Source: NCTQ

A report out this week from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) found that California is just one of five states that has no formal policy requiring that teacher evaluations be tied in some way to student achievement measures.

The report — State of the States 2015: Evaluating Teaching, Leading and Learning  — took a look at the policies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

“While the last five plus years have seen most states make significant changes to their teacher evaluation policies, California has not been part of the national movement to connect teacher evaluation to classroom effectiveness,” Sandi Jacobs, senior vice president for state and district policy for NCTQ, said in an email to LA School Report.

“California still does not require annual evaluations for all teachers, and while there is some vague language in state code about using student achievement as part of teacher evaluations ‘as applicable,’ this language is far from the clear mandate now seen in the overwhelming majority of states and is clearly not the practice in districts across the state.”

Tying student performance to teacher evaluation is a policy that teacher unions nationally and in California have fought, arguing that it is an unfair system due to other factors that influence student performance. For example, the California Teacher Association in 2014 fought the “High Quality Teachers Act of 2014,” a ballot measure that would have tied evaluations in part to student performance. The measure was withdrawn before being put before voters.

“Student outcomes should be determined in a far more robust way than mainly using test scores, such as through student grades, projects, other student work and regular observations,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, according to the Associated Press. “Rather than test-and-punish systems, we need teacher evaluations that will help support and improve teaching and learning.”

Many states have adopted performance-based teacher evaluations in recent years as part of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative. Heavy pressure has fallen on California in recent years to change its evaluation policy, but it has steadfastly held its ground. The Obama administration also required that teacher evaluations be tied to student performance for states seeking waivers from the mandates of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), and California as a result did not receive a waiver, although six districts, including LA Unified, did receive them.

“Given the fact that California was unable to secure an ESEA waiver because it wouldn’t commit to tying teacher effectiveness to teacher evaluations and the fact that numerous bills both pre- and post- the Vergara decision have attempted to change state policy, it’s clearly not an oversight or lack of awareness that is keeping California from making these changes, but rather a strong interest by prevailing interests in the state to maintain the status quo,” Jacobs said.

Hillary Clinton and Eli Broad on Jan. 20, 2009 at the inauguration ball of President Barack Obama.

With his massive plan to enroll half of all LA Unified’s students into charter schools, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad is threatening major disruptions at LA Unified, cementing his role as Public Enemy No. 1 to many district and local union leaders.

But Broad’s enduring support for public charter schools now appears to be contributing to problems for an old friend, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whom he has long supported financially.

Clinton appears poised to receive the endorsement of the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), this weekend, but the potential endorsement is causing controversy among many rank-and-file members. Similar outrage emerged when Clinton received the endorsement of the second-largest national teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in July.

The NEA’s rank-and-file outrage is dominating many national headlines, just as the AFT outrage did, stealing the focus from what should be a public relations victory for Clinton.

Part of the concern is due to her past support of charter schools and connections to Broad, as well as her connections to Bill Gates and the Walton family, who are also major financial backers of charter schools that directly threaten union teacher jobs. An alternate candidate in the field, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a declared socialist with a track record of full-throated support of unions, makes a better candidate, according to some NEA and AFT members.

“[Clinton’s] labor credentials are significantly worse than her main challenger in the Democratic primary, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders,” wrote Huffington Post blogger and former NEA member Ben Spielberg, who also pointed out that Clinton once served on the board of directors of Wal-Mart.

“Even if she says things that today sound supportive, she’s not going to be a steadfast friend of organized labor,” Jamie Rinaldi, a teacher from Newton, Mass. and a union activist told Politico. “We don’t know she’s going to be the ally that’s going to stand with our legislative agenda.”

Almost 5,000 AFT members signed an online petition asking AFT to withdraw the Clinton endorsement, which came in July. One comment on the petition, which summed up much of the Clinton opposition, said, “The support that Hillary receives from Wall Street, and gives them in return, and her misguided support of charter schools clearly shows whose interests she is working for.”

Several NEA state branches have already called on the organization to withhold any endorsement.

“We are concerned that an early recommendation does not allow members to be participants in a real debate around the issues that are still unfolding,” Nebraska State Education Association president Nancy Fulton said in a statement Wednesday. “A recommendation this early in the process is premature.”

