Tuesday, June 29, 2010

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS Campaign on KCRW's Which Way LA?

Listen today to the remarkable story about Save Our Schools on KCRW's show, Which Way LA? with Warren Olney, and produced by the remarkable Frances Anderton.

This story not only talks about how the burden of funding core academic programs in California's public schools is being shifted to local communities, but also shines a bright light on the State's failure to provide adequate public education up and down the Golden State.

Listen today -- and then DONATE to the Save Our Schools Campaign!  Remember, we only have until August 15th to make a difference in time for September.

LEARN MORE about the Save Our Schools Campaign, including how close the campaign is to restoring lower class sizes at a grade level or library, music and counseling programs.

School Money and Gun Control
 |
MON JUN 28, 2010

Teacher layoffs, library closings and elimination of music and other programs have driven parents into the streets, along with their children, to raise money for education. Will private fund-raising be a band-aid in Santa Monica or business as usual for public schools?

Private Sector Steps in to Save Our Schools (7:06PM)

After a school-funding measure barely failed to get the two-thirds required vote last month, the Santa Monica-Malibu School Board cut $7.1 million, eliminated 65 teaching jobs and closed libraries in elementary schools. This weekend, parents and kids set up a lemonade stand on Main Street as part of SOS — the Save Our Schools Campaign.


Guests:
  • Linda Gross: Executive Director, Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation
  • Tim Shaw: President, Empower/Excel
  • Jack O'Connell: Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of California


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS Campaign on NPR

The Santa Monica Malibu Education Foundation's 60-day emergency fundraising effort to help protect class sizes, restore teachers and programs has gone national!  Listen to the story about it on NPR -- and then DONATE now.

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS on National Public Radio

Monday, June 14, 2010

Teacher Tenure -- Is Colorado moving in the right direction? Or closer to Arizona?

California didn't qualify for Race to the Top funds, in part because of not linking teacher job assessments to student success.  Colorado took bold steps to do just that, and as a result appears poised to be first in line to receive these funds. 

A good move?  Here is Saturday's AP story Colorado Grading Teachers

In bold move, Colorado alters teacher tenure rules

 
DENVER – Colorado is changing the rules for how teachers earn and keep the sweeping job protections known as tenure, linking student performance to job security despite outcry from teacher unions that have steadfastly defended the system for decades.
Many education reform advocates consider tenure to be one of the biggest obstacles to improving America's schools because it makes removing mediocre or even incompetent teachers difficult.
Colorado's legislature changed tenure rules despite opposition from the state's largest teacher's union, a longtime ally of majority Democrats. Gov. Bill Ritter, also a Democrat, signed the bill into law last month.

It requires teachers to be evaluated annually, with at least half of their rating based on whether their students progressed during the school year. Beginning teachers will have to show they've boosted student achievement for three straight years to earn tenure.

Teachers could lose tenure if their students don't show progress for two consecutive years. Under the old system, teachers simply had to work for three years to gain tenure, the typical wait around the country.

After the bill survived a filibuster attempt and passed a key House vote, Democratic Rep. Nancy Todd, a 25-year teacher who opposed the measure, broke into tears.

"I don't question your motives," an emotional Todd said to the bill's proponents. "But I do want you to hear my heart because my heart is speaking for over 40,000 teachers in the state of Colorado who have been given the message that it is all up to them."

While other states have tried to modify tenure, Colorado's law was the boldest education reform in recent memory, according to Kate Walsh, the president of the Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality, which promotes changing the way teachers are recruited and retained, including holding tenured teachers accountable with annual reviews.
Walsh thinks Colorado is now at the head of the pack in the second round of the Obama administration's Race to the Top competition, a $4.35 billion pot of stimulus money designed to prod just such changes.

"If I was a betting woman, I would absolutely put Colorado in first place," she said.

Teachers won't be at risk of losing tenure until 2015 because lawmakers slowed down the process under political pressure from the teachers' union. Teachers can appeal dismissal all the way to the state Supreme Court, and school districts have the burden of proving why they should be terminated.
Every state but Wisconsin has some form of tenure. The protections were intended to protect teachers from being fired because of their politics, religion or other arbitrary reasons. But Patrick McGuinn, a political science professor at Drew University who has studied tenure, said they have evolved into virtual employment guarantees.

On average, school districts across the country dismiss 2.1 percent of teachers annually, generally for bad conduct rather than performance.

Colorado's measure is a tribute to the tenacity of freshman Democratic state Sen. Michael Johnston, a former Teach for America teacher, principal and Obama education adviser.

The 35-year-old Harvard- and Yale-trained lawyer was appointed to represent a largely minority Denver district that has seen an influx of more white residents because of redevelopment of the city's former airport. He successfully fought changes to the bill that would have eased expectations for teachers with traditionally low performing students.

"What we're saying is that it matters that every one of those kids will get across the finish line," Johnston said.

Although various states have responded to the lure of federal money by moving to tie teacher evaluations to student performance, no other state specifically changed its tenure laws as Colorado did.

In Louisiana, GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a bill partially grading teachers on student test scores in up to 27 school districts. Tenured teachers would face a revocation of tenure hearing if they repeatedly fail under the law, which was opposed by teachers unions.

