Tom Torlakson (left), Marshall Tuck (right)

Guess what: The two candidates for State Superintendent for Instruction — incumbent Tom Torlakson and challenger Marshall Tuck — debated Wednesday night, and almost no news outlets covered it, including LA School Report.

No matter, here’s the video. It starts at the 11 minute, 43 second mark and runs an hour, 38 minutes.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced on Thursday that states could delay the use of test results in teacher-performance ratings by another year, an acknowledgment, in effect, of the enormous pressures mounting on the nation’s teachers because of new academic standards and more rigorous standardized testing.

Using language that evoked some of his fiercest critics, Mr. Duncan wrote in a blog post, “I believe testing issues today are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a lot of schools,” and he added that teachers needed time to adapt to new standards and tests that emphasize more than simply filling in bubbled answers to multiple-choice questions.

Read full story here

The U.S. Department of Education is on the verge of releasing the first draft of new guidance on the peer-review process for standards and tests, a document that could exert a powerful influence on how states set academic expectations.

Little known outside the assessment world, the process is wonky and technical. But it is an important tool for the federal agency in reviewing—and shaping—states’ academic standards and testing systems.

Read full story here

The election, between George McKenna, a retired school administrator and Alex Johnson, education aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas is expected to attract even less interest from voters than did the primary on June 3. In that election, which coincided with a statewide primary, only 13 percent of registered voters turned out to pick from a field of seven candidates.

The winner will take the board seat left vacant by the sudden death last year of longtime board member Marguerite LaMotte.

Applications for Vote by Mail ballots must be received by the City Clerk’s office no later than 5 pm August 5th. Once voters receive their ballots, they can be mailed in or walked into any polling place on election day.

California law gives all voters the option to register for a Vote by Mail ballot.

For more information, click here.

Previous Posts: LAUSD candidates McKenna, Johnson set for election runoff; Labor groups split on support for McKenna and Johnson in runoff; Former opponents pick sides in LA Unified District 1 run-off

A group of 250 high school students from LA Unified and the surrounding area are putting finishing touches on their art projects this week under the guidance of college faculty and graduate students from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), a university focused on visual and performing arts.

Administered through Community Arts Partnership (CAP), an off-shoot of CalArts, the summer program is a three week intensive study for high school students with an arts passion. They work under the guidance of 28 CalArts students, and seven CalArts faculty members on the Ramone C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts campus in downtown LA.

Courses are offered, tuition-free, in seven disciplines – theatre, dance, music, visual arts, photography, creative writing and animation.

For Curriculum and Assessment meeting agenda, click here, and materials, here.

For Special Board Meeting agenda, click here, and materials, here.

Follow our coverage on twitter @laschoolreport or click HERE for LIVESTREAM coverage.

Make Music LA, a city-based nonprofit, along with the district’s Beyond the Bell (BTB) program and other organizations are calling saxophone players of all ages and skill level to Silver Lake Meadow for the 11-hour event, where, if enough players gather, they will succeed in creating the nation’s largest saxophone ensemble ever assembled in a single locale.

At the event, music and entertainment coordinator Tony White will direct the masses of brass-wielding bards to piece entitled “Patriotic Medley”.

For performance registration, sheet music and event details, click here.

The LA Unified teachers now compete in a county-wide competition in September, with the winners there going on to the state competition. The nationals follow that.

Among the LA Unified honorees are the winning coach of the national CyberPatriot championship team; award-winning elementary, math and science teachers; creative special education teachers and talented English, world history and government instructors.

“Congratulations to these heroes of the classroom for inspiring their students to achieve great things,” said Superintendent John Deasy. These amazing teachers are the pride of L.A. Unified ”

Below is a list of the teachers of the year:

Angeles Cajayon, Bryson Avenue Magnet Elementary School, has been a second-grade teacher there for 12 years.

Maricar J. Fortuno Catalán, Dr. Julian Nava Learning Academy – Business and Technology, is completing her first year as a seventh-grade, life science/health teacher.

Isagani Celzo, Linda Esperanza Marquez High School – School of Social Justice, has been a math teacher there for two years.

Karen Finkel, Broadacres Elementary School, has been a second grade teacher there for 22 years.

