Green Dot Gets $100,000 Donation

The Westly Foundation announced a $100,000 donation to Green Dot Public Schools on Monday.

The gift is meant to help Green Dot as it assumes control of Locke High School this month. The charter organization plans to convert the campus into eight smaller schools.

The Westly Foundation was founded in 2000 by Steve Westly, who would later serve as state controller, and his wife, Anita.

Green Dot, run by Steve Barr, operates 12 publicly funded charter schools in Los Angeles. Among Green Dot's basic tenets: No school should be larger than 500 students, and more money should be spent at the local schools.

-- Jason Song

L.A. schools chief wants principals to have more authority

L. A. schools Supt. David L. Brewer said this week he would "kick some ass" to improve schools if the school board would give him political cover, which would include standing up to employee unions who might resist reforms.

The comment came at a public but hard-to-reach meeting Thursday on the 24th floor of school district headquarters. The meeting's topic was the governance of the school district, and the discussion gravitated toward giving school principals real power over their budget -- along with demanding real accountability for results.

The room happened to be weighted with administrators -- even a representative from the League of Women Voters was a retired principal. There was broad agreement on a need to decentralize the district.

UCLA Professor William Ouchi offered the New York City schools as an example of progress through focusing on principals. These unchained administrators have used their new authority to reduce the number of students each teacher must handle per day, he said, because that tactic raises student achievement.

The strategy would be impeded in Los Angeles, because of union work rules and because the district bureaucracy largely controls how schools are staffed, Ouchi and others said.

Brewer, a retired admiral, echoed the strong leader theory as something that worked in the Navy.
"The captain of a ship is a god," he said. "I want the principals to be captains of their ships....Then I found out about all the union issues," which, he added, revolve around wrong priorities.

High school seniors honored for community service

One teen has volunteered at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and spearheaded local food-bank efforts. Another has helped out at both ends of the life cycle -- with toy drives and the Oldtimers Foundation. A third spoke out on behalf of the "Jena 6."

All three have been honored for their volunteerism by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The release announcing the honors follows:

Millikan students travel to Beijing for Olympic Cultural Festival

After months of rehearsing, furious fundraising and high anticipation, 45 students from Robert A. Millikan Middle School and Performing Arts Magnet embark today on a once-in-a lifetime trip: performing at the 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival in Beijing.

Students from the Sherman Oaks school will be performing excerpts from their musical theater production of "Ain't Misbehavin,' " as well as ballet, jazz and hip hop dance numbers and musical pieces such as the Pink Panther remix and "Tequila" performed by the school’s jazz band.

Selection of the Millikan students to represent the U.S. is a coup for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

"These students have a unique opportunity to serve as ambassadors for our country, our community and our district while performing for the eyes of the world to enjoy," LAUSD Superintendent David L. Brewer said in a statement.

The group also includes two student violinists from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and a violinist from Harvard Westlake, a private school, who will also perform.

The trip was arranged through the nonprofit Intercultural Educational Exchange Assn., which contacted the LAUSD about potential student performers. Millikan was chosen from a list of performing arts schools and sent copies of some of its production numbers to the Beijing Cultural Committee.

The school received the invitation in January, said assistant principal Leah Bass-Baylis. They then had to figure out how to cover the $3,000 per student costs of the trip.

A young teacher reflects on his year

Tim Schlosser, who just finished his second year as a teacher at Southeast Middle School, writes:   

June brought my second year of teaching to an end.  I faced a complicated conundrum: how to process my experience of 180 school days with over 180 students and lend it meaning.  Depending on my mood, it seems that I can take a number of different perspectives on the year:

1) The Relativist: It was much better than my first year.  Nowhere near the number of discipline problems, more of my kids were positive about my classes, and the school year didn’t leave me feeling like I’d just been run down by an 18-wheeler (maybe just a Prius).

2) The Reasonable Pessimist: The year did not meet my high expectations for it.  A few students failed my class throughout the entire year, never putting forth even the minimal effort necessary to rise above the sixty-percent mark.  I should have been able to motivate those students to at least try.

Iron science teachers take on museum challenge

What do science teachers do when you're on vacation? Consider the Iron Science Teacher competitions at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

Science teacher contestants are given 10 minutes and a secret ingredient to concoct a science activity that can be used in class. The summer contests take place at noon on Fridays -- June 27, July 11 and July 18.

From left, Kelly Foshee from Arkadelphia, Ark., and Bree Barnett from Pleasanton compete in a past Iron Science Teacher. Their secret ingredient was paint. Parodying the cult Japanese TV program "Iron Chef," the Exploratorium's Iron Science Teacher showcases Bay Area science teachers as they build experiments around a given "secret ingredient" — an everyday item such as a paper-towel tube, a straw or a soda can.

Astrophysicist Linda Shore, director of the Exploratorium Teacher Institute and host of the competition, says, "We try to show we can do science with anything. We show teachers how to use low-tech materials to illustrate classic principles of science and math."

As contestant Don Rathjen says, "This helps teachers teach the $10 million state science standards on a $10 budget."

After building the gizmos, the teachers have a few minutes to explain what they are and the scientific principles they demonstrate. Judging is done on a less scientific basis, using what Shore refers to as "the clap-o-meter" — audience applause as measured by the human ear.

