December 2008 Archives

A charter schools group that runs several campuses in South Los Angeles has created an advertisement promoting its students' achievements that will run during the USC-Penn State Rose Bowl game Thursday.

ICEF Public Schools' 30-second spot features students talking about their college plans.

"At ICEF Public Charter Schools in L.A., we all graduate," the students say. The ad states that only one in 10 South L.A. ninth-graders goes on to graduate college.

ICEF was chosen by Citi (i.e., Citigroup, the financial services company) to be featured as a "chairman's message" during the game, according a press release from the charter group. The commercial was created by ICEF students and teachers.

In October, ICEF announced it would create an "education corridor" with 22 new charter schools in a 45-square-mile region bound by the 110, 105, 405 and 10 freeways. The plan would expand the number of ICEF campus from 13 to 35 in five years.

Ambler Avenue Elementary School will host a walk-a-thon fundraiser at its Carson campus on Jan. 24 -- and the organizers are still looking for vendors to participate

The school's Red Wagon Wildcats O Ambassadors Club, a national program affiliated with Oprah Winfrey, will raise money for development programs in East Africa and U.S. disaster areas.

Sponsors will pay fourth and fifth-graders for every lap they complete around the school track. The event will also feature music, games, and food and clothing vendors.

Those who are interested in become vendors should call Michelle Heard at 310-532-4090.

The event is set for 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 319 East Sherman Drive. Entrance is free.

Santa Monica middle school teacher Thomas Arthur Beltran, 61, on Monday pleaded guilty to multiple counts of molesting his female students and was sentenced to 14 years in state prison.

Law enforcement officials reported charges include seven counts of continuous sexual abuse, two counts of lewd act on a child and one count of sexual penetration of a foriegn object on a child under 14.

Beltran was a seventh-grade teacher of English as a second language and worked with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for 30 years.

Redondo Beach resident Marquita Grenot-Scheyer was recently appointed dean of the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach, campus officials announced. She arrived at the school in 1988 and replaces Jean Houck who retired in July after 12 years as dean of the college. Grenot-Scheyer served as associate dean of graduate studies and research from 2001 to 2008.

The Sacramento Bee reports that a Superior Court judge put the kibosh on a plan to make California the first state to require all eighth-graders to be tested in algebra.

Judge Shelleyanne Chang said the state board of education overstepped its jurisdiction and acted without sufficient public input, according to the newspaper.

The plan would have required all eighth-graders to be tested for algebra proficiency by the end of the school year in 2012. Eighth-graders are already supposed to take algebra, according to the state's curriculum, and the performance index for schools that don't meet that standard has suffered.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and various teacher groups vigorously opposed the mandate - issued last July by the state Board of Education - because they said the state lacked the teachers and resources to teach algebra to all students.

State School Board President Ted Mitchell, a proponent of the algebra mandate, called the tentative ruling "disappointing" and "an unfortunate roadblock to higher academic achievement," in a statement released Friday.

The decision is a blow to the state school board, the governor, who supported the mandate, and some civil rights advocates, all of whom pushed for expanding algebra instruction to boost sagging math proficiency.

An appeals courts ruled recently that Los Angeles can continue to use race as an admissions factor at specialized magnet schools despite California's ban on race preferences in government programs, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

About 56,000 of Los Angeles' 700,000 students attend 162 magnet schools which concentrate on specific fields like math and science or the arts, and often have long waiting lists.

Admission to highly sought schools is based on several factors, including a student's attendance at a predominantly minority school. The district's overall white enrollment is only 9 percent, but magnet schools maintain white enrollments of 30 to 40 percent, and give preference to students on the waiting list who allow them to keep that ratio. The ruling can be read at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B205943.PDF.

Los Angeles Unified expects to lose $833 million in state matching funds for construction and modernization projects, following a Wednesday decision by a state panel to halt infrastructure financing, a district spokeswoman said today.

Thirty-five new schools in various stages of construction, as well as hundreds of upgrades for existing campuses, would take a hit, said LAUSD's Shannon Haber.

"The list is enormous," Haber said.

The district is still figuring out the effects of the plans. More detail on the effected projects should be forthcoming from the district, she added.