A push to eliminate tenure for all new teachers and make it easier to fire teachers in Florida passed the Legislature this year but was vetoed by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is now running for the U.S. Senate as an independent.

Past efforts to change tenure have caused problems for both parties.
In Georgia, Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes lost the support of the teachers' union — and later his office — after pushing to get rid of tenure for new hires in 2000.
 
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tangled with teachers and lost after calling a special election to change tenure rules in 2005. The teachers' union raised dues and amassed $50 million to fight the proposal.

Many teachers and some education experts argue that tenure reform is unnecessary.

Margaret Bobb, an earth science teacher at Denver's East High School, said bad teachers are often quietly coached out of their jobs by administrators, avoiding the protracted tenure dismissal process.

She contends tenure is still needed to prevent good teachers from being dismissed for running afoul of administrators and to prevent experienced — and more expensive — teachers from being let go by cash-strapped districts.

"Education is not just you and your class. It's not an individual activity. If you're doing your best, it's a system you're a part of," Bobb said.
_____
Associated Press writers Randall Chase in Dover, Del., Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, La. and Erik Schelzig in Nashville, Tenn. contributed to this report.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Measure A Failed -- NOW WHAT?

Seven years ago, the last time the State of California made sweeping and, seemingly arbitrary cuts to education funding, SMMUSD participated in "FROM FIRST TO WORST", a devastating documentary detailing the decline of California's public education system in the wake of Proposition 13 and its draconian 2/3 supermajority requirement for any funding measures.

2003 marked a terrifying time for our Santa Monica Malibu students, who faced sharp declines in the quality of their classroom experience -- class size increases, program elimination, library closures, reductions in nursing and counselor services.  A local funding measure in early 2003 failed and a "Hail Mary" measure was run in June, just weeks before the deadline for revenue it might produce to save teacher jobs.  At that time more than 100 jobs were on the line.  The June measure passed by the slimmest margin imaginable.  It took a herculean effort to pass Measure S in 2003, but in the end, it did pass.

Now, in 2010, we face the same crisis.  State funding for SMMUSD schools has dropped $10 million per year for each of the last three years.  This time, the SMMUSD administration has been in much better financial condition, and was able to weather the storm with $4.5 million dollars in cuts last year, and an additional $7.1 million dollars this year.  But the SMMUSD reserves will be exhausted by the end of the 2010-2011 school year, forcing an ADDITIONAL $5 - $6 million dollars of cuts on top of the cuts already implemented.

This year's cuts include dramatically increase class sizes and decrease services to students -- counseling, libraries, security, music, sports.

EMERGENCY SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN

NO "HAIL MARY" CAMPAIGN FOR 2010 - 2011

Please make a generous contribution to the Education Foundation's Save our Schools Campaign TODAY.  Contributions of $1,000 or more will go a long way towards retaining the quality educators who teach in our schools now.

And then, tomorrow, please know, you will be called on again, to help with the next campaign to help preserve and protect the quality education that our Santa Monica Malibu students receive now -- and deserve to receive far into the future.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN

60 DAYS TO SAVE 60 TEACHERS


Who remembers this poster from the 2003 Measure S Campaign?  That was the campaign launched in response to the last time that the State of California slashed education funding, forcing lay-offs and cuts to core programs and services to students.  I remember passing that measure by fewer than 200 votes.  This time, however, we didn't our local school funding measure.  As a result, last Thursday the Santa Monica Malibu Board of Education was forced to respond to State budget cuts with lay-offs, program cuts and class size increases.
The response from our community to the loss of  Measure A has been equal to the effort put forward by the more than 1,000 volunteers to pass it.  I have heard from neighbors and from parents --  in all areas and at all of our schools calling for a Districtwide  Fundraising effort save teachers and protect our schools!   
In fact, the Board of Education has also heard those calls and has agreed to allow districtwide fundraising for this purpose to take place through the Santa  Monica Malibu Education Foundation.  The Santa Monica Malibu Council of PTAs and PTAs from every school have joined forces with  the Education Foundation to help make this a reality.  Of course, Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS) will be actively involved in this effort. 
SAVE OUR SCHOOLS ORGANIZING MEETING, MONDAY JUNE 7
Now the hard work begins.  Please join us at an organizing meeting for the Save Our Schools campaign.  This 60-day campaign hopes to protect class sizes at current levels.  In order to do that for next year, we must raise $3.28 million in  tax-deductible contributions.  Funds must be raised by THE BEGINNING  OF AUGUST in order to hire back teachers in time for the start of school in early September!

The  details of how we will try to do this will be discussed on Monday at 7pm in the Board Room at the SMMUSD District Offices - 1651 16th Street in Santa Monica.   Please come.
 
We may have lost Measure A, but we are still all members of one of the  most dynamic and effective communities anywhere.  We can do this if  everyone pulls together!  Thanks so much for helping lead the charge, and  please bring anyone you know to the meeting who wants to help work to Save Our  Schools!

Cheers,

Rebecca  Soladay Kennerly
Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS),  Chair