If you can't get to the Exploratorium, you can watch the competitions here.

-- Mary MacVean

Photos by Amy Snyder, the Exploratorium

No rest for school fundraisers

Erin Shachory, mother of two students at Riverside Drive Elementary School in Sherman Oaks, writes:

So, it's the end of the school year.  I just sent our school community an e-mail congratulating everyone on a job well done, which we can calculate by dollars accumulated.  Our amazing fundraising group -- Parents for Riverside Drive, or PFRD -- announced at the last meeting that we earned more than $100,000 this year for our school.  From what I understand, we have been trying to break the $100K mark for some time and this year we finally did it.  And that's not from the work of just one person, or two, or twenty or even a hundred.  That is from everyone who went to Fall Festival, gave to our Annual Giving campaign, bought pizza after school, attended the Variety Show, went to the 70th Birthday Gala (a special one-time event, which earned about $15K), and bought notecards, baked goods and beverages.  It is a phenomenal feat... and one that, in light of the state of our budget cuts, is essential to keeping our school running in the way that we, as parents, want it to run.  That is to say, like the schools we attended as children.

The end of one school year, beginning of another

This is the final week of school for the current academic year. Teachers will be conducting finals, furiously grading papers, and packing up a year’s worth of student-created work, posters and calculated mess from their classroom. However, for half of the teachers currently teaching at Manual –- including myself –- this week doesn’t at all feel like the end. In fact, for those of us who teach, or are students on B-track at our year round school, our new academic school year will begin on July 1st. For those of you who don’t have a calendar in front of you, this means that teachers and students have no more than a three-day weekend to gear up for a new set of classes and teaching content.

I realize that in the traditional business world, there is no clear analogue to the summer vacation that most students are privy to. Why, you non-educator might ask, should I at all concern myself with the fact that you are beginning your year at the beginning of July? For these students, there is no sense of break from one grade to another. The months of May-August become a huge blur of new and old classes, assignments and looming deadlines. That’s not to mention that trying to learn and prepare for college during 100+ degree beach-friendly weather is a daunting proposition. And that refreshed, excited glow that teachers leisurely stroll into their classes with in the fall? Yeah, you won’t see too much of that. While I can guarantee that we’ll be prepared to teach on July 1st, it will have been after completing another exhausting year. There are many exciting developments that will be taking place as of July 1st and I look forward to writing about them soon. In the meantime, I’m frantically finishing grades, saying goodbyes to my class of seniors and preparing for a year that begins next Tuesday.

-- Antero Garcia

My graduation, my moment of silence

Nick Giulioni, a recent graduate of South Pasadena High School, writes:

I heard my name -- and then my world went silent.  Walking up onto the stage, I was vaguely aware of people cheering, but I was solely focused on the leather folder about to be handed to me.  I shook hands, grabbed the folder, blew a kiss at my family, hugged my former principal, and the moment was over. Someone decided to press the un-mute button as I found my way back to my seat as my friends and I hugged each other before sitting back down.  For over twelve years, we had been working for this moment, and it was over before we knew what had happened.

A few words of advice, from seniors to freshmen

Recently I had my soon-to-be-graduating seniors write letters to the incoming 9th graders. I asked the seniors to reflect on their journey over the past four years at Manual Arts and offer advice, encouragement, and warnings for the new students. The activity was one that allowed students to reflect one more time on the different challenges they have overcome. Most of these thoughts were already fresh in students’ minds from their recent senior presentations.

Advice included explaining to students to stay aware of the college A-G eligibility requirements, noting which campus bathrooms are most frequently locked, and explaining the process required to meet with a counselor to change a class. I’ve worked with most of these students for at least two years and it’s thrilling to see them improve their writing, reflect on their experiences,and guide a new class of Toilers to the Manual Arts family.

In a month that focuses most prominently on graduating seniors and college students, I found that my students appreciated being able to guide the students who will be taking their place. What advice would you give to the class of 2012?

-- Antero Garcia

Free preschool available

Los Angeles Universal Preschool will offer free preschool to any child in foster care who lives in Los Angeles County and turns 4 by Dec. 2 of the preschool program year, which runs from July through June. Four-year-olds who are not in foster care, but live with relatives other than their birth parents, may also attend for free.

Foster parents and relative caregivers with children enrolled in LAUP programs, which are located throughout Los Angeles County, also will be offered additional training and support. The program will also provide families with early identification, screenings, referrals and follow-up for developmental delays.

It is estimated that only 18% of eligible foster children in Los Angeles County attend preschool.

Being better prepared for kindergarten and beyond is critical for children in foster care. According to studies, it is estimated that 25% are placed in special education, as many as 75% of foster children in California function below grade level and 83% are held back by third grade.

-- Mary MacVean

From the edusphere*

Some headlines from around the region:

School notes (Sherman Oaks Sun)

Helping Silverado bounce back from fire (Orange County Register)

Teacher gave him leg up on dance career (Daily Breeze, Torrance)

Academy cheered by grads (Daily Breeze, Torrance)

* Updated: Also, there is a correction to a June 20 Homeroom posting regarding Locke High School. You can see the correction added to the original post or posted here after the jump.

