SCHOOL HAZE: Could freeways hold the answer to Los Angeles schools’ pollution problem?

from Metropolis Online

by Suzanne LaBarre March 2008 • Next Generation

Posted March 19, 2008 - Los Angeles public schools are in a bind. Overcrowding has reached such levels that teachers have had to share their classrooms, cutting the overall academic calendar by up to 17 days while forcing students to sit through school in shifts year-round. One middle school squeezes 2,700 students into a facility designed for 800. The most obvious remedy, building more space, is complicated by a 2003 state health-and-safety law that bans most school construction within 500 feet of a freeway. Los Angeles has 24 freeways, covering 250 miles. That’s like telling Venice not to build by water.

A partial solution is emerging in the least likely place: the freeways themselves. Douglas Hecker and Martha Skinner, of the South Carolina design firm Field Office, have devised a highway-barrier system that would replace sound walls with a porous pollution-combating cement shield. Though not fully developed, Super Absorber, a runner-up in the 2007 Metro­p­olis Next Generation Design Competition, would digest noise, light, and, most pressingly, toxic air particles—as many as four billion tons a year if implemented nationwide. No project has been launched, but the husband-and-wife team is in talks with the L.A. Unified School District.

“This is a pretty simple thing that could have a real impact on our environment,” Skinner says, “if we’re able to do it.”

The operative feature of Super Absorber is TX Active, a patented cement containing titanium dioxide, a common ingredient in paint and sunblock. When exposed to sunlight, titanium dioxide oxidizes pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds, and transforms them into simple salts. The Italian company Italcementi Group dev­eloped the cement eight years ago as a self-cleaning building material for Richard Meier’s Jubilee Church, in Rome. By accident, researchers discovered that it killed smog too. Italcementi claims that it slashes emissions by 50 percent when smoothed over 15 percent of a large city’s surfaces, a potential Hecker and Skinner hope to maximize in Los Angeles. Using a 3-D modeling program, they’re on the hunt for the best configuration, layering and pocking the cement for the greatest effect.

“Every pore is generating more surface area for absorption,” Hecker says. “This is being weighted by three different ­criteria—light, sound, and pollution—and has to eventually produce a wall that is structurally ­stable.”

Field Office entered the picture at an especially desperate time for the school district. A study had just been published showing that children who live near freeways suffer significantly diminished lung function. Pressure was mounting on LAUSD to reevaluate its $20 billion construction program, which includes five new schools less than 500 feet from an interstate. Ah’be, a landscape-design ­consul­t­ant for the district, turned to Hecker and Skinner. Could they erect Super Absorber at Central Region High School #15, a planned nine-acre campus straddled by two major freeways, where smog was an obvious concern? “It just seemed like an innovative project,” says Megan Horn, an architect at Ah’be. “It fit really well with what we were doing.”

The technology is still very much in development, of course, and experts have raised doubts. “My guess is that you’re not likely to see much benefit,” says John Froines, a UCLA toxicologist who ­studies health risks associated with pollution. He ­worries that the most dangerous smog particulates will escape the wall’s reach. Hecker acknowledges that there are limitations. “It’s not this project alone that’s going to come and reduce pollution in the city,” he says.

Last July, a day before Hecker and Skinner were scheduled to fly to Los Angeles to meet with LAUSD officials, the district put the Central Region project on hold. Health concerns were too great. The pair traveled cross-country anyway and met with the school district. “They were very enthusiastic,” Skinner says. “And they wanted to make the project bigger. These schools are all by the highways, but the highways are all over the place, so it’s kind of a Catch-22. For that reason, the project’s even more significant.”

* * *

Original Story Can Be Found At:
http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=3220

Super Absorber, as rendered along the school site off Interstate 10, could be a solution.

A planned Los Angeles high school has been delayed by reports that freeway pollution imperils children’s health.

Images courtesy Field Office

LIGHT POLLUTION
Super Absorber walls would reduce light, sound, and air pollution. Using 3-D computer modeling, Field Office is experimenting with various templates to maximize the cement’s surface area. A fabrication method similar to an ink-jet printer would allow the wall to be produced quickly without ever repeating the same pattern.

LIGHT POLLUTION
Super Absorber walls would reduce light, sound, and air pollution. Using 3-D computer modeling, Field Office is experimenting with various templates (above) to maximize the cement’s surface area. A fabrication method similar to an ink-jet printer would allow the wall to be produced quickly without ever repeating the same pattern.

Courtesy Field Office

LIGHT POLLUTION
Super Absorber walls would reduce light, sound, and air pollution. Using 3-D computer modeling, Field Office is experimenting with various templates (above) to maximize the cement’s surface area. A fabrication method similar to an ink-jet printer would allow the wall to be produced quickly without ever repeating the same pattern.

Courtesy Field Office

California's Budget Problems Limit College Opportunities

 

Byron Williams | The Huffington Post

Posted March 6, 2008 | 03:32 PM (EST)

---

In 1960, Clark Kerr, under the leadership of California Governor Pat Brown, developed the California Master Plan for Higher Education. The plan developed a three-tiered system with specific roles for the University of California, California State University and the community college system.

Recognizing that the baby boom would increase demand for higher education, California politicians and academic administrators had the foresight to develop a master plan that made the state a leader in the field.

The master plan was developed so that everyone who met the academic standards--regardless of economic means--would have the opportunity to attend college. Sadly, the once vaunted master plan is being relegated to "good-old-days" status as budget deficits take a heavy toll on a system that was once the gold standard for the nation.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that thousands of California's potential students could be left out, not because of failing to meet academic standards but rather the state's failure to possess the economic means.

In an unprecedented move, the California State University system moved its admissions deadlines, and as the Times reports, it was at the behest of state officials, causing potentially thousands to miss the deadline and thus not attend school next year.

Midnight on March 1 retroactively became the new deadline for students to apply to seven of the Cal State campuses that traditionally accepted applications months later.

An even earlier deadline, Feb. 1, already has passed for 16 other Cal State campuses.

The reason for the sudden change is the estimated $14 billion state deficit. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's provisional budget for next year calls for $386 million in cuts to the Cal State University system.

Because it is the norm that students apply to multiple schools, the impact of such decisions this year could be minimal. It may inconvenience students by their not receiving admission to their first choice.

Certainly, however, some students will be denied attendance at a four-year institution in the fall. The real impact may be felt down the road.

Is this a path that the state wants to tread? Access to higher education for all who qualify long has been a hallmark for California residents. Is this a value that the state can afford to chip away? Why is it easier to cut $386 million from the CSU system than it is to close tax loopholes that the Legislative Analyst's Office estimates would raise $2.5 billion?

The $150 Vehicle Licensing Fee (the straw that broke the political back of recalled-Gov. Gray Davis) would have raised $6.1 billion. Restoration of the VLF could eliminate the budget deficit in three or four years.

We can talk about cuts in higher education without much ado, but God forbid there be any discussion to revisit the corporate side of Prop. 13.

Higher education should, in my humble opinion, be off the table even during a budget crunch. The state's universal message should be promoting more kids to attend college, not sending mandates to move up the deadline in order to keep students out.

Annual budget stalemates, the requirement of super majorities to raise revenues, term limits, safe legislative seats and an out-of-control initiative process have contributed to our current state of affairs. These are conditions that leave California unable to improve its infrastructure or the quality of its schools -- both of which were once the envy of the nation.

