Dr. Ruth Perez

Eight months after Jaime Aquino’s departure as LA Unified’s Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, the district has a candidate to fill the seat.

Superintendent John Deasy announced today he would recommend Ruth Pérez, former superintendent of the Norwalk-La Mirada school district, whose hiring is scheduled to come before the board for approval at its next meeting, on Aug. 26.

 “Dr. Pérez’s track record of success with students who are growing up in poverty, and youth who, like her, didn’t speak English when they started school, equips her to lead instruction for LAUSD,” Deasy said in a statement.  “Focused on high academic achievement for all students, she excels with diverse enrollments.”

A native of Puerto Rico, Perez began her career in Kissimmee, Fla., teaching English literature and English as a second language.

After moving into administration, she became an area superintendent in the Orange County public schools in Orlando.

Later, as the chief academic officer for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg public schools in North Carolina, she implemented initiatives such as intensive reading programs for students in Kindergarten through the third grade; extensive training for teachers instructing English learners and professional development strategies to teach children of poverty. She also expanded after-school programs to middle school students and reduced suspensions.

During her five years as superintendent at Norwalk-La Mirada, the overall graduation rate increased to 94 percent from 76.5 percent. Performance on state standardized tests also rose—as did the Academic Performance Index (API) score, which increased 54 points.

Aquino was one of Deasy’s top advisors, leading efforts to change the district’s instructional protocols to the Common Core State Standards, including the district’s plan to purchase iPads for every student and teacher.

“I’m personally very sad to lose such a gifted and talented employee,” Deasy said at the time. “It’s a real loss, and we’ll look forward to a very thoughtful transition.”

In explaining his decision to step down, Aquino wrote to his colleagues, “I feel the current political climate does not allow me to lead an agenda that is in the best interest of kids.’

Aquino remained his his position through the end of last year and as replaced on a temporary basis in March by former head of School, Parent and Family/Community Services, Maria Casillas. 

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/la-unified-names-ruth-perez-as-successor-to-aquino-lausd/feed/ 0 https://www.laschoolreport.com/casillas-replacing-jaime-aquino-interim-deputy-instruction/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/casillas-replacing-jaime-aquino-interim-deputy-instruction/#respond Fri, 28 Mar 2014 21:26:23 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=21686

John Deasy and Maria Casillas

Former head of School, Parent and Family/Community Services, Maria Casillas, is coming out of retirement on Tuesday to serve as LA Unified’s interim Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, a post left vacant by the sudden resignation of Jaime Aquino last year.

Casillas, who resigned from the district last June as Chief School and Family/Community Services, was appointed by Superintendent John Deasy last week. It is unclear if he consulted the school board on his choice.  An interim appointment does not require a vote by the board.

“I’ll just be assisting Deasy in making sure that the major initiatives that are already on the agenda get through by the end of this fiscal year,” Casillas told LA School Report.

She doesn’t plan to hold the position for very long — just a couple of months — and will be working “somewhat part-time,” she said.

“There’s nothing that I’m going to be able to start or complete,” she said. “I’m very aware that I’m pinch-hitting. I’m not there to review and say, ‘Oh, I have a better idea.’ ”

Casillas said she has yet to outline top priorities with Deasy, but expects to tackle the continued implementation of Common Core standards, overseeing the district’s first round of [Smarter Balanced] testing and carrying out the next phase of the iPad program.

Another major initiative, and the one she seems most enthusiastic about, is working on the English Learner Master Plan, the 2012 overhaul of the district’s academic curriculum to move English learners into mainstream classes.

“That is just a huge, major initiative that got underway,” she said.

Casillas said Deasy is “interested in bringing on someone of a very high caliber to replace Aquino. (Interested? Click here.)

“And it’s not that I’m not high caliber,” she insisted. “It’s that I’m retired.”

Board member Monica Ratliff

The LA Unified school board will grapple with three separate resolutions regarding the district’s ambitious iPad project at its meeting today, but only Monica Ratliff’s proposal has the potential of drastically changing the course of the district’s ed-tech revolution.

Ratliff is recommending that the district hold off on starting the second round of iPads distribution until the end of the school year. During that time the school board can continue to monitor their effectiveness along with other options.

“We are not the first district to do this kind of thing,” she said during last week’s board meeting, dedicated to the district’s Common Core Technology Project.

She said the board should mine the “wealth of knowledge” individual campuses and some charter schools have gained while using their own technology and curriculum programs. Her Common Core Technology Project committee recently surveyed teachers piloting the iPads.

By contrast today, Monica Garcia is proposing that her district continue as “the pioneer” for the district’s technology program, and deputy Superintendent Jaime Aquino is asking the board to continue the iPad rollout as originally planned.

As part of her proposal, Ratliff wants to study the KIPP LA charter schools model. All nine campuses have implemented laptops in their classrooms and use a variety of adaptive instructional software programs.

“By embedding these laptops, our teachers are able to provide targeted, small-group instruction to students,” KIPP LA Chief Academic Officer, Angella Martinez, told LA School Report.

