Fact Check: Obama Supports Smaller Classes in Public Schools
The president has publicly supported the concept of reducing the size of classes in the nation’s public schools. And he pointed out that Romney has not embraced the concept of small classes. LA Times 

Near L.A. Live, Parents Press for Downtown Charter School
Residents of South Park have submitted plans for Metro Charter to L.A. Unified. They say a school that their kids can walk to is too important to give up. LA Times

More Than 2 Dozen L.A. Unified Magnet Schools are Under-Enrolled
LAUSD magnet schools have long been considered prized programs, but more than two dozen of them are under-enrolled and actively looking to fill classroom seats. LA Times

Principal Sends Home Students for Dress Code Violations
In an attempt to curb her school’s chronic dress code violations, the principal of Lou Dantzler Preparatory High School in Westchester opted to take a bit more “hardcore” approach Monday. LA Times

Common Core Will Falter if Global Competitiveness is Sole Goal
The urgency behind the Common Core comes from concerns about global competitiveness. The hope is that by having internationally benchmarked standards that are “higher, clearer, fewer” we can energize the economy and avoid being left behind by nations like China and India. Ed Source

Charter to Take Over School in Parent-Trigger Case
Adelanto parents select LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy to operate Desert Trails Elementary School, ending months of court battles. LA Times

Why Preschool Can Save the World
We meet a self-described robber baron who decided to spend his billions on finger paint and changing tables. We revisit decades-long studies that found preschool made a huge difference in the lives of poor children. And we talk to a Nobel prize-winning economist who says that spending public money on preschool produces a huge return on investment.  Planet Money Podcast

Don’t Demonize Teachers Because of Pension System’s Faults
Yes, public pensions got out of hand. But teachers aren’t the biggest culprits, nor are they why California has some of the nation’s most shamefully underfunded schools. LA Times (opinion) 

With New AYP Data Comes Corrective Action and Restructuring Demands
With the California Department of Education’s release of 2012 Adequate Yearly Progress datasome of your schools may have been identified for advanced stages of Program Improvement, Corrective Action and/or Restructuring. Additionally, you may have some schools exiting PI identification. SI&A Cabinet Report

Here’s the LA Times story.

Desert Trails Parents Choose Charter Operator, Next Step in ‘Parent Trigger’
With a low voter turnout Thursday, parents exercising a “parent trigger” option at the Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto selected a charter operator in nearby Hesperia to run their school starting next August. The selection of LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy, a small K-8 charter with an API of 911 – more than 200 points above Desert Trails’ score of 699 this year – marked the next stage in parents’ contentious and protracted exercise of California’s parent empowerment law. Ed Source 

Most Students Give More Healthful State School Menus Thumbs Up
Public school students, by a 3-to-1 margin, say meals have become better tasting under California’s new nutritional standards. For every three California public school students who think school meals are yummier than usual, there’s only one who thinks they’re worse, according to a new poll released Wednesday.  LA Times

The Quantified Student
A LAUSD teacher reflects on her past criticism of education reform’s push for standardized test data; her about-face; and her new belief in the role of standardized testing within education. HuffPo Opinion

Parents, Teachers Can Now Sample Common Core Test Questions
Smarter Balanced, the organization that is designing the Common Core assessments for California and two dozen other member states, released sample test items for parents and teachers last week. As expected, they’re anything but your father’s multiple choice. Ed Source 

Cal State Monterey Bay Sued Over Pro-Prop 30 Email
An anti-tax group is suing Cal State Monterey Bay over an email that urged students to support Proposition 30. That’s Governor Jerry Brown’s tax initiative to stem further cuts to education. KPCC

Once Failing Highland Park School Making Strides
People unfamiliar with Luther Burbank Middle School in Highland Park might take a quick glance at the campus and its latest student standardized test scores and assume it’s a new, well-performing school. It wasn’t to long ago, however, that the campus was one of Los Angeles Unified School District’s worst performing schools, plagued with gang violence, buildings in danger of collapsing in an earthquake, and many unhappy parents. EGP News

