November 2007 Archives

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded California State University, Dominguez Hills a $1.1 million grant to further a program aimed at preparing low-income and traditionally under-represented students for doctoral study.

The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program was established by Congress in honor of the astronaut who grew up disadvantaged and became the second African-American in space. He died in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster.

The federal department adminsters funding to universities for the program through a competitive grant process. This is the second four-year grant awarded to Dominguez Hills, which has seven continuing McNair scholars and an additional 19 new students just accepted into the research-intensive program.

"We are thrilled," local program director Michelle Waiters said, calling the school's McNair scholars "a source of pride for the university" and a "dynamic group of students."

Since 2003, some 50 students have participated in the CSUDH McNair program, which boasts a 100% graduation rate and a 93% graduate school acceptance rate.

The McNair program is open to undergraduates with sophomore status or higher, who are either first-generation college students from low-income families or from racial groups underrepresented in graduate degree programs. As McNair scholars, students must maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher, participate in scholarly activities outside the classroom, complete a research project in their field of study and present a project at a research symposium.

Four South Bay schools have landed on U.S. News & World Report's first ever-ranking of the 100 best high schools in America.

The California Academy of Math and Science, a charter of Long Beach Unified but housed in Carson at CSU Dominguez Hills, topped the local presence with its 21st place ranking nationwide. The Animo Leadership Academy in Inglewood landed at No. 31, while Palos Verdes Peninsula High came in at No. 89. Palos Verdes High School also made the list, at No. 93.

The magazine, which for years has been so ranking colleges and universities, teamed with analysts from School Evaluation Services to develop the methodology to analyze how well high schools serve their students. They factored in poverty and economic status, including disadvantaged students, average students, and college-bound students to make those measurements.

According to the methodology, a best high school is one that succeeds at the following:

1) Attains performance levels that exceed statistical expectations given the school's relative level of student poverty, as measured by state accountability test scores for all the school's students in the core subjects of reading and math;

2) Achieves proficiency rates on state tests for their least advantaged student groups (e.g., black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students) that exceed state averages; and

3) Prepares its students for college, as measured by student participation in and performance on Advanced Placement (AP) tests, which are administered by the College Board.

Using this methodology, more than 18,500 high schools in 40 states were analyzed for inclusion.

The issue hits newsstands on Monday, but the "America's Best High Schools" package is available now online.

A communications consultant hired by LAUSD says the district needs his expertise because the daily newspapers in Los Angeles "love to focus on all the negative going on in the district." Victor Abalos, a strategist for Brewer has been signed to a one-year, $178,000 contract to develop communication strategies, including restructuring LAUSD's communications department.

Read Naush Boghossian's story for more.

California State University, Dominguez Hills will host an informational session today (Nov. 29) for people interested in switching careers to teach at LAUSD or Lynwood Unified School District.

With Transition to Teaching, the university offers a one-year training program for people with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, science, English or other subjects.

Students earn a preliminary credential, gain placement in a middle- or high-school, get ongoing coaching and can qualify for as much as $5,000 in financial assistance. They teach full-time and complete the program during the evening.

The university's briefing is set for 5:30 p.m. For the location, call 310-243-2668. For more information, check out the program's Web site.

The New York Times has a fascinating piece about how self-marketing and branding has become part of the college application process and the extent to which kids are encouraged to sell themselves to schools rather than just present their CVs and see what happens.

From Joseph Berger's story:

"The language is pure Madison Avenue, but it is richly in vogue among paid counselors who advise students on how to make strong impressions with top-flight colleges. Package yourself, they say. Brand yourself.

Branding is a buzzword among corporations, and colleges, too, are desperate to distinguish themselves. And so the philosophy — some might call it an affliction — has filtered down to those applying to the most selective colleges. "

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

Torrance resident Andrew Hua, a junior at CSU Long Beach currently studying abroad through the Semester At Sea program, has been awarded a scholarship by Denny's, in partnership with the Hispanic College Fund.

The communications studies major was one of only 27 Latino students nationwide to receive the scholarship of up to $5,000, a merit and financial need-based award. The 2007 HCF Denny's Scholars were honored at a special gala in Washington D.C.

Speaking from his location in Egypt, having already been to Japan, China, Vietnam, India and elsewhere, Hua said: "Without this scholarship, my dream of traveling the world wouldn't have come true ... It has been an opportunity of a lifetime and I can't express how thankful I am."

Denny's partnership with HCF has helped more than 370 Hispanic students by providing more than $515,000 in scholarships over the past five years. To be eligible for the award, students must be a U.S. citizen of Hispanic/Latino heritage; be pursuing a bachelor's degree in a major related to business, engineering, technology or entrepreneurship; in good academic standing with a minimum 3.0 GPA; and enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student for a full academic year.

The Hispanic College Fund is a private non-profit organization dedicated to developing the next generation of Hispanic professionals in America. Its mission is to provide Hispanic students with the vision, resources and mentorship needed to attain successful careers and become community leaders.

In a special meeting Monday night, the Torrance Unified School District board of trustees reappointed Owen Griffith to the personnel commission for a three-year term commencing Dec. 1.

Griffith has served the commission since May 1999. He previously sat on the district's school board from 1967-1995, with five terms as president.

Los Angeles Unified's seven Westchester-area schools will decide next month whether to join a reform effort led by Loyola Marymount University.

LMU's "family of schools" reform blueprint is moving closer to shifting more power locally. In the coming weeks, votes will be taken at the five elementary schools, Wright Middle School and Westchester High School.

