School Notebook

A group calling itself Save Gardena High is apparently urging parents, staff and community members at the school to vote no on a reform plan authored by teachers and administrators.

A spokesman for the group, who gave his name as both Sean Renear and Sean Kennedy, said the group favors the school's reconstitution, a radical move in which all existing staff are fired and made to reapply for jobs.

"The patients can no longer run the asylum," Renear said.

The Gardena reform plan -- drawn up in response LAUSD's Public School Choice process, which let outside groups bid for control of 12 troubled and 18 new campuses -- was unveiled last month. Gardena High received no outside bids, so voters are simply voting yes or no on the internal plan. (Here's my story on the plan and its reception. A PDF of the plan itself is here.)

Renear sent out his press release on Wednesday afternoon, a day after the main voting period. Voters can also cast ballots on Saturday morning.

Renear said no members of Save Gardena High were comfortable speaking to me because they feared repercussions from teachers and/or for the safety of their jobs. The group consists of former and current administrators, teachers and parents, he said.

My questions to you readers are these: Have you heard anything about this group? Are you involved? Do you know anyone who is involved?

If you know anything, contact me at melissa.pamer@dailybreeze.com or 310-543-6606.

The press release sent by Renear is after the jump:

Leadership students at Palos Verdes High School are putting on a concert this evening to raise funds for relief following the earthquake in Haiti.

"We've already from $5,600 from ticket sales," said Kristin Huber, the school's activities director. "The kids have worked so hard on this event."

Huber oversees the Associated Student Body, which is organizing the event.

The event is tonight from 5 to about 8 p.m. Tickets cost $10 and about 10 student bands and soloist will perform. The public is welcome.

The event benefits World Concern, a nonprofit Christian humanitarian group.

If you can't attend, students are encouraging donations via check. Donors sending over $10 will receive a tax ID number.

Donations can be sent to:
Palos Verdes High School
attn: Kristen Huber
600 Cloyden Road
Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274

No Surprise here.

Charitable contributions to the nation's universities dropped 11.9 percent to $27.85 billion, according to a survey released today by the Council for Aid to Education. The decline is the steepest in the survey's history and was expected considering the current economic climate.

"Historical patterns indicate that as the economy recovers, contributions will rise again," said Ann E. Kaplan, director of the survey. "However, 2009 was a difficult year for colleges and universities and, indeed, also for the individuals and institutions that care about them."

UCLA was ranked ninth among the top 20 fundraising universities, receiving $351.69 million in 2009. Stanford University topped the list, raising $640.11 million.

More from NPR:

The money given to colleges and universities for their endowments and physical assets, like buildings, took the biggest hit, declining nearly 25 percent.

The fallout from this is fairly self-evident. Many schools will be forced to defer projects to renovate facilities or erect new ones.

Pay freezes and in some cases wage and benefits cuts will continue to affect many faculty, administrative and support personnel.

Glen W. Thomas will step down from his position as the governor's chief education advisor to take care of his ailing mother, Capitol Weekly reports.

Thomas, 63, was appointed to the post Jan. 21, 2009. The date of Thomas' departure has yet to be set.

From Capitol Weekly:

In explaining his departure, Thomas said:

"My 96-year-old mother is not well. Twenty-four years ago I cared for my father and I told my mother that when the time came I would do the same for her. It's been the highest honor to serve in the administration but family is always first priority."

A native Californian, Thomas is a former classroom teacher. He has also been a local school administrator and worked at the state Department of Education in a variety of posts including executive director of the State Curriculum Commission. He also helped develop the High School Exit Exam.

Most Californians favor tax increases to maintain current funding levels for the state's public schools, according to a survey released last week by the California Progress Report.

In the survey, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they would pay higher taxes to avoid cuts to K-12 funding. About 70 percent said they support spending cuts to the stater's prison system. Half of California's surveyed said they would be willing to pay more taxes to protect higher education.

From the press release:

But while majorities want to protect K-12 schools and cut spending on prisons, Californians are as divided as their leaders on the overall strategy to deal with the state's $20 billion budget deficit: 41 percent favor a mix of spending cuts and tax increases and 37 percent favor mostly spending cuts (9% favor mostly tax increases). They are in more agreement when it comes to asking the federal government for help, as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has done: 66 percent say California should seek federal aid to help meet its budget obligations.

