California's Children

"Grossly ineffective" teachers w/tenure violate student civil rights, suit claims

May 16, 2012: A lawsuit filed by 8 students in the Los Angeles County Superior Court Monday challenges the constitutionality of 5 California statutes that govern teacher tenure rules, seniority protections, and the teacher dismissal process.  The suit claims the statutes violate the students' right to equal protection under law and deprive them of equal access to education.

Howard Blume reported on the litigation for the LA Times.

The suit names Gov Jerry Brown, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, the state Department of Education, Los Angeles Unified School District and Alum Rock Union (an elementary school on San Jose's East Side) as the defendants. The legal team includes Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., at left, a first amendment rights lawyer with LA's major law firm, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, and Theodore B. Olson, U.S. Solicitor General (2001-2004). The funding is coming from philanthropist Eli Broad.

"...the courts are not the right place to make school employment policy." -- Los Angeles Times editorial, May 16, 2012.

"LOL!  Of course the Times would like this matter handled by the Legislature rather than the Courts.  The Legislature is powerless in the face of their teacher union masters to do anything that would substantially change this archaic and unneeded practice...." Condor001, a commenter on the LAT editorial.  

A new non-profit, Students Matter, founded by Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur David F. Welch  is leading the legal challenge to overturn the statutes; several people on itss advisory committtee have faced off with teachers' unions in the past, according to the LAT:

The advisory committee includes Students First, a group headed by former District of Columbia schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee; Democrats for Education Reform, whose California branch is led by former State Senator [and unsuccessful candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction] Gloria Romero; and Parent Revolution.... Also on the committee is  former president of the state Board of Education Ted Mitchell's New Schools Venture Fund ...and Sacramento-based Education Trust-West, an advocacy and research group.

From the complaint:

California students assigned to grossly ineffective teachers who are employed and continue teaching as a direct result of the (5 challenged) statutes are denied equal access to the fundamental right to education required by article IX, sections 1 and 5 of the Constitution of the State of California.

Moreover, as a result of the same statutes, grossly ineffective teachers are disproportionately assigned to schools serving predominantly minority and economically disadvantaged students. Those statutes thus make the quality of education provided to school-age children in California a function of race and/or the wealth of a child's parents and neighbors in violation of the equal protection provisions of the California Constitution.

Listen to the California Report:

2012-05-16 tenure lawsuit

 Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.

Presidential Scholars: PV teacher honored for a second time

May 7, 2012:  Six California students have been named by Tom Torlakson, state superintendent of public instruction, as Presidential Scholars, as announced late last week by the US Dept. of Education. The students were selected by a White House commission composed of appointees of the President; they are judged on a basis of community service, leadership, essays, artistic excellence (in the case of Scholars in the Arts), academic success, school evaluations and transcripts. One boy and one girl from each state are selected as Presidential Scholars; 20 students throughout the country are also as Scholars in the Arts (four of 2012's arts awardees are from California). 

The winners are asked to name their "most influential" teacher. David Wang, the male Presidential Scholar, chose Jill Verenkoff, at left, who is a teacher of English and AP Literature at Palos Verdes' Peninsula High School. Verenkoff was also selected as last year's "most influential" teacher for the male winner, another Peninsula High student, David Tang-Quan.

 

 

 

The winners:

• 
  At left, Katie Siegel, from the Harker School in San Jose; Siegel named her computer science teacher as "most influential." Harker has had four Presidential Scholars; Siegel is the first girl. Siegel's chosen teacher, Susan King, says, "[Katie is] a natural born scientist..."
• 
  
  • *CA—Fairfield: Michelle Ang, School of the Arts, San Francisco, CA.
  • Most influential teacher: Phillip Rayher, Oakland, CA.
  • *CA—San Francisco: Kelsey L. Lauritano, School of the Arts, San Francisco, CA.
  • Most influential teacher: Lois Roberts, San Mateo, CA.
  • CA—San Jose: Kathryn I. Siegel, Harker School, San Jose, CA.
  • Most influential teacher: Susan King, Scotts Valley, CA.
  • *CA—San Jose: Laila M. Smith, Novato High School, Novato, CA.
  • Most influential teacher: Kerry Marsh, Antelope, CA.
  • *CA—Aliso Viejo: Emma H. Townley, Smith, Orange County High School of the Arts, Santa Ana, CA.
  • *CA-Rancho Palos Verdes: David L. Wang, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School,l Rolling Hills Estates; Most influential teacher: Jill verenkoff, Rolling Hills Estates.
  • 
    
• *Scholars in the Arts. The teachers named as "most influential" will accompany the student to the June ceremony in Washington, D.C.

 

Hopkins Jr Hi, Fremont is #1 in Nat'l Science Bowl

May 2, 2012: A California junior high school team from Hopkins Junior High in Fremont, at left, took first place in the U.S. Department of Energy's National Science Bowl in Washington D.C., for the second time in four years, reports Sharon Noguchi for the Mercury News.  

