend another dollar on the Pearson software installed on its iPads and is seeking a multimillion-dollar refund from the technology giant.

If an agreement cannot be reached, the nation's second-largest school district could take Apple to court.

"While Apple and Pearson promised a state-of-the-art technological solution for ITI implementation, they have yet to deliver it," David Holmquist, the school district's attorney, wrote in a letter to Apple's general counsel. The ITI, or Instructional Technology Initiative, is the district's name for its iPad program.

Holmquist said the district is "extremely dissatisfied" with the work of Pearson on its technology initiative to get computers into the hands of each of the district's 650,000 students.

"As we approach the end of the school year, the vast majority of students are still unable to access the Pearson curriculum on iPads," he wrote.

L.A. Unified's $1.3 billion iPad program has been fraught with problems, from issues getting the technology to work in the classrooms to questions about how the tablets were procured.

The FBI launched an investigation into the purchase in December, carting out 20 boxes from the district office on bidding material, communications and other records involving Apple and Pearson.

An investigation published by KPCC last August found former Superintendent John Deasy and top district staffers had close ties with Pearson executives before the contract was awarded.

District officials purchased Pearson's software even though it was unfinished, and teachers complained the material seemed rushed: lessons were missing math problems and reading material and included errors. The software also lacked many interactive elements that were promised, teachers said.

“[Pearson] missed the whole point of technology — individualized  instruction, all the material in the palm of your hand," said Ben Way, a math teacher at Alliance Cindy & Bill Simon Technology Academy, a charter school that also purchased Pearson's iPad app.

Pearson and Apple executives could not be immediately reached for comment, but Pearson representatives maintain they have held up their end of the deal.

"The course content has been complete for over a year," wrote then-Pearson spokesman Brandon Pinette in an email to KPCC in September. "Yes, there are important enhancements to add as there always will be. We will add twice a year. No digital product should ever be considered complete."

________________

 

Howard Blume ‏@howardblume 15 April 2015

L.A. school board voted Tues. in closed session to pursue possible litigation against Apple/Pearson over $1.3 billion iPad effort.

 

________________

 

LAUSD to Apple: Stop shipping our iPads with dodgy Pearson software

By Associated Press , from Daily News | http://bit.ly/1cx1QD0

The LAUSD is asking Apple to stop installing Pearson Education Inc. learning materials on iPads that the district has ordered, according to a letter from the school district to the technology giant. In this 2013 file photo, Valley Academy of Arts & Sciences teacher Judith Quinones helps students Omar Coria and Diana Jimenez with a lesson on the iPad. (File photo by Michael Owen Baker/Los Angeles Daily News)

 

Posted: 04/15/15, 2:23 PM PDT |  LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Unified School District is telling Apple it is dissatisfied with the Pearson Education Inc. curriculum delivered on student iPads and wants to be reimbursed for all the learning materials schools haven’t been able to use.

In a letter to Apple Monday, LA Unified’s general counsel orders Apple to end Pearson products and services under contract as soon as possible.

General counsel David Holmquist says that while Apple and Pearson promised state-of-the-art technology, they haven’t delivered. Holmquist says most students still can’t access Pearson curriculum on their iPads.

The Associated Press asked Pearson for comment by email Wednesday.

Apple subcontracted with Pearson under the district’s technology initiative to transition schools to the new Common Core academic standards and provide every student with an iPad or other device.

_________________________________________

The education of Rupert Murdoch, Michael Bloomberg & Joel Klein: TABLET COMPUTERS AND AN ONLINE CURRICULUM WERE SUPPOSED TO HELP REVOLUTIONIZE SCHOOLS. That hasn’t happened

NEWS CORP’s $1 BILLION PLAN TO OVERHAUL EDUCATION IS RIDDLED WITH FAILURES

by Laura Colby | Bloomberg Business | http://bloom.bg/1HtV4K6

Photographer: Abbi O'Leary for Bloomberg Business

Seventh grade student George Cross, 13, works on his Amplify tablet during a language and arts class at Aycock Middle School in Greensboro, North Carolina, on March 13, 2015.

