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Los Angeles city and school district officials will be handing out 30,000 seedlings at the San Pedro Math Science and Technology Center Saturday morning.
Free vegetable, herb and ornamental organic seedlings will be up for grabs as part of an event called Pitchfork.
Also going on at the science center that day will be a big cleanup as part of ShareFest. Good times!
The center is at 2201 Barrywood, behind the Target.
Here's more info:
Lawndale's Environmental Charter High School did not make the final cut. More than 160,000 votes were cast during the three-day voting period, the White House announced this morning. President Obama will now choose a winner from the top three rated schools and deliver their commencement address later this spring. The final winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 4.
The three finalists, in no particular order:
• Clark Montessori Jr. & Sr. High School in Cincinnati, OH
• Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, MI
• Denver School of Science and Technology in Denver, CO
The deadline to vote in the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge is 9 p.m. Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale was among six finalists chosen by the White House. Students from each school were required to make a three-minute video, which was posted online. President Obama will choose the winner from the three highest vote getters and speak at the school's commencement ceremonies. If you haven't voted yet, you can do it here.
The winner will be announced May 4.
Like a highly contested political campaign entering its final hours, the nationwide contest to have President Obama speak at graduation ceremonies is heating up.
As the voting deadline nears for the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, students from the six schools across the country selected to compete - including Lawndale's Environmental Charter High School - are urging the public to vote. There have been YouTube videos and Facebook pages, mass e-mails, newspaper articles, even billboards.
Now come the celebrity and political endorsements.
Michigan's Kalamazoo Central High School has two high-profile alums - Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees and Greg Jennings of the Green Bay Packers - campaigning for the school to host President Obama.
Clark Montessori in Ohio has the state's governor, Ted Strickland, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus urging Ohioans to vote. Even former Cincinnati Mayor and congressman David Mann - he has a granddaughter at the school - has sent a letter to Obama highlighting the school's accomplishments.
But tiny Environmental Charter is bringing its own star power.
On Monday, actress Rosario Dawson was at the campus, urging the public to cast their vote.
"These kids are innovative, strong," said Dawson, a noted environmental advocate, shortly before submitting her vote online. "What they're doing at ECHS right now can be implemented across the country. They're a model not only for California, but for the world."
Dawson played Ruby in Larry Clark's 1995 cult classic Kids, and appeared more recently in Eagle Eye, Seven Pounds and the film version of Rent.
And in the wake of Dawson's endorsement, ECHS has received more celebrity backing.
Shaquille O'Neal, current center for the Cleveland Cavaliers and former star for the Los Angeles Lakers, had this to say on his Twitter account, The_Real_Shaq: Slam Dunk! Only 1 Green school in final 6 to win Pres. Obama speech at grduation. DO This: VOTE.
Then there's American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, who tweeted: Tweeps! Help me help LA's Environmental Charter High...theyre in running for @barackobama to speak at graduation! Vote!
Even Chaske Spencer (of Twilight fame) tweeted his endorsement.
The school has also received support from a number of other celebs and high-profile organizations, including Virgin founder Richard Branson, author Deepak Chopra and - perhaps not surprisingly - the Surfrider Foundation.
With the help of producers from MTV, students at each school submitted a three-minute video to the White House, which was posted online. Voters are encouraged to rate each school's video on a one-to-five scale.
Obama will personally select the winner from the three receiving the most votes and speak at the winning school's graduation ceremonies. In a conference call with reporters earlier this week, White House officials said Obama's choice will not be political, rather it will be based on the school's academic merits and overall quality of education it provides students.
Voting ends Thursday (4/29) at 9 p.m. A winner will be announced May 4. You can cast your vote here.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared this morning at Kentwood Elementary School in Westchester to announce that more than 1.3 million students have signed up for his 2010 fitness challenge.
Getting kids to participate was one of the governor's goals at a 2010 summit on health, nutrition and obesity. A release from the governor's press office said the 1.3 million far surpasses similar efforts in other states.
