• Free prom dresses, shoes donated to homeless LAUSD girls, KABC
• Governor appoints 3 SoCal residents to CSU Board of Trustees, City News Service 
• Chino school board plans to fight judge’s order that banned prayer at meetings, CBS-LA
• USC’s tuition will top $50,000 for the first time, Los Angeles Times
• Parents battle district over toxic PCBs in Malibu public schools, KPCC

• Legislature is urged to create a statewide teacher database to tackle a projected teacher shortage, EdSource
• Security guards in Compton schools staging sickout with teachers, CBS Los Angeles
• SoCal high school charges students for free items, NBC Los Angeles
• Expelled for sexting? California bill sets discipline for sexy texts, Sacramento Bee
• Driving junk foods and soda from campus, Cabinet Report
• Testing for joy and grit? Schools nationwide push to measure students’ emotional skills, New York Times
• LA County school administrators learn how to deal with bomb threats, active shooters and more, KPCC

How my time at a “failing” high school blew me away
With the implementation of state standards, many public schools have wound up with their curricula painfully narrowed. Salon

The ‘grand experiment’ behind NYC schools’ new computer science program
New York City schools are embarking on a bold new computer science program, set to reach all of its public schools by 2025. EdTech

Achievement gap an ‘indicator that right strategies are not being used’
Michael Fullan is working closely with California school districts  to implement what he calls the “right drivers for whole system reform.” EdSource

Why ‘homework gap’ may pave way for universal Internet access in schools
As schools embrace technology, FCC regulators say many low-income students don’t have Internet access at home. Now Congress steps in. Christian Science Monitor

LittleBits opens up access to kits in educational settings
LittleBits Education is launching to enhance the use of its products for schools and libraries. The Journal

California teacher pensions: Brown vows to start debate
In Gov. Jerry Brown’s promise to start paying off California’s massive liabilities, the largest single unfunded debt will not be seeing any additional pay-down in the coming fiscal year. The unfunded liability for teachers’ pensions stands at more than $80 billion, a gap so large that the fund is projected to deplete all its assets in about 30 years. San Jose Mercury 

Patchwork approach to Common Core in teacher prep programs
Common Core State Standards are compelling California’s teacher preparation programs to do something that doesn’t come easily to institutions of higher education – change. Up to now, much of teaching in California has been criticized as being grounded in the principal measure of success under No Child Left Behind – preparing students to fill in the correct bubbles on standardized tests. EdSource

 School building advocates not ready to drop bond plan
The state’s longstanding commitment to split facilities costs with districts could be a thing of the past now that Gov. Jerry Brown has reiterated his preference for reducing the state’s role in building and repairing schools. SI&A Cabinet Report 

Feds issue guidelines against bias in school discipline
Federal officials kicked up their campaign against discriminatory school discipline policies last week, issuing first-ever guidelines for school districts on how to avoid racial disparities in student punishment. LA TImes

iPad debate overshadows learning revolution in LAUSD classrooms
Last week, as Los Angeles Unified officials debated and complained about the speed, cost and logistics of the troubled iPad rollout, students around the sprawling district were putting the tablet computers to good use. Fifth-graders at Western Avenue Elementary in South LA were downloading apps and creating multimedia presentations. LA Daily News

California switches testing plans, but may still lose $3.5 billion 
California, threatened with the loss of $3.5 billion in federal funds for suspending high-stakes testing next spring, has tweaked its exam plan. But it’s not certain that the change, which was not cleared first with U.S. officials, will ease the threat to take away funds. San Jose Mercury 

CA districts are giving their report cards a facelift for Common Core
School districts across California are rewriting elementary school report cards to reflect new learning standards known as the Common Core. Because the change is not dictated by the state, it’s unclear how many schools are switching. But several superintendents in Southern California said they were in the process. KPCC

Some school districts move now to support disadvantaged
As the Brown administration contemplates further regulation of the new funding system supporting educationally disadvantaged students, some school superintendents say they are already engaged with parents and community leaders over plans to better serve the targeted populations. SI&A Cabinet Report

Are kids too coddled?
Commentary: At a middle school near Boston not long ago, teachers and administrators noticed that children would frequently return from a classmate’s weekend bar mitzvah with commemorative T-shirts, swag that advertised a party to which many fellow students hadn’t been invited. New York Times

