School Notebook

Supt. Deasy says Occupy LAUSD is 'misinformed'

2011-10-18T23:08:16Z

Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy issued a statement this afternoon on Occupy LAUSD, the movement of teachers that's getting started now -- in solidarity with Occupy L.A. -- on a march from City Hall to school district headquarters.

Deasy said LAUSD is a "victim" of policies that hurt the poor, the types of government and corporate actions that the Occupy movement is protesting across the country and around the world.

Deasy said Occupy LAUSD is "both misinformed and contrary to the spirit and intent of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy LA, and the other laudable movements for economic justice that have sprung up around the country and the world over the last month."

The full statement is after the jump. It's followed by Deasy's statement earlier today condemning anti-semitic comments made at Occupy LA over the weekend by an LAUSD substitute teacher, who has since been fired. A district spokeswoman said the teacher had been subbing since 2005 but, because she was not a permanent employee, there's not a record available of where she worked.

As I reported in a story that ran yesterday, a group of educators led in part by former South Bay congressional candidate Marcy Winograd has teamed up to march today. With partial backing from the teachers union (a vote for UTLA endorsement is set for tomorrow), Occupy LAUSD is focused on "privatization" of public schools and the growth of charters.

]]> Superintendent Deasy Statement on
"Occupy LAUSD" Protest

Los Angeles - "Occupy LAUSD is both misinformed and contrary to the spirit and intent of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy LA, and the other laudable movements for economic justice that have sprung up around the country and the world over the last month. It is an insult for these protestors to equate a school district that during the past four years has experienced a $2 billion loss of dollars in state and federal funding, with policies and institutions that have systematically hurt the poor and middle class.

As participating UTLA employees know, LAUSD is also the victim of deliberate and pernicious government actions aimed at the least powerful in our society. What we need is a state that invests in our youth more than it invests in our prisons.

We should be working together to ensure passage of President Obama's jobs bill, and the waivers now being offered by the Secretary of Education and our Department of Education which will provide the means for LAUSD and other districts to hire thousands of teachers and staff, and through the waivers redirect more than $87 million in current money back into our schools system for valuable employees and programs. At LAUSD, we are also faced with declining student enrollment, which has led to a reduction of millions more dollars in our operating budget. Even with these tremendous liabilities, we have done everything we can to bring back as many employees as possible and we have seen our student achievement reach their highest levels ever.

We have used the majority of the $55 million identified surplus to help bring back 330 positions that were slated to be eliminated due to state and federal cuts, hire an additional 160 certificated employees beyond our official budget to help our schools and students, and bring back 300 clerical, supervisory aides, library aides, and school support personnel about to be announced due to our new agreement with California Schools Employees Association. This has consumed the overwhelming majority of these funds--and sadly, we still face catastrophic mid-year cuts.

The energy and time that has gone into Occupy LAUSD could better be served helping at the citywide health clinic, which is serving our parents and youth in desperate need of medical and dental care. I wish UTLA could shift its energy from protest as the norm to negotiation for reform."

Superintendent Deasy Issues Statement on Employee's Controversial Remarks

Los Angeles - As Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), I want to emphasize that we condemn the remarks made recently by Patricia McAllister.

Her comments, made during non-work time at a recent protest rally, were her private opinions and were not made in the context of District services. At LAUSD, we recognize that the law is very protective of the freedom of speech rights of public employees when they are speaking as private citizens during non-working time.

As a day-to-day substitute teacher, Ms. McAllister was an at-will employee. As of today, she is no longer an employee of the LAUSD.

I further emphasize to our students, who watch us and look to us for guidance, to be role models and to represent the ideals by which LAUSD lives, that we will never stand for behavior that is disrespectful, intolerant or discriminatory.

Wilmington MS highlighted for teacher collaboration

2011-08-22T23:10:56Z

Wilmington Middle School was featured as a model of teacher collaboration and accountability in a lengthy story in Santa Barbara-based Miller-McCune magazine.

Writer Melinda Burns paints a picture of admirable teamwork at Wilmington Middle, which was the one of the subjects last year of a study on professional learning communities done by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

The school divides instructors into teaching teams that meet after school three times per month.