Education rally inspires a student

Here are some excerpts of a piece sent by Franny Freeman, a student at New West Charter Middle School. She went to last week's rally in Sacramento to support education funding. Families who took part camped out the weekend before the rally.

Participants at the Sacramento rally at left. At right, Franny and her mother, Erika Schickel.

Day 2
All the people who were participating in the protest arrived yesterday by charter bus. Suddenly the peaceful ranch turned into a mad house. Kids were running around screaming, playing tag, asking for food, and, of course, chasing the dogs. After a while things settled down and we ate dinner. Our chef is an Armenian Woman named Hasmik. One woman, one kitchen, 100 empty stomachs. She made a delicious pasta meal with tomato sauce. ...

Sandra (writer Sandra Tsing Loh was an organizer of the rally) and my mom and their crew left to go scout the rally site. ... The night consisted of campfire songs, amazing food and preparations for what we’ll face tomorrow.

Day 3 – Rally Day!
I woke up at 6. Goo filled my eyes and my hair was in knots. It was a good night’s sleep. I quickly threw on my clothes and headed out the door. I had made a T-shirt that said, "BURNING DAUGHTER! I WANT MY EDUCATION" and on the back it said "CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE." Once I was dressed in my rally attire, my first order of business was food. People were cutting me in the food line left and right. When my stomach was content I circled around the tent city, taking one last good look.  After a while I got my ukulele and practiced "Oh Californy." Then it was time to say goodbye to Samantha and Jimmy who hosted us for the weekend. Time to say goodbye to the horses and the goats. The RV ride over to the state capitol was a mess. The road was downhill and winding. The fridge door flew open, and a pot of beans spilled out all over the floor. Rebecca dropped Sandra’s cellphone, which slid under the wardrobe.  We were on our hands and knees, in the beans, looking for the cellphone, and Bob was filming the whole thing. Another turn sent him and his camera falling on top of my mom.  His iPhone flew into her purse. ... Luckily, we got to the state capitol in one piece. . It’s one of the things I’ll remember the most.

At the capitol, I helped set up; then my mom, little sister and I went into the capitol. ... We met a legislator and a senator. The legislator asked if we wanted to say something about our schools and why we needed to stop the budget cuts. I told the legislator that my school can't even afford jump ropes. Because of that we get to play invisible jump rope. She asked me to demonstrate invisible jump rope so i got up and jumped up and down and made circular motions with my hands to make it look like i had a jump rope. Everyone in the room laughed and clapped.

Locke High seniors speak *

* See correction at the end of this posting

In today's Times, Jason Song profiled the valedictorian of Locke High in Watts, a success story at a school long associated with dropouts and academic failure. That overall lack of success was a driving factor that has led to Locke High being turned over, as of July 1, to Green Dot Public School, a nonprofit that operates charter schools. But as the story of the valedictorian exemplifies, a core of students, pushed by dedicated teachers, exits Locke every year with confidence and some academic skills.

In the photo, the Rev. Stephen H. James -- who teaches vocal ensemble, choir, keyboard and music technology -- leads students through their paces during a class party held in his honor last week. James, like at least 60% of the faculty, does not expect to return to Locke when it becomes a charter.

James and several other popular veteran teachers have a particular problem: They would probably lose years of seniorty as well as tenure protection if they make the move to Green Dot. That's an ironic situation for James, who was among the teachers last year who signed the Green Dot petition, which provided the legal basis, with the school board's approval, for Green Dot taking over. Other teachers, such as Daphne Bradford, who has developed a technology/production/editing lab on campus,  aren't sure they can find the right niche in Green Dot's no-nonsense college-prep curriculum.

Here are some thoughts of graduating seniors about the turbulent school year that just ended, about Locke and about the future. A few students commented on the new book Relentless Pursuit, by Donna Foote, which paints a depressing picture of Locke as it tells the story of four first-year teachers who are part of the Teach for America program.

Graduations for all

With graduation season wrapping up, it's worth noting that the tradition isn't just for seniors. Around the country, eighth-graders, fifth-graders -- even kindergarteners -- hold ceremonies to culminate the end of one level of education and the beginning of a new one. And the rituals associated with high school graduations -- valedictorian's speeches, honors awards, shiny gowns and backyard after-parties -- are not limited to 12th grade or higher. At middle schools they are often referred to as "promotions" or "promotionals" or "moving up" ceremonies (to emphasize that they are a step toward high school graduation, not an end in themselves). But in some communities, they can be nearly as elaborate as their high school equivalents. Lizbeth Silva, 13, an honors student "promoted" this week from Spurgeon Intermediate in Santa Ana, had half a dozen family members come from as far away as Oregon for the ceremony, held in a packed auditorium at Santa Ana High School on Monday night. "They're going to have to wait for me at home," she said a few days before the ceremony, for which she bought a new dress and shoes. Over them, she -- like 400 other eighth-graders -- donned a red gown.

It's graduation day

Among the many, many school graduations today and Friday is Locke High School's ceremony this afternoon. For Locke, it's the last such ceremony before the campus switches to charter school status later this summer.