The event took place at Kentwood because the school's students have logged 57,000 days of physical activity so far in this year's challenge, beating out all other LAUSD campuses.The percentage of Kentwood students that scored in the "healthy fitness zone" on all categories of the state's fitness test increased 14 points to 63 percent.
The Governor's Challenge, begun in 2006, encourages participants to exercise 30-60 minutes for at least three days a week for a month. The program is free for schools, which can win exercise equipment.
At Wednesday's event, the Coca-Cola Co. announced its funding of eight new fitness centers planned for eight California schools excel in the challenge. The school sites will be announced in September, based on location and the level of activity students, parents and teachers. LAUSD will get two centers, the governor's press office said.
Tulita Elementary School in Redondo Beach has received a $3,000 grant from the Redondo Beach Education Foundation. (Photo courtesy of Vicky Gallion)
With more than $200,000 already raised by parents and families, the Redondo Beach Education Foundation is set to begin the second phase of its annual donor drive. The next phase will focus on the business community.
Here's the press release:
The Redondo Beach Educational Foundation finished the first phase of its annual donor drive last week to help offset upcoming budget deficits that the Redondo Beach Unified School District will face for the upcoming 2010-11 school year. The campaign this year, titled Club 360, will help raise funds and awareness to help prevent the cancellation of crucial programming that could affect Redondo Beach public school students.The campaign is broken into two phases. Part one focused on parent and family participation. During this phase of the drive, all RBUSD schools competed for RBEF grant money awarded to the top four schools with the highest percentage participation for donations received by the deadline.
This year's school winners were: Tulita Elementary School (Champion School winning a cash grant of $3,000 - photo of winning school attached); Lincoln Elementary School (1st Runner Up / awarded $2,000); Jefferson Elementary School (2nd Runner Up /awarded $1,000); and Alta Vista Elementary School (3rd Runner Up / awarded $750).
The Club 360 donor drive has raised over $200,000 during phase one of the fundraiser. The second push will focus on community and business participation. It will run through July 31st. The goal is to match the funds raised by the school portion of the campaign.
"We are looking forward to working with our community members and businesses on the next phase of the campaign to keep our schools great," said Blaise Tracy, president of the RBEF.
The Club 360 donor drive campaign runs through July 31st. For more details about RBEF or how to donate, go to www.rbef.org
Voting has begun in the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge. Environmental Charter High School In Lawndale was one of six schools across the country selected for the chance to have President Obama speak at graduation ceremonies and students were required to make a three-minute video about their school. Voting ends Wednesday Thursday at 8:59 p.m. You can take a look at the videos and cast your vote here.
Beach Cities Robotics, an after-school club made of students from Redondo Union and Mira Costa High Schools, took top honors last weekend at the First Championship, considered the most prestigious high school robotics tournament in the world. You can read my article about Team 294 that appeared in today's Daily Breeze here.
I posted this photo earlier on the School Notebook blog, just after receiving word about the team's victory. Here it is again, with the names of team members.
Pictured in the back row, from left to right are: Forrest Kim, Ricky Wedeen, Robbie Gleichman, Nighelles David, Fintan O'Grady, Matt Steiger In the middle row, from left-right are: Jennifer Sharp, Wiley Davis, Ryan Sharp, Alex Davis. And in the front, from left to right: Karen Izumoto, Alek Munoz. (Photo courtesy of Andrea Wagner)
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he supported legislation that would give school officials more power to fire or re-assign teachers based on their performance and effectiveness in the classroom. The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Bob Huff (D-Diamond Bar) and scheduled to be heard before the legislature Wednesday, would seek to streamline the educator dismissal process.
Schools need more power to make personnel decisions based on performance and merit rather than seniority, Schwarzenegger said during a news conference at Markham Middle School in Watts.