New Wellness Center Opens at Jefferson High
Until now, the school just had a nurse to help their 2,000 students with health issues, but over the last five years they have been planning with LAUSD and the South Central Family Health Center to expand their services. They will now be able to offer much needed preventive health care services, STD checks, and help for chronic issues like asthma and diabetes. Intersections

Prop. 30 Inspires Voter Registration Drives Aimed at Students
Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax hike measure is being touted as the only way to avoid tuition increases this year at California’s public universities. Some predict a higher-than-usual turnout.  LA Times

Some Readers Can’t Handle the Truth About Schools’ Precarious State
Steve Lopez fires back at angry commenters after he wrote about the necessity of Props 30 and / or 38. LA Times Opinion

Parent Trigger Group Wins Another Legal Battle
A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge has upheld a ruling that allowed the Desert Trails Parent Union to move forward with plans to convert the failing elementary school into a charter school. KPCC

Second Chance for High School Dropouts in South LA
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled 13 new YouthSource Centers on Friday with four of them located in South Los Angeles, and tasked with the goal of getting high school dropouts to finish their education. Intersections

Disproportionality in Special Ed Poses New Federal Hazard to Districts
More aggressive federal attention to schools potentially mislabeling minority children as disabled has created an operational headache this fall for nearly 50 California districts, with another big cohort targeted for sanctioning next year. SI&A Cabinet Report

Student Discipline Laws, Though Weakened, Still Will Have an Impact
Five bills signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last month raise awareness and pave the way for alternative approaches to out-of-school suspensions and expulsions. EdSource

In June, a Judge ruled that Desert Trails parents had, in fact, gathered the appropriate signatures. But two weeks ago, the Adelanto School Board voted, 3-1, to reject the parents’ request for a charter school, asserting that the parent signatures were no longer current or sufficient (see LA Times here).

There are a few preliminary parent trigger efforts underway in LAUSD, according to Parent Revolution.  Meanwhile the US Conference of Mayors has endorsed the parent trigger concept, and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is functioning as a surrogate for the Obama re-election campaign at the Republican National Convention in Tampa this week.  Screenings of the parent trigger film “Won’t Back Down” are being hosted by Michelle Rhee’s advocacy group, StudentsFirst, at both conventions.

Hagman Blames Teachers’ Unions for Bill’s Failure Diamond Bar AOL Patch: Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, expressed disappointment and blamed unions that amendments to a Senate bill aimed at protecting students from abusive teachers did not pass out of the Assembly Education Committee.

Pension reform: top-paid administrators to take biggest hit Ed Source: The retirement age for new teachers will be pushed back two years; they’ll have to fork over about another 1 percent of their pay into the retirement system. And their bosses – principals and administrators ­– will see a ceiling of $132,120 as the portion of their pay used to calculate retirement pay. Those in the highest-paid jobs, earning $200,000 plus, may see pensions reduced by tens of thousands of dollars.

Survey offers dire picture of California’s two-year collegesLA Times: More than 470,000 community college students are beginning the fall semester on waiting lists, unable to get into the courses they need, according to a survey of California’s two-year colleges that captures a system struggling amid severe budget cuts.

Unlocking Student Potential Huffington Post (John Deasy’s City Year speech): Every student has the potential to succeed. Inside each one of them is a doctor, lawyer, teacher, or rocket scientist. But what does it take to unlock that potential?

“They decided they could thumb their nose at the court decision,” Parent Revolution spokesman David Phelps told me today.

Phelps also said that one board member, Jermaine Wright, showed up to the meeting with a pair of handcuffs, saying he would rather go to jail than comply with the judge’s order. Wright has yet to respond to my request for comment.

The district’s justification for rejecting the proposed charter, according to the LA Times, was that “there was insufficient time to start one up for the current school year.” Indeed, that school year began today. But Phelps called the argument “nonsensical,” since the parents weren’t asking for a charter this year, but next year.

