Recently in CHARTER SCHOOLS Category

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.

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.

When things get busy here (as they do during holiday weeks), we kind of slack off on blog posts. You might have noticed. Sorry.

Anyway, here are a few links I've been meaning to post from recent days:

• Los Angeles Unified is considering cuts of up to $140 million this year, the Daily News' George Sanchez reports. Deputy Supe Cortines would halve the budgets of local districts, and cut Beaudry's budget by 30 percent. "It's just that bad," Cortines said
• The Los Angeles Times' Jason Song looks back on Friday's lockdown at Manual Arts High School in South L.A.
• The Associated Press reports that the federal goverment will withhold $1 million from California for failing to test eighth-graders in math. This is related to the whole eight-grade algebra conundrum.
• Another LA Times story: County juvie camps may become charter schools.
• From Friday, the Daily News' Sanchez reports on continuing payroll snafus within LAUSD.
• And ... UC students on Sunday protested proposed budget cuts, reports, yes, the LA Times.

David Zahniser has a story in this morning's Los Angeles Times about Los Angeles Unified's plans to develop worker housing on large campuses, including Gardena High School.

District officials say the plan would fill a need for employees who cannot afford to live near their jobs. Opponents of the $7 billion bond that goes before voters on Tuesday are crying foul.

But the development plan is drawing fire from opponents of Measure Q, the district's $7-billion construction and repair bond issue on Tuesday's ballot. Critics contend that the district should not seek to increase property taxes to pay for new facilities if it has enough real estate to start housing its employees.

The California Charter School Association, which has fought to get the district to provide space for charters per state law (and recently touted a charter's legal victory over the district - see PDF), is also not pleased.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who originally backed the plan along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has pulled her support.

Hahn now says that she was wrong about the housing plan, which was presented to her before the district placed the measure for $7 billion in bonds -- twice the original amount -- on the ballot. Hahn said she is perplexed by the school system's desire to build homes in Harbor Gateway when, as part of its construction program, it is destroying homes in nearby Wilmington, also part of her district.

"There are certainly a lot of hurt feelings because the district has taken people's homes," she said. "So for them to be in the business now of building housing is a cruel twist."

One of the projects would build housing units on the north end of Gardena High's large campus (it's the largest in the district -- 55 acres, I believe). This was on a board agenda back in June and again recently but -- gah! -- I haven't found the time to write about it.

Interesting stuff.

Also -- be sure to check out Daily News reporter George Sanchez's story about $700,000 in donations made to the Yes on Q campaign by construction firms that stand to benefit from district projects.

Dorsey High School has rejected a takeover effort from former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, reports Howard Blume in today's Los Angeles Times.

Riordan was seeking to take over the South L.A. campus in a similar fashion to the effort fronted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with his Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. The plan would have divided the largely African-American school into academies, like Green Dot's effort at Locke High School.

Meaningful local control sounds good to Noah Lippe-Klein, a veteran Dorsey history teacher and a union representative. He had joined faculty and parents last year in petitioning the district for more academic counseling, along with better college and career guidance; expanded, updated vocational offerings; and more Advanced Placement courses.

"We are definitely against any kind of takeover or any kind of outside organization imposing its ideas on Dorsey," he said. "And that's what this comes across as."

Riordan's group is called Pathways-to-Success. Incidentally, the Riordan Foundation was one of the primary backers of Carson's new charter, New Millennium Secondary School.

LAUSD's Senior Deputy Superintendent Raymond Cortines notified Riordan yesterday that Dorsey would reject the ex-mayor's bid, Blume writes.

An overhaul of the education system for children incarcerated in the Los Angeles County juvenile justice system was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today, according to a press release from Supervisor Don Knabe.

The changes will affect the county's three juvenile halls (in Boyle Heights, Sylmar and Downey) and 19 youth camps. None are in the South Bay or Harbor Area.

The reforms will include the creation of charter schools within the probation system. Wow. It will be interesting to see how that works.

The release includes the following findings from the 2007 report:
The release continues:

The reforms will also customize educational opportunities based on the individual needs of the student, including a vocational education path, a college-bound path, and a GED completion path, among others. Additionally, the reforms will now tie education in the camps and halls with education in school districts across the County so that students leaving the juvenile justice system will have better continuity and consistency when they return to regular schools.

The reforms were proposed by Knabe last year after a study from the Children's Council of Los Angeles County revealed that incarcerated children were educationally underserved. Knabe billed it as a crime-reduction effort.

One of his lines in the release: "By improving access to educational opportunities in the juvenile justice system today these kids are less likely to commit future crimes tomorrow and end up in and out of our justice system throughout their life."

A UCLA study reports nearly three in four teenagers say they were bullied online within a year but only 10 percent of them reported it to parents or other adults.

Reachers said the most prevalent forms of bullying online include name-calling, password thefts, threats, sending embarrassing pictures, sharing private information without permission and spreading nasty rumors.

According to UCLA:

Of those who were bullied online, 85 percent also have been bullied at school, the psychologists found. The probability of getting bullied online was substantially higher for those who have been the victims of school bullying.

