Though he focused mainly on his top priorities for spending future revenue, Deasy also reflected on the school system’s recent gains, including 800 new campus safety aides assigned to elementary and middle schools across the city.

One of the district’s greatest achievements has been the remarkable progress made by English Language Learners, according to Deasy. As a whole, LAUSD students who are still learning English increased in proficiency at a higher rate than all other students, scoring at 38 percent on the English/Language Arts Periodic Assessment exam in the 2013 school year compared to 25 percent the year before.

Deasy also noted that the district has seen a 44 percent drop in out-of-class suspensions during since the 2011-2012 school year and will most likely see that number increase since LAUSD became the first district in the state to ban suspensions for “willful defiance.”

Read the Superintendent’s full report here.

Previous posts Deasy Wants to Revamp Local School Funding Formula; Deasy & Allies Prevail at May Board Meeting;  Deasy Budget Memo

Zahniser said that he hardly ever uses the word ‘reform,’ in his stories, although editors sometimes ad it in.

“‘Reform’ is just one person’s promotional catchphrase,” he said.

“So what are you calling it?” I asked.

“I would call it pension change,” he said. “Because it’s in the eye of the beholder, first of all. And secondly, you don’t know, for years out, what it turned out to be.”

I wasn’t sure I agreed with Zahniser — pension change doesn’t exactly roll off your tongue —  and I’m not sure I agree now.  But his argument has stuck with me. And of course, nowhere is the question of how to name the various parties and proposals more pertinent than in reporting about education.

Good stories are centered around conflict. That’s the great thing about covering education right now. Public education in Los Angeles and much of the country is consumed by a series of debates between two ideological poles.

In simple form, one side is dominated by the teachers union and their ideological allies, such as Diane Ravitch. The other side, often described as “school reformers,” includes many big city mayors like Michael Bloomberg, Cory Booker and Antonio Villaraigosa, and quite a few rich guys like Eli Broad and Casey Wasserman.

While most of those involved identify themselves as Democrats, the two sides are not dissimilar from political parties: they have their own factions, their own sources of funding, their own ideologies, their own electoral machines and of course, their own vicious attacks on the other side.

When covering national politics, reporters use words like ‘Democrats’ and ‘Republicans’ without controversy. Other words, like ‘liberal,’ used to be controversial, but are now general accepted as useful labels, as are ‘conservative,’ ‘progressive,’ ‘moderate,’ and so on.

But what words should education reporters be using?

It’s a question that has been debated among educators and journalists for a while now, with no clear conclusion.

For the most part, I have been using the word ‘reformers,’ but with some hesitation, and possibly even some guilt. Sometimes, I’ll put quotes around the word ‘reformer’, to suggest a certain amount of distance. Last week, when I was on KCRW, and I found myself using the words, “so-called reformers.” But that didn’t feel quite right either, as if I was suggesting that I didn’t think they were reformers.

When I spoke with LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy last year, he said he didn’t like being called a reformer, because he thought it was divisive.

(Perhaps the solution is to use Reformer with a capital ‘R,’ just to make it clear we’re talking about a specific set of ideas, much like ‘Conservatives’ are distinguished from ‘conservatives’.)

Finding words for the other side can be just as problematic. When the union says something, fine, it’s the union. But what if a like-minded person like Diane Ravitch or LAUSD School Board member Bennett Kayser says something? Is he a “union sympathizer?” Is he “pro-union?” Is he “anti-reform?”

That side would no doubt hate being called “anti-reform,” just like pro-life activists wouldn’t want to be called anti-abortion. That side would probably want to be called progressives. Former School Board candidate Robert Skeels often uses the term “social justice” when referring to his own ideology.

Reporters are often accused of having one bias or another, but more than anything, we just want to be able to write a sentence without agonizing over what words and labels to use for various people in a story. All labels are, by their very nature, reductive. But without them, communication would be next to impossible.