When asked which of the four main areas of state spending they would most want to protect from budget cuts, 58 percent choose K-12 public education--the area most Californians have wanted to spare each of the nine times PPIC has posed the question.

Results were based on telephone surveys with 2,001 California residents in January.

Among the reform proposals President Obama plans to implement to the Bush Administration's landmark "No Child Left Behind" will be changes to the way school districts receive federal funds. Under the proposal, announced today, distribution of funding will be based on student achievement and academic progress, rather than enrollment.

The proposal would also eliminate the controversial 2014 deadline for academic proficiency. Any changes to the law would have to be approved by Congress.

From the New York Times:

Significantly, said those who have been briefed, the White House wants to change federal financing formulas so that a portion of the money is awarded based on academic progress, rather than by formulas that apportion money to districts according to their numbers of students, especially poor students. The well-worn formulas for distributing tens of billions of dollars in federal aid have, for decades, been a mainstay of the annual budgeting process in the nation's 14,000 school districts.

Currently the education law requires the nation's 98,000 public schools to make "adequate yearly progress" as measured by student test scores. Schools that miss their targets in reading and math must offer students the opportunity to transfer to other schools and free after-school tutoring. Schools that repeatedly miss targets face harsher sanctions, which can include staff dismissals and closings. All students are required to be proficient by 2014.

Educators have complained loudly in the eight years since the law was signed that it was branding tens of thousands of schools as failing but not forcing them to change.

The education law has been praised for focusing attention on achievement gaps, but it has also generated tremendous opposition, especially from educators, who contend that it sets impossible goals for students and schools and humiliates students and educators when they fall short. The law has, to date, labeled some 30,000 schools as "in need of improvement," a euphemism for failing, but states and districts have done little to change them.

The last serious attempt to rewrite the law was in 2007. That effort collapsed, partly because teachers' unions and other educator groups opposed an effort to incorporate merit pay provisions into a rewritten law. Earlier this month, Mr. Duncan and more than a dozen other administration officials took steps toward organizing a new rewrite, meeting with the Democratic chairmen and ranking Republican members of the education committees in both houses of Congress.

The Obama Administration will also seek to add $3 billion in additional for funding the nation's public schools. Once the law is reauthorized, an additional $1 billion would be added. More money would also be given to charter schools.

From Reuters:

(Obama) would also expand the stimulus initiative known as "Race to the Top" that funded new education innovations, especially at semi-autonomous charter schools, and has added $490 million in his budget for the charter school system. He would also create a $500 million testing program to gauge the success of various innovations.

In the budget, Obama also proposes giving $950 million of competitive grants to states and school districts for recruiting teachers and principals, as well as train them, and $210 million to "Promise Neighborhoods," to strengthen community services for students.

Charles Kerchner, a professor at Claremont Graduate University has posted an interesting take on LAUSD's major reform initiative, Public School Choice, which he likens to a chemistry experiment.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is testing the hypothesis that allowing a bunch of people to compete for running schools will yield better ones. It's a starkly different idea than the traditional civil service model and probably the boldest experiment taking place in public education in America.

Kerchner, an expert on education reform efforts, goes on to ask how successful it's been so far. For one thing, he notes that the district has seen mixed results in getting outside groups to apply for control of schools.

Public School Choice, which was approved by the board in August, let outside groups bit to take over 12 troubled "focus schools" and 18 new campuses that will open in fall. Our local schools, San Pedro High and Gardena High, generated no outside interest. Teams at both campuses created internal reform proposals.

Next month, the Board of Education will vote on the plans, after a review at Beaudry.

You can read today about plans at Pedro. On Monday, the Breeze ran my story about Gardena's plan. Pretty different situations at those two schools.

For a look at what's happening at schools that did get outside bids, check out this L.A. Times story.

Anyway, Kerchner's take, definitely from an academic perspective, is interesting. He notes the "schizophrenic relationship" that United Teaches Los Angeles has had to the whole process. Worth a read.