Read Paul's story for more.

To learn more, attend a town hall meeting at 5:30 p.m. today at LMU's Ahmanson Auditorium. A second is set for 9 a.m. Dec. 8 at MacIntosh Center.

The L.A. Board of Ed reversed a move by Supt. David Brewer that would have eliminated up to six teachers from each LAUSD high school and probably not lowered class sizes, as promised.

Read Paul's story for the whole story.

After volunteering at the San Pedro-Harbor Animal Shelter, Rolling Hills Preparatory 11th-grader Sarah Ruttenberg became attached to a Chihuahua she named Mel. The pup was misdiagnosed with a thyroid problem and it was going to be put to sleep, but Ruttenberg decided to foster Mel until she could find him a home.

For all the details, read Rebecca Villaneda's story in the Palos Verdes Peninsula News.

The Torrance Sister City Association is seeking Torrance residents who are high school sophomores through college freshmen, aged 19 or younger, to serve as cultural ambassadors in the Student Cultural Exchange Program.

Selected students will spend three weeks in July in Kashiwa, Japan, Torrance's sister city. The trip includes visits to Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima. Travelers are housed in Kashiwa homes.

The local association has sponsored the trip since 1974. Applications for the Summer 2008 journey are due by December 21. Interested students can find applications in their school's counseling office or by calling the Torrance Community Services Department at (310) 618-2930.

An article in Newsweek magazine suggests that learning good, old-fashioned penmanship is still a necessity in the age of text messaging and computers and laments the declining instruction time it has been given in the classroom. (I think it struck a chord with me because lately I have been trying to help my 4-year-old learn to write legible letters on her list for Santa and I see how hard she has to concentrate.)

Anyway, here's the premise of the article:

Handwriting is important because research shows that when children are taught how to do it, they are also being taught how to learn and how to express themselves. A new study to be released this month by Vanderbilt University professor Steve Graham finds that a majority of primary-school teachers believe that students with fluent handwriting produced written assignments that were superior in quantity and quality and resulted in higher grades—aside from being easier to read. The College Board recognized this in 2005 when it added a handwritten essay to the SAT—an effort to reverse the de-emphasis on handwriting and composition that may be adversely affecting children's learning all the way through high school and beyond.

Charles Fleming's op-ed in the L.A. Times on Sunday offers the rare viewpoint of a parent who likes LAUSD's year-round schedule, which almost a third of district students use.

When reading, watch for Fleming's pretzel-like description of the labyrinthine four-track schedule. Fleming, a communications teacher at USC, offers this rationale for why he likes the schedule for his daughters:

Both of my daughters, in addition to taking summer family vacations, working summer jobs and enjoying the traditional summer hang-time with friends, have gotten excellent value out of their winter breaks, or "intersessions." Katie used one year's holiday to go on an extended class visit to Spain and still had time to squeeze a semester's worth of "health and life skills" into a slightly more intensive six-week class during the intersession -- like attending summer school in the winter. The next year, she toured college campuses in Washington, Oregon and Northern California and still had time to prepare for a tae kwon do black-belt examination in the spring. (She passed.)

An 1,800-page analysis of the two-year private college's plan to refurbish its library and build on-campus dormitories has hit the table, but has yet to win over activists who have complained about it.

Here's the gist of the objection from Megan Bagdonas' story:

But the sticking point for neighbors remains a proposal to build two on-campus dormitories to house 255 students. Residents say the neighborhood isn't compatible with potentially rowdy coeds bunking down in their bucolic enclave.

The Concerned Citizen Coalition, which formed in 2000 in response to Marymount's expansion plans, says it's not the increased number of cars that worries them but who's behind the wheel.

"We're not talking about traffic doubling or tripling; we're talking about the nature of it," activist Tom Redfield said. "As it is, the campus gets very quiet in the late afternoon. "But with (the dorms) we would have (students) here 24/7, and that would totally change the nature of our community."

Attend the Rancho Palos Verdes Planning Commission meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 27) at Fred Hesse Community Park, 29301 Hawthorne Blvd.

An article on the Newsweek web site says NYC is taking a cue from LAUSD and launching a marketing campaign to promote school attendance and lower its dropout rate:

Here's the plan: in January about 15,000 middle-schoolers from high-poverty neighborhoods will be given free cell phones. Through those phones kids will then receive taped—and perhaps even personal—messages from entertainment and sports celebrities reminding them to try their best in class. They'll be able to download "interviews" with well-to-do men and women who work as dentists, technicians, scientists and accountants and who will discuss the way they parlayed school success into financial security. Teachers will also use the phones to remind pupils about upcoming tests or an overdue homework assignment. When individuals or groups of kids improve their attendance, up their grades or display good citizenship in school, they'll be rewarded with free minutes on their phones and tickets to shows and sporting events. Kids who get phones will also be assigned mentors.

By spending $4.3 million to develop a hybrid K-8 school in Wilmington, LAUSD may have paid for information it won't (for the most part) use. Board Member Richard Vladovic has proposed downsizing the project to an elementary school and shifting it to a location other than the one the district has chosen, which would essentially restart four years of planning.

Read Paul's story to find out how they spent the funds.

For a project update, attend a meeting at 6 p.m. today at Banning High, 1527 Lakme Ave.

Students enrolling in Westchester High School's aerospace magnet can expect to take two extra mathematics and science classes. What they shouldn't expect are courses in satellite technology, flight training or engineering.

Although some people may infer the school's curriculum focuses on space technology, its name is actually something of an outdated misnomer.