In the context of a $14 billion deficit, $386 million can appear to be a paltry sum. But this is $386 million that goes to the core of what California stands for. Instead of Prop. 13 being the third rail of politics in California, why not the protection of higher education?

That would require the governor and the Legislature to make "real" tough choices.

Byron Williams is an Oakland pastor and syndicated columnist. He is the author of "Strip Mall Patriotism: Moral Reflections of the Iraq War." E-mail him at byron@byronspeaks.com or leave a message at (510) 208-6417.

Byron Williams: California's Budget Problems Limit College Opportunities - Politics on The Huffington Post

Why 'second-best' won't doom college-bound kids

 

By Ed Sevilla | Opinion | USA Today

Springtime brings a special kind of "March Madness" to anxious college-bound high school seniors and their parents. Will they win admission to their coveted first-choice school, or must they settle, sadly, for their second choice?

Meanwhile, weary high school guidance counselors advise families to seek balance and eschew the headlong pursuit of prestige.

Such efforts deserve more support. From my perspective as a Yale graduate and Wharton MBA who oversees admissions and financial aid at a four-year private liberal arts college, I believe that second choice does not always mean second best.

A high school senior who is not admitted to his or her preferred college should not foresee a lifetime of failure emanating from a thin envelope. Here's the financial big picture: If you are on track to graduate from a U.S. college, you already have won.

According to the U.S. Census, workers 18 and older who hold a bachelor's degree earned an average of $56,788 in 2006, more than 82% higher than the $31,071 earned by those with only a high school diploma.

More college applicants

The economic logic of supply and demand is driving this year's high anxiety. Demand is up: The Census projects that the rising tide of high school graduates will number 3.3 million in 2008. And the college-bound among them are applying to multiple institutions.

According to the results of Cooperative Institutional Research Program studies, administered by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, 57% of college freshmen surveyed in 2006 applied to four or more colleges; only 20% did so in 1967. Anecdotal reports from the front lines in 2008 indicate that the number is growing.

Yet the supply of available seats in top-tier colleges is relatively fixed. For example, the size of the incoming Yale freshman class is virtually the same as it was when I graduated 25 years ago. Even the proposed expansion plans in New Haven, Conn., can give little comfort to this year's applicants. Add to that volatile mix the intense interest of "helicopter parents" who cherish credentials in our global, knowledge-based economy, and the result is too much pressure on today's high school students, for the wrong reasons.

Find the right school

Curiously, there is not enough pressure for the right reason: finding the school that is the right fit. Today, students can receive a top-notch education at any number of the 2,629 U.S. colleges and universities. If an applicant simply focused on the top 10% of those institutions, they would select from a pool of 260 schools. Given the relatively fixed supply of seats in prestige colleges, there are other ways to view this world.

On many campuses today, students can learn from a professor who holds a Ph.D. from an Ivy League or similar top research institution. Thirty years ago, in most cases, students had to attend one of a small set of colleges to accomplish that feat. But the supply of U.S. Ph.D.s has grown from 32,946 in 1976 to 45,596 in 2006, according to the Survey of Earned Doctorates.

So why are parents pushing their children so hard for admission to an elite college? Regrettably, admission to a first-choice college has become a referendum on Baby Boomer parenting skills, and the popular rear-windshield decal is often seen as the ultimate prize in our "winner take all" society.

Yet, I remain hopeful that we can correct our collective shortsightedness. Let's start by revisiting why we send our children to college in the first place. Certainly, our desires for their better economic future play a predominant role. But college still claims a larger public purpose, which includes preparing critical thinkers to engage productively with the wider world.

Parents and students would be wise to examine the missions of the schools they are considering (even the second-choice ones), and the way that the institutions are living their missions. They will find that such public purpose is not the monopoly of a handful of "brand-name" elite colleges, but instead pervades a community of scholars that extends to campus after campus, from coast to coast.

Ed Sevilla is vice president for Enrollment Management and Marketing at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass.

Why 'second-best' won't doom college-bound kids - Opinion - USATODAY.com

FOR YOUNGSTERS, LEAPS & BOUNDARIES: Architecture - Children’s Playgrounds - New York Times

 

Sara Cedar Miller/Central Park Conservancy

The West 110th Street Playground in Central Park. Beneath it all is springy rubber matting; falling is not a negative thing.

• By KATHRYN SHATTUCK

Published: March 16, 2008

SUBTLE and earthy, in hues of green, brown and gray, the West 110th Street Playground at the north end of Central Park has little of the overt cheer associated with children’s spaces. Four adjoining circular areas, echoing the curve of the boulders jutting up beyond its south side and the airiness of the ferns dotting the terrain, offer sparse, space-agey climbing and spinning equipment with movable parts that wobble and sway, threatening to send a child tumbling. Beneath it all, springy rubber matting undulates like a grassy knoll.

“The intention is to fall,” said Marta Gutman, an associate professor of architectural history at City College, surveying the playground on a recent morning. “You don’t want to make the environment so safe that it’s not challenging.”

What? Get out the lawyer’s number.

The ever-shifting perspective on what constitutes the ideal environment for children is at the heart of “Designing Modern Childhoods: History, Space, and the Material Culture of Children,” a new book from Rutgers University Press edited by Ms. Gutman and Ning de Coninck-Smith, an associate professor in the department of educational sociology at the School of Education-Aarhus University.

A compilation of essays, the book traces the history of a veritable toy box of specialized architecture (schools, hospitals, playgrounds, houses) and objects (cellphones, snowboards, the McDonald’s Happy Meal) that have molded the landscape of children’s private lives.

Though the study of play and the material culture of children has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade, the editors felt there was a hole in the scholarship. “While the history of childhood has been framed, the buildings have been completely overlooked because it’s almost too difficult,” Ms. de Coninck-Smith said. “How do you ‘read’ a building?”

Their book opens with two vivid images that compare and contrast the ways Europeans and Americans view children’s spaces in an urban environment. The first, a playground in central Copenhagen, is filled with grasses of different colors and shapes. The second, the two-year-old GrandParentFamily Apartments in the South Bronx, a six-story complex of 51 apartments, is the first public development in the United States created for grandparents bringing up grandchildren.

Stine Poulsen, a landscape architect who helped design the Copenhagen playground, said she sought to encourage children like her son “to sense the world in all its different colors and textures.”

“I want to create a space open to young children’s fantasy when playing,” she says in the book.

But the grittier GrandParentFamily Apartments are every bit as much a place of fantasy for another child, who imagines where he’s going to put his bed, his clothes, his computer and his PlayStation 2 in his new bedroom.

The comparison of the two spaces is intended to underscore the book’s thesis: “that children are social actors in their own right who use and interpret material culture on their own terms.”

In other words, whether you give children grass, a cardboard box, an iPod or rooms of their own, they are going to make it work for them.

“Designing Modern Childhood” circumnavigates the globe to examine how children have been cared for, emboldened, coddled, toughened up and even manipulated by adults who thought they knew best when it came to providing a child’s physical world.

Consider the campfire, a mainstay at summer camps across the United States. That ritual, borrowed from American Indians, was used to promote “muscular Christianity” at Y.M.C.A. camps in the 1890s, the scholar Abigail A. Van Slyck writes. It was highly endorsed by the pioneering psychologist G. Stanley Hall, who blamed women and girls for the “developmental derailment” of boys. With its rustic masculine atmosphere, summer camp would rescue boys from feminization.

