Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
This Week's American Idol Top 3
What a great week! My top 3 are Matt, Kris, and Allison...with Danny a very close
4th..
4th..
Thursday, March 26, 2009
From Wednesday's L.A. Times
Seniority, not quality, counts most at United Teachers Los Angeles
Steve Lopez
March 25, 2009
Here's what I did:
I went to the website for United Teachers Los Angeles, clicked on the union contract and hit "print."
The job laid waste to a small forest of trees, producing a 347-page document the size of a fat phone book.
So why am I telling you this?
Because layoff notices just went out to 5,500 teachers in the Los Angeles Unified schools, and the UTLA contract guarantees one thing: Those notices aren't going to the least effective teachers. Quality has nothing to do with it.
It's all about seniority.
The teachers union has every right to scream about funding cuts and potential layoffs (even if we won't have real numbers for several weeks at least).
But what union President A.J. Duffy won't admit, as he raises a stink, is that when good teachers are on the chopping block and burned-out teachers are protected, it's because of his union's contract.
Simply put, the UTLA contract -- like a lot of others in the state -- requires that the last hired are the first fired.
And let's not let the district off the hook. It agreed to this arrangement, which ensures that when pink slips go out, there's no distinction between excellence and mediocrity.
After I printed out the UTLA contract, I went to the website for Green Dot Public Schools, which runs some well-regarded charter schools in the county. It was a mere 33 pages.
Steve Barr, Green Dot founder, is no fan of UTLA.
He says the union has two primary purposes that have nothing to do with educating children: preserving prohibitively expensive lifetime benefits for teachers and their families, and allowing more senior teachers to work where they want rather than where they're needed, with tenure making even the burnouts untouchable.
"Why is the teachers union against getting every dollar into the classroom . . . and why is it against hiring and firing decisions being made at the school site?" Barr asks.
To be fair, Green Dot has only a fraction of the number of schools and teachers that L.A. Unified has, and for the most part it has the benefit of smaller campuses and less-entrenched faculties.
But its model, which gives principals more control and teachers more influence, puts the emphasis on education rather than politics and power.
In the Green Dot contract, the section on layoffs is six lines long (versus four pages in the UTLA contract).
If necessary, Green Dot takes into account a teacher's evaluations and expertise. Only if there are no differences on those things does seniority come into play.
In L.A. Unified, there is a possibility that if the cuts are made, the best and brightest teachers will be on the unemployment line, replaced perhaps by burned-out bureaucrats who may not have been in a classroom since the Carter administration and might never have been good teachers to begin with.
"Those people left the classroom for a reason," said Dorit Dowler, a Micheltorena Elementary parent who was among a couple of dozen protesters who turned out for Tuesday's L.A. Unified school board meeting on the subject of budget cuts.
Another parent, Suzie Haleblian, said merit should prevail over seniority. She doesn't want to lose good teachers at Ivanhoe Elementary -- which happens to be my daughter's school -- just because they're relatively new.
"Our kids get report cards," Haleblian said. "Maybe our teachers could get report cards."
That's essentially what President Obama said last week when he condemned decades of failure in American public education and called for major reforms.
"It's time to start rewarding good teachers, stop making excuses for bad ones," he said.
In defense of teachers, grading them can be difficult and subjective. And there's no question that at times, good teachers need union protection from inept principals.
But we need more flexibility all around -- and less dead weight at the district headquarters -- if we're going to handle budget cuts and have any hope of improving our schools.
At my daughter's school, I'd much rather have the very capable principal decide on staffing rather than have decisions forced on her by Duffy and a bloated union contract.
At 347 pages of boilerplate and trivial specificity, the UTLA document manages to dehumanize teachers and crush innovation, treating them like components of an outdated machine rather than like intelligent, independent, adaptable professionals.
Every school has teachers who stand above the rest. Some of them veterans, some of them not. Why can't they be rewarded?
If Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa weren't so eager to lock up UTLA support in his potential run for governor, he'd be joining Obama's call to rebuild a broken system.
And teachers and parents ticked off about a tenure policy that throws good teachers under the bus would do well to keep marching outside L.A. Unified's headquarters.
Among the protesters Tuesday was Robert Rubisa, a third-grade teacher at Los Angeles Elementary.
With 11 years on the job, he didn't get a layoff notice. But his wife, a fourth-grade teacher with less experience, got a pink slip.
Rubisa said he went to his union rep and suggested that teachers give back some of their sick days to help balance the budget and avoid some layoffs.
"The union rep said we should not balance the budget on teachers' backs," Rubisa said.
I liked Rubisa's idea, but I'm looking through the UTLA contract now and having trouble figuring out how many sick days teachers have.
Maybe it's here in Article IX, Hours, Duties and Work Year. No, I don't think so.
Maybe it's somewhere between Pages 108 and 132, under Article XII, Leaves and Absences. But where?