However that hasn't stopped the magnet school's Web page from advertizing it as such.

Read Paul's story for the full details.

Checking back with the LAUSD's much-touted dropout-prevention effort, which includes setting up a MySpace page.

Turns out LAUSD is a 17-year old male and a Capricorn. Heroes: "Students who take control of their future and make the decision to stay and earn a high school diploma."

So far, 20 friends have signed up, including "Freak," a 16-year-old girl from Carson and "Sarahi," a 17-year-old girl from Gardena. Freak is still in high school, but lists her income level as "$250,000 or higher." Maybe her pop career is starting to take off...

An LAUSD cleaning crew disinfected four classrooms at Lomita's Fleming Middle School on Monday and Tuesday. Read our story for more.

The residents of Lomita spoke out to their city leaders against a plan (pursued by Councilman Barry Waite) to build a high school at Lomita Park. They headed to the City Council meeting Monday with their southeast Torrance neighbors to protest.

Read Paul's story for more details...

Fifty-five students of the Centinela Valley Union High School District have earned the designation of AP Scholar by the College Board, in recognition of their achievement on the college-level Advanced Placement Program Exams.

The AP program offers students the opportunity to take college-level courses while still in high school and receive college credit. About 18 percent of the more than 1.3 million students worldwide who took the AP exams performed at a level high enough to merit the designation AP Scholar. The award is given to students who take three or more AP exams and score a 3 or higher.

See below for the list of Centinela's so-honored.

Los Angeles school board member Richard Vladovic is hosting a field event in Carson on Wednesday to answer questions or concerns. The meetings will take place one on one.

From 8 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Vladovic will meet with community members in Room 111 of the Carson Community Center, 801 E. Carson St.

Questions should be directed to Lyle Tooks, Vladovic’s Carson field representative, at 213-241-5693.
Similar events are planned for Carson in the coming months.

Kristin Mae Albaniel, a fifth-grader at Bonita Street Elementary School in Carson, was named one of 20 finalists of a science competition sponsored by KOST 103.5 FM.

For the competition, students were asked to invent a toy and describe it. Albaniel invented a board game called "The 50 States Game." She won a $100 gift card to purchase materials to build the game. On Sunday (Nov. 18), she'll participate in the Excitement of Science Fair in Los Angeles to show off her invention.

Following the fair, students will watch Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium during a private screening.

Players from the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team headed two blocks south of their Home Depot Center base to Leapwood Avenue Elementary School to read and distribute books to students.

The event is a partnership between the Wonder of Reading organization, the L.A Galaxy Foundation and the Reading is Fundamental of Southern California, all of which work to promote family literacy
programs and a life-long love of learning, according to an LAUSD release.

In this picture, forward Edson Buddle greets a student at a reading table.

The Port of Los Angeles High School ran over a few humps on the road to a 5-year lease for their San Pedro school site, at 250 W. Fifth St. They could exhale Thursday, as the Harbor Commission granted them the deal, which allows the school to purchase the building by 2012.

Read Paul's story for more.

Students involved in the South Bay high school football rivalry have been getting carried away, by vandalizing the campuses. Here's a snippet from a staff report.

Buckets of green paint were unloaded on the Redondo Union High School football field and cafeteria, officials discovered this morning.

The words "Mira Costa" and initials "MC" were sprayed on the field and building in retaliation for vandalism at their field last week, said Redondo Principal Mary Little.

Parents interested in enrolling their children in Los Angeles Unified School District magnet schools for next year and getting bus transportation to classes could begin applying Thursday.

The district has more than 160 magnet schools and centers with specialties ranging from math and science and technology to the performing arts and music.

Magnet schools and the accompanying transportation program have been a key component of the district’s voluntary integration efforts.

Complete information is available in the 2008-09 CHOICES brochure sent to all LAUSD students’ parents.
The application period closes Jan. 11.

For a list of local magnet programs, see the extended entry.

The family of a girl who was molested by a former South High School coach is suing the Torrance Unified School District, saying they hope the claim will spare others a similar fate.

Leonard Butler, 48, pleaded no contest last week to molesting the 14-year-old and another girl. He returns to court Dec. 3 for sentencing and faces up to three years in state prison. The district terminated Butler.

Read Denise Nix's story for more.

A man dressed in black clothing and a ski mask sexually assaulted a 20-year-old female student at El Camino College on Tuesday evening outside the gymnasium.

Here's an exerpt from Larry Altman's story:

The assailant ran after the Tuesday night attack outside the women's gym, leaving his victim crying on the ground. Police said she dialed 911 to summon help. A campus public safety officer found her in tears.

"The commission of the crime is so savage, we just think this guy is perhaps a habitual offender," said El Camino College Interim Police Chief Steve Port.

A group set up and funded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett (The Birth to Five Policy Alliance) has set up a slick Web site with a wealth of information pertaining to education and resources for child development and learning before kindergarten.

The site has an extensive collection of information about child development, economic implications and evaluations of Head Start, pre-K initiatives and other programs. You can pull out a comprehensive profile of California that includes descriptions of several of the "at least 23 bills that relate to early childhood issues (that) were introduced in the California Legislature" in 2007.

Here's the mission statement:

The Birth to Five Policy Alliance works to fulfill the American promise of opportunity for all. Forty-two percent of our nation’s children under 6 live in low-income families and the “opportunity gap” is rooted in these very early years. The Alliance’s goal is to shift the odds for our youngest, most vulnerable children so they can grow up eager to learn and ready for success in life.

