LA Unified is joining President Obama’s initiative to help improve educational outcomes for African American and Latino boys.

At Loyola Marymount University on Monday, the district will conduct a day-long conference and series of workshops for teachers aimed at providing instructional training and strategies that focus on meeting the needs of boys of color.

The agenda includes presentations by experts on such subjects as college readiness and global competitiveness; understanding what adolescent Latino male readers need; and how to validate and affirm strengths to achieve personal and academic success.

Last week, Obama pledged to address a series of issues critical to improving education performances, including access to preschool, Advanced Placement, honors and gifted programs; reducing the incidence of absenteeism, suspension and expulsions; and working to transform high schools with low graduation rates among males of color.

Via OC Register | by Jalen Rose

Many young people in America today face a harsh reality. Their fate in life is determined by their ZIP code. For an overwhelming number of African Americans and other minorities, having the wrong ZIP code keeps you from a high school diploma, a college degree, and a future that offers you opportunities that match your talents.

That’s wrong. And it’s entirely avoidable.

We are not assigned to certain grocery stores or restaurants based on our ZIP codes, which is why it makes no sense that between K-12, children are required to attend a school solely based on where they live.

The fact of the matter is that the high school graduation rate for African American males is just 52 percent – 26 percentage points below the national average of their white counterparts. In other words, more than half of all African American children in America will never have the basic skills to compete in the 21st century workforce. Odds are many of those children will turn to crime, violence or drugs, causing problems for every single American who pays taxes or simply seeks to live in a society that allows people to realize their full potential.

There is an obvious solution at hand to deal with this chronic crisis – educational choice.

Read the full story here

The union representing Los Angeles school employees — cafeteria workers, custodians, teachers’ assistants and others — is launching a pilot program to help students at four schools get access to counseling and health care.

They say their workers can help provide a missing link.

“Optimizing Access to Services, Inspiring Success,” or OASIS, will train employees to coordinate  with outside providers, tapping into city, county and nonprofit agencies that provide counseling, dental and vision care as well as tutoring and vocational support.

“It’s a little bit odd, I think, when people hear a labor union – specifically a classified labor union – is taking on operation like OASIS that focuses on the health and wellness of kids and families,” said Lester Garcia, a spokesman for Service Employees International Union Local 99. “I think it’s important for us as a labor union and as a labor movement to think about how we mobilize our members and our supporters for the public good.”

Read the full story here

A new report by a coalition of organizations lead by the United Way found that it’s harder for parents and guardians in low-income neighborhoods to obtain school information, get answers to their questions and access parent resources, than it is for parents in more affluent areas.

The study measuring parent engagement, released today, identified schools in South LA, East LA, and Wilmington as the most difficult to navigate for parents hoping to become involved in their children’s education. It was developed to “inform LA Unified of the opportunities to improve parent engagement and establish priorities for the investment of Local Control Funding Formula dollars.”

Under the state’s new school funding plan, districts are expected to increase parent participation with the idea that children perform better in school and stay in school longer when families and community groups work together.

Recommendations from the study include:

• Increase training for school site personnel including administrators, office staff and other personnel who interact with parents and community members so that there is a designated liaison on campus at all times.

• Eliminate policies regarding address verification and identification as a prerequisite for information about how schools are academically progressing. This creates more challenges than opportunities for parent, school, and community partnerships, especially when parents or guardians may be undocumented. Instead, parents should be issued a school i.d. when they enroll a student.

• More in-school spaces are needed for communicating with parents, including parent and community bulletin boards and newsletters. Currently, parents and guardians often are told to go to the school or LAUSD websites when they have questions, ignoring the digital divide between lower and higher income communities.

Read the full report, here.

The $10.8 million, which will be distributed to school districts, represents nearly a third of the total funding distributed to states under the federal Test Fee Program.

“Every student in California deserves a world-class education, and students who work hard and earn the right to take these advanced tests should never find themselves limited by the fees,” Torlakson said in a press release.

Eligible students will still be required to contribute $5 for each exam taken, with the state paying the remainder of the fees, which total $89 for AP exams and $104 for IB exams.

“Our teachers and staff will have the resources they need and our students will have access to world-class facilities, which enables us to keep our focus on academics,” said ICEF’s chief executive, Parker Hudnut. “Permanent facilities also demonstrate ICEF’s commitment to providing excellent neighborhood schools to the families in the surrounding community.” ICEF stands for Inner City Education Foundation.

Currently, ICEF’s View Park High School and Middle School are located at 5701 S. Crenshaw Blvd. ICEF plans to acquire the current property and expand the high school, using $10.5 million in tax-exempt bond funding through the California School Finance Authority. The middle school will be co-located for the 2013-14 school year at Crenshaw High School.

An additional $22 million in tax-exempt bond funding has been approved through the CSFA. This will allow ICEF to develop a permanent facility for the middle and elementary school. ICEF say it wants to complete this project for the start of the 2014-15 school year. For the 2013-14 school year, the elementary school will remain in its current locations.

Gov. Jerry Brown

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy praised the budget proposal California Gov. Jerry Brown released today, saying in a press release, “the changes announced today are quite positive for our students in the Los Angeles Unified School District.”

In his proposal, Governor Brown would fund school districts based on the number of its students and the level of challenges faced by its students, meaning districts like LAUSD with higher enrollments of low-income students and English language learners would be eligible for more state funding. According to Deasy, the Brown proposal would prevent new furloughs or budget cuts.

To see the summary of Gov. Brown’s 2013-2014 budget proposal, click here. To see Superintendent Deasy’s full press release, click here.