Angel Gaines, Birdielee V. Bright Elementary School, has been a special education teacher there for six years.

Jay Gehringer, North Hollywood High School, is a computer science teacher and has been at that campus for 31 years.

Anne Gonzales, Walnut Park Middle School, an eighth-grade math teacher, has been in her current position for two years.

Kathryn Gullo, East Valley High School, has been an English teacher there for 12 years.

Lisa Quon Heinsen, San Pasqual Elementary School, has been a kindergarten teacher there for three years.

Linda Hoang, Lincoln High School, has been a special education teacher for one year.

JoAnne Huong Khong, Middleton Street Elementary School, has been a sixth-grade teacher there for two years.

Aimee Kiefer, Paseo Del Rey Natural Science Magnet School, has been first grade teacher there for four years.

Lovelyn Marquez-Prueher, Dodson Middle School, has been an eighth-grade English teacher there for two years.

Isabel J. Morales, Robert F. Kennedy Los Angeles High School of the Arts, has taught government, economics and Advanced Placement courses there for six years.

Michael A. Morgan, Bravo Medical Magnet High School, has taught chemistry there for 24 years.

Hector V. Perez-Roman, Arleta High School, has been a world history/Advancement Placement teacher there for 10 years.

Laurence A. Tan, 122nd Street Elementary School, is a fifth-grade teacher and has taught  various grades there for 10 years.

Lester Raul Vasquez, Dr. Julian Nava Learning Academy – School of Arts and Culture, has been a sixth-grade math and science teacher there for three years.

Neil Virani, William Mulholland Middle School, has been a special education teacher there for four years.

Lynnellen Webster, Walgrove Elementary School, has been a fifth-grade teacher there for one year.

Heather Wilson, Bell High School, has been an English teacher there for 11 years.

Hilary Wolcott, Playa Vista Elementary School, has been a third-grade teacher there for two years.

Upswing in revenues means summer school back in session
One of the state’s many programmatic victims from the recent financial crisis, K-12 summer school programs, appear to be making a comeback thanks to a rosier budget picture and a new education funding formula that directs more money to the students who would benefit most from the added learning time. S&I Cabinet Report

L.A. Unified’s Deasy applauds Vergara ruling on teacher rules
Commentary: On Tuesday, a Los Angeles Superior Court issued a ruling in Vergara vs. California that could have a profound and positive effect on California’s schools. The court’s decision in favor of nine student plaintiffs is a decisive step toward creating a system that puts the educational rights of California students before other interests. LA Times

LAUSD Family Literacy: A program worth saving
Commentary: Los Angeles Unified School District board member Bennett Kayser laudably says the school district needs to enhance its commitment to early childhood education — to do what it takes to get disadvantaged youngsters to the K-12 starting line on par with their peers. What if we told you that LAUSD already has such a program? LA Daily News

A new partnership between a non-profit and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) is ensuring that more LAUSD students can look forward to eating healthier breakfasts at school during the 2014-2015 academic year.

The partnership comes as an efforts to bolster School Fuel, an initiative launched by the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education (The LA Fund), which reduces the stigma of receiving free or discounted breakfast from federal programs by bringing free breakfasts to LAUSD students, regardless of income. Now, more than 360,000 students participate in the federally subsidized program – a jump of 200,000 in under three years.

“We are so grateful for this partnership with the Dodgers Foundation, and we know that their involvement will give students another reason to be excited about sharing a meal in their classroom community,” said Megan Chernin, CEO of the LA Fund.

To celebrate the partnership, Dodgers outfielder, Andre Ethier, surprised 6th grade students at Nightingale Middle School last week during their breakfast. As they ate, Either discussed fitness habits and the importance of reading nutrition labels, which now feature him and his fellow Dodger players Carl Crawford and Clayton Kershaw on the sides of milk cartons served in LA Unified schools.

As a follow up to the celebration, the Dodgers will present a $200,000 check to LA fund before the Dodgers vs. Red Sox game on June 16.

LAUSD competing entrepreneurs (From left: Fajardo, Giron, Williams and Soto)

Three teams of business-savvy LAUSD students competed last night in Hollywood for the chance to win cash prizes and a bid in a national competition for young aspiring entrepreneurs.