Three public and seven private school educators were honored Wednesday by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula as top educators on The Hill. The kudos flew at an awards luncheon at the Los Verdes Country Club. Here they are:

1) Bob Adam, English-as-a-Second-Language teacher, Rolling Hills Preparatory School.
2) Margaret Butler, fifth-grade teacher, St. John Fisher School.
3) Margaret "Peggy" Costello, social science teacher, Rancho del Mar Continuation High School.
4) Stacy Dunn, fifth-grade teacher, Dapplegray Elementary School.
5) Malynn Hogan, social studies and math teacher, Miraleste Intermediate School.
6) Charlton Jackson, math teacher and coach, Chadwick School.
7) Sean Lathrom, social studies instructor, Riviera Hall Lutheran School.
8) Carol Murin, kindergarten teacher, Lunada Bay Elementary School.
9) Nancy Sanders, English professor, Marymount College.
10) Duncan Sutton, music and worship ministries director, Crestmont College.

Reading Shelly's story today, we find out Spc. Lester Roque was attending classes at Harbor College in Wilmington. The Army soldier was killed in an ambush in Afghanistan over the weekend.

The Web site of the National Center for Children in Poverty is loaded with usefull information. Here are a few of the site's nuggets:

1) The Family Resource Simulator. You can plug in your income and expenses. Based on those answers, the site generates graphs that show how family resources and expenses change as earnings increase.

2) A fact sheet illustrating that higher education is one of the most effective ways parents can increase their family income. In low-income families, 25% of children (almost 7.2 million) have parents with less than a high school diploma.

3) Data showing a decline in household income since 2000, even as the number of children living in low-income families is rising. In low-income families, 56% of children (16 million) have at least one parent who works full-time and year-round.

4) Using the "50-State Policy Wizard," you can pull out a wealth of policy data about family eligibility for Head Start, food stamps, income tax liability, minimum wage standards, Section 8 vouchers, tax credits and unemployment insurace.

According to the Modern Language Association of America, enrollment in foreing language classes is up 12.9 percent from 2002 to 2006.

From the Associated Press story:

Spanish remains the most popular subject, with more than 823,000 students enrolled — up 10.3 percent since 2002 and nearly four times higher than No. 2 French.

But Arabic is the fastest-growing major language, breaking the top 10 for the first time with just under 24,000 enrollments, compared to about 10,600 in 2002. The number of institutions offering Arabic has nearly doubled to 466, including both two- and four-year colleges.

Between 2002 and 2006, Arabic enrollment jumped from 222 to 482 at Georgetown University, from 37 to 156 at Boston College and from 65 to 184 at Arizona State.

Enrollments in languages such as Russian and Arabic have traditionally spiked with world events, but Karin Ryding of the MLA and a professor of Arabic at Georgetown said she thinks these increases will stick. “Young people today understand that the world is truly and inevitably smaller, and they’re coming to the study of Arabic with serious, professional goals in mind,” she said.

The annual boutique to benefit the preschool comes to the Rolling Hills Estates campus Thursday and will run through Sunday.

A variety of items will be sold that are made or donated by parents, friends, families and many local merchants. The proceeds will go toward buying new educational and outdoor equipment for students at the private school.

Beautiful holiday gifts, handmade items, baked goods; fresh herbal gourmet vinegars, Broadacres' famous bean soup mix, cookie mixes, candy, and paintings will be sold. There will be silent auctions offering dinners at local restaurants and a new edition of the "Broadacres Cookbook" celebrating the school's 56 years of operation.

The holiday boutique's hours are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday at the school, 4915 Palos Verdes Drive North (one and a half blocks west of Silver Spur).

Please call if you have any merchandise you would like to donate and the school will arrange a pick up for you. Call 310-375-7301 and aks for Director Gayle Walti or owner Bettie Brown.

Monica Liu, a 12th-grader at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, won honorable mention in the prestigious Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology at the California Institute of Technology over the weekend.

Liu, who lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, earned $1,000 for herself and $2,000 for her high school for research she presented relating to skin cancer. Liu’s research focuses on developing a method to sensitively detect melanoma cells circulating in the blood. Her research may eventually help predict cancer metastasis and enhance targeted cancer therapies, a competition spokesman said.

Liu is quickly building an impressive track record. She co-authored a paper on melanoma detection accepted for publication in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. She is currently a student researcher at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance. Liu excels in piano, flute, voice studies, ballet and modern jazz. Her audiences may be surprised, when she discusses her cancer research before her piano performances.

Liu plans to study neuroscience and molecular biology, along with public policy, and would like to work in public health.

She also currently represents 6.4 million students in California as a full-voting student member of the California State Board of Education.

Local school board member Richard Vladovic is backing up teachers, by lobbying to nix a plan from Superintendent David Brewer that would have caused a loss of three to six teachers from each high school.

Read Paul's story for all the details.

Los Angeles School Board Tamar Galatzan's description perhaps typifies the high expectations for Superintendent David Brewer during his first year on the job as LAUSD's superintendent. Naush Boghossian's story takes a look at Brewer's performance, as well as his "rocky initiation into city and union politics as well as the massive bureaucracy at the nation's second-largest school district."

One nugget: the former Navy Admiral compares reforming LAUSD to steering a battleship. "When you put the rudder over, you don't necessarily get any movement initially."

Pick up the Daily Breeze on Sunday and you'll get Brewer's first-year report card of what he's promised and what he's delivered. Click on the video link below the story's headline online to hear the audio from Boghossian's interview with Brewer.