... Sandra Martinez, a seventh-grade math teacher, said teamwork made all the difference in what can be a very stressful job. It is draining, she said, to teach 130 students every day, including "the ones who can make you miserable." The support from colleagues, the chance to learn on the job and the satisfaction of "seeing the bar going up" -- all this makes her work easier and more fun, Martinez said.
"I'm so comfortable here," she said. "My group is really good. We follow the same strategies and pretty much are on the same lesson at the same time. We even do a script and quote what we're going to say. If it works for our audience, we keep it.

"I don't believe anything will change in our profession until we get teachers who want to be teachers. If you are truly committed to this profession, if you want to be stimulated and move forward, then collaboration is what you do."

I've contacted Principal Myrna Brutti to see if the same practices will be taking place this year, considering budget cuts LAUSD campuses have been dealing with.

Vladovic chief of staff to become ES principal

2011-07-01T00:09:10Z

David Kooper, LAUSD board member Richard Vladovic's chief of staff, has been hired as principal of Gulf Avenue Elementary School in Wilmington.

A San Pedro native who was an LAUSD teacher and magnet coordinator at South Shores Magnet School, Kooper has worked with Vladovic since his election in 2007. Vladovic, himself a former LAUSD administrator, was re-elected this year and will be sworn in Friday, the same day that Kooper takes on his new job.

Local District 8 Superintendent Mike Romero called Kooper an innovator and an instructional leader, saying he's a good fit for Gulf Avenue, which is one of the local district's three remaining year-round schools. Classes at the campus start July 5.

"The wealth of experiences serving as Vladovic's chief of staff over the past few years will pay great dividends at Gulf Avenue," Romero said.

Kooper said he was excited for the opportunity. Asked if spoke Spanish, Kooper replied: "Claro que sí." The school is overwhelmingly Latino.

The news of his new position was made public in Vladovic's blog. Vladovic announced Kooper's departure with "sadness." *

Nora Armenta, who's been principal at Gulf Avenue since 2007, earlier this month became director of early education programs across the district, Romero said. She's now based at the district's downtown Beaudry Avenue offices.

* Vladovic may have been especially emotional, because he apparently vented at today's school board meeting on the new Cameron Diaz film "Bad Teacher," according to the LA Times. Vladovic took issue with the movie's depiction of a potty-mouthed teacher who cares little about her students' academic success.

K-12 bracing for the unknown ... still

2011-06-29T18:02:33Z

In his blog, John Fensterwald breaks down what the new budget deal would mean to K-12 schools: a lot of continued uncertainty.

The deal between Gov. Brown and Democrats in the Legislature is dependent on an upswing in revenues to the state. If that money doesn't materialize, there will be mid-year cuts to schools. That could mean seven to 10 additional furlough days for educators.

Optimists - if any are left - can take comfort in knowing that K-12 schools will be spared from any additional cuts if at least $2 billion of the $4 billion comes through. But if there is less than $2 billion, K-12 schools will bear the brunt of the cuts. And they could be as much as $1.9 billion, mostly in end-of-the-year furlough days, if the shortfall reaches as much as $4 billion.

Community colleges, along with Cal State and UC campuses, are going to be smarting regardless of the revenue scenario. But it could get worse for them too, with midyear cuts meaning a loss of 35,000 students for community colleges, Fensterwald reports. Some 130,000 won't be able to take classes thanks to cuts already agreed upon.

Incoming Peninsula High student pens NYT crossword puzzle

2011-06-23T19:33:30Z

Future Peninsula High school freshman David Steinberg became the New York Times' third-youngest crossword constructor with the paper's publication last week of his puzzle.

Deb Amlen, writer of the Times' blog Wordplay, joked in an entry that 14 1/2-year-old Steinberg was failing to measure up, seeing that the youngest-ever puzzle-maker was just 14 when his construction was published back in 1976.

It makes me wonder what Mr. Steinberg has been doing with his time that has been causing him to slack off so much.

All kidding aside, Steinberg's Thursday puzzle impressed Amlen, who said most first-timers go easier on the Times' audience of crossword fans.