Some KIPP schools use traditional laptops while others have recently adopted the Google Chromebook, a light-weight device that retails for about $250 and runs web-based applications. In contrast, the more expensive iPads and traditional laptops operate with programs downloaded onto on the device itself.

“Chromebooks have proven to be easy to manage for our three-person tech team and are durable in the classroom environment,” Martinez said. “We have found that traditional laptops are no longer necessary — our students can access all of the necessary tools in the cloud and online.”

Additionally, several of KIPP schools also use iPads. They are particularly beneficial for intervention, says Martinez, because they allow teachers to provide very targeted support to students.”

But the iPads present a new set of challenges for teachers.

“We have found that iPads require extensive teacher bandwidth when implemented classroom-wide,” Martinez said.

As a result, KIPP schools have moved toward laptop-based blended learning, augmented by strategic iPad use, raising new questions about a one-iPad-fits-all strategy that the district has planned. An affirmative vote on Ratliff’s proposal could upend all that, pushing the district in an entirely new technology direction.

Previous Posts: LA Unified Board will address two controversies, Vladovic and iPads; LA Teachers and students protest spending and reliance on iPads; LA Unified Board sees a digital future without Apple iPads.

Board member Monica Ratliff

Over eight hours today, in another tedious LA Unified board meeting, members one-by-one pledged to forge ahead with the district’s ambitious technology program to bridge the digital divide for some of the nation’s poorest students.

But for the first time, some board members signaled that the way forward may not include Apple iPads.

The meeting featured a parade of staff reports supporting the Common Core Technology Project, as district officials painstakingly worked their way through a 95-page presentation for the board. They recapped the nearly-complete first phase of the troubled iPad program and projected what may or may not follow.

While board members refrained from badgering officials as they have done in previous meetings, and the six members in attendance committed to continue with new technologies – Tamar Galatzan was absent – questions arose as to how and when future phases of the technology program would play out.

Monica Ratliff, the newest board member and chair of the Common Core Technology Project Committee, was the most outspoken about switching gears. She had not yet been elected when the previous board voted to approve a billion-dollar program to give all the district’s 650,000 students a digital device.

Ratliff offered a resolution that would delay the board’s vote on the second phase of the iPad roll-out by six months to evaluate the instructional effectiveness of iPads as well as laptops and other digital devices used in district schools.

In her resolution, the board would vote to approve Phase 2 in June or July of next year, adding another six months to a timeline that Superintendent John Deasy has already pushed back. Just last month, he proposed extending the entire program by about a year, to conclude in the fall of 2015.

Deasy did not attend the meeting because of his financial holdings in Apple, makers of the iPad.

Based on responses to a recent survey of teachers and principals, Ratliff said, “What I hear most often from high school teachers is that their students need laptops more than iPads.” She questioned assurances from Superintendent of Instruction and Curriculum Jaime Aquino that an “iPad can do everything a laptop can do.”

Ratliff proposed that the district examine forms of technology and curriculum in use throughout the district, including charter schools. KIPP schools are now using Google Chromebooks, and Francis Polytechnic High School uses Springboard curriculum.

Board President Richard Vladovic provided her some support, saying, “At some point we may want to look at bifurcating what we’re doing with high school students and elementary students.”

The board will consider Ratliff’s resolution at its next meeting, on Nov. 12.

Bennett Kayser, who recused himself for much of the meeting because of his conflict of interest with Apple, returned late in the day and expressed other misgivings about proceeding with Phase 2. In a slightly contentious exchange with Aquino, Kayser said the district has taken a backward approach to the rollout by proceeding without data that validates effectiveness.

As a former science teacher, Kayser said he is devoted to the scientific method and what the district is doing is “some other kind of scientific method.”

Kayser asked if the district will produce hard data supporting claims made by district officials that the use of iPads has improved attendance, student engagement and even learning.

“In science you make a hypothesis and then you get data to support that,” he said with an air of frustration. “We need to see that Phase 1 is working before we can move on to Phase 2.”

Board member Steve Zimmer, who has vigorously supported the iPad program and the shift to the Common Core Standards curriculum, also warned of crediting the iPad as the only way forward. In an impassioned speech, embracing the need to provide all district students with new technology, Zimmer expressed some hesitation with the zeal for moving too quickly.

“There should be no doubt as we sit here today that we are moving forward,” he said emphatically. “I am deeply committed to making sure this happens. But I am also deeply committed to making sure this is right.”

The cost of the iPad program also came under tight scrutiny, as the district’s Chief Strategy Officer, Matt Hill, walked the members through the slide presentation of the district’s five-year technology plan, which includes the deal with Apple.

While insisting that the district did not overpay – “I challenge anyone in this country to find a better deal,” he said – he made it clear, nonetheless, that Apple and its software supplier, Pearson, might not be LA Unified’s partners in years to come.

Once the current program is complete, he said, the district plans to seek new bids for hardware and software for upgrades, starting in 2016.

Monica Garcia, who was president of the board when the members voted to approve the iPad program, made it clear she had no hesitations about keeping the iPad rolling.