My sense is that the word ‘reformer’ is becoming generally accepted. Both the Daily News‘ Barbara Jones and the LA Times‘ Howard Blume use the word. But what do we call the other side? And what do if the reform ideology becomes entrenched within the public education system, and some new movement from outside seeks to upend it? What will call everybody then?

Previous posts: Reform Critics Create New Advocacy Group, Listen: A Reporter’s Take on Today’s Elections, Opinion: “Outsiders” vs. Special Interests

Teachers’ Ratings Still High Despite New Measures
High teacher rating results, among the first trickling out from states’ newly revamped yardsticks, paint a picture of a K-12 system that remains hesitant to differentiate between the best and the weakest performers—as well as among all those in the middle doing a solid job who still have room to improve. EdWeek

School Principals Who Fail to Report Abuse Are Rarely Prosecuted
Principal Irene Hinojosa and teacher Robert Pimentel worked together for years, and she thought highly of Pimentel as a teacher. So when parents complained that he’d been touching girls, district officials said she disregarded the complaints. KPCC

L.A. City Workers’ Union Doesn’t Endorse Garcetti or Greuel
Members of six locals of the Service Employees International Union questioned City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilman Eric Garcetti, two top contenders in the race, for at least half an hour. Neither was recommended for an endorsement. LA Times

Seriously, a Bar Exam for Teachers? This Is Not the Answer
Pearl Arredondo, the founder of a pilot middle school in Los Angeles, feels more student teaching is the best way to prepare new teachers. Take Part Op-Ed

East L.A. Murals Come to Life in School Plays
Students at Monterey Continuation High School write and perform one-act skits about the wall art in their neighborhood. LA Times

Green Dot Continues to Make Improvements at Locke High School
Moving proactively to address the growing needs of its students, Green Dot Public Schools today announced the next step in the evolution of the management structure at Locke High School. LA Sentinel

Educators Celebrate First Six Months of Transitional Kindergarten
Transitional kindergarten, the new grade level for children whose fifth birthdays fall early in the school year, is 6 months old in February. EdSource

The Obama No Child Waiver Gambit: It’s Time for It to End
A few things are clear after today’s Senate Health Education Labor & Pensions Committee hearing on the Obama administration’s move to eviscerate the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. And, for the most part, it didn’t reflect well on the gambit. Dropout Nation Opinion

Another Trophy in the Case for Long Beach Unified
The state’s third-largest school district was named Thursday one of the five top school districts in the world by Battelle for Kids, a Columbus, Ohio-based nonprofit organization that counsels school districts on school improvement and innovation. EdSource

LAUSD Sues Insurance Companies for Garfield Repairs
Los Angeles Unified has sued its property insurers for at least $13 million for allegedly balking at paying to reconstruct the James A. Garfield High School auditorium ravaged in a fire almost six years ago. City News Service

Charter School Petition Goes Before LAUSD
The effort to bring a new elementary school to Downtown could take a big step forward next week. LA Downtown News

LAUSD to Compete With Charters to Run ‘Parent Trigger’ School
The parents at 24th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles Unified will have plenty of choices for an operator to take over their school under the “parent trigger” process they initiated this month. One of the contenders will be the district itself. EdSource
See also: LA Weekly, KPCC

Former State Senator Martha Escutia Calls for LAUSD Probe
In the wake of yet another sex abuse arrest in the Los Angeles Unified School District, former state Sen. Martha Escutia came to a Wilmington elementary school Monday to call for an LAUSD investigation into what she believes is a pattern of such abuse against Latino youth by teachers in low-income areas. LA Daily News
See also: LA Times

Second Parent Says Principal Ignored Concerns About Accused Teacher
Maria Zacapa, whose child is now in the eighth grade, said her son told her four years ago that Robert Pimental had touched a girl in his fourth-grade class in a way that made Zacapa’s son feel uncomfortable. LA Times