April 7, 2015  ::  Seventh-grader Kevin Warren hunched over his desk, struggling to log on to a new tablet computer that News Corp. leased to his school. It replaced an earlier gadget, which had overheated, generating a red warning bar across the screen.

A few desks away at their Greensboro, North Carolina, middle school, Krista Sturdivant wasn’t impressed with the tablet. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” she said as her desk mate, Ayana Munoz, wearing sky-blue lipstick, nodded in agreement. “Sometimes it doesn’t connect to the Wi-Fi, and I can’t get my work done,” Ayana said.

The tablets were supposed to help revolutionize schools and upend a sector that News Corp.’s Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch said in 2010 was “waiting desperately to be transformed.” That hasn’t happened.

By the end of June, Murdoch’s News Corp. will have invested more than $1 billion in Amplify, its division that makes the tablets, sells an online curriculum and offers testing services. Amplify, which never set a timetable for turning a profit, has yet to do so. It reported a $193 million loss last year, and its annual revenue represented only about 1 percent of News Corp.’s sales of $8.6 billion.

The education effort has been riddled with technology failures, fragile equipment, a disconnect between tablet marketers and content developers, and an underestimation of how difficult it would be to win market share from entrenched rivals such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. in the kindergarten to high school education market.

“After all of these years of investment, it would really behoove them to show some wins,” said Tim Nollen, an analyst at Macquarie Capital USA in New York who has a “neutral” rating on News Corp. shares. “So far, I haven’t seen any.”

Joel Klein, Amplify’s chief executive officer, said he always considered the company a long-term bet. “I wish that things would move more quickly,” said Klein, the former New York City schools chancellor under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “But when these things move quickly, sometimes you wind up creating a lot more problems.” (Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, which competes with News Corp. in delivering financial news.)

In what is by far Amplify’s largest contract to date, the Greensboro schools will pay the company $14.6 million over four years for about 19,000 tablets. Math teacher Leah Hampton said the tablet helps her tailor lessons to each child in her seventh grade class. “It shows me what each kid is working on, and allows me to identify what apps they are working on,” Hampton said.

Yet, even though teachers like Hampton found the technology useful, Amplify had such a rocky rollout in Greensboro in the fall of 2013 that the district scrapped the devices and went back to pencil and paper. The system started over again this past fall with a redesigned tablet — though only after Amplify offered financial incentives.

Amplify’s experience shows how even the most deep-pocketed new players find it challenging to change the way children are taught. Billionaires such as Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and real estate and insurance investor Eli Broad have expressed frustration their philanthropy hasn’t done more to improve student achievement. Murdoch is discovering his own challenges as he seeks to make a profit from overhauling education — as have other education entrepreneurs before him.

In February, Robert Thomson, News Corp.’s CEO, said the company would “review the situation at Amplify” after school districts have decided whether or not to purchase its products for the next school year. In an e-mailed statement, he said the company is still committed to the venture: “A digital revolution in education is coming, and Amplify is well-positioned to meet the demand for a world-class curriculum.”

Amplify faces plenty of competition. It is taking on a host of textbook publishers, such as Houghton Mifflin. Millions of U.S. students use Houghton Mifflin’s curriculum — and more than half of its sales are in digital format. As of early 2015, about 30,000 students in 20 schools used Amplify’s. While Amplify views its all-online offerings as an advantage, textbook publishers can achieve economies of scale by adapting printed material to the Web, according to Linda Zecher, CEO of Boston-based Houghton.

“There’s a pretty big moat around what you need to be competitive in this business,” Zecher said.

Murdoch began moving into education with the November 2010 purchase of Wireless Generation, a Brooklyn-based maker of testing software that originally let teachers track students on Palm Pilots. Much of Amplify’s revenue still comes from that company’s line of business.

In 2013, Murdoch split his company into two. One company, Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., owns the Fox News cable television channel and divisions that produce and distribute movies, television programs, music and radio. Amplify fell under News Corp., which owns newspapers, books and digital real-estate outfits.

Though education is a small part of the company, News Corp.’s biggest business — newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Post — is shrinking as publications shift to digital delivery, and the company has promoted education as an engine for growth. Since the split, News Corp. shares are up about 8 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index surged 24 percent.