Locke, located in Watts, has had a long history of student violence and low academic achievement.

Perla Guzman, the class valedictorian who boasts a 4.38 GPA, will be the graduation speaker.

-- Jason Song

Student finally gets in the driver's seat

Anum Khan, a student at Whitney High in Cerritos, writes:

Know what this is? Read on to find out.

I’m almost 17 1/2. And I still don’t have my license.

Granted, this isn’t the end of the world, but when I see sophomores driving, it may as well be.

My experience with getting my license has been a little more extensive than for most people. First, I failed my permit test. Twice.

            

When I finally passed (much to the disbelief of my parents and younger brother), it wasn’t until two months later that I actually started driving.

Fast-forward six months from my getting my permit to when I could actually schedule my driver’s license appointment. Turns out the permit expires one year from when you apply for one (not from when you pass the test).

            

Basically, I had little over a week to pass my license test. But no time that week to take it.

So my poor permit expired. Another month was wasted as I was now permitless, and could not drive. But I had made up my mind that during spring break I would finally re-take that test and renew my permit.

But then, my parents told me that we were going to San Fransisco for three days. Enough was enough, so I decided to just take the test in San Fransisco. It’s the same thing, right?

            

From the edusphere

Some news from around the region:

High school district still weighs bond (San Diego Union-Tribune)

L.A. Unified has two superintendents -- one actual, one a figurehead (Los Angeles Daily News)

Local high schools hold commencements (Pasadena Star-News)

School's out, late-night youth curfew's in for summer (Gazette Newspapers, Long Beach)

Eli and Edythe Broad scholarships

The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation has awarded $1 million in college scholarships to high school seniors whose school districts last year were recognized as the most improved urban districts in the country.

Those districts — which each received $125,000 in scholarships — were the Long Beach Unified School District, Bridgeport Public Schools in Connecticut, Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida and Northside Independent School District in Texas.

Seventeen seniors from Long Beach Unified received scholarships, which are awarded to students who improve their grades over the course of their high school years and show financial need.

"What is remarkable about these students is that they have demonstrated improvement over the course of high school and we look forward to their success continuing in college," Eli Broad said in a statement. He is the founder of the Los Angeles-based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

Each year, 100 of the largest urban school districts nationwide are eligible for the Broad Prize. The winner of the 2008 award will be announced Oct. 14.

The New York City Department of Education won the 2007 Broad Prize, earning $500,000 for best demonstrating academic performance and improvement, reducing gaps in income and ethnic achievement, and system-wide reforms.

This year’s finalists for the Broad Prize again include Long Beach Unified and Miami-Dade County Public Schools; Aldine Independent School District and Brownsville Public Schools, both in Texas; and Broward County Public Schools in Florida.

-- Carla Rivera

Student wonders how much to plan

Gabriela Canjura, a student in the humanities magnet at Hamilton High School, writes:

In my Spanish class, we recently learned the future tense and the future perfect tense. As exercises, our class wrote journal entries about what we wanted to do in the future and what we would have done by the age of 30. I listened somewhat attentively as my classmates spoke of becoming actors and architects, moving to other cities and countries, owning houses and starting families. I listened to teenagers who had an idea of where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do.

Needless to say, I had a rather difficult time writing on these topics. I am your typical teenager. I do plan ahead, but I’ve only planned up until getting into college. So when I am asked what I want to have accomplished by the age of 30 when I am a little over half that age, I find I have difficulty answering.

Of course I have aspirations. I am not unmotivated and driftless. However, I have noticed the growing emphasis on planning out every little thing that the school system can put on kids, especially with graduation drawing near. The underclassmen must prepare for becoming upperclassmen, the upperclassmen must prepare for college, and seniors must know exactly what they want to do in life. If we not do know all of these things, we will fail. “You must know exactly where you are going,” school tells us, “or else you can have nothing.”

I can understand this rush to plan for the future. Planning for the future is prudent, but not in the way it is being advocated. Planning for the future should be a general thing, such as making sure you have completed your graduation requirements, using resources that can help you apply to college and land a job, identifying passions that could be turned into a career. Planning for the future should not be about having an agenda so specific, one absolutely must buy a home by age 31, lest the timeline of life be thrown off.

Summer reading clubs set

The L.A. Public Library hopes to entice young people of all ages to spend their summer reading with "Reading Magic" for children 4 to 12, and "Passport to Reading" for teenagers.       

At left, Michelle Li, of El Sereno, reads at the Chinatown library branch.

The clubs are free and at the Central Library and 71 branch libraries.

"The Library’s summer reading programs make reading fun and promote reading during the summer, which is more important than ever before,” city librarian Fontayne Holmes said. 

The "Reading Magic" club includes magic-themed programs such as story times, magic tricks, puppet shows, crafts and games.  Participants receive a free folder with magic tricks, a bookmark and a "Reading Magic" bag. 