Two CA schools placed in the top 3 for the high school division: North Hollywood High in Los Angeles, 2nd;  Mira Loma High, in Sacramento, 3rd.

The top 16 high school and eight middle school teams received $1,000 for their schools' science departments.

National Science Bowl, launched in 1991, is a nationwide academic competition that tests students' knowledge in all areas of science. High school and middle school students are quizzed in a fast paced question-and-answer format similar to Jeopardy. It now involves more than 18,000 middle and high school students each year.

Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.

Teaching to the test? Photos on Facebook threaten system

April 28, 2012: Educational Testing Service, the monopoly that designs and scores the STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting Program) and the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam), is investigating to learn if images (some explicit) of the tests, some with questions and answers, that have appeared on Facebook, Tumblr, PinInterest, and Twitter, have compromised the examinations, according to an announcement yesterday the the state Dept. of Education [CDE] and first reported by Christina Hoag of the Associated Press.

From Hoag's story:

...The [CDE] asked school districts across the state to heighten security during state standardized tests after discovering images of the exams on about a dozen social networking websites...State officials discovered the images Thursday. They appear to be snapshots taken by students with cellphones... Hefner said. Most depict blank answer booklets and students posing with closed test booklets, but some are of test question pages and completed answer pages....[CDE] has asked the websites to remove the images, some of which have been on websites for four days...In some images, the names of students and districts are visible. In those cases, districts have been asked to investigate how the photos were taken, [CDE spokesman Paul] Hefner said.

Howard Blume, reporting the situation for the Los Angeles Times, writes:

...In the worst-case scenario, the photos could lead to invalidating test scores for entire schools or prevent the state from using certain tests. For now, officials have warned school districts to heighten test security and investigate breaches. Students are not allowed to have access to cellphones or other devices that can take pictures when the tests are administered....Educators involved in testing sign an affidavit asserting that they follow and enforce all rules.

Statewide, districts are about halfway through the annual California Standards Tests, which make up most of a school's state rating on the Academic Performance Index. The tests also are used in federal accountability systems.

The federal evaluation determines whether a school is subject to such sanctions as being closed or restaffed. A school's state API score gets the most attention locally, with the highest ratings able to boost real estate values because parents will seek out those campuses.

But a school can lose its score entirely if 5% of tests are invalidated. Cheating or lesser mistakes by teachers and other staff led to canceled scores at about two dozen California schools last year.

Students typically don't have anything at stake on the annual tests: Colleges don't look at student scores, and the scores don't affect course grades or grade-point averages — although L.A. Unified has experimented with rewarding improvement on a standardized test with a higher course grade.

So far, officials have found more than 100 students to be involved, but say they weren't necessarily trying to cheat.

"Most of the images discovered so far contained only students posing with a closed test booklet, blank answer documents or answer documents with a message written on them," the state Education Department said in a release. Some images, however, "appeared to contain test questions or completed answer documents" from both the annual achievement tests and the state's high school exit exam, which is required for graduation.

...Woodland Unified, near Sacramento, first spotted the images. So far, 34 districts could have problems, including some in Southern California, although Hefner was not able to provide a list Friday.

Facebook bullies, suicides & Columbia Univ.'s tool for risk assessment

March 28, 2012: Today, a group of teens from the youth-led national movement, "Monster March Against Bullying," are meeting with Senator Barbara Boxer's staff to discuss how to make social networks like Facebook more accountable for bullying that occurs on its website.

Brittany Lavonier, at left, 19 years old, has gathered 6000 signatures on Change.org in the hope of turning the petition into the nation's first anti-bullying hate crime law. 

The petition reads: "Social Networks are the bullying pits that lead to most bullied teen suicides. Yet, their billions of dollars have been able to buy legislative protection from responsibility. We want to change that."

In 2009, suicide was the the third leading cause of death for young people ages 10-24 years, according to Center for Disease Control and Prevention statistics.

An important suicide screening tool, the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), developed in 2004 by researchers at Columbia Univ.'s Center for Suicide Risk Assessment (CSRA), has been found to be effective at identifying more precisely those most at risk of suicide.

The subject of a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry last November, researchers led by CSRA director, Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber, found study participants who had "worrisome answers" to the questions were 50% more likely to attempt suicide during the year they were followed.

Based on the Johnson Behavior Systems Model, the C-SSRS gives a common set of guidelines to assess the severity and intensity of suicidal ideation and behavior; it consists of a series of direct questions that identifies who is most at risk by ranking suicidal thoughts and plans on a 5-point scale, from 1 (the wish to die) through 5 (having a plan and intent to commit suicide). Available in 103 languages, it is the only scale that provides definitions of suicidal behavior adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To read more and see the video on the Monster March: