Ana Sanchez, Title III coordinator at the Ellen Ochoa Learning Center.

Teachers were praised at a committee meeting Tuesday by LA Unified’s Chief Academic Officer Frances Gipson, honoring this week of celebrating educators, national Teacher Appreciation Week.

“We want to celebrate our teachers, as this is Teacher Appreciation Day, and I want to mark that some of us in this room do not have credentials, but we are all teachers, everybody is. They are all watching us, they are learning from us and we are leading the way. And there may be those of you who may come forward to help us with the future teacher shortage,” Gipson said.

While the meeting was being held downtown, across the country an LA Unified teacher, Daniel Jocz, stood at the White House with President Obama where he was recognized as one of the Teachers of the Year.

Other notable LAUSD educators:
• Anthony Yom: How this math teacher helps kids get perfect scores
• Jan Price: At 71, teacher who feared computers is now an LAUSD tech champion
• Bobby Carr: Chinese educators check out what Alliance charter school does best
• Nancy Se and Jackie Paredes: LA Unified high school puts a focus on computer science and gaming

Gipson introduced several teachers who helped show the Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Equity Committee how they are succeeding in their instruction.

Ana Sanchez was introduced as the Title III coach who trains teachers and helps students with English Learner programs at the Ellen Ochoa Learning Center located in Cudahy.

“She is an immigrant herself and attended seven different schools in LAUSD,” Principal Mara Bommarito said. The school has 1,500 students, about 98 percent Latino, and teachers like Sanchez keep demand for the school high, Bommarito said.

“We do preventive measures and intervening measures,” said Sanchez, who meets with every teacher in the school, often on their conference periods, and goes over the school plan for EL students with the teachers and parents along with the students. Together they focus on development of literacy skills so the students can go on to high school and college.

Adriana Salazar teaches EL students.

“We focus a lot on resiliency,” Sanchez said. “We did model lessons in order for teachers to understand the way in which conversations are specifically taught. I provide daily support and plan weekly with lessons driven by the standards.”

The idea is to integrate students into all the classrooms. Fellow teacher Adriana Salazar has been trained by Sanchez and said, “I grew up as an EL and see myself in these students. I’m excited to see the growth in these students who are growing in confidence and transferring what they are learning to their English and history classes.”

Salazar, who has taught EL classes for three years and often works with the same students year after year, said, “It’s exciting to see that they have the confidence to speak up and not be that student sitting quietly in the back who does not want to be called.”

School board member George McKenna, himself a former math teacher, said to all the teachers at Tuesday’s meeting, “You should all not be ashamed to tout your successes and let people know about the good work you do. There is no more honorable a profession.”

The character Maz, and the inspiration Rose Gilbert, from Palisadian-Post.

* UPDATED

She gave $1 million to Palisades Charter High School for classroom renovations and building a community pool. She was LAUSD’s oldest full-time teacher when she retired at 94 and one of the oldest ever in the nation.

She taught the children of Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum. And, her students included budding film director J.J. Abrams and a future production designer, Rick Carter.

It’s Abrams and Carter who have now immortalized their teacher Rose Gilbert as the tiny big-hearted, but stern alien, Maz Kanata, in the blockbuster movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Maz generously offers help to the heroes of the film, reflecting the teacher’s generosity, and looks a bit like her, too.

“I think it’s a wonderful tribute and appropriate for a local school hero,” said principal Pamela Magee who knew Gilbert well. “It’s nice that J.J. (Abrams) memorialized someone important to him in this way, and now other generations of kids who didn’t know her will discover her.”

Magee saw the movie before she was aware of the connection, but noticed the resemblance, and plans to be “one of the multiple-viewers of the film.” She said the school will no doubt make some plan to let students know about the connection to Gilbert when they return next week.

Abrams told The Palisadian-Post that the inspiration for the new character came from his late high school English teacher. “The character of Maz was originally based on the great Rose Gilbert,” he said. “We really wanted the story to feel authentic, despite being a wild fantasy. I mentioned Rose in an early story meeting as a sort of timeless, wise figure that I’d actually known in my life.”

