OPINION: Crenshaw High School Community Against Reconstitution

November 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment



By: Christina Lewis, Crenshaw High Special Education Teacher
Irvin Alvarado, Crenshaw High Alumni, Coalition for Educational Justice Organizer
Alex Caputo-Pearl, Crenshaw High Social Justice Lead Teacher, UTLA Board of Directors
Eunice Grigsby, Crenshaw High Parent, Crenshaw High Alumna

On October 23, Superintendent Deasy announced he intends to reconstitute Crenshaw High School. This scorched earth “reform” that is destructive for students, communities and employees has been used at Fremont, Clinton, Manual Arts and more, despite courageous push-backs at those schools. image

The Crenshaw school community is determined to fight back. The slogan that permeated the emergency 150-person Crenshaw Town Hall Meeting at the African-American Cultural Center on October 4 crystallizes the struggle — “Keep Crenshaw: Our School, Our Children, Our Community.”

In an attempt to disarm the push back and win public support, Deasy is combining the reconstitution with a full-school magnet conversion. Crenshaw stakeholders are, of course, open to conversations that will improve conditions and outcomes for our students — but those must be collaborative and well-resourced. That said, it is clear that Deasy’s main objective is not magnet conversion – it is to take top-down control of the school and reconstitute (which means removing all faculty and staff from the school, with an “opportunity to re-apply”).

The school community says NO to any form of reconstitution, and YES to school improvement that includes stakeholders and holds LAUSD accountable for its years of neglect and mismanagement.

In this spirit, teacher, parent and administrative leaders of Crenshaw’s nationally-recognized Extended Learning Cultural model have been reaching out to Deasy to work in collaboration for over a year and a half. He has not responded. It’s clear that Deasy has cynically set Crenshaw up – persistently ignoring calls to meet when it is about something locally-developed and progressive; later, acting as if nothing is happening at the school, and dropping the reconstitution bomb.image

The Extended Learning Cultural model has been developed at Crenshaw over the last several years. The approach is to teach students standards-based material wedded with cognitive skills used in real life efforts to address issues at school, in the community, and with local businesses. Cultural relevance, Positive Behavior Support, parent/community engagement and collaborative teacher training and excellence are foundations of the program. Students engage in rigorous classroom work, as well as internships, job shadowing, leadership experiences, school improvement efforts and work experiences.

The Extended Learning Cultural model is fundamentally about extending the meaning, space and time of learning, and extending the school into the community and vice versa. This rooting of learning into a context is essential for students who have been constantly uprooted and destabilized by economic injustice and a school system that focuses on narrow test-taking rather than cultural relevance. Extended Learning could be enhanced dramatically for our students with LAUSD support. Instead, by threatening it, Deasy is jeopardizing Crenshaw’s progress, outside partnerships and outside funding.

Moreover, the Extended Learning Cultural model is supported by research – it draws from the Ford Foundation and various progressive academics’ national More and Better Learning Time Initiative, and it has been developed at Crenshaw with USC, the Bradley Foundation and other nationally-recognized research partners.

In contrast, the research shows that reconstitutions are not good for students. Reconstitutions cut students off from the faculty and staff they know, from programs they are involved in and from the communities surrounding their schools. Districts reconstitute schools in working class communities of color, creating more instability and uprootedness for students who are often our most vulnerable. Reconstitutions are educational racism. For more details, see a brand new study from UC Berkeley and the Annenberg Institute at Brown University at http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/pb-turnaroundequity_0.pdf.

Extended Learning showed results at Crenshaw in its first year of partial implementation, 2011-2012, after 2 years of planning. Crenshaw dipped on some indicators between 2009 and 2011 when the school had a principal who wasn’t the first choice of the selection committee, who was imposed by LAUSD, and who did not work collaboratively. However, when the school regained focus around Extended Learning in 2011-2012, the data showed growth, including:

  • Meeting all State of California API growth targets except for one, often far exceeding the targets (for example, a 92 point API gain among special education students);

  • Reducing suspensions and expulsions;

  • Achieving substantial growth among African-American students on the API, reaching API levels significantly higher than African-American students at many other South LA high schools;

  • Achieving an explosive increase in math proficiency levels among Limited English Proficient students on the CAHSEE;

  • Achieving a huge jump in proficiency levels in CST math among all 10th graders;

  • Including many more students in internships and work experiences;

  • Organizing more partnerships for wrap-around services for students;

  • Increasing parental involvement

Yet, Superintendent Deasy wants to disrupt this trajectory of growth and reconstitute Crenshaw. Worse yet, he wants to do this without any consultation with the community, parents, students, alumni, faculty and staff. Part of his agenda is to curry favor with the national scorched earth “reform” movement. Another part is straight union-busting. He has said many times he doesn’t like the teacher union leadership at Crenshaw – many of the very leaders who have been at the forefront of building the Extended Learning Cultural model, its national connections, and the growth that has come from it.