After reminding her colleagues that her district included only a few of the 47 schools that received tablets in Phase 1, she said, “Phase 2 should be for the schools that want to participate. If you don’t want it in your district, I welcome it in mine.”

Previous Posts: LA Unified Principals Find iPad Rollout Not So Bad; School Board Seems Surprised by Its Own iPad Deal; LA Unified iPads Could Cost Another $100 Each.

Jaime Aquino

The Los Angeles Unified School District has begun the search to replace Deputy Superintendent for Instruction Jamie Aquino, who announced a week and a half ago that he would resign at the end of the year.

The job posting seeks to find “an accomplished and visionary educator with considerable experience aligning student and school needs with the resources that ensure academic success.” The annual salary for the job is $250,000 a year plus benefits, about what Aquino was making.

Superintendent John Deasy said that he expects the job search to take months. Deasy has final say on the candidate, but the board retains the right to reject the choice.

Shortly after Aquino resigned, the teachers union’s twitter account tweeted that the opening represented an opportunity “to revisit the instructional direction of the District.”

Previous posts: Analysis: Aquino’s Resignation Turns a Spotlight onto Deasy; Aquino’s Resignation Explanation; Deasy Deputy Jaime Aquino Resigns (Updated); Senior District Employee Gives to Garcia

Aquino was conspicuously absent from the proceedings. As Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, he has been a chief architect of the Common Core transition. He said on Friday that he would resign at the end of the year because of what he sees as school board meddling.

“Due to the announcement of my resignation, I have decided not to do any public engagement during my transition period,” Aquino told LA School Report in an email, when asked why he wasn’t at today’s board meeting. “My focus will be to work behind the scenes to ensure a smooth transition.”

The budget, which passed with only Monica Ratliff dissenting, will give schools $70 per student, to be spent on technology, professional development or new materials to prepare students, teachers and administrators for the new Common Core curriculum and the standardized tests that will come with it. It also spends $24 million over the next two years on 122 math and English teacher advisors and another $8 million on 30 “content coordinators” for science, history, arts and English language development.

Like the teachers union, Ratliff is opposed to teacher advisors.

The absence of any discussion of the budget prior to its passage was particularly notable since the seven-member body had, just last week, postponed approval for the sake of additional discussion. That was already the second draft that Deasy and his team had put together. The slow speed with which the board was moving on the budget was cited as a key reason for Aquino’s resignation and was criticized in the LA Times editorial.

Prior to the vote, the board spent more than an hour discussing a proposed amendment by Steve Zimmer that was first handed to his colleagues as they took their seats, following  a closed-door session ran 90 minutes late. The amendment would have reduced the money to schools to pay for three district-wide Common Core planning days, including one that Zimmer called a “Common Core Convocation” to “bring our entire community together and signal and celebrate the transformation this represents.”

The plan was met with skepticism by Deasy and other Board members.

“I am particularly opposed to a ‘Common Core Convocation'” said Ratliff, who usually votes along with Zimmer. “I think the money should go to the schools.”

“I am trying to be aspirational,” said Zimmer, defending his amendment. “I just wanted to throw that idea out there.”

Board President Richard Vladovic supported the amendment, saying, “I see tremendous value in having everyone march to the same tune,” though he added of Common Core training: “This is not the end all be all. This will be an evolving process and take 10 to 15 years.”

Eventually, the Board rejected the change by a vote of 4 to 3, with Ratliff and, perhaps most surprisingly, Bennett Kayser joining with Monica Garcia and Tamar Galatzan in voting no. Like Ratliff, Kayser said he preferred more money be given directly to schools.

After the meeting, Zimmer told reporters he was disappointed his amendment didn’t pass, but added, “I introduced the amendment to guide the debate substantively, and I believe that happened… I feel that it’s important to have substantive direction and real clear choice.”

Previous posts: LA Unified Board Considers Common Core — Yet Again; Analysis: Aquino’s Resignation Turns a Spotlight onto Deasy; Deasy Deputy Jaime Aquino Resigns (Updated); Vladovic Leadership Style Suggests Slower Pace is Best

Board President Vladovic

Today is expected be another long day for LA Unified School Board members.

Last week’s eight-hour session — only the second board meeting of the school year –was not long enough to hash out the details of the district’s Common Core implementation plan, so they’ve sandwiched in a Special Board Meeting between two others that were already on the calendar.

The first meeting, starting at 10 a.m., will have a short window for public comment but, will then become, for the most part, a closed session for the board, legal counsel and labor contract negotiators. This is also when the board will take up personnel issues, a discussion which will now include the unexpected resignation on Friday of Jaime Aquino, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction and Superintendent John Deasy’s right-hand man. A routine evaluation of the superintendent’s performance is also on the closed-door agenda.

Board members, who said they were “shocked” and “surprised” by Aquino’s sudden decision to leave the $250,000 a year post effective Dec. 31, will address the impending vacancy. However, it’s unclear if the board will have input in choosing a successor for Aquino or if Deasy will single-handedly oversee the search.