Crenshaw High Group Opposes Reform Plan and School Closings
Parents, students and teachers rallied Monday in front of Crenshaw High School to protest a plan to restructure the low-performing campus and require teachers to reapply for their jobs. LA Times

Linked Learning Comes of Age in California With New Pilot Programs
The California Department of Education has selected 63 districts and county offices of education – many of them working together in consortia – to pilot “linked learning” programs in their high schools beginning next fall. EdSource

Remembering the “One Laptop” Debacle
Need any reminders of what an edtech bubble looks like — the hype, exaggerated promises, enormous influxes of cash and media attention and wastes of time — then refresh your recollection of the 2005 One Laptop Per Child phenomenon in which Nicholas Negroponte said he was going to transform the world by giving poor kids low-income laptops. This Week in Education

Legislation Would Put Enforcement Teeth Into School Safety Plan Requirement
As a national debate continues to simmer over the best methods for protecting students from gun violence, a state senator from Southern California points out that a large number of school districts are failing to develop or update school safety plans – as required by law. SI&A Cabinet Report

Ed. Dept. Raises Evidence, Research Ante in Grant Awards
The U.S. Department of Education is taking the next formal step to make research and evidence far more important factors as it awards competitive grants. EdWeek

LAUSD Principal Failed to Report Alleged Molestation by Teacher
A now-retired principal twice failed to report accusations of sexual misconduct by a teacher who this week was charged with molesting 12 students at a Wilmington elementary school, officials said. LA Times
See also: Daily Beast, CS Monitor, LA Daily News, KPCC

Teachers Union Joins Suit Against Release of Ratings
The teachers union for the L.A. Unified School District was granted court permission Thursday to join a Los Angeles Times lawsuit seeking access to teacher ratings so it can argue they are based on an unreliable mathematical formula and should not be disclosed to the public. LA Times

Gov. Brown Uses State of the State Speech to Push Education Reforms
As if speaking from a pulpit, Brown warned of fire and brimstone if bureaucracy and inequity isn’t wiped clean from the state education system. KPCC

Calif. Districts Team Up to Push School Improvements
Frustrated by their own state’s pace and direction of school improvement, eight California districts have banded together to move ahead on rolling out the Common Core State Standards and designing new teacher evaluations based in part on student performance. EdWeek

South L.A. High School Gives Dropouts Another Chance
Free L.A. is a partnership between the John Muir Charter School, Youth Justice Coalition and the Work Investment Act. It was founded with the motto, “Escape the school-to-jail track.” Neon Tommy

Brown Lashes out at Regulators and Testers, Makes Case for His Reforms
With a caustic critique of excessive testing and overregulation and a fervent call for respecting the “dignity and freedom of teachers and students,” Gov. Jerry Brown laid out the case for returning primary control of education to local hands and distributing state money equitably in his State of the State address. EdSource

L.A. Mayoral Candidates’ Education Proposals Explained
While the five mayoral candidates vying for incumbent Antonia Villaraigosa’s position campaign across Los Angeles, one issue trumps most, no matter the neighborhood: education. Neon Tommy

Roosevelt’s Future Uncertain: School Scrambles to Meet LAUSD Deadline
A feeling of urgency and uncertainty is in the air at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, where teachers, parents and students are mobilizing for a possible whirlwind of change coming their way. EGP News

Key points of the discussion included the warm reception given the parents by LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, the mixed reception from UTLA President Warren Fletcher, and the issue of whether it would be better for 24th Street Elementary School to be turned into a charter or improved within the district.

“The objective here is not to have more charters,” said Green Dot CEO Marco Petruzzi, one of the panelists on the show.  “The objective is to have great schools… It’s great that the district and even Warren Fletcher has embraced the fact that they need to make changes.”