Not surprisingly, other schools that have been reconstituted in LAUSD have undergone “re-application” and “re-hiring” processes that have been shady – unrepresentative hiring bodies, discrimination against older staff and teachers of color, and discrimination against staff based on political issues.

The Crenshaw school community has a strategy to win the push back against Deasy’s reconstitution and to win support for the Extended Learning Cultural model and other enhancements:

  • Amidst Deasy’s intense destabilization efforts that affect the school daily, educators, staff, and parents are working with site administration to tighten up school operations as much as possible;

  • The school community is deepening, refining, and broadening engagement around the Extended Learning Cultural model;

  • Faculty and staff have strongly solidified against reconstitution internally;

  • School stakeholders are building on years of work with a unique coalition of community partners to organize parents, students, alumni, and community. This coalition includes Ma’at Institute for Community Change; African-American Cultural Center; Black Clergy, Community, and Labor Alliance; Coalition for Black Student Equity; Labor/Community Strategy Center; Coalition for Educational Justice; Sierra Club; Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Park Mesa Heights Community Council; and more.

  • The coalition is working closely with UTLA. The House of Representatives voted unanimously to support the Crenshaw struggle. UTLA West Area and Progressive Educators for Action (PEAC) are critical supports for the ongoing organizing.

At the moment, the organizing will focus on the two places Deasy needs to go with his destructive plan for approval – the LAUSD School Board and the California Department of Education (Deasy cannot undermine Crenshaw’s federal School Improvement Grant, SIG, without communicating with Sacramento, because the grant is administered by the State).

The Crenshaw school community knows that the eyes of the city, state, and nation are watching Crenshaw. If Deasy gets his way at Crenshaw, it further opens the door to these kinds of moves everywhere – including places he’s already attacking locally with similar reconstitution efforts, like King Middle School, and far more. On the other hand, if Crenshaw is able to organize with school and community to push back on Deasy and to further advance a deep and hopeful educational and racial justice-based reform, its reverberations will be felt incredibly widely. Keep connected to the struggle and “like” us through the Facebook page – Crenshaw Cougars Fighting Reconstitution – and be in contact with us through email at [email protected].

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New Elementary School Celebrates Opening in South LA

November 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment


image

Listen to the audio story from Annenberg Radio News:

The skies were overcast, but the mood was sunny. After two years of planning and construction, the Dr. Lawrence H. Moore Math/Science/Technology Academy opened in August.

The clean-lined modernist buildings at 61st and Hooper serve 754 students, ages six-eleven. The new school helps keep classroom sizes down across the neighborhood, a fact not lost on student body president Freddy Herrera: “It is awesome that we have a new school in our area, because at the other elementary schools, it was overcrowded. Here, we don’t have that problem.”

The new academy focuses on what are known as STEM skills—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. California Congresswoman Louise Roybal-Allard, said these skills are more critical than ever before, because “it is important to the future success of our country and our competitiveness in the world marketplace.”

A June study by Change the Equation, an organization which works to promote STEM education, said there are two jobs open for every one worker employed in science- and technology-related jobs. And those jobs are often well-compensated. Stem workers with only bachelors’ degrees often make as much as workers in other fields with advanced degrees.

A group of sixth-graders were on hand to help with the ceremonies. They were pretty happy about their new school. Jasmine Perez, 11, said it was a friendlier school than the one she’d been at before.

“In my other school, it doesn’t compare to this at all. There’s, like, many, many kids who are mean and disrespectful, and when I first came to this school, I thought, ‘I will have a happy year here.”

Sergio Castro was very clear about the pluses of the Moore Academy, saying, ”It’s easier to learn stuff here, because in the old school, I was always struggling. But here it’s way easier, you know? ‘Cause it’s quiet, and the teachers—they focus, like, they focus on the lessons a lot. In the other school, it was kind of the same, but they seem more professional [here] than the others, you know?”

And, as Jasmine pointed out, that means the kids get more attention from their teachers.