If you're a parent at one of these schools or their feeder campuses, or you're a Gardena or Pedro student or a staff member, you can vote on the plans Tuesday and next Saturday. Voting info is on both Breeze stories.

A panel of teachers and administrators at San Pedro High School will be explaining and taking questions on its reform plan for the campus tonight.

It's part of LAUSD's ongoing Public School Choice process that has let outside operators bid for control of 12 "focus schools" and 24 new campuses. Both San Pedro and Gardena High were named focus schools, but no outside groups submitted applications to take over the campuses.

My story on the process at Gardena High thus far ran on Monday. I'm told that the plan-writing team at San Pedro has been more organized and unified.

Read the plans: Gardena / San Pedro.

The meeting at Pedro is in the auditorium tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. It was resecheduled from last Wednesday because of the heavy rain.

Students at the California Academy of Math and Science, the highly regarded magnet school in Carson, pleaded with LAUSD board members on Tuesday to let three core teachers remain at their campus.

The school district has allowed the three instructors -- Greg Fisher, Michael Denman and Vanessa Cerrahoglu -- to teach at CAMS for years on leaves of absence. Now, because LAUSD does not want to be on the hook for their expensive lifetime retirement benefits, the district is recalling the three.

CAMS, run by Long Beach Unified, accepts students from 11 local school districts. More than a quarter are from LAUSD.

Here's my story on the conflict from a couple of weeks ago. There are 175 reader comments, many of them very thoughtful.

At a board meeting Tuesday, nine CAMS students and alumni explained that they saw the three teachers as integral to the school. (The video is posted here; it's near the end of the meeting.) Several speakers teared up as they spoke.

"You're destroying our school ... it breaks my heart," said student Sylvia Alvarez.

In response, Chief Operating Officer Jim Morris repeated an explanation that he offered me: This is a policy decision needed for financial reasons. Teachers have been recalled for the past two years. He said their retirement benefits cost the district about $250,000 per employee.

"it really is an issue for us of disadvantaging students in LAUSD -- to the tune of about $250,000 for every employee who is on leave to another district and eventually retires from LAUSD," Morris said.

Board member Yolie Flores-Aguilar called for Morris to "explore any other options."

"it's obvious to me that children - students - are benefiting. Yet we have a financial challenge with this," she said.

I'll try to keep you posted. The "Save CAMS!" Facebook group is here.

Obama will announce plans to increase federal funding for public schools in tonight's State of the Union address.

from the Washington Post:

The proposal to raise federal education spending by as much as $4 billion in the next fiscal year was described by administration officials Tuesday night as the start of an effort to revamp the No Child Left Behind law enacted under President George W. Bush. Obama will highlight his school reform agenda Wednesday in the address.

The funding would include a $1.35 billion increase in Obama's "Race to the Top" competitive grants for school reform. It would also set aside $1 billion to finance an overhaul of No Child Left Behind, according to aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the budget proposal before its release next week.

Three of El Segundo's four schools were recognized for their academic excellence during the 2008-09 school year by the California Business for Education Excellence Foundation, a non-profit policy institute based in Sacramento.

El Segundo High School, El Segundo Middle School and Center Street Elementary School were named as 2009 California Business for Education Excellence Honor Roll Schools. It is the second year in a row Center Street Elementary has made the list.

"It has become part of the culture of the school to address the needs of all students," said Linal Harada, Co-Principal of El Segundo High School, in a statement.  "Closing the achievement gap requires on-going data analysis and intervention by teachers in and out of the classroom.  As administrators, we are pleased to support this effort, and we appreciate the acknowledgement by California Business for Education Excellence."

Statewide, 1,317 schools made the list, which is announced annually.

From El Segundo Unified's press release:

Schools receiving this distinction from California's business community have demonstrated consistent high student academic achievement and have made significant progress toward closing achievement gaps among all their students. The CBEE or the "California Business for Educational Excellence" Honor Roll is made up of two different awards, the Star Schools Award (395 schools) and Scholar Schools Award (909 schools). CBEE crunches data on schools statewide to bestow honors on schools.  STAR schools are those with high poverty levels that prove adroit at closing the achievement gap whereas SCHOLAR schools are those high performing schools without a significant number of poverty level students.  All three of El Segundo's schools have been designated SCHOLAR schools. 