In the early 1900s Booker T. Washington teamed up with Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck and Company to create the Rosenwald Schools for rural African-American children in Alabama. Models of progressive design, the single-story buildings with tall, narrow windows offered proper lighting to protect children’s eyesight, ventilation to keep students healthy and at least two toilets with a protected water supply, writes Mary S. Hoffschwelle.

The schools, while helping to bridge the gap between the education of white and black students, also furthered Washington’s “philosophy of self-help and industrial (vocational) education,” she writes. “White school officials would accept the facilities because black parents had largely paid for them, and because the schools would train black children as farm and domestic workers.”

America’s first playgrounds were very square and regimented, Ms. de Coninck-Smith notes, because their design emerged from the physical education movement of the 1930s, “when the bigger underlying project was to reform the city’s working class.” At the 110th Street playground “there’s a more organic approach,” Ms. de Coninck-Smith said, “with hardly any play equipment and all of these kind of round ball areas.”

As early as 1931 Carl Theodor Sorensen, the Danish landscape architect, came up with the concept of the adventure playground after observing children at play in construction sites and junkyards. His insights initiated a trend in playground design, Roy Kozlovsky writes, in which the “playground has no ready-made play equipment and no predetermined agenda for what should take place in it.”

The idea that the playground’s design, by not using equipment to dictate a child’s activity, would promote social skills like conflict resolution was first tested in Denmark in 1943, during the German occupation. It migrated to England, where the concept suggested a way to use bombed-out sites during postwar reconstruction.

Adventure playgrounds swept through Europe, particularly Scandinavia, and eventually reached the United States, though in smaller numbers and less successfully, because of liability issues.

Children in the United States are gradually losing outdoor playtime as schools put an emphasis on reading, writing, math and other indoor subjects. In one sense, the authors say, adults are imposing an adult model on elementary schools.

“One of the things we talk about in the book is the way models for an organization have taken over childhood,” Ms. Gutman said. “Kids are scheduled. Not only do children have less contact with nature, there’s less freedom to roam.”

In terms of public policy, she said, her hope for “Designing Modern Childhoods” is that it will strengthen “a commitment to the highest quality of design and construction in terms of the physical aspects of our children’s lives.”

“There are plenty of architects who would love to put their names on design for kids,” Ms. Gutman added, citing work by Richard Dattner and Peter Gisolfi. Mr. Dattner’s firm is designing Public School 276 in Battery Park City, the first school to be built under the city’s Green Schools Rating System. Mr. Gisolfi’s firm has been praised for its designs for the Pembroke Hill School in Kansas City, Mo., and the Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, Pa.

Ms. Gutman credited the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation for maintaining an abundance of intensely used play spaces. It is a question of government priorities, she suggested, saying that American spaces for children generally lag behind those in Europe.

“The idea that a child deserves a high-quality environment in early childhood education hasn’t caught on here,” she said. “Since the government doesn’t pay for those buildings, who’s going to?”

“We don’t count on the state to provide welfare,” she said, “and we see it in the public landscapes for children.”

Architecture - Children’s Playgrounds - New York Times

This I Believe: Telling Kids the Whole Truth

 

by Martha Leathe

as heard on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, March 16, 2008.

Listen to this essay

Telling Kids the Whole Truth

Several weeks ago I got a call from a good friend whose husband had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“Do we tell the kids,” she asked.

“Absolutely,” I answered.

“Do we use the C-word?”

“Yes, I think you do,” I said. “The boys deserve to know the truth, however heartbreaking it is.”

Adults always insist that children be honest, but how many of us are honest with our kids, particularly about the tough stuff: death, sex, corruption, our own failings?

I believe in telling children the truth. I believe this is vital for their understanding of the world, their confidence and the development of their morals and values.

This does not mean kids need to be unnecessarily frightened, or told more than they can handle. When our son was six, he tagged along while his older sister got her nose-ring changed.

In the shop, he sifted through a big bin of brightly packaged condoms. “What are these?” he said.

“Condoms,” I replied.

“What are they for,” he asked. Briefly, I explained what condoms are, precisely where you put them, and how they work.

“Oh,” he said, clearly disappointed, I think, that they weren’t candy. It wasn’t a lot of information, but it was the truth.

Many people think they are protecting children when they spare them the truth. I disagree. I believe children possess an enviable ability to cope with and make sense of what even adults find confounding; they can accept the unacceptable in a way that astonishes me.

When we are honest with children, we also validate their intuition. If we can admit that yes, people can be mean, grandma does have a drinking problem, divorce is painful, we allow children to trust their gut. They can begin to recognize and rely on their own inner voice, which will speak to them throughout their lives.

Kids also have an uncanny sense of when something is up: They know a fake smile when they see one, they realize when we’re uneasy, they can tell when we’re lying.

One night I was in the car with our two oldest daughters. It was dark and cozy—the perfect time for a heart-to-heart conversation. Out of the blue, one of our kids said, “So, Mom, have you ever smoked pot?”

I stalled a little, but the girls persisted. They had me and they knew it. So I told them the truth, albeit somewhat abridged. What ensued was a frank discussion about the lures and perils of drugs, well worth any discomfort.

I believe my honesty was much more effective than warnings or platitudes.

Time marches on, and so do children. These same daughters are in college now; we have two other kids still at home. And while I have made plenty of mistakes as a parent, I do have clear and open relationships with each of our kids. I believe that my being truthful with our children has paid off, because I’m pretty sure that now they are honest with me.

Martha Leathe and her family live in Eliot, Maine. Much of her life has focused on education and children, having taught every grade from first through eighth and volunteered in her local public schools. She currently serves as a school board member.

More News than Fits 3/16

This I Believe: TELLING KIDS THE WHOLE TRUTH
by Martha Leathe

PARENT TEACHER TALKS CAN GET HEATED: They share a common goal but don't always agree on how best to achieve it. Experts say mutual respect is key.

by Carla Rivera | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

THE OTHER NEWS FROM THE UCLA/IDEA "Just Schools California"/Education News Roundup

Proposed school budget cuts protested

Dozens of demonstrators march in Santa Ana in the kickoff of a series of events statewide in opposition to the governor's plan.
By David Haldane/Los Angeles Times

About 70 demonstrators -- mostly parents, students and teachers -- marched through the streets of Santa Ana on Thursday, protesting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts for California schools. The gathering was one of about a dozen planned statewide in what organizers said was the kickoff of a series of events scheduled over the next several months in opposition to the $4.8 billion in education cuts proposed to offset the state's deficit. This is ridiculous," Randy Maynor, a member of the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, the national grass-roots community-based group organizing the protests, told the crowd gathered at Lowell Elementary School.

Peligra la tarea de los maestros

Teachers jobs in peril
Recortes previstos por California dejan sin demasiadas opciones a los distritos escolares; empiezan a llegar cartas de notificación a docentes
California budget cuts leave many districts without options, teachers start receiving pink slips
By Rubén Moreno and Iván Mejía/La Opinion

La imagen se repite por todo el estado: cartas que llegan con un mensaje no muy alentador para el destinatario. "Esa carta dice que el año que viene no van a necesitar más mis servicios", dijo angustiado Claudio Heredia, uno de los 106 maestros que han recibido la notificación del Distrito Escolar Unificado de El Rancho advirtiéndoles de que el próximo curso no tienen garantizado su puesto de trabajo.
The image repeats itself all over the state - letters that have a not very encouraging message for the recipient. "This letter that next year, they are no longer going to need my services", says anguished Claudio Heredia, one of the nearly 106 teachers who have received notification from the El Rancho Unified School District warning them that next year their job may not be guaranteed.