The Pooled Money Investment Board in Sacramento voted Wednesday to halt nearly $4 billion in funding for infrastructure projects across the state, affecting many school districts.

California Academy of Math & Science engineering teacher Joseph Carpenter has recently received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The award program began in 2007 in order to give IIT students the opportunity to recognize the excellence of some of their former teachers. Martin Pena recommended Carpenter for this award because of the impact he made on his education at the Carson-based campus. Information: www.iit.edu or 312-567-3202.

The Hawthorne Education Foundation on Tuesday gave out $60,000 in grants to 11 campuses in the Hawthorne School District and physical education programs serving the three middle schools. The grants will provide emergency equipment and counseling and career preparation and training services for students.

The money came from the foundation's annual golf tournament and donations from Continental Development-El Segundo Plaza. Information: 310-666-2394

The Carlston Family Foundation is accepting nominations for its Annual 2009 Outstanding Teachers of America Awards. The group selects five California high school teachers each year who are nominated by former students that credit them for providing personal and academic skills required to succeed in higher education.

Awardees receive $15,000 and their high school receives $5,000. The foundation has honored thirty-one teachers and schools since 2008. Information: www.carlstonfamilyfoundation.org or 949-640-7840.

The Torrance Unified board on Monday formally accepted the Nov. 4 results of measures Y and Z which will be used to update aging campuses and athletic facilities.

The board is also looking for applicants for a citizens committee to oversee how the dollars from the bonds will be spent. Applications are available at the district's website at www.tusd.org and will be accepted through Jan. 26. Committee members will be appointed on Feb. 2. Information: 310-972-6152.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today said he was "pleased" with President-elect Barack Obama's appointment of Arne Duncan as the next U.S. Secretary of Education.

Duncan, Chicago Public Schools CEO, is a close personal friend of President Elect Obama.

"Duncan has a solid record of working with educators across the ideological spectrum to create schools that work in the best interests of students. I believe he will be a strong and effective advocate for closing the achievement gap in our nation's schools by holding high expectations not only of our students but their parents and all aspects of our education system," O'Connell said in a statement.

"At the same time, as an experienced administrator of one of our nation's most challenging school districts, he brings to this critical post a clear understanding that high expectations alone won't prepare students for the demands of the competitive global economy."

I wrote a story today about Centinela Valley Union High School District board on Monday voting to make Jose Fernandez its longterm superintendent.

Some on the board said they decided to keep the money-minded leader on the job for consistency as the cash-strapped district regains its financial footing.

But several teachers at the meeting that I spoke with were unhappy that the supe search wasn't more thorough and a few others hinted that Fernandez doesn't have enough of an educator background to lead.

What do you think? Please be civil and stick to the point here.

Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti endorsed Steve Zimmer for L.A. Unified Board of Education today.

Garcetti's spokeswoman, Julie Wong, said her boss was backing Zimmer in the race to replace Marlene Canter in the Westside/District 4 board seat.

The eastern edge of the school board district -- which runs from Westchester north to the southwest San Fernando Valley, and east into Hollywood -- overlaps with the western side of Garcetti's Hollywood/Silver Lake/Echo Park-based council district.

The board race was last week narrowed to two candidates, both LAUSD high school school teachers. Zimmer is known for community work at and around Marshall High School, and he's been endorsed by United Teachers Los Angeles.

His opponent, Mike Stryer, is a teacher at Fairfax High with a business background.

The Torrance Unified School District Board of Trustees will meet today at 7:30 p.m. in open session, 2336 Plaza Del Amo in Torrance. The board will discuss issues including creating a bond oversight committee and beginning the process of where bond money will be distributed. Information: 310-972-6500

OK, I hope this is the last time I post on this situation with former LAUSD board candidate Ben Austin and the voter-signature debacle.

Consultant Sue Burnside, who runs the political consultancy that Austin said he hired to gather signatures, denies her firm had anything to do with it. She said in a statement issued Friday that an independent contractor claimed to represent her firm as a signature gatherer.

Burnside's statement is below, followed by a letter from Austin to his supporters on his exit from the campaign, in which he writes that the wrong signatures were collected "by accident."

Four days after a major campaign slip-up more or less forced him out of the contest, Los Angeles Unified board hopeful Ben Austin announced with an apology this afternoon that he would withdraw from the race.