With most charter schools being non-union, the math behind Broad’s charter expansion plan in LA is simple to the LA teachers union president, Alex Caputo-Pearl: lose half of the district’s students, and his union, UTLA, will also lose half of its teachers. Caputo-Pearl sees this as a threat to UTLA’s very existence, which makes it strange when his two national affiliates may both end up supporting Clinton, who once said, “I stand behind the charter school/public school movement, because parents do deserve greater choice within the public school system to meet the unique needs of their children.”

The Clinton Foundation has even gushed over Broad’s charter school philanthropy. From the foundation’s website, which is referring to a 2007 donation Broad made to LA charters totaling $27 million: “[Broad’s donations] will have a far-reaching impact on improving the education of students in Los Angeles. By broadening the investments in charter schools in Los Angeles, a tipping point will be created that will put pressure on all other public schools in Los Angeles to improve the educational opportunities for all children.”

The Broads and Bill and Hillary Clinton have connections that go as far back as 1983 and as recently as Sept. 19, when Bill Clinton attended the second opening night of the Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times quoted Clinton at the gala talking about their friendship, which dated back to when Hillary was Broad’s lawyer. “I looked up one day and Eli was in my living room, and my life has never been the same,” Clinton said.

Broad, through one of his corporations, gave $100,000 to Bill Clinton’s presidential reelection campaign and was one of the controversial “Lincoln bedroom donors” who gave the then-president some bad headlines due to the perception that Clinton was using the White House to raise campaign funds.

Broad endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2008, has donated over $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation and was recently a co-chair of the Super PAC “Ready for Hillary” that was formed to draft Clinton into the 2016 race. It has since dissolved.

* Updated to reflect Ben Spielberg is a former NEA member, not a current one.

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It was the first major union to endorse any candidate in either party, and the timing of the news seemed to come “at an opportune moment for Mrs. Clinton” just as she is looking to deflate the growing popularity of her chief rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, the New York Times reported.

To get land the endorsement, Clinton, Sanders and other Democratic contender Martin O’Malley, a former governor of Maryland, completed a questionnaire and appeared before the AFT’s executive council. (Republican candidates were invited, but none accepted the invitation.) The decision was also based on internal polling of members, the AFT said, with two-thirds of members expressing support of Clinton.

The endorsement has been met with cynicism in some Democratic party circles. As the Times also pointed out, the AFT is led by longtime Clinton ally Randi Weingarten, and it also backed her losing candidacy in 2008.

Slate, Forbes, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and others have run articles about the backlash the AFT is receiving over the endorsement. The articles point out the 2,300 negative comments posted to the AFT’s Facebook page, the 3,000-plus that have already signed an online petition asking the AFT to withdraw the endorsement, that Clinton’s views on key issues like standardized tests and charter schools clash with the AFT’s positions and that some question if the move is really all about Weingarten’s future political ambitions.

In essence, the critics believe the questionnaire was a pointless endeavor and that Clinton’s endorsement was inevitable given her close ties to Weingarten.

Whether that is true of not, the questionnaires do offer a rare in-depth analysis of the candidates’ views on education, and while they may have been pointless reading for the AFT executive council, they are valuable to any voter who ranks education as a top priority. The questionnaires are lengthy and detailed, and may be the most articulate any of the Democratic candidates will be asked to be on education through the whole election cycle.

To read the AFT questionnaires and the candidates’ answers, click here: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley.

Randi Weingarten

As the teachers union’s negotiations with LA Unified drag on, one of the nation’s leading voices for teachers appeared at an event last night hosted by district board member Steve Zimmer and made a strong case for union activity and solidarity.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, delivered a fire-and- brimstone-type address to Zimmer’s class at Occidental College, where he is a professor of Policy Debates and Controversies in Public Education.

During her hour-long remarks, she dropped to her knees, religious-revival style, raised her hands to the sky and thanked teachers for their commitment to children. In alluding to the local school board elections a month from now, she framed them as a battle between the virtuous and the unvirtuous, saying that only by running with a righteous agenda, “can we reclaim the promise of public education.”

“I don’t care if it’s the Broad [Foundation] or the Walton [Family Foundation] or whoever the hell is against us, we can stare them down with our righteousness,” she said, her arms outstretched. “It is community that gives us the moral certainty to make the fight for public education. At one point, an “Amen” came from the back row of the auditorium.

At its core, her speech was a Unionizing 101 seminar, offering a How-To on reversing the current tide of anti-union sentiment taking hold across the country. The cornerstone of her advice: Engage the community early and often — a message that resonates in Los Angeles, where the union-district talks have produced little progress over the last six months of negotiations.

