Newsflash from the December 18, 2013 Sacramento Bee: A ballot measure submitted by a political consultant for education advocate Michelle Rhee seeks to remove seniority as a factor when California school districts lay off teachers, requiring that they instead base decisions on performance ratings. Performance, under the proposal, would be determined in part based […]
Archives for 2013
December 9, 2013: It’s Time to Reclaim the Promise of Public Schools
Public schools – an engine for the greater spread of lifelong learning throughout an ever inclusive American society, a lab for democratic action in practice through school governance, and the best investment in the future the present generation can make…or, an institution that consolidates power and privilege among those who already have it and sorts […]
Real Technological Literacy for Public School Kids Instead of iPads for Tests or Code.org
By Cynthia Liu, K12 News Network Cynthia Liu is CEO/Founder of K12NewsNetwork.com, an education news and civic engagement platform for students, parents, and educators based in Los Angeles. In sixth through eighth grade classrooms in Pasadena Unified School District, elective Robotics classes hum with activity as teams of excited kids use laptops to build robots […]
A Teacher’s Letter to President Obama: Play Is Being Pushed Out By Drill and Kill
This is part of a series of letters written by practicing teaching professionals in classrooms around America. These teachers have daily direct contact with schoolchildren. K12NN is proud to present Letters to President Obama. Letters were delivered to President Obama as part of an overall conviction by many teachers that federal education policies, as currently […]
A Teacher's Letter to President Obama: Apartheid Still Exists in Some U.S. Schools
This is part of a series of letters written by practicing teaching professionals in classrooms around America. These teachers have daily direct contact with schoolchildren. K12NN is proud to present Letters to President Obama. Letters were delivered to President Obama as part of an overall conviction by many teachers that federal education policies, as currently […]
Why This "Suburban Mom" Thinks Arne Duncan's All Wrong
Cynthia Liu is the founder of K12NN. Last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said “white suburban moms” oppose Common Core State Standards because they’ll find out “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they [sic] were.” SO. MUCH. FAIL. Where to […]
LAUSD iPads and the Will of the Voters: Just the Facts, Please
Commentary by Public Policy Educator, Ellen Lubic, Director, Joining Forces for Education Today, Diane Ravitch posted on her website an article on the LA Times editorial which once again lambasted the Board of Education for micro managing the ‘poor beleaguered’ Superintendent of LAUSD, John Deasy. The title of Diane’s writing is Putting Bureaucrats First. Evidently the LA […]
"Turnarounds" At Two Los Angeles Unified Schools Prompt Deeper Questions Over Practitioner Center Schools
Who and what are Practitioner Center Schools, and what is 24th Street Elementary School like now that PCS is the Education Management Organization (EMO) operating it? Los Angeles Unified is no longer in charge of this public charter, or is it? Unusual procedures for transformation of two Los Angeles public schools under California’s “parent trigger” […]
Open Letter to the LAUSD School Board on Superintendent Deasy's Performance
Roberta Eidman, MPH, is a public health expert and past adult education lecturer in LAUSD. If you too would like to share you concerns with the Los Angeles Unified School Board, their emails are below: Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net Monica.Garcia@lausd.net Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net boarddistrict5@lausd.net Marguerite.Lamotte@lausd.net Szimmer@lausd.net Kelli.Bernard@lacity.org (Kelli Bernard, Mayor Garcetti’s Education & Workforce deputy) Dear LAUSD Board Members: […]
Speak Up and Be Heard! Attend the LAUSD School Board Meeting and Reassert the Will of the Voters
Guest op-ed by Ellen Lubic, educator and longtime Los Angeles resident. She is founder of Joining Forces for Education. We Must Stop This! Join me and other Los Angeles residents, Tuesday, October 29, 2013, at 9 AM at 333 South Beaudry St. in downtown LA — and I would hope to see hundreds of parents, […]