Hosted by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE LA), a nonprofit that offers entrepreneurial education to low-income LA unified students, the competition took place at the Hollywood agency CAA and brought together budding entrepreneurs from three high schools in Los Angeles who had been culled from over 2000 students. They pitched their ideas to a panel of judges hailing from multiple industries.

The winning pitch? A new toothpaste that turns blue after two minutes of brushing, an idea hatched by Joshua Fajardo and Eddy Giron from Hawthorne Math & Science Academy. The duo won $3000 and a place in the national competition next fall. Second place was award to Jose Soto from Dorsey High who pitched a product called Keepenn that organizes keys.

Briana Lamb, encouraging students to sign the petition

A new movement is brewing at Fremont High School, a school with a troubled past that has been at the epicenter of community and educational change many times over the years in south LA.

For the past week, students there have been using an old-fashioned organizing tool — a petition drive — to bring a message directly to the LA Unified school board. It aims at improving the quality of education for the neediest of LA Unified students and their schools.

“We need a lot more help from the district than what we’re getting,” said Briana Lamb, a senior at Fremont. Long considered a drop-out factory, Fremont was reconstituted in 2010 with some promising improvements. But still it faces vast challenges, serving more than 2,400 of the highest needs students in south LA.

Lamb is urging members of the school board to give what she and other students are calling their “fair share” of the new school funds through the new Local Control Funding Formula. The petition asks the board to use a new metric called the Student Needs Index, developed by local community groups, to address historical inequities.

“Many students aren’t empowered to stand up for their needs and to get the quality of education they deserve,” said Lamb.

Sandra Hamada, youth director at the Community Coalition, said the students expect to deliver the petition with about 4,000 signatures to LAUSD board President Richard Vladovic tomorrow afternoon.

The effort is supported by the Community Coalition, an organization that helps train students and residents to advocate for themselves. “We’re essentially trying to overcome the disinvestment that has fallen upon our community and district,” Hamada said.

While Lamb, as a senior, will not experience the changes that may result from her petition, she said she is determined to ensure that future students receive the quality of education they deserve.

“I have family coming into the school district, ” she said. “I want this school and the school district to be a better place for them when they get here.”

But one organization is working toward a solution.

Today, Vision to Learn, a local nonprofit created by the Beutner Family Foundation, is partnering with nursing services for the District’s Education Service Center – East to provide 70 elementary school students and seven early education students with eye exams, and if necessary, eyewear.

“Our vans visit 250 schools across the school district throughout the year,” Yolanda Lasmarias, field coordinator for the District’s Education Service Center – East, told LA School Report. “At the schools, the certified school nurses administer an eye screening to see if the students need eyewear, and if they do, they send them out to one of our vans to see our optometrist who give the an eye exam.”

Since its inception in 2012, Vision to Learn has equipped over 14,000 students with eyewear and other forms of ocular assistance. Since last January, the group has been helping pre-K students to acquire the eyewear they need.

“If our optometrists see that a child has special eye-related needs, like for glaucoma, we will connect them with our hospital partners and arrange for the child to have surgery,” said Lasmarias.

Part of the logic behind offering on-site care is that in many cases, parents and/or guardians aren’t able to take leave from work to obtain the glasses for their children. Vision to Learn, however, can administer the screenings and exams, and set up the children with eyewear so long that parents and/or guardians give consent.

All of these services come at no cost to the parents.

Song Lyrics composed by youth at BHC Boyle Heights (Photo by Gaby, age 15, from the Las Fotos Project)

Community groups big and small, have responded collectively to the extra $332 million coming into the district via the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), Governor Jerry Brown‘s signature K-through-12 education initiative.

For now, only a few schools have complete autonomy in deciding how the money should be used although more will gain the freedom over the next few years.

At Building Healthier Communities (BHC) Boyle Heights, which is part of a 10-year, $1 billion program of The California Endowment, the youth have composed a song that asks LAUSD, “Where does all the money go?” in reference to the distribution of LCFF money.

The song will be presented at Saludarte, an event produced by our collaborative in partnership with the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, on April 26 at Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights. LA School Report has transcribe the lyrics below for your reading pleasure.