The audience included several people who are already true believers — Zimmer’s board colleague, Bennett Kayser, who is currently embroiled in a relection bid against two challengers, one of them strongly-supported by charter schools; UTLA President, Alex Caputo Pearl; UTLA’s chief negotiator, Betty Forrester and Josh Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers.

While the event was open to the public, no high-ranking district officials attended.

Weingarten also appeared with Caputo-Pearl and Kayser at a rally this morning at the Slawson Southeast Occupation Center.

Speaking last night, she said the greatest mistake by labor unions in general is that most turned away from the community at large, becoming insulated and ignoring what was happening to the people outside of their particular union or industry. As workers in other sectors have lost job protection rights, pensions and other benefits, she said, they have become resentful of the groups who have managed to hang on to theirs.

The job of union members, therefore, is to demonstrate how good working conditions are uplifting for all, she said.

Caputo-Pearl also briefly addressed the group, laying out his union plan to mobilize support in negotiating the “Schools LA Students Deserve” platform, which includes demands for lower class sizes, full staffing and teacher raises.

For years, he said, “UTLA has been a sleeping giant because we didn’t organize our members.” But that is changing, he added, as the union moves into the sixth month of a “blitz” campaign, aimed at establishing a chapter chair at every school.

And to further their respective visions for the future of education, both Caputo-Pearl and Weingarten vowed to do “everything we can” to get Kayser re-elected to the board, keeping the tenuous pro-union balance of power in place within the nation’s second largest school district.

“Now that he’s asked for our help, for us to step in, we will be providing financial support in whatever form we can,” Weingarten said.

Steve Zimmer

UTLA, the LA Unified teachers union, is offering tonight an unvarnished public view of its bargaining position in negotiations with LA Unified for a new teachers contract.

Board member Steve Zimmer is scheduled to moderate a panel discussion at Occidental College that includes UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Martha Sanchez of Alliance of Californians for Community Development.

The event begins at 7 p.m.

Weingarten is participating to demonstrate support for UTLA, which has been demanding lower class sizes, full staffing, restored funding of adult and early childhood education and higher salaries as part of its negotiations with the district. She ias also expected to discuss how the issues in Los Angeles are playing out across the country

The UTLA-district talks have produced little progress so far after months of negotiating although sources on both sides say parallel talks are underway to help close the gap.

Weingarten is also planning to appear with Caputo-Pearl and others at a news conference tomorrow morning at Slawson Southeast Occupational Center, a career and technical education facility that primarily serves adult students.

“Our class sizes are too large and our schools are not staffed fully to support the needs of our students,” Caputo-Pearl said in a news release from the union. “LAUSD educators are not being compensated fairly and we are in real danger of losing them to other, higher paying districts, and recruiting educators to LAUSD is getting increasingly more difficult.”

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/zimmer-moderating-utla-panel-discussion-on-union-issues-lausd/feed/ 2 https://www.laschoolreport.com/utla-aft-demand-apology-for-misleading-time-magazine-cover/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/utla-aft-demand-apology-for-misleading-time-magazine-cover/#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2014 21:09:51 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=30940 Time magazine is in hot water with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and other teacher unions over what they say is an unfair and misleading cover.

On its Facebook page, UTLA posted a link to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) online petition that calls for Time to “apologize to America’s teachers for the misleading and hyperbolic attack on your November 3 cover.”

The cover in question is for a story about the impact of Vergara v. California, the case in which a judge earlier this year struck down California’s decades-old laws regarding teacher tenure, firings and layoffs.

The Time article, which features a gavel about to smash an apple on the cover, is headlined, “Rotten Apples: It’s nearly impossible to fire a bad teacher; some tech millionaires may have found a way to change that,” and is a look at the history of the case and the wealthy group of tech executives who have helped support it. The article has been available online since Friday and is scheduled to hit news stands in print form on Nov. 3.

But it is not the article that the AFT finds fault with. It’s the cover, which the AFT says “is particularly disappointing because the articles inside the magazine present a much more balanced view of the issue. But for millions of Americans, all they’ll see is the cover and a misleading attack on teachers.”

So far, over 60,000 people have signed the petition, according to the AFT’s Facebook page. The AFT has over 1.5 million members.