Brewer's true test will come starting Tuesday, when he presents his reform plan for the district to the board at a 2 p.m. meeting that can be viewed on the district's Web site.

Lana Buu, this year's The Freshman columnist, was mightily impressed, when she met Andreas Kakouris, the ambassador of Cyprus.

At the Cypriot embassy, we asked about the Turkish invasion in 1974 and the current United Nations peacekeeping forces in Cyprus. We impressed the information minister and got the chance to talk to Ambassador Andreas Kakouris.

Ambassador Kakouris spoke with us for half an hour on the history of Cyprus, its role in the European Union and his personal feelings on Turkey vying for a place in the EU. After our fascinating discussion, we took a picture with the ambassador that I now proudly have framed next to my desk.

Here's the full account.

A fairly discouraging study out of UCLA reports that California students aren't making the grade. Here's an exerpt from Naush Boghossian's story, which includes info about South Bay schools.

California students are among the nation's worst academic achievers, and although some South Bay schools are bucking the trend, those in the Los Angeles Unified School District are faring even worse than the statewide average, according to a UCLA study released Thursday.

In one of the broadest looks at California's educational system, the state's high-school students ranked near the bottom nationwide on key markers including achievement, graduation and college-enrollment rates.

If current trends continue, every high school in California will fail to achieve proficiency in math by the 2014 goal set by the federal No Child Left Behind law, the report's researchers found.

In the LAUSD's (protracted?) process to develop a school in Wilmington, two new sites have emerged as viable alternatives to the unpopular "Site F," a commercial block in the heart of town with a Wells Fargo bank, Latino market and other homes and businesses. The district must decide by Dec. 11 whether to roll back its approval of that site and choose one of the new ones. Trustee Richard Vladovic has called for more community input with meetings on Wednesday and Nov. 26.

Here's Paul's story.

The Associated Press has a story that says California's lack of adequate technology to track its students makes it unable to properly comply with No Child Left Behind.

While the state collects reams of information about students, from their ethnicity and poverty status to their scores on the high school exit exam, most of that data is not linked. That gap means state officials do not know the answer to such basic questions as whether special programs have helped third-graders read better or how many students drop out and where they go.

There also is no way to make sure records are transferred when students move to another city or to see what courses they’ve taken.

The lack of data has kept the state perpetually at odds with federal education officials over how to measure student progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Here's the story.

For a few lessons on Tuesday, five classes at Torrance Elementary School had some surprise substitute teachers – professional hockey players from the Los Angeles Kings.

The local campus was one stop on the athletes “Amazing Race”-style, scavenger hunt-esque team-building activity designed by coach Marc Crawford. Among the tasks he assigned them: hitting balls at Dodger stadium, stand on a surfboard in the waters off Manhattan Beach for at least five seconds and teaching a 10-minute lesson at the Torrance school.

Five groups of players visited the campus on Tuesday, one every hour between 9 a.m. And 2 p.m. According to Principal Gerardo Yepez. They visited first-, second- and third-grade classroom, as well as a fourth-fifth-grade combination class, sometimes reading to kids and in other rooms teaching math.

“But more than that,” Yepez said, “they were presenting important messages about having dreams, pursuing them, working hard, being responsible and persistent ... I think it was a very positive experience for the kids and for the players as well.”

The players also took a few questions from their pint-sized audiences, answering everything from “How do you put on your jersey?” to “Do you guys all get along?” Yepez related.

Each teacher whose room was visited sported a Kings jersey for the day, courtesy of the educator who got the team there in the first place. Second-grade teacher Rebecca Kanehl, a devoted hockey fan, hosted a visit from Coach Crawford last year after writing him a letter, “so when he thought of this idea, he remembered Torrance El and made us a stop for this team activity,” Yepez explained.

The two-year private college added financier Alexander Cappello and educator Joan Lescinski to its 22-member Board of Trustees. They'll begin duties in the summer of 2008.

Cappello, 52, has more than 30 years experiance in corporate management and finance, investment and merchant banking. Companies under his direction have completed in excess of $50 billion in transactions and operate in 40 countries.

The Brentwood resident has also served on boards such as YPO International, the USC Board of Trustees, RAND Corporation and Catholic Big Brothers of Los Angeles.

Lescinski, 60, currently serves as president of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. Previously, she served as president of St. Mary-of-the-Woods College and had teaching positions at College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, Fontbonne University in St. Louis and Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Associated Press has a report that says high school dropout rates in California were up 4 percent in 2006, the first year exit exams were required.

The firm that prepared the report, Human Resources Research Organization of Alexandria, Va., recommended that California explore other ways for high school seniors to demonstrate proficiency. In Massachusetts and Washington state, for example, students can be judged on a portfolio of their high school work.

Such an approach has been opposed by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell.

The report’s findings validate the position of exit exam opponents who say the test is hardest on students who do not have access to good schools, said Liz Guillen, director of legislative and community affairs for Public Advocates.

Do you know what the dropout rate at your high school is? The California Department of Education has statistics on dropouts for each school district. You can see how rates compare by gender, age, ethnicity or grade level here.

A school board in Bakersfield voted Monday to display the motto "In God We Trust" in classrooms and offices. From the story by The Associated Press:

The board made the decision following months of contentious debate. Opponents didn’t like infusing schools with religious doctrine, while supporters believe government and God should be intertwined.

“We’re not going to accept the agenda of some radical leftists who want to expunge God from public dialogue,” said Chad Vegas, an evangelical pastor who sits on the board of the Kern High School District. “Instead, we’re teaching our citizens — including our children — that the very foundation of government is that God gave them unalienable rights that cannot be usurped by the will of the majority or anyone else.”