"It is unacceptable that school districts cannot determine their staffing based on the needs of students," Schwarzenegger said. "SB 955 will help ensure that classrooms are filled with effective teachers by giving school districts the flexibility to make staffing decisions based on ability, not just seniority."
The governor also announced his support for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)/Public Council lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) teacher layoff practices that are disproportionally hurting low-income and minority schools; a problem this legislation would help solve.
Janice Hickey, director assistant superintendent of educational services for the El Segundo Unified School District, recently returned from a trip visiting classrooms and meeting teachers in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. She takes note of the differences in educational opportunities between the rich and poor, comparing it to the educational system we have here. Here is an account of her trip:
The blistering, hair wilting, makeup melting heat was taking a toll on me and it was all of 8:30 in the morning. Ten California educators were stuffed into a Brazilian van, thundering out of Rio de Janeiro on a highway divided by no lane lines, headed for God knows where. All of us were in the country in pursuit of an International Leadership Certificate program offered by Dr. Linda Orozco through the University of California at Irvine, as well as undergoing additional coursework required by our administrative credentials to attain a Tier II level of certification.
As I bounced along hip to jowl with my fellow adventuresome California administrators, I was still in a state of shock over the school conditions I had witnessed the day before in a local neighborhood favela (slum) reminiscent of "Slumdog Millionaire."
If you like paint on the walls, technology in the classroom, and teachers with desks, slum schools are not going to be the place for you. If you like stifling heat, 40 crammed kids seated on ancient, rusted, decaying student desks, with one lonely fan laboring mightily in the back of the room, they may be just the ticket. And yet... all of the above couldn't stifle the gleam in students' eyes, or soften the steely determination of their instructors, or deflate the will of the volunteers who give generously of their time in an attempt to save another lost generation from the grinding poverty of the favelas.
Ironically, the poorest in Rio de Janeiro have the best seat in the house for stupefyingly sweeping views of the city and the beachfronts below. Favelas are the byproduct of the Ipanema and Copacabana building boom of the 1950s and 60s as citizens swarmed to the city for construction jobs, throwing up shanty houses against hillsides previously undeveloped. As generation after generation moved to the city, or had children of their own and space became limited, families built yet another tier to their houses until favela homes stretched four or five stories high. Access to neighborhoods begins at sea level via dark, narrow, cobblestone switchback alleys, many of which have never been mapped and are home to despair, poverty, filth - and dignity.
Solar Meninos de Luz is run by a charitable organization offering preschool through grade 12 programs. Children as young as two attend, freeing their parents to earn a living doing someone else's laundry and cleaning other peoples' houses. Infants are diapered, fed, and showered in assembly line fashion while older siblings crowd into classrooms struggling to attain their version of a winning lottery ticket - a decent education.
So as our cramped van continued its upward climb through an increasingly green canopy of rainforest foliage, it was a whole new experience to step out onto the manicured gardens of the American School of Rio de Janeiro, home to students of diplomats, foreign dignitaries, and wealthy families of Rio society. A series of five cupola-shaped buildings, patrolled by security guards with secret service-type ear pieces, comprised the K - 12 schools, which sported a manicured soccer field, state of the art student museum, outdoor adventure training center, and one-half-inch thick bullet proof glass. For the $25,000 tuition, children could glance out one window and see the gorgeous Rio skyline and beaches below, or out another to the ever encroaching favela houses overhanging the campus - hence the bullet proof glass.
Graduating seniors were deep in contemplation as to where to travel for their senior getaway trip -- Paris seemed to be the front runner. Classrooms were colorful, technology-laden, clean and small, averaging 15 students to a class. Educators lured from around the world by the high achieving students and luxurious teaching conditions put their students through rigorous paces, the crisp air-conditioning holding the stifling heat at bay. Banners in the main office celebrated the caliber of Universities these students gained access to: Yale, Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, New York University -- the list went on and on.