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget is approved by lawmakers, public schools in California could lose as much as $200 per student.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

The new reductions of approximately $200 per student come after successive cuts, including a cut of $253 per student in July. The governor's proposed 2010-11 education budget would be about 10 percent less than 2007-08 levels.

The news comes just weeks after Schwarzenegger publicly vowed to "protect public education."

Readers to the School Notebook blog may recall Torrance Unified school board member Al Muratsuchi recently addressing the governor's promise:

"When we have to raise K-3 class sizes...that is the result of the governor 'protecting education,'" Muratsuchi said during a district board meeting last week. "We need to educate the community, so that when they see class size increases, their favorite teacher getting laid off, and the school year being shortened, that they understand this is all because Sacramento is failing the entire state."

Torrance Unified board members warned that significant cuts - up to $20 million - could be slashed from the district's $188 million budget.

In Manhattan Beach Unified, trustees are looking at cutting up to $6.1 million in spending from the district's budget. Cost-cutting measures could include furlough days and staff layoffs, resulting in larger class sizes and program cuts.

"I don't see $6 million we can cut and still have a functioning school district," said board president Ida VanderPoorte. "I don't know how any school districts can survive if the cuts continue."

The Sacramento Bee has posted a database that lets you see the average teacher salary for school districts across the state. I thought it contained a few surprises -- worth checking out.

Locally, Lennox School District posted the highest average salary: $75,233 -- the fifth-highest in Los Angeles County. The lowest figure in the South Bay was from Centinela Valley Union High School District: $62,268.

The statewide average was $66,995.

Now I'm off to look at teaching credential programs ...

A meeting set for tonight to discuss LAUSD's Public School Choice process at San Pedro High School has been canceled.

The heavy rain caused some flooding in the auditorium, where the meeting was set to take place, said Juan Flecha, Local District 8 high school director.

No date has yet been set for a rescheduled meeting, but it must take place before Feb. 2, Flecha said. That's when the school community will vote on a detailed reform plan (PDF) required under the Public School Choice initiative.

Gardena High School has placed in the top 10 of a video competition put on by the creators of the "Got Milk?" campaign, the California Milk Processor Board. Now the school is asking for votes of support.

The school's band created a video that beat out dozens of other school projects to make it to the top 10. That ensures them a $2,500 award for arts programs. If they win first place, they get $20,000. Second place gets $10,000.

The kids were tasked with creating a scene from the 20-minute rock opera "Battle for Milkquarious." The musical is a product of White Gold, that cheesy white-and-gold-clad rocker you see in the milk commercials these days. The opera "chronicles White Gold's quest to save his hometown of Milkquarious from a potentially deadly milk shortage," according to a press release from the campaign.

Anyway, the Gardena kids need your vote by Sunday, Jan. 24.

I'm not quite sure how to summarize their video, so you'll just have to watch it yourself and vote.

On Jan. 29, the milk board will present a check to the school with winnings.

The state's ongoing budget crisis will cause further cuts to public education and impact Torrance Unified schools directly, members of the district's Board of Education said Tuesday.

Their comments come about a week after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released his proposed budget and publicly vowed not to cut funding from public education.

"Because our future economic well-being is so dependent upon education, I will protect education funding in this budget. And we can no longer afford to cut higher education either," Schwarzenegger said during his final State of the State address.

Yet the state is looking to save nearly $900 million by cutting back on the popular class-size reduction program.

"When we have to raise K-3 class sizes...that is the result of the governor 'protecting education,'" said school board member Al Muratsuchi during a district board meeting Tuesday."We need to educate the community, so that when they see class size increases, their favorite teacher getting laid off, and the school year being shortened, that they understand this is all because Sacramento is failing the entire state."

Terry Anderson, Senior Director of Legislative Service for School Services of California, commended the district for vigilant fiscal practices in the past.

"Being solvent comes at a price," Anderson said.