Aquino blamed the school board for creating a contentious climate and intentionally blocking his efforts to push forward Deasy’s aggressive reform agenda. Aquino told the LA Daily News the tipping point for him was when the board failed to pass the Common Core budget last week, pushing it off until today.

That indecision is what led to today’s noon Special Board Meeting. It is the third time the board will try to reach a consensus on how to spend $113 million to implement the new English and math curriculum. Board members have not agreed on the best plan for training teachers on the Common Core.

The final session of the day, on the schedule for 2 p.m., is a meeting for the Committee of the Whole, chaired by Steve Zimmer. The committee will tackle the Local Control Funding Formula, the plan that funnels Prop. 30 revenue directly to school districts.

Board president Richard Vladovic, Zimmer and Bennett Kayser want class size returned to pre-recession levels while Deasy, favors restoring summer school, after-school programs and advanced academic classes, in addition to paying down the structural deficit and giving raises to all district employees.

Previous Posts: Deasy Deputy Jaime Aquino Resigns (Updated); Vladovic Leadership Style Suggests Slower Pace is Best; Common Core Budget Approval Put Off for Another Week

Superintendent Deasy

Jaime Aquino‘s surprise announcement Friday that he’ll resign from Superintendent John Deasy‘s staff at the end of the year has sent shockwaves throughout LA Unified. Tomorrow, the district school board will take up the matter in closed session.

It’s unclear what they’ll discus – but his impending departure has exposed the district and its fractured board to a number of sudden and burning questions, not least of which may be:

Is Deasy Next?

On election night in March, just as it was becoming clear that Steve Zimmer was going to hold off a tough challenge by Kate Anderson, I got an email from a semi-prominent school reformer, offering three bold pronoucements: there would be a new board president (there is), there would be a new makeup of the board (there is) and Deasy would be on his way out. My correspondent told me: “Enough board interference makes his job really unfun and he leaves for greener pastures.”

They were unusual predictions, coming as they did months before Monica Ratliff pulled off a shock upset against Antonio Sanchez. Deasy’s staff is certainly frustrated by the new makeup of the board, as evidenced by Aquino’s departure. When asked last Friday if he was thinking about resigning, Deasy declined to comment – an ominous response coming from the man who told LAUSD administrators little more than a month ago, “I and this administration are not going anywhere.”

And that’s just the first question awaiting resolution:

Who will replace Aquino?

Will it be another headstrong reformer? Or will it be someone a bit more palatable to the new ideological makeup of the school board? Will Deasy be given autonomy in the search for Aquino’s successor? Will the board insist on having input? Will there even be a replacement?

How will Vladovic respond?

The new board majority seems to have an affinity for process. They like asking questions. They like discussion. They like committees. So far, Board President Richard Vladovic has let the debate flow, showing little interest in speeding things up – in stark contrast to his predecessor, Monica Garcia. But with the slow pace of board action being partially blamed for Aquino’s departure, will Vladovic endeavor to speed things up, lest more senior staff resign?

Did Aquino have other reasons to quit?

“My heart is completely broken,” Aquino told the LA Daily News. “But the current climate doesn’t allow me to lead an agenda that is in the best interest of kids.”

There’s something a bit vague about that explanation. Was he frustrated by the slow pace of deliberation? By the workload created by incessant questions from various board members? Or by the new idealogical makeup of the board, whose budget priorities differ greatly from those of Deasy?

Some have suggested that Aquino might have other reasons for quitting – namely, for questions raised by the tablet computer procurement process, which led the district to enter into a deal with Apple for iPads with Pearson software for every student and teacher in LAUSD – at more than $600 a pop. Aquino has been criticized for his role in the process because he used to work for America’s Choice, which is owned by Pearson.

“There’s no question the procurement issues related to the iPads and the Pearson software is a significant part of this,” said former board member David Tokofsky.

Will the Common Core Rollout Get Even Bumpier?

Will Board members see Aquino as something of a “lame duck,” and take his recommendations less seriously than before? Will further elements of the district’s technology plan, as well as the transition to the Common Core curriculum, be called into question?

It could well turn out that Aquino’s resignation is only the first surprise.

Previous posts: Aquino’s Resignation Explanation; Deasy Deputy Jaime Aquino Resigns (Updated);  Aquino Sees Deeper Thinking but Falling Scores with Common Core; Senior District Employee Gives to Garcia

Jaime Aquino

In the note Jaime Aquino circulated last week, he blames his decision to resign on a “political climate” that blocks his ability to lead in a way he views as effective.

He names no names, but he was clearly not happy with a decision to postpone implementation of Common Core, one of his prime directives.

Here’s the note he sent around:

Subject: MY LAUSD JOURNEY

Dear Colleagues,

Three years ago, Dr. Deasy convinced me to join his team in implementing an ambitious agenda to ensure that all schools in the City of Los Angeles were places of academic excellence.  I believe that under his leadership this vision is closer to becoming a reality.  As much as I would want to continue on this journey, I feel the current political climate does not allow me to lead an agenda that is in the best interest of kids.