AFT President Randi Weingarten also posted a response to the story on Time’s website, saying, “America’s teachers aren’t rotten apples, as Time’s cover suggests, that need to be smashed by Silicon Valley millionaires with no experience in education.”

Teacher unions in California and nationally have lined up against the Vergara ruling. The defendants — the state, the California Federation of Teachers and the California Teachers Association — have appealed the ruling, which will not set any precedent until an appeals court rules on the case.

The anger over the cover also caught the attention of the Washington Post, which pointed out it is not the first time Time has enraged teacher unions with a cover.

In 2008, its cover also drew condemnation from teacher unions when it showed then-D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee standing in a classroom while holding a broom, with the headline, “How To Fix America’s Schools” and a subhead, “Michelle Rhee is the head of Washington, D.C., schools. Her battle against bad teachers has earned her admirers and enemies — and could transform public education.”

Her efforts in D.C. ended in 2010, when she resigned.

AFT President Randi Weingarten Weingarten speaking at an AFT convention

In a speech today  in Buena Park, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, cited former LA Unified superintendent John Deasy as a failed example of school district management and argued for collaboration over fiat as the pathway to success in public education.

“Collaboration is the vehicle that creates trust. It’s the vehicle that enables risk. It’s the vehicle that enables shared responsibility; it’s the vehicle that has all our backs as opposed to throwing us under the bus, or under the bicycle,” she told an audience of union leaders and school and district administrators from across the country at the West Coast Labor Management Institute. “And it’s the vehicle that gives parents confidence in our public schools and our public institutions.”

While she insisted that collaboration “is not a silver bullet,” she described it as “a way to engender collective responsibility.”

Her plea was to both sides the labor-management relationship, insisting that the “top-down” ways of leaders like Deasy, Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee have failed to achieve their promised revolution in public education.

To her labor colleagues, she asked, “Is a manager or a principal really going to be willing to help us solve a problem after we’ve punched the living daylights out of them? Really? Who would ever want to solve a problem if that happens?”

A full transcript of her speech is available here.

Striking a more combative tone than she used earlier this month when she shared a stage with LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, Weingarten sounded more like an opponent to Democratic leaders than an ally. She rebuked Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Mayor Eric Garcetti, for ‘praising’ the verdict of the landmark Vergara case which ruled California teacher tenure laws can be detrimental to students, saying the union would push back against any public figures that supports the Vergara decision.

The verdict, she said, “pre-supposes that for kids to win, teachers must lose and nothing can be further from the truth… we will fight it – in the courtroom and in the court of public opinion.”

But she stopped short of calling for Duncan’s resignation. In contrast to her counterpart at the National Education Association convention last week. which passed a resolution for Duncan to resign, Weingarten navigated more carefully. “We need a Secretary of Education who walks our walk, and who fights our fight… we are deeply disappointed that this Department of Education has not lived up to that standard.”

When asked by reporters after the event if she supported the NEA action, she would only say that, “I would hope he listens to what people are saying.” She said that although the leadership would not present a resolution, it could still come from the floor. “I am 1000% percent behind any action that the members at the convention [take] on this issue.”

Speaking with passion to a packed room of union delegates from all over the country, Weingarten commended teachers on their deep commitment to education and to the children they serve. “We are the front lines for children, the first responders to poverty,” she said. “We must create new coalitions and through them the groundswell needed to reclaim the promise of America.”

But she spent the bulk of her hour-long speech railing on those she said were bent on the union’s destruction, and she urging the rank and file to not sit back. “While we will never out-spend our opponents, we can out-work them and out-organize them — but we have to vote.”

Randi Weingarten, AFT President

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) kicks off its annual convention in downtown Los Angeles tomorrow bringing more 3,500 national union delegates to the home of LA Unified, the second largest school district in the country.

On the agenda: fending off what the union sees as its biggest threats, including billionaire money, an assault on tenure, and the “pervasive fixation on testing over teaching and learning,” according to a union press release.  A proposed hike in union dues is also on the table.

It is less clear whether the delegates will seek a resolution asking for the resignation of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, as its counterpart, the National Education Association, did at its convention last week.

The gathering is attracting political and union heavy weights: AFT President, Randi Weingarten will deliver the keynote address Friday morning, following a speech by Governor Jerry Brown. Other speakers include Mayor Eric Garcetti, and California State School Superintendent Tom Torlakson, a teachers union ally who is facing a November re-election fight against education reformer Marshal Tuck.