Vegas persuaded the board last year to change the official names of winter and spring breaks to Christmas and Easter recesses.

School district board President Bob Hampton cast the sole dissenting vote, arguing “the spiritual side of a student belongs in the home and in the church — not in the school.”

El Camino College students who are also military veterans will be honored tomorrow at an event designed to celebrate their accomplishments and academic endeavors.

“A Salute to El Camino College Military Veterans; Courage, Commitment, Education” is scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday in the Student Activities Center. This first-ever event will begin with a “pinning ceremony” as college administrators pin an American flag on each veteran’s lapel.

The tribute to the veterans and their service to the United States will be followed by a reception that representatives from various service organizations will attend to answer questions and network.

“We want to salute the fact that our veterans have past accomplishments and are in school now – they are part of our El Camino College community as they pursue their education,” said William Cooper, a counselor at school who helped plan the event. “As educators, we feel career planning has to begin with a commitment to education. So, we salute their commitment to education and their motivation toward the future.”

The event is also designed to bring various veterans resources together in one place to make it easier for students to participate and access what's available. Representatives from the Gardena Veteran’s Center, the Veteran’s Outreach Program, and the Employment Development Department will be on hand.

An academy-style high school in Wilmington joined 34 other schools in California Wednesday as a Blue Ribbon nominee.

The Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy — a 330-student high-achiever based at Harbor College — would be chosen for the award, provided they submit the proper documentation, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Education said.

The school is the only one in the Los Angeles Unified School District to be nominated. The No Child Left Behind law established the Blue Ribbon program.

Nominated schools must demonstrate 90 percent proficiency in English-language arts and math. The could also gain eligibility by counting 40 percent or more of disadvantaged students and attaining at least 60 percent proficiency in those subjects.

Harbor Teacher Prep was named a California Distinguished School in 2007. Nestled in bungalow classrooms on tennis courts since opening in 2002, the school now employs 14 teachers in nine classrooms.

Members of the Southeast Torrance Homeowners' Association have logged their displeasure about a proposal to build an 810-student high school in northern Lomita, just south of the Torrance border, on a portion of Lomita Park.

Residents of the neighborhood near Walnut and 242nd streets have also opposed the idea. About 10 spoke out at the Lomita City Council's Oct. 15 meeting.

Southeast Torrance residents headed to their City Council Tuesday evening to protest the plan, which was hatched by Lomita Councilman Barry Waite. Members of LAUSD's facilities division has acknowledged studying the idea as a preferred alternative to building a high school along Western Avenue in San Pedro.

The association voted at its Monday meeting to oppose the plan, President John Bailey wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Breeze. The group can be reached via e-mail.

Local voters brought back many of the incumbents to school boards during Tuesday's elections. There were a few notable expections in Palos Verdes and Lennox. In Torrance, former Councilman Don Lee joined incumbent Terry Ragins on the board.

Read our story for all the details.

RAND released reports Tuesday on the correlation between preschool attendance and success in primary grades.

Here are some of the institute's findings:

Researchers found that a sizeable number of California’s students fall short of the state’s proficiency standards in English-language arts and mathematics when assessed in second and third grade. The achievement shortfalls are largest for English learners, students whose parents have less than a high school education, black and Hispanic children, and children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

The same patterns of achievement differences were evident in other assessments researchers assembled to judge performance at earlier grades and on measures of school readiness when children entered kindergarten.

There are several well-designed studies that show high-quality preschool programs serving children one or two years before kindergarten can improve school readiness and raise performance on academic achievement tests in the early elementary grades through middle school, according to the RAND research. This evidence is from programs in other states that serve the same groups of children that demonstrate low academic performance in California.

You can get the full reports here.

Want to know what's going on in the schools? Look over there on the right at the links to the work of South Bay student journalists.

We're building a hub of school newspapers to give parents and peers from other schools a glimpse into important issues being covered from a student perspective. If your school isn't represented, send us the url to the paper's Web site or pdfs of the pages, and we'll link you up.

The Orange County Register has a feature on a 2-year-old who can count to 100, name all the state capitals and look cute in pictures all at the same time.

Is Sahana a genius? It's too early to tell, said Darlene Boyd, director of the UC Irvine Gifted Students Academy, which offers intensive summer enrichment programs to the nation's brightest elementary and middle school students.

But it's highly likely that she's gifted, Boyd said. There are signs that emerge at a young age: an unstoppable curiosity and questioning of how things work. An ability to communicate clearly and comfortably with adults. A willingness to sit and focus on a single task for at least 15 minutes: all are indicators of above-average intelligence, she said.

The story gets into the angst of parents of gifted children, who have a difficult time deciding whether to send their kids to school.

How to educate their children is a crucial dilemma for parents of the gifted, Boyd said. Make a wrong move, and a potentially brilliant student can stumble.

“We want to keep those young students motivated and not allow their curiosity to wane,” she said. “Often they have parents who teach them and engage them and get them excited about learning. Then they get to school-age and they unfortunately are made to regress and relearn things they already know, especially with the pressures and ramifications of NCLB.”

So far, the reader comments are all about the merits of homeschooling. It's an interesting debate. Are some kids too smart for school?

Read the story.

Today marks the sixth anniversary of the defeat in Carson of an initiative that would have allowed Carson to break away from Los Angeles Unified, something no area has done since Torrance in 1948. We circled back with the backers of Measure D (which lost 3-to-1) and the teachers union leaders who defeated it.