The LA schools’ iPad adventure keeps getting worse
Commentary: One thing about cautionary tales — the cautions just seem to proliferate as time marches on. That certainly seems to be the case with the LA Unified School District’s increasingly fraught involvement with education by iPad. LA Times

For LAUSD’s iPad opponents, a history lesson
Editorial: There are several possible explanations for the emotional opposition the Los Angeles schools’ iPad program has inspired in some people, such as the 15 who took part this week in a Granada Hills rally featuring a protester dressed as Marie Antoinette and a cake shaped as a tablet computer. LA Daily News

LAO projects huge Prop. 98 increase for K-12 next year
From gloom to boom, how quickly things change. A resurgent economy and recalculations of revenue from the past two years will leave the state budget with a multi-billion-dollar surplus next year and K-12 schools and community colleges with unexpected billions more to spend, according to a projection that the Legislative Analyst’s Office released on Wednesday. EdSource

Common Core. Enter Business?

The Business Roundtable and U.S. Chamber of Commerce are making Common Core a priority but it’s a lift for companies because the payoff from better schools is long-term and the political costs are immediate. That’s why business talks a good game about all the tough stands they will take. EduWonk

Will New Education Funds Reach Students Who Need It Most?
California school districts will soon receive more money for high-needs students, but many parents and advocates are wondering: will the money actually be spent on the students it’s meant for? New American Media

White House to honor South LA educator Daphne Bradford
Daphne Bradford, CEO and founder of the grassroots organization, Mother of Many (M.O.M), which helps prepare South L.A. high schools students for both their college and work career, will receive a “Champions for Change” award from the White House on Thursday, November 21, 2013. Intersections South LA

Los Angeles Unified discussing 200-day school year
Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school district, is discussing extending its academic year by 20 days, a $300 million proposal that would give Los Angeles the longest school year, at 200 days, of any large urban district in the nation. Extending class time and the length of the school year is gaining increasing attention as educators seek new ways to improve student performance, and any extension would put Los Angeles at the forefront of the national effort. EdSource

New glitches surface in LAUSD’s iPad project
Los Angeles Unified’s ambitious iPad project hit another snag Tuesday, as officials conceded that some schools have temporarily stopped using the tablet computers, and the school board scheduled a special meeting to get its own questions answered about the status of the rollout. LA Daily News

Head Start hit hardest by federal shutdown

For the short term, most schools will likely be unaffected by the federal government shutdown that went into effect today. But if the impasse in Congress lasts a long time, schools may feel the financial squeeze. The shutdown is a result of the House and Senate’s failure to agree on a funding bill, which forced more than 800,000 federal employees into furlough Tuesday morning. Hechinger Report 

State readies millions in funding for school energy projects
As early as November, school districts could begin seeing the first batch of millions in state tax dollars approved to help them make their facilities more energy-efficient. But under guidelines released late last week governing the distribution of up to $550 million annually in Proposition 39 funds, districts would also face a December deadline for submitting reports detailing how they plan to use the money to save energy. SI&A Cabinet Report

New LGBT-specific history lessons planned for L.A. County schools
The Black Cat raid, protests and other events in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender history will be included in new lesson plans to be integrated into history curriculum at Los Angeles County high schools in the coming months, according to Project SPIN, a partnership between the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center and Los Angeles Unified School District. LA Times

Rollout of School Meals Option Popular, Report Says
A new school-meals-eligibility option authorized by Congress in 2010 is proving popular with high-poverty schools and is significantly increasing student participation in school lunch and school breakfast programs funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a report being released this week by two national anti-poverty advocacy groups. EdWeek

Crisis in California’s schools: 250,000 schoolchildren need glasses
Commentary: There is a crisis in California’s schools. More than a quarter of a million children, most of them from poor and minority backgrounds, lack the technology they need to succeed in school. But what they need has nothing to do with mobile devices or educational apps. It’s a technology nearly 800 years old: eyeglasses. LA Times