The study used a survey of 1,454 between the ages of 12 and 17, who were recruited through a popular teen website. Nearly half the teens said they didn't tell anyone about the online bullying because they believed they "need to learn to deal with it" and 31 percent didn't for fear that doing so would restrict their Internet access.

They're baaack. Well, not exactly. Lawmakers might consider a plan to call everyone back to Sacramento to discuss the state's need for a short term $7 billion loan, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Because of the credit crunch and less state revenues Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could declare a special session where legislators may look at different ways to make up the budget hole, including cuts to schools.

Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association, said lawmakers "might as well stay home" if they are planning to make up the latest shortfall with cuts alone. His group and other school organizations believe the state should use tax increases to balance the budget.

"If they come back into a special session because revenue projections are in decline for the current year budget, it probably could only mean bad news for schools unless they're inclined to have a conversation about new revenues," Plotkin said.

Maybe, according to the Sacramento Bee.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned this week that Congress needs to put the nation's finances in order so the state can pay its bills in November for critical needs like teacher salaries.

Lockyer said the fiscal crisis may drain California's reserves by the end of October because the state can't sell bonds and short-term securities for cash flow needs.

"The credit market is frozen because financial institutions are afraid to commit capital amid enormous uncertainty," the treasurer said in a written statement.

"More urgently, because the state budget was so late, we have only four short weeks to complete what otherwise would be a routine revenue anticipation note sale to meet the state's cash-flow needs," Lockyer said.

Exhausting California's cash reserves would have dire consequences, he said.

"Payments for teachers' salaries, nursing homes, law enforcement and every other state-funded service would stop or be significantly delayed," Lockyer said.

"And California's 5,000 cities, counties, school districts and special districts would face the same fate."

Education Week reports rising federal academic standards is a growing concern among the nation's educators and state policy makers but not in the presidential campaign.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain have rarely touched the subject of No Child Left Behind.

According to Ed Week:

In their education proposals, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain have outlined specific plans to address provisions of the almost 7-year-old federal education law. Both would refocus the teacher-quality section to bolster the recruitment of new teachers and to experiment with new forms of teacher pay. Sen. McCain promises to make school choice and tutoring available to students in struggling schools sooner than the current law allows.

But neither candidate has said what he would do to address significant questions about the NCLB law's future, such as whether to keep its goal of universal student proficiency in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year, how to increase the rigor of states' academic standards, and how to improve the interventions in schools failing to meet achievement goals.

A lot of people out there have called me about the glut of negative news about education and said they want to read something nice for a change. That's a good idea. So I am considering writing a story each week that takes me and a photographer into the K-12 classroom, where the actual business of learning happens.

I want the community of parents, teachers, principals, district types and students to email me at vu.nguyen@dailybreeze.com and tell me why I should visit your school and write about it. I'll probably focus on one subject so if there is an amazing math teacher or an interesting science instructor out there, let me know what they're doing right.

P.S. Make sure the principal of your school or district official gives us the okay.

Researchers and safety experts in Maryland don't seem to think so. They said lowering the drinking age to 18 will cause more car accidents and deaths.

The experts told state legislators to keep the drinking age 21 and that they should consider tougher penalties for teens who break the law.

According to the Washington Post:

"The risk of a fatal crash increases with the first drink, especially for drivers aged 16 to 20," said James Fell, a senior program director at Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.

The announcement is a response to college leaders' calls for a discussion on lowering the drinking age to 18 because it could promote moderation.

The Arizona Republic:

The reasoning behind the proposal, known as the Amethyst Initiative, is that the higher drinking age actually encourages binge drinking, a major problem on many college campuses. Nearly 100 college presidents from schools ranging from Duke University to Ohio State (but not Arizona or Arizona State) are in favor of the idea.

What do you think? Is lowering the drinking age to 18 a good or bad idea. I'd like to hear from teens on this idea.

If you liked this year's record-long budget impasse, you'll love the one that's expected to happen nine months from now.

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger likely signs a spending bill for this year's budget, the San Francisco Chronicle reports officials warn "a crisis of equal magnitude looms next year because of the weakened economy, uncertainties about the use of future lottery revenue and political gridlock among state legislators."

Until then, schools can finally exhale for now and collect $58.1 billion in state dollars that have been held up for nearly three months. The amount is an uptick from last year's $56 billion but it amounts to a 0.7 cost-of-living increase --- a drop in the bucket of the 5.66 percent increase school districts hoped to get, or about $3 billion less than educators would like to see, according to Jennifer Kuhn, analyst at the state Legislative Analyst's Office.

Education leaders last week slammed the plan, saying it doesn't help local school districts pay for the rising costs.

State Superintendent of Instruction Jack O'Connell called the plan a "gimmick," while California Teachers Association President David Sanchez and California PTA President Pam Brady each urged Schwarzenegger to use his veto power to leverage a more education-friendly budget.

"The proposed budget includes a reduction of the cost-of-living adjustment that will further tighten the vise on local school budgets as districts across the state face increased costs for supplies, food, transportation and employee health care costs," O'Connell said in a statement. "These reductions are a disservice to California's 6 million school children and the thousands of educators across the state."