Mr. Steinberg dives right into the deep end with a Thursday theme that sets us a very clever task: Find the four-letter words (no, not that kind) that surreptitiously clue us in to a code that needs to be broken. Once you get that, there's one more job. You will need to understand what Mr. Steinberg is saying to you in order to understand the gibberish in the center of the grid at 39 Across. I love code-breaking games, so this was fun, fun, fun for me.

Steinberg will start in fall at top-achieving Palos Verdes Peninsula High in Rolling Hills Estates. He's currently living in Seattle and is moving down to the South Bay this summer after a five-week session at Google. His mom, Karen Steinberg, let the Breeze know about his unusual accomplishment this month.

The teenager says he spends most of his time constructing and solving crosswords -- a passion he developed when he was 12. He has submitted 35 puzzles to the Times, but finds time for interest in Latin, robotics, computer programming and ping pong.

South Bay High Schools Among Newsweek's Top 500*

2011-06-20T23:05:42Z

Newsweek has released its annual list of top 500 public high schools in the United States, and a handful of South Bay schools made the cut.

Highest on the list is Palos Verdes Peninsula High, which ranked 60th. Highlights for that school include a graduation rate of 100 percent and an average SAT score of 1817. Clocking in at 236th is the California Academy of Mathematics and Science in Carson (known as "CAMS"), where 93 percent of the grads are college-bound.

Not far behind was Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy in Wilmington, which ranked 272. The average SAT for that school is 1363. South High School in Torrance came in at No. 320; and Redondo Union, 405.

It should be noted that only 1,100 high schools applied for the distinction -- a relatively small fraction of the roughly 24,000 public high schools in the United States.

The magazine this year revamped its criteria in an attempt to honor schools with a well rounded set of characteristics. Whereas in prior years the benchmark was based entirely on AP tests taken per graduate, this year the criteria was expanded to include other metrics. They are: graduation rate (25 percent), college matriculation rate (25 percent), AP tests taken per graduate (25 percent), average ACT/SAT scores (10 percent), average International Baccalaureate scores (10 percent), and AP courses offered per graduate (5 percent).

Noticeably absent from the criteria is the success of the schools in preparing disadvantaged students for college. That metric is included in the list compiled by the U.S. News & World Report. That magazine claims to review more than 21,000 schools nationwide.

On that list, local high schools serving low-income students do indeed fare better. CAMS ranks No. 22; Animo Leadership Charter High in Inglewood, No. 23; Lennox Math, Science & Technology Academy, No. 25; and Hawthorne Math and Science Academy, No. 54.

*Jay Mathews, the creator of Newsweek's original ranking before the magazine was bought from the Washinton Post Co. (which now publishes Mathews' new ranking), responds to the Newsweek list. He's critical that the magazine's methodology ends up privileging schools with higher-income students.

The average portion of low-income students for the 45 schools on the Newsweek list for which that data is available is 19.6 percent. The comparable portion on my list for the 48 schools that gave me poverty data is 31.8 percent.

Such differences produce interesting and useful conversations about what makes a great school. We school rating scoundrels have a good time when we get together to talk about this. I think the new Newsweek listmakers, almost none of whom I know, will enjoy reviewing their data and seeing if there are other measures they want to include.

Mathews also notes that a short deadline for schools to apply likely affected the outcome.

Update on WaPo rankings: Pen High is in

2011-06-13T23:16:09Z

The Washington Post erred in its exclusion of Palos Verdes Peninsula High School from the newspaper's list of the nation's top 1,900 public secondary campuses, according to an email from a Post columnist to Pen High. I described Pen's surprising exclusion last week.

The index should be updated later this week, and Pen High will be somewhere around 192nd rank, making it the top school from the South Bay and Harbor Area, and placing it within the top 1 percent nationwide.