(Verse)

Where does all the money go?
To our children? Bureaucracy?
Or to the “Fat Cat”?

It’s a political mirage, an illusion,
That a gift is being given.

(Refrain)
(A slight of hand that’s the trick)

Wait a minute! Lights on!
Recognize you have to deal with us
Our presence, our collective dreams
For our children

(Lights on!)

We will not surrender,
Physically, mentally
We are present!
Answering the call to action
In our homes, in our schools,
In our communities, in our board rooms.

It’s down to two candidates from the original field of ten: between current president Warren Fletcher, considered a moderate, and left-leaning candidate Alex Caputo-Pearl. Pearl not only pulled in twice the votes of Fletcher in the first round (although not the 50 percent needed to prevent a run-off), but made a clean sweep with his slate called Union Power, claiming a win for almost every internally elected seat which included dozens of positions.

(See list of Union Power endorsements, here. See full list of the results from the first round, here.)

In this runoff, which ends when members send their ballots in at the end of April, there are just three seats up for grabs: UTLA president, Valley East Area Chair and Valley West Area Chair.

While only a quarter of the members participated in the first round, interest could pick up as it did in 2011 when Warren Fletcher came from behind to beat his opponent Julie Washington in the runoff.

Jamie Escalante Auditorium (Photo by Jesse Saucedo)

Garfield High School held a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Saturday for the Jaime Escalante Auditorium, which appears as a radical improvement over the old theater set ablaze by an arsonist seven years ago.

Construction of the new auditorium included the restoration of Memorial plaza, which connects the auditorium to a new three-story building that includes classrooms and administrative offices.

Before the fire, the 82-year-old theater boasted such fineries as large interior murals and chandeliers. Now, with its modern makeover, it can seat 1,400, and is equipped with a high-end, audio-visual system and broadcast production studio. The exterior is covered with large, colorful images of performers, as well as Escalante, the acclaimed math teacher who taught at the school and inspired the making of the film, “Stand And Deliver.”

“The Garfield community is ecstatic over the ribbon cutting event of our new auditorium,” said Principal Jose Huerta in The Eastsider LA. ” Our students will finally be able to showcase their talents in music, drama and video production in a state-of-the art venue. The arts will come alive once again at Garfield Senior High School.”

School officials say they are hopeful that the new auditorium will spur a revival of arts on the East L.A. campus.

The professional hackers were no match for North Hollywood High.

The valley school won the Cyberpatriot National Championship over the weekend in National Harbor, MD, defending its precious digital real estate against experienced hackers to outlast a field of 621 teams.

The championship, sponsored by the Air Force Association (AFA), is a cyber defense competition that test students’ abilities to protect computers and networks from high-pressure hacking attacks. North Hollywood High School’s “Team Azure” made good on months of preparation and gainful instruction from their coach, computer science teacher, Jay Gehringer.

“We’re only an after-school program,” Gehringer said in an interview with LA School Report, “but we had a number of Saturdays and Sundays when we would meet. We also took our team to the FBI’s Computer Forensics Lab where they were shown how to identify hidden flash drive and hidden digital media.”

Gehringer also invited several college professors, cyber defense experts and even a computer engineer from Cisco Systems, the company responsible for making the hardware that runs the Internet, to enrich the training the of his students.

Even with the professional help and overtime on the weekends, what won Team Azure the title was their digital synergy.

“Most teenagers on computers work as individuals,” said Gehringer, “and really in our schools we also teach them how to be strong individuals. But to win at this, and to work well in cyber defense, you have to learn to work as a team.”

Gehringer went on to say that all of his students are pursuing careers in computer-related fields. Who could be surprised?

Now, teachers who want to enrich the education of their students, anything from obtaining new equipment to offering specialized courses, can search for grants through a centralized hub, and attend grant-writing workshops.

“The response has been amazing!” said Adena Tessler, Vice president of Mercury Public Affairs, in an interview with LA School Report, “Since we launched the program on March 17th, our classes are 97 percent full, and a few of them even have wait lists. Clearly, we’re going to have to look into creating more opportunities because there are so many teachers that want to learn how to write grants.”

As of last Thursday, more than 450 people had signed up and created profiles on the Grants HQ web site.