The San Francisco Chronicle has a pretty good breakdown of what the budget means to the average person.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU: The new money doesn't cover inflation - yet the cost of salaries, benefits, books and more is rising. Students and teachers will feel the impact as teaching positions remain vacant, class size grows and even bus routes are cut back. Yet many programs - from special education to gifted education - were spared.

Stay tuned to see if lawmakers can magically fix the way public schools are funded by the summer.

The California State PTA wants parents to lobby lawmakers for a new budget deal that brings a more stable revenue stream to education. The legislature argues there is enough money for schools in the proposal --- at about $58.1 billion, up from $56.7 billion last year.

But the group backs Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plan to veto the current budget saying it only puts a short-term bandage on school finances. The proposed budget has about $9.3 billion coming through early tax collections.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune:

Critics complained that the tax speedups are gimmicks that "borrow from taxpayers" and push a chronic deficit into next year. Schwarzenegger called them "tax increases" with a "smoke screen" when he made his initial veto threat Tuesday.

Schwarzenegger and legislators don't seem to be backing down at this point. So is backing the Governor's impending budget veto a good idea as school programs continue to run without state dollars for nearly three months?

One reason behind Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's likely veto of the legislative-approved budget is because of what it would mean to state education dollars.

According to the L.A. Times:

SCHWARZENEGGER: "The way this budget is right now we will need a huge tax increase next year or will have to cut education severely. It's one or the other. That's why I say we should fix the budget this year and realize there's a structural problem, create the extra revenues and then fix the system once and for all so that we have a system in place so that it doesn't happen again. That is the most important thing."

But the State Assembly and the Senate contend deep cuts to education are avoided under the plan, giving schools $58.1 billion, up from last year's $56.7 billion.

The gridlock has nearly reached the historic 80-day mark, forcing nervous school district administrators to dip into their reserves. But California schools superintendent Jack O'Connell agrees the governor should hold off until the budget addresses the state's cash problems.

"The lack of a state budget is causing real pain to businesses, schools, child care providers, and many others. We cannot allow this pain to continue. However, signing a bad budget that shortchanges schools, exacerbates California's fiscal problems, and puts off the day of reckoning would be worse than extending the short-term pain while taking the time now to do the job right.

So what's the right thing to do? Should lawmakers continue the budget standoff until schools are funded correctly or pay for mandated services like special education now?

The California Charter Schools Association has received a $3 million grant for a new data system that will allow teachers to track individual student performance with the goal of improving instructional practices, the group announced today.

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation donated the amount -- the association's largest single gift -- for a program called ZOOM! Data Source. The program was pilot-tested by a group of 30 schools. Staring this fall, 189 charters statewide will use the program, including four local campuses -- Port of Los Angeles High School in San Pedro, Crescendo Charter Academy (a K-5) in Gardena, Animo Venice Charter High School in Westchester and Animo Leadership Charter High School in Inglewood.

"The idea is to create data-driven best practices that can then be shared," said CCSA head Caprice Young, who will leave the association at the end of the month.

Young gave a few examples of ways the web-based program will be able to track individual student performance in ways that teachers can use to make adjustments in the classroom.

Lisa Edwards and Stephany Glover, sisters and co-founders of Legacy Charter High School in Carson, have decided to postpone the opening of their school until next year, they said today.

The pair notified LAUSD -- which approved the school's charter in March -- on Monday that they'll seek to open in fall 2009, Edwards said in an email.

The sisters had struggled to jump over a variety of hurdles in order to open in a small church this month, as my story that ran yesterday sought to show. The school has a hip-hop element to its curriculum.

Students return to LAUSD campuses today. Exciting!

Five new campuses opened in the district -- though none of them in the South Bay or Harbor Area.

New schools: Edward R. Roybal Learning Center (the school formerly known as Belmont Learning Complex with the $400 million-plus pricetag, which the district will be living down for years to come), just west of downtown LA; Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood; Richard E. Byrd Middle School in Sun Valley; James Edward Jones Primary Center in South L.A.; and Roy Romer Middle School in North Hollywood.

The district is also getting more than a dozen new charters.

Three local charters were marking new beginnings. Magnolia Science Academy 3 - Gardena is opening today with 250 students in sixth and seventh grade. Thursday will be the first day of classes for Carson's New Millennium Secondary School, with almost 150 ninth graders. And Port of Los Angeles High School in San Pedro, which started classes yesterday, has its first senior class this year.

PBS recently featured San Diego-based High Tech High, an admission-by-lottery charter founded and run by business leaders and built on competition. The school is big on cross-curricular teaching, hands-on activities and entrepreneurship -- especially in the realms of science and technology.

Anyway, it's an interest report, and easy enough to read, being a transcript of the broadcast now posted online.

Enjoy.

Courtesy of reporter Megan Bagdonas, via her story in today's Daily Breeze, a few more details for you on the TIP Academy's withdrawal of their petition to start a charter school in Palos Verdes.

Yet it's still unclear precisely why they backed off ... could it be something to do with the 500-or-so peeved parents who packed a public hearing on the matter, many of whom decried the very idea of a charter in their area?