Here's an excerpt from Paul's story:

Six years ago today Carson voters decided not to take a leap of faith. As unhappy as many were with the Los Angeles Unified School District, residents nevertheless rejected a bid to carve out their own independent school system.

It was an overwhelming victory for the district's teachers union, which spent almost $500,000 to ensure Carson would not be the first city since Torrance in 1948 to defect from the massive LAUSD.

Six years later, much has changed. And little has changed. A reform-minded Los Angeles mayor has put his imprint on the school board and is about to take over some low-performing district schools, though none is in Carson.

A new superintendent has vowed to partner with the mayor to stem the district's high dropout rate, though there is evidence that more Carson kids than ever are not staying in high school.

And the district has embarked on a massive school building program, though no new schools or classroom additions have been built in Carson yet. A new high school is on the boards for 2011.

Perhaps most frustrating, especially to supporters of Measure D in November 2001, the Carson community still has little direct say in school management, curriculum or funding.

Those are among the reasons two groups next fall plan to open charter high schools, which give them more autonomy than traditional schools.

Get your polling place, sample ballot, Breeze election stories and endorsements with this one handy link.

And tonight, come back to it to check the results in the races you are interested in.

The Ventura County Star has a story about how colleges are adjusting to the influx of applications from students who were homeschooled.

Read the story here.

Two Daily Breeze staff members played key roles in improvements to The Los Angeles Loyolan, the student-run newspaper at Loyola Marymount University, that helped the paper win the 2007 Newspaper Pacemaker award for exceptional college journalism. The paper won the award for the first time in its 86-year history.

Natalie Nordseth, a copy editor and designer, and Rachel Jones, a reporter with sister-publication More San Pedro, were editor in chief and opinion editor respectively.

"We're so honored to receive the award not only because it's our first time, but also because we beat out our arch-rival Pepperdine," Nordseth said.

Nordseth oversaw the paper's transition from a weekly to a twice weekly with the help of Jones. The two brought speakers to campus such as conservative pundits Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin, Democratic consultant James Carville and blogger Arianna Huffington.

They also presided over daily stories and editorials meant to provoke discussion on campus.

"I think we made people care about what was in it," Jones said Monday. "I think we made it relevant about telling them about student government and making it entertaining."

The paper won in the four-year, non-daily category based on "coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, art and graphics" for the 2006-07 academic year. The college accepted the award on Oct. 27 at the National College Media Conference in Washington D.C.

Researchers have found another downside for children who don't get an adequate night's sleep.

A study published in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics found that third-graders who got nine hours or more of sleep significantly reduced their risk of being obese by sixth-grade. The child's weight in third-grade wasn't a factor.

Here's an expert from the AP story...

If there was a magic number for the third-graders, it was nine hours, 45 minutes of sleep. Sleeping more than that lowered the risk significantly.

The study gives parents one more reason to enforce bedtimes, restrict caffeine and yank the TV from the bedroom.

Beginning in March, local youth groups such as the Girls Scouts, Boy Scouts, Boys and Girls Club and others will pony up a fee to use LAUSD fields, gyms and playgrounds, Superintenedent David Brewer announced Friday.

Here's the passage from Naush Boghossian's story that explains the what and how...

Brewer will institute a three-tiered fee structure to offset annual facilities costs of $3.8 million. Groups will either be charged $10 an hour for use of facilities or $25.50 an hour — in addition to a $5 daily charge and a $77.10 permit valid for four months.

To determine which fee category applies to different groups, the school district is developing a questionnaire to assess whether groups are within the district’s boundaries and serve its students.

LAUSD is one of the few school districts that doesn’t charge for use of its facilities, which it says costs the district about $3.8 million a year for utilities, maintenance and other costs.

The Associated Press has a story that says the rise in autism isn't so much that more kids have it, but that it is being diagnosed more often because of the increase in special education funding. And a shifting definition of what autism is.

But many experts believe these unsociable behaviors were just about as common 30 or 40 years ago. The recent explosion of cases appears to be mostly caused by a surge in special education services for autistic children, and by a corresponding shift in what doctors call autism.

Autism has always been diagnosed by making judgments about a child's behavior; there are no blood or biologic tests. For decades, the diagnosis was given only to kids with severe language and social impairments and unusual, repetitious behaviors.

... In the 1990s, the autism umbrella expanded, and autism is now shorthand for a group of milder, related conditions, known as "autism spectrum disorders."

The spectrum includes Asperger's syndrome and something called PDD-NOS (for Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified). Some support groups report more than half of their families fall into these categories, but there is no commonly accepted scientific breakdown.

Read the story.

The Associated Press recently ran a series of stories about how school bureacracy and legal loopholes help abusive teachers remain in schools. A follow-up story essentially says that since then, state lawmakers have been looking into the matter. If you don't want to wait for them to "look into it," you can take matters into your own hands and research your child's teachers yourself.

Go here to look up a teacher's credential.

Read the follow-up story.

If you haven't yet decided who to vote for in Tuesday's school board elections, study up with our voter guide. It has links to all the stories the Breeze has done on the races, as well as all the endorsements from our editorial page editor.

Anthony Jaquez was shot on Halloween night and is expected to make a full recovery, a relative said. Jaquez, 18, was shot three times as he stood in the front yard of a friend’s house on Wednesday evening.
A car pulled up to the house and a shooter opened fire on Jaquez. No other people were hit.
“He probably didn’t know the guy,” said uncle Mondo Ponce, an assistant coach at Banning High.