From the edusphere

Some education headlines from around the region:

An upheaval on campus (Daily Breeze, Torrance)

Tale of rescinded offers is a saga of mass confusion (Los Angeles Daily News)

$40 million in Long Beach Unified School District cuts planned (Long Beach Press-Telegram)

Leadership Long Beach graduates its class of 2008 (Long Beach Press-Telegram)

Community colleges in need of help (San Jose Mercury News)

Etherton wraps up reign as top educator (Whittier Daily News)

Thieves steal more metal from schools (Los Angeles Daily News)

Milken Foundation scholars announced

The Milken Family Foundation today announced its 12 Milken Scholars for 2008, who will receive $10,000 scholarships.

The group includes three valedictorians. Eleven of them are children of immigrants, and three were born outside the United States. Each recipient has a record of excellence in academics, leadership and service, and has triumphed over obstacles. Their accomplishments include creating an organization to combat genocide in Darfur and conducting an intensive multi-year molecular biology study on breast cancer.

“Our program brings together remarkable individuals and helps provide them with tools and support for success during their academic and professional careers,” said Milken Family Foundation Co-Founder Michael Milken who, with his wife Lori, instituted the program 20 years ago. 

L.A. Unified grading system? Grade it F

Los Angeles Unified elementary school teachers have had a tough time this week dealing with the district's computerized grading system.

Administrators at Lockhurst Elementary have advised teachers to fill in grades and comments by hand, if necessary, said Rod Wylie, who teaches third grade at the Woodland Hills campus.

"It just frosts me that this is happening now," Wylie said. "It's a real inconvenience to do it by hand. We used to, but it seems like wasted time when the technology is available to input and print."

"The culprit was an old system working at capacity and the lingering effects of a probable virus infestation," said Tony Tortorice, chief information officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The system, set to be replaced in the fall of 2010, was a popular step forward in the 1980s, Tortorice said. It works best when teachers access it from school sites. When thousands of teachers enter data from home, however, the system can grind to a standstill, he said.

"The aftereffects of a computer virus made things worse last week. This virus had been hijacking district computers to send e-mails elsewhere, which exacerbated the traffic jam caused by teachers putting in grades. The virus gained entry on computers whose virus software had not been set to update automatically."

-- Howard Blume

Why late is never too late for one teacher

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

This happens to me every year around this time, and I kick myself for getting into this situation. Why am I doing this? How could I let so much amass so quickly?

I come to school bleary-eyed and exhausted. Stacks of essays, reports, letters and reflections are piled indiscriminately in my living room, in the backseat of my car, in my school mailbox and on my desk. I spend hours each night doing my best to put a dent in the unrelenting pile. Yet, despite these efforts, it continues to grow.

The problem is late work. More specifically, the problem is that I accept late work, and I should know better.

Sandra Tsing Loh tries to keep track of all the rally-prep details

Author and performer Sandra Tsing Loh, an organizer of a rally scheduled for Tuesday at the Capitol to draw attention to the state's education budget, writes about the campout near Sacramento where families are preparing for the rally:

5:55 a.m., Monday, June 16

Victory! I managed to sleep in all the way until 5:55 a.m.! But of course, already up slicing oranges at dawn for 100 people was sister "Burning Mom" Betsy Lawlor (Highland Elementary, Riverside).  Betsy is one of the incredible crew of moms -- not that the dads aren't incredible, but moms definitely rule here -- who pop up at 5 a.m. to pee and to pace.  (Not to say there isn't a late-night crew: Last night, finishing up kitchen duty were "Cooking Mom" Hasmik Lalafarian (Valley Alternative, Van Nuys) and "Comedy Mom" Amy Hill (Ivanhoe, Los Angeles). I went to bed while they were still swabbing.) 

On my own overflowing 5 a.m. dreamscape in the rumpled RV were everything from directions to the California Railroad Museum for the "field trip" to how many a bale of alfalfa can seat (for the barn dance tomorrow) to whether the 100 kazoos that one of my TTFMs (Two Tall Funny Moms -- Erika Schickel (Canfield Avenue Elementary, Los Angeles) and Deb Vogel (Marengo Elementary, South Pasadena)) ordered will arrive. And, whether state Supt. of Education Jack O'Connell will bring his saxophone. Also, signage, such as: CLOVIS LOVES PUBLIC SCHOOL. Our barn dance caller Evo Bluestein is from Clovis. So, by interesting coincidence, is Republican leader Mike Villines, who, to balance the education budget, wants to cut administrative expenses instead of raising taxes. Even though there is a virtual horde of people making slicing-off-at-the-neck motions at me, I cannot lie: that latter part actually sounds interesting! Oh, for a meeting with Villines! Our current list includes such legislators as Julia Brownley, Lloyd Levine, Warren Furutani and more ... which I have written down on another piece of paper.

A mountain of books for school children

Rotary International hopes to make the Guinness Book of World Records this week -- not by moving a mountain, but by building one.

The organization hopes to collect a mountain of 250,000 books at the L.A. Convention Center during its convention this week. (About 150,000 have been collected as of this morning, a spokeswoman says. Eventually, the books will go to schools around the region.)

School children will be at the center today for readings by people whose voices are familiar from the TV show “Jimmy Neutron/Boy Genius,” including Debi Derryberry (the voice of Jimmy Neutron), Mark De Carlo (Hugh Neutron) and Carolyn Lawrence (Cindy Vortex). Other readers include The Times' publisher, David Hiller.