Austin had been a top contender to replace Marlene Canter in the Westside/District 4 board seat.

He submitted voter signatures from backers in the wrong board district (a mishap he blamed on a political consulting firm), essentially disqualifying him from the race.

He could have appealed the city Election Division's decision, but it was a long shot.

His statement, in which he puts in a plug for his current gig at the Green Dot-affiliated Los Angeles Parents Union, follows:

A second candidate hopeful in the race to replace Marlene Canter on the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education has been knocked out of the race after failing to file enough voter signatures.

Bill Ring, a parent activist, was 52 signatures short of the 500 needed to run for the Westside board seat, city election officials said. The Los Angeles City Clerk's office made the finding of "insufficient" for Ring's nominating petition on Wednesday.

The news comes after well-connected politico Ben Austin was kicked out of the race on Monday, also for failing to come up with enough voter signatures.

Austin blamed the political consultancy that he had hired, Burnside & Associates, for gathering signatures in the wrong board district. Firm head Susan Burnside -- who's been active in Los Angeles politics for 20 years -- has since said that she is looking into the matter. She added that she has been out of the country for a month and has never met Austin.

With Austin and Ring out of the race, only two candidates are left. Both are teachers.

Steve Zimmer, a teacher at Marshall High School with an activist background, received the endorsement of United Teachers Los Angeles. Mike Stryer is a teacher at Fairfax High School with a background in business.

Both had begun fundraising before Sept. 30, according to their filings with the City Ethics Commission.

Officials at Adams Middle School in Redondo Beach are looking for a few good toys. The school is collecting gifts as part of a collection effort to give to children at both Casa Hogar and Gabriel House orphanages in Ensenada, Mexico. Toys and other gifts can be sent to 2600 Ripley Ave. in Redondo Beach. Information: 310-798-8636.

The El Camino College Board of Trustees on Monday will continue to discuss whether to make a bid to keep President Thomas Fallo as he vies for the top spot at a college in northern San Diego County.

The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. at 16007 Crenshaw Blvd. in Torrance. Information: 310-660-6067.

The Hermosa Beach City School District board of trustees will meet Monday in a closed-door meeting to discuss the best applicants for the open superintendent position. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at 1645 Valley Dr. in Hermosa Beach. Information: 310-937-5877.

California State University, Dominguez Hills, professor Munashe Furusa was recently honored by the Carson Black Chamber of Commerce with the organization's Education Award for his work in the community.

Furusa came to CSUDH in 2000 as a visiting professor in African literature from the University of Zimbabwe. A student petition drive encouraged him to stay, and in 2001 he joined the faculty in Africana studies permanently. Information: 310-243-2455.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that California is nearly $15 billion in the red and the money crunch needs to be dealt with by state lawmakers, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

An administration official said the state could be staring at a deficit as great as $40 billion by June 2010. Schools serving pre-kindergarten to public universities are facing mid-year budget cuts because of the state's financial meltdown.

Schwarzenegger said he's frustrated by the Legislature's inability to find a compromise solution, and he singled out the Republicans for being "very vague and never specific" about what they want in negotiating the budget.

Republicans have been standing firm on their promise not to support new taxes, while Democrats have argued that spending cuts and taxes should be considered. Although Democrats hold a large majority in the Assembly and the Senate, they need Republican support to reach the required two-thirds majority to approve taxes and pass a budget.

"Every second, the state is losing $470, every minute $28,000, and every hour $1.7 million and every day $40 million," Schwarzenegger said. "That is approximately more than $1 billion a month if legislators don't act."

The Los Angeles Unified school board will hold a special meeting Thursday at 4 p.m. to appoint a new superintendent, following yesterday's move to buy out the remaining two years David Brewer's four-year contract.

Everybody is pretty much assuming that Senior Deputy Superintendent Ramon Cortines will be the board pick for an interim position.

The L.A. Times reports today that Latino and black students continue to lag behind whites and Asians in becoming academically eligible to enter both of the state's public university systems.

The study reported that 22.5% of Latino high school graduates were eligible for Cal State in 2007, up from 16% in 2003, when the last such study was done. For black students, Cal State eligibility went up to 24%, from 18.6%.