As we wandered the grounds, pausing to take pictures of the thick jungle foliage growing right up to the edge of the soccer field, I pondered: How could such a dichotomy exist? How could so much abundance be available to so few, while so much poverty and neglect stalk the so very many? Then I reflected on the United States educational system and the similarities were unsettling. Why do so many inner city schools catering to the poor and the voiceless suffer such a deficit in educational capital while more affluent communities with activist and advocate parents not suffer the same fate?
And yet certain similarities... The hope on the faces of the poorest students was indelible. The knowledge in poor students' smiles that education was their savior was inspirational. The joy in their laughter was universal. And their futures, for those who had the tenacity to stick with it, were entirely possible.
Similarities indeed.
**A footnote -- the day after I left Rio de Janeiro the torrential rain finally saturated those hills surrounding Rio de Janeiro, sweeping through the poorly constructed favelas and creating mudslides that killed over 300 people.
Here are some photos from the trip: Above, Brazilian favelas. Below, a portion of the downtown Rio skyline. (Photos courtesy of Janice Hickey)
The environmentally-focused high school in Lawndale will be featured on Growing Greener Schools, a PBS documentary looking at how public schools are embracing the "green" movement. According to a press release sent out by the school, the program will spotlight the school for integrating the environment into its core curriculum to inspire its largely low-income and limited English proficient students to become actively engaged in civic issues.
The White House announced earlier this month that the school was among six finalists to have President Obama speak at commencement this year.
Here's the release:
Los Angeles-based Environmental Charter High School (ECHS), which is on the short list to have President Obama speak at its commencement this year, is in an upcoming documentary program on PBS. The program, Growing Greener Schools, singles out ECHS
as one of the nation's most innovative schools for integrating the environment into its core curriculum to inspire its largely low-income and limited English proficient students to become actively engaged in civic issues.
Last week President Obama congratulated ECHS for demonstrating effective approaches to teaching, learning, and preparing students to graduate ready for college and a career. ECHS is one of six finalists selected by the White House and Department of Education from over a thousand applications to compete for a presidential commencement address from Obama.
ECHS is the only environmental school among the six Race To The Top Commencement Challenge finalists. Last year, the California Board of Education cited ECHS as a successful model for reducing achievement-gaps in California's K-12 public education system, and has helped fund distribution of ECHS-developed instructional modules to other schools across the state. ECHS' Green Ambassadors program, which empowers youth to become agents
of change in their communities by working on critical environmental issues, is being implemented at ten other schools.
"Our 'green curriculum' hits close to home in poor communities that are disproportionately affected by problems like poorer air quality due to their proximity to industrial sites," says Alison Suffet-Diaz, Founder & Executive Director of Environmental Charter Schools. "When inner-city youth realize they can make a difference it inspires them to achieve academically and go on to college."
Upcoming broadcasts include:
• PBS World, Sunday, April 25, at 7pm ET
• KOCE, Los Angeles/Huntington Beach, Sunday, April 25 at 10pm
• KVCR, Los Angeles/San Bernardino Friday, April 30 at 7pm
See local listings for other broadcasts
The Beach Cities Robotics Team, which consists of students from Redondo Union and Mira Costa High Schools, took top honors at this year's FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
From the press release:
High school robotics teams designed and assembled their robots over a six week "build season" and tested their competitive skills at Regional Tournaments leading up to the Championship. More than 10,000 students from more than 500 teams and 30 countries participated in the weekend competition celebrating science, technology and team building. This year's game was "Breakaway(tm)", a game in which two alliances of three teams each compete by climbing obstacles, directing soccer balls into goals, and hanging from towers.
The winning alliance from the Newton Division was led by number one seeded Team 294 "Beach Cities Robotics", combining the talents of Redondo Union and Mira Costa High Schools. Alliance partners selected by Team 294 were Team 67 "The HOT Team", Milford, Michigan, and Team 117, "Bobcat Robotics", South Windsor, Connecticut, for their offensive skills, experience and hanging expertise.