LAUSD’s Arts Budget to Get Its Day in the Sun
The Los Angeles Unified School district is pushing forward on its new arts education plan. On Tuesday, the Board of Education will take up a resolution calling for official adoption of the plan as a “working document.” The resolution requires the Superintendent to report back on the implementation of the plan at a public meeting within 60 days. KPCC

How Kafkaesque Bureaucrats Are Ruining Education
Just 39 percent of LAUSD students are proficient in math and only 41 percent are proficient in English (though their scores have improved since 2010). Nearly four in 10 LAUSD students fail to graduate from high school, and African-American students are nearly twice as likely to drop out as whites. Deasy is quick to blame the schools for students’ poor performance but the real problem is right under his nose. As my experience attests, the villains aren’t the teachers, as many believe, but often are power-hungry district bureaucrats who set their own agenda and are accountable to no one. Truthdig

Principals Take the Initiative to Keep School Open in the Summer
Thanks to enterprising principals, students in a few California communities will have no trouble answering the question: What did you do this summer? Despite tight district budgets, some principals in Los Angeles Unified and Oakland Unified have on their own initiative figured out a way to provide programs this summer by reaching out to their local communities and private foundations for support. EdSource

New Poll: Tax Brackets, Education, Race Drive Views on Education
Minority and low-income parents are more likely to see serious problems in their schools — from low expectations to bullying to out-of-date technology and textbooks — than those who are affluent or white, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Poll. Overall impressions of the nation’s schools and teachers are similarly positive among all groups of parents, but deep demographic differences emerge in the details of how parents see teachers, schools and even their own roles in their children’s education. Washington Post

California Upends School Funding To Give Poor Kids A Boost
As the school year begins, districts in cities such as Oakland, Fresno and Los Angeles have not gone on a hiring spree. But they might soon. California has revamped its school funding formula in ways that will send billions more dollars to districts that educate large numbers of children who are poor, disabled in some way or still learning to speak English. NPR

California test scores dip slightly but L.A. Unified holds steady
California students scored slightly lower in math and English on standardized tests this year, the first dip since 2004, in what education officials Thursday blamed in part on brutal budget cuts over the last several years. But Los Angeles Unified School District students posted small gains in math, the best performance among the state’s 10 largest school districts, and had a smaller dip in English than their peers statewide. LA Times

Los Angeles Schools Plan Bonds for iPads
Los Angeles Unified School District will be among the first to use long-term financing to provide students with iPads when it goes to market next year on a $50 million bond sale to pay for the tablets and wireless infrastructure for 47 schools. The Bond Buyer

Those Federal School Waivers: It Ain’t Over Yet
The waivers that eight large California school districts got this week from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan are yet another measure of the power of the federal law they tried to escape from. The law has been cumbersome and stupid enough to prompt them — and many states — to seek better ways to pursue the same, or better, goals. But the waivers are not the end of this odyssey; they’re barely the beginning. EdSource

NCLB Waiver in Hand, CORE Districts Move Ahead

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan provoked a lot of strong opinions when he granted a precedent-setting waiver under the No Child Left Behind Act to eight California districts last week. These “CORE” (for California Office to Reform Education) districts now have sweeping flexibility to implement their own accountability systems, separate from the state of California’s, and the ability to largely police themselves with help from a new independent oversight panel. There are many questions this waiver is sparking. EdWeek

Six Questions About California CORE Districts’ Waiver
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan provoked a lot of strong opinions when he granted a precedent-setting waiver under the No Child Left Behind Act to eight California districts last week. These “CORE” (for California Office to Reform Education) districts now have sweeping flexibility to implement their own accountability systems, separate from the state of California’s, and the ability to largely police themselves with help from a new independent oversight panel. There are many questions this waiver is sparking. EdWeek

State Begins Work Revising Teacher Preparation Based on Common Core
The state’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing has approved a two-year plan for updating educator training standards – the first comprehensive review in more than a decade. The plan comes forward as public schools in California are already transitioning to new curriculum standards based on a set of national goals in math and English language arts – with new common science standards soon to be ready for adoption. SI&A Cabinet Report

American Education’s Path Back to Greatness
This week, New Yorkers are likely to suffer a mix of disappointment and frustration when the state releases the results of the rigorous new testing regime that New York State has adopted as it joins the national Common Core movement to raise standards of American education. Kentucky, the first state to adopt Common Core-aligned testing, saw its initial scores drop by as much as 33 points, or nearly 50%. New York Daily News