Board of Education approves sanctions under No Child Left Behind

The state Board of Education has approved interventions in 97 poorly performing school districts recommended by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last month. The governor says the board's action Thursday is needed to free up $45 million in federal funds to help the districts comply with the No Child Left Behind Act. The districts have failed to meet their goals for five years and are facing sanctions for the first time. They educate about one-third of California's students.

Rep. Miller joins pessimists club on NCLB renewal

Ed Week

When Democrats took control of Congress last year, many political observers predicted that lawmakers wouldn’t reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act before President Bush left office. But Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, disagreed. When he took over as the committee’s chairman, he often said that the reauthorization was “doable.” Now, though, he’s acknowledging that the pessimistic prognosticators may have been right. Rep. Miller said last week it would be difficult for him and other supporters of the NCLB law to overcome the combination of its unpopularity with Democrats and the size of the president’s fiscal 2009 budget proposal, which Rep. Miller and other Democrats consider inadequate.

Layoff notices set to hit teachers' mailboxes

By Jill Tucker/San Francisco Chronicle

More than 10,100 teachers will see pink slips in their mailboxes over the next few days as districts up and down California meet a Saturday deadline to warn staff of anticipated layoffs due to the state's budget crisis. Kristen Vogel is expecting two pink slips at her house. The third-year San Francisco elementary school teacher knows she'll get one. A substitute principal at her school broke the news Monday. A union letter confirmed it Wednesday. The district's official certified letter is likely to arrive over the weekend.

Deadline looms for Calif. districts to layoff teachers

By Tamara Keith/NPR

School districts across California are reeling because of millions of dollars of proposed education cuts in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget. March 15 is the deadline to give teachers layoff notices, and thousands of them will go out across the state. A particularly hard-hit school district offers a look at the reality.

Report urges changes in teaching math

By Tamar Lewin/New York Times

American students’ math achievement is “at a mediocre level” compared with that of their peers worldwide, according to a new report by a federal panel, which recommended that schools focus on key skills that prepare students to learn algebra. “The sharp falloff in mathematics achievement in the U.S. begins as students reach late middle school, where, for more and more students, algebra course work begins,” said the report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, appointed two years ago by President Bush. “Students who complete Algebra II are more than twice as likely to graduate from college compared to students with less mathematical preparation.”

School cuts mean bigger classes, no crisis

Palo Alto escapes budget crunch better off than other districts –- lay-offs unlikely
By Arden Pennell/Palo Alto Online

Classes will be larger next year but Palo Alto schools should largely escape proposed state budget cuts without the "horrific" fallout in other districts, school officials said at Tuesday's school board meeting. "This is a much gentler scene than you'll find in many, many districts on a night like this," Superintendent Kevin Skelly said. The state cuts -- proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in January -- would cost the district about $900,000, according to Chief Business Official Cathy Mak. That brings the district's budget deficit up to $2.7 million from last fall's $1.9 million estimate, she said.

School district makes a commitment to community

Inadequate facilities are the focus of nearly $10 million.
Editorial/Fresno Bee

The Fresno Unified School District board has wisely invested in Fresno's children by voting to upgrade aging athletic facilities. The trustees decided to spend $9.7 million on a dozen athletic projects at local high schools. While the district is studying a long-term plan for improving its buildings and other facilities, the projects approved Wednesday are what we've called "no-brainers." They will replace facilities that are so inadequate on their face, the district does not need a study to determine whether to proceed. They include swimming pools at Bullard and Fresno high schools that are in such bad condition, they've become health hazards.

Teacher layoffs in Santa Clara County

San Jose Mercury News

The Mercury News surveyed school districts in Santa Clara County to determine which ones are issuing layoff notices to teachers and other staff because of proposed cuts to the state education budget. The number of layoffs is the latest estimate provided by the district. Districts that did not respond are not listed. Estimates that were not provided are marked with an X.

Camarillo High future up to voters districtwide

By Timm Herdt/Los Angeles Times

Overruling the decision of a Ventura County committee, the State Board of Education decided Thursday that all residents of the Oxnard Union High School District — including those who live in Oxnard — will get to vote on a proposal that would sever Camarillo High School from the district.The ruling, on a 7-2 vote, means that a vote to determine whether to unify the Pleasant Valley and Somis Union elementary school districts into a single K-12 district with Camarillo High as its high school could be held as early as November.

Georgia students ponder future as schools court disaster

District would be the first in the U.S. since the '60s to lose its accreditation. Students are frustrated and residents of the predominantly black county are embarrassed.
By Jenny Jarvie/Los Angeles Times

Kyanda Daniels, a junior, ran for miles with the Jonesboro High School track team the other day. When she was done, she stood above the stadium, gasping for air, and wondering what on Earth she was striving for. "We're in school for nothing, basically," said Daniels, 17. "When I get out my homework, I think to myself, 'Man, why am I doing this?' What college is going to accept us? Who would give us a scholarship?"Anxiety has engulfed students across Clayton County, a predominantly black area south of Atlanta, ever since they learned their school district could become the first in the nation since the 1960s to lose its accreditation.

A product of private schools, advocating for public education

By Robin Finn/New York Times

ZEKE M. VANDERHOEK, the upstart behind the extravagant, much-debated idea that paying teachers at his fledgling charter school $125,000 a year will translate into a top-notch education for students, is tethered by circumstance to a chair in his Chelsea office. It should be noted that Mr. Vanderhoek, 31 and showing the signs of an addiction to almond croissants, had A public education advocate, innovator and, to some minds, revolutionary, he did not attend a single day of public school — he spent the years from kindergarten through 12th grade at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md., and segued to Yale. He has a set-in-stone philosophy: teachers should not be fiscal martyrs.

California coalition backs tax hikes over budget cuts By Judy Lin/Sacramento Bee (Monday)

Rather than point the state budget ax at each other, a broad spectrum of interest groups has joined forces in a battle to press Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers to raise taxes. Groups representing nearly every state general fund service – education, labor, public safety, environment, health care and social services – have formed an alliance to oppose the governor's proposal for 10 percent across-the-board cuts. Members say the goal of the newly formed umbrella coalition, which has yet to be named, is to raise public awareness about the effect of cuts and press elected officials into supporting revenue increases.

State tax reform can spare schools devastating cuts

Editorial/San Jose Mercury News (Monday)

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata was emphatic at a high school in Sacramento and again at a school in Marin County last week. Soon he'll say it at a school in San Jose: Democratic senators will not allow education spending to be cut 10 percent. They will fight for higher taxes. That's a welcome position. Now, he has to sell it to parents he hopes will organize and support the plan, to a governor who's been tripping over his tongue when asked about taxes, and to the business community that must talk sense to at least the handful of Republicans who'll be needed to pass a budget.

Reduce spending without harming students

Editorial/Contra Costa Times (Monday)

THERE IS NO ESCAPING that California is going to have to significantly cut back on spending to balance a 2008-09 budget that is still $8 billion short. That is true even if there are tax increases. Much of the budget reductions will have to be made in education because it accounts for a larger share of state spending than anything else. That is why so many school districts in the East Bay and across the state are scrambling to determine how to operate with less money. However, the bad news may not be as bad as it has been portrayed by some education officials and legislators who have no qualms about raising taxes.