About 20,000 Rotary members from more than 140 countries are attending the convention.

People may donate books today and Tuesday for children in kindergarten through grade three near the South Hall’s main entrance to the Convention Center, at Figueroa Street and Pico Boulevard.

-- Mary MacVean

Children's rally for education funding

Here are some of the people headed to Sacramento for a rally Tuesday to protest education budget cuts.

We heard from Fray Freeman, a 12-year-old student at New West Charter Middle School in West Los Angeles. He's taking part in the rally. He wrote, in part:   

I'm protesting to stop budget cuts because I see my teachers struggling to find ways to make learning a fun experience for everyone. My school doesn't do much textbook work. We like projects, crafts, and activities. One time in math class the teacher, Ms. Coggins, was explaining volume. She had bought these hollow cubes, triangles, cones and other shapes. She filled them with water and poured out the water, over and over again while explaining to the class about what she was doing. We listened with our eyes glued the hollow colorful shapes. One of the students asked if we could all try it. Ms. Coggins sighed and said that if there were enough to go around she would let us. 

"I used to have enough for all of my pupils." Ms. Coggins says as she keeps on pouring the water in and out of the plastic pyramid.

"Why don't you buy some more?" one of the students, Michael, asked.

"Because, the school doesn't have enough money."

I'm here fighting for my school. I'm fighting for Ms. Coggins.

Photo from Bob Niemack

Two degrees at once for teenager

Yezmin Trujillo is taking home two diplomas this month. She graduates Monday as the salutatorian speaker from NOVA Academy, and also is getting an associate's degree from Santa Ana College.

In the fall, she plans to attend Biola University on a full one-year scholarship, entering as a junior at 17. Yezmin plans to major in English, with hopes of becoming an English professor.

NOVA Academy, a charter school launched three years ago, is graduating its first senior class of 17 students this month. Sponsored by Olive Crest Homes and Services for Abused Children and funded by grants from the federal government and from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Foundation for California Community Colleges, NOVA Academy is an Early College High School, specifically targeted for at-risk teens, including foster kids.

From the edusphere

Some recent headlines about schools:

His proudest achievement is in the classroom (Los Angeles Daily News)

Criminal negligence (Los Angeles Daily News)

Four Inland valedictorians win full scholarships to Cal State Long Beach (Riverside Press-Enterprise)

Tucker students say farewell (Long Beach Press-Telegram)

House of Blues holds Encore for Education (Hollywood Reporter)

Comparing U.S. high schools to India, China

Next time you pick up your phone for computer help and someone answers in India, think about Bob Compton.

Compton is a venture capitalist from Memphis, Tenn., who is alarmed by what he sees when he travels the world --U.S. students falling behind their international counterparts when it comes to math and science.

What to wear for graduation

The way students dress can be an issue, especially when it comes to eighth-grade graduation events, writes Louis De Barraicua, a teacher at Vista Middle School in Panorama City, who shared some pictures with The Homeroom.

"This year, I thought our school did something really cool, which was have students and teachers participate in a fashion show that suggests the ideal (and unideal) attire to wear to these events," Barraicua writes. 

   

A fun rally to call attention to education funding

Parents and children plan a rally Tuesday at the Sacramento Capitol to show their frustration with budget cuts and to celebrate "the most important 'special interest' in the world -- our children."

If you are thinking of some people holding signs and walking in a circle, this rally has more in mind. There's a cafeteria-style lunch, music and dancing. A go-round of "Mission: Impossible!" ("Are You Smarter than A Fourth Grader? Can you build a mission out of clean recyclables?") and a performance of "Low Budget High School Musical!"

Among the participants are the Angry Tired Teachers Band from Hayward, the California Autoharp Gathering from Mendota and fiddler Evo Bluestein from Clovis. Read more about the plans from The Times' Steve Lopez here.

-- Mary MacVean

A battle of the bands

Oliver Brown, a student in the music magnet at Hamilton High School, writes:

Pushing beaten half-stack amps and spray-painted guitar cases up Hollywood Boulevard, a group of musically minded high school students contended in the Blastbeat USA West Finals recently at the Musicians Institute. In a tremendous display of talent, these musicians came together to test their entrepreneurship and melodic ability in a nonprofit competition that is relatively new here in the United States.

                                                                                                                                                          

Schools named finalists in fitness competition

Eighteen Los Angeles-area schools are among 75 in California that are finalists in the 2008 Governor’s Challenge Competition of the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. 

Over the next couple of months the Governor’s Council will be reviewing how the finalists supported physical activity and good nutrition on their campus. The three top winners will get $100,000 fitness centers.

From the edusphere

Planning the future of Long Beach school facilities and other education news:

CSEA members named California's classified employees of the year (Capitol Weekly, Sacramento)

Dolores faculty protests Barraza (Daily Breeze)

Focusing on building improvements (Long Beach Herald)

Long Beach Bar honors students (Long Beach Press-Telegram)

Young Writers' camp celebrates 20 years

The Young Writers' Camp is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. About 1,000 students in grades one to 12 come to Cal State Long Beach to spend their time as working authors.