“I like this school because I have a great teacher. She’s a really rare teacher to me, because I don’t usually have a teacher who supports me and, like, pushes me, and tells me, ‘You can do this, come on! Shout-out to Ms. Grande!”

And when the kids are willing to say they actually like their school, that’s a big shout-out to the school, too.

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Opinion:  LAUSD: Don’t limit school choice for parents!

September 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment


By Yolanda Garcia, Parent at Aspire Antonio Maria Lugo in Huntington Park
Traducción española abajo

On September 11, Steve Zimmer, one of the seven members of the Board of the Unified School District of Los Angeles, presented a proposal to limit public school options for families. Zimmer proposed that the Board not consider or approve any petitions to open new charter schools. Charter schools are public schools, free and open to all children, but are independent of the school district. The Board will vote on this proposal on October 9.

I am against this proposal, not because of politics, but because of my own experience as a mother of four living here in South Los Angeles. I ask the members of the Board, including Steve Zimmer, to listen to parents and not to limit the options for families like mine.

I offer up my own story and how charter schools have had a positive impact on my family. I have four children aged 14, 12, 9 and 7. My two older children started their education at a traditional LAUSD school.

At that time, I knew nothing about test scores or how they measure school performance. What I saw was that my children were not getting a good education.

One of my sons had problems with dialect and pronunciation, but the school told me he did not qualify for tutoring. Also, there was no consistency with the teachers, my two children had several substitutes for many months and this has a big impact on them. I was frustrated, but I had to send them to school the district assigned us – we had no choice.

In 2005, I learned that a new charter school was going to open near Pacific and Gage, open to all students and that would enroll students regardless of where they lived. The school would have fewer students in each classroom, so that every student could receive individual attention. The new school was a little bit far from where we live, but I decided to enroll my children. The teachers at the LAUSD school told me I was going to regret this decision.

From the moment I entered the school office at Aspire Antonio Maria Lugo, I could see the difference. There was no comparison – from the service and communication, to the level of education and all the support that the students receive.

In our school, parents, teachers and all the school staff work together – we are a team helping to develop the academic success of the students. I want the best for my children. I want them to go to college and here at Aspire, there is no doubt that all the children will go to college and become professionals. This was something I could not even imagine when my children were attending district schools – now it is a reality.

I feel I was very lucky to be able to enroll my children in an Aspire charter school, but there are many parents who are on waiting lists for their children to enter into a charter school. Currently, around 10,000 families are on waiting lists to get into a charter school in Los Angeles. As a mother, I wish that all students have the opportunity to go to a charter school.

There are waiting lists because parents are seeing the difference and they are interested in improving the quality of education of their children. The traditional public schools are failing our children, and our children can’t wait.

But Steve Zimmer wants us to wait. We will not wait!

As parents, it is our responsibility to ensure the future of our children. It is also our right to demand quality public schools. So, I ask Steve Zimmer to listen to parents, and to focus on providing good schools, not to limit the educational options for families.

El pasado 11 de septiembre, Steve Zimmer, uno de los siete miembros de la Junta Directiva del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles, presentó una propuesta para limitar las opciones disponibles de escuelas públicas para toda familia. Zimmer propuso que la Junta Directiva no considere ni apruebe ninguna solicitud para abrir nuevas escuelas chárter. Las escuelas chárter son escuelas públicas, gratuitas y abiertas a todo niño, pero son independientes del distrito escolar. La Junta va a votar en esta propuesta el próximo 9 de octubre.

Estoy en contra de esta propuesta, no por causa de la política sino por mi propia experiencia como madre de cuatro hijos viviendo aquí en el sur de Los Angeles. Les pido a los miembros de la Junta Directiva, incluso a Steve Zimmer, que escuchen a los padres y que no limiten las opciones para familias, como la mía.

Les ofrezco mi propia historia y como las escuelas chárter han tenido un impacto positivo para mi familia. Tengo cuatros hijos de 14, 12, 9 y 7 años. Mis dos niños mayores empezaron sus estudios en una escuela tradicional del LAUSD.

En ese entonces, yo no sabía nada como se mide el desempeño de las escuelas. Lo que sí vi, es que mis hijos no estaban recibiendo una buena educación.

Uno de mis hijos tenía problemas de lenguaje y pronunciación, pero los directores de la escuela me dijeron que no calificaba para recibir terapia de lenguaje. También, no había consistencia con los maestros; mis dos hijos tuvieron varios substitutos durante muchos meses y les impactó bastante. Estaba frustrada, pero tuve que enviarlos a la escuela que el distrito nos asignó – no tenía otra opción.