I'll have to get back to you on this.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
Sunday, March 22, 2009
From Today's L.A. Times
Some schools are cutting back on homework
When is homework just busywork? Weighing stress against learning, some districts are cutting back on academic work outside the classroom.
By Seema Mehta
March 22, 2009
Rachel Bennett, 12, loves playing soccer, spending time with her grandparents and making jewelry with beads. But since she entered a magnet middle school in the fall -- and began receiving two to four hours of homework a night -- those activities have fallen by the wayside.
"She's only a kid for so long," said her father, Alex Bennett, of Silverado Canyon. "There's been tears and frustration and family arguments. Everyone gets burned out and tired."
Bennett is part of a vocal movement of parents and educators who contend that homework overload is robbing children of needed sleep and playtime, chipping into family dinners and vacations and overly stressing young minds. The objections have been raised for years but increasingly, school districts are listening. They are banning busywork, setting time limits on homework and barring it on weekends and over vacations.
"Groups of parents are going to schools and saying, 'Get real. We want our kids to have a life,' " said Cathy Vatterott, an associate education professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who has studied the issue.
Trustees in Danville, Calif., eliminated homework on weekends and vacations last year. Palo Alto officials banned it over winter break. Officials in Orange, where Rachel Bennett attends school, are reminding teachers about limits on homework and urging them not to assign it on weekends. A private school in Hollywood has done away with book reports.
"As adults, if every book we ever read, we had to write a report on -- would that encourage our reading or discourage it?" asked Eileen Horowitz, head of school at Temple Israel of Hollywood Day School. "We realized we needed to rethink that."
Nancy Ortenberg is happy about the change.
"Homework is much more meaningful now," said Ortenberg, whose daughter Isabelle, 9, was in school before the policy took effect in 2007. Before the change, it was a chore for her daughter, but "now she reads for the pure joy of reading."
Homework was once hugely controversial. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, social commentators and physicians crusaded against it, convinced it was causing children to become wan, weak and nervous.
In a 1900 article titled "A National Crime at the Feet of American Parents" in the Ladies' Home Journal, editor Edward Bok wrote, "When are parents going to open their eyes to this fearful evil? Are they as blind as bats, that they do not see what is being wrought by this crowning folly of night study?"
California was at the vanguard of the anti-homework movement. In 1901, the California Legislature banned it for students under 15 and ordered high schools to limit it for older students to 20 recitations a week. The law was taken off the books in 1917.
Homework has fallen in and out of favor ever since, often viewed as a force for good when the nation feels threatened -- after the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, for example, and during competition with Japan in the 1980s.
The homework wars have reignited in recent years, with parents around the nation arguing that children are being given too much.
Much of the debate is driven by the belief that today's students are doing more work at home than their predecessors. But student surveys do not bear that out, said Brian Gill, a senior social scientist with Mathematica Policy Research.
Instead, in today's increasingly competitive race for college admission, student schedules are increasingly packed with clubs, sports and other activities in addition to homework, Gill said. Students -- and parents -- may just have less time, he said.
Not all object, however.
"Obviously we want to think it's busywork, but most of the time it's really helpful," said Allison Hall, 16, a junior at Villa Park High in the Orange district. Allison, who is taking five Advanced Placement classes, has up to three hours of homework a night; she also is on the cross country, track and mock trial teams and does volunteer work.
But others say there is just too much, especially for younger children. Karen Adnams of Villa Park has four children. She said that heavier course loads make sense for older children but that she doesn't understand the amount of work given in lower grades.
"I think teachers have lost touch with what a third-grader or a fifth-grader can really do," she said.
Vatterott, a former principal, said she became interested in the subject a decade ago as a frustrated parent. Her son, who has a learning disability, was upset by assignments he didn't understand and couldn't complete in a reasonable time.
She decided to study the effectiveness of homework. That research showed that more time spent on such work was not necessarily better.
Vatterott questioned the quantity and the quality of assignments. If 10 math problems could demonstrate a child's grasp of a concept, why assign 50, she asked? The solution, she said, was not to do away with homework but to clarify the reasons for assigning it.
Some schools, among them Grant Elementary in Glenrock, Wyo., have gone further. Principal Christine Hendricks had grown concerned that students were spending too much time on busywork and that homework was causing conflicts between parents and children and between teachers and students. So she got rid of it last year except for reading and studying for tests.
"My philosophy, even when I was a teacher, is if you work hard during the day, I don't like to work at night. Kids are kind of the same way," she said.
Other districts, including San Ramon Valley Unified in Danville, Calif., have taken a more nuanced approach.
Since San Ramon revised its homework policy last year, the youngest students are given no more than 30 minutes a night; high school students have up to three hours of work. District trustees also decided that aside from reading, no homework should be given to elementary and middle school students on weekends or vacations.