I want to thank you for embracing me into the LAUSD family and allowing me to be part of a collective effort that has made miracles happen for thousands of kids in the city of Los Angeles.

Our working lives are, I think, a bit like a train journey.  You get on at one station, and, you may get off or on again at a dozen others.  You will see, at every station you pass, others going on their own journeys of life. Some of them enter your carriage and share part of your journey and some of them pass it by.

I have been in the same carriage with you almost three years now.  Like the strangers who chat in the train, I have learned some of your stories. I have come to know your passion and commitment to our kids.

I have always thought it a very good idea to be open to new suggestions and new ideas.  You have given me both.  I hope that I, in my turn, have been able to share some of mine with you.  I cannot say how successful I was, of course, but I would like to think that sometime in the future someone would say, “He taught me something” or “Our schools will be better because of his contributions.”

Thank you for the opportunity to serve all of you and the children of Los Angeles. Please be assured that in the next three months I will work tirelessly to ensure a smooth transition.

My train will be leaving at the end of this calendar year, but perhaps it is a circular route and someday I will come back this way again.  In the meantime, I urge you to continue working tirelessly to ensure that all students are afforded the opportunity to live the American dream.

Jaime

Previous Post: Deasy Deputy Jaime Aquino Resigns (Updated)

Jaime Aquino

Jaime Aquino, LA Unified’s Superintendent of Instruction has resigned, according to Superintendent John Deasy and School Board President Richard Vladovic.

“Dr. Aquino served the students of LAUSD admirably for the past few years, Vladovic said today in an email. “He made a decision to leave the District and pursue other endeavors. I wholeheartedly thank him for his service to our students and District.”

As one of Deasy’s top advisors, Aquino led the efforts to change the district’s instructional protocols to the Common Core State Standards, including the district’s plan to purchase iPads for every student and teacher.

“I’m personally very sad to lose such a gifted and talented employee,” Deasy said. “It’s a real loss, and we’ll look forward to a very thoughtful transition.”

Deasy told the LA Daily News today that other members of his leadership team have grown disheartened by what the story called “the perceived loss of school board support for their reform agenda, which has led to increases in student test scores and graduation rates.”

“There are others on my team who are in a similar position (as Aquino), and I am trying to work through that,” Deasy was quoted as saying.

Aquino has not responded to several calls from LA School Report seeking comment.

There had been rumors of tension between Aquino and Vladovic. In a July 6 Los Angeles Times story, Vladovic acknowledged that he shouted at Aquino, but added that he thinks “very highly” of him. Aquino had declined to comment on the incident.

The Times story went on to say that the “incident and others became part of an ongoing internal investigation into whether Vladovic crossed legal or ethical lines with alleged verbal abuse.”

Tamar Galatzan, a board member representing communities in the Valley, said in an email statement: “Jaime Aquino has been an amazing and dedicated advocate for our children, our teachers and our schools. I am very sorry to see him go.”

Board member Monica Garcia also praised Aquino, citing in particular his development of the English Language Learner Master Plan. She credits the plan for helping to raise English Language Learner test scores by 28 points this year.

“I’m very saddened that he is moving on, and I’m hopeful that he will reconsider,” she said.

It’s unclear just why Aquino has resigned. Many behind the scenes are speculating that Aquino along with other district officials have been disheartened by the recent shift in the school board under Vladovic’s leadership – both in policy and in style — citing as the latest example, the slow pace of debate over funding of the Common Core curriculum, which was delayed again at the board meeting earlier this week.

Aquino has been pressing for approval so the district can make faster headway in the transition.

“Jaime’s the first to go,” said one insider, “But I think you’re going to see an exodus.”

Asked by the Daily News if he intended to leave, Deasy declined to comment.

Asked for her opinion on Aquino, Garcia replied: “I think he has incredible talent and feels like he needs to move. It is the job of the board, though, to be a place where people want to work, to be a place that recognizes talent. And we have a hole.”

Aquino, a native of the Dominican Republic, began his professional as a bilingual teacher in New York, winning acclimation as New York State Bilingual Teacher of the Year in 1990.

In New York City, Dr. Aquino also taught math and served as a science staff developer, a mathematics coordinator, a director of bilingual education programs, a delegate for the American Federation of Teachers, a curriculum writer, Deputy Executive Director for the Division of Instructional Support for the New York City Department of Education and Local Instructional Superintendent.

After several years as Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction for the Hartford Public Schools, he became Chief Academic Officer for the Denver Public Schools, where he was responsible for implementing a reform agenda that led to record gains in student achievement.

In July 2011, Aquino joined Deasy’s team as the Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, a role in which he oversaw the local district superintendents, curriculum and instruction, special education, adult education, mental health and social services and parent and community engagement.

Aquino has a Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Teaching with a specialty in Language, Learning and Literacy from Fordham University; a Master of Science in Bilingual Education, also from Fordham; and a B.S. in Psychology from the Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo.

This post has been updated throughout the day.