Here's part of an emailed apology from Post columnist Jay Mathews to Peninsula High:

The Post erred in failing to place Palos Verdes Peninsula High School on our 2011 High School Challenge rankings of the nation's high schools. It is entirely my fault. I expect that great school--one of the first I visited when I conceived this project 15 years ago--will be added to the list this week, along with other schools we missed in the first version of the list. Every year since this list began in 1998, we have had a second updated version to make sure we include every school, including those who failed to notify us of their numbers and those, like PVPHS, whose paperwork I lost somewhere on my desk.
PVPHS will be ranked in the top 200, somewhere around 192, which puts it in the top one percent of US public schools measured this way. Its line on the list will read as follows:

Palos Verdes Peninsula Rolling Hills Estates CA 73.00 2.10 3.489

Those three numbers are, in order, the percentage of seniors who had at least one passing grade on an AP exam while in high school, the percentage of students qualified for federal lunch subsidies, and the school's Challenge Index rating (the number of AP test in 2010 divided by the number of graduating seniors.)

What do interdistrict transfers do?

2011-06-09T00:52:44Z

In a blog post I stumbled upon this afternoon, journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan muses briefly on the meaning of a neighbor's interdistrict transfer from Inglewood to El Segundo Unified.

Kaplan says, in her post on KCET's SoCal Connected blog, that she felt a bit confused by her friend's triumphant announcement of having finally received a transfer permit.

We're in Inglewood. For months, Christina and her husband had been trying to enroll their teenage kids in El Segundo High School; El Segundo is not far west of us, but it's essentially another universe. A very pleasant town that, ethnically speaking, is about as hermetically sealed as they come in Southern California. I've been there countless times (just to visit, of course) and can count the number of black faces I've seen on two hands (and they were probably visiting too). I could count the number Asians and Latinos on maybe three. It was kind of astounding.

According to state figures, the 3,200-student district this year had just 109 black students, or about 3.4 percent. Still, it's not as monochromatic as Kaplan suggests. The district is only about 55 percent white and more than 22 percent Latino.

But that's the school district, which welcomes students from outside its boundaries. The city population itself is whiter, with about 78 percent of residents identified as white, according to U.S. Census data.

Anyway, Kaplan's friend Christina struggled with a bureacratic transfer process but ultimately got spots in El Segundo High for her children, whom Kaplan describes as "exactly the kind of students the community at large needs to thrive as a community."

What does this loss mean for Inglewood schools?

I applauded her triumph, gave her a fist pump. But after I got home and thought about it, the triumph felt hollow. My garden looked less lovely. It was the old paradox of integration that was best expressed by a black oldtimer from the Eastside who put it this way after racial housing covenants were struck down in 1948: we got what we wanted, but lost what we had. We're still losing.

Read it.

More on teacher quality report in LAUSD*

2011-06-07T20:18:58Z

The United Way of Los Angeles has a report out this week with some provocative recommendations to improve teacher quality in Los Angeles Unified. (Full report / exec summary)

It's the result of a study of about 1,500 teachers done by the D.C.-based National Council on Teacher Quality. The LAUSD Board of Education is receiving a presentation on the report this afternoon.

Daily News writer Connie Llanos reports on some of the recommendations, including changes to teacher evaluations, and that tenure not be granted until a teacher has worked with the district for four years, instead of two. Those issues are of course bound to draw union fire.

Education blogger John Fensterwald has a detailed breakdown of the report's recommendations, along with the required legislative action that would be needed to implement changes to the Education Code.

*After the jump is a statement from LAUSD on the report, and from board member Yolie Flores Aguilar.

]]>

NATIONAL COUNCIL ON TEACHER QUALITY (NCTQ) ASKS LAUSD TO MOVE FORWARD ON MULTIPLE REFORMS TO IMPROVE EDUCATION IN LOS ANGELES REGION

Study States Policies Must be Reformed to Attract and Retain Quality Teachers

Los Angeles - Today, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) presented its Teacher Quality Roadmap: Improving Policies and Practices in LAUSD report findings before the Los Angeles School Board. This study analyzed the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) current collective bargaining agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), school board policies, district practices, and state laws to determine where LAUSD placed among a variety of teacher quality policies. The recommendations outlined in the report focused on identifying best practices that the District could adopt in order to increase student achievement by improving the quality of LAUSD's teacher population.