In the Orange Unified School District, trustee John Ortega grew concerned about the workload carried by his middle school daughter. "We would have a swim meet all weekend, and she would be worried about coming home and having to finish homework," he said. "She was stressed about it."
After speaking with other parents, Ortega raised the subject publicly in the fall, prompting a series of discussions in the district. It turned out that although the board had set limits on homework, they were not always followed, said Marsha Brown, assistant superintendent of educational services. She said teachers have now been informed about the policy and principals are working to clarify the purpose of homework.
Brown said children's social growth must be nurtured alongside their academic development. "We don't want just academic children. We want them involved in sports and music and art and family time and downtime," she said. "We want well-rounded citizens. I think we will always be struggling with that balance."
When is homework just busywork? Weighing stress against learning, some districts are cutting back on academic work outside the classroom.
By Seema Mehta
March 22, 2009
Rachel Bennett, 12, loves playing soccer, spending time with her grandparents and making jewelry with beads. But since she entered a magnet middle school in the fall -- and began receiving two to four hours of homework a night -- those activities have fallen by the wayside.
"She's only a kid for so long," said her father, Alex Bennett, of Silverado Canyon. "There's been tears and frustration and family arguments. Everyone gets burned out and tired."
Bennett is part of a vocal movement of parents and educators who contend that homework overload is robbing children of needed sleep and playtime, chipping into family dinners and vacations and overly stressing young minds. The objections have been raised for years but increasingly, school districts are listening. They are banning busywork, setting time limits on homework and barring it on weekends and over vacations.
"Groups of parents are going to schools and saying, 'Get real. We want our kids to have a life,' " said Cathy Vatterott, an associate education professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who has studied the issue.
Trustees in Danville, Calif., eliminated homework on weekends and vacations last year. Palo Alto officials banned it over winter break. Officials in Orange, where Rachel Bennett attends school, are reminding teachers about limits on homework and urging them not to assign it on weekends. A private school in Hollywood has done away with book reports.
"As adults, if every book we ever read, we had to write a report on -- would that encourage our reading or discourage it?" asked Eileen Horowitz, head of school at Temple Israel of Hollywood Day School. "We realized we needed to rethink that."
Nancy Ortenberg is happy about the change.
"Homework is much more meaningful now," said Ortenberg, whose daughter Isabelle, 9, was in school before the policy took effect in 2007. Before the change, it was a chore for her daughter, but "now she reads for the pure joy of reading."
Homework was once hugely controversial. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, social commentators and physicians crusaded against it, convinced it was causing children to become wan, weak and nervous.
In a 1900 article titled "A National Crime at the Feet of American Parents" in the Ladies' Home Journal, editor Edward Bok wrote, "When are parents going to open their eyes to this fearful evil? Are they as blind as bats, that they do not see what is being wrought by this crowning folly of night study?"
California was at the vanguard of the anti-homework movement. In 1901, the California Legislature banned it for students under 15 and ordered high schools to limit it for older students to 20 recitations a week. The law was taken off the books in 1917.
Homework has fallen in and out of favor ever since, often viewed as a force for good when the nation feels threatened -- after the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, for example, and during competition with Japan in the 1980s.
The homework wars have reignited in recent years, with parents around the nation arguing that children are being given too much.
Much of the debate is driven by the belief that today's students are doing more work at home than their predecessors. But student surveys do not bear that out, said Brian Gill, a senior social scientist with Mathematica Policy Research.
Instead, in today's increasingly competitive race for college admission, student schedules are increasingly packed with clubs, sports and other activities in addition to homework, Gill said. Students -- and parents -- may just have less time, he said.
Not all object, however.
"Obviously we want to think it's busywork, but most of the time it's really helpful," said Allison Hall, 16, a junior at Villa Park High in the Orange district. Allison, who is taking five Advanced Placement classes, has up to three hours of homework a night; she also is on the cross country, track and mock trial teams and does volunteer work.
But others say there is just too much, especially for younger children. Karen Adnams of Villa Park has four children. She said that heavier course loads make sense for older children but that she doesn't understand the amount of work given in lower grades.
"I think teachers have lost touch with what a third-grader or a fifth-grader can really do," she said.
Vatterott, a former principal, said she became interested in the subject a decade ago as a frustrated parent. Her son, who has a learning disability, was upset by assignments he didn't understand and couldn't complete in a reasonable time.
She decided to study the effectiveness of homework. That research showed that more time spent on such work was not necessarily better.
Vatterott questioned the quantity and the quality of assignments. If 10 math problems could demonstrate a child's grasp of a concept, why assign 50, she asked? The solution, she said, was not to do away with homework but to clarify the reasons for assigning it.
Some schools, among them Grant Elementary in Glenrock, Wyo., have gone further. Principal Christine Hendricks had grown concerned that students were spending too much time on busywork and that homework was causing conflicts between parents and children and between teachers and students. So she got rid of it last year except for reading and studying for tests.