En el 2005, me enteré de que se iba a abrir una nueva escuela chárter cerca de Pacific y Gage, abierta a todo estudiante y que matricularía a estudiantes sin importar su lugar de residencia. La escuela tendría menos estudiantes en cada aula, para que todo estudiante pudiera recibir atención individual. La escuela nos quedaba un poco lejos de donde vivimos, pero decidí inscribir a mis hijos. Los maestros de la escuela del LAUSD me dijeron que me iba a arrepentir por esta decisión.

Desde el momento que entré a la oficina de la escuela chárter Aspire Antonio Maria Lugo, pude ver la diferencia. No hay comparación – desde el servicio y la comunicación, hasta el nivel de la educación y todo el apoyo que reciben los estudiantes.

En nuestra escuela, nosotros los padres , maestros y todo el personal de la escuela trabajamos juntos – somos un equipo ayudando a desarrollar el éxito académico en nuestros estudiantes. Yo quiero lo mejor para mis hijos. Yo quiero que vayan a la universidad y aquí en Aspire, no hay duda todos los niños van a ir a la universidad y seran profesionistas. Esto ni siquiera lo podía imaginar cuando mis hijos asistían a escuelas del distrito, ahora es una realidad.

Siento que tuve mucha suerte en poder inscribir a mis hijos en la escuela chárter Aspire, pero todavía hay muchos padres que están en listas de espera para que sus niños entren en una escuela chárter. Actualmente, alrededor de 10 mil familias están en listas de espera para entrar en una escuela chárter en Los Angeles. Como madre, me gustaría que todo estudiante tuviera la oportunidad de ir a una escuela chárter.

Hay listas de espera porque los padres están viendo la diferencia y están interesados en mejorar la calidad en la educación de sus hijos Las escuelas públicas tradicionales no están cumpliendo con nuestros hijos, y ellos no pueden esperar.

Pero Steve Zimmer quiere que esperemos. ¡No vamos a esperar!

Como padres, es nuestra la responsabilidad velar por el futuro de nuestros niños. También es nuestro derecho exigir escuelas públicas de calidad. Por eso, le pido a Steve Zimmer que escuche a los padres, y que se enfoque en proveer buenas escuelas, no en limitar las opciones educativas para las familias.

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Black-Latino dialogue begins “beautifully” at community issues forum

September 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment


Hundred-degree heat pressed resolutely on the walls of Mercado la Paloma’s meeting room Saturday morning, but inside, a collective commitment to honesty kept the South L.A. Power Coalition’s first-ever Black and Latino Community Issues Forum cool.

Around 70 people attended the forum, in spite of warnings that the event would fail to create the respectful dialogue it hoped for.

“No one wanted to talk about these issues. We had threats, pressures, warnings leading up to this,” said Koyaki Jitahidi, one of the event’s organizers and a member of the Ma’at Institute for Community Change. “We had a similar workshop in May, and it got contentious; there was arguing, shouting. People said, ‘maybe we shouldn’t do this, maybe it’s too soon,’ but we’ve got all this stuff going on right now,” like Los Angeles’s spring redistricting and elections in November and March. “We can’t wait.”

Rhetoric: Disenfranchisement and empowerment

The forum marked both African and Latino culture in its opening statements. Moderators greeted attendees in English, Spanish, and Swahili. Then they led people in a power clap, a United Farm Workers sign of solidarity, and a Harambee chant, which cries the word “harambee,” Swahili for “all put together,” seven times.

imageRosalie Peterson of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment raises her fist in the Community Issues Forum’s introductory Harambee chant.

Moderators Carlos Montes and Dr Maulana Karenga each spoke about the history of black and Latino unity in the Americas before discussion of present community issues began. Montes, whose Chicano-Latino activism began with the Brown Berets in the 1960s, harkened to black-brown coalitions in the unified Third World fighting U.S. imperialism during the Cold War. “When we were attacked, we supported each other,” he said.

imageModerators Carlos Montes and Maulana Karenga analyze a participant’s comment before responding to his question.

Much of the morning’s rhetoric reflected its organizers’ backgrounds in radical and even militant activism. Karenga, chair of the African Studies department at California State University, Long Beach and creator of the pan-African holiday Kwanzaa, headed a black nationalist group that competed with the Black Panthers in the 1960s. That group, The Organization Us, maintains an office near Leimert Park.

