Nearly a dozen groups contacted by LA School Report said they have been unimpressed or uninvolved in efforts so far by the district and the search firm it hired, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, to find a replacement for Ramon Cortines.

The district has posted an online survey, asking people to rank qualities sought in a new superintendent; the search firm has said it planned to interview various groups as well as hold community meetings later this month to solicit public input.

One group, Communities for Los Angeles Student Success or CLASS, representing 37 community organizations, has sent a letter to the school board, asking to participate directly in the search for a new superintendent.

Sandra Hamada, director of youth programs for Community Coalition, one of the groups that signed the letter, said it is unclear how the community input will be used in coming up with candidates. “I really do not see how this will make a difference,” she said.

“The survey does not have much depth,” Hamada added. “The survey is very basic, it is a job description. Who would not say ‘yes’ to all of these?”

Hamada echoed other critics of the survey, saying that it isn’t Los Angeles-specific enough and does not go far enough in reflecting the known diverse interests in the community. She and leaders of other groups said they plan to spread the word among their members to get people to weigh in on the survey, but Hamada said she is concerned that “the students and parents that we share this with will be frustrated.”

Teach For America-Los Angeles executive director Lida Jennings said that although no one from her group has been invited individually to participate in the search, she remains hopeful because of board president Steve Zimmer.‬

“We are optimistic that the community forums, open survey and teacher engagement that president Zimmer routinely exhibits will help the board understand what is important to parents, educators and community leaders,” she said. “However, it is critical that these voices hold real influence in the board’s decision, and that is why we’d like to see a community committee have a seat at the interview table.”

Inner City Struggle executive director Maria Brenes noted that she specifically had not heard about the community survey until two days after its release, and that was a sign, she said, of poor community outreach. She said she hopes the school board will listen to groups like hers, which understand needs of the community, particularly low-income minorities.

“It is so important to have a formalized committee,” Brenes said. “This is such an important issue to the state of education, and the most important decision for the Board of Education to make. There are hundreds in our organization who want to be heard about equal access for youth of color, opportunities for college and the voices of our youth and parents will be heard at the forums.”

Ama Nyamekye, executive director of Educators 4 Excellence-Los Angeles, said the search should be more public. She said she believes groups like hers should be able to interview the final candidates, and if they don’t get that chance, she wonders if it’s all just for show.

“What is this all for? I’m looking for a clear understanding of how they are going about it, one of the ways is survey, and that’s fine, but what will they do with the results of this survey?” Nyamekye asked. “I think every group working with education and children should be part of the process. We would like to be part of the process. We have not been contacted.”

Nyamekye conceded that it is a large, diverse district and not everyone can have a say in the search process, but added, “I would at least like to know who is part of the search process, and what input the board members are getting.”

LA’s Promise executive director Veronica Melvin said she has faith in the search process so far: “There are a broad range of stakeholders who care deeply about finding an effective superintendent to lead the district successfully over the next several years. LAUSD is smart to engage Angelenos in its search to ensure it finds an experienced individual to lead its complex education system so that every student achieves his or her greatest potential.”

Teach Plus hasn’t been that closely involved in the search for the superintendent so far. But, executive director Mike Stryer said, “We and the teachers in our network, who teach in high-need schools in LAUSD, call on the next superintendent to focus on ensuring resource equity for all students and support teacher leadership as a pathway to improving our schools.  We welcome for the candidates to meet with our teacher leaders so that they can learn about the great work they are doing in the classroom.”

Sara Mooney, of United Way LA, said the letter that CLASS sent out earlier in the week represents more than 150,000 parents, students and teachers from throughout the district. She said, “It is incumbent on the board to put great stock in their voices and to hold their feedback central to this process.”

CLASS plans to promote the survey to all staff and members of their coalition.

“We appreciate that there is a formal process, that LAUSD has hired a search firm, and that the board is acting with urgency,” Mooney said. “We want to ensure that the community feedback received through the surveys and input sessions influence the search process, characteristics of the next superintendent, and, ultimately, the board’s final decision.”

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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.