AFT is the second largest teachers union in the country, representing 1.5 million teachers, health workers and school-related personnel nationwide.

Alex Caputo-Pearl, the newly installed president of the Los Angeles teachers union (UTLA) will lead a panel on social movement unionism that will include teachers union leaders from Chicago, St. Paul, and Philadelphia.

“It will be about how to take on some of the challenges that unions are facing by building a broader alliance with parents and community all around the quality schools agenda,” Caputo-Pearl told LA School Report.

“Obviously we’ll get to talk about some of the dilemmas we face in Los Angeles, like the billionaire funded Vergara lawsuit, as well as some of the problems with Superintendent John Deasy putting forward an unacceptable offer around pay,” he said.

The union is currently in contract negotiations with the district but appears to be at an impasse. UTLA leaders flatly rejected the district’s recent proposal of a 2 percent raise for 2014-15 plus a retroactive 2 percent bonus for 2013-14, calling it “insulting.”

Meanwhile in a letter to members posted on the convention website, AFT President Weingarten explained why she is recommending a dues hike, taking members’ annual contribution from the current $213 to $225 a year by 2015.

“We face continued assaults through privatization, profiteering and deprofessionalization in the schools, universities, hospitals and institutions that serve the American public,” Weingarten wrote. “The dues increase is intended to support organizing efforts, mobilize political power and enable us to incubate new approaches and solutions to helping those we serve, their families and our communities.”

On Saturday union members will rally at Staples Center Plaza to join with California postal workers protesting Staples’ plan to use store employees to staff U.S. Postal Service counters at Staples stores.

The conference will end Monday with a press conference on due process with teachers and community leaders.

All speeches, general sessions, and business discussions, will be live streamed here.

Previous posts: Top 6 shockers: how Weingarten and Deasy agree on tenure, Strike talk emerges on Caputo-Pearl’s first day as union chief, Weingarten: Bad Teachers Need Another Profession

Garcetti meeting with parents of 24th St. Elementary via Parent Revolution

The American Federation of Teachers and its California chapter, CFT, have just given a combined $60,000 to a super PAC named  Lots of People Who Support Eric Garcetti for Mayor.

Although UTLA, the local teachers union, endorsed Garcetti back in February, this is the first time a teachers union has spent any money on the 2013 Mayoral election.

“I think the AFT is sending a loud and clear message that the status quo — ensuring that the worst teachers are impacting students — is still the law of the land,” said political consultant Michael Trujillo, a strong (though unpaid) supporter of Garcetti’s opponent, Wendy Greuel. “And they’re gonna hold Eric Garcetti’s feet to the fire.”

The union contribution may come up later today, when the candidates will take part in an education-focused debate hosted by KPCC.

The disclosure of AFT’s donation came on the same day that both candidates visited 24th St. Elementary, the site of a recent “parent trigger” petition, a controversial parent empowerment mechanism that both Mayoral candidates have endorsed.

Though UTLA has been relatively quiet in its opposition to the trigger concept in recent weeks, the national union has been (and presumably still is) bitterly opposed to it.

More recently, Sunday night’s televised debate at USC showcased the reality that Greuel and Garcetti agree on nearly every policy issue — as they themselves admitted.

Education is no different. Both candidates support Superintendent John Deasy, both support the parent trigger law, and both support teacher evaluations that use pupil progress.

Nevertheless, the candidates will try to draw contrasts based on past positions and experience at today’s debate.

Greuel meeting with 24th St. parents

Greuel will remind voters that she is a mother of a boy in LAUSD.

“Wendy has never wavered in her support of school reform,” said Greuel spokesperson Connie Llanos. “I don’t believe that councilman Garcetti has been as clear on what his vision of education reform.”

A little known fact is that Garcetti has, in the past, been a foster parent to children who attended LAUSD — although he hardly ever talks about it.  He currently has a 16-month-old adopted daughter.

Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman said that Greuel “hypes herself” as a school reformer but doesn’t “deliver anything.” He added: “Eric’s principal position is that he’s an advocate for kids.”

The new teachers union contribution may also come up. Garcetti has focused much of his recent campaign, including his latest TV ad, on blasting the Department of Water and Power union for spending millions of dollars on a pro-Greuel Super PAC, arguing that the money makes Greuel beholden to the union.

This debate, which will be broadcast live on KCRW 89.9 from 2-3 PM, was scheduled after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa chided the two candidates for not focusing enough on education.

