Science bowl winners

And the winner is ...

North Hollywood High took first place in the 2008 L.A. Department of Water and Power Science Bowl regional competition. It was the school's 10th regional title for knowledge in science, math and technology.

That means the team goes to the National Science Bowl in May in Washington, D.C.

Each of the five team members -- Angela She, Emily Ye, Brian Kim, Ryan Thorngren and Murtaza Saifee -- receives a medallion and a $1,000 scholarship from Hitachi Corp. Their coach is Altair Maine.

Harvard-Westlake came in second, LAUSD’s Van Nuys High School was third, and Bravo Medical Magnet High came in fourth. Fifty-four teams from 30 schools in Los Angeles County participated this year.

The L.A. DWP Science Bowl is an official, regional qualifying tournament of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Science Bowl. The Department of Energy started the competition in 1991, and more than 100,000 students have participated.

-- Mary MacVean

Capistrano budget woes

More possible budget cuts for schools. Capistrano Unified School District trustees tentatively approved $27 million in budget cuts this week in preparation of a tighter state budget.

But they also increased the superintendent’s salary by 11%.

The cuts could eliminate about 427 jobs, two-thirds of them teaching positions, said Beverly De Nicola, chief communications officer for the district. The job cuts represent close to 10% of the workforce in the southern Orange County school district, which serves more than 50,000 students at 56 schools.

"It means the layoff of a lot of really good teachers," De Nicola said. Under the proposed plan, class sizes in kindergarten through third grades are expected to grow from 20 students to 31.5. Supt. A. Woodrow Carter’s salary would be boosted from $245,000 a year to $273,000; additional benefits, including healthcare, bring the total to nearly $325,000 a year.

School garden grant

A gardening program at Grant High School in Valley Glen won a $10,000 award from the AARP, L.A. Unified announced today. The Serenity Garden for Wildlife Conservation Program is meant to encourage teamwork. It provides gardening opportunities for senior citizens in the neighborhood and fosters relationships among students, parents, teachers and other residents.

AARP received nearly 1,000 applications from public schools and granted an Innovation Award to one public high school in each state. Grant High has nearly 3,000 students.

-- Mary MacVean

Financial aid reminder

Don't say we didn't give you notice. This is our third.

California's deadline for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is Sunday.

Also, the deadline to register for the next ACT college admission exam -- a rival to the SAT –- is next Friday. The exam will be given April 12. (Late registration is accepted until March 21 -- for an extra $19.)

-- Shelby Grad

Tips for SAT success

Can you feel the collective anxiety? Hear the hundreds of thousands of students sharpening their No. 2 pencils? They're taking the nearly four-hour SAT college-entrance exam Saturday morning, and the Princeton Review offered a few tips.

The test-prep firm urges its students to relax the night before the exam, eat breakfast the day of the test and -- try really hard -- avoid "freaking out."

Here's the long version:

The Night Before the Test
1.       Repeat after me -- I will not take a practice test the day/night before. It doesn't help. You either know it by then or you don't. This is not a test you can cram for the night before.
2.       Do something relaxing, like renting a movie.
3.       Don't go to bed at 8 p.m. You'll just lie there thinking about the test. Go to bed at your normal time.
4.       Pack your bag, so you don't forget anything when you leave the house. You need your admission ticket, water bottle, several No. 2 pencils, good eraser, photo ID, watch, a magazine to read in the car and waiting in line, and a calculator (check the batteries).
5.       Make sure to bring wooden No. 2 pencils to the test, not mechanical pencils.

Live from Quiznos

Since when does the Los Angeles school district have a satellite office at 6262 Van Nuys Blvd.?

That's one of the addresses listed on the top of the agenda for today's special meeting about the Budget Communication Action Plan. The other is the usual 333 S. Beaudry Ave., the district's headquarters. 

It turns out that board member Tamar Galatzan, who also is a deputy city attorney assigned to the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys division, can't make the meeting and will instead call in from the Quiznos sandwich shop on Van Nuys Boulevard. To comply with California law, the district must list board members' location when they teleconference into meetings. The location must also be publicly accessible.