Previous posts: CA Getting ‘Smarter’ with New Tests to Probe Critical Thinking; Aquino Sees Deeper Thinking but Falling Scores with Common Core; Senior District Employee Gives to Garcia

Superintendent Deasy

The LA Unified school board voted, again, to delay its final decision on crafting and approving the $113 million Common Core budget for at least another week. The money comes from the state and is intended to help school districts transition over the next two years to the new curriculum.

It appeared to be a poke in the eye to Superintendent John Deasy, who had presented the Common Core budget at last month’s Board meeting, with roughly 75 percent of it allocated for teacher training. With input from board members, Deasy’s staff radically altered the plan to give individual schools greater control over the money — under the new version of the budget, each school would receive $70 per student.

“The feedback we got from last board meeting was a desire to have more school-based allocation,” said Deputy Superintendent Jaime Aquino.

But Board members weren’t pleased with this new proposal either. Marguerite LaMotte, for example, was upset that money for parent training was eliminated from the new version.

Bennett Kayser had a number of questions and eventually suggested that the issue be postponed so that it could be discussed in a committee “so that board members can make a more educated vote.” The idea was immediately seconded by Monica Ratliff — sending Deasy back to try again, with the promise of even more questions from board members.

Both Monica Garcia and Tamar Galatzan, Deasy’s staunchest allies on the board, objected to delaying the vote, with Galatzan saying it would be a “great disservice” and suggesting that questions should have been asked prior to the Board meeting.

“I think we have a duty to come prepared to these meetings,” Garcia said.

UTLA President Warren Fletcher objected to the creation of 171 new positions to be filled by current teachers who would train other teachers in the new curriculum, as the proposal outlined. Fletcher argued that the new classifications would have to be the subject of collective bargaining.

The union recently filed an unfair practice claim in the Public Employee Relations Board over a similar matter. Kayser said he had similar objections, as did Ratliff: “My two cents is I think we should move the $24.4 million for local advisors into local control,” she said, referring to money allocated for “teacher advisors.”

Deasy said the board was welcome to amend the budget however members wanted –“Just tell us what you desire,” he said — although he couldn’t resist a shot against Kayser, saying: “If the board’s desire is to not elevate teachers to leadership decisions, we should know that now.”

After more than an hour of discussion, the Board voted, 5-2, with Galatzan and Garcia dissenting, to postpone discussion over the Common Core budget for another week. The Board will convene a special meeting at noon next Tuesday to resume the debate. It will only have around two hours, since Steve Zimmer‘s Committee of the Whole is set to meet at 2 p.m.

Previous posts: LA Unified Getting $113 Million for Common Core Transition*; Deasy, Board Plunging Back into Turbulent Budget Waters; School Board Meeting Wrap Up: More Discussion Than Votes*

Rather different from the usual instruction: “Pick the best answer, A, B, C, or D.” Right?

That’s because California is getting “Smarter.”

Beginning in the 2014–2015 school year, 25 states are replacing their standardized tests with “Smarter Balanced” assessments, a product of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, one of two groups developing tests aligned to the new Common Core State Standards now being taught in 45 states.

In California, the new tests will replace the traditional Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) assessments, which were established by the legislature in 1997. The STAR tests passed into history on July 1 although the state has not yet decided what tests, if any, will be used for the current academic year.

“If you take a look at the Smarter Balanced prototype, you will see that almost all the items have a connection to the real world,” says Jaime Aquino, deputy superintendent of instruction for Los Angeles Unified. “It’s about application. It’s about measuring higher-order thinking. It’s not about multiple choice.”

Aquino says the new test is infinitely superior to the previous California standardized tests, which were entirely multiple choice, except for writing assessments in grades 4 and 7.  The Smarter Balanced tests are designed to probe critical thinking and analysis through a mix of multiple-choice, short answer and extended response questions.

Not all education experts are pleased with the change.

Robert Schaeffer of FairTest, a nonprofit that works to promote quality education and testing, says the new Common Core-aligned tests are longer and “substantially more difficult” than previous tests, calling the questions “esoteric, highly technical and unnecessary for someone to succeed in college or life” with a format he says is no different from the tests many states give now.

“Because of the political pressure to develop these tests quickly and cheaply, they largely failed to revise them,” says Schaeffer. “It’s more important to get it right than to get it fast. It’s easy to develop the perfect assessment system in theory, but you need to try it out in practice.”

FairTest is calling for a moratorium on the Common Core tests. Schaeffer cites the sharp drop in scores in New York and Kentucky, after those states administered tests aligned to the new standards, and FairTest is not alone in its objection.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said back in April that the tests should not be used to judge student or teacher performance, or used in any other high-stakes decisions, until the standards have been field-tested. Education organizations, including the National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association, have made similar requests.

Schaeffer suggests it will take more than three years to try out the assessments and improve them.

“In the perfect world, tests would be treated like prescription drugs,” he says. “Before you can sell a prescription drug in this country, you have to prove to a neutral body that it is both safe and effective. And you do that through experiments and trials and you build to mass administration. You don’t say, ‘Wow! This looks like it’s going to be a cure for a rare cancer’ and start administering it right away.”