Latino and black eligibility for UC's more rigorous standards were 6.9% and 6.3%,respectively, last year, slightly higher than four years ago.

White and Asian students did better in meeting requirements for both universities. For Cal State, 37.1% of white high school graduates were eligible last year and 50.9% of Asians, both somewhat higher than in 2003. For UC, 14.6% of white graduates and 29.4% of Asians met course, grade and test score requirements; those rates were both slightly lower than in the previous survey.

Some of the reasons behind the eligibility gap include shortages of the necessary courses and sometimes inadequate counseling at high schools in many low-income, often predominantly minority areas.

I'd like to get some feedback from School Notebook readers about my story today on El Camino College President and Superintendent Thomas Fallo interviewing for a job at a college in northern San Diego County.

Some have criticized the possible move as a way for Fallo to leverage a pay raise although the college board insist that's not the case.

The California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office reports Fallo had a base salary of $268,840 last year. The average salary of a single-college CEO is just over $193,000, according to the Chancellor's Office.

So what I want to know from all of you is: should the board try to keep him or should they let him go?

The LAUSD Board of Education voted to buy Brewer out of his contract, the Daily News' George Sanchez is reporting.

It was a 5-2 closed session vote, with Julie Korenstein and Marguerite LaMotte opposed.

Brewer issued a terse statement: "I serve at the pleasure of the Los Angeles Board of Education. I plan to continue in my role until December 31st. No matter what happens next, I will remain a champion for the children, teachers, and staff of LAUSD."

A new school that is planned for Wilmington will be named for labor leader Harry Bridges, after a vote by the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education today.

The campus, which will house 1,278 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, will be called the Harry Bridges Span School.

Bridges, who died in 1990, was the longtime leader and founding president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

"He was a labor leader, a community leader, a fighter for our brothers and sisters," said Board member Richard Vladovic.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, a rep from state Sen. Jenny Oropeza's office, UTLA President A.J. Duffy and others spoke in support of the naming.

The school will be located on a controversial site -- so-called "Site F" -- in central Wilmington and will replace several businesses and homes. It's a full block bound by Avalon Boulevard, Broad Avenue, L and M streets.

The campus is set to be completed by the 2012 school year.

Shame on me for not getting more schools in for the California Business for Education Excellence awards for schools demonstrating academic achievement and making progress toward closing achievement gaps among students.

One school in the South Bay I failed to mention includes Walteria Elementary School from the Torrance Unified School District.

And a special recognition goes to the schools in Redondo Beach Unified especially since I couldn't fit them in the paper. Alta Vista, Beryl Heights and Jefferson were all named among the group's honor roll schools. This is the fourth year for Jefferson to be named to the Honor Roll, the second for Alta Vista and the first for Beryl Heights.

The Inglewood High School Sentinel Marching Band on Saturday won first place at a nationwide contest and a $10,000 prize at the Home Depot Center. It is the second time the Sentinels have won this event since 2003. Band Director Conrad Hutchinson III has been at Inglewood for 31 years.

One of the four candidates running for the Westside Los Angeles Unified board seat did not file enough voter signatures to qualify for the ballot.

It's Ben Austin, head of the Green Dot-affiliated Los Angeles Parents Union, who has been thought to be Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's candidate in the race and a serious contender for the seat.

Austin has insufficient signatures, according to a list that was updated Monday at 5 p.m. by the L.A. City Clerk's office. (See "nominating petition filing list" in left column.)

Candidates need between 500 and 1,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot if they pay a fee of $300. They can avoid the fee if they file between 1,000 and 2,000 signatures.

Incidentially, Austin was the subject of a Sunday Steve Lopez column in the Los Angeles Times that focused in part on Superintendent David Brewer's cushy expense account.

A former deputy mayor to Richard Riordan, Austin was an advisor to Rob Reiner when the actor sat on the First 5 commission.

Fairfax High teacher Mike Stryer, thought to be the UTLA candidate*, and Steve Zimmer, a Marshall High teacher with an activist background, have both qualified for the March contest.

Bill Ring, a parent activist and former chairman of LAUSD's Parent Collaborative, filed a nominating petition but has not yet been listed by the city as qualified.