The meeting's at 4 p.m., well after the lunch rush and a little early for dinner, so no word if Galatzan will be ordering a hot and toasty sub.   

-- Jason Song

Stand up, don't sit down, fight fight fight?

Think the Los Angeles school board is concerned about the possible $460-million budget cut it's facing next year because of Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposed budget? The board called a special meeting Tuesday night to vote on a resolution titled "Opposition to State Budget Cuts to Education."

During the meeting, the board changed the title to "Standing Up for Children: Opposition to State Budget Cuts to Education." To drive their point home, the board members stood up while they voted and urged all four or so audience members still remaining to also get to their feet.

The measure passed unanimously.

-- Jason Song

Kira-Kira author goes to school

It took two years, and the student who started it all has gone on to college, but today everyone at Ramona Convent Secondary School in Alhambra had a visit from Newbery Award-winning author Cynthia Kadohata.

Using slides, Kadohata told the girls assembled in the gym about how she writes. She showed heavily edited manuscript pages, her child, her dog, her family and herself to tell them what a writer's life is like.

The novel Kira-Kira engaged Kassandra Palmas, an 11th-grader, because "I like it when I can picture myself there," she said as she waited for an autograph.

And Kadohata knew just how to engage her audience of more than 500 girls in grades seven to 12. Her mother, she said, was 18 years old and had an 18-inch waist when she married. Kadohata once made so little as a writer that she repaired her glasses with dental floss.

Others of her books are Weedflower and Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam.

-- Mary MacVean

Torrance's refined 8th-grade girls

It's Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day for eighth-grade girls at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance! Really, it is. Tomorrow too. Now you know.

(This is all part of National Engineers Week, and is intended to fix a serious imbalance: Women are grossly underrepresented in the engineering profession. Think about it: When was the last time you saw a woman with a pocket protector?)

--Mitchell Landsberg

Cheating expulsions

When the story broke that six students had been expelled from Harvard-Westlake in a cheating scandal, a colleague said she told her daughter that flunking a test was better than cheating to pass. It's likely there will be lots of conversations between students and their parents about this important topic. I wonder whether readers believe that the punishment fit the crime. Read what some students think here.

The Daily News talked to Don McCabe, a Rutgers University professor who has long studied cheating in college. He says that about a fifth of undergraduate college students report cheating on tests. The paper also reports on some ways that students are using technology to cheat. If only they had spent that time studying ancient Greece....

-- Mary MacVean

Math: It should be elementary

Talk about March Madness: The National Math Panel is about to issue its big report on the state of math education in America.

OK, we know, that doesn't exactly juice the excitement meter like the Sweet 16 (although, while we're digressing, just think of how much math there is in the NCAA Tournament, what with its first round of 64, its Elite Eight and Final Four, and not until the championship round do you hit a prime number).

Still, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel report will be big for math educators.

The panel was convened by President Bush in 2006 to figure out what to do about American math education, which some regard as so bad as to constitute a national crisis. Its impending report  was the topic of a "webinar" -- an unfortunate coinage for a seminar on the Web -- held Tuesday by the New York-based Hechinger Institute, which supports journalism about education.

Improving vocational education

An organization started last year by the James Irvine Foundation to promote career and technical education -- the newfangled term for what used to be called vocational ed -- issued a report today with policy recommendations for California schools. But the president of ConnectEd, Gary Hoachlander, says that of the 10 recommendations, only four are probably realistic this year, considering the severe funding cuts that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing for education.