In LA Unified schools, the Smarter Balanced tests will be taken on iPads. Elsewhere, students may take them on whichever devices—iPads, laptops, desktops—schools have available, with Smarter Balanced providing pencil-and-paper tests until the 2017–2018 school year to give schools time to acquire the appropriate technology.

The new tests for math and language arts will be given over the last 12 weeks of the school year in grades 3 through 8 and 11. There will be a mix of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. Some parts of the test will require students to have some tech savvy. They may be asked, for example, to drag and drop fractions or decimals onto the correct place of a number line.

Students will also have to tackle a “real-world” writing assignment called a performance task, like the example above or this one. To complete some of them, students may first have to read articles or watch an informational video, like this one.

The new tests are lengthy. The language arts and math tests combined will take seven hours in grades 3 through 5 and 8½ hours in grade 11. Schools decide over how many days to administer the test. Teachers have the option to give assessments throughout the school year to track their students’ progress. Deb Sigman, California’s deputy superintendent of public instruction, says these interim tests would be a helpful way to inform teaching and learning.

“We have included in our assessment bill that we think the [interim tests] are vitally important and we encourage that the state pays for them for all districts,” Sigman told LA School Report.

The biggest difference with the Smarter Balanced assessments, aside from the fact that ultimately they will all be given on computers, is that they will adjust to the student taking them. Questions become more difficult or easy depending on how a student answers previous questions. The benefit, according to the Smarter Balanced website, is that the tests are individualized and can more quickly pinpoint the skills students have mastered.

“Struggling students who can’t answer the more difficult questions can be given a set of questions that can really home in on what it is they know,” says Sigman. “We’re not giving kids questions that we know they can’t answer. So it’s a more precise measure.”

This past spring, 52 LAUSD schools participated in pilot tests for the new assessments. Findings from the pilot tests are not yet available, but they will eventually be used to improve the assessments going forward.

Field tests will be conducted in the spring of 2014. In a letter to district superintendents and charter school administrators, Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of public instruction, wrote that he is requesting “as many schools as possible” participate in the field test, insisting that “this will be a wonderful opportunity for our students and teachers.”

Previous Posts: Aquino Sees Deeper Thinking but Falling Scores with Common Core, California Could Face Year With No Meaningful Testing Data

School Board Members LaMotte, Garcia and Galatzan all showed up in green

What began as a breezy LA Unified School Board meeting on Tuesday turned, not surprisingly, into a long, tedious, sometimes rancorous session, with a host of issues discussed but rarely resolved. A number of key votes were postponed, and Superintendent John Deasy’s highly anticipated budget presentation was postponed until the Sept. 10 board meeting so it could be considered in the broader context of the 2013-14 budget.

Here are some of the highlights:

• One new feature of Richard Vladovic‘s newly begun presidency (aside from creating a number of new committees) was to order senior staff, including instructional superintendents, to attend board meetings. In many cases, when public commenters brought issues to the school board, Vladovic urged the visitors to meet, on the spot, with the district staffers.

• The Board debated the $113 million budget for implementing the new Common Core State Standards — although voting on the budget was postponed until next month. LAUSD Chief Academic Officer Jaime Aquino pointed out that roughly 75 percent of the budget is set to go toward helping teachers.

Teachers union President Warren Fletcher was none too pleased.

“Having looked at the budget,” he said, “I am sadly taken aback by how thin it is. I don’t think it was well thought through. We will not make progress if dollars are used to build an out-of-classroom bureaucracy.”

A recent online survey by teachers union members showed that teachers feel unprepared for the Common Core transition.

UTLA Vice President Gregg Solkovits struck a more conciliatory tone, saying he was speaking on behalf of “classroom teachers who are not afraid to embrace the Common Core standards.” He urged the board not to rush its implementation. Deasy said that there was “real wisdom” in that comment and pointed out that the district’s plan is to take four years to transition to the new curriculum.

• The deal to hire Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana and loan her to Mayor Eric Garcetti‘s office and be reimbursed by the city was approved unanimously without discussion.

• Another charter co-location dispute arose, this one between Lorena Street Elementary and Extera, a charter operator. Proposition 39 requires LAUSD to share public school facilities equitably with charter schools, leading to sometimes testy co-locations, where district schools and charters share campuses. Just how much space is up for grabs is the subject of an ongoing court battle – in fact, chief counsel Dave Holmquist said the district is filing a brief with the Supreme Court of California on Wednesday.

The dispute spurred board member Steve Zimmer to ask that the board direct the superintendent’s staff to lobby the state to suspend Prop 39. That motion will be voted on next month.

• Member Bennett Kayser‘s motion to convene public input meetings and establish budget priorities passed 5-1, with Tamar Galatzan voting no and Monica Garcia absent.

*Correction: An earlier version incorrectly described the way a charter school shares facility space with a public school.