The team's primary sponsors are Northrop Grumman and Boeing.
The state Department of Education today released its annual list of distinguished schools -- 484 this year, which focuses on elementary campuses.
For more on the program, go to the CDE website. Here were the local awardees on the list:
Highland Elementary in Inglewood Unified was also named to the list.
*An earlier version of this post excluded two local schools. Sorry about that!
The Los Angeles Community College District, which runs nine campuses including Harbor College in Wilmington, has named a new chancellor after a nationwide search.
Daniel LaVista, the executive director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, was selected by the district's board, LACCD announced this morning.
LaVista will replace Mark Drummond, who resigned under pressure in July with two years left on his contract. He got a $428,750 severance package. Reasons for his departure were never explained.
Tyree Wieder, former president of Valley College, has been acting as interim chancellor.
The LACCD board is also interviewing candidates to replace Harbor College President Linda Spink, who will leave at the end of July.
Press release after the jump.
More than 10,000 students have been placed on waiting lists for admission into UC campuses, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Here's more:
Of the 82,056 California applicants to UC, 71.6% were offered freshman entrance to at least one of UC's nine undergraduate campuses. That was down from 72.5% last year and 75.4% the year before, reflecting in part cutbacks in enrollment due to state budget reductions, the figures show.
Applicants to UCLA and UC Berkeley once again had the hardest time. UCLA accepted only 21% of in-state applicants, compared to 21.4% last year, and UC Berkeley admitted 24.5%, down from 29.5% last year. The next toughest were UC San Diego, 36.8%; UC Santa Barbara, 41.7%; UC Davis, 44.5%; UC Irvine 45.4%; UC Santa Cruz, 64.9%; UC Riverside, 77.4%; and UC Merced, 78%.
And in other college news: Two women were arrested at San Francisco State University after a failed attempt to take over the university's Cesar Chavez Student Center. The women, who are not students, were among a group of 19 people who tried to break into the campus building about 4 a.m, a university spokeswoman said.
The protest was in response to fines that were leveled as part of misconduct charges against 11 students involved in a two-day protest in December in which activists barricaded themselves inside the business school to protest fee hikes, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
California college students may be getting a reprieve from fee increases.
Recently proposed legislation would establish a "baseline fee" for the 2010-11 year and cap subsequent fee increases at 5 percent a year. Fees would remain constant throughout a student's tenure at the school, so increases would only apply to incoming freshman or other newly enrolled students.
Student fees have increased over the past five year by 61 percent at University of California schools and 68 percent at California State University schools. Fees at community colleges increased 30 percent this year.
The bill has been proposed by state senate majority leader and former lieutenant governor candidate Dean Florez (D-Shafter).
"We have to get universities to realize that students and their families are not walking ATM machines," Florez told the Associated Press. "The goal is to take the erratic nature out of student fee increases so that families can budget for college and the universities get better at their own budgeting."
UC administrators said they could not realistically commit to the proposed fee restrictions without a guarantee of continued state funding.
Erik Fallis, spokesman for the CSU Chancellor's Office, said prohibiting fee increases for current students would place an additional financial burden on incoming students, the Associated Press reports.
The White House just announced that Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale is one of six finalists in a competition to have President Barack Obama speak at commencement this spring.
It's called the Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge, which invited schools to apply using student essays and school data showing their dedication to educational excellence.
After the field is narrowed to three by a public vote, Obama will select a finalist.
The White House press release is after the jump.
It starts at 7 p.m. Here's the flyer.
Much of the reporting (ours included) on the inter-district transfer issue has focused on parents who were frantic about the possibility of no longer being able to send their kids to schools outside LAUSD -- often campuses with specific programs not offered at neighborhood schools.
But there are plenty of other ways to look at this. At Tuesday's meeting, board member Marguerite LaMotte pointed out that many parents aren't even aware that they can send their children to other school districts. She wanted to make sure there was "equity" in the way that the district communicated the availability of transfer permits.