“We struggle like this because together we will win,” said Karenga. “We are soldiers on the battlefield for something better… and we must talk often and productively with one another.”

Two participants in the South L.A. Power Coalition’s forum greet each other with a handshake and an embrace.

imageTwo participants in the South L.A. Power Coalition’s forum greet each other with a handshake and an embrace.

The community’s challenges

But cooperation is hardly as rosy as the facilitators described it in theory. Thandi Chimurenga, a freelance journalist, broached the black community’s concern that often Latino police officers, not just whites, commit violence against blacks.

Chimurenga called specifically on Latina women, addressing them as “mis hermanas,” to react to those killings in solidarity with their black neighbors.

“I need to hear a human cry from the community, and I need it to be translated into English and in Spanish. When a black person is murdered, I need to hear a human voice,” Chimurenga said. Scattered applause and encouraging murmurs followed.

In response, SLAPC member Blanca Cruz said Latinos who join the police force often become “rasa” – people who oppress their own people. “Cops… represent the oppressive system,” she said, no matter what ethnicity they claim.

Karenga hypothesized that the police department plays on historical neighborhood rivalry and uses Latinos against blacks. If so, “this is a battle strategy conversation. They’re trying to destroy our unity,” he said. “We must not let our oppressor” – that is, traditional white centers of power – “be our teacher about who we like, who we trust, or who we let across the border,” he said.

Also, reminded Montes, many in the Latino community have denounced Sheriff Lee Baca.

Another pertinent comment touched on the South Central Neighborhood’s Council recent resolution against the disproportionate rate of black student suspensions at Santee Educational Complex. Just 5 percent of Santee’s students are black, but 23 percent of them were suspended in 2011-2012, CityWatch LA reported (http://www.citywatchla.com/lead-stories/3751-blacks-and-latinos-unite-to-fight-for-reduction-in-black-student-suspensions).

Ron Gochez, a history teacher at Santee and vice president of the SCNC, addressed the problem as one of black-brown unity: rather than allowing the majority group (Latinos) to dominate the minority (blacks), both must come to a place of cultural understanding.

As a long-term remedy, Gochez proposed institutionalized ethnic studies programs in L.A. schools. Educating black and Latino students about their shared history, particularly during civil rights and labor movements, could help reduce inter-group violence and animosity.

“We need a vigorous multiculturalism, and I don’t mean food, fashion or festival,” Karenga said. “We share responsibility. We must practice reciprocal solidarity.”

Finally, thinly veiled calls to political action bubbled under the forum’s ideological surface. Two City Council candidates and a City Controller candidate addressed the crowd. But March’s election will be the first decided by new council district lines.

Black councilmembers have represented District 9, which encompasses much of South Central L.A., since 1963.

Gochez, who is running for the seat, encouraged residents to choose the person who could best represent both black and Latino residents.

Jitahidi also stressed unity in his closing remarks. District 9 cannot belong to a distinct group, he said.

“We’re not trying to be the best Democrats or the best Republicans or the best decline-to-state voters. We’re trying to kill the status quo” by continuing to elect “brave and courageous leaders,” Jitahidi said.

The SLAPC has not yet declared support for any candidate in L.A.’s March elections.

“Next time, we’ll need more time”

Long before polls open, however, the forum’s attendees must start working, Jitahidi said in his closing remarks. SLAPC officers cut off the line of attendees waiting to speak after more than 80 minutes of questions and suggestions. Still, only about a third of the forum’s participants addressed the crowd.

One of its final speakers requested monthly meetings. The crowd replied with fervent nods and a few supportive whistles.

Arnetta Mack, another organizer of the conference, affirmed these plans. “It was good for a first attempt,” she said. “Next time, we’ll need more time and more space.”

One Afro-Latina member of Karenga’s Organization Us, Hasani Soto, expressed the importance of educating community members in conversations like these. In identifying with both cultures, Hasani said she shares both groups’ knowledge and responsibilities.

“We need to study more, and not just TV or radio. We need to read more,” Soto said. “If we don’t do the studying and we don’t have the dialogue, the issues will still be there.”

Still, though, Soto was delighted by Saturday’s attempt. “It was excellent. It was beautiful,” she said.

However, Kahllid A. Al-Alim of the Park Mesa Heights Neighborhood Council warned that, to be effected, the forum needed to maintain organization.

With so many nonprofits and political activist organizations working on such a variance of issues, “This could be a case of too many cooks in the kitchen,” Al-Alim said.