Previous posts: Vladovic Adds Committees, Doles Out Assignments; Now: Live Tweet LAUSD School Board Meeting; Melendez to Be Hired Under Unusual Salary Arrangement; Deasy to Board: Your Wish List Could Cost $1.4 Billion; Board Preview: Deasy Will Present Hiring Options and Their Cost

The overall degree of the satisfaction with the training was 5.5 out of 6, which was the highest score possible, the district said in a press release issued on Monday. More than three-quarters of the nearly 1,000 survey respondents indicated that the experience was relevant, that it increased content/process knowledge and that it will enhance instructional practice, the release said.

“We’re off to a great start,” said Jaime Aquino, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction. “Congratulations to the trainers and participants for their hard work and dedication.”

Last week, the LAUSD began distributing iPads in 47 schools as phase one of an effort to provide every LAUSD student with the digital device. Teachers and staff have been undergoing training this month, conducted by Apple Inc., makers of the iPad, and Pearson Education Inc., which has provided the academic content.

All LAUSD students will have an iPad by the 2014-15 academic year.

Previous Posts: LA Teachers Get Their Hands on the Future as iPad Era Begins, Update: Controversy Awaits $30 Million iPad Vote, Low-Income Schools Getting First Wave of New iPads

Jaime Aquino

Five years ago, as Jaime Aquino was leaving his post as chief academic officer of Denver public schools, a reporter asked him his thoughts on how to improve public education. His response: national standards, coupled with national assessments.

But Aquino told the reporter, “I will never see this in my lifetime.’”

Fast forward to 2013. Aquino is now the deputy superintendent of instruction for Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest school district in the country. Another school has started this week, and it’s shattering his prediction of years ago.

In LA Unified’s administrative hierarchy, Aquino is responsible for training 28,000 teachers on how to implement the Common Core Standards, the new teaching regimen that 45 states and the District of Columbia are adopting — in LA Unified’s case, with iPads. The standards prescribe what students in kindergarten through 12^th grade are expected to learn and how they’re going to learn it.

And all across the country, educators and politicians have sounded the alarm: the new standards are tough, and test scores — previously based on each state’s individual testing protocols — are sure to plummet.

“I’m not a gambler, “ Aquino says now, “but I am willing to gamble my entire pension that come 2015 our scores will go down.”

Yet Aquino is undaunted. “Test scores will decrease, not because the students are learning less,” he says, “but because the definition of proficiency has changed.”

Aquino cites a disparity among state standards that he noticed when serving as deputy superintendent in Hartford, Connecticut from 1999 to 2001. Students who passed the Connecticut Mastery test were deemed proficient as a matter of course. Yet had they moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, a 30-minute drive from Hartford, they would have fallen behind when tested against Massachusetts’ more rigorous standards. The expectations were lower, Aquino noted, depending on where students lived.

“I kept saying that in Hartford, we were lying,” Aquino said. “We were saying, ‘Yes, you’re proficient, but God forbid you should ever move to Massachusetts.’”

Now, nearly all U.S. students will be held to the same standards as the United States begins facing down the persistent poor showings of American students in international assessments. In language arts, the Common Core standards emphasize reading informational texts as opposed to literature. These kinds of readings, the thinking goes, will better prepare students for college and the workforce, where they are more likely to encounter texts that dispense information, whether scientific, historical or technical.

In fact, according to Common Core standards, by the time they reach high school, students should be reading 70 percent informational texts and only 30 percent literature. The emphasis is more on supporting answers by providing evidence from the text, and less on sharing opinions.

As for the math standards, parents may be surprised that their kids have one or two problems to solve for homework, instead of 30. The difference, Aquino explains, is that students will have to write an explanation of how they solved the problems. This way, they demonstrate understanding of the concepts, instead of going through the motions of solving a bunch of problems.

Aquino calls the U.S. an “answer-getting culture.” We provide students with “quick tricks” for finding correct answers, rather than tools for critical thinking to help them understand the concepts.  Aquino points to an example of how multiple-choice tests force teachers into providing these quick tricks, simply to increase students’ odds of choosing the correct answer.

“We say to students, ‘If you’re multiplying two numbers, the product is always going to be greater than both numbers,’ ” he explains. “That is always true, except if you’re multiplying a number times a decimal. Students rely on this trick so much that they don’t even multiply. They just look for the answers that are greater.”

Aquino thinks we need to teach math as they do in places like Japan and Hong Kong. He says Hong Kong covers only 40 percent of the topics in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an assessment given to fourth and eighth-grade students in more than 60 countries, including the U.S.

Students in Hong Kong, according to Aquino, perform much better than their American counterparts, who cover 80 percent of the topics. The difference is that, in Hong Kong, teachers stress mathematical knowledge over answers.

“We need to change the way we train teachers in this country,” Aquino says, and for now, he is attempting to do just that in Los Angeles: He’s changing the way teachers teach to change the way students learn. In time, he says, the efforts will boost test scores, too.

Previous Posts: LA’s Most Famous Teacher Critiques Common Core, Common Core P20 Flow Chart, California Could Face Year With No Meaningful Testing Data, LA Teachers Get Their Hands on the Future as iPad Era Begins