The alien character is voiced by Lupita Nyong’o, who won an Oscar for “12 Years a Slave” and was named People magazine’s “Most Beautiful Woman” of 2014. But, there are some similarities to the teacher.

“Yes, Maz’s large glasses in the film are allegedly similar in size to the ones Gilbert was known to wear throughout her 51 year tenure at Palisades Charter High School,” according to the Post.

She taught in room B204 and was known as “Momma G.” After she retired, at the age of 94, she had a drama room named after her at the school. She inherited money from her husband and donated it to the school. Part of it was used for a community pool named after her daughter, Maggie, a swimmer who died unexpectedly in 2004.

Abrams graduated from the school in 1984, and Carter had her as a teacher 15 years earlier. Abrams said, “While we experimented with many looks and styles before settling on the character’s final design, Rose was always at the center of the inspiration of Maz. Rick and I had hoped to contact Rose and show her what we were doing, but she sadly passed away while we were in the prep of the film.”

Gilbert died on Dec. 16, 2013, just 10 months after she retired, at the age of 95. Both Carter and Abrams attended the funeral. The school’s flag was lowered in her honor when she died. She worked at the school since it opened in 1961. Earlier, she taught at University High School in west Los Angeles.

“She was such a character and always very generous,” Magee said. “I’m sure she would have loved the tribute.”

* Added principal’s comments

EdSource and the California Teachers Association conducted the online survey and released the results today.

Fewer than a third of the teachers said their districts have clear definitions of college and career readiness, according to the survey results. The survey is the first of its kind to ask for teacher attitudes and preparedness about college and career readiness for their students, which is part of the goals of the new Common Core State Standards.

“The survey demonstrates that from the teachers’ perspective, test scores are far less important than students developing the critical thinking skills they will need to succeed in college and the workplace,” said EdSource executive director Louis Freedberg. “But it is worrisome that less than a third of teachers say their districts have clear definitions of college and career readiness, and half say that college and career readiness is not fully integrated into the preparation they are receiving to implement the Common Core.”

CTA president Eric Heins added, “The survey shows that teachers support high standards for all students and clearly see a need for additional support around career readiness and creating more opportunities for students who don’t go onto college so they have the skills for 21st Century jobs.”

Respondents included only union teachers, who routinely oppose statewide tests as the chief criteria for measuring students’ academic achievement.

Among the randomly-selected teachers, nearly three-fourths say they are either “very satisfied” or “fairly satisfied” with their jobs. The survey indicates that nearly nine out of ten teachers support the Common Core, although nearly half support it with reservations.

The teachers said they needed more programs that link high school instruction with career-technical courses.

The survey saw differences in teacher attitudes depending on the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students in the schools they teach. About 58 percent of teachers in schools where one-in-four of their students are eligible for free or reduced lunches believe that college and career readiness is a “very realistic” goal.  But just 20 percent of teachers in schools where three-out-of-four students qualify for federally subsidized meals have similar attitudes.

EdSource is a nonprofit, non-partisan reporting and research organization whose mission is to inform policymakers and the public on key education challenges. CTA is the state’s largest professional employee’s organization, representing 325,000 teachers, counselors, librarians and other certified non-supervisory personnel.

The poll was conducted with support from The James Irvine Foundation.

Click here to sign up for the LA School Report newsletter, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

In recommending Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, Rachel Johnson and Hattie McFrazier, a retired teacher, the board chose to withhold endorsing the fourth teacher in the race, Omarosa Manigault, who is a substitute teacher.

The board’s recommendations now go before the UTLA House of Representatives March 26 for a final decision on whom, if anyone, the union endorses. To win a UTLA endorsement, a candidate needs 60 percent of the representatives’ vote.

If a runoff is needed, the union will reconsider its options.