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OPINION:  LAUSD senior management:  A culture of silence

June 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment


imageWhen teachers are accused of misconduct, sometimes we’re outright fired or placed in “rubber rooms,” a.k.a. teacher jail. According to LAUSD District policy (Bulletin-5168.0), if no impropriety is discovered, we’re supposed to return to our assignment within 120 days. Yet teachers routinely languish away in rubber rooms for years while the District places blame for this exile on the time it takes to conduct police investigations.

In fact, not only has it been longer than 120 days for the 85 teachers removed from Miramonte Elementary in February—not only have they not yet been allowed to return—they were never suspected of any wrongdoing. Well, what happens when those who work at LAUSD’s central offices are suspected of misconduct? Does a different standard apply?

Recently, there was news of a sexual harassment settlement involving former Superintendent Ramon Cortines. The District hired an outside PR firm and lawyer to handle this matter (even though they’ve supposedly made every last budget cut possible), and it became a debacle. They announced that the alleged victim would receive $200,000 plus lifetime benefits worth about another $250,000. The only problem: The alleged victim’s lawyer said his client did not consent to the agreement, and that their understanding was that the lifetime benefits were to be valued at $300,000. How could the District have fumbled such a sensitive and important matter?

Our first priority is to ensure the safety of children and community members. If those who work either directly or indirectly with children are suspected of any actions that could cause us to question their professional competence, these individuals should immediately be placed in a location away from children (commonly referred to as a rubber room), pending the outcome of a fair and thorough investigation. Once that investigation is complete (however many decades the District may drag its feet), those individuals should be allowed to return to their positions. So who is to be held accountable for this public relations blowup regarding the former superintendent?

Should Cerrell Associates, the crisis management firm the District hired, be placed in a rubber room, pending the outcome of an investigation? How about the undisclosed subcontractor of Cerrell Associates (we don’t know who it is because the contract was less than $250,000 and didn’t need to be publicly disclosed)? The General Counsel? The District has 23 private foundation-funded positions totaling $3 million per year. Ten people work in the media office. Should all these individuals be placed in a rubber room? Considering the superintendent oversees the entire District, should he be placed in a rubber room?

There’s a second factor at work: The naming of the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts. It’s not entirely clear if the School Board followed proper procedures in the naming of this school. If proper procedures were followed, and it’s determined that his name should be on the school, that’s fine, but if the bulletin regarding the naming of a school was violated, those who led the charge (in this case, Board President Monica Garcia) should be held accountable. Should Monica Garcia be placed in a rubber room?

To save money, there’s plenty of space for all these folks at the yet-to-be-opened Augustus Hawkins High School, the same location where all of the Miramonte teachers who were removed in February still report. In order to ensure the safety of children and community members, Superintendent Deasy, Board President Monica Garcia, Cerrell Associates, the General Counsel, media staff, and all the outside consultants should immediately report to Hawkins, pending the outcome of a fair and thorough investigation, no matter how many days, months, or years the investigation may take.

It is very troubling that the District has not acted swiftly to ensure that the school was named properly and to investigate how the handling of the settlement involving former Superintendent Cortines was bungled in such a reckless, haphazard manner.

There appears to be a culture of silence at Beaudry.

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New LAUSD program makes breakfast a priority

March 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment


Listen to the audio story from Annenberg Radio News:

imageYou probably used to hear it from your parents all the time.

“It turns out our moms were right,” Mayor Villaraigosa said Thursday morning. “Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day.”

It’s so important, that Villaraigosa has joined the Los Angeles Unified School District and community organization, InnerCity Struggle, to form “Food For Thought.”

The new program is primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and looks to offer LAUSD students breakfast in the classroom.

“Food For Thought” will give students free breakfast at the start of each day, offering healthy options such as fresh fruit, whole wheat muffins, and one-percent milk.

But isn’t it the parents’ responsibility to feed their children in the morning?

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy says, “not necessarily.”

“It is a community’s responsibility,” Deasy said. “So that if a parent would not have the means, then we wrap our arms around the student and make sure that no one goes hungry.”

Monica Garcia, Board President of the LAUSD, believes “Food For Thought” will increase student attendance, decrease child obesity, and help students reach her ambitious goal.

“We said one hundred percent graduation and we meant it,” Garcia said. “Breakfast in the classroom helps kids get to graduation. Breakfast in the classroom help our employees maximize the service for our young people.”

Deasy shares Garcia’s goal of a perfect graduation rate, and says that poverty shouldn’t hurt a student’s chances of success.