California Schools Flunk Education Group’s Ratings
California is sorely lacking when it comes to school reform, failing to adopt policies to limit teacher tenure and use student test scores in teacher evaluations, according to a rating of states issued Monday by a high-profile education advocacy group. LA Times

Policymakers React to StudentsFirst’s ‘F’ for California
David Plank, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education, an education research and policy group, questions the basis of Rhee’s criteria. Reactions to the report card from legislators were mixed. EdSource

Teacher Evaluation Law Will Be Taken on Again
Breakthrough agreements in two California school districts and a much anticipated report on improving teacher effectiveness have raised expectations that it might actually be possible to amend or rewrite the state’s outdated and ineffective state law on teacher evaluations in a way that can work for both unions and school districts. EdSource

Extra Police at LAUSD Campuses Criticized by One Group
Students returned to school Monday with an increased presence of Los Angeles police officers on elementary and middle school campuses, although one group says the move sends the wrong message. LA Times

New Statewide Test to Be Proposed Tuesday
California’s top educator will unveil his proposal for a new statewide test at a press conference on Tuesday. Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Brown’s Budget Expected to Aid Schools’ Energy Efficiency
When Gov. Jerry Brown releases his budget proposal Thursday, he will include his plans for $500 million in new spending on energy efficiency and related programs. Much of that money is expected to be earmarked for retrofitting schools to help lower utility bills. LA Times

Unfinished Agenda on School Discipline
A California assemblyman is once again trying to curb expulsions and suspensions for what’s known as “willful defiance,” when kids act out or misbehave in class or during school activities. EdSource

One Year Cap on Teacher Prep Programs up for Debate
Growing demands on teacher preparation programs to cover all the necessary topics and issues needed to produce world-class educators have drawn new attention to the state law that restricts the training time to just one year. SI&A Cabinet Report

Arne Duncan’s Letter Rejecting California’s NCLB Waiver Request

Michelle Rhee

StudentsFirst, an education advocacy group headed by former Washington Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, released a education policies report Monday that gave 11 states, including California, failing grades. Not many other states fared much better—no states received A’s, and nearly 90 percent of states scored lower than a C grade. Rhee and former NYC superintendent Joel Klein followed up with an op-ed on CNN.com (States’ education laws aren’t making the grade).

Not all state education policy leaders are disappointed with their low grades, however. In the New York Times, California’s Chief Deputy Superintendent Richard Zeiger said the state’s F rating was a “badge of honor.” Zieger “flat-out disagree[s]” with the methods StudentsFirst endorse to improve schools—such as limiting teacher tenure, using student progress results in teacher evaluations, and expanding school choice through charters. (See: StudentsFirst Issues Low Ratings on School Policies). “This is an organization that frankly makes its living by asserting that schools are failing,” Zeiger is quoted saying in the article. “I would have been surprised if we had got anything else.”

In response, Rhee issued a statement:  “Does [Zeiger] consider it a badge of honor that California’s education policies rank 41st in the nation? Or perhaps he considers it a badge of honor that children are going into underperforming classrooms every day in California without a way to choose a better school option? Maybe he’s proud that great teachers in California aren’t paid adequately and are often laid off based on seniority, not effectiveness.”

Previously, Rhee has criticized California’s lack of a state law requiring the use of student achievement in measuring teachers, an issue that played a part in the Obama Administration’s recent rejection of a waiver request for California. Rhee has also criticized the tentative agreement between UTLA and LAUSD over teacher evaluations, which includes student achievement but leaves several key details unknown and is set for a rank-and-file vote next week.

Previous posts: Reformer Calls For Stronger State Evaluation Law, Voices Urge “No” Vote On Evaluation, Looming Vote On Teacher Evaluations.

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy has identified 13 low-performing schools to participate in what is called PSC 4.0.  This is a decrease from the previous year, when 33 schools were part of the process.

Only in-district planning teams, made up of union-certified current or former LAUSD employees, are allowed to compete to manage a school turnaround.

PSC began in 2009 as an initiative to reform failing schools by opening up management to alterative operators, such as charter groups or teacher-led groups. The idea behind PSC was that whichever team submitted the best plan to transform a failing school would be awarded the chance to operate it.