"As an agency that receives public funds in exchange for the privilege of educating nearly 700,000 students in this District, it would be irresponsible not to welcome this analysis," said Superintendent John Deasy. "The work we do involves a sacred trust and a moral obligation; parents leave their sons and daughters with us every morning with the expectation that we are equipping them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed."

At the direction of the Los Angeles Board of Education, LAUSD is currently redesigning its performance review systems that better distinguish between the performance levels of educators, celebrate and recognize excellence, provide targeted support for developing educators, and quickly intervene when needed.

Deasy added that LAUSD's goal is to design, build, and implement a multiple-measured evaluation and support structure that will truly grow and develop educators throughout their careers.

The new process that has been outlined and the accompanying tools in development that will support the new system align with various recommendations made in the report, particularly around the development of a team of observation experts that will work alongside principals on evaluations (#2), the inclusion of student feedback in the evaluation of teachers (#4), and prioritizing principals' responsibility for supporting teacher instruction (#6).

"I firmly believe the way we get to 100 percent graduation is by strengthening the teaching profession," Deasy said. "LAUSD remains deeply committed to supporting and developing a process by which we learn from places where exceptional teaching is taking place and provide meaningful growth opportunities for teachers who need it."

Working from the recommendations that came out of the Teacher Effectiveness Task Force, the District is moving into Phase II of a three-phased plan to develop and implement a comprehensive system for developing the effectiveness of LAUSD school site educators. Among the various external stakeholders critical to this process is The United Way of Greater Los Angeles, and the partnering civil rights organizations that have a history of collaborating with LAUSD. Together, they advocate for, and provide, services to students and families throughout the District, many of whom live in circumstances of poverty.

STATEMENT FROM SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER YOLIE FLORES ON NEW STUDY FROM THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON TEACHER QUALITY WHICH CALLS FOR STRONGER LAUSD AND STATE POLICIES TO INCREASE QUALITY TEACHING

Today the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) presented to the Los Angeles Board of Education a new study that examines the policies and practices shaping teacher quality in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Combined with the work of the Teacher Effectiveness Taskforce, this report is a powerful roadmap that can change the landscape of teacher quality for students of LAUSD.

The report, developed by NCTQ, the United Way and a coalition of education partners, shines the light on numerous workforce issues and practices that, despite our progress, we've failed to address. For example, it is outrageous that we spend 25 percent of our annual teacher payroll to compensate teachers for taking graduate coursework when there is absolutely no evidence that this practice adds to a teacher's effectiveness. We also have not attended to the best placement of teachers. Rather than placing teachers where their talent is most needed, we instead rely on teacher preference and seniority when deciding classroom assignments. And our seniority system clearly does not benefit children when we do not consider quality over longevity when reductions in force are absolutely necessary.

Our Superintendent, Dr. John Deasy, has firmly committed to transforming LAUSD to be the best in the west and first in the nation. I believe that we won't be successful in achieving this unless we push ourselves and our partners harder to implement as many of the report recommendations as possible. We must leverage this report to spark the much needed public awareness, engagement and political will to compel LAUSD, its labor partners and our state leaders to do what's right for kids.

Another strange combo of local schools on list of top 1,900 nationally*

2011-06-06T23:30:31Z

The Washington Post has released a ranking of 1,900 public high schools across the nation, and once again the list of South Bay schools that made the cut raises some questions about the criteria.

Now called the High School Challenge, the ranking was started by WaPo education columnist Jay Mathews in 1998 and long published in Newsweek. This year it includes 11 secondary campuses from the South Bay and Harbor Area. They're not the ones you might think.

That's because Mathews' formula is this "simple" one: the number of AP, IB or other college level tests given by the school in 2010 divided by the number of graduating seniors. That is, the average number of AP tests (in our schools' case) per grad.

Mathews acknowledges this might give some unexpected results, and in various blog posts he calls his method "contrarian," and writes that he welcomes the competition from Newsweek in a forthcoming best-schools list.

While not a measure of the overall quality of the school, the rating can reveal the level of a high school's commitment to preparing average students for college.

An FAQ goes into more detail on why Mathews believes the number of college-level tests given -- and not how well students do on those tests -- is a good measure of a school's quality. He writes:

The Challenge Index is designed to identify schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college level courses and tests. It does not work with schools that have no, or almost no, average students. The idea is to create a list that measures how good schools are in challenging all students, and not just how high their students' test scores are.