The results were included in a poll of 807 likely November 2014 voters, conducted in English and Spanish by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research between Dec. 8 and 15. Parent Revolution is a group that works with parents to make changes in their children’s schools, in accordance with California’s Parent Empowerment Act, the state’s so-called ”parent trigger” law.

The overarching message from the poll is that most Californians want the state public school system reworked and that parents must be included in the process. Latinos polled consistently higher in support of the need for real parent empowerment and decision-making in their children’s community schools.

These were among the poll’s other findings:

• 91 percent of California voters believe every decision about schools should be based on what’s best for the children in the classroom, not what is best for adults who work for the school. And 72 percent of Californians “strongly” agree with this statement.

• 82 percent of all voters and 88 percent of Latinos believe that parents should have the ability to force school districts to re-organize a school that has been failing for four years in a row or more.

• 76 percent of all voters and 82 percent of Latinos oppose weakening or repealing the Parent Empowerment Act.

Previous Posts: Parents using the ‘Trigger‘ law help get a pre-k for 24th street; UTLA voted to find a state lawmaker to change the parent trigger law; Morning Read: Parent Trigger School Opens a New Era.

The votes are in from our decidedly unscientific poll on what our readers think about the current school board dilemma.

A solid majority of LA School Report readers who voted say they preferred that the LA Unified board holds a special election to fill the District 1 seat held by the late Marguerite LaMotte, rather than appointing a replacement.

With 348 votes cast, 58% (203) favor an election, while 42% (145) favor an appointment.

Both approaches have spurred passionate supporters in the district with elected officials and community groups on both sides, with rallies scheduled and petitions circulated.

The board is expected to decide today what approach to take. The meeting starts at 1 o’clock — LA School Report will stream it live — with the vacancy debate expected to start at about 3pm.

The introduction to the survey appears to reflect skepticism by union leadership about how the district is going about it, questioning why $44 million has been allocated for “out-of-classroom positions.” As an example: “$160,000 for an Organization Change Management Position. What?”

But if the UTLA leadership is dubious of the Common Core budget, some union members are dubious of the survey, which ask teachers about their familiarity and comfort with the Common Core curriculum, including how much “professional development” they have received and whether they feel prepared to teach it. One question asks: “How prepared do you think your students are to master the Common Core State Standards?”

Several teachers took to the message board for Progressive Educators for Action took to its message board to express their concerns.* PEAC is a group that strongly opposes the spread of charter schools and the use of public school choice to upend district schools.

“So I’m supposed to say I need training in Common Core (even though I know that the whole thing is a giant sham) just so my need for training can get sent to the board?” wrote one UTLA chapter chair. “I don’t want training and don’t need training. Nor do I need a whole new level of administrators. What I need are smaller classes and more money. I don’t see how filling this thing out can possibly help anything.”

“This seems like just one more of Fletcher’s tired responses,” wrote another commenter, referring to union President Warren Fletcher. “Does anyone believe that (Superintendent John) Deasy or the board care in the least about a survey. Really? This is the best Fletcher can come up with?”

One commenter defended the poll, saying: “A survey gives members of the Board political coverage to vote against the Superintendent.”

The 10-question survey went online at 2 p.m. Thursday, according to a union spokesperson. The deadline for completion is noon Monday, with the school board scheduled to vote on the Common Core budget at its meeting on Tuesday. The survey tells members, “The Board of Education needs to know what you think about Common Core and what resources you need.”

The teachers union has increasingly used online surveys to put pressure on the school board — and to generate negative media coverage for Deasy. One recent survey evaluated Deasy himself, giving him a poor performance review even as scarcely more than a quater of the membership responded to the survey. Another survey criticized the district’s Breakfast in the Classroom program.

* Correction: A previous version of this post suggested that all those writing on PEAC’s message board were members of PEAC. There is no requirement to be a member of PEAC to write on the message board.

Previous posts: UTLA Factions Lining Up to Oust Fletcher as President; ‘Political Season’ Starting with UTLA Leadership Conference; Teachers Vote Against Deasy, For More Teachers; Classroom Breakfast Expanding Despite Some Complaints