The young people work with teachers trained according to National Writing Project standards. They share their writing with peers and receive group and one-on-one instruction. The camp publishes anthologies.

Students "compose in our Japanese Gardens, work with gifted instructors and talk with their peers about the writing projects they are working on.  We provide everything they need to be successful," says the program founder and director, Ron Strahl.

Photo: Young Writers' Camp

PTA offers tips for parents on webcast

Here's another place to go for answers to all those gnarly questions about how to raise children. The PTA is holding a webcast at 11 a.m. June 17, featuring its national president, Jan Harp Domene.

Viewers can ask questions by e-mail; register here.

The live webcast takes place ahead of the 112th Annual PTA National Convention, June 20-23, in San Diego.

-- Mary MacVean

Graduation approaches: a copa of emotions

Nick Giulioni writes:

This year’s Copa de Oro (the 100th edition of South Pasadena High School’s yearbook) looks absolutely incredible. The graphics are amazing, featured stories are interesting and there are tons of pictures of me and my group. But when I received it, I flipped through a couple of pages, saw a picture of myself, promptly lost curiosity and put it away. I wasn’t interested in exchanging it with my friends to write notes. After a little introspection, I realized the reason for my lack of interest.

Unconsciously, I came to the conclusion that this was the last time I would be exchanging books with my friends so that we could wish one another a happy summer while summarizing the year. This was the time when I wouldn’t just be summing up the year, but my entire relationship with them. Unconsciously, I came to the conclusion that when my classmates wrote in my yearbook, that was goodbye.  I just didn’t want it to end.

The teachers union and students

Tim Schlosser, an English teacher at Southeast Middle School in South Gate, writes:

I consider myself a socially conscious, politically active young teacher, so it may seem strange that I wasn’t looking forward to protesting the governor’s budget cuts last Friday.  I drove to school that morning in my red United Teachers of Los Angeles T-shirt, ready to do my union duty but feeling like a hypocrite. 

I think UTLA has a necessary role to play in our schools.  However, I also think that it is partly responsible for the poor quality of education endured by many of LAUSD’s 694,000-plus pupils.  It’s a problem for schools nationwide: Because of the union’s strength, it is almost impossible to fire teachers for incompetence.  LAUSD teachers are paid primarily according to the number of years they have been with the district, and veteran teachers at some schools are free to belittle and ignore their students without repercussions.  Many veteran teachers are wonderful, of course, but the union sometimes acts as an enabler for the exceptions.

While UTLA theoretically supports a system of peer review for evaluating teacher performance, the general feeling among teachers where I work is that anyone who has been with the district for more than five years is “untouchable.”

From the edusphere

Water -- for surfers and for fish -- in the education headlines today:

Giving surfing its due (Daily Breeze, Torrance)

PUSD residents prefer a bond measure (Pasadena Star-News)

Aquarium is a place to learn (Press Telegram, Long Beach)

Bill would dilute fixes for failing California school districts (SignOnSanDiego.com)

School rescues kids, but will close June 30 (Los Angeles Daily News)

Budget cuts: Students, where are you?

Oliver Brown, a student in the music academy at Hamilton High School, writes:

Last Friday morning, teachers crowded Robertson Boulevard with picket signs and banners in an attempt to slow the flood of budget cuts forcing their way into our education system.

Hoping to confront California's growing deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new plan promises to cut millions from public schools and student programs, an extraordinary turn from his campaign ideals and ethics. A cabinet that assured that it would inspire and invest in the development of this generation, the governor's office has unflinchingly curtailed the funding of state education, an ironic hypocrisy from the beloved protagonist of "Kindergarten Cop."

So, marching across the pavement in the cool morning air, Hamilton teachers and sympathetic parents drearily protested the further injustices in our local schools. Threatening to enlarge class size and cut pay, this new plan suggests disastrous effects for these professors.

However, as I surveyed the rally, I noticed an enigmatic abnormality in the attendance of Friday's protest. In a school of nearly 4,000 students, maybe 50 had decided to show solidarity alongside their teachers. Instead, wave after wave of grinning and chatting kids chose to sit in the quad with the extra hour of freedom granted to them before the beginning of the revised bell schedule. Regardless of how these new budget changes might affect them and their companions, students remained apathetic to this crucial cause.

So I ask my peers: How can we remain so indifferent to the demise of our public schools? As, day after day, we complain of the faults and bureaucracy of the LAUSD, why do we waste our opportunities to change it?

Photo: Los Angeles High School biology teacher Burificacion Ibot by Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

From the edusphere

Some of today's headlines about schools:

Plan to preserve most LAUSD teachers (abc7.com)

Study: Charter schools on top (Los Angeles Daily News)

Blair students tour regional crime laboratory (Whittier Daily News)

A charter objects to school rankings

After our post yesterday about the report comparing charter schools to regular public schools, we heard from one charter whose director objected to the list of the bottom-ranked charters in the study. Marcos Aguilar writes:

On June 10, 2008, you posted a list of “Bottom 5 Charters” in an entry on the Los Angeles Times Blog, The Homeroom, among which our school, Academia Semillas del Pueblo, was included. According to the Los Angeles Time Ethics Policy, “People who will be shown in an adverse light in an article must be given a meaningful opportunity to defend themselves. This means making a good-faith effort to give the subject of allegations or criticism sufficient time and information to respond substantively. Whenever possible, the reporter should meet face-to-face with the subject in a sincere effort to understand his or her best arguments.” It goes on to say, “Our coverage should avoid simplistic portrayals.” As a matter of fact, no one in our school was notified of this planned publication by LA Times staff, we were not given any opportunity to defend ourselves, nor any opportunity to rebut this simplistic, albeit negative, portrayal of our school.