After Garcetti spokesperson Millman suggested the debate, Greuel challenged Garcetti to a debate at Camino Nuevo Charter School — with just two hours’ notice.

After a bit of inter-campaign squabbling, the two camps agreed to the KCRW debate.

“We put this thing together,” said Millman. “She called a flash mob debate. And we put together a real debate.”

KCRW news program director Gary Scott said he hopes today’s debate, to be held at the Peterson Automotive Museum at 2 PM and hosted by Warren Olney, will draw contrasts between the two candidates.

“The game here is, let’s not have them on same side,” he said. “Let have them distinguish themselves. That’s the goal.”

Indeed, there are a few things we still don’t know about the candidates’ education positions, including where they stand on the controversial No Child Left Behind “waiver” that LAUSD is trying to get from Washington, whether they support SB 441, the teacher dismissal bill going through the state legislature, and — perhaps most important — which candidate they support for the District 6 School Board runoff.

Previous posts: Handful of Education Issues Could Split Mayoral Candidates; Garcetti and Greuel to Meet With “Trigger” Parents; Garcetti Praises Partnership School, Differs with UTLA Poll; Greuel Endorses New Teacher Evaluation Plan.

Pilot schools are the most flexible of three “autonomy models” agreed to under a 2011 agreement between the district and the teachers union — a relatively new alternative to both semi-autonomous charter schools (that usually lack a collective bargaining agreement for teachers) and also to the parent trigger process (through which parents petition the district to implement changes).

Pilot schools aren’t generally the model favored by the teachers union, notes LAUSD’s Rachel Bonkovsky, who is helping to oversee implementation of the various autonomy models. “The union is pretty staunch in not favoring pilots,” she said.

But the school-level interest in creating pilots has been higher than expected. “Sometimes you hear the union central message, and you don’t hear what individual, local schools are saying,” Bonkovsky says.

A Hard-Fought Compromise

The three autonomy models are the result of a hard-fought agreement negotiated in late 2011 between LAUSD and the teachers union.

As a part of negotiations, Superintendent John Deasy modified the original Public School Choice (PSC) program, which had allowed outside operators like charters to submit bids to turn around failing LAUSD schools.

In return, the teachers union agreed to lift a previously negotiated 30-school cap on the expansion of “pilot schools” and signed off on the Local School Stabilization and Empowerment Initiative (LSSEI) agreement.

There are three different kinds of autonomy models as established by the LSSEI agreement: pilot schools, which offer the most flexibility as compared to a traditional district school; Local Initiative Schools (LIS), which offer moderate flexibility; and Expanded School-Based Model Management (ESBMM) schools, which differ somewhat from regular district schools, but in less dramatic ways.

Pilot schools

Of the three autonomy models, pilots are the most flexible option because their teachers, though still represented by UTLA, must sign an “elect-to-work” contract that requires them to put in more hours on the job and participate in supplementary career training.

In addition to the 12 pilots approved in February, four more new pilots are also poised to go before the Board for approval in March.

LIS schools have the power to customize their budgets, teaching methods, curriculum and testing, bell schedules, school organization, discipline rules, and health and safety plans.

While a LIS school can ask its teachers to sign a “commitment to the plan” that expects them to put in extra work and participate in professional development, the agreement doesn’t have the same enforcement power that pilot school elect-to-work agreements have.

Anywhere between five to 10 LIS proposals are expected to be submitted for approval to the district; the final tally depends on how many schools are able to get a 60 percent approval vote from their teachers union-represented staff.

Expanded School-Based Model Management (ESBMM Schools)

ESBMM schools have a more limited set of options they can customize, which include their budgets, staff selection and professional development expectations, curriculum, and bell schedule.

Three applications for ESBMM schools are currently being considered for final approval by Superintendent Deasy; he’s expected to reach a decision in the next month.

Of the three models, ESBMM schools have the least potent reform options, according to Bonkovsky. This is the model that is most favored by the union, as demonstrated by the recent joint press conference UTLA hosted with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) at Woodland Hills Academy, the first school in LAUSD to transform into an ESBMM school, back in 2006.

Teacher Preferences

Pilot proposals outnumber LIS and ESBMM proposals because teachers recognize the perks the pilot model offers, Bonkovsky says: “Even though a teacher has to sign an elect to work agreement, they have a lot of power over it; they get to vote on what goes in [the agreement] each year. And on the site, teachers have a lot of say in their evaluations. So it’s a nice check and balance system.”