The other three candidates for the seat are George McKenna, Alex Johnson and Genethia Hudley-Hayes.

The test that’s got Seattle teachers so fired up is a computer-based standardized test called Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP. The teachers are boycotting the exam because they feel its measurements of student improvement are disconnected from state standards and classroom lessons, and that the test they consider unreliable is unfairly used to evaluate their job performances. They say they’re not opposed to other standardized tests — only this one.

The teachers’ fight against MAP echoes, at least in some ways, UTLA’s opposition to Academic Growth Over Time (AGT) student assessment program. Though Superintendent John Deasy lead the development of AGT with a plan to create a more comprehensive measure of student progress than a one-dimensional standardized test, the teachers union fought hard –and won– its battle to keep AGT scores out of individual teacher evaluations. Read more about the MAP testing boycott here.

Parents, Teachers, Students Oppose Crenshaw High Restructure Plan
Parents, students and teachers plan to rally in front of Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters Tuesday in protest of a proposal to restructure low-performing Crenshaw High School. LA Times
See also: KPCC, LA School Report

Districts Preparing Their Own Request for NCLB Waiver
They’re hoping that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will be impressed by their size, serving a million schoolchildren, and their willingness to agree to conditions that Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Board of Education rejected. EdSource Today

One in Five of New Charter Schools Are in California
California students also now comprise about one fifth of children enrolled in charter schools nationally – 494,000 out of the national total of 2.3 million. EdSource

School Discipline Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
A recent Education Week commentary by Los Angeles Unified assistant superintendent Earl Perkins gives us a good opportunity to remember that we shouldn’t make school-wide discipline issues more complicated than they need to be. This Week in Education (Paul Bruno)

LAUSD Wants an Exemption From Proposed Water Tax
The Los Angeles Unified school board is poised Tuesday to seek an exemption from a proposed countywide clean-water fee that would drain nearly $5 million annually from the district’s general fund. LA Daily News

A Wing and a Prayer
The aviation mechanics school in a hangar at Van Nuys Airport does something that education reformers and the business community say they want from schools: It trains young people for careers — in this case for skilled, well-paid jobs. LA Times Editorial

Parents and Community Can Play Key Roles in School Success
Educators are turning to parents and outside partners in formal and grassroots efforts that boost morale, achievement, and students’ sense of security. EdWeek

How to Keep Talented Teachers From Leaving
New teachers face high-pressure demands, with little support, such that more than half leave the profession within the first five years. These teachers need to see opportunities for career advancement, better compensation, and meaningful evaluation and professional development. Christian Science Monitor

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.

Texas adopts CA’s strategy on NCLB waiver, prompting new risk SI&A Cabinet Report: California is no longer the only state trying to get relief from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act without committing to the conditions set down by the Obama administration – Texas is trying to do the same thing.

11 parcel taxes, 44 school bonds on November ballot Ed Source: In this round, however, five of the 11 districts are in Central or Southern California: Santa Barbara Unified, Ventura Unified, and three in Los Angeles County – Centinela Valley Union High School District, Lake City School District (near Whittier), and Westside Union School District (in Quartz Hill).

Deferred Action hopefuls flood LA schools with doc requests Fox News: The LAUSD confirmed that since Aug. 15, when the Deferred Action program went into effect, it has built up a backlog of more than 2,300 requests for transcripts or diplomas. Applicants must prove that they have resided continuously in the country since ..

Parent Trigger Movie ‘Won’t Back Down’ Inspired by L.A. Weekly Feature Story LA Weekly: Although some would beg to differ, the Weekly’s Patrick Range McDonald claims his own award-winning piece on the Parent Trigger fight in Compton was the inspiration for the new film.

I Have to Leave LAUSD … Teaching Ate Me Alive City Watch: A teacher explains why he’s leaving the profession: “It wasn’t one single incident that made me quit teaching in a public middle school. It was the steady, moldy accumulation of dehumanizing, lifeless, squalid misadventures of which I was a part.”