You can find all 10 recommendations here. Hoachlander's on-the-cheap version -- and you have to admire him for not folding his tent altogether -- is:

1) Get the state Department of Education and the Legislature to agree with the policy goals of what ConnectEd calls "multiple pathways" (the idea that there is more than one way for kids to succeed in school).
2) Change state and district policies to give students time to take more classes. One problem with career programs in California is that, compared with other states, California students take fewer classes in a year, and therefore have to spend a higher percentage of their time on basic graduation requirements. Solutions could include more periods in a day -- but that costs money -- or adopting a rotating block schedule.
3) Find ways to make more "worked-based learning" available. By that, Hoachlander stressed that he doesn't mean mere work experience, but employers who are willing to ensure that students learn while they work.
4) Improve teacher preparation. Some of this costs money; other aspects, such as developing supplemental credentials for career-tech teachers, would be relatively cheap.

Budget resolution

The L.A. school board is scheduled to vote later today on a resolution opposing state budget cuts to education. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal includes $4.8 billion in cuts to K-12 education, and L.A. Unified estimates it could lose up to $460 million next year. That would be the district's biggest shortfall ever.

The resolution, sponsored by board members Yolie Flores Aguilar, Julie Korenstein, and President Monica Garcia, "urges the governor and Legislature to discuss all possibilities to solve the budget crisis, including new revenue sources."

The resolution is largely symbolic. School districts throughout the state are discussing laying off teachers or cutting programs to balance their books. Districts must inform employees by March 15 if they could not have a job next year.

-- Jason Song

Spell much?

Sometimes we just need to let the Los Angeles Unified School District speak for itself: Officials sent out a statement last night from the superintendent regarding the mayor's selection of a new head of instruction.

First problem: The statement said her name was Angela Bassan. Trouble is, her name's Angela Bass.

Second problem: The statement listed Markham Middle School as Marham Middle School.

Nine minutes later, the district issued a corrected version.

Enough said.

-- Beth Shuster

School reform leader named

Angela Bass built a reputation for turning schools around in San Diego, and now she's joining the L.A. mayor's school reform effort. Duke Helfand and Howard Blume report.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa set up a nonprofit for the effort, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.

-- Mary MacVean

Eating beef at school

For parents and students who still feel uncertain over the recent news about beef from a Chino plant that was a supplier for school lunch programs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a series of questions and answers here.

High school reality check

Nick Giulioni writes:

South Pasadena High School isn’t known for its athletics. Nor for its clubs. Not even its academics are particularly well known. But while South Pasadena isn’t known for these other things, it is known to be a safe school with little violence. That is why it came as a shock when one SPHS Tiger was found on the brink of death after supposedly being in a fight with one of his classmates.

The school was in an uproar the Monday after the late-night weekend attack. A senior at South Pasadena had been hit in the head with a baseball bat, leaving him in a critical, if stable, condition. Rumors spread like wildfire around campus; the already prevalent texting in classes was at an all-time high.

Drew Carey on Locke High

The Reason Foundation, a libertarian group that strongly supports the charter school movement, has produced a video hosted by Drew Carey about the takeover of Locke High School in L.A. by Green Dot Public Schools. Carey won't get raves from the leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles, but then, as the video makes clear, the feeling is mutual.

--Mitchell Landsberg

Financial aid deadline coming up

We posted this information a while back, but given that the deadline is a little more than a week away, we figured it bears repeating.

California's FAFSA deadline is March 2. If you've never heard of FAFSA, chances are you're not a parent of someone about to go to college. It stands for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It's also used to apply for aid from other sources — the state, for instance.

If you've got your taxes done, it'll be easier to get through all the questions. In any case, the FAFSA website walks you through the process. Good luck.

-- Mary MacVean

School video artists

Middle and high school students care about global warming and the environment, healthcare and immigration — based on their video entries to C-SPAN's annual video documentary competition, StudentCam.

The StudentCam competition awards a total of $50,000 in prize money and today named 92 winning videos. A complete list of the winners with video is available at www.studentcam.org.   

The grand prize-winning video is “Leaving Religion at the Door,” by Scott Mitchell and Nick Poss of Jenks, Okla., about the role of religion in government.

Among the third-prize winners are Daniel Durrand, Colette Johnson and Chris Ranger from Patrick Henry High School in San Diego. Among the honorable mention winners are May Perez, Kevin Diaz and Jorge Mendoza from Millikan Middle School in Sherman Oaks; Patricia Sanchez from Norco High School in Norco; and Robert Dudley from Servite High School in Anaheim.