Board members warned that significant cuts - up to $20 million - could be slashed from the district's $188 million budget.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama will ask Congress
for $1.35 billion in his 2011 budget proposal to extend an education
grant program for states, although the Education Department remains
months away from announcing its first round of awards, senior
administration officials said.

Obama was outlining the budget proposal Tuesday at a Fairfax County,
Va., elementary school.

The $787 billion economic stimulus program Obama signed into law
soon after taking office included $4.3 billion in competitive grants
for states, nicknamed the "Race to the Top" fund. States must amend
education laws and policies to compete for a share of the money.

More than 30 states were expected to apply by Tuesday's deadline.
The first of two rounds of award announcements are expected in
April.

Even before that, however, Obama will ask lawmakers for another
$1.35 billion so that states not chosen in either award round will
have a chance to compete for money, according to the officials, who
spoke anonymously Monday because the president had not announced his
plans.

The president also wants to use some of the $1.35 billion for a
similar competitive grant program among school districts.

With the grant programs, Obama is trying to make federal education
spending more of a competitive endeavor to encourage states and
school districts to do better, rather than a solely formula-driven
effort in which states and districts look forward to receiving a
certain amount of money each school year, regardless of how good a
job they do educating students.

To that end, Obama sees using student test scores to judge teacher
performance and the creation of charter schools, which are funded
with public money but operate independently of local school boards,
as solutions to the problems that plague public education.

National teachers' unions disagree. They argue that student
achievement amounts to much more than a score on a standardized test
and that it would be a mistake to rely heavily on charter
schools.

The "Race to the Top" fund -- and the opportunity to compete for the
billions of dollars it holds -- was designed to encourage states to
rework their education systems and bring them more in line with
Obama's vision. Education is largely a state and local
responsibility.

So far, more than a dozen states have changed laws or policies to
link data on student achievement to the performance by teachers and
principals, or pave the way for opening more charter schools.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and
Labor Committee, called the administration's plans "exciting."

Obama is expected to send Congress his 2011 budget proposal sometime
next month.

Students from Leuzinger High School's English Language Development program are collecting funds to donate to the relief effort in Haiti. Donations can be addressed to: Rebecca Smith, English Language Development Coordinator, 4118 W. Rosecrans Ave., Lawndale, CA 90260.

Spending for the class-size reduction program could be severly cut.

From California Watch:

In his newly-released proposed budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger projected spending $340 million less than anticipated during the current school year, and $550 million less in the school year beginning in September. Together, the reductions would save the state nearly $900 million.

This would mark a huge rollback of the program that now costs the state about $1.8 billion a year. Since 1996, California has spent about $22 billion on the program, making it the most expensive education reform program in California's history.

The program began in the 90s to, well, reduce class sizes. Initiated by then-governor Pete Wilson, the class-size reduction program was intended to bring K-3 class sizes down to 20 students. A survey done by California Watch, a non-profit journalism project, found that class sizes have increased in public schools across the state.

But a survey by California Watch in the fall found that two-thirds of the state's largest school districts have already raised class sizes, some by a handful of students, and others to as many as 30 students. To yield projected savings of $550 million next year, the Department of Finance is anticipating that the majority of the state's school districts will raise class sizes during the coming year to at least 25 students.

Marcus Winters, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues in today's LA Times that since states continue to lower the academic bar for students, amendments should be made to No Child Left Behind. Changes allowing for uniform, stringent testing that would develop higher standards for public schools need to be created, Winters writes.

From the Op-ed:

A recent federal study noted that 15 states lowered at least one of their proficiency standards in math and reading between 2005 and 2007.

And there's more:

The law punishes a school when too few of its students meet math and reading proficiency targets each year. But the law has a gaping loophole: States get to define proficiency. A state can thus meet the law's targets by defining proficiency down; toughening its standards, by contrast, handicaps its ability to meet the federal requirements.

Of course, low standards have their own appeal. The lower the standard, the more students surpass it. State governments love to tell constituents that students are doing great on standardized exams; the public usually just assumes that the criteria used on those exams are meaningful.

We could make better progress toward an effective testing regime if we changed our goal from uniform national standards to high state standards, which two simple amendments to No Child Left Behind could help bring about.

The Manhattan Institute is a conservative think tank based in New York City.