MATHS TEXTBOOK CALIFORNIA-BOUND: US BOARD OKAYS USE OF SINGAPORE BOOK IN SCHOOLS THERE

by Esther Fung | TODAYonline (Singapore)

Wednesday • December 19, 2007 | The tropical "rambutan" may have been replaced by the ubiquitous "apple" — but otherwise, the same mathematics textbooks that Singapore students learn from may soon be used in classrooms across California in the United States, too.

A local education publisher has received approval from California's education board to sell mathematics textbooks in its schools. This makes it the first Asian content provider to reach the Golden State's 3-million-strong student population in Grades 1 to 5.

Textbooks published by Singapore's Education Ministry and Marshall Cavendish International (Singapore) have already been circulating in other US schools.

With the Californian authority's approval, however, "all kindergarten and elementary schools will be able to use state funding to purchase these two approved packages for the next five years", said Mr Ling Guan Heng, general manager of Marshall Cavendish.

According to him, each student in California has an annual funding of US$70 ($102) for mathematics textbooks and workbooks, which cost up to US$15 each.

Marshall Cavendish took about three years to adjust the textbooks' content to suit American students and teachers.

In the US edition, "the exotically unknown rambutan, for example, became the simple apple", said Mr Jeffery Thomas, whose company, SingaporeMath.com, is distributing the book in that country.

Beyond "Americanising" (ie: "Americanizing") the content and spelling, the publisher had to meet rigorous standards demanded by the California state board of education.

This included introducing the topic of probability as early as in primary school. In Singapore, the topic is taught from secondary school.

Mathematicians, teachers and school administrators in the US were already aware of Singapore's stellar achievements in international academic tests, said Mr Thomas, who has been distributing Singapore textbooks in the US for 10 years.

The California schools are expected to buy the books in time for the school year beginning in September next year, the publisher said.

PARENT TEACHER TALKS CAN GET HEATED: They share a common goal but don't always agree on how best to achieve it. Experts say mutual respect is key.

By Carla Rivera | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 10, 2008 — Sixth-grade teacher Deidre Sexton watched in disbelief as a student was struck by his mother during a parent-teacher conference. Steve Klein recalled a mother who threatened to pull her ninth-grade son out of school and have him sell fruit on the freeway. Other teachers recount the times parents have tried to bully and intimidate them.

Parent-teacher conferences are a time-honored school tradition, but for many teachers they are also trying, emotionally wrought encounters. These days, the sessions are taking on a new look as schools contend with assertive or no-show parents as well as higher academic stakes that can cause tensions.

Some teachers are providing soft lighting and candles to set a friendly atmosphere. Students are being invited to lead sessions, in part to keep the adults in check. And some schools are offering child-care services to encourage participation.

Not even mood lighting, however, can keep some of the meetings from becoming heated.

Retired teacher Kristine Valentine recounted a session at Budlong Elementary School, south of Exposition Park, at which a woman, defensive about her son's poor classwork, refused to sit, towering over Valentine in an apparent attempt to put her at a psychological disadvantage.

When Klein taught at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles, the mother of the ninth-grader was so fed up after hearing repeatedly of the teenager's disruptive exploits that she asked Klein not to call her anymore for conferences.

The relationship between parents and teachers has often been somewhat tenuous. But many educators say that today's so-called helicopter parents are not partners as much as hovering, overly protective defenders of their children. Parents, in turn, say many schools overemphasize test scores rather than the abilities of individual students. And some worry about college admissions, which have become increasingly competitive and anxiety-inducing.

Myra McGovern, a spokeswoman for the National Assn. of Independent Schools, said schools -- and by extension teachers -- had been caught up in a societal shift of lagging respect for institutions generally. She hears repeated anecdotes from teachers, especially at private schools, who say that, even in the classroom, they are expected to respond immediately to telephone calls or e-mails from parents seeking impromptu conversations.

"The parents feel like they know their child best, and they are their advocates," McGovern said. "Whereas in the past the parents may have sided with the teacher, now that's less likely. Of course, the kids can manipulate that."

Scott Mandel, who teaches at Pacoima Middle School, said concern about manipulation is one reason he always has the student attend the conference.

"Otherwise these students can play one against the other," Mandel said. "Students are very smart, very good at this, and it's easy to make up stories."

Mandel, who recently published "The Parent-Teacher Partnership: How to Work Together for Student Achievement," said parent-teacher conferences were crucial, noting that one provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act school reform law called for more parental involvement.

"If you as a parent don't respect your teacher, you should probably be at another school," he said. "Teachers in turn need to respect parents as a consumer. It's like a doctor and patient who work together for the health of the body."

Christy Flynn, a fifth-grade teacher who is also a moderator at the website www.atozteacherstuff.com, plays soft music in the background (the songs of Harry Connick and Josh Groban are popular), lights a candle and sets out peppermints and chocolates for parents at her Louisiana grade school.

"When I have parents dealing with not-so-great news or more difficult issues, it does seem to take the wind out of their sails a bit," Flynn said.

The Children's School, a private campus in Stamford, Conn., produces a 15-minute DVD for each student, showing the child engaged in lessons and group activities. The DVDs are provided to parents and discussed at conferences.

But by all accounts, nothing quite prepares new teachers for the events, and some parents try to take advantage.

"I've been teaching 18 years now, and it's easier," said Sexton, who teaches in Hancock Park. "When you're younger and starting off, some parents feel like they can say more things to you. You have a kid who's struggling and they'll say well, he was a good student before he came to your class. But then you pull out the folder with the child's history and they're thrown for a loss."

With sometimes more than 20 parents to see, she can devote no more than 10 minutes to each conference and often tries to continue discussions via telephone or e-mail. Some of Sexton's students have tutors who are sent to conferences in lieu of parents -- which "works fine with me," Sexton said, adding that tutors sometimes ask better questions because they know the educational requirements.

The most surprising reaction at a conference, Sexton said, was the woman who hit her son, a child with special needs. The teacher speculated that the mother had grown frustrated with the boy's slow progress.

There are also poignant miscommunications, like the time Jo Ann Sayers, who worked in the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, met the mother of a fourth-grader. The boy apparently was running a racket in which he convinced his classmates that if they didn't hand over their lunch money in exchange for his protection, they'd be beaten up.

At the first parent-teacher conference, the 10-year-old boy offered to translate for his Pacific Islander mother, who apparently didn't have a clue about his behavior.

"Remembering the directive to say something positive to begin a conference," Sayers said, she started to say that the boy was good at sports. But before she got to the words "at sports," the mother jumped up and hugged her son, thinking Sayers was praising the boy for being good.

"I just sat there in a state of shock," Sayers said.

Sayers noted, though, that the boy's behavior changed for the better after that. "Maybe more children need to hear that they are good."

Many teachers say the emphasis on good grades and high test scores causes some parents to be more demanding.

"Understandably, they want the highest grade possible to get into a 'good' college," said Odell Mack, who teaches at Palisades Charter High School in Pacific Palisades. Some parents have tried to intimidate him by claiming they want to have a conference and instead hauling him in front of the principal.

"It never ceases to amaze me how some parents want to tell teachers what they don't think they should be doing, what they should be doing, what should not be included in the course, what the grading scale should be -- basically how we should do our jobs."

Despite the obstacles, most teachers say conferences are valuable.

On a recent morning at the Sequoyah School, an independent kindergarten-through-eighth-grade progressive campus in Pasadena, 7-year-old Ava led the conference for her parents, Juliana and Patrick Ferry, and teacher Jeff Radt.