Here are the rankings for local schools on the list of 1,900:

197. Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy
305. Palos Verdes High
611. Redondo Union High
456. Hawthorne Math & Science Academy
1047. California Academy of Math & Science
1168. Animo Inglewood Charter High
1262. Carson High
1457. Animo Leadership Charter High
1525. Narbonne High
1534. El Segundo High
1721. Banning High

Obviously, it's most notable that a number of troubled LAUSD schools are on the list, including Carson High, which the district has put up for bid by outside operators under the unusual Public School Choice initiative.

At the same time, top-achieving schools like Peninsula* and Mira Costa High didn't make the cut.

Here's a 2009 blog post I wrote on Mathews' rankings. There are a few differences: Peninsula and Mira Costa were on that list, as was Westchester High. The other schools that remain in the 2011 list are in different order, generally speaking.

*Update: The omission of Peninsula High was an error that will be fixed, Mathews said in an email to administrators. The school will be ranked somewhere around 192nd, making it the top campus locally.

Per-pupil school spending analysis shows some surprises

2011-06-03T18:05:03Z

California Watch is out today with another great project, this time looking at school districts' spending per student.

It's a topic that creates controversy in education circles because there are such great disparities -- and because it's all based on a locked-in, byzantine funding system created by in the wake of a 1971 court ruling on state education spending, Serrano v. Priest.

Here's the crux of the issue:

The Supreme Court ruled that differences in the basic amount spent per student - so-called "revenue limit" funding - had to be within $100 across all districts. Taking inflation into account, the permissible difference is now $350 per student. Although larger differences remain among some districts, disparities in the basic amount districts receive from the state have been substantially reduced.

But that reduction has been wiped out by local, state and federal funds for close to a hundred different programs. A large part of the money is based on formulas established in the 1970s for meals, transportation and other services that often have little connection to current student needs.

The inequities the court sought to alleviate with its Serrano ruling persist. About two-thirds of districts now spend at least $500 above or below the state average, according to California Watch's analysis.

Comparing spending data from 2009-10, Cal Watch calculated per-pupil spending based on "annual salaries, employee benefits, books, supplies and other educational services" but not on "building purchases, construction, retiree benefits and food services."

Here's a surprising result of the research:

The analysis found there was virtually no correlation between funding and (API) scores that could explain the wide variation across the state in per-pupil spending in districts.

California Watch also looked at correlations between expenditures and student backgrounds, including their race and ethnicity and whether they are poor enough to receive a free or reduced lunch. The analysis also did not find any significant correlations among these variables.

Their database shows some surprising results locally. I know officials in some of the districts in affluent areas -- including Manhattan Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula -- are prone to emphasizing their comparative lack of per-pupil funding. But this is pretty stark in terms of more cash going to districts that educate lower-income student bodies.

In descending order, here are Cal Watch's figures for per-pupil spending in local districts:

LAUSD $10,015
Lennox $9,759
Centinela Valley $9,366
Inglewood $8,931
California average $8,452
Lawndale $8,390
Redondo Beach $7,991
Palos Verdes $7,812
Hawthorne $7,806
El Segundo $7,733
Hermosa Beach $7,527
Torrance $7,505
Manhattan Beach $7,467
Wiseburn $6,884

Wiseburn, the high-achieving K-8 district in Hawthorne, is clearly the curveball here.

Here's an important component of Cal Watch's story on these figures:

The disconnect between money and academic performance is at the heart of an ongoing debate among educators and researchers.

"Money may be necessary for school improvement, but it doesn't guarantee that improvement takes place," concluded UC Berkeley education professor W. Norton Grubb in his recent book "The Money Myth," after conducting an intensive review on the subject.

In particular, he found that urban schools tended to spend inefficiently for a variety of reasons, including high staff and student turnover and conflicts over how to teach struggling students. At the same time, he said, urban districts often have extra expenses for needs such as security, dropout prevention, or for teaching students who are not proficient in English.

Here's a Q&A with some more info.