Parent Revolution’s pro bono attorney is researching what their next step should be, although it will likely involve another lawsuit.

• California Teachers Association, a powerful force in Sacramento: The LA Times goes long on the power and influence of the CTA:

The union views itself as “the co-equal fourth branch of government,” said Oakland Democrat Don Perata, a former teacher who crossed swords with the group when he was state Senate leader.

The article is highly recommended. LA Times

• Charter school group’s chief blamed for 2010 cheating scandal: Two separate investigations have concluded that John Allen, founder and head of Crescendo schools, asked principals and teachers to show students the state standardized tests before taking them. The Times calls it “one of the most brazen cheating scandals in the nation.” LA Times

• Mayor hopes his Partnership for Schools survives his exit from office: Antonio Villaraigosa’s tenure as mayor is almost at a close, just as his set of schools ends its first five-year term. He hopes the schools will be made permanent, and be overseen by the next Mayor. UTLA President Warren Fletcher isn’t so sure. Daily News

• Teachers on the defensive: A Frank Bruni column in the New York Times focusing on school reform and the upcoming film, “Won’t Back Down,” is mediocre but redeems itself with two good quotes, the first by Mayor Villaraigosa about the unions: “The notion that seniority drives every decision — assignments, promotions, layoffs — is unsustainable.” The second is by AFT President Randi Weingarten about the recent antipathy towards teachers unions: “We bear a lot of responsibility for this… We were focused — as unions are — on fairness and not as much on quality.” New York Times

• How to keep good teachers from leaving: Grand View Elementary teacher Sujata Bhatt writes, in an LA Times op-ed, that good teachers need to be brought into leadership roles within schools in order to get them to stay. The Times neglects to disclose that Bhatt is on the design team for Steve Barr’s new group of pilot schools, which aims to do just what Bhatt is advocating. LA Times

• Long Beach charter could close after “fun” curriculum leads to lackluster test scores: Note that the fun is in quotes. KPCC

• Alahambra Unified helps students make a fresh start: A nice profile on the “Fresh Start” program, a three-hour-a-day summer course that prepares students for high school. KPCC

• LAUSD truancy-diversion program keeps violators out of the courts: A new program will, according to Barbara Jones, “shift the focus from punishing troubled students to resolving the problems that result in them frequently skipping school.” Daily News

• LA School Police Chief Steven Zipperman (sounds like a Wes Anderson character) is “reassessing” LAUSD’s ticketing policies. In the last three years, Zipperman’s troops issued 34,000 tickets for things like cutting class, smoking cigarettes and fighting. KPCC

• Inglewood Unified School District is $9 million in the red and will be completely broke by December. The district (currently overseen by the County) will ask the State “for a bailout loan that will result in a state takeover of the 1,500 student district.” KPCC

• Parents of Desert Trails Elementary, after their successful parent revolution, are now looking for a charter operator to take over their school. LA Times

• Da Vinci Charter in Hawthorne is proposing something new: a combination high school, community college and University intended to address a “festering” problem of college dropouts. Students would attend for five years (instead of four) but leave with a high shcool diploma and associate’s degree, and have the option of going to Antioch for two years at a reduced rate to earn a bachelor’s. Daily News

• A typically equivocating LA Times editorial praises the judge’s recent decision in the Desert Trails / parent trigger case, but says the parent trigger law “though an intriguing idea for improving problem schools, is the result of a thoughtlessly written law backed by inadequate regulations.”  LA Times. Will the trigger play a role in LAUSD in 2012-2013?  That’s what no one knows yet.

• Reform critic Diane Ravitch spoke with UTLA lawyer Jesus Quinones, who assured her, in all capital letters, that Stull Act compliance* is still subject to negotiations between the district and the union, despite the recently set December 4 deadline. Quinones is quoted saying that if no agreement is made, the argument will be taken to PERB– a claim I’m sure Scott Whitlin would disagree with. Diane Ravitch Blog 

*Check out my 2011 LA Weekly story to get a sense of what makes Stull such a big deal.