She showed them her workbook and the reading and math problems she had been working on; talked about a favorite book, "Little House on the Prairie"; and said she wanted to do better in math and Spanish.

Her father, a teacher at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada Flintridge, told Radt how much he liked the student-led conference, which Sequoyah initiated this year.

"The relationship shouldn't be adversarial," said Juliana Ferry. "I've known parents at other schools who feel the need to defend their child. But not here. It's more of a collaboration."

Ultimately, said Gretchen Kempf, who teaches at the private Campbell Hall in North Hollywood, teachers and parents must accept that they are working for the same goals.

"Kids need to know they are not in it by themselves, that we all have strengths and weaknesses and that they're not alone," Kempf said.

"Whether we have 20 minutes or five, it helps to build a relationship."

2 sides o' th' global coin: AT L.A. SCHOOL, SINGAPORE MATH HAS ADDED VALUE + MATHS TEXTBOOK CALIFORNIA-BOUND

 

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

SUM FUN: Lyudvig Yegidbashyan, a first-grader at Ramona Elementary, tackles a math problem in the Singapore curriculum. After the school began using textbooks developed for use in the Asian city-state — whose pupils consistently rank No. 1 in international math comparisons — its math scores soared.

AT L.A. SCHOOL SINGAPORE MATH HAS ADDED VALUE

By Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 9, 2008  - Here's a little math problem:

In 2005, just 45% of the fifth-graders at Ramona Elementary School in Hollywood scored at grade level on a standardized state test. In 2006, that figure rose to 76%. What was the difference?

By the numbers

click to enlarge

If you answered 31 percentage points, you are correct. You could also express it as a 69% increase.

But there is another, more intriguing answer: The difference between the two years may have been Singapore math.

---

FOR THE RECORD:
Math: An article in Sunday's Section A on the Singapore math curriculum said one of its advocates, Yoram Sagher, is a math professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sagher works for Florida Atlantic University; he was formerly affiliated with the University of Illinois at Chicago. —

---

At the start of the 2005-06 school year, Ramona began using textbooks developed for use in Singapore, a Southeast Asian city-state whose pupils consistently rank No. 1 in international math comparisons. Ramona's math scores soared.

"It's wonderful," said Principal Susan Arcaris. "Seven out of 10 of the students in our school are proficient or better in math, and that's pretty startling when you consider that this is an inner-city, Title 1 school."
Ramona easily qualifies for federal Title 1 funds, which are intended to alleviate the effects of poverty. Nine of every 10 students at the school are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. For the most part, these are the children of immigrants, the majority from Central America, some from Armenia. Nearly six in 10 students speak English as a second language.
Yet here they are, outpacing their counterparts in more affluent schools and succeeding in a math curriculum designed for students who are the very stereotype of Asian dominance in math and science.

How did that happen?

It's a question with potentially big implications, because California recently became the first state to include the Singapore series on its list of state-approved elementary math texts. Public schools aren't required to use the books -- there are a number of other, more conventional texts on the state list -- but the state will subsidize the purchase if they do. And being on the list puts an important imprimatur on the books, because California is by far the largest, most influential textbook buyer in the country.

The decision to approve the books could place California ahead of the national curve. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel, appointed by President Bush, will issue a report Thursday that is expected to endorse K-8 math reforms that, in many ways, mirror the Singapore curriculum.

The report could also signal a cease-fire in the state's math wars, which raged between traditionalists and reformers throughout the 1990s and shook up math teachers nationwide. Fundamentalists called for a return to basics; reformers demanded a curriculum that would emphasize conceptual understanding.

Mathematicians on both sides of the divide say the Singapore curriculum teaches both. By hammering on the basics, it instills a deep understanding of key concepts, they say.

Kids -- at least the kids at Ramona -- seem to love it.

Ramona, which received a grant to introduce the Singapore curriculum, is one of a sprinkling of schools around the country to do so.

Not all teachers like it, and not all use it. The Singapore books aren't easy for teachers to use without training, and some veterans are more comfortable with the curriculum they have always followed. But you can tell when you walk into a classroom using Singapore math.

"On your mark . . . get set . . . THINK!"

First-grade teacher Arpie Liparian stands in front of her class with a stopwatch. The only sound is of pencils scratching paper as the students race through the daily "sprint," a 60-second drill that is a key part of the Singapore system. The problems at this age are simple: 2+3, 3+4, 8+2. The idea, once commonplace in math classrooms, is to practice them until they become second nature.

Critics call this "drill and kill," but Ramona's math coach, Robin Ramos, calls it "drill and thrill." The children act as though it's a game. Not everyone finishes all 30 problems in 60 seconds, and only one girl gets all the answers right, but the students are bubbling with excitement. And Liparian praises every effort.

"Give yourselves a hand, boys and girls," she says when all the drills have been corrected. "You did a wonderful job."

Reinforcing patterns

What isn't obvious to a casual observer is that this drill is carefully thought out to reinforce patterns of mathematical thinking that carry through the curriculum. "These are 'procedures with connections,' " Ramos said, arranged to convey sometimes subtle points. This thoughtfulness -- some say brilliance -- is the true hallmark of the Singapore books, advocates say.

After 10 years of studying the Singapore curriculum, Yoram Sagher, a math professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he still has "very pleasant surprises and realizations" while reading the books. Sagher, who helped train Ramos and the other teachers at Ramona, said he is constantly amazed by "the gentle, clever ways that the mathematics is brought to the intuition of the students."

The books, with the no-nonsense title "Primary Mathematics," are published for the U.S. market by a small company in Oregon, Marshall Cavendish International. They are slim volumes, weighing a fraction of a conventional American text. They have a spare, stripped-down look, and a given page contains no material that isn't directly related to the lesson at hand.

Standing in an empty classroom one recent morning, Ramos flipped through two sets of texts: the Singapore books and those of a conventional math series published by Harcourt. She began with the first lesson in the first chapter of first grade.

In Harcourt Math, there was a picture of eight trees. There were two circles in the sky. The instructions told the students: "There are 2 birds in all." There were no birds on the page.

The instructions directed the students to draw little yellow disks in the circles to represent the birds.

Ramos gave a look of exasperation. Without a visual representation of birds, she said, the math is confusing and overly abstract for a 5- or 6-year-old. "The math doesn't jump out of the page here," she said.

The Singapore first-grade text, by contrast, could hardly have been clearer. It began with a blank rectangle and the number and word for "zero." Below that was a rectangle with a single robot in it, and the number and word for "one." Then a rectangle with two dolls, and the number and word for "two," and so on.

"This page is very pictorial, but it refers to something very concrete," Ramos said. "Something they can understand."

Next to the pictures were dots. Beginning with the number six (represented by six pineapples), the dots were arranged in two rows, so that six was presented as one row of five dots and a second row with one dot.

Day one, first grade: the beginnings of set theory.

"This concept, right at the beginning, is the foundation for very important mathematics," Ramos said. As it progresses, the Singapore math builds on this, often in ways that are invisible to the children.

Word problems in the early grades are always solved the same way: Draw a picture representing the problem and its solution. Then express it with numbers, and finally write it in words. "The whole concept," Ramos says, "is concrete to pictorial to abstract."

Another hallmark of the Singapore books is that there is little repetition. Students are expected to attain mastery of a concept and move on. Each concept builds upon the next. As a result, the books cover far fewer topics in a given year than standard American texts.