According to this recent LA Times editorial (New schools = better student performance), PSC may have been a part of the academic improvements in LAUSD.

But as of last year, non-union operators were prohibited from participating in the PSC process after the teachers union won that as a key stipulation in its labor negotiations with LAUSD.  (See also KPCC: LAUSD & UTLA Reach Agreement Granting Wider Autonomy to All Schools on Teacher Placement and Budgets, and LAT: Individual Los Angeles Schools Gain New Autonomy.)

New plans for four additional schools will be submitted because Superintendent Deasy rejected last years’ proposals.  Click here for a list of schools that have participated in PSC over its history.

Check out this Huffington Post blog penned by Carl Finer, a teacher who taught at LAUSD for seven years but switched to a Los Angeles charter school last year.

A member of a pro-reform teacher voice organization called Teach Plus, Finer explains why he made the move, and what charter and district schools could learn from each other to better serve their students and communities.

Read the full article at the Huffington Post. Check out the map of charter schools in and around LAUSD via the blog Hope Change Choices.

Steve Barr

There was a time when Green Dot Public Schools founder Steve Barr — the man responsible for the 2008 hostile takeover of Locke High School and a frequent critic of the teachers union and the Board — was seen by many as the barbarian at the gate.

Now, Barr has a daughter in 2nd grade at Ivanhoe Elementary, one of the better public schools in the city, and it seems as if he and LAUSD have met halfway. He and a small group of UTLA teachers will partner with the district to start one or more pilot schools – schools that will have more autonomy than normal public schools but remain within the district.

“My theory of change was that charter schools could be good research and development for what a district could be,” Barr said in an interview earlier this week. “It was always about changing LAUSD– not just creating a bunch of charter schools.”

Kathy Haggerman teaches AP World History and health at Fairfax High. She and another teacher are working with Barr to put a new pilot school on the Fairfax campus.

“I come from insurance industry,” Haggerman told me the other day. “I look at teaching, and I’m horrified. It’s not necessarily a model that rewards excellence.”

At first, Haggerman started talking to Barr about turning Fairfax High into a Charter, just like he did with Locke. But then she decided she’d rather work within LAUSD.

Her shcool would hire UTLA teachers, but under a different contract, one that would have to be renewed every year. There would be no tenure.

“We don’t have to keep anyone that is ineffective,” said Haggerman. “Most teachers are great, but the ones that are terrible can wreck a school.”

There are two other groups like Haggerman’s that are working with Barr to start new schools– one on the Eastside (Silver Lake or Los Feliz, near Ivanhoe), and one on the Westside (Venice or Mar Vista). They are still in the early design phases, meeting with teachers and community members, but Barr hopes that one or more of them will open in the Fall of next year.

Sujata Bhatt, a teacher at Grand View Elementary, is on the design team for the Westside school. She wants to design a school with an entirely different approach to curriculum.

“I think it’s time to rethink our schools,” she told me. “Traditional textbook-based instruction isn’t really serving our kids. Kids are growing up in a video game world They need to be engaged in a different way.”

Teachers like Bhatt and Haggerman see no reason why charters should be the only schools doing the innovating.

Placing the new schools in middle class neighborhoods is something of a new strategy for Barr, who placed most of his Green Dot schools in lower-income areas. He pointed to his own neighborhood, where parents love Ivanhoe (housing prices are famously at a premium near the school) but don’t have any comparable choices when it comes to middle school and high school– unless you count charters or private schools.

“People can’t afford private,” he said. “The district has got to be more proactive or else theyr’e going to be swallowed up by charters.”

There are already a handful of charter schools– Larchmont, Citizens of the World, and Los Feliz– that attract middle-class parents.

But Barr has a more ambitious goal: to make sure the middle class has an incentive to invest in public education.

“We’re looking at tax initiatives to turn the system around,” he said, “if you don’t have the middle class involved, I don’t know how you’re gonna get public buy-in. I don’t know how the system changes without the middle class.”