“If great breakfast is good enough in Beverly Hills, it’s good enough in Boyle Heights. The idea that every student deserves [to] and will graduate college workforce ready is not a dream; it’s not unattainable. It’s the right of students.”

David Binkle, Deputy Director of Food Services for the LAUSD, knows that an empty stomach in the morning can lead to poor performance in the classroom.

“If you have a hungry stomach, then you focus on the hunger pains as opposed to focusing on whatever it is you’re trying to focus on,” said Binkle. “And in our case, in the educational day, the kids are trying to focus on learning life lessons; they’re trying to learn mathematics and science.”
Maria Brenes, Executive Director of InnerCity Struggle, is happy to help feed hungry children, but says that in the long run, “Food For Thought” can help more than just students.

“We have to play that role of being that safety net for these families and for these children so that they can succeed, go on to graduate, go on to college, and be able to come back to our communities and be those teachers and be those elected officials, and those doctors. So it’s a community investment.”

Now that is some serious food for thought.

You can follow Nick Edmonds on Twitter @NickEdmondsUSC

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OpEd: LAUSD should fund schools in need

March 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment


imageDear LAUSD School Board Members, Superintendent Deasy, Secretary Duncan, and President Obama,

We all want to provide the educational opportunities for children and our communities. Please help me receive clarity on the following:

Instead of sending Title I, II, and III money to school sites, as is intended under these programs, LAUSD senior management has chosen to keep this money at central district offices in order to fund unproven, costly initiatives such as the Teaching and Learning Initiative, commonly known as the Value-Added Teacher Evaluation model.

Due to a lack of transparency (the dust hasn’t yet settled), it’s not even clear yet how much will be spent centrally on these unproven programs, but it appears to be well over $175 million.

Is this legal?

I am in no way questioning the integrity of LAUSD senior district management. Perhaps cutting these programs so we can hire more consultants was a mere oversight.

Isn’t this decision a clear violation of the 2011 Voluntary Resolution Agreement between LAUSD and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights? If not a clear violation, and I think it very well may be, at the very least, does it not violate the spirit of the agreement?

LAUSD’s English learners and African-American students disproportionally suffer when money is spent at LAUSD’s central administrative offices rather than at schools in our most under-served communities. Schools with well-funded PTAs that have deep pockets will be okay, but schools that can not provide these essential supports will continue to go without libraries, nurses, and counselors, among other services.

Is this really what we want for our communities? When children in affluent communities have all the best supports as they grow and learn, and children in our most economically depressed neighborhoods aren’t afforded the same opportunities — we can not even begin to approach using words to describe such an injustice.

I’ve taught in schools in our most under-served communities, and I’ve taught in schools where children have every kind of support service at their disposal, and the difference in opportunities provided is unconscionable.

It is simply disingenuous at best to suggest that we can bridge the achievement gap by simply raising expectations. Yes, expectations should be high, for students, teachers, administrators, and parents, but such an argument diverts attention away from the vast inequality in services afforded students.

A school is not a spreadsheet. A school is not data we can examine on a page so that a six-figure consultant who doesn’t even live or work in the neighborhood can make snap judgments about what the community most needs.

A school is a community where relationships form, and through these bonds, children, teachers, counselors, nurses, librarians, parents and administrators establish trust, and nurture, foster, and create an ever-changing, constantly growing, always tenuous environment where mistakes become opportunities, and the insurmountable becomes possible.

These relationships only form and grow when schools foster an environment where children who otherwise would drop-out have a reason to stay in school.

Children need libraries, nurses, counselors, arts programs, access to adult education opportunities, vocational classes, early childhood education, music, dance, band, and sports programs. For 20 years, leaders across the country have been saying that the first five years of life are vital to child development, yet right now, today, the LAUSD school board is poised to decimate early childhood education.

Instead of fostering and growing the above programs, LAUSD is proposing to cut all of the above programs, either entirely eliminating them or decimating their funding to roughly 10% of their previous levels.

They say they don’t have the money, but they recently found private foundation money to hire a social media director at a cost of $93,000 per year.

The argument that they don’t have money would make a little more sense if the district wasn’t proposing to spend $175 million at central district offices rather than providing this money as intended under Title I, II, and III to students in our most underserved communities.

Please tell me this was simply an administrative error. I’ll repeat the question once more:

Isn’t the decision to spend Title I, II, and III money at LAUSD central district offices rather than at school sites in our most under-served communities a clear violation of the 2011 Voluntary Resolution Agreement between LAUSD and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights?