The fruits of Amplify’s expensive investments are most apparent at the company’s loft-like offices on a cobbled street in the hip Brooklyn neighborhood called Dumbo. Software designers there, across the East River from News Corp.’s headquarters in Manhattan, work hard to make the online curriculum appealing. In an English unit, Edgar Allan Poe is murdered by one of his characters, and students have to solve the whodunit, using clues from the author’s works as they navigate a cartoon-like virtual world. A game called Lexica sends children through a virtual world based on a library, where they meet characters, write stories and read books.

The company hired actor Chadwick Boseman, star of “42,” a film about the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson, to read the autobiographical works of escaped slave and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass. Walter Isaacson, best-selling biographer of Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs, was hired to help write a unit about the Declaration of Independence.

Spanish social studies teacher Jorge Cabanas, left, helps his students as they use their Amplify tablets during a class exercise at Aycock Middle School.

Photographer: Abbi O'Leary for Bloomberg Business

The curriculum can also be used on Amplify’s tablets, which teachers use to track class performance and tests, send and grade homework and gauge whether students have understood a day’s lesson. Amplify sells each tablet for $359, including some pre-loaded software. After the first year, schools then pay an additional $60 per pupil per year for services and software upgrades, according to its website. An Asian manufacturer whose name Amplify won’t disclose makes the custom 11-by-7-inch tablets, which use Google Inc.’s Android operating system. The company also leases tablets for $160 per year, which is the option Greensboro chose.

The Jersey City, New Jersey, school district considered buying the Amplify tablets and thought better of it. “We thought it was very expensive,” said Thomas Purwin, who oversees technology systems for the district. It uses netbooks, laptops and tablets for its students and loads them with classroom management tools and curriculum materials, many of which are available for free on the Internet.

Amplify also markets its curriculum without its custom tablet. One of its customers is Greenwood Lakes Middle School near Orlando, Florida, which is using Amplify digital materials on Apple iPads. The school chose iPads over tablets because it liked Amplify’s educational computer games, which are compatible only with iPads, according to Principal Deborah Abbott. Amplify is developing versions of the games that will work with other operating systems, including the one used by its own tablets.

Unfortunately, Greenwood Lakes’ Internet connections weren’t powerful enough to support the curriculum running on the iPads. The school needed to install 10 MacIntosh AirServers in its 30-year-old building, which houses about 1,000 students in grades six through eight, according to teacher Jhamilia Smith, who says students have increased their reading with the curriculum.

A middle school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tested the Amplify curriculum last year for seventh-grade English students and decided to pass. Betsy Preval, an English teacher at Cambridge Street Upper School, said she had mixed feelings about the company’s materials and also ran into difficulties because the school’s Internet connection wasn’t strong enough. “The wireless connections would kick the bucket, so to speak,” she said.

Justin Hamilton, Amplify’s chief of staff, said the company supplies all of its customers with a paper backup curriculum for such eventualities. He cites a study by non-profit Education Superhighway that found that only 37 percent of children in grades K-12 are in schools that have enough bandwidth to support digital education.

Nowhere have the difficulties of the digital education market been more apparent than in Guilford County, North Carolina. Out of Amplify’s tablet contracts with 17 districts and 28,000 users, it is by far the biggest. The district, where almost 60 percent of the 72,000 students qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program, is home to Greensboro, as well as High Point.

For the 2013-2014 school year, the district paid about $3 million to lease about 15,000 tablets and related services for all of its middle-school students and teachers. The district used federal grant money.

“It was like an adrenaline rush,” said Keisha Brown, principal of Greensboro’s Aycock Middle School. “The kids were excited, the parents were excited — everybody.”

It didn’t last long. The school handed out all the tablets on the same day and found out that it didn’t have enough Internet capability. The tablets kept breaking. Their screens were so fragile that they could shatter if they tipped over screen side-down on a desktop.

By October 4, 2013, more than 13 percent of the tablets had been lost, stolen or damaged, including one whose charger melted and dozens more whose screens cracked or shattered. The district pulled the plug.

Students use their Amplify tablets during an exercise in Spanish social studies class.

Photographer: Abbi O'Leary for Bloomberg Business

Amplify redesigned the tablet with help from chipmaker Intel Corp. and switched manufacturers. The new ones can survive being dropped from a desk, said Lande Brady, who oversees the tablet program for Aycock.