"My philosophy, even when I was a teacher, is if you work hard during the day, I don't like to work at night. Kids are kind of the same way," she said.
Other districts, including San Ramon Valley Unified in Danville, Calif., have taken a more nuanced approach.
Since San Ramon revised its homework policy last year, the youngest students are given no more than 30 minutes a night; high school students have up to three hours of work. District trustees also decided that aside from reading, no homework should be given to elementary and middle school students on weekends or vacations.
In the Orange Unified School District, trustee John Ortega grew concerned about the workload carried by his middle school daughter. "We would have a swim meet all weekend, and she would be worried about coming home and having to finish homework," he said. "She was stressed about it."
After speaking with other parents, Ortega raised the subject publicly in the fall, prompting a series of discussions in the district. It turned out that although the board had set limits on homework, they were not always followed, said Marsha Brown, assistant superintendent of educational services. She said teachers have now been informed about the policy and principals are working to clarify the purpose of homework.
Brown said children's social growth must be nurtured alongside their academic development. "We don't want just academic children. We want them involved in sports and music and art and family time and downtime," she said. "We want well-rounded citizens. I think we will always be struggling with that balance."
Saturday, March 21, 2009
American Idol
I'm finally into this season of American Idol. I love the DVR! Country week turned out to be a pretty good week. I was impressed with the song choices and the performances. My top three performances of the week are Allison (she rocked that song!), Kris (one of my favorite Garth songs and he definitely did it justice), and Anoop (he can sing, very nice job).
Monday, March 16, 2009
Team In Training
Our friend Lucy, will be participating in a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of her father-in-law. She's about half way toward achieving her fundraising goal. Lets help her reach her goal! Check out her link.
I Don't Think I Was Dreaming
Wow! Today was actually a calm day. Just a few minor issues. Unbelievable!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Happy Sunday
Happy Sunday! Not sure what I'm going to do today. I have some work that I need to get done at school. I really don't want to go to school today. Next week is going to be busy and the week after is going to be even busier. I can't wait until we track off. This trimester has been one of the most hellish trimesters that I can remember. I don't want to even imagine what the last trimester is going to be like. I'm definitely looking forward to time off. Nineteen days to go!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Obama Ready to Take on Education Reform
This week, CNN reported on Obama's latest education speech. Check out the link. He called for an expansion of early childhood education. That's good. He called for an expansion of charter schools. That may be good, but it depends. He called for merit pay. Not good. I've never been a fan of merit pay. Teachers are woefully underappreciated and underpaid. What job in our society is more important than teaching? None. Obviously, teachers must be paid more. We need to attract the best and the brightest to the profession. Merit pay will discourage collaboration and the sharing of ideas and the sharing of teaching resources. It will lead to a very unhealthy competition among teachers. We don't need that. Study after study indicates collaboration is one of the keys to a school's success. Principals need to do their jobs and help struggling teachers become successful or encourage them to find other careers. It's that simple. All teachers must be top quality and be paid accordingly. All kids deserve an advanced proficient teacher. Would we go to a partial proficient dentist? How about a partial proficient heart surgeon? I would say we wouldn't even go to a partial proficient barber/hair stylist. Right? Competition in education is not good. Education is not a business. It makes me fume when people try to equate business practices to educational practices. Stop it! Education is NOT a business! We're not selling cable tv! We're molding the minds of the next generation. See the difference? As a former president was fond of saying in his Texan twang, "It's hard work."
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Sunday Thoughts
I hate springing forward. Losing an hour of sleep for any reason is just plain wrong. Especially when you're already exhausted. Just plain wrong. Well, the Twittering thing didn't last very long. Oh well. I guess I'll save my Tweets for something really important. I should have tweeted during my San Diego trip. I forgot. I really enjoyed the workshop. Everything Sharon Taberski talked about reinforced the workshop work that's happening at school. There's still so much work left to do. A neighbor called on Friday to complain about the kids coming to and leaving school noisely. How do you tell 900 kids to be quiet on their way home???? I remember when I was teaching fifth grade at Bryant we used to have unhappy neighbors. Every Friday morning we would start the day on the playground by reciting the pledge and listening to announcements from the principal. Of course, the principal used a loud speaker. Like clockwork, every Friday the neighbor would call the police on us because we were disturbing the peace. Of course the police wouldn't come out, but they did notify school security. Oh brother. It would have been kind of interesting if the principal was taken into custody. I'm sure one of us would have finished the announcements for her. It's interesting how people don't see the school right next to the house they just bought or rented. And chances are that the school contains really noisy kids. I'm really mad at myself. I left some important work at school that I wanted to work on today. Oh well. I guess I'll try to work on it tomorrow...if I can squeeze in the time.
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