-- Mary MacVean

School violence fears, union election

School folks are on edge these days, with thoughts of gun violence on campuses around the country. The Times' Seema Mehta and Dave McKibben write today about the fallout at a couple of Southern California schools.

At Cal State Dominguez Hills, the "gunman" was carrying a wooden replica used for an ROTC drill.

And for those of you following the teachers union election, Howard Blume writes that A.J. Duffy won a second term as president.

-- Mary MacVean

Dropouts explained (sort of)

Today's Times story about a report on California dropouts has some readers wondering: How can schools report dropout rates that are so out of touch with reality? The example given in the story is L.A.'s Fremont High, with a dropout rate of 9% (and a senior class about one-fourth the size of its freshman class), but it could have been almost any large urban school in California.

In fact, the report includes some California schools that declare a zero dropout rate, yet mysteriously have far fewer seniors than freshmen. Where did they go? Spring break in Cabo? Part of the problem is the way the state defines a dropout. The full definition is here, but one key factor is that it excludes any student who "has transferred to and is attending another public or private educational institution leading toward a high school diploma or its equivalent."

The problem is that, at the moment, the state has no way of tracking whether students who say they're transferring to another school actually show up. This should change next year, with the rollout of a new statewide tracking system. But for now, School A can say a student is transferring to School B, without following up to make sure that happens. Like magic, the student disappears -- and doesn't get counted as a dropout anywhere. For more about this, read The Times' 2006 series The Vanishing Class.

--Mitchell Landsberg

Believing in education

Antero Garcia, an English teacher at Manual Arts High, writes:

After the assignment was suggested by a colleague nearly a year ago, I finally asked my 12th-graders to write “This I Believe” essays, based on the NPR project. The results, like much of my students’ creative writing, amazed me. 

Students connected personal experiences to contemporary issues of immigration, discrimination and violence. Below is one student’s discussion of Sudanese and American educational opportunities. Berhanu aptly captures the dearth of educational equity in the United States through an outsider’s lens.

Obstacle course 101

Antero Garcia, an English teacher at Manual Arts High, writes:

When it comes to teaching and learning, the modern teacher and the modern student have an uphill battle. Despite a well-enforced electronics policy, cellphones, MP3 players, handheld video games and other digital contraband are a constant distraction in the classroom. At the same time, there are the occasional classroom phone calls, the JROTC chants outside, and the frequent summons for students to check in at various campus offices, as necessary as some of these aspects of the school may appear to be.

These are challenges that every teacher and every student faces. That our school’s library has been closed for the current academic year may be a challenge unique to our school.

The value of homework

There must be dozens of things for kids to fight about with their parents and teachers over homework. Doesn't everybody hate it? Actually, no. Turns out that 77% of students and more than 80% of teachers and parents say homework is important or very important.

A tuition break

You can hear parents all over Southern California nagging their teens to study harder and get into Stanford.

Here's why: The Times Larry Gordon writes that most undergraduates whose families earn less than $100,000 a year can get free tuition. Families who earn less could get help with room and board, too.

It's no small incentive. Next year's tuition at Stanford is set to be $36,030 and room and board $11,182.

Harvard, Yale and Pomona College have taken similar steps.

-- Mary MacVean

Birthday punches at school

No ... I am not talking about a party bowl of fruit-flavored drink and cups with too-small handles.

I have heard from a few parents -- middle and high school -- that if kids know it's your birthday, you risk a punch for every year. Sometimes the punches are hard, too. A student who gets caught punching could get suspended.

Still, it's hardly a new idea, these punches. In the boys' novel Wringer, one of the characters is a master at what author Jerry Spinelli calls "the treatment."

We'll have more on this down the road. We'd love to hear what you think. Does it sound like bullying to you? Is it going on at your school? Let us know.