Still, Greensboro isn’t using Amplify’s curriculum. It wasn’t ready when the tablets arrived in 2013. Amplify never tried to sell it there for this school year, according to Robin Britt, the district’s director of instructional technology.

“The left hand doesn’t necessarily talk to the right hand,” said Jocelyn Becoats, the district’s chief of curriculum. Becoats’s team has created its own curriculum that teachers can download to their Amplify tablets and then assign to students, she said. Hamilton said the district never put out a request for bids for a new curriculum.

To address the fall 2013 failure, Amplify supplied the district with the newly designed tablet and extended the four-year lease for a year. Greensboro increased the number of tablets it leased to 19,240 and will pay Amplify $4 million for the current school year. The company also agreed to provide up to $856,750 worth of training and other services free of charge.

Brown says her school handed out the tablets to different classes on different days this year, so that they wouldn’t overwhelm the school’s technical support staff, which needed to troubleshoot, as well as its Internet capacity. The introduction was smoother this time.

Eighth grade students Alexia Lewis, 14, left, and Kristin Hogan, 14, use their Amplify tablets during math class at Aycock Middle School.

Photographer: Abbi O'Leary for Bloomberg Business

With stronger “Gorilla glass,” the tablets reduced their failure rate. A total of 659 tablets out of about 17,000 in circulation as of late November — less than 4 percent — were returned for defects or breakage, according to Britt. Problems ranged from cracked cases to unresponsive Wi-Fi.

“We’ve had a lot of feedback from Greensboro this year in terms of satisfaction with the program,” said Klein, the Amplify CEO. “There will always be glitches as long as there’s technology.”

In a science class at Southwest Guilford Middle School in High Point, a group of four kids huddled around a tablet propped up on a chair in the hallway, watching an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy. In a social studies class, students tapped on the tablets to look up information about the economies of countries while they played the political-strategy board game Risk.

Teachers said they liked how the devices can be used to call on kids randomly, eliminating the need for shy students to raise their hands. The tap of a teacher’s screen can freeze all students’ tablets with the message: “Eyes on Teacher!”

Still, many kids aren’t sold. “I think they’re evil,” seventh-grader George Cross says of the tablets. He prefers to do his homework on paper whenever possible. Makayla Key, 13, a straight-A student at Aycock, likes working on the tablet for her math and science homework but shuns it for presentations and bigger projects. “Sometimes it’ll glitch,” she said. “I’m afraid my assignment might be deleted.”

Her mother, Myra Key, a substitute teacher at the school, shook her head as Makayla recounted how the tablet froze one night. When Makayla restarted it, her English homework was gone. “She cried bad,” Myra Key said.

• Letter to the Editor: Read a response to this article by Amplify CEO Joel Klein

LAUSD’s INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE TASK FORCE HOLDS FIRST MEETING

LAUSD Press Release | http://bit.ly/1ajtWjD

WHAT’S IN A NAME?: The Instructional Technology Initiative is the program formerly known as The Common Core Technology Project\CCTP  /aka/ “iPads4All”

from the District Calendar:

L.A. Unified’s Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force Holds First Meeting on Thursday

4/9/2015, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

LA School of Global Studies (housed in the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex) 322 Lucas Ave. Los Angeles 90017

WHAT: The Los Angeles Unified School District and members of the Instructional Technology Initiative task force will gather for the first meeting. 

WHERE: LA School of Global Studies (housed in the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex)

              322 Lucas Ave.

              Los Angeles 90017

WHEN:   Thursday, April 9

              4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

WHO:     Task Force Chair Dr. Judy Burton, founder of Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, 

              a charter network, who is also a former Associate District Superintendent

              LA School of Global Studies Principal Christian Quintero

              Task force members

BACKGROUND: The new Instructional Technology Initiative task force, chaired by Dr. Burton, will meet from April to November to help develop a plan that supports technology in the classroom to improve teaching and learning.

Task force participants include teachers, administrators, parents, students, community members and a representative from the L.A. Unified School Construction Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee. All task force members will bring insights about learning in the ever-changing world of technology and creative ideas.