LAUSD and UTLA reach agreement

2011-05-27T22:55:21Z

Los Angeles Unified School District has just announced an agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles. Details from the district's press release are below. UTLA statement after the jump.

LAUSD AND UTLA REACH TENTATIVE JOBS AND SERVICES RESTORATION AGREEMENT

Los Angeles - LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy announced today the District has reached a tentative contract agreement in partnership and collaboration with United Teachers Los Angeles for 2011-12 to save jobs. The agreement calls for the union's membership to take four furlough days, or fewer, in 2011-12 if the State's budget picture improves.

"I want to thank UTLA for working with us to provide a solution for next year that brings stability - and the majority of our employees - back to the classroom," said Deasy. "I'm very pleased to be able to retain the current class sizes, and positions and programs such as magnet coordinators, School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP), Options program, arts programs, Library Media Teachers, and adult education at the 2010-11 level."

Under this agreement for 2011-12, 3,402 positions will be restored, including 1,722 elementary and secondary teaching jobs as well as 1,680 positions, including adult educators, arts educators, counselors, Library Media Teachers, nurses, options teachers, ROC-ROP instructors, SRLDP teachers, and magnet school positions. An additional 1,700 classroom and non-classroom (counselors, school psychologists, PSA counselors, and psychiatric social workers) positions are anticipated to be created or saved as a result of local school budget decisions and retirements.

Deasy cautioned that the success of the agreement is contingent upon Governor Brown's proposed budget being approved by the Legislature. He noted that the District and its various bargaining partners are "relying on maximum trust" that Sacramento will support the Governor's proposal for education funding.

"Should the actual, approved state budget and revenue limit come in above our proposed budget," said Deasy, "we will be in a position to incrementally reduce the number of furlough days for all our bargaining partners. However, these education revenues must be fully-funded, not deferred and without restrictions."

The Superintendent added that should the revenue limit come in below the proposed level, UTLA's members will be required to take up to six furlough days to mitigate the impact of the loss of revenue. "If there is huge decline in revenues," said Deasy, "the District and all of its bargaining partners will be compelled to reopen negotiations."

"While this agreement does not restore all the cuts -- because our schools are still drastically under-funded -- it goes a long way toward providing the resources and personnel for our students to succeed," said Deasy. "In the meantime, all those who care about public education in this state must continue to apply pressure on Sacramento to fund education above the current pathetic, sub-standard levels."

As a result of the Governor's May Revise budget released on May 16 and authorization from the Los Angeles County Office of Education, LAUSD will apply $154 million of a 2010-11 State IOU cash deferral to address the District's $408 million deficit and Feb. 15 package of budget reductions for 2011-12. This, along with furlough day agreements from UTLA and five other unions for 2011-12, will help stabilize LAUSD's classrooms and services for the upcoming school year only.

The announcement of the tentative agreement with UTLA means that only the Teamsters and California School Employee Association unions have not yet reached an agreement with the District for 2011-12.

"I would like to thank our Board for its clear direction and unwavering support to further enhance the educational program for our students," Deasy said.

]]> UTLA and LAUSD reach tentative agreement to stop class‐size increases & save jobs

May 27, 2011 ‐ UTLA reached a tentative agreement today with LAUSD that would maintain class sizes and potentially result in the restoration of more than 5,000 jobs for the 2011‐12 school year. The agreement would also include fewer lost instructional days than in the past 2 years. LAUSD withdrew its original proposal to take a loan from the multi‐union Health Benefit Fund Reserve. The deal has to be approved by UTLA members and the Board of Education. Key points include:

 Class size maintained at current levels
UTLA successfully preserved current class sizes and counselor norms, thus stabilizing our schools and the learning environment for our students. As a result, staffing will be restored to 2010‐11 levels. The District had
planned to increase class size to 29‐1 for K‐3 as well as increases in other grade levels.

 3,400‐plus jobs saved
Under this agreement, 3,402 positions will be restored, including 1,722 elementary and secondary teaching jobs as well as 1,680 positions, including adult educators, arts educators, counselors, teacher librarians, nurses, options teachers, ROC‐ROP instructors, SLRDP teachers, and magnet school positions.