-- Mary MacVean

Just another mile

Most of us can't slog through the 26.2 miles of a marathon in one day. So here's how thousands of elementary school kids are doing it: over six months. Now that sounds like a pace.

For UTLA president: Becki Robinson

"I was in the classroom for 24 years and for 24 years every school had their own curriculum. Half the time every teacher had their own curriculum, and the students were not achieving the way they are achieving now." -- Becki Robinson

Challenger Becki Robinson fields questions and makes her case being elected president of one of the nation's most powerful teachers unions in this interview with Times staff writer Howard Blume. The union will begin counting mailed-in votes Thursday night.

For UTLA president: Linda Guthrie

"We have a system that offers kids a bread-and-water curriculum, nothing to entice them to want to perform, nothing that involves the community." -- Linda Guthrie

Challenger LInda Guthrie fields questions and makes her case for being elected president of one of the nation's most powerful teachers unions in this interview with Times staff writer Howard Blume. The union begins counting mailed-in votes Thursday night.

For UTLA president: A. J. Duffy

"We have agreements in part to protect us from an uncaring, unfeeling, superbureaucracy that wants to control every aspect of what we do every minute of every day." -- A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers L.A.

Duffy fields questions and makes his case for a second term as president of one of the nation's most powerful teachers unions in this interview with Times staff writer Howard Blume. The union begins counting mailed-in votes Thursday night.

Reaction to article about UTLA elections

The Times' Howard Blume writes:

Reactions to the Monday article about elections in the teachers union came in fast -- and sometimes furious.

Learning to love LAUSD

The writer Sandra Tsing Loh -- who was The Homeroom's own Magnet Yenta --  writes in the March Atlantic with passion and humor about her encounter with author Jonathan Kozol and her decision to send her daughters to public school.

"I would learn to see the L.A. school district as a giant Costco," she writes, "overcrowded parking, gray lighting -- but replete with buried treasure."

-- Mary MacVean

A management view of the teachers union

Howard Blume writes:

As general counsel for L.A. Unified, Kevin Reed frequently sat across from L.A. teachers union President A.J. Duffy in contract negotiations. Duffy has frequently been critical of him, sometimes dismissively calling him Supt. Reed. But they’ve also worked together on occasion.

Reed is now leaving the school district to accept a top legal position at UCLA, which gives him an opportunity to speak more freely. Here is some of Reed’s analysis of the Duffy administration.

Same-gender schools in Georgia

The Times Howard Blume writes:

We hate to tell you this right after Valentine's Day, but ...

Rural Greene County, Georgia, officials are hope they have found a way to try to jump test scores and reduce teen pregnancy. Starting next fall, all the schools -- except one charter school -- will be single-sex.

Read this Associated Press account that was published this week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution; it's also below.

Did Duffy lose teacher control of the school board?

Howard Blume writes:

Staff contributors to The Homeroom realize that Los Angeles teachers are avid readers of The Times, so for them and for local political junkies, we’re offering posts beyond today's story about this week's elections for United Teachers Los Angeles.

A school to watch in Rowland Heights

Mitchell Landsberg writes:

Alvarado Intermediate School in Rowland Heights played host today to 23 principals from throughout California after being named a "School to Watch" by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform (which, if it were an acronym, would be ... unpronounceable). Middle schools are attracting a lot of attention these days, mainly because they seem to be where school reform efforts fall on their faces. Alvarado, whose Academic Performance Index last year was 822, well above other schools with similar demographics, was one of seven California campuses to make the "Schools to Watch" list. The others:

Gimme a V ...

Times columnist Steve Lopez writes about how students at Cleveland High in Reseda may have felt a little stabbed in the back over the Valentine's Day issue of Le Sabre, their newspaper.

-- Mary MacVean

Parent forum

I met recently with more than a dozen parents -- all but one were moms, truth be told -- who come from all over L.A. and who are determined to send their kids to public schools.

One of them was Kelly Kane, who got involved with schools in Westchester before her kids were old enough to enroll. She is now part of the L.A. Parents Union, a parents group founded by Green Dot's Steve Barr, and she told me about a forum coming up Feb. 23.