The final strategic plan is expected to be completed by early 2016, with the goal of influencing learning and teaching districtwide. The recommendations will be presented to Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines and the Board of Education for final approval.

###

Teacher tenure, Seniority layoffs: NEW USC DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES/LOS ANGELES TIMES POLL :: Findings, 2 articles +smf’s 2¢

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research | http://bit.ly/1Cvz7Vt

 

April 10, 2015  ::  On behalf of the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles Times, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, in conjunction with American Viewpoint, conducted a new survey among 1,504 registered California voters. The latest survey shows:

 

• Calif. voters reject tenure, seniority-based layoffs of public school teachers.

• California voters take a dim view of teacher tenure.

KEY FINDINGS FOLLOW ARTICLES

USC Dornsife/LA Times FQ
USC Dornsife/LA Times Crosstabs

ARTICLES

Following you can find articles and stories on findings of this poll:

April 11

Calif. voters reject tenure, seniority-based layoffs of public school teachers …but voters trust teachers more than any other group to improve California schools USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Press Release | http://bit.ly/1DTKix7 Contact: Merrill Balassone at balasson@usc.edu or (213) 740-6156 or Tanya Abrams at tanyaabr@usc.edu or (213) 740-6973  |  A press call discussing these results is MONDAY, April 13 at 10 a.m. PT. Call-in spots are limited. Call-in number: (800) 230-1059; International: (612) 234-9959. A USC event on the legal and policy implications of Vergara is Sunday. Details/RSVP: http://bit.ly/18LqXQx Los Angeles – April 11, 2015 –  Nearly a year after a landmark court case invalidated California’s tenure system for public school K-12 teachers, more than one-third of voters say they believe these teachers should not be granted tenure at all, according to the results of the latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll. But data also show voters most trust teachers to improve the state’s public schools, consider them underpaid and back measures to support and improve their performance in the classroom. When asked if and after how long public school teachers should be given tenure, 38 percent said they shouldn’t be given tenure – which comes with strong job security and makes it more difficult to fire poor-performing teachers. Another 35 percent said tenure should not be granted until a teacher has been on the job for at least 4 to 10 years, the poll showed. “Californians want their children’s teachers to succeed and want to give them every tool possible to succeed, but they are also willing to take stronger steps to remove ineffective teachers in the classroom, said Dan Schnur, director of the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll and executive director of the Unruh Institute of Politics of USC. “At a certain point if teachers don’t succeed, voters want to replace them with people who will.” When asked to choose from a list of reforms which they believe would improve the quality of public schools, the highest percentage of voters – 82 percent – chose providing teachers with a 1-year apprenticeship with a high-performing experienced teacher before they are given their own classroom. Seventy-three percent of voters said making it easier to fire underperforming teachers would improve the quality of public schools; 71 percent said putting more money into public schools in economically disadvantaged areas; 64 percent said tying teachers’ salaries to performance evaluations; and 52 percent said extending the tax increase that provides additional funding to public schools and other programs. Voters also named teachers as the group they most trust to improve the state’s public schools. Half of voters said they most trusted teachers at schools in their community to improve public schools, followed by 48 percent who named parents of public school students. Twenty-two percent of voters said they most trusted teachers’ unions to improve public schools, followed by 17 percent who named school administrators and superintendents. "Clearly when it comes to education, all politics is local. California voters trust teachers and parents far more than the teachers union, school administrators, or statewide officials," said Matt Rodriguez, a distinguished Unruh Institute fellow and Democratic strategist. Voters also rejected the notion that teachers should be laid off based on seniority, a practice that was also struck down as unconstitutional in last June’s Vergara v. California ruling. When asked how California schools should lay off teachers when necessary, 53 percent of voters said layoffs should first target teachers who receive poor marks in classroom observations, and 26 percent said teachers whose students did not make enough progress