States’ Common-Core To-Do Lists Topped by Tests, Curricula
On the heels of its latest survey taking states’ temperatures about the political environment surrounding the common core, the Center on Education Policy has released a report detailing how far along state education officials think they are in implementing the new English/language arts and math standards, and what they see as the biggest remaining challenges. EdWeek

The Pedagogical Agenda of Common Core Math Standards
Mathematics education in the United States is at a pivotal moment. At this time, forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core standards, a set of uniform benchmarks for math and reading. Thirty-two states and the district have been granted waivers from important parts of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law. As part of the agreement in being granted a waiver, those states have agreed to implement Common Core. My fear (as well as that of many of my colleagues) is that implementation of the Common Core math standards may actually make things worse. Education News

Why Are Women Practically Nonexistent on L.A. City Council?
The Martinez-Montanez contest is an exception to the machismo that, like an episode of Mad Men but with cheaper suits, has stamped out most women from L.A. City Hall political posts on the eve of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s departure. LA Weekly

Latinos Sharply Narrow Education Gap
After lagging behind other Americans in education for generations, Latinos have significantly narrowed the gap, and last year they passed a milestone, with new Hispanic high school graduates more likely than their white counterparts to go directly to college, according to a new study. NY Times

Testing California’s Commitment to Education
Just a generation ago, California’s schools were the pride of American education (it’s one of the reasons my parents moved with me to California in the early 1960s). Today, tracking with the economic woes of the rest of the Golden State, California’s schools rank 30th in the country . . .and falling. Forbes

Three Girls Testify that Former De La Torre Teacher Molested Them
Three girls allegedly molested by former Wilmington schoolteacher Robert Pimentel offered vivid details of abuse Thursday during a court hearing in Long Beach.
Daily Breeze

Assembly OKs Bill Allowing Transgender Students in Sports
Schools would have to allow transgender students to participate on sports teams and use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, not their sex, under a measure passed by the California Assembly on Thursday. Advocates said the bill would prevent transgender students from feeling ostracized at school and help them fully participate in sports and other activities. LA Times 

Math by Way of Art: For Pasadena School, Arts Plus Math is Really Adding Up
 The program, called “Artful Connections with Math,” was developed by the Pasadena Unified School District and the Armory Center for the Arts. Funded by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, it pairs classroom teachers like Grotts with “teaching artists”  who show them how to use hands-on, visual art projects to teach math concepts. KPCC

Four CA Districts Make Race to the Top Finals
Out of 17 districts that applied for a share of the nearly $400 million in federal grant money, only four made the cut to the finals.  Districts that didn’t make the cut include Los Angeles, Fresno and Clovis Unified. EdSource Daily

Charter Group, but Not L.A. Unified, Finalist for Race to the Top
A local charter school organization is a finalist for a high-profile federal grant, but the Los Angeles Unifed School District failed to qualify in the same competition. LA Times

Great Uncertainty Over Direction of State Standardized Tests
What subjects should be tested, for whom, how often (not every year in every subject, perhaps), at what cost, and, perhaps the biggest question, for what purpose? EdSource

Inglewood Superintendent Returns to Turn Schools Around
Kent Taylor hopes to stabilize the insolvent district that he says set him on his course through life. But not everyone is rooting for him. LA Times

SBE Waivers Provide LEAs Relief From Class Size Restrictions
Requests to exceed class size limits continue to dominate the State Board of Education’s waiver calendar, with 10 districts this month seeking relief from various provisions of the laws aimed at maintaining low student-teacher ratios. SI&A Cabinet Report

LAUSD Teacher Pleads Guilty to Molesting Underage Girl
A Los Angeles Unified School District teacher pleaded guilty Monday to charges related to molesting an underage girl and leading police on a wild pursuit. CBS

Charter Schools Chain Cut Costs and Reformed Spending to Stay Open
The head of Inner City Education Foundation – ICEF – Public Schools, Parker Hudnut, detailed cost cutting and major philanthropic help as he described a two-year effort that’s led the 14-campus charter school company on a financial turnaround. KPCC