Before the program, teachers in LA Unified school had to sleuth around for private support to pick up where public funds left off. Even though these grants were available, finding one that fits a teacher’s grade level, project and eligibility, required a scavenger hunt to disparate corners of the Internet.

“Grants HQ put all of these grants into one place,” said Tessler, “and arranges them by category and grade level so that teachers can find the grants that they need.”

In addition to the program staples, teachers also have access to a full-time grant specialist who is available by phone or email.

Upon completing a grant application through Grants HQ, LA Fund will send an accompanying endorsement letter to the grant organization to signal both the quality of the application and that is was developed through the new program.

“We’re going to continue to look for more grants to add to our database,” said Tessler, “There are so many out there, so we’re trying to make this as comprehensive as possible.”

The champs, including Melissa Cheng, second from left

LA Unified’s El Camino Real Charter won the 35th Annual California Academic Decathlon last week, locking in its 11th state title and a chance to claim a seventh national title at the U.S. Academic Decathlon in Honolulu, April 24-26.

Against a steep competition of 565 students from 65 high schools statewide, the nine-member team scored 57,747.3 points of a maximum 65,400, just ahead of the runner-up, Granada Hills Charter High School, another LAUSD entry, that placed second with 57,214.1 points.

LA School Report spoke with Melissa Cheng, one of El Camino Real’s team members, about the competition and her team’s preparation for the 10 quizes involving speech, interviews, essay, art, economics, language and literature, mathematics, music, social science and the Super Quiz.

LA School Report:  The topic for this year’s competition was World War I. What was the most challenging part of the competition for you?

Cheng: I actually found that I was really well prepared for it. I spend the entire year preparing for this, along with the rest of my team. The whole team was really well prepared. We went into it knowing exactly what we needed to do and to know. We felt confident in the knowledge that we had. So we just walked in there and tested.

LA School Report: What does your study regimen with your team look like?

Cheng: It’s a mix. We have a lot of individual time where we learn the material, try to memorize all that we can, but we also help each other: we make posters to help conceptualize some of the material; we’ll put together questions and we’ll quiz each.

LA School Report: While you said that the competition wasn’t particularly challenging, what are some parts of the competition material that you found interesting or intellectually stimulating?

Cheng: Our team really enjoyed the topic of WWI – happening in the early part of the 20th century – because the competition links all part of the topic together. For example, our topic was WWI, but we’re also learning about that era. We’re learning about art from the war, as well as the new modernist movement of art. Same thing in music. Same thing in science. So it was really interesting to see how all of these parts of the world were coming together at that time.

LA School Report: Any interesting facts you could share with us?

Cheng: For music, we have sections that talk about expressionist music, atonal music, and because of the influence of WWI, we have a lot of propaganda music. Blues and jazz were also coming into play during that time.

LA School Report: How about in art?

Cheng: There were the impressionists, the expressionists and lots of propaganda art from WWI. Art and music were really connected at the time.

LA School Report: Will the study topic be the same for the national competition, and, is this your first time going to nationals?

Cheng: The topic will be the same, and yes, this will be my first time going to nationals. It was also my first time going to state. The same goes for the rest of my team, actually. We’re all really excited.

LA School Report: Anything new or different you’ll be doing to prepare for the nationals, or is it just business as usual?

Cheng: We will be revisiting the information, and then try to find some new angles to increase our knowledge, try to pick up some new things we haven’t already seen.

Teams from a dozen LAUSD high schools will test their mettle in the 2014 California Academic Decathlon Contest as they compete against more than 50 teams from throughout state. The competition will take place tomorrow through Sunday in Sacramento, and the winner will represent California in this year’s United States Academic Decathlon competition, April 24-26 in Honolulu.

Students will compete in 10 categories: art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, social science and speech. This year’s study topic is World War I.

The competing LAUSD schools goes as follows:

Marshall High School (winner of the the District’s 2014 Academic Decathlon contest)
Granada Hills Charter
El Camino Real Charter
Taft Charter
Franklin
Garfield
Bell
Hamilton
Narbonne
Van Nuys
Grant
North Hollywood high school

The state winner will be announced at noon Sunday in Sacramento.