 At least 1,700 additional jobs anticipated to be saved
An additional 1,700 classroom and non‐classroom (counselors, school psychologists, PSA counselors, and psychiatric social workers) positions are anticipated to be created/saved as a result of local budget decisions and retirements. Even more jobs will likely be saved as a result of the restoration of class size and student‐to‐adult ratios.

 Four furlough days in 2011‐12 if state revenue does not increase.
After review of all available data, UTLA agreed to four furlough days on the condition some or all would be removed by a formula if the District receives anticipated state revenues. In the unlikely event less funding is received, as many as two furlough days could be added to the four according to the same formula. Should the budget shortfall be greater than the amount of money saved by the additional two furlough days, LAUSD could reopen negotiations. The four furlough days would consist of a reduction of three instructional days and one pupil‐free day. UTLA and the District will jointly determine the timing of the furlough days.

"This agreement demonstrates that when UTLA and the District collaborate, problems can be solved to the benefit of our students," said A.J. Duffy, UTLA president.

An astonishing statistic on dropouts

2011-05-19T00:07:26Z

From "A Portrait of California," released today by the American Human Development Project:

Only one hundred of California's nearly 2,500 high schools account for nearly half of the state's dropouts.

Wow. Based on a speed-read, I'm not sure where this statistic comes from, but just: wow.

The report uses census data to look at health, education, and living standards, not surprisingly revealing wide disparities in the Golden State.

Wilmington 20-somethings return home to do good

2011-05-09T19:36:07Z

LA Times columnist Hector Tobar gives some nice press today to a group of young-ish folks who grew up in Wilmington and are trying to make the port community a better place.

The feel-good column is about twentysomethings giving back to the neighborhood that raised them. Tobar dubs it "renaissance by the refineries."

He writes about 24-year-old Kat Madrigal, who started a blog called the Wilmington Wire, and Robert Jones, a 21-year-old CSU Dominguez Hills student who teaches at the Wilmington Empowerment Project. Jones wants to return to Banning High to teach. Also mentioned is artist Oscar Duarte, who helped start the Wilmington Enrichment Community Artist Network, or WECAN.

The column points out the disparity made evident by Wilmington's proximity to the affluent Palos Verdes Peninsula:

From just about anywhere in Wilmington and the communities that surround it, you can look up and see the hills of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, an island of prosperity floating in the distance and a constant reminder to locals of where they stand in the world.

Sumiko Braun, a Carson native and actress, recently took a group of Wilmington and Long Beach teenagers up to Palos Verdes as part of a "reality tour" organized by members of the One Imagination collective. It was her way of sharing with neighborhood young people some of the lessons she'd learned in college.

"We started off in Wilmington, by the refineries, and went up to PV ... and then back down to South L.A. and Watts," Braun told me. They compared the schools, medical facilities and grocery stores and looked at other measures of social health. "The differences were drastic and extreme," she said. "When we were done, a lot of the students got emotional about it, because they didn't realize until that moment how this city works."

Clickable cuts: new website maps potential education losses

2011-05-05T18:13:58Z

As the LA Times notes today, there's a handy new online tool to map out potential cuts to school districts across the state.

The map shows the estimated losses per student -- in each school district or state Assembly or Senate district -- under dramatic education spending reductions that would be part of an all-cuts state budget. The tool uses projected cuts of $764 per pupil. In some districts, it shows the number of pink slips that have gone out.

Torrance Unified, our biggest local district after LAUSD, is facing the largest loss: $18.4 million in cuts, according to the tool. Inglewood follows with a possible $11.7 million loss. Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified comes next with nearly $9 million in cuts.

Los Angeles Unified faces cuts of $498 million, according to the site.

The site, on the K-12 News Network, was developed as a volunteer project by two California parents. It's a collaboration with the with Parents for Great Education, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit.

As Howard Blume writes in the LA Times, there's a reason for putting this data together.

The effort behind it is ostensibly nonpartisan, but one reason for the new reference tool is to increase pressure on a handful of Republican legislators to allow a statewide vote on tax extensions that, if approved, would ease budget shortfalls on school districts.