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LAUSD fighting to close Latino achievement gap

March 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment


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OpEd: Manual Arts teachers, alumni and parents write a new plan for education in their community

March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment


By Mark Gomez, Social Studies Teacher at Manual Arts High School

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Attendees decorate t-shirts at a community forum held in the summer.

This is a David and Goliath story in which energized teachers, students and parents from Manual Arts High School decided to take matters into their own hands and disrupt the inadequate status quo of public education in South Central LA’s Local District 7.

Through Public School Choice 3.0, LAUSD requested proposals for Augustus Hawkins High School, a new campus that will relieve the overcrowded Manual Arts campus. Local District 7 submitted one generic proposal for multiple new schools to continue business as usual. A group of teachers, students, and parents wanted to create a school that is for the community by the community. Thus, the Schools for Community Action (SCA) were born.

Committed to bring fresh air to a historically stale educational environment, SCA has been tirelessly working to ensure the new Augustus Hawkins campus will be an innovative and effective public school for the families of South Central. Throughout the Spring and Summer, they organized numerous community meetings that brought students, local police officers, parents, business owners, social service workers, university affiliates and educators together to create the vision for this school.

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A woman speaks at a community forum held in the summer.

Based on the community input, it became clear that parents and students desire options and concrete college and career paths in their public schools. SCA has submitted four small school proposals for the overall site. Each of SCA’s four small schools plans have a focus – Community Health Advocates School (social work/therapy), Critical Design and Gaming School (game design, tech and media), Responsible Indigenous Social Entrepreneurship (local business/responsible consumerism) and School of Urban Sustainability and Environmental Science (urban planning, environmental engineering). In addition to campus wide community partners, each school has reached out to specific university programs to further support their instructional programs. USC School of Social Work, Loyola Marymount University, as well as UCLA School of Public Policy, are just a few of the programs committed to support SCA’s academic programs.

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Attendees talk at a community forum held in the summer

Each small school is linked by SCA’s core values, which are: student centered, community collaboration, innovation and excellence, social justice and sustainability. SCA will also have an advisory program in all four schools that is designed to establish a true home base to support student attendance and address the individual needs that students bring to school every day. The SCA school plans are designed to support the whole student and welcomes parent and community support in all of the school programs.

If the Local District 7 plans are approved, students will continue to be limited to blocks of remedial math and English, with only the hope of possibly having the opportunity in their senior year to take courses that relate to a career. The SCA plans are designed to interest and support every student from 9th grade through 12th grade.

Supt. John Deasy is expected to give his decision next week regarding the future of Augustus Hawkins High School.

For more information, please see the SCA website http://schoolsforcommunityaction.org or contact Mark Gomez at 310-699-6342; [email protected]

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Arts Education Cuts Looming for LAUSD

March 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment


imageShana Habel is the Dance Demonstration Teacher for the LAUSD Arts Education Branch. She has been with the program since its inception in 1999.

“What I’ve seen is the way that being involved in the arts can truly change the way a child thinks about themself, the way they think about their life, they way they think about their future,” she says.

Habel supervises 40 teachers, including Danielle Evers, a dance teacher at Florence Griffith Joyner Elementary in South Los Angeles. Evers has been teaching dance for eight years.

“The important thing about dance education is students have the freedom to be creative, to think out of the box, to be problem solvers, to create something that expresses how they feel,” says Evers.

Wendy is a student at Florence Griffith Joyner. She is 10 years old, and her favorite subject is dance.

“I mostly like the moves, mostly Ms. Evers. She’s a really great dance teacher. I really admire her so much. I hope I could dance as good as her,” she says.

Her classmate Jabari is also a fan of dance class.

“I like dance because I get to learn a lot of new moves and at first I didn’t think of myself as a dancer but now I know I got the potential to be a dancer,” he says.

Both Habel and Evers have seen firsthand how students who lacked confidence or did not excel in other academic areas thrived in the arts. Critical Evidence is a report commissioned by the Arts Education Partnership and the National Assemble of State Agencies in 2005. It cited that arts activities promotes growth in students’ social skills, including self-confidence, self-control, conflict resolution, collaboration, empathy, and social tolerance.
　
In the end, says Habel, it’s not about whether the student becomes an artist.
　
“It’s about giving them a different way of looking at things. Giving them new strategies to see the world with. A new pair of eyes,” she says.

Arts advocates can only hope the Los Angeles School Board does not vote blindly on March 13.

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