Here's a little bit more info on these four.

*Foiled again! Actually, it turns out UTLA endorsed its other member in the race, Steve Zimmer. The union's PAC interviewed both candidates and recommended Zimmer to the 300-member house of representatives, who voted to go with him, according to Kim Turner at UTLA.

Turner also said the union didn't endorse in the District 2 race (in which Board President Monica Garcia is the only candidate). They went with San Fernando Mayor Nury Martinez in the District 6 race.

Also, there's some more info on Austin's filing situation in today's L.A. Times.

In a statement read before media today, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent David Brewer said he would ask the board to buy out the remainder of his four-year contract.

"The current debate about my leadership and the performance of the district has been contentious. It has been demoralizing and debilitating, not only to our valued employees, but has spilled over into the community. ... Although this debate is disconcerting and troubling, it must not become an ethnic issue. When adults fight, it can manifest itself in our children. This must not become an ethnic or racial battle that infests our schools, our campuses, our playgrounds ...

"Therefore, I have decided to do what I think is in the best interest of the children, to put all of our students first. Although my two years of service as superintendent contain an undeniable record of significant accomplishments, I am asking the Los Angeles School Board to shield our students from this contentious debate and honor the buy-out provisions of my contract."

Full statement follows:

A lot is going on in Los Angeles Unified today, what with sources saying Superintendent David Brewer will announce this afternoon that he may step down.

(The district just issued a release that could not be less descriptive: "Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) Superintendent David L. Brewer, III will make a statement.")

Tomorrow's regular board meeting, which will come after a closed session where Brewer's contract is up for discussion under the label "Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release," is sure to be a scene. Coincidentally, one of our biggest local district issues is up for a vote on Tuesday as well.

That's the proposed high school campus near Angels Gate Park, which has been opposed by many neighbors in the surrounding area. That item won't be heard until later in the meeting. Several San Pedrans are scheduled to speak, but many say it's a forgone conclusion that the campus will be approved.

If you want to go -- and witness LAUSD history being made! good times! -- the meeting begins at noon. The Pedro schoo is Item 10, and may not be heard until after 4 p.m. Agenda PDF.

The Los Angeles Unified School District's communications team is letting reporters know that embattled Superintendent David Brewer will make a statement at 2 p.m. today.

He's going to announced that "he's moving on," a source who's familiar with Brewer's decision said.*

Brewer, an African American former Navy admiral, was last week subject to a failed attempt to buy him out of his four-year contract -- a situation that stirred up racial politics among district stakeholders.

The buy-out effort was led by Villaraigosa loyalist and Board President Monica Garcia, who is Latina. Board member Marguerite LaMotte, the board's lone African American, did not return for a proposed closed session vote on Brewer last Tuesday.

The superintendent just passed the two-year mark on that contract, and has faced criticism on a variety of fronts. He makes $380,000 per year, including benefits.

*updated

U.S News & World Report today released its annual list of the top 100 high schools in the nation -- and four of them are local.

Three were charter schools (two from Lennox Elementary School District); one was a magnet campus. Here they are, listed with their ranking:

21. Lennox Mathematics, Science, and Technology Academy, chartered by Lennox Elementary School District

26. Carson-based California Academy of Math and Science, a magnet run by Long Beach Unified. Here's a video feature the magazine did on a robotics program at CAMS.

70. Hawthorne Math and Science Academy High, a Hawthorne Elementary School District charter

94. Animo Leadership High School, a Green Dot-affiliated Inglewood campus also chartered by Lennox

Here's another video feature on the two Lennox schools, looking at their charter status and their focus on math/science. And ... here's a lengthy print feature on CAMS and the two Lennox schools' math/science emphasis.

The survey, which was based on data from the 2006-2007 school year, honored schools that were found to serve all students well -- regardless of whether they come from traditionally disadvantaged groups -- while preparing them for college.

Nominating petitions were due Wednesday for elections conducted by the city of Los Angeles, which include the three Los Angeles Unified board spots that will come before voters in March.

In the District 4 race for the seat that Marlene Canter will vacate after two terms, the three lesser-known candidates have dropped out, after the initial filing period ended early last month.