Jaquez had excelled a year ago, as a first baseman for Banning High.
He matured into a solid regular player for a young Banning team that went 15-17. A first-team All-Marine League pick, he batted .333 with four homers, 31 RBIs and a .593 slugging percentage for the Pilots.

Young local Jillian Ayers, 8, determined to create holiday cards for Iraq-stationed soldiers after her Army infantry cousin Joseph Anzack Jr. was killed there last spring. Starting the effort in her own Redondo Beach classroom, the movement has legs - it's so far spread to Torrance's Seaside Elementary, where Anzack Jr. attended, and generated 1,000 cards to date.

Click here to read Shelly's feature, which appears in Friday's paper.

Centinela Valley Union High School District has won a Golden Bell award from the California School Boards Association for its transition services to special-education students.

Targeting students 14-22, Centinela’s transition services provide comprehensive pre-employment training to equip pupils with marketable job skills as well as independent-living and social skills. It assists students with their transition from high school to working life and provides a variety of follow-up services.

The Golden Bell Awards aim to promote excellence in education by recognizing outstanding curricular programs that address the changing needs of California students.

The district will officially be recognized during a luncheon in San Diego on December 1.

The Westchester university announced it has received $944,500 from the California Department of Education that will be funnelled to the school's intern program. LMU collaborates with the Los Angeles Unified and Lennox school districts to "recruit and prepare new teachers so they can promote high achievement and social justice," according to a statement.

The grant will be used to fund instructional supplies, professional development and mentor support from university personnel. Interns in the program teach in schools in lower-income areas. In all, the school has collected $3.6 million in similar grants for the program during a 5-year span.

It's getting that time of year. Parent-Teacher Conference Time. According to The Associated Press, the latest trend is the conference that the student attends as well.

From The Associated Press:

The trend is a response to research showing that parents are more likely to attend a conference if their child also has to come, and to studies showing that students benefit from setting goals.

Read on for some tips on how to make parent/teacher conferences a success.

A study of the 2004 Census reports that parents are putting more limits on their kids' TV watching, more are reading to their kids every night, and more feel guilty about not spending time with their kids.

From the AP story:

The findings suggest that adults are reacting to a more dangerous world, while both parents and students are dealing with increased competition to get into good colleges, experts said.

“Whether it’s a realistic panic or not, things like school shootings or child abductions or pedophile predators, that has a certain group of American parents pretty worried,” said Angela Hattery, a sociology professor at Wake Forest University.

Here's the whole story.

Go here for a lot of charts about children's quality of life.

At least one group is upset that political correctness and safety concerns have sidelined costume dress-up events at many public schools in favor of the ubiquitous "harvest fair."

The Association for Play Therapy views the often bland fairs as taking away a vital imaginitive and play outlet for children.

Here's a blurb from an e-mail (with the subject line "Banning Halloween in schools?") from the group's public-relations firm: "Play is essential for a child’s emotional and social growth. Play therapists frown on schools that are depriving children from time to play."

The Associated Press has a story about a survey of Californians on the value of college. Here's the breakdown:

-- 64% say people must have a college degree to succeed in the workplace.
--56% say a college degree is harder to attain now than 10 years ago.
--65% say many qualified students don't have an opportunity to attend college.

By ethnicity, many more hispanics and blacks said qualified students don't get the opportunity than whites and Asians.

Read the story here.

This is an interesting ploy from private colleges to attract students:

The sticker price for tuition at private colleges is higher than that at public schools, but so is the share of students who get bachelor's degrees within four years.

With that in mind, Juniata College is hoping to lure away families considering public schools with this guarantee: Get a degree from Juniata in four years, or the fifth year's tuition is free.

The offer will apply to incoming freshmen on the liberal arts campus of 1,500 students, starting next fall. Administrators say they want to drive home the point that a private education can be more affordable than a public one -- especially once private school tuition discounts and the longer average time to degree at public colleges and universities are taken into account.

The offer, while not unprecedented, is unusual. Only 10 others among some 1,600 private colleges and universities make similar guarantees, according to the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

Story is from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You can read the rest of it here.

LAUSD Superintedent David Brewer's plan to create a mini-district for high-need schools with the lowest test scores may be crumbling under the weight of stiff opposition from United Teachers Los Angeles, district officials, principals and others.

Naush Boghossian's story provides more.

Students at Gardena Elementary School, which is located just east of the city in Harbor Gateway, were given an operatic lesson Wednesday, as part of a program put on by the Los Angeles Opera each year. The arts group chooses 15 Southern California schools to put on a joint performance with fifth-graders.

Read Paul's story for more.

Mercedes Ibarra's desire to better herself and improve her schools makes for a compelling story in the race for the Lennox School District board. She emigrated from Nicaragua 15 years ago and now (with two children in district schools) is taking on incumbents Mary Davis and Angela Fajardo.

Ibarra, 44, said the school board decides issues "only at the table. They don't come to the different schools to see problems and listen to the parents, listen to the teachers and listen to the students."

The mother of two girls who attend Lennox schools, Ibarra is in her second year as Moffett PTA president. She formerly owned a clothing store and is now taking night classes to improve her English.

Ibarra wants to get board members out in the field more, specifically to school site councils.

Voters in the community will also weigh in on Measure L, a nearly $11-million bond to upgrade technology at district campuses and expand the Lennox Math, Science and Technology Academy

Read Laura Davis' story on the race and companion piece on Measure L in today's Daily Breeze for more.