I write to express my protest with this list and our inclusion on any “worse schools” list. Academia Semillas del Pueblo excels at what it does, providing an excellent education to historically disenfranchised and educationally disadvantaged children in East Los Angeles where school violence, perennially low performing schools and overcrowded classrooms are the norm. More importantly, Academia serves students who are discriminated against by the LAUSD, because their first language is not English. When students whose mother tongue is a language other than English, they are condemned to a ball and chain educational program that attempts, through drill and kill methodologies, to force-feed them English language instruction -– to the detriment of all else. To make matters worse, District school culture is typically also alienating to non-English speaking parents, and adults who have been educated abroad, further placing children at risk educationally, by crippling their support network at home.

Moreover, our school is not just like any other school. It is an Indigenous community-based school, meaning that it is a response to a demand made by families in our community for a culturally relevant education that honors our mother tongues as a foundational strength instead of as a deficiency, in our case these languages are Nahuatl and Spanish. I know of no school in Los Angeles that can offer this alternative, and definitely no other school that teaches ANY Indigenous language. Yet, our students don’t merely learn respect for their family culture and language, they also study Chinese, and progress quite well in learning English through a Spanish/English 90/10 dual immersion program. Not to mention that our students and teachers have been immersed in the International Baccalaureate programs, as we prepare them to be future leaders by offering a world-class educational model.

The LA Times “Bottom 5 Charters” list of course considers none of the above. It is an oversimplification of very complex social entities -– schools. However, even when compared to the three schools ours was compared to, Buchanan, Bitely, and Dorris, the LA Times could have asked, “How do English Learners fare in these schools?” Especially because you wrote, “One area where charters lagged, Wohlstetter's report noted, was the performance of students not fluent in English. That was an area of mixed results in the charter school association report, where regular district schools did better overall in the elementary grades, but not in middle or high schools.” When comparing Academia’s student performance in the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) as compared to these three schools, important indices of success surface. On average, only 29% of the English Language Learner students at the three comparison schools combined achieved Advanced or Early Advanced levels of proficiency in English this year, compared to 41% overall at Academia. While an astounding 86% of our sixth graders achieved Advanced or Early Advanced English proficiency, which speaks greatly of our students’ ability to learn English through our model. This is yet another important fact omitted by your piece -- that the model of language instruction matters. Simple logic would clarify why our students may not fare as well on English-only standardized tests while they are still acquiring English. In our model of language instruction, students from kinder through fourth grade are taught academic content primarily in Spanish. This is a well-researched and proven model of language instruction that shows its best results when students begin to acquire greater levels of academic fluency in English AND Spanish after five to eight years of instruction, or from the fifth through the eighth grades. In approving a full five year renewal of our k-8 charter last academic year, LAUSD staff wrote of our school, “LAUSD’s Program Evaluation and Research Branch conducted a “Value Added” study of the school’s test scores, the results of which suggest that: a. Cohorts of students at Academia experienced growth in grades 5 and 6 that was substantially higher than the LAUSD mean in English Language Arts. b. Cohorts of students at Academia experienced growth in grade 5 that was slightly above the LAUSD mean and in grade 6 that was substantially higher than the LAUSD mean in Math.” This is an important measurement of our school’s accomplishments with our students, but by no means the only one.

Your article raises an interesting and controversial question, “how should we measure charter school performance?” I suggest that the best way to measure our school’s performance is to compare apples to apples. Dual immersion programs to dual immersion programs for example, Native language programs to native language programs, Chinese language learning to Chinese language learning and opportunities for disadvantaged youth overall. In comparing our school’s API score of 622, I would suggest you compare our school to other dual immersion schools in LAUSD. Of thirty-two dual immersion programs that exist in LAUSD however, only one is a 90/10 model and only five others are even close. This is important because research indicates that these more intense models yield the best results, and because other models include a much greater percentage of English language instruction, thereby creating a very different model. When Academia is compared to the six similar dual immersion schools in LAUSD (Hillcrest, Grand View, Meyler, Montara, & Weigand), our school rates competitively and in some respects far better. The average API score of these schools is 662, only forty points greater. However, our sister dual immersion schools only averaged a 2 point growth in their performance compared to a 37 point improvement for Academia. One of our sister dual immersion schools scored 574 this past year. Should we compare rates of parent participation? Parent satisfaction? Student safety and engagement? Community empowerment? I could go on. As taxpayers, our parents know that their dollars are better spent at our school than anywhere else they could enroll their children in Los Angeles, because not only do we offer more for less, but we offer their children what the District is incapable of doing thus far, a community-defined quality education for all.

Marcos Aguilar,
Tlayecantzi Executive Director
Semillas Sociedad Civil