That leaves the following four:

Ben Austin, head of the Los Angeles Parents Union, a Green Dot off-shoot. He was an adviser to Rob Reiner from 2002 to 2006, the year that Reiner resigned from the First 5 commission amid allegations that the pre-school-focused body had misused funds in support of a political campaign (for Prop 82, the universal pre-school ballot measure that went down in flames). Before that, Austin was a a spokesman/deputy mayor to Richard Riordan. Grew up in Venice, went to Berkeley and Georgetown Law. Austin lives in the Beverly Glen area, according to his filing.

See his website for more for more.
Tag line: "Change our children need."

Bill Ring, a parent activist who headed up the LAUSD Parent Collaborative, which apparently hasn't met since April. He lives in the Holmby Hills/Westwood area, according to his filing. He also moderates the LAUSD parents listserv.

This old website has some info about him starting a parents union in the district. Tag line, at least according to an email: "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way."

Mike Stryer, a teacher and UTLA co-chair at Fairfax High School. Stryer had a career in international finance and business before becoming a teacher in 2003. He's got degrees from Stanford, Yale and Pepperdine. He's the head of the social studies department. He wants to get rid of local district offices. He lives in Pacific Palisades, and his two kids go to private schools.

See his website. Tag line: "For a district we deserve!"

Steve Zimmer, a teacher at Marshall High School. Zimmer started out as a Teach for America instructor in 1992, and went on to teach at Marshall, where he's worked on public service initiatives for students. From his site: "He is a long time supporter of immigrant rights and progressive labor in Los Angeles. Steve was the founder and leader of a teacher's group that led opposition to Proposition 187 ..." He lives in Hollywood, according to his filing.

See the website. Tag line: "We are LAUSD."

Through Sept. 30, Stryer had raised about $11,000 and Zimmer had almost $26,000, according to L.A. City Ethics Commission filings.The next filing deadline is not until Jan. 12.

Also of note: It's just Board President Monica Garcia running for re-election in District 2. San Fernando Mayor Nury Martinez and Louis Pugliese, who's run for the board before, are the two candidates in District 6 after three others dropped out.

"We're going to be down at the board next week en masse."

That's what columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson said he's hearing from the African American constituency over the potential ouster/buy-out of Los Angeles Unified Superintendent David Brewer, who is black.

He spoke on an informative segment of KCRW's "Which Way, L.A.?" tonight, saying there is no doubt the school district will see some kind of backlash from black residents if Brewer is forced out.

Also on the program was Connie Rice, head of the district's Bond Oversight Committee. She criticized the Board of Education for micromanaging and compared the state of the district to that of King/Drew Medical Center before its collapse.

The district "is mainly a bureaucracy and a jobs engine, just like King/Drew became," Rice said.

A.J. Duffy, president of United Teacher Los Angeles, said Brewer seemed to have his heart in the right place but wasn't up to guiding such a trouble ship. (He echoed Rice's thoughts on this.)

The district "needs somebody like Ray Cortines -- or Ray Cortines," he said of the senior deputy superintendent who came on board in April.

Anyway, the whole program is definitely worth a listen. It's about 20 minutes. Go to the main page to listen.

The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education is set to discuss the status of Superintendent David Brewer's employment in a special closed session meeting Tuesday.

The state's open government laws require the board to disclose the nature of an employee evaluation, and this discussion is under the label "Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release."

The agenda was sent out the day before Thanksgiving -- and some may have missed the red flag.

The Los Angeles Times reports in a story set to run in tomorrow's paper that unnamed sources say the board will discuss buying Brewer out of his three-year contract, which recently hit its second anniversary. Brewer makes $381,000 per year, including a housing allowance.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Mayor Richard Riordan and philanthropist Eli Broad are said to favor Brewer's departure. Brewer has been criticized by some as being ineffective; Senior Deputy Superintendent Ray Cortines had largely run the show since being hired in April.

The agenda is not on the board's website, but was sent out to those that subscribe to district agendas. I've uploaded it here:12-2-08C.pdf

*No action was taken on Brewer's fate, David Zahniser and Howard Blume report in The Times:

Although board members and sources close to them suggested that the votes were there to dismiss Brewer, a complication arose with the absence of board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte. LaMotte is representing the Los Angeles Unified School District in San Diego at a weeklong meeting of the California School Boards Assn., and she reportedly declined to return to deliberate Brewer's future.