The Westside Parents Forum agenda includes a talk by Marlene Cantor, a past president of the L.A. school board, writer and schools activist Sandra Tsing Loh (who also has blogged for The Times about magnet schools), and information about grants, leadership. It's open to everyone, and will be held at Loyola Marymount University.

Interested? Email kkane@parentsunion.org.

-- Mary MacVean

Politics (not) in schools

Nick Giulioni writes:

The United States stands on the verge of a historic presidential election, one that could dictate the next eight years in this country.  With this in mind, knowledge of the candidates, their policies, and their effects on the voters is extremely important.  But often, information on the candidates can be skewed, or incorrect altogether.  So where are young voters (often the least knowledgeable about politics) supposed to get unbiased information?

The team working to make Markham safe

The L.A. City Attorney's Office has pulled in public and private partners to make Markham Middle School in Watts safer and more welcoming, The Times’ Howard Blume explained in a story.

Jonathan Arline, like all Markham students, has new shoes. The students were given identical shoes as part of a push to improve safety. Photograph by Francine Orr. 

Here, as a Homeroom blog special, is a list of contributions to the effort, with dollar value when available. (The information comes from the city attorney's office and L.A. Unified.)

Teachers union president fires back

A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, called in this week to express his displeasure with both his critics and the L.A. Times. For starters, writes The Times' Howard Blume, he labeled the editorial page as "anti-union," something that he's also done in other forums and which the editorial page, for its part, has denied. Closer to home (for this blog), Duffy also pointed out that The Homeroom, in a recent post, gave more space to those opposing his reelection bid than to him.

 

ACT alert

The deadline is approaching for the ACT test.

The college admission exam -- a rival to the SAT -- will be given April 12, and the deadline for registration is March 7. (Late registration is accepted until March 21, but you pay an extra $19.) Complete information and registration materials are available here. After April 12, the next test will be June 14.

Studying: Does cash make it better?

Kids are not always very good at seeing the long-term value of their actions, such as studying. But immediate rewards, like cash? Is pay an effective incentive?

The Scoop on Advanced Placement

The College Board released its annual report on high school Advanced Placement classes today. Among other things, it shows how California students stack up against their counterparts in other states (pretty well) and whether they're getting any better (they aren't). But what we really wanted to know was: What's the easiest AP test to pass? What's the hardest?

It's a little hard to say. Nationally, the class with the highest percentage of students scoring a 5 -- the highest grade possible -- in the 2006-07 school year was ...

College eligibility as class policy

Antero Garcia, an English teacher at Manual Arts High, writes:

Apropos to my recent post on student understanding of college eligibility, a discussion on student grades seemed to be in order.

As students review the syllabus for my classes on day one of school, there is the occasional frown at the third paragraph: "Please be aware that there is a ‘no D’ grading policy in regards to your final grade. As classes receiving a D grade are not recognized by most universities, you will be receiving an A, B, C, or F at the end of the semester." The actual grading scale remains the same in the class – anything below 70% earns a fail. This being the second year I’ve implemented the policy, I can say I’m happy with the results. I’ve yet to actually fail a student who would have earned a D if the policy was not in place. Many students are comfortable with the idea of doing just enough to pass – they’ve expressed frustration at not being able to get "just a D," and actually do the required amount to earn a C or better. In this sense, I feel the policy encourages students to work harder than when they were able to use a meager D as a crutch for doing the minimum required (the minimum is now simply 10% more work). I know college may not be for everybody. However, I make every effort to prepare students for and encourage students to consider college as a viable and enticing future. Everyone who passes my class is at least one step closer to being able to make a decision about college. What happens from here is up to them.

College: Just out of reach

Antero Garcia, an English teacher at Manual Arts High, writes:

Sitting with our desks in a circle on Wednesday, my 11th-graders and I read Times reporter Howard Blume’s Feb. 5 article about college eligibility in LAUSD schools. Afterward, many of the students revealed that they were unsure if they were on track to complete their A-G college requirements. A handful of students weren’t even clear what the A-Gs are.