Skilled at math

Singapore is a prosperous, multicultural, multilingual nation of 4.5 million people whose fourth- and eighth-grade students have never scored lower than No. 1 in a widely accepted comparison of global math skills, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. U.S. students score in the middle of the pack.

When the U.S. Department of Education commissioned a study in 2005 to find out why, it concluded, in part: "Singapore's textbooks build deep understanding of mathematical concepts through multi-step problems and concrete illustrations that demonstrate how abstract mathematical concepts are used to solve problems from different perspectives."

By contrast, the study said, "traditional U.S. textbooks rarely get beyond definitions and formulas, developing only students' mechanical ability to apply mathematical concepts."

Many eminent mathematicians agree. In fact, it is difficult to find a mathematician who likes the standard American texts or dislikes Singapore's.

"The Singapore texts don't make a huge deal about the concepts, but they present them in the correct and economical form," said Roger Howe, a professor of mathematics at Yale University. "It provides the basis for a very orderly and systematic conceptual understanding of arithmetic and mathematics."

The Singapore curriculum is not strikingly different from that used in many countries known for their math prowess, especially in Asia and Eastern Europe, math educators say. According to James Milgram, a math professor at Stanford who is one of the authors of California's math standards, the Singapore system has its roots in math curricula developed in the former Soviet Union, whose success in math and science sent shivers through American policymakers during the Cold War.

The Soviets, Milgram said, brought together mathematicians and developmental psychologists to devise the best way to teach math to children. They did "exactly what I would have done had I been given free rein to design the math standards in California. They cut the thing down to its core."

The Soviet curriculum was adopted by China in the mid-1950s, he said, and later made its way to Singapore, where it was rewritten and refined. The Singapore texts could easily be adapted for use in the United States because children there are taught in English.

"American textbooks are handicapped by many things," said Hung-Hsi Wu, who has taught math at UC Berkeley for 42 years, "the most important of which is to regard mathematics as a collection of factoids to be memorized."

One might think that school districts would be lining up to get their hands on the Singapore texts, but no one expects many to take the plunge this fall.

"Maybe in seven or eight years, but not yet," said Wu. For now, he said he'd be surprised if the Singapore books claim 10% of the market.
In part, that may reflect the inherent conservatism of the education establishment, especially in large districts such as Los Angeles Unified, whose math curriculum specialists said in December, a month after the Singapore texts were adopted by the state, that they hadn't even heard of them -- or of the successful experiment taking place in one of their own schools.

But there is also an understandable reluctance to rush into a new curriculum before teachers are trained to use it. Complicating that, experts said, is that most American elementary school teachers -- reflecting a generally math-phobic society -- lack a strong foundation in the subject to begin with.

The Singapore curriculum "requires a considerable amount of math background on the part of the teachers who are teaching it," said Milgram, "and in the elementary grades, most of our teachers aren't capable of teaching it. . . . It isn't that they can't learn it; it's just that they've never seen it."

Training is key

Adding to the difficulty is that the Singapore texts are not as teacher-friendly as most American texts. "They don't come with teachers editions, or two-page fold-outs with comments, or step-by-step instructions about how to give the lessons," said Yale's Howe.

"Most U.S. elementary teachers don't currently have that kind of understanding, so successful use of the Singapore books would require substantial professional development."

Although some U.S. schools have had spectacular results using Singapore texts, others have fared less well. A study found that success in Montgomery County, Md., schools using the Singapore books was directly related to teacher training. At schools where teachers weren't trained as well, student achievement declined.

Sagher, the Illinois professor, said that he would love to see Ramona Elementary become a training ground for L.A. Unified teachers and that Singapore math could radiate out from its Hollywood beachhead.

Districtwide, only 43% of fifth-graders last year scored at grade level or above in math, 33 points below Ramona students. "If LAUSD is smart enough to do it, it will be a revolution," he said.

 

MATHS TEXTBOOK CALIFORNIA-BOUND: US BOARD OKAYS USE OF SINGAPORE BOOK IN SCHOOLS THERE

by Esther Fung | TODAYonline (sinagpore)

Wednesday • December 19, 2007 | The tropical "rambutan" may have been replaced by the ubiquitous "apple" — but otherwise, the same mathematics textbooks that Singapore students learn from may soon be used in classrooms across California in the United States, too.

A local education publisher has received approval from California's education board to sell mathematics textbooks in its schools. This makes it the first Asian content provider to reach the Golden State's 3-million-strong student population in Grades 1 to 5.

Textbooks published by Singapore's Education Ministry and Marshall Cavendish International (Singapore) have already been circulating in other US schools.

With the Californian authority's approval, however, "all kindergarten and elementary schools will be able to use state funding to purchase these two approved packages for the next five years", said Mr Ling Guan Heng, general manager of Marshall Cavendish.

According to him, each student in California has an annual funding of US$70 ($102) for mathematics textbooks and workbooks, which cost up to US$15 each.

Marshall Cavendish took about three years to adjust the textbooks' content to suit American students and teachers.

In the US edition, "the exotically unknown rambutan, for example, became the simple apple", said Mr Jeffery Thomas, whose company, SingaporeMath.com, is distributing the book in that country.

Beyond "Americanising" (ie: "Americanizing") the content and spelling, the publisher had to meet rigorous standards demanded by the California state board of education.

This included introducing the topic of probability as early as in primary school. In Singapore, the topic is taught from secondary school.

Mathematicians, teachers and school administrators in the US were already aware of Singapore's stellar achievements in international academic tests, said Mr Thomas, who has been distributing Singapore textbooks in the US for 10 years.

The California schools are expected to buy the books in time for the school year beginning in September next year, the publisher said.

The News that Doesn't fit for March 9th

 

from Just Schools California - education news coverage of statewide interest compiled by UCLA/IDEA • Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.

 

Educators coalition formed to fight proposed budget cuts

Adolfo Guzman Lopez/KPCC

Schools administrators, labor unions and parent groups from the Southland announced Tuesday they've banded together to fight Governor Schwarzenegger's nearly $5 billion proposed cut to California's education budget.

State sanctions on bad schools won't do enough

Editorial/San Jose Mercury News

California became the first state last week to invoke sanctions against 97 school districts that have failed to show progress under the federal "No Child Left Behind" law. But for all the hoopla over "severe" and "moderate" sanctions, the state's actions won't cause much to change. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell ducked a chance to knock heads in a handful of chronically mismanaged district offices. The State Board of Education, which must approve their weak plan, should consider stronger measures.The much-maligned "No Child Left Behind" law measures student improvement districtwide as well as in individual schools.

States eye looser rein on districts

More operating leeway seen as spurring local improvement.
By Linda Jacobson/Ed Week

The push to give school districts greater operating flexibility—a grassroots rallying cry eclipsed in recent years by the charter school movement—is seeing a resurgence, as states seek to spur innovation that will help raise student achievement. In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue is proposing “performance contracts” that would free administrators in 15 districts from some regulatory strictures as early as next fall, if they agreed to meet achievement targets in the next three years. California is granting significant operating leeway to two large districts, Fresno Unified and Long Beach Unified, in exchange for their agreeing to work toward student-achievement goals in three areas. And Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons envisions “empowerment schools” statewide—if the state can find the money.

View of a glass half-full

Blog by John Fensterwald/San Jose Mercury News

It’s a wonder that California students have done as well has they have, all things considered. That’s the conclusion of “Meeting the Challenge: Performance Trends in California Schools,” the lastest brief from PACE, the Policy Analysis for California Education, a joint project run out of U.C.-Berkeley and Stanford. The paper cited slow, steady academic progress by a number of measures over the past decade at a time that the proportions of poor, minority, English-learning students have grown in the state.