LaMotte is the board's only African American member, and officials were reluctant to act against Brewer, who also is black, without LaMotte in the room. LaMotte's trip to San Diego -- a two- to three-hour drive from Los Angeles -- had been scheduled some time ago.

The Daily News, whose coverage of policy and Beaudry-centric topics the Breeze picks up, is set to have a story tomorrow.

The Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters takes on the possibility of education finance "revolution" that would come about if Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan to remove categorical spending restrictions is realized. Sixty-nine programs accounted for $16 billion in spending this year.

The Los Angeles Times on Sunday looked at school fundraising efforts to send students to the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration in Washington. Airline tickets are, not surprisingly, pricey.

Connie Llanos, in Saturday's Daily News, took a look at whether California still offers college for all students, as the state's higher education master plan promised to in 1959.

There's also the option of going to college abroad. That's the new trend, according to a New York Times story that says students are choosing to study internationally in part because tuition can be cheaper than that at private universities in the United States.

And, finally, a Wall Street Journal op-ed calls for President-elect Obama to abolish local school districts, saying they've contributed to four decades of failed education reform. Louis Gerstner, former head of IBM and the Teaching Commission, also thinks the country should establish national standards for a "core curriculum" and for teacher certification. The best eachers should be able to make more than $100,000 annually, and the school year should be expanded by 20 days. etc. Interesting read.

Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State-L.A. has issued its annual "state of the city" report for Los Angeles (PDF). Among essays on politics, housing, jobs and the economy, urban planning and public health is an assessment of school reform in Los Angeles Unified.

Dominic Brewer, a professor at USC's Rossier School of Education and co-director of Policy Analysis for Calfornia Education, along with two doctoral students, looks at whether reform attempts within LAUSD are paying off. In short, they argue, reforms aren't showing enough progress nor paying off fast enough.

They write:

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the largest school district in California, has been subject to unrelenting criticism, tarred as overly bureaucratic, ineffective, and incompetent. With the backdrop of a sagging economy, state and city budget cuts, endemic gang violence, transportation gridlock, a chronic affordable housing shortage, a growing English language learner (ELL) population, and stringent state and federal accountability standards, LA's schools undoubtedly face significant challenges. But many of these same conditions apply in other urban districts across the country. .... Although there are signs of progress, LA has along way to go to match the promising efforts of other cities.

The authors write that though the district's performance academically has improved over the last five years, the pace of that improvement lags behind many other districts in Los Angeles County.

The district ranks 71st out of the 80 districts in the county, based on API scores. And, out of the district's 800-plus schools, more than 450 are "low-performing."

The report notes that many of the reforms made in the district have been focused on instruction, with little emphasis on structural change.

"LAUSD launches new programs at a dizzying rate with a wide variety of programmatic changes over the years," the authors write, citing a handful of examples.

To many observers (including us), the issue is not whether a particular reform or program is a good or a bad idea but, rather, that the district's governance and size rarely allow a course of concerted action, with the flexibility for resource allocation and the capacity on the ground, in which reforms can take hold.6 Currently, LAUSD is governed by an elected school board consisting of 7 members, often the focus of intense political struggle often between union and business-backed candidates.

Also of note: references to the rise of charter schools:

Although the number of students in public charters in Los Angeles is rising, it is still well below that of several major cities such as New Orleans (57%), Washington, D.C. (27%), Kansas City (20%) and Oakland (15%).

Ultimately, the authors conclude that LAUSD officials talk about change, but they fall behind when their approaches to innovation are compared to other large urban districts. Other districts have accomplished more due to four factors, the writers argue: mayoral or state control; opposing interests coming together; a portfolio approach to a variety of public schools; a willingness to try new strategies and "make hard choices."

This important shift away from the idea that a single urban district knows how to manage all schools has not been accomplished without significant struggle, but it seems much more promising that the petty oppositional politicking and endless programmatic initiatives in Los Angeles.

There a signs of hope, they write, but politics has stymied progress. If the district does not recognize, for example, the power and meaning of parents' choice of charters, LAUSD may have to face "the long talked about breakup, or it will die a natural death," the authors conclude.