Know a great preschool teacher?

Los Angeles Universal Preschool is accepting nominations of preschool educators throughout L.A. County, to be considered for a Preschool Teacher of the Year award.

The deadline is March 3.

Chemistry – a science lifesaver!

Lance Chapman writes:

We finally finished our unit on force and motion and I have finally begun to introduce the fundamentals of chemistry to my eighth-graders. It really is amazing just how kinesthetic they are. With force and motion, I had a very difficult time finding a plethora of hands-on activities. But the beauty of chemistry is that I can perform experiments daily and never exhaust my supply!

I love the fact that I have 25 to 30 eighth-graders who ask each morning, "Are we doing an experiment today, Mr. Chapman?" That curiosity alone fuels my desire to continue finding awesome, standard-driven experiments that will make the material accessible for my students.

LAUSD payroll

L.A. Unified's payroll system failure was a mess for the district, its employees and the taxpayers. The Times' Joel Rubin explains how it all happened in an article today.

-- Mary MacVean

Just missing out on college

Here are some excerpts from readers, who responded to reporter Howard Blume's Times article last week outlining how thousands of Los Angeles students fell one or two classes short of qualifying for admission to a Cal State or UC school.

csidlow0264 wrote:

“Thank you so much for bringing to everyone's attention the issues regarding the lack of assistance many of our students receive who attend LAUSD schools.

As a product of public education and a former mentor in the Fulfillment Fund (thanks for the mention!), I know only too well the struggles and burdens good students face every day just trying to get A - G classes and, if available, AP classes! Instead of recruiters coming on our high school campuses to recruit students for Cal States or University of California campuses, many of the schools get people from DeVry enticing these kids with promises of a good paying job - so why bother with college at all. Do you think this happens in Beverly Hills? Brentwood? Pasadena? I think not.

The good students who want to go to college are being ill-served by a school system that seems to only be interested in their test scores and not interested in their future.

Please stay on this story and please do follow ups.

Thank you!”

Linda Zimring want to call attention to a program in the Los Angeles Unified School District and to district policy:

“If you are ever looking for things to write about, we run a unique program in District 1 called Project College Bound for underrepresented minority and low-income students, GPA 3.0+, that touches all 14 of our high schools. Our data is pretty significant.”

In an earlier email she noted:

“I read your article about college readiness with great interest. I am an adminstrator in Local District 1 (where Monroe and Kennedy are) and one of my responsibities is college programs. As I read through your article, I wondered if anyone had made you aware of a recent LAUSD bulletin stating that beginning Fall, 2008, all incoming high school students were to be scheduled into A-G courses. That, if followed by all schools, will guarantee that the Calif Univ requirements will be available to all students. Certainly, passing the classes is up to the students, but it is now mandated that all students will have the A-G curriculum available to them.”

Paul Perez of Whittier did not feel especially sorry for the “near-miss” students:

”I have no sympathy for the students that were close to UC or CSU application requirements. Yes, we as a community can hold the schools accountable for the progress of the future, yet it is partially the students' responsibility. When I attended La Habra High School from September 1997-June 2001, the school handed out to students a small booklet before each new school year… This booklet listed the graduation requirements for students that wanted to attend college and for those that wanted to complete the bare minimum to graduate from high school. I am sure all, if not many, of the schools listed in your newspaper article passed out material explaining courses that are prerequisites for applying to colleges. We need to stop holding the educational system accountable for the progress of students and place more of the accountability on students…The one thing I learned in school is the best method for success is being a self-starter. It is time for students to be more pro-active and seek out the proper faculty members that have a list of college preparatory requirements.”

David [last name withheld] was more blunt:

“The system will admit anybody who passes high school, which is probably the easiest thing to do. If they are as stupid as I think they are, then there is lots and lots of remedial English and math. A college degree is not worth too much today.”