A key Republican sees odds dipping for NCLB renewal

House members aren’t making progress on their pledge to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act this year, according to a leading Republican lawmaker. “We’re in a climate where it doesn’t look very favorable to get the reauthorization done,” Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., told a meeting of the Education Industry Association last week. Rep. McKeon, who is the senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, said he hasn’t met with Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the committee’s chairman, to discuss the NCLB law since October.

The debate on education

By Jeffrey R. Henig/Boston Globe

IN THIS presidential primary season, the issue of education has been like Sherlock Holmes's dog that didn't bark. Education is so far off the radar screen that, in an Associated Press-Yahoo poll, it didn't even make the 18-item list when voters were asked, "How important is each of the following issues to you personally?" The real reason education has been ignored is that other issues have taken precedence. I blame the American media and public for their short attention span and for their inability to focus on more than a few issues at a time. The headlines are focused on Iraq, terrorism, the economy, and healthcare.

Defienden fondos para educación

Education funds are defended
El LAUSD perdería casi mil dólares por cada estudiante
LAUSD would lose almost $1000 dollars per student
By Iván Mejía/La Opinión

De aprobarse los recortes propuestos por el goberndor Arnold Schwarzenegger para balancear el presupesto fiscal del estado, cada uno de los estudiantes del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Ángeles recibirá cerca de mil dólares menos por año para su educación. Schwarzenegger presentó una propuesta de recortes para balancear el déficit presupuestario estatal de 16,000 millones de dólares para el año fiscal 2008-2009, reduciendo 4,800 millones de dólares al presupuesto para educación.
If the cuts proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to balance the state's budget are approved, each student in LAUSD will receive approximately $1,000 less each year for their education. Schwarzenegger presented a budget cut proposal for fiscal year 2008-09 of $16,000 million dollars, reducing the education budget by $4,800 million.

Urging a public school exodus

Column by Cal Thomas/Sacramento Bee

As one group attempts to use California public schools as laboratories to assist children in "coming out" with their nontraditional sexual orientation, another is urging parents to come out from these schools and educate their children with their values at home or in private schools. Last Sunday, a group called "Exodus Mandate" (www.exodusmandate.org) began placing literature in scores of Southern California church lobbies, urging parents to take charge of their children's education and oppose attempts by activists and politicians to shape the worldview of young people, a worldview that runs counter to what many taxpaying parents believe and teach in their homes and places of worship.

Riverside Unified won't slash 154 jobs after all

By Imran Vittachin/Riverside Press-Enterprise

As many as 154 kindergarten, first- and second-grade full-time equivalent teaching positions across Riverside Unified School District won't be eliminated after all. To cheers inside a jam-packed board room, the school board voted Monday to restore the positions. The board reversed its Feb. 22 decision to cut them by eliminating the district's kindergarten through second-grade class-size reduction program for 2008-09, which would have saved Riverside Unified about $9.6 million. The reversal came after Deputy Superintendent Mike Fine said he discovered an error in his calculations and recommended the trustees vote to restore the class-size program.

Schools seek better notification on meat recalls

By Lesley Clark/Sacramento Bee

Local school districts got incomplete – and at times tardy – information about last month's massive recall of suspect beef, several school administrators told Congress on Tuesday. Testifying before a House of Representatives committee that's looking at ways to improve the safety and nutrition of school meals, Doris Rivas, the director of nutrition for the Dallas schools, said she first was under the impression that the district "did not have any of the product in question," only to learn weeks later that it did.

MUCH MORE STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE: Four Decades After Latino Students Walked Out of Their Classrooms, L.A. Schools Still Need Substantial Reforms

Op-ed in the LA Times by Mónica García

Mónica García is president of the LAUSD's Board of Education.

March 8, 2008 - The year was 1968, and students at public high schools in East L.A. were banned from speaking Spanish in the hallways -- at risk of a paddling from administrators who embraced corporal punishment. The students were overwhelmingly Mexican American; the administrators were, without exception, white. Those students struggled against a host of daily humiliations: locked bathrooms during lunchtime, severely overcrowded classrooms and teachers who told them college was not a realistic option.

That March, students from every East Los Angeles high school had had enough. In what became known as the East L.A. walkouts, or Chicano blowouts, students from Lincoln, Roosevelt, Wilson, Garfield and Belmont high schools walked out of their classes.

In the days that followed, more than 20,000 students at 15 schools walked out to protest educational inequity. Their demands were simple: Provide a fine education with equal resources so all students had a chance to attend a four-year university. The L.A. Unified School District's Board of Education was confronted with a community united in its demand for change.

The East L.A. student protest was one of the largest demonstrations of its kind. It sparked real changes, including the hiring of more Latino administrators, the right to speak Spanish on campus and a ban on corporal punishment. Greater awareness of the overcrowded and substandard facilities fostered successful efforts to build new schools on the Eastside.

But four decades later, as we honor and remember those courageous students, many of these same challenges remain.

According to a recent report by the community organization InnerCity Struggle, done in conjunction with UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, only 16 out of every 100 ninth-graders enrolled in a high school on the Eastside graduate eligible for college. Sixty-four out of 100 drop out. These grim statistics threaten to worsen as our educational system statewide faces the largest budget cuts we have seen in recent times. (California already ranks 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending, according to a 2008 Education Week report.)

Despite our challenges, L.A. Unified must be a leader in urban school reform so that we can finally realize the goals of the '68 protests: giving all our youth the support and opportunities they need to learn and succeed.

Our communities are energized for reform. Over the years, voters have supported four bond measures to fund construction of more than 100 schools, enabling the district to end forced busing and bring our schools back to traditional calendars. A 2005 policy called "A-G for All," when fully implemented, will ensure that all students have access to the college-prep classes required for admission to the UC and Cal State systems.

This year, the board has increased the district's focus on meeting the needs of English learners, who make up the majority of our students. We're also trying new strategies to accelerate academic achievement, build ties to the community, increase flexibility of resources and strengthen autonomy and accountability at the school level.

Sal Castro, the Lincoln High teacher who led the walkouts, said, "We knew something different had to happen." His words resonate today. We all have much work to do to reach 100% graduation for all LAUSD students. But this is a moment when we can take substantial steps forward. Sí se puede! Yes, we can!

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►smf's 2¢: Board President García has been a powerful advocate for improving opportunities for all LAUSD students; she advocated strongly for the A-G FOR ALL INITIATIVE as former Board President Huizar's chief of staff and worked tirelessly against entrenched resistance to get it approved. However unfortunate compromises in the board resolution and some unfortunate legalistic interpretation of the language driven by insider bureaucrats, naysayers and pennypinchers have moved the actual roll out of the graduation requirement to later date than originally promised. It may take some renewed activism from Ms. García to get the A-G piece back on track - especially if it is to be "for all".

Some readers of the above may be a bit shocked at the mention of corporal punishment and locking bathrooms. Corporal punishment persisted at LAUSD schools long after the walkouts. School Boardmembers elected in the backlash of the civil rights movement García celebrates launched careers that took them to Congress based on 'bringing back the paddle' [see below] – and until Roy Romer's superintendency student restrooms were routinely padlocked to save money.

GUIDELINES ON SCHOOL SPANKINGS - LA Herald Examiner - Nov 3, 1979 (Warning: Contains photo of adults behaving badly!)