Other board members have voiced frustration with parents who want to leave a district that officials have been struggling to better. Those whose children leave are often some of the most engaged parents -- just the kind whom district officials want to see participating in local school communities.
Another take comes to me from Brian David Goldberg, CEO of Casa de la Familia, which provides support services for victims of trauma in "underserved and underrepresented minority populations," especially Latinos.
Following is an e-mail sent to the Breeze by Goldberg (intended as a letter to the editor, but he said it was OK to publish here):
What a sad day for public education in the United States, when the second largest district in the Country throws in the towel and admits it cannot provide a quality education for its students. Make no mistake the decision by the Superintendent for LAUSD to reverse himself regarding allowing 12,000+ students to flee their neighborhood schools to attend whiter, wealthier districts is just that, a complete capitulation. Just a few weeks ago Mr. Cortines was extolling the "choice" LAUSD offers its students through charter schools, magnet programs and intradistrict transfers. He also stated to the press that he was not going to accept the rational that parents did not want to send their students to schools with "those" people. I wonder what percentage of the 12,000 + are from low achieving schools in Los Angeles and how many are Latino or African American students? I have one question for you, what changed your mind? Was it the pleas and political pressures brought by the parents of the 12,000+ students who abandoned their neighborhood schools or the parents of the 700,000 students who remain?
If you check out the comments on today's story, you'll see plenty of other opinions too.
Some 12,000 students and their panicked parents won a temporary reprieve today when Los Angeles schools Superintendent Ramon Cortines announced that he would continue to issue almost all permits that allow the children to attend campuses in other, often higher-achieving school districts.
At a board meeting that was packed with parents (some wearing "I Love My School" T-shirts), Cortines said that he was at least temporarily reneging a new policy that was expected to return four-fifths of students on "inter-district permits" to Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.
"For existing permits, the majority of those will be approved," he said, generating applause and cheers from the audience. "I am not knowingly going to harm the education of boys and girls and young people and distress the adult in their life."
For the 2011-12 school year, he said he would put in place a new system that would more clearly define which children would be eligible for permits. The system would come before the board in September, he said.
Cortines also said he'd seek data from parents explaining why they chose to send their children to other school districts.
He blamed the now-defunct decision to stop offering the permits on education budget cuts imposed by the state Legislature, as did Board President Monica Garcia.
At a meeting in February, the board had quietly approved a policy allowing Cortines to limit such permits. In an internal memo, he told them he would only issue permits to children rising to fifth, eighth or 12th grade, and to students whose parents worked within the boundaries of other school districts. The move would bring $51 million in enrollment-based state funding back to LAUSD, which was then looking at a $640 million budget gap.
When news got out, many parents became frantic -- and officials in the transfer school districts likewise became concerned about lost enrollment and funding.
Parents pushed the district to change the policy. At today's meeting, board member Steve Zimmer had planned to introduce a motion to let high-schoolers complete their education while keeping the rest of the new policy intact. Zimmer withdrew his resolution after Cortines' comments.
I'll have more on the meeting soon.
*District press release after the jump.
The U.S. Department of Education is looking to hand out up to $350 million to states willing to revamp how they test students, according to the Associated Press.
Here's more:
The money is designed to encourage states to develop standardized tests that accurately measure how much a child has learned each year and ensure the student is ready for college or a career after high school.Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Tuesday the tests must be designed to accurately depict what students know and can do. The criteria for the grants were created after 10 public meetings held across the country since last year.
The money is part of the $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" grant competition, which encourages states to embrace innovative programs to improve student achievement and turnaround low-performing schools.
LAUSD has moved up the opening day when parents can apply for permission to let their children attend another school district. It's today, instead of May 1, as previously announced.
The change was made after the district received complaints from parents concerned about a new policy that may restrict up to 80 percent of the 12,249 students currently out on permits to other districts.
The district says parents can expect a decision five days after they file their applications.
A press release from the district follows.