And finally this from David Coffin, an active parent in the Westchester area who has his own email newsletter:

“It's disturbing to me that education officials insist that all students are exactly the same and they must all follow the CSU/US track.

There is no recognition of the different interests and different aptitudes of today's young people and it's disturbing to me that they are willing to deny a diploma to those students that see more value in a high school vocational track.

And I'll add that the LAUSD is on track to compound the problem further when they add a third class with their new Algebra II requirement. That will be imposed on today's 4th graders when they reach high school in 2016.

With a simple change in the state curriculum, 35,000 kids every year could be earning a diploma, going right to work and if they want to later, head off to a junior college to finish their CSU/UC requirement and go to college. That option was taken away from them in the late 90s and that's why we are seeing such a graduation failure today.”

The debate to lead the teachers

The Times' Howard Blume writes:

It somehow escaped CNN, but United Teachers Los Angeles, the L.A. teachers union, held the second of three candidate forums Thursday night at union headquarters in the Wilshire district.

The election has ramifications far beyond the union because UTLA, with more than 40,000 members, is a major local political player. And its members are inevitably at the center of any school-improvement effort.

Ballots, mailed to teachers, will be retrieved from the postal service on Feb. 21.

Those who can’t get enough can read candidate statements and watch candidate videos at UTLA.net. There’s an election tab in the upper left-hand corner. There’s also another forum on Monday at 6 p.m. at White Middle School in Carson.

Aid for financial aid

The Times' Tiffany Hsu writes:

High school seniors and their families can attend free workshops throughout the state to learn about college financial aid starting Saturday. California's deadline for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is March 2.

L.A. Unified Supt. David Brewer shares a laugh this morning with Blanca Morales, 18, a recipient of a Cash for College scholarship, and a freshman at Santa Monica College.

Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Charter wants to hip-hop

The Times' Howard Blume writes:

The proposed Millennium Charter High School apparently has a lot going for it: ties to universities, a sound educational plan and qualified, dedicated founders. But predictably, what got the most attention at the school board meeting is the school's plan to require students to take four years of hip-hop-related courses.

Financial aid deadline

If you're a parent of someone about to go to college, you can probably talk FAFSA with the best of them. For the rest of us, that's the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It's also used to apply for aid from other sources -- the state, for instance.

The California deadline is March 2. If you've got your taxes done, it'll be easier to get through all the questions. In any case, the FAFSA website walks you through the process.

-- Mary MacVean

High school help

Having a little trouble in geometry? Need some information for that physics project? Try MIT, the land of famed researchers and scientists in Cambridge, Mass.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Highlights for High School is the university's effort to help students and teachers. It builds on MIT's OpenCourseWare, which makes MIT course materials available for free to the public.

Highlights for High School has video and audio clips, lecture notes and assignments taken from MIT courses.

-- Mary MacVean

The SAT, little by little

The SAT is a whole lot less intimidating one question at a time.

No, you can't take the test that way. But you can practice. The College Board will e-mail you a question a day, and once you choose an answer, the reasoning for the right response is explained. It's an easy way to get some practice.

-- Mary MacVean

Academic decathlon winner

And the winner is … Palisades Charter High School. Pali High is the team champion in the L.A. Unified 2008 Academic Decathlon competition. The team will represent the Los Angeles Unified School District in Sacramento at the state contest, which begins March 8.

Not your average 9-5

Antero Garcia, an English teacher at Manual Arts High, writes:

Sure, teachers get occasional flack for having a nice, meaty summer vacation each year. And certainly I’m not going to complain about having those two months of vacation (though for the record, my “summer” vacation begins in September, because of Manual Arts’ year-round schedule). However, I did want to clear the air of any grumbling to point out the amount of unpaid and unrecognized time we teachers put in.

Elite schools in distress

In the upper air space populated by elite private schools, the New York Sun has created a stir by grading New York's private schools based on their net assets and the number of students who go to Harvard. Here's the story.

Not surprisingly, the schools didn't like the idea. Here's some reaction, from a New York Times story.

-- Mary MacVean