Students First Member Action Dinner (May 24th, 2012)

On Thursday, May 24th, 2012, I attended a Students First Member Action Dinner from 6-8pm at Maria's Italian Kitchen in Downtown Los Angeles.

The objective of the action dinner was to meet everyone, hear stories, and talk about solutions on how to deal with the challenges facing Los Angeles students and schools throughout California in general.

Some notes I took during the dinner:
- California ranks 47th out of the 50 states in academic achievement.
- CA only spends $6,000 per student in the state compared to other states like New York and New Jersey who spend $18,000-$21,000 per student.
- According to a California survey on education, 97.6% of LAUSD teachers meet expectations, but at the same time only a small percentage of LAUSD students pass the standardized tests at proficient. The numbers don't match up.
- LIFO = Last In, First Out (seniority-based layoffs)

• Quality-blind = it eliminates great teachers.
• Disproportionately affects students in low-income areas.
• Have to let go 45% more teachers not due to performance, but because they have less experience. Also note that younger teachers are paid less, which would save the district money (but these are the teachers who are let go first).

Stories I have heard at the dinner from colleagues:
- Because of LIFO, some teachers in certain schools turn against each other. There was a teacher at the dinner who had the same qualifications as another teacher at her school, but one of them had to be let go. How did they choose? They had to choose popsicle sticks. The person who drew the shortest one had to be let go.
- A student who came to the dinner, complained about how her school had to let go 1-2 PE teachers. As a result, each PE class had up to 52 students or more. Due to that amount, none of them are able to use the pool due to safety regulations (a max of only 35-40 can use the pool).
- A community college professor talked about how her husband brought his school to the state championships and won (forgot for what sport/activity though). During that year, all his senior students graduated from high school. At the end of the school year, he was let go. The next academic school year, the students who would have been his students if he were to have kept his jobs... 30% of them got incarcerated and 19% of them dropped out.

Our course of action is to contact our state legislators and inform them about how LIFO is ruining California's education system and is a disservice to all our students. Our main goal right now is to get rid of LIFO!!!

Please write to your representatives!

"Dear ________________________,

My name is _____________________, I am a ____________________________ (parent, teacher, student, business person, concerned citizen) in district ___________.

I'm writing to you because I believe EVERY child in EVERY classroom deserves to have a great teacher. I urge you to end California's "last in, first out" (LIFO) layoff policy to make sure that we keep our most effective teachers in the classroom.

Teachers have a tremendous impact on student success. To give every California child the education they deserve, we need to make sure every child -- in every school -- has a great teacher. Inside the school building, the teacher is the single most important factor to student success.

[Write your own experiences and thoughts].

No one wants teacher layoffs. But if they are necessitated by budget shortfalls, our most effective teachers must be protected. Currently, California is one of only 11 states that still mandates that teacher layoffs, when necessary, be based on years of employment, rather than effectiveness. This is harmful to students, teachers, and schools.

In fact, a recent report from the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office said that California's current layoff policies 'lower the quality of the overall teacher workforce.' In addition, this law is hurting our low-income communities the hardest, where many junior teachers want to teach. Our kids deserve change now.

Please give our students the best possible chance at success by making sure they have the best possible teachers. End these outdated bureaucratic policies now and make sure that all of our kids have access to the great teachers they deserve.

Sincerely,
_______________________________

[Address]"

A Conversation with Los Angeles about Education w/ Michelle Rhee

This blog is long overdue.

On February 15th, 2012, I went to an educational meeting in LA organized by StudentsFirst, an organization with the purpose of making radical changes to the educational system in CA because everyone knows it's failing America's future generation right now. It's led by a woman named Michelle Rhee who totally revolutionized the system in Washington, D.C. during the late 1990s and early 2000s. She came to talk about the current situation in CA and answer questions people had--about tenure, charter schools, etc.

Regarding Michelle Rhee, yes, I believe both her and her supervisor were let go. Not too sure about the specifics though. For her to reform the educational system in CA, the state would have to become a member of StudentsFirst for her to get permission to do anything. So far, the state hasn't invited her or her organization. Only 15 states in the country so far have claimed membership. During the talk though, she did inform us that there are currently 150,000 StudentsFirst members in CA and that 40,000 of them reside in LA alone. Still, the state believes her tactics to reform the system are a bit too liberal and aggressive so they don't want anything to do with her.

Some other issues discussed were:
- Tenure system: As of today, Ms. Rhee is against the tenure system. The original purpose of the tenure system was to protect teachers, who back then were mainly women, from their male superiors abusing their powers and sexually discriminating the female teachers. Nowadays, she believes the tenure system no longer serves its purpose and is one of the main reasons why the CA schools are ineffective. She also made a good point: studies show that there is no correlation between a teacher being tenured and student achievement. Also, to note, CA is the only state that still practices "last one in, first one out," which isn't very encouraging for first year teachers, the ones who are likely to be the most motivated and passionate.
- Charter schools: Some people are for or against Charter Schools, but she mentioned that it doesn't matter how to school is labeled or not. What matters in the end is if the school is effective or not. It's as simple as that. She believes that concentrating on the label of the school takes us away from figuring out what's best for the students.