Greg Fisher, a teacher at Narbonne High School in the Harbor City area of LA, is one of the leaders of his Small Learning Community’s plan to transform into a pilot school this year. He says the tradeoff of a thinner union contract was worth it because it gives teachers “flexibility and autonomy where the district won’t have much say. Within parameters, we have a lot more control than ever before.”

Fisher concedes, however, that the pilot school model isn’t for everyone: “If there’s a teacher who wants to hide behind the LAUSD-UTLA contract, or if there are teachers who want to do as little as possible, a pilot is not for them.”

Previous posts: Public School Choice 4.0; Beyond Charters; Charter & District School Alternatives

The Mayoral Endorsement That Isn’t
Los Angeles Unified School District board member Tamar Galatzan has spent the last few weeks taping informal interviews with Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel, Kevin James, Jan Perry and Emanuel Pleitez, getting their views on public education and what their role would be as mayor. LA Daily News Column

Teachers Training Teachers: It Works in California School District
Jandella Faulkner is a teaching coach in the Long Beach, Calif., school district. Her job is to train a select group of teachers at Edison Elementary. It’s part of a district-wide training system that relies on teachers working with each other to improve classroom practices. NBC News

Second Effort to Limit ‘Willful Defiance’ as Cause to Expel and Suspend
Assemblymember Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) is reintroducing his bill to limit the use of willfully defying authorities or disrupting school activities as a reason to suspend or expel students. EdSource

Southern California Educators, First Responders to Train on “Active Shooter” Scenarios
The L.A. County Office of Education is holding an all-day “active shooter” workshop this Friday. The training, at the agency’s compound in Downey, is designed to educate principals and police who patrol schools on how to react in the worst of all circumstances: an armed intruder  on campus. KPCC

Gym Class Isn’t Just Fun and Games Anymore
On a recent afternoon, the third graders in Sharon Patelsky’s class reviewed words like “acronym,” “clockwise” and “descending,” as well as math concepts like greater than, less than and place values. During gym class. NY Times

Legislation Would Require Carbon Monoxide Alarms in New School Projects
A new law that went into effect at the first of the year requires owners of apartment buildings to install carbon monoxide alarms in each unit. Now, a San Diego County lawmaker wants school districts to make the life-saving monitor a part of any new or modernization project. SI&A Cabinet Report

District, Union Team Up to Solve Budget Crunch
As anyone who has ever sat at either side of a bargaining table can attest, the labor-management relationship is already challenging enough in flush times. But as one Colorado district shows, it is not impossible for district and union leaders to work together to make tough decisions. EdWeek

Senate Plan Would Give Schools More Time to Prepare for Common Core Testing
A leading member of the state Senate has proposed legislation that could give schools significantly more time to prepare students and teachers for assessments based on the new common core curriculum standards. SI&A Cabinet Report

AFT President Randi Weingarten

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is scheduled to hold a Friday, February 8 press conference at Woodland Hills Academy to announce a $150,000 grant to the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA).

The grant is aimed at helping teachers create strong school improvement plans and prevent the need for any additional “parent trigger” actions in LAUSD.

Weingarten’s appearance signals the importance of UTLA and the parent trigger issue to the national union.

The event  will also serve as a media opportunity for Westside District 4 School Board incumbent Steve Zimmer, who is scheduled to appear along with UTLA President Warren Fletcher. UTLA has endorsed ZImmer and its independent expenditure committee has requested campaign funding from the AFT.

According to a press advisory issued Wednesday, the AFT grant will provide UTLA with the funding to help LA teachers write school improvement plans that could help avoid potential parent trigger actions like the one that occurred last month at LAUSD’s 24th St. Elementary School. “The funding will be used to create a training program to help teachers write school plans and prepare school improvement teams.”

AFT is holding the press conference at Woodland Hills Academy because back in 2006 it was the first school to operate under the Expanded School-Based Management Model (ESBMM), one of three different school autonomy models that teachers can opt into becoming when writing school improvement plans. “This school stands in stark contrast to the parent-trigger petition effort at 24th Street Elementary School,” notes the AFT advisory.

According to Parent Revolution head Ben Austin, the union would do better to focus more closely on the trigger process already underway at 24th Street Elementary.  “UTLA and AFT need to work with the district to craft a proposal that’s better than a bunch of high quality charter school proposals.”