on standardized tests throughout the year should be laid off first. Just 8 percent of California voters said layoffs should first target the teacher with the least seniority or classroom experience, the poll showed. “Seniority is clearly the least important factor in teacher performance. Voters across all demographic groups reject the  ‘last in, first out’ policy by overwhelming margins," said David Kanevsky, vice president of Republican polling firm American Viewpoint, part of the part of the bipartisan team with Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research that conducted the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll. When asked whether administrators should take into account teacher performance or years of teaching experience when making layoff decisions, 82 percent of voters said administrators should take performance more into account, as compared to 11 percent who said seniority should be taken more into account. “The average voter may not know the name of the Vergara case, but they tend to approve of its basic tenets of accountability. At the same time, voters hardly fault most teachers; they see teachers as part of the solution, not the problem,” said Drew Lieberman, vice president of Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. Latino voters were more likely than white voters to support teacher apprenticeships (86%), putting money into economically disadvantaged public schools (82%), extending tax increases to provide additional public school funding (62%), and making teacher pay based on their performance evaluations (69%). "While there remains broad based support for funding for public schools, socio-economic and racial divides exist on how to improve schools with Latinos showing greater support for enhanced funding in disadvantaged areas, teacher pay based on evaluations and student achievement,” said Michael Madrid, a distinguished Unruh Institute fellow, Republican strategist and nationally recognized expert on Latino voting trends. “This split shows the different approach between Latinos and whites on how to improve the education their children are receiving.” A strong majority of voters also believe teachers are underpaid for their work. Fifty-six percent of voters said California public schools teachers are underpaid, 27 percent said teachers were paid “just about right” and 5 percent said teachers were paid too much. When asked what should determine teacher pay, 86 percent of voters said a teacher’s education and training should be either the most important or an important factor, followed by 77 percent of voters who said their students’ achievement and progress on a range of measures including standardized tests, classroom observations and parent feedback; 77 percent said whether the teacher is at a low-performing school where students need the most help; 64 percent who said students’ achievement and progress on standardized tests; and 57 percent who said seniority in the number of years of classroom teaching experience. Latino voters were more likely to support tying teacher pay to student achievement (85%) as compared to white voters (74%). The latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll, the largest statewide survey of registered voters, was conducted March 28-April 7 and includes a significant oversample of Latino voters as well as one of the most robust cell phone samples in the state. The full sample of 1,504 registered voters has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points. Additional poll results and methodology are available here WEBSITE: http://dornsife.usc.edu/poll TWITTER: @usclatpoll About the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times Poll: The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll is a series of statewide public opinion polls in California, designed to survey voter attitudes on a wide range of political, policy, social and cultural issues. Conducted at regular intervals throughout the year, the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll is one of the largest polls of registered voters in the state and has been widely cited, helping to inform the public and to encourage discourse on key political and policy issues. About USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is the heart of the university. The largest, oldest and most diverse of USC’s 19 schools, USC Dornsife is composed of more than 30 academic departments and dozens of research centers and institutes. USC Dornsife is home to approximately 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 750 faculty members with expertise across the humanities, social sciences and sciences. About the Los Angeles Times: The Los Angeles Times is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with a daily readership of 2 million and 3 million on Sunday, and a combined print and interactive local weekly audience of 4.5 million. The fast-growing latimes.com draws over 10 million unique visitors monthly.

Poll: California voters take a dim view of teacher tenure By Howard Blume  | Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1EmqYaD 4/11/2015  ::  Gisela Aviles is a 49-year-old real estate agent in Corona. Henry Yoshikawa is a 71-year-old former administrator for a tiny school district in Placer County. And Arianna Rivera is a 23-year-old bank teller in East Los Angeles. Although strikingly different, they are among an overwhelming majority of California voters who shared remarkably similar views about teachers in a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. They agree that teachers receive tenure much too quickly. And they believe that performance should matter more than seniority when teachers are laid off. They also favor making it easier to fire instructors — although, at the same time, they think highly of teachers and want more resources for public schools that serve disadvantaged children. Voters' views on teachers "There is a very important lesson here for California politicians," said Dan Schnur, director of USC's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. The poll findings indicate that voters "want to help teachers and support them ... but they're also more than willing to take stronger steps to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom." Issues affecting teachers' job protections are at the center of a national debate over how best to improve schools. On one side are foundations, business interests and the Obama administration, which have said students will benefit if teachers are held more accountable. To them, that includes making it easier to fire teachers who fail to deliver results, such as improvement on student standardized tests. Teachers unions and other critics counter that targeting instructors weakens labor's ability to counteract proposals they believe are undermining public education. They want more focus on other factors that affect students, such as poverty, school resources and class sizes. In California, nearly half of voters surveyed in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times poll favored a longer period to earn tenure than the two years granted under state law. Among those who favored some form of tenure, the largest group wanted teachers to earn it after seven to 10 years. More than a third opposed any form of tenure. Voters also placed little faith in the seniority system that governs most layoffs in tough economic times. When given a list of options, only 8% said seniority should be the primary factor driving which teachers are let go. More than half, 53%, instead said that teachers who have low marks when they are observed in their classrooms should be the first dismissed. And 26%, the next largest group, said that layoffs should first affect teachers whose students aren't progressing on standardized tests. Their students have to be improving, so I believe that if you're doing a good job and your students are improving on the test scores, then by all means you deserve a raise. - Gisela Aviles is a real estate agent in Corona Seniority — the main yardstick currently used to determine which teachers to dismiss during budget crises — fell far back in the poll, followed by teachers who have less advanced training than others. Although these opinions don't coincide with state law, they line up with advocates who sued the state in last year's landmark litigation, Vergara vs. California. In that case, an L.A. County Superior Court judge threw out tenure, seniority and other traditional job protections. That ruling is on appeal. Rivera came by her views about teachers through experience as a student in both traditional and independently operated, public charter schools. At the charters, which don't have to follow seniority and tenure rules, she remembers young, enthusiastic, hardworking teachers. By contrast, at the traditional schools, "there were older teachers with tenure who don't care. They were not there mentally and emotionally," said Rivera, who is registered with the Peace and Freedom Party and describes her politics as liberal. If tenure were earned after 10 to 15 years, schools would have time to weed out the less dedicated, she said. Overall, she said, performance should matter when layoffs must occur. Pollsters found such opinions widespread in a telephone survey of 1,504 voters from March 28 through April 7. The "last in, first out" system for handling layoffs is "rejected by overwhelming margins regardless of what group you are," said Dave Kanevsky of American Viewpoint, the Republican half of the bipartisan team that conducted the poll. "The average voter may not know the name Vergara, but they tend to affirm the basic tenet of accountability," said Drew Lieberman of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, the Democratic half of the polling team. Voters "realize that not all teachers are created equal and that separating the good from the bad is part of the calculus." Public school teachers without tenure currently can be fired at the will of their school district. Tenured teachers can be removed immediately for gross misconduct or pending an investigation of serious allegations. But dismissing an instructor for ineffective teaching typically is lengthy and expensive. In the poll, nearly three-quarters of voters said it was very or somewhat important to make it easier to fire underperforming teachers. Unions have fought hard for tenure rights, characterizing them as due process to prevent unfair or arbitrary dismissals. Yoshikawa, a registered Republican, said he helped establish the teachers union in the district where he worked, yet he opposes all forms of tenure. Having teachers work on an annual contract would result in a higher-quality teacher corps, he said. For Aviles, who declined to state a party affiliation, accountability for teachers also should include pay raises based on merit. "Their students have to be improving, so I believe that if you're doing a good job and your students are improving on the test scores, then by all means you deserve a raise," she said. In the survey, 77% of voters said it was important to base teacher pay on a range of measures, including student achievement, classroom observation and parent feedback; 64% said student progress on tests and achievement should be important factors. At the same time, pollsters and other analysts say, there appears to be a strong affinity for teachers. More than half of those surveyed, including Aviles, felt teachers were underpaid. They also want more resources invested in traditional public schools. "Californians want their children's teachers to succeed and want to give them every tool possible," said Schnur of USC. "But there is a limit on their patience." California voters place more faith in teachers than anyone else when it comes to doing what's best for students, according to the poll. Half of those surveyed put teachers first or second when given a list of groups they most trust to improve schools. Parents finished next. Teachers unions finished well behind, but still ahead of school district administrators, Gov. Jerry Brown and "philanthropists who seek to change the traditional education system." This dynamic played out in the recent race for state superintendent of public instruction between incumbent Tom Torlakson, backed by unions, and Marshall Tuck, who championed the court ruling that weakened job protections and who received key support from wealthy donors. In that tightly contested race, the unions were able to associate Tuck with wealthy contributors and to link Torlakson, by contrast, with teachers, said Michael Madrid, a fellow at the Unruh Institute. Policies endorsed by teachers unions often have prevailed at the ballot and in the Legislature. The last ballot attempt to extend the time needed to earn tenure was put forward in 2005 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Voters, siding with teachers unions, defeated it. The margin of error in the poll is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, higher for subgroups.

 

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USC LA Times Sat Topline Questionnaire

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041115 USC LA Times Sat Crosstabs

METHODOLOGY

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, in conjunction with American Viewpoint, conducted this survey on behalf of the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles Times. These findings are based on a random sample survey of 1,504 (1,504 weighted) registered voters in the state of California, conducted from March 28 – April 7, 2015. Interviews were conducted by telephone using live interviewers from Interviewing Services of America. Voters were randomly selected from a list of registered voters statewide and reached on a landline or cell phone depending on the number they designated on their voter registration. Fifty-five percent of this sample was reached on a cell phone. Up to five attempts were made to reach and interview each randomly selected voter.
The study includes an oversample of 400 known-Latino registered voters, with the total number of Latino voters interviewed at 498 (361 weighted). All interviews among known Latinos were carried out via telephone by bilingual Latino interviewers, and conducted in the preferred language of the survey respondent, English or Spanish. Overall, 33 percent of interviews among the known Latino sample were conducted in Spanish and 67 percent in English. The technique of using fully bilingual interviewers yields higher response and cooperation rates and is greatly preferred because it does not terminate calls with Spanish-language households and require a callback. This survey also included a small oversample of African American respondents (118 unweighted; 90 weighted).

Upon completion of all interviewing, the results were weighted to bring the Latino oversample population into line with the racial and ethnic composition of registered voters in California. The data were weighted to reflect the total population of registered voters throughout the state, balancing on regional and demographic characteristics for gender, age, race, and party registration according to known census estimates and voter file projections from several distinct voter files.

The maximum sampling error for the overall sample of 1,504 registered voters is +/- 2.7 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. The margin of error for subgroups is higher. The margin of error for Latinos is +/- 4.6 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

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OK: I haven’t drilled down into the detail of this poll as deeply as I will have in a day or two – but what becomes instantly apparent is that – while the actual telephone canvassers try to be as neutral as possible in their survey, the evaluators and analysts: Not so much. The first are paid by the hour, the second are compensated for results by the folks who commissioned the poll. What I am saying is that it is generally human nature (we are hunter/gatherers after all!) to find what you are looking for.  And I found something else.

The sub-headline in the poll press release: “…but voters trust teachers more than any other group to improve California schools” screams off the page at me ….which I suppose makes me more trusting of PR hacks than ivory-tower researchers.

It is kind of interesting that Black and Republican respondents favor parent opinion over teachers’ – I’m a parent leader  and I’d like to find out which parents I’m to trust before I’d trust them!

If you dive into the poll (which is only of registered voters – God must love non-registered non-voters because (S)He made so many of them!)  you will find a lot of  information that is valuable – but the most important is that the folks polled have diminishing respect for reform initiatives initiated by

   4. Teacher’s Unions,

   3. School District Administrators (I suppose this means Superintendents and their ilk, not school-site administrators like Principals) 

   2. Jerry Brown and

   1. Philanthropists.

I am not surprised and generally  agree with that order and ranking (Finding what I’m looking for!) – but I wonder why big city mayors, Sacramento legislators, the Secretary of Education and the editorial boards of major metropolitan newspapers weren’t invited into that dodge ball game?

Classroom teachers are members of teacher’s unions – but they are not monolithically The Teachers Union. The level of participation by rank-and-file teachers in union activity is low – teacher turnouts in union elections (unless it’s a strike vote or a contract ratification)  is somewhere between abysmal and single-digit  LA City elections.

Finally: The LA Times can’t help it that they are intrinsically+institutionally  anti-labor: The McNamara Brothers – noted union organizers – blew their building up back on Oct. 1, 1910